Study Desk

"Have you not observed what these people have asserted, saying, 'The two families which the LORD chose, He has rejected them'? So they despise My people as no longer being a nation in their sight.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem, to proclaim release to them:

that each person was to set his male servant free and each his female servant, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, so that no one would keep them, his Jewish brother or sister, in bondage.

"This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: 'I made a covenant with your forefathers on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, saying,

'Although recently you had turned and done what is right in My sight, each one proclaiming release to his neighbor, and you had made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My name.

"Therefore this is what the LORD says: 'You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming release, each one to his brother and each to his neighbor. Behold, I am proclaiming a release to you,' declares the LORD, 'to the sword, to the plague, and to the famine; and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

'Behold, I am going to give a command,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring them back to this city, and they will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.'"

'You shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed nor plant a vineyard, nor own one; but you shall live in tents all your days, so that you may live many days in the land where you live as strangers.'

nor to build ourselves houses to live in; and we do not have a vineyard, a field, or seed.

therefore this is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: "Jonadab the son of Rechab will not lack a man to stand before Me always."'"

"Take a scroll and write on it all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.

Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD which He had spoken to him.

"So you go and read from the scroll, which you have written at my dictation, the words of the LORD to the people at the LORD'S house on a day of fasting. And you shall also read them to all the people of Judah who come from their cities.

Now in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the LORD.

Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning in the brazier before him.

And when Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut it with a scribe's knife and threw it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all of the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.

While he was at the Gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah the son of Hananiah was there; and he arrested Jeremiah the prophet, saying, "You are deserting to the Chaldeans!"

But Jeremiah said, "A lie! I am not deserting to the Chaldeans"; yet he would not listen to him. So Irijah arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials.

Now King Zedekiah sent men and took him out; and in his palace the king secretly asked him and said, "Is there a word from the LORD?" And Jeremiah said, "There is!" Then he said, "You will be handed over to the king of Babylon!"

Then King Zedekiah gave a command, and they placed Jeremiah in custody in the courtyard of the guardhouse, and gave him a loaf of bread daily from the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guardhouse.