Israel Must Not Trust in Lying Words

7 This word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ² “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house and make this word known: ‘Hear the Word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who go through these gates to worship the Lord!’” ³ The Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, “Change your ways and your works for the better, and I will let you live in this place. ⁴ Do not trust the lies that say, ‘This is the house of the Lord, the house of the Lord, the house of the Lord.’ ⁵ For if you for sure change your ways and what you do for the better, if you are fair as you judge between a man and his neighbor, ⁶ if you do not make it hard for the stranger from another land, or the child whose parents have died, or the woman whose husband has died, and do not kill those who are not guilty in this place, and stop going after other gods, for that will destroy you, ⁷ then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

⁸ “See, you are trusting in lies which cannot help you. ⁹ Will you steal, kill, do sex sins, make false promises, give gifts to the false god Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰ and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are safe and free!’ and still do all these hated sins? ¹¹ Has this house which is called by My name become a place of robbers in your eyes? See, I Myself have seen it,” says the Lord.

¹² “But go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a place for My name. And see what I did to it because of the sin of My people Israel. ¹³ Now you have done all these things,” says the Lord. “I spoke to you again and again, but you did not hear. I called you but you did not answer. ¹⁴ So as I did to Shiloh, I will do to the house that is called by My name and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave you and your fathers. ¹⁵ I will send you away from My eyes, as I have sent away all your brothers, all the children of Ephraim.

Israel Does Not Obey

¹⁶ “As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not lift up a cry or prayer for them. Do not speak with Me about them, for I do 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 make the fire. And the women make bread and cakes for the queen of heaven. They pour out drink gifts to other gods to make Me angry. ¹⁹ Do they make Me angry?” says the Lord. “Is it not themselves they hurt, to their own shame?” ²⁰ So the Lord God says, “See, My anger will be poured out on this place, on man and animal, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. It will burn and not be stopped.”

²¹ The Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, “Add your burnt gifts to the animals you kill on the altar, and eat the flesh. ²² For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to them or tell them what to do about burnt gifts and animals killed on the altar. ²³ But I did tell them, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. Walk in all the way that I tell you, that it may be well with you.’ ²⁴ Yet they did not obey or listen, but walked in the way they wanted to and in the strong-will of their sinful heart. They only stepped back and did not go on. ²⁵ Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants who speak for Me. I have risen up early and sent them day after day. ²⁶ Yet they did not listen to Me or turn their ear to Me, but made their neck hard. They sinned more than their fathers.

Israel’s Sinful Actions

²⁷ “You will speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You will call to them, but they will not answer you. ²⁸ And you will say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or receive His strong teaching. They have lost the truth. It has been cut off from their mouth. ²⁹ Cut off your hair and throw it away. And cry in sorrow on the open hill-tops. For the Lord has turned away and left the people who made Him angry.’ ³⁰ For the sons of Judah have done what is sinful in My eyes,” says the Lord. “They have put their hated things in the house that is called by My name, to make it unclean. ³¹ And they have built the high places of Topheth, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire. I did not tell them to do this. It did not come into My mind. ³² So the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when it will not be called Topheth any more, or the valley of the son of Hinnom. But it will be called the valley of Killing. For they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place. ³³ The dead bodies of these people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the earth. And no one will send them away in fear. ³⁴ Then in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, I will put an end to the voice of joy and the voice of happiness, the voice of the man to be married and the voice of the bride. For the land will become a waste.

8 “At that time,” says the Lord, “they will bring out the bones of the kings and leaders of Judah, the bones of the religious leaders, the bones of the men of God, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem from their graves. ² And they will spread them out to the sun, the moon, and to all the stars of heaven. For these they have loved, and served, and followed, and looked for, and worshiped. The bones will not be gathered or buried. They will be as animal waste on top of the ground. ³ And death will be chosen instead of life by all those who are left of this sinful family in all the places where I have driven them,” says the Lord of All.

Sin and Its Punishment

⁴ “You will say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: “Do men fall and not get up again? Does one turn away and not return? ⁵ Why then have the people of Jerusalem always turned away from Me? They hold on to what is false, and will not return. ⁶ I have listened and heard, but they have not said what is right. No man turned from his sinful way, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Every one turns to his own way like a horse running into battle. ⁷ Even the stork in the sky knows her times. And the turtle-dove, crane, and swallow keep the time of their coming. But My people do not know the Law of the Lord.

⁸ “How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the Law of the Lord is with us’? See, the lying hand of the writers has made it into a lie. ⁹ The wise men are put to shame. They are troubled and taken. See, they have turned away from the Word of the Lord, and what kind of wisdom do they have? ¹⁰ So I will give their wives to others, and their fields to new owners. Because from the least to the greatest, every one is always wanting much. From the man of God to the religious leader, no one can be trusted in what he does. ¹¹ They have healed the hurt of My people very little, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. ¹² Were they ashamed because of the hated sin they had done? They were not ashamed at all. They did not even know how to turn red. So they will fall among those who fall. When I punish them, they will be put down,” says the Lord.

¹³ “For sure I will take them away,” says the Lord. “There will be no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig tree, and the leaves will dry up. What I have given them will pass away.” ¹⁴ Why are we sitting here? Gather together, and let us go into the strong cities and die there. For the Lord our God has given us up to die. He has given us poison in our water to drink, for we have sinned against Him. ¹⁵ We waited for peace, but no good came. We waited for a time of healing, but see, there is much trouble. ¹⁶ The noise of his horses is heard from Dan. The whole land shakes at the sound of his war horses. For they come and destroy the land and everything that is in it, the city and those who live in it. ¹⁷ “For see, I am sending the worst of snakes against you, poison snakes which cannot be stopped. And they will bite you,” says the Lord.

