Study Desk

Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished, says the Lord .

Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people.

"I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there."

They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.

For this is what the Lord says: "At this time I will hurl out those who live in this land; I will bring distress on them so that they may be captured."

The shepherds are senseless and do not inquire of the Lord ; so they do not prosper and all their flock is scattered.

But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep.'"

So I bought a belt, as the Lord directed, and put it around my waist.

So I went and hid it at Perath, as the Lord told me.

So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.

For as a belt is bound around the waist, so I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me,' declares the Lord , ‘to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.'

This is what the Lord says about this people: "They greatly love to wander; they do not restrain their feet. So the Lord does not accept them; he will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins."

Have you rejected Judah completely? Do you despise Zion? Why have you afflicted us so that we cannot be healed? We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror.

You have rejected me," declares the Lord . "You keep on backsliding. So I will reach out and destroy you; I am tired of holding back.

So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.'

So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel.

But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

He said, "Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?" declares the Lord . "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.

"Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.'

They said, "Come, let's make plans against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priest will not cease, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let's attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says."