Study Desk

"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?'

"For you will no longer remember the oracle of the LORD, because every man's own word will become the oracle, [for as they mockingly call all prophecies oracles, whether good or bad, so will it prove to be to them; God will take them at their own word]; and you have perverted the words [not of a lifeless idol, but] of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.

"For if you say, 'The oracle of the LORD!' surely thus says the LORD, 'Because you said this word, "The oracle of the LORD!" when I have also sent to you, saying, "You shall not say, 'The oracle of the LORD!'"'

'For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them up and not overwhelm them, and I will plant them and not uproot them.

'I will give them a heart to know Me, [understanding fully] that I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.

'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.

"For these twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day—the word of the LORD has come to me and I have spoken to you over and over again, but you have not listened.

behold (hear this), I will send for all the families of the north,' says the LORD, 'and I will send for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant [to enact My plan], and I will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations; and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing [that is, an object of warning and ridicule] and an everlasting desolation.

'Then when seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans (Babylonia),' says the LORD, 'for their wickedness, and will make the land [of the Chaldeans] a perpetual waste.

'(For many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even the Chaldeans [who enslaved other nations]; and I will repay [all of] them according to their deeds and according to the work of their [own] hands.)'"

For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to me, "Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.

"For behold, I am beginning to work disaster in the city which is called by My Name, and shall you go unpunished? You will not be exempt from punishment, for I am calling for a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth," says the LORD of hosts.'

'A noise has come to the end of the earth, For the LORD has a controversy with and an indictment against the nations. He is entering into judgment with all mankind; As for the wicked, He has given them to the sword,' says the LORD."

"Wail, you shepherds, and cry; And roll in ashes, you masters of the flock. For the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions have come in full, And you will fall and be broken into pieces like a choice vessel.

"A voice! The cry of the shepherds And the wailing of the masters of the flock! For the LORD is destroying their pasture,

"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."

Then the priests and the [false] prophets said to the princes and to all the people, "This man is deserving of death, for he has prophesied against this city as you have heard with your own ears."

"As for me, behold, I am in your hands; do with me as seems good and suitable to you.

"But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on its inhabitants, for in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing."