Jeremiah’s Life Threatened

¹⁸ Now the Lord gave me knowledge of it, and I know it; for You showed me their doings.

¹¹ Will the men of Keilah deliver me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as Your servant has heard? O Lord God of Israel, I pray, tell Your servant.”

And the Lord said, “He will come down.”

¹² Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah ^[a]deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?”

And the Lord said, “They will deliver you.”

⁹ And the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, “Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are coming down there.” ¹⁰ Then the king of Israel sent someone to the place of which the man of God had told him. Thus he warned him, and he was watchful there, not just once or twice.

⁷ For if the truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?

⁶ Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great ^(A)abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.” ⁷ So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. ⁸ Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.

⁹ And He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.” ¹⁰ So I went in and saw, and there—every ^(B)sort of ^(C)creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, ^[a]portrayed all around on the walls. ¹¹ And there stood before them ^(D)seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up. ¹² Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ^(E)‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’ ”

¹³ And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.” ¹⁴ So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for ^[b]Tammuz.

¹⁵ Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.” ¹⁶ So He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the Lord, ^(F)between the porch and the altar, ^(G)were about twenty-five men ^(H)with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping ^(I)the sun toward the east.

¹⁷ And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have ^(J)filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose. ^18 (K)Therefore I also will act in fury. My ^(L)eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they ^(M)cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”