The Clay Jar

19 This is what the Lord says: “Go, buy a potter’s clay^(A) jar. Take^[a] some of the elders of the people and some of the leading priests^{(B) 2} and go out to the Valley of Hinnom^(C) near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Proclaim there the words I speak to you. ³ Say: Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem.^(D) This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that everyone who hears about it will shudder^{[b](E) 4} because they have abandoned Me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in it to other gods that they, their fathers, and the kings of Judah have never known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.^{(F) 5} They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something I have never commanded or mentioned; I never entertained the thought.^[c](G)

⁶ “Therefore, take note! The days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.^{(H) 7} I will spoil the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those who want to take their life. I will provide their corpses as food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land.^{(I) 8} I will make this city desolate, an object of scorn. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and scoff because of all its wounds.^{(J) 9} I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and they will eat each other’s flesh in the siege and distress that their enemies, those who want to take their life, inflict on them.^(K)

¹⁰ “Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the people traveling with you, ¹¹ and you are to proclaim to them: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: I will shatter these people and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be mended. They will bury the dead in Topheth because there is no other place for burials.^{(L) 12} I will do so to this place”—this is the declaration of the Lord—“and to its residents, making this city like Topheth. ¹³ The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will become impure like that place Topheth—all the houses on whose rooftops they have burned incense to the whole heavenly host^(M) and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”

¹⁴ Jeremiah came back from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, stood in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple,^(N) and proclaimed to all the people, ¹⁵ “This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I am about to bring on this city—and on all its dependent villages—all the disaster that I spoke against it, for they have become obstinate, not obeying My words.’”^(O)

Jeremiah Beaten by Pashhur

20 Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer^(P) and chief official in the temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. ² So Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate in the Lord’s temple. ³ The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-missabib,^{[d] 4} for this is what the Lord says, ‘I am about to make you a terror to both yourself and those you love.^(Q) They will fall by the sword of their enemies before your very eyes. I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will deport them to Babylon and put them to the sword. ⁵ I will give away all the wealth of this city, all its products^(R) and valuables. Indeed, I will hand all the treasures of the kings of Judah over to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon. ⁶ As for you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, you will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon. There you will die, and there you will be buried, you and all your friends that you prophesied falsely^(S) to.’”

Jeremiah Compelled to Preach

Jeremiah’s Lament

Daniel’s Captivity in Babylon

1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim^(A) king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar^[a](B) king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. ² The Lord handed Jehoiakim king of Judah over to him, along with some of the vessels from the house of God.^(C) Nebuchadnezzar carried them to the land of Babylon,^[b](D) to the house of his god,^[c] and put the vessels in the treasury of his god.

³ The king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his court officials,^[d] to bring some of the Israelites from the royal family^(E) and from the nobility— ⁴ young men without any physical defect, good-looking, suitable for instruction in all wisdom,^(F) knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable of serving in the king’s palace^(G)—and to teach them the Chaldean language^(H) and literature. ⁵ The king assigned them daily provisions from the royal food and from the wine that he drank.^(I) They were to be trained for three years, and at the end of that time they were to serve in the king’s court.^{[e](J) 6} Among them, from the descendants of Judah, were Daniel,^(K) Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. ⁷ The chief official gave them other names: he gave the name Belteshazzar to Daniel, Shadrach to Hananiah, Meshach to Mishael, and Abednego to Azariah.^(L)

Faithfulness in Babylon

⁸ Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king’s food^(M) or with the wine he drank. So he asked permission from the chief official not to defile himself.^{(N) 9} God had granted Daniel favor and compassion from the chief official,^{(O) 10} yet he said to Daniel, “My lord the king assigned your food and drink. I’m afraid of what would happen if he saw your faces looking thinner than those of the other young men your age. You would endanger my life^[f] with the king.”

¹¹ So Daniel said to the guard whom the chief official had assigned to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, ¹² “Please test your servants for 10 days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. ¹³ Then examine our appearance and the appearance of the young men who are eating the king’s food, and deal with your servants based on what you see.” ¹⁴ He agreed with them about this and tested them for 10 days. ¹⁵ At the end of 10 days they looked better and healthier^[g] than all the young men who were eating the king’s food.^{(P) 16} So the guard continued to remove their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables.

Faithfulness Rewarded

¹⁷ God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding^(Q) in every kind of literature and wisdom. Daniel also understood visions and dreams^(R) of every kind. ¹⁸ At the end of the time that the king had said to present them, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. ¹⁹ The king interviewed them, and among all of them, no one was found equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.^(S) So they began to serve in the king’s court. ²⁰ In every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king consulted them about, he found them 10 times^[h](T) better than all the diviner-priests and mediums^(U) in his entire kingdom. ²¹ Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.^(V)