Assyrian Invasion Prophesied

¹Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinarystylus: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

²And I will appoint for Myself trustworthy witnesses—Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.”

³And I had relations with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

⁴For before the boy knows how to cry ‘Father’ or ‘Mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”

⁵And the LORD spoke to me further:

⁶“Because this people has rejectedthe gently flowing waters of Shiloahand rejoiced in Rezinand the son of Remaliah,

⁷the Lord will surely bring against themthe mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates—the king of Assyria and all his pomp.It will overflow its channelsand overrun its banks.

⁸It will pour into Judah,swirling and sweeping over it,reaching up to the neck;its spreading streams will coveryour entire land, O Immanuel!

⁹Huddle together,O peoples, and be shattered;pay attention, all you distant lands;prepare for battle, and be shattered;prepare for battle, and be shattered!

¹⁰Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted;state a proposal, but it will not happen.For God is with us.”

A Call to Fear God

¹¹For this is what the LORD has spoken to me with a strong hand, instructing me not to walk in the way of this people:

¹²“Do not call conspiracyeverything these people regard as conspiracy.Do not fear what they fear;do not live in dread.

¹³The LORD of Hosts is the Oneyou shall regard as holy.Only He should be feared;only He should be dreaded.

¹⁴And He will be a sanctuary—but to both houses of Israela stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,to the dwellers of Jerusalema trap and a snare.

¹⁵Many will stumble over these;they will fall and be broken;they will be ensnared and captured.”

¹⁶Bind up the testimonyand seal the law among my disciples.

¹⁷I will wait for the LORD,who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob.I will put my trust in Him.

¹⁸Here am I, and the children the LORD has given meas signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

Darkness and Light

¹⁹When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?

²⁰To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

²¹They will roam the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged; and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God.

²²Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.

The Obedience of the Rechabites

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:

²“Go to the house of the Rechabites, speak to them, and bring them to one of the chambers of the house of the LORD to offer them a drink of wine.”

³So I took Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons—the entire house of the Rechabites—

⁴and I brought them into the house of the LORD, to a chamber occupied by the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, a man of God. This room was near the chamber of the officials, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah son of Shallum the doorkeeper.

⁵Then I set pitchers full of wine and some cups before the men of the house of the Rechabites, and I said to them, “Drink some wine.”

⁶“We do not drink wine,” they replied, “for our forefather Jonadabson of Rechab commanded us, ‘Neither you nor your descendants are ever to drink wine.

⁷Nor are you ever to build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard. Those things are not for you. Instead, you must live in tents all your lives, so that you may live a long time in the land where you wander.’

⁸And we have obeyed the voice of our forefather Jonadab son of Rechab in all he commanded us. So we have not drunk wine all our lives—neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters.

⁹Nor have we built houses in which to live, and we have not owned any vineyards or fields or crops.

¹⁰But we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done exactly as our forefather Jonadab commanded us.

¹¹So when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched into the land, we said: ‘Come, let us go into Jerusalem to escape the armies of the Chaldeansand the Arameans.’ So we have remained in Jerusalem.”

Judah Rebuked

¹²Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

¹³“This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Go and tell the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem: ‘Will you not accept discipline and obey My words?’ declares the LORD.

¹⁴The words of Jonadab son of Rechab have been carried out. He commanded his sons not to drink wine, and they have not drunk it to this very day because they have obeyed the command of their forefather. But I have spoken to you again and again,and you have not obeyed Me!

¹⁵Again and again I have sent youall My servants the prophets, proclaiming: ‘Turn now, each of you, from your wicked ways, and correct your actions. Do not go after other gods to serve them. Live in the land that I have given to you and your fathers.’ But you have not inclined your ear or listened to Me.

¹⁶Yes, the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab carried out the command their forefather gave them, but these people have not listened to Me.

¹⁷Therefore this is what the LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will bring to Judah and to all the residents of Jerusalem all the disaster I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them but they have not obeyed, and I have called to them but they have not answered.’”

¹⁸Then Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites: “This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you have obeyed the command of your forefather Jonadab and have kept all his commandments and have done all that he charged you to do,

¹⁹this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Jonadab son of Rechab will never fail to have a man to stand before Me.’”

The Day of Atonement

¹Now the LORD spoke to Moses after the death of two of Aaron’s sons when they approached the presence of the LORD.

