The Living Bible (246 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord during the first year of the reign of Jehoiakim (son of Josiah), king of Judah:
2
Stand out in front of the Temple of the Lord and make an announcement to all the people who have come there to worship from many parts of Judah. Give them the entire message; don’t leave out one word of all I have for them to hear.
3
For perhaps they will listen and turn from their evil ways, and then I can withhold all the punishment I am ready to pour out upon them because of their evil deeds.
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Tell them the Lord says: If you will not listen to me and obey the laws I have given you,
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and if you will not listen to my servants, the prophets—for I sent them again and again to warn you, but you would not listen to them—
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then I will destroy this Temple as I destroyed the Tabernacle at Shiloh, and I will make Jerusalem a curse word in every nation of the earth.
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When Jeremiah had finished his message, saying everything the Lord had told him to, the priests and false prophets and all the people in the Temple mobbed him, shouting, “Kill him! Kill him!
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What right do you have to say the Lord will destroy this Temple like the one at Shiloh?” they yelled. “What do you mean—Jerusalem destroyed and not one survivor?”
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When the high officials of Judah heard what was going on, they rushed over from the palace and sat down at the door of the Temple to hold court.
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Then the priests and the false prophets presented their accusations to the officials and the people. “This man should die!” they said. “You have heard with your own ears what a traitor he is, for he has prophesied against this city.”
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Then Jeremiah spoke in his defense. “The Lord sent me,” he said, “to prophesy against this Temple and this city. He gave me every word of all that I have spoken.
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But if you stop your sinning and begin obeying the Lord your God, he will cancel all the punishment he has announced against you.
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As for me, I am helpless and in your power—do with me as you think best.
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But there is one thing sure, if you kill me, you will be killing an innocent man, and the responsibility will lie upon you and upon this city and upon every person living in it; for it is absolutely true that the Lord sent me to speak every word that you have heard from me.”
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Then the officials and people said to the priests and false prophets, “This man does not deserve the death sentence, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.”
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Then some of the wise old men stood and spoke to all the people standing around and said:
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“The decision is right; for back in the days when Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of King Hezekiah of Judah, he told the people that God said: ‘This hill shall be plowed like an open field and this city of Jerusalem razed into heaps of stone, and a forest shall grow at the top where the great Temple now stands!’
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But did King Hezekiah and the people kill him for saying this? No, they turned from their wickedness and worshiped the Lord and begged the Lord to have mercy upon them; and the Lord held back the terrible punishment he had pronounced against them. If we kill Jeremiah for giving us the messages of God, who knows what God will do to us!”
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Another true prophet of the Lord, Uriah (son of Shemaiah) from Kiriath-jearim, was also denouncing the city and the nation at the same time as Jeremiah was.
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But when King Jehoiakim and the army officers and officials heard what he was saying, the king sent to kill him. Uriah heard about it and fled to Egypt.
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Then King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan (son of Achbor) to Egypt along with several other men to capture Uriah.
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They took him prisoner and brought him back to King Jehoiakim, who butchered him with a sword and had him buried in an unmarked grave.
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But Ahikam (son of Shaphan), the royal secretary,
*
stood with Jeremiah and persuaded the court not to turn him over to the mob to kill him.
This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord at the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim
*
(son of Josiah), king of Judah:
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“Make a yoke and fasten it on your neck with leather thongs as you would strap a yoke on an ox.
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Then send messages to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon, through their ambassadors in Jerusalem,
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saying, Tell your masters that the Lord, the God of Israel, sends you this message:
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“By my great power I have made the earth and all mankind and every animal; and I give these things of mine to anyone I want to.
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So now I have given all your countries to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who is my deputy. And I have handed over to him all your cattle for his use.
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All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until his time is up, and then many nations and great kings shall conquer Babylon and make him their slave.
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Submit to him and serve him—put your neck under Babylon’s yoke! I will punish any nation refusing to be his slave; I will send war, famine, and disease upon that nation until he has conquered it.
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“Do not listen to your false prophets, fortune-tellers, dreamers, mediums, and magicians who say the king of Babylon will not enslave you.
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For they are all liars, and if you follow their advice and refuse to submit to the king of Babylon, I will drive you out of your land and send you far away to perish.
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But the people of any nation submitting to the king of Babylon will be permitted to stay in their own country and farm the land as usual.”
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Jeremiah repeated all these prophecies to Zedekiah, king of Judah. “If you want to live, submit to the king of Babylon,” he said.
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“Why do you insist on dying—you and your people? Why should you choose war and famine and disease, which the Lord has promised to every nation that will not submit to Babylon’s king?
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Don’t listen to the false prophets who keep telling you the king of Babylon will not conquer you, for they are liars.
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I have not sent them, says the Lord, and they are telling you lies in my name. If you insist on heeding them, I must drive you from this land to die—you and all these ‘prophets’ too.”
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I spoke again and again to the priests and all the people and told them: “This is what the Lord says! Don’t listen to your prophets who are telling you that soon the gold dishes taken from the Temple will be returned from Babylon. It is all a lie.
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Don’t listen to them. Surrender to the king of Babylon and live, for otherwise this whole city will be destroyed.
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If they are really God’s prophets, then let them pray to the Lord Almighty that the gold dishes still here in the Temple, left from before, and that those in the palace of the king of Judah and in the palaces in Jerusalem will not be carried away with you to Babylon!
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“For the Lord Almighty says: The pillars of bronze standing before the Temple, the great bronze basin in the Temple court, the metal stands, and all the other ceremonial articles left here by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, when he exiled all the important people of Judah and Jerusalem to Babylon, along with Jeconiah (son of Jehoiakim), king of Judah,
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will all yet be carried away to Babylon and will stay there until I send for them. Then I will bring them all back to Jerusalem again.”
On a December day in that same year—the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah—Hananiah (son of Azzur), a false prophet from Gibeon, addressed me publicly in the Temple while all the priests and people listened. He said:
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“The Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, declares: I have removed the yoke of the king of Babylon from your necks.
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Within two years I will bring back all the Temple treasures that Nebuchadnezzar carried off to Babylon,
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and I will bring back King Jeconiah,
*
son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the other captives exiled to Babylon, says the Lord. I will surely remove the yoke put on your necks by the king of Babylon.”
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Then Jeremiah said to Hananiah, in front of all the priests and people,
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“Amen! May your prophecies come true! I hope the Lord will do everything you say and bring back from Babylon the treasures of this Temple, with all our loved ones.
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But listen now to the solemn words I speak to you in the presence of all these people.
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The ancient prophets who preceded you and me spoke against many nations, always warning of
war, famine,
and
plague.
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So a prophet who foretells
peace
has the burden of proof on him to prove that God has really sent him. Only when his message comes true can it be known that he really is from God.”
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Then Hananiah, the false prophet, took the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and broke it.
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And Hananiah said again to the crowd that had gathered, “The Lord has promised that within two years he will release all the nations now in slavery to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.” At that point Jeremiah walked out.
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Soon afterwards the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah:
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Go and tell Hananiah that the Lord says: You have broken a wooden yoke, but these people have yokes of iron on their necks.
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The Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have put a yoke of iron on the necks of all these nations, forcing them into slavery to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. And nothing will change this decree, for I have even given him all your flocks and herds.
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Then Jeremiah said to Hananiah, the false prophet, “Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and the people are believing your lies.
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Therefore the Lord says you must die. This very year your life will end because you have rebelled against the Lord.”
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And sure enough, two months later Hananiah died.