The Message (MSG)

A City Full of Lies

1-5 “Run for your lives, children of Benjamin!

Get out of Jerusalem, and now!

Give a blast on the ram’s horn in Blastville.

Send up smoke signals from Smoketown.

Doom pours out of the north—

massive terror!

I have likened my dear daughter Zion

to a lovely meadow.

Well, now ‘shepherds’ from the north have discovered her

and brought in their flocks of soldiers.

They’ve pitched camp all around her,

and plan where they’ll ‘graze.’

And then, ‘Prepare to attack! The fight is on!

To arms! We’ll strike at noon!

Oh, it’s too late? Day is dying?

Evening shadows are upon us?

Well, up anyway! We’ll attack by night

and tear apart her defenses stone by stone.’”

6-8 God-of-the-Angel-Armies gave the orders:

“Chop down her trees.

Build a siege ramp against Jerusalem,

A city full of brutality,

bursting with violence.

Just as a well holds a good supply of water,

she supplies wickedness nonstop.

The streets echo the cries: ‘Violence! Rape!’

Victims, bleeding and moaning, lie all over the place.

You’re in deep trouble, Jerusalem.

You’ve pushed me to the limit.

You’re on the brink of being wiped out,

being turned into a ghost town.”

9 More orders fromGod-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“Time’s up! Harvest the grapes for judgment.

Salvage what’s left of Israel.

Go back over the vines.

Pick them clean, every last grape.

Is Anybody Listening?

10-11 “I’ve got something to say. Is anybody listening?

I’ve a warning to post. Will anyone notice?

It’s hopeless! Their ears are stuffed with wax—

deaf as a post, blind as a bat.

It’s hopeless! They’ve tuned outGod.

They don’t want to hear from me.

But I’m bursting with the wrath ofGod.

I can’t hold it in much longer.

11-12 “So dump it on the children in the streets.

Let it loose on the gangs of youth.

For no one’s exempt: Husbands and wives will be taken,

the old and those ready to die;

Their homes will be given away—

all they own, even their loved ones—

When I give the signal

against all who live in this country.”

God’s Decree.

13-15 “Everyone’s after the dishonest dollar,

little people and big people alike.

Prophets and priests and everyone in between

twist words and doctor truth.

My people are broken—shattered!—

and they put on Band-Aids,

Saying, ‘It’s not so bad. You’ll be just fine.’

But things are not ‘just fine’!

Do you suppose they are embarrassed

over this outrage?

No, they have no shame.

They don’t even know how to blush.

There’s no hope for them. They’ve hit bottom

and there’s no getting up.

As far as I’m concerned,

they’re finished.”

Godhas spoken.

Death Is on the Prowl

16-20 God’s Message yet again:

“Go stand at the crossroads and look around.

Ask for directions to the old road,

The tried-and-true road. Then take it.

Discover the right route for your souls.

But they said, ‘Nothing doing.

We aren’t going that way.’

I even provided watchmen for them

to warn them, to set off the alarm.

But the people said, ‘It’s a false alarm.

It doesn’t concern us.’

And so I’m calling in the nations as witnesses:

‘Watch, witnesses, what happens to them!’

And, ‘Pay attention, Earth!

Don’t miss these bulletins.’

I’m visiting catastrophe on this people, the end result

of the games they’ve been playing with me.

They’ve ignored everything I’ve said,

had nothing but contempt for my teaching.

What would I want with incense brought in from Sheba,

rare spices from exotic places?

Your burnt sacrifices in worship give me no pleasure.

Your religious rituals mean nothing to me.”

21 So listen to this. Here’sGod’s verdict on your way of life:

“Watch out! I’m putting roadblocks and barriers

on the road you’re taking.

They’ll send you sprawling,

parents and children, neighbors and friends—

and that will be the end of the lot of you.”

22-23 And listen to this verdict fromGod:

“Look out! An invasion from the north,

a mighty power on the move from a faraway place:

Armed to the teeth,

vicious and pitiless,

Booming like sea storm and thunder—tramp, tramp, tramp—

riding hard on war horses,

In battle formation

against you, dear Daughter Zion!”

24-25 We’ve heard the news,

and we’re as limp as wet dishrags.

We’re paralyzed with fear.

Terror has a death grip on our throats.

Don’t dare go outdoors!

Don’t leave the house!

Death is on the prowl.

Danger everywhere!

26 “Dear Daughter Zion: Dress in black.

Blacken your face with ashes.

Weep most bitterly,

as for an only child.

The countdown has begun . . .

six, five, four, three . . .

The Terror is on us!”

27-30 Godgave me this task:

“I have made you the examiner of my people,

to examine and weigh their lives.

They’re a thickheaded, hard-nosed bunch,

rotten to the core, the lot of them.

Refining fires are cranked up to white heat,

but the ore stays a lump, unchanged.

It’s useless to keep trying any longer.

Nothing can refine evil out of them.

Men will give up and call them ‘slag,’

thrown on the slag heap by me, theirGod.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/6-186bdeff8c85434083481338d28aa562.mp3?version_id=97—

The Nation That Wouldn’t Obey God

1-2 The Message fromGodto Jeremiah: “Stand in the gate ofGod’s Temple and preach this Message.

2-3 “Say, ‘Listen, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worshipGod.God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God, has this to say to you:

3-7 “‘Clean up your act—the way you live, the things you do—so I can make my home with you in this place. Don’t for a minute believe the lies being spoken here—“This isGod’s Temple,God’s Temple,God’s Temple!” Total nonsense! Only if you clean up your act (the way you live, the things you do), only if you do a total spring cleaning on the way you live and treat your neighbors, only if you quit exploiting the street people and orphans and widows, no longer taking advantage of innocent people on this very site and no longer destroying your souls by using this Temple as a front for other gods—onlythenwill I move into your neighborhood. Only then will this country I gave your ancestors be my permanent home, my Temple.

8-11 “‘Get smart! Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies, and you’re swallowing them! Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with the neighborhood wives, tell lies nonstop, worship the local gods, and buy every novel religious commodity on the market—and then march into this Temple, set apart for my worship, and say, “We’re safe!” thinking that the place itself gives you a license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege? A cave full of criminals! Do you think you can turn this Temple, set apart for my worship, into something like that? Well, think again. I’ve got eyes in my head. I can see what’s going on.’”God’s Decree!

12 “‘Take a trip down to the place that was once in Shiloh, where I met my people in the early days. Take a look at those ruins, what I did to it because of the evil ways of my people Israel.

13-15 “‘So now, because of the way you have lived and failed to listen, even though time and again I took you aside and talked seriously with you, and because you refused to change when I called you to repent, I’m going to do to this Temple, set aside for my worship, this place you think is going to keep you safe no matter what, this place I gave as a gift to your ancestors and you, the same as I did to Shiloh. And as for you, I’m going to get rid of you, the same as I got rid of those old relatives of yours around Shiloh, your fellow Israelites in that former kingdom to the north.’

16-18 “And you, Jeremiah, don’t waste your time praying for this people. Don’t offer to make petitions or intercessions. Don’t bother me with them. I’m not listening. Can’t you see what they’re doing in all the villages of Judah and in the Jerusalem streets? Why, they’ve got the children gathering wood while the fathers build fires and the mothers make bread to be offered to ‘the Queen of Heaven’! And as if that weren’t bad enough, they go around pouring out libations to any other gods they come across, just to hurt me.

19 “But is it me they’re hurting?”God’s Decree! “Aren’t they just hurting themselves? Exposing themselves shamefully? Making themselves ridiculous?

20 “Here’s what the MasterGodhas to say: ‘My white-hot anger is about to descend on this country and everything in it—people and animals, trees in the field and vegetables in the garden—a raging wildfire that no one can put out.’

21-23 “The Message fromGod-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God: ‘Go ahead! Put your burnt offerings with all your other sacrificial offerings and make a good meal for yourselves.Isure don’t want them! When I delivered your ancestors out of Egypt, I never said anything to them about wanting burnt offerings and sacrifices as such. But I did say this,commandedthis: “Obey me. Do what I say and I will be your God and you will be my people. Live the way I tell you. Do what I command so that your lives will go well.”

24-26 “‘But do you think they listened? Not a word of it. They did just what they wanted to do, indulged any and every evil whim and got worse day by day. From the time your ancestors left the land of Egypt until now, I’ve supplied a steady stream of my servants the prophets, but do you think the people listened? Not once. Stubborn as mules and worse than their ancestors!’

27-28 “Tell them all this, but don’t expect them to listen. Call out to them, but don’t expect an answer. Tell them, ‘You are the nation that wouldn’t obeyGod, that refused all discipline. Truth has disappeared. There’s not a trace of it left in your mouths.

29 “‘So shave your heads.

Go bald to the hills and lament,

ForGodhas rejected and left

this generation that has made him so angry.’

