Jer 18, Jer 44 | ESV | STEP | The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord :

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to ^athe potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to ^bthe potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was ^cspoiled in the potter’s hand, and ^dhe 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, ^ecan I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. ^fBehold, 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 ^gpluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, ^hturns from its evil, ⁱI 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 ^jbuild 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. ^kReturn, every one from his evil way, and ^lamend your ways and your deeds.’

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

13 “Therefore thus says the Lord:
^oAsk among the nations,
Who has heard the like of this?
The virgin Israel
has done ^pa very horrible thing.
14 Does the snow of Lebanon leave
the crags of Sirion? ^{▼▼Hebrew of the field}
Do the mountain waters run dry, ^{▼▼Hebrew Are foreign waters plucked up}
the cold flowing streams?
15 ^sBut my people have forgotten me;
they make offerings to ^tfalse gods;
they made them stumble in their ways,
^uin the ancient roads,
and to walk into side roads,
^vnot the highway,
16 making their land ^wa horror,
a thing ^xto be hissed at forever.
^yEveryone who passes by it is horrified
^zand shakes his head.
17 ^aaLike the east wind ^abI will scatter them
before the enemy.
^acI will show them my back, not my face,
in the day of their calamity.”
18 Then they said, ^ad“Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, ^aefor the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. ^afCome, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

19 Hear me, O Lord,
and ^aglisten to the voice of my adversaries.
20 ^ahShould good be repaid with evil?
Yet ^aithey have dug a pit for my life.
^ajRemember how I stood before you
to speak good for them,
to turn away your wrath from them.
21 Therefore ^akdeliver up their children to famine;
give them over to the power of the sword;
let their wives become childless ^aland widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
22 ^amMay a cry be heard from their houses,
when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!
For ^anthey have dug a pit to take me
^aoand laid snares for my feet.
23 Yet ^apyou, O Lord, know
all their plotting to kill me.
^aqForgive not their iniquity,
nor blot out their sin from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you;
deal with them in the time of your anger.

Jeremiah 44

Judgment for Idolatry

1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Judeans who lived in the land of Egypt, at ^arMigdol, at ^asTahpanhes, at Memphis, and in the land of ^atPathros, 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the disaster that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. Behold, this day ^authey are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, 3 because of the evil that they committed, ^avprovoking me to anger, ^awin that they went to make offerings ^axand serve other gods that they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. 4 ^ayYet I persistently sent to you all my servants the prophets, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abomination that I hate!’ 5 ^azBut they did not listen ^baor incline their ear, to turn from their evil and make no offerings to other gods. 6 ^bbTherefore my wrath and my anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, ^bcand they became a waste and a desolation, as at this day. 7 And now thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil ^bdagainst yourselves, to cut off from you ^beman and woman, ^bfinfant and child, from the midst of Judah, leaving you no remnant? 8 ^bgWhy do you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, ^bhmaking offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to live, so that you may be cut off and become ^bia curse and a taunt among all the nations of the earth? 9 Have you forgotten the evil of your fathers, ^bjthe evil of the kings of Judah, ^bkthe evil of their ^{▼▼Hebrew his} wives, your own evil, ^bmand the evil of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 They have not humbled themselves even to this day, ^bnnor have they feared, nor walked in my law and my statutes that I set before you and before your fathers.

11 “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^boBehold, I will set my face against you for harm, to cut off all Judah. 12 I will take the remnant of Judah who have ^bpset their faces to come to the land of Egypt to live, and they shall all be consumed. ^bqIn the land of Egypt they shall fall; by the sword and by famine ^brthey shall be consumed. ^bsFrom the least to the greatest, they shall die by the sword and by famine, ^btand they shall become an oath, a horror, ^bua curse, and a taunt. 13 ^bvI will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, 14 ^bwso that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to live in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive ^bxor return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return to dwell there. For they shall not return, ^byexcept some fugitives.”

15 Then all the men who knew that ^bztheir wives had made offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in ^caPathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah: 16 “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, ^cbwe will not listen to you. 17 ^ccBut we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to ^cdthe queen of heaven ^ceand pour out drink offerings to her, ^cfas we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. 18 But since we left off making offerings to ^cgthe queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything ^chand have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” 19 And the women said, ^{▼▼Compare Syriac; Hebrew lacks And the women said} “When we made offerings to the queen of heaven ^cjand poured out drink offerings to her, was it ^ckwithout our husbands’ approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, ^clmen and women, all the people who had given him this answer: 21 ^cm“As for the offerings that you offered in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your officials, and the people of the land, ^cndid not the Lord remember them? Did it not come into his mind? 22 ^coThe Lord could no longer bear your evil deeds and ^cpthe abominations that you committed. ^cqTherefore your land has become ^cra desolation and a waste and a curse, ^cswithout inhabitant, as it is this day. 23 It is because you made offerings ^ctand because you sinned against the Lord and did not obey the voice of the Lord or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies ^cuthat this disaster has happened to you, as at this day.”

24 Jeremiah said to all the people and all the women, “Hear the word of the Lord, ^cvall you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt. 25 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^cwYou and your wives have declared with your mouths, and have fulfilled it with your hands, saying, ‘We will surely perform our vows that we have made, ^cxto make offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.’ Then confirm your vows and perform your vows! 26 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, ^cyall you of Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: ^czBehold, I have sworn by my great name, says the Lord, ^dathat my name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, ^dbsaying, ‘As the Lord God lives.’ 27 ^dcBehold, I am watching over them for disaster and not for good. ^ddAll the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them. 28 ^deAnd those who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, ^dffew in number; and all the remnant of Judah, who came to the land of Egypt to live, ^dgshall know whose word will stand, mine or theirs. 29 This shall be the sign to you, declares the Lord, that I will punish you in this place, in order that you may know that ^dhmy words will surely stand against you for harm: 30 Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will give ^diPharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies ^djand into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave ^dkZedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and sought his life.”