Study Desk

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

"^(C1)Stand at the gate of the LORD'S house and proclaim there this word, and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the LORD!'"

This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: "^(C1)Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you live in this place.

"^(C1)Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, '^(F1)This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.'

"For ^(C1)if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly ^(C2)practice justice between a person and his neighbor,

if you do not oppress the stranger, the ^(F1)(C1)orphan, or the widow, and do not shed ^(C2)innocent blood in this place, nor ^(C3)follow other gods to your own ruin,

then I will let you ^(C1)live in this place, in the ^(C2)land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

"Behold, you are trusting in ^(C1)deceptive words to no avail.

"Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, ^(F1)(C1)offer sacrifices to Baal, and follow ^(C2)other gods that you have not known,

then ^(C1)come and stand before Me in ^(C2)this house which is called by My name, and say, 'We are saved!'—so that you may do all these abominations?

"Has ^(C1)this house, which is called by My name, become a ^(C2)den of robbers in your sight? Behold, ^(C3)I Myself have seen it," declares the LORD.

"But go now to My place which was in ^(C1)Shiloh, where I ^(C2)made My name dwell at the beginning, and ^(C3)see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

"And now, because you have done all these things," declares the LORD, "and I spoke to you, ^(C1)speaking again and again, but you did not listen, and I ^(C2)called you but you did not answer,

therefore I will do to the ^(C1)house which is called by My name, ^(C2)in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, just as I ^(C3)did to Shiloh.

"I will ^(C1)hurl you out of My sight, just as I have hurled out all your brothers, all the ^(F1)descendants of ^(C2)Ephraim.

"As for you, ^(C1)do not pray for this people, and do not lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not plead with Me; for I am not listening to you.

"Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

"The ^(F1)children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven; and they ^(C1)pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to ^(C2)provoke Me to anger.

"^(C1)Are they provoking Me?" declares the LORD. "Is it not themselves instead, to their ^(F1)own ^(C2)shame?"

Therefore this is what the Lord ^(F1)GOD says: "Behold, My ^(C1)anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on human and animal life, and on the ^(C2)trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched."

This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: "Add your ^(C1)burnt offerings to your sacrifices and ^(C2)eat flesh.

"For I did not ^(C1)speak to your fathers, or command them on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.

"But this is ^(F1)what I commanded them, saying, '^(C1)Obey My voice, and ^(C2)I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you shall walk ^(F2)entirely in the way which I command you, so that it may ^(C3)go well for you.'

"Yet they ^(C1)did not obey or incline their ear, but walked by their own advice and in the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and they ^(F1)(C2)went backward and not forward.

"Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have ^(C1)sent you all My servants the prophets, sending them daily, again and again.

"Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but ^(C1)stiffened their neck; they ^(C2)did more evil than their fathers.

"So you shall ^(C1)speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will ^(C2)not answer you.

"And you shall say to them, 'This is the nation that ^(C1)did not obey the voice of the LORD their God or accept discipline; ^(F1)(C2)trustworthiness has perished and has been eliminated from their mouth.

-'^(C1)Cut off ^(F1)your hair and throw it away, And ^(C2)take up a song of mourning on the bare heights; For the LORD has ^(C3)rejected and forsaken The generation of His wrath.'

"For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight," declares the LORD. "They have ^(C1)put their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it.

"They have ^(C1)built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, to ^(C2)burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I ^(C3)did not command, and it did not come into My ^(F1)mind.

"^(C1)Therefore, behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter; for they will ^(C2)bury in Topheth ^(F1)because there is no other place.

"The ^(C1)dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth; and no one will frighten them away.

"Then I will ^(C1)eliminate from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride; for the ^(C2)land will become a site of ruins.

"At that time," declares the LORD, "they will ^(C1)bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its leaders, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves.

"They will spread them out to the sun, the moon, and to all the ^(C1)heavenly ^(F1)lights, which they have loved, which they have served, which they have followed, which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered ^(C2)nor buried; ^(C3)they will be like dung on the face of the ground.

"And ^(C1)death will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family, that remains in all the ^(C2)places to which I have driven them," declares the LORD of armies.

"You shall say to them, 'This is what the LORD says: "Do people ^(C1)fall and not get up? Does one turn away and not ^(F1)repent?

-"Why has this people, Jerusalem, ^(C1)Turned away in continual apostasy? They ^(C2)hold on to deceit, They ^(C3)refuse to return.

-"I ^(C1)have listened and heard, They have spoken what is not right; ^(C2)No one repented of his wickedness, Saying, 'What have I done?' Everyone turned to his own course, Like a ^(C3)horse charging into the battle.

-"Even the stork in the sky ^(C1)Knows her seasons; And the ^(C2)turtledove, the swallow, and the crane Keep to the time of their ^(F1)migration; But ^(C3)My people do not know The judgment of the LORD.

"^(C1)How can you say, 'We are wise, And the Law of the LORD is with us'? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes Has made it into a lie.

-"The wise men are ^(C1)put to shame, They are dismayed and caught; Behold, they have ^(C2)rejected the word of the LORD, So what kind of wisdom do they have?

