Denunciation of Persistent Idolatry

44 The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Judeans living in the land of Egypt, at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Memphis, and in the land of Pathros:^{(A) 2} Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You yourselves have seen all the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the towns of Judah. Look at them; today they are a desolation, without an inhabitant in them,^{(B) 3} because of the wickedness that they committed, provoking me to anger, in that they went to make offerings to and serve other gods that they had not known, neither they, nor you, nor your ancestors.^{(C) 4} Yet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, “I beg you not to do this abominable thing that I hate!”^{(D) 5} But they did not listen or incline their ear, to turn from their wickedness and make no offerings to other gods. ⁶ So my wrath and my anger were poured out and kindled in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became a waste and a desolation, as they still are today.^{(E) 7} And now thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why are you doing such great harm to yourselves, to cut off man and woman, child and infant, from the midst of Judah, leaving yourselves without a remnant?^{(F) 8} Why do you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, making offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have come to settle? Will you be cut off and become an object of cursing and ridicule among all the nations of the earth?^{(G) 9} Have you forgotten the crimes of your ancestors, of the kings of Judah, of their^[a] wives, your own crimes and those of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?^{(H) 10} They have shown no contrition or fear to this day, nor have they walked in my law and my statutes that I set before you and before your ancestors.^(I)

¹¹ Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am determined to bring disaster on you, to bring all Judah to an end.^{(J) 12} I will take the remnant of Judah who are determined to come to the land of Egypt to settle, and they shall perish, everyone; in the land of Egypt they shall fall; by the sword and by famine they shall perish; from the least to the greatest, they shall die by the sword and by famine; and they shall become an object of execration and horror, of cursing and ridicule.^{(K) 13} I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, ¹⁴ so that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to settle in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive or return to the land of Judah. Although they long to go back to live there, they shall not go back, except some fugitives.^(L)

³⁰ And why are we putting ourselves in danger every hour?^{(A) 31} I die every day! That is as certain, brothers and sisters, as my boasting of you—a boast that I make in Christ Jesus our Lord.^{(B) 32} If I fought with wild animals at Ephesus with a merely human perspective, what would I have gained by it? If the dead are not raised,

³³ Do not be deceived:

³⁴ Sober up, as you rightly ought to, and sin no more, for some people have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.^(D)

The Resurrection Body

³⁵ But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” ³⁶ Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.^{(E) 37} And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. ³⁸ But God gives it a body as he has chosen and to each kind of seed its own body. ³⁹ Not all flesh is alike, but there is one flesh for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. ⁴⁰ There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another. ⁴¹ There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory.

¹⁶ “But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,

¹⁸ “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon’; ¹⁹ the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”^[a](A)

Woes to Unrepentant Cities

²⁰ Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done because they did not repent. ²¹ “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.^{(B) 22} But I tell you, on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you.^{(C) 23} And you, Capernaum,

“For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.^{(D) 24} But I tell you that on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.”^(E)