Good News Translation (GNT)

Jeremiah at the Potter’s House

1 The Lord said to me,

2 “Go down to the potter’s house, where I will give you my message.”

3 So I went there and saw the potter working at his wheel.

4 Whenever a piece of pottery turned out imperfect, he would take the clay and make it into something else.

5 Then the Lord said to me,

6 “Don’t I have the right to do with you people of Israel what the potter did with the clay? You are in my hands just like clay in the potter’s hands.

7 If at any time I say that I am going to uproot, break down, or destroy any nation or kingdom,

8 but then that nation turns from its evil, I will not do what I said I would.

9 On the other hand, if I say that I am going to plant or build up any nation or kingdom,

10 but then that nation disobeys me and does evil, I will not do what I said I would.

11 Now then, tell the people of Judah and of Jerusalem that I am making plans against them and getting ready to punish them. Tell them to stop living sinful lives—to change their ways and the things they are doing.

12 They will answer, ‘No, why should we? We will all be just as stubborn and evil as we want to be.’”

The People Reject the Lord

13 The Lord says,

“Ask every nation if such a thing

has ever happened before.

The people of Israel have done a terrible thing!

14 Are Lebanon’s rocky heights ever without snow?

Do its cool mountain streams ever run dry?

15 Yet my people have forgotten me;

they burn incense to idols.

They have stumbled in the way they should go;

they no longer follow the old ways;

they walk on unmarked paths.

16 They have made this land a thing of horror,

to be despised forever.

All who pass by will be shocked at what they see;

they will shake their heads in amazement.

17 I will scatter my people before their enemies,

like dust blown by the east wind.

I will turn my back on them;

I will not help them when the disaster comes.”

A Plot against Jeremiah

18 Then the people said, “Let’s do something about Jeremiah! There will always be priests to instruct us, the wise to give us counsel, and prophets to proclaim God’s message. Let’s bring charges against him and stop listening to what he says.”

19 So I prayed, “Lord, hear what I am saying and listen to what my enemies are saying about me.

20 Is evil the payment for good? Yet they have dug a pit for me to fall in. Remember how I came to you and spoke on their behalf, so that you would not deal with them in anger.

21 But now, Lord, let their children starve to death; let them be killed in war. Let the women lose their husbands and children; let the men die of disease and the young men be killed in battle.

22 Send a mob to plunder their homes without warning; make them cry out in terror. They have dug a pit for me to fall in and have set traps to catch me.

23 But, Lord, you know all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their evil or pardon their sin. Throw them down in defeat and deal with them while you are angry.”

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/18-902fb771f55ea5e7f3ac28f2759cd925.mp3?version_id=68—

The Broken Jar

1 The Lord told me to go and buy a clay jar. He also told me to take some of the elders of the people and some of the older priests,

2 and to go through Potsherd Gate out to Hinnom Valley. There I was to proclaim the message that he would give me.

3 The Lord told me to say, “Kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem, listen to what I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, have to say. I am going to bring such a disaster on this place that everyone who hears about it will be stunned.

4 I am going to do this because the people have abandoned me and defiled this place by offering sacrifices here to other gods—gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah have known anything about. They have filled this place with the blood of innocent people,

5 and they have built altars for Baal in order to burn their children in the fire as sacrifices. I never commanded them to do this; it never even entered my mind.

6 So then, the time will come when this place will no longer be called Topheth or Hinnom Valley. Instead, it will be known as Slaughter Valley.

7 In this place I will frustrate all the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will let their enemies triumph over them and kill them in battle. I will give their corpses to the birds and the wild animals as food.

8 I will bring such terrible destruction on this city that everyone who passes by will be shocked and amazed.

9 The enemy will surround the city and try to kill its people. The siege will be so terrible that the people inside the city will eat one another and even their own children.”

10 Then the Lord told me to break the jar in front of those who had gone with me

11 and to tell them that the Lord Almighty had said, “I will break this people and this city, and it will be like this broken clay jar that cannot be put together again. People will bury their dead even in Topheth because there will be nowhere else to bury them.

12 I promise that I will make this city and its inhabitants like Topheth.

13 The houses of Jerusalem, the houses of the kings of Judah, and indeed all the houses on whose roofs incense has been burned to the stars and where wine has been poured out as an offering to other gods—they will all be as unclean as Topheth.”