-"Therefore I will ^(C1)give their wives to others, Their fields to new owners; Because from the least even to the greatest Everyone is ^(C2)greedy for gain; From the prophet even to the priest, Everyone practices deceit.

-"They have ^(C1)healed the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, Saying, 'Peace, peace,' But there is no peace.

-"Were they ^(C1)ashamed because of the abomination they had done? They were not ashamed at all, And they did not know how to be ashamed; Therefore they will ^(C2)fall among those who fall; At the ^(C3)time of their punishment they will collapse," Says the LORD.

"I will ^(C1)certainly snatch them away," declares the LORD. "There will be ^(C2)no grapes on the vine And ^(C3)no figs on the fig tree, And the leaf will wither; And what I have given them will pass away."'"

Why are we sitting still? ^(C1)Assemble yourselves, and let's ^(C2)go into the fortified cities And perish there, For the LORD our God has doomed us And given us ^(C3)poisoned water to drink, Because ^(C4)we have sinned against the LORD.

We ^(C1)waited for peace, but no good came; For a time of healing, but behold, terror!

From ^(C1)Dan there is heard the snorting of his horses; At the sound of the neighing of his ^(C2)stallions The whole land quakes; For they come and ^(C3)devour the land and its fullness, The city and its inhabitants.

"For behold, I am ^(C1)sending serpents among you, Vipers for which there is ^(C2)no charm; And they will bite you," declares the LORD.

^(F1)My ^(C1)sorrow is beyond healing, My ^(C2)heart is faint within me!

Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a ^(C1)distant land: "Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not within her?" "Why have they ^(C2)provoked Me with their carved images, with foreign ^(F1)(C3)idols?"

"Harvest is past, summer is over, And we are not saved."

I am broken over the ^(C1)brokenness of the daughter of my people. I ^(C2)mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.

Is there no ^(C1)balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? ^(C2)Why then has not the ^(F1)health of the daughter of my people ^(F2)been restored?

In the beginning of the reign of ^(C1)Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the LORD, saying,

"This is what the LORD says: '^(C1)Stand in the courtyard of the LORD'S house, and speak to all the cities of Judah who have ^(C2)come to worship in the LORD'S house ^(C3)all the words that I have commanded you to speak to them. ^(C4)Do not omit a word!

'^(C1)Perhaps they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way, and ^(C2)I will relent of the disaster which I am planning to inflict on them because of the evil of their deeds.'

"And you shall say to them, 'This is what the LORD says: "^(C1)If you do not listen to Me, to ^(C2)walk in My Law which I have set before you,

to listen to the words of ^(C1)My servants the prophets, whom I have been sending to you again and again, but you have not listened;

then I will make this house like ^(C1)Shiloh, and I will make this city a ^(C2)curse to all the nations of the earth."'"

The ^(C1)priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD.

Yet when Jeremiah finished speaking everything that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, "^(C1)You must die!

"Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, 'This house will be like Shiloh and this city will be ^(C1)in ruins, without inhabitant'?" And ^(C2)all the people gathered to Jeremiah at the house of the LORD.

When the ^(C1)officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to the house of the LORD and sat at the ^(C2)entrance of the New Gate of the LORD'S house.

Then the priests and the prophets ^(C1)spoke to the officials and to all the people, saying, "A ^(C2)death sentence for this man! For he has prophesied ^(C3)against this city, just as you have heard with your own ears!"

Then Jeremiah spoke to all the officials and to all the people, saying, "^(C1)The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.

"Now then, ^(C1)reform your ways and your deeds and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will relent of the disaster which He has pronounced against you.

"But as for me, behold, ^(C1)I am in your hands; do with me as is good and right in your sight.

"Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring ^(C1)innocent blood on yourselves, and on this city and its inhabitants; for truly the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words ^(F1)so that you hear them."

Then the officials and all the people ^(C1)said to the priests and the prophets, "No ^(C2)death sentence for this man! For he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God."

Then ^(C1)some of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying,

"^(F1)(C1)Micah of Moresheth used to prophesy in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, 'This is what the LORD of armies has said: "^(C2)Zion will be plowed like a field, And Jerusalem will become heaps of ruins, And the ^(C3)mountain of the house like the ^(F2)high places of a forest."'

"Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah actually put him to death? Did he not ^(C1)fear the LORD and plead for the favor of the LORD, and ^(C2)the LORD relented of the disaster which He had pronounced against them? But we are ^(C3)committing a great evil against our own lives!"

Indeed, there was also a man who used to prophesy in the name of the LORD, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from ^(C1)Kiriath-jearim; and he prophesied against this city and against this land words similar to all those of Jeremiah.

When King Jehoiakim and all his warriors and all the officials heard his words, then the ^(C1)king sought to put him to death; but Uriah heard about it, and he was afraid, so he ^(C2)fled and went to Egypt.

Then King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt: ^(C1)Elnathan the son of Achbor and certain men with him, to Egypt.

And they brought Uriah from Egypt and led him to King Jehoiakim, who ^(C1)killed him with a sword and threw his dead body into the ^(F1)burial place of the ^(F2)common people.

But the hand of ^(C1)Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was ^(C2)not handed over to the people to put him to death.