Old/New Testament
3 “If a man divorces his wife and she goes and marries someone else,
the first husband cannot take her back.
If he did,[a] it would make the land unclean.
Judah, you and all your false gods are like a prostitute with many lovers!
So why do you think you can come back to me?”
This message is from the Lord.
2 “Look up to the bare hilltops, Judah.
Is there any place where you have not had sex with your lovers?
You sat by the road waiting for lovers,
like an Arab in the desert.
You made the land ‘dirty’
with all the evil sins you did
when you were unfaithful to me.
3 You sinned, so the rain has not come.
There has not been any springtime rains.
But still you refuse to be ashamed.
The look on your face is like that of a prostitute who refuses to be ashamed.
4 But didn’t you just call me ‘Father’?
Didn’t you say, ‘You have been my friend since I was a child’?
5 You also said, ‘God will not always be angry with me.
His anger will not continue forever.’
“Judah, you say that,
but you do as much evil as you can.”
The Two Bad Sisters: Israel and Judah
6 The Lord spoke to me during the time King Josiah was ruling the nation of Judah. He said, “Jeremiah, you saw the bad things Israel[b] did! You saw how she was unfaithful to me. She was unfaithful to me with every idol on every hill and under every green tree. 7 I said to myself, ‘Israel will come back to me after she has finished doing these evil things.’ But she did not come back to me. And Israel’s unfaithful sister, Judah, saw what she did. 8 Israel was unfaithful, and she knew why I sent her away. Israel knew that I divorced her because she committed the sin of adultery. But that did not make her unfaithful sister afraid. Judah was not afraid. She also went out and acted like a prostitute. 9 Judah did not care that she was acting like a prostitute. So she made her country ‘dirty.’ She committed the sin of adultery by worshiping idols made out of stone and wood. 10 Israel’s unfaithful sister did not come back to me with her whole heart. She only pretended that she came back to me.” This message is from the Lord.
11 The Lord said to me, “Israel was not faithful to me, but she had a better excuse than unfaithful Judah. 12 Jeremiah, look toward the north and speak this message:
“‘Come back, you faithless people of Israel.’
This message is from the Lord.
‘I will stop frowning at you.
I am full of mercy.’
The Lord says, ‘I will not be angry with you forever.
13 But you must recognize your sin.
You turned against the Lord your God.
That is your sin.
You worshiped the idols of other nations.
You worshiped them under every green tree.
You did not obey me.’”
This message is from the Lord.
14 The Lord says, “You people are unfaithful, but come back to me because I am your master. I will take one person from every city and two people from every family and bring you to Zion. 15 Then I will give you new rulers who will be faithful to me. They will lead you with knowledge and understanding. 16 In those days there will be many of you in the land.” This message is from the Lord.
“At that time people will never again say, ‘I remember the days when we had the Box of the Lord’s Agreement.’ They will not even think about the Holy Box anymore. They will not even remember or miss it. They will never make another Holy Box. 17 At that time the city of Jerusalem will be called the ‘Lord’s Throne.’ All nations will come together in the city of Jerusalem to give honor to the name of the Lord. They will not follow their stubborn, evil hearts anymore. 18 In those days the family of Judah will join the family of Israel. They will come together from a land in the north to the land I gave to their ancestors.”
19-20 This message is from the Lord:
“I want to treat you like my own children.
I want to give you a pleasant land,
a land more beautiful than any other nation.
I thought you would call me ‘Father.’
I thought you would always follow me.
But you have been unfaithful to me, family of Israel!
You have been like an unfaithful wife who leaves her husband.
21 You can hear crying on the bare hills.
The people of Israel are crying and praying for mercy.
They became very evil.
They forgot the Lord their God.
22 “People of Israel, you are unfaithful to me, but come back to me.
Come back and I will forgive[c] you for being unfaithful.
“Just say, ‘Yes, we will come back,
because you are the Lord our God.
23 It was foolish to worship idols on the hills.
All the loud parties on the mountains were wrong.
