To The Word – Day 180

₁The LORD told me to go and buy myself some linen shorts and to put them on; but he told me not to put them in water. ₂So I bought them and put them on. ₃Then the LORD spoke to me again, and said, ₄“Go to the River Euphrates and hide the shorts in a hole in the rocks.” ₅So I went and hid them near the Euphrates.

₆Some time later the LORD told me to go back to the Euphrates and get the shorts. ₇So 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.

₈Then the LORD spoke to me again. He said, ₉“This is how I will destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. ₁₀These evil people have refused to obey me. They have been as stubborn and wicked as ever, and have worshipped and served other gods. So then, they will become like these shorts that are no longer any good. ₁₁Just as shorts fit tightly round 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 honour to my name; but they would not obey me.”

₁₂The LORD God 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. ₁₃Then tell them that I, the LORD, 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. ₁₄Then I will smash them like jars against one another, old and young alike. No pity, compassion, or mercy will stop me from killing them.”

₁₈The LORD said to me, “Tell the king and his mother to come down from their thrones, because their beautiful crowns have fallen from their heads. ₁₉The 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.”

₂₀Jerusalem, look! Your enemies are coming down from the north! Where are the people entrusted to your care, your people you were so proud of? ₂₁What 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. ₂₂If 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. ₂₃Can a Nubian change the colour of his skin, or a leopard remove its spots? If they could, then you that do nothing but evil could learn to do what is right. ₂₄The LORD will scatter you like straw that is blown away by the desert wind. ₂₅He 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. ₂₆The LORD himself will strip off your clothes and expose you to shame. ₂₇He 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 neighbour's wife or like a stallion after a mare. People of Jerusalem, you are doomed! When will you ever be pure?

₁The LORD said to me concerning the drought,

₁₀The LORD says 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.”

₁₁The LORD said to me, “Do not ask me to help these people. ₁₂Even 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.”

₁₃Then I said, “Sovereign LORD, 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.”

₁₄But the LORD replied, “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. ₁₅I, the LORD, 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. ₁₆The 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.”

₁₇The LORD commanded me to tell the people about my sorrow and to say:

₁Then the LORD said 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. ₂When they ask you where they should go, tell them that I have said:

₅The LORD says,

₁₀What 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. ₁₁LORD, may all their curses come true if I have not served you 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.)

₁₃The LORD said 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. ₁₄I will make them serve their enemies in a land they know nothing about, because my anger is like fire, and it will burn for ever.”

₁₅Then 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. ₁₆You spoke to me, and I listened to every word. I belong to you, LORD God Almighty, and so your words filled my heart with joy and happiness. ₁₇I 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. ₁₈Why 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?”

₁₉To this the LORD replied, “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. ₂₀I 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. ₂₁I will rescue you from the power of wicked and violent people. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

₁Again the LORD spoke to me and said, ₂“Do not marry or have children in a place like this. ₃I will tell you what is going to happen to the children who are born here and to their parents. ₄They 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. ₆The rich and the poor will die in this land, but no one will bury them or mourn for them. No one will gash himself or shave his head to show his grief. ₇No one will eat or drink with anyone to comfort him when a loved one dies. No one will show sympathy, not even for someone who has lost his father or mother.

₈“Do not enter a house where people are feasting. Do not sit down with them to eat and drink. ₉Listen to what I, the LORD Almighty, 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 the LORD their God. ₁₁Then tell them that the LORD has said, ‘Your ancestors turned away from me and worshipped and served other gods. They abandoned me and did not obey my teachings. ₁₂But you have done even worse than your ancestors. All of you are stubborn and evil, and you do not obey me. ₁₃So 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.’ ”

₁₄The LORD says, “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. ₁₅Instead, 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, the LORD, have spoken.”

₁₆The LORD says, “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. ₁₇I see everything they do. Nothing is hidden from me; their sins do not escape my sight. ₁₈I 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.”

₁₉LORD, 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. ₂₀Can people make their own gods? No, if they did, those would not really be gods.”

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

₁The LORD says, “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. ₂Your people worship at the altars and the symbols that have been set up for the goddess Asherah by every green tree, on the hilltops ₃and on the mountains in the open country. I will make your enemies take away your wealth and your treasures because of all the sins you have committed throughout your land. ₄You will have to give up the 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 for ever.”

₅The LORD says,

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

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

₁₆But, 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. ₁₇Do not be a terror to me; you are my place of safety when trouble comes. ₁₈Bring 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.

₁₉The LORD said 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. ₂₀Tell the kings and all the people of Judah and everyone who lives in Jerusalem and enters these gates, to listen to what I say. ₂₁Tell 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 ₂₂or 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. ₂₃Their 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. ₂₅Then 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. ₂₆People will come from the towns of Judah and from the villages round 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. ₂₇But 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.”