The Broken Flask

19 Thus says the Lord, “Go, buy ^(A)a potter's earthenware ^(B)flask, and take some of ^(C)the elders of the people and some of ^(D)the elders of the priests, ² and go out ^(E)to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. ³ You shall say, ^(F)‘Hear the word of the Lord, ^(G)O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that ^(H)the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. ^4 (I)Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; ^(J)and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, ^5 (K)and have built the high places of Baal ^(L)to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, ^(M)which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind— ⁶ therefore, ^(N)behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or ^(O)the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. ⁷ And in this place ^(P)I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, ^(Q)and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. ^(R)I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. ⁸ And I will make this city ^(S)a horror, ^(T)a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. ^9 (U)And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor ^(V)in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.’

¹⁰ “Then ^(W)you shall break ^(X)the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, ¹¹ and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, ^(Y)as one breaks a potter's vessel, ^(Z)so that it can never be mended. ^(AA)Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. ¹² Thus will I do to this place, declares the Lord, and to its inhabitants, making this city ^(AB)like Topheth. ¹³ The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah—^(AC)all the houses on whose ^(AD)roofs offerings have been offered ^(AE)to all the host of heaven, and ^(AF)drink offerings have been poured out to other gods—shall be defiled ^(AG)like the place of Topheth.’”

¹⁴ Then Jeremiah came from ^(AH)Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, ^(AI)and he stood in the court of the Lord's house and said to all the people: ¹⁵ “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, ^(AJ)because they have stiffened their neck, ^(AK)refusing to hear my words.”

Jeremiah Persecuted by Pashhur

20 Now ^(AL)Pashhur the priest, the son of ^(AM)Immer, who was ^(AN)chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. ² Then ^(AO)Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him ^(AP)in the stocks that were in the upper ^(AQ)Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. ³ The next day, when ^(AR)Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call your name ^(AS)Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. ⁴ For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you ^(AT)a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. ⁵ Moreover, ^(AU)I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its ^(AV)prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. ⁶ And you, ^(AW)Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, ^(AX)to whom you have prophesied falsely.”

Jerusalem Will Fall to Nebuchadnezzar

21 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him ^(CB)Pashhur the son of Malchiah and ^(CC)Zephaniah the priest, the son of ^(CD)Maaseiah, saying, ^2 (CE)“Inquire of the Lord for us, ^(CF)for Nebuchadnezzar^[b] king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to ^(CG)all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.”

³ Then Jeremiah said to them: “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, ⁴ ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ^(CH)Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. ^(CI)And I will bring them together into the midst of this city. ⁵ I myself will fight against you ^(CJ)with outstretched hand and strong arm, ^(CK)in anger and in fury and in great wrath. ⁶ And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence. ⁷ Afterward, declares the Lord, ^(CL)I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword. ^(CM)He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.’

⁸ “And to this people you shall say: ^(CN)‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, ^(CO)I set before you the way of life and the way of death. ⁹ He who stays in this city shall die ^(CP)by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and ^(CQ)surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live ^(CR)and shall have his life as a prize of war. ¹⁰ For ^(CS)I have set my face against this city for harm and ^(CT)not for good, declares the Lord: ^(CU)it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.’

Message to the House of David

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

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and ^(A)baptizing more disciples than John ² (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), ³ he left Judea and departed ^(B)again for Galilee. ^4 (C)And he had to pass through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field ^(D)that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, ^(E)wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.^[a]

⁷ A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ^(F)“Give me a drink.” ⁸ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (^(G)For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you ^(H)living water.” ¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ^12 (I)Are you greater than our father Jacob? ^(J)He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” ¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but ^(K)whoever drinks of the water that I will give him ^(L)will never be thirsty again.^[b] The water that I will give him will become ^(M)in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, ^(N)give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, ^(O)call your husband, and come here.” ¹⁷ The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that ^(P)you are ^(Q)a prophet. ^20 (R)Our fathers worshiped on ^(S)this mountain, but you say that ^(T)in Jerusalem is ^(U)the place where people ought to worship.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, ^(V)“Woman, believe me, ^(W)the hour is coming when ^(X)neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ^22 (Y)You worship what you do not know; ^(Z)we worship what we know, for ^(AA)salvation is ^(AB)from the Jews. ²³ But ^(AC)the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father ^(AD)in spirit and ^(AE)truth, for the Father ^(AF)is seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that ^(AG)Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, ^(AH)he will tell us all things.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, ^(AI)“I who speak to you am he.”

²⁷ Just then ^(AJ)his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” ²⁸ So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man ^(AK)who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” ³⁰ They went out of the town and were coming to him.

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, ^(AL)“Rabbi, eat.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” ³³ So the disciples said to one another, ^(AM)“Has anyone brought him something to eat?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, ^(AN)“My food is ^(AO)to do the will of him who sent me and ^(AP)to accomplish his work. ³⁵ Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that ^(AQ)the fields are white for harvest. ³⁶ Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that ^(AR)sower and ^(AS)reaper ^(AT)may rejoice together. ³⁷ For here the saying holds true, ^(AU)‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap ^(AV)that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, ^(AW)and you have entered into their labor.”

³⁹ Many Samaritans ^(AX)from that town believed in him ^(AY)because of ^(AZ)the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹ And many more believed ^(BA)because of his word. ⁴² They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, ^(BB)and we know that this is indeed ^(BC)the Savior ^(BD)of the world.”

⁴³ After ^(BE)the two days he departed for Galilee. ⁴⁴ (For Jesus himself had testified ^(BF)that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) ⁴⁵ So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, ^(BG)having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For ^(BH)they too had gone to the feast.

Jesus Heals an Official's Son

⁴⁶ So he came again to ^(BI)Cana in Galilee, ^(BJ)where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. ⁴⁷ When this man heard that Jesus ^(BK)had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸ So Jesus said to him, ^(BL)“Unless you^[c] see signs and wonders you will not believe.” ⁴⁹ The official said to him, “Sir, come down ^(BM)before my child dies.” ⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. ⁵¹ As he was going down, his servants^[d] met him and told him that his son was recovering. ⁵² So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour^[e] the fever left him.” ⁵³ The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, ^(BN)and all his household. ^54 (BO)This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.