The Hour of Doom

¹And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

²“O son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel:‘The end! The end has comeupon the four corners of the land.

³The end is now upon you,and I will unleash My anger against you.I will judge you according to your waysand repay you for all your abominations.

⁴I will not look on you with pity,nor will I spare you,but I will punish you for your waysand for the abominations among you.Then you will know that I am the LORD.’

⁵This is what the Lord GOD says:‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster—behold, it is coming!

⁶The end has come!The end has come!It has roused itself against you.Behold, it has come!

⁷Doom has come to you,O inhabitants of the land.The time has come;the day is near;there is panic on the mountainsinstead of shouts of joy.

⁸Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon youand vent My anger against you;I will judge you according to your waysand repay you for all your abominations.

⁹I will not look on you with pity,nor will I spare you,but I will punish you for your waysand for the abominations among you.Then you will know that it is I, the LORD,who strikes the blow.

¹⁰Behold, the day is here!It has come!Doom has gone out,the rod has budded,arrogance has bloomed.

¹¹Their violence has grown into a rodto punish their wickedness.None of them will remain:none of their multitude,none of their wealth,and nothing of value.

¹²The time has come;the day has arrived.Let the buyer not rejoiceand the seller not mourn,for wrath is upon the whole multitude.

¹³The seller will surely not recover what he soldwhile both remain alive.For the vision concerning the whole multitudewill not be revoked,and because of their iniquity,not one of them will preserve his life.

The Desolation of Israel

¹⁴They have blown the trumpetand made everything ready,but no one goes to war,for My wrath is upon the whole multitude.

¹⁵The sword is outside;plague and famine are within.Those in the country will die by the sword,and those in the city will be devouredby famine and plague.

¹⁶The survivors will escapeand live in the mountains,moaning like doves of the valley,each for his own iniquity.

¹⁷Every hand will go limp,and every knee will turn to water.

¹⁸They will put on sackcloth,and terror will overwhelm them.Shame will cover all their faces,and all their heads will be shaved.

¹⁹They will throw their silver into the streets,and their gold will seem unclean.Their silver and gold cannot save themin the day of the wrath of the LORD.They cannot satisfy their appetitesor fill their stomachs with wealth,for it became the stumbling blockthat brought their iniquity.

²⁰His beautiful ornamentsthey transformed into prideand used them to fashiontheir vile images and detestable idols.Therefore I will make theseinto something unclean for them.

²¹And I will hand these things overas plunder to foreignersand loot to the wicked of the earth,who will defile them.

²²I will turn My face away from them,and they will defile My treasured place.Violent men will enter it,and they will defile it.

²³Forge the chain,for the land is full of crimes of bloodshed,and the city is full of violence.

²⁴So I will bring the most wicked of nationsto take possession of their houses.I will end the pride of the mighty,and their holy places will be profaned.

²⁵Anguish is coming!They will seek peace, but find none.

²⁶Disaster upon disaster will come,and rumor after rumor.Then they will seek a vision from a prophet,but instruction from the priests will perish,as will counsel from the elders.

²⁷The king will mourn,the prince will be clothed with despair,and the hands of the people of the land will tremble.I will deal with them according to their conduct,and I will judge them by their own standards.Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”

The Valley of Dry Bones

¹The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by His Spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley, and it was full of bones.

²He led me all around among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, and indeed, they were very dry.

³Then He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones come to life?”“O Lord GOD,” I replied, “only You know.”

⁴And He said to me, “Prophesy concerning these bones and tell them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!

⁵This is what the Lord GOD says to these bones: I will cause breathto enter you, and you will come to life.

⁶I will attach tendons to you and make flesh grow upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath within you so that you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”

⁷So I prophesied as I had been commanded. And as I prophesied, there was suddenly a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone.

⁸As I looked on, tendons appeared on them, flesh grew, and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them.

⁹Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and tell the breath that this is what the Lord GOD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, so that they may live!”

¹⁰So I prophesied as He had commanded me, and the breath entered them, and they came to life and stood on their feet—a vast army.

¹¹Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’

¹²Therefore prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘O My people, I will open your graves and bring you up from them, and I will bring you back to the land of Israel.

¹³Then you, My people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them.

¹⁴I will put My Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.’”

One Nation with One King

¹⁵Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

¹⁶“And you, son of man, take a single stickand write on it: ‘Belonging to Judah and to the Israelites associated with him.’ Then take another stick and write on it: ‘Belonging to Joseph—the stick of Ephraim—and to all the house of Israel associated with him.’

