To The Word – Day 181

₁The LORD said to me, ₂“Go down to the potter's house, where I will give you my message.” ₃So I went there and saw the potter working at his wheel. ₄Whenever a piece of pottery turned out imperfect, he would take the clay and make it into something else.

₅Then the LORD said to me, ₆“Haven't I 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. ₇If at any time I say that I am going to uproot, break down, or destroy any nation or kingdom, ₈but then that nation turns from its evil, I will not do what I said I would. ₉On the other hand, if I say that I am going to plant or build up any nation or kingdom, ₁₀but then that nation disobeys me and does evil, I will not do what I said I would. ₁₁Now 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. ₁₂They will answer, ‘No, why should we? We will all be just as stubborn and evil as we want to be.’ ”

₁₃The LORD says,

₁₈Then 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.”

₁₉So I prayed, “LORD, hear what I am saying and listen to what my enemies are saying about me. ₂₀Is 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. ₂₁But 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. ₂₂Send 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. ₂₃But, 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.”

₁The LORD told 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, ₂and to go through Potsherd Gate out to the Valley of Hinnom. There I was to proclaim the message that he would give me. ₃The LORD told me to say, “Kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem, listen to what I, the LORD Almighty, 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. ₄I 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, ₅and 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. ₆So then, the time will come when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Hinnom. Instead, it will be known as the Valley of Slaughter. ₇In 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. ₈I will bring such terrible destruction on this city that everyone who passes by will be shocked and amazed. ₉The 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.”

₁₀Then the LORD told me to break the jar in front of those who had gone with me ₁₁and to tell them that the LORD Almighty 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. ₁₂I promise that I will make this city and its inhabitants like Topheth. ₁₃The houses of Jerusalem, the houses of the kings of Judah, and indeed all the houses on whose roofs incense has been burnt to the stars and where wine has been poured out as an offering to other gods — they will all be as unclean as Topheth.”

₁₄Then I left Topheth, where the LORD had sent me to proclaim his message. I went and stood in the court of the Temple and told all the people ₁₅that the LORD Almighty, 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.”

₁When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was the chief officer of the Temple, heard me proclaim these things, ₂he ordered me to be beaten and placed in chains near the upper Benjamin Gate in the Temple. ₃The next morning, after Pashhur had released me from the chains, I said to him, “The LORD did not name you Pashhur. The name he has given you is ‘Terror Everywhere’. ₄The LORD himself 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. ₅I 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. ₆As 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.’ ”

₁King Zedekiah of Judah sent Pashhur son of Malchiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to me with this request: ₂“Please speak to the LORD for us, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army are besieging the city. Maybe the LORD will perform one of his miracles for us and force Nebuchadnezzar to retreat.”

₃Then the LORD spoke to me, and I told the men who had been sent to me ₄to tell Zedekiah that the LORD, 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 centre of the city. ₅I will fight against you with all my might, my anger, my wrath, and my fury. ₆I will kill everyone living in this city; people and animals alike will die of a terrible disease. ₇But 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, the LORD, have spoken.”

₈Then the LORD told me to say to the people, “Listen! I, the LORD, am giving you a choice between the way that leads to life and the way that leads to death. ₉Anyone 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 lives. ₁₀I 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, the LORD, have spoken.”

_11-12The LORD told me to give this message to the royal house of Judah, the descendants of David: “Listen to what I, the LORD, 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. ₁₃You, Jerusalem, are sitting high 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 defences. ₁₄But I will punish you for what you have done. I will set your palace on fire, and the fire will burn down everything round it. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

_1-2The LORD told me to go to the palace of the king of Judah, the descendant of David, and there tell the king, his officials, and the people of Jerusalem to listen to what the LORD had said: ₃“I, the LORD, command you to do what is just and right. Protect the person who is being cheated from the one who is cheating him. Do not ill-treat or oppress foreigners, orphans, or widows; and do not kill innocent people in this holy place. ₄If you really do as I have commanded, then David's descendants will continue to be kings. And they, together with their officials and their people, will continue to pass through the gates of this palace in chariots and on horses. ₅But if you do not obey my commands, then I swear to you that this palace will fall into ruins. I, the LORD, have spoken.

₆“To me, Judah's royal palace is as beautiful as the land of Gilead and as the Lebanon Mountains; but I will make it a desolate place where no one lives. ₇I am sending men to destroy it. They will all bring their axes, cut down its beautiful cedar pillars, and throw them into the fire.

₈“Afterwards many foreigners will pass by and ask one another why I, the LORD, have done such a thing to this great city. ₉Then they will answer that it is because you have abandoned your covenant with me, your God, and have worshipped and served other gods.”

₁₁The LORD says concerning Josiah's son Joahaz, who succeeded his father as king of Judah, “He has gone away from here, never to return. ₁₂He will die in the country where they have taken him, and he will never again see this land.”

₁₈So then, the LORD says about Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah,

₂₄The LORD said to King Jehoiachin, son of King Jehoiakim of Judah, “As surely as I am the living God, even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off ₂₅and give you to people you are afraid of, people who want to kill you. I will give you to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his soldiers. ₂₆I am going to force you and your mother into exile. You will go to a country where neither of you was born, and both of you will die there. ₂₇You will long to see this country again, but you will never return.”

₂₈I said, “Has King Jehoiachin become like a broken jar that is thrown away and that no one wants? Is that why he and his children have been taken into exile to a land they know nothing about?”