14 Then I left Topheth, where the Lord had sent me to proclaim his message. I went and stood in the court of the Temple and told all the people

15 that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had said, “I am going to bring on this city and on every nearby town all the punishment that I said I would, because you are stubborn and will not listen to what I say.”

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/19-ac480c517e4d3188e949d1d4f555524f.mp3?version_id=68—

Jeremiah’s Conflict with Pashhur the Priest

1 When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was the chief officer of the Temple, heard me proclaim these things,

2 he had me beaten and placed in chains near the upper Benjamin Gate in the Temple.

3 The next morning, after Pashhur had released me from the chains, I said to him, “The Lord did not name you Pashhur. The name he has given you is ‘Terror Everywhere.’

4 The Lord himself has said, ‘I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to your friends, and you will see them all killed by the swords of their enemies. I am going to put all the people of Judah under the power of the king of Babylonia; he will take some away as prisoners to his country and put others to death.

5 I will also let their enemies plunder all the wealth of this city and seize all its possessions and property, even the treasures of the kings of Judah, and carry everything off to Babylonia.

6 As for you, Pashhur, you and all your family will also be captured and taken off to Babylonia. There you will die and be buried, along with all your friends to whom you have told so many lies.’”

Jeremiah Complains to the Lord

7 Lord, you have deceived me,

and I was deceived.

You are stronger than I am,

and you have overpowered me.

Everyone makes fun of me;

they laugh at me all day long.

8 Whenever I speak, I have to cry out

and shout, “Violence! Destruction!”

Lord, I am ridiculed and scorned all the time

because I proclaim your message.

9 But when I say, “I will forget the Lord

and no longer speak in his name,”

then your message is like a fire

burning deep within me.

I try my best to hold it in,

but can no longer keep it back.

10 I hear everybody whispering,

“Terror is everywhere!

So let’s report him to the authorities!”

Even my close friends wait for my downfall.

“Perhaps he can be tricked,” they say;

“then we can catch him and get revenge.”

11 But you, Lord, are on my side, strong and mighty,

and those who persecute me will fail.

They will be disgraced forever,

because they cannot succeed.

Their disgrace will never be forgotten.

12 But, Almighty Lord, you test people justly;

you know what is in their hearts and minds.

So let me see you take revenge on my enemies,

for I have placed my cause in your hands.

13 Sing to the Lord!

Praise the Lord!

He rescues the oppressed from the power of evil people.

14 Curse the day I was born!

Forget the day my mother gave me birth!

15 Curse the one who made my father glad

by bringing him the news,

“It’s a boy! You have a son!”

16 May he be like those cities

that the Lord destroyed without mercy.

May he hear cries of pain in the morning

and the battle alarm at noon,

17 for not killing me before I was born.

Then my mother’s womb would have been my grave.

18 Why was I born?

Was it only to have trouble and sorrow,

to end my life in disgrace?

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/20-bd5a77367e9b70e3a29e612830e9a21f.mp3?version_id=68—

Jerusalem’s Defeat Is Predicted

1 King Zedekiah of Judah sent to me Pashhur son of Malchiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah with this request:

2 “Please speak to the Lord for us, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army are besieging the city. Maybe the Lord will perform one of his miracles for us and force Nebuchadnezzar to retreat.”

3 Then the Lord spoke to me, and I told those who had been sent to me

4 to tell Zedekiah that the Lord, the God of Israel, had said, “Zedekiah, I am going to defeat your army that is fighting against the king of Babylonia and his army. I will pile up your soldiers’ weapons in the center of the city.

5 I will fight against you with all my might, my anger, my wrath, and my fury.

6 I will kill everyone living in this city; people and animals alike will die of a terrible disease.

7 But as for you, your officials, and the people who survive the war, the famine, and the disease—I will let all of you be captured by King Nebuchadnezzar and by your enemies, who want to kill you. Nebuchadnezzar will put you to death. He will not spare any of you or show mercy or pity to any of you. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

8 Then the Lord told me to say to the people, “Listen! I, the Lord, am giving you a choice between the way that leads to life and the way that leads to death.

9 Anyone who stays in the city will be killed in war or by starvation or disease. But those who go out and surrender to the Babylonians, who are now attacking the city, will not be killed; they will at least escape with their life.

