Jeremiah 18 Cross References - BSB

¹ This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ² “Go down at once to the potter’s house, and there I will reveal My message to you.” ³ So I went down to the potter’s house and saw him working at the wheel. ⁴ But the vessel that he was shaping from the clay became flawed in his hand; so he formed it into another vessel, as it seemed best for him to do. ⁵ Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ⁶ “O house of Israel, declares the LORD, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay? Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. ⁷ At any time I might announce that a nation or kingdom will be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed. ⁸ But if that nation I warned turns from its evil, then I will relent of the disaster I had planned to bring. ⁹ And if at another time I announce that I will build up and establish a nation or kingdom, ¹⁰ and if it does evil in My sight and does not listen to My voice, then I will relent of the good I had intended for it. ¹¹ Now therefore, tell the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I am planning a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways, and correct your ways and deeds.’ ¹² But they will reply, ‘It is hopeless. We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’” ¹³ Therefore this is what the LORD says: “Inquire among the nations: Who has ever heard things like these? Virgin Israel has done a most terrible thing. ¹⁴ Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave its rocky slopes? Or do its cool waters flowing from a distance ever run dry? ¹⁵ Yet My people have forgotten Me. They burn incense to worthless idols that make them stumble in their ways, leaving the ancient roads to walk on rutted bypaths instead of on the highway. ¹⁶ They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads. ¹⁷ I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind. I will show them My back and not My face in the day of their calamity.” ¹⁸ Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us denounce him and pay no heed to any of his words.” ¹⁹ Attend to me, O LORD. Hear what my accusers are saying! ²⁰ Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You to speak good on their behalf, to turn Your wrath from them. ²¹ Therefore, hand their children over to famine; pour out the power of the sword upon them. Let their wives become childless and widowed; let their husbands be slain by disease, their young men struck down by the sword in battle. ²² Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring raiders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet. ²³ But You, O LORD, know all their deadly plots against me. Do not wipe out their guilt or blot out their sin from Your sight. Let them be overthrown before You; deal with them in the time of Your anger.

² the LORD had already spoken through Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and the sandals from your feet.” And Isaiah did so, walking around naked and barefoot.

¹ This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.”

¹ This is what the LORD says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take some of the elders of the people and leaders of the priests, ² and go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Proclaim there the words I speak to you,

²² But if they had stood in My council, they would have proclaimed My words to My people and turned them back from their evil ways and deeds.”

¹ “Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you, and draw on it the city of Jerusalem. ² Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp to it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it on all sides. ³ Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel. ⁴ Then lie down on your left side and place the iniquity of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their iniquity for the number of days you lie on your side. ⁵ For I have assigned to you 390 days, according to the number of years of their iniquity. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

⁷ This is what He showed me: Behold, the Lord was standing by a wall true to plumb, with a plumb line in His hand.

⁶ “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

¹ On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets.

³ Jonah, however, got up to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard to sail for Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.

¹⁴ You are My friends if you do what I command you.

¹⁹ So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

⁹ Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—one clay pot among many. Does the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?

⁶ “O house of Israel, declares the LORD, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay? Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.

²⁰ But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?” ²¹ Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use? ²² What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction? ²³ What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory—

⁸ But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.

⁴ But the vessel that he was shaping from the clay became flawed in his hand; so he formed it into another vessel, as it seemed best for him to do.

²³ And you, O king, saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying: ‘Cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump with its roots in the ground, and a band of iron and bronze around it, in the tender grass of the field. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and graze with the beasts of the field till seven times pass him by.’

¹⁵ Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

²⁰ But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?” ²¹ Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?

³⁴ “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”

¹⁰ See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and plant.”

¹⁴ This is what the LORD says: “As for all My evil neighbors who attack the inheritance that I bequeathed to My people Israel, I am about to uproot them from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them. ¹⁵ But after I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land. ¹⁶ And if they will diligently learn the ways of My people and swear by My name, saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives’—just as they once taught My people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among My people. ¹⁷ But if they will not obey, then I will uproot that nation; I will uproot it and destroy it, declares the LORD.”

⁹ behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation. ¹⁰ Moreover, I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp. ¹¹ And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. ¹² But when seventy years are complete, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, declares the LORD, and I will make it an everlasting desolation. ¹³ I will bring upon that land all the words I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. ¹⁴ For many nations and great kings will enslave them, and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.’”

