Jeremiah 22:20-23:8

English Standard Version

²⁰“Go up to Lebanon, and cry out,
    and lift up your voice in Bashan;
cry out from ^(A)Abarim,
    for all ^(B)your lovers are destroyed.
²¹I spoke to you in your prosperity,
    but you said, ‘I will not listen.’
^(C)This has been your way from ^(D)your youth,
    that you have not obeyed my voice.
²²^(E)The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds,
    and ^(F)your lovers shall go into captivity;
^(G)then you will be ashamed and confounded
    because of all your evil.
²³O inhabitant of ^(H)Lebanon,
    nested among the cedars,
how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you,
    ^(I)pain as of a woman in labor!”

²⁴^(J)“As I live, declares the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were ^(K)the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off ²⁵and ^(L)give you ^(M)into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. ²⁶^(N)I will hurl you and ^(O)the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. ²⁷But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.”

²⁸Is this man ^(P)Coniah a despised, broken pot,
    a ^(Q)vessel no one cares for?
Why are he and his children hurled and cast
    into a ^(R)land that they do not know?
²⁹^(S)O land, land, land,
    hear the word of the Lord!
³⁰Thus says the Lord:
“Write this man down as ^(T)childless,
    a man who shall not succeed in his days,
^(U)for none of his offspring shall succeed
    ^(V)in sitting on the throne of David
    and ruling again in Judah.”

The Righteous Branch

23 ^(W)“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. ²Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning ^(X)the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. ^(Y)Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. ³^(Z)Then I will gather the remnant of my flock ^(AA)out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, ^(AB)and they shall be fruitful and multiply. ⁴^(AC)I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.

⁵^(AD)“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous ^(AE)Branch, and ^(AF)he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶In his days Judah will be saved, and ^(AG)Israel will ^(AH)dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ^(AI)‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

⁷^(AJ)“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ ⁸but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he^[a] had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”