Study Desk

"^(C1)Woe to the shepherds who are causing the ^(C2)sheep of My pasture to ^(C3)perish and are scattering them!" declares the LORD.

Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel says concerning the shepherds who are ^(F1)tending My people: "You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not been concerned about them; behold, I am going to ^(C1)call you to account for the ^(C2)evil of your deeds," declares the LORD.

"Then I Myself will ^(C1)gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply.

"I will also raise up ^(C1)shepherds over them and they will ^(F1)tend them; and they will ^(C2)not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, ^(C3)nor will any be missing," declares the LORD.

"Behold, the ^(C1)days are coming," declares the LORD, "When I will raise up for David a righteous ^(F1)(C2)Branch; And He will ^(C3)reign as king and ^(F2)act wisely And ^(C4)do justice and righteousness in the land.

-"In His days Judah will be saved, And ^(C1)Israel will live securely; And this is His ^(C2)name by which He will be called, 'The ^(C3)LORD Our Righteousness.'

"^(C1)Therefore behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when they will no longer say, 'As the LORD lives, who brought the sons of Israel up from the land of Egypt,'

^(C1)but, 'As the LORD lives, who ^(C2)brought up and led the descendants of the household of Israel back from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them.' Then they will live on their own soil."

As for the prophets: My ^(C1)heart is broken within me, All my bones tremble; I have become like a drunken man, And like a man overcome by wine, Because of the LORD And because of His holy words.

For the land is full of ^(C1)adulterers; For the land ^(C2)mourns because of the curse. The ^(C3)pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course is evil And their might is not right.

"For ^(C1)both prophet and priest are defiled; Even in My house I have found their wickedness," declares the LORD.

"Therefore their way will be like ^(C1)slippery paths to them, They will be driven away into the ^(C2)gloom and fall down in it; For I will bring ^(C3)disaster upon them, The year of their punishment," declares the LORD.

"Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an ^(C1)offensive thing: They ^(C2)prophesied by Baal and ^(C3)led My people Israel astray.

-"Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a ^(C1)horrible thing: The committing of ^(C2)adultery and walking in deceit; And they strengthen the hands of ^(C3)evildoers, So that no one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to Me like ^(C4)Sodom, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

"Therefore this is what the LORD of armies says concerning the prophets: 'Behold, I am going to ^(C1)feed them wormwood And make them drink poisonous water, For from the prophets of Jerusalem Ungodliness has spread into all the land.'"

This is what the LORD of armies says: "^(C1)Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are ^(C2)leading you into futility; They tell a ^(C3)vision of their own ^(F1)imagination, Not ^(C4)from the mouth of the LORD.

-"They keep saying to those who ^(C1)despise Me, 'The LORD has said, "^(C2)You will have peace"'; And as for everyone who walks in the ^(C3)stubbornness of his own heart, They say, '^(C4)Disaster will not come on you.'

-"But ^(C1)who has stood in the council of the LORD, That he should see and hear His word? Who has paid ^(C2)attention to ^(F1)His word and listened?

-"Behold, the ^(C1)storm of the LORD has gone forth in wrath, Even a whirling tempest; It will swirl down on the head of the wicked.

-"The ^(C1)anger of the LORD will not turn back Until He has ^(C2)performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; ^(C3)In the last days you will clearly understand it.

-"^(C1)I did not send these prophets, But they ran. I did not speak to them, But they prophesied.

-"But if they had ^(C1)stood in My council, Then they would have ^(C2)announced My words to My people, And would have turned them back from their evil way And from the evil of their deeds.

"Am I a God who is ^(C1)near," declares the LORD, "And not a God far off?

-"Can a person ^(C1)hide himself in hiding places So that I do not see him?" declares the LORD. "^(C2)Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" declares the LORD.

"I have ^(C1)heard what the prophets have said who ^(C2)prophesy falsely in My name, saying, 'I had a ^(C3)dream, I had a dream!'

"How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, these prophets of the ^(C1)deceitfulness of their own heart,

who intend to ^(C1)make My people forget My name by their dreams which they report to one another, just as their fathers ^(C2)forgot My name because of Baal?

