Bible-Reading.comJeremiah 17
1“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond. It is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars.
2Even their children remember their altars and their Asherah poles by the green trees on the high hills.
3My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a plunder, and your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.
4You, even of yourself, will discontinue from your heritage that I gave you. I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you don’t know, for you have kindled a fire in my anger which will burn forever.”
5The LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, relies on strength of flesh, and whose heart departs from the LORD.
6For he will be like a bush in the desert, and will not see when good comes, but will inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, an uninhabited salt land.
7“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose confidence is in the LORD.
8For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit.
9The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
10“I, the LORD, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
11As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right. In the middle of his days, they will leave him. At his end, he will be a fool.
12A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
13LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be disappointed. Those who depart from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living waters.
14Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved; for you are my praise.
15Behold, they ask me, “Where is the LORD’s word? Let it be fulfilled now.”
16As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you. I haven’t desired the woeful day. You know. That which came out of my lips was before your face.
17Don’t be a terror to me. You are my refuge in the day of evil.
18Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but don’t let me be disappointed. Let them be dismayed, but don’t let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
19The LORD said this to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, through which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem.
20Tell them, ‘Hear the LORD’s word, you kings of Judah, all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:
21The LORD says, “Be careful, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.
22Don’t carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day. Don’t do any work, but make the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.
23But they didn’t listen. They didn’t turn their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction.
24It will happen, if you diligently listen to me,” says the LORD, “to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein;
25then there will enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on David’s throne, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city will remain forever.
26They will come from the cities of Judah, and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country, and from the South, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, meal offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the LORD’s house.
27But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem. It will not be quenched.”’”
Jeremiah 18
1The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2“Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear my words.”
3Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he was making something on the wheels.
4When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
5Then the LORD’s word came to me, saying,
6“House of Israel, can’t I do with you as this potter?” says the LORD. “Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.
7At the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it,
8if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.
9At the instant I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it,
10if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they don’t obey my voice, then I will repent of the good with which I said I would benefit them.
11“Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘The LORD says: “Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a plan against you. Everyone return from his evil way now, and amend your ways and your doings.”’
12But they say, ‘It is in vain; for we will walk after our own plans, and we will each follow the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”
13Therefore the LORD says: “Ask now among the nations, ‘Who has heard such things?’ The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
14Will the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? Will the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?
15For my people have forgotten me. They have burned incense to false gods. They have been made to stumble in their ways in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up,
16to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished, and shake his head.
17I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy. I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
18Then they said, “Come! Let’s devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law won’t perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let’s strike him with the tongue, and let’s not give heed to any of his words.”
19Give heed to me, LORD, and listen to the voice of those who contend with me.
20Should evil be recompensed for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.
21Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives become childless and widows. Let their men be killed and their young men struck by the sword in battle.
22Let a cry be heard from their houses when you bring a troop suddenly on them; for they have dug a pit to take me and hidden snares for my feet.
23Yet, LORD, you know all their counsel against me to kill me. Don’t forgive their iniquity. Don’t blot out their sin from your sight, Let them be overthrown before you. Deal with them in the time of your anger.