^23 (A)“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? ^24 (B)Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. ^(C)Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. ²⁵ I have heard what the prophets have said ^(D)who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ^(E)‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ ²⁶ How long shall there be lies in the heart of ^(F)the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, ²⁷ who think to make my people forget my name ^(G)by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their ^(H)fathers forgot my name for Baal? ^28 (I)Let the prophet who has a dream ^(J)tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. ^(K)What has straw in common with wheat? declares the Lord. ^29 (L)Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and ^(M)like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? ^30 (N)Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who steal my words from one another. ³¹ Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the Lord, who use their tongues and declare, ‘declares the Lord.’ ³² Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the Lord, and who tell them and ^(O)lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when ^(P)I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the Lord.

^33 (Q)“When one of 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,^[a] and ^(R)I will cast you off, declares the Lord.’ ³⁴ And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ ^(S)I will punish that man and his household. ³⁵ Thus shall you say, every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ or ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ ³⁶ But ‘the burden of the Lord’ you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man's own word, and ^(T)you pervert the words of ^(U)the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. ³⁷ Thus you shall say to 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, behold, I will surely lift you up^[b] and ^(V)cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers. ^40 (W)And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and ^(X)perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.’”

The Good Figs and the Bad Figs

24 ^(Y)After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem ^(Z)Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with ^(AA)the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision: behold, ^(AB)two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. ² One basket had very good figs, ^(AC)like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had ^(AD)very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. ³ And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

⁴ Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁵ “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, ^(AE)whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. ^6 (AF)I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. ^(AG)I will build them up, and not tear them down; ^(AH)I will plant them, and not pluck them up. ^7 (AI)I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, ^(AJ)and they shall be my people ^(AK)and I will be their God, ^(AL)for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

⁸ “But thus says the Lord: Like ^(AM)the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat ^(AN)Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who ^(AO)dwell in the land of Egypt. ⁹ I will make them ^(AP)a horror^[c] to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be ^(AQ)a reproach, ^(AR)a byword, ^(AS)a taunt, and ^(AT)a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. ¹⁰ And I will send ^(AU)sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.”

Zayin

6 ^(A)Let all who are under a yoke as bondservants^[a] regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, ^(B)so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled. ² Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are ^(C)brothers; rather they must serve all the better since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved.

False Teachers and True Contentment

^(D)Teach and urge these things. ³ If anyone ^(E)teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with ^(F)the sound^[b] words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching ^(G)that accords with godliness, ^4 (H)he is puffed up with conceit and ^(I)understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for ^(J)controversy and for ^(K)quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, ⁵ and constant friction among people ^(L)who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, ^(M)imagining that godliness is a means of gain. ⁶ But ^(N)godliness ^(O)with contentment is great gain, ⁷ for ^(P)we brought nothing into the world, and^[c] we cannot take anything out of the world. ⁸ But ^(Q)if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. ⁹ But ^(R)those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, ^(S)into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that ^(T)plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of ^(U)all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.