Study Desk

"This is what the LORD of armies says: 'There will again be in this place which is waste, without man or animal, and in all its cities, a pasture for shepherds who rest their flocks.

"For this is what the LORD says: 'David shall not lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel;

"This is what the LORD says: 'If you can break My covenant for the day and My covenant for the night, so that day and night do not occur at their proper time,

"This is what the LORD says: 'If My covenant for day and night does not continue, and I have not established the fixed patterns of heaven and earth,

'And as for you, you will not escape from his hand, for you will assuredly be caught and handed over to him; and you will see the king of Babylon eye to eye, and he will speak with you face to face, and you will go to Babylon.'"'

'You will die in peace; and as spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they will burn spices for you; and they will mourn for you, crying, "Oh, my lord!"' For I have spoken the word," declares the LORD.

when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and all the remaining cities of Judah, that is, Lachish and Azekah, for they alone remained as fortified cities among the cities of Judah.

"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.

I will hand them over to their enemies and to those who seek their lives. And their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth.

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.

"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.

"Perhaps their pleading will come before the LORD, and everyone will turn from his evil way; for great is the anger and the wrath that the LORD has pronounced against this people."

"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."'"

Now Jeremiah was still coming and going among the people, for they had not yet put him in prison.

"This is what the LORD says: 'Do not deceive yourselves, saying, "The Chaldeans will certainly go away from us," for they will not go.

'For even if you had defeated the entire army of Chaldeans who were fighting against you, and there were only wounded men left among them, each man in his tent, they would rise up and burn this city with fire.'"

Then the officials were angry at Jeremiah and they beat him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made it into the prison.

For Jeremiah had come into the dungeon, that is, the vaulted cell; and Jeremiah stayed there many days.

Then the officials said to the king, "Please have this man put to death, since he is discouraging the men of war who are left in this city and all the people, by speaking words like these to them; for this man is not seeking the well-being of this people, but rather their harm."

And King Zedekiah said, "Behold, he is in your hands; for the king can do nothing against you."