Month: December 2019

Jeremiah Questions the Lord

1 “Lord, if I argued my case with you,

you would prove to be right.

Yet I must question you about matters of justice.

Why are the wicked so prosperous?

Why do dishonest people succeed?

2 You plant them, and they take root;

they grow and bear fruit.

They always speak well of you,

yet they do not really care about you.

3 But,Lord, you know me;

you see what I do

and how I love you.

Drag these evil people away like sheep to be butchered;

guard them until it is time for them to be slaughtered.

4 How long will our land be dry,

and the grass in every field be withered?

Animals and birds are dying

because of the wickedness of our people,

people who say, ‘God doesn’t see what we are doing.’”

5 TheLordsaid,

“Jeremiah, if you get tired racing against people,

how can you race against horses?

If you can’t even stand up in open country,

how will you manage in the jungle by the Jordan?

6 Even your relatives, members of your own family, have betrayed you;

they join in the attacks against you.

Do not trust them, even though they speak friendly words.”

The Lord’s Sorrow because of His People

7 TheLordsays,

“I have abandoned Israel;

I have rejected my chosen nation.

I have given the people I love

into the power of their enemies.

8 My chosen people have turned against me;

like a lion in the forest

they have roared at me,

and so I hate them.

9 My chosen people are like a bird

attacked from all sides by hawks.

Call the wild animals

to come and join in the feast!

10 Many foreign rulers have destroyed my vineyard;

they have trampled down my fields;

they have turned my lovely land into a desert.

11 They have made it a wasteland;

it lies desolate before me.

The whole land has become a desert,

and no one cares.

12 Across all the desert highlands

people have come to plunder.

I have sent war to destroy the entire land;

no one can live in peace.

13 My people planted wheat, but gathered weeds;

they have worked hard, but got nothing for it.

Because of my fierce anger

their crops have failed.”

The Lord’s Promise to Israel’s Neighbors

14 TheLordsays, “I have something to say about Israel’s neighbors who have ruined the land I gave to my people Israel. I will take those wicked people away from their countries like an uprooted plant, and I will rescue Judah from them.

15 But after I have taken them away, I will have mercy on them; I will bring each nation back to its own land and to its own country.

16 If with all their hearts they will accept the religion of my people and will swear, ‘As theLordlives’—as they once taught my people to swear by Baal—then they will also be a part of my people and will prosper.

17 But if any nation will not obey, then I will completely uproot it and destroy it. I, theLord, have spoken.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/12-5eaf42962ef1d59d6b304f72dfee4d4b.mp3?version_id=68—

The Linen Shorts

1 TheLordtold me to go and buy myself some linen shorts and to put them on; but he told me not to put them in water.

2 So I bought them and put them on.

3 Then theLordspoke to me again and said,

4 “Go to the Euphrates River and hide the shorts in a hole in the rocks.”

5 So I went and hid them near the Euphrates.

6 Some time later theLordtold me to go back to the Euphrates and get the shorts.

7 So I went back, and when I found the place where I had hidden them, I saw that they were ruined and were no longer any good.

8 Then theLordspoke to me again. He said,

9 “This is how I will destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.

10 These evil people have refused to obey me. They have been as stubborn and wicked as ever, and have worshiped and served other gods. So then, they will become like these shorts that are no longer any good.

11 Just as shorts fit tightly around the waist, so I intended all the people of Israel and Judah to hold tightly to me. I did this so that they would be my people and would bring praise and honor to my name; but they would not obey me.”

The Wine Jar

12 TheLordGod said to me, “Jeremiah, tell the people of Israel that every wine jar should be filled with wine. They will answer that they know every wine jar should be filled with wine.

13 Then tell them that I, theLord, am going to fill the people in this land with wine until they are drunk: the kings, who are David’s descendants, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem.

14 Then I will smash them like jars against one another, old and young alike. No pity, compassion, or mercy will stop me from killing them.”

Jeremiah Warns against Pride

15 People of Israel, theLordhas spoken!

Be humble and listen to him.

