Jeremiah 7:1

Faulty Religion and Unethical Behavior Will Lead to Judgment

7:1 The Lord said to Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 6:1-30

The Destruction of Jerusalem Depicted

6:1 “Run for safety, people of Benjamin!

Get out of Jerusalem!

Sound the trumpet in Tekoa!

Light the signal fires at Beth Hakkerem!

For disaster lurks out of the north;

it will bring great destruction.

6:2 I will destroy Daughter Zion,

who is as delicate and defenseless as a young maiden.

6:3 Kings will come against it with their armies.

They will encamp in siege all around it.

Each of them will devastate the portion assigned to him.

6:4 They will say, ‘Prepare to do battle against it!

Come on! Let’s attack it at noon!’

But later they will say, ‘Oh, oh! Too bad!

The day is almost over

and the shadows of evening are getting long.

6:5 So come on, let’s go ahead and attack it by night

and destroy all its fortified buildings.’

6:6 All of this is because the Lord who rules over all has said:

‘Cut down the trees around Jerusalem

and build up a siege ramp against its walls.

This is the city which is to be punished.

Nothing but oppression happens in it.

6:7 As a well continually pours out fresh water

so it continually pours out wicked deeds.

Sounds of violence and destruction echo throughout it.

All I see are sick and wounded people.’

6:8 So take warning, Jerusalem,

or I will abandon you in disgust

and make you desolate,

a place where no one can live.”

6:9 This is what the Lord who rules over all said to me:

“Those who remain in Israel will be

like the grapes thoroughly gleaned from a vine.

So go over them again, as though you were a grape harvester

passing your hand over the branches one last time.”

6:10 I answered,

“Who would listen

if I spoke to them and warned them?

Their ears are so closed

that they cannot hear!

Indeed, what the Lord says is offensive to them.

They do not like it at all.

6:11 I am as full of anger as you are, Lord,

I am tired of trying to hold it in.”

The Lord answered,

“Vent it, then, on the children who play in the street

and on the young men who are gathered together.

Husbands and wives are to be included,

as well as the old and those who are advanced in years.

6:12 Their houses will be turned over to others

as will their fields and their wives.

For I will unleash my power

against those who live in this land,”

says the Lord.

6:13 “That is because, from the least important to the most important of them,

all of them are greedy for dishonest gain.

Prophets and priests alike,

all of them practice deceit.

6:14 They offer only superficial help

for the harm my people have suffered.

They say, ‘Everything will be all right!’

But everything is not all right!

6:15 Are they ashamed because they have done such shameful things?

No, they are not at all ashamed.

They do not even know how to blush!

So they will die, just like others have died.

They will be brought to ruin when I punish them,”

says the Lord.

6:16 The Lord said to his people:

“You are standing at the crossroads. So consider your path.

Ask where the old, reliable paths are.

Ask where the path is that leads to blessing and follow it.

If you do, you will find rest for your souls.”

But they said, “We will not follow it!”

6:17 The Lord said,

“I appointed prophets as watchmen to warn you, saying:

‘Pay attention to the warning sound of the trumpet!’”

But they said, “We will not pay attention!”

6:18 So the Lord said,

“Hear, you nations!

Be witnesses and take note of what will happen to these people.

6:19 Hear this, you peoples of the earth:

‘Take note! I am about to bring disaster on these people.

It will come as punishment for their scheming.

For they have paid no attention to what I have said,

and they have rejected my law.

6:20 I take no delight when they offer up to me

frankincense that comes from Sheba

or sweet-smelling cane imported from a faraway land.

I cannot accept the burnt offerings they bring me.

I get no pleasure from the sacrifices they offer to me.’

6:21 So, this is what the Lord says:

‘I will assuredly make these people stumble to their doom.

Parents and children will stumble and fall to their destruction.

Friends and neighbors will die.’

6:22 “This is what the Lord says:

‘Beware! An army is coming from a land in the north.

A mighty nation is stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth.

6:23 Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears.

They are cruel and show no mercy.

They sound like the roaring sea

as they ride forth on their horses.

Lined up in formation like men going into battle

to attack you, Daughter Zion.’”

6:24 The people cry out, “We have heard reports about them!

We have become helpless with fear!

Anguish grips us,

agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby!

6:25 Do not go out into the countryside.

Do not travel on the roads.

For the enemy is there with sword in hand.

