Beginning
The Evil Leaders
23 “How terrible it will be for the leaders of Judah. They are destroying my people. They are making them run in all directions,” says the Lord.
2 They are responsible for the people. And the Lord, the God of Israel, says to them: “You have made my people run away in all directions. You have forced them away. And you have not taken care of them. So I will punish you for the evil things you have done,” says the Lord. 3 “I sent my people to other countries. But I will gather my people who are left alive. And I will bring them back to their own country. When they are back in their own land, they will have many children. And they will grow in number. 4 I will place new leaders over my people. They will take care of my people. And my people will not be afraid or terrified. None of them will be lost,” says the Lord.
The Good Descendant
5 “The days are coming,” says the Lord,
“when I will raise up a good descendant in David’s family.
This descendant will be a king who will rule in a wise way.
And he will do what is fair and right in the land.
6 In his time Judah will be saved.
Israel will live in safety.
This will be his name:
The Lord Does What Is Right.
7 “So the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when people will not say: ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought Israel out of Egypt . . .’ 8 But people will say something new: ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where he had sent them away . . .’ Then the people of Israel will live in their own land.”
False Prophets
9 A message to the prophets:
My heart is broken.
All my bones shake.
I’m like a man who is drunk.
I’m like a man who has been overcome with wine.
This is because of the Lord
and his holy words.
10 The land of Judah is full of people who are guilty of adultery.
Because of this, the Lord cursed the land.
And it has become very dry.
The pastures have dried up.
The people are evil.
They use their power in the wrong way.
11 “Both the prophets and the priests are evil.
I have seen them doing evil things even in my own Temple,” says the Lord.
12 “So they will be in danger.
They will be forced into darkness.
There they will be defeated.
I will bring disaster on them.
At that time I will punish those prophets and priests,” says the Lord.
13 “I saw the prophets of Samaria
do something wrong.
I saw those prophets prophesy by the false god Baal.
And they led my people, the Israelites, away.
14 And I have seen the prophets of Jerusalem
do some terrible things.
These prophets are guilty of adultery
and live by lies.
They encourage evil people to keep on doing evil.
So the people don’t stop sinning.
All of those people are like the city of Sodom.
The people of Jerusalem are like the city of Gomorrah to me!”
15 So this is what the Lord of heaven’s armies says about the prophets:
“I will make those prophets eat bitter food.
I will make them drink poisoned water.
This is because the prophets of Jerusalem spread wickedness
through the whole country.”
16 This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies says:
“Don’t pay attention to the things those prophets are saying to you.
They are trying to fool you.
Those prophets talk of visions from their own minds.
But they did not get their visions from me.
17 They say to those who hate me:
‘The Lord says: You will have peace.’
They say to those who are stubborn and do as they please:
‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’
18 But none of these prophets has stood in the meeting of angels.
None of them has seen or heard the message of the Lord.
None of them has paid close attention to the Lord’s message.
19 Look, the punishment from the Lord
will come like a storm.
His anger will be like a hurricane.
It will come crashing down on the heads of those wicked people.
20 The Lord’s anger will not stop
until he finishes what he plans to do.
When that day is over,
you will understand this clearly.
21 I did not send those prophets.
But they ran to tell their message.
I did not speak to them.
But they prophesied anyway.
22 But if they had stood in the meeting of angels,
they would have told my message to my people.
They would have turned the people from their evil ways.
They would have turned them from doing evil.
23 “I am a God who is near,” says the Lord.
“I am also a God who is far away.”
24 “No one can hide
where I cannot see him,” says the Lord.
“I fill all of heaven and earth,” says the Lord.
25 “I have heard the prophets who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I have had a dream! I have had a dream!’ 26 How long will this continue in the minds of these lying prophets? They prophesy from their own wishful thinking. 27 They are trying to make the people of Judah forget me. They are doing this by telling each other these dreams. They are trying to make my people forget me in the same way that their ancestors forgot me. Their ancestors forgot me and worshiped Baal. 28 Straw is not the same thing as wheat!” says the Lord. “If a prophet wants to tell about his dreams, let him! But let the person who hears my message speak it truthfully! 29 My message is like a fire,” says the Lord. “It is like a hammer that smashes a rock!
