Jeremiah 22-26

Jeremiah 22

¹Thus said the LORD: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,

²And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates.

³Thus saith the LORD: Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

⁴For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

⁵But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.

⁶For thus saith the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah: Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.

⁷And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

⁸And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this great city?

⁹Then they shall answer, Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

¹⁰Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

¹¹For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place: He shall not return thither any more;

¹²But in the place whither they have led him captive, there shall he die, and he shall see this land no more.

¹³Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not his hire;

¹⁴that saith, I will build me a wide house and spacious chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

¹⁵Shalt thou reign, because thou strivest to excel in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice? then it was well with him.

¹⁶He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not this to know me? saith the LORD.

¹⁷But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

¹⁸Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!

¹⁹He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan: and cry from Abarim; for all thy lovers are destroyed.

²¹I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice.

²²The wind shall feed all thy shepherds, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.

²³O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!

²⁴As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;

²⁵and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them of whom thou art afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

²⁶And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.

²⁷But to the land whereunto their soul longeth to return, thither shall they not return.

²⁸Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they know not?

²⁹O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

³⁰Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

Jeremiah 23

¹Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.

²Therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, against the shepherds that feed my people: Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.

³And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and multiply.

⁴And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, saith the LORD.

⁵Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute judgment and justice in the land.

⁶In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The LORD is our righteousness.

⁷Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, As the LORD liveth, which brought up the Children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

⁸but, As the LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.

⁹Concerning the prophets. Mine heart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome; because of the LORD, and because of his holy words.

¹⁰For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up; and their course is evil, and their force is not right.

¹¹for both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.

¹²Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.

¹³And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.

¹⁴In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen an horrible thing; they commit adultery, and walk in lies, and they strengthen the hands of evil-doers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

¹⁵Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.

¹⁶Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you; they teach you vanity: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.

¹⁷They say continually unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and unto every one that walketh in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, No evil shall come upon you.

¹⁸For who hath stood in the council of the LORD, that he should perceive and hear his word? who hath marked my word, and heard it?

¹⁹Behold, the tempest of the LORD, even his fury, is gone forth, yea, a whirling tempest: it shall burst upon the head of the wicked.

²⁰The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly.

²¹I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I spake not unto them, yet they prophesied.

²²But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

²³Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?

²⁴Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.

²⁵I have heard what the prophets have said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

²⁶How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies; even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart?

²⁷which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers forgat my name for Baal.

²⁸The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat? saith the LORD.

²⁹Is not my word like as fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

³⁰Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.

³¹Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.

³²Behold, I am against them that prophesy lying dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; neither shall they profit this people at all, saith the LORD.

³³And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? then shalt thou say unto them, What burden! I will cast you off, saith the LORD.

³⁴And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house.

³⁵Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the LORD spoken?

³⁶And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man’s own word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.

³⁷Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken?

³⁸But if ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus saith the LORD: Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the LORD;

³⁹therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off, and the city that I gave unto you and to your fathers, away from my presence:

⁴⁰and I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten.

Jeremiah 24

¹The LORD shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs set before the temple of the LORD; after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

²One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

³Then said the LORD unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.

⁴And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

⁵Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for good.

⁶For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

⁷And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.

⁸And as the bad figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:

⁹I will even give them up to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.

¹⁰And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.

Jeremiah 25

¹The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah; the same was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon;

²the which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:

³From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even unto this day, these three and twenty years, the word of the LORD hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising up early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened.

⁴And the LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear;

⁵saying, Return ye now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers, from of old and even for evermore:

⁶and go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the work of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.

⁷Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt.

⁸Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words,

⁹behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and I will send unto Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.

¹⁰Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.

¹¹And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

¹²And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it desolate for ever.

¹³And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.

¹⁴For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them, even of them: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the work of their hands.

¹⁵For thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto me: Take the cup of the wine of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.

¹⁶And they shall drink, and reel to and fro, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.

¹⁷Then took I the cup at the LORD’S hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:

¹⁸to wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;

¹⁹Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;

²⁰and all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;

²¹Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon;

²²and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isle which is beyond the sea;

²³Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that have the corners of their hair polled;

²⁴and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the wilderness;

²⁵and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes;

²⁶and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.

²⁷And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.

²⁸And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Ye shall surely drink.

²⁹For, lo, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.

³⁰Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar against his fold; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.

³¹A noise shall come even to the end of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; as for the wicked, he will give them to the sword, saith the LORD.

³²Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest shall be raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

³³And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the face of the ground.

³⁴Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter are fully come, and I will break you in pieces, and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel.

³⁵And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.

³⁶A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the howling of the principal of the flock! for the LORD layeth waste their pasture.

³⁷And the peaceable folds are brought to silence because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

³⁸He hath forsaken his covert, as the lion: for their land is become an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppressing sword, and because of his fierce anger.

Jeremiah 26

¹In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word from the LORD, saying,

²Thus saith the LORD: Stand in the court of the LORD’S house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD’S house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; keep not back a word.

³It may be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way; that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings.

⁴And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD: If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you,

⁵to hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send unto you, even rising up early and sending them, but ye have not hearkened;

⁶then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.

⁷And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD.

⁸And it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, Thou shalt surely die.

⁹Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant? And all the people were gathered unto Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.

¹⁰And when the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house unto the house of the LORD; and they sat in the entry of the new gate of the LORD’S house.

¹¹Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy of death; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.

¹²Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard.

¹³Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.

¹⁴But as for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as is good and right in your eyes.

¹⁵Only know ye for certain that, if ye put me to death, ye shall bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.

¹⁶Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets: This man is not worthy of death; for he hath spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.

¹⁷Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying,

¹⁸Micaiah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

¹⁹Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? did he not fear the LORD, and entreat the favour of the LORD, and the LORD repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus should we commit great evil against our own souls,

²⁰And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the LORD, Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim; and he prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah:

²¹and when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Uriah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt:

²²and Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him, into Egypt:

²³and they fetched forth Uriah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king; who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.

²⁴But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.