They are spreading terror everywhere.”

6:26 So I said, “Oh, my dear people, put on sackcloth

and roll in ashes.

Mourn with painful sobs

as though you had lost your only child.

For any moment now that destructive army

will come against us.”

6:27 The Lord said to me,

“I have made you like a metal assayer

to test my people like ore.

You are to observe them

and evaluate how they behave.”

6:28 I reported,

“All of them are the most stubborn of rebels!

They are as hard as bronze or iron.

They go about telling lies.

They all deal corruptly.

6:29 The fiery bellows of judgment burn fiercely.

But there is too much dross to be removed.

The process of refining them has proved useless.

The wicked have not been purged.

6:30 They are regarded as ‘rejected silver’

because the Lord rejects them.”

Jeremiah 11:1-23

The People Have Violated Their Covenant with God

11:1 The Lord said to Jeremiah: 11:2 “Hear the terms of the covenant I made with Israel and pass them on to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. 11:3 Tell them that the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Anyone who does not keep the terms of the covenant will be under a curse. 11:4 Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors to keep when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace. I said at that time, “Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement exactly as I commanded you. If you do, you will be my people and I will be your God. 11:5 Then I will keep the promise I swore on oath to your ancestors to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.” That is the very land that you still live in today.’” And I responded, “Amen! Let it be so, Lord!”

11:6 The Lord said to me, “Announce all the following words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the terms of my covenant with you and carry them out! 11:7 For I solemnly warned your ancestors to obey me. I warned them again and again, ever since I delivered them out of Egypt until this very day. 11:8 But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me! Each one of them followed the stubborn inclinations of his own wicked heart. So I brought on them all the punishments threatened in the covenant because they did not carry out its terms as I commanded them to do.’”

11:9 The Lord said to me, “The people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem have plotted rebellion against me! 11:10 They have gone back to the evil ways of their ancestors of old who refused to obey what I told them. They, too, have paid allegiance to other gods and worshiped them. Both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors. 11:11 So I, the Lord, say this: ‘I will soon bring disaster on them which they will not be able to escape! When they cry out to me for help, I will not listen to them. 11:12 Then those living in the towns of Judah and in Jerusalem will go and cry out for help to the gods to whom they have been sacrificing. However, those gods will by no means be able to save them when disaster strikes them. 11:13 This is in spite of the fact that the people of Judah have as many gods as they have towns and the citizens of Jerusalem have set up as many altars to sacrifice to that disgusting god, Baal, as they have streets in the city!’ 11:14 So, Jeremiah, do not pray for these people. Do not cry out to me or petition me on their behalf. Do not plead with me to save them. For I will not listen to them when they call out to me for help when disaster strikes them.”

11:15 The Lord says to the people of Judah,

“What right do you have to be in my temple, my beloved people?

Many of you have done wicked things.

Can your acts of treachery be so easily canceled by sacred offerings

that you take joy in doing evil even while you make them?

11:16 I, the Lord, once called you a thriving olive tree,

one that produced beautiful fruit.

But I will set you on fire,

fire that will blaze with a mighty roar.

Then all your branches will be good for nothing.

11:17 For though I, the Lord who rules over all, planted you in the land,

I now decree that disaster will come on you

because the nations of Israel and Judah have done evil

and have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal.”

A Plot Against Jeremiah is Revealed and He Complains of Injustice

11:18 The Lord gave me knowledge, that I might have understanding.

Then he showed me what the people were doing.

11:19 Before this I had been like a docile lamb ready to be led to the slaughter.

I did not know they were making plans to kill me.

I did not know they were saying,

“Let’s destroy the tree along with its fruit!

Let’s remove Jeremiah from the world of the living

so people will not even be reminded of him any more.”

11:20 So I said to the Lord,

“O Lord who rules over all, you are a just judge!

You examine people’s hearts and minds.

I want to see you pay them back for what they have done

because I trust you to vindicate my cause.”

11:21 Then the Lord told me about some men from Anathoth who were threatening to kill me. They had threatened, “Stop prophesying in the name of the Lord or we will kill you!” 11:22 So the Lord who rules over all said, “I will surely punish them! Their young men will be killed in battle. Their sons and daughters will die of starvation. 11:23 Not one of them will survive. I will bring disaster on those men from Anathoth who threatened you. A day of reckoning is coming for them.”