Jeremiah 11 Cross References - ISV

¹ The Broken CovenantThis is the message that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ² “Listen to the words of this covenant, and convey them to the people of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem. ³ You are to say to them, ‘This is what the LORD God of Israel says: “Cursed is the person who does not listen to the words of this covenant ⁴ which I commanded to your ancestors on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace. I said, ‘Obey me and do everything that I commanded you. Then you will be my people and I’ll be your God.’ ⁵ As a result, I’ll fulfill the oath that I made with your ancestors to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, just as is the case today.”’”
Then I answered, “So be it, LORD.”
⁶ The LORD told me, “Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. You are to say, ‘Listen to the words of this covenant and do them. ⁷ For I’ve diligently warned your ancestors from the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt until now, regularly warning them, saying, “Obey me!” ⁸ But they would not listen or turn their ear, and each of them stubbornly followed his own evil desires. So I brought on them all the consequences of this covenant that I commanded them to fulfill, but they did not.’”
⁹ The LORD told me, “Conspiracy has been found among the people of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ They have turned back to the iniquities of their ancestors of old who refused to listen to my words. They followed other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah broke my covenant which I made with their ancestors.”
¹¹ Therefore, this is what the LORD says: “I’m about to bring disaster on them from which they won’t be able to escape. They’ll cry out to me, but I won’t listen to them. ¹² The towns of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they’ll be no help at all to them in the time of their disaster. ¹³ Judah, you have as many gods as you have towns, and you have set up as many altars to the shameful idols as there are streets in Jerusalem. You burn incense to Baal on these altars.
¹⁴ “Jeremiah, don’t pray for this people and don’t cry or pray for them. I won’t listen when they cry out to me because of their disaster. ¹⁵ “What right does my beloved have in my house, when she has carried out many evil schemes? Can sacrificial flesh turn disaster away from you, so you can rejoice?” ¹⁶ The LORD once called you a green olive tree, with beautiful shape and fruit. With a great roaring sound, he has set fire to it and its branches will be destroyed.
¹⁷ The LORD of the Heavenly Armies who planted you has called for disaster on you because of the evil of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, has provoked me by burning incense to Baal.”
¹⁸ Jeremiah’s Life is ThreatenedThe LORD made it known to me, and so I understood. Then you showed me their malicious deeds. ¹⁹ I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I didn’t know that they had devised schemes against me. They told themselves, “Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit. Let’s eliminate him from the land of the living, so his name won’t be remembered again.” ²⁰ LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the righteous judge, the one who tests feelings and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them, for I’ve committed my cause to you.
²¹ Therefore, this is what the LORD says about the men of Anathoth who seek to kill you, all the while threatening you, “Don’t prophesy in the name of the LORD so you won’t die by our hand!” ²² Therefore, this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: “I’m about to punish them. The young men will die by the sword. Their sons and daughters will die by famine. ²³ Not one of them will be left, for I’ll bring disaster on the men of Anathoth when I punish them.”

⁵ And now if you carefully obey me and keep my covenant, you are to be my special possession out of all the peoples, because the whole earth belongs to me,

¹⁷ A Covenant is Made
Then Jehoiada entered into a covenant with the LORD, the king, and the people, that they would live as the LORD’s people, and also entered into a covenant with the king and the people.

² The king went up to the LORD’s Temple, accompanied by all the men of Judah, everyone who lived in Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and everyone—including those who were unimportant and those who were important—and he read to them everything written in the Book of the Covenant that had been discovered in the LORD’s Temple. ³ The king stood beside a pillar and made a covenant in the presence of the LORD: to follow after the LORD, to keep his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes with all of his heart and soul, and to carry out what was written in the covenant contained in the book. All the people consented to enter into the covenant.

¹⁶ Jehoiada’s Reforms
After this, Jehoiada drew up a covenant between himself as an individual with all the people, and between himself as king, that they would be the LORD’s people.

¹⁰ I’m intending to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel so his burning anger may turn away from us.

³¹ While standing in his appointed place, the king made a public covenant with the LORD to follow the LORD, to keep his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes, and to do so with all of his heart and soul, and to carry out what was written in the covenant contained in the book.

⁶ The LORD told me, “Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. You are to say, ‘Listen to the words of this covenant and do them.

¹³ “This is what the LORD God of Israel says: ‘I made a covenant with your ancestors on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. I told them: ¹⁴ “At the end of seven years, each of you is to set free your fellow Hebrew who has sold himself to you and has served you for six years. You are to send him out from you with no further obligation.” But your ancestors didn’t obey me or pay attention. ¹⁵ You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming release for one another, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name. ¹⁶ But then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves whom you had set free according to their desire, and you forced them to become male and female slaves.”’

²⁶ “‘Cursed is the one who doesn’t uphold the words of this Law and observe them.“Then all the people are to respond by saying, ‘Amen!’”

¹⁵ Reversal of Blessings“But if you don’t obey the LORD your God and faithfully carry out all his commands and statutes that I’m giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overwhelm you.
¹⁶ “Cursed will you be in the city and cursed will you be in the country.
¹⁷ “Cursed will be your grain basket and your kneading bowl.
¹⁸ “Cursed will your children be, as well as the produce of your land, the offspring of your beasts and cattle, and the offspring of your flock.
¹⁹ “Cursed will you be in your comings and goings.”
²⁰ Diseases and Drought“The LORD will send the curse among you, will confuse you, and will rebuke you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and perish quickly because of your evil deeds, since you will have forsaken him. ²¹ The LORD will cause you to be ill with long-lasting diseases until you are wiped out from the land that you are entering to possess. ²² The LORD will afflict you with tuberculosis, fever, inflammation, high fever, drought, blight, and mildew. These will attack you until you are completely destroyed. ²³ The sky above your head will become bronze while the ground beneath you will become iron. ²⁴ The LORD will change the rain on your land to powder and dust. It will come down from the sky until you are exterminated.”
²⁵ From Defeat to Exile“The LORD will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You’ll go out against them in one direction, but you’ll flee from them in seven directions. Consequently, you’ll be in a state of great terror throughout all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ Your dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, with no one to chase them away.
²⁷ “The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, skin disease, and festering rashes, and none of them will be curable. ²⁸ The LORD will afflict you with insanity, blindness, and mental confusion. ²⁹ As a result, you’ll wander aimlessly in broad daylight just as a blind person wanders in darkness. You won’t prosper in life. Instead you’ll be oppressed and plundered all day long, with no deliverer.
³⁰ You’ll be engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You’ll build a house but you won’t live in it. You’ll plant a vineyard but you won’t harvest it. ³¹ Your ox will be slaughtered in front of you, and you won’t be able to eat it. Your donkey will be stolen from you while you watch and won’t be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be handed to your enemies and there will be no deliverer. ³² Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you watch, and you won’t be able to approach them at all, and you’ll be powerless to help.
³³ “A people whom you don’t know will devour what your land and labor produces. You’ll be only oppressed and discouraged continuously ³⁴ until you are driven insane from what your eyes will see.
³⁵ “The LORD will inflict you with incurable boils on your knees and legs, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
³⁶ “The LORD will banish you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you’ll serve other gods of wood and stone. ³⁷ You’ll become a desolation and a proverb, and you’ll be mocked among the people where the LORD will drive you.”
³⁸ Complete Reversal“You’ll plant many seeds in a field, but your harvest will be small because the locust will consume it. ³⁹ You’ll plant a vineyard, but you won’t drink wine or harvest any grapes, because worms will consume it. ⁴⁰ You’ll have olive trees throughout your territory, but you won’t be able to anoint yourself with oil, because the olives will drop off the trees. ⁴¹ You’ll bear sons and daughters, but they won’t belong to you, because they’ll go into captivity. ⁴² Whirling locusts will consume every tree and the produce of your land. ⁴³ The foreigner in your midst will be elevated higher and higher over you, while you are brought low little by little. ⁴⁴ He will lend to you, but you won’t lend to him. He’ll be the head, but you’ll be the tail. ⁴⁵ All these curses will come upon you and will overwhelm you until you are exterminated, because you didn’t obey the LORD your God to keep his commands and statutes, which he had commanded you. ⁴⁶ These curses will serve as a sign and wonder for you and your descendants as long as you live.”
⁴⁷ Servitude and Bondage“Because you didn’t serve the LORD your God joyfully and wholeheartedly, despite the abundance of everything you have, ⁴⁸ you’ll serve your enemies whom the LORD your God will send against you. You will serve in famine and in drought, in nakedness, and in lack of everything. They’ll set a yoke of iron upon your neck until they have exterminated you.
⁴⁹ “The LORD will raise a distant nation against you from the other side of the earth. Swooping down like a vulture, ⁵⁰ it will be a nation whose language you don’t understand, whose stern appearance neither shows regard nor extends grace to anyone whether old or young. ⁵¹ Its army will consume the offspring of your animals and the produce of your soil until you are exterminated. They will leave you without your grain, wine, oil, the increase of your cattle, and the lamb of your flock, until you are completely destroyed. ⁵² They’ll besiege all your cities until your high and fortified walls in which you have trusted collapse throughout the land. Indeed, they will besiege all your cities, which the LORD your God gave you.”
⁵³ Cannibalism“You’ll eat your own children—the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God gave you—on account of the siege and the distress with which your enemy will oppress you. ⁵⁴ Even the compassionate man among you—the very sensitive one—will look with evil in his eyes toward his brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving sons, whom he spared. ⁵⁵ He will withhold from each of them the flesh of his sons that he is eating—since there will be nothing left—on account of the siege and distress with which your enemy will oppress you in all your cities. ⁵⁶ The most tender and sensitive lady among you, who doesn’t venture to touch the soles of her feet to the ground on account of her daintiness, will look with hostility in her eyes against her beloved husband, her sons, and her daughters. ⁵⁷ She will eat her afterbirth and her newborn children secretly—since there will be nothing left—on account of the siege and distress with which your enemy will oppress you in your cities.”
⁵⁸ Reduction in Population“If you aren’t careful to observe all the words of this Law that have been written in this book, instructing you to fear this glorious and awesome name of the LORD your God, ⁵⁹ then he will inflict extraordinary plagues on you and your children, great and lasting plagues, and severe and lasting illnesses. ⁶⁰ He will inflict on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they won’t be curable. ⁶¹ Moreover, the LORD will inflict you with illnesses and plagues that were not written in this Book of the Law, until you are exterminated. ⁶² Because you will not have obeyed the LORD your God, very few of you will be left—instead of you being as numerous as the stars in the heavens. ⁶³ Just as the LORD delighted to prosper and increase you, so now the LORD will delight to destroy, exterminate, and banish you from the land that you are about to enter to possess.”
⁶⁴ Scattering among the Nations“He’ll scatter you among the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you’ll serve other gods made of wood and stones, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. ⁶⁵ Among those nations you’ll have no rest. There’ll be no resting place for the soles of your feet. Instead, the LORD will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a despairing spirit. ⁶⁶ You’ll cling to life, being fearful by both night and day, with no assurance of survival. ⁶⁷ In the morning you’ll say, ‘I wish it were evening.’ Yet in the evening you’ll say, “I wish it were morning,” on account of what you’ll dread and what you’ll see. ⁶⁸ Finally, the LORD will bring you back to Egypt by ship, a place that I said you’ll never see again. There you’ll try to sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

¹⁹ because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he will bless himself and say: ‘I will have a peaceful life, even though I’m determined to be stubborn.’ By doing this he will be sweeping away both watered and parched ground alike.’
²⁰ “The LORD won’t forgive such a person. Instead, the zealous anger of the LORD will blaze against him. All the curses that were written in this book will fall on him. Then the LORD will wipe out his memory from under heaven.

