Study Desk

Instead, I told them, "If you listen to me and do what I tell you, I will be your God, you will be my people, and all will go well for you."

So you must say to them: People of Judah, I am the Lord your God, but you have refused to obey me, and you didn't change when I punished you. And now, you no longer even pretend to be faithful to me.

Some of you people of Judah will be left alive, but I will force you to go to foreign countries, and you will wish you were dead. I, the Lord God All-Powerful, have spoken.

I wish I could go into the desert and find a hiding place from all who are treacherous and unfaithful to God.

The Lord replied: Lies come from the mouths of my people, like arrows from a bow. With each dishonest deed their power increases, and not one of them will admit that I am God.

Everyone takes advantage of everyone else, and no one will admit that I am God.

So I, the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, promise them poison to eat and drink.

Our Lord , great and powerful, you alone are God.

You, Lord , are the only true and living God. You will rule for all time. When you are angry the earth shakes, and nations are destroyed.

But you, Israel's God, created all things, and you chose Israel to be your very own. Your name is the Lord All-Powerful.

Our enemies refuse to admit that you are God or to worship you. They have wiped out our people and left our nation lying in ruins. So get angry and sweep them away!

The Lord God told me to say to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: I, the Lord , am warning you that I will put a curse on anyone who doesn't keep the agreement I made with Israel. So pay attention to what it says.

My commands haven't changed since I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, a nation that seemed like a blazing furnace where iron ore is melted. I told your ancestors that if they obeyed my commands, I would be their God, and they would be my people.

How long will the ground be dry and the pasturelands parched? The birds and animals are dead and gone. And all of this happened because the people are so sinful. They even brag, "God can't see the sins we commit."

They once taught my people to worship Baal. But if they admit I am the only true God, and if they let my people teach them how to worship me, these nations will also become my people.

The Lord said: Jeremiah, tell the people of Judah, "The Lord God of Israel orders you to fill your wine jars with wine." They will answer, "Of course we fill our wine jars with wine! Why are you telling us something we already know?"

You hope for light, but God is sending darkness. Evening shadows already deepen in the hills. So return to God and confess your sins to him before you trip and fall.

Idols can't send rain, and showers don't fall by themselves. Only you control the rain, so we put our trust in you, the Lord our God.

They will ask, "Why has the Lord our God threatened us with so many disasters? Have we done something wrong or sinned against him?"

A time will come when you will again worship me. But you will no longer call me the Living God who rescued Israel from Egypt.