The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah

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Yahweh said to the people of Jerusalem, “Go up and down every street. Search in the marketplaces to find people who do what is fair, who try to be faithful to me. If you find even one person like that, I will forgive the people of Jerusalem and not destroy their city.

But when the people there swear an official oath by Yahweh’s life, they are lying.”

So I prayed, “Yahweh, you are certainly searching for people who are faithful to you. You punished your people, but they did not pay any attention. You crushed them, but they ignored what you were telling them to do. They were extremely stubborn and refused to return to you.”

Then I thought, “We cannot expect these people to act righteously, because they are poor; they do not have any sense. They do not know the way Yahweh wants them to conduct their lives; they do not know what God requires them to do.

So, I will go and talk to their leaders, because they surely know how God wants them to conduct their lives.” But they also have stopped obeying Yahweh, and they will not allow him to lead them.

Because of that, lions will come out of the forests and kill them; wolves from the desert will attack them; leopards that lurk outside their cities will maul anyone who walks outside the cities. Those things will happen because the people have sinned very much against God and have turned away from him very frequently.

Yahweh says, “I cannot forgive these people; even their children have abandoned me. When they solemnly declare something, they ask their gods to show that what they say is true. I gave my people everything that they needed, but they often went to the high places on the hills, where they worshiped their idols and committed adultery there.

Just like well fed male horses neigh, wanting to mate with female horses, each of the men desires to sleep with his neighbor’s wife.

Should I not punish them for this? I will certainly get revenge on this nation whose people behave like that!

The people of Judah and Israel are like a vineyard. Go along the rows in their vineyards and get rid of most of the people, but do not kill all of them. These people do not belong to me, so get rid of them, like a gardener lops off branches from a vine.

The people of Israel and Judah have turned away from me completely.

They have lied about me and said, ’He cannot do anything to help us! He will not punish us! He will not send disasters on us! We will not experience wars or famines!

What God’s prophets say is nothing but wind! They do not have messages from God! And because they have not believed me, all of these things will happen to them!’”

Judgment Proclaimed

So, this is what Yahweh, the commander of the armies of angels in heaven, has said to me, “Because my people are saying those things, I will give you a message to tell them that will be like a fire, and these people will be like wood that the fire will burn up completely!

Listen to Yahweh’s declaration, you people of Israel: I will bring the army of a distant nation to attack you. It is a very powerful nation that has existed for a long time. They speak a language that you do not know, and which you will not be able to understand.

Their soldiers are all very strong, and the arrows from their quivers will send many Judean men to their graves.

They will eat the food that you have harvested from your fields, even though it should be your own children who eat your bread. They will kill your flocks of sheep and herds of cattle. They will eat your grapes and your figs. They will also destroy your cities that have high walls around them and kill the people with their swords.

But even when those things happen, I will not get rid of all of you.

And when the people ask, ‘Why is Yahweh doing this to us?’ you will tell them, ’You rejected him and worshiped foreign gods in your own land, so now you will become slaves of foreigners in a land that is not your land.’”

Yahweh instructed me to proclaim this message to the people of Israel and Judah,

“Listen to this, you people who are so foolish, and you who have no understanding! You have eyes, but you cannot see. Yes, you have ears, but you cannot hear anything.

Why do you not have any awesome respect for me? You should tremble when you are in my presence! I, Yahweh, am the one who put a barrier along the shores so that the waters of the ocean cannot cross it and flood the land. The waves roll and roar, but they cannot go past that barrier.

But you people are not like the waves that obey me. You people are very stubborn and rebellious, and have constantly turned away from me.

You do not say to yourselves, ’Let us have an awesome respect for Yahweh our God, the one who sends us rain at the times that we need it, the one who causes the grain to become ripe at the harvest season.’

It is because of the wrong things that you have done, that those good things have not happened. It is because of the sins that you have committed that you have been prevented from receiving those blessings.

Among my people are wicked people who hide along the roads to ambush people like men who hunt birds put nets to catch them.

Like a hunter has a cage full of birds that he has captured, their homes are full of things that they have gotten by deceiving others so now they are very rich and powerful.

They are big and fat because they eat rich food, and there is no limit to the evil deeds that they have done. In court, they do not help ordinary people get judges to decide fairly for them, and they do not try to defend orphans. They do not even want to listen to them in court.

So I will certainly punish them for doing those things. I, Yahweh, declare that I will certainly get revenge on their nation.

Very appalling things are happening in this country:

Prophets speak only lies and priests rule by their own authority, yet you people like that! But when you start to experience disasters, what will you do?

“Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its wide places, if you can find a man, if there is anyone who does justly, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her.

Though they say, ‘As the LORD lives,’ surely they swear falsely.”

O LORD, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.

Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the LORD’s way, nor the law of their God.

I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they know the way of the LORD, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

Therefore a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the evenings will destroy them. A leopard will watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out there will be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many and their backsliding has increased.

“How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses.

They were as fed horses roaming at large. Everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife.

Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says the LORD. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

“Go up on her walls, and destroy, but don’t make a full end. Take away her branches, for they are not the LORD’s.

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me,” says the LORD.

They have denied the LORD, and said, “It is not he. Evil won’t come on us. We won’t see sword or famine.

The prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to them.”

Judgment Proclaimed

Therefore the LORD, the God of Armies says, “Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them.

Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far away, house of Israel,” says the LORD. “It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don’t know and don’t understand what they say.

Their quiver is an open tomb. They are all mighty men.

They will eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They will eat up your flocks and your herds. They will eat up your vines and your fig trees. They will beat down your fortified cities in which you trust with the sword.

“But even in those days,” says the LORD, “I will not make a full end of you.

It will happen when you say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

“Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,

‘Hear this now, foolish people without understanding, who have eyes, and don’t see, who have ears, and don’t hear:

Don’t you fear me?’ says the LORD; ‘Won’t you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it can’t pass it? Though its waves toss themselves, yet they can’t prevail. Though they roar, they still can’t pass over it.’

“But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart. They have revolted and gone.

They don’t say in their heart, ‘Let’s now fear the LORD our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season, who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’

“Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you.

For wicked men are found among my people. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They catch men.

As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grew rich.

They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they don’t defend the rights of the needy.

“Shouldn’t I punish for these things?” says the LORD. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

“An astonishing and horrible thing has happened in the land.

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?