Beginning

18 The Word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

² “Arise, and go down into the potter’s house, and there shall I show you My Words.”

³ Then I went down to the potter’s house. And behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.

⁴ And the vessel that he made of clay was broken in the hand of the potter. So he returned and made it another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make.

⁵ Then the Word of the LORD came to me, saying,

⁶ “O House of Israel! Cannot I do with you as this potter,” says the LORD? “Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so you are in My Hand, O House of Israel.

⁷ “I will speak suddenly against a nation, or against a kingdom, to pluck it up and to root it out and to destroy it.

⁸ “But if this nation against whom I have pronounced turns from their wickedness, I will turn from the plague that I had thought to bring upon them.

⁹ “And I will speak suddenly concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build it and to plant it.

¹⁰ “But if it does evil in My sight, and does not hear My Voice, I will turn from the good that I had thought to do for them.

¹¹ “Speak now, therefore, to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I prepare a plague for you, and plan something against you. Therefore, every one of you return from his evil way, and make your ways and your works good.”

¹² ‘But they said desperately, “Surely we will walk after our own imaginations. And every man will follow the stubbornness of his wicked heart.”

¹³ ‘Therefore, thus says the LORD: “Ask now who has heard such things among the heathen. The virgin of Israel has done very filthily.

¹⁴ “Will a man forsake the snow of Lebanon, which comes from the rock of the field? Or shall the cold, flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?

¹⁵ “Because My people have forgotten Me and have burnt incense to worthless idols, causing them to stumble in their ways from the ancient ways and to walk in the pathway that is not built up,

¹⁶ “and making their land desolate and a perpetual derision, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and wag his head.

¹⁷ “I will scatter them with an east wind before the enemy. I will show them My Back, and not My Face, in the day of their destruction.”

¹⁸ ‘Then they said, “Come, and let us imagine some device against Jeremiah! For the Law shall not perish 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 consider any of his words!”’”

¹⁹ Listen to me, O LORD, and hear the voice of those who contend with me.

²⁰ Shall evil be repaid for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before You, to speak good for them, to turn away Your wrath from them.

²¹ Therefore, deliver up their children to famine, and let them drop away by the force of the sword. Let their wives be robbed of their children and be widows. And let their husbands be put to death. Let their young men be killed by the sword in the battle.

²² Let the cry be heard from their houses when You shall suddenly bring an army upon them. For they have dug a pit to take me, and hidden snares for my feet.

²³ Yet, LORD, You know all their deadly counsel against me. Do not forgive their iniquity or blot out their sin from Your sight. But let them be overthrown before You. Deal with them in the time of Your anger!

19 Thus says the LORD: “Go and buy an earthen bottle of a potter, and take from the elders of the people, and from the elders of the priests,

² “and go forth to the valley of Ben-Hinnom, which is by the entry of the East Gate. And you shall preach there the Words that I shall tell you,

³ “and shall 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: “Behold, I will bring a plague upon this place of which whoever hears, his ears shall tingle,

⁴ “because they have forsaken Me and profaned this place, and have burnt incense in it to other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah. They have also filled this place with the blood of innocents.

⁵ “And they have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not Command. Nor did I speak it. Nor did it come into My mind.

⁶ “Therefore, behold. The days come,” says the LORD, “that this place shall no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

⁷ “And I will bring the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem to nothing in this place. And I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their lives. And I will give their carcasses to be food for the birds of the sky, and to the beasts of the field.

⁸ “And I will make this city desolate, and a hissing, so that everyone who passes by it shall be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.

⁹ “And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons, and with the flesh of their daughters. And everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and distress with which their enemies, who seek their lives, shall constrain them.

¹⁰ “Then you shall break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with you,

¹¹ “and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of Hosts: “Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel that cannot be made whole again. And they shall bury them in Topheth, until there is no place to bury.

¹² “Thus will I do to this place,” says the LORD, “and to its inhabitants. And I will make this city like Topheth.

¹³ “For the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled, as the place of Topheth, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burnt incense to all the host of heaven and 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 LORD’s House, and said to all the people,

¹⁵ “Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring upon this city, and upon all her towns, all the plagues that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks and would not hear My Words!’”

20 When Pashhur, the son of Immer the Priest, who was appointed Governor 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 high gate of Benjamin, which was by the House of the LORD.

³ And in the morning, Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD has not called your name Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib.

⁴ For thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will make you to be a terror to yourself, and to all your friends. And they shall fall by the sword of their enemies. And your eyes shall behold it. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babel. And he shall carry them captive into Babel and shall kill them with the sword.

⁵ ‘Moreover, I will deliver all the substance of this city, and all its labors, and all its precious things. And I will give all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and take them away and carry them to Babel.

⁶ ‘And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. And you shall come to Babel. And there you shall die and shall be buried there, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’”

⁷ O LORD, You have persuaded me, and I am laid open. You are stronger than me and have prevailed. I am in derision daily. Everyone mocks me.

⁸ For when I speak, I cry out of wrong. And I proclaim desolation. Therefore, the Word of the LORD has become a reproach to me and a daily derision.

⁹ Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him or speak in His Name anymore.” But His Word was in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones. And I was weary with restraining it. And I could not.

¹⁰ For I had heard the whispering of many, fear on every side, saying, “Declare! And we will declare it!” All my friends watched for my halting, saying, “It may be that he is deceived. So, we shall prevail against him. And we shall execute our vengeance upon him.”