¹⁸ My sorrow is too much to heal. My heart is weak within me. ¹⁹ Listen! It is the cry of my people from a far away land: “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” “Why have they made Me angry with their objects of worship, and with strange gods?” ²⁰ “Gathering time is past, summer is ended, and we are not saved.” ²¹ I am hurt because my people are hurt. I am filled with sorrow, and fear has taken hold of me. ²² Is there no healing oil in Gilead? Is there no doctor there? Why then have my people not been healed?

9 If only my head were a well of water, and my eyes a well of tears, that I might cry day and night for my people who have been killed! ² If only I had a place in the desert for travelers to stay, that I might leave my people, and go away from them! For none of them are faithful. They are a gathering of men who cannot be trusted. ³ “They use their tongue like their bow. Lies, and not truth, rule the land. For they go from sin to sin, and they do not know Me,” says the Lord. ⁴ “Let every one watch his neighbor. Do not trust any brother. Because every brother sets traps, and every neighbor goes about hurting people with his talk. ⁵ Every one fools his neighbor, and does not tell the truth. They have taught their tongue to tell lies. They become tired doing so many sins. ⁶ You live in the center of false ways. In their false ways they are not willing to know Me,” says the Lord.

⁷ So the Lord of All says, “See, I will make them pure and test them. For what else can I do with My people? ⁸ Their tongue is an arrow that kills. It lies. A man speaks peace to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he plans to trap him. ⁹ Should I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord. “Should I not make a nation such as this pay for its sins?

¹⁰ “I will cry with a loud voice for the mountains. I will cry out in sorrow for the fields, because they are laid waste. No one passes through them. The sound of the cattle is not heard. The birds of the sky and the wild animals have run away. They are gone. ¹¹ I will break down Jerusalem into pieces, a place where wild dogs live. And I will lay waste the cities of Judah. No people will live there.”

¹² Who is the man wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may make it known? Why is the land destroyed and laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through? ¹³ And the Lord said, “They have turned away from My Law that I have given them. They have not obeyed My voice and would not be led by it. ¹⁴ But they have followed the strongwill of their own hearts, and have gone after the false gods of Baal, as their fathers taught them.” ¹⁵ So the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, “See, I will feed these people with wormwood and put poison in their drinking water. ¹⁶ I will spread them out among the nations whom they and their fathers have not known. And I will go after them with the sword until I have put an end to them.”

Jerusalem Cries for Help

¹⁷ The Lord of All says, “Take thought and call for the women who are filled with sorrow, that they may come. Call for the women who cry for the dead, that they may come. ¹⁸ Let them hurry and cry in a loud voice for us, that tears may come from our eyes, and that our eyes will flow with water. ¹⁹ For a sound of loud crying is heard from Zion: ‘How we are destroyed! We are filled with shame, for we have left the land because they have broken down our houses.’” ²⁰ Now hear the Word of the Lord, O you women. Let your ear receive the Word of His mouth. Teach your daughters a song of sorrow. Every one teach her neighbor a song for the dead. ²¹ For death has come in through our windows. It has come into our beautiful houses of kings. It has cut off the children from the streets, and the young men from the open spaces of the city. ²² Say, “This is what the Lord says: ‘The dead bodies of men will fall like animal waste on the open field, and like grain after the gatherer. But no one will gather them.’”

²³ The Lord says, “Let not a wise man speak with pride about his wisdom. Let not the strong man speak with pride about his strength. And let not a rich man speak with pride about his riches. ²⁴ But let him who speaks with pride speak about this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who shows loving-kindness and does what is fair and right and good on earth. For I find joy in these things,” says the Lord.

²⁵ “See, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I will punish all who have gone through the religious act of the Jews, but have not had the sin cut from their heart. ²⁶ I will punish Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all those who live in the desert. For none of these nations have had their flesh cut. And none of the people of Israel have had the sin cut from their heart.”

Christ Lived Before the World Was Made

1 The Word (Christ) was in the beginning. The Word was with God. The Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ He made all things. Nothing was made without Him making it. ⁴ Life began by Him. His Life was the Light for men. ⁵ The Light shines in the darkness. The darkness has never been able to put out the Light.

John the Baptist Tells of the Coming of Christ

⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came to tell what he knew about the Light so that all men might believe through him. ⁸ John was not the Light, but he was sent to tell about the Light.

⁹ This true Light, coming into the world, gives light to every man. ¹⁰ He came into the world. The world was made by Him, but it did not know Him. ¹¹ He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. ¹² He gave the right and the power to become children of God to those who received Him. He gave this to those who put their trust in His name. ¹³ These children of God were not born of blood and of flesh and of man’s desires, but they were born of God. ¹⁴ Christ became human flesh and lived among us. We saw His shining-greatness. This greatness is given only to a much-loved Son from His Father. He was full of loving-favor and truth.

John the Baptist Makes the Way Ready for Jesus Christ ^(A)

¹⁵ John told about Christ and said, “I have been telling you about this One. I said, ‘He is coming after me. He is more important than I because He lived before me.’” ¹⁶ From Him Who has so much we have all received loving-favor, one loving-favor after another. ¹⁷ The Law was given through Moses, but loving-favor and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ The much-loved Son is beside the Father. No man has ever seen God. But Christ has made God known to us.