Old/New Testament

6 Run, people of Benjamin, run for your lives! Flee from Jerusalem! Sound the alarm in Tekoa; send up a smoke signal at Beth-haccherem; warn everyone that a powerful army is on the way from the north, coming to destroy this nation! ² Helpless as a girl, you are beautiful and delicate—and doomed. ³ Evil shepherds shall surround you. They shall set up camp around the city and divide your pastures for their flocks. ⁴ See them prepare for battle. At noon it has begun. All afternoon it rages until the evening shadows fall. ⁵ “Come,” they say. “Let us attack by night and destroy her palaces!”

⁶ For the Lord Almighty has said to them, Cut down her trees for battering rams; smash down the walls of Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished, for she is vile through and through. ⁷ She spouts evil like a fountain! Her streets echo with the sounds of violence; her sickness and wounds are ever before me.

⁸ This is your last warning, O Jerusalem. If you don’t listen, I will empty the land. ⁹ Disaster on disaster shall befall you. Even the few who remain in Israel shall be gleaned again, the Lord Almighty has said; for as a grape-gatherer checks each vine to pick what he has missed, so the remnant of my people shall be destroyed again.

¹⁰ But who will listen when I warn them? Their ears are closed, and they refuse to hear. The word of God has angered them; they don’t want it at all.

¹¹ For all this I am full of the wrath of God against them. I am weary of holding it in. I will pour it out over Jerusalem, even upon the children playing in the streets, upon the gatherings of young men, and on husbands and wives and grandparents. ¹² Their enemies shall live in their homes and take their fields and wives. For I will punish the people of this land, the Lord has said. ¹³ They are swindlers and liars, from the least of them right to the top! Yes, even my prophets and priests! ¹⁴ You can’t heal a wound by saying it’s not there! Yet the priests and prophets give assurances of peace when all is war. ¹⁵ Were my people ashamed when they worshiped idols? No, not at all—they didn’t even blush. Therefore they shall lie among the slain. They shall die beneath my anger.

¹⁶ Yet the Lord pleads with you still: Ask where the good road is, the godly paths you used to walk in, in the days of long ago. Travel there, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, “No, that is not the road we want!” ¹⁷ I set watchmen over you who warned you: “Listen for the sound of the trumpet! It will let you know when trouble comes.” But you said, “No! We won’t pay any attention!”

^18-19 This, then, is my decree against my people: (Listen to it, distant lands; listen to it, O my people in Jerusalem; listen to it, all the earth!) I will bring evil upon this people; it will be the fruit of their own sin because they will not listen to me. They reject my law. ²⁰ There is no use now in burning sweet incense from Sheba before me! Keep your expensive perfumes! I cannot accept your offerings; they have no sweet fragrance for me. ²¹ I will make an obstacle course of the pathway of my people; fathers and sons shall be frustrated; neighbors and friends shall collapse together. ²² The Lord God says: See the armies marching from the north—a great nation is rising against you. ²³ They are a cruel, merciless people, fully armed, mounted for war. The noise of their army is like a roaring sea.

²⁴ We have heard the fame of their armies, and we are weak with fright. Fright and pain have gripped us like that of women in travail. ²⁵ Don’t go out to the fields! Don’t travel the roads! For the enemy is everywhere, ready to kill; we are terrorized at every turn.

²⁶ O Jerusalem, pride of my people, put on mourning clothes and sit in ashes; weep bitterly as for an only son. For suddenly the destroying armies will be upon you.

²⁷ Jeremiah, I have made you an assayer of metals that you may test this my people and determine their value. Listen to what they are saying and watch what they are doing. ²⁸ Are they not the worst of rebels, full of evil talk against the Lord? They are insolent as brass, hard and cruel as iron. ²⁹ The bellows blow fiercely; the refining fire grows hotter, but it can never cleanse them, for there is no pureness in them to bring out. Why continue the process longer? All is dross. No matter how hot the fire, they continue in their wicked ways. ³⁰ I must label them “Impure, Rejected Silver,” and I have discarded them.

7 Then the Lord said to Jeremiah:

² Go over to the entrance of the Temple of the Lord and give this message to the people: O Judah, listen to this message from God. Listen to it, all of you who worship here. ³ The Lord, the God of Israel says: Even yet, if you quit your evil ways, I will let you stay in your own land. ⁴ But don’t be fooled by those who lie to you and say that since the Temple of the Lord is here, God will never let Jerusalem be destroyed. ⁵ You may remain under these conditions only: If you stop your wicked thoughts and deeds and are fair to others; ⁶ if you stop exploiting orphans, widows, and foreigners, and stop your murdering; if you stop worshiping idols as you do now to your hurt, ⁷ then, and only then, will I let you stay in this land that I gave to your fathers to keep forever.