¹⁰ No One is Justified by the LawCertainly all who depend on the actions of the Law are under a curse. For it is written, “A curse on everyone who does not obey everything that is written in the Book of the Law!” ¹¹ Now it is obvious that no one is justified in the sight of God by the Law, because “The righteous will live by faith.” ¹² But the Law has nothing to do with faith. Instead, “The person who keeps the commandments will have life in them.” ¹³ The Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, “A curse on everyone who is hung on a tree!”

⁸ I’ll give to you and to your descendants the land to which you have traveled—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession. I will be their God.”

⁶ but showing gracious love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.ג

²¹ Be careful! Be sure to obey him. Don’t rebel against him, because he won’t forgive your transgression, since my Name is in him. ²² Indeed, if you carefully obey him and do everything that I say, then I’ll be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries,

³ Then Moses came and reported all the words of the LORD and all the statutes to the people, and they all answered with one voice, “We will do everything that the LORD has decreed.”
⁴ So Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He got up early in the morning and built an altar with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel at the base of the mountain. ⁵ He sent young Israeli men to offer up burnt offerings and sacrifice bulls as peace offerings to the LORD. ⁶ Moses took half the blood and put it in bowls, while he sprinkled the other half on the altar. ⁷ He took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They said, “We will put into practice and obey everything that the LORD has decreed.”
⁸ Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD made with you based on all these words.”

³ “If you live by my statutes, obey my commands, and observe them,

¹² I’ll walk among you. I will be your God, and you’ll be my people.

²⁰ For the LORD took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace—out of Egypt—to be the people of his inheritance, as you are today.

² When the LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb, ³ it was not with our ancestors that the LORD made this covenant, but with us—we who are here today—all of us who are now living.

²⁷ a blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I’m giving you today,

¹ Rewards for Obedience“Indeed, if you diligently obey the LORD your God to carry out all his commands that I’m giving you today, then the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. ² Moreover, all these blessings will come upon you in abundance, if you obey the LORD your God:
³ “Blessed will you be in the city and blessed will you be in the country.
⁴ “Blessed will your children be, as well as the produce of your land, the offspring of your beasts and cattle, and the offspring of your flock.
⁵ “Blessed will be your grain basket and your kneading bowl.
⁶ “Blessed will you be in your comings and goings.”
⁷ “The LORD will make your enemies, who rise against you and attack from one direction, to flee from you in seven directions.
⁸ “The LORD will send blessings for you with regard to your barns and everything you undertake. Indeed, he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is about to give you.
⁹ “The LORD will assign you to be a holy people for himself, just as he promised you, as long as you keep his commands and walk in his ways.
¹⁰ “Then all the people of the earth will observe that the name of the LORD is proclaimed among you, and they will fear you.
¹¹ “The LORD will show his abundant goodness with respect to your children, the offspring of your animals, and the produce of your farmland that he promised your ancestors he would give you.
¹² “The LORD will open his rich treasury, the heavens, to release rain upon your land in season and bless everything you undertake so that you’ll lend to many nations but won’t borrow.
¹³ “The LORD your God will make you the head and not the tail—placing you above and not beneath—if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I’m giving you today to keep and observe. ¹⁴ Do not deviate from any of his commands that I’m giving you today—neither to the right nor the left—to follow and serve other gods.”

¹⁰ Entering into a Covenant Relationship“All of you are standing today in the presence of the LORD your God—the heads of your tribes, your elders, your magistrates, all the men of Israel, ¹¹ along with your children, your wives, even the foreigner in your camp, including the woodchopper and the water drawer— ¹² to enter into a covenant with the LORD your God and into the oath that he is about to make with you today, ¹³ so that he will elevate you to be a people for him. And he will be God to you, just as he promised you and swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ¹⁴ Now, I’m not making this covenant and oath with you alone, ¹⁵ but with whoever is here with us standing in the presence of the LORD our God today, as well as with those who aren’t here with us today.”

²² Samuel said, “Does the LORD delight as much in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the LORD? Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.

⁵¹ since they are your people and your heritage, which you brought out of Egypt, from an iron fire furnace.

¹⁰ Look, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have purified you in the furnace of affliction.

²² Indeed, when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I didn’t speak or command them about burnt offering and sacrifice, ²³ but I did give them this command: ‘Obey me and I’ll be your God, and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you so it will go well for you.’

⁷ I’ll give them the ability to know me, for I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God when they return to me with all their heart.

¹³ Now, change your habits and your deeds and obey the LORD your God, and the LORD will change his mind about the disaster that he told you about.

²² ‘You will be my people, and I’ll be your God.’”

³¹ The New Covenant“Look, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I’ll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. ³² It won’t be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. They broke my covenant, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. ³³ “Rather, this is the covenant that I’ll make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD. “I’ll put my Law within them and will write it on their hearts. I’ll be their God and they will be my people.

²⁸ Therefore, this is what the LORD says: “I’m about to give this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will capture it.

²⁰ When they live by my statutes and keep my ordinances by observing them, then they’ll be my people and I will be their God.

¹¹ Then Israel’s house won’t wander away from me again, nor will they defile themselves again with all their transgressions. They’ll become my people and I’ll be their God,” declares the Lord GOD.

⁶ That day I promised to bring them out of the land of Egypt to the land that I had explored for them—a land flowing with milk and honey. It’s the most beautiful of all lands. ⁷ Then I told them, ‘Each of you are to abandon your detestable practices. You are not to defile yourselves with Egypt’s idols. I am the LORD your God.’”’”
⁸ A Brief History of Israel’s Rebellion“But they rebelled against me and weren’t willing to obey me. None of them abandoned their detestable practices or their Egyptian idols. So I said, ‘I’ll pour out my anger on them, extending my fury in the middle of the land of Egypt.’ ⁹ I did this so my reputation might not be tarnished among the nations where they were living, among whom I made myself known in their presence when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. ¹⁰ I brought them out of the land of Egypt to bring them to the wilderness ¹¹ where I gave them my statutes and revealed my ordinances to them, which if a person observes, he’ll live by them. ¹² Also, I instituted my Sabbath for them as a sign between me and them, so they would know that I am the LORD, who has set them apart.”

²⁸ You’ll live in the land that I gave to your ancestors, you’ll be my people, and I will be your God.

²³ They will never again defile themselves with their idols, with other loathsome things, or with any of their sins. Instead, I will deliver them from all of the places where they have sinned, and then I’ll cleanse them. They will be my people and I will be their God.”’”

²⁷ I will pitch my tent among them and will be their God. They will be my people,

¹⁵ Those who are now far away will come and do reconstruction work in the Temple of the LORD. Then you will know that the LORD of the Heavenly Armies has sent me to you. This will come about if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God.”’”

⁸ I will also bring them back to live in the midst of Jerusalem. They will be my people and I will truly be their righteous God.’”

⁹ And I will bring that surviving third through, testing them as if through fire, purifying them like silver, assaying them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

²⁰ teaching them to obey everything that I’ve commanded you. And remember, I am with you each and every day until the end of the age.”

¹⁶ What agreement can a temple of God make with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said: “I will live and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

⁹ and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,

⁸ but God found something wrong with his people when he said, “Look! The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. ⁹ It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors at the time when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. Because they did not remain loyal to my covenant, I ignored them, declares the Lord. ¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

¹⁶ and said, “I have taken an oath to swear by myself,” declares the LORD, “that since you have carried this out and have not withheld your only unique son, ¹⁷ I will certainly bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in heaven and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the gates of their enemies. ¹⁸ Furthermore, through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my command.”

³ Remain in this land, and I’ll be with and bless you by giving all these lands to you and to your descendants in fulfillment of my solemn promise that I made to your father Abraham. ⁴ I’ll cause you to have as many descendants as the stars of the heavens, and I’ll certainly give all these lands to your descendants. Later on, through your descendants all the nations of the earth will bless one another. ⁵ I’m going to do this because Abraham did what I told him to do. He kept my instructions, commands, statutes, and laws.”

⁸ so I have come down to deliver them from their domination by the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the territory of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹ Now, listen carefully! The cry of the Israelis has come to my attention about how severely the Egyptians have been oppressing them. ¹⁰ So go! I am sending you to Pharaoh. Bring my people the Israelis out of Egypt.”
¹¹ But Moses told God, “Who am I? How can I go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelis out of Egypt?”
¹² Then God said, “I certainly will be with you. And this will be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, all of you will serve God on this mountain.”
¹³ Moses told God, “Look! When I go to the Israelis and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors sent me to you,’ they’ll say to me, ‘What is his name?’ What should I say to them?”
¹⁴ God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and then said, “Tell the Israelis: ‘I AM sent me to you.’”
¹⁵ God also told Moses, “Tell the Israelis, ‘The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered from generation to generation.
¹⁶ “Go and gather the elders of Israel. Tell them, ‘The LORD God of your ancestors, appeared to me—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and he said, “I have paid close attention to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt. ¹⁷ I have said that I will bring you out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites—to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’

⁵ When the LORD brings you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, which he swore to your ancestors to give you—a land flowing with milk and honey—you are to observe this ritual in this month.

²⁴ But I’ve promised you that you’ll inherit the land that I’m about to give you as your permanent possession—a land flowing with milk and honey.
“I am your God. I’ve separated you from the people.

³ Listen, Israel! Be careful to obey, so that life may go well for you and that you may increase greatly. Just as the LORD God of your ancestors told you, you’ll have a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹² The LORD Blesses Obedience“If you pay attention to these laws and obey them, then the LORD your God will continue his covenant of gracious love with you that he promised with an oath to your ancestors. ¹³ He’ll love you and increase your numbers. He’ll bless the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your land (the grain, new wine, and oil), the offspring of your herds, and the lambs of your flock, in the land that the LORD promised your ancestors he would give you.

