Impending Disaster for Jerusalem

Evil in the Land

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ^2 (BL)“Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. ³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(BM)Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. ^4 (BN)Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

⁵ “For if you truly ^(BO)amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly ^(BP)execute justice one with another, ⁶ if you ^(BQ)do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, ^(BR)or shed innocent blood in this place, ^(BS)and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, ^7 (BT)then I will let you dwell in this place, ^(BU)in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

⁸ “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. ^9 (BV)Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, ^(BW)swear falsely, ^(BX)make offerings to Baal, ^(BY)and go after other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰ and then come and stand before me in this house, ^(BZ)which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? ^11 (CA)Has this house, ^(CB)which is called by my name, ^(CC)become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. ¹² Go now to ^(CD)my place that was in Shiloh, ^(CE)where I made my name dwell at first, and ^(CF)see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. ¹³ And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and ^(CG)when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and ^(CH)when I called you, you did not answer, ¹⁴ therefore I will do to ^(CI)the house ^(CJ)that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, ^(CK)as I did to Shiloh. ^15 (CL)And I will cast you out of my sight, ^(CM)as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of ^(CN)Ephraim.

¹⁶ “As for you, ^(CO)do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. ¹⁷ Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, ^(CP)and the women knead dough, to ^(CQ)make cakes for ^(CR)the queen of heaven. And ^(CS)they pour out drink offerings to other gods, ^(CT)to provoke me to anger. ^19 (CU)Is it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, ^(CV)to their own shame? ²⁰ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, ^(CW)my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; ^(CX)it will burn and not be quenched.”

²¹ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(CY)“Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. ²² For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them ^(CZ)concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. ²³ But this command I gave them: ^(DA)‘Obey my voice, and ^(DB)I will be your God, and you shall be my people. ^(DC)And walk in all the way that I command you, ^(DD)that it may be well with you.’ ^24 (DE)But they did not obey or incline their ear, ^(DF)but walked in their own counsels and ^(DG)the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and ^(DH)went backward and not forward. ²⁵ From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, ^(DI)I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. ^26 (DJ)Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, ^(DK)but stiffened their neck. ^(DL)They did worse than their fathers.

^27 (DM)“So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. ^(DN)You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. ²⁸ And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; ^(DO)truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.

The Valley of Slaughter

³⁰ “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set ^(DR)their detestable things in the house ^(DS)that is called by my name, to ^(DT)defile it. ³¹ And they have built the high places of ^(DU)Topheth, which is in ^(DV)the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, ^(DW)to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, ^(DX)which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind. ^32 (DY)Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called ^(DZ)Topheth, or ^(EA)the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; ^(EB)for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. ^33 (EC)And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, ^(ED)and none will frighten them away. ^34 (EE)And I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, ^(EF)for the land shall become a waste.

8 “At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. ² And they shall be spread ^(EG)before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. ^(EH)And they shall not be gathered or buried. ^(EI)They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. ^3 (EJ)Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family ^(EK)in all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.

Sin and Treachery

Jeremiah Grieves for His People

8 ¹ but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ^2 (A)Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and ^(B)he sat down and taught them. ³ The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst ⁴ they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ Now ^(C)in the Law, Moses commanded us ^(D)to stone such women. So what do you say?” ⁶ This they said ^(E)to test him, ^(F)that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. ⁷ And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, ^(G)“Let him who is without sin among you ^(H)be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸ And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. ⁹ But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. ¹⁰ Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” ¹¹ She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, ^(I)“Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on ^(J)sin no more.”]]