⁸ You think that because the Temple is here, you will never suffer? Don’t fool yourselves! ⁹ Do you really think that you can steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, and worship Baal and all of those new gods of yours, ¹⁰ and then come here and stand before me in my Temple and chant, “We are saved!”—only to go right back to all these evil things again? ¹¹ Is my Temple but a den of robbers in your eyes? For I see all the evil going on in there.

¹² Go to Shiloh, the city I first honored with my name, and see what I did to her because of all the wickedness of my people Israel. ^13-14 And now, says the Lord, I will do the same thing here because of all this evil you have done. Again and again I spoke to you about it, rising up early and calling, but you refused to hear or answer. Yes, I will destroy this Temple, as I did in Shiloh—this Temple called by my name, which you trust for help, and this place I gave to you and to your fathers. ¹⁵ And I will send you into exile, just as I did your brothers, the people of Ephraim.

¹⁶ Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah. Neither weep for them nor pray nor beg that I should help them, for I will not listen. ¹⁷ Don’t you see what they are doing throughout the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ No wonder my anger is great! Watch how the children gather wood and the fathers build fires, and the women knead dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven^[a] and to their other idol-gods! ¹⁹ Am I the one that they are hurting? asks the Lord. Most of all they hurt themselves, to their own shame. ²⁰ So the Lord God says: I will pour out my anger, yes, my fury on this place—people, animals, trees, and plants will be consumed by the unquenchable fire of my anger.

²¹ The Lord, the God of Israel says: Away with your offerings and sacrifices! ²² It wasn’t offerings and sacrifices I wanted from your fathers when I led them out of Egypt. That was not the point of my command. ²³ But what I told them was: Obey me, and I will be your God and you shall be my people; only do as I say, and all shall be well!

²⁴ But they wouldn’t listen; they kept on doing whatever they wanted to, following their own stubborn, evil thoughts. They went backward instead of forward. ²⁵ Ever since the day your fathers left Egypt until now, I have kept on sending them my prophets, day after day. ²⁶ But they wouldn’t listen to them or even try to hear. They are hard and stubborn and rebellious—worse even than their fathers were.

²⁷ Tell them everything that I will do to them, but don’t expect them to listen. Cry out your warnings, but don’t expect them to respond. ²⁸ Say to them: “This is the nation that refuses to obey the Lord its God and refuses to be taught. She continues to live a lie.”

²⁹ O Jerusalem, shave your head in shame and weep alone upon the mountains; for the Lord has rejected and forsaken this people of his wrath. ³⁰ For the people of Judah have sinned before my very eyes, says the Lord. They have set up their idols right in my own Temple, polluting it. ³¹ They have built the altar called Topheth in the valley of Ben-hinnom, and there they burn to death their little sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods—a deed so horrible I’ve never even thought of it, let alone commanded it to be done. ³² The time is coming, says the Lord, when that valley’s name will be changed from Topheth or Ben-hinnom Valley, to the Valley of Slaughter; for there will be so many slain to bury that there won’t be room enough for all the graves, and they will dump the bodies in that valley.

³³ The bodies of my people shall be food for the birds and animals, and no one shall be left to scare them away. ³⁴ I will end the happy singing and laughter and the joyous voices of the bridegrooms and brides in the streets of Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah. For the land shall lie in desolation.

8 Then, says the Lord, the enemy shall break open the graves of the kings of Judah and of the princes, and the graves of the priests, prophets, and people, ² and dig out their bones and spread them out on the ground before the sun and moon and stars—the gods of my people!—whom they have loved and worshiped. Their bones shall not be gathered up again nor buried but shall be scattered like dung upon the ground. ³ And those of this evil nation who are still left alive shall long to die rather than live where I will scatter them, says the Lord Almighty.

^4-5 Once again give them this message from the Lord: When a person falls, he jumps up again; when he is on the wrong road and discovers his mistake, he goes back to the fork where he made the wrong turn. But these people keep on along their evil path, even though I warn them. ⁶ I listen to their conversation and what do I hear? Is anyone sorry for sin? Does anyone say, “What a terrible thing I have done”? No, all are rushing pell-mell down the path of sin as swiftly as a horse rushing to the battle! ⁷ The stork knows the time of her migration, as does the turtledove, the crane, and the swallow. They all return at God’s appointed time each year; but not my people! They don’t accept the laws of God.

