Jeremiah 15–17

15Then the Lord said to me, “Suppose Moses and Samuel were standing in front of me. Even then my heart would not feel sorry for these people. Send them away from me! Let them go!

²“Suppose they ask you, ‘Where should we go?’

“Then tell them, ‘The Lord says,

“ ‘ “Those I have appointed to die will die.

Those I have appointed to be killed with swords

will be killed with swords.

Those I have appointed to die of hunger

will die of hunger.

Those I have appointed to be taken away as prisoners

will be taken away.” ’

³“I will send four kinds of destroyers against them,” announces the Lord. “Swords will kill them. Dogs will drag them away. Birds of the air will eat them up. And wild animals will destroy them.

⁴“I will make all of the kingdoms on earth hate them. That will happen because of what Manasseh did in Jerusalem. He was king of Judah and the son of Hezekiah.

⁵“Jerusalem, who will have pity on you?

Who will sob over you?

Who will stop to ask how you are doing?

⁶You have said no to me,” announces the Lord.

“You keep on turning away from me.

So I will destroy you with my own hands.

I can’t show you my tender love anymore.

⁷I will stand at the city gates of the land.

I will separate the straw from the grain.

I will destroy my people. I will bring great sorrow on them.

They have not changed their ways.

⁸I will increase the number of their widows.

They will be more than the grains of sand on the seashore.

At noon I will bring a destroyer

against the mothers of the young men among my people.

All at once I will bring down on them

great suffering and terror.

⁹Mothers who have many children will grow weak.

They will take their last breath.

The sun will set on them while it is still day.

They will be dishonored and put to shame.

All those who are left alive I will kill with swords.

I will have their enemies do it,”

announces the Lord.

¹⁰My mother, I wish I had never been born!

The whole land opposes me.

They fight against me.

I haven’t made loans to anyone.

And I haven’t borrowed anything.

But everyone still calls down curses on me.

¹¹The Lord said,

“Jeremiah, I will keep you safe for a good purpose.

I will make your enemies ask you to pray for them.

They will make their appeal to you

when they are in great trouble.

¹²“People of Judah, the armies of Babylonia

will come from the north.

They are as strong as iron and bronze.

Can anyone break their power?

¹³I will give away your wealth and your treasures.

Your enemies will carry off everything.

And they will not pay anything for it.

That will happen because you have sinned so much.

You have done it all through your country.

¹⁴I will make you slaves to your enemies.

You will serve them in a land

you have not had anything to do with before.

My anger will start a fire

that will burn you up.”

¹⁵Lord, you understand how much I’m suffering.

Show concern for me. Take care of me.

Pay back those who are trying to harm me.

You are patient. Don’t take my life away from me.

Think about how much shame I suffer because of you.

¹⁶When I received your words, I ate them.

They filled me with joy.

My heart took delight in them.

Lord God who rules over all,

I belong to you.

¹⁷I never sat around with those who go to wild parties.

I never had a good time with them.

I sat alone because you had put your powerful hand on me.

Your anger against sin was burning inside me.

¹⁸Why does my pain never end?

Why is my wound so deep?

Why can’t I ever get well?

To me you are like a stream that runs dry.

You are like a spring that doesn’t have any water.

¹⁹So the Lord says,

“Turn away from your sins. Then I will heal you.

And then you will be able to serve me.

Speak words that are worthy, not worthless.

Then you will be speaking for me.

Let these people turn to you.

But you must not turn to them.

²⁰I will make you like a wall to them.

I will make you like a strong bronze wall.

The people will fight against you.

But they will not overcome you.

I am with you.

I will save you,”

announces the Lord.

²¹“I will save you from the hands of evil people.

I will set you free from those who treat you badly.”

Times of Trouble Are Coming

16A message came to me from the Lord. He said, ²“You must not get married. You must not have any sons or daughters in this land.”

³Here is the Lord’s message about the children who are born in this place. He says about them and their parents, ⁴“Some of them will die of deadly sicknesses. No one will sob over them. Their bodies will not be buried. Instead, they will be like trash lying there on the ground. Others will die because of war and hunger. Their bodies will not be buried. Instead, they will become food for the birds of the air and the wild animals.”

⁵The Lord says, “Jeremiah, do not enter a house where a meal is being served because someone has died. Do not go there to sob or to comfort the family. I will not bless these people anymore. I have taken my love and pity away from them,” announces the Lord.

