Chronological
Physical and Spiritual Drought
14 The word of Adonai that came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts:
2 Judah will mourn, and her gates languish.
They will bow in black to the ground
And Jerusalem’s wail will go up.
3 Their nobles will send their lads for water.
They come to the cisterns,
but find no water.
Their jars return empty.
They are ashamed and humiliated;
they cover their heads.
4 Because the ground is cracked,
since there has been no rain in the land,
the farmers are ashamed—
they cover their heads.
5 For even the doe in the field
abandons her newborn fawn,
because there is no grass.
6 Wild donkeys stand on the barren hills,
as they pant for air like jackals.
Their eyes fail,
since there is no foliage.
7 Though our iniquities testify against us,
Adonai, act for Your Name’s sake.
For our backslidings are many.
We have sinned against You.
8 O hope of Israel,
Savior in time of trouble,
why are You like a stranger in the land,
or like a traveler who stays for a night?
9 Why are You like a man overcome,
like a champion who cannot save?
Yet you, Adonai, are in our midst,
and we are called by Your Name.
Do not forsake us!
10 Thus says Adonai to this people:
How they loved to wander.
They did not restrain their feet.
So Adonai does not accept them.
Now will He remember their iniquity,
and punish their sins.
11 So Adonai said to me: “Do not pray for the good of this people. 12 If they fast, I will not hear their cry. If they offer burnt offering or grain offering, I will not accept them. Instead I will consume them with sword, with famine and with plague.”
13 Then I said: “Oh my Lord, Adonai! The prophets keep telling them: ‘You will not see the sword nor famine, but I will give you true peace in this place.’”
14 Then Adonai said to me: “The prophets prophesy lies in My Name! I did not send them, nor commanded them, nor did I speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, divination, futility, a delusion of their heart.”
15 Therefore thus says Adonai: “About the prophets who prophesy in My Name, though I did not send them, yet keep saying, ‘Sword and famine will never be in this land’—by sword and famine will those prophets be consumed. 16 Also the people to whom they prophesy will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, because of the famine and the sword. They will have no one to bury them, their wives, their sons or their daughters. For I will pour their disaster on them.”
17 You will say this word to them:
“Let my eyes overflow with tears.
Night and day, may they never stop.
For the virgin daughter of my people
is crushed with a great blow,
with a sorely infected wound.”
Intercessory Confession
18 If I go out into the field,
see, those slain by the sword!
And if I enter into the city,
see, the sick with famine!
For both prophet and kohen
will travel to a land they do not know.
19 Have You utterly rejected Judah?
Has Your soul loathed Zion?
Why have You smitten us,
and there is no healing for us?
We looked for shalom,
but nothing good came,
and for a time of healing,
but suddenly, terror![a]
20 We acknowledge our wickedness, Adonai,
the iniquity of our fathers,
for we have sinned against You.
21 Do not despise us, for Your Name’s sake.
Do not dishonor Your glorious throne.
Remember Your covenant with us—
do not break it!
22 Can any of the idols of the nations bring rain?
Or can the skies grant showers?
Is it not You, Adonai our God?
Do we not wait for You?
For You have done all these things.
Who Grieves for Jerusalem?
15 Then said Adonai to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My soul could not be toward this people. Cast them out of My presence, and let them go out!” 2 It will come to pass, when they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ Then You will tell them, thus says Adonai:
“Those for death—to death!
Those for the sword—to the sword!
Those for famine—to famine!
Those for exile—to exile![b]
3 I have appointed over them four kinds”
—it is a declaration of Adonai—
“the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and to destroy.[c]
4 “So I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.
5 “Who will have pity on you, Jerusalem?
Or who will grieve for you?
Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?
6 You have cast Me off”
—it is a declaration of Adonai—
“You keep going backward!
So I stretch out My hand against you
and will destroy you.
I am weary with relenting.
7 I will scatter them with a winnowing fork
at the gates of the land.
I will bereave them of children and destroy My people,
since they do not repent of their ways.
8 Their widows will increase before Me
more than the sand of the seas,
I will bring a destroyer at noonday
against the mother of a young man.
Suddenly I will bring down on her
anguish and terrors.
9 She who bore seven languishes.
She breathes out her soul.
Her sun sets while it is yet day.
She is shamed and humiliated.
Their survivors I give to the sword
before their enemies.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
10 Oy to me, my mother,
that you gave birth to me—
a man of strife and conflict to all the land!
I did not lend or borrow,
yet everyone curses me.
11 Adonai said:
“Surely I will release you for good.
Surely I will make the enemy appeal to you
in a time of trouble, in a time of affliction.
12 Can anyone smash iron—
iron and bronze from the north?
13 Your wealth and your treasures
I will give as plunder without cost,
for all your sins, in all your borders.
14 I will take you away with your enemies
into a land you do not know,
for a fire is kindled in My nostril,
which will burn against you.”
15 Adonai, you know.
Remember me and think of me.
Avenge me against my persecutors.
Because of Your long-suffering,
do not take me away.
Know that for Your sake I endure scorn.
16 Your words were found, so I ate them.
Your words were a delight to me
and the joy of my heart.
For I am called by Your Name,
Adonai-Elohei-Tzva’ot.
17 I never sat in the company of revelers
nor made merry.
Because of Your hand I sat alone,
for You filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain unending
and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
Will You be to me like a mirage
of water that is undependable?
19 Therefore thus says Adonai:
“If you return, I will restore you,
you will stand before Me.
If you extract the precious from the worthless,
you will be as My mouth.
Let them turn to you,
but you must not turn to them.
20 I will make you a fortified bronze wall to this people.
They will fight against you,
but will not prevail against you,
for I am with you to save you
and deliver you.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
21 “So I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked,
and I will redeem you out of the grasp of the ruthless.”