⁴ Thus Jeremiah was to say to Baruch: “This is what the LORD says: Throughout the land I will demolish what I have built and uproot what I have planted.

⁸ Surely the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the LORD.

⁴ On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”

¹² Why should the Egyptians declare, ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce anger and relent from doing harm to Your people.

³⁶ For the LORD will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free.

¹⁸ Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for the Israelites, He was with that judge and saved them from the hands of their enemies while the judge was still alive; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning under those who oppressed them and afflicted them.

¹⁵ “We have sinned,” the Israelites said to the LORD. “Deal with us as You see fit; but please deliver us today!” ¹⁶ So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD, and He could no longer bear the misery of Israel.

³³ When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and they return to You and confess Your name, praying and pleading with You in this temple, ³⁴ then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel. May You restore them to the land You gave to their fathers.

⁶ So the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The LORD is righteous.”

¹³ Return, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on Your servants.

⁴⁵ And He remembered His covenant with them, and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.

¹⁴ For the LORD will vindicate His people and will have compassion on His servants.

¹⁶ Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil! ¹⁷ Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.” ¹⁸ “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool. ¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best of the land.

³ Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Correct your ways and deeds, and I will let you live in this place. ⁴ Do not trust in deceptive words, chanting: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’ ⁵ For if you really correct your ways and deeds, if you act justly toward one another, ⁶ if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm, ⁷ then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

⁶ You have forsaken Me, declares the LORD. You have turned your back. So I will stretch out My hand against you and I will destroy you; I am weary of showing compassion.

³ Perhaps they will listen and turn—each from his evil way of life—so that I may relent of the disaster I am planning to bring upon them because of the evil of their deeds.

¹³ So now, correct your ways and deeds, and obey the voice of the LORD your God, so that He might relent of the disaster He has pronounced against you.

¹⁹ Did Hezekiah king of Judah or anyone else in Judah put him to death? Did Hezekiah not fear the LORD and seek His favor, and did not the LORD relent of the disaster He had pronounced against them? But we are about to bring great harm on ourselves!”

³ Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the calamity I plan to bring upon them, each of them will turn from his wicked way. Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

¹⁰ ‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I will relent of the disaster I have brought upon you.

²¹ But if the wicked man turns from all the sins he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.

¹¹ Say to them: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’

¹³ If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but he then trusts in his righteousness and commits iniquity, then none of his righteous works will be remembered; he will die because of the iniquity he has committed.

⁸ How could I give you up, O Ephraim? How could I surrender you, O Israel? How could I make you like Admah? How could I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within Me; My compassion is stirred!

¹³ So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster. ¹⁴ Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him—grain and drink offerings for the LORD your God.

³ So the LORD relented from this plan. “It will not happen,” He said. ⁴ This is what the Lord GOD showed me: The Lord GOD was calling for judgment by fire. It consumed the great deep and devoured the land. ⁵ Then I said, “Lord GOD, please stop! How will Jacob survive, since he is so small?” ⁶ So the LORD relented from this plan. “It will not happen either,” said the Lord GOD.

⁵ The waters engulfed me to take my life; the watery depths closed around me; the seaweed wrapped around my head. ⁶ To the roots of the mountains I descended; the earth beneath me barred me in forever! But You raised my life from the pit, O LORD my God! ⁷ As my life was fading away, I remembered the LORD. My prayer went up to You, to Your holy temple. ⁸ Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion. ⁹ But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to You. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation is from the LORD!” ¹⁰ And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

⁹ Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.” ¹⁰ When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.

² So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.

³ No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam collapsed on them: Do you think that they were more sinful than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵ No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

² a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,

¹⁷ The LORD of Hosts, who planted you, has decreed disaster against you on account of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have brought upon themselves, provoking Me to anger by burning incense to Baal.”

¹⁸ This is what the LORD says: “I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on his dwellings. And the city will be rebuilt on her own ruins, and the palace will stand in its rightful place.

⁴ Again I will build you, and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out in joyful dancing.

²⁸ Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, to demolish, destroy, and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD.

³⁸ “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when this city will be rebuilt for Me, from the tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.

⁴¹ Yes, I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.

¹¹ “In that day I will restore the fallen tent of David. I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old, ¹² that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear My name,” declares the LORD, who will do this. ¹³ “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, the sower of seed. The mountains will drip with sweet wine, with which all the hills will flow. ¹⁴ I will restore My people Israel from captivity; they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. ¹⁵ I will firmly plant them in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God.