30 “So I am against the false prophets,” says the Lord. “These prophets keep stealing words from each other. They say these words are from me. 31 I am against the false prophets,” says the Lord. “They use their own words and pretend it is a message from me. 32 I am against the prophets who prophesy false dreams,” says the Lord. “They mislead my people with their lies and false teachings! I did not send those prophets to teach the people. I never commanded them to do anything for me. They can’t help the people of Judah at all,” says the Lord.
The Sad Message from the Lord
33 “The people of Judah, a prophet or a priest may ask you: ‘Jeremiah, what is the message from the Lord?’ You will answer them and say, ‘You are a heavy load to the Lord. And I will throw down this heavy load, says the Lord!’ 34 A prophet or a priest or one of the people might say, ‘This is a message from the Lord!’ That person has lied. So I will punish him and his whole family. 35 This is what you will say to each other: ‘What did the Lord answer?’ or ‘What did the Lord say?’ 36 But you will never again say, ‘The message of the Lord.’ This is because the only message you speak is your own words. You used to change the words of our God. He is the living God, the Lord of heaven’s armies. 37 This is how you speak to the prophets: ‘What answer did the Lord give you?’ or ‘What did the Lord say?’ 38 But don’t say, ‘What was the message from the Lord?’ If you use these words, the Lord will say this to you: You should not have called it a message from the Lord. I told you not to use those words. 39 I will pick you up like a heavy load. And I’ll throw you away from me. I gave the city of Jerusalem to your ancestors and to you. But I will throw you and that city away from me. 40 And I will make a disgrace of you forever. You will never forget your shame.”
The Good and Bad Figs
24 I saw a vision after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim as a prisoner. Jehoiachin king of Judah and his officers were taken away from Jerusalem. They were taken to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar also took away all the craftsmen and metalworkers of Judah. It was then that the Lord showed me these things: I saw two baskets of figs. They were arranged in front of the Temple of the Lord. 2 One of the baskets had very good figs in it. They were like figs that ripen early in the season. But the other basket had rotten figs. They were too rotten to eat.
3 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?”
I answered, “I see figs. The good figs are very good. But the rotten figs are too rotten to eat.”
4 Then the Lord spoke his word to me. 5 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said: “I sent the people of Judah out of their country into Babylon. Those people will be like these good figs. I think of them as good. 6 I will look after them. I will bring them back to the land of Judah. I will not tear them down. I will build them up. I will not pull them up. I will plant them so they can grow. 7 I will make them want to know me. They will know that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God. This is because they will return to me with their whole hearts.
8 “But the bad figs are too rotten to eat,” says the Lord. “Zedekiah king of Judah and his officers will be like those rotten figs. All the people from Jerusalem who are left alive will be like that. This will be true even if those people now live in Egypt. 9 I will make those people hated as an evil people by all the kingdoms of the earth. People will make fun of the people from Judah and tell jokes about them. People will point fingers at them. They will curse them everywhere I scatter them. 10 I will send war, hunger and disease against them. I will attack them until they have all been killed. Then they will no longer be in the land I gave to them and their ancestors.”
A Summary of Jeremiah’s Preaching
25 This is the message that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah. It came in the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah. This was the first year Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon. 2 This is the message Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and Jerusalem:
3 The Lord has spoken his word to me again and again for these past 23 years. I have been a prophet since the thirteenth year of Josiah. Josiah was the son of Amon king of Judah. I have spoken messages from the Lord to you from that time until today. But you have not listened.
4 The Lord has sent his servants the prophets to you over and over again. But you have not listened to them. You have not paid any attention to them. 5 They have said, “Stop your evil ways. Stop doing what is wrong. Do this so you can stay in the land. This is the land that the Lord gave to you and your ancestors long ago. He gave it to you to live in forever. 6 Don’t follow other gods to serve them or to worship them. You must not worship idols that are the work of someone’s hands. That makes the Lord angry, and he will punish you.”
7 “But you did not listen to me,” says the Lord. “You worshiped idols that were the work of someone’s hands. That made me angry. So I punished you.”
