Old/New Testament
The Israelites are not faithful to God
3 The Lord says this:
‘If a man sends his wife away,
she may leave him and marry another man.
Then her first husband may not take her as his wife again.
That would be a sin against the land where you live.[a]
But you have left me to live with other gods.
You have lived like a prostitute,
but you still think that you can return to me.
2 Look up at the tops of the hills.
You have loved other gods on all of them!
You sat by the side of the road,
and you waited for a lover to come.
Like a robber, you waited to catch men
so that you could sleep with them.
You have not been faithful to me,
but you have looked for other gods, like a prostitute.
The wicked things that you have done
have made the land unclean.
3 That is why I have not sent any rain on your land.
Even the spring rains have not come.
But you still live like a proud prostitute.
You refuse to be ashamed of what you have done.
4 You still call me your Father.
You say, “You have always been my friend.
You have loved me all my life.
5 Surely you will not always be angry with me!
You cannot continue to be angry for ever.”
Those are the things that you say.
But you continue to do as many evil things as you can.’
6 The Lord spoke to me while Josiah was king of Judah. He said,
‘Look at what the Israelites have done. They have not been faithful to me. They have worshipped other gods under every big tree and on every high hill. Israel has been like a wife who is not faithful to her husband. 7 I thought that one day she would come back to me. But she did not return. Israel's sister, Judah, saw what Israel did.[b] 8 Israel was not faithful to me and she served other gods. So I sent her away, like a husband may send his wife away if she is not faithful to him. Judah saw what happened to Israel, but she was not afraid. Like a prostitute, she also went to find other gods that she could serve. 9 She was not ashamed of what she was doing. She worshipped idols made of wood and stone. She made the land unclean because she was not faithful to me. 10 Still Judah has not turned back to me. She wants me to think that she has, but she has not. Like her sister, Israel, she has not been faithful.’ That is what the Lord says.
11 The Lord said to me, ‘It is true that Israel's people have not been faithful to me. But Judah's people are even more guilty than them.[c]
12 Go now. Shout this message to my people in the north:
“You people of Israel have not been faithful to me.
But now return to me,” says the Lord.
“I will not always turn away from you.
I am kind and I forgive people.
I will not be angry with you for ever,” says the Lord.
13 “But you must agree that you are guilty of sin.
You have turned against me, the Lord your God.
You have loved to serve many foreign gods.
You have worshipped them under every big tree.
You have not obeyed my commands.” ’
That is what the Lord says.
14 The Lord says, ‘Return to me, you people who have turned away. Remember that you belong to me. If you turn back to me, I will choose one of you from each town and two from each family. I will bring you safely back to Zion. 15 I will give you leaders who will serve me faithfully. They will take care of you like shepherds. They will be wise and they will lead you well. 16 Then the number of your people who live in your land will increase. You will no longer need to talk about the Lord's Covenant Box. You will not think that it is important any more. You will forget all about it. You will not want to make another one. 17 Instead, you will call the city of Jerusalem “The Lord's throne”. At that time, people from all nations will come to Jerusalem. They will meet there to give honour to the Lord's name. They will no longer do the wicked things that they enjoy. 18 At that time, the nations of Judah and Israel will join together as one kingdom. They will leave their exile in a country in the north. They will come back to this land that I gave to your ancestors to be their home for ever.
19 I thought this:
“I want you people of Israel to be my children.
That would make me very happy.
I want to give you a good land as your home.
It is a more beautiful land than any other nation enjoys.”
I thought that you would call me “Father”.
I thought that you would always be faithful to me.
20 But you, Israel, have gone away from me,
like a woman who leaves her husband.
You have not been faithful to me.’
That is what the Lord says.
21 ‘I can hear a noise on the tops of the hills.
Israel's people are weeping.
They are calling out for help.
Yes, they have turned to bad ways.
They have forgotten to serve the Lord their God.
22 Return to me, all of you have turned away.
I will help you to be faithful to me.
Now you should say,
“Yes, we will return to you,
because you are the Lord our God.
23 The false gods that we worship on the hills have deceived us.
Our wild parties on the mountains have not helped us.
Only the Lord our God can really save Israel.
24 Since we were a young nation,
we have seen all our good things disappear.
The useless gods that we worshipped have taken them.
They took away the things that our ancestors worked to get.
They took away our sheep and our cows.
They even took away our sons and our daughters.
25 We are ashamed to agree that this is true.
We must accept the shame that we deserve.
We and our ancestors have done bad things
against the Lord our God.
Since long ago, we have not obeyed him,
and even today, we still do not listen to him.” ’
4 The Lord says this:
‘People of Israel, you should return to me.
If you want to do that,
you must throw away your idols.
Remove those disgusting things
and do not turn away from me again.
2 You must be honest and do what is right.
You must do what you promise to do.
You can show that your promise is true
when you add, “As surely as the Lord is alive.”
Then other nations will see that I have blessed you.
They will pray that I will bless them too.
and they will praise me.’
3 The Lord says this to the people of Jerusalem and all Judah:
‘Prepare yourselves, like a farmer who ploughs his fields.
Do not plant your seeds where weeds are growing.
4 Give yourselves to me, the Lord,
and agree to serve me faithfully.
Remove from your lives everything that is not right,
so that you obey my covenant.
If you do not do that,
I will be very angry with you.
I will punish you like a hot fire that destroys things.
Nobody will be able to stop my anger.
People of Judah and Jerusalem,
if you continue to do wicked things,
I will certainly punish you.’
An enemy will attack from the north
5 The Lord said:
‘Shout this message to the people in Jerusalem and in all Judah:
“Make a loud noise with trumpets in all the land!”
Shout loudly, “Come together!
We must all run to the cities with strong walls!”
6 Lift up a flag that shows the way to Zion!
Run quickly to a safe place! Do not wait!
I will soon bring great trouble from the north.
An enemy will destroy your country.
7 Yes, a strong army is coming,
like a lion that has left its cave.[d]
It has come out to destroy many nations.
It will attack your whole land.
Your cities will become heaps of stones,
and nobody will live in them.
8 So wear rough sackcloth!
Weep and cry aloud.
Say, “The Lord is still very angry with us.” ’
9 The Lord says:
‘When this happens, the king and his officers will be afraid.
The priests will shake with fear.
The prophets will be unable to speak.’
10 Then I said, ‘Lord God, that is terrible! You have deceived the people of Judah and Jerusalem. You told them, “You will live in peace.” But now an enemy is ready to attack us!’
11 The Lord will tell the people at that time, ‘A hot wind will blow from the hills in the desert. It will not be a little wind that blows chaff from wheat. It will be a strong storm that blows away the people that I love. 12 I will send a strong wind of punishment on my people.’
13 Look! The enemy army is coming like dark clouds!
Their chariots make the noise of a storm.
Their horses move faster than eagles in the sky.
Terrible trouble has come. We will all die!
14 People of Jerusalem, remove the evil things from your lives.
Then the Lord may save you.
Do not continue to have wicked ideas.
15 People are bringing a message from Dan
and from the hill country of Ephraim.
The message says that great trouble is coming.[e]
16 They say, ‘Warn all the nations that the enemy is coming!’
Shout this message in Jerusalem:
‘An army is coming from a country that is far away.
They will attack the towns in Judah.
17 Their soldiers are all around Jerusalem's walls,
like guards around a farmer's field.’
The Lord says, ‘This will happen because the people of Judah have turned against me. 18 I will punish you very much, because that is what you deserve. You have lived in a wicked way and you have done evil things. My punishment will give you pain that goes all through you.’
Jeremiah is very upset
19 I am so upset!
My body is shaking with pain.
My heart beats hard inside me.
I cannot keep still.
I cannot keep quiet.
I have heard the noise of the enemy's trumpets
and the shouts of their soldiers.
20 They are winning one battle after another!
They are destroying the whole land.
Our homes are becoming heaps of stones.
They quickly knock down our tents.
21 How long will our enemy continue to attack us?
How long will I see their flags and hear their trumpets?
22 The Lord says,
‘My people are fools.
They do not know me.
They are like children who do not know anything.
They understand nothing.
They are very clever at doing evil things.
But they do not know how to do what is good.’
Jeremiah's vision
23 I looked at the earth.
It had no shape and it was empty.
