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day 200 and 64
the Lord gave another message to Jeremiah.
He said, go down to the potter's shop and I will speak to you there.
So I did as he told me, and found the potter working at his wheel.
But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into
a lump of clay again and started over.
Then the Lord gave me this message, oh, Israel.
Can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay, as
the clay is in the potter's hand?
So are you in my hand?
If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn
down and destroyed, but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I
will not destroy it as I had planned.
And if I announce that I will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom,
but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it.
As I said, I would therefore Jeremiah go and warn all Judah and Jerusalem say to
them, this is what the Lord says, I am planning disaster for you instead of good.
So turn from your evil ways each of you.
Do what is right, but the people replied, don't waste your breath.
We will continue to live as we want to stubbornly following our own evil desires.
So this is what the Lord says.
Has anyone ever heard of such a thing even among the pagan nations?
My virgin daughter, Israel has done something terrible.
Does the snow ever disappear from the mountaintops of Lebanon?
Do the cold streams flowing from those distant mountains ever run dry?
But my people are not so reliable for, they have deserted me.
They burn incense to worthless idols.
They have stumbled off the ancient highways and walk in muddy paths.
Therefore, their land will become desolate.
A monument to their stupidity.
All who pass by will be astonished and will shake their heads in amazement.
I will scatter my people before their enemies.
As the east wind scatters dust and in all their trouble, I will turn my back on
them and refuse to notice their distress.
Then the people said, come on, let's plot away to stop.
Jeremiah, we have plenty of priests and wise men and prophets.
We don't need him to teach the word and give us advice and prophecies.
Let's spread rumors about him and ignore what he says.
Lord, hear me and help me listen to what my enemies are saying.
Should they repay evil for good?
They have dug a pit to kill me, though I pleaded for them and tried
to protect them from your anger.
So let their children starve.
Let them die by the sword.
Let their wives become childless, widows.
Let their old men die in a plague and let their young men be killed in battle.
Let screaming be heard from their homes as warriors come suddenly upon
them for they have dug a pit for me and have hidden traps along my path.
Lord, you know all about their murderous plots against me.
Don't forgive their crimes and blot out their sins.
Let them die before you deal with them in your anger.
This is what the Lord said to me.
Go and buy a clay jar.
Then ask some of the leaders of the people and of the priests to follow you.
Go out through the gate of broken pots to the garbage dump in the Valley of
Ben Ham and give them this message.
Say to them, listen to this message from the Lord you kings of
Judah and citizens of Jerusalem.
This is what the Lord of Heaven's armies, the God of Israel says, I will bring a
terrible disaster on this place, and the ears of those who hear about it will ring.
For Israel has forsaken me and turned this valley into a place of wickedness.
The people burn incense to foreign gods idols never before acknowledged
by this generation, by their ancestors, or by the kings of Judah.
And they have filled this place with the blood of innocent children.
They have built pagan shrines to Baal, and there they burn
their sons as sacrifices to Baal.
I have never commanded such a horrible deeded.
It never even crossed my mind to command such a thing.
So beware for the time is coming, says the Lord.
When this garbage dump will no longer be called tophi or the Valley of Ben Ham, but
the Valley of slaughter, for I will upset the careful plans of Judah and Jerusalem.
I will allow the people to be slaughtered by invading armies, and I
will leave their dead bodies as food for the vultures and wild animals.
I will reduce Jerusalem to ruins, making it a monument to their stupidity.
All who pass by will be astonished and will gasp at
the destruction they see there.
I will see to it that your enemies lay siege to the city
until all the food is gone.
Then those trapped inside will eat their own sons and daughters and friends.
They will be driven to utter despair as these men watch you.
Jeremiah.
Smash the jar you brought, then say to them, this is what the
Lord of heaven's armies says.
As this jar lies shattered, so I will shatter the people of Judah and
Jerusalem beyond all hope of repair.
They will bury the bodies here in tophi the garbage dump until
there is no more room for them.
This is what I will do to this place and its people, says the Lord, I will cause
this city to become defiled like tophi.
Yes.
All the houses in Jerusalem, including the Palace of Judah's
kings, will become like tophi.
All the houses where you burned incense on the rooftops to your star
gods, and where liquid offerings were poured out to your idols.
Then Jeremiah returned from tophi the garbage dump where he had delivered
this message and he stopped in front of the temple of the Lord.
He said to the people there, This is what the Lord of Heaven's armies, the
God of Israel says, I will bring disaster upon this city and its surrounding
towns as I promised, because you have stubbornly refused to listen to me.
Now pass her son of Immer.
The priest in charge of the temple of the Lord heard what Jeremiah was prophesying,
so he arrested Jeremiah the prophet and had him whipped and put in stocks at
the Benjamin Gate of the Lord's temple.
The next day when Pastor finally released him, Jeremiah said, pastor,
the Lord has changed your name.
From now on, you are to be called the man who lives in terror.
For this is what the Lord says, I will send terror upon you and all your
friends, and you will watch as they're slaughtered by the swords of the enemy.
I will hand the people of Judah over to the King of Babylon.
He will take them captive to Babylon or run them through with the sword, and I
will let your enemies plunder Jerusalem.
All the famed treasures of the city, the precious jewels and gold and silver of
your kings will be carried off to Babylon.
As for you, pastor, you and all your household will go as captives to Babylon.
There you will die and be buried.
You and all your friends to whom you prophesied that
everything would be all right.
Oh Lord, you misled me and I allowed myself to be misled.
You are stronger than I am and you overpowered me.
Now I am mocked every day.
Everyone laughs at me when I speak.
The words burst out violence and destruction.
I shout.
So these messages from the Lord have made me a household joke,
but if I say, I'll never mention the Lord or speak in his name.
His word burns in my heart like a fire.
It's like a fire in my bones.
I am worn out trying to hold it in.
I can't do it.
I have heard the many rumors about me.
They call me the man who lives in terror.
They threaten if you say anything, we will report it.
Even my old friends are watching me waiting for a fatal slip.
He will trap himself, they say, and then.
We will get our revenge on him.
But the Lord stands beside me like a great warrior before him.
My persecutor will stumble.
They cannot defeat me.
They will fail and be thoroughly humiliated.
Their dishonor will never be forgotten.
Oh Lord of heaven's armies.
You test those who are righteous and you examine the deepest thoughts and secrets.
Let me see your vengeance against them for I have committed my cause to you.
Sing to the Lord.
Praise the Lord for though I was poor and needy, he rescued me from my oppressors.
Yet I cursed the day I was born.
May no one celebrate the day of my birth.
I curse the messenger who told my father.
Good news.
You have a son.
Let him be destroyed like the cities of old, that the Lord overthrew
without mercy terrify him all day long with battle shouts because
he did not kill me at birth.
Oh, that I had died in my mother's womb, that her body had been my grave.
Why was I ever born?
My entire life has been filled with trouble, sorrow, and shame.
The Lord spoke through Jeremiah when King Zedekiah sent Pacher
son of Maja and Zephaniah, son of Meia, the priest to speak with him.
They begged.
Jeremiah, please speak to the Lord for us and ask him to help us.
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is attacking Judah.
Perhaps the Lord will be gracious and do a mighty miracle as he has done in the past.
Perhaps he will force Nebuchadnezzar to withdraw his armies.
Jeremiah replied, go back to Kings Tiah and tell him this is what
the Lord the God of Israel says.
I will make your weapons useless against the King of Babylon and the Babylonians
who are outside your walls attacking you.
In fact, I will bring your enemies right into the heart of this city.
I myself will fight against you with a strong hand and a powerful arm.
I.
For I am very angry.
You have made me furious.
I will send a terrible plague upon this city and both people and animals will die.
And after all that says, the Lord, I will hand over King Zedekiah, his
staff and everyone else in the city who survives the disease, war and famine.
I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon
and to their other enemies.
He will slaughter them and show them no mercy.
Pity or compassion.
Tell all the people, this is what the Lord says.
Take your choice of life or death.
Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, famine, or disease,
but those who go out and surrender to the Babylonians will live.
Their reward will be life thrive.
Decided to bring disaster and not good upon this city, says the Lord.
It will be handed over to the king of Babylon and he will reduce it to ashes.
Say to the royal family of Judah.
Listen to this message from the Lord.
This is what the Lord says to the dynasty of David.
Give justice each morning to the people you judge.
Help those who have been robbed rescue them from their oppressors.
Otherwise, my anger will burn like an unquenchable fire
because of all your sins.
I will personally fight against the people in Jerusalem, that mighty
fortress, the people who boast.
No one can touch us here.
No one can break in here, and I myself will punish you for
your sinfulness, says the Lord.
I will light a fire in your forests that will burn up everything around you.
This is what the Lord said to me.
Go over and speak directly to the King of Judah.
Say to him, listen to this message from the Lord.
You king of Judah sitting on David's throne.
Let your attendance and your people listen to this is what the Lord says.
Be fair-minded and just do what is right.
Help those who have been robbed, rescue them from their oppressors.
Quit your evil deeds.
Do not mistreat foreigners, orphans, and widows.
Stop murdering the innocent.
If you obey me, there will always be a descendant of David sitting
on the throne here in Jerusalem.
The king will ride through the palace gates in chariots and on horses with
his parade of attendance and subjects.
But if you refuse to pay attention to this warning, I swear by my
own name, says the Lord, that this palace will become a pile of rubble.
Now this is what the Lord says concerning Judah's royal Palace.
I love you as much as fruitful Gilead and the green forests of Lebanon,
but I will turn you into a desert with no one living within your walls.
I will call for wreckers who will bring out their tools to dismantle you.
They will tear out all your fine cedar beams and throw them on the fire.
People from many nations will pass by the ruins of this city and
say to one another, why did the Lord destroy such a great city?
And the answer will be because they violated their covenant
with the Lord their God.
By worshiping other gods do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss.
Instead, weep for the captive king being led away for he will never
return to see his native land again.
For this is what the Lord says about Jehovah has who succeeded his father King
Josiah, and was taken away as a captive.
He will never return.
He will die in a distant land and will never again see his own country.
And the Lord says, what?
Sorrow awaits.
Je Hoya Kim who builds his palace with forced labor.
He builds injustice into its walls for he makes his neighbors work for nothing.
He does not pay them for their labor.
He says, I will build a magnificent palace with huge rooms and many windows.
I will panel it throughout with fragrant cedar and painted a
lovely red, but a beautiful cedar palace does not make a great king.
Your father, Josiah also had plenty to eat and drink, but he was just
and right in all his dealings.
That is why God blessed him.
He gave justice and help to the poor and needy, and everything went well for him.
Isn't that what it means to know me, says the Lord, but you, you have
eyes only for greed and dishonesty.
You murder the innocent, oppress the poor, and reign ruthlessly.
Therefore, this is what the Lord says about Jo Hoya Kim, son of King Josiah.
The people will not mourn for him.
Crying to one another.
Alas, my brother, alas, my sister, his subjects will not mourn for him.
Crying.
Alas, our master is dead.
Alas, his splendor is gone.
He will be buried like a dead donkey.
Dragged out of Jerusalem and dumped outside the gates.
Weep for your allies in Lebanon.
Shout for them in basin.
Search for them in the regions east of the river.
See, they are all destroyed.
Not one is left to help you.
I warned you when you are prosperous, but you replied, don't bother me.
You have been that way since childhood.
You simply will not obey me.
And now the wind will blow away.
Your allies, all your friends will be taken away as captives.
Surely then you will see your wickedness and be ashamed.
It may be nice to live in a beautiful palace paneled with wood from the
cedars of Lebanon, but soon you will groan with pangs of anguish.
Anguish like that of a woman in labor, as surely as I live, says the Lord.
I will abandon you Je Joa Kin's, son of Je Hoya Kim, king of Judah.
Even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off.
I will hand you over to those who seek to kill you.
Those you sow desperately fear to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and
the mighty Babylonian army, I will expel you and your mother from this
land and you will die in a foreign country, not in your native land.
You will never again return to the land you yearn for.
Why is this man je Hoya, kin like a discarded broken jar?
Why are he and his children to be exiled to a foreign land?
Oh, earth, earth, earth.
Listen to this message from the Lord.
This is what the Lord says.
Let the record show that this man Je Hoa kin was childless.
