Beginning
The Potter and the Clay
18 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was making something on the wheel. 4 Yet the vessel that he made of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 6 O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? says the Lord. As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. 7 At one moment I may speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it. 8 If that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to do to it. 9 Or at another moment I may speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it. 10 If it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will relent of the good with which I said I would bless it.
11 Now therefore speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Repent now, everyone from his evil way, and make your ways and your deeds good. 12 But they say, “There is no hope! But we will walk after our own devices, and each of us will do according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.”
13 Therefore thus says the Lord:
Ask now among the nations,
who has heard such things?
The virgin of Israel
has done a very horrible thing.
14 Shall a man leave the snow of Lebanon,
which comes from the rock of the field?
Shall the cold flowing water that comes from another place
be forsaken?
15 Because My people have forgotten Me,
they have burned incense to vain gods
and they have stumbled in their ways
from the ancient paths,
to walk in bypaths,
not on a highway,
16 to make their land desolate,
and a perpetual hissing;
everyone who passes by shall be astonished
and shake his head.
17 I will scatter them before the enemy
as with an east wind;
I will show them the back and not the face
in the day of their calamity.
Jeremiah Persecuted
18 Then they said, “Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah. For the law will not be lost from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.”
19 Give heed to me, O Lord,
and listen to the voice of those who contend with me.
20 Shall evil be recompensed for good?
For they have dug a pit for my soul.
Remember that I stood before You
to speak good for them,
and to turn away Your wrath from them.
21 Therefore, deliver up their children to the famine
and pour out their blood by the power of the sword;
and let their wives be bereaved of their children and become widows
and let their men be put to death;
let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
22 Let a cry be heard from their houses,
when You bring a troop suddenly upon them;
for they have dug a pit to take me
and hidden snares for my feet.
23 Yet, Lord, You know
all their counsel against me to slay me.
Do not forgive their iniquity
nor blot out their sin from Your sight;
but let them be overthrown before You;
deal thus with them in the time of Your anger.
The Broken Jar
19 Thus says the Lord: Go and buy a potter’s earthen bottle, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. 2 Then go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I will tell you, 3 and say: Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: I will bring such disaster upon this place, at which whoever hears of it, his ears shall tingle. 4 Because they have forsaken Me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocent, 5 and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into My mind— 6 therefore, surely the days are coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
7 I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of those who seek their lives. And their corpses I will give to be food for the fowl of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. 8 I will make this city desolate and a hissing. Everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss because of all the wounds. 9 I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone will eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their lives will distress them.
10 Then you will break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with you, 11 and say to them: Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel that cannot be made whole again; and they will bury them in Topheth until there is no other place to bury. 12 Thus I will do to this place and to the inhabitants, says the Lord, and even make this city as Topheth. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled as the place of Topheth, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven and have poured out drink offerings to other gods.
14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy. And he stood in the court of the house of the Lord and said to all the people: 15 Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: I am about to bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks so that they might not heed My words.
Pashhur Strikes Jeremiah
20 Now Pashhur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. 2 Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord. 3 On the next day Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, The Lord has not called your name Pashhur, but “Magor-missabib.”[a] 4 For thus says the Lord: I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. And they will fall by the sword of their enemies while your eyes will see it. Thus I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them captive into Babylon and will slay them with the sword. 5 Moreover I will deliver all the wealth of this city, and all its produce, and all the precious things; and all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies who will destroy them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon. 6 You, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house will go into captivity; and you will come to Babylon, and there you will die and will be buried there, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.
Jeremiah Dejected
7 O Lord, You have deceived me and I was deceived;
You are stronger than I and have prevailed.
I am held in derision daily;
everyone mocks me.
8 For each time I speak, I cry out;
I cry out, “Violence and devastation,”
because to me the word of the Lord has resulted
in reproach and derision daily.
9 But if I say, “I will not make mention of Him
nor speak any more in His name,”
then His word was in my heart
as a burning fire shut up in my bones;
and I was weary of forbearing it,
and I could not endure it.
10 For I heard the defaming of many,
“Terror on every side!
Denounce him. Yes, denounce him!”
All my familiar friends
who watch for my fall, say,
“Perhaps he will be enticed
so that we can prevail against him,
and we will take our revenge on him.”
11 But the Lord is with me as a dread mighty One.
Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail.
They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper.
Their everlasting shame will never be forgotten.
12 But, O Lord of Hosts, who tests the righteous
and sees the mind and the heart,
let me see Your vengeance on them,
for to You I have presented my cause.
13 Sing to the Lord,
praise the Lord.
For He has delivered the soul of the poor
from the hand of evildoers.
14 Cursed be the day in which I was born.
Let not the day be blessed in which my mother bore me.
15 Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father,
saying, “A baby boy has been born to you!”
and made him very glad.
