Beginning
Chapter 14
The Great Drought.[a] 1 This is the word of the Lord that was given to Jeremiah during the drought:
2 Judah is in mourning,
and her towns languish.
Her people lie on the ground in mourning;
a cry of anguish goes up from Jerusalem.
3 The nobles send their servants for water,
but when they come to the cisterns
they find no water,
and they return with their jars empty.
Ashamed and in despair
they cover their heads.[b]
4 Because the ground is cracked
due to a total lack of rainfall,
the farmers are desperate,
and they too cover their heads.
5 Even the doe in the open country
abandons her newborn fawn
because there is no grass.
6 Wild donkeys stand on the bare heights
and pant for air like jackals,
while their eyes grow dim
because of a lack of pasture.
7 Even though our sins bear witness against us,
take action, O Lord, for your name’s sake;
forgive us for our many acts of infidelity,
our countless sins against you.
8 O Lord, you are the hope of Israel
and its savior in time of need.
Why are you like a stranger in the land,
like a traveler who only stays for a single night?
9 Why should you be taken unawares,
like a warrior who is powerless to help us?
You are in our midst, O Lord,
and we bear your name.
Do not forsake us!
10 Thus says the Lord about this people:
Truly they have loved to stray
and have not restrained their feet.
Therefore, the Lord no longer takes pleasure in them;
he will now remember their iniquity
and punish their sins.
11 Then the Lord said to me: Do not intercede for this people or pray for their welfare. 12 If they fast, I will not listen to their cry. If they offer holocausts or grain offerings, I will not accept them. Rather, I will destroy them by the sword, famine, and plague.
13 In response I said, “Ah, Lord God, the prophets continue to say to them that they will suffer neither sword nor famine, since you will give them lasting peace in this place.”
14 Then the Lord said to me: The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them or give them any orders or speak to them. They are prophesying to you lying visions, worthless divinations, and delusions of their own minds.
15 Therefore, thus says the Lord about the prophets who are prophesying in his name: Although I did not send them, they continue to assert that neither sword nor famine will afflict this land. By sword and famine those same prophets will perish. 16 Furthermore, the people to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and the sword. No one will bury them or their wives, their sons or their daughters. I will pour down on them their own wickedness.
17 This is the message you are to deliver to them:
Let my eyes stream with tears
day and night without ceasing,
for my virgin daughter—my people—
has suffered a crushing blow
and is grievously injured.
18 If I go out into the open fields,
I see those slain by the sword.
If I go into the city,
I behold those who have perished through famine.
Even prophets and priests roam in confusion
in a land they do not know.
19 Have you rejected Judah completely?
Has Zion become loathsome to you?
Why have you afflicted us
to a point where we cannot be healed?
We hope for peace, but to no avail,
for a time of healing, only to encounter terror.
20 O Lord, we acknowledge our wickedness
and the guilt of our fathers;
we have indeed sinned against you.
21 For your name’s sake do not reject us;
do not dishonor your glorious throne.
Remember your covenant with us
and do not break it.
22 Can any worthless idols of the nations bring rain?
Do the heavens send down rain showers on their own?
No, it is you who accomplish all this,
O Lord, our God,
and therefore, we place our hope in you.
Chapter 15
1 The Lord then said to me: Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, my heart would not have pity on this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go! 2 And if they should ask you where they should go, say to them: Thus says the Lord:
Those destined for the plague, to plague;
those destined for the sword, to the sword;
those destined for famine, to famine;
those destined for captivity, to captivity.
3 Furthermore, four kinds of destroyers I will send against them, says the Lord: the sword to kill, dogs to drag away, birds of the sky and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 I will make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what King Manasseh of Judah, the son of Hezekiah, did in Jerusalem.
5 [c]Who will there be to pity you, O Jerusalem?
Who will mourn for you?
Who will have the slightest concern
to inquire how you are?
6 You have rejected me, says the Lord,
and you have turned your back on me.
Therefore, I have stretched out my hand over you
in order to destroy you;
I am weary of having compassion for you.
7 I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork
at every city gate in the land.
I have brought bereavement and destruction on my people
because they would not abandon their evil ways.
