Judah’s Inevitable Doom

15 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people, I wouldn’t help them. Away with them! Get them out of my sight!

¹⁴ Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were there, their righteousness would save no one but themselves, says the Sovereign Lord.

²⁰ As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were there, they wouldn’t be able to save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved by their righteousness.

²¹ “Now this is what the Sovereign Lord says: How terrible it will be when all four of these dreadful punishments fall upon Jerusalem—war, famine, wild animals, and disease—destroying all her people and animals.

The Lord Forbids Jeremiah to Intercede

¹¹ Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for these people anymore.

¹⁴ “Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah. Do not weep or pray for them, for I will not listen to them when they cry out to me in distress.

¹⁵ And I will send you out of my sight into exile, just as I did your relatives, the people of Israel.^[a]’

Judah’s Persistent Idolatry

¹⁶ “Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah. Do not weep or pray for them, and don’t beg me to help them, for I will not listen to you.

¹¹ But Moses tried to pacify the Lord his God. “O Lord!” he said. “Why are you so angry with your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand? ¹² Why let the Egyptians say, ‘Their God rescued them with the evil intention of slaughtering them in the mountains and wiping them from the face of the earth’? Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you have threatened against your people! ¹³ Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.^[a] You bound yourself with an oath to them, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. And I will give them all of this land that I have promised to your descendants, and they will possess it forever.’”

¹⁴ So the Lord changed his mind about the terrible disaster he had threatened to bring on his people.

²³ “As for me, I will certainly not sin against the Lord by ending my prayers for you. And I will continue to teach you what is good and right.