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Chapter 42
1 [a]Then all the military commanders, including Johanan, the son of Kareah, and Azariah, the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the lowest to the highest rank, approached 2 the prophet Jeremiah and said, “Please grant our petition and intercede for us and for this meager remnant. For where we once were great in number, now there are very few of us that remain, as your eyes can discern. 3 Please petition the Lord, your God, to show us the path we should follow and what we must do.”
4 The prophet Jeremiah said to them in reply, “I will grant your request and pray to the Lord, your God. Whatever answer the Lord has for you, I will tell you and not withhold anything from you.” 5 They in their turn said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not follow all the instructions that the Lord, your God, will send us. 6 Whether or not what he has to say is to our liking, we will obey the voice of the Lord, our God, to whom we are sending you, so that all may go well with us when we heed his instructions.”
7 After ten days had passed, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 Then he summoned Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all of the military commanders who were with him, as well as all the people, from the least to the greatest, 9 and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition:
10 “ ‘If you resolve to remain in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you. For I deeply regret the disaster that I have inflicted upon you. 11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon whom at this moment you so greatly fear. You have no reason to be frightened of him, says the Lord, for I am with you to ensure your safety and to rescue you from his power. 12 I will have compassion on you, and he will then treat you mercifully and allow you to return to your land.
13 “ ‘However, if you persist in your stubborn refusal to stay in this land, thereby disobeying the voice of the Lord, your God, 14 and you say, “We are determined to go to Egypt, where we will not be forced to endure further war or hear the trumpet’s call to battle or be hungry for bread; it is there that we will stay,” 15 then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you are determined to go to Egypt, and if you actually do make that journey and settle there, 16 then the sword you fear so greatly will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, the famine you dread will continue to afflict you to the same degree in Egypt, and it is there that you will perish.
17 “ ‘All those people who are determined to go to Egypt and settle there will die by the sword, famine, or plague. Not a single person will survive or escape the disaster that I will inflict upon them. 18 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Just as my anger and my fury were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will my wrath be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You will become an object of execration and horror, of cursing and ridicule, and you will never again see this place.’
19 “The Lord has spoken clearly to you in regard to this matter, O remnant of Judah. Do not go to Egypt. You can never make the claim that I did not give you a solemn warning. 20 You were not speaking sincerely when you yourselves sent me to the Lord, your God, saying, ‘Intercede for us with the Lord, our God. Make known to us exactly what the Lord, our God, says, and we will do it.’
21 “Today I have told you what you wanted to know, but you have refused to obey the voice of the Lord, your God, in anything that he sent me to tell you. 22 Therefore, do not nurture any doubt that you will die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you wish to go and settle.”
Chapter 43
1 When Jeremiah had finished relating to the people all these words that the Lord, their God, had sent him to reveal to them, 2 Azariah, the son of Hoshaiah, Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the rest of the insolent men said to Jeremiah, “You are telling blatant lies. The Lord, our God, did not send you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt and settle there.’ 3 Rather it is Baruch, the son of Neriah, who continues to incite you against us and keeps urging you to hand us over to the Chaldeans so that they can put us to death or deport us into exile in Babylon.”
4 Therefore, Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the military leaders and all the people refused to obey the Lord’s command to remain in the land of Judah. 5 Instead Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the military leaders led away the entire remnant of Judah who had been scattered among all the nations and who then had returned to settle in the land of Judah: 6 men, women, and children, the daughters of the king, and everyone whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had entrusted to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, including the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch, the son of Neriah. 7 In disobedience to the Lord’s command, they traveled to the land of Egypt and arrived at Tahpanhes.
Invasion of Egypt. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah at Tahpanhes. 9 “Take some large stones and bury them in the cement in the terrace at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace in Tahpanhes, while the men of Judah can see you. 10 Then say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I intend to send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and he will set his throne upon these stones that I have buried, and he will spread his canopy over them. 11 He will come and ravage the land of Egypt:
“ ‘Those destined for the plague, to plague,
those for captivity, to captivity,
and those for the sword, to the sword.
12 “ ‘He will set fire to the temple of the gods of Egypt, burning their gods and carrying them off. He will scour the land of Egypt as a shepherd scrubs off the vermin from his cloak, and he will depart from there safely. 13 He will smash the obelisks of the temple of the sun in the land of Egypt, and he will destroy the temples of the Egyptian gods with fire.’ ”
Chapter 44
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah for all the Judeans who were living in the land of Egypt, at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Memphis, and in the district of Pathros. 2 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen the immense disaster that I have inflicted on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. Today they lie in ruins and are left uninhabited. 3 This was the result of all the wicked deeds your ancestors committed that provoked me to anger, as they went forth to serve other gods and offer sacrifices to them whom neither they, nor you, nor your ancestors ever had known before.
4 Even though I continued to send to them all my servants the prophets with this plea, “Do not do this abominable thing that I hate,” 5 they would not listen or pay any heed to my warning to refrain from their wicked deeds and cease to offer sacrifices to other gods. 6 Therefore, my fury and my wrath poured forth, burning to ashes the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem and reducing them to the desolate wasteland they are today.
7 And now this is what the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, has to say: Why are you inflicting such a total disaster upon yourselves? Why are you uprooting men and women, children and babies, from Judah, thus leaving yourselves without a remnant? 8 Will you continue to provoke me to anger by the works of your hands as you make sacrifices to strange gods in Egypt where you have come to settle, cutting yourselves off and becoming an object of cursing and ridicule among all the nations of the earth?
9 Have you forgotten the wicked crimes committed by your ancestors and by the kings of Judah and their wives, and also your own crimes and those of your wives, all of them committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 To this very day they have shown no remorse or fear, nor have they observed my law and my statutes which I prescribed for you and for your ancestors.
11 Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am determined to inflict disaster upon you and to destroy Judah completely. 12 I will take the remnant of Judah who were determined to come to the land of Egypt and settle there, and in Egypt, they will all perish. They will fall by the sword and by famine. From the least to the greatest they will die by the sword and by famine, and they will become an object of execration and horror, a curse and a reproach.
13 I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt as I punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence. 14 None of the remnant of Judah who have come to settle in the land of Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah, even though they may long to return and live there. None will be allowed to return, except for a few refugees.
15 Then all the men who were aware that their wives had been burning incense to other gods, and all the women who were standing there in a great assemblage, and all the people who lived in Pathros in the land of Egypt replied to Jeremiah, 16 “We have no intention of giving credence to the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord. 17 Rather, we will continue to do everything we have vowed to do. We will make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials, used to do in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. In those days we used to have an abundance of food; we prospered and endured no misfortune. 18 But from the time we ceased to make offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out libations to her, we have been in great need, and we have perished by the sword and by famine.”
19 The women added, “When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out libations to her, do you think that our husbands were not aware that we made cakes depicting her image and that we poured out libations to her?”[b]
20 Then to all the people, both men and women, who had given him this answer, Jeremiah said, 21 “In regard to the incense offerings that you and your ancestors, your kings and your officials, and the people of the land burned in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, the Lord certainly remembered them and kept them in mind. 22 When the Lord could no longer endure your wicked deeds and your loathsome practices, your land became a desolate waste, an accursed object of horror without inhabitants, as it is to this day. 23 The disaster you are now enduring has befallen you because you burned incense and sinned against the Lord, refusing to obey the voice of the Lord and failing to live in accordance with his law, his statutes, and his decrees.”
The Exemplars of a Man of God[a]
Chapter 2
Accept Your Share of Sufferings.[b] 1 As for you, my child, take strength from the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things you learned from me in the presence of many witnesses you must pass on to trustworthy people who will be capable of teaching others.
3 Together with me, bear your share of sufferings like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 A soldier does not become involved in everyday affairs, for his task is to obey his commanding officer. 5 In a similar vein, no athlete can receive the winner’s crown unless he has competed according to the rules. 6 Again, the farmer who does the hard work should have the first claim on the crops. 7 Think about what I am saying, for the Lord will help you to understand it perfectly.
Remember That Jesus Christ Is Risen.[c] 8 Remember the gospel that I preach: Jesus Christ, a descendant of David, was raised from the dead. 9 It is because of this that I have endured great suffering, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God cannot be chained. 10 Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
11 This saying can be trusted:
If we have died with him,
we shall also live with him.
12 If we endure,
we shall also reign with him.
If we deny him,
he will also deny us.
13 If we are unfaithful,
he will remain faithful,
for he cannot deny himself.
14 A True Servant of the Lord.[d] Remind people of these things, and warn them before God[e] that they must stop arguing over words. This does no good and only causes harm to those who are listening. 15 Make every effort to present yourself before God as one who is worthy of his approval, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, but who imparts the word of truth without any alteration.
16 Avoid idle and worldly chatter, for those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly, 17 and their teaching will spread like a plague. Included among these are Hymenaeus[f] and Philetus, 18 who have gone astray from the truth. They claim that the resurrection has already taken place, and they damage the faith of some. 19 However, the foundation that God has sealed[g] remains firm, and it bears this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his own,” and “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”
20 In every large house, there are utensils not only of gold and silver but also of wood and clay—some for noble purposes and some for ordinary purposes. 21 If someone avoids these things I have mentioned, he will be regarded as a vessel of special value, dedicated and useful for the master of the house, and ready to perform any good work.
Psalm 92[a]
Praise of God’s Just Rule
1 A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath.[b]
2 It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praise to your name,[c] O Most High,
3 to proclaim your kindness[d] in the morning
and your faithfulness during the night,
4 with the ten-stringed harp,
to the melody of the lyre.
5 [e]Your deeds, O Lord, have caused me to exult;
at the works of your hands I shout for joy:
6 How great are your deeds, O Lord!
How profound are your thoughts!
7 [f]A senseless person cannot grasp this;
a fool[g] is unable to comprehend it.
8 Even though the wicked may sprout like grass
and all evildoers may prosper,
they are doomed to eternal destruction,[h]
9 whereas you, O Lord, are exalted forever.[i]
10 Surely your enemies, O Lord,
surely your enemies will perish,
and all evildoers will be scattered.
11 [j]You have given me the strength of a wild bull
and anointed me with fresh oil.
12 My eyes have witnessed the downfall of my enemies;
my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.
13 [k]The righteous will flourish like the palm tree;
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon.
14 They are planted in the house of the Lord[l]
and will flourish in the courts of our God.
15 They still will bear fruit, in their old age,
and they will remain fresh and green,
16 proclaiming, “The Lord is upright;
he is my Rock, in whom no injustice can be found.”
Psalm 93[m]
Glory of the Lord’s Kingdom
1 The Lord is King,[n] adorned in splendor;
the Lord has clothed and girded himself with strength.
[o]He has made the world firm,
never to be moved.
2 Your throne has stood firm from the beginning;
you have existed throughout eternity, O Lord.
3 The waters[p] have lifted up, O Lord;
the waters have lifted up their voice;
the waters have lifted up their roar.
4 More powerful than the roar of mighty waters,
more powerful than the crashing waves of the sea,
mighty on high is the Lord.[q]
5 Your decrees[r] are firmly established;
holiness adorns your house,
O Lord, throughout the ages.
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