Study Desk

"Jeremiah, speak this message to the people of Judah: ‘My eyes fill with tears night and day without stopping. I cry for my virgin daughter, and for my dear people, because someone hit them and crushed them. They have been hurt very badly.

I will make the people of Judah an example of something terrible for all the people on earth. I will do this to the people of Judah because of what Manasseh did in Jerusalem. Manasseh was the son of King Hezekiah. Manasseh was a king of Judah.'

The enemy will attack with swords and kill the people. They will kill the survivors from Judah. A woman with seven children will lose them. She will cry until she becomes weak and struggles to breathe. She will be upset and confused, because her bright day has become dark." This message is from the Lord .

The people of Judah have many treasures. I will give these riches to other people. They will not have to buy them, because Judah has many sins. The people sinned in every part of Judah.

I never sat with the crowd as they laughed and had fun. I sat by myself because of your influence on me. You filled me with anger at the evil around me.

I will make you strong. The people will think you are strong, like a wall made of bronze. The people of Judah will fight against you, but they will not defeat you. They will not defeat you, because I am with you. I will help you, and I will save you." This message is from the Lord .

So the Lord says, "Jeremiah, don't go into a house where people are eating a funeral meal. Don't go there to cry for the dead or to show your sorrow. Don't do these things, because I have taken back my blessing. I will not be kind to the people of Judah. I will not feel sorry for them." This message is from the Lord .

You must tell them: ‘Terrible things will happen to you because your ancestors stopped following me.' This message is from the Lord . ‘They stopped following me and began to follow and serve other gods. They worshiped those other gods. Your ancestors left me and stopped obeying my law.

But you people have sinned more than your ancestors. You are very stubborn, and you are doing only what you want to do. You are not obeying me. Because you do only what you want to do,

They will say something new. They will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives—the Lord who brought the Israelites out of the northern land, who brought them out of all the countries where he had sent them ….' Why will they say that? Because I will bring the Israelites back to the land that I gave to their ancestors.

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."

You will lose the land I gave you. I will let your enemies take you to be their slaves. That is because I am very angry. My anger is like a hot fire, and you will be burned forever."

This is what the Lord says: "Bad things will happen to those who put their trust in people. Bad things will happen to those who depend on human strength. That is because they have stopped trusting the Lord .

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 houses in Jerusalem will become as "dirty" as this place, Topheth. The kings' palaces will be ruined like this place, Topheth, because the people worshiped false gods on the roofs of their houses. They worshiped the stars and burned sacrifices to honor them. They gave drink offerings to false gods.'"

"This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel says: ‘I said I would bring many disasters to Jerusalem and the villages around it. I will soon make this happen because the people are very stubborn. They refuse to listen and obey me.'"

That is your name because of what the Lord says: ‘I will soon make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. You will watch enemies killing your friends with swords. I will give all the people of Judah to the king of Babylon. He will take them away to the country of Babylon, and his army will kill the people of Judah with their swords.

because he did not kill me while I was in my mother's womb. If he had killed me then, my mother would have been my grave, and I would not have been born.

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."