The Living Bible (244 page)

Jeremiah
19

The Lord said, Buy a clay jar and take it out into the valley of Ben-hinnom by the east gate of the city. Take some of the elders of the people and some of the older priests with you, and speak to them whatever words I give you.

    
³
 Then the Lord spoke to them and said: Listen to the word of the Lord, kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem! The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will bring terrible evil upon this place, so terrible that the ears of those who hear it will prickle.
⁴
 For Israel has forsaken me and turned this valley into a place of shame and wickedness. The people burn incense to idols—idols that neither this generation nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah have worshiped before—and they have filled this place with the blood of innocent children.
⁵
 They have built high altars to Baal, and there they burn their sons in sacrifice—a thing I never commanded them nor even thought of !

    
⁶
 The day is coming, says the Lord, when this valley shall no longer be called Topheth or Ben-hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter.
⁷
 For I will upset the battle plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and I will let invading armies kill you here and leave your dead bodies for vultures and wild animals to feed upon.
⁸
 And I will wipe Jerusalem off the earth, so that everyone going by will gasp with astonishment at all that I have done to her.
⁹
 I will see to it that your enemies lay siege to the city until all food is gone and those trapped inside begin to eat their own children and friends.

    
¹⁰
 And now, Jeremiah, as these men watch, smash the jar you brought with you,
¹¹
 and say to them, This is the message to you from the Lord Almighty: As this jar lies shattered, so I will shatter the people of Jerusalem; and as this jar cannot be mended, neither can they. The slaughter shall be so great that there won’t be room enough for decent burial anywhere, and their bodies shall be heaped in this valley.
¹²
 And as it will be in this valley, so it will be in Jerusalem. For I will fill Jerusalem with dead bodies too.
¹³
 And I will defile all the homes in Jerusalem, including the palace of the kings of Judah—wherever incense has been burned upon the roofs to your star gods, and libations poured out to them.

    
¹⁴
 As Jeremiah returned from Topheth where he had delivered this message, he stopped in front of the Temple of the Lord and said to all the people,
¹⁵
 The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will bring upon this city and her surrounding towns all the evil I have promised because you have stubbornly refused to listen to the Lord.

Jeremiah
20

Now when Pashhur (son of Immer), the priest in charge of the Temple of the Lord, heard what Jeremiah was saying,
²
 he arrested Jeremiah and had him whipped and put in the stocks at Benjamin Gate near the Temple.
³
 He left him there all night.

    
The next day when Pashhur finally released him, Jeremiah said, “Pashhur, the Lord has changed your name. He says from now on to call you ‘The Man Who Lives in Terror.’
⁴
 For the Lord will send terror on you and all your friends, and you will see them die by the swords of their enemies. I will hand over Judah to the king of Babylon, says the Lord, and he shall take away these people as slaves to Babylon and kill them.
⁵
 And I will let your enemies loot Jerusalem. All the famed treasures of the city, with the precious jewels and gold and silver of your kings, shall be carried off to Babylon.
⁶
 And as for you, Pashhur, you and all your family and household shall become slaves in Babylon and die there—you and those to whom you lied when you prophesied that everything would be all right.”

    
⁷
 O Lord, you deceived me when you promised me your help. I have to give them your messages because you are stronger than I am, but now I am the laughingstock of the city, mocked by all.
⁸
 You have never once let me speak a word of kindness to them; always it is disaster and horror and destruction. No wonder they scoff and mock and make my name a household joke.
⁹
 And I can’t quit! For if I say I’ll never again mention the Lord—never more speak in his name—then his word in my heart is like fire that burns in my bones, and I can’t hold it in any longer.
¹⁰
 Yet on every side I hear their whispered threats and am afraid. “We will report,” they say. Even those who were my friends are watching me, waiting for a fatal slip. “He will trap himself,” they say, “and then we will get our revenge on him.”

    
¹¹
 But the Lord stands beside me like a great warrior, and before him, the Mighty, Terrible One, they shall stumble. They cannot defeat me; they shall be shamed and thoroughly humiliated, and they shall have a stigma upon them forever.
¹²
 O Lord Almighty, who knows those who are righteous and examines the deepest thoughts of hearts and minds, let me see your vengeance on them. For I have committed my cause to you.
¹³
 Therefore, I will sing out in thanks to the Lord! Praise him! For he has delivered me, poor and needy, from my oppressors.

    
¹⁴
 Yet, cursed be the day that I was born!
¹⁵
 Cursed be the man who brought my father the news that a son was born.
¹⁶
 Let that messenger be destroyed like the cities of old which God overthrew without mercy. Terrify him all day long with battle shouts
¹⁷
 because he did not kill me at my birth! Oh, that I had died within my mother’s womb, that it had been my grave!
¹⁸
 Why was I ever born? For my life has been but trouble and sorrow and shame.

Jeremiah
21

Then King Zedekiah sent Pashhur (son of Malchiah) and Zephaniah the priest (son of Maaseiah) to Jeremiah and begged, “Ask the Lord to help us, for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has declared war on us!
²
 Perhaps the Lord will be gracious to us and do a mighty miracle as in olden times
*
and force Nebuchadnezzar to withdraw his forces.”

