Old/New Testament

God warns Zedekiah

34 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah again, while King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his army were attacking Jerusalem. Soldiers from all the kingdoms that King Nebuchadnezzar ruled joined with Babylon's own soldiers to make a large army. They were attacking Jerusalem and the towns around it. ² The Lord, Israel's God, said to Jeremiah, ‘Go to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and give him this message: The Lord says, “I will put this city under the power of the king of Babylon. He will burn it down. ³ You will not be able to escape. Babylon's soldiers will certainly take hold of you. They will take you to the king of Babylon. You will have to stand in front of the king of Babylon and answer his questions. Then you will go to Babylon as his prisoner.

⁴ But listen to the promise that the Lord makes to you, Zedekiah, king of Judah. I, the Lord, promise you that you will not die in a battle. ⁵ Instead, you will die with peace in your mind. People will burn incense to give you honour when they bury you. They did that for your ancestors who ruled as kings before you. They will do it for you too. When you die, people will weep because they are sad. They will say, ‘This is terrible! Our king has died!’ That is my promise to you, says the Lord.” ’

⁶ The prophet Jeremiah told all this to King Zedekiah of Judah, in Jerusalem. ⁷ This happened when the king of Babylon's army were attacking Jerusalem and the cities of Lachish and Azekah. Those were the only strong cities in Judah that were not yet under his power.

King Zedekiah and the slaves

⁸ At another time, the Lord gave Jeremiah another message for King Zedekiah. Zedekiah had made an agreement with the people of Jerusalem. They all agreed to let their slaves go free. ⁹ Everyone in Judah who had a Hebrew slave must let their slave go free, both male and female slaves. Nobody should keep another Israelite person as their slave. ¹⁰ All the officers and the people agreed with the king that they would do this. They would not continue to have male or female slaves. They let them go free, as they had promised. ¹¹ But later, they decided that they would not do that. They took the men and women back to work for them as slaves again. They forced them to do that.

¹² Then the Lord said to Jeremiah, ¹³ ‘The Lord, Israel's God, says this to the people: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt. They had been slaves when they were there. ¹⁴ I told them, “When any Hebrew slave has worked for you for six years, you must let them go free. In the seventh year after they sold themselves to you, you must set them free.”^[a] But your ancestors did not listen to me. They did not obey me. ¹⁵ But now, you yourselves agreed to do what pleases me. You decided to obey me. You made a serious agreement with me in the temple which is my home. You let your slaves go free. ¹⁶ But now you have turned back to your old ways. You have refused to give me honour. You had let your slaves go free, as they wanted to do. But now you have forced them to work for you as your slaves again.

¹⁷ So I, the Lord, tell you this: You have not obeyed me. You have not let your Israelite slaves become free men and women. So now I will make you free! Yes, you will be free to let war, famine or disease kill you. People of all the kingdoms in the world will see how disgusting you are. ¹⁸ I will punish the people who did not obey the agreement that they made with me. When they made that agreement, they cut a young cow into two pieces and they walked between the pieces. Because they have not obeyed their agreement, I will now cut them into pieces, like the young cow.^[b]

¹⁹ I will punish the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the king's officers and the priests. I will punish all the people of Judah who refused to obey the agreement that they made with me. ²⁰ I will put them under the power of their enemies. Their enemies will kill them. Birds and wild animals will eat their dead bodies as food.

²¹ I will also put King Zedekiah of Judah and his officers under the power of their enemies. Their enemies will want to kill them. The king of Babylon's army has stopped attacking Jerusalem for a time. But I will put King Zedekiah and his officers under their power. ²² I will command Babylon's army to return to this city. They will fight against it and they will take it. They will burn the city down. I will also cause the other towns of Judah to become heaps of stones. Nobody will live in them any more.’

Rekab's descendants

35 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah when Josiah's son Jehoiakim ruled Judah as king. ² He said, ‘Go to the place where Rekab's descendants live. Ask them to come to the Lord's temple. Take them into one of the temple's small rooms. Give to them some wine to drink.’

³ So I went to meet with Rekab's descendants. They were Jaazaniah, son of Jeremiah and grandson of Habazziniah.^[c] I also met with Jaazaniah's brothers and all his sons. Those were all the descendants of Rekab. ⁴ I took them to the Lord's temple. I took them into the room where the disciples of the prophet Hanan lived. He was the son of Igdaliah. That room was next to the room where the temple officers lived. It was also above the room where Shallum's son Maaseiah lived. He was one of the guards for the doors of the temple. ⁵ I put some jars of wine and some cups in front of Rekab's descendants. I said to them, ‘Drink some wine.’

⁶ They replied, ‘We do not drink wine. Our ancestor Jonadab, son of Rekab, said to us, “You and your descendants must never drink wine. ⁷ You must not build houses. You must not plant seed in fields to grow crops. You must not plant vines or have a vineyard. Instead, you must always live in tents. If you live in that way, you will live for a long time as you travel around in the land.”