I Am the Light of the World

^12 (K)Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ^(L)“I am the light of the world. Whoever ^(M)follows me will not ^(N)walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” ¹³ So the Pharisees said to him, ^(O)“You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” ¹⁴ Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, ^(P)my testimony is true, for I know ^(Q)where I came from and ^(R)where I am going, but ^(S)you do not know where I come from or where I am going. ^15 (T)You judge according to the flesh; ^(U)I judge no one. ¹⁶ Yet even if I do judge, ^(V)my judgment is true, for ^(W)it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father^[a] who sent me. ^17 (X)In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. ¹⁸ I am the one who bears witness about myself, and ^(Y)the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” ¹⁹ They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, ^(Z)“You know neither me nor my Father. ^(AA)If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” ²⁰ These words he spoke in ^(AB)the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but ^(AC)no one arrested him, because ^(AD)his hour had not yet come.

²¹ So he said to them again, ^(AE)“I am going away, and ^(AF)you will seek me, and ^(AG)you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” ²² So the Jews said, ^(AH)“Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” ²³ He said to them, ^(AI)“You are from below; I am from above. ^(AJ)You are of this world; ^(AK)I am not of this world. ²⁴ I told you that you ^(AL)would die in your sins, for ^(AM)unless you believe that ^(AN)I am he you will die in your sins.” ²⁵ So they said to him, ^(AO)“Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. ²⁶ I have much to say about you and much to judge, but ^(AP)he who sent me is true, and I declare ^(AQ)to the world ^(AR)what I have heard from him.” ²⁷ They did not understand that ^(AS)he had been speaking to them about the Father. ²⁸ So Jesus said to them, “When you have ^(AT)lifted up the Son of Man, ^(AU)then you will know that ^(AV)I am he, and that ^(AW)I do nothing on my own authority, but ^(AX)speak just as the Father taught me. ²⁹ And ^(AY)he who sent me is with me. ^(AZ)He has not left me alone, for ^(BA)I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” ³⁰ As he was saying these things, ^(BB)many believed in him.

The Truth Will Set You Free

³¹ So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ^(BC)“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, ³² and you will ^(BD)know the truth, and the truth ^(BE)will set you free.” ³³ They answered him, ^(BF)“We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, ^(BG)everyone who practices sin is a slave^[b] to sin. ^35 (BH)The slave does not remain in the house forever; ^(BI)the son remains forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷ I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet ^(BJ)you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. ^38 (BK)I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard ^(BL)from your father.”

You Are of Your Father the Devil

³⁹ They answered him, ^(BM)“Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, ^(BN)“If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, ⁴⁰ but now ^(BO)you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth ^(BP)that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. ⁴¹ You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, ^(BQ)“We were not born of sexual immorality. We have ^(BR)one Father—even God.” ⁴² Jesus said to them, ^(BS)“If God were your Father, you would love me, for ^(BT)I came from God and ^(BU)I am here. ^(BV)I came not of my own accord, but ^(BW)he sent me. ^43 (BX)Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot ^(BY)bear to hear my word. ^44 (BZ)You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. ^(CA)He was a murderer from the beginning, and ^(CB)does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. ^(CC)When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵ But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. ⁴⁶ Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? ^47 (CD)Whoever is of God hears the words of God. ^(CE)The reason why you do not hear them is that ^(CF)you are not of God.”

Before Abraham Was, I Am

⁴⁸ The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and ^(CG)have a demon?” ⁴⁹ Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but ^(CH)I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. ⁵⁰ Yet ^(CI)I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. ⁵¹ Truly, truly, ^(CJ)I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never ^(CK)see death.” ⁵² The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! ^(CL)Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet ^(CM)you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never ^(CN)taste death.’ ^53 (CO)Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” ⁵⁴ Jesus answered, ^(CP)“If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. ^(CQ)It is my Father who glorifies me, ^(CR)of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’^{[c] 55} But ^(CS)you have not known him. ^(CT)I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be ^(CU)a liar ^(CV)like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. ^56 (CW)Your father Abraham ^(CX)rejoiced ^(CY)that he would see my day. ^(CZ)He saw it and was glad.” ⁵⁷ So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”^{[d] 58} Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, ^(DA)I am.” ⁵⁹ So ^(DB)they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.