Study Desk

This is what the LORD says: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah and there speak this word,

and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who ^(C1)sits on David's throne, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates.

'This is what the LORD says: "^(C1)Do justice and righteousness, and save one who has been robbed from the power of his ^(C2)oppressor. And ^(C3)do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not ^(C4)shed innocent blood in this place.

"For if you will indeed perform this ^(F1)instruction, then ^(C1)kings will enter the gates of this house, sitting ^(F2)in David's place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, the king himself, his servants, and his people.

"^(C1)But if you will not obey these words, I ^(C2)swear by Myself," declares the LORD, "that this house will become a place of ruins."'"

For this is what the LORD says concerning the house of the king of Judah: "You are like ^(C1)Gilead to Me, Like the summit of Lebanon; Yet most assuredly I will make you a ^(C2)wilderness, Cities that are not inhabited.

-"For I will set apart ^(C1)destroyers against you, Each with his weapons; And they will ^(C2)cut down your choicest cedars And ^(C3)throw them on the fire.

"Many nations will pass by this city; and they will ^(C1)say to one another, 'Why has the LORD done this to this great city?'

"Then they will ^(F1)answer, 'Because they ^(C1)abandoned the covenant of the LORD their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.'"

^(C1)Do not weep for the dead or mourn for him, But weep deeply for the one who goes away; For ^(C2)he will never return Or see his native land.

For this is what the LORD says regarding ^(F1)(C1)Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in the place of his father Josiah, who went out from this place: "He will never return there;

but in the place where they took him into exile, there he will ^(C1)die and he will not see this land again.

"Woe to him who builds his house ^(C1)without righteousness, And his upstairs rooms without justice, Who uses his neighbor's services without pay And ^(C2)does not give him his wages,

Who says, 'I will ^(C1)build myself a large house With spacious upstairs rooms, And cut out its windows, ^(F1)Paneling it with ^(C2)cedar and painting it ^(F2)bright red.'

-"Do you become a king because you are competing in cedar? Did your father not eat and drink And ^(C1)do justice and righteousness? Then it was ^(C2)well for him.

-"He pled the cause of the ^(C1)afflicted and the poor, Then it was well. ^(C2)Is that not what it means to know Me?" Declares the LORD.

"But your eyes and your heart Are intent only upon your own ^(C1)dishonest gain, And on ^(C2)shedding innocent blood, And on practicing oppression and extortion."

Therefore this is what the LORD says regarding ^(C1)Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: "They will not ^(C2)mourn for him: '^(C3)Oh, my brother!' or, 'Oh, sister!' They will not mourn for him: 'Oh, for the master!' or, 'Oh, for his splendor!'

-"He will be ^(C1)buried with a donkey's burial, Dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

-"Go up to Lebanon and cry out, And raise your voice in Bashan; Cry out also from ^(C1)Abarim, For all your ^(C2)lovers have been crushed.

-"I spoke to you in your prosperity; But ^(C1)you said, 'I will not listen!' ^(C2)This has been your way ^(C3)from your youth, That you have not obeyed My voice.

-"The wind will sweep away all your ^(C1)shepherds, And your ^(C2)lovers will go into captivity; Then you will certainly be ^(C3)ashamed and humiliated Because of all your wickedness.

-"You who live in Lebanon, Nested in the cedars, How you will groan when sharp pains come on you, ^(C1)Pain like a woman in childbirth!

"As I live," declares the LORD, "even if ^(F1)(C1)Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a ^(C2)signet ring on My right hand, yet I would pull ^(F1)you ^(F2)off;

and I will ^(C1)hand you over to those who are seeking your life, yes, to those of whom you are frightened, that is, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Chaldeans.

"I will ^(C1)hurl you and your ^(C2)mother who gave birth to you into another country where you were not born, and there you will die.

"But as for the land to which they long to return, they will not return to it.