"The prophet who has a dream may report his dream, but let him who has ^(C1)My word speak My word truthfully. ^(C2)What does straw have in common with grain?" declares the LORD.

"Is My word not like ^(C1)fire?" declares the LORD, "and like a ^(C2)hammer which shatters a rock?

"Therefore behold, ^(C1)I am against the prophets," declares the LORD, "who steal My words from each other.

"Behold, I am against the prophets," declares the LORD, "who ^(F1)use their tongues and declare, 'The Lord declares!'

"Behold, I am against those who have prophesied ^(C1)false dreams," declares the LORD, "and reported them and led My people astray by their lies and ^(C2)reckless boasting; yet ^(C3)I did not send them nor command them, nor do they ^(C4)provide this people the slightest benefit," declares the LORD.

"Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you, saying, 'What is the ^(F1)(C1)pronouncement of the LORD?' then you shall say to them, 'What ^(F1)pronouncement?' The LORD declares, 'I will ^(C2)abandon you.'

"Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say, 'The ^(C1)pronouncement of the LORD,' I will bring punishment upon that person and his household.

"This is what each one of you will say to his neighbor and to his brother: '^(C1)What has the LORD answered?' or, 'What has the LORD spoken?'

"For you will no longer remember the pronouncement of the LORD, because every person's own word will become the pronouncement, and you have ^(C1)perverted the words of the ^(C2)living God, the LORD of armies, our God.

"This is what you will say to that prophet: 'What has the LORD answered you?' and, 'What has the LORD spoken?'

"And if you say, 'The pronouncement of the LORD!' for that reason the LORD says this: 'Because you said this word, "The pronouncement of the LORD!" I have also sent word to you, saying, "You shall not say, 'The pronouncement of the LORD!'"'

"Therefore behold, ^(C1)I will certainly forget you and thrust you away from My presence, along with the city which I gave you and your fathers.

"I will put an everlasting ^(C1)disgrace on you and an everlasting humiliation which will not be forgotten."

After ^(C1)Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the officials of Judah with the craftsmen and metalworkers from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me: behold, two ^(C2)baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD.

One basket had very good figs, like ^(C1)first-ripe figs, and the other basket had ^(C2)very bad figs which could not be eaten due to rottenness.

Then the LORD said to me, "^(C1)What do you see, Jeremiah?" And I said, "Figs: the good figs are very good, and the bad ones, very bad, which cannot be eaten due to rottenness."

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

"This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: 'Like these good figs, so I will regard ^(C1)as good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans.

'For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will ^(C1)bring them back to this land; and I will ^(C2)build them up and not overthrow them, and I will ^(C3)plant them and not uproot them.

'I will also give them a ^(C1)heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be ^(C2)My people, and I will be their God, for they will ^(C3)return to Me wholeheartedly.

'But like the ^(C1)bad figs which cannot be eaten due to rottenness,' indeed, this is what the LORD says, 'so will I give up ^(C2)Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials, and the ^(C3)remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and the ones who live in the land of ^(C4)Egypt.

'I will ^(C1)make them an object of terror and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth, as a ^(C2)disgrace and a proverb, a taunt and a ^(C3)curse in all the places where I will scatter them.

'And I will send the ^(C1)sword, the famine, and the plague upon them until they are eliminated from the land which I gave to them and their forefathers.'"

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the ^(C1)fourth year of ^(C2)Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the ^(C3)first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon),

the word which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the ^(C1)people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,

"From the ^(C1)thirteenth year of ^(C2)Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, ^(F1)these ^(C3)twenty-three years the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you ^(C4)again and again, but you have not listened.

"And the LORD has sent to you all His ^(C1)servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear,

saying, '^(C1)Turn now, everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and live on the land which the LORD has given to you and your forefathers ^(C2)forever and ever;

and ^(C1)do not follow other gods to ^(F1)serve them and to ^(F2)worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, then I will do you no harm.'

"Yet you have not listened to Me," declares the LORD, "in order to ^(C1)provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.

"Therefore this is what the LORD of armies says: 'Because you have not obeyed My words,

behold, I will ^(C1)send and take all the families of the north,' declares the LORD, 'and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, ^(C2)My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations; and I will ^(F1)completely destroy them and ^(C3)make them an object of horror and ^(F2)hissing, and an everlasting place of ruins.

