Study Desk

Then I thought, "These are only the poor and ignorant. They behave foolishly; they don't know what their God requires, what the Lord wants them to do.

I will go to the people in power and talk with them. Surely they know what their God requires, what the Lord wants them to do." But all of them have rejected the Lord 's authority and refuse to obey him.

That is why lions from the forest will kill them; wolves from the desert will tear them to pieces, and leopards will prowl through their towns. If those people go out, they will be torn apart because their sins are numerous and time after time they have turned from God.

They have said that the prophets are nothing but windbags and that they have no message from the Lord . The Lord God Almighty said to me, "Jeremiah, because these people have said such things, I will make my words like a fire in your mouth. The people will be like wood, and the fire will burn them up."

The Lord sent me to the gate of the Temple where the people of Judah went in to worship. He told me to stand there and announce what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had to say to them: "Change the way you are living and the things you are doing, and I will let you go on living here.

But I did command them to obey me, so that I would be their God and they would be my people. And I told them to live the way I had commanded them, so that things would go well for them.

You will tell them that their nation does not obey me, the Lord their God, or learn from their punishment. Faithfulness is dead. No longer is it even talked about.

"Why are we sitting still?" God's people ask. "Come on, we will run to the fortified cities and die there. The Lord our God has condemned us to die; he has given us poison to drink, because we have sinned against him.

They are always ready to tell lies; dishonesty instead of truth rules the land. The Lord says, "My people do one evil thing after another and do not acknowledge me as their God."

So then, listen to what I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, will do: I will give my people bitter plants to eat and poison to drink.

But you, Lord , are the true God, you are the living God and the eternal king. When you are angry, the world trembles; the nations cannot endure your anger.

The God of Jacob is not like them; he is the one who made everything, and he has chosen Israel to be his very own people. The Lord Almighty is his name.

that I, the Lord God of Israel, have placed a curse on everyone who does not obey the terms of this covenant.

It is the covenant I made with their ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, the land that was like a blazing furnace to them. I told them to obey me and to do everything that I had commanded. I told them that if they obeyed, they would be my people and I would be their God.

The people of Judah have as many gods as they have cities, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem have set up as many altars for sacrifices to that disgusting god Baal as there are streets in the city.

How long will our land be dry, and the grass in every field be withered? Animals and birds are dying because of the wickedness of our people, people who say, ‘God doesn't see what we are doing.'"

The Lord God said to me, "Jeremiah, tell the people of Israel that every wine jar should be filled with wine. They will answer that they know every wine jar should be filled with wine.

Honor the Lord , your God, before he brings darkness, and you stumble on the mountains; before he turns into deep darkness the light you hoped for.

None of the idols of the nations can send rain; the sky by itself cannot make showers fall. We have put our hope in you, O Lord our God, because you are the one who does these things.

You spoke to me, and I listened to every word. I belong to you, Lord God Almighty, and so your words filled my heart with joy and happiness.