Old/New Testament
Chapter 18
The Potter’s House.[a] 1 This is the message delivered by the Lord to Jeremiah. 2 “Arise and go forth to the potter’s house, and then I will tell you what I have to say.” 3 Therefore, I proceeded to the potter’s house, where I found him working at his wheel. 4 Whenever the vessel he was making of clay turned out badly in his hands, he would use that clay to remold it into another vessel as he saw fit.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 Can I not do to you what this potter does, O house of Israel? Like the clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 On occasion I may threaten to uproot, tear down, and destroy a particular nation or kingdom. 8 However, should that nation which I have threatened turn away from its evil ways, I will then relent and not inflict the disaster I had devised. 9 On another occasion I may promise to build up and plant a nation or kingdom. 10 However, if that nation follows an evil path and refuses to obey me, then I will cease to bestow upon it the blessings that I had promised.
11 Therefore, now deliver this message to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Be forewarned! I am preparing a disaster for you and designing a plan against you. So now, each one of you, turn away from your evil pursuits and amend your conduct and your actions. 12 However, they will reply, “It is no use. We intend to continue our ways and follow the wicked inclinations of our heart.”
Judah’s Apostasy
13 Therefore, thus says the Lord:
Ask among the nations:
Who has ever heard anything like this?
The virgin Israel has done
a truly horrible thing.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon
ever disappear from its rocky slopes?
Do the torrents of gushing waters
ever cease to flow?
15 Yet my people have forgotten me;
they burn incense to worthless idols,
causing them to stumble
as they forsake ancient roads
to travel along unfamiliar paths.
16 Their land will be laid waste,
an object of unending scorn.
Those who pass by will be appalled on beholding it
and shake their heads.
17 Like the east wind,
I will scatter them before their enemies.
On the day of their downfall
I will show them my back, not my face.
18 Another Prayer for Vengeance. They then raised a cry, “Let us devise a plot against Jeremiah. We will still receive instruction from the priests. Wise men will still offer us counsel, and prophets will still proclaim the word. Therefore, let us bring charges against him and refuse to pay attention to anything he says.”
19 Pay heed to me, O Lord,
and listen to what my adversaries are saying.
20 Should good be repaid with evil?
Now they are digging a pit for me.
Remember how I stood before you,
interceding on their behalf
and begging you to turn away your wrath from them.
21 Therefore, give their children over to famine
and abandon them to the power of the sword.
Let their wives become childless and widowed;
let their men die of pestilence
and their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
22 May screams be heard from their houses
when you bring marauders upon them suddenly.
For they have dug a pit to catch me
and laid snares for my feet.
23 Yet you, O Lord, are fully aware
of all their murderous plots to slay me.
Do not pardon their guilt
or blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be thrown down before you;
deal with them at the height of your anger.
Chapter 19
Symbol of the Broken Jug. 1 Thus said the Lord: Go forth and purchase a potter’s earthenware jug. Then take along with you some of the elders of the people and some of the priests, 2 and go forth to the Valley of Ben-hinnom,[b] close to the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. 3 There proclaim the words I tell you: Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is the message of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am prepared to bring such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.
4 For these people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by offering sacrifices in it to foreign gods whom neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent, 5 building the high places of Baal to sacrifice their sons as burnt offerings to Baal. I never commanded or mentioned such a thing, nor did it ever enter my mind.
6 Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when this place will no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 In this place, I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who are determined to slaughter them. Their corpses I will give as food to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.
8 Moreover, I will make this city an object of horror and a source of derision. Every passerby will be horrified at the sight and be amazed at the disaster it has incurred. 9 I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and all will devour one another’s flesh during the siege because of the incredible distress with which they have been afflicted by their enemies and those who seek their lives.
10 Then you are to break the jug in the presence of the men who have accompanied you 11 and say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: In the same way I will smash this people and this city, as one smashes a potter’s earthenware jug so that it can never be repaired, and the dead will be buried in Topheth until no further space for burial remains.
12 This is what I am determined to do with this place and its inhabitants, says the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth, all of the houses upon whose roofs they burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out libations to other gods.
14 When Jeremiah returned from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and proclaimed to all the people, 15 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am now prepared to inflict upon this city and upon all its towns the total disaster with which I threatened it, because they have remained steadfast in their stubbornness and refused to listen to my words.”
The Tasks of a Man of God[a]
Chapter 3
Repulse the Onslaughts of False Teachers. 1 You must realize that there will be great distress in the last days. 2 People will love nothing but themselves and money. They will be boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious, 3 and devoid of natural affection. They will be implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, and haters of everything that is good. 4 They will be treacherous, reckless, conceited, and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God 5 as they maintain the appearance of godliness[b] but deny its power. Avoid persons like that!
6 They are the type who insinuate themselves into households and gain control of the women there who are burdened by their sins and obsessed with their desires, 7 and who are always seeking to be taught but unable to ever arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men, with their depraved minds and their deceitful pretense of faith, also oppose the truth. 9 But they will not succeed in their efforts. As was the case with those men, their folly will become obvious to everyone.
10 Remain Faithful in Persecution. As for you, however, you have followed my teaching, my way of life, my aims, my faith, my patience, my love, my perseverance, 11 my persecutions, my sufferings—the things that I faced in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra and that I endured. Yet the Lord brought me out safely from all of them.[c]
12 Indeed, persecution will afflict all who want to lead a godly life in Christ Jesus, 13 while wicked people and impostors will grow ever worse, deceiving others and being themselves deceived. 14 But as for you, stand by what you have learned and firmly believed, because you know from whom you have learned it.[d]
15 Gain Wisdom from the Inspired Scriptures. Also remember that from the time you were a child you have known the sacred Scriptures. From these you can acquire the wisdom that will lead you to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in uprightness,[e] 17 so that the man of God may be proficient and equipped for good work of every kind.
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