The Sin and Punishment of Judah

¹“The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus,engraved with a diamond pointon the tablets of their heartsand on the horns of their altars.

²Even their children remember their altars and Asherah polesby the green trees and on the high hills.

³O My mountain in the countryside,I will give over your wealthand all your treasures as plunder,because of the sin of your high places,within all your borders.

⁴And you yourself will relinquishthe inheritance that I gave you.I will enslave you to your enemiesin a land that you do not know,for you have kindled My anger;it will burn forever.”

⁵This is what the LORD says:“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind,who makes mere flesh his strengthand turns his heart from the LORD.

⁶He will be like a shrub in the desert;he will not see when prosperity comes.He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,in a salt land where no one lives.

⁷But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,whose confidence is in Him.

⁸He is like a tree planted by the watersthat sends out its roots toward the stream.It does not fear when the heat comes,and its leaves are always green.It does not worry in a year of drought,nor does it cease to produce fruit.

⁹The heart is deceitful above all thingsand beyond cure.Who can understand it?

¹⁰I, the LORD, search the heart;I examine the mindto reward a man according to his way,by what his deeds deserve.

¹¹Like a partridge hatching eggs it did not layis the man who makes a fortune unjustly.In the middle of his days his riches will desert him,and in the end he will be the fool.”

Jeremiah’s Prayer for Deliverance

¹²A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning,is the place of our sanctuary.

¹³O LORD, the hope of Israel,all who abandon You will be put to shame.All who turn away will be written in the dust,for they have abandoned the LORD,the fountain of living water.

¹⁴Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed;save me, and I will be saved,for You are my praise.

¹⁵Behold, they keep saying to me,“Where is the word of the LORD?Let it come now!”

¹⁶But I have not run away from being Your shepherd;I have not desired the day of despair.You know that the utterance of my lipswas spoken in Your presence.

¹⁷Do not become a terror to me;You are my refuge in the day of disaster.

¹⁸Let my persecutors be put to shame,but do not let me be put to shame.Let them be terrified,but do not let me be terrified.Bring upon them the day of disasterand shatter them with double destruction.

Restoring the Sabbath

¹⁹This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and stand at the gate of the people, through which the kings of Judah go in and out; and stand at all the other gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰Say to them, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, all people of Judah and Jerusalem who enter through these gates.

²¹This is what the LORD says: Take heed for yourselves; do not carry a load or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.

²²You must not carry a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day, but you must keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I commanded your forefathers.

²³Yet they would not listen or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and would not listen or receive My discipline.

²⁴If, however, you listen carefully to Me, says the LORD, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, and keep the Sabbath day holy, and do no work on it,

²⁵then kings and princes will enter through the gates of this city. They will sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses with their officials, along with the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever.

²⁶And people will come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, and from the foothills,the hill country, and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.

²⁷But if you do not listen to Me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying a load while entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in its gates to consume the citadels of Jerusalem.’”

A Warning to Judah’s Kings

¹This is what the LORD says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there,

²saying, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David—you and your officials and your people who enter these gates.

³This is what the LORD says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.

⁴For if you will indeed carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will enter through the gates of this palace riding on chariots and horses—they and their officials and their people.

⁵But if you do not obey these words, then I swear by Myself, declares the LORD, that this house will become a pile of rubble.’”

A Warning about the Palace

⁶For this is what the LORD says concerning the house of the king of Judah:“You are like Gilead to Me,like the summit of Lebanon;but I will surely turn you into a desert,like cities that are uninhabited.

⁷I will appoint destroyers against you,each man with his weapons,and they will cut down the choicest of your cedarsand throw them into the fire.

⁸And many nations will pass by this city and ask one another, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?’

⁹Then people will reply, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’”

A Warning about Shallum

¹⁰Do not weep for him who is dead;do not mourn his loss.Weep bitterly for him who is exiled,for he will never returnto see his native land.

¹¹For this is what the LORD says concerning Shallumson of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah but has gone forth from this place: “He will never return,

¹²but he will die in the place to which he was exiled; he will never see this land again.”

A Warning about Jehoiakim

¹³“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness,and his upper rooms without justice,who makes his countrymen serve without pay,and fails to pay their wages,

¹⁴who says, ‘I will build myself a great palace,with spacious upper rooms.’So he cuts windows in it,panels it with cedar,and paints it with vermilion.

¹⁵Does it make you a king to excelin cedar?Did not your father have food and drink?He administered justice and righteousness,and so it went well with him.