30-31 “The people of Judah have lived evil lives while I’ve stood by and watched.”God’s Decree. “In deliberate insult to me, they’ve set up their obscene god-images in the very Temple that was built to honor me. They’ve constructed Topheth altars for burning babies in prominent places all through the valley of Ben-hinnom, altars for burning their sons and daughters alive in the fire—a shocking perversion of all that I am and all I command.

32-34 “But soon, very soon”—God’s Decree!—“the names Topheth and Ben-hinnom will no longer be used. They’ll call the place what it is: Murder Meadow. Corpses will be stacked up in Topheth because there’s no room left to bury them! Corpses abandoned in the open air, fed on by crows and coyotes, who have the run of the place. And I’ll empty both smiles and laughter from the villages of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. No wedding songs, no holiday sounds.Deadsilence.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/7-87b85885cebb2bbb1ce2726d49039858.mp3?version_id=97—

1-2 “And when the time comes”—God’s Decree!—“I’ll see to it that they dig up the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of the princes and priests and prophets, and yes, even the bones of the common people. They’ll dig them up and spread them out like a congregation at worship before sun, moon, and stars, all those sky gods they’ve been so infatuated with all these years, following their ‘lucky stars’ in doglike devotion. The bones will be left scattered and exposed, to reenter the soil as fertilizer, like manure.

3 “Everyone left—all from this evil generation unlucky enough to still be alive in whatever godforsaken place I will have driven them to—will wish they were dead.” Decree ofGod-of-the-Angel-Armies.

To Know Everything but God’s Word

4-7 “Tell them this,God’s Message:

“‘Do people fall down and not get up?

Or take the wrong road and then just keep going?

So why does this people go backward,

and just keep on going—backward!

They stubbornly hold on to their illusions,

refuse to change direction.

I listened carefully

but heard not so much as a whisper.

No one expressed one word of regret.

Not a single “I’m sorry” did I hear.

They just kept at it, blindly and stupidly

banging their heads against a brick wall.

Cranes know when it’s time

to move south for winter.

And robins, warblers, and bluebirds

know when it’s time to come back again.

But my people? My people know nothing,

not the first thing ofGodand his rule.

8-9 “‘How can you say, “We know the score.

We’re the proud owners ofGod’s revelation”?

Look where it’s gotten you—stuck in illusion.

Your religion experts have taken you for a ride!

Your know-it-alls will be unmasked,

caught and shown up for what they are.

Look at them! They know everything butGod’s Word.

Do you call that “knowing”?

10-12 “‘So here’s what will happen to the know-it-alls:

I’ll make them wifeless and homeless.

Everyone’s after the dishonest dollar,

little people and big people alike.

Prophets and priests and everyone in between

twist words and doctor truth.

My dear Daughter—my people—broken, shattered,

and yet they put on Band-Aids,

Saying, “It’s not so bad. You’ll be just fine.”

But things are not “just fine”!

Do you suppose they are embarrassed

over this outrage?

Not really. They have no shame.

They don’t even know how to blush.

There’s no hope for them. They’ve hit bottom

and there’s no getting up.

As far as I’m concerned,

they’re finished.’”Godhas spoken.

13 “‘I went out to see if I could salvage anything’”

—God’s Decree—

“‘but found nothing:

Not a grape, not a fig,

just a few withered leaves.

I’m taking back

everything I gave them.’”

14-16 So why are we sitting here, doing nothing?

Let’s get organized.

Let’s go to the big city

and at least die fighting.

We’ve gottenGod’s ultimatum:

We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t—

damned because of our sin against him.

We hoped things would turn out for the best,

but it didn’t happen that way.

We were waiting around for healing—

and terror showed up!

From Dan at the northern borders

we hear the hooves of horses,

Horses galloping, horses neighing.

The ground shudders and quakes.

They’re going to swallow up the whole country.

Towns and people alike—fodder for war.

17 “‘What’s more, I’m dispatching

poisonous snakes among you,

Snakes that can’t be charmed,

snakes that will bite you and kill you.’”

God’s Decree!

Advancing from One Evil to the Next

18-22 I drown in grief.

I’m heartsick.

Oh, listen! Please listen! It’s the cry of my dear people

reverberating through the country.

IsGodno longer in Zion?

Has the King gone away?

Can you tell me why they flaunt their plaything-gods,

their silly, imported no-gods before me?

The crops are in, the summer is over,

but for us nothing’s changed.

We’re still waiting to be rescued.

For my dear broken people, I’m heartbroken.

I weep, seized by grief.

Are there no healing ointments in Gilead?

Isn’t there a doctor in the house?

So why can’t something be done

to heal and save my dear, dear people?