Surely the salvation of Israel
comes from the Lord our God.
24 That terrible false god Baal has eaten everything our fathers owned.
This has happened since we were children.
That terrible false god took our fathers’ sheep and cattle
and their sons and daughters.
25 Let us lie down in our shame.
Let our shame cover us like a blanket.
We have sinned against the Lord our God.
We and our fathers have sinned.
We have not obeyed the Lord our God
from the time we were children.’”
4 This message is from the Lord.
“Israel, if you want to come back,
then come back to me.
Throw away your idols.
Don’t wander farther away from me.
2 If you do these things, you will be able to use my name to make a promise.
You will be able to say, ‘As the Lord lives.’
You will be able to use these words in a truthful, honest, and right way.
If you do these things, the nations will be blessed by the Lord.
They will brag about what the Lord has done.”
3 This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem:
“Your fields have not been plowed.
Plow those fields!
Don’t plant seeds among the thorns.
4 Become the Lord’s people.
Change your hearts.[d]
Men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, if you don’t change,
then I will become very angry.
My anger will spread fast like a fire,
and it will burn you up.
No one will be able to put out that fire
because of the evil you have done.”
Disaster From the North
5 “Give this message to the people of Judah:
Tell everyone in the city of Jerusalem:
‘Blow the trumpet all over the country.’
Shout out loud and say,
‘Come together!
Let us all escape to the strong cities for protection.’
6 Raise the signal flag toward Zion.
Run for your lives! Don’t wait!
Do this because I am bringing disaster from the north.[e]
I am bringing terrible destruction.”
7 A lion has come out of his cave.
A destroyer of nations has begun to march.
He has left his home to destroy your land.
Your towns will be destroyed.
There will be no one left to live in them.
8 The Lord is angry with us,
so put on sackcloth and cry out loud!
9 The Lord says, “When this happens,
the king and his officers will lose their courage.
The priests will be filled with fear,
and the prophets will be shocked.”
10 Then I, Jeremiah, said, “Lord God, you have tricked the people of Judah and Jerusalem. You said to them, ‘You will have peace.’ But now the sword is pointing at their throats!”
11 At that time this message will be given
to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:
“A hot wind blows from the bare hills.
It comes from the desert to my people.
It is not like the gentle wind that is used
to separate the grain from the chaff.
12 It is a stronger wind than that,
and it comes from me.
Now I will announce my judgment
against the people of Judah.”
13 Look! The enemy rises up like a cloud.
His chariots look like a windstorm.
His horses are faster than eagles.
It will be very bad for us!
We are ruined!
14 People of Jerusalem,
wash the evil from your hearts.
Make your hearts pure so that you can be saved.
Don’t continue making evil plans.
15 Listen! The voice of a messenger
from the land of Dan[f] is speaking.
Someone is bringing bad news
from the hill country of Ephraim[g]:
16 “Report it to this nation.[h]
Spread the news to the people in Jerusalem.
Enemies are coming from a faraway country.
They are shouting words of war against the cities of Judah.
17 The enemy has surrounded Jerusalem
like men guarding a field.
Judah, you turned against me,
so the enemy is coming against you.”
This message is from the Lord.
18 “The way you lived and the things you did
brought this trouble to you.
It is your evil that made your life so hard.
Your evil life brought the pain that hurts deep in your heart.”
Jeremiah’s Cry
19 My sadness and worry is making my stomach hurt.
I am bent over in pain.
I am so afraid.
My heart is pounding inside me.
I cannot keep quiet, because I have heard the trumpet blow.
The trumpet is calling the army to war.
20 Disaster follows disaster.
The whole country is destroyed.
Suddenly my tents are destroyed.
My curtains are torn down!
21 How long must I see the war flags?
How long must I hear the war trumpets?
22 The Lord said, “My people are foolish.
They don’t know me.
They are stupid children.
They don’t understand.
They are skillful at doing evil,
but they don’t know how to do good.”
Disaster Is Coming
23 I looked at the earth.
It was empty; there was nothing on it.
