Jeremiah 16-18

English Standard Version

Famine, Sword, and Death

16 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. ³ For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: ^4 (A)They shall die of deadly diseases. ^(B)They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. ^(C)They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. ^(D)They shall perish by the sword and by famine, ^(E)and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.

⁵ “For thus says the Lord: ^(F)Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the Lord. ⁶ Both great and small shall die in this land. ^(G)They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or ^(H)cut himself ^(I)or make himself bald for them. ⁷ No one shall ^(J)break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother. ⁸ You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. ⁹ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(K)Behold, I will silence in 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.

¹⁰ “And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ^(L)‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ ¹¹ then you shall say to them: ^(M)‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and ^(N)have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, ¹² and because ^(O)you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, ^(P)every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. ¹³ Therefore ^(Q)I will hurl you out of this land into ^(R)a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, ^(S)and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

The Lord Will Restore Israel

^14 (T)“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ^(U)‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ ¹⁵ but ^(V)‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel ^(W)out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For ^(X)I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶ “Behold, ^(Y)I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out ^(Z)of the clefts of the rocks. ¹⁷ For ^(AA)my eyes are on all their ways. ^(AB)They are not hidden from me, ^(AC)nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸ But first ^(AD)I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and ^(AE)have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

²¹ “Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that ^(AK)my name is the Lord.”

The Sin of Judah

17 “The sin of Judah is written with ^(AL)a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on ^(AM)the tablet of their heart, and on ^(AN)the horns of their altars, ² while ^(AO)their children remember their altars and their ^(AP)Asherim, ^(AQ)beside every green tree and on the high hills, ^3 (AR)on the mountains in the open country. ^(AS)Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. ⁴ You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, ^(AT)and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, ^(AU)for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”

Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance

Keep the Sabbath Holy

¹⁹ Thus said the Lord to me: “Go and stand in the People's Gate, by which ^(BX)the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, ²⁰ and say: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, ^(BY)you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. ²¹ Thus says the Lord: Take care for the sake of your lives, and ^(BZ)do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. ²² And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath ^(CA)or do any work, but ^(CB)keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. ²³ Yet ^(CC)they did not listen or incline their ear, ^(CD)but stiffened their neck, that they ^(CE)might not hear and receive instruction.

²⁴ “‘But if you listen to me, declares the Lord, and ^(CF)bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but ^(CG)keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, ²⁵ then ^(CH)there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever. ²⁶ And people shall come from ^(CI)the cities of Judah ^(CJ)and the places around Jerusalem, ^(CK)from the land of Benjamin, ^(CL)from the Shephelah, from the hill country, ^(CM)and from ^(CN)the Negeb, bringing ^(CO)burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and ^(CP)bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord. ²⁷ But if you do not listen to me, to ^(CQ)keep the Sabbath day holy, ^(CR)and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will ^(CS)kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall ^(CT)devour the palaces of Jerusalem and ^(CU)shall not be quenched.’”

The Potter and the Clay

18 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Arise, and go down to ^(CV)the potter's house, and there I will let you hear^[d] my words.” ³ So I went down to ^(CW)the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. ⁴ And the vessel he was making of clay was ^(CX)spoiled in the potter's hand, and ^(CY)he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁶ “O house of Israel, ^(CZ)can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. ^(DA)Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. ⁷ If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will ^(DB)pluck up and break down and destroy it, ⁸ and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, ^(DC)turns from its evil, ^(DD)I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. ⁹ And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will ^(DE)build and plant it, ¹⁰ and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it. ¹¹ Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. ^(DF)Return, every one from his evil way, and ^(DG)amend your ways and your deeds.’

¹² “But they say, ^(DH)‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to ^(DI)the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

¹⁸ Then they said, ^(DW)“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, ^(DX)for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. ^(DY)Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”