The Lord Will Punish Judah
The Lord said:
1 People of Judah,
your sins cannot be erased.
They are written on your hearts
like words chiseled in stone
or carved on the corners
of your altars.
* 2 One generation after another
has set up pagan altars
and worshiped the goddess Asherah
everywhere in your country—
on hills and mountains,
and under large trees.
3 So I'll take everything you own,
including your altars,
and give it all
to your enemies.
4 You will lose the land
that I gave you,
and I will make you slaves
in a foreign country,
because you have made my anger
blaze up like a fire
that won't stop burning.
Trust the Lord
5 I, the Lord, have put a curse
on those who turn from me
and trust in human strength.
6 They will dry up like a bush
in salty desert soil,
where nothing can grow.
7 But I will bless those
who trust me, the Lord.
8 They will be like trees
growing beside a stream—
trees with roots that reach
down to the water,
and with leaves
that are always green.
They bear fruit every year
and are never worried
by a lack of rain.
9 You people of Judah
are so deceitful
that you even fool yourselves,
and you can't change.
10 But I know your deeds
and your thoughts,
and I will make sure
you get what you deserve.
11 You cheated others,
but everything you gained
will fly away, like birds
hatched from stolen eggs.
Then you will discover
what fools you are.
Jeremiah Prays to the Lord
12 Our Lord, your temple
is a glorious throne
that has stood on a mountain
from the beginning.
13 You are a spring of water
giving Israel life and hope.
But if the people reject
what you have told me,
they will be swept away
like words written in dust.
14 You, Lord, are the one I praise.
So heal me and rescue me!
Then I will be completely well
and perfectly safe.
15 The people of Judah say to me,
“Jeremiah, you claimed to tell us
what the Lord has said.
So why hasn't it come true?”
16 Our Lord, you chose me
to care for your people,
and that's what I have done.
You know everything I have said,
and I have never once
asked you to punish them.
17 I trust you for protection
in times of trouble,
so don't frighten me.
18 Keep me from failure
and disgrace,
but make my enemies fail
and be disgraced.
Send destruction to make
their worst fears come true.
Resting on the Sabbath
19-20 The Lord said:
Jeremiah, stand at each city gate in Jerusalem, including the one the king uses, and speak to him and everyone else. Tell them I have said:
I am the Lord, so pay attention. 21-24 If you value your lives, don't do any work on the Sabbath. Don't carry anything through the city gates or through the door of your house, or anywhere else. Keep the Sabbath day sacred!
I gave this command to your ancestors, but they were stubborn and refused to obey or to be corrected. But if you obey, 25 then Judah and Jerusalem will always be ruled by kings from David's family. The king and his officials will ride through these gates on horses or in chariots, and the people of Judah and Jerusalem will be with them. There will always be people living in Jerusalem, 26 and others will come here from the nearby villages, from the towns of Judah and Benjamin, from the hill country and the foothills to the west, and from the Southern Desert. They will bring sacrifices to please me and to give me thanks, as well as offerings of grain and incense.
27 But if you keep on carrying things through the city gates on the Sabbath and keep treating it as any other day, I will set fire to these gates and burn down the whole city, including the fortresses.
1 The sinne of Iudah is written with a pen of yron, and with the poynt of a diamonde, and grauen vpon the table of their heart, and vpon the hornes of your altars. 2 They remember their altars as their children, with their groues by the greene trees vpon the hilles. 3 O my mountaine in the fielde, I will giue thy substance, and all thy treasures to be spoyled, for the sinne of thy high places throughout all thy borders. 4 And thou shalt rest, and in thee shall be a rest from thine heritage that I gaue thee, and I will cause thee to serue thine enemies in the land, which thou knowest not: for yee haue kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burne for euer. 5 Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arme, and withdraweth his heart from the Lord. 6 For he shall be like the heath in the wildernesse, and shall not see when any good commeth, but shall inhabite the parched places in the wildernesse, in a salt land, and not inhabited. 7 Blessed be the man, that trusteth in ye Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. 8 For he shall be as a tree that is planted by the water, which spreadeth out her rootes by the riuer, and shall not feele when the heate commeth, but her leafe shall be greene, and shall not care for the yeere of drought, neyther shall cease from yeelding fruit. 9 The heart is deceitfull and wicked aboue all things, who can knowe it? 10 I the Lord search the heart, and try ye reines, euen to giue euery man according to his wayes, and according to the fruite of his workes. 11 As the partryche gathereth the yong, which she hath not brought forth: so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leaue them in the middes of his dayes, and at his ende shall bee a foole. 12 As a glorious throne exalted from the beginning, so is the place of our Sanctuarie. 13 O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee, shall be confounded: they that depart from thee, shalbe written in the earth, because they haue forsaken the Lord, the fountaine of liuing waters. 14 Heale me, O Lord, and I shall bee whole: saue me, and I shall bee saued: for thou art my prayse. 15 Behold, they say vnto me, Where is the word of the Lord? let it come nowe. 16 But I haue not thrust in my selfe for a pastour after thee, neither haue I desired the day of miserie, thou knowest: that which came out of my lips, was right before thee. 17 Be not terrible vnto mee: thou art mine hope in the day of aduersitie. 18 Let them bee confounded, that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be afraide, but let not me be afraide: bring vpon them the day of aduersitie, and destroy them with double destruction. 19 Thus hath the Lord said vnto me, Goe and stande in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the Kings of Iudah come in, and by the which they goe out, and in all ye gates of Ierusalem, 20 And say vnto them, Heare the word of the Lord, ye Kings of Iudah, and al Iudah, and all the inhabitants of Ierusale, that enter in by these gates. 21 Thus sayth the Lord, Take heede to your soules, and beare no burden in the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Ierusalem. 22 Neither cary foorth burdens out of your houses in the Sabbath day: neither doe yee any worke, but sanctifie the Sabbath, as I commanded your fathers. 23 But they obeied not, neither inclined their eares, but made their neckes stiffe and would not heare, nor receiue correction. 24 Neuerthelesse if ye will heare me, sayth the Lord, and beare no burden through the gates of the citie in the Sabbath day, but sanctifie ye Sabbath day, so that ye do no worke therein, 25 Then shall the Kings and the princes enter in at the gates of this citie, and shall sit vpon the throne of Dauid, and shall ride vpon charets, and vpon horses, both they and their princes, the men of Iudah, and the inhabitants of Ierusalem: and this citie shall remaine for euer. 26 And they shall come from the cities of Iudah, and from about Ierusalem, and from the land of Beniamin, and from the plaine, and from the mountaines, and from the South, which shall bring burnt offrings, and sacrifices, and meate offrings, and incense, and shall bring sacrifice of prayse into the house of the Lord. 27 But if ye will not heare me to sanctifie the Sabbath day, and not to beare a burden nor to go through the gates of Ierusalem in the Sabbath day, then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall deuoure the palaces of Ierusalem, and it shall not be quenched.