Study Desk

"After giving the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I ^(C1)prayed to the LORD, saying,

'^(C1)Oh, Lord ^(F1)GOD! Behold, You Yourself have ^(C2)made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! ^(C3)Nothing is too difficult for You,

who ^(C1)shows mercy to thousands, but ^(C2)repays the wrongdoing of fathers into the laps of their children after them, ^(C3)great and ^(C4)mighty God. The ^(C5)LORD of armies is His name;

^(C1)great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose ^(C2)eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of mankind, ^(C3)giving to everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds;

who has ^(C1)accomplished signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and even to this day both in Israel and among mankind; and You have ^(C2)made a name for Yourself, as at this day.

'You ^(C1)brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders, and with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror;

and You gave them this land, which You ^(C1)swore to their forefathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey.

'They ^(C1)came in and took possession of it, but they ^(C2)did not obey Your voice or ^(C3)walk in Your Law; they did not do ^(F1)anything that You commanded them to do; therefore You have made ^(C4)all this disaster happen to them.

'Behold, the ^(C1)assault ramps have reached the city to take it; and the city has been ^(C2)handed over to the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the ^(C3)sword, the famine, and the plague; and what You have spoken has ^(C4)come to pass; and behold, You see it.

'Yet You have said to me, Lord ^(F1)GOD, "Buy for yourself the field with money and call in witnesses"—although the city has been handed over to the Chaldeans.'"

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying,

"Behold, I am the LORD, the ^(C1)God of all flesh; is anything ^(C2)too difficult for Me?"

Therefore this is what the LORD says: "Behold, I am going to ^(C1)hand this city over to the Chaldeans and to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will take it.

"And the Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will enter and ^(C1)set this city on fire and burn it, with the ^(C2)houses where people have offered incense to Baal on their roofs and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke Me to anger.

"For the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have been doing only ^(C1)evil in My sight since their youth; for the sons of Israel have been only ^(C2)provoking Me to anger by the work of their hands," declares the LORD.

"Indeed this city has been to Me a ^(C1)provocation of My anger and My wrath since the day that they built it, even to this day, so that it should be ^(C2)removed from My sight,

because of all the evil of the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah which they have done to provoke Me to anger—they, their ^(C1)kings, their leaders, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

"They have turned their back to Me and not their face; though I taught them, ^(C1)teaching again and again, they would not listen to accept discipline.

"But they ^(C1)put their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it.

"They built the ^(C1)high places of Baal that are in the Valley of Ben-hinnom to make their sons and their daughters pass through the fire to ^(C2)Molech, which I had not commanded them, nor had it ^(F1)entered My mind that they should do this abomination, to mislead Judah to sin.