Jeremiah 14:11-16:15

New King James Version

¹¹Then the Lord said to me, ^(A)“Do not pray for this people, for their good. ¹²^(B)When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and ^(C)when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But ^(D)I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.”

¹³^(E)Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you ^[a]assured ^(F)peace in this place.’ ”

¹⁴And the Lord said to me, ^(G)“The prophets prophesy lies in My name. ^(H)I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, ^[b]divination, a worthless thing, and the ^(I)deceit of their heart. ¹⁵Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, whom I did not send, ^(J)and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land’—‘By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed! ¹⁶And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; ^(K)they will have no one to bury them—them nor their wives, their sons nor their daughters—for I will pour their wickedness on them.’

¹⁷“Therefore you shall say this word to them:

^(L)‘Let my eyes flow with tears night and day,
And let them not cease;
^(M)For the virgin daughter of my people
Has been broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow.
¹⁸If I go out to ^(N)the field,
Then behold, those slain with the sword!
And if I enter the city,
Then behold, those sick from famine!
Yes, both prophet and ^(O)priest go about in a land they do not know.’ ”

The People Plead for Mercy

¹⁹^(P)Have You utterly rejected Judah?
Has Your soul loathed Zion?
Why have You stricken us so that ^(Q)there is no healing for us?
^(R)We looked for peace, but there was no good;
And for the time of healing, and there was trouble.
²⁰We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness
And the iniquity of our ^(S)fathers,
For ^(T)we have sinned against You.
²¹Do not abhor us, for Your name’s sake;
Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory.
^(U)Remember, do not break Your covenant with us.
²²^(V)Are there any among ^(W)the idols of the nations that can cause ^(X)rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
^(Y)Are You not He, O Lord our God?
Therefore we will wait for You,
Since You have made all these.

The Lord Will Not Relent

15 Then the Lord said to me, ^(Z)“Even if ^(AA)Moses and ^(AB)Samuel stood before Me, My ^[c]mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth. ²And it shall be, if they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord:

^(AC)“Such as are for death, to death;
And such as are for the sword, to the sword;
And such as are for the famine, to the famine;
And such as are for the ^(AD)captivity, to the captivity.” ’

³“And I will ^(AE)appoint over them four forms of destruction,” says the Lord: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, ^(AF)the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. ⁴I will hand them over to ^(AG)trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of ^(AH)Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

⁵“For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem?
Or who will bemoan you?
Or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing?
⁶^(AI)You have forsaken Me,” says the Lord,
“You have ^(AJ)gone backward.
Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you;
^(AK)I am ^[d]weary of relenting!
⁷And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land;
I will ^(AL)bereave them of children;
I will destroy My people,
Since they ^(AM)do not return from their ways.
⁸Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas;
I will bring against them,
Against the mother of the young men,
A plunderer at noonday;
I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them ^(AN)suddenly.

⁹“She^(AO) languishes who has borne seven;
She has breathed her last;
^(AP)Her sun has gone down
While it was yet day;
She has been ashamed and confounded.
And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword
Before their enemies,” says the Lord.

Jeremiah’s Dejection

¹⁰^(AQ)Woe is me, my mother,
That you have borne me,
A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole ^[e]earth!
I have neither lent for interest,
Nor have men lent to me for interest.
Every one of them curses me.

¹¹The Lord said:

“Surely it will be well with your remnant;
Surely I will cause ^(AR)the enemy to intercede with you
In the time of adversity and in the time of affliction.
¹²Can anyone break iron,
The northern iron and the bronze?
¹³Your wealth and your treasures
I will give as ^(AS)plunder without price,
Because of all your sins,
Throughout your territories.
¹⁴And I will ^[f]make you cross over with your enemies
^(AT)Into a land which you do not know;
For a ^(AU)fire is kindled in My anger,
Which shall burn upon you.”

¹⁵O Lord, ^(AV)You know;
Remember me and ^[g]visit me,
And ^(AW)take vengeance for me on my persecutors.
In Your enduring patience, do not take me away.
Know that ^(AX)for Your sake I have suffered rebuke.
¹⁶Your words were found, and I ^(AY)ate them,
And ^(AZ)Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;
For I am called by Your name,
O Lord God of hosts.
¹⁷^(BA)I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers,
Nor did I rejoice;
I sat alone because of Your hand,
For You have filled me with indignation.
¹⁸Why is my ^(BB)pain perpetual
And my wound incurable,
Which refuses to be healed?
Will You surely be to me ^(BC)like an unreliable stream,
As waters that ^[h]fail?

The Lord Reassures Jeremiah

¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord:

^(BD)“If you return,
Then I will bring you back;
You shall ^(BE)stand before Me;
If you ^(BF)take out the precious from the vile,
You shall be as My mouth.
Let them return to you,
But you must not return to them.
²⁰And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze ^(BG)wall;
And they will fight against you,
But ^(BH)they shall not prevail against you;
For I am with you to save you
And deliver you,” says the Lord.
²¹“I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.”

Jeremiah’s Lifestyle and Message

16 The word of the Lord also came to me, saying, ²“You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.” ³For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land: ⁴“They shall die ^(BI)gruesome deaths; they shall not be ^(BJ)lamented nor shall they be ^(BK)buried, but they shall be ^(BL)like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their ^(BM)corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”

⁵For thus says the Lord: ^(BN)“Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people,” says the Lord, “lovingkindness and mercies. ⁶Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; ^(BO)neither shall men lament for them, ^(BP)cut themselves, nor ^(BQ)make themselves bald for them. ⁷Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to ^(BR)drink for their father or their mother. ⁸Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”

⁹For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, ^(BS)I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of ^[i]mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰“And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ^(BT)‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ ¹¹then you shall say to them, ^(BU)‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the Lord; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. ¹²And you have done ^(BV)worse than your fathers, for behold, ^(BW)each one ^[j]follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me. ¹³^(BX)Therefore I will cast you out of this land ^(BY)into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’

God Will Restore Israel^(BZ)

¹⁴“Therefore behold, the ^(CA)days are coming,” says the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ ¹⁵but, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the ^(CB)north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For ^(CC)I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.