Jeremiah 24

²(This was after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the court officials, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metalsmiths had been exiled from Jerusalem.)

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.

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.

²you are to take some of the firstfruits of all your produce from the soil of the land that the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name,

³to the priest who is serving at that time, and say to him, “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have entered the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.”

²⁴“As surely as I live,” declares the Lord, “even if you, Coniah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on My right hand, I would pull you off.

²⁵In fact, I will hand you over to those you dread, who want to take your life—to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to the Chaldeans.

¹⁹And no blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, “The Hebrews must not be allowed to make swords or spears.”

²⁰Instead, all the Israelites would go down to the Philistines to sharpen their plowshares, mattocks, axes, and sickles.

⁴What more could have been done for My vineyard than I have done for it? Why, when I expected sweet grapes, did it bring forth sour fruit?

⁷For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.

¹Woe is me! For I am like one gathering summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster to eat, no early fig that I crave.

¹⁰I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the firstfruits of the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to Shame; so they became as detestable as the thing they loved.

²“Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any other branch among the trees in the forest?

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

¹⁷this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “I will send against them sword and famine and plague, and I will make them like rotten figs, so bad they cannot be eaten.

²“Amos, what do you see?” He asked. “A basket of summer fruit,” I replied. So the Lord said to me, “The end has come for My people Israel; I will no longer spare them.”

⁵Then the angel who was speaking with me came forward and told me, “Now lift up your eyes and see what is approaching.”

⁶“What is it?” I asked. And he replied, “A measuring basket is going forth.” Then he continued, “This is their iniquity in all the land.”

²“What do you see?” he asked. “I see a solid gold lampstand,” I replied, “with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven spouts to the lamps.

³²All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

³³He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.

¹¹And the word of the Lord came to me, asking, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” “I see a branch of an almond tree,” I replied.

¹²“You have observed correctly,” said the Lord, “for I am watching over My word to accomplish it.”

⁸“Amos, what do you see?” asked the Lord. “A plumb line,” I replied. “Behold,” said the Lord, “I am setting a plumb line among My people Israel; I will no longer spare them:

⁹This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

⁷The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of distress; He cares for those who trust in Him.

³But the one who loves God is known by God.

⁹But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

¹⁶He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper.

²⁸And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.

¹⁰‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I will relent of the disaster I have brought upon you.

¹⁰For this is what the Lord says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.

⁷I will restore Judah and Israel from captivity and will rebuild them as in former times.

⁴¹Yes, I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.

¹⁵But after I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land.

¹⁰See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and plant.”

¹⁰For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.

²²“And you will be My people, and I will be your God.”

²³They will no longer defile themselves with their idols or detestable images, or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all their apostasies by which they sinned, and I will cleanse them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.

²⁴For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all the countries, and I will bring you back into your own land.

²⁵I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.

¹⁹And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh,

²⁰so that they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.

⁸I will bring them back to dwell in Jerusalem, where they will be My people, and I will be their faithful and righteous God.”

¹When Jeremiah had finished telling all the people all the words of the Lord their God—everything that the Lord had sent him to say—

²And on the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the city was breached.

³Then all the officials of the king of Babylon entered and sat in the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-sarsekim the Rabsaris, Nergal-sharezer the Rabmag, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.

¹⁶this is what the Lord says about the king who sits on David’s throne and all the people who remain in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile—

¹⁷this is what the Lord of Hosts says: “I will send against them sword and famine and plague, and I will make them like rotten figs, so bad they cannot be eaten.

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.

¹⁷Later, King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and received him in his palace, where he asked him privately, “Is there a word from the Lord?” “There is,” Jeremiah replied. “You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.”

¹⁰For I have set My face against this city to bring disaster and not good, declares the Lord. It will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, who will destroy it with fire.’

³⁷You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the Lord will drive you.

¹⁸I will pursue them with sword and famine and plague. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth—a curse, a desolation, and an object of scorn and reproach among all the nations to which I banish them.

⁴I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.

⁷then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.

¹⁸to make them a ruin, an object of horror and contempt and cursing, as they are to this day—Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials;

¹⁷Therefore this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed Me; you have not proclaimed freedom, each man for his brother and for his neighbor. So now I proclaim freedom for you, declares the Lord—freedom to fall by sword, by plague, and by famine! I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

¹⁹These pairs have befallen you: devastation and destruction, famine and sword. Who will grieve for you? Who can comfort you?

⁷And in this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

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.

¹³And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the Lord, in My zeal have spoken.

¹⁵The sword is outside; plague and famine are within. Those in the country will die by the sword, and those in the city will be devoured by famine and plague.

¹⁶I will scatter them among the nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”

⁸As for the nation or kingdom that does not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and does not place its neck under his yoke, I will punish that nation by sword and famine and plague, declares the Lord, until I have destroyed it by his hand.