8 I have made their widows more numerous
than the sands of the sea.
I brought a destroyer at noonday
against the mothers of young men.
Without warning, I afflicted them
with anguish and terror.
9 The mother of seven sons will grow faint
and gasp for breath.
Her sun went down while it was still day;
she has been shamed and disgraced.
As for the rest, I will give them to the sword
to perish at the hands of assassins, says the Lord.
Jeremiah’s Call Renewed[d]
10 “O my mother, how I wish
that you had never given birth to me,
a man of strife and contention for the entire land.
I have never borrowed from anyone,
nor have I lent to anyone,
yet everyone curses me.
11 Have I not truly done my best
to serve you, O Lord?
Have I not interceded with you
in times of disaster and times of distress?
12 “Can iron and bronze
break iron from the north?
13 Your wealth and your treasures
I will hand over as plunder, without repayment,
because of all your sins
throughout your territory.
14 I will force you to serve your enemies
in a land you do not know,
for my anger will kindle a fire
that will blaze against you.
15 O Lord, you know me well.
Remember me and visit me
and avenge me on my persecutors.
Continue to be patient with me
and do not cast me aside;
remember the insults I suffer for your sake.
16 “When I discovered your words, I devoured them;
they became a source of joy to me
and the delight of my heart,
because I bore your name,
O Lord, God of hosts.
17 “I have never associated with revelers
or rejoiced in their company;
I sat alone because I felt your hand on me,
and you had filled me with indignation.
18 Why then is my suffering continuous
and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
You have indeed become for me a treacherous brook
whose waters cannot be relied upon.”
19 In reply the Lord said to me:
If you repent, I will restore you,
and you will stand in my presence.
If you utter precious words
and not what is worthless,
you will be my spokesman.
This people may turn to you,
but you must not turn to them.
20 I will make you appear in the eyes of this people
to be a fortified wall of bronze.
They will fight against you
but they will not prevail,
for I am with you
to save and deliver you, says the Lord.
21 I will rescue you from the clutches of the wicked
and redeem you from the grasp of the violent.
Chapter 16[e]
Warning to Jeremiah. 1 The following word of the Lord then came to me: 2 You shall not take to yourself a wife or have sons and daughters in this place. 3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and about the mothers who give birth to them and the fathers who beget them in this land: 4 They shall perish from deadly diseases. Unlamented and unburied, they will be like dung spread over the ground. They will perish by sword and by famine, and their corpses will serve as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.
5 The Lord then continued: Do not enter a house of mourning; do not go there to lament or offer words of comfort. For I have withdrawn my blessing from this people, says the Lord, as well as my love and my mercy. 6 Both the powerful and the lowly will perish in this land, without burial or lamentation. There will be no gashing or shaving of the head for them. 7 [f]No one is to break bread with the mourners to comfort them in their bereavement or offer them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or mother.
8 Nor are you to enter a house where people are feasting and sit with them to eat and drink. 9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: In your lifetime, and before your very eyes, I will banish from this place the cries of joy and gladness, the voices of bridegroom and bride.
10 When you relate all these words to the people, they will ask you, “Why has the Lord decreed that all these evils are to befall us? What evil have we done? What sin have we committed against the Lord, our God?” 11 Then you will give them this answer: This will occur because your ancestors abandoned me, says the Lord, and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. 12 And you have behaved even more wickedly than your ancestors. For each one of you stubbornly follows his own wicked inclinations and refuses to listen to me. 13 Therefore, I will cast you out of this land into a land that is completely unknown to you or your ancestors. There you can serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no further favor.
14 The Israelites Return. However, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it will no longer be said, “As the Lord lives who brought the Israelites up out of the land of Egypt,” 15 but rather, “As the Lord lives who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had driven them.” For I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their ancestors.
16 Twice the Punishment. Now I will send for many fishermen, says the Lord, and they will catch them. After that, I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down from every mountain and every hill, and from the crevices of the rocks. 17 For my eyes are focused on all their ways: they are not hidden from my sight, nor does their iniquity escape my gaze. 18 And I will doubly repay them for their iniquity and their sin, since they have polluted my land with their detestable idols and filled my heritage with their abominations.
