The Deceitful Heart
The asin of Judah is written down with an biron stylus;
With a diamond point it is cengraved upon the tablet of their heart
And on the horns of their altars,
2 As they remember their achildren,
So they remember their altars and their bAsherim
By cgreen trees on the high hills.
3 O amountain of Mine in the countryside,
I will bgive over your wealth and all your treasures for booty,
Your high places for sin throughout your borders.
4 And you will, even of yourself, alet go of your inheritance
That I gave you;
And I will make you serve your benemies
In the cland which you do not know;
For you have dkindled a fire in My anger
Which will burn forever.
5 Thus says the Lord,
“aCursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes bflesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 “For he will be like a abush in the desert
And will not see when prosperity comes,
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
A bland of salt without inhabitant.
7 “aBlessed is the man who trusts in the Lord
And whose btrust is the Lord.
8 “For he will be like a atree planted by the water,
That extends its roots by a stream
And will not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of bdrought
Nor cease to yield fruit.
9 “The aheart is more bdeceitful than all else
And is desperately csick;
Who can understand it?
10 “I, the Lord, asearch the heart,
I test the mind,
Even bto give to each man according to his ways,
According to the results of his deeds.
11 “As a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid,
So is he who amakes a fortune, but unjustly;
In the midst of his days it will forsake him,
And in the end he will be a bfool.”
12 aA glorious throne on high from the beginning
Is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O Lord, the ahope of Israel,
All who bforsake You will be put to shame.
Those who turn away on earth will be cwritten down,
Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the Lord.
14 aHeal me, O Lord, and I will be healed;
bSave me and I will be saved,
For You are my cpraise.
15 Look, they keep asaying to me,
“Where is the word of the Lord?
Let it come now!”
16 But as for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after You,
Nor have I longed for the woeful day;
aYou Yourself know that the utterance of my lips
Was in Your presence.
17 Do not be a aterror to me;
You are my brefuge in the day of disaster.
18 Let those who persecute me be aput to shame, but as for me, blet me not be put to shame;
Let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed.
cBring on them a day of disaster,
And crush them with twofold destruction!
The Sabbath Must Be Kept
19 Thus the Lord said to me, “Go and stand in the public gate, through which the kings of Judah come in and go out, as well as in all the gates of Jerusalem; 20 and say to them, ‘aListen to the word of the Lord, bkings of Judah, and all Judah and all inhabitants of Jerusalem who come in through these gates: 21 Thus says the Lord, “aTake heed for yourselves, and bdo not carry any load on the sabbath day or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem. 22 You shall not bring a load out of your houses on the sabbath day anor do any work, but keep the sabbath day holy, as I bcommanded your forefathers. 23 Yet they adid not listen or incline their ears, but bstiffened their necks in order not to listen or take correction.
24 “But it will come about, if you alisten attentively to Me,” declares the Lord, “to bbring no load in through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, cbut to keep the sabbath day holy by doing no work on it, 25 athen there will come in through the gates of this city kings and princes bsitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this ccity will be inhabited forever. 26 They will come in from the acities of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the blowland, from the hill country and from the cNegev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the Lord. 27 But aif you do not listen to Me to keep the sabbath day holy by not carrying a load and coming in through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then bI will kindle a fire in its gates and it will cdevour the palaces of Jerusalem and dnot be quenched.”’”
The Potter and the Clay
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, 2 “Arise and ago down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, 6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the aclay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. 7 At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to auproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; 8 aif that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will brelent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. 9 Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to abuild up or to plant it; 10 if it does aevil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will bthink better of the good with which I had promised to bless it. 11 So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am afashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh bturn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds.”’ 12 But athey will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the bstubbornness of his evil heart.’
13 “Therefore thus says the Lord,
‘aAsk now among the nations,
Who ever heard the like of this?
The bvirgin of Israel
Has done a most cappalling thing.
14 ‘Does the snow of Lebanon forsake the rock of the open country?
Or is the cold flowing water from a foreign land ever snatched away?
15 ‘For aMy people have forgotten Me,
bThey burn incense to worthless gods
And they have stumbled from their ways,
From the cancient paths,
To walk in bypaths,
Not on a dhighway,
16 To make their land a adesolation,
An object of perpetual bhissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished
And cshake his head.
17 ‘Like an aeast wind I will bscatter them
Before the enemy;
I will show them cMy back and not My face
dIn the day of their calamity.’”
18 Then they said, “Come and let us adevise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the blaw is not going to be lost to the priest, nor ccounsel to the sage, nor the divine dword to the prophet! Come on and let us estrike at him with our tongue, and let us fgive no heed to any of his words.”
19 Do give heed to me, O Lord,
And listen to what my opponents are saying!
