Punishment Is Inevitable

15 Then the Lord said to me: Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go!* 2 And when they say to you, “Where shall we go?” you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord:

Those destined for pestilence, to pestilence,

and those destined for the sword, to the sword;

those destined for famine, to famine,

and those destined for captivity, to captivity.*

3 And I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, says the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and the wild animals of the earth to devour and destroy.* 4 I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what King Manasseh son of Hezekiah of Judah did in Jerusalem.*

5 Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,

or who will bemoan you?

Who will turn aside

to ask about your welfare?

6 You have rejected me, says the Lord;

you are going backward,

so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—

I am weary of relenting.*

7 I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork

in the gates of the land;

I have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people;

they did not turn from their ways.*

8 Their widows became more numerous

than the sand of the seas;

I have brought against the mothers of youths

a destroyer at noonday;

I have made anguish and terror

fall upon her suddenly.

9 She who bore seven has languished;

she has swooned away;

her sun went down while it was yet day;

she has been shamed and disgraced.

And the rest of them I will give to the sword

before their enemies,

says the Lord.*

Jeremiah Complains Again and Is Reassured

10 Woe is me, my mother, that you ever bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me.* 11 The Lord said: Surely I have intervened in your lifee for good; surely I have brought enemies upon youf in a time of trouble and in a time of distress.* 12 Can one break iron, iron from the north, and bronze?

13 Your wealth and your treasures I will give as plunder, without price, for all your sins, throughout all your territory.* 14 I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn against you.*

15 O Lord, you know;

remember me and visit me,

and bring down retribution for me on my persecutors.

In your forbearance do not take me away;

know that on your account I suffer insult.*

16 Your words were found, and I ate them,

and your words became to me a joy

and the delight of my heart,

for I am called by your name,

O Lord, God of hosts.*

17 I did not sit in the company of merrymakers,

nor did I rejoice;

under the weight of your hand I sat alone,

for you had filled me with indignation.*

18 Why is my pain unceasing,

my wound incurable,

refusing to be healed?

Truly, you are to me like a deceitful brook,

like waters that fail.*

19 Therefore thus says the Lord:

If you turn back, I will take you back,

and you shall stand before me.

If you utter what is precious and not what is worthless,

you shall serve as my mouth.

It is they who will turn to you,

not you who will turn to them.*

20 And I will make you to this people

a fortified wall of bronze;

they will fight against you,

but they shall not prevail over you,

for I am with you

to save you and deliver you,

says the Lord.*

21 I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked

and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.*

Jeremiah’s Celibacy and Message

16 The word of the Lord came to me:* 2 You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.* 3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place and concerning the mothers who bear them and the fathers who father them in this land:* 4 They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried; they shall become like dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall become food for the birds of the air and for the wild animals of the earth.*

5 For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of mourning or go to lament or bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, my steadfast love and mercy.* 6 Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them; there shall be no gashing, no shaving of the head for them.* 7 No one shall break breadg for the mourner, to offer comfort for the dead, nor shall anyone give them the cup of consolation to drink for their fathers or their mothers.* 8 You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.* 9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to banish from this place, in your days and before your eyes, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.*

10 And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, “Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?”* 11 then you shall say to them: It is because your ancestors have forsaken me, says the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them and have forsaken me and have not kept my law,* 12 and because you have behaved worse than your ancestors, for here you are, every one of you, following your stubborn evil will, refusing to listen to me.* 13 Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.*

God Will Restore Israel

14 Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, “As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,”* 15 but “As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them.” For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their ancestors.*

16 I am now sending for many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall catch them, and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill and out of the clefts of the rocks.* 17 For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my presence, nor is their iniquity concealed from my sight.* 18 Andh I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.*

19 O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,

my refuge in the day of trouble,

to you shall the nations come

from the ends of the earth and say:

“Our ancestors have inherited nothing but lies,

worthless things in which there is no profit.*

20 Can mortals make for themselves gods?

Such are no gods!”*

21 “Therefore I am surely going to teach them, this time I am going to teach them my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.”*

Judah’s Sin and Punishment

17 The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen; with a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts and on the horns of their altars,* 2 while their children remember their altars and their sacred polesi beside every green tree and on the high hills, 3 on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your sinj throughout all your territory. 4 By your own act you shall lose the heritage that I gave you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.*

5 Thus says the Lord:

Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals

and make mere flesh their strength,

whose hearts turn away from the Lord.*

6 They shall be like a shrub in the desert

and shall not see when relief comes.