⁸ We have obeyed all the rules that our ancestor Jonadab gave to us. Our wives and our children have also obeyed them. We have never drunk wine. ⁹ We have never built houses to be our homes. We have no fields or vineyards and we grow no crops. ¹⁰ We have always lived in tents. So we have completely obeyed our ancestor Jonadab. We have done everything that he commanded us to do. ¹¹ But when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked our land, we decided to come to Jerusalem. We said, “We must leave here and go to Jerusalem. We must escape from the armies of Babylon and Syria.” That is why we are now living in Jerusalem.’

¹² Then the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah. ¹³ The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, said to him, ‘Go and speak to the people of Judah, including those who live in Jerusalem. Tell them that I, the Lord, say this: “Learn a lesson about how you should obey me! ¹⁴ Rekab's son Jonadab commanded his descendants that they must not drink wine. They have obeyed his command. Even now, they have never drunk wine because their ancestor told them not to do that. But as for you, I have spoken to you very many times and you have not obeyed me! ¹⁵ I have sent my servants the prophets to warn you many times. They told you, ‘You must all stop doing wicked things. Instead, start doing the things that are right. Do not serve other gods and worship them. Then you will continue to live in this land that I gave to you and to your ancestors.’ But you did not listen to my message. You did not obey me. ¹⁶ The descendants of Rekab's son Jonadab obeyed the commands that their ancestor gave to them. But as for you, my people, you have not obeyed me.”

¹⁷ So the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “Listen to me! I will soon punish the people of Judah and Jerusalem with all the things that I warned them about. I spoke to them, but they did not listen. I called out to them, but they did not answer. So now I will punish them.” ’

¹⁸ Then Jeremiah said to Rekab's descendants, ‘The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “You have completely obeyed the commands of your ancestor Jonadab. You have done everything that he told you to do.” ¹⁹ So the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, also says, “There will always be a male descendant of Rekab's son Jonadab who will live to serve me.” ’

King Jehoiakim destroys the Lord's message

36 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah in the fourth year that Josiah's son Jehoiakim ruled Judah as king. He said, ² ‘Write down on a scroll all the messages that I have spoken to you. Since Josiah was king until now, I have given you messages about Israel, Judah and the other nations. Write them all on a scroll. ³ That will warn the people of Judah about the very bad things that I have decided to do to them. When they hear about it, perhaps they will stop doing the evil things that they have been doing. Then I will forgive their sins and everything wrong that they have done.’

⁴ So Jeremiah told Neriah's son Baruch to come to him. Jeremiah spoke all the words that the Lord had told him to say. Baruch wrote them down on a scroll. ⁵ Then Jeremiah said to Baruch, ‘The officers will not let me go to the Lord's temple. ⁶ So you must go to the temple yourself. Go on a special day when people are fasting and they have come from their towns. Read the words that you wrote on the scroll to the people, so that they can all hear them. ⁷ Perhaps they will ask the Lord to forgive them. Perhaps they will stop doing all the evil things that they have been doing. The Lord is very angry with them and he has warned them that he will punish them.’

⁸ Neriah's son Baruch did everything that the prophet Jeremiah had told him. He went to the Lord's temple. He read the Lord's message that was written on the scroll. ⁹ That happened in the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim ruled Judah as king. People from all Judah's towns had come to Jerusalem. They joined with the people of Jerusalem to fast and pray in the Lord's temple. ¹⁰ Baruch stood in the temple, at the entrance of the room of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan. Shaphan had been the king's secretary. Gemariah's room was in the higher yard of the temple, near the New Gate. Baruch stood there. He read the Lord's message that Jeremiah had told him to write on the scroll.

¹¹ Micaiah, son of Gemariah and grandson of Shaphan, heard the Lord's message as Baruch read it aloud. ¹² Then Micaiah went to the secretary's room in the king's palace. All the king's officers were meeting there. They included: the king's secretary Elishama, Shemaiah's son Delaiah, Akbor's son Elnathan, Shaphan's son Gemariah, and Hananiah's son Zedekiah. All the officers were sitting there. ¹³ Micaiah told them everything that he had heard when Baruch read the scroll aloud to the people. ¹⁴ The officers sent somebody to go and speak to Baruch. They sent Jehudi, son of Nethaniah, and the grandson of Cushi's son, Shelemiah. They told him to say to Baruch, ‘Bring here to us the scroll with the words that you read aloud to the people.’

So Neriah's son Baruch went to them. He took the scroll with him in his hand. ¹⁵ The officers said to him, ‘Please sit down and read it to us.’ So Baruch read it to them. ¹⁶ They listened to the words that Baruch had written on the scroll. They looked at each other in fear. They said to Baruch, ‘We must certainly report this to the king. We must tell him about everything that you have read to us.’ ¹⁷ They also asked Baruch, ‘Please tell us how you wrote all these words. Did Jeremiah himself tell you what to write?’

¹⁸ Baruch said, ‘Yes, he told me what I should write. Then I used ink to write the words on this scroll.’^[d]

¹⁹ The officers said to Baruch, ‘You and Jeremiah must go and hide yourselves. Do not tell anyone where you are.’

