Study Desk

Now people call this place the Valley of Ben Hinnom or Topheth, but the days are coming, says the Lord , when people will call it the Valley of Killing.

Every time I speak, I shout. I am always shouting about violence and destruction. I tell the people about the message I received from the Lord , but this only brings me insults. The people make fun of me all day long.

Sometimes I say to myself, "I will forget about the Lord . I will not speak anymore in his name." But then his message becomes like a burning fire inside me, deep within my bones. I get tired of trying to hold it inside of me, and finally, I cannot hold it in.

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.

But Jeremiah answered them, "Tell King Zedekiah this:

‘Here is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: You have weapons of war in your hands to defend yourselves against the king of Babylon and the Babylonians, who are all around the city wall. But I will make those weapons useless. Soon I will bring them into the center of this city.

Anyone who stays in Jerusalem will die in war or from hunger or from a terrible disease. But anyone who goes out of Jerusalem and surrenders to the Babylonians who are attacking you will live. Anyone who leaves the city will save his life as if it were a prize won in war.

But I will give you the punishment you deserve, says the Lord . I will start a fire in your forests that will burn up everything around you!'"

But if you don't obey these commands, says the Lord , I swear by my own name that this king's palace will become a ruin.'"

This is what the Lord says about the palace where the king of Judah lives: "You are tall like the forests of Gilead, like the mountaintops of Lebanon. But I will truly make you into a desert, into towns where no one lives.

Don't cry for the dead king or be sad about him. But cry painfully for the king who is being taken away, because he will never return or see his homeland again.

"But you only look for and think about what you can get dishonestly. You are even willing to kill innocent people to get it. You feel free to hurt people and to steal from them."

Judah, when you were successful, I warned you, but you said, ‘I won't listen.' You have acted like this since you were young; you have not obeyed me.

King, you live in your palace, cozy in your rooms of cedar. But when your punishment comes, how you will groan like a woman giving birth to a baby!

I will throw you and your mother into another country. Neither of you was born there, but both of you will die there.

They will want to come back, but they will never be able to return."

"I sent my people to other countries, but I will gather those who are left alive and bring them back to their own country. Then they will have many children and grow in number.

But people will say something new: ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where he had sent them away... ' Then the people of Israel will live in their own land."

But none of these prophets has stood in the meeting of angels to see or hear the message of the Lord . None of them has paid close attention to his message.

I did not send those prophets, but they ran to tell their message. I did not speak to them, but they prophesied anyway.