10 I have made up my mind not to spare this city, but to destroy it. It will be given over to the king of Babylonia, and he will burn it to the ground. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Judgment on the Royal House of Judah

11-12 The Lord told me to give this message to the royal house of Judah, the descendants of David: “Listen to what I, the Lord, am saying. See that justice is done every day. Protect the person who is being cheated from the one who is cheating him. If you don’t, the evil you are doing will make my anger burn like a fire that cannot be put out.

13 You, Jerusalem, are sittinghigh above the valleys, like a rock rising above the plain. But I will fight against you. You say that no one can attack you or break through your defenses.

14 But I will punish you for what you have done. I will set your palace on fire, and the fire will burn down everything around it. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/21-2bb731c5efd4ebc27aada8df61a5d882.mp3?version_id=68—

Jeremiah’s Message to the Royal House of Judah

1-2 The Lord told me to go to the palace of the king of Judah, the descendant of David, and there tell the king, his officials, and the people of Jerusalem to listen to what the Lord had said:

3 “I, the Lord, command you to do what is just and right. Protect the person who is being cheated from the one who is cheating him. Do not mistreat or oppress aliens, orphans, or widows; and do not kill innocent people in this holy place.

4 If you really do as I have commanded, then David’s descendants will continue to be kings. And they, together with their officials and their people, will continue to pass through the gates of this palace in chariots and on horses.

5 But if you do not obey my commands, then I swear to you that this palace will fall into ruins. I, the Lord, have spoken.

6 “To me, Judah’s royal palace is as beautiful as the land of Gilead and as the Lebanon Mountains; but I will make it a desolate place where no one lives.

7 I am sending men to destroy it. They will all bring their axes, cut down its beautiful cedar pillars, and throw them into the fire.

8 “Afterward many foreigners will pass by and ask one another why I, the Lord, have done such a thing to this great city.

9 Then they will answer that it is because you have abandoned your covenant with me, your God, and have worshiped and served other gods.”

Jeremiah’s Message concerning Joahaz

10 People of Judah, do not weep for King Josiah;

do not mourn his death.

But weep bitterly for Joahaz, his son;

they are taking him away, never to return,

never again to see the land where he was born.

11 The Lord says concerning Josiah’s son Joahaz, who succeeded his father as king of Judah, “He has gone away from here, never to return.

12 He will die in the country where they have taken him, and he will never again see this land.”

Jeremiah’s Message concerning Jehoiakim

13 Doomed is the one who builds his house by injustice

and enlarges it by dishonesty;

who makes his people work for nothing

and does not pay their wages.

14 Doomed is the one who says,

“I will build myself a mansion

with spacious rooms upstairs.”

So he puts windows in his house,

panels it with cedar,

and paints it red.

15 Does it make you a better king

if you build houses of cedar,

finer than those of others?

Your father enjoyed a full life.

He was always just and fair,

and he prospered in everything he did.

16 He gave the poor a fair trial,

and all went well with him.

That is what it means to know the Lord.

17 But you can only see your selfish interests;

you kill the innocent

and violently oppress your people.

The Lord has spoken.

18 So then, the Lord says about Josiah’s son Jehoiakim, king of Judah,

“No one will mourn his death or say,

‘How terrible, my friend, how terrible!’

No one will weep for him or cry,

‘My lord! My king!’

19 With the funeral honors of a donkey,

he will be dragged away

and thrown outside Jerusalem’s gates.”

Jeremiah’s Message about the Fate of Jerusalem

20 People of Jerusalem, go to Lebanon and shout,

go to the land of Bashan and cry;

call out from the mountains of Moab,

because all your allies have been defeated.

21 The Lord spoke to you when you were prosperous,

but you refused to listen.

That is what you’ve done all your life;

you never would obey the Lord.

22 Your leaders will be blown away by the wind,

your allies taken as prisoners of war,

your city disgraced and put to shame

because of all the evil you have done.

23 You rest secure among the cedars brought from Lebanon;

but how pitiful you’ll be when pains strike you,

pains like those of a woman in labor.

God’s Judgment on Jehoiachin

24 The Lord said to King Jehoiachin, son of King Jehoiakim of Judah, “As surely as I am the living God, even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off

25 and give you to people you are afraid of, people who want to kill you. I will give you to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his soldiers.

26 I am going to force you and your mother into exile. You will go to a country where neither of you was born, and both of you will die there.

27 You will long to see this country again, but you will never return.”

28 I said, “Has King Jehoiachin become like a broken jar that is thrown away and that no one wants? Is that why he and his children have been taken into exile to a land they know nothing about?”

29 O land, land, land!

Listen to what the Lord has said:

30 “This man is condemned to lose his children,

to be a man who will never succeed.

He will have no descendants

who will rule in Judah

as David’s successors.

I, the Lord, have spoken.”

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/22-b395d4976454806f759a7dc94846cc7d.mp3?version_id=68—

Hope for the Future

1 How terrible will be the Lord’s judgment on those rulers who destroy and scatter his people!

2 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the rulers who were supposed to take care of his people: “You have not taken care of my people; you have scattered them and driven them away. Now I am going to punish you for the evil you have done.

3 I will gather the rest of my people from the countries where I have scattered them, and I will bring them back to their homeland. They will have many children and increase in number.

4 I will appoint rulers to take care of them. My people will no longer be afraid or terrified, and I will not punish them again.I, the Lord, have spoken.”

5 The Lord says, “The time is coming when I will choose as king a righteous descendant of David. That king will rule wisely and do what is right and just throughout the land.

6 When he is king, the people of Judah will be safe, and the people of Israel will live in peace. He will be called ‘The Lord Our Salvation.’

7 “The time is coming,” says the Lord, “when people will no longer swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

8 Instead, they will swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of a northern land and out of all the other countries where I had scattered them. Then they will live in their own land.”

Jeremiah’s Message about the Prophets

9 My heart is crushed,

and I am trembling.

Because of the Lord,

because of his holy words,

I am like a man who is drunk,

someone who has had too much wine.

10 The land is full of people unfaithful to the Lord;

they live wicked lives and misuse their power.

Because of the Lord’s curse the land mourns

and the pastures are dry.

11 The Lord says,

“The prophets and the priests are godless;

I have caught them doing evil in the Temple itself.

12 The paths they follow will be slippery and dark;

I will make them stumble and fall.

I am going to bring disaster on them;

the time of their punishment is coming.

I, the Lord, have spoken.

13 I have seen the sin of Samaria’s prophets:

they have spoken in the name of Baal

and have led my people astray.

14 But I have seen the prophets in Jerusalem do even worse:

they commit adultery and tell lies;

they help people to do wrong,

so that no one stops doing what is evil.

To me they are all as bad

as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

15 “So then, this is what I, the Lord Almighty, say about the prophets of Jerusalem:

I will give them bitter plants to eat

and poison to drink,

because they have spread ungodliness throughout the land.”

16 The Lord Almighty said to the people of Jerusalem, “Do not listen to what the prophets say; they are filling you with false hopes. They tell you what they have imagined and not what I have said.

17 To the people who refuse to listen to what I have said, they keep saying that all will go well with them. And they tell everyone who is stubborn that disaster will never touch them.”

18 I said, “None of these prophets has ever known the Lord’s secret thoughts. None of them has ever heard or understood his message, or ever listened or paid attention to what he said.

19 His anger is a storm, a furious wind that will rage over the heads of the wicked,

20 and it will not end until he has done everything he intends to do. In days to come his people will understand this clearly.”

21 The Lord said, “I did not send these prophets, but even so they went. I did not give them any message, but still they spoke in my name.

22 If they had known my secret thoughts, then they could have proclaimed my message to my people and could have made them give up the evil lives they live and the wicked things they do.

23 “I am a God who is everywhere and not in one place only.

24 No one can hide where I cannot see them. Do you not know that I am everywhere in heaven and on earth?

25 I know what those prophets have said who speak lies in my name and claim that I have given them my messages in their dreams.

26 How much longer will those prophets mislead my people with the lies they have invented?

27 They think that the dreams they tell will make my people forget me, just as their ancestors forgot me and turned to Baal.

28 The prophet who has had a dream should say it is only a dream, but the prophet who has heard my message should proclaim that message faithfully. What good is straw compared with wheat?

29 My message is like a fire and like a hammer that breaks rocks in pieces.

30 I am against those prophets who take each other’s words and proclaim them as my message.

31 I am also against those prophets who speak their own words and claim they came from me.

32 Listen to what I, the Lord, say! I am against the prophets who tell their dreams that are full of lies. They tell these dreams and lead my people astray with their lies and their boasting. I did not send them or order them to go, and they are of no help at all to the people. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

The Lord’s Burden

33 The Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, when one of my people or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the Lord’s message?’ you are to say, ‘You are a burdento the Lord, and he is going to get rid of you.’

34 If any of my people or a prophet or a priest even uses the words ‘the Lord’s burden,’ I will punish them and their families.

35 Instead, each one of them should ask their friends and their relatives, ‘What answer has the Lord given? What has the Lord said?’

36 So they must no longer use the words ‘the Lord’s burden,’ because if any of them do, I will make my message a real burden to them. The people have perverted the words of their God, the living God, the Lord Almighty.

37 Jeremiah, ask the prophets, ‘What answer did the Lord give you? What did the Lord say?’

38 And if they disobey my command and use the words ‘the Lord’s burden,’ then tell them that

39 I will certainly pick them upand throw them far away from me, both them and the city that I gave to them and their ancestors.

40 I will bring on them everlasting shame and disgrace that will never be forgotten.”

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/23-e7824948b7c232afaa489a744d44dc48.mp3?version_id=68—

Two Baskets of Figs

1 The Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the Temple. (This was after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia had taken away Jehoiakim’s son, King Jehoiachin of Judah, as a prisoner from Jerusalem to Babylonia, together with the leaders of Judah, the craftworkers, and the skilled workers.)

2 The first basket contained good figs, those that ripen early; the other one contained bad figs, too bad to eat.

3 Then the Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, what do you see?”

I answered, “Figs. The good ones are very good, and the bad ones are very bad, too bad to eat.”

4 So the Lord said to me,

5 “I, the Lord, the God of Israel, consider that the people who were taken away to Babylonia are like these good figs, and I will treat them with kindness.

6 I will watch over them and bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not pull them up.

7 I will give them the desire to know that I am the Lord. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God, because they will return to me with all their heart.

8 “As for King Zedekiah of Judah, the politicians around him, and the rest of the people of Jerusalem who have stayed in this land or moved to Egypt—I, the Lord, will treat them all like these figs that are too bad to be eaten.

9 I will bring such a disaster on them that all the nations of the world will be terrified. People will make fun of them, make jokes about them, ridicule them, and use their name as a curse everywhere I scatter them.

10 I will bring war, starvation, and disease on them until there is not one of them left in the land that I gave to them and their ancestors.”

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/24-2baf2837c7ea3a9238bdedddc72687bc.mp3?version_id=68—

The Enemy from the North

1 In the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah, I received a message from the Lord concerning all the people of Judah. (This was the first year that Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylonia.)

2 I said to all the people of Judah and of Jerusalem,

3 “For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon was king of Judah until this very day, the Lord has spoken to me, and I have never failed to tell you what he said. But you have paid no attention.

4 You would not listen or pay attention, even though the Lord has continued to send you his servants the prophets.

5 They told you to turn from your wicked way of life and from the evil things you are doing, so that you could go on living in the land that the Lord gave you and your ancestors as a permanent possession.

6 They told you not to worship and serve other gods and not to make the Lord angry by worshiping the idols you had made. If you had obeyed the Lord, then he would not have punished you.

7 But the Lord himself says that you refused to listen to him. Instead, you made him angry with your idols and have brought his punishment on yourselves.

8 “So then, because you would not listen to him, the Lord Almighty says,

9 ‘I am going to send for all the peoples from the north and for my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. I am going to bring them to fight against Judah and its inhabitants and against all the neighboring nations. I am going to destroy this nation and its neighbors and leave them in ruins forever, a terrible and shocking sight. I, the Lord, have spoken.

10 I will silence their shouts of joy and gladness and the happy sounds of wedding feasts. They will have no oil for their lamps, and there will be no more grain.

11 This whole land will be left in ruins and will be a shocking sight, and the neighboring nations will serve the king of Babylonia for seventy years.

12 After that I will punish Babylonia and its king for their sin. I will destroy that country and leave it in ruins forever.

13 I will punish Babylonia with all the disasters that I threatened to bring on the nations when I spoke through Jeremiah—all the disasters recorded in this book.