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/8-dee68375f28306a444a89eea6a3f96cb.mp3?version_id=97—

1-2 I wish my head were a well of water

and my eyes fountains of tears

So I could weep day and night

for casualties among my dear, dear people.

At times I wish I had a wilderness hut,

a backwoods cabin,

Where I could get away from my people

and never see them again.

They’re a faithless, feckless bunch,

a congregation of degenerates.

3-6 “Their tongues shoot out lies

like a bow shoots arrows—

A mighty army of liars,

the sworn enemies of truth.

They advance from one evil to the next,

ignorant of me.”

God’s Decree.

“Be wary of even longtime neighbors.

Don’t even trust your grandmother!

Brother schemes against brother,

like old cheating Jacob.

Friend against friend

spreads malicious gossip.

Neighbors gyp neighbors,

never telling the truth.

They’ve trained their tongues to tell lies,

and now they can’t tell the truth.

They pile wrong upon wrong, stack lie upon lie,

and refuse to know me.”

God’s Decree.

7-9 Therefore,God-of-the-Angel-Armies says:

“Watch this! I’ll melt them down

and see what they’re made of.

What else can I do

with a people this wicked?

Their tongues are poison arrows!

Deadly lies stream from their mouths.

Neighbor greets neighbor with a smile,

‘Good morning! How’re things?’

while scheming to do away with him.

Do you think I’m going to stand around and do nothing?”

God’s Decree.

“Don’t you think I’ll take serious measures

against a people like this?

10-11 “I’m lamenting the loss of the mountain pastures.

I’m chanting dirges for the old grazing grounds.

They’ve become deserted wastelands too dangerous for travelers.

No sounds of sheep bleating or cattle mooing.

Birds and wild animals, all gone.

Nothing stirring, no sounds of life.

I’m going to make Jerusalem a pile of rubble,

fit for nothing but stray cats and dogs.

I’m going to reduce Judah’s towns to piles of ruins

where no one lives!”

12 I asked, “Is there anyone around bright enough to tell us what’s going on here? Anyone who has the inside story fromGodand can let us in on it?

“Why is the country wasted?

“Why no travelers in this desert?”

13-15 God’s answer: “Because they abandoned my plain teaching. They wouldn’t listen to anything I said, refused to live the way I told them to. Instead they lived any way they wanted and took up with the Baal gods, who they thought would give them what they wanted—following the example of their parents.” And this is the consequence.God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so:

“I’ll feed them with pig slop.

“I’ll give them poison to drink.

16 “Then I’ll scatter them far and wide among godless peoples that neither they nor their parents have ever heard of, and I’ll send Death in pursuit until there’s nothing left of them.”

A Life That Is All Outside but No Inside

17-19 A Message fromGod-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“Look over the trouble we’re in and call for help.

Send for some singers who can help us mourn our loss.

Tell them to hurry—

to help us express our loss and lament,

Help us get our tears flowing,

make tearful music of our crying.

Listen to it!

Listen to that torrent of tears out of Zion:

‘We’re a ruined people,

we’re a shamed people!

We’ve been driven from our homes

and must leave our land!’”

20-21 Mourning women! Oh, listen toGod’s Message!

Open your ears. Take in what he says.

Teach your daughters songs for the dead

and your friends the songs of heartbreak.

Death has climbed in through the window,

broken into our bedrooms.

Children on the playgrounds drop dead,

and young men and women collapse at their games.

22 Speak up! “God’s Message:

“‘Dead bodies everywhere, scattered at random

like sheep and goat dung in the fields,

Like wheat cut down by reapers

and left to rot where it falls.’”

23-24 God’s Message:

“Don’t let the wise brag of their wisdom.

Don’t let heroes brag of their exploits.

Don’t let the rich brag of their riches.

If you brag, brag of this and this only:

That you understand and know me.

I’mGod, and I act in loyal love.

I do what’s right and set things right and fair,

and delight in those who do the same things.

These are my trademarks.”

God’s Decree.

25-26 “Stay alert! It won’t be long now”—God’s Decree!—“when I will personally deal with everyone whose life is all outside but no inside: Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab. All these nations are big on performance religion—including Israel, who is no better.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/9-7b76d1256e4b265823e20dd0ef4f18f9.mp3?version_id=97—

The Stick Gods

1-5 Listen to the Message thatGodis sending your way, House of Israel. Listen most carefully:

“Don’t take the godless nations as your models.

Don’t be impressed by their glamour and glitz,

no matter how much they’re impressed.

The religion of these peoples

is nothing but smoke.

An idol is nothing but a tree chopped down,

then shaped by a woodsman’s ax.

