Jeremiah 21-23
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Jerusalem Will Fall to Nebuchadrezzar
21 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malchiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, saying,(A) 2 “Please inquire of the Lord on our behalf, for King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon is making war against us; perhaps the Lord will perform a wonderful deed for us, as he has often done, and Nebuchadrezzar[a] will withdraw.”(B)
3 Then Jeremiah said to them: 4 Thus you shall say to Zedekiah: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I am going to turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls, and I will bring them together into the center of this city.(C) 5 I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and mighty arm, in anger, in fury, and in great wrath.(D) 6 And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both humans and animals; they shall die of a great pestilence. 7 Afterward, says the Lord, I will give King Zedekiah of Judah and his servants and the people in this city—those who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine—into the hands of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, into the hands of their enemies, into the hands of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword; he shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.(E)
8 And to this people you shall say: Thus says the Lord: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.(F) 9 Those who stay in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but those who go out and surrender to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have their lives as a prize of war.(G) 10 For I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good, says the Lord; it shall be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.(H)
Message to the House of David
11 To the house of the king of Judah say: Hear the word of the Lord,(I) 12 O house of David! Thus says the Lord:
Execute justice in the morning,
and deliver from the hand of the oppressor
anyone who has been robbed,
or else my wrath will go forth like fire
and burn, with no one to quench it,
because of their evil doings.(J)
13 See, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley,
O rock of the plain,
says the Lord;
you who say, “Who can come down against us,
or who can enter our places of refuge?”(K)
14 I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings,
says the Lord;
I will kindle a fire in its forest,
and it shall devour all that is around it.(L)
Exhortation to Repent
22 Thus says the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,(M) 2 and say: Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah sitting on the throne of David—you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates.(N) 3 Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.(O) 4 For if you will indeed obey this word, then through the gates of this house shall enter kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses—they, their servants, and their people. 5 But if you will not heed these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.(P) 6 For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah:
You are like Gilead to me,
like the summit of Lebanon,
but I swear that I will make you a desert,
uninhabited cities.(Q)
7 I will prepare destroyers against you,
all with their weapons;
they shall cut down your choicest cedars
and cast them into the fire.(R)
8 And many nations will pass by this city, and all of them will say one to another, “Why has the Lord dealt in this way with that great city?”(S) 9 And they will answer, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them.”(T)
10 Do not weep for him who is dead,
nor bemoan him;
weep rather for him who goes away,
for he shall return no more
to see his native land.(U)
Message to the Sons of Josiah
11 For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum son of King Josiah of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah and who went away from this place: He shall return here no more, 12 but in the place where they have carried him captive he shall die, and he shall never see this land again.
13 Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness
and his upper rooms by injustice,
who makes his neighbors work for nothing
and does not give them their wages,(V)
14 who says, “I will build myself a spacious house
with large upper rooms,”
and who cuts out windows[b] for it,
paneling it with cedar
and painting it with vermilion.(W)
15 Are you a king
because you compete in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
and do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him.(X)
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
then it was well.
Is not this to know me?
says the Lord.(Y)
17 But your eyes and heart
are only on your dishonest gain,
for shedding innocent blood,
and for practicing oppression and violence.(Z)
18 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah:
They shall not lament for him, saying,
“Alas, my brother!” or “Alas, sister!”
They shall not lament for him, saying,
“Alas, lord!” or “Alas, his majesty!”(AA)
19 With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried:
dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.(AB)
20 Go up to Lebanon and cry out,
and lift up your voice in Bashan;
cry out from Abarim,
for all your lovers are crushed.(AC)
21 I spoke to you in your prosperity,
but you said, “I will not listen.”
This has been your way from your youth,
for you have not obeyed my voice.(AD)
22 The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds,
and your lovers shall go into captivity;
then you will be ashamed and dismayed
because of all your wickedness.(AE)
23 O inhabitant of Lebanon,
nested among the cedars,
how you will groan[c] when pangs come upon you,
pain as of a woman in labor!
Judgment on Coniah (Jehoiachin)
24 As I live, says the Lord, even if King Coniah son of Jehoiakim of Judah were the signet ring on my right hand, even from there I would tear you off(AF) 25 and give you into the hands of those who seek your life, into the hands of those whom you fear, even into the hands of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and into the hands of the Chaldeans.(AG) 26 I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die.(AH) 27 But they shall not return to the land to which they long to return.
28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken pot,
a vessel no one wants?
Why are he and his offspring hurled out
and cast away in a land that they do not know?
29 O land, land, land,
hear the word of the Lord!(AI)
30 Thus says the Lord:
Record this man as childless,
a man who shall not succeed in his days,
for none of his offspring shall succeed
in sitting on the throne of David
and ruling again in Judah.(AJ)
Restoration after Exile
23 Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord.(AK) 2 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. 3 Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.(AL) 4 I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall no longer fear or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.(AM)
The Righteous Branch of David
5 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.(AN) 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”(AO)
7 Therefore the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, “As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,”(AP) 8 but “As the Lord lives who brought out and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he[d] had driven them.” Then they shall live in their own land.
False Prophets of Hope Denounced
9 Concerning the prophets:
My heart is crushed within me;
all my bones shake;
I have become like a drunkard,
like one overcome by wine,
because of the Lord
and because of his holy words.(AQ)
10 For the land is full of adulterers;
because of the curse the land mourns,
and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.
Their course has been evil,
and their might is not right.(AR)
11 Both prophet and priest are ungodly;
even in my house I have found their wickedness,
says the Lord.(AS)
12 Therefore their way shall be to them
like slippery paths in the darkness,
into which they shall be driven and fall,
for I will bring disaster upon them
in the year of their punishment,
says the Lord.(AT)
13 In the prophets of Samaria
I saw a disgusting thing:
they prophesied by Baal
and led my people Israel astray.(AU)
14 But in the prophets of Jerusalem
I have seen a more shocking thing:
they commit adultery and walk in lies;
they strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that no one turns from wickedness;
all of them have become like Sodom to me
and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.(AV)
15 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:
I am going to make them eat wormwood
and give them poisoned water to drink,
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
ungodliness has spread throughout the land.(AW)
16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they are deluding you. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.(AX) 17 They keep saying to those who despise the word of the Lord,[e] “It shall be well with you,” and to all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts, they say, “No calamity shall come upon you.”(AY)
18 For who has stood in the council of the Lord
so as to see and to hear his word?
Who has given heed to his word so as to proclaim it?(AZ)
19 Look, the storm of the Lord!
Wrath has gone forth,
a whirling tempest;
it will burst upon the head of the wicked.(BA)
20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back
until he has executed and accomplished
the intents of his mind.
In the latter days you will understand it clearly.(BB)
21 I did not send the prophets,
yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
yet they prophesied.(BC)
22 But if they had stood in my council,
then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
and they would have turned them from their evil way
and from the evil of their doings.(BD)
23 Am I a God near by, says the Lord, and not a God far off?(BE) 24 Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.(BF) 25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, “I have dreamed! I have dreamed!”(BG) 26 How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back—those who prophesy lies and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart? 27 They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal.(BH) 28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the Lord.(BI) 29 Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?(BJ) 30 See, therefore, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words from one another.(BK) 31 See, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their own tongues and say, “Says the Lord.” 32 See, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord, and who tell them and who lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or command them, so they do not profit this people at all, says the Lord.
33 When this people or a prophet or a priest asks you, “What is the burden of the Lord?” you shall say to them, “You are the burden.[f] I will cast you off, says the Lord.”(BL) 34 And as for the prophet, priest, or the people who say, “The burden of the Lord,” I will punish them and their households.(BM) 35 Thus shall you say to one another, among yourselves, “What has the Lord answered?” or “What has the Lord spoken?”(BN) 36 But “the burden of the Lord” you shall mention no more, for the burden is everyone’s own word, and so you pervert the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God.(BO) 37 Thus you shall ask the prophet, “What has the Lord answered you?” or “What has the Lord spoken?” 38 But if you say, “the burden of the Lord,” thus says the Lord: Because you have said these words, “the burden of the Lord,” when I sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘the burden of the Lord,’ ” 39 therefore, I will surely lift you up[g] and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your ancestors.(BP) 40 And I will bring upon you everlasting disgrace and perpetual shame that shall not be forgotten.(BQ)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.