Jeremiah 20-21

New King James Version

The Word of God to Pashhur

20 Now ^(A)Pashhur the son of ^(B)Immer, the priest who was also chief governor in the house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. ²Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high ^(C)gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord.

³And it happened on the next day that Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord has not called your name Pashhur, but ^[a]Magor-Missabib. ⁴For thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it. I will ^(D)give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon and slay them with the sword. ⁵Moreover I ^(E)will deliver all the wealth of this city, all its produce, and all its precious things; all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them, seize them, and ^(F)carry them to Babylon. ⁶And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. You shall go to Babylon, and there you shall die, and be buried there, you and all your friends, to whom you have ^(G)prophesied lies.’ ”

Jeremiah’s Unpopular Ministry

⁷O Lord, You ^[b]induced me, and I was persuaded;
^(H)You are stronger than I, and have prevailed.
^(I)I am ^[c]in derision daily;
Everyone mocks me.
⁸For when I spoke, I cried out;
^(J)I shouted, “Violence and plunder!”
Because the word of the Lord was made to me
A reproach and a derision daily.
⁹Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name.”
But His word was in my heart like a ^(K)burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And ^(L)I could not.
¹⁰^(M)For I heard many ^[d]mocking:
“Fear on every side!”
“Report,” they say, “and we will report it!”
^(N)All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying,
“Perhaps he can be induced;
Then we will prevail against him,
And we will take our revenge on him.”

¹¹But the Lord is ^(O)with me as a mighty, awesome One.
Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not ^(P)prevail.
They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper.
Their ^(Q)everlasting confusion will never be forgotten.
¹²But, O Lord of hosts,
You who ^(R)test the righteous,
And see the ^[e]mind and heart,
^(S)Let me see Your vengeance on them;
For I have pleaded my cause before You.

¹³Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord!
For ^(T)He has delivered the life of the poor
From the hand of evildoers.

¹⁴^(U)Cursed be the day in which I was born!
Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!
¹⁵Let the man be cursed
Who brought news to my father, saying,
“A male child has been born to you!”
Making him very glad.
¹⁶And let that man be like the cities
Which the Lord ^(V)overthrew, and did not relent;
Let him ^(W)hear the cry in the morning
And the shouting at noon,
¹⁷^(X)Because he did not kill me from the womb,
That my mother might have been my grave,
And her womb always enlarged with me.
¹⁸^(Y)Why did I come forth from the womb to ^(Z)see ^[f]labor and sorrow,
That my days should be consumed with shame?

Jerusalem’s Doom Is Sealed

21 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when ^(AA)King Zedekiah sent to him ^(AB)Pashhur the son of Melchiah, and ^(AC)Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, ²^(AD)“Please inquire of the Lord for us, for ^[g]Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all His wonderful works, that the king may go away from us.”

³Then Jeremiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, ⁴‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the ^[h]Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls; and ^(AE)I will assemble them in the midst of this city. ⁵I ^(AF)Myself will fight against you with an ^(AG)outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath. ⁶I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great pestilence. ⁷And afterward,” says the Lord, ^(AH)“I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. ^(AI)He shall not spare them, or have pity or mercy.” ’

⁸“Now you shall say to this people, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, ^(AJ)I set before you the way of life and the way of death. ⁹He who ^(AK)remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and ^[i]defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall ^(AL)live, and his life shall be as a prize to him. ¹⁰For I have ^(AM)set My face against this city for adversity and not for good,” says the Lord. ^(AN)“It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall ^(AO)burn it with fire.” ’

Message to the House of David

¹¹“And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, ¹²O house of David! Thus says the Lord:

^(AP)“Execute^[j] judgment ^(AQ)in the morning;
And deliver him who is plundered
Out of the hand of the oppressor,
Lest My fury go forth like fire
And burn so that no one can quench it,
Because of the evil of your doings.

¹³“Behold, ^(AR)I am against you, O ^[k]inhabitant of the valley,
And rock of the plain,” says the Lord,
“Who say, ^(AS)‘Who shall come down against us?
Or who shall enter our dwellings?’
¹⁴But I will punish you according to the ^(AT)fruit of your ^[l]doings,” says the Lord;
“I will kindle a fire in its forest,
And ^(AU)it shall devour all things around it.” ’ ”

Footnotes

Jeremiah 20:3 Lit. Fear on Every Side
Jeremiah 20:7 enticed or persuaded
Jeremiah 20:7 Lit. a laughingstock all the day
Jeremiah 20:10 slandering
Jeremiah 20:12 Most secret parts, lit. kidneys
Jeremiah 20:18 toil
Jeremiah 21:2 Heb. Nebuchadrezzar, and so elsewhere in the book
Jeremiah 21:4 Or Babylonians, and so elsewhere in the book
Jeremiah 21:9 Lit. falls away to
Jeremiah 21:12 Dispense justice
Jeremiah 21:13 dweller
Jeremiah 21:14 deeds

Matthew 24:1-28

New King James Version

Jesus Predicts the Destruction of the Temple^(A)

24 Then ^(B)Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. ²And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, ^(C)not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

The Signs of the Times and the End of the Age^(D)

³Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, ^(E)the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ^(F)“Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

⁴And Jesus answered and said to them: ^(G)“Take heed that no one deceives you. ⁵For ^(H)many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ ^(I)and will deceive many. ⁶And you will hear of ^(J)wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for ^[a]all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. ⁷For ^(K)nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be ^(L)famines, ^[b]pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. ⁸All these are the beginning of sorrows.

⁹^(M)“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. ¹⁰And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. ¹¹Then ^(N)many false prophets will rise up and ^(O)deceive many. ¹²And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow ^(P)cold. ¹³^(Q)But he who endures to the end shall be saved. ¹⁴And this ^(R)gospel of the kingdom ^(S)will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

The Great Tribulation^(T)

¹⁵^(U)“Therefore when you see the ^(V)‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” ^(W)(whoever reads, let him understand), ¹⁶“then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. ¹⁸And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. ¹⁹But ^(X)woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! ²⁰And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. ²¹For ^(Y)then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. ²²And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; ^(Z)but for the ^[c]elect’s sake those days will be shortened.

²³^(AA)“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. ²⁴For ^(AB)false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, ^(AC)if possible, even the elect. ²⁵See, I have told you beforehand.

²⁶“Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. ²⁷^(AD)For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. ²⁸^(AE)For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.