¹¹ But the LORD is with me like a mighty giant. Therefore, my persecutors shall be overthrown, and shall not prevail, and shall be greatly confounded. For they have done unwisely, and their everlasting shame shall never be forgotten.

¹² But, O, LORD of Hosts! Who tries the righteous and sees the inner core and the heart! Let me see Your vengeance on them! For to You have I opened my cause.

¹³ Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD! For He has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of the wicked.

¹⁴ Curse the day on which I was born and do not let the day on which my mother bore me be blessed!

¹⁵ Curse the man who showed my father, saying, “A male child is born to you,” and comforted him.

¹⁶ And let that man be as the cities which the LORD has overturned without relent. And let him hear the cry in the morning and the shouting at noon,

¹⁷ because he did not kill me in the womb, so that my mother might have been my grave, or her womb a perpetual conception.

¹⁸ How is it that I came forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, so that my days should be consumed with shame?

21 The Word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD when king Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur, the son of Melchiah and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah the Priest, saying,

² “Please inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, makes war against us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all His wondrous works, so that he may withdraw from us.”

³ Then Jeremiah said, “Thus shall you 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 Babel, and against the Chaldeans, who besiege you outside the walls. And I will assemble them into the midst of this city.

⁵ “And I, myself, will fight against you with an outstretched Hand, and with a mighty Arm, in anger and in wrath and in great indignation.

⁶ “And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence.

⁷ “And after this,” says the LORD, “I will deliver Zedekiah, the 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 Babel, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their lives. And he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. He shall neither spare them nor have pity nor compassion.”’

⁸ “And to this people you shall say, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.

⁹ ‘He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. But he who goes out and falls before the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live. And his life shall be as plunder to him.

¹⁰ ‘For I have set My Face against this city, for calamity and not for good,’ says the LORD, ‘It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babel, and he shall burn it with fire.’”

¹¹ “And say to the House of the king of Judah, ‘Hear the Word of the LORD,

¹² O House of David! Thus says the LORD: “Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver the oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest My wrath go out like fire and burn, so that no one can quench it because of the wickedness of your works.

¹³ “Behold, I come against you, O inhabitant of the valley, rock of the plain,” says the LORD, “which says, ‘Who shall come down against us?’ Or ‘Who shall enter into our habitations?’

¹⁴ “But I will visit you according to the fruit of your works,” says the LORD, “and I will kindle a fire in its forest. And it shall devour all around it.”’”

22 Thus says the LORD: “Go down to the House of the king of Judah, and speak this thing there,

² “and say, ‘Hear the Word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits upon the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter in by these gates!

³ ‘Thus says the LORD: “Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor, and do not trouble the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow. Do no violence or shed innocent blood in this place.

⁴ “For if you do this thing, then the kings sitting upon the throne of David shall enter in by the gates of this House and ride upon chariots and upon horses, he and his servants and his people.

⁵ “But if you will not hear these words, I swear by Myself,” says the LORD, “that this House shall be waste.”

⁶ ‘For thus has the LORD, spoken upon the king’s House of Judah: “You are Gilead to Me, the head of Lebanon. Surely I will make you as a wilderness, as uninhabited cities.

⁷ “And I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons. And they shall cut down your chief cedar trees and cast them in the fire.

⁸ “And many nations shall pass by this city. And every man shall say to his neighbor, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this great city?’

⁹ “Then they shall 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, and do not be moved for them. Weep for him who goes out. For he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

¹¹ For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned for Josiah, his father, who went out of this place: “He shall not return there.

¹² “But he shall die in the place where they have led him captive and shall see this land no more.”

¹³ “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers without justice. He uses his neighbor without wages and gives him nothing for his work.

¹⁴ “He says, ‘I will build myself a wide house and large chambers.’ So he will make himself large windows and a ceiling with cedar and paint them with vermilion.

¹⁵ “Shall you reign because you close yourself in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and prosper when he executed judgment and justice?

¹⁶ “When he judged the cause of the afflicted and the poor he prospered. Was not this because he knew Me,” says the LORD?

¹⁷ “But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for destruction.”

¹⁸ Therefore, thus says the LORD against Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They shall not lament him, saying, ‘Ah, my brother,’ or ‘Ah sister.’ Nor shall they mourn for him, saying, ‘Ah, lord,’ or ‘Ah, his glory.’

¹⁹ “He shall be buried as a donkey is buried, dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰ “Go up to Lebanon and cry! Shout in Bashan, and cry by the passages! For all your lovers are destroyed.

²¹ “I spoke to you when you were in prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not hear.’ This has been your manner from your youth, that you would not obey My Voice.

²² “The spirit shall feed all your shepherds. And your lovers shall go into captivity. And then you shall be ashamed of all your wickedness and confounded.

²³ “You who dwell in Lebanon, and make your nest in the cedars, how beautiful shall you be when sorrows come upon you, as the sorrow of a woman in labor?

²⁴ “As I live,” says the LORD, “though Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet of 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 faces you fear, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

²⁶ “And I will cause them to carry you away, and your mother who bore you, into another country where you were not born. And there you shall die.

²⁷ “But to the land to which they desire to return, they shall not return to it.

²⁸ “Is not this man, Coniah, a despised and broken idol or a vessel in which there is no pleasure? Why are they carried away, he and his seed, and cast out into a land that they do not know?

²⁹ “O Earth, Earth, Earth! Hear the Word of the LORD!

³⁰ “Thus says the LORD: ‘Write this man down as childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days. For there shall be no man from his seed who shall prosper and sit upon the throne of David or bear rule anymore in Judah.’”