16 Honor theLord, your God,

before he brings darkness,

and you stumble on the mountains;

before he turns into deep darkness

the light you hoped for.

17 If you will not listen,

I will cry in secret because of your pride;

I will cry bitterly, and my tears will flow

because theLord’s people have been taken away as captives.

18 TheLordsaid to me, “Tell the king and his mother to come down from their thrones, because their beautiful crowns have fallen from their heads.

19 The towns of southern Judah are under siege; no one can get through to them. All the people of Judah have been taken away into exile.”

20 Jerusalem, look! Your enemies are coming down from the north! Where are the people entrusted to your care, your people you were so proud of?

21 What will you say when people you thought were your friends conquer you and rule over you?You will be in pain like a woman giving birth.

22 If you ask why all this has happened to you—why your clothes have been torn off and you have been raped—it is because your sin is so terrible.

23 Can people change the color of their skin, or a leopard remove its spots? If they could, then you that do nothing but evil could learn to do what is right.

24 TheLordwill scatter you like straw that is blown away by the desert wind.

25 He has said that this will be your fate. This is what he has decided to do with you, because you have forgotten him and have trusted in false gods.

26 TheLordhimself will strip off your clothes and expose you to shame.

27 He has seen you do the things he hates. He has seen you go after pagan gods on the hills and in the fields, like a man lusting after his neighbor’s wife or like a stallion after a mare. People of Jerusalem, you are doomed! When will you ever be pure?

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/13-e3cfde71036241f44e126b9005d83504.mp3?version_id=68—

The Terrible Drought

1 TheLordsaid to me concerning the drought,

2 “Judah is in mourning;

its cities are dying,

its people lie on the ground in sorrow,

and Jerusalem cries out for help.

3 The rich people send their servants for water;

they go to the cisterns,

but find no water;

they come back with their jars empty.

Discouraged and confused,

they hide their faces.

4 Because there is no rain

and the ground is dried up,

the farmers are sick at heart;

they hide their faces.

5 In the field the mother deer

abandons her newborn fawn

because there is no grass.

6 The wild donkeys stand on the hilltops

and pant for breath like jackals;

their eyesight fails them

because they have no food.

7 My people cry out to me,

‘Even though our sins accuse us,

help us,Lord, as you have promised.

We have turned away from you many times;

we have sinned against you.

8 You are Israel’s only hope;

you are the one who saves us from disaster.

Why are you like a stranger in our land,

like a traveler who stays for only one night?

9 Why are you like someone taken by surprise,

like a soldier powerless to help?

Surely,Lord, you are with us!

We are your people;

do not abandon us.’”

10 TheLordsays about these people, “They love to run away from me, and they will not control themselves. So I am not pleased with them. I will remember the wrongs they have done and punish them because of their sins.”

11 TheLordsaid to me, “Do not ask me to help these people.

12 Even if they fast, I will not listen to their cry for help; and even if they offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not be pleased with them. Instead, I will kill them in war and by starvation and disease.”

13 Then I said, “SovereignLord, you know that the prophets are telling the people that there will be no war or starvation, because you have promised, they say, that there will be only peace in our land.”

14 But theLordreplied, “The prophets are telling lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I give them any orders or speak one word to them. The visions they talk about have not come from me; their predictions are worthless things that they have imagined.

15 I, theLord, tell you what I am going to do to those prophets whom I did not send but who speak in my name and say war and starvation will not strike this land—I will kill them in war and by starvation.

16 The people to whom they have said these things will be killed in the same way. Their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, and there will be no one to bury them. This will happen to all of them—including their wives, their sons, and their daughters. I will make them pay for their wickedness.”

17 TheLordcommanded me to tell the people about my sorrow and to say:

“May my eyes flow with tears day and night,

may I never stop weeping,

for my people are deeply wounded

and are badly hurt.

18 When I go out in the fields,

I see the bodies of men killed in war;

when I go into the towns,

I see people starving to death.

Prophets and priests carry on their work,

but they don’t know what they are doing.”

The People Plead with the Lord

19 Lord, have you completely rejected Judah?

Do you hate the people of Zion?

Why have you hurt us so badly

that we cannot be healed?

We looked for peace, but nothing good happened;

we hoped for healing, but terror came instead.

20 We have sinned against you,Lord;

we confess our own sins

and the sins of our ancestors.

21 Remember your promises and do not despise us;

do not bring disgrace on Jerusalem,

the place of your glorious throne.

Do not break the covenant you made with us.

22 None of the idols of the nations can send rain;

the sky by itself cannot make showers fall.

We have put our hope in you, OLordour God,

because you are the one who does these things.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/14-ad9e01e5da6f19176d9ed7fa5903864b.mp3?version_id=68—

Doom for the People of Judah

1 Then theLordsaid to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were standing here pleading with me, I would not show these people any mercy. Make them go away; make them get out of my sight.

2 When they ask you where they should go, tell them that I have said:

Some are doomed to die by disease—

that’s where they will go!

Others are doomed to die in war—

that’s where they will go!

Some are doomed to die of starvation—

that’s where they will go!

Others are doomed to be taken away as prisoners—

that’s where they will go!

3 I, theLord, have decided that four terrible things will happen to them: they will be killed in war; their bodies will be dragged off by dogs; birds will eat them, and wild animals will devour what is left over.

4 I will make all the people of the world horrified at them because of what Hezekiah’s son Manasseh did in Jerusalem when he was king of Judah.”

5 TheLordsays,

“Who will pity you, people of Jerusalem,

and who will grieve over you?

Who will stop long enough

to ask how you are?

6 You people have rejected me;

you have turned your backs on me.

So I reached out and crushed you

because I was tired of controlling my anger.

7 In every town in the land

I threw you to the wind like straw.

I destroyed you, my people,

I killed your children

because you did not stop your evil ways.

8 There are more widows in your land

than grains of sand by the sea.

I killed your young men in their prime

and made their mothers suffer.

I suddenly struck them

with anguish and terror.

9 The mother who lost her seven children has fainted,

gasping for breath.

Her daylight has turned to darkness;

she is disgraced and sick at heart.

I will let your enemies kill

those of you who are still alive.

I, theLord, have spoken.”

Jeremiah Complains to the Lord

10 What an unhappy man I am! Why did my mother bring me into the world? I have to quarrel and argue with everyone in the land. I have not lent any money or borrowed any; yet everyone curses me.

11 Lord, may all their curses come true if I have not servedyou well, if I have not pleaded with you on behalf of my enemies when they were in trouble and distress. (

12 No one can break iron, especially the iron from the north that is mixed with bronze.)

13 TheLordsaid to me, “I will send enemies to carry away the wealth and treasures of my people, in order to punish them for the sins they have committed throughout the land.

14 I will make them serve their enemies in a land they know nothing about, because my anger is like fire, and it will burn forever.”

15 Then I said, “Lord, you understand. Remember me and help me. Let me have revenge on those who persecute me. Do not be so patient with them that they succeed in killing me. Remember that it is for your sake that I am insulted.

16 You spoke to me, and I listened to every word. I belong to you,LordGod Almighty, and so your words filled my heart with joy and happiness.

17 I did not spend my time with other people, laughing and having a good time. In obedience to your orders I stayed by myself and was filled with anger.

18 Why do I keep on suffering? Why are my wounds incurable? Why won’t they heal? Do you intend to disappoint me like a stream that goes dry in the summer?”

19 To this theLordreplied, “If you return, I will take you back, and you will be my servant again. If instead of talking nonsense you proclaim a worthwhile message, you will be my prophet again. The people will come back to you, and you will not need to go to them.

20 I will make you like a solid bronze wall as far as they are concerned. They will fight against you, but they will not defeat you. I will be with you to protect you and keep you safe.

21 I will rescue you from the power of wicked and violent people. I, theLord, have spoken.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/15-812291eb48fbf67a4f1fed349b1cdc5b.mp3?version_id=68—

The Lord’s Will for Jeremiah’s Life

1 Again theLordspoke to me and said,

2 “Do not marry or have children in a place like this.

3 I will tell you what is going to happen to the children who are born here and to their parents.

4 They will die of terrible diseases, and no one will mourn for them or bury them. Their bodies will lie like piles of manure on the ground. They will be killed in war or die of starvation, and their bodies will be food for the birds and the wild animals.

5 “You must not enter a house where there is mourning. Do not grieve for anyone. I will no longer bless my people with peace or show them love and mercy.

6 The rich and the poor will die in this land, but no one will bury them or mourn for them. Not one of you will gash yourself or shave your head to show your grief.

7 No one will eat or drink with anyone to offer comfort when a loved one dies. No one will show sympathy, not even for someone who has lost a father or mother.

8 “Do not enter a house where people are feasting. Do not sit down with them to eat and drink.

9 Listen to what I, theLordAlmighty, the God of Israel, have to say. I will silence the sounds of joy and gladness and the happy sounds of wedding feasts. The people here will live to see this happen.

10 “When you tell them all this, they will ask you why I have decided to punish them so harshly. They will ask what crime they are guilty of and what sin they have committed against theLordtheir God.

11 Then tell them that theLordhas said, ‘Your ancestors turned away from me and worshiped and served other gods. They abandoned me and did not obey my teachings.

12 But you have done even worse than your ancestors. All of you are stubborn and evil, and you do not obey me.

13 So then, I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. And there you will serve other gods day and night, and I will show you no mercy.’”

The Return from Exile

14 TheLordsays, “The time is coming when people will no longer swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

15 Instead, they will swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of a northern land and out of all the other countries where I had scattered them. I will bring them back to their own country, to the land that I gave their ancestors. I, theLord, have spoken.”

The Coming Punishment

16 TheLordsays, “I am sending for many fishermen to come and catch these people. Then I will send for many hunters to hunt them down on every mountain and hill and in the caves among the rocks.

17 I see everything they do. Nothing is hidden from me; their sins do not escape my sight.

18 I will make them pay double for their sin and wickedness, because they have defiled my land with idols that are as lifeless as corpses, and have filled it with their false gods.”

Jeremiah’s Prayer of Confidence in the Lord

19 Lord, you are the one who protects me and gives me strength; you help me in times of trouble. Nations will come to you from the ends of the earth and say, “Our ancestors had nothing but false gods, nothing but useless idols.

20 Can people make their own gods? No, if they did, those would not really be gods.”

21 “So then,” says theLord, “once and for all I will make the nations know my power and my might; they will know that I am theLord.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/16-8d67f109fa2d46c2b03d1d5dd40c1880.mp3?version_id=68—

The Sin and Punishment of Judah

1 TheLordsays, “People of Judah, your sin is written with an iron pen; it is engraved on your hearts with a diamond point and carved on the corners of your altars.

2 Your people worship at the altars and the symbols that have been set up for the goddess Asherah by every green tree and on the hilltops

3 and on the mountains in the open country. I will have your enemies take away your wealth and your treasures because of all the sins you have committedthroughout your land.

4 You will have to give upthe land I gave you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land you know nothing about, because my anger is like a fire, and it will burn forever.”

Various Sayings

5 TheLordsays,

“I will condemn those

who turn away from me

and put their trust in human beings,

in the strength of mortals.

6 He is like a bush in the desert,

which grows in the dry wasteland,

on salty ground where nothing else grows.

Nothing good ever happens to him.

7 “But I will bless the person

who puts his trust in me.

8 He is like a tree growing near a stream

and sending out roots to the water.

It is not afraid when hot weather comes,

because its leaves stay green;

it has no worries when there is no rain;

it keeps on bearing fruit.

9 “Who can understand the human heart?

There is nothing else so deceitful;

it is too sick to be healed.

10 I, theLord, search the minds

and test the hearts of people.

I treat each of them according to the way they live,

according to what they do.”

11 The person who gets money dishonestly

is like a bird that hatches eggs it didn’t lay.

In the prime of life he will lose his riches,

and in the end he is nothing but a fool.

12 Our Temple is like a glorious throne,

standing on a high mountain from the beginning.

13 Lord, you are Israel’s hope;

all who abandon you will be put to shame.

They will disappear like names written in the dust,

because they have abandoned you, theLord,

the spring of fresh water.

Jeremiah Asks the Lord for Help

14 Lord, heal me and I will be completely well; rescue me and I will be perfectly safe. You are the one I praise!

15 The people say to me, “Where are those threats theLordmade against us? Let him carry them out now!”

16 But,Lord, I never urged you to bring disaster on them;I did not wish a time of trouble for them.Lord, you know this; you know what I have said.

17 Do not be a terror to me; you are my place of safety when trouble comes.

18 Bring disgrace on those who persecute me, but spare me,Lord. Fill them with terror, but do not terrify me. Bring disaster on them and break them to pieces.

On Observing the Sabbath

19 TheLordsaid to me, “Jeremiah, go and announce my message at the People’s Gate, through which the kings of Judah enter and leave the city; then go to all the other gates of Jerusalem.

20 Tell the kings and all the people of Judah and everyone who lives in Jerusalem and enters these gates, to listen to what I say.

21 Tell them that if they love their lives, they must not carry any load on the Sabbath; they must not carry anything in through the gates of Jerusalem

22 or carry anything out of their houses on the Sabbath. They must not work on the Sabbath; they must observe it as a sacred day, as I commanded their ancestors.

23 Their ancestors did not listen to me or pay any attention. Instead, they became stubborn; they would not obey me or learn from me.

24 “Tell these people that they must obey all my commands. They must not carry any load in through the gates of this city on the Sabbath. They must observe the Sabbath as a sacred day and must not do any work at all.

25 Then their kings and princes will enter the gates of Jerusalem and have the same royal power that David had. Together with the people of Judah and of Jerusalem, they will ride in chariots and on horses, and the city of Jerusalem will always be filled with people.

26 People will come from the towns of Judah and from the villages around Jerusalem; they will come from the territory of Benjamin, from the foothills, from the mountains, and from southern Judah. They will bring to my Temple burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, as well as thank offerings.

27 But they must obey me and observe the Sabbath as a sacred day. They must not carry any load through the gates of Jerusalem on that day, for if they do, I will set the gates of Jerusalem on fire. Fire will burn down the palaces of Jerusalem, and no one will be able to put it out.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/17-f96b8abec26ec11f0fc81e9497d937a1.mp3?version_id=68—

Jeremiah at the Potter’s House

1 TheLordsaid to me,

2 “Go down to the potter’s house, where I will give you my message.”

3 So I went there and saw the potter working at his wheel.

4 Whenever a piece of pottery turned out imperfect, he would take the clay and make it into something else.

5 Then theLordsaid to me,

6 “Don’t I have the right to do with you people of Israel what the potter did with the clay? You are in my hands just like clay in the potter’s hands.

7 If at any time I say that I am going to uproot, break down, or destroy any nation or kingdom,

8 but then that nation turns from its evil, I will not do what I said I would.

9 On the other hand, if I say that I am going to plant or build up any nation or kingdom,

10 but then that nation disobeys me and does evil, I will not do what I said I would.

11 Now then, tell the people of Judah and of Jerusalem that I am making plans against them and getting ready to punish them. Tell them to stop living sinful lives—to change their ways and the things they are doing.

12 They will answer, ‘No, why should we? We will all be just as stubborn and evil as we want to be.’”

The People Reject the Lord

13 TheLordsays,

“Ask every nation if such a thing

has ever happened before.

The people of Israel have done a terrible thing!

14 Are Lebanon’s rocky heights ever without snow?

Do its cool mountain streams ever run dry?

15 Yet my people have forgotten me;

they burn incense to idols.

They have stumbled in the way they should go;

they no longer follow the old ways;

they walk on unmarked paths.

16 They have made this land a thing of horror,

to be despised forever.

