Old/New Testament
The Siege Is Coming
The Lord[a]
6 Flee for safety, people of Benjamin!
Get out of Jerusalem!
Blow the ram’s horn in Tekoa.[b]
Raise a signal over Beth Hakkerem!
Disaster and great destruction threaten from the north.
2 I will silence the beautiful, pampered daughter of Zion.[c]
3 Shepherds and their flocks will come against her.
They will pitch their tents all around.
Each one will pasture his flock in his own spot.
The Enemy
4 Consecrate yourselves for war against her.
Rise up, we will attack at noon!
The People of Judah
We are doomed! The day is ending.
The evening shadows are getting longer.
The Enemy
5 We should get up and attack at night
and destroy its citadels.
The Lord
6 This is what the Lord of Armies says.
Cut down her trees.
Raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem.
This city must be punished.
There is nothing but oppression inside her.
7 Just as a well pours out fresh[d] water,
she pours out fresh evil.
Violence and destruction are heard in her.
Sickness and wounds are always before me.
8 Be warned, Jerusalem,
or I will turn away from you.
I will make your land desolate,
so that no one can live there.
9 This is what the Lord of Armies says.
They will glean what remains of Israel
as thoroughly as a vine.
Like someone gathering grapes,
pass your hand over the branches again.
10 Who can I speak to?
Who will listen to my warning?[e]
Look! Their ears are uncircumcised.
They will not be able to hear.
Indeed, to them the word of the Lord is an embarrassment.
They take no pleasure in it.
11 I am full of the Lord’s wrath,[f]
and I cannot hold it in.
Pour it out on the children in the street
and on the young men gathered together.
Both husband and wife will be taken,
the old along with the very old.
12 Their houses will be turned over to others,
together with their fields and their wives,
because I will stretch out my hand against those who live in the land,
declares the Lord.
13 From the least of them to the greatest,
all of them are greedy for gain.
From prophets to priests, they all practice deceit.
14 They have treated the wound of my people as if it were nothing serious.
They say, “Peace, peace,” but there is no peace!
15 Are they ashamed of the detestable things they have done?
No, they are not ashamed at all!
They do not know how to be ashamed.
So they will fall with the fallen.
They will be thrown down when I punish them, says the Lord.
16 This is what the Lord says.
Stand at the crossroads and look.
Ask about the ancient paths.
Ask where the good road is.
Walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, “We will not walk in it.”
17 I set watchmen over you and said,
“Listen to the sound of the ram’s horn!”
But you said, “We will not listen.”
18 Therefore, listen, you nations!
You witnesses, observe what will happen to them.
19 Listen, O earth.
I am bringing disaster on this people,
the fruit of their schemes,
because they have not listened to my words,
and they have rejected my law.
20 What use to me is incense from Sheba
or sweet cane from a distant land?
Your burnt offerings are not appealing to me.
Your sacrifices do not please me.
21 Therefore this is what the Lord says.
Look, I am going to place obstacles in front of this people.
Parents and children alike will stumble over them.
Friends and neighbors will perish.
22 This is what the Lord says.
Look, a nation is coming from a land in the north.
A great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.
23 Its warriors grip bows and spears.
They are cruel and merciless.
They sound like the roaring sea.
They ride horses, arranged like soldiers ready for battle
against you, O daughter of Zion.
The People of Judah
24 We have heard the news about them,
and our hands hang limp.
Anguish grips us like a woman in labor.
25 Do not go out to the field.
Do not walk on the road,
because the enemy has a sword.
There is terror on every side.
26 Put on sackcloth, daughter of my people.
Roll in ashes.
Mourn as you would for an only son,
because suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
The Lord
27 I have made you like someone who tests metals.
My people are the ore that is being tested.
Observe them,
and examine their ways.
28 They are all stubborn rebels,
walking in slander.
They are as hard as bronze and iron,
and all of them are contaminated.
29 The bellows blows hot to melt away the refining agent[g] with fire.
The refining agent is completely used up, but the evil is not removed.
30 They are classified as rejected silver,
because the Lord has rejected them.