I looked at the sky,
and its light was gone.[i]
24 I looked at the mountains,
and they were shaking.
All the hills were trembling.
25 I looked, but there were no people.
All the birds of the sky had flown away.
26 I looked, and the good land had become a desert.
All the cities in that land were destroyed
by the Lord and his great anger.
27 This is what the Lord says:
“The whole country will be ruined,
but I will not completely destroy the land.
28 So the people in the land will cry for the dead.
The sky will grow dark.
I have spoken and will not change.
I have made a decision, and I will not change my mind.”
29 The people of Judah will hear the sound
of the horse soldiers and the archers,
and the people will run away!
Some of them will hide in caves;[j]
some will hide in the bushes;
some will climb up into the rocks.
All the cities of Judah will be empty.
No one will live in them.
30 Judah, you have been destroyed.
So what are you doing now?
Why are you putting on your best red dress?
Why are you putting on your gold jewelry?
Why are you putting on your eye makeup?
You make yourself beautiful,
but it is a waste of time.
Your lovers hate you.
They are trying to kill you.
31 I hear a cry like a woman in labor,
a scream like a woman giving birth to her first baby.
It is the cry of daughter Zion.[k]
She is lifting her hands in prayer, saying,
“Oh! I am about to faint!
Murderers are all around me!”
The Evil of the People of Judah
5 The Lord says, “Walk the streets of Jerusalem. Look around and think about these things. Search the public squares of the city. See if you can find one good person, one who does honest things and who searches for the truth. If you find one good person, I will forgive Jerusalem. 2 The people make promises and say, ‘As the Lord lives.’ But they don’t really mean it!”
3 Lord, I know that you want people
to be loyal to you.
You hit the people of Judah,
but they did not feel any pain.
You destroyed them,
but they refused to learn their lesson.
They became very stubborn.
They refused to be sorry for the bad things they did.
4 But I said to myself,
“It must be only the poor who are so foolish.
They have not learned the way of the Lord.
They don’t know the teachings of their God.
5 So I will go to the leaders of Judah.
I will talk to them.
Surely the leaders know the way of the Lord.
Surely they know the law of their God.”
But the leaders had all joined together
to break away from serving God.
6 So a lion from the forest will attack them.
A wolf from the desert will kill them.
A leopard is hiding near their cities,
to tear to pieces anyone who comes out.
That’s because the people have sinned again and again.
Many times they have wandered away from God.
7 God says, “People of Judah, why should I forgive you?
Your children have abandoned me.
They made promises to idols that are not really gods!
I gave your children everything they needed,
but they were still unfaithful to me!
They spent their time with prostitutes.
8 They are like horses that have had plenty to eat and are ready to mate.
They are like a horse that is calling its neighbor’s wife.
9 Should I punish the people of Judah for doing these things?”
This message is from the Lord.
“You know I should punish a nation such as this.
I should give it the punishment it deserves.
10 “Go along the rows of Judah’s grapevines.
Cut down the vines. (But don’t completely destroy them.)
Cut off all their branches, because they don’t belong to the Lord.
11 The family of Israel and the family of Judah
have been unfaithful to me in every way.”
This message is from the Lord.
12 “Those people lied about the Lord.
They said, ‘He will not do anything to us.
Nothing bad will happen to us.
We will never see an army attack us.
We will never starve.’
13 The prophets are only empty wind.[l]
The word of God is not in them.[m]
Bad things will happen to them.”
14 The Lord God All-Powerful said these things:
“The people said I would not punish them.
So, Jeremiah, the words I give you will be like fire,
and these people will be like wood.
That fire will burn them up completely.”
15 Family of Israel, this message is from the Lord.
“I will soon bring a nation from far away to attack you.
It is an old nation;
it is an ancient nation.
The people of that nation speak a language that you do not know.
You cannot understand what they say.
16 Their arrow bags are like open graves.
All their men are strong soldiers.
17 They will eat all the crops that you gathered.
They will eat all your food.
They will destroy your sons and daughters.
They will eat your flocks and your herds.
They will eat your grapes and your figs.
They will destroy your strong cities with their swords.
They will destroy the strong cities that you trust in.”
18 This message is from the Lord: “But, Judah, when these terrible days come, I will not fully destroy you. 19 The people of Judah will ask you, ‘Jeremiah, why has the Lord our God done this bad thing to us?’ Give them this answer: ‘You people of Judah have left me, and you have served foreign idols in your own land. You did these things, so now you will serve foreigners in a land that does not belong to you.’
20 “Tell this message to the family of Jacob,
and tell it in the nation of Judah.
21 Hear this message,
you foolish people who have no sense.
You have eyes, but you don’t see!
You have ears, but you don’t listen!
22 Surely you are afraid of me.”
This message is from the Lord.
“You should shake with fear in front of me.
I am the one who made the sandy shores to hold back the sea.
I made it that way to keep the water in its place forever.
The waves may pound the beach, but they will not destroy it.
The waves may roar as they come in, but they cannot go beyond the beach.
23 But the people of Judah are stubborn.
They are always planning ways to turn against me.
They turned away from me and left me.
24 The people of Judah never say to themselves,
‘Let’s fear and respect the Lord our God.
He gives us autumn and spring rains at just the right time.
He makes sure that we have the harvest at just the right time.’
25 You don’t have these blessings because you have done wrong.
Your sins have kept these good things away from you.
26 There are evil men among my people.
They are like men who make nets for catching birds.[n]
They set their traps,
but they catch people instead of birds.
27 Their houses are full of lies,
like a cage full of birds.
Their lies made them rich and powerful.
28 They have grown big and fat from the evil they have done.
There is no end to the evil they do.
They will not plead the case of children who have no parents.
They will not help these orphans.
They will not let the poor be judged fairly.
29 Should I punish the people of Judah for doing these things?”
This message is from the Lord.
“You know I should punish a nation such as this.
I should give it the punishment it deserves.
30 “A terrible and shocking thing
has happened in the land of Judah.
31 The prophets tell lies.
The priests will not do what they were chosen to do,[o]
and my people love it this way!
But what will you people do when your punishment comes?
A Warning About False Teachers
4 The Spirit clearly says that in the last times some will turn away from what we believe. They will obey spirits that tell lies. And they will follow the teachings of demons. 2 Those teachings come through people who tell lies and trick others. These evil people cannot see what is right and what is wrong. It is like their conscience has been destroyed with a hot iron. 3 They say that it is wrong to marry. And they say that there are some foods that people must not eat. But God made these foods, and those who believe and who understand the truth can eat them with thanks. 4 Everything that God made is good. Nothing he made should be refused if it is accepted with thanks to him. 5 Everything he created is made holy by what he has said and by prayer.
Be a Good Servant of Christ Jesus
6 Tell this to the brothers and sisters there. This will show that you are a good servant of Christ Jesus. You will show that you are made strong by the words of faith and good teaching you have followed. 7 People tell silly stories that don’t agree with God’s truth. Don’t follow what these stories teach. But teach yourself to be devoted to God. 8 Training your body helps you in some ways. But devotion to God helps you in every way. It brings you blessings in this life and in the future life too. 9 Here is a true statement that should be accepted without question: 10 We hope in the living God, the Savior of all people. In particular, he is the Savior of all those who believe in him. This is why we work and struggle.
11 Command and teach these things. 12 You are young, but don’t let anyone treat you as if you are not important. Be an example to show the believers how they should live. Show them by what you say, by the way you live, by your love, by your faith, and by your pure life.
13 Continue to read the Scriptures to the people, encourage them, and teach them. Do this until I come. 14 Remember to use the gift you have, which was given to you through a prophecy[a] when the group of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Continue to do these things. Give your life to doing them. Then everyone can see that your work is progressing. 16 Be careful in your life and in your teaching. Continue to live and teach rightly. Then you will save yourself and those who listen to your teaching.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International