He is a failure for none of his children will succeed him on the
throne of David to rule over Judah.
What sorrow awaits the leaders of my people, the shepherds of my sheep.
For they have destroyed and scattered the very ones they were
expected to care for, says the Lord.
Therefore, this is what the Lord the God of Israel says to these shepherds.
Instead of caring for my flock and leading them to safety, you have deserted
them and driven them to destruction.
Now I will pour out judgment on you for the evil you have done to them.
I will gather together the remnant of my flock from the countries
where I have driven them.
I will bring them back to their own sheep fold, and they will be
fruitful and increase in number.
Then I will appoint responsible shepherds who will care for them
and they will never be afraid again.
Not a single one will be lost or missing.
I, the Lord have spoken for the time is coming, says the Lord.
When I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David's line, he
will be a king who rules with wisdom.
He will do what is just and right throughout the land,
and this will be his name.
The Lord is our righteousness.
In that day, Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety
in that day, says the Lord.
When people are taking an oath, they will no longer say as surely as the Lord lives.
Who rescued the people of Israel from the land of Egypt.
Instead, they will say, as surely as the Lord lives, who brought the people
of Israel back to their own land, from the land of the north and from all the
countries to which he had exiled them, then they will live in their own land.
My heart is broken because of the false prophets and my bones tremble.
I stagger like a drunkard, like someone overcome by wine.
Because of the holy words.
The Lord has spoken against them.
For the land is full of adultery and it lies under a curse.
The land itself is in mourning.
Its wilderness Pastures are dried up for they all do evil
and abuse what power they have.
Even the priests and prophets are ungodly wicked men.
I have seen their despicable acts right here in my own temple, says the Lord.
Therefore the paths they take will become slippery.
They will be chased through the dark and there they will fall for I
will bring disaster upon them at the time, fixed for their punishment.
I, the Lord have spoken.
I saw that the prophets of Samaria were terribly evil for they
prophesied in the name of Baal and led my people of Israel into sin.
Now I see that the prophets of Jerusalem are even worse.
They commit adultery and love dishonesty.
They encourage those who are doing evil so that no one turns away from their sins.
These prophets are as wicked as the people of Sodom and Kimora once were.
Therefore, this is what the Lord of Heaven's armies says
concerning the prophets.
I will feed them with bitterness and give them poison to drink.
For it is because of Jerusalem's prophets that wickedness has filled this land.
This is what the Lord of Heaven's army says to his people.
Do not listen to these prophets when they prophesy to you,
filling you with futile hopes.
They are making up everything they say.
They do not speak for the Lord.
They keep saying to those who despise my word, don't worry.
The Lord says, you will have peace.
To those who stubbornly follow their own desires, they say,
no harm will come your way.
Have any of these prophets been in the Lord's presence to
hear what he is really saying?
Has even one of them cared enough to listen?
Look, the Lord's anger bursts out like a storm, a whirlwind that swirls
down on the heads of the wicked.
The anger of the Lord will not diminish until it has finished all
he has planned in the days to come.
You will understand all this very clearly.
I have not sent these prophets yet.
They run around claiming to speak for me.
I have given them no message yet.
They go on prophesying.
If they had stood before me and listened to me, they would've spoken
my words and they would have turned my people from their evil ways and deeds.
Am I a God who is only close at hand, says the Lord?
No.
I am far away at the same time.
Can anyone hide from me in a secret place?
Am I not everywhere in all the heavens and earth says the Lord?
I have heard these prophets say, listen to the dream I had from God last night, and
then they proceed to tell lies in my name.
How long will this go on if they are prophets?
They're prophets of deceit inventing everything they say
by telling these false dreams.
They're trying to get my people to forget me.
I.
Just as their ancestors did by worshiping the idols of Baal.
Let these false prophets tell their dreams, but let my true messengers
faithfully proclaim my every word.
There is a difference between straw and grain.
Does not my word burn like fire says the Lord.
Is it not like a mighty hammer that smashes a rock to pieces,
therefore, says the Lord?
I'm against these prophets who steal messages from each other
and claim they're from me.
I'm against these smooth tongue prophets who say, this prophecy is from the Lord.
I'm against these false prophets.