Your False Religion Is Useless
7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.
2 Stand in the gate of the House of the Lord and proclaim this message there.
Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who are coming through this gate to worship the Lord. 3 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says.
Reform your ways and your actions, and I will establish you in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.”
5 Sincerely reform your ways and your actions. Carry out justice between a man and his neighbor. 6 Do not oppress the alien who lives in your land, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place. Do not follow after other gods to your own harm. If you avoid these things, 7 I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your fathers forever and ever.
8 Take warning. You are trusting in deceptive words that cannot help you.
9 Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and swear falsely? Will you offer sacrifices to Baal and follow other gods you do not know? 10 Will you come and stand before me in this temple that bears my Name, and say, “We are safe,” the whole time you do all these detestable things? 11 This house bears my Name! Have you made it a den of robbers? Watch out! I myself have been watching, declares the Lord.
Heed the Warning of Shiloh
12 Go to my place in Shiloh, where I first made a dwelling place for my Name. See what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.
13 You have done all these things, declares the Lord. Even though I spoke to you again and again, you did not listen. I called you, but you did not answer. 14 Because of this, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name—the place in which you trust, the place I gave to you and to your fathers. 15 I will drive you out of my sight just as I drove away all of your brothers, the people of Ephraim.
Do Not Pray for This People
16 As for you, Jeremiah, do not pray for this people or lift up a cry or a request for them, and do not plead with me. I will not listen to you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers light a fire, and their wives knead dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to make me angry. 19 Am I the one they are frustrating? declares the Lord. No, they are frustrating themselves, to their own shame.
20 Therefore this is what the Lord God says. You may be sure that my burning anger will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the land. It will burn and not be put out.
Their Sacrifices Are Useless
21 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says. Go ahead. Grab your burnt offerings, along with your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves! 22 When I brought your fathers out of Egypt, I said nothing to them about burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 I gave them only this command: “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Walk entirely in the way I commanded you to walk, so that it may go well with you.” 24 But they did not obey me or listen to me. They followed their own advice and the stubbornness of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. 25 From the time your fathers left Egypt until today, I have sent all my servants, the prophets, to them again and again. 26 But they did not obey me or listen to me. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their fathers.
27 So say all these things to them, but they will not listen to you. Call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 Say to them, “This is the nation that did not obey the Lord its God or accept discipline. Faithfulness has perished, and it has disappeared from their lips. 29 Cut off your hair and throw it away. Sing a lament on the barren heights, for the Lord has rejected and forsaken this generation under his wrath.”
30 The people of Judah have committed evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They set up their disgusting idols in the house that bears my Name, and they have defiled it. 31 They built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire—a thing I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.
32 That is why the days are coming, declares the Lord, when that place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth because there will be no other place left. 33 The corpses of those people will become food for the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the land, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 34 In the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, I will bring the sounds of joy and happiness to an end, as well as the voices of groom and bride, for the land will become desolate.
8 At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the people who live in Jerusalem will be removed from their graves. 2 They will be exposed to the sun, to the moon, and to all the army of the heavens, which they loved and served and followed and consulted and worshipped. They will not be gathered up again. They will not be reburied. They will lie on the ground like manure. 3 Death will be chosen rather than life for[h] the entire remnant left from this evil family, wherever I banish them, declares the Lord of Armies.
4 You are to tell them that this is what the Lord says:
Do people fall and not get up again?
If a person turns away, doesn’t he turn back again?
5 Then why has this people turned away?
Why is Jerusalem always turning away?
They hang on to deception
and refuse to let it go.
6 I have paid attention and listened,
but they do not say what is right.
No one repents of his wickedness.
No one asks, “What have I done?”
Everyone pursues his own course,
like a horse charging into battle.
7 Even the stork in the sky knows her seasons.
The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush[i]
observe the right time for their migration.
But my people do not recognize
the just judgments of the Lord.
8 How can you say, “We are wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us,”
when in reality the lying pen of the scribes
has changed it into a lie?
9 Your wise men will be put to shame.
They will be shattered and captured.
Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,
what kind of wisdom do they have?
10 That is why I will give their wives to other men
and their fields to new owners,
because, from the least to the greatest,
all of them are greedy for gain.
From prophet to priest, everyone practices deceit.
11 They dress the wound of the daughter of my people[j]
as if it were not serious.
“Peace, peace,” they say,
when there is no peace.
12 Are they ashamed when they do such a detestable thing?
No, they have no shame at all.
They do not even know how to blush.
That is why they will fall among the fallen.
They will be brought down when I punish them, says the Lord.
13 I will take away their harvest,[k] declares the Lord.
There will be no grapes on the vine.
There will be no figs on the fig tree,
and the leaves will wither.
What I have given them will be taken away from them.
The People React
14 Why are we just sitting here?
Let’s get together!
Let us go into the fortified cities and die there.
The Lord our God has condemned us to die
by giving us poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against him.
15 We hoped for peace,
but no good came.
We hoped for a time of healing,
but there is only terror.
16 The snorting of horses is heard from Dan.
At the sound of the neighing of mighty stallions,
the whole land trembles.
They have come to devour the land and everything in it,
the city and all who live there.
The Lord Responds
17 Look, I am sending snakes among you,
venomous snakes that cannot be charmed,
and they will bite you, declares the Lord.
Jeremiah Reacts
18 My joy is gone, grief is upon me,[l]
and my heart is sick.
19 I hear the cry of my dear people from a distant land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
Is her King not there?”
The Lord Responds
Why have they provoked my anger with their carved images,
with their worthless foreign idols?
The People
20 The harvest is past,
summer has ended,
and we have not been saved.
Jeremiah’s Grief
21 Because my people are crushed, I have been crushed.
I am in mourning, and horror seizes me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?[m]
Is there no physician there?
Why has the health of my people not been restored?
Attitude Toward Various Age Groups
5 Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but encourage him as a father, younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, with all purity.
Taking Care of Widows
3 Honor widows who are truly widows. 4 But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to be devoted to their own household and repay their parents,[a] for this is pleasing in the sight of God. 5 Now the widow who is without relatives has put her hope in God and continues in her petitions and prayers night and day. 6 But the widow who lives only for her own pleasure is dead, even while she lives. 7 Insist on these things also, in order that they may be above criticism. 8 But if anyone does not provide for his own family, and especially for his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
9 Let a widow be put on the list if she is over sixty years old, has been a wife of one husband, 10 and has a good reputation for doing good: if she brought up children, if she showed hospitality to strangers, if she washed the feet of the saints, if she provided help for those in distress, and if she dedicated herself to every good work. 11 But do not put younger widows on the list, for when they have strong sensual desires that pull them away from Christ, they want to marry, 12 and so they bring judgment on themselves because they set aside their former pledge.[b] 13 At the same time, they also learn to be lazy as they go about from house to house. They not only learn to be lazy, but also to be gossips and busybodies, saying things that they should not say. 14 Therefore I want younger widows[c] to marry, to have children, to keep house, and to give no opportunity for the enemy to slander them. 15 In fact, some have already turned away to follow Satan.
16 If any believing woman[d] has widows in her family, let her keep helping them rather than letting them become a burden to the church, so that the church may help those who are truly widows.
Dealing With Elders
17 The elders who lead well should be considered worthy of double honor, especially the ones who work hard in the word and doctrine.[e] 18 For Scripture says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,”[f] and “The worker is worthy of his pay.”[g] 19 Do not accept an accusation against an elder, except on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 20 In the presence of everyone, rebuke the ones who persist in sin, so that the rest may be afraid.
21 I solemnly charge you, in the presence of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, that you follow these instructions without prejudice, doing nothing out of partiality. 22 Do not lay hands on anyone hastily and do not take part in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.
23 Stop drinking just water, but use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent sicknesses.
24 The sins of some people are obvious, going on ahead of them to judgment, but the sins of others follow them there. 25 In the same way, good works are also obvious, and the ones that are not obvious cannot stay hidden.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.