Jeremiah 28

¹At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord.

³But the people of Gibeon, having heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,

¹⁵The head is the elder and honorable man, and the tail is the prophet who teaches lies.

¹²And to Zedekiah king of Judah I spoke the same message: “Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, and live!

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!”

²⁸Let the prophet who has a dream retell it, but let him who has My word speak it truthfully. For what is straw compared to grain?” declares the Lord.

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

³Send word to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.

⁵You did not go up to the gaps or restore the wall around the house of Israel so that it would stand in the battle on the Day of the Lord.

⁶They see false visions and speak lying divinations. They claim, ‘Thus declares the Lord,’ when the Lord did not send them; yet they wait for the fulfillment of their message.

¹¹Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the Lord, saying, “Is not the Lord among us? No disaster can come upon us.”

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.

²And the Lord delivered into his hand Jehoiakim king of Judah, along with some of the articles from the house of God. He carried these off to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, where he put them in the treasury of his god.

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.

²⁸And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, and the length of his life was 147 years.

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.

⁹“My travels have lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers.”

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.

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.

²⁷On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Judah’s King Jehoiachin, in the year Evil-merodach became king of Babylon, he released King Jehoiachin of Judah from prison.

²⁸And he spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and set his throne above the thrones of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

²“This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

⁵“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, so I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans.

³¹On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the first year of the reign of Evil-merodach king of Babylon, he pardoned Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison.

³²And he spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and set his throne above the thrones of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

¹In the fifth month of that same year, the fourth year, near the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, who was from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people:

²“Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord and proclaim this message: Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the Lord.

²“This is what the Lord says: Stand in the courtyard of the house of the Lord and speak all the words I have commanded you to speak to all the cities of Judah who come to worship there. Do not omit a word.

¹⁴Then Jeremiah returned from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the courtyard of the house of the Lord and proclaimed to all the people,

¹³Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.

³⁶“Amen,” replied Benaiah son of Jehoiada. “May the Lord, the God of my lord the king, so declare it.

⁵This was in order to establish the oath I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is to this day.” “Amen, Lord,” I answered.

²⁰For all the promises of God are “Yes” in Christ. And so through Him, our “Amen” is spoken to the glory of God.

⁴⁸Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, “Amen!” Hallelujah!

¹⁶Otherwise, if you speak a blessing in spirit, how can someone who is uninstructed say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying?

²⁸But Micaiah replied, “If you ever return safely, the Lord has not spoken through me.” Then he added, “Take heed, all you people!”

¹Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”

⁸The king of Israel answered, “There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me, but only bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah.” “The king should not say that!” Jehoshaphat replied.

²⁶I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.

²⁷Then the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you.

¹⁴If, however, you fail to obey Me and to carry out all these commandments,

¹⁵and if you reject My statutes, despise My ordinances, and neglect to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant,

¹¹Then the Lord said to Samuel, “I am about to do something in Israel at which the ears of all who hear it will tingle.

¹²On that day I will carry out against Eli everything I have spoken about his house, from beginning to end.

²⁷Then a man of God came to Eli and told him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Did I not clearly reveal Myself to your father’s house when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh’s house?

²⁸And out of all the tribes of Israel I selected your father to be My priest, to offer sacrifices on My altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod in My presence. I also gave to the house of your father all the food offerings of the Israelites.

²²When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and the message does not come to pass or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

¹⁴They dress the wound of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all.

¹³“Ah, Lord God!” I replied, “Look, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword or suffer famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.’”

¹⁰Then I said, “Ah, Lord God, how completely You have deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, ‘You will have peace,’ while a sword is at our throats.”

¹¹They dress the wound of the daughter of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all.

¹⁰Because they have led My people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and whitewashing any flimsy wall that is built,

¹¹tell those whitewashing the wall that it will fall. Rain will come in torrents, I will send hailstones plunging down, and a windstorm will burst forth.

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

²³And as soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns, Jehoiakim would cut them off with a scribe’s knife and throw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll had been consumed by the fire.

²⁴Yet in hearing all these words, the king and his servants did not become frightened or tear their garments.

¹¹Now Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had made for himself iron horns and declared, “This is what the Lord says: ‘With these you shall gore the Arameans until they are finished off.’”

²“This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

¹³“Your words against Me have been harsh,” says the Lord. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against You?’

²⁴Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah went up, struck Micaiah in the face, and demanded, “Which way did the Spirit of the Lord go when He departed from me to speak with you?”

²⁵Micaiah replied, “You will soon see, on that day when you go and hide in an inner room.”

⁷Stay away from a foolish man; you will gain no knowledge from his speech.

²²So you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of these prophets of yours, and the Lord has pronounced disaster against you.”

²³Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah went up, struck Micaiah in the face, and demanded, “Which way did the Spirit of the Lord go when He departed from me to speak with you?”

⁹For they are falsely prophesying to you in My name; I have not sent them, declares 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.

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

³Send word to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.

¹¹Now Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had made for himself iron horns and declared, “This is what the Lord says: ‘With these you shall gore the Arameans until they are finished off.’”

¹²And all the prophets were prophesying the same, saying, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and triumph, for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.”

²The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah,

⁴Before Isaiah had left the middle courtyard, the word of the Lord came to him, saying,

³But that night the word of God came to Nathan, saying,

³⁰Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:

²in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the sacred books, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.

⁸to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with shackles of iron,

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.

¹⁵For I have not sent them, declares the Lord, and yet they are prophesying falsely in My name; therefore I will banish you, and you will perish—you and the prophets who prophesy to you.”

⁴⁸you will serve your enemies the Lord will send against you in famine, thirst, nakedness, and destitution. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

⁶So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I have even made the beasts of the field subject to him.

⁷All nations will serve him and his son and grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will enslave him.

³⁸Wherever the sons of men or beasts of the field or birds of the air dwell, He has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.

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.

¹⁰Moreover, I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.

⁴you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased, and how his fury has ended!

⁵The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers.

⁴But now, behold, I am freeing you today from the chains that were on your wrists. If it pleases you to come with me to Babylon, then come, and I will take care of you. But if it seems wrong to you to come with me to Babylon, go no farther. Look, the whole land is before you. Wherever it seems good and right to you, go there.”

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!

¹⁵For I have not sent them, declares the Lord, and yet they are prophesying falsely in My name; therefore I will banish you, and you will perish—you and the prophets who prophesy to you.”

²¹I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied.

²“Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Tell those who prophesy out of their own imagination: Hear the word of the Lord!

³This is what the Lord God says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit yet have seen nothing.

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.

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.

³²this is what the Lord says: ‘I will surely punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He will have no one left among this people, nor will he see the good that I will bring to My people, declares the Lord, for he has preached rebellion against the Lord.’”

⁴For seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made.”

¹²Why should the Egyptians declare, ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce anger and relent from doing harm to Your people.

³⁴And this was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its extermination and destruction from the face of the earth.

¹⁵For the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of the Lord your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.

⁶And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon, and there you will die and be buried—you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied these lies.’”

⁶But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the Lord of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”

²⁵who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who confounds the wise and turns their knowledge into nonsense,

²⁶who confirms the message of His servant and fulfills the counsel of His messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited,’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be rebuilt, and I will restore their ruins,’