They trim it with tinsel and balls,

use hammer and nails to keep it upright.

It’s like a scarecrow in a cabbage patch—can’t talk!

Deadwood that has to be carried—can’t walk!

Don’t be impressed by such stuff.

It’s useless for either good or evil.”

6-9 All this is nothing compared to you, OGod.

You’re wondrously great, famously great.

Who can fail to be impressed by you, King of the nations?

It’s your very nature to be worshiped!

Look far and wide among the elite of the nations.

The best they can come up with is nothing compared to you.

Stupidly, they line them up—a lineup of sticks,

good for nothing but making smoke.

Gilded with silver foil from Tarshish,

covered with gold from Uphaz,

Hung with violet and purple fabrics—

no matter how fancy the sticks, they’re still sticks.

10 ButGodis the real thing—

the living God, the eternal King.

When he’s angry, Earth shakes.

Yes, and the godless nations quake.

11-15 “Tell them this, ‘The stick gods

who made nothing, neither sky nor earth,

Will come to nothing

on the earth and under the sky.’”

But it is God whose power made the earth,

whose wisdom gave shape to the world,

who crafted the cosmos.

He thunders, and rain pours down.

He sends the clouds soaring.

He embellishes the storm with lightnings,

launches wind from his warehouse.

Stick-god worshipers looking mighty foolish,

god-makers embarrassed by their handmade gods!

Their gods are frauds—dead sticks,

deadwood gods, tasteless jokes.

When the fires of judgment come, they’ll be ashes.

16 But the Portion-of-Jacob is the real thing.

He put the whole universe together

And pays special attention to Israel.

His name?God-of-the-Angel-Armies!

17-18 Grab your bags,

all you who are under attack.

Godhas given notice:

“Attention! I’m evicting

Everyone who lives here,

And right now—yes, right now!

I’m going to press them to the limit,

squeeze the life right out of them.”

19-20 But it’s a black day for me!

Hopelessly wounded,

I said, “Why, oh why

did I think I could bear it?”

My house is ruined—

the roof caved in.

Our children are gone—

we’ll never see them again.

No one left to help in rebuilding,

no one to make a new start!

21 It’s because our leaders are stupid.

They never askedGodfor counsel,

And so nothing worked right.

The people are scattered all over.

22 But listen! Something’s coming!

A big commotion from the northern borders!

Judah’s towns about to be smashed,

left to all the stray dogs and cats!

23-25 I know,God, that mere mortals

can’t run their own lives,

That men and women

don’t have what it takes to take charge of life.

So correct us,God, as you see best.

Don’t lose your temper. That would be the end of us.

Vent your anger on the godless nations,

who refuse to acknowledge you,

And on the people

who won’t pray to you—

The very ones who’ve made hash out of Jacob,

yes, made hash

And devoured him whole,

people and pastures alike.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/10-000ff253000cdae83bf19a518f3d42e2.mp3?version_id=97—

The Terms of This Covenant

1 The Message that came to Jeremiah fromGod:

2-4 “Preach to the people of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem. Tell them this: ‘This isGod’s Message, the Message of Israel’s God to you. Anyone who does not keep the terms of this covenant is cursed. The terms are clear. I made them plain to your ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt, out of the iron furnace of suffering.

4-5 “‘Obey what I tell you. Do exactly what I command you. Your obedience will close the deal. You’ll be mine and I’ll be yours. This will provide the conditions in which I will be able to do what I promised your ancestors: to give them a fertile and lush land. And, as you know, that’s what I did.’”

“Yes,God,” I replied. “That’s true.”

6-8 Godcontinued: “Preach all this in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Say, ‘Listen to the terms of this covenant and carry them out! I warned your ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt and I’ve kept up the warnings. I haven’t quit warning them for a moment. I warned them from morning to night: “Obey me or else!” But they didn’t obey. They paid no attention to me. They did whatever they wanted to do, whenever they wanted to do it, until finally I stepped in and ordered the punishments set out in the covenant, which, despite all my warnings, they had ignored.’”

9-10 ThenGodsaid, “There’s a conspiracy among the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. They’ve plotted to reenact the sins of their ancestors—the ones who disobeyed me and decided to go after other gods and worship them. Israel and Judah are in this together, mindlessly breaking the covenant I made with their ancestors.

11-13 “Well, your God has something to say about this: Watch out! I’m about to visit doom on you, and no one will get out of it. You’re going to cry for help but I won’t listen. Then all the people in Judah and Jerusalem will start praying to the gods you’ve been sacrificing to all these years, but it won’t do a bit of good. You’ve got as many gods as you have villages, Judah! And you’ve got enough altars for sacrifices to that impotent sex god Baal to put one on every street corner in Jerusalem!

14 “And as for you, Jeremiah, I don’t want you praying for this people. Nothing! Not a word of petition. Indeed, I’m not going to listen to a single syllable of their crisis-prayers.”

Promises and Pious Programs

15-16 “What business do the ones I love have figuring out

how to get off the hook? And right in the house of worship!

Do you think making promises and devising pious programs

will save you from doom?

Do you think you can get out of this

by becoming more religious?

A mighty oak tree, majestic and glorious—

that’s how I once described you.

But it will only take a clap of thunder and a bolt of lightning

to leave you a shattered wreck.

17 “I,God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who planted you—yes, I have pronounced doom on you. Why? Because of the disastrous life you’ve lived, Israel and Judah alike, goading me to anger with your continuous worship and offerings to that sorry god Baal.”

18-19 Godtold me what was going on. That’s how I knew.

You,God, opened my eyes to their evil scheming.

I had no idea what was going on—naive as a lamb

being led to slaughter!

I didn’t know they had it in for me,

didn’t know of their behind-the-scenes plots:

“Let’s get rid of the preacher.

Thatwill stop the sermons!

Let’s get rid of him for good.

He won’t be remembered for long.”

20 Then I said, “God-of-the-Angel-Armies,

you’re a fair judge.

You examine and cross-examine

human actions and motives.

I want to see these people shown up and put down!

I’m an open book before you. Clear my name.”

21-23 That sent a signal toGod, who spoke up: “Here’s what I’ll do to the men of Anathoth who are trying to murder you, the men who say, ‘Don’t preach to us inGod’s name or we’ll kill you.’ Yes, it’sGod-of-the-Angel-Armies speaking. Indeed! I’ll call them to account: Their young people will die in battle, their children will die of starvation, and there will be no one left at all, none. I’m visiting the men of Anathoth with doom. Doomsday!”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/11-913f80f8568a008cdb979989d2878246.mp3?version_id=97—

What Makes You Think You Can Race Against Horses?

1-4 You are right, OGod, and you set things right.

I can’t argue with that. But I do have some questions:

Why do bad people have it so good?

Why do con artists make it big?

You planted them and they put down roots.

They flourished and produced fruit.

They talk as if they’re old friends with you,

but they couldn’t care less about you.

Meanwhile, you knowmeinside and out.

You don’t let me get by with a thing!

Make them pay for the way they live,

pay with their lives, like sheep marked for slaughter.

How long do we have to put up with this—

the country depressed, the farms in ruin—

And all because of wickedness, these wicked lives?

Even animals and birds are dying off

Because they’ll have nothing to do with God

and think God has nothing to do with them.

5-6 “So, Jeremiah, if you’re worn out in this footrace with men,

what makes you think you can race against horses?

And if you can’t keep your wits during times of calm,

what’s going to happen when troubles break loose

like the Jordan in flood?

Those closest to you, your own brothers and cousins,

are working against you.

They’re out to get you. They’ll stop at nothing.

Don’t trust them, especially when they’re smiling.

7-11 “I will abandon the House of Israel,

walk away from my beloved people.

I will turn over those I most love

to those who are her enemies.

She’s been, this one I held dear,

like a snarling lion in the jungle,

Growling and baring her teeth at me—

and I can’t take it anymore.

Has this one I hold dear become a preening peacock?

But isn’t she under attack by vultures?

Then invite all the hungry animals at large,

invite them in for a free meal!

Foreign, scavenging shepherds

will loot and trample my fields,

Turn my beautiful, well-cared-for fields

into vacant lots of tin cans and thistles.

They leave them littered with junk—

a ruined land, a land in lament.

The whole countryside is a wasteland,

and no one will really care.

12-13 “The barbarians will invade,

swarm over hills and plains.

The judgment sword ofGodwill take its toll

from one end of the land to the other.

Nothing living will be safe.

They will plant wheat and reap weeds.

Nothing they do will work out.

They will look at their meager crops and wring their hands.

All this the result ofGod’s fierce anger!”