²² not one of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness—yet have tested Me and disobeyed Me these ten times—

³⁴ In keeping with the forty days you spied out the land, you shall bear your guilt forty years—a year for each day—and you will experience My alienation.

³⁰ Therefore, the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the LORD declares: Far be it from Me! For I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained.

¹³ “You have acted foolishly,” Samuel declared. “You have not kept the command that the LORD your God gave you; if you had, the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.

¹¹ “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My instructions.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all that night.

³⁵ And to the day of his death, Samuel never again visited Saul. Samuel mourned for Saul, and the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.

⁵ But those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish with the evildoers. Peace be upon Israel.

²³ but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you. ²⁴ Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. ²⁵ From the day your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets again and again. ²⁶ Yet they would not listen to Me or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and did more evil than their fathers. ²⁷ When you tell them all these things, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer. ²⁸ Therefore you must say to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the voice of the LORD their God and would not receive correction. Truth has perished; it has disappeared from their lips.

²⁴ But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, committing the same abominations as the wicked, will he live? None of the righteous acts he did will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness and sin he has committed, he will die.

¹⁸ If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he will die for it.

²⁰ You must do the same thing on the seventh day of the month for anyone who strays unintentionally or in ignorance. In this way you will make atonement for the temple.

⁶ and those who turn back from following the LORD, neither seeking the LORD nor inquiring of Him.”

³ And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” So they used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar. ⁴ “Come,” they said, “let us build for ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens, that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of all the earth.”

⁷ Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

⁵ “Go now,” said the king of Aram, “and I will send you with a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman departed, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of clothing.

¹³ Yet through all His prophets and seers, the LORD warned Israel and Judah, saying, “Turn from your wicked ways and keep My commandments and statutes, according to the entire Law that I commanded your fathers and delivered to you through My servants the prophets.”

¹³ “Go and inquire of the LORD for me, for the people, and for all Judah concerning the words in this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book by doing all that is written about us.”

⁵ Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.

⁶ Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. ⁷ Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.

¹ “If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers—and you would return to Me?” declares the LORD.

²² “Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness.” “Here we are. We come to You, for You are the LORD our God.

⁶ Raise a signal flag toward Zion. Seek refuge! Do not delay! For I am bringing disaster from the north, and terrible destruction.

²³ I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void; I looked to the heavens, and they had no light.

³ Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Correct your ways and deeds, and I will let you live in this place.

¹⁹ For I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter; I did not know that they had plotted against me: “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more.”

¹⁸ Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us denounce him and pay no heed to any of his words.”

⁵ The prophets told you, ‘Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and deeds, and you can dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever.

¹⁵ Again and again I have sent you all My servants the prophets, proclaiming: ‘Turn now, each of you, from your wicked ways, and correct your actions. Do not go after other gods to serve them. Live in the land that I have given to you and your fathers.’ But you have not inclined your ear or listened to Me.

⁷ Perhaps they will bring their petition before the LORD, and each one will turn from his wicked way; for great are the anger and fury that the LORD has pronounced against this people.”

¹¹ Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it is the vengeance of the LORD—vengeance for His temple.

³⁹ Why should any mortal man complain, in view of his sins? ⁴⁰ Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD. ⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:

²² Because you have disheartened the righteous with your lies, even though I have caused them no grief, and because you have encouraged the wicked not to turn from their evil ways to save their lives,

²³ Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Lord GOD. Wouldn’t I prefer that he turn from his ways and live?

³⁰ Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall. ³¹ Cast away from yourselves all the transgressions you have committed, and fashion for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel? ³² For I take no pleasure in anyone’s death, declares the Lord GOD. So repent and live!

³ Therefore this is what the LORD says: “I am planning against this nation a disaster from which you cannot free your necks. Then you will not walk so proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.

³ So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’

²⁰ First to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, then to everyone in the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I declared that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds worthy of their repentance.

¹³ Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.”

¹ Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.

⁵ Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time.

²¹ When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.

¹⁹ because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.

³³ While Elisha was still speaking with them, the messenger came down to him. And the king said, “This calamity is from the LORD. Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?”

¹⁰ You are wearied by your many journeys, but you did not say, “There is no hope!” You found renewal of your strength; therefore you did not grow weak.

²⁵ You should have kept your feet from going bare and your throat from being thirsty. But you said, ‘It is hopeless! For I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’

¹⁷ At that time Jerusalem will be called The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations will be gathered in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. They will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.