The People’s Conversion
19 O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
my refuge in times of distress,
the nations will come to you
from the ends of the earth and say,
“Our fathers inherited nothing but false gods,
idols that are worthless and without power.”
20 Can men make their own gods?
These are not gods in any way.
21 Therefore, I intend to give my people knowledge;
this time I will teach them
about my power and my might,
and then they will know
that my name is the Lord.
Chapter 17
Judah Punished for Its Idolatry
1 [g]The sin of Judah is written
with an iron stylus,
engraved with a diamond point
on the tablet of their hearts
and on the horns of their altars,
2 while their children remember
their altars and their sacred poles
beside every green tree
and on the high hills,
3 the mountains in the open country.
Your wealth and all your treasures
I will hand over as spoil
in repayment for all your sins
throughout your territory.
4 You will be forced to surrender your heritage
which I gave to you.
I will require you to serve your enemies
in a land you do not know,
for my fiery anger has been kindled by you,
and it will burn forever.
Wisdom Sayings
5 Thus says the Lord:
Cursed is anyone who places his trust in human beings
and relies on human strength
while his heart turns away from the Lord.
6 Such a person is like a shrub in the desert;
when relief comes, he will not be aware of it.
He will continue to live
in the parched areas of the desert,
in an uninhabited salt land.
7 Blessed are those who trust in the Lord
and whose hope is the Lord.
8 They will be like a tree planted by the water
that spreads out its roots to the stream.
When the heat comes, it does not fear;
its leaves stay green.
It is not concerned in a year of drought,
and it never fails to bear fruit.
9 The heart is more deceitful than any other thing,
and it is also perverse.
Who can uncover its secrets?
10 I, the Lord, search the heart
and probe the mind
to reward all according to their conduct
and as their deeds deserve.
11 Like a partridge[h] hatching eggs that it has not laid,
so is the man who amasses riches unjustly.
When his life is half completed,
they will desert him;
and when his life is at an end,
he will prove to have been a fool.
Israel’s True Hope
12 A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning:
such is the shrine of our sanctuary.
13 O Lord, you are the hope of Israel;
all those who abandon you will be put to shame.
Those who turn away from you
will have their names inscribed in the netherworld
because they have forsaken the Lord,
the source of living water.
Prayer for Vengeance
14 Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed;
save me, and I will be saved;
you are the one whom I praise.
15 People continue to say to me,
“Where is the word of the Lord?
Let it come to pass.”
16 I have never tried to avoid
being a shepherd in your service,
nor have I desired the clay of despair.
Every word that passed my lips
has always been known to you.
17 Do not become a source of terror to me;
you will be my refuge on the day of disaster.
18 Let my persecutors be confounded, and not me;
let them, not me, be terrified.
Bring upon them the day of disaster;
crush them with unending destruction.
19 The Sabbath Observed.[i] Thus said the Lord to me: Go forth and stand at the Gate of Benjamin[j] through which the kings of Judah enter and depart, and stand also at all the other gates of Jerusalem. 20 There you are to say to them: Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, all you people of Judah as well, and all you inhabitants of Jerusalem who pass through these gates.
21 Thus says the Lord: If you value your lives, take care that you do not carry a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. 22 Bring no burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, and do no work. You are to keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors. 23 However, they did not listen or pay attention; rather, they stiffened their necks and would not heed my warnings or accept instruction.
24 But if you listen carefully to me, says the Lord, and carry no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, keeping the Sabbath holy and doing no work on that day, 25 then kings will come through the gates of this city, kings who will sit on the throne of David. They will come riding in chariots or on horseback, escorted by their officials, the people of Judah, and the citizens of Jerusalem. This city will be inhabited forever.
26 People will come from the towns of Judah and the villages around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin and the foothills, from the hill country and the Negeb, to bring holocausts and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense and thank offerings, to the house of the Lord. 27 However, if you do not listen to my commands to keep the Sabbath day holy and to carry no burden through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will set fire to the gates, an unquenchable fire that will consume the palaces of Jerusalem.
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