8 So this is what the Lord of heaven’s armies says: “You have not listened to my messages. 9 So I will soon send for all the peoples of the north,” says the Lord. “I will soon send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I will bring them all against Judah and all the nations around you, too. I will completely destroy all those countries. I will leave them in ruins forever. People will be shocked when they see how badly they will be destroyed. 10 I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and happiness. There will be no more happy sounds of brides and bridegrooms. I will take away the sound of people grinding meal. And I will take away the light of the lamp. 11 That whole area will be an empty desert. And these nations will be slaves of the king of Babylon for 70 years.
12 “But when the 70 years have passed, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation,” says the Lord. “I will punish the Babylonians for their evil. I will make that land a desert forever. 13 I have said many terrible things will happen to Babylonia. All of them will happen. Jeremiah prophesied about those foreign nations. And the warnings are written in this book. 14 The Babylonians will have to serve many nations and many great kings. I will give them the punishment they deserve. They will be punished for all the things they do.”
Judgment on the Nations
15 The Lord, the God of Israel, said this to me: “My anger is like the wine in a cup. Take it from my hand. I am sending you to all the nations. Make them drink all of my anger from this cup. 16 They will drink my anger like wine. Then they will not be able to walk straight. They will act like madmen. They will do this because of the war that I am going to send among them.”
17 So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand. I went to those nations. And I made them drink from the cup. 18 I poured this wine for the people of Jerusalem and the towns of Judah. I made the kings and officers of Judah drink from the cup. I did it so that they would become a ruin. People would be shocked when they saw how badly they were destroyed. People would insult them and speak evil of them. And it happened. Judah is like that now. 19 I also made these people drink from that cup of my anger: the king of Egypt, his servants, his officers and all his people; 20 all the Arabs, and all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the Philistines (the kings of the cities of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and the people left at Ashdod); 21 the people of Edom, Moab and Ammon; 22 all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; all the kings of the faraway countries; 23 the people of Dedan and Tema and Buz; all who cut their hair short; 24 all the kings of Arabia; and the kings of the people who live in the desert; 25 all the kings of Zimri, Elam and Media; 26 and all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other. I made all the kingdoms on earth drink from the cup of the Lord’s anger. But the king of Babylon will drink from this cup after all the others.
27 “Then say this to them: ‘This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies, the God of Israel, says: Drink this cup of my anger. Get drunk from it and vomit. Fall down and don’t get up. Don’t get up because I am sending a war to kill you!’
28 “They will refuse to take the cup from your hand. They will refuse to drink it. Then say this to them: ‘The Lord of heaven’s armies says this: You must drink from this cup. 29 I am already bringing disaster on Jerusalem. And it is the city that is called by my name. And do you think you will not be punished? You will be punished! I am sending war on all the people of the earth, says the Lord of heaven’s armies.’
30 “You will prophesy against them with these words. Say to them:
‘The Lord roars from heaven.
He shouts from his Holy Temple.
He roars against his land.
He will shout like people who walk on grapes to make wine.
He will shout against all who live on the earth.
31 The noise will spread all over the earth.
This is because the Lord is punishing all the nations.
He judges and tells what is wrong with all people.
And he is killing the evil people with a sword,’” says the Lord.
32 This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies says:
“Disasters will soon spread
from nation to nation.
They will come like a powerful storm
to all the faraway places on earth.”
33 At that time the dead bodies will reach from one end of the earth to the other. No one will cry for them. No one will gather up their bodies and bury them. They will be left lying on the ground like dung.
34 Cry, you leaders! Cry out loud!
Roll around in the dust, leaders of the people!
It is now time for you to be killed.
You will fall and be scattered everywhere, like pieces of a broken jar.
35 There will be no place for the leaders to hide.
These leaders will not escape.
36 I hear the leaders shouting.
I hear the leaders of the people crying loudly.
This is because the Lord is destroying their land.
37 Those peaceful pastures will be like an empty desert.
This happened because the Lord is very angry.
38 The Lord, like a lion, has left his den.
Their land has been destroyed.
It is because of his destroying anger.
It is because of his fierce anger.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.