²And the LORD said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron not to enter freely into the Most Holy Placebehind the veil in front of the mercy seaton the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.

³This is how Aaron is to enter the Holy Place: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.

⁴He is to wear the sacred linen tunic, with linen undergarments. He must tie a linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are holy garments, and he must bathe himself with water before he wears them.

⁵And he shall take from the congregation of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.

⁶Aaron is to present the bull for his sin offering and make atonement for himself and his household.

⁷Then he shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

⁸After Aaron casts lots for the two goats, one for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat,

⁹he shall present the goat chosen by lot for the LORD and sacrifice it as a sin offering.

¹⁰But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to make atonement by sending it into the wilderness as the scapegoat.

¹¹When Aaron presents the bull for his sin offering and makes atonement for himself and his household, he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering.

¹²Then he must take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense, and take them inside the veil.

¹³He is to put the incense on the fire before the LORD, and the cloud of incense will cover the mercy seat above the Testimony,so that he will not die.

¹⁴And he is to take some of the bull’s blood and sprinkle it with his finger on the east side of the mercy seat; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the mercy seat.

¹⁵Aaron shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and bring its blood behind the veil, and with its blood he must do as he did with the bull’s blood: He is to sprinkle it against the mercy seat and in front of it.

¹⁶So he shall make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the impurities and rebellious acts of the Israelites in regard to all their sins. He is to do the same for the Tent of Meeting which abides among them in the midst of their impurities.

¹⁷No one may be in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he leaves, after he has made atonement for himself, his household, and the whole assembly of Israel.

¹⁸Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it. He is to take some of the bull’s blood and some of the goat’s blood and put it on all the horns of the altar.

¹⁹He is to sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites.

²⁰When Aaron has finished purifying the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, he is to bring forward the live goat.

²¹Then he is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and rebellious acts of the Israelites in regard to all their sins. He is to put them on the goat’s head and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man appointed for the task.

²²The goat will carry on itself all their iniquities into a solitary place, and the man will release it into the wilderness.

²³Then Aaron is to enter the Tent of Meeting, take off the linen garments he put on before entering the Most Holy Place, and leave them there.

²⁴He is to bathe himself with water in a holy place and put on his own clothes. Then he must go out and sacrifice his burnt offering and the people’s burnt offering to make atonement for himself and for the people.

²⁵He is also to burn the fat of the sin offering on the altar.

²⁶The man who released the goat as the scapegoat must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; afterward he may reenter the camp.

²⁷The bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy Place to make atonement, must be taken outside the camp; and their hides, flesh, and dung must be burned up.

²⁸The one who burns them must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water, and afterward he may reenter the camp.

²⁹This is to be a permanent statute for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month, you shall humble yourselvesand not do any work—whether the native or the foreigner who resides among you—

³⁰because on this day atonement will be made for you to cleanse you, and you will be clean from all your sins before the LORD.

³¹It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, that you may humble yourselves; it is a permanent statute.

³²The priest who is anointed and ordained to succeed his father as high priest shall make atonement. He will put on the sacred linen garments

³³and make atonement for the Most Holy Place,the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, and for the priests and all the people of the assembly.

³⁴This is to be a permanent statute for you, to make atonement once a year for the Israelites because of all their sins.”And all this was done as the LORD had commanded Moses.

Sing to the LORD, All the Earth

¹Sing to the LORD a new song;sing to the LORD, all the earth.

²Sing to the LORD, bless His name;proclaim His salvation day after day.

³Declare His glory among the nations,His wonders among all peoples.

⁴For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;He is to be feared above all gods.

⁵For all the gods of the nations are idols,but it is the LORD who made the heavens.

⁶Splendor and majesty are before Him;strength and beauty fill His sanctuary.

⁷Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the nations,ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

⁸Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name;bring an offering and enter His courts.

⁹Worship the LORD in the splendor of His holiness;tremble before Him, all the earth.

¹⁰Declare among the nations: “The LORD reigns!”The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved;He will judge the peoples with equity.

¹¹Let the heavens be gladand the earth rejoice;let the sea resound,and all that fills it.

¹²Let the fields exult,and all that is in them.Then all the trees of the forestwill sing for joy

¹³before the LORD,for He is coming—He is coming to judge the earth.He will judge the world in righteousnessand the peoples in His faithfulness.