Jeremiah’s Unpopular Ministry

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

hYou are stronger than I, and have prevailed.

iI am 3in derision daily;

Everyone mocks me.

8 For 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.

9 Then 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.

10 mFor 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.”

11 But 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.

12 But, 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.

13 Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord!

For tHe has delivered the life of the poor

From the hand of evildoers.

14 uCursed be the day in which I was born!

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

15 Let the man be cursed

Who brought news to my father, saying,

“A male child has been born to you!”

Making him very glad.

16 And 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,

17 xBecause he did not kill me from the womb,

That my mother might have been my grave,

And her womb always enlarged with me.

18 yWhy 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

21 The 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, 2 d“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.”

3 Then 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. 5 I fMyself will fight against you with an goutstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath. 6 I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great pestilence. 7 And 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. 9 He 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. 10 For 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, 12 O 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?’

14 But 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.” ’ ”