16 Let that man be as the cities
which the Lord overthrew and did not relent,
and let him hear the cry in the morning
and the shout of alarm at noon,
17 because he did not kill me from the womb,
so that my mother might have been my grave,
and her womb be always pregnant.
18 Why did I come forth from the womb
to see trouble and sorrow,
so that my days are spent in shame?
Zedekiah’s Request Denied
21 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malkijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying, 2 “Please inquire of the Lord for us. For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all His wondrous works, so that the enemy withdraws from us.”
3 Then Jeremiah said to them: Thus you shall say to Zedekiah: 4 Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands with which you fight against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls; and I will assemble them into the midst of this city. 5 I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath. 6 I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they will die of a great pestilence. 7 Afterwards, says the Lord, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. And he will strike them with the edge of the sword. He will not spare them or have pity or mercy.
8 To this people you shall say: Thus says the Lord: See, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. 9 He who abides in this city will die by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence. But he who goes out and falls away to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he will live, and he will have his own life as booty. 10 For I have set My face against this city for disaster and not for good, says the Lord. It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.
Message to the House of David
11 Concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear the word of the Lord, 12 O house of David; thus says the Lord:
Execute justice each morning,
and deliver him who has been robbed
from the hand of the oppressor,
lest My fury go out like fire
and burn so that no one can quench it,
because of the evil of your deeds.
13 See, I am against you,
O inhabitant of the valley,
O rocky plain,
says the Lord,
you men who say,
“Who shall come down against us?
Or who shall enter our dwellings?”
14 But I will punish you
according to the fruit of your deeds,
says the Lord,
and I will kindle a fire in the forest,
and it will devour all things around it.
Impending Judgment
22 Thus says the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak this word there, 2 and say: Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah who sits on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter by these gates. 3 Thus says the Lord: Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver the robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. And do no wrong or violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you indeed do these things, then kings sitting on the throne of David will enter by the gates of this house, riding in chariots and on horses, he and his servants and his people. 5 But if you will not obey these words, I swear by Myself, says the Lord, that this house will become a desolation.
6 For thus says the Lord to the king’s house of Judah:
You are Gilead to Me,
and the peak of Lebanon;
yet surely I will make you a wilderness
and cities which are not inhabited.
7 I will prepare destroyers against you,
everyone with his weapons;
and they shall cut down your choice cedars
and cast them into the fire.
8 Many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, “Why has the Lord done thus to this great city?” 9 Then they will answer, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.”
10 Do not weep for the dead nor bemoan him,
but weep constantly for him who goes away;
for he will return no more
nor see his native country.
11 For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, who became king instead of Josiah his father, who went from this place: He will not return any more, 12 but will die in the place where they have led him captive and will see this land no more.
13 Woe to him who builds his house with unrighteousness
and his chambers with injustice,
who uses his neighbor’s services without wages,
and gives him nothing for his work,
14 who says, “I will build myself a roomy house
and large chambers,”
and cuts out its windows,
paneling it with cedar
and painting it with vermilion.
15 Do you reign
because you compete in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
and do justice and righteousness,
and then it was well with him?
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
then it was well with him.
Is not this what it means to know Me?
says the Lord.
17 But your eyes and your heart
are intent only on your covetousness
and on shedding innocent blood
and on oppression and violence.
18 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:
They will not lament for him, saying,
“Ah, my brother!” or, “Ah, sister!”
They will not lament for him, saying,
“Ah, lord!” or, “Ah, his glory!”
19 He will be buried with the burial of a donkey,
drawn and cast out
beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up to Lebanon and cry out,
and lift up your voice in Bashan,
and cry out from Abarim,
for all your lovers are destroyed.
21 I spoke to you in your prosperity,
but you said, “I will not listen!”
This has been your manner from your youth,
that you have not obeyed My voice.
22 The wind will sweep away all your shepherds,
and your lovers shall go into captivity;
surely then you will be ashamed and humiliated
for all your wickedness.
23 O inhabitant of Lebanon,
who makes your nest in the cedars,
how you will groan when pangs come upon you,
the pain as of a woman in labor!
24 As I live, says the Lord, though Koniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on My right hand, yet would I pluck you from there. 25 And I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life and into the hand of those whose face you fear, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 I will cast you and your mother that bore you out into another country where you were not born, and there you shall die. 27 But to the land where they desire to return, they will not return there.
28 Is this man Koniah a despised broken jar?
Is he a vessel in which is no desire?
Why are he and his seed cast out
and thrown into a land which they had not known?
29 O land, land, land,
hear the word of the Lord!
30 Thus says the Lord:
Write down this man childless,
a man who will not prosper in his days;
for no man of his seed shall prosper,
sitting on the throne of David
and ruling any more in Judah.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.