²⁰ The officers put the scroll into the room of Elishama, the king's secretary, to keep it safe. Then they went to see the king. He was in the palace yard. They reported to him everything that they had heard. ²¹ Then the king sent Jehudi to fetch the scroll. Jehudi brought the scroll from Elishama's room in the temple. Then he read the message that was written on the scroll. He read it aloud to the king and to all the officers who were standing around him. ²² It was autumn, so the king was sitting in the rooms that he used when it was cold. A fire was burning beside him. ²³ Jehudi read a small section of the words that were written on the scroll. As soon as he finished each section, the king cut off that part of the scroll with a knife. He threw each piece of the scroll on the fire. The king continued to do that until fire had burned up the whole scroll. ²⁴ As the king and his officers heard Jehudi read each section of the scroll, it did not make them afraid. None of them tore their clothes because they were upset. ²⁵ Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah asked the king very strongly not to burn the scroll. But the king refused to listen to them. ²⁶ Instead, the king told Prince Jerahmeel to go and find the secretary Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah. Jerahmeel went with Azriel's son Seraiah and Abdeel's son Shelemiah to take hold of them. But the Lord had hidden Baruch and Jeremiah.

Baruch and Jeremiah write another scroll

²⁷ After the king had destroyed the scroll on which Baruch had written Jeremiah's words, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah again. ²⁸ He said, ‘Take another scroll. Write on it everything that was written on the first scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah burned in the fire. ²⁹ Then tell the king that the Lord says this: “You burned the scroll because you did not like the message that was written on it. It said that the king of Babylon would come to destroy this land, with all its people and animals. You warned Jeremiah that he should not write things like that.” ³⁰ So now the Lord says this to you, Jehoiakim, king of Judah: “None of your descendants will rule David's kingdom of Judah. When you die, people will not bury your body. They will throw your dead body on the ground. As it lies there, the sun will burn it in the daytime. At night it will be cold with frost. ³¹ I will punish you, your descendants and your officers because you have all done wicked things. I will also bring terrible trouble on the people of Jerusalem and all of Judah. I will punish everyone in the way that I promised I would do. I warned them, but they did not listen to me.” ’

³² Then Jeremiah took another scroll. He gave it to Neriah's son, Baruch, the secretary. Jeremiah spoke the same message that Baruch had written on the first scroll. That was the scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah had burned in the fire. They also added more messages that were like the first one.

Do not turn away from God's message

2 So we must be very careful. We must continue to remember the message that we have heard about God's Son. Then we will not go in the wrong direction, and turn away from God. ² The message that God spoke by angels was certainly powerful.^[a] God punished people when they did not obey the Law that he gave to Moses. In a completely right way he punished people who did anything wrong.

³ As for us, God has shown us the way that he will save us from our sins. So we must not forget God's message about his great way to save us. If we do, he will certainly punish us. The Lord Jesus himself first spoke that message about how God would save people. Then the people who heard Jesus told the message to us.^[b] That is how we know that it is true. ⁴ God himself also showed clearly that what these people said is true. He did many miracles and powerful things which showed that he was with them. He also helped them with gifts from the Holy Spirit, in the way that he wanted.

Jesus became human like us, to save us

⁵ We are speaking about the new world that will come. God did not choose angels to rule over that world. ⁶ No! Instead, someone wrote this somewhere in the Bible:

It says that God has caused people to rule over everything. That means that there is nothing that people do not have authority over. But at this time, we do not yet see that people rule over everything. ⁹ But we do see Jesus!^[d] God made him less important than the angels for a short time. And now God has made him the great and powerful king. God did this because Jesus died as a sacrifice on behalf of all people. His death showed that God is very kind.

¹⁰ It was right that God should bring Jesus back to heaven as king. All things belong to God, and he causes all things to continue. God wanted many people to become his children. He wanted them to live with him in heaven. Jesus made this possible because he died with much pain as a sacrifice. ¹¹ Jesus is the one who makes people clean in front of God. Jesus himself and all the people that he makes clean have the same Father. So Jesus is not ashamed to call all those people his brothers and sisters. ¹² He says this to God:

¹³ He also says this:

¹⁴ So, those people who become God's children are human. They have human bodies. Because of that, Jesus himself became human like us. In that way, when he died he was able to destroy the Devil. It is the Devil who has power over death. ¹⁵ Before, we were like slaves all our lives because we were afraid of death. But now, Jesus' death makes us free. ¹⁶ It is clear that Jesus did not come to help the angels. He came to help people who are from Abraham's family.^[g]

¹⁷ Because of that, it was necessary for Jesus to become completely like us, his brothers and sisters. He had to become God's servant on our behalf, like God's most important priest. In that way, he could serve God well and be kind to us. He died as a sacrifice so that God could forgive us for our sins. ¹⁸ While Jesus lived on earth, the Devil tried to make him do wrong things. This caused Jesus to have much pain and trouble. But because of that, he can now help us not to do wrong things.