²⁴ Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.

⁸ Yet they would not obey or incline their ears, but each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant I had commanded them to follow but they did not keep.”

¹² And you have done more evil than your fathers. See how each of you follows the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying Me.

¹⁷ They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD says that you will have peace,’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’

¹⁷ Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and good things, and we saw no disaster.

¹¹ Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’

²¹ For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²² greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.

⁵¹ He has performed mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

⁷ the Philistines were afraid. “The gods have entered their camp!” they said. “Woe to us, for nothing like this has happened before.

²² Then Hilkiah’s son Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph’s son Joah the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and they relayed to him the words of the Rabshakeh.

⁸ Who has heard of such as this? Who has seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be delivered in an instant? Yet as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.

¹⁰ Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and take a look; send to Kedar and consider carefully; see if there has ever been anything like this: ¹¹ Has a nation ever changed its gods, though they are no gods at all? Yet My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols. ¹² Be stunned by this, O heavens; be shocked and utterly appalled,” declares the LORD. ¹³ “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

³⁰ A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land.

¹⁷ You are to speak this word to them: ‘My eyes overflow with tears; day and night they do not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered by a crushing blow, a severely grievous wound.

¹⁴ And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on wickedness. They are all like Sodom to Me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.”

¹⁵ The Lord has rejected all the mighty men in my midst; He has summoned an army against me to crush my young warriors. Like grapes in a winepress, the Lord has trampled the Virgin Daughter of Judah.

¹⁰ In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing: Ephraim practices prostitution there, and Israel is defiled.

¹ It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.

⁶⁸ Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.

¹² Youths oppress My people, and women rule over them. O My people, your guides mislead you; they turn you from your paths.

¹⁶ For those who guide this people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up.

²⁹ See, they are all a delusion; their works amount to nothing; their images are as empty as the wind.

¹⁴ And it will be said, “Build it up, build it up, prepare the way, take every obstacle out of the way of My people.”

¹⁰ Go out, go out through the gates; prepare the way for the people! Build it up, build up the highway; clear away the stones; raise a banner for the nations!

⁷ both for your iniquities and for those of your fathers,” says the LORD. “Because they burned incense on the mountains and scorned Me on the hills, I will measure into their laps full payment for their former deeds.”

¹³ “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

¹⁹ Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear of Me,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

³² Does a maiden forget her jewelry or a bride her wedding sash? Yet My people have forgotten Me for days without number.

²¹ A voice is heard on the barren heights, the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy, because they have perverted their ways and forgotten the LORD their God.

¹⁶ This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’

¹⁵ They are worthless, a work to be mocked. In the time of their punishment they will perish.

²⁵ This is your lot, the portion I have measured to you,” declares the LORD, “because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood.

¹⁹ O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress, the nations will come to You from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our fathers inherited nothing but lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all.

¹³ O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who abandon You will be put to shame. All who turn away will be written in the dust, for they have abandoned the LORD, the fountain of living water.

⁵ They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it even enter My mind.

¹⁵ Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, and all the women standing by—a great assembly—along with all the people living in the land of Egypt and in Pathros, said to Jeremiah, ¹⁶ “As for the word you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you! ¹⁷ Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and good things, and we saw no disaster. ¹⁸ But from the time we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been perishing by sword and famine.” ¹⁹ “Moreover,” said the women, “when we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands’ knowledge that we made sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

²⁵ This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: As for you and your wives, you have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands your words: ‘We will surely perform our vows that we have made to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.’ Go ahead, then, do what you have promised! Keep your vows!

¹³ I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them, when she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers. But Me she forgot,” declares the LORD.

² But the more I called Israel, the farther they departed from Me. They sacrificed to the Baals and burned incense to carved images.

⁸ But you have departed from the way, and your instruction has caused many to stumble. You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of Hosts.

⁶ he need not honor his father or mother with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

²¹ It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything to cause your brother to stumble.

³³ But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste. ³⁴ Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

⁴³ For the land will be abandoned by them, and it will enjoy its Sabbaths by lying desolate without them. And they will pay the penalty for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and abhorred My statutes.

⁵⁹ He will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary disasters, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses.

²³ All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.

⁸ And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’

²⁰ then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples. ²¹ And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’

⁷ All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads:

¹⁴ You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.

¹¹ Then I asked: “How long, O Lord?” And He replied: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left unoccupied and the land is desolate and ravaged,

²² this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.