They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,

in an uninhabited salt land.*

7 Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,

whose trust is the Lord.*

8 They shall be like a tree planted by water,

sending out its roots by the stream.

It shall not fear when heat comes,

and its leaves shall stay green;

in the year of drought it is not anxious,

and it does not cease to bear fruit.*

9 The heart is devious above all else;

it is perverse—

who can understand it?*

10 I the Lord test the mind

and search the heart,

to give to all according to their ways,

according to the fruit of their doings.*

11 Like the partridge hatching what it did not lay,

so are all who amass wealth unjustly;

in midlife it will leave them,

and at their end they will prove to be fools.

12 O glorious throne, exalted from the beginning,

shrine of our sanctuary!

13 O hope of Israel! O Lord!

All who forsake you shall be put to shame;

those who turn away from youk shall be recorded in the underworld,l

for they have forsaken the fountain of living water, the Lord.*

Jeremiah Prays for Vindication

14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;

save me, and I shall be saved,

for you are my praise.*

15 See how they say to me,

“Where is the word of the Lord?

Let it come!”*

16 But I have not run away from being a shepherdm in your service,

nor have I desired the fatal day.

You know what came from my lips;

it was before your face.

17 Do not become a terror to me;

you are my refuge in the day of disaster;*

18 Let my persecutors be shamed,

but do not let me be shamed;

let them be dismayed,

but do not let me be dismayed;

bring on them the day of disaster;

destroy them with double destruction!*

Hallow the Sabbath Day

19 Thus said the Lord to me: Go and stand in the People’s Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, 20 and say to them: Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter by these gates.* 21 Thus says the Lord: For the sake of your lives, take care that you do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.* 22 And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors.* 23 Yet they did not listen or incline their ear; they stiffened their necks and would not hear or receive instruction.*

24 But if you listen to me, says the Lord, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it,* 25 then there shall enter by the gates of this city kingsn who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city shall be inhabited forever.* 26 And people shall come from the towns of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord.* 27 But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy and to carry in no burden through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates; it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.*

The Potter and the Clay

18 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.”* 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.

5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.* 7 At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it.* 9 And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it,* 10 but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it.* 11 Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you, from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.*

Israel’s Stubborn Idolatry

12 But they say, “It is no use! We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of our evil will.”*

13 Therefore thus says the Lord:

Ask among the nations:

Who has heard the like of this?

The virgin Israel has done

a most horrible thing.*

14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave

the crags of Sirion?o

Do the mountainp waters run dry,q

the cold flowing streams?

15 But my people have forgotten me;

they burn offerings to a delusion;

they have stumbledr in their ways,

in the ancient roads,

and have gone into bypaths,

not the highway,*

16 making their land a horror,

a thing to be hissed at forever.

All who pass by it are horrified

and shake their heads.*

17 Like the wind from the east,

I will scatter them before the enemy.

I will show them my back, not my face,

in the day of their calamity.*

A Plot against Jeremiah

18 Then they said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for instruction shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us bring charges against him,s and let us not heed any of his words.”*

19 Give heed to me, O Lord,

and listen to what my adversaries say!

20 Is evil a recompense for good?

Yet they have dug a pit for my life.

Remember how I stood before you

to speak good for them,

to turn away your wrath from them.*

21 Therefore give their children over to famine;

hurl them out to the power of the sword;

let their wives become childless and widowed.

May their men meet death by pestilence,

their youths be slain by the sword in battle.*

22 May a cry be heard from their houses

when you bring the marauder suddenly upon them!

For they have dug a pit to catch me

and laid snares for my feet.*

23 Yet you, O Lord, know

all their plotting to kill me.

Do not forgive their iniquity;

do not blot out their sin from your sight.

Let them be tripped up before you;

deal with them while you are angry.*

The Broken Earthenware Jug

19 Thus said the Lord: Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jug. Take with yout some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests, 2 and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you.* 3 You shall 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: I am going to bring such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.* 4 Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah have known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent* 5 and gone on building the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it enter my mind,* 6 therefore the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth or the valley of the son of Hinnom but the valley of Slaughter.* 7 And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem and will make them fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth.* 8 And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters.* 9 And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and all shall eat the flesh of their neighbors in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.*

10 Then you shall break the jug in the sight of those who go with you 11 and shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended. In Topheth they shall bury until there is no more room to bury.* 12 Thus will I do to this place, says the Lord, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Topheth—all the houses upon whose roofs offerings have been made to the whole host of heaven and libations have been poured out to other gods.*

14 When Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people:* 15 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am now bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks, refusing to hear my words.*