'Moreover, I will ^(C1)eliminate from them the voice of jubilation and the voice of joy, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride, the ^(C2)sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.

'^(C1)This entire land will be a place of ruins and an object of horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for ^(C2)seventy years.

'Then it will be ^(C1)when seventy years are completed I will ^(C2)punish the king of Babylon and that nation,' declares the LORD, 'for their wrongdoing, and the land of the Chaldeans; and ^(C3)I will make it an everlasting desolation.

'I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in ^(C1)this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against ^(C2)all the nations.

'(^(F1)For ^(C1)many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even them; and I will ^(C2)repay them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.)'"

For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to me: "Take this ^(C1)cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and give it to all the nations to whom I send you, to drink from it.

"Then they will ^(C1)drink and loudly vomit and act insanely because of the sword that I am going to send among them."

So I took the cup from the LORD'S hand and ^(C1)gave it to all the nations to whom the LORD sent me, to drink from it:

To ^(C1)Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, and its kings and its officials, to make them places of ruins, objects of horror, ^(F1)hissing, and a curse, as it is this day;

To ^(C1)Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his officials, and all his people;

and to all the ^(C1)foreign ^(F1)people, all the kings of the ^(C2)land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the ^(C3)Philistines (that is, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of ^(C4)Ashdod);

To ^(C1)Edom, ^(C2)Moab, and the sons of ^(C3)Ammon;

and to all the kings of ^(C1)Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of ^(C2)the coastlands which are beyond the sea;

and to ^(C1)Dedan, Tema, ^(C2)Buz, and all who ^(C3)trim the corners of their hair;

and to all the kings of ^(C1)Arabia and all the kings of the ^(C2)foreign ^(F1)people who live in the desert;

and to all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of ^(C1)Elam, and all the kings of ^(C2)Media;

and to all the kings of the north, near and far, one with another; and ^(C1)all the kingdoms of the earth which are on the face of the ground; and the king of ^(F1)(C2)Sheshach shall drink it after them.

"And you shall say to them, 'This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: "^(C1)Drink, be drunk, vomit, fall down, and do not get up, because of the ^(C2)sword which I am sending among you."'

"And if they ^(C1)refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, 'This is what the LORD of armies says: "^(C2)You shall certainly drink!

"For behold, I am ^(C1)beginning to inflict disaster on this city which is ^(C2)called by My name, so should you be completely free from punishment? You will not be free from punishment, for ^(C3)I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth," declares the LORD of armies.'

"Therefore you shall prophesy against them all these words, and you shall say to them, 'The ^(C1)LORD will ^(C2)roar from on high And raise His voice from His holy dwelling; He will roar forcefully against His ^(F1)fold. He will shout like those who tread the grapes, Against all the inhabitants of the earth.

-'A clamor has come to the end of the earth, Because the LORD has ^(C1)a controversy with the nations. He is entering into ^(C2)judgment with ^(F1)humanity; As for the wicked, He has turned them over to the sword,' declares the LORD."

This is what the LORD of armies says: "Behold, evil is going out From ^(C1)nation to nation, And a great ^(C2)storm is being stirred up From the remotest parts of the earth.

"Those ^(C1)put to death by the LORD on that day will be from one end of the earth to the ^(F1)other. They will ^(C2)not be mourned, gathered, or buried; they will be like ^(C3)dung on the face of the ground.

-"Wail, you shepherds, and cry out; ^(C1)Wallow in the dust, you masters of the flock; For the days of your ^(C2)slaughter and your dispersions ^(F1)have come, And you will fall like a precious vessel.

-"^(F1)There will be ^(C1)no sanctuary for the shepherds, Nor escape for the masters of the flock.

-"Hear the sound of the cry of the shepherds, And the wailing of the masters of the flock! For the LORD is destroying their pasture,

And the peaceful ^(C1)grazing places are devastated Because of the ^(C2)fierce anger of the LORD.

-"He has left His hiding place ^(C1)like the lion; For their land has become a horror Because of the fierceness of the ^(F1)oppressing sword And because of His fierce anger."