¹¹ “And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

⁸ I will make this city a desolation and an object of scorn. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds.

⁹ behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.

¹³ For by Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that Bozrah will become a desolation, a disgrace, a ruin, and a curse, and all her cities will be in ruins forever.”

¹³ Because of the wrath of the LORD, she will not be inhabited; she will become completely desolate. All who pass through Babylon will be horrified and will hiss at all her wounds.

¹⁵ All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?” ¹⁶ All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day for which we have waited. We have lived to see it!”

¹⁴ I will stretch out My hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”

¹⁹ Then tell the people of the land that this is what the Lord GOD says about those living in Jerusalem and in the land of Israel: ‘They will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water in dread, for their land will be stripped of everything in it because of the violence of all who dwell in it.

²⁸ I will make the land a desolate waste, and the pride of her strength will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will become desolate, so that no one will pass through. ²⁹ Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have made the land a desolate waste because of all the abominations they have committed.’

¹⁶ You have kept the statutes of Omri and all the practices of Ahab’s house; you have followed their counsel. Therefore I will make you a desolation, and your inhabitants an object of contempt; you will bear the scorn of the nations.”

³⁹ And those who passed by heaped abuse on Him, shaking their heads

²⁹ And those who passed by heaped abuse on Him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,

²⁵ The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

⁶⁴ Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

¹⁷ On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?’

³⁵ Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”

¹³ But you have forsaken Me and served other gods, so I will no longer save you. ¹⁴ Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you in your time of trouble.”

²¹ The east wind carries him away, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.

⁷ With a wind from the east You wrecked the ships of Tarshish.

²⁵ Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths. ²⁶ For she has brought many down to death; her slain are many in number.

²⁷ say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their backs to Me and not their faces, yet in the time of trouble they beg, ‘Rise up and save us!’

²⁴ “I will scatter you like chaff driven by the desert wind.

³³ They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces. Though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline.

²¹ Even the mercenaries among her are like fattened calves. They too will turn back; together they will flee, they will not stand their ground, for the day of calamity is coming upon them—the time of their punishment.

¹⁵ Although he flourishes among his brothers, an east wind will come—a wind from the LORD rising up from the desert. His fountain will fail, and his spring will run dry. The wind will plunder his treasury of every precious article.

¹¹ so that you may teach the Israelites all the statutes that the LORD has given them through Moses.”

³¹ Now someone told David: “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” So David pleaded, “O LORD, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness!”

¹⁴ Then Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai the Archite is better than that of Ahithophel.” For the LORD had purposed to thwart the good counsel of Ahithophel in order to bring disaster on Absalom.

²⁴ Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah went up, struck Micaiah in the face, and demanded, “Which way did the Spirit of the LORD go when He departed from me to speak with you?”

¹³ He catches the wise in their craftiness, and sweeps away the plans of the cunning.

¹¹ Though they intend You harm, the schemes they devise will not prevail.

² Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.

⁴ My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts—with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

³ who sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows,

²¹ Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

⁷ The weapons of the scoundrel are destructive; he hatches plots to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just.

⁸ The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the leaders rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.

¹² They have lied about the LORD and said: “He will not do anything; harm will not come to us; we will not see sword or famine. ¹³ The prophets are but wind, for the word is not in them. So let their own predictions befall them.”

¹³ then you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says: ‘I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem. ¹⁴ I will smash them against one another, fathers and sons alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no mercy or pity or compassion to keep Me from destroying them.’”

¹⁴ “The prophets are prophesying lies in My name,” replied the LORD. “I did not send them or appoint them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, a worthless divination, the futility and delusion of their own minds. ¹⁵ Therefore this is what the LORD says about the prophets who prophesy in My name: I did not send them, yet they say, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ By sword and famine these very prophets will meet their end! ¹⁶ And the people to whom they prophesy will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem because of famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or their daughters. I will pour out their own evil upon them.

¹¹ Now therefore, tell the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I am planning a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways, and correct your ways and deeds.’

¹¹ Then the priests and prophets said to the officials and all the people, “This man is worthy of death, for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears!”

²⁵ this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “In your own name you have sent out letters to all the people of Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests. You said to Zephaniah: ²⁶ ‘The LORD has appointed you priest in place of Jehoiada, to be the chief officer in the house of the LORD, responsible for any madman who acts like a prophet—you must put him in stocks and neck irons. ²⁷ So now, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who poses as a prophet among you? ²⁸ For he has sent to us in Babylon, claiming: Since the exile will be lengthy, build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat their produce.’” ²⁹ (Zephaniah the priest, however, had read this letter to Jeremiah the prophet.)