¹⁵ “‘Cursed is the one who makes a sculptured or cast image—a detestable thing to the LORD, the work of a craftsman—and sets it up secretly.’“Then all the people are to respond by saying, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁶ “Cursed is the one who treats his father and mother with dishonor.’“Then all the people are to respond by saying, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁷ “‘Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor’s boundary stone.’“Then all the people are to respond by saying, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁸ “‘Cursed is the one who misleads a blind person on the road.“Then all the people are to respond by saying, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁹ “‘Cursed is the one who perverts justice due the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow.’“Then all the people are to respond by saying, ‘Amen!’ ²⁰ “Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his father’s wife, because he has disgraced his father.“Then all the people are to respond by saying, ‘Amen!’ ²¹ “‘Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with any animal.“Then all the people are to respond by saying, ‘Amen!’ ²² “‘Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his sister, the daughter of his father or mother.“Then all the people are to respond by saying, ‘Amen!’ ²³ “‘Cursed is the one who has sexual relations with his mother-in-law.“Then all the people are to respond by saying, ‘Amen!’ ²⁴ “‘Cursed is one who strikes his neighbor secretly.“Then all the people are to respond by saying, ‘Amen!’ ²⁵ “‘Cursed is one who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.“Then all the people are to respond by saying, ‘Amen!’ ²⁶ “‘Cursed is the one who doesn’t uphold the words of this Law and observe them.“Then all the people are to respond by saying, ‘Amen!’”

⁹ like the covenant he made with Abraham, and his promise to Isaac. ¹⁰ He presented it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant. ¹¹ He said: “I will give Canaan to you as the allotted portion that is your inheritance.”

⁶ The prophet Jeremiah said, “May the LORD truly do this thing! May the LORD fulfill the words that you prophesied to bring back the vessels of the LORD’s Temple and all the exiles from Babylon to this place.

¹³ And never bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

¹⁶ Otherwise, if you say a blessing with your spirit, how can an otherwise uneducated person say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you’re saying?

⁵ who does not loan his money with interest, and who does not take a bribe against those who are innocent. The one who does these things will stand firm forever.

¹ False and True Worship “Shout aloud! Don’t hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their rebellions, and to the house of Jacob their sins.

¹² Go, proclaim these words to the north, and say, ‘Return, unfaithful Israel,’ declares the LORD. ‘I won’t look on you in anger, for I am gracious,’ declares the LORD. ‘I won’t remain angry forever.

² “Stand at the gate of the LORD’s Temple and proclaim this message there. Say, ‘Listen to this message from the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD.’”

² “Listen to the words of this covenant, and convey them to the people of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem. ³ You are to say to them, ‘This is what the LORD God of Israel says: “Cursed is the person who does not listen to the words of this covenant ⁴ which I commanded to your ancestors on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace. I said, ‘Obey me and do everything that I commanded you. Then you will be my people and I’ll be your God.’

² Go out to the Valley of Hinnom at the entrance to the Potsherd Gate, and there proclaim the words that I’m telling you.

⁷ Isn’t this what the LORD proclaimed through the former prophets, when a prosperous Jerusalem was inhabited, as were its surrounding cities, the Negev, and the Shephelah?’”

¹⁷ If you understand these things, how blessed you are if you put them into practice!

¹³ For it is not merely those who hear the Law who are righteous in God’s sight. No, it is those who follow the Law, who will be justified.

²² Keep on being obedient to the word, and not merely being hearers who deceive themselves.

²⁶ He said, “If you will carefully obey the LORD your God, do what he sees to be right, listen to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, then I won’t inflict on you all the diseases that I inflicted on the Egyptians, because I am the LORD your healer.”

⁶ Observe them carefully, because this will show your wisdom and discernment in the eyes of people who’ll listen to all these decrees. Then they’ll say: ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people.’

²⁹ If only they would commit to fear me and keep all my commands, then it will go well with them and their children forever.

² so that you, your children, and your grandchildren may fear the LORD your God. Keep all his decrees and commandments that I’m giving you every day of your life, so you may live a long time.

⁶ Observe the commands of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him,

¹² Love the LORD“Now Israel, what does the LORD your God desire from you? Only this: fear him, walk in all his ways, love him, serve him with all your heart and in all your life, ¹³ and observe his commands and statutes that I’m commanding you today for your own good.

²⁶ Look! I’m about to grant you a blessing and a curse— ²⁷ a blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I’m giving you today, ²⁸ or a curse if you don’t obey the commands of the LORD your God, by turning from the way that I’m commanding you today and following other gods whom you have not known.”

³² Now as to everything I’m commanding you, you must be careful to observe it. Don’t add to or subtract from it.”

²⁰ Love the LORD your God, obey his voice, and cling to him, because he is your life—even your long life—so that you may live in the land that the LORD promised to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

⁹ Now, listen to them, but you are to clearly warn them and inform them about how the king who rules over them will operate.”

¹⁵ The LORD God of their ancestors pleaded with them time and again through his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on the place of his residence,

¹³ Now, because you have done all these things,” declares the LORD, “I spoke to you over and over again, but you didn’t listen. I called to you, but you didn’t answer.

²³ but I did give them this command: ‘Obey me and I’ll be your God, and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you so it will go well for you.’ ²⁴ But they didn’t listen, nor did they pay attention. They pursued their own plans, stubbornly following their own evil desires. They went backward and not forward. ²⁵ From the day your ancestors left the land of Egypt to this present time, I’ve sent all my servants, the prophets, to you, again and again.

⁴ which I commanded to your ancestors on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace. I said, ‘Obey me and do everything that I commanded you. Then you will be my people and I’ll be your God.’

⁴ Again and again, the LORD sent all his servants, the prophets, to you, but you wouldn’t listen or even turn your ears in my direction to hear.

¹⁵ I’ve sent you all my servants, the prophets, sending them again and again. I’ve said, ‘Each of you turn from his evil behavior and make your deeds right. Don’t follow other gods to serve them. Then you will remain in the land that I gave to you and to your ancestors.’ But you haven’t paid attention and you haven’t obeyed me.

¹⁷ The Old Life and the NewTherefore, I tell you and insist on in the Lord not to live any longer like the gentiles live, thinking worthless thoughts.

¹² We order and encourage such people by the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

¹⁴ Cascading Consequences“But if you won’t listen to me and obey all these commands, ¹⁵ and if you refuse my statutes, loathe my ordinances, and fail to carry out all of my commands, thereby breaching my covenant, ¹⁶ then I will certainly do this to you: I’ll appoint sudden terror to infect you like tuberculosis and fever. Your eyes will fail and your life will waste away. You’ll plant in vain, because your enemies will consume what you plant. ¹⁷ I’ll set my face against you so that you’ll be defeated before your enemies. Those who hate you will have dominion over you and you’ll keep fleeing even when no one is pursuing you.
¹⁸ “If, despite all of this, you still don’t listen to me, then I’ll punish you seven times more on account of your sins. ¹⁹ I’ll break your mighty pride. I’ll make the heavens to be like iron and the ground like bronze. ²⁰ Your strength will be spent in vain, because your land won’t yield its produce and the trees of the land won’t yield their fruit.
²¹ “If you live life contrary to me and remain unwilling to listen to me, then I’ll add to your wounds seven times more on account of your sins. ²² I’ll send wild beasts against you from the open country to deprive you of your children, destroy your cattle, and decrease your number so that your roads become desolate.
²³ “If, despite these things, you still won’t return to me, but live life contrary to me, ²⁴ then I’ll certainly oppose you. I’ll take vengeance against you seven fold on account of your sins. ²⁵ I’ll bring the sword against you to execute the vengeance of my covenant. When you gather in your cities, I’ll send a pestilence. As a result, you’ll be delivered into the control of your enemies. ²⁶ When I destroy the source of your bread, ten women will bake bread in one oven. Then they’ll return back your bread by weight. You’ll eat but won’t be satisfied.
²⁷ “If, after all of this time, you don’t listen to me, but instead live life contrary to me, ²⁸ I’ll oppose you with vicious rage. Indeed, I myself will punish you seven fold on account of your sins. ²⁹ At that time, you’ll eat the flesh of your sons and you’ll eat the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰ I’ll destroy your high places and cut down your sun pillars. Then I’ll cast your dead bodies on top of the bodies of your idols. I’ll loathe you. ³¹ I’ll lay your cities to waste and destroy your sanctuaries so I don’t have to smell the scent of your soothing odors. ³² I’ll make the land so desolate that your enemies who live in it will be astonished.”
³³ Captivity among the Nations“I’ll scatter you among the nations and draw the sword after you so that your land becomes desolate and your towns become ruins. ³⁴ Then the land will finally be pleased with its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time, the land will rest and take its Sabbaths. ³⁵ As long as it lies desolate, it will have rest that it will not have had during your Sabbaths when you were living in it.
³⁶ “As for the remnants among you, I’ll bring despair in their hearts in the land of their enemies so that even the sound of a blown leaf will chase them and they flee as though pursued by the sword and fall when no one is pursuing. ³⁷ They’ll stumble over each other as though fleeing before the sword, even though no one is pursuing.
“You won’t have power to resist your enemies. ³⁸ You’ll perish among the nations and the land of your enemies will consume you. ³⁹ The remnants among you will waste away in the land of your enemies due to their iniquity. Indeed, they’ll also waste away on account of the iniquities of their ancestors with them.”
⁴⁰ Return from Captivity“Nevertheless, when they confess their iniquity, the iniquity of their ancestors, and their unfaithfulness by which they acted unfaithfully against me by living life contrary to me— ⁴¹ causing me to oppose them and take them to the land of their enemies so that the uncircumcised foreskin of their hearts can be humbled and so that they accept the punishment of their iniquity— ⁴² then I’ll remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham. I’ll also remember the land. ⁴³ They will leave the land so it can rest while it lies desolate without them. That’s when they’ll receive the punishment of their iniquity, because indeed they will have rejected my ordinances and despised my statutes. ⁴⁴ Yet, despite all of these things, when they’re in the land of their enemies, I won’t reject or despise them so as to completely destroy them and by doing so violate my covenant with them, because I am the LORD their God. ⁴⁵ Instead, on account of them, I’ll remember my covenant with their ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt right before the eyes of the nations, so that I could be their God. I am the LORD.”
⁴⁶ These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws that the LORD made between himself and the Israelis on Mount Sinai, as recorded by the hand of Moses.

²¹ The LORD will set him apart from all the tribes of Israel for destruction, according to the curses of the covenant that were written in this Book of the Law.”
²² A Reminder of Sodom and Gomorrah“Then the generation to come—your descendants after you and the foreigners who come from afar—will see plagues and illnesses infecting the land that the LORD will inflict on it. ²³ The whole land will be covered with salt pits and burning sulfur, with nothing planted, nothing sprouting, and producing no vegetation—overthrown like Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, when the LORD overthrew them in his raging fury. ²⁴ All the nations will ask, ‘Why did the LORD do this to this land? What is the meaning of this fierce and great anger?’

¹⁷ But if you turn your heart away, and do not obey, but instead if you stray away to worship and serve other gods, ¹⁸ I’m declaring to you today that you will surely be destroyed. You won’t live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan River to enter and possess. ¹⁹ I call heaven and earth to testify against you today! I’ve set life and death before you today: both blessings and curses. Choose life, that it may be well with you—you and your children.

¹⁷ When that happens, my anger will burn against them, because they will have abandoned me. I’ll hide my face from them, they will be consumed, and many evils and distresses will find them. When this happens, they will say, ‘These troubles have happened to us because God isn’t among us.’ ¹⁸ I’ll surely hide my face in that day on account of the evil that they will have done for they turned to other gods.”

²⁰ So he said: “Let me hide my face from them. I will observe what their end will be, because they are a perverted generation, children within whom there is no loyalty. ²¹ They provoked me to jealousy over non-gods, and to be angry over their vanity. Now I’ll provoke them to jealousy over a non-people; and over a foolish nation I’ll provoke them to anger. ²² For a fire breaks out in my anger— burning to the deepest part of the afterlife, consuming the earth and its produce and igniting the foundations of the mountains. ²³ I’ll bury them in misfortunes and bring them to an end with my arrows. ²⁴ Emaciated from famine, feverish from plague, and destroyed by bitterness, I’ll send fanged beasts against them, along with poisonous snakes that glide through the dust. ²⁵ Outside, the sword will cause bereavement; within, there will be terror for the young man and virgin alike, also for the nursing infant and the aged man.” ²⁶ “I said, ‘I will scatter them, erasing their memory from the human race,

¹³ know for certain that the LORD your God will not continue to drive out these nations ahead of you. Instead, they will be a snare and a trap for you, a whip to your backs, and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the LORD your God has given you.
¹⁴ “Look here: today I’m going down the path that everyone on earth takes, and you know with all your hearts and souls that not a single word of all of the good things that the LORD your God spoke about you has failed to happen. Everything has been fulfilled about you—not one of them has failed. ¹⁵ However, just as all of the good things have come about that the LORD your God promised, so also the LORD will bring upon you all of the threats until he has destroyed you from possessing this good land that he has given you. ¹⁶ When you break the covenant of the LORD your God that he commanded you to obey by going to serve other gods and worship them, then the anger of the LORD will blaze against you, and you will perish quickly from this good land that he gave you.”

¹⁶ “But they—our ancestors—became arrogant and stubborn, refusing to listen to your commands. ¹⁷ They would not listen, and did not remember the miracles you did among them. Instead, they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return them to their slavery. “But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and rich in gracious love; therefore you did not abandon them.

²⁶ “Then they disobeyed, rebelled against you, and threw your Law behind their backs. They murdered your prophets who had admonished the people to return to you, committing terrible blasphemies.

²⁹ You admonished them to return to your Law, but they acted arrogantly, and would not listen to your commands. They sinned against your regulations, which if anyone obeys, he will live by them. They turned away, being stubborn and stiff-necked, and they did not listen.

¹⁷ At that time people will call Jerusalem, “The Throne of the LORD,” and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. They’ll no longer stubbornly follow their own evil desires.

¹⁶ Israel Refuses to RepentThis is what the LORD says: “Stand beside the roads and watch. Ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is. Walk in it and find rest for yourselves. But they said, ‘We won’t walk in it!’ ¹⁷ I appointed watchmen over you. Listen for the sound of the trumpet. But they said, ‘We won’t listen!’

²⁴ But they didn’t listen, nor did they pay attention. They pursued their own plans, stubbornly following their own evil desires. They went backward and not forward.

²⁶ But they didn’t listen to me, and they didn’t pay attention. They stiffened their necks, and they did more evil than their ancestors.

¹³ The LORD said, “It is because they have forsaken my Law that I gave them. They didn’t obey me and didn’t live according to it. ¹⁴ Instead, they followed their rebellious hearts and the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.”

¹⁷ Rather, we will keep doing everything that we said we would by offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and by pouring out liquid offerings to her just as we, our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders did in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had plenty of bread, things went well for us, and we didn’t experience disaster.

⁸ A Brief History of Israel’s Rebellion“But they rebelled against me and weren’t willing to obey me. None of them abandoned their detestable practices or their Egyptian idols. So I said, ‘I’ll pour out my anger on them, extending my fury in the middle of the land of Egypt.’

¹⁸ I told their children in the wilderness, ‘You are not to follow the statutes of your ancestors, observe their ordinances, or be defiled by their idols. ¹⁹ I am the LORD your God. You are to follow my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep them. ²⁰ You are to make my Sabbaths holy, and you are to let them serve as a sign between you and me, so that you may know that I am the LORD your God.’”
²¹ More of Israel’s Rebellion“But they rebelled against me. They didn’t live according to my statutes, observe my ordinances, or practice them, by which a person will live. They also kept profaning my Sabbaths. So I said that I was going to pour out my anger on them and in my anger I’m going to bring about a complete end to them in the wilderness.

³⁷ “I’ll cause you to pass under the rod until I will have brought you into the bond of the covenant. ³⁸ I’ll eliminate the rebels among you, along with those who are transgressing against me. I’ll bring them out of the land where you’ve lived, but they won’t be able to enter the land of Israel. Then you’ll know that I am the LORD.”

¹¹ But they refused to pay attention, turned their backs, and stopped listening.

³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?”

¹³ “Indeed, from the least important to the most important, they’re all greedy for dishonest gain. From prophet to priest, they all act deceitfully.

¹⁰ Therefore, I’ll give their wives to others, and their fields to new owners. Indeed, from the least important to the most important, they’re all greedy for dishonest gain. From prophet to priest, they all act deceitfully.

²⁵ There’s a conspiracy of prophets within her, and like a roaring lion tearing its prey, they’ve devoured people, and confiscated treasures, and taken precious things. They’ve added to the population of widows within her. ²⁶ Her priests have violated my Law and profaned my sacred things. They didn’t differentiate between what’s sacred and what’s common. They didn’t instruct others to discern clean from unclean things. They refused to keep my Sabbaths.
“‘I’m constantly being profaned among them. ²⁷ Her princes within her are like wolves tearing their prey apart. They shed blood, destroying souls, and make unjust gain.
²⁸ “‘Her prophets whitewashed all of these things through false visions and lying divinations. They kept on saying, “This is what the Lord GOD says…”, when the LORD has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land were vigorously oppressive and took possession of plunder by violence. They’ve afflicted the poor and the needy and unjustly treated the foreigner. ³⁰ I sought for a man among them to build the wall and stand in the breach in my presence on behalf of the land so that it won’t be destroyed, but I found no one, ³¹ so I poured my indignation over them. With my fierce anger, I’ve consumed them. I brought the consequences of their behavior upon them,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

⁹ Like a gang of thieves that stalk a man, priests commit murder along the road to Shechem, committing shameful crimes.

¹¹ Her leaders judge for the money, her priests teach only when they’re paid, and her prophets prophesy for cash. Even so, don’t they all rely on the LORD as they ask, ‘The LORD is among us, is he not? Nothing bad can possibly happen to us!’

² The faithful have died off, and there is not one upright human being in the land. They all stalk one another with lethal intent, a man will even hunt his own brother with a net. ³ And speaking of evil, they practice it eagerly—with both hands! Both leader and judge demand a bribe, the famous confess their perverted desires, and they scheme together.

¹ The LORD’s Rebuke to Jerusalem Woe to this filthy, polluted, and oppressive city! ² It won’t obey anyone. It won’t accept discipline. It does not trust in the LORD. It does not approach God. ³ Its national officials are roaring lions; its judges are like wolves of the night that don’t leave the bones for the morning. ⁴ Its prophets are arrogant and treacherous. Its priests have contaminated the sanctuary. They give perverse interpretations of the Law.

³⁸ But when the tenant farmers saw his son, they told one another, ‘This is the heir. Come on, let’s kill him and get his inheritance!’ ³⁹ So they grabbed him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

³ Then the high priests and the elders of the people assembled in the courtyard of the high priest, who was named Caiaphas. ⁴ They conspired to arrest Jesus by treachery and to kill him.

¹⁵ and inquired, “What are you willing to give me if I betray Jesus to you?” They offered him 30 pieces of silver,

⁵³ So from that day on they resolved to put him to death.

¹² Some Jews Plot to Kill PaulIn the morning, the Jewish leaders formed a conspiracy and took an oath not to eat or drink anything before they had killed Paul. ¹³ More than 40 men formed this conspiracy. ¹⁴ They went to the high priests and elders and said, “We have taken a solemn oath not to taste any food before we have killed Paul. ¹⁵ Now then, you and the Council must notify the tribune to bring him down to you on the pretext that you want to look into his case more carefully, but before he arrives we’ll be ready to kill him.”

¹⁵ and if you refuse my statutes, loathe my ordinances, and fail to carry out all of my commands, thereby breaching my covenant,

⁷ Israel Broke the Covenant“Remember—and don’t ever forget—how you provoked the LORD your God in the desert. From the day that you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place you have been rebelling against the LORD.

¹⁶ Then the LORD told Moses, “Look! You are about to join your ancestors. Afterwards, this people will rebel and commit prostitution with the foreign gods of the land that they are about to enter to possess. They will abandon me and break my covenant that I made with them.

¹² They abandoned the LORD God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who surrounded them. They bowed down in worship of them, and by doing so angered the LORD. ¹³ As a result, they abandoned the LORD by serving both Baal and Ashtaroth.

¹⁷ But they didn’t listen to their leaders, because they were committing spiritual immorality by following other gods and worshiping them. They quickly turned away from the road on which their ancestors had walked in obedience to the commands of the LORD. They didn’t follow their example.

¹⁹ However, after the leader had died, they would relapse to a condition more corrupt than their ancestors, following other gods, serving them, and worshiping them. They would not abandon their activities or their obstinate lifestyles.

¹¹ “I regret that I made Saul king, because he has turned away from following me and has not carried out my commands.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the LORD all night.

⁷ The Idolatry of the Northern KingdomThis happened because the Israelis had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt and from the domination of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, because they were fearing other gods, ⁸ and because they were following the rules of the nations whom the LORD had expelled before the Israelis and that the kings of Israel had practiced.
⁹ The Israelis practiced secret things that were not right, offending the LORD their God. In addition, they built high places for use by all their towns, watchtowers, and fortified cities. ¹⁰ They set up pillars and Asherim on every high hill and in the shade of every green tree, ¹¹ where they made offerings on all the high places, as did the nations whom the LORD had expelled before them. They also practiced other wickedness, provoking the LORD to become angry, ¹² and they served idols, a practice that the LORD had warned them, “You are not to do this.”
¹³ Nevertheless, the LORD had warned both Israel and Judah by means of every prophet and seer: “Turn away from your evil practices and keep my commandments and statutes according to the entire Law that I gave your ancestors and that I sent to you through my servants, the prophets.” ¹⁴ But they would not listen. Instead, they were stubborn, just like their ancestors had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God. ¹⁵ They rejected the LORD’s statutes, the covenant that he had made with their ancestors, and his warnings that he gave them. They pursued meaninglessness—and became meaningless themselves—as they followed the lifestyles of the nations that surrounded them, a practice that the LORD had warned them not to do.
¹⁶ They abandoned all of the commands given by the LORD their God, crafted for themselves cast images of two calves, constructed an Asherah, worshipped all of the stars in heaven, and served Baal. ¹⁷ They passed their sons and daughters through fire, practiced divination, cast spells, and sold themselves to practice what the LORD considered to be evil, thereby provoking him. ¹⁸ As a result, the LORD was angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. No one was left except for the tribe of Judah.
¹⁹ But Judah, too, did not keep the commands of the LORD their God. Instead, they lived the lifestyle that Israel had chosen, ²⁰ so the LORD rejected all of the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and handed them over to the control of plunderers until he had thrown them away from his presence.

³⁰ Then the king went up to the LORD’s Temple, accompanied by the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and descendants of Levi, and everyone else from the most important to the least important, and he read out loud all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the LORD’s Temple. ³¹ While standing in his appointed place, the king made a public covenant with the LORD to follow the LORD, to keep his commandments, his testimonies, and his statutes, and to do so with all of his heart and soul, and to carry out what was written in the covenant contained in the book. ³² He also made everyone who was present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand in agreement with him. As a result, the inhabitants of Jerusalem reconfirmed the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors. ³³ Josiah also removed all the detestable things from the territories that belonged to the people of Israel, and made everyone who lived in Israel to serve the LORD their God. For the rest of his life, they didn’t abandon their quest to follow the LORD God of their ancestors.

⁸ They will not be like the rebellious generation of their ancestors, a rebellious generation, whose heart was not steadfast, and whose spirits were unfaithful to God. ⁹ The descendants of Ephraim were sharp shooters with the bow, but they retreated in the day of battle. ¹⁰ They did not keep God’s covenant, and refused to live by his Law.

⁵⁷ They fell away and were as disloyal as their ancestors. They became unreliable, like a defective bow;

⁶ The Example of SamariaIn the time of King Josiah the LORD told me, “Have you seen what unfaithful Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she committed fornication there. ⁷ I thought, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to me.’ But she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw this. ⁸ I saw that even though I had sent unfaithful Israel away for all her adulteries and had given her a divorce decree, her treacherous sister Judah didn’t fear, and she, too, committed adultery. ⁹ She took her fornication so lightly that she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. ¹⁰ Yet in all this her treacherous sister Judah didn’t return to me with her whole heart, but rather deceptively,” declares the LORD.
¹¹ A Call for RepentanceThen the LORD told me, “Unfaithful Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

³² It won’t be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. They broke my covenant, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.

⁵⁹ “since the Lord GOD says, ‘I’ll deal with you according to what you’ve done, when you despised your oath by breaking the covenant.

⁷ You kept on bringing in foreigners, those who were uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to profane my sanctuary by being inside my Temple, and by doing so you’ve emptied my covenant, all the while offering my food—the fat and the blood—in addition to all of the other loathsome things you’ve done.

⁴ “What am I to do with you, Ephraim? What am I to do with you, Judah? Your love is like a morning rain cloud— it passes away like the morning dew.

⁷ “But like Adam, they broke the covenant; in this they have acted deceitfully against me.

¹⁶ They return—but not to the Most High. They are like a defective weapon. Their princes will fall by the sword because of their raging tongue, and they will be a laughingstock in the land of Egypt.”

⁶ those who turn away from the LORD, don’t seek the LORD, and never ask for his help.”
The Approaching Day of the LORD

⁴ Don’t be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets proclaimed: ‘This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: “It’s time to turn from your evil lifestyles and from your evil actions,” ‘but they would neither listen nor pay attention to me,’” declares the LORD.’

⁵¹ “You stubborn people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. ⁵² Which of the prophets did your ancestors fail to persecute? They killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.

⁹ It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors at the time when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. Because they did not remain loyal to my covenant, I ignored them, declares the Lord.

¹⁶ “This is what the Lord says: ‘Look! I’m bringing disaster on this place and on its inhabitants—everything written in the book that the king of Judah has read—

²⁴ “This is what the LORD says: ‘Pay attention! I’m bringing evil to visit this place and its inhabitants—every single curse written in the book that they’ve been reading to the King of Judah.

⁴¹ They cried out for deliverance, but there was no one to deliver; they cried out to the LORD, but he did not answer them.

¹⁸ Were I to cherish iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not listen to me.

²⁸ “Then they will call out to me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.

¹ Advice on Life and Justice After many rebukes, the stiff-necked man will be broken incurably, without any warning.

¹⁵ When you spread out your hands in prayer, I’ll hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray repeatedly, I won’t listen. Your hands are full of blood, your fingers drenched with iniquity.”

¹⁷ The Universal Impact of Judgment“Terror and pit and snare are coming in your direction, you inhabitants of the earth!

¹⁹ Listen, earth! I’m about to bring calamity on this people, on the fruit of their plans, because they didn’t listen to my words and they rejected my instruction.

¹⁴ “Jeremiah, don’t pray for this people and don’t cry or pray for them. I won’t listen when they cry out to me because of their disaster.

¹⁷ The LORD of the Heavenly Armies who planted you has called for disaster on you because of the evil of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, has provoked me by burning incense to Baal.”

¹² Although they fast, I won’t listen to their cry, and although they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I won’t accept them. Instead, I’ll put an end to them with the sword, with famine, and with a plague.”

² “When they say to you, ‘Where can we go?’, say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: “Those destined for death, to death will go; those destined for the sword, to the sword will go; and those destined for captivity, to captivity will go.

³ “You are to say, ‘Hear this message from the LORD, you kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem!
“‘This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: “I’m about to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of all who hear about it tingle.

¹⁵ “This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘I’m about to bring on this city and all its towns all the disaster that I declared against it because they were determined not to obey my message.’”

¹² Therefore their way will be slippery. They’ll be driven out into the darkness, where they’ll fall. For I’ll bring disaster on them, the year of their judgment,” declares the LORD.

¹⁷ Therefore, this is what the LORD God of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel says: “Look, I’m bringing on Judah and all the residents of Jerusalem all the disaster that I pronounced against them, because I spoke to them, but they didn’t listen, and I called out to them, but they didn’t answer.”’”

³¹ I’ll punish him, his descendants, and his officials for their iniquity. I’ll bring on them, on the residents of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah all the calamity about which I’ve warned them, but they would not listen.”’”

⁵ One Bad Thing after Another“This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘It’s one evil event after another!
“‘Look out! It’s coming!

¹⁸ I’m going to deal with them in rage and anger. I’ll show neither pity nor compassion. They’ll cry loudly directly in my ears, but I won’t listen to them.”

¹⁴ So the swift runner will not escape, the valiant will not fortify his strength, and the mighty warrior will not save his life. ¹⁵ The skilled archer will not be able to stand, the swift runner will not survive, and the mounted rider will not preserve his own life.

¹⁹ It will be like a man who runs from a lion, only to encounter a bear; or who comes home, leans his hand against a wall, and a serpent bites him!

¹ Israel to be DestroyedI saw the Lord standing beside the altar as he was saying, “Strike the doorposts so that the thresholds tremble, bringing them down on the heads of all of them. Those who survive I will kill with the sword. Those who flee will not escape. There will be no deliverance for the fugitives. ² “Even if they burrow into Sheol, from there my hand will find them. Even if they ascend to the heavens, from there I will bring them down. ³ Even if they hide at the top of Mount Carmel, from there I will search and seize them. Even if they hide from my sight in the depths of the sea, from there I will order the serpent to strike them. ⁴ Even if they go into exile among their enemies, from there I will order the sword to kill them. I will fix my gaze on them to inflict disaster, and not to do good.

⁴ “Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not listen to them. In fact, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they were so wicked in what they were doing.”

¹³ Therefore, just as when I cried out and they would not listen, so also they will cry out, and I will not listen,’ says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

²⁴ “Keep on struggling to enter through the narrow door, because I tell you that many people will try to enter, but won’t be able to do so. ²⁵ After the homeowner gets up and closes the door, you can stand outside, knock on the door, and say again and again, ‘Lord, open the door for us!’ But he will answer you, ‘I don’t know where you come from.’ ²⁶ Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ ²⁷ But he will tell you, ‘I don’t know where you come from. Get away from me, all you who practice evil!’ ²⁸ In that place there will be crying and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves being driven away on the outside.

³ When people say, “There is peace and security,” destruction will strike them as suddenly as labor pains come to a pregnant woman, and they will not be able to escape.

³ He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact likeness of his being, and he holds everything together by his powerful word. After he had provided a cleansing from sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Highest Majesty

¹⁶ They told the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. ¹⁷ For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to endure it?”

³⁷ “He will say, ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge?

¹⁴ Go and cry out to the gods that you have chosen for yourselves. Let them deliver you in your time of trouble.”

²² The Apostasy and Death of Ahaz
In the midst of his troubles, King Ahaz became more and more unfaithful to the LORD.

²⁰ “Gather together and come; draw near and enter, your fugitives from the nations. Those who carry around their wooden idols know nothing, nor do those who keep praying to a god that cannot save.

²⁸ “But where are your gods that you made for yourselves? Let them rise up, if they can deliver you in the time of your trouble. You have as many gods as you have towns, Judah.

¹⁷ Rather, we will keep doing everything that we said we would by offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and by pouring out liquid offerings to her just as we, our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders did in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had plenty of bread, things went well for us, and we didn’t experience disaster. ¹⁸ From the time we stopped offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out liquid offerings to her, we have lacked everything, and we have been consumed by the sword and famine. ¹⁹ Indeed, we are going to continue offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out liquid offerings to her. And do you think we have made cakes to represent her or poured out liquid offerings for her without our husbands’ approval?”
²⁰ Final Judgment ProclaimedThen Jeremiah spoke a message to all the people, to the young men, to the women, and to all the people who were answering him: ²¹ “As for the sacrifices that you, your ancestors, your kings, your officials, and the people of the land offered in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, the LORD remembered them, did he not? And they came to his attention, did they not? ²² The LORD could no longer bear it because of your evil deeds and the repulsive things that you did. So your land has become a ruin and an object of horror and ridicule without an inhabitant, as is the case today. ²³ Because you offered sacrifices and sinned against the LORD, you didn’t obey the LORD and didn’t live according to his Law, his statutes, or his testimonies; therefore, this disaster has happened to you, as is the case today.”
²⁴ Then Jeremiah told all the people and all the women, “All you people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt, listen to this message from the LORD! ²⁵ This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and acted with your hands: “We will certainly carry through on the vows that we vowed to offer sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pour out liquid offerings to her!” Go ahead, carry through on your vows, and diligently do what you vowed!’ ²⁶ But listen to this message from the LORD, all you people of Judah who are living in the land of Egypt. ‘Look, I’ve sworn by my great name’, says the LORD, ‘my name will no longer be invoked by the mouth of any person in the entire land of Egypt, as he says, “As surely as the Lord GOD lives…”
²⁷ “‘Look, I’m watching over them to bring disaster rather than good. Every person of Judah in the land of Egypt will be brought to an end by the sword and by famine until they’re completely gone.

¹⁶ They provoked him to jealousy over foreigners and to anger over detestable things. ¹⁷ They sacrificed to demons— not to the real God— gods whom they didn’t know, new neighbors who had recently appeared, whom your ancestors never feared.

⁴ He also built altars in the LORD’s Temple, about which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem I will place my Name.” ⁵ He built two altars to every star in the heavens in the two courts of the LORD’s Temple.

⁴ Josiah Abolishes IdolatryThe king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the secondary order, and the doorkeepers to take out of the LORD’s Temple all of the implements that had been crafted for Baal, for Asherah, and for every star in the heavens. Then he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried the ashes to Bethel. ⁵ The king unseated the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places throughout the cities of Judah and in the environs surrounding Jerusalem, including those who had been burning incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to every star in the heavens.

¹³ The king defiled the high places which faced Jerusalem on the south side of Corruption Mountain, which King Solomon of Israel had constructed for Ashtoreth, the Sidonian abomination, for Chemosh, the Moabite abomination, and for Milcom, the Ammonite abomination.

⁸ Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.

¹ God Contemplates Divorcing Israel “When a man divorces his wife, she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife, will the first husband return to her again? The land would be deeply polluted, would it not? Since you have committed fornication with many lovers, would you now return to me?” declares the LORD. ² “Look up to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been ravished? You have sat beside the road, waiting for them like a nomad in the desert. And you have polluted the land with your fornication and your wickedness.

²⁴ Since our youth the false gods have consumed the products of our ancestors’ hard work, their sheep and their cattle, their sons and their daughters.

⁹ Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear by false gods, burn incense to Baal, follow other gods that you don’t know,

⁵ They built the high places for Baal to burn their children in the fire as a burnt offering to Baal—something I didn’t command, didn’t say, nor did it ever enter my mind!

³⁵ They built the high places of Baal that are in the Hinnom Valley in order to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech—something that I didn’t command, nor did it ever enter my mind for them to require this utterly repugnant thing—and lead Judah into sin.”

¹¹ “There’s iniquity in Gilead, isn’t there? They have become truly vain. They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal; their altars are like piles of stone in furrowed fields.

¹⁰ Now let me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may consume them, but I’ll make a great nation of you.”

²⁴ Someone who hates hides behind his words, harboring deceit within himself. ²⁵ Though he speaks graciously, don’t believe him, for there are seven detestable things in his heart.

¹⁶ “As for you, don’t pray on behalf of this people, don’t cry or offer a petition for them, and don’t plead with me, for I won’t listen to you.

¹¹ Therefore, this is what the LORD says: “I’m about to bring disaster on them from which they won’t be able to escape. They’ll cry out to me, but I won’t listen to them.

¹¹ Then the LORD told me, “Don’t pray for the welfare of these people.

¹ The Destiny of the JudgedThen the LORD told me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were standing before me, I wouldn’t be favorably disposed toward this people. Send them out of my presence! Let them go!

⁶ They will go with their flocks and herds to seek the LORD, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.

¹⁶ If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray that God would give him life. This applies to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not telling you to pray about that.

¹⁶ As for the wicked, God says, “How dare you recite my statutes or speak about my covenant with your lips!

¹⁴ who delight in doing evil, and rejoice in the perverseness of evil;

²³ Just as the fool considers wickedness his joy, so is wisdom to the discerning man.

⁸ The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

²⁷ What the wicked person sacrifices is detestable— how much more when he offers it with vile motives!

¹⁸ Like the maniac who shoots fiery darts and deadly arrows—

⁹ If someone quits listening to the Law even his prayer is detestable.

¹¹ “How do your voluminous sacrifices benefit me?” the LORD is asking. “I’ve had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts. I don’t enjoy the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. ¹² “When you come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts? ¹³ Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly. ¹⁴ As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They’ve become a burden to me; I’ve grown weary of carrying that burden. ¹⁵ When you spread out your hands in prayer, I’ll hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray repeatedly, I won’t listen. Your hands are full of blood, your fingers drenched with iniquity.”

¹ A Call to Return to God This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Look! It’s because of your sins that you were sold, and because of your transgressions that your mother was sent away.

² “Go and announce to Jerusalem: ‘This is what the LORD says: “I remember the loyal devotion of your youth, your love as a bride. You followed me in the desert, in a land that was not planted.

⁸ I saw that even though I had sent unfaithful Israel away for all her adulteries and had given her a divorce decree, her treacherous sister Judah didn’t fear, and she, too, committed adultery.

¹⁴ “Return, unfaithful people,” declares the LORD, “for I am your husband. I’ll take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I’ll bring you to Zion.

⁸ “Look, you’re trusting in deceptive words that cannot benefit. ⁹ Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear by false gods, burn incense to Baal, follow other gods that you don’t know, ¹⁰ and then come to stand before me in this house that is called by my name and say, ‘We’re delivered’ so we can continue to do all these things that are repugnant to God? ¹¹ Has this house that is called by my name become a hideout for bandits in your eyes? Look, I’m watching,” declares the LORD.

⁷ I’ll forsake my house, I’ll abandon my inheritance. I’ll give the beloved of my heart into the hand of her enemies.

²⁵ At every street corner you made your beauty abhorrent when you made yourself available for sex to anyone who was passing by. By doing this, you kept on committing more and more immorality. ²⁶ Then you committed immorality with your neighbors, the Egyptians, with perverted lust, and by doing so you fornicated even more, provoking me to anger.
²⁷ “Therefore, look out! I’ve reached out to oppose you. I withdrew your rations and delivered you to those Philistine women who hate you. Even they were embarrassed at your wicked ways! ²⁸ You committed immorality with the Assyrians, because you still weren’t satisfied. You committed immorality with them, but you still weren’t satisfied. ²⁹ You committed even more immorality with that land of the merchants, the Chaldeans. But you weren’t satisfied even with these!
³⁰ “How weak is your heart,” declares the Lord GOD, “when you committed all of these deeds, the acts of an imperious whore! ³¹ When you built your mound on every street corner and constructed your high place at every plaza, you weren’t like a common prostitute, in that you’ve insulted the wages of a prostitute ³² who commits adultery, preferring a stranger over her husband!
³³ “All prostitutes receive gifts, but you give your gifts to all your lovers, then you bribe them to come to you from everywhere to get your sexual favors! ³⁴ You’re different from other women when you commit immorality—no one can match you in that! After all, you pay fees, but no fee is given to you. You’re certainly different!”

² “Son of Man, here are two sisters who are daughters from the same mother. ³ They committed sexual immorality in Egypt. They did this in their youth. There, their breasts were caressed. Their virgin breasts were fondled. ⁴ The older one was named Oholah and her sister was named Oholibah. They belonged to me and gave birth to sons and daughters. Now as to their real identities, Oholah refers to Samaria and Oholibah to Jerusalem.”
⁵ The Sins of Samaria“Oholah committed sexual immorality while she belonged to me. She lusted for Assyria’s warriors, ⁶ who were clothed in blue—including governors and commanders. All of them were desirable young men—horsemen mounted on horses. ⁷ She bestowed her sexual favors on them—all of them, the best of the Assyrians—and with whomever she lusted for.
“She defiled herself with all their idols. ⁸ She never abandoned the immorality that she practiced in Egypt during her youth, where they laid down with her and fondled her virgin breasts, lavishing her with all kinds of favors. ⁹ Therefore, I turned her over to the control of her lovers, that is, into the control of the Assyrians for whom she lusted. ¹⁰ They stripped her naked, took away her sons and daughters, and executed her with a sword. She became an object of ridicule among other nations when they punished her.”
¹¹ The Sins of Jerusalem“Her sister Oholibah saw this, but she was more corrupt in her lust and sexual immorality than her sister had been in her own sexual immorality. ¹² She lusted after the Assyrians—governors, commanders, warriors clothed in gorgeous attire, cavalry mounted on their horses—all of them desirable young men. ¹³ I saw that she was defiled, because the two of them both were on the same path.
¹⁴ “She became even more sexually immoral when she saw the images of the Chaldean men who had been carved in red on their walls. ¹⁵ Girded with waistbands around their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looked like chariot officers, similar to the Babylonians from Chaldea, where they had been born.
¹⁶ “She lusted after them when she saw them, so she sent messengers to summon them from Chaldea. ¹⁷ The Babylonians came to her love nest and defiled her with their sexual immorality. As a result, she was defiled by them. Even so, she turned away from them in disgust. ¹⁸ She displayed her immorality publicly and stripped herself naked, so I turned away in disgust from her, just as I had turned away in disgust from her sister.
¹⁹ “Nevertheless, she became even more sexually immoral, even reminiscing about when she was young, when she kept on practicing sexual immorality in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ She lusted after her paramours, whose genitals are like those of donkeys, and whose emissions are like those of horses. ²¹ Think about the wickedness that you practiced when you were young, when the Egyptians fondled your breasts, the breasts of your youth.”

¹ Hosea Reconciles with His WifeThen the LORD told me: “Go love your wife again, even though she is being loved by another and is committing adultery. Love her the same way the LORD loves the people of Israel, even though they look to other gods and love raisin cakes.”

¹² “If a man carries consecrated meat in the folds of his garment, and if his garment touches bread, stew, wine, oil, or any other edible thing, will these things become consecrated?”’”
The priests answered, “No.”
¹³ So Haggai responded, “If someone who is unclean because of contact with a dead body were to touch any of these things, would they become unclean?”
The priests responded, “They would be unclean.”
¹⁴ Then Haggai answered, “‘That’s how I look at this people and this nation,’ declares the LORD. ‘And that’s how it is with everything they undertake and with what they offer there—it is unclean.

¹¹ “When the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.

²⁸ When he saw Jesus, he screamed, fell down in front of him, and cried out in a loud voice, “What do you want from me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you not to torture me!”

²⁸ As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake, but as far as election is concerned, they are loved for the sake of their ancestors.

⁶ is never glad with sin; she’s always glad to side with truth, and pleased that truth will win.

¹⁵ Everything is clean to those who are clean, but nothing is clean to those who are corrupt and unbelieving. Indeed, their very way of thinking and their consciences have been corrupted.

¹⁶ But you boast about your proud intentions. All such boasting is evil.

⁸ But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the gracious love of God forever and ever.

¹⁶ was burned with fire, cut off, and destroyed on account of your rebuke.

² See! Your enemies rage; those who hate you issue threats.

³⁰ You’ll be like an oak whose leaf is withering, like an unwatered garden. ³¹ Your strong one will be like tinder, and your work a spark; both of them will burn together, with no one to quench the flames that burn them.”

¹¹ When its branches are dry, they are broken off, and women come and kindle fires with them, since this is a people who show no consideration. That is why the One who made them shows them no compassion; the One who created them shows them no mercy.

¹⁴ But I’ll punish you according to what you have done,” declares the LORD. “I’ll start a fire in her forest, and it will consume everything around her.”’”

⁴ After all, it’s useful only for kindling a fire, isn’t it? And once you’ve burnt up the ends and charred through the middle of it, is it useful for anything else? ⁵ If it was useless before it was burned, now that it’s been burned and charred through, it’s even more useless!
⁶ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: “Just as the wood from a grape vine is removed from the forest and used for kindling fires, I’m giving the inhabitants of Jerusalem over ⁷ to punishment. They may have escaped one fire, but the coming fire will burn them up completely, and they will know that I am the LORD, when I set myself in opposition to them

⁴⁷ Prophesy against the forest of the Negev, ‘Listen to this message from the LORD. This is what the Lord GOD says: “Look out! I’m about to ignite a fire and set it against you. It will devour every tree—whether green or dry—that lives in you. This powerful flame will not be extinguishable, and the entire surface from south to north will be scorched by it. ⁴⁸ Then everyone will see that I, the LORD, have kindled it, because it won’t be extinguished.”’”

¹⁰ The ax already lies against the roots of the trees. So every tree that isn’t producing good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

⁶ Unless a person abides in me, he is thrown away like a pruned branch and dries up. People gather such branches, throw them into a fire, and they are burned up.

¹⁷ Now if some of the branches have been broken off, and you, a wild olive branch, have been grafted in their place to share the rich root of the olive tree, ¹⁸ do not boast about being better than the other branches. If you boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹ Then you will say, “Branches were cut off so that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰ That’s right! They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you remain only because of faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid! ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, he certainly will not spare you, either.
²² Consider, then, the kindness and severity of God: his severity toward those who fell, but God’s kindness toward you—if you continue receiving his kindness. Otherwise, you too will be cut off. ²³ If the Jews do not persist in their unbelief, they will be grafted in again, because God is able to graft them in. ²⁴ After all, if you were cut off from what is naturally a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much easier it will be for these natural branches to be grafted back into their own olive tree!

¹⁰ I will establish a homeland for my people—for Israel—planting them so they may live in a secure location where they will never be disturbed anymore. Wicked people will no longer afflict them, as happened in the past

² With your hand you expelled the nations and established our ancestors. You afflicted nations and cast them out.

⁸ You uprooted a vine from Egypt, and drove out nations to transplant it.

¹⁵ The root that your right hand planted, the shoot that you tended for yourself,

² He plowed its land and cleared it of stones. Then he planted it with the choicest vines, built a watchtower in the middle of it, and dug a wine vat in it; He expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only wild ones.”

³ to provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, a mantle of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” “Then people will call them “Oaks of Righteousness”, “The Planting of the LORD”, in order to display his splendor.

²¹ I planted you myself as a choice vine, from the very best seed. How did you turn against me into a degenerate and foreign vine?

² You plant them and they take root, they grow and bear fruit. “You are near to us,” they say with their mouths, but the truth is that you’re far from their hearts.

¹⁰ “When you speak all these words to this people, they’ll say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this disaster against us? What is our iniquity, and what is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’ ¹¹ Then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors abandoned me,’ declares the LORD. ‘They followed other gods, served them, worshipped them, abandoned me, and didn’t keep my Law.

⁸ But if that nation about which I spoke turns from its evil way, I’ll change my mind about the disaster that I had planned for it.

⁶ I’ll look at them with good intentions, and I’ll bring them back to this land. I’ll build them up. I won’t tear them down; I’ll plant them and not rip them up.

¹⁹ “Did Hezekiah king of Judah or anyone in Judah kill him? Didn’t he fear the LORD and seek the LORD’s favor, and so the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he had spoken to them about. We’re bringing great disaster on ourselves.

⁷ Perhaps their pleas for help will come to the LORD’s attention, and each of them will turn from his evil lifestyle in light of the great anger and wrath that the LORD has declared against this people.”

² The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and told him, “The LORD your God has predicted this disaster on this place.

¹⁰ ‘If you will just remain in this land, I’ll build you up and not pull you down. I’ll plant you and not uproot you, for I’m sorry about the disaster I’ve brought on you.

⁴ Say this to him: ‘This is what the LORD says: “Look! What I’ve built I’m about to tear down, and what I’ve planted I’m about to pull up—and this will involve the entire land.”

⁵ Then the eagle took a seed from the land and planted it in fertile ground. He planted it like a willow tree next to abundant waters.

¹¹ Will the people of Keilah hand me over to him? Will Saul come down just as your servant has heard? LORD God of Israel, please inform your servant.”
The LORD said, “He will come down.”
¹² Then David said, “Will the people of Keilah hand me over to Saul?”
The LORD said, “They’ll hand you over.”

⁹ So the man of God sent a message to the king of Israel, warning him, “Keep an eye on that area, because the Arameans are going to be there!” ¹⁰ The king of Israel confirmed the matter about which the man of God had warned him. Having been forewarned, he was able to protect himself there on more than one or two occasions.

¹⁴ So the king of Aram sent out horses, chariots, and an elite force, and they arrived during the night and surrounded the city. ¹⁵ Meanwhile, the attendant to the man of God got up early in the morning and went outside, and there were the elite forces, surrounding the city, accompanied by horses and chariots! So Elisha’s attendant cried out to him, “Oh no! Master! What will we do!?”
¹⁶ Elisha replied, “Stop being afraid, because there are more with us than with them!” ¹⁷ Then Elisha prayed, asking the LORD, “Please make him able to really see!” And so when the LORD enabled the young man to see, he looked, and there was the mountain, filled with horses and fiery chariots surrounding Elisha!
¹⁸ When the army approached him, Elisha spoke to the LORD, asking him, “LORD, I’m asking you please to afflict this group of people with blindness!” So he afflicted them with blindness, just as Elisha had asked.
¹⁹ Then Elisha told the army, “This isn’t the way, and this isn’t the city! Follow me, and I’ll bring you to the man you’re seeking. Then he led them to Samaria. ²⁰ When they arrived in Samaria, Elisha asked the LORD, “Enable them to see again.” So the LORD did so, and there they were—right in the middle of Samaria!

¹⁹ I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I didn’t know that they had devised schemes against me. They told themselves, “Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit. Let’s eliminate him from the land of the living, so his name won’t be remembered again.”

⁶ Then the Spirit told me, “Son of Man, don’t you see what they’re doing? The house of Israel practices awful, detestable things here, so I’m going far away from my sanctuary. But you’re about to see things even more detestable than these.”
⁷ Idol Worship in the TempleThen the Spirit brought me to the entrance of the court. As I watched, all of a sudden, there was a hole in the wall! ⁸ Then he told me, “Son of Man, dig through the wall!” So I dug into the wall. That’s when I uncovered an entrance!
⁹ Then he told me, “Go on through that entrance, so you may see the wicked, detestable things that they’re committing here.”
¹⁰ So I entered, looked around, and there was every form of crawling thing, loathsome animals, and all kinds of idols from the house of Israel carved all around the wall. ¹¹ I saw 70 men from the elders of the house of Israel standing among them, including Shaphan’s son Jaazaniah. Each man held a censer in his hand. As the scent of the cloud of incense ascended, ¹² the Spirit asked me, “Do you see, Son of Man, what the elders of Israel’s house are doing in secret, each in the chamber of his own carved idol? They keep saying, ‘God doesn’t see us. The LORD has abandoned the land.’”
¹³ Then the Spirit told me, “You’re about to see even more detestable practices that they’re doing!”
¹⁴ Women Weeping for TammuzThen he brought me to the entrance of the gate to the LORD’s Temple, which faced the north. That’s where I saw women seated, weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵ Then he asked me, “Do you see this, Son of Man? You’re about to see even more detestable practices than these.”
¹⁶ Sun Worship in the TempleThen he brought me to the inner court of the LORD’s Temple. There, at the entrance to the LORD’s Temple, between the porch and the altar, were 25 men, with their backs toward the LORD’s Temple and facing the east, prostrating themselves to the sun.
¹⁷ “Do you see this, Son of Man?” he asked me. “Is it an insignificant thing for Judah’s house to commit the detestable things that they’re doing here? They’ve filled the land with violence and turned away from me, causing me to become angry again. Look how they’re sniffing with their noses! ¹⁸ I’m going to deal with them in rage and anger. I’ll show neither pity nor compassion. They’ll cry loudly directly in my ears, but I won’t listen to them.”

³ If anyone says anything to you, tell him, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and that person will send them at once.”

⁷ For if through my falsehood God’s truthfulness glorifies him even more, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?

¹⁴ From Gad: Deuel’s son Eliasaph.

¹³ Mankind doesn’t appreciate their value; and you won’t find it anywhere on earth.

¹³ I believe that I will see the LORD’s goodness in the land of the living.

¹³ I have heard the slander of many; it is like terror all around me, as they conspire together and plot to take my life.

¹⁵ But when I stumbled, they rejoiced and gathered together. They gathered together against me— attackers whom I did not know. They tore me apart and would not stop.

³² The wicked stalks the righteous person, seeking to kill him, ³³ but the LORD will not let him fall into his hands. He will not be condemned when he is put on trial.

⁵ But God will tear you down forever; he will take you away, even snatching you out of your tent! He will uproot you from the land of the living. Interlude

⁴ They say, “Let us go and erase them as a nation so the name of Israel will not be remembered anymore.”

¹³ May his descendants be eliminated, and their memory be erased from the next generation.

⁶ He will never be shaken; the one who is just will always be remembered.

⁹ I will walk in the LORD’s presence in the lands of the living.

⁵ So I cry to you, Lord, declaring, “You are my refuge, my only possession while I am on this earth.”

²² All of a sudden he follows her like an ox fit for slaughter or like a fool fit for a trap

⁷ The reputation of the righteous leads to blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.

⁷ Furthermore, the crimes of bad people are evil; and they devise wicked schemes, destroying the poor with lying words, even when needy people plead a just cause.

¹¹ I said, “I won’t see the LORD in the land of the living; and I’ll no longer observe human beings among the denizens of the grave.

⁷ He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he didn’t open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. ⁸ “From detention and judgment he was taken away— and who can even think about his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living, he was stricken for the transgression of my people.

¹⁸ Jeremiah Reacts to the Plot against HimThen they said, “Come, let’s make up a plot against Jeremiah. After all, the priest’s instruction, the wise man’s counsel, and the prophet’s message won’t be destroyed. So let’s verbally attack him. Pay no attention to anything he says!”

¹⁰ Indeed, I hear many people whispering, “Terror on every side. Denounce him, let’s denounce him!” All my close friends watch my steps and say, “Perhaps he will be deceived, and we can prevail against him and take vengeance on him.”

²⁶ Then after the 62 weeks, the anointed one will be cut down (but not for himself). Then the people of the Coming Commander will destroy both the city and the Sanctuary. Its ending will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war, with desolations having been decreed.

¹⁰ At the right time he sent a servant to the farmers in order to get his share of the produce of the vineyard. But the farmers beat him and sent him back empty-handed. ¹¹ He sent another servant, and they beat him, too, treated him shamefully, and sent him back empty-handed. ¹² Then he sent a third, and they wounded him and threw him out, too.
¹³ “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What should I do? I’ll send my son whom I love. Maybe they’ll respect him.’ ¹⁴ But when the farmers saw him, they talked it over among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir. Let’s kill him so that the inheritance will be ours!’ ¹⁵ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Now what will the owner of the vineyard do to them?

²⁵ Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous along with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike! The Judge of all the earth will do what is right, won’t he?”

⁷ The LORD told Samuel, “Don’t look at his appearance or his height, for I’ve rejected him. Truly, God does not see what man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart.”

¹⁵ May the LORD act as judge, and may he decide between me and you. May he see, may he plead my case, and may he vindicate me in this dispute against you.”

⁹ David Addresses Solomon Directly“Now as for you, my son Solomon, get to know the God of your father. Serve him with a sound heart and a devoted soul, because the LORD is searching every heart, every plan and thought. He will be found by you, assuming you are seeking him, but if you abandon him, he will abandon you forever.

¹⁷ And I know, God, that it is you who searches the heart and you who finds pleasure in righteousness. With a righteous heart I have freely given all these things, and now I have seen all of these people of yours giving freely and joyfully to you!

⁸ God Can be Trusted in Adversity“Now as for me, I would seek God if I were you; I would commit my case to God.

⁹ Let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous. For you are the righteous God who discerns the inner thoughts.

¹⁴ But you do see! You take note of trouble and grief in order to take the matter into your own hand. The helpless one commits himself to you; you have been the orphan’s helper. ¹⁵ Break the arm of the wicked and evil man; so that when you seek out his wickedness you will find it no more.

² Take up the buckler and the shield, and rise up to help me.

¹ God is my Hope during Times of Trouble You be my judge, God, and plead my case against an unholy nation; rescue me from the deceitful and unjust man.

¹ To the Director: A special Davidic psalm to the tune of “Do Not Destroy,” when he fled from Saul into a cave.
A Prayer for Deliverance Have mercy on me, God, have mercy, for in you I have placed my trust. Even in the shadow of your wings will I find my refuge until this calamity passes.

⁹ in the LORD’s presence, who comes to judge the earth; He’ll judge the world righteously; and its people fairly.

¹ Jeremiah’s Complaint about Justice You are righteous, LORD, even when I bring a complaint to you. But I want to discuss justice with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper, while all who are treacherous are at ease?

¹⁵ Jeremiah’s Revised ComplaintYou are aware— LORD, remember me, pay attention to me, and vindicate me in front of those who pursue me. You are patient— don’t take me away. Know that I suffer insult because of you!

¹⁰ I am the LORD who searches the heart, who tests the inner depths to give to each person according to what he deserves, according to the fruit of his deeds.

¹⁸ Let those who pursue me be put to shame, but don’t put me to shame. Let them be terrified, but don’t let me be terrified. Bring the day of judgment on them, and destroy them with double destruction!

²⁰ Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit to take my life. Remember! I stood before you and spoke good on their behalf in order to turn your wrath away from them. ²¹ Therefore, make their children undergo famine, and deliver them over to death in time of war. May their women be childless widows! May their men be slaughtered! May their young men be slain by the sword in battle! ²² Let a cry be heard from their houses because you have brought a raiding party against them suddenly. For they have dug a pit to capture me and have set traps for my feet. ²³ But you, LORD, know all their plots to kill me. Don’t forgive their iniquity, and don’t erase their sin from your sight. Let them stumble before you. When it’s time for you to be angry, act against them!

¹² LORD of the Heavenly Armies, who tests the righteous, who sees the inner motives and the heart, let me see you take vengeance on them, for I’ve committed my case to you.

³¹ because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world with justice through a man whom he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

⁶ Never worry about anything. Instead, in every situation let your petitions be made known to God through prayers and requests, with thanksgiving.

¹⁴ Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will pay him back for what he did.

²³ When he was insulted, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he did not threaten. It was his habit to commit the matter to the one who judges fairly.

²³ I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts. I will reward each of you as your actions deserve.

⁹ The Vision of the Fifth Seal OpenedWhen the lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the word of God and the testimony they had given. ¹⁰ They cried out in a loud voice, “Holy and true Sovereign, how long will it be before you judge and take revenge on those living on the earth who shed our blood?”

²⁰ Be happy about her, heaven, saints, apostles, and prophets, for God has condemned her for you!”

¹⁰ They say to the seers, ‘Don’t see visions,’ and to the prophets, ‘Don’t give us visions of what is right! Instead, tell us welcome things, prophesy illusions,

⁵ God’s Reply to JeremiahIndeed, if you run with others on foot, and they tire you out, how can you compete with horses? You are secure in a land at peace, but how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan? ⁶ Indeed, even your brothers and your father’s family conspire against you. Even they cry out after you loudly. Don’t believe them, even though they speak friendly words to you.

¹ Jeremiah DenouncedWhen the priest Pashhur, Immer’s son, who was the officer in charge of the LORD’s Temple heard Jeremiah prophesying these words, ² Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate of the Temple.

⁸ As soon as Jeremiah finished saying everything that the LORD had commanded him to say to all the people, the priests, the prophets, and all the people seized him, telling him as they did: “You must certainly die!

¹ Jeremiah is Arrested and ImprisonedMattan’s son Shephatiah, Pashhur’s son Gedaliah, Shelemiah’s son Jucal, and Malchijah’s son Pashhur heard the words that Jeremiah was speaking to all the people: ² “This is what the LORD says: ‘Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, by famine, and by the plague, but the one who goes over to the Chaldeans will live. His life will be spared, and he will live.’ ³ This is what the LORD says: ‘This city will surely be given to the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.’”
⁴ Then the officials told the king, “Let this man be put to death because he’s undermining the efforts of the soldiers who remain in this city and that of all the people by speaking words like these to them. Indeed, this man is not seeking the well-being of this people, but rather their harm.”
⁵ King Zedekiah said, “Look, he’s in your hands, and the king can do nothing to you.” ⁶ So they threw Jeremiah into a cistern that belonged to the king’s son Malchijah and was located in the courtyard of the guard. When they let Jeremiah down with ropes, because there was no water in the cistern—only mud—Jeremiah sank into the mud.

¹² “But you forced the Nazirites to drink wine, and commanded the prophets, ‘You are not to prophesy!’

¹³ Don’t prophesy anymore at Bethel, because it’s the king’s sanctuary and a temple of the kingdom.”
¹⁴ Amos replied in answer to Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor am I a prophet’s son, for I have been shepherding and picking the fruit of sycamore trees. ¹⁵ But the LORD took me from tending the flock and the LORD kept saying to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
¹⁶ “Very well then, hear this message from the LORD: ‘You are saying, “Don’t prophesy against Israel, and don’t preach against the house of Isaac.”

⁶ To those who speak out, they will declare, ‘Don’t prophesy to anyone!’ so their shame won’t go away. ⁷ “It is said, house of Jacob, ‘The Spirit of the LORD is limited, if he acts this way, is he not?’ “But my words benefit those who live righteously, do they not? ⁸ Lately my people have acted like an enemy— you strip travelers who thought they were as secure as those who return from war. ⁹ You have evicted the wives of my people from their dream homes; you have removed my majesty from their children permanently. ¹⁰ “Get up and go, because there’s no rest for you here! Since everything is polluted, it can only cause destruction, even heavy destruction. ¹¹ Suppose a man who keeps company with a deceiving spirit prophesies like this: ‘Drink wine and strong drink!’ Won’t the people accept him as a prophet?”

⁶ The son disrespects his father, the daughter rebels against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies are the people of his own house.

²¹ “Brother will hand brother over for execution, and a father his child. Children will rebel against parents and have them put to death.

³⁴ Not Peace, but Division
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword! ³⁵ I came to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ³⁶ A person’s enemies will include members of his own family.’

³⁵ But the farmers took his servants and beat one, killed another, and attacked another with stones.

⁶ The rest grabbed the king’s servants, treated them brutally, and then killed them.

³⁴ “That is why I am sending you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will whip in your synagogues and persecute from town to town. ³⁵ As a result, you will be held accountable for all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Berechiah’s son Zechariah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. ³⁶ I tell all of you with certainty, all these things will happen to those living today.”
³⁷ Jesus Rebukes Jerusalem
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones to death those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!

²⁴ He added, “I tell all of you with certainty, a prophet is not accepted in his hometown.

³³ But I must be on my way today, tomorrow, and the next day, because it’s not possible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ ³⁴ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones to death those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you people were unwilling!

¹⁷ Therefore he brought up the king of the Chaldeans against them, who executed their young men in the holy Temple, showing no compassion on young man or young virgin, adult men or the aged. God gave them all into the king’s control,

²¹ For death comes up through our windows; it has come into our palaces to eliminate children from the streets and young men from the town squares.

²¹ Therefore, make their children undergo famine, and deliver them over to death in time of war. May their women be childless widows! May their men be slaughtered! May their young men be slain by the sword in battle!

²¹ Young men and the aged lie on the ground in the streets; my young women and young men have fallen by the sword. You killed them in your anger, slaughtering them without pity.

¹⁵ who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, who have persecuted us, and who please neither God nor any group of people, ¹⁶ as they try to keep us from telling the gentiles how they can be saved. As a result, they are constantly adding to the number of sins they have committed. However, wrath has overtaken them at last!

²⁰ you will not be united with them in burial, for you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people. People will never mention the descendants of those who practice evil again! ²¹ Prepare a massacre for his sons because of the guilt of their forefathers! They are not to rise and inherit the earth, and cover the surface of the world with cities.”
²² Babylon’s Desolation“I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, “and I will eliminate from Babylon her name and survivors, her offspring and descendants,” declares the LORD.

⁹ “Should I not punish them for these things?” asks the LORD, “And on a nation like this, should I not seek retribution?”

²⁹ ‘Should I not punish them for this?’ asks the LORD. ‘Should I not avenge myself on a nation like this?’

⁹ This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: “Let them glean the remnant of Israel as thoroughly as they would the vine. Pass your hand over them like grape gatherers over the branches.

¹² Are they ashamed because they have done what is repugnant to God? They weren’t ashamed at all; they don’t even know how to blush! Therefore they’ll fall with those who fall. When I punish them, they’ll be brought down,” says the LORD.

²⁷ “‘Look, I’m watching over them to bring disaster rather than good. Every person of Judah in the land of Egypt will be brought to an end by the sword and by famine until they’re completely gone.

²¹ Even the mercenary troops in her ranks are like a fattened calf. They too will turn around, and will flee together. They won’t stand, for the day of their disaster is coming on them, the time of their punishment.

⁴⁴ “The one who flees from the terror will fall into a pit. And the one who comes up out of the pit will be caught in a trap. For I’ll bring upon her, that is upon Moab, the time of her punishment,” declares the LORD.

²⁷ Put all her bulls to the sword, let them go down to the slaughter. How terrible for them because their day has come, the time of their judgment.

⁷ The time for your judgment has now come; payday is here— and Israel knows it. The prophet is a fool, and the spiritual man is insane. Because of your great sin, the hatred against you is great.

⁴ The best of them is like a thorn, and their most upright like a hedge of thorns. The day announced by your watchmen— and by your own calculations—approaches. Now it’s your time to be confused!

⁴⁴ They will level you to the ground—you and those who live within your city limits. They will not leave one stone on another within your walls, because you didn’t recognize the time when you were visited.”