Beginning

The Right and Good Branch

23 “It is bad for the shepherds who are destroying and dividing the sheep of My field!” says the Lord. ² The Lord God of Israel says this about the shepherds who are caring for My people, “You have made My flock go everywhere and have driven them away, and have not cared for them. See, I am about to punish you for your sinful things you have done,” says the Lord. ³ “Then I Myself will gather those who are left of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them back to their field. And they will have many children. ⁴ I will have shepherds over them who will care for them. And they will not be afraid any longer, or filled with fear, and none of them will be missing,” says the Lord.

⁵ “See, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a right and good Branch. He will rule as king and be wise and do what is right and fair and good in the land. ⁶ In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will be safe. And this is the name He will be called by: ‘The Lord Who makes us right and good.’ ⁷ So see, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives, Who brought the sons of Israel up from the land of Egypt.’ ⁸ But they will say, ‘As the Lord lives, Who brought up and led the children of the people of Israel back from the north country and from all the countries where He had driven them.’ Then they will live in their own land.”

False Preachers and Empty Words

⁹ As for the men who speak for God, my heart is broken within me. All my bones shake. I have become like a drunk man, like a man who has had too much wine, because of the Lord and because of His holy words. ¹⁰ For the land is full of people who are not faithful. Because of the bad things that have come upon it, the land is filled with sorrow, and the fields of the desert have dried up. Their way is sinful, and they use their power in a wrong way. ¹¹ “For both the men of God and the religious leaders are sinful. I have found their sin even in My house,” says the Lord. ¹² “So their way will be a danger to them. They will be driven away into the darkness and fall down in it. For I will bring much trouble upon them in the year of their punishment,” says the Lord.

¹³ “In Samaria I have seen a very bad thing among the men of Samaria who tell what is going to happen in the future. They speak for the false god Baal, and have led My people into sin. ¹⁴ In Jerusalem I have seen a very sinful thing among the men of Jerusalem who tell what is going to happen in the future. They do sex sins and tell lies, and give help to those who do sinful things, so that no one turns from his sin. All of them have become like Sodom to Me. The people of Jerusalem have become like Gomorrah.” ¹⁵ So the Lord of All says about the men who tell what is going to happen in the future, “See, I will make them eat bitter food and drink water with poison. For from these men of Jerusalem sin has gone out into all the land.”

¹⁶ The Lord of All says, “Do not listen to the words of those who are telling you what will happen in the future. They are filling you with empty hopes. They tell of dreams from their own thoughts, not from the mouth of the Lord. ¹⁷ They keep saying to those who hate Me, ‘The Lord has said, “You will have peace.”’ To every one who walks in the strong-will of his own heart, they say, ‘Trouble will not come to you.’ ¹⁸ But who among them has listened to the Lord, that he should see and hear His Word? Who has given thought to His Word and listened? ¹⁹ See, the strong wind storm of the Lord has gone out in anger. It will come down upon the head of the sinful. ²⁰ The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has done all that He has planned in His heart. In the last days you will understand. ²¹ I did not send these men who say they speak for God, yet they ran to tell their news. I did not speak to them, yet they spoke in My name. ²² But if they had listened to Me, then they would have made My words known to My people. And they would have turned them back from their sinful way and from the sinful things they did.”

²³ “Am I a God Who is near,” says the Lord, “and not a God Who is far away? ²⁴ Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?” says the Lord. “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.

²⁵ “I have heard what the men say who speak false words in My name. They say, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’ ²⁶ How long will there be lies in the hearts of those who speak false words in My name, who speak the lies of their own heart? ²⁷ They plan to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they tell one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal. ²⁸ The one who has a dream may tell about his dream, but let him who has My Word speak My Word in truth. How can straw be compared with grain?” says the Lord. ²⁹ “Is not My Word like fire,” says the Lord, “and like iron that breaks a rock in pieces? ³⁰ So I am against those who tell what is going to happen in the future,” says the Lord, “who steal My words from each other. ³¹ See, I am against these men,” says the Lord, “who use their tongues and say, ‘This is what the Lord says.’ ³² I am against those who have told false dreams,” says the Lord, “and have led My people the wrong way by their lies and foolish words of pride. I did not send them or tell them what to say, so they do not help these people at all,” says the Lord.

³³ “When these people, or the one who speaks in My name, or a religious leader asks you, ‘What heavy load has the Lord placed on us?’ then you say to them, ‘You are the heavy load. And I will throw you off, says the Lord.’ ³⁴ As for the man who speaks in My name, or the religious leader, or anyone of the people, who say, ‘The heavy load of the Lord,’ I will punish that man and those of his house. ³⁵ Each of you say to his neighbor and to his brother, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ or, ‘What has the Lord said?’ ³⁶ But you must not say, ‘The heavy load of the Lord,’ any more. For every man’s own word will be the weight upon himself. And you have made sinful the words of the living God, the Lord of All, our God. ³⁷ This is what you should say to the man who speaks in My name: ‘What answer has the Lord given you?’ and, ‘What has the Lord said?’ ³⁸ But if you say, ‘The heavy load of the Lord,’ then the Lord says, ‘You have said, “The heavy load of the Lord,” when I told you not to say it.’ ³⁹ So I will pick you up and throw you away from Me, together with the city which I gave to you and your fathers. ⁴⁰ I will put you to shame forever. You will always be ashamed, and it will not be forgotten.”