¹⁶He took up the cause of the poor and needy,and so it went well with him.Is this not what it means to know Me?”declares the LORD.

¹⁷“But your eyes and heart are set on nothingexcept your own dishonest gain,on shedding innocent blood,on practicing extortion and oppression.”

¹⁸Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:“They will not mourn for him:‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’They will not mourn for him:‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’

¹⁹He will be buried like a donkey,dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰Go up to Lebanon and cry out;raise your voice in Bashan;cry out from Abarim,for all your lovers have been crushed.

²¹I warned you when you were secure.You said, ‘I will not listen.’This has been your way from youth,that you have not obeyed My voice.

²²The wind will drive away all your shepherds,and your lovers will go into captivity.Then you will be ashamed and humiliatedbecause of all your wickedness.

²³O inhabitant of Lebanon,nestled in the cedars,how you will groan when pangs of anguish come upon you,agony like a woman in labor.”

A Warning to Coniah

²⁴“As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “even if you, Coniahson of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on My right hand, I would pull you off.

²⁵In fact, I will hand you over to those you dread, who want to take your life—to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to the Chaldeans.

²⁶I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another land, where neither of you were born—and there you both will die.

²⁷You will never return to the land for which you long.”

²⁸Is this man Coniah a despised and shattered pot,a jar that no one wants?Why are he and his descendants hurled outand cast into a land they do not know?

²⁹O land, land, land,hear the word of the LORD!

³⁰This is what the LORD says:“Enroll this man as childless,a man who will not prosper in his lifetime.None of his descendants will prosperto sit on the throne of Davidor to rule again in Judah.”

The Coming Deliverance of Jerusalem

¹This is the burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel.Thus declares the LORD, who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth, who forms the spirit of man within him:

²“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples. Judah will be besieged, as well as Jerusalem.

³On that day, when all the nations of the earth gather against her, I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who would heave it away will be severely injured.

⁴On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and every rider with madness. I will keep a watchful eye on the house of Judah, but I will strike with blindness all the horses of the nations.

⁵Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts: ‘The people of Jerusalem are my strength, for the LORD of Hosts is their God.’

⁶On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among the sheaves; they will consume all the peoples around them on the right and on the left, while the people of Jerusalem remain secure there.

⁷The LORD will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and of the people of Jerusalem may not be greater than that of Judah.

⁸On that day the LORD will defend the people of Jerusalem, so that the weakest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angelof the LORD going before them.

⁹So on that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Mourning the One They Pierced

¹⁰Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spiritof grace and prayer, and they will look on Me,the One they have pierced.They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

¹¹On that day the wailing in Jerusalem will be as great as the wailing of Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

¹²The land will mourn, each clan on its own: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives,

¹³the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives,

¹⁴and all the remaining clans and their wives.

I Waited Patiently for the LORD

¹I waited patiently for the LORD;He inclined to me and heard my cry.

²He lifted me up from the pit of despair,out of the miry clay;He set my feet upon a rock,and made my footsteps firm.

³He put a new song in my mouth,a hymn of praise to our God.Many will see and fearand put their trust in the LORD.

⁴Blessed is the manwho has made the LORD his trust,who has not turned to the proud,nor to those who lapse into falsehood.

⁵Many, O LORD my God,are the wonders You have done,and the plans You have for us—none can compare to You—if I proclaim and declare them,they are more than I can count.

⁶Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,but my ears You have opened.Burnt offerings and sin offeringsYou did not require.

⁷Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll:

⁸I delight to do Your will, O my God;Your law is within my heart.”

⁹I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly;behold, I do not seal my lips,as You, O LORD, do know.

¹⁰I have not covered up Your righteousness in my heart;I have declared Your faithfulness and salvation;I have not concealed Your loving devotion and faithfulnessfrom the great assembly.

¹¹O LORD, do not withhold Your mercy from me;Your loving devotion and faithfulness will always guard me.

¹²For evils without number surround me;my sins have overtaken me, so that I cannot see.They are more than the hairs of my head,and my heart has failed within me.

¹³Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me;hurry, O LORD, to help me.

¹⁴May those who seek my lifebe ashamed and confounded;may those who wish me harmbe repelled and humiliated.

¹⁵May those who say to me, “Aha, aha!”be appalled at their own shame.

¹⁶May all who seek Yourejoice and be glad in You;may those who love Your salvationalways say, “The LORD be magnified!”

¹⁷But I am poor and needy;may the Lord think of me.You are my helper and deliverer;O my God, do not delay.