14-17 God’s Message: “Regarding all the bad neighbors who abused the land I gave to Israel as their inheritance: I’m going to pluck them out of their lands, and then pluck Judah out from among them. Once I’ve pulled the bad neighbors out, I will relent and take them tenderly to my heart and put them back where they belong, put each of them back in their home country, on their family farms. Then if they will get serious about living my way and pray to me as well as they taught my people to pray to that god Baal, everything will go well for them. But if they won’t listen, then I’ll pull them out of their land by the roots and cart them off to the dump. Total destruction!”God’s Decree.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/12-14ff690994f7c11e1297f9e87a8ba9c9.mp3?version_id=97—

People Who Do Only What They Want to Do

1-2 Godtold me, “Go and buy yourself some linen shorts. Put them on and keep them on. Don’t even take them off to wash them.” So I bought the shorts asGoddirected and put them on.

3-5 ThenGodtold me, “Take the shorts that you bought and go straight to Perath and hide them there in a crack in the rock.” So I did whatGodtold me and hid them at Perath.

6-7 Next, after quite a long time,Godtold me, “Go back to Perath and get the linen shorts I told you to hide there.” So I went back to Perath and dug them out of the place where I had hidden them. The shorts by then had rotted and were worthless.

8-11 Godexplained, “This is the way I am going to ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem—a wicked bunch of people who won’t obey me, who do only what they want to do, who chase after all kinds of no-gods and worship them. They’re going to turn out as rotten as these old shorts. Just as shorts clothe and protect, so I kept the whole family of Israel under my care”—God’s Decree—“so that everyone could see they were my people, a people I could show off to the world and be proud of. But they refused to do a thing I said.

12 “And then tell them this, ‘God’s Message, personal from the God of Israel: Every wine jug should be full of wine.’

“And they’ll say, ‘Of course. We know that. Every wine jug should be full of wine!’

13-14 “Then you’ll say, ‘This is whatGodsays: Watch closely. I’m going to fill every person who lives in this country—the kings who rule from David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, the citizens of Jerusalem—with wine that will make them drunk. And then I’ll smash them, smash the wine-filled jugs—old and young alike. Nothing will stop me. Not an ounce of pity or mercy or compassion will slow me down. Every last drunken jug of them will be smashed!’”

The Light You Always Took for Granted

15-17 Then I said, Listen. Listen carefully: Don’t stay stuck in your ways!

It’sGod’s Message we’re dealing with here.

Let your lives glow bright beforeGod

before he turns out the lights,

Before you trip and fall

on the dark mountain paths.

The light you always took for granted will go out

and the world will turn black.

If you people won’t listen,

I’ll go off by myself and weep over you,

Weep because of your stubborn arrogance,

bitter, bitter tears,

Rivers of tears from my eyes,

becauseGod’s sheep will end up in exile.

18-19 Tell the king and the queen-mother,

“Come down off your high horses.

Your dazzling crowns

will tumble off your heads.”

The villages in the Negev will be surrounded,

everyone trapped,

And Judah dragged off to exile,

the whole country dragged to oblivion.

20-22 Look, look, Jerusalem!

Look at the enemies coming out of the north!

What will become of your flocks of people,

the beautiful flocks in your care?

How are you going to feel when the people

you’ve played up to, looked up to all these years

Now look down on you? You didn’t expect this?

Surprise! The pain of a woman having a baby!

Do I hear you saying,

“What’s going on here? Why me?”

The answer’s simple: You’re guilty,

hugely guilty.

Your guilt has your life endangered,

your guilt has you writhing in pain.

23 Can an African change skin?

Can a leopard get rid of its spots?

So what are the odds on you doing good,

you who are so long-practiced in evil?

24-27 “I’ll blow these people away—

like wind-blown leaves.

You have it coming to you.

I’ve measured it out precisely.”

God’s Decree.

“It’s because you forgot me

and embraced the Big Lie,

that so-called god Baal.

I’m the one who will rip off your clothes,

expose and shame you before the watching world.

Your obsessions with gods, gods, and more gods,

your goddess affairs, your god-adulteries.

Gods on the hills, gods in the fields—

every time I look you’re off with another god.

O Jerusalem, what a sordid life!

Is there any hope for you!”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/13-0890a4032a4a4229263080997d4fb640.mp3?version_id=97—

Time and Again We’ve Betrayed God

1-6 God’s Message that came to Jeremiah regarding the drought:

“Judah weeps,

her cities mourn.

The people fall to the ground, moaning,

while sounds of Jerusalem’s sobs rise up, up.

The rich people sent their servants for water.

They went to the cisterns, but the cisterns were dry.

They came back with empty buckets,

wringing their hands, shaking their heads.

All the farm work has stopped.

Not a drop of rain has fallen.

The farmers don’t know what to do.

They wring their hands, they shake their heads.

Even the doe abandons her fawn in the field

because there is no grass—

Eyes glazed over, on her last legs,

nothing but skin and bones.”

