The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah

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- Chapter 15 -

Then Yahweh said this to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel could come back from their graves and stand in front of me and plead with me for these Israelite people, I would not act mercifully toward these people. I would tell you to send them away from me. Cause them to leave me!

And if they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’, tell them, ’This is what Yahweh says: The ones that I say must die, will die: The ones that I say must die in wars, will die in wars. The ones that I say must die from hunger, will die from hunger. The ones that I say must be captured and taken to other countries, will be captured and taken to other countries.

I will send four things that will get rid of them: I will send enemy soldiers using swords to kill them. I will send wild dogs to drag away their corpses. I will send vultures to eat their corpses. And I will send other wild animals to eat what remains of their corpses.

Because of the wicked things that King Manasseh did in Jerusalem, I will cause people in all the kingdoms of the earth to be horrified concerning what will happen in Judah to my people.

You people of Jerusalem, no one will feel sorry for you. No one will weep for you. No one will wish that you would not be hurt.

You people have abandoned me; you have continued to walk away from me. So, I will lift up my fist to smash you; I am tired of acting mercifully toward you.

At the gates of your cities, I will scatter you like a farmer scatters the chaff from his grain by winnowing it. You, my people, have refused to turn away from your evil behavior. So, I will get rid of you, and I will even cause your children to be killed.

I will cause there to be more widows in Judah than there are grains of sand on the seashore. I will bring on you an enemy army that will destroy your young men and cause their mothers to weep. I will cause you to suddenly experience great suffering and become very terrified.

A woman who has seven children will become faint and gasp for breath; it will be as though her daylight will become darkness, because most of her children will be dead, and she will be disgraced and humiliated. And her children who are still alive, I will enable your enemies to kill them. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.’”

Jeremiah’s Woe

I said to my mother, “I am very sad; I wish that you had not given birth to me; everyone in this land opposes me and quarrels with me. I have not made anyone angry by lending or borrow money and then quarreling about it, but everyone curses me anyway.”

But Yahweh replied to me, “Jeremiah, I will take care of you. And at times when you have the most troubles, I will come on your behalf and protect you from your enemy.

People of Judah, you know how strong iron is when it is mixed with bronze, it is very hard and good for weapons. That iron mixed with bronze metal is just like the strength of your enemies when they attack Judah from the north, no one will be able to stop them.

I will give all the valuable possessions of your people to their enemies, without them paying for it. Your people will lose everything valuable because of all the sins that they have committed throughout the country.

I will tell their enemies to force them to become their prisoners, to take them to other lands that they have not experienced, and force them to become their slaves. That will happen because I am extremely angry with your people; my anger is like a burning fire.”

Then I said, “Yahweh, you know what is happening to me. Please come and help me. Punish those who are persecuting me. Please do not continue to be patient with them and do not allow me to die now. It is for your sake that I am suffering.

Yahweh my God, you are the Commander of the angel armies; when you spoke to me, I was delighted with your message; it caused me to be joyful, and I eagerly accepted what you said because I belong to you.

When the people were carousing together, I never joined them; I sat alone, because you are the one who controls what I do. I was very angry with those people because of their sins.

So, why do you allow me to continue to suffer? It seems that my wounds cannot be healed. Sometimes you help me, sometimes you do not help me. It seems that you are as undependable as a brook that has water in it only during certain seasons; you are like a spring that has dried up.”

The LORD’s Promise

Then Yahweh replied to me saying this: “If you begin again to trust in me, I will restore you, in order that you can continue to serve me. If you proclaim good messages and not worthless ones, you will continue to be the one who speaks what I tell you to say. You must cause the people to pay attention to what you say; you must not pay attention to what they say.

They will fight against you, but I will protect you, like people are protected from their enemies by a bronze wall. They will not defeat you, because I will be with you, and I will protect and rescue you.

Truly, I will keep you safe from those wicked people, I will rescue you when you are seized by cruel people. That will happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.”

Then the LORD said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not turn toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go out!

It will happen when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go out?’ then you shall tell them, ‘The LORD says: “Such as are for death, to death; such as are for the sword, to the sword; such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.”’

“I will appoint over them four kinds,” says the LORD: “the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy.

I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Who will mourn you? Who will come to ask of your welfare?

You have rejected me,” says the LORD. “You have gone backward. Therefore I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you. I am weary of showing compassion.

I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land. I have bereaved them of children. I have destroyed my people. They didn’t return from their ways.

Their widows are increased more than the sand of the seas. I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday. I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.

She who has borne seven languishes. She has given up the spirit. Her sun has gone down while it was yet day. She has been disappointed and confounded. I will deliver their residue to the sword before their enemies,” says the LORD.

Jeremiah’s Woe

Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife, and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet every one of them curses me.

The LORD said, “Most certainly I will strengthen you for good. Most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and bronze?

I will give your substance and your treasures for a plunder without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.

I will make them to pass with your enemies into a land which you don’t know; for a fire is kindled in my anger, which will burn on you.”

LORD, you know. Remember me, visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors. You are patient, so don’t take me away. Know that for your sake I have suffered reproach.

Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by your name, LORD, God of Armies.

I didn’t sit in the assembly of those who make merry and rejoice. I sat alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation.

Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?

The LORD’s Promise

Therefore the LORD says, “If you return, then I will bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take out the precious from the vile, you will be as my mouth. They will return to you, but you will not return to them.

I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall. They will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you,” says the LORD.

“I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.”