Study Desk

'For I am with you,' declares the LORD, 'to save you; For I will completely destroy all the nations where I have scattered you, Only I will not destroy you completely. But I will discipline you fairly And will by no means leave you unpunished.'

"In those days they will no longer say, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, But it is the children's teeth that have become blunt.'

"But everyone will die for his own wrongdoing; each person who eats the sour grapes, his own teeth will become blunt.

and Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but he will certainly be handed over to the king of Babylon, and he will speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye.

who shows mercy to thousands, but repays the wrongdoing of fathers into the laps of their children after them, great and mighty God. The LORD of armies is His name;

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

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

then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, so as not to take from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But I will restore their fortunes and have mercy on them.'"

But afterward they turned around and took back the male servants and the female servants whom they had set free, and brought them into subjection as male servants and as female servants.

"At the end of seven years each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother who has been sold to you and has served you for six years, and you shall send him out free from you." But your forefathers did not obey Me nor incline their ear to Me.

But they said, "We will not drink wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, 'You shall not drink wine, you or your sons, forever.

'You shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed nor plant a vineyard, nor own one; but you shall live in tents all your days, so that you may live many days in the land where you live as strangers.'

"But we have lived only in tents, and have obeyed and have done according to all that our father Jonadab commanded us.

"The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab have been followed, which he commanded his sons: not to drink wine. And they do not drink wine to this day, for they have obeyed their father's command. But I have spoken to you again and again, yet you have not listened to Me.

"Also I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, sending them again and again, saying: 'Turn now every person from his evil way and amend your deeds, and do not follow other gods to worship them. Then you will live in the land which I have given to you and to your forefathers; but you have not inclined your ear or listened to Me.

'Indeed, the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have followed the command of their father which he commanded them, but this people has not listened to Me.'"'

"Therefore this is what the LORD says, the God of armies, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I am bringing on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them; because I spoke to them but they did not listen, and I have called them but they did not answer.'"

So they came to the king in the courtyard, but they had deposited the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe; and they reported all the words to the king.

And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king's son, Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the LORD hid them.

"I will also punish him, his descendants, and his servants for their wrongdoing, and I will bring on them and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the people of Judah all the disaster that I have declared to them—but they did not listen."'"