Jeremiah 13

¹¹For just as a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I have made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to Me, declares the Lord, so that they might be My people for My renown and praise and glory. But they did not listen.

¹On many past occasions and in many different ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets.

¹This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take some of the elders of the people and leaders of the priests,

¹“Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you, and draw on it the city of Jerusalem.

²Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp to it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it on all sides.

²This is what the Lord said to me: “Make for yourself a yoke out of leather straps and put it on your neck.

⁸And you, son of man, listen to what I tell you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I give you.”

¹⁴You are My friends if you do what I command you.

⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;

²the Lord had already spoken through Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and the sandals from your feet.” And Isaiah did so, walking around naked and barefoot.

⁶He came to Simon Peter, who asked Him, “Lord, are You going to wash my feet?”

⁷Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

²When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the Lord.”

³So Hosea went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

⁸Then the word of the Lord came to me:

⁶³When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and cast it into the Euphrates.

⁶⁴Then you are to say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again, because of the disaster I will bring upon her. And her people will grow weary.’” Here end the words of Jeremiah.

¹⁰Writhe in agony, O Daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor. For now you will leave the city and camp in the open fields. You will go to Babylon; there you will be rescued; there the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies!

¹By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.

¹⁶Moses did everything just as the Lord had commanded him.

⁴²The Israelites had done all the work just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

⁴³And Moses inspected all the work and saw that they had accomplished it just as the Lord had commanded. So Moses blessed them.

¹⁷By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac on the altar. He who had received the promises was ready to offer his one and only son,

¹⁸even though God had said to him, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”

³Join me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

⁵His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”

⁶Now six stone water jars had been set there for the Jewish rites of purification. Each could hold from twenty to thirty gallons.

²“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.

³He sent his servants to call those he had invited to the banquet, but they refused to come.

⁶Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

¹²All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

¹After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, as well as the officials of Judah and the craftsmen and metalsmiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord.

²One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early, but the other basket contained very poor figs, so bad they could not be eaten.

³⁴Salt is good, but if the salt loses its savor, with what will it be seasoned?

³⁵It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile, and it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

³Now Joshua was dressed in filthy garments as he stood before the angel.

⁴So the angel said to those standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes!” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have removed your iniquity, and I will clothe you with splendid robes.”

³Can wood be taken from it to make something useful? Or can one make from it a peg on which to hang utensils?

⁴No, it is cast into the fire for fuel. The fire devours both ends, and the middle is charred. Can it be useful for anything?

¹⁹I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,

¹¹On that day you will not be put to shame for any of the deeds by which you have transgressed against Me. For then I will remove from among you those who rejoice in their pride, and you will never again be haughty on My holy mountain.

¹⁵Listen and give heed. Do not be arrogant, for the Lord has spoken.

¹⁶Give glory to the Lord your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness.

⁹The Lord of Hosts planned it, to defile all its glorious beauty, to disgrace all the renowned of the earth.

¹⁸Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

¹⁰Go into the rocks and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty.

¹¹The proud look of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

¹⁴Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.”

¹²And you have done more evil than your fathers. See how each of you follows the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying Me.

¹¹And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs I have performed among them?

¹⁵Again and again the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place.

¹⁶But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.

¹⁷At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the Lord, and all the nations will be gathered in Jerusalem to honor the name of the Lord. They will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.

¹⁷So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

¹⁸They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.

⁵Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.

⁶And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites.”

⁹So this city will bring Me renown, joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good I do for it. They will tremble in awe because of all the goodness and prosperity that I will provide for it.

²¹The people I formed for Myself will declare My praise.

¹¹But My people would not listen to Me, and Israel would not obey Me.

²⁰He has done this for no other nation; they do not know His judgments. Hallelujah!

¹²And they will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of The Lord; and you will be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.

¹⁹Then the people asked me, “Won’t you tell us what these things you are doing mean to us?”

¹⁷Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury; you who have drained the goblet to the dregs—the cup that makes men stagger.

⁶I trampled the nations in My anger; in My wrath I made them drunk and poured out their blood on the ground.”

³You have shown Your people hardship; we are staggered from the wine You made us drink.

⁸For a cup is in the hand of the Lord, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours from His cup, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to the dregs.

²⁷“Then you are to tell them that this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Drink, get drunk, and vomit. Fall down and never get up again, because of the sword I will send among you.’

¹⁶You will be filled with shame instead of glory. You too must drink and expose your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will cover your glory.

²⁰The Lord will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The Lord will blot out his name from under heaven

⁹You will break them with an iron scepter; You will shatter them like pottery.”

²⁰They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own offspring.

²¹Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they turn against Judah. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

⁹I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’

¹⁰Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the men who accompany you,

⁷‘After that,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah, his officers, and the people in this city who survive the plague and sword and famine, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to their enemies who seek their lives. He will put them to the sword; he will not spare them or show pity or compassion.’

¹¹When its limbs are dry, they are broken off. Women come and use them for kindling; for this is a people without understanding. Therefore their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the Lord, O scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.

¹⁵For you said, “We have made a covenant with death; we have fashioned an agreement with Sheol. When the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not touch us, because we have made lies our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”

²⁹He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

²³Who among you will pay attention to this? Who will listen and obey hereafter?

¹⁵But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves, upon this city, and upon its residents; for truly the Lord has sent me to speak all these words in your hearing.”

¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

²Hear this, O elders; and give ear, all who dwell in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your fathers?

⁹Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom.

²²Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.

²For behold, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples; but the Lord will rise upon you, and His glory will appear over you.

¹⁹But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they do not know what makes them stumble.

³⁰In that day they will roar over it, like the roaring of the sea. If one looks over the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be obscured by clouds.

¹⁹So Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and make a confession to Him. I urge you to tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me.”

²If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to honor My name,” says the Lord of Hosts, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already begun to curse them, because you are not taking it to heart.

¹Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night over the slain daughter of my people.

¹⁷You are to speak this word to them: ‘My eyes overflow with tears; day and night they do not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people has been shattered by a crushing blow, a severely grievous wound.

²I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

³For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood,

⁴¹As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it

⁴²and said, “If only you had known on this day what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden from your eyes.

¹For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Lilies of the Covenant.” A Psalm of Asaph. Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel, who leads Joseph like a flock; You who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth

²⁶I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another land, where neither of you were born—and there you both will die.

¹²Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials all surrendered to the king of Babylon. So in the eighth year of his reign, the king of Babylon took him captive.

¹⁵Nebuchadnezzar carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, as well as the king’s mother, his wives, his officials, and the leading men of the land. He took them into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

¹²And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the Lord his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers.

¹⁹His prayer and how God received his plea, as well as all his sin and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself, they are indeed written in the Records of the Seers.

¹“Go down and sit in the dust, O Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O Daughter of the Chaldeans! For you will no longer be called tender or delicate.

²⁷There at Riblah in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death. So Judah was taken into exile, away from its own land.

²¹There at Riblah in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death. So Judah was taken into exile, away from its own land.

³⁰in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried away 745 Jews. So in all, 4,600 people were taken away.

⁵²They will besiege all the cities throughout your land, until the high and fortified walls in which you trust have fallen. They will besiege all your cities throughout the land that the Lord your God has given you.

⁹Then Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried away to Babylon the remnant of the people who had remained in the city, along with the deserters who had defected to him.

²⁶And people will come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, and from the foothills, the hill country, and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and thank offerings to the house of the Lord.

²²This is what the Lord says: “Behold, an army is coming from the land of the north; a great nation is stirred up from the ends of the earth.

¹⁴Then the Lord said to me, “Disaster from the north will be poured out on all who live in the land.

⁶For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans—that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.

²Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds who tend My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your deeds, declares the Lord.

²²Listen! The sound of a report is coming—a great commotion from the land to the north. It will make the cities of Judah a desolation, a haunt for jackals.

¹⁷But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.

⁸Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.

³¹For I hear a cry like a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child—the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands to say, “Woe is me, for my soul faints before the murderers!”

³What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

²²All the women who remain in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon, and those women will say: ‘They misled you and overcame you—those trusted friends of yours. Your feet sank into the mire, and they deserted you.’

³¹The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?

²And Hezekiah welcomed the envoys gladly and showed them what was in his treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, as well as his entire armory—all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his palace or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

³Then the prophet Isaiah went to King Hezekiah and asked, “Where did those men come from, and what did they say to you?” “They came to me from a distant land,” Hezekiah replied, “from Babylon.”

⁵“Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of Hosts. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms.

¹⁰When you tell these people all these things, they will ask you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’

¹¹Then you are to answer them: ‘It is because your fathers have forsaken Me, declares the Lord, and followed other gods, and served and worshiped them. They abandoned Me and did not keep My instruction.

¹⁹And when the people ask, ‘For what offense has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ You are to tell them, ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’”

⁸Jerusalem has sinned greatly; therefore she has become an object of scorn. All who honored her now despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns away.

¹⁷You may say in your heart, “These nations are greater than we are; how can we drive them out?”

¹⁰And then I will expose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of My hands.

²²Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord God.

⁵Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing iniquity.

²⁴Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁵When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

⁹The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

³O Lord, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.

³⁰“I have struck your sons in vain; they accepted no discipline. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a voracious lion.”

⁴Not so the wicked! For they are like chaff driven off by the wind.

³³But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.

³Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes, like chaff blown from a threshing floor, like smoke through an open window.

¹²A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

²When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them.

²¹All his choice troops will fall by the sword, and those who survive will be scattered to every wind. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken.’

²⁹This is the wicked man’s portion from God, the inheritance God has appointed him.”

¹⁷The wicked will return to Sheol—all the nations who forget God.

⁶On the wicked He will rain down fiery coals and sulfur; a scorching wind will be their portion.

³²Does a maiden forget her jewelry or a bride her wedding sash? Yet My people have forgotten Me for days without number.

⁵¹Then he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

¹³“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

¹⁰And then I will expose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of My hands.

⁸Jerusalem has sinned greatly; therefore she has become an object of scorn. All who honored her now despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns away.

²⁹They will treat you with hatred, take all for which you have worked, and leave you naked and bare, so that the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your indecency and promiscuity

³⁷therefore I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose you before them, and they will see you completely naked.

²²And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?” It is because of the magnitude of your iniquity that your skirts have been stripped off and your body has been exposed.

¹³Because of the indecency of your uncleanness I tried to cleanse you, but you would not be purified from your filthiness. You will not be pure again until My wrath against you has subsided.

¹³Then you will know that I am the Lord, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and leafy oak—the places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.

⁵He has rejected your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?

⁷both for your iniquities and for those of your fathers,” says the Lord. “Because they burned incense on the mountains and scorned Me on the hills, I will measure into their laps full payment for their former deeds.”

²¹I am afraid that when I come again, my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of their acts of impurity, sexual immorality, and debauchery.

²Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.