Study Desk

"Important people and common people will die in the land of Judah. No one will bury them or cry for them. No one will cut himself or shave his head to show sorrow for them.

No one will bring food to those who are crying for the dead. No one will comfort those whose mother or father has died. No one will offer a drink to comfort those who are crying for the dead.

"I will soon send for many fishermen to come to this land." This message is from the Lord . "They will catch the people of Judah. After that happens, I will send for many hunters to come to this land. They will hunt the people of Judah on every mountain and hill and in the cracks of the rocks.

I will pay the people of Judah back for the evil things they did—I will punish them two times for every sin. I will do this because they have made my land ‘dirty.' They made my land ‘dirty' with their terrible idols. I hate those idols, but they have filled my country with their idols."

Can people make real gods for themselves? No, they can only make statues that are not really gods."

But I am the Lord , and I can look into a person's heart. I can test a person's mind and decide what each one should have. I can give each person the right payment for what they do.

From the very beginning, our Temple has been a glorious throne for God. It is a very important place.

But if I see that nation doing evil things and not obeying me, I will think again about the good I had planned to do for them.

"So, Jeremiah, say to the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am the potter preparing troubles for you and making plans against you. So stop doing the evil things you are doing. Each person must change and start doing good.'

So their land will become an empty desert, a place for people from now on to make fun of. All who pass by there will be shocked by what has happened. They will just shake their heads at what they see.

I have done only good to them. It is not right for them to pay me back with evil. But they are preparing a death trap for me! Remember that I prayed to you for them. I asked only good for them. I tried to keep you from punishing them in anger.

Let them cry out in their houses, when you suddenly bring an enemy against them. Let it happen because they prepared a death trap for me. They hid traps for me to step in.

I will do these things because the people of Judah have stopped following me. They have made this a place for foreign gods. The people of Judah have burned sacrifices in this place to other gods. The people long ago did not worship those gods. Their ancestors did not worship them. These are new gods from other countries. The kings of Judah filled this place with the blood of innocent children.

The kings of Judah built high places for the god Baal. They use those places to burn their sons in the fire. They burned their sons as burnt offerings to the god Baal. I did not tell them to do that. I did not ask them to offer their sons as sacrifices. I never even thought of such a thing.

At this place, I will ruin the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. The enemy will chase them, and I will let the people of Judah be killed with swords in this place. I will make their dead bodies food for the birds and wild animals.

Then say this: ‘The Lord All-Powerful says, I will break the nation of Judah and the city of Jerusalem, just as someone breaks a clay jar! And like a broken jar, the nation of Judah cannot be put together again. It will be the same for the nation of Judah. The dead people will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room.

The next day Pashhur took Jeremiah out from between the blocks of wood. Then Jeremiah said to him, "The Lord 's name for you is not Pashhur. Now his name for you is ‘Surrounded by Terror.'

I hear people whispering against me. Everywhere, I hear things that frighten me. Even my friends are speaking against me. People are just waiting for me to make a mistake. They are saying, "Let us lie and say that he did something bad. Maybe we can trick Jeremiah. Then we will have him. We will finally be rid of him. Then we will grab him and take our revenge on him."

This is the message that came to Jeremiah from the Lord . This was when King Zedekiah of Judah sent Pashhur son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to Jeremiah. They brought a message for Jeremiah.

They said to Jeremiah, "Pray to the Lord for us. Ask him what will happen. We want to know, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is attacking us. Maybe the Lord will do great things for us, as he did in the past. Maybe he will make Nebuchadnezzar stop attacking us and leave."