Jeremiah 17-19

New King James Version

Judah’s Sin and Punishment

17 “The sin of Judah is ^(A)written with a ^(B)pen of iron;
With the point of a diamond it is ^(C)engraved
On the tablet of their heart,
And on the horns of your altars,
²While their children remember
Their altars and their ^(D)wooden^[a] images
By the green trees on the high hills.
³O My mountain in the field,
I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures,
And your high places of sin within all your borders.
⁴And you, even yourself,
Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you;
And I will cause you to serve your enemies
In ^(E)the land which you do not know;
For ^(F)you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.”

⁵Thus says the Lord:

^(G)“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes ^(H)flesh his ^[b]strength,
Whose heart departs from the Lord.
⁶For he shall be ^(I)like a shrub in the desert,
And ^(J)shall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
^(K)In a salt land which is not inhabited.

⁷“Blessed^(L) is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
⁸For he shall be ^(M)like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not ^[c]fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

⁹“The ^(N)heart is deceitful above all things,
And ^[d]desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
¹⁰I, the Lord, ^(O)search the heart,
I test the ^[e]mind,
^(P)Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings.

¹¹“As a partridge that ^[f]broods but does not hatch,
So is he who gets riches, but not by right;
It ^(Q)will leave him in the midst of his days,
And at his end he will be ^(R)a fool.”

¹²A glorious high throne from the beginning
Is the place of our sanctuary.
¹³O Lord, ^(S)the hope of Israel,
^(T)All who forsake You shall be ashamed.

“Those who depart from Me
Shall be ^(U)written in the earth,
Because they have forsaken the Lord,
The ^(V)fountain of living waters.”

Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance

¹⁴Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
Save me, and I shall be saved,
For ^(W)You are my praise.
¹⁵Indeed they say to me,
^(X)“Where is the word of the Lord?
Let it come now!”
¹⁶As for me, ^(Y)I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You,
Nor have I desired the woeful day;
You know what came out of my lips;
It was right there before You.
¹⁷Do not be a terror to me;
^(Z)You are my hope in the day of doom.
¹⁸^(AA)Let them be ashamed who persecute me,
But ^(AB)do not let me be put to shame;
Let them be dismayed,
But do not let me be dismayed.
Bring on them the day of doom,
And ^(AC)destroy^[g] them with double destruction!

Hallow the Sabbath Day

¹⁹Thus the Lord said to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; ²⁰and say to them, ^(AD)‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. ²¹Thus says the Lord: ^(AE)“Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; ²²nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I ^(AF)commanded your fathers. ²³^(AG)But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but ^[h]made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.

²⁴“And it shall be, ^(AH)if you heed Me carefully,” says the Lord, “to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the ^(AI)Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it, ²⁵^(AJ)then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. ²⁶And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from ^(AK)the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from ^(AL)the ^[i]lowland, from the mountains and from ^(AM)the ^[j]South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing ^(AN)sacrifices of praise to the house of the Lord.

²⁷“But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then ^(AO)I will kindle a fire in its gates, ^(AP)and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be ^(AQ)quenched.” ’ ”

The Potter and the Clay

18 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ²“Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” ³Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the ^[k]wheel. ⁴And the vessel that he ^[l]made of clay was ^[m]marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.

⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ⁶“O house of Israel, ^(AR)can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, ^(AS)as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! ⁷The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to ^(AT)pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, ⁸^(AU)if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, ^(AV)I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. ⁹And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, ¹⁰if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.

¹¹“Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. ^(AW)Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings ^(AX)good.” ’ ”

God’s Warning Rejected

¹²And they said, ^(AY)“That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one ^[n]obey the ^(AZ)dictates^[o] of his evil heart.”

¹³Therefore thus says the Lord:

^(BA)“Ask now among the Gentiles,
Who has heard such things?
The virgin of Israel has done ^(BB)a very horrible thing.
¹⁴Will a man ^[p]leave the snow water of Lebanon,
Which comes from the rock of the field?
Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?

¹⁵“Because My people have forgotten ^(BC)Me,
They have burned incense to worthless idols.
And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways,
From the ^(BD)ancient paths,
To walk in pathways and not on a highway,
¹⁶To make their land ^(BE)desolate and a perpetual ^(BF)hissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished
And shake his head.
¹⁷^(BG)I will scatter them ^(BH)as with an east wind before the enemy;
^(BI)I will ^[q]show them the back and not the face
In the day of their calamity.”

Jeremiah Persecuted

¹⁸Then they said, ^(BJ)“Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; ^(BK)for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.”

¹⁹Give heed to me, O Lord,
And listen to the voice of those who contend with me!
²⁰^(BL)Shall evil be repaid for good?
For they have ^(BM)dug a pit for my life.
Remember that I ^(BN)stood before You
To speak good ^[r]for them,
To turn away Your wrath from them.
²¹Therefore ^(BO)deliver up their children to the famine,
And pour out their blood
By the force of the sword;
Let their wives become widows
And ^(BP)bereaved of their children.
Let their men be put to death,
Their young men be slain
By the sword in battle.
²²Let a cry be heard from their houses,
When You bring a troop suddenly upon them;
For they have dug a pit to take me,
And hidden snares for my feet.
²³Yet, Lord, You know all their counsel
Which is against me, to slay me.
^(BQ)Provide no atonement for their iniquity,
Nor blot out their sin from Your sight;
But let them be overthrown before You.
Deal thus with them
In the time of Your ^(BR)anger.

The Sign of the Broken Flask

19 Thus says the Lord: “Go and get a potter’s earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. ²And go out to ^(BS)the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you, ³^(BT)and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will ^(BU)tingle.

⁴“Because they ^(BV)have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with ^(BW)the blood of the innocents ⁵^(BX)(they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, ^(BY)which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind), ⁶therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that this place shall no more be called Tophet or ^(BZ)the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. ⁷And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, ^(CA)and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their ^(CB)corpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. ⁸I will make this city ^(CC)desolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. ⁹And I will cause them to eat the ^(CD)flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.” ’

¹⁰^(CE)“Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, ¹¹and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: ^(CF)“Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be ^[s]made whole again; and they shall ^(CG)bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury. ¹²Thus I will do to this place,” says the Lord, “and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet. ¹³And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled ^(CH)like the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose ^(CI)roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and ^(CJ)poured out drink offerings to other gods.” ’ ”

¹⁴Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in ^(CK)the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people, ¹⁵“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because ^(CL)they have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words.’ ”