Jeremiah 16

Famine, Sword, and Death

1The word of the Lord came to me: 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 the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: 4 ^aThey shall die of deadly diseases. ^bThey shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. ^cThey shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. ^dThey shall perish by the sword and by famine, ^eand 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: ^fDo 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. 6Both great and small shall die in this land. ^gThey shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or ^hcut himself ⁱor make himself bald for them. 7No one shall ^jbreak 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. 8You 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: ^kBehold, 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?’ 11then you shall say to them: ^m‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and ⁿhave gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, 12and because ^oyou have done worse than your fathers, for behold, ^pevery one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. 13Therefore ^qI will hurl you out of this land into ^ra land that neither you nor your fathers have known, ^sand 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,’ 15but ^v‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel ^wout of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For ^xI will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.

16“Behold, ^yI 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 ^zof the clefts of the rocks. 17For ^aamy eyes are on all their ways. ^abThey are not hidden from me, ^acnor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. 18But first ^adI will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and ^aehave filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

19 ^afO Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
^agmy refuge in the day of trouble,
^ahto you shall the nations come
from the ends of the earth and say:
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,
^aiworthless things in which there is no profit.
20Can man make for himself ^ajgods?
Such are not gods!”
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 ^akmy name is the Lord.”

Jeremiah 25

Seventy Years of Captivity

1 ^alThe word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), 2which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: 3“For twenty-three years, ^amfrom the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken ^anpersistently to you, ^aobut you have not listened. 4 ^apYou have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear, although the Lord ^aqpersistently sent to you all his servants the prophets, 5saying, ^ar‘Turn now, every one of you, ^asfrom his evil way and evil deeds, and ^atdwell upon the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever. 6 ^auDo not go after other gods to serve and worship them, ^avor provoke me to anger ^awwith the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.’ 7 ^axYet you have not listened to me, declares the Lord, ^aythat you might provoke me to anger ^azwith the work of your hands to your own harm.

8“Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, 9 ^babehold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the Lord, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, ^bbmy servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, ^bcand make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. 10Moreover, ^bdI will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, ^bethe grinding of the millstones and ^bfthe light of the lamp. 11 ^bgThis whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and ^bhthese nations shall serve the king of Babylon ^biseventy years. 12Then after ^bjseventy years are completed, ^bkI will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, ^blthe land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the Lord, ^bmmaking the land an everlasting waste. 13I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written ^bnin this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. 14 ^boFor many nations ^bpand great kings shall make slaves even of them, ^bqand I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”

The Cup of the Lord’s Wrath

15Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: ^br“Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. 16They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of ^bsthe sword that I am sending among them.”

17So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand, ^btand made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it: 18 ^buJerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials, ^bvto make them a desolation and a waste, a hissing and a curse, as at this day; 19 ^bwPharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his officials, all his people, 20and ^bxall the mixed tribes among them; all the kings of ^bythe land of Uz and all the kings of ^bzthe land of the Philistines ( ^caAshkelon, ^cbGaza, Ekron, and the remnant of ^ccAshdod); 21 ^cdEdom, ^ceMoab, and the sons of ^cfAmmon; 22all the kings of ^cgTyre, all the kings of ^chSidon, and the kings of the coastland across ^cithe sea; 23 ^cjDedan, ^ckTema, ^clBuz, and all who cut ^cmthe corners of their hair; 24all the ^cnkings of Arabia and all the kings of ^cothe mixed tribes who dwell in the desert; 25all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of ^cpElam, and all the kings of ^cqMedia; 26all the kings of ^crthe north, far and near, one after another, and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth. And after them the king of ^csBabylon ▼

▼Hebrew Sheshach, a code name for Babylon

shall drink.

27“Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^cuDrink, be drunk and vomit, fall and rise no more, because of ^cvthe sword that I am sending among you.’

28“And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: ^cwYou must drink! 29For behold, ^cxI begin to work disaster at the city that is called by my name, and shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, ^cyfor I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the Lord of hosts.’

30“You, therefore, shall prophesy against them all these words, and say to them:

^cz“‘The Lord will roar from on high,
and from his holy habitation utter his voice;
he will roar mightily against his fold,
^daand shout, like those who tread grapes,
against all the inhabitants of the earth.
31The clamor will resound to the ends of the earth,
for ^dbthe Lord has an indictment against the nations;
^dche is entering into judgment with all flesh,
and the wicked he will put to the sword,

declares the Lord.’
32 “Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Behold, disaster is going forth
from nation to nation,
^ddand a great tempest is stirring
^defrom the farthest parts of the earth!
33 ^df“And those pierced by the Lord on that day shall extend from one end of the earth to the other. ^dgThey shall not be lamented, ^dhor gathered, or buried; ^dithey shall be dung on the surface of the ground.

34 ^dj“Wail, ^dkyou shepherds, and cry out,
^dland roll in ashes, you lords of the flock,
for the days of your slaughter and dispersion have come,
and you shall fall like a choice vessel.
35No refuge will remain ^dmfor the shepherds,
nor escape for the lords of the flock.
36A voice—the cry ^dnof the shepherds,
^doand the wail of the lords of the flock!
For the Lord is laying waste their pasture,
37 ^dpand the peaceful folds are devastated
^dqbecause of the fierce anger of the Lord.
38Like a lion ^drhe has left his lair,
for their land has become a waste
because of ^dsthe sword of the oppressor,
^dtand because of his fierce anger.”