7-9 We know we’re guilty. We’ve lived bad lives—

but do something,God. Do it foryoursake!

Time and time again we’ve betrayed you.

No doubt about it—we’ve sinned against you.

Hope of Israel! Our only hope!

Israel’s last chance in this trouble!

Why are you acting like a tourist,

taking in the sights, here today and gone tomorrow?

Why do you just stand there and stare,

like someone who doesn’t know what to do in a crisis?

ButGod, you are, in fact,here, herewith us!

You know who we are—you named us!

Don’t leave us in the lurch.

10 ThenGodsaid of these people:

“Since they loved to wander this way and that,

never giving a thought to where they were going,

I will now have nothing more to do with them—

except to note their guilt and punish their sins.”

The Killing Fields

11-12 Godsaid to me, “Don’t pray that everything will turn out all right for this people. When they skip their meals in order to pray, I won’t listen to a thing they say. When they redouble their prayers, bringing all kinds of offerings from their herds and crops, I’ll not accept them. I’m finishing them off with war and famine and disease.”

13 I said, “But Master,God! Their preachers have been telling them that everything is going to be all right—no war and no famine—that there’s nothing to worry about.”

14 ThenGodsaid, “These preachers are liars, and they use my name to cover their lies. I never sent them, I never commanded them, and I don’t talk with them. The sermons they’ve been handing out are sheer illusion, tissues of lies, whistlings in the dark.

15-16 “So this is my verdict on them: All the preachers who preach using my name as their text, preachers I never sent in the first place, preachers who say, ‘War and famine will never come here’—these preachers will die in war and by starvation. And the people to whom they’ve been preaching will end up as corpses, victims of war and starvation, thrown out in the streets of Jerusalem unburied—no funerals for them or their wives or their children! I’ll make sure they get the full brunt of all their evil.

17-18 “And you, Jeremiah, will say this to them:

“‘My eyes pour out tears.

Day and night, the tears never quit.

My dear, dear people are battered and bruised,

hopelessly and cruelly wounded.

I walk out into the fields,

shocked by the killing fields strewn with corpses.

I walk into the city,

shocked by the sight of starving bodies.

And I watch the preachers and priests

going about their business as if nothing’s happened!’”

19-22 God, have you said your final No to Judah?

Can you simply not stand Zion any longer?

If not, why have you treated us like this,

beaten us nearly to death?

We hoped for peace—

nothing good came from it;

We looked for healing—

and got kicked in the stomach.

We admit, OGod, how badly we’ve lived,

and our ancestors, how bad they were.

We’ve sinned, they’ve sinned,

we’ve all sinned against you!

Your reputation is at stake! Don’t quit on us!

Don’t walk out and abandon your glorious Temple!

Remember your covenant.

Don’t break faith with us!

Can the no-gods of the godless nations cause rain?

Can the sky water the earth by itself?

You’re the one, OGod, who does this.

So you’re the one for whom we wait.

You made it all,

you do it all.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/14-9286f8850861e62722ace59640dc8904.mp3?version_id=97—

1-2 ThenGodsaid to me: “Jeremiah, even if Moses and Samuel stood here and made their case, I wouldn’t feel a thing for this people. Get them out of here. Tell them to get lost! And if they ask you, ‘So where do we go?’ tell themGodsays,

“‘If you’re assigned to die, go and die;

if assigned to war, go and get killed;

If assigned to starve, go starve;

if assigned to exile, off to exile you go!’

3-4 “I’ve arranged for four kinds of punishment: death in battle, the corpses dropped off by killer dogs, the rest picked clean by vultures, the bones gnawed by hyenas. They’ll be a sight to see, a sight to shock the whole world—and all because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah and all he did in Jerusalem.

5 “Who do you think will feel sorry for you, Jerusalem?

Who do you think will waste tears on you?

Who will bother to take the time to ask,

‘So, how are things going?’

6-9 “Youleftme, remember?”God’s Decree.

“You turned your back and walked out.

So I will grab you and hit you hard.

I’m tired of letting you off the hook.

I threw you to the four winds

and let the winds scatter you like leaves.

I made sure you’ll lose everything,

since nothing makes you change.

I created more widows among you

than grains of sand on the ocean beaches.

At noon mothers will get the news

of their sons killed in action.

Sudden anguish for the mothers—

all those terrible deaths.

A mother of seven falls to the ground,

gasping for breath,

Robbed of her children in their prime.

Her sun sets at high noon!

Then I’ll round up any of you that are left alive

and see that you’re killed by your enemies