    
^3-4
 Jeremiah replied, “Go back to King Zedekiah and tell him the Lord God of Israel says, I will make all your weapons useless against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans besieging you. In fact, I will bring your enemies right into the heart of this city,
⁵
 and I myself will fight against you, for I am very angry.
⁶
 And I will send a terrible plague on this city, and both men and animals shall die.
⁷
 And finally I will deliver King Zedekiah himself and all the remnant left in the city into the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, to slaughter them without pity or mercy.

    
⁸
 “Tell these people: This is what the Lord says! Take your choice of life or death!
⁹
 Stay here in Jerusalem and die—slaughtered by your enemies, killed by starvation and disease—or go out and surrender to the Chaldean army and live.
¹⁰
 For I have set my face against this city; I will be its enemy and not its friend, says the Lord. It shall be captured by the king of Babylon and he shall reduce it to ashes.

    
¹¹
 “And to the king of Judah, the Lord says:
¹²
 I am ready to judge you because of all the evil you are doing. Quick! Give justice to these you judge! Begin doing what is right before my burning fury flashes out upon you like a fire no man can quench.
¹³
 I will fight against this city of Jerusalem that boasts, ‘We are safe; no one can touch us here!’
¹⁴
 And I myself will destroy you for your sinfulness, says the Lord. I will light a fire in the forests that will burn up everything in its path.”

Jeremiah
22

Then the Lord said to me: Go over and speak directly to the king of Judah and say,
²
 Listen to this message from God, O king of Judah, sitting on David’s throne; and let your servants and your people listen too.

    
³
 The Lord says: Be fair-minded. Do what is right! Help those in need of justice! Quit your evil deeds! Protect the rights of aliens and immigrants, orphans and widows; stop murdering the innocent!
⁴
 If you put an end to all these terrible deeds you are doing, then I will deliver this nation and once more give kings to sit on David’s throne, and there shall be prosperity for all.
⁵
 But if you refuse to pay attention to this warning, I swear by my own name, says the Lord, that this palace shall become a shambles.

    
⁶
 For this is the Lord’s message concerning the palace: You are as beloved to me as fruitful Gilead and the green forests of Lebanon; but I will destroy you and leave you deserted and uninhabited.
⁷
 I will call for a wrecking crew to bring out its tools to dismantle you. They will tear out all of your fine cedar beams and throw them on the fire.
⁸
 Men from many nations will pass by the ruins of this city and say to one another, “Why did the Lord do it? Why did he destroy such a great city?”
⁹
 And the answer will be, “Because the people living here forgot the Lord their God and violated his agreement with them, for they worshiped idols.”

    
¹⁰
 Don’t weep for the dead! Instead weep for the captives led away! For they will never return to see their native land again.
¹¹
 For the Lord says this about Jehoahaz who succeeded his father
*
King Josiah and was taken away as a captive:
¹²
 He shall die in a distant land
*
and never again see his own country.

    
¹³
 And woe to you, King Jehoiakim,
*
for you are building your great palace with forced labor. By not paying wages you are building injustice into its walls and oppression into its doorframes and ceilings.
¹⁴
 You say, “I will build a magnificent palace with huge rooms and many windows, paneled throughout with fragrant cedar and painted a lovely red.”
¹⁵
 But a beautiful palace does not make a great king! Why did your father Josiah reign so long? Because he was just and fair in all his dealings. That is why God blessed him.
¹⁶
 He saw to it that justice and help were given the poor and the needy and all went well for him. This is how a man lives close to God.
¹⁷
 But you! You are full of selfish greed and all dishonesty! You murder the innocent, oppress the poor, and reign with ruthlessness.

    
¹⁸
 Therefore this is God’s decree of punishment against King Jehoiakim, who succeeded his father Josiah on the throne: His family will not weep for him when he dies. His subjects will not even care that he is dead.
¹⁹
 He shall be buried like a dead donkey—dragged out of Jerusalem and thrown on the garbage dump beyond the gate!
²⁰
 Weep, for your allies are gone. Search for them in Lebanon; shout for them at Bashan; seek them at the fording points of Jordan. See, they are all destroyed. Not one is left to help you!
²¹
 When you were prosperous, I warned you, but you replied, “Don’t bother me.” Since childhood you have been that way—you just won’t listen!
²²
 And now all your allies have disappeared with a puff of wind; all your friends are taken off as slaves. Surely at last you will see your wickedness and be ashamed.
²³
 It’s very nice to live graciously in a beautiful palace among the cedars of Lebanon, but soon you will cry and groan in anguish—anguish as of a woman in labor.

    
^24-25
 And as for you, Coniah,
*
son of Jehoiakim king of Judah—even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off and give you to those who seek to kill you, of whom you are so desperately afraid—to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his mighty army.
²⁶
 I will throw you and your mother out of this country, and you shall die in a foreign land.
²⁷
 You will never again return to the land of your desire.
²⁸
 This man Coniah is like a discarded, broken dish. He and his children will be exiled to distant lands.

    
²⁹
 O earth, earth, earth! Hear the word of the Lord!
³⁰
 The Lord says: Record this man Coniah as childless, for none of his children shall ever sit upon the throne of David or rule in Judah.
*
His life will amount to nothing.