The Two Baskets of Figs

24 After King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took away Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the leaders of Judah, together with the able workmen from Jerusalem, and brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs set in front of the house of the Lord. ² One basket had very good figs, like figs just ready to eat. And the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. ³ Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

⁴ Then the Word of the Lord came to me, saying, ⁵ “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘Like these good figs, so will I think of the people of Judah as being good, whom I have sent away from this place into the land of the Babylonians. ⁶ For I will keep My eyes on them for their good, and I will return them to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not pull them up by the roots. ⁷ And I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord. They will be My people and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.’

⁸ “But the Lord says, ‘Like the bad figs which are so bad they cannot be eaten, so I will give up Zedekiah king of Judah and his captains. And I will give up those left of Jerusalem who stay in this land, and those who live in the land of Egypt. ⁹ I will make them a cause of fear and trouble for all the nations of the earth. They will be a shame and a curse and spoken against in all the places where I will make them go. ¹⁰ And I will send the sword and hunger and disease upon them until they are destroyed from the land which I gave to them and their fathers.’”

Seventy Years of Not Being Free

25 This is the word that came to Jeremiah about all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah. (That was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.) ² Jeremiah the man of God spoke this word to all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, saying, ³ “These twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, until this day, the Word of the Lord has come to me. And I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. ⁴ The Lord has sent to you all his servants who have spoken for Him again and again, but you have not listened or turned your ear to hear. ⁵ They have said, ‘Every one of you turn now from your sinful way and the sinful things you do, and live on the land which the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. ⁶ Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them. Do not make Me angry with the work you do, and I will not hurt you.’ ⁷ Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the Lord. “You have made Me angry with the work of your hands to your own hurt. ⁸ “So the Lord of All says, ‘Because you have not obeyed My words, ⁹ I will send for all the families of the north. And I will send for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its people, and against all these nations around you. I will make a complete end of them. I will destroy them all and make them an object of fear and hate, and a waste place forever. ¹⁰ I will also take from them the voice of joy, the voice of happiness, the voice of the man to be married and the voice of the bride. I will take from them the sound of the grinding stones and the light of the lamp. ¹¹ This whole land will be a waste and a cause of fear. And these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.

¹² ‘Then when seventy years have past, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, and the land of the Babylonians, for their sin,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will make that land a waste forever. ¹³ I will bring upon that land all My words which I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has spoken against all the nations. ¹⁴ They themselves will be made to serve many nations and great kings. I will pay them for what they have done, and for the work of their hands.’”

The Cup of God’s Anger

¹⁵ For the Lord, the God of Israel, says to me, “Take this cup of the wine of anger from My hand. And make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. ¹⁶ They will drink and have trouble walking and become crazy because of the sword that I will send among them.” ¹⁷ So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it. ¹⁸ I was sent to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah, to its kings and its leaders, to make them a waste, an object of fear and hate, and a curse, as it is this day. ¹⁹ I was sent to Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his sons, and to all his people. ²⁰ I was sent to all the people from different countries, all the kings of the land of Uz, and to all the kings of the land of the Philistines (Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and those left of Ashdod). ²¹ I was sent to Edom, Moab, the sons of Ammon, ²² and to all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and to the kings of the lands across the sea. ²³ I was sent to Dedan, Tema, Buz, to all who are far away in their lands, ²⁴ to the kings of Arabia, and to all the kings of the different people who live in the desert. ²⁵ I was sent to all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, all the kings of Media, ²⁶ and to all the kings of the north, near and far, one after another. I was sent to all the nations on the earth. And after them the king of Sheshach will drink.

²⁷ “Then you will say to them, ‘The Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, “Drink, be drunk, throw up, fall, and get up no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.”’ ²⁸ And if they will not take the cup from your hand to drink, then say to them, ‘The Lord of All says, “You must drink! ²⁹ See, I am beginning to make trouble in this city which is called by My name. And will you not be punished? You will not be free from punishment, for I am bringing a sword against all the people of the earth,” says the Lord of All.’

³⁰ “So you should speak all these words against them. Tell them, ‘The Lord will sound from on high. His voice will be heard from His holy place. He will call out in a loud voice against his flock. He will call out like those who crush the grapes, against all the people of the earth. ³¹ The noise will go to the ends of the earth, because the Lord has something against the nations. He is deciding what should be done with all flesh. As for the sinful, He has given them to the sword,’” says the Lord.

³² The Lord of All says, “See, sinful ways are spreading from nation to nation. A powerful storm is moving from the farthest parts of the earth. ³³ Those killed by the Lord on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other. No one will cry for them or gather up the bodies and bury them. They will be like animal waste on the ground. ³⁴ Cry in a loud voice, you shepherds. And roll in ashes, you leaders of the flock. For the days for you to be killed and sent everywhere have come, and you will fall and be broken like a fine pot. ³⁵ The shepherds will have no place to run. And the leaders of the flock will have no place to get away. ³⁶ Listen to the cry of the shepherds and the loud cry of the leaders of the flock! For the Lord is destroying their field. ³⁷ The fields of peace are laid waste because of the burning anger of the Lord. ³⁸ He has left His hiding place like a lion. For their land has become a cause of much fear because of the sword of the one who makes it hard for them, and because of the Lord’s burning anger.”