Judah’s Sin and Punishment

17 “The sin of Judah is awritten with a bpen of iron;

With the point of a diamond it is cengraved

On the tablet of their heart,

And on the horns of your altars,

2 While their children remember

Their altars and their dwooden 1images

By the green trees on the high hills.

3 O My mountain in the field,

I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures,

And your high places of sin within all your borders.

4 And you, even yourself,

Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you;

And I will cause you to serve your enemies

In ethe land which you do not know;

For fyou have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.”

5 Thus says the Lord:

g“Cursed is the man who trusts in man

And makes hflesh his 2strength,

Whose heart departs from the Lord.

6 For he shall be ilike a shrub in the desert,

And jshall not see when good comes,

But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,

kIn a salt land which is not inhabited.

7 “Blessed lis the man who trusts in the Lord,

And whose hope is the Lord.

8 For he shall be mlike a tree planted by the waters,

Which spreads out its roots by the river,

And will not 3fear when heat comes;

But its leaf will be green,

And will not be anxious in the year of drought,

Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

9 “The nheart is deceitful above all things,

And 4desperately wicked;

Who can know it?

10 I, the Lord, osearch the heart,

I test the 5mind,

pEven to give every man according to his ways,

According to the fruit of his doings.

11 “As a partridge that 6broods but does not hatch,

So is he who gets riches, but not by right;

It qwill leave him in the midst of his days,

And at his end he will be ra fool.”

12 A glorious high throne from the beginning

Is the place of our sanctuary.

13 O Lord, sthe hope of Israel,

tAll who forsake You shall be ashamed.

“Those who depart from Me

Shall be uwritten in the earth,

Because they have forsaken the Lord,

The vfountain of living waters.”

Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance

14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;

Save me, and I shall be saved,

For wYou are my praise.

15 Indeed they say to me,

x“Where is the word of the Lord?

Let it come now!”

16 As for me, yI have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You,

Nor have I desired the woeful day;

You know what came out of my lips;

It was right there before You.

17 Do not be a terror to me;

zYou are my hope in the day of doom.

18 aLet them be ashamed who persecute me,

But bdo not let me be put to shame;

Let them be dismayed,

But do not let me be dismayed.

Bring on them the day of doom,

And cdestroy 7them with double destruction!

Hallow the Sabbath Day

19 Thus the Lord said to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; 20 and say to them, d‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. 21 Thus says the Lord: e“Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; 22 nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I fcommanded your fathers. 23 gBut they did not obey nor incline their ear, but 8made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.

24 “And it shall be, hif you heed Me carefully,” says the Lord, “to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the iSabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it, 25 jthen shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. 26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from kthe places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from lthe 9lowland, from the mountains and from mthe 1South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing nsacrifices of praise to the house of the Lord.

27 “But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then oI will kindle a fire in its gates, pand it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be qquenched.” ’ ”

The Potter and the Clay

18 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the 1wheel. 4 And the vessel that he 2made of clay was 3marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 6 “O house of Israel, acan I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, bas the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! 7 The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to cpluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, 8 dif that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, eI will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. 9 And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 10 if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.

11 “Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. fReturn now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings ggood.” ’ ”

God’s Warning Rejected

12 And they said, h“That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one 4obey the idictates 5of his evil heart.”

13 Therefore thus says the Lord:

j“Ask now among the Gentiles,

Who has heard such things?

The virgin of Israel has done ka very horrible thing.

14 Will a man 6leave the snow water of Lebanon,

Which comes from the rock of the field?

Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?

15 “Because My people have forgotten lMe,

They have burned incense to worthless idols.

And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways,

From the mancient paths,

To walk in pathways and not on a highway,

16 To make their land ndesolate and a perpetual ohissing;

Everyone who passes by it will be astonished

And shake his head.

17 pI will scatter them qas with an east wind before the enemy;

rI will 7show them the back and not the face

In the day of their calamity.”

Jeremiah Persecuted

18 Then they said, s“Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; tfor the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.”

19 Give heed to me, O Lord,

And listen to the voice of those who contend with me!

20 uShall evil be repaid for good?

For they have vdug a pit for my life.

Remember that I wstood before You

To speak good 8for them,

To turn away Your wrath from them.

21 Therefore xdeliver up their children to the famine,

And pour out their blood

By the force of the sword;

Let their wives become widows

And ybereaved of their children.

Let their men be put to death,

Their young men be slain

By the sword in battle.

22 Let a cry be heard from their houses,

When You bring a troop suddenly upon them;

For they have dug a pit to take me,

And hidden snares for my feet.

23 Yet, Lord, You know all their counsel

Which is against me, to slay me.

zProvide no atonement for their iniquity,

Nor blot out their sin from Your sight;

But let them be overthrown before You.

Deal thus with them

In the time of Your aanger.

The Sign of the Broken Flask

19 Thus says the Lord: “Go and get a potter’s earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. 2 And go out to athe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you, 3 band say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will ctingle.

4 “Because they dhave forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with ethe blood of the innocents 5 f(they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, gwhich I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind), 6 therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that this place shall no more be called Tophet or hthe Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, iand I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their jcorpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. 8 I will make this city kdesolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. 9 And I will cause them to eat the lflesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.” ’

10 m“Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, 11 and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: n“Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be 1made whole again; and they shall obury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury. 12 Thus I will do to this place,” says the Lord, “and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem …