Jeremiah 20

³⁷the descendants of Immer, 1,052;

³⁸the descendants of Pashhur, 1,247;

¹⁴the fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer,

¹⁸The captain of the guard also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of second rank, and the three doorkeepers.

⁴⁰the descendants of Immer, 1,052;

⁴¹the descendants of Pashhur, 1,247;

²⁴When the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard this account, they were perplexed as to what was happening.

¹While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them,

¹³But when he reached the Gate of Benjamin, the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, seized him and said, “You are deserting to the Chaldeans!”

¹⁹They will fight against you but will never overcome you, since I am with you to deliver you,” declares the Lord.

¹⁰All the land from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem will be turned into a plain, but Jerusalem will be raised up and will remain in her place, from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses.

¹⁰Asa was angry with the seer and became so enraged over this matter that he put the man in prison. And at the same time Asa oppressed some of the people.

²⁶Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, as well as Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel, to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the Lord had hidden them.

²¹But they conspired against Zechariah, and by order of the king, they stoned him in the courtyard of the house of the Lord.

¹⁰For I have heard the whispering of many: “Terror is on every side! Report him; let us report him!” All my trusted friends watch for my fall: “Perhaps he will be deceived so that we may prevail against him and take our vengeance upon him.”

⁵Why am I seeing this? They are terrified, they are retreating; their warriors are defeated, they flee in haste without looking back; terror is on every side!” declares the Lord.

²²You summoned my terrors on every side, as for the day of an appointed feast. In the day of the Lord’s anger no one escaped or survived; my enemy has destroyed those I nurtured and reared.

¹³For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side. They conspire against me and plot to take my life.

²⁵Do not go out to the fields; do not walk the road. For the enemy has a sword; terror is on every side.

³And I had relations with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

²¹This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you lies in My name: “I will deliver them to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will kill them before your very eyes.

⁹behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the Lord, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.

²⁷“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too difficult for Me?

²⁸Therefore this is what the Lord says: Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will capture it.

⁴this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will turn against you the weapons of war in your hands, with which you are fighting the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the wall, and I will assemble their forces in the center of this city.

⁵And I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, with anger, fury, and great wrath.

⁶There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the nobles of Judah.

⁷Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze chains to take him to Babylon.

³²Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, while your eyes grow weary looking for them day after day, with no power in your hand.

³³A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.

¹³Your wealth and your treasures I will give up as plunder, without charge for all your sins within all your borders.

²⁵The conspiracy of the princes in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour the people, seize the treasures and precious things, and multiply the widows within her.

¹⁰In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar summoned Jehoiachin and brought him to Babylon, along with the articles of value from the house of the Lord. And he made Jehoiachin’s relative Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁷The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord.

¹⁸And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, will be taken away to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”

¹⁰The adversary has seized all her treasures. For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary—those You had forbidden to enter Your assembly.

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.

¹³As the Lord had declared, Nebuchadnezzar also carried off all the treasures from the house of the Lord and the royal palace, and he cut into pieces all the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord.

¹⁴“The prophets are prophesying lies in My name,” replied the Lord. “I did not send them or appoint them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, a worthless divination, the futility and delusion of their own minds.

¹⁵Therefore this is what the Lord says about the prophets who prophesy in My name: I did not send them, yet they say, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ By sword and famine these very prophets will meet their end!

¹⁴The visions of your prophets were empty and deceptive; they did not expose your guilt to ward off your captivity. The burdens they envisioned for you were empty and misleading.

⁴For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies before your very eyes. And I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away to Babylon and put them to the sword.

²⁸Her prophets whitewash these deeds by false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ when the Lord has not spoken.

¹Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.

²Many will follow in their depravity, and because of them the way of truth will be defamed.

³And if anyone still prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, ‘You shall not remain alive, because you have spoken falsely in the name of the Lord.’ When he prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will pierce him through.

¹⁴I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.

⁹If I say, “I will not mention Him or speak any more in His name,” His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones, and I become weary of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.

⁶But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.

⁷All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads:

⁷The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have arrived—let Israel know it. The prophet is called a fool, and the inspired man insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and hostility.

¹⁴So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the Lord upon me.

⁹because zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult You have fallen on me.

¹⁰I wept and fasted, but it brought me reproach.

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.

¹⁰To whom can I give this warning? Who will listen to me? Look, their ears are closed, so they cannot hear. See, the word of the Lord has become offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.

¹⁵Behold, I am bringing a distant nation against you, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord. “It is an established nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you do not understand.

¹⁶Their quivers are like open graves; they are all mighty men.

¹“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem. Look now and take note; search her squares. If you can find a single person, anyone who acts justly, anyone who seeks the truth, then I will forgive the city.

⁸The prophets of old who preceded you and me prophesied war, disaster, and plague against many lands and great kingdoms.

¹⁹My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the pain in my chest! My heart pounds within me; I cannot be silent. For I have heard the sound of the horn, the alarm of battle.

²⁰Disaster after disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is laid waste. My tents are destroyed in an instant, my curtains in a moment.

³My heart grew hot within me; as I mused, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue:

¹⁸For I am full of words, and my spirit within me compels me.

¹⁹Behold, my belly is like unvented wine; it is about to burst like a new wineskin.

²⁰For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

¹⁶Yet when I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am obligated to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

¹⁷If my preaching is voluntary, I have a reward. But if it is not voluntary, I am still entrusted with a responsibility.

¹⁶While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply disturbed in his spirit to see that the city was full of idols.

¹⁴So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the Lord upon me.

⁹Even my close friend whom I trusted, the one who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

¹³For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side. They conspire against me and plot to take my life.

²¹those who indict a man with a word, who ensnare the mediator at the gate, and who with false charges deprive the innocent of justice.

¹⁸Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us denounce him and pay no heed to any of his words.”

¹⁸The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool.

²Hide me from the scheming of the wicked, from the mob of workers of iniquity,

³who sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their bitter words like arrows,

¹⁹They will fight against you but will never overcome you, since I am with you to deliver you,” declares the Lord.

⁸Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares the Lord.

²⁰Then I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to save and deliver you, declares the Lord.

¹⁸Let my persecutors be put to shame, but do not let me be put to shame. Let them be terrified, but do not let me be terrified. Bring upon them the day of disaster and shatter them with double destruction.

¹⁰Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

¹⁴May those who seek my life be ashamed and confounded; may those who wish me harm be repelled and humiliated.

²⁰O Lord of Hosts, who judges righteously, who examines the heart and mind, let me see Your vengeance upon them, for to You I have committed my cause.

⁸Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is our refuge. Selah

⁷For He has delivered me from every trouble, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.

¹⁰I, the Lord, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.

¹⁰My God of loving devotion will come to meet me; God will let me stare down my foes.

²³Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.

⁴For You have been a refuge for the poor, a stronghold for the needy in distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like rain against a wall,

³³For the Lord listens to the needy and does not despise His captive people.

⁹Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord and exult in His salvation.

¹⁰All my bones will exclaim, “Who is like You, O Lord, who delivers the afflicted from the aggressor, the poor and needy from the robber?”

⁴May he vindicate the afflicted among the people; may he save the children of the needy and crush the oppressor.

⁶This poor man called out, and the Lord heard him; He saved him from all his troubles.

³⁰With my mouth I will thank the Lord profusely; I will praise Him in the presence of many.

³¹For He stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from the condemners of his soul.

¹⁰Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and conflict in all the land. I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.

³“May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is conceived.’

⁴If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above disregard it; may no light shine upon it.

⁵“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

¹⁴He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice at his birth,

⁵Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

⁶Then Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me.”

²²Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring raiders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.

³A voice cries out from Horonaim: ‘Devastation and great destruction!’

⁴Moab will be shattered; her little ones will cry out.

²³All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His fierce anger.

²⁹But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

²²In his right hand appears the portent for Jerusalem, where he is to set up battering rams, to call for the slaughter, to lift a battle cry, to direct the battering rams against the gates, to build a ramp, and to erect a siege wall.

¹⁴the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be demolished as Shalman devastated Beth-arbel in the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to pieces along with their children.

¹⁸Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me!

¹⁹If only I had never come to be, but had been carried from the womb to the grave.

¹⁰For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.

¹¹Why did I not perish at birth; why did I not die as I came from the womb?

¹⁶Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?

³A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

²⁰Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,

¹“Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.

¹I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.

¹⁴If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

¹⁵Indeed, none of you should suffer as a murderer or thief or wrongdoer, or even as a meddler.

⁹For it seems to me that God has displayed us apostles at the end of the procession, like prisoners appointed for death. We have become a spectacle to the whole world, to angels as well as to men.

¹⁰We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored.

⁹For all our days decline in Your fury; we finish our years with a sigh.

¹⁰The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty if we are strong—yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.