Jeremiah, starting at chapter 16
{16:1} The word of Yahweh came also to me, saying, {16:2} You shall
not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this
place. {16:3} For thus says Yahweh concerning the sons and concerning
the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers
who bore them, and concerning their fathers who became the father of
them in this land: {16:4} They shall die grievous deaths: they shall
not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung
on the surface of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword,
and by famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of
the sky, and for the animals of the earth. {16:5} For thus says
Yahweh, Don't enter into the house of mourning, neither go to lament,
neither bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people,
says Yahweh, even loving kindness and tender mercies. {16:6} Both
great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried,
neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make
themselves bald for them; {16:7} neither shall men break [bread] for
them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give
them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their
mother. {16:8} You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with
them, to eat and to drink. {16:9} For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the
God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before
your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of
gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
{16:10} It shall happen, when you shall show this people all these
words, and they shall tell you, Why has Yahweh pronounced all this
great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin
that we have committed against Yahweh our God? {16:11} Then you shall
tell them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, says Yahweh, and
have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshiped
them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; {16:12} and you
have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one
after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don't listen to
me: {16:13} therefore will I cast you forth out of this land into the
land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there
you shall serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no
favor. {16:14} Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it
shall no more be said, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of
Israel out of the land of Egypt; {16:15} but, As Yahweh lives, who
brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from
all the countries where he had driven them. I will bring them again
into their land that I gave to their fathers. {16:16} Behold, I will
send for many fishermen, says Yahweh, and they shall fish them up; and
afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from
every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the
rocks. {16:17} For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden
from my face, neither is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.
{16:18} First I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double,
because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their
detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their
abominations. {16:19} Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my
refuge in the day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from
the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited
nothing but lies, [even] vanity and things in which there is no
profit. {16:20} Shall a man make to himself gods, which yet are no
gods? {16:21} Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once
will I cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know
that my name is Yahweh.
{17:1} The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, [and] with
the point of a diamond: it is engraved on the tablet of their heart,
and on the horns of your altars; {17:2} while their children remember
their altars and their Asherim by the green trees on the high hills.
{17:3} My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all
your treasures for a spoil, [and] your high places, because of sin,
throughout all your borders. {17:4} You, even of yourself, shall
discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you
to serve your enemies in the land which you don't know: for you have
kindled a fire in my anger which shall burn forever. {17:5} Thus says
Yahweh: Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm,
and whose heart departs from Yahweh. {17:6} For he shall be like the
heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall
inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not
inhabited. {17:7} Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose
trust Yahweh is. {17:8} For he shall be as a tree planted by the
waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear
when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful
in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
{17:9} The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly
corrupt: who can know it? {17:10} I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try
the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to
the fruit of his doings. {17:11} As the partridge that sits on [eggs]
which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right; in
the midst of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be
a fool. {17:12} A glorious throne, [set] on high from the beginning,
is the place of our sanctuary. {17:13} Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all
who forsake you shall be disappointed. Those who depart from me shall
be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring
of living waters. {17:14} Heal me, O Yahweh, and I shall be healed;
save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise. {17:15} Behold,
they tell me, Where is the word of Yahweh? let it come now. {17:16} As
for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you; neither
have I desired the woeful day; you know: that which came out of my
lips was before your face. {17:17} Don't be a terror to me: you are my
refuge in the day of evil. {17:18} Let them be disappointed who
persecute me, but let not me be disappointed; let them be dismayed,
but don't let me be dismayed; bring on them the day of evil, and
destroy them with double destruction. {17:19} Thus said Yahweh to me:
Go, and stand in the gate of the children of the people, through which
the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the
gates of Jerusalem; {17:20} and tell them, Hear the word of Yahweh,
you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates: {17:21} Thus says Yahweh,
Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor
bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; {17:22} neither carry forth a
burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day holy, neither do any
work: but make the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. {17:23}
But they didn't listen, neither turn their ear, but made their neck
stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction.
{17:24} It shall happen, if you diligently listen to me, says Yahweh,
to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath
day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein; {17:25}
then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes
sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses,
they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. {17:26} They shall come
from the cities of Judah, and from the places around Jerusalem, and
from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the hill
country, and from the South, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices,
and meal offerings, and frankincense, and bringing [sacrifices of]
thanksgiving, to the house of Yahweh. {17:27} But if you will not
listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden
and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I
kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of
Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
{18:1} The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, {18:2}
Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you
to hear my words. {18:3} Then I went down to the potter's house, and
behold, he was making a work on the wheels. {18:4} When the vessel
that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made
it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
{18:5} Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, {18:6} House of
Israel, can't I do with you as this potter? says Yahweh. Behold, as
the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.
{18:7} At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and
concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it;
{18:8} if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their
evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them. {18:9}
At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a
kingdom, to build and to plant it; {18:10} if they do that which is
evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of
the good, with which I said I would benefit them. {18:11} Now
therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I frame evil against you,
and devise a device against you: return you now everyone from his evil
way, and amend your ways and your doings. {18:12} But they say, It is
in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do
everyone after the stubbornness of his evil heart. {18:13} Therefore
thus says Yahweh: Ask now among the nations, who has heard such
things; the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. {18:14}
Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? [or] shall
the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up? {18:15} For my
people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false [gods];
and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient
paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up; {18:16} to make their
land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes
thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head. {18:17} I will
scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them
the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity. {18:18} Then
they said, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the
law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor
the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the
tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words. {18:19} Give
heed to me, Yahweh, and listen to the voice of those who contend with
me. {18:20} Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have dug a
pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for
them, to turn away your wrath from them. {18:21} Therefore deliver up
their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the
sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their
men be slain of death, [and] their young men struck of the sword in
battle. {18:22} Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you shall
bring a troop suddenly on them; for they have dug a pit to take me,
and hid snares for my feet. {18:23} Yet, Yahweh, you know all their
counsel against me to kill me; don't forgive their iniquity, neither
blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be overthrown before
you; deal you with them in the time of your anger.
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