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13 Two evils my people have done:
    they have forsaken me, the source of living waters;
They have dug themselves cisterns,
    broken cisterns that cannot hold water.(A)

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20 Of what use to me is incense that comes from Sheba,
    or sweet cane from far-off lands?
Your burnt offerings find no favor with me,
    your sacrifices do not please me.(A)

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II. Oracles Primarily from the Days of Jehoiakim

Chapter 7

The Temple Sermon.[a] The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Stand at the gate of the house of the Lord and proclaim this message there: Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord! Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Reform your ways and your deeds so that I may dwell with you in this place.(A) Do not put your trust in these deceptive words: “The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord!”(B) Only if you thoroughly reform your ways and your deeds; if each of you deals justly with your neighbor; if you no longer oppress the alien,[b] the orphan, and the widow; if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow after other gods to your own harm,(C) only then will I let you continue to dwell in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors long ago and forever.(D)

But look at you! You put your trust in deceptive words to your own loss! Do you think you can steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, sacrifice to Baal, follow other gods that you do not know,(E) 10 and then come and stand in my presence in this house, which bears my name, and say: “We are safe! We can commit all these abominations again!”?(F)

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Footnotes

  1. 7:1–15 The Temple of the Lord will not guarantee safety against enemy invasion or any other misfortune.
  2. 7:6 The alien: specially protected within Israelite society; cf. Ex 22:20; Nm 9:14; 15:14; Dt 5:14; 28:43.

12 He heard this and said, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 9:12 See note on Mk 2:17.

Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.(A)

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Chapter 10

The Folly of Idolatry. Hear the word the Lord speaks to you, house of Israel. Thus says the Lord:

Do not learn the ways of the nations,
    and have no fear of the signs in the heavens,[a]
    even though the nations fear them.(A)
For the carvings of the nations are nonentities,
    wood cut from the forest,
Fashioned by artisans with the adze,(B)
    adorned with silver and gold.
With nails and hammers they are fastened,
    so they do not fall.(C)
Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they,
    they cannot speak;
They must be carried about,
    for they cannot walk.
Do not fear them, they can do no harm,
    neither can they do good.(D)
No one is like you, Lord,
    you are great,
    great and mighty is your name.(E)
Who would not fear you,
    King of the nations,
    for it is your due!
Among all the wisest of the nations,
    and in all their domains,
    there is none like you.(F)
One and all they are stupid and senseless,
    the instruction from nonentities—only wood!
Silver plates brought from Tarshish,
    and gold from Ophir,
The work of the artisan
    and the handiwork of the smelter,
Clothed with violet and purple—
    all of them the work of skilled workers.
10 The Lord is truly God,
    he is the living God, the eternal King,
Before whose anger the earth quakes,
    whose wrath the nations cannot endure.(G)

11 Thus shall you say of them: The gods that did not make heaven and earth—let these perish from earth and from beneath heaven![b](H)

12 The one who made the earth by his power,
    established the world by his wisdom,
    and by his skill stretched out the heavens.(I)
13 When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar,
    and he brings up clouds from the end of the earth,
Makes lightning flash in the rain,
    and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
14 Everyone is too stupid to know;
    every artisan is put to shame by his idol:
He has molded a fraud,
    without breath of life.(J)
15 They are nothing, objects of ridicule;
    they will perish in their time of punishment.

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Footnotes

  1. 10:2 Signs in the heavens: phenomena in the sky, such as eclipses or comets, used to predict disasters.
  2. 10:11 This verse is in Aramaic.

Chapter 23

A Just Shepherd.[a] (A)Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the flock of my pasture—oracle of the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who shepherd my people: You have scattered my sheep and driven them away. You have not cared for them, but I will take care to punish your evil deeds.(B) I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have banished them and bring them back to their folds; there they shall be fruitful and multiply.(C) I will raise up shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear or be terrified; none shall be missing—oracle of the Lord.(D)

See, days are coming—oracle of the Lord
    when I will raise up a righteous branch for David;
As king he shall reign and govern wisely,
    he shall do what is just and right in the land.(E)
In his days Judah shall be saved,
    Israel shall dwell in security.
This is the name to be given him:
    “The Lord our justice.”(F)

(G)Therefore, the days are coming—oracle of the Lord—when they shall no longer say, “As the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt”; but rather, “As the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of the house of Israel up from the land of the north”—and from all the lands to which I banished them; they shall again live on their own soil.

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Footnotes

  1. 23:1–8 With the false rulers (shepherds) who have governed his people the Lord contrasts himself, the true shepherd, who will in the times of restoration appoint worthy rulers (vv. 1–4). He will provide a new king from David’s line who will rule justly, fulfilling royal ideals (vv. 5, 6). “The Lord our justice” is an ironic wordplay on the name of the weak King Zedekiah (“The Lord is justice”). Unlike Zedekiah, the future king will be true to the name he bears. Verses 7–8 may have been added during the exile.