The Living Bible (248 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
The following message came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah (which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign).
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At this time Jeremiah was imprisoned in the dungeon beneath the palace,
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while the Babylonian army was besieging Jerusalem.
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King Zedekiah had put him there for continuing to prophesy that the city would be conquered by the king of Babylon,
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and that King Zedekiah would be caught and taken as a prisoner before the king of Babylon for trial and sentencing.
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“He shall take you to Babylon and imprison you there for many years until you die. Why fight the facts? You can’t win! Surrender now!” Jeremiah had told him again and again.
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Then this message from the Lord came to Jeremiah: Your cousin Hanamel (son of Shallum) will soon arrive to ask you to buy the farm he owns in Anathoth, for by law you have a chance to buy before it is offered to anyone else.
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So Hanamel came, as the Lord had said he would, and visited me in the prison. “Buy my field in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin,” he said, “for the law gives you the first right to purchase it.” Then I knew for sure that the message I had heard was really from the Lord.
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So I bought the field, paying Hanamel seventeen pieces of silver.
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I signed and sealed the deed of purchase before witnesses, weighed out the silver, and paid him.
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Then I took the sealed deed containing the terms and conditions and also the unsealed copy,
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and publicly, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and the witnesses who had signed the deed, and as the prison guards watched, I handed the papers to Baruch (son of Neriah, who was the son of Mahseiah).
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And I said to him as they all listened:
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“The Lord, God of Israel, says: Take both this sealed deed and the copy and put them into a pottery jar to preserve them for a long time.
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For the Lord, God of Israel, says: In the future these papers will be valuable.
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Someday people will again own property here in this country and will be buying and selling houses and vineyards and fields.”
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Then after I had given the papers to Baruch I prayed:
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“O Lord God! You have made the heavens and earth by your great power; nothing is too hard for you!
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You are loving and kind to thousands, yet children suffer for their fathers’ sins; you are the great and mighty God, the Lord Almighty.
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You have all wisdom and do great and mighty miracles; for your eyes are open to all the ways of men, and you reward everyone according to his life and deeds.
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You have done incredible things in the land of Egypt—things still remembered to this day. And you have continued to do great miracles in Israel and all around the world. You have made your name very great, as it is today.
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“You brought Israel out of Egypt with mighty miracles and great power and terror.
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You gave Israel this land that you promised their fathers long ago—a wonderful land that ‘flows with milk and honey.’
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Our fathers came and conquered it and lived in it, but they refused to obey you or to follow your laws; they have hardly done one thing you told them to. That is why you have sent all this terrible evil upon them.
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See how the siege mounds have been built against the city walls, and the Babylonians shall conquer the city by sword, famine, and disease. Everything has happened just as you said—as you determined it should!
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And yet you say to buy the field—paying good money for it before these witnesses—even though the city will belong to our enemies.”
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Then this message came to Jeremiah:
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I am the Lord, the God of all mankind; is there anything too hard for me?
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Yes, I will give this city to the Babylonians and to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon; he shall conquer it.
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And the Babylonians outside the walls shall come in and set fire to the city and burn down all these houses, where the roofs have been used to offer incense to Baal and to pour out libations to other gods, causing my fury to rise!
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For Israel and Judah have done nothing but wrong since their earliest days; they have infuriated me with all their evil deeds.
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From the time this city was built until now, it has done nothing but anger me; so I am determined to be rid of it.
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The sins of Israel and Judah—the sins of the people, of their kings, officers, priests, and prophets—stir me up.
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They have turned their backs upon me and refused to return; day after day, year after year, I taught them right from wrong, but they would not listen or obey.
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They have even defiled my own Temple by worshiping their abominable idols there.
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And they have built high altars to Baal in the valley of Hinnom. There they have burnt their children as sacrifices to Molech—something I never commanded and cannot imagine suggesting. What an incredible evil, causing Judah to sin so greatly!
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Now therefore the Lord God of Israel says concerning this city that it will fall to the king of Babylon through warfare, famine, and disease,
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but I will bring my people back again from all the countries where in my fury I will scatter them. I will bring them back to this very city and make them live in peace and safety.
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And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
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And I will give them one heart and mind to worship me forever, for their own good and for the good of all their descendants.
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And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, promising never again to desert them but only to do them good. I will put a desire into their hearts to worship me, and they shall never leave me.
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I will rejoice to do them good and will replant them in this land with great joy.
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Just as I have sent all these terrors and evils upon them, so will I do all the good I have promised them.
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Fields will again be bought and sold in this land now ravaged by the Babylonians, where men and animals alike have disappeared.
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Yes, fields shall once again be bought and sold—deeds signed and sealed and witnessed—in the country of Benjamin and here in Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah and in the hill country, in the Philistine Plain and in the Negeb too, for some day I will restore prosperity to them.
While Jeremiah was still in jail, the Lord sent him this second message:
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The Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth—Jehovah is his name—says this:
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Ask me and I will tell you some remarkable secrets about what is going to happen here.
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For though you have torn down the houses of this city, and the king’s palace too, for materials to strengthen the walls against the siege weapons of the enemy,
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yet the Babylonians will enter, and the men of this city are already as good as dead, for I have determined to destroy them in my furious anger. I have abandoned them because of all their wickedness, and I will not pity them when they cry for help.
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Nevertheless the time will come when I will heal Jerusalem’s damage and give her prosperity and peace.
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I will rebuild the cities of both Judah and Israel and restore their fortunes.
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And I will cleanse away all their sins against me and pardon them.
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Then this city will be an honor to me, and it will give me joy and be a source of praise and glory to me before all the nations of the earth! The people of the world will see the good I do for my people and will tremble with awe!
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The Lord declares that the happy voices of bridegrooms and of brides and the joyous song of those bringing thanksgiving offerings to the Lord will be heard again in this doomed land. The people will sing: “Praise the Lord! For he is good and his mercy endures forever!” For I will make this land happier and more prosperous than it has ever been before.
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This land—though every man and animal and city is doomed—will once more see shepherds leading sheep and lambs.
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Once again their flocks will prosper in the mountain villages and in the cities east of the Philistine Plain, in all the cities of the Negeb, in the land of Benjamin, in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and in all the cities of Judah.
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Yes, the day will come, says the Lord, when I will do for Israel and Judah all the good I promised them.
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At that time I will bring to the throne the true Son of David,
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and he shall rule justly.
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In that day the people of Judah and Jerusalem shall live in safety and their motto will be, “The Lord is our righteousness!”
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For the Lord declares that from then on, David shall forever have an heir sitting on the throne of Israel.
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And there shall always be Levites to offer burnt offerings and meal offerings and sacrifices to the Lord.
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Then this message came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
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If you can break my covenant with the day and with the night so that day and night don’t come on their usual schedule, only then will my covenant with David, my servant, be broken so that he shall not have a son to reign upon his throne; and my covenant with the Levite priests, my ministers, is noncancelable.
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And as the stars cannot be counted nor the sand upon the seashores measured, so the descendants of David my servant and the line of the Levites who minister to me will be multiplied.
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The Lord spoke to Jeremiah again and said:
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Have you heard what people are saying?—that the Lord chose Judah and Israel and then abandoned them! They are sneering and saying that Israel isn’t worthy to be counted as a nation.
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But this is the Lord’s reply: I would no more reject my people than I would change my laws of night and day, of earth and sky. I will never abandon the Jews, or David my servant, or change the plan that his child will someday rule these descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Instead I will restore their prosperity and have mercy on them.