I looked at the sky.
Its light had disappeared.
24 I looked at the mountains.
They were shaking.
All the hills were moving around.
25 When I looked, I saw no people.
All the birds had flown away.
26 The land where crops had grown was now a desert.
All the cities had become heaps of stones.
The Lord had caused this to happen
because he was very angry.
27 The Lord had said,
‘The whole land will become like a desert,
but I will not completely destroy it.
28 So the earth will be sad and weep.
The sky will become dark.[f]
I have said what I will do.
And I will not change my thoughts.
I will do as I have decided.’
29 When the enemy attacks a town,
the people will run away to escape.
The enemy soldiers will ride on horses,
and they will shoot arrows.
When the people hear them,
some of them will hide among trees.
Some of them will climb up among the rocks.
All the towns will become empty.
Nobody will live in them.
30 Yes, Jerusalem, an enemy has destroyed you!
You tried to make friends,
like a woman who wears a beautiful dress.
You wore your gold and your jewels.
You painted around your eyes.
But all that has not helped you.
The nations that you wanted to be your lovers have turned against you.
Now they want to kill you.
31 I can hear people who are calling out.
It sounds like a woman who is giving birth to her first baby.
She is calling out with great pain.
It is Jerusalem who is crying!
She is calling out for help.
She says, ‘Help me! I am very weak.
These murderers have come to kill me!’
Punishment for Judah's people
5 The Lord said,
‘Run along all the streets of Jerusalem.
Look carefully all around you.
Look in all the public places of the city.
Try to find one person who is honest.
Try to find one person who wants to know the truth.
If you find one person like that,
I will forgive all the people in the city.
2 They make promises and they say,
“I will do it, as surely as the Lord lives.”
But what they say is all lies.’
3 Lord, you want people to be honest and true.
You have punished your people,
but they did not feel any pain.
You nearly destroyed them,
but they still refuse to change.
Their minds have become as hard as rock.
They refuse to turn back to you.
4 I thought, ‘These are poor, foolish people.
They do not understand what the Lord wants them to do.
They do not know his commands.
5 So I will go to speak to the leaders.
They will surely understand what the Lord wants.
They will know his commands.’
But all of them have turned against the Lord too.
They refuse to obey his authority.
6 So lions will come out of the forest to attack them.
Wolves will come from the desert to destroy them.
Leopards will wait outside their cities.
They will kill anyone who goes outside.[g]
That will happen because the people have turned against the Lord.
They have done many bad things.
7 The Lord said,
‘Jerusalem, I have to punish you.
Your people have turned away from me.
They have served gods that are not true gods.
I gave them everything that they needed.
But they left me, like a wife who leaves her husband.
The men hurry to the houses of prostitutes.
8 They are like strong male horses.
They cannot wait to have sex with another man's wife.’
9 The Lord says this:
‘I must punish them for what they have done.
I will pay back this wicked nation for their sins.’
10 The Lord says this to Judah's enemies:
‘March through the vineyards of Israel and Judah,
and destroy the vines.
But do not destroy them completely.
Pull the branches from the trees.
Do this, because these people do not belong to the Lord.[h]
11 The people of Israel and Judah have turned against me.
12 They have told lies about the Lord.
They have said, “He will not punish us!
No trouble will come to us.
There will be no war. There will be no famine.
13 The prophets speak empty words.
They do not speak the Lord's messages.
The troubles that they talk about should happen to them, not us!” ’
14 Because of that, the Lord God Almighty said to me,
‘That is what the people are saying.
So I will give you a strong message to speak to them.
It will be like fire that comes out of your mouth.
And the people will burn like wood in that fire.’
15 The Lord says this:
‘Listen to me, you people of Israel.
I will bring an army to attack you.
They will come from a nation that is far away.
It is a strong nation that started long ago.
You do not know their language.
You cannot understand what they say.
16 They are all brave soldiers.
They shoot arrows that will kill you.
17 They will eat all the crops in your fields
and the food that you have stored.
They will take your sons and your daughters for themselves.
They will kill your sheep and your cows for food.
They will eat all your grapes and your figs.
They will attack your strong cities
where you thought you would be safe.