20 aShould good be repaid with evil?
For they have bdug a pit for me.
Remember how I cstood before You
To speak good on their behalf,
So as to turn away Your wrath from them.
21 Therefore, agive their children over to famine
And deliver them up to the power of the sword;
And let their wives become bchildless and cwidowed.
Let their men also be smitten to death,
Their dyoung men struck down by the sword in battle.
22 May an aoutcry be heard from their houses,
When You suddenly bring raiders upon them;
bFor they have dug a pit to capture me
And chidden snares for my feet.
23 Yet You, O Lord, know
All their deadly designs against me;
aDo not forgive their iniquity
Or blot out their sin from Your sight.
But may they be boverthrown before You;
Deal with them in the ctime of Your anger!
The Broken Jar
Thus says the Lord, “Go and buy a apotter’s earthenware bjar, and take some of the celders of the people and some of the dsenior priests. 2 Then go out to the avalley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the potsherd gate, and bproclaim there the words that I tell you, 3 and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O akings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold I am about to bring a bcalamity upon this place, at which the cears of everyone that hears of it will tingle. 4 Because they have aforsaken Me and have bmade this an alien place and have burned sacrifices in it to cother gods, that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the dblood of the innocent 5 and have built the ahigh places of Baal to burn their bsons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My mind; 6 therefore, behold, adays are coming,” declares the Lord, “when this place will no longer be called bTopheth or cthe valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter. 7 I will amake void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and bI will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will give over their ccarcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. 8 I will also make this city a adesolation and an object of hissing; beveryone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its disasters. 9 I will make them aeat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life will distress them.”’
10 “Then you are to break the ajar in the sight of the men who accompany you 11 and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Just so will I abreak this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will bbury in Topheth because there is no other place for burial. 12 This is how I will treat this place and its inhabitants,” declares the Lord, “so as to make this city like Topheth. 13 The ahouses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be bdefiled like the place Topheth, because of all the chouses on whose rooftops they burned sacrifices to dall the heavenly host and epoured out drink offerings to other gods.”’”
14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the acourt of the Lord’s house and said to all the people: 15 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and all its towns the entire calamity that I have declared against it, because they have astiffened their necks so bas not to heed My words.’”
Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah
When Pashhur the priest, the son of aImmer, who was bchief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, 2 Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet abeaten and put him in the bstocks that were at the upper cBenjamin Gate, which was by the house of the Lord. 3 On the next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “Pashhur is not the name the Lord has acalled you, but rather bMagor-missabib. 4 For thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I am going to make you a aterror to yourself and to all your friends; and while byour eyes look on, they will fall by the sword of their enemies. So I will cgive over all Judah to the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away as dexiles to Babylon and will slay them with the sword. 5 I will also give over all the awealth of this city, all its produce and all its costly things; even all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give over to the bhand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, take them away and bring them to Babylon. 6 And you, aPashhur, and all who live in your house will go into captivity; and you will enter Babylon, and there you will die and there you will be buried, you and all your bfriends to whom you have cfalsely prophesied.’”
Jeremiah’s Complaint
7 O Lord, You have deceived me and I was deceived;
You have aovercome me and prevailed.
I have become a blaughingstock all day long;
Everyone cmocks me.
8 For each time I speak, I cry aloud;
I aproclaim violence and destruction,
Because for me the bword of the Lord has resulted
In reproach and derision all day long.
9 But if I say, “I will not aremember Him
Or speak anymore in His name,”
Then in bmy heart it becomes like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
And I am weary of holding it in,
And cI cannot endure it.
10 For aI have heard the whispering of many,
“bTerror on every side!
cDenounce him; yes, let us denounce him!”
All my dtrusted friends,
Watching for my fall, say:
“Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may eprevail against him
And take our revenge on him.”
11 But the aLord is with me like a dread champion;
Therefore my bpersecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will be utterly ashamed, because they have failed,
With an ceverlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.
12 Yet, O Lord of hosts, You who atest the righteous,
Who see the mind and the heart;
Let me bsee Your vengeance on them;
For cto You I have set forth my cause.
13 aSing to the Lord, praise the Lord!
For He has bdelivered the soul of the needy one
From the hand of evildoers.
14 Cursed be the aday when I was born;
Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me!
15 Cursed be the man who brought the news
To my father, saying,
“A ababy boy has been born to you!”
And made him very happy.
16 But let that man be like the cities
Which the Lord aoverthrew without relenting,
And let him hear an boutcry in the morning
And a shout of alarm at noon;
17 Because he did not akill me before birth,
So that my mother would have been my grave,
And her womb ever pregnant.
18 Why did I ever come forth from the womb
To alook on trouble and sorrow,
So that my bdays have been spent in cshame?