⁶“Important and ordinary people alike will die in this land. Their bodies will not be buried. No one will sob over them. No one will cut himself or shave his head because of them. ⁷No one will offer food or drink to comfort those who sob over the dead. No one will do it even if someone’s father or mother has died.

⁸“Do not enter a house where a big dinner party is being held. Do not sit down there to eat and drink. ⁹I am the Lord who rules over all. I am the God of Israel. I am telling you, ‘In your days I will judge your people. You will see it with your own eyes. I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness here in Jerusalem. The voices of brides and grooms will not be heard anymore.’

¹⁰“Tell these people all of those things. They will ask you, ‘Why has the Lord decided to send so much trouble on us? We haven’t done anything wrong. We haven’t committed any sins against the Lord our God.’

¹¹“When they say that, tell them, ‘I did it because your people of long ago deserted me,’ announces the Lord. ‘They followed other gods. They served them and worshiped them. They deserted me. They did not obey my law.

¹²“ ‘But you have done more evil things than they did. All of you are doing what your stubborn and evil hearts want you to do. You are not obeying me.

¹³“ ‘So I will throw you out of this land. I will send you away to a land that you and your people have not had anything to do with before. There you will serve other gods day and night. And I will not show you any favor.’

¹⁴“But a new day is coming,” announces the Lord. “At that time people will no longer say, ‘The Lord brought the people of Israel up out of Egypt. And that’s just as sure as he is alive.’

¹⁵“Instead, they will say, ‘The Lord brought the people of Israel up out of the land of the north. He gathered them out of all of the countries where he had forced them to go. And that’s just as sure as he is alive.’ I will bring them back to the land I gave their people long ago.

¹⁶“But now I will send for many fishermen,” announces the Lord. “They will catch some of these people. After that, I will send for many hunters. They will hunt the others down on every mountain and hill. They will bring them out of the cracks in the rocks. ¹⁷My eyes see everything these people do. What they do is not hidden from me. I always see their sin. ¹⁸I will pay them back double for their sin and the evil things they have done. They have made my land ‘unclean.’ They have set up lifeless statues of their evil gods. They have filled my land with them. I hate those gods.”

¹⁹Lord, you give me strength.

You are like a fort to me.

When I’m in trouble,

I go to you for safety.

The nations will come to you

from one end of the earth to the other.

They will gather together and say,

“Our people of long ago didn’t own anything

except statues of gods.

The statues were worthless.

They didn’t do them any good.

²⁰Do men really make their own gods?

Yes. But they aren’t really gods at all!”

²¹The Lord says, “So I will teach them about myself.

This time I will show them

how powerful and mighty I am.

Then they will know

that I am the Lord.

17“Judah’s sin is carved with an iron tool. It is written with a sharp stone.

It is carved on the tablets of their hearts.

It is written on the horns that stick out

from the corners of their altars.

²Even their children offer sacrifices

to other gods on those altars.

They use the poles that were made

to worship the goddess Asherah.

They worship strange gods beside the green trees

and on the high hills.

³I will give away my holy Mount Zion to the Babylonians.

Your enemies will carry off your wealth

and all of your treasures.

I will give away your high places.

That will happen because you have sinned.

You have done it all through your country.

⁴You will lose the land I gave you.

And it will be your own fault.

I will make you slaves to your enemies.

You will serve them in a land you have not had anything to do with before.

You have set my anger on fire.

It will burn forever.”

⁵The Lord says,

“Those who trust in man are under my curse.

They depend on human strength.

Their hearts turn away from me.

⁶They will be like a bush in a dry and empty land.

They will not enjoy success when it comes.

They will live in dry places in the desert.

It is a land of salt where no one else lives.

⁷“But I will bless any man who trusts in me.

I will show my favor to the one who depends on me.

⁸He will be like a tree that is planted near water.

It sends out its roots beside a stream.

It is not afraid when heat comes.

Its leaves are always green.

It does not worry when there is no rain.

It always bears fruit.”

⁹A human heart is more dishonest than anything else.

It can’t be healed.

Who can understand it?

¹⁰The Lord says, “I look deep down inside human hearts.

I see what is in people’s minds.

I reward a man in keeping with his conduct.

I bless him based on what he has done.”

¹¹Some people get rich in the wrong way.

They are like a partridge that hatches eggs it didn’t lay.

When their lives are half over, their riches will desert them.

In the end they will…