Study Desk

"They are continually saying to those who despise Me [and My word], 'The Lord has said, "You will have peace"'; And they say to everyone who walks after the stubbornness of his own heart, 'No evil will come on you.'

"But who [among them] has stood in the council of the LORD, That he would perceive and hear His word? Who has marked His word [noticing and observing and paying attention to it] and has [actually] heard it?

"The anger of the LORD will not turn back Until He has set in motion and accomplished the thoughts and intentions of His heart; In the last days you will clearly understand it.

"The prophet who has a dream may tell his dream; but he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat [for nourishment]?" says the LORD.

"And as for the prophet, the priest, or [any of] the people, whoever says, 'The oracle of the LORD,' [as if he knows God's will], I will punish that man and his household.

"[For the future, in speaking of the words of the LORD] thus each of you shall say to his neighbor and to his brother, 'What has the LORD answered?' or, 'What has the LORD spoken?'

'And as for the bad figs, which are so rotten that they cannot be eaten,' surely thus says the LORD, 'so I will abandon Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and those who live in the land of Egypt.

"Although the LORD has persistently sent to you all His servants the prophets, you have not listened nor [even] inclined your ear to hear [His message],

saying, 'Turn now everyone from his evil way and the evil of your actions [that you may not forfeit the right to] live in the land that the LORD has given to you and your forefathers forever and ever;

Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes, all his people,

"Therefore prophesy all these words against them and say to them: 'The LORD will roar from on high And utter His voice from His holy dwelling; He will roar mightily against His fold and pasture. He will jubilantly shout like those who tread the grapes [in the wine press], Against all the inhabitants of the earth.

"He has left His lair like the lion; For their land has become a horror Because of the fierceness of the oppressor And because of the LORD'S fierce anger."

'It may be that they will listen and everyone will turn from his wickedness, so that I may relent and reverse [My decision concerning] the disaster which I am planning to do to them because of their malevolent deeds.'

"Therefore, now change your ways and your deeds and obey the voice of the LORD your God; then the LORD will relent and reverse His decision concerning the misfortune which He has pronounced against you.

"Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put Micah to death? Did he not [reverently] fear the LORD and entreat the favor of the LORD? And did not the LORD relent and reverse His decision concerning the misfortune which He had pronounced against them? But [here] we are [thinking of] committing a great evil against ourselves."

And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put Uriah to death; but when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt.

And they brought Uriah [God's spokesman] from Egypt and led him to King Jehoiakim, who executed him with a sword and threw his dead body among the graves of the common people.

"All nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the [appointed] time [of punishment] for his own land comes; then many nations and great kings shall make him their servant.

I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah in the same way, saying, "Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and live!

Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, "Thus says the LORD, 'Even so within two full years I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations.'" Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way.