Study Desk

Lord , you tricked me, and I was fooled. You are stronger than I am, so you won. I have become a joke; everyone makes fun of me all day long.

I hear many people whispering about me: "Terror on every side! Tell on him! Let's tell the rulers about him." My friends are all just waiting for me to make some mistake. They are saying, "Maybe we can trick him so we can defeat him and pay him back."

But the Lord is with me like a strong warrior, so those who are chasing me will trip and fall; they will not defeat me. They will be ashamed because they have failed, and their shame will never be forgotten.

Lord All-Powerful, you test good people; you look deeply into the heart and mind of a person. I have told you my arguments against these people, so let me see you give them the punishment they deserve.

They said, "Ask the Lord for us what will happen, because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is attacking us. Maybe the Lord will do miracles for us as he did in the past so Nebuchadnezzar will stop attacking us and leave."

Then, says the Lord , I'll hand over Zedekiah king of Judah, his officers, and the people in Jerusalem who do not die from the terrible diseases or battle or hunger, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I will let those win who want to kill the people of Judah, so the people of Judah and Jerusalem will be killed in war. Nebuchadnezzar will not show any mercy or pity or feel sorry for them!'

"How terrible it will be for one who builds his palace by doing evil, who cheats people so he can build its upper rooms. He makes his own people work for nothing and does not pay them.

He says, ‘I will build a great palace for myself with large upper rooms.' So he builds it with large windows and uses cedar wood for the walls, which he paints red.

"Does having a lot of cedar in your house make you a great king? Your father was satisfied to have food and drink. He did what was right and fair, so everything went well for him.

He helped those who were poor and needy, so everything went well for him. That is what it means to know God," says the Lord .

So this is what the Lord says to Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: "The people of Judah will not cry when Jehoiakim dies, saying: ‘Oh, my brother,' or ‘Oh, my sister.' They will not cry for him, saying: ‘Oh, master,' or ‘Oh, my king.'

They are responsible for the people, so the Lord , the God of Israel, says to them: "You have scattered my people and forced them away and not taken care of them. So I will punish you for the evil things you have done," says the Lord .

"So the days are coming," says the Lord , "when people will not say again: ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought Israel out of Egypt... '

"So they will be in danger. They will be forced into darkness where they will be defeated. I will bring disaster on them in the year I punish them," says the Lord .

And I have seen the prophets of Jerusalem do terrible things. They are guilty of adultery and live by lies. They encourage evil people to keep on doing evil, so the people don't stop sinning. All of those people are like the city of Sodom. The people of Jerusalem are like the city of Gomorrah to me!"

So this is what the Lord All-Powerful says about the prophets: "I will make those prophets eat bitter food and drink poisoned water, because the prophets of Jerusalem spread wickedness through the whole country."

"So I am against the false prophets," says the Lord . "They keep stealing words from each other and say they are from me.

A prophet or a priest or one of the people might say, ‘This is a message from the Lord .' That person has lied, so I will punish him and his whole family.

I will look after them and bring them back to the land of Judah. I will not tear them down, but I will build them up. I will not pull them up, but I will plant them so they can grow.

"‘But the bad figs are too rotten to eat.' So this is what the Lord says: ‘Zedekiah king of Judah, his officers, and all the people from Jerusalem who are left alive, even those who live in Egypt, will be like those rotten figs.