All who pass by will be shocked at what they see;

they will shake their heads in amazement.

17 I will scatter my people before their enemies,

like dust blown by the east wind.

I will turn my back on them;

I will not help them when the disaster comes.”

A Plot against Jeremiah

18 Then the people said, “Let’s do something about Jeremiah! There will always be priests to instruct us, the wise to give us counsel, and prophets to proclaim God’s message. Let’s bring charges against him and stop listening to what he says.”

19 So I prayed, “Lord, hear what I am saying and listen to what my enemies are saying about me.

20 Is evil the payment for good? Yet they have dug a pit for me to fall in. Remember how I came to you and spoke on their behalf, so that you would not deal with them in anger.

21 But now,Lord, let their children starve to death; let them be killed in war. Let the women lose their husbands and children; let the men die of disease and the young men be killed in battle.

22 Send a mob to plunder their homes without warning; make them cry out in terror. They have dug a pit for me to fall in and have set traps to catch me.

23 But,Lord, you know all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their evil or pardon their sin. Throw them down in defeat and deal with them while you are angry.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/18-902fb771f55ea5e7f3ac28f2759cd925.mp3?version_id=68—

The Broken Jar

1 TheLordtold me to go and buy a clay jar. He also told me to take some of the elders of the people and some of the older priests,

2 and to go through Potsherd Gate out to Hinnom Valley. There I was to proclaim the message that he would give me.

3 TheLordtold me to say, “Kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem, listen to what I, theLordAlmighty, the God of Israel, have to say. I am going to bring such a disaster on this place that everyone who hears about it will be stunned.

4 I am going to do this because the people have abandoned me and defiled this place by offering sacrifices here to other gods—gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah have known anything about. They have filled this place with the blood of innocent people,

5 and they have built altars for Baal in order to burn their children in the fire as sacrifices. I never commanded them to do this; it never even entered my mind.

6 So then, the time will come when this place will no longer be called Topheth or Hinnom Valley. Instead, it will be known as Slaughter Valley.

7 In this place I will frustrate all the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will let their enemies triumph over them and kill them in battle. I will give their corpses to the birds and the wild animals as food.

8 I will bring such terrible destruction on this city that everyone who passes by will be shocked and amazed.

9 The enemy will surround the city and try to kill its people. The siege will be so terrible that the people inside the city will eat one another and even their own children.”

10 Then theLordtold me to break the jar in front of those who had gone with me

11 and to tell them that theLordAlmighty had said, “I will break this people and this city, and it will be like this broken clay jar that cannot be put together again. People will bury their dead even in Topheth because there will be nowhere else to bury them.

12 I promise that I will make this city and its inhabitants like Topheth.

13 The houses of Jerusalem, the houses of the kings of Judah, and indeed all the houses on whose roofs incense has been burned to the stars and where wine has been poured out as an offering to other gods—they will all be as unclean as Topheth.”

14 Then I left Topheth, where theLordhad sent me to proclaim his message. I went and stood in the court of the Temple and told all the people

15 that theLordAlmighty, the God of Israel, had said, “I am going to bring on this city and on every nearby town all the punishment that I said I would, because you are stubborn and will not listen to what I say.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/19-ac480c517e4d3188e949d1d4f555524f.mp3?version_id=68—

Jeremiah’s Conflict with Pashhur the Priest

1 When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was the chief officer of the Temple, heard me proclaim these things,

2 he had me beaten and placed in chains near the upper Benjamin Gate in the Temple.

3 The next morning, after Pashhur had released me from the chains, I said to him, “TheLorddid not name you Pashhur. The name he has given you is ‘Terror Everywhere.’

4 TheLordhimself has said, ‘I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to your friends, and you will see them all killed by the swords of their enemies. I am going to put all the people of Judah under the power of the king of Babylonia; he will take some away as prisoners to his country and put others to death.

5 I will also let their enemies plunder all the wealth of this city and seize all its possessions and property, even the treasures of the kings of Judah, and carry everything off to Babylonia.

6 As for you, Pashhur, you and all your family will also be captured and taken off to Babylonia. There you will die and be buried, along with all your friends to whom you have told so many lies.’”

Jeremiah Complains to the Lord

7 Lord, you have deceived me,

and I was deceived.

You are stronger than I am,

and you have overpowered me.

Everyone makes fun of me;

they laugh at me all day long.

8 Whenever I speak, I have to cry out

and shout, “Violence! Destruction!”

Lord, I am ridiculed and scorned all the time

because I proclaim your message.

9 But when I say, “I will forget theLord

and no longer speak in his name,”

then your message is like a fire

burning deep within me.

I try my best to hold it in,

but can no longer keep it back.

10 I hear everybody whispering,

“Terror is everywhere!

So let’s report him to the authorities!”

Even my close friends wait for my downfall.

“Perhaps he can be tricked,” they say;

“then we can catch him and get revenge.”

11 But you,Lord, are on my side, strong and mighty,

and those who persecute me will fail.

They will be disgraced forever,

because they cannot succeed.

Their disgrace will never be forgotten.

12 But, AlmightyLord, you test people justly;

you know what is in their hearts and minds.

So let me see you take revenge on my enemies,

for I have placed my cause in your hands.

13 Sing to theLord!

Praise theLord!

He rescues the oppressed from the power of evil people.

14 Curse the day I was born!

Forget the day my mother gave me birth!

15 Curse the one who made my father glad

by bringing him the news,

“It’s a boy! You have a son!”

16 May he be like those cities

that theLorddestroyed without mercy.

May he hear cries of pain in the morning

and the battle alarm at noon,

17 for not killing me before I was born.

Then my mother’s womb would have been my grave.

18 Why was I born?

Was it only to have trouble and sorrow,

to end my life in disgrace?

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/20-bd5a77367e9b70e3a29e612830e9a21f.mp3?version_id=68—

Jerusalem’s Defeat Is Predicted

1 King Zedekiah of Judah sent to me Pashhur son of Malchiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah with this request:

2 “Please speak to theLordfor us, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army are besieging the city. Maybe theLordwill perform one of his miracles for us and force Nebuchadnezzar to retreat.”

3 Then theLordspoke to me, and I told those who had been sent to me

4 to tell Zedekiah that theLord, the God of Israel, had said, “Zedekiah, I am going to defeat your army that is fighting against the king of Babylonia and his army. I will pile up your soldiers’ weapons in the center of the city.

5 I will fight against you with all my might, my anger, my wrath, and my fury.

6 I will kill everyone living in this city; people and animals alike will die of a terrible disease.

7 But as for you, your officials, and the people who survive the war, the famine, and the disease—I will let all of you be captured by King Nebuchadnezzar and by your enemies, who want to kill you. Nebuchadnezzar will put you to death. He will not spare any of you or show mercy or pity to any of you. I, theLord, have spoken.”

8 Then theLordtold me to say to the people, “Listen! I, theLord, am giving you a choice between the way that leads to life and the way that leads to death.

9 Anyone who stays in the city will be killed in war or by starvation or disease. But those who go out and surrender to the Babylonians, who are now attacking the city, will not be killed; they will at least escape with their life.

10 I have made up my mind not to spare this city, but to destroy it. It will be given over to the king of Babylonia, and he will burn it to the ground. I, theLord, have spoken.”

Judgment on the Royal House of Judah

11-12 TheLordtold me to give this message to the royal house of Judah, the descendants of David: “Listen to what I, theLord, am saying. See that justice is done every day. Protect the person who is being cheated from the one who is cheating him. If you don’t, the evil you are doing will make my anger burn like a fire that cannot be put out.

13 You, Jerusalem, are sittinghigh above the valleys, like a rock rising above the plain. But I will fight against you. You say that no one can attack you or break through your defenses.

14 But I will punish you for what you have done. I will set your palace on fire, and the fire will burn down everything around it. I, theLord, have spoken.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/363/32k/JER/21-2bb731c5efd4ebc27aada8df61a5d882.mp3?version_id=68—