14 I will pay the Babylonians back for what they have done, and many nations and great kings will make slaves of them.’”

God’s Judgment on the Nations

15 The Lord, the God of Israel, said to me, “Here is a wine cup filled with my anger. Take it to all the nations to whom I send you, and make them drink from it.

16 When they drink from it, they will stagger and go out of their minds because of the war I am sending against them.”

17 So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand, gave it to all the nations to whom the Lord had sent me, and made them drink from it.

18 Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah, together with its kings and leaders, were made to drink from it, so that they would become a desert, a terrible and shocking sight, and so that people would use their name as a curse—as they still do.

19-26 Here is the list of all the others who had to drink from the cup:

the king of Egypt, his officials and leaders;

all the Egyptians and all the foreigners in Egypt;

all the kings of the land of Uz;

all the kings of the Philistine cities of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what remains of Ashdod;

all the people of Edom, Moab, and Ammon;

all the kings of Tyre and Sidon;

all the kings of the Mediterranean lands;

the cities of Dedan, Tema, and Buz;

all the people who cut their hair short;

all the kings of Arabia;

all the kings of the desert tribes;

all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media;

all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another.

Every nation on the face of the earth had to drink from it. Last of all, the king of Babylonia will drink from it.

27 Then the Lord said to me, “Tell the people that I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, am commanding them to drink until they are drunk and vomit, until they fall down and cannot get up, because of the war that I am sending against them.

28 And if they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink from it, then tell them that the Lord Almighty has said that they will still have to drink from it.

29 I will begin my work of destruction in my own city. Do they think they will go unpunished? No, they will be punished, for I am going to send war on all the people on earth. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken.

30 “You, Jeremiah, must proclaim everything I have said. You must tell these people,

‘The Lord will roar from heaven

and thunder from the heights of heaven.

He will roar against his people;

he will shout like a man treading grapes.

Everyone on earth will hear him,

31 and the sound will echo to the ends of the earth.

The Lord has a case against the nations.

He will bring all people to trial

and put the wicked to death.

The Lord has spoken.’”

32 The Lord Almighty says that disaster is coming on one nation after another, and a great storm is gathering at the far ends of the earth.

33 On that day the bodies of those whom the Lord has killed will lie scattered from one end of the earth to the other. No one will mourn for them, and they will not be taken away and buried. They will lie on the ground like piles of manure.

34 Cry, you leaders, you shepherds of my people, cry out loud! Mourn and roll in the dust. The time has come for you to be slaughtered,and you will be butchered like rams.

35 There will be no way for you to escape.

36-37 You moan and cry out in distress because the Lord in his anger has destroyed your nation and left your peaceful country in ruins.

38 The Lord has abandoned his peoplelike a lion that leaves its cave. The horrors of war and the Lord’s fierce anger have turned the country into a desert.

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/25-7083773eda1ec147faff19601566d172.mp3?version_id=68—

Jeremiah Is Brought to Trial

1 Soon after Jehoiakim son of Josiah became king of Judah,

2 the Lord said to me, “Stand in the court of the Temple and proclaim all I have commanded you to say to the people who come from the towns of Judah to worship there. Do not leave out anything.

3 Perhaps the people will listen and give up their evil ways. If they do, then I will change my mind about the destruction I plan to bring on them for all their wicked deeds.”

4 The Lord told me to say to the people, “I, the Lord, have said that you must obey me by following the teaching that I gave you,

5 and by paying attention to the words of my servants, the prophets, whom I have kept on sending to you. You have never obeyed what they said.

6 If you continue to disobey, then I will do to this Temple what I did to Shiloh,and all the nations of the world will use the name of this city as a curse.”

7 The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard me saying these things in the Temple,

8 and as soon as I had finished all that the Lord had commanded me to speak, they grabbed me and shouted, “You ought to be killed for this!

9 Why have you said in the Lord’s name that this Temple will become like Shiloh and that this city will be destroyed and no one will live in it?” Then the people crowded around me.

10 When the leaders of Judah heard what had happened, they hurried from the royal palace to the Temple and took their places at the New Gate.

11 Then the priests and the prophets said to the leaders and to the people, “This man deserves to be sentenced to death because he has spoken against our city. You heard him with your own ears.”

12 Then I said, “The Lord sent me to proclaim everything that you heard me say against this Temple and against this city.