Their soldiers will knock down the walls.’
18 But the Lord says this: ‘Even at that time, I will not destroy you completely. 19 So, Jeremiah, the people may ask you, “Why has the Lord our God done this to us?” Then tell them, “It is because you have turned away from me. You have chosen to serve foreign gods in your own land. So now you will have to serve foreign people and their gods in a land that is not your own land.”
20 Tell this message to the descendants of Jacob.
Shout it everywhere in Judah.
21 Tell them, “Hear this message,
you foolish and stupid people.
You have eyes, but you do not see properly.
You have ears, but you do not hear properly.” ’
22 The Lord says, ‘You should respect me and obey me.
You should shake with fear when you come to me.
I made the sand as an edge for the sea.
It is like a wall that the sea cannot cross.
The sea's waves may attack the shore,
but it cannot go further than that edge.
23 But these people do not obey me, as the waves do.
They have turned away from me.
They have chosen to go their own way.
24 They do not say to themselves,
“We should respect the Lord our God.
He sends rain for us in the autumn and in the spring.
He makes sure that we have a harvest from our crops.”
25 But instead, your sins have stopped these good things.
You have not received God's blessing.
26 There are wicked men among my people.
They like to catch people and rob them.
They hide like someone who wants to catch a bird.
They put out their traps to kill what they want.
27 Their houses are full of valuable things,
like a trap that is full of beautiful birds.
They have cheated people
and they have robbed them.
That is how they have become rich and powerful.
28 They are very fat and healthy.
They will never stop doing evil things.
They do not help poor people or children who have no family.
They do not try to get justice for them.’
29 The Lord says,
‘I will certainly punish them for what they have done.
I will pay back this wicked nation for their sins.
30 A terrible thing is happening in the land of Judah.
31 The prophets speak messages that are not true.
The priests make their own rules for people to obey.
And my people love to live like this!
But when all this comes to an end,
my people will be helpless!’
False teachers
4 God's Spirit tells us clearly that, in later times, some people will stop believing the message about Jesus Christ. Instead, they will listen to bad spirits who want people to believe wrong things. They will listen to the message that comes from demons. 2 The people who teach those false things are hypocrites. They no longer understand that what they teach is wrong. 3 They say that it is wrong for anyone to marry. They tell people not to eat certain kinds of food. But God made those foods for people to eat! We should understand God's true message and trust him. Then we will receive the food that he has given us and we will thank him for it. 4 Everything that God has made is good. So we should not refuse anything that he has made. Instead, we should receive it and thank God for it. 5 God has said that it is good. We should pray that he will bless it. Because of that, it becomes good and clean for us to eat.[a]
How Timothy can be a good servant of Christ
6 You must explain these things to the believers and teach them God's true message. If you do that, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. Continue to study the message about Jesus that you have already learned. That will help you to be strong. 7 But you must refuse to listen to false stories. Stories like that are not from God and only silly people believe them. Instead, learn to live well in a way that makes God happy. 8 People say this: ‘If a person works to make his body strong and healthy, that will help him a little. But if a person works to live in a way that makes God happy, that will help him much more. It will help that person in his life now on earth. It will also help him in his future life with God in heaven.’ 9 We know that those words are true. Everyone should agree with them. 10 So that is why we work to serve God well. We continue to work, even when we have trouble. We do this because we believe that God will help us. He is the one who lives for ever and who saves all people. Certainly, he saves those who are believers.
11 Teach people to do these things. 12 You are still a young man, but everyone should respect you as the leader in the church. Show the believers how they should live. Be a good example to them in these ways:
what you say,
what you do,
how you love people,
how you trust God,
and how you do only what is right.
13 Until I come, be careful to read the Bible aloud to people. Teach them to understand and to obey the message about Christ. 14 Remember the gift that God's Holy Spirit has given to you. You received that gift when the group of church leaders put their hands on you.[b] They spoke messages from God about how you would serve him. So do not stop using that gift from God.
15 Be careful to do all these things well. Then everyone will see that you are serving God better and better. 16 Think carefully about how you live, and about the message that you teach. Continue to teach God's true message. Then God will save not only you, but also those people who listen to you.
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