¹⁷Then join them together into one stick, so that they become one in your hand.

¹⁸When your people ask you, ‘Won’t you explain to us what you mean by these?’

¹⁹you are to tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I will put them together with the stick of Judah. I will make them into a single stick, and they will become one in My hand.’

²⁰When the sticks on which you write are in your hand and in full view of the people,

²¹you are to tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will take the Israelites out of the nations to which they have gone, and I will gather them from all around and bring them into their own land.

²²I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over all of them. Then they will no longer be two nations and will never again be divided into two kingdoms.

²³They will no longer defile themselves with their idols or detestable images, or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all their apostasies by which they sinned,and I will cleanse them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.

²⁴My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow My ordinances and keep and observe My statutes.

²⁵They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live there forever with their children and grandchildren, and My servant David will be their prince forever.

²⁶And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary among them forever.

²⁷My dwelling placewill be with them; I will be their God, and they will be My people.

²⁸Then the nations will know that I the LORD sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is among them forever.’”

The Potter and the Clay

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

²“Go down at once to the potter’s house, and there I will give you My message.”

³So I went down to the potter’s house and saw him working at the wheel.

⁴But the vessel that he was shaping from the clay became flawed in his hand; so he formed it into another vessel, as it seemed best for him to do.

⁵Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

⁶“O house of Israel, declares the LORD, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay? Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.

⁷At any time I might announce that a nation or kingdom will be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed.

⁸But if that nation I warned turns from its evil, then I will relent of the disaster I had planned to bring.

⁹And if at another time I announce that I will build up and establish a nation or kingdom,

¹⁰and if it does evil in My sight and does not listen to My voice, then I will relent of the good I had intended for it.

¹¹Now therefore, tell the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I am planning a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways, and correct your ways and deeds.’

¹²But they will reply, ‘It is hopeless. We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”

¹³Therefore this is what the LORD says:“Inquire among the nations:Who has ever heard things like these?Virgin Israel has done a most terrible thing.

¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanonever leave its rocky slopes?Or do its cool waters flowing from a distanceever run dry?

¹⁵Yet My people have forgotten Me.They burn incense to worthless idolsthat make them stumble in their ways,leaving the ancient roadsto walk on rutted bypathsinstead of on the highway.

¹⁶They have made their land a desolation,a perpetual object of scorn;all who pass by will be appalledand shake their heads.

¹⁷I will scatter them before the enemylike the east wind.I will show them My back and not My facein the day of their calamity.”

Another Plot against Jeremiah

¹⁸Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us denounce him and pay no heed to any of his words.”

¹⁹Attend to me, O LORD.Hear what my accusers are saying!

²⁰Should good be repaid with evil?Yet they have dug a pit for me.Remember how I stood before Youto speak good on their behalf,to turn Your wrath from them.

²¹Therefore, hand their children over to famine;pour out the power of the sword upon them.Let their wives become childless and widowed;let their husbands be slain by disease,their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

²²Let a cry be heard from their houseswhen You suddenly bring raiders against them,for they have dug a pit to capture meand have hidden snares for my feet.

²³But You, O LORD, know all their deadly plots against me.Do not wipe out their guiltor blot out their sin from Your sight.Let them be overthrown before You;deal with them in the time of Your anger.

Tried but Trusting

¹Incline Your ear, O LORD, and answer me,for I am poor and needy.

²Preserve my soul, for I am godly.You are my God; save Your servant who trusts in You.

³Be merciful to me, O Lord,for I call to You all day long.

⁴Bring joy to Your servant,for to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

⁵For You, O Lord, are kind and forgiving,rich in loving devotion to all who call on You.

⁶Hear my prayer, O LORD,and attend to my plea for mercy.

⁷In the day of my distress I call on You,because You answer me.

⁸O Lord, there is none like You among the gods,nor any works like Yours.

⁹All the nations You have madewill come and bow before You, O Lord,and they will glorify Your name.

¹⁰For You are great and perform wonders;You alone are God.

¹¹Teach me Your way, O LORD,that I may walk in Your truth.Give me an undivided heart,that I may fear Your name.

¹²I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart;I will glorify Your name forever.

¹³For great is Your loving devotion to me;You have delivered me from the depths of Sheol.

¹⁴The arrogant rise against me, O God;a band of ruthless men seeks my life;they have no regard for You.

¹⁵But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness.

¹⁶Turn to me and have mercy;grant Your strength to Your servant;save the son of Your maidservant.

¹⁷Show me a sign of Your goodness,that my enemies may see and be ashamed;for You, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me.