² Azariah son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to reside there.’

¹ Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands. ² They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance. ³ Therefore this is what the LORD says: “I am planning against this nation a disaster from which you cannot free your necks. Then you will not walk so proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.

⁷ For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.

⁴⁵ One of the experts in the law told Him, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us as well.”

⁴⁷ “Have you also been deceived?” replied the Pharisees. ⁴⁸ “Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in Him? ⁴⁹ But this crowd that does not know the law, they are under a curse.”

⁴⁰ Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard this, and they asked Him, “Are we blind too?”

¹⁶ Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God.

⁴ Hear us, O God, for we are despised. Turn their scorn back upon their own heads, and let them be taken as plunder to a land of captivity. ⁵ Do not cover up their iniquity or let their sin be blotted out from Your sight, for they have provoked the builders.

⁹ For they were all trying to frighten us, saying, “Their hands will be weakened in the work, and it will never be finished.” But now, my God, strengthen my hands.

¹⁶ But I call to God, and the LORD saves me. ¹⁷ Morning, noon, and night, I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice.

¹ For the choirmaster. To the tune of “A Dove on Distant Oaks.” A Miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath. Be merciful to me, O God, for men are hounding me; all day they press their attack. ² My enemies pursue me all day long, for many proudly assail me. ³ When I am afraid, I put my trust in You.

¹ For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Hear, O God, my voice of complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy. ² Hide me from the scheming of the wicked, from the mob of workers of iniquity, ³ who sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows, ⁴ ambushing the innocent in seclusion, shooting suddenly, without fear.

⁴ In return for my love they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.

²⁸ Though they curse, You will bless. When they rise up, they will be put to shame, but Your servant will rejoice.

¹² O LORD of Hosts, who examines the righteous, who sees the heart and mind, let me see Your vengeance upon them, for to You I have committed my cause.

⁸ Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.

¹¹ But the scribes and Pharisees were filled with rage and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus. ¹² In those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent the night in prayer to God.

²² And the two men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. ²³ Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ What if there are fifty righteous ones in the city? Will You really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous ones who are there? ²⁵ Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?” ²⁶ So the LORD replied, “If I find fifty righteous ones within the city of Sodom, on their account I will spare the whole place.” ²⁷ Then Abraham answered, “Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord—though I am but dust and ashes— ²⁸ suppose the fifty righteous ones lack five. Will You destroy the whole city for the lack of five?” He replied, “If I find forty-five there, I will not destroy it.” ²⁹ Once again Abraham spoke to the LORD, “Suppose forty are found there?” He answered, “On account of the forty, I will not do it.” ³⁰ Then Abraham said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak further. Suppose thirty are found there?” He replied, “If I find thirty there, I will not do it.” ³¹ And Abraham said, “Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord, suppose twenty are found there?” He answered, “On account of the twenty, I will not destroy it.” ³² Finally, Abraham said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak once more. Suppose ten are found there?” And He answered, “On account of the ten, I will not destroy it.”

¹⁷ and said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have rewarded me with good, though I have rewarded you with evil. ¹⁸ And you have shown this day how well you have dealt with me; for when the LORD delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me. ¹⁹ When a man finds his enemy, does he let him go away unharmed? May the LORD reward you with good for what you have done for me this day.

²⁷ You would even cast lots for an orphan and barter away your friend.

¹⁵ He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making.

⁷ For without cause they laid their net for me; without reason they dug a pit for my soul.

¹² They repay me evil for good, to the bereavement of my soul.

²⁰ Those who repay my good with evil attack me for pursuing the good.

⁶ They spread a net for my feet; my soul was despondent. They dug a pit before me, but they themselves have fallen into it! Selah

²³ So He said He would destroy them—had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.

⁴ In return for my love they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer. ⁵ They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

⁹⁵ The wicked wait to destroy me, but I will ponder Your testimonies.

¹³ If anyone returns evil for good, evil will never leave his house.

²⁷ He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him.

⁸ He who digs a pit may fall into it, and he who breaches a wall may be bitten by a snake.

¹⁶ As for you, do not pray for these people, do not offer a plea or petition on their behalf, and do not beg Me, for I will not listen to you.

¹⁴ As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not raise up a cry or a prayer on their behalf, for I will not be listening when they call out to Me in their time of disaster.

⁷ Although our iniquities testify against us, O LORD, act for the sake of Your name. Indeed, our rebellions are many; we have sinned against You. ⁸ O Hope of Israel, its Savior in times of distress, why are You like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who stays but a night? ⁹ Why are You like a man taken by surprise, like a warrior powerless to save? Yet You are among us, O LORD, and we are called by Your name. Do not forsake us! ¹⁰ This is what the LORD says about this people: “Truly they love to wander; they have not restrained their feet. So the LORD does not accept them; He will now remember their guilt and call their sins to account.” ¹¹ Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people.

²⁰ We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD, the guilt of our fathers; indeed, we have sinned against You.

²² Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring raiders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.

³⁰ I searched for a man among them to repair the wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, so that I should not destroy it. But I found no one. ³¹ So I have poured out My indignation upon them and consumed them with the fire of My fury. I have brought their ways down upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.”

¹ Then the angel showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, with Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. ² And the LORD said to Satan: “The LORD rebukes you, Satan! Indeed, the LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you! Is not this man a firebrand snatched from the fire?”

³² But Jesus responded, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me?”

²⁵ But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated Me without reason.’

²⁴ My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword; then your wives will become widows and your children will be fatherless.

²⁵ Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, terror will strike the young man and the young woman, the infant and the gray-haired man.

¹⁷ So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary, sparing neither young men nor young women, neither elderly nor infirm. God gave them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,

⁹ May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. ¹⁰ May his children wander as beggars, seeking sustenance far from their ruined homes. ¹¹ May the creditor seize all he owns, and strangers plunder the fruits of his labor. ¹² May there be no one to extend kindness to him, and no one to favor his fatherless children. ¹³ May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation. ¹⁴ May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and the sin of his mother never be blotted out. ¹⁵ May their sins always remain before the LORD, that He may cut off their memory from the earth. ¹⁶ For he never thought to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and brokenhearted, even to their death. ¹⁷ The cursing that he loved, may it fall on him; the blessing in which he refused to delight, may it be far from him. ¹⁸ The cursing that he wore like a coat, may it soak into his body like water, and into his bones like oil. ¹⁹ May it be like a robe wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him. ²⁰ May this be the LORD’s reward to my accusers, to those who speak evil against me.

²¹ For death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses to cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the town squares.

²⁰ O LORD of Hosts, who judges righteously, who examines the heart and mind, let me see Your vengeance upon them, for to You I have committed my cause. ²¹ Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the people of Anathoth who are seeking your life and saying, “You must not prophesy in the name of the LORD, or you will die by our hand.” ²² So this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine. ²³ There will be no remnant, for I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.”

³ But You know me, O LORD; You see me and test my heart toward You. Drag away the wicked like sheep to the slaughter and set them apart for the day of carnage.

² If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says: ‘Those destined for death, to death; those destined for the sword, to the sword; those destined for famine, to famine; and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’ ³ I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.

⁸ I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. I will bring a destroyer at noon against the mothers of young men. I will suddenly bring upon them anguish and dismay.

³ For this is what the LORD says concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and the mothers who bore them, and the fathers who fathered them in this land: ⁴ “They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried, but will lie like dung on the ground. They will be finished off by sword and famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth.”

¹ When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and the chief official in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, ² he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD. ³ The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-missabib. ⁴ For this is what the LORD says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies before your very eyes. And I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away to Babylon and put them to the sword. ⁵ I will give away all the wealth of this city—all its products and valuables, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah—to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon. ⁶ And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon, and there you will die and be buried—you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied these lies.’”

¹¹ But the LORD is with me like a fearsome warrior. Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail. Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly put to shame, with an everlasting disgrace that will never be forgotten. ¹² O LORD of Hosts, who examines the righteous, who sees the heart and mind, let me see Your vengeance upon them, for to You I have committed my cause.

³ We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.

¹⁰ “I sent plagues among you like those of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camp, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.

¹⁴ Alexander the coppersmith did great harm to me. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds.

¹² Those who seek my life lay snares; those who wish me harm speak destruction, plotting deceit all day long.

⁵ All day long they twist my words; all their thoughts are on my demise. ⁶ They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps while they wait to take my life. ⁷ In spite of such sin, will they escape? In Your anger, O God, cast down the nations.

⁴ ambushing the innocent in seclusion, shooting suddenly, without fear. ⁵ They hold fast to their evil purpose; they speak of hiding their snares. “Who will see them?” they say.

⁵ The proud hide a snare for me; the cords of their net are spread along the path, and lures are set out for me. Selah

³⁰ Cry aloud, O Daughter of Gallim! Listen, O Laishah! O wretched Anathoth!

¹ This is the burden against the Valley of Vision: What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the rooftops, ² O city of commotion, O town of revelry? Your slain did not die by the sword, nor were they killed in battle. ³ All your rulers have fled together, captured without a bow. All your fugitives were captured together, having fled to a distant place. ⁴ Therefore I said, “Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly! Do not try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

¹⁹ My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the pain in my chest! My heart pounds within me; I cannot be silent. For I have heard the sound of the horn, the alarm of battle. ²⁰ Disaster after disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is laid waste. My tents are destroyed in an instant, my curtains in a moment.

³¹ For I hear a cry like a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child—the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands to say, “Woe is me, for my soul faints before the murderers!”

²⁶ O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.

²⁰ Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD. Open your ears to the word of His mouth. Teach your daughters to wail, and one another to lament. ²¹ For death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses to cut off the children from the streets, the young men from the town squares.

²⁰ Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You to speak good on their behalf, to turn Your wrath from them.

¹⁰ For I have heard the whispering of many: “Terror is on every side! Report him; let us report him!” All my trusted friends watch for my fall: “Perhaps he will be deceived so that we may prevail against him and take our vengeance upon him.”

³⁴ Wail, you shepherds, and cry out; roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. For the days of your slaughter have come; you will fall and be shattered like fine pottery. ³⁵ Flight will evade the shepherds, and escape will elude the leaders of the flock. ³⁶ Hear the cry of the shepherds, the wailing of the leaders of the flock, for the LORD is destroying their pasture.

² This is what the LORD says: “See how the waters are rising from the north and becoming an overflowing torrent. They will overflow the land and its fullness, the cities and their inhabitants. The people will cry out, and all who dwell in the land will wail ³ at the sound of the galloping hooves of stallions, the rumbling of chariots, and the clatter of their wheels. The fathers will not turn back for their sons; their hands will hang limp.

³ A voice cries out from Horonaim: ‘Devastation and great destruction!’ ⁴ Moab will be shattered; her little ones will cry out. ⁵ For on the ascent to Luhith they weep bitterly as they go, and on the descent to Horonaim cries of distress resound over the destruction:

¹⁰ On that day,” declares the LORD, “a cry will go up from the Fish Gate, a wail from the Second District, and a loud crashing from the hills. ¹¹ Wail, O dwellers of the Hollow, for all your merchants will be silenced; all who weigh out silver will be cut off.

¹⁶ a day of horn blast and battle cry against the fortified cities, and against the high corner towers.

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went out and conspired to trap Jesus in His words.

⁴ May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plan to harm me be driven back and confounded.

³² Though the wicked lie in wait for the righteous, and seek to slay them, ³³ the LORD will not leave them in their power or let them be condemned under judgment.

⁵ O LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, rouse Yourself to punish all the nations; show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah

²² May their table become a snare; may it be a retribution and a trap. ²³ May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. ²⁴ Pour out Your wrath upon them, and let Your burning anger overtake them. ²⁵ May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents. ²⁶ For they persecute the one You struck and recount the pain of those You wounded. ²⁷ Add iniquity to their iniquity; let them not share in Your righteousness. ²⁸ May they be blotted out of the Book of Life and not listed with the righteous.

¹⁴ May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and the sin of his mother never be blotted out. ¹⁵ May their sins always remain before the LORD, that He may cut off their memory from the earth.

⁹ So mankind is brought low, and man is humbled—do not forgive them!

³ What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

¹² Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD.

¹⁸ And the LORD informed me, so I knew. Then You showed me their deeds. ¹⁹ For I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter; I did not know that they had plotted against me: “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more.” ²⁰ O LORD of Hosts, who judges righteously, who examines the heart and mind, let me see Your vengeance upon them, for to You I have committed my cause.

²³ There will be no remnant, for I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.”

¹⁵ You understand, O LORD; remember me and attend to me. Avenge me against my persecutors. In Your patience, do not take me away. Know that I endure reproach for Your honor.

²² For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.

⁵ But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.