Jeremiah’s Way of Living
16 The word of Adonai came to me, saying: 2 “You will not take a wife for yourself or have sons or daughters in this place.” 3 For thus says Adonai about the sons and daughters born in this place, and about their mothers who give birth to them and about their fathers who father them in this land: 4 They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be lamented or buried, but will be like dung on the surface of the ground. They will be consumed by the sword and famine, and their carcasses will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.
5 For thus says Adonai: “Do not enter a house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them. For I have taken away My shalom from this people”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“as well as My mercy and compassion. 6 Both great and small will die in this land; they will not be buried; neither will anyone lament for them, or cut themselves or shave his head for them. 7 No one will break bread for them in mourning, to give comfort for the dead. Nor will anyone offer a cup of consolation to drink for anyone’s father or for his mother.
8 “You must not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink” 9 For thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “I am about to eliminate from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
10 “Now it will come to pass, when You will tell this people all these words, they will say to you: ‘Why has Adonai pronounced all this great evil against us? So what is our iniquity? So what is our sin that we have committed against Adonai our God?’ 11 Then will You say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says Adonai, ‘and have walked after other gods, served them and worshipped them, and have forsaken Me and have not kept My Torah. 12 Yes, you have done worse than your fathers. For here you are, each of you walking after the stubbornness of his evil heart, not listening to Me. 13 So I will cast you out of this land into a land that you have not known—neither you nor your fathers—and there you will serve other gods day and night. For I will give you no grace.’
Returning From All Lands
14 “Therefore, the days are quickly coming,” declares Adonai, “when it will no longer be said. ‘As Adonai lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.’ 15 Rather, ‘As Adonai lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had banished them.’ So I will bring them back into their land that I gave to their fathers.
16 “Behold, I will send for many fishers,” says Adonai, “and they will fish for them. After that, I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down from every mountain and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. 17 For My eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes. 18 First I will repay them double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have profaned My land, and they have filled My possession with the carcasses of their vile things and their abominations.”
19 Adonai, my strength, my stronghold,
my refuge in the day of affliction,
to You will the nations come
from the ends of the earth and say:
“Our fathers have inherited nothing
but lies, futility and useless things.”
20 Will man make gods for himself?
Yet they are not gods.
21 “So I will surely make them know—
this time I make them know
My hand and My might—
they will know that My Name is Adonai.”
Hearts Engraved with Sin
17 Judah’s sin is written with an iron pen
and with a point of a diamond,
engraved on the tablet of their heart
and on the horns of your altars.
2 So their children remember their altars
and their Asherah poles by leafy trees on the high hills.
3 My mountain in the country,
your wealth and all your treasures
I will give away as plunder,
along with your high places
for sin within all your borders.
4 So you, on your own,
let go of your heritage that I gave you.
So I will make you serve your enemies
in a land that you do not know.
For you have kindled a fire in My nose
that will burn forever.”
Planted by the Water Without Fear
5 Thus says Adonai:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
and depends on flesh as his arm,
and whose heart turns from Adonai.
6 For he will be like a bush in the desert.
He cannot see goodness when it comes,
but will dwell in parched places in the wilderness—
a salt land where no one lives.
7 Blessed is the one who trusts in Adonai,
whose confidence is in Adonai.
8 For he will be like a tree planted by the waters,
spreading out its roots by a stream.
It has no fear when heat comes,
but its leaves will be green.
It does not worry in a year of drought,
nor depart from yielding fruit.
A Deceitful Heart is Incurable
9 “The heart is deceitful above all things,
and incurable—who can know it?
10 I Adonai search the heart,
I try the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.
11 As a partridge that broods over young that she did not lay,
so is one who gets wealth, unjustly.
In the middle of his days it will abandon him,
so at his end he will be a fool.[d]
12 Throne of glory on high from the beginning!
Place of our sanctuary,
13 Adonai, You are the hope of Israel!
All who forsake You will be ashamed.
Those who depart from You
will be written in the dirt,
for they have forsaken Adonai,
the fountain of living waters.
14 Heal me, Adonai, and I will be healed.
Save me, and I will be saved.
For You are my praise.
15 Look, they are saying to me,
“Where is the word of Adonai?
Let it come now!”[e]
16 As for me, I have not run away from being a shepherd after You,
nor have I desired the woeful day.
What came out of my lips You know—it was before You.
17 Be not a ruin to me—
You are my refuge in the evil day.
18 Let my persecutors be ashamed,
yet let me not be ashamed.
Let them be dismayed,
but let me not be dismayed.
Bring on them the evil day,
Destroy them with double destruction.
Carry No Burdens on Shabbat
19 Thus said Adonai to me: “Go, stand in the gate of the children of the people, through which the kings of Judah come in and go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, 20 and say to them: ‘Hear the word of Adonai, kings of Judah, and all Judah and all inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter through these gates! 21 Thus says Adonai, “Guard your souls! Carry no burden on the day of Shabbat or bring it in through the gates of Jerusalem. 22 Nor should you carry a burden out of your houses on Yom Shabbat or do any work, but keep Yom Shabbat holy—as I commanded your fathers.” 23 Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, not hearing or accepting correction.
24 “However, if you listen attentively to Me,” says Adonai, “to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on Yom Shabbat, but sanctify Yom Shabbat and do no work on it, 25 then there will enter in through the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses—with their princes, the people of Judah and those dwelling in Jerusalem—and this city will be inhabited forever. 26 They will come from the cities of Judah and from all around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country and from the South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings, frankincense, and sacrifices of thanksgiving to the House of Adonai.
27 “But if you do not listen to Me to keep Yom Shabbat holy, by not bearing a burden or entering through the gates of Jerusalem on Yom Shabbat, then I will set its gates on fire, and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem, and not be quenched.’”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.