⁸ How can you say, “We understand his laws,” when your teachers have twisted them up to mean a thing I never said? ⁹ These wise teachers of yours will be shamed by exile for this sin, for they have rejected the word of the Lord. Are they then so wise? ¹⁰ I will give their wives and their farms to others; for all of them, great and small, prophet and priest, have one purpose in mind—to get what isn’t theirs. ¹¹ They give useless medicine for my people’s grievous wounds, for they assure them all is well when that isn’t so at all! ¹² Are they ashamed because they worship idols? No, not in the least; they don’t even know how to blush! That is why I will see to it that they lie among the fallen. I will visit them with death. ¹³ Their figs and grapes will disappear, their fruit trees will die, and all the good things I prepared for them will soon be gone.

¹⁴ Then the people will say, “Why should we wait here to die? Come, let us go to the walled cities and perish there. For the Lord our God has decreed our doom and given us a cup of poison to drink because of all our sins. ¹⁵ We expected peace, but no peace came; we looked for health, but there was only terror.”

¹⁶ The noise of war resounds from the northern border.^[b] The whole land trembles at the approach of the terrible army, for the enemy is coming and is devouring the land and everything in it—the cities and people alike. ¹⁷ For I will send these enemy troops among you like poisonous snakes that you cannot charm. No matter what you do, they will bite you and you shall die.

¹⁸ My grief is beyond healing; my heart is broken. ¹⁹ Listen to the weeping of my people all across the land.

“Where is the Lord?” they ask. “Has God deserted us?”

“Oh, why have they angered me with their carved idols and strange evil rites?” the Lord replies.

²⁰ “The harvest is finished; the summer is over, and we are not saved.”

²¹ I weep for the hurt of my people; I stand amazed, silent, dumb with grief. ²² Is there no medicine in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why doesn’t God do something? Why doesn’t he help?

5 Never speak sharply to an older man, but plead with him respectfully just as though he were your own father. Talk to the younger men as you would to much-loved brothers. ² Treat the older women as mothers, and the girls as your sisters, thinking only pure thoughts about them.

³ The church should take loving care of women whose husbands have died if they don’t have anyone else to help them. ⁴ But if they have children or grandchildren, these are the ones who should take the responsibility, for kindness should begin at home, supporting needy parents. This is something that pleases God very much.

⁵ The church should care for widows who are poor and alone in the world if they are looking to God for his help and spending much time in prayer; ⁶ but not if they are spending their time running around gossiping, seeking only pleasure and thus ruining their souls. ⁷ This should be your church rule so that the Christians will know and do what is right.

⁸ But anyone who won’t care for his own relatives when they need help, especially those living in his own family, has no right to say he is a Christian. Such a person is worse than the heathen.

⁹ A widow who wants to become one of the special church workers^[a] should be at least sixty years old and have been married only once. ¹⁰ She must be well thought of by everyone because of the good she has done. Has she brought up her children well? Has she been kind to strangers as well as to other Christians? Has she helped those who are sick and hurt? Is she always ready to show kindness?

¹¹ The younger widows should not become members of this special group because after a while they are likely to disregard their vow to Christ and marry again. ¹² And so they will stand condemned because they broke their first promise. ¹³ Besides, they are likely to be lazy and spend their time gossiping around from house to house, getting into other people’s business. ¹⁴ So I think it is better for these younger widows to marry again and have children and take care of their own homes; then no one will be able to say anything against them. ¹⁵ For I am afraid that some of them have already turned away from the church and been led astray by Satan.

¹⁶ Let me remind you again that a widow’s relatives must take care of her and not leave this to the church to do. Then the church can spend its money for the care of widows who are all alone and have nowhere else to turn.

¹⁷ Pastors who do their work well should be paid well and should be highly appreciated, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching. ¹⁸ For the Scriptures say, “Never tie up the mouth of an ox when it is treading out the grain—let him eat as he goes along!” And in another place, “Those who work deserve their pay!”

¹⁹ Don’t listen to complaints against the pastor unless there are two or three witnesses to accuse him. ²⁰ If he has really sinned, then he should be rebuked in front of the whole church so that no one else will follow his example.

²¹ I solemnly command you in the presence of God and the Lord Jesus Christ and of the holy angels to do this whether the pastor is a special friend of yours or not. All must be treated exactly the same. ²² Never be in a hurry about choosing a pastor; you may overlook his sins, and it will look as if you approve of them. Be sure that you yourself stay away from all sin. ²³ (By the way, this doesn’t mean you should completely give up drinking wine. You ought to take a little sometimes as medicine for your stomach because you are sick so often.)

²⁴ Remember that some men, even pastors, lead sinful lives, and everyone knows it. In such situations you can do something about it. But in other cases only the judgment day will reveal the terrible truth. ²⁵ In the same way, everyone knows how much good some pastors do, but sometimes their good deeds aren’t known until long afterward.