Jeremiah 19–22

The Sign of the Broken Flask

19Thus 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. ²And 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, ^3band 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 ^5f(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), ⁶therefore 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. ⁷And 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. ⁸I will make this city ^kdesolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. ⁹And 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.” ’

^10m“Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, ¹¹and 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. ¹²Thus I will do to this place,” says the Lord, “and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet. ¹³And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled ^plike the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose ^qroofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and ^rpoured out drink offerings to other gods.” ’ ”

¹⁴Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in ^sthe court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people, ¹⁵“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because ^tthey have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words.’ ”

The Word of God to Pashhur

20Now ^aPashhur the son of ^bImmer, the priest who was also chief governor in the house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. ²Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high ^cgate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord.

³And it happened on the next day that Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord has not called your name Pashhur, but ¹Magor-Missabib. ⁴For thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it. I will ^dgive all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon and slay them with the sword. ⁵Moreover I ^ewill deliver all the wealth of this city, all its produce, and all its precious things; all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them, seize them, and ^fcarry them to Babylon. ⁶And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. You shall go to Babylon, and there you shall die, and be buried there, you and all your friends, to whom you have ^gprophesied lies.’ ”

Jeremiah’s Unpopular Ministry

⁷O Lord, You ²induced me, and I was persuaded;

^hYou are stronger than I, and have prevailed.

ⁱI am ³in derision daily;

Everyone mocks me.

⁸For when I spoke, I cried out;

^jI shouted, “Violence and plunder!”

Because the word of the Lord was made to me

A reproach and a derision daily.

⁹Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him,

Nor speak anymore in His name.”

But His word was in my heart like a ^kburning fire

Shut up in my bones;

I was weary of holding it back,

And ^lI could not.

^10mFor I heard many ⁴mocking:

“Fear on every side!”

“Report,” they say, “and we will report it!”

ⁿAll my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying,

“Perhaps he can be induced;

Then we will prevail against him,

And we will take our revenge on him.”

¹¹But the Lord is ^owith me as a mighty, awesome One.

Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not ^pprevail.

They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper.

Their ^qeverlasting confusion will never be forgotten.

¹²But, O Lord of hosts,

You who ^rtest the righteous,

And see the ⁵mind and heart,

^sLet me see Your vengeance on them;

For I have pleaded my cause before You.

¹³Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord!

For ^tHe has delivered the life of the poor

From the hand of evildoers.

^14uCursed be the day in which I was born!

Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!

¹⁵Let the man be cursed

Who brought news to my father, saying,

“A male child has been born to you!”

Making him very glad.

¹⁶And let that man be like the cities

Which the Lord—^voverthrew, and did not relent;

Let him ^whear the cry in the morning

And the shouting at noon,

^17xBecause he did not kill me from the womb,

That my mother might have been my grave,

And her womb always enlarged with me.

^18yWhy did I come forth from the womb to ^zsee ⁶labor and sorrow,

That my days should be consumed with shame?

Jerusalem’s Doom is Sealed

21The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when ^aKing Zedekiah sent to him ^bPashhur the son of Melchiah, and ^cZephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, ^2d“Please inquire of the Lord for us, for ¹Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all His wonderful works, that the king may go away from us.”

³Then Jeremiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, ⁴‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the ²Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls; and ^eI will assemble them in the midst of this city. ⁵I ^fMyself will fight against you with an ^goutstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath. ⁶I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great pestilence. ⁷And afterward,” says the Lord, ^h“I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. ⁱHe shall not spare them, or have pity or mercy.” ’

⁸“Now you shall say to this people, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, ^jI set before you the way of life and the way of death. ⁹He who ^kremains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and ³defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall ^llive, and his life shall be as a prize to him. ¹⁰For I have ^mset My face against this city for adversity and not for good,” says the Lord. ⁿ“It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall ^oburn it with fire.” ’

Message to the House of David

¹¹“And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, ¹²O house of David! Thus says the Lord:

^p“Execute ⁴judgment ^qin the morning;

And deliver him who is plundered

Out of the hand of the oppressor,

Lest My fury go forth like fire

And burn so that no one can quench it,

Because of the evil of your doings.

¹³“Behold, ^rI am against you, O ⁵inhabitant of the valley,

And rock of the plain,” says the Lord,

“Who say, ^s‘Who shall come down against us?

Or who shall enter our dwellings?’

¹⁴But I will punish you according to the ^tfruit of your ⁶doings,” says the Lord;

“I will kindle a fire in its forest,

And ^uit shall devour all things around it.” ’ ”

22Thus says the Lord: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and there speak this word, ²and say, ^a‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates! ³Thus says the Lord: ^b“Execute ¹judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the ^cfatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. ⁴For if you indeed do this thing, ^dthen shall enter the gates of this house, riding on horses and in chariots, accompanied by servants and people, kings who sit on the throne of David. ⁵But if you will not ²hear these words, ^eI swear by Myself,” says the Lord, “that this house shall become a desolation.” ’ ”

⁶For thus says the Lord to the house of the king of Judah:

“You are ^fGilead to Me,

The head of Lebanon;

Yet I surely will make you a wilderness,

Cities which are not inhabited.

⁷I will prepare destroyers against you,

Everyone with his weapons;

They shall cut down ^gyour choice cedars

^hAnd cast them into the fire.

⁸And many nations will pass by this city; and everyone will say to his neighbor, ⁱ‘Why has the Lord done so to this great city?’ ⁹Then they will answer, ^j‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshiped other gods and served them.’ ”

¹⁰Weep not for ^kthe dead, nor bemoan him;

Weep bitterly for him ^lwho goes away,

For he shall return…