-"Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered jar? Or is he an ^(C1)undesirable vessel? Why have he and his descendants been ^(C2)hurled out And cast into a ^(C3)land that they had not known?

-"^(C1)O land, land, land, Hear the word of the LORD!

"This is what the LORD says: 'Write this man down as ^(C1)childless, A man who will ^(C2)not prosper in his days; For no man among his ^(C3)descendants will prosper Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in Judah.'"

"^(C1)Woe to the shepherds who are causing the ^(C2)sheep of My pasture to ^(C3)perish and are scattering them!" declares the LORD.

Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel says concerning the shepherds who are ^(F1)tending My people: "You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not been concerned about them; behold, I am going to ^(C1)call you to account for the ^(C2)evil of your deeds," declares the LORD.

"Then I Myself will ^(C1)gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply.

"I will also raise up ^(C1)shepherds over them and they will ^(F1)tend them; and they will ^(C2)not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, ^(C3)nor will any be missing," declares the LORD.

"Behold, the ^(C1)days are coming," declares the LORD, "When I will raise up for David a righteous ^(F1)(C2)Branch; And He will ^(C3)reign as king and ^(F2)act wisely And ^(C4)do justice and righteousness in the land.

-"In His days Judah will be saved, And ^(C1)Israel will live securely; And this is His ^(C2)name by which He will be called, 'The ^(C3)LORD Our Righteousness.'

"^(C1)Therefore behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when they will no longer say, 'As the LORD lives, who brought the sons of Israel up from the land of Egypt,'

^(C1)but, 'As the LORD lives, who ^(C2)brought up and led the descendants of the household of Israel back from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them.' Then they will live on their own soil."

As for the prophets: My ^(C1)heart is broken within me, All my bones tremble; I have become like a drunken man, And like a man overcome by wine, Because of the LORD And because of His holy words.

For the land is full of ^(C1)adulterers; For the land ^(C2)mourns because of the curse. The ^(C3)pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course is evil And their might is not right.

"For ^(C1)both prophet and priest are defiled; Even in My house I have found their wickedness," declares the LORD.

"Therefore their way will be like ^(C1)slippery paths to them, They will be driven away into the ^(C2)gloom and fall down in it; For I will bring ^(C3)disaster upon them, The year of their punishment," declares the LORD.

"Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an ^(C1)offensive thing: They ^(C2)prophesied by Baal and ^(C3)led My people Israel astray.

-"Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a ^(C1)horrible thing: The committing of ^(C2)adultery and walking in deceit; And they strengthen the hands of ^(C3)evildoers, So that no one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to Me like ^(C4)Sodom, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

"Therefore this is what the LORD of armies says concerning the prophets: 'Behold, I am going to ^(C1)feed them wormwood And make them drink poisonous water, For from the prophets of Jerusalem Ungodliness has spread into all the land.'"

This is what the LORD of armies says: "^(C1)Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are ^(C2)leading you into futility; They tell a ^(C3)vision of their own ^(F1)imagination, Not ^(C4)from the mouth of the LORD.

-"They keep saying to those who ^(C1)despise Me, 'The LORD has said, "^(C2)You will have peace"'; And as for everyone who walks in the ^(C3)stubbornness of his own heart, They say, '^(C4)Disaster will not come on you.'

-"But ^(C1)who has stood in the council of the LORD, That he should see and hear His word? Who has paid ^(C2)attention to ^(F1)His word and listened?

-"Behold, the ^(C1)storm of the LORD has gone forth in wrath, Even a whirling tempest; It will swirl down on the head of the wicked.

-"The ^(C1)anger of the LORD will not turn back Until He has ^(C2)performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; ^(C3)In the last days you will clearly understand it.

-"^(C1)I did not send these prophets, But they ran. I did not speak to them, But they prophesied.

-"But if they had ^(C1)stood in My council, Then they would have ^(C2)announced My words to My people, And would have turned them back from their evil way And from the evil of their deeds.

"Am I a God who is ^(C1)near," declares the LORD, "And not a God far off?

-"Can a person ^(C1)hide himself in hiding places So that I do not see him?" declares the LORD. "^(C2)Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" declares the LORD.

"I have ^(C1)heard what the prophets have said who ^(C2)prophesy falsely in My name, saying, 'I had a ^(C3)dream, I had a dream!'

"How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, these prophets of the ^(C1)deceitfulness of their own heart,

who intend to ^(C1)make My people forget My name by their dreams which they report to one another, just as their fathers ^(C2)forgot My name because of Baal?

"The prophet who has a dream may report his dream, but let him who has ^(C1)My word speak My word truthfully. ^(C2)What does straw have in common with grain?" declares the LORD.

"Is My word not like ^(C1)fire?" declares the LORD, "and like a ^(C2)hammer which shatters a rock?

"Therefore behold, ^(C1)I am against the prophets," declares the LORD, "who steal My words from each other.

"Behold, I am against the prophets," declares the LORD, "who ^(F1)use their tongues and declare, 'The Lord declares!'

"Behold, I am against those who have prophesied ^(C1)false dreams," declares the LORD, "and reported them and led My people astray by their lies and ^(C2)reckless boasting; yet ^(C3)I did not send them nor command them, nor do they ^(C4)provide this people the slightest benefit," declares the LORD.

"Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you, saying, 'What is the ^(F1)(C1)pronouncement of the LORD?' then you shall say to them, 'What ^(F1)pronouncement?' The LORD declares, 'I will ^(C2)abandon you.'

"Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say, 'The ^(C1)pronouncement of the LORD,' I will bring punishment upon that person and his household.

"This is what each one of you will say to his neighbor and to his brother: '^(C1)What has the LORD answered?' or, 'What has the LORD spoken?'

"For you will no longer remember the pronouncement of the LORD, because every person's own word will become the pronouncement, and you have ^(C1)perverted the words of the ^(C2)living God, the LORD of armies, our God.

"This is what you will say to that prophet: 'What has the LORD answered you?' and, 'What has the LORD spoken?'

"And if you say, 'The pronouncement of the LORD!' for that reason the LORD says this: 'Because you said this word, "The pronouncement of the LORD!" I have also sent word to you, saying, "You shall not say, 'The pronouncement of the LORD!'"'

"Therefore behold, ^(C1)I will certainly forget you and thrust you away from My presence, along with the city which I gave you and your fathers.

"I will put an everlasting ^(C1)disgrace on you and an everlasting humiliation which will not be forgotten."

After ^(C1)Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the officials of Judah with the craftsmen and metalworkers from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me: behold, two ^(C2)baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD.

One basket had very good figs, like ^(C1)first-ripe figs, and the other basket had ^(C2)very bad figs which could not be eaten due to rottenness.

Then the LORD said to me, "^(C1)What do you see, Jeremiah?" And I said, "Figs: the good figs are very good, and the bad ones, very bad, which cannot be eaten due to rottenness."

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

"This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: 'Like these good figs, so I will regard ^(C1)as good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans.

'For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will ^(C1)bring them back to this land; and I will ^(C2)build them up and not overthrow them, and I will ^(C3)plant them and not uproot them.

'I will also give them a ^(C1)heart to know Me, for I am the LORD; and they will be ^(C2)My people, and I will be their God, for they will ^(C3)return to Me wholeheartedly.

'But like the ^(C1)bad figs which cannot be eaten due to rottenness,' indeed, this is what the LORD says, 'so will I give up ^(C2)Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials, and the ^(C3)remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and the ones who live in the land of ^(C4)Egypt.

'I will ^(C1)make them an object of terror and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth, as a ^(C2)disgrace and a proverb, a taunt and a ^(C3)curse in all the places where I will scatter them.

'And I will send the ^(C1)sword, the famine, and the plague upon them until they are eliminated from the land which I gave to them and their forefathers.'"