13 You must change the way you are living and the things you are doing, and must obey the Lord your God. If you do, he will change his mind about the destruction that he said he would bring on you.

14 As for me, I am in your power! Do with me whatever you think is fair and right.

15 But be sure of this: if you kill me, you and the people of this city will be guilty of killing an innocent man, because it is the Lord who sent me to give you this warning.”

16 Then the leaders and the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man spoke to us in the name of the Lord our God; he should not be put to death.”

17 After that, some of the elders stood up and said to the people who had gathered,

18 “When Hezekiah was king of Judah, the prophet Micah of Moresheth told all the people that the Lord Almighty had said,

‘Zion will be plowed like a field;

Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins,

and the Temple hill will become a forest.’

19 King Hezekiah and the people of Judah did not put Micah to death. Instead, Hezekiah honored the Lord and tried to win his favor. And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he said he would bring on them. Now we are about to bring a terrible disaster on ourselves.”

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20 There was another man, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim, who spoke in the name of the Lord against this city and nation just as Jeremiah did.

21 When King Jehoiakim and his soldiers and officials heard what Uriah had said, the king tried to have him killed. But Uriah heard about it; so he fled in terror and escaped to Egypt.

22 King Jehoiakim, however, sent Elnathan son of Achbor and some other men to Egypt to get Uriah.

23 They brought him back to King Jehoiakim, who had him killed and his body thrown into the public burial ground.)

24 But because I had the support of Ahikam son of Shaphan, I was not handed over to the people and killed.

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/26-bce7c31abd92c338de93c2f302250552.mp3?version_id=68—

Jeremiah Wears an Ox Yoke

1 Soon after Josiah’s son Zedekiah became king of Judah, the Lord told me

2 to make myself a yoke out of leather straps and wooden crossbars and to put it on my neck.

3 Then the Lord told me to send a messageto the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through their ambassadors who had come to Jerusalem to see King Zedekiah.

4 The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, told me to command them to tell their kings that the Lord had said:

5 “By my great power and strength I created the world, human beings, and all the animals that live on the earth; and I give it to anyone I choose.

6 I am the one who has placed all these nations under the power of my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, and I have made even the wild animals serve him.

7 All nations will serve him, and they will serve his son and his grandson until the time comes for his own nation to fall. Then his nation will serve powerful nations and great kings.

8 “But if any nation or kingdom will not submit to his rule, then I will punish that nation by war, starvation, and disease until I have let Nebuchadnezzar destroy it completely.

9 Do not listen to your prophets or to those who claim they can predict the future, either by dreams or by calling up the spirits of the dead or by magic. They all tell you not to submit to the king of Babylonia.

10 They are deceiving you and will cause you to be taken far away from your country. I will drive you out, and you will be destroyed.

11 But if any nation submits to the king of Babylonia and serves him, then I will let it stay on in its own land, to farm it and live there. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

12 I said the same thing to King Zedekiah of Judah, “Submit to the king of Babylonia. Serve him and his people, and you will live.

13 Why should you and your people die in war or of starvation or disease? That is what the Lord has said will happen to any nation that does not submit to the king of Babylonia.

14 Do not listen to the prophets who tell you not to surrender to him. They are deceiving you.

15 The Lord himself has said that he did not send them and that they are lying to you in his name. And so he will drive you out, and you will be killed, you and the prophets who are telling you these lies.”

16 Then I told the priests and the people that the Lord had said: “Do not listen to the prophets who say that the Temple treasures will soon be brought back from Babylonia. They are lying to you.

17 Don’t listen to them! Submit to the king of Babylonia and you will live! Why should this city become a pile of ruins?

18 If they are really prophets and if they have my message, let them ask me, the Lord Almighty, not to allow the treasures that remain in the Temple and in the royal palace to be taken to Babylonia.”

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19-20 When King Nebuchadnezzar took away to Babylonia the king of Judah, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, and the leading men of Judah and Jerusalem, he left the columns, the bronze tank, the carts, and some of the other Temple treasures.)

21 “Listen to what I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, say about the treasures that are left in the Temple and in the royal palace in Jerusalem:

22 They will be taken to Babylonia and will remain there until I turn my attention to them. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

—https://cdn-youversionapi.global.ssl.fastly.net/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/27-d79d35f02b8729c7f3540a8f03053e53.mp3?version_id=68—