Jeremiah 17–19

17“Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool,^h

inscribed with a flint point,

on the tablets of their heartsⁱ

and on the horns^j of their altars.

²Even their children remember

their altars and Asherah poles^ak

beside the spreading trees

and on the high hills.^l

³My mountain in the land

and your^b wealth and all your treasures

I will give away as plunder,^m

together with your high places,ⁿ

because of sin throughout your country.^o

⁴Through your own fault you will lose

the inheritance^p I gave you.

I will enslave you to your enemies^q

in a land^r you do not know,

for you have kindled my anger,

and it will burn^s forever.”

⁵This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,^t

who draws strength from mere flesh

and whose heart turns away from the Lord.^u

⁶That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;

they will not see prosperity when it comes.

They will dwell in the parched places^v of the desert,

in a salt^w land where no one lives.

⁷“But blessed^x is the one who trusts^y in the Lord,

whose confidence is in him.

⁸They will be like a tree planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.^z

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought^a

and never fails to bear fruit.”^b

⁹The heart^c is deceitful above all things

and beyond cure.

Who can understand it?

¹⁰“I the Lord search the heart^d

and examine the mind,^e

to reward^f each person according to their conduct,

according to what their deeds deserve.”^g

¹¹Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay

are those who gain riches by unjust means.

When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them,

and in the end they will prove to be fools.^h

¹²A glorious throne,ⁱ exalted from the beginning,

is the place of our sanctuary.

¹³Lord, you are the hope^j of Israel;

all who forsake^k you will be put to shame.

Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust^l

because they have forsaken the Lord,

the spring of living water.^m

¹⁴Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed;ⁿ

save^o me and I will be saved,

for you are the one I praise.^p

¹⁵They keep saying to me,

“Where is the word of the Lord?

Let it now be fulfilled!”^q

¹⁶I have not run away from being your shepherd;

you know I have not desired the day of despair.

What passes my lips^r is open before you.

¹⁷Do not be a terror^s to me;

you are my refuge^t in the day of disaster.^u

¹⁸Let my persecutors be put to shame,

but keep me from shame;

let them be terrified,

but keep me from terror.

Bring on them the day of disaster;

destroy them with double destruction.^v

Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy

¹⁹This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and stand at the Gate of the People,^c through which the kings of Judah go in and out; stand also at all the other gates of Jerusalem.^{w 20}Say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and all people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem^x who come through these gates.^{y 21}This is what the Lord says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath^z day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. ²²Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors.^{a 23}Yet they did not listen or pay attention;^b they were stiff-necked^c and would not listen or respond to discipline.^{d 24}But if you are careful to obey me, declares the Lord, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy^e by not doing any work on it, ²⁵then kings who sit on David’s throne^f will come through the gates of this city with their officials. They and their officials will come riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever.^{g 26}People will come from the towns of Judah and the villages around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin and the western foothills, from the hill country and the Negev,^h bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord. ²⁷But if you do not obeyⁱ me to keep the Sabbath^j day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire^k in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.’ ”^l

At the Potter’s House

18This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²“Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” ³So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. ⁴But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me. ⁶He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay^m in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand,ⁿ Israel. ⁷If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted,^o torn down and destroyed, ⁸and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent^p and not inflict on it the disaster^q I had planned. ⁹And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built^r up and planted, ¹⁰and if it does evil^s in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider^t the good I had intended to do for it.^u

¹¹“Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster^v for you and devising a plan^w against you. So turn^x from your evil ways,^y each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’^{z 12}But they will reply, ‘It’s no use.^a We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts.^b’ ”

¹³Therefore this is what the Lord says:

“Inquire among the nations:

Who has ever heard anything like this?^c

A most horrible^d thing has been done

by Virgin^e Israel.

¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon

ever vanish from its rocky slopes?

Do its cool waters from distant sources

ever stop flowing?^a

¹⁵Yet my people have forgotten^f me;

they burn incense^g to worthless idols,^h

which made them stumbleⁱ in their ways,

in the ancient paths.^j

They made them walk in byways,

on roads not built up.^k

¹⁶Their land will be an object of horror^l

and of lasting scorn;^m

all who pass by will be appalledⁿ

and will shake their heads.^o

¹⁷Like a wind^p from the east,

I will scatter them before their enemies;

I will show them my back and not my face^q

in the day of their disaster.”

¹⁸They said, “Come, let’s make plans^r against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priest^s will not cease, nor will counsel from the wise,^t nor the word from the prophets.^u So come, let’s attack him with our tongues^v and pay no attention to anything he says.”

¹⁹Listen to me, Lord;

hear what my accusers^w are saying!

²⁰Should good be repaid with evil?^x

Yet they have dug a pit^y for me.

Remember that I stood^z before you

and spoke in their behalf^a

to turn your wrath away from them.

²¹So give their children over to famine;^b

hand them over to the power of the sword.^c

Let their wives be made childless and widows;^d

let their men be put to death,

their young men^e slain by the sword in battle.

²²Let a cry^f be heard from their houses

when you suddenly bring invaders against them,

for they have dug a pit^g to capture me

and have hidden snares^h for my feet.

²³But you, Lord, know

all their plots to killⁱ me.

Do not forgive^j their crimes

or blot out their sins from your sight.

Let them be overthrown before you;

deal with them in the time of your anger.^k

19This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter.^l Take along some of the elders^m of the people and of the priests ²and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom,ⁿ near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, ³and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings^o of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster^p on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.^{q 4}For they have forsaken^r me and made this a place of foreign gods^s; they have burned incense^t in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.^{u 5}They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children^v in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.^{w 6}So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth^x or the Valley of Ben Hinnom,^y but the Valley of Slaughter.^z

⁷“ ‘In this place I will ruin^a the plans^a of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies,^b at the hands of those who want to kill them, and I will give their carcasses^c as food^d to the birds and the wild animals. ⁸I will devastate this city and make it an object of horror and scorn;^e all who pass by will be appalled^f and will scoff because of all its wounds.^{g 9}I will make them eat^h the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemiesⁱ will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them.’

¹⁰“Then break the jar^j while those who go with you are watching, ¹¹and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will smash^k this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury^l the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. ¹²This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth. ¹³The houses^m in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiledⁿ like this place, Topheth—all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs^o to all the starry hosts^p and poured out drink offerings^q to other gods.’ ”

¹⁴Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court^r of the Lord’s temple and said to all…