Study Desk

I set watchmen over you and told you, ‘Listen for the sound of the war trumpet!' But they said, ‘We will not listen.'

The fire is fanned to make it hotter, but the lead does not melt. The pure metal does not come out; the evil is not removed from my people.

"‘But look, you are trusting lies, which is useless.

You people of Judah have done all these evil things too, says the Lord . I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen to me. I called you, but you did not answer.

So I will destroy the place where I have chosen to be worshiped in Jerusalem. You trust in that place, which I gave to you and your ancestors, but I will destroy it just as I destroyed Shiloh.

But I am not the one the people of Judah are really hurting, says the Lord . They are only hurting themselves and bringing shame upon themselves.

But your ancestors did not listen or pay attention to me. They were stubborn and did whatever their evil hearts wanted. They went backward, not forward.

But your ancestors did not listen or pay attention to me. They were very stubborn and did more evil than their ancestors.'

"Jeremiah, you will tell all these things to the people of Judah, but they will not listen to you. You will call to them, but they will not answer you.

I have listened to them very carefully, but they do not say what is right. They do not feel sorry about their wicked ways, saying, "What have I done?" Each person goes his own way, like a horse charging into a battle.

Even the birds in the sky know the right times to do things. The storks, doves, swifts, and thrushes know when it is time to migrate. But my people don't know what the Lord wants them to do.

"‘You keep saying, "We are wise, because we have the teachings of the Lord ." But actually, those who explain the Scriptures have written lies with their pens.

They tried to heal my people's serious injuries as if they were small wounds. They said, "It's all right, it's all right." But really, it is not all right.

They should be ashamed of the terrible way they act, but they are not ashamed at all. They don't even know how to blush about their sins. So they will fall, along with everyone else. They will be thrown to the ground when I punish them, says the Lord .

We hoped to have peace, but nothing good has come. We hoped for a time when he would heal us, but only terror has come.

Listen to the sound of my people. They cry from a faraway land: "Isn't the Lord still in Jerusalem? Isn't Jerusalem's king still there?" But God says, "Why did the people make me angry by worshiping idols, useless foreign idols?"

Their tongues are like sharp arrows. Their mouths speak lies. Everyone speaks nicely to his neighbor, but he is secretly planning to attack him.

Say, "This is what the Lord says: ‘The dead bodies of people will lie in the open field like dung. They will lie like grain a farmer has cut, but there will be no one to gather them.'"

But if people want to brag, let them brag that they understand and know me. Let them brag that I am the Lord , and that I am kind and fair, and that I do things that are right on earth. This kind of bragging pleases me," says the Lord .

But the Lord is the only true God. He is the only living God, the King forever. The earth shakes when he is angry, and the nations cannot stand up to his anger.