Their imaginary dreams are flagrant lies that lead my people into sin.
I did not send or appoint them, and they have no message at all for my people.
I, the Lord have spoken.
Suppose one of the people or one of the prophets or priests asks you, what
prophecy has the Lord burdened you with?
Now you must reply.
You are the burden.
The Lord says He will abandon you.
If any prophet, priest, or anyone else says, I have a prophecy from
the Lord, I will punish that person along with his entire family.
You should keep asking each other.
What is the Lord's answer, or what is the Lord saying?
But stop using this phrase, prophecy from the Lord.
For people are using it to give authority to their own ideas.
Turning upside down the words of our God, the living God,
the Lord of heaven's armies.
This is what you should say to the prophets.
What is the Lord's answer?
Or what is the Lord saying?
But suppose they respond.
This is a prophecy from the Lord.
Then you should say, this is what the Lord says because you have used
this phrase, prophecy from the Lord, even though I warned you not to use
it, I will forget you completely.
I will expel you from my presence along with this city that I gave to you and
your ancestors, and I will make you an object of ridicule and your name
will be infamous throughout the ages.
After King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon exiled Je Hoya kin son of Je Hoya
Kim, king of Judah, to Babylon, along with the officials of Judah
and all the craftsmen and artisans, the Lord gave me this vision.
I saw two baskets of figs placed in front of the Lord's temple in Jerusalem.
One basket was filled with fresh, ripe figs while the other was filled with
bad figs that were too rotten to eat.
Then the Lord said to me, What do you see, Jeremiah?
I replied, figs, some very good and some very bad.
Too rotten to eat.
Then the Lord gave me this message.
This is what the Lord the God of Israel says.
The good figs represent the exiles I sent from Judah to the land of the Babylonians.
I will watch over and care for them, and I will bring them back here again.
I will build them up and not tear them down.
I will plant them and not uproot them.
I will give them hearts that recognize me as the Lord.
They will be my people and I will be their God for they will
return to me wholeheartedly.
But the bad figs, the Lord said, represent zakiah of Judah, his
officials, all the people left in Jerusalem and those who live in Egypt.
I will treat them like bad figs, too rotten to eat.
I will make them an object of horror and a symbol of evil to every nation on earth.
They will be disgraced and mocked, taunted and cursed wherever I scatter them.
And I will send war, famine, and disease until they have vanished
from the land of Israel, which I gave to them and their ancestors.
This message for all the people of Judah came to Jeremiah from
the Lord during the fourth year of Je Hoya, Kim's reign over Judah.
This was the year when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon began his reign.
Jeremiah the prophet, said to all the people in Judah and Jerusalem for the past
23 years, from the 13th year of the reign of Josiah, son of Amman, king of Judah.
Until now, the Lord has been giving me his messages.
I have faithfully passed them on to you, but you have not listened again and again.
The Lord has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened
or even paid attention each time.
The message was this, turn from the evil road you are traveling and
from the evil things you are doing.
Only then will I let you live in this land that the Lord gave to
you and your ancestors forever.
Do not provoke my anger by worshiping idols you made with your own hands
then I will not harm you, but you would not listen to me, says the Lord.
You made me furious by worshiping idols you made with your own hands, bringing
on yourselves all the disasters.
You now suffer.
And now the Lord of Heaven's army says because you have not listened to me.
I will gather together all the armies of the North under King
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, whom I have appointed as my deputy.
I will bring them all against this land and its people, and
against the surrounding nations.
I will completely destroy you and make you an object of horror
and contempt and a ruin forever.
I will take away your happy singing and laughter.
The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard.
Your millstones will fall silent and the lights in your homes will go out.
This entire land will become a desolate wasteland.
Israel and her neighboring lands will serve the king of Babylon for 70 years.
Then after the 70 years of captivity are over, I will punish
the king of Babylon and his people for their sins, says the Lord.
I will make the country of the Babylonians a wasteland forever.
I will bring upon them all the terrors I have promised in this book.
All the penalties announced by Jeremiah against the nations, many nations and
great kings will enslave the Babylonians.
Just as they enslaved my people, I will punish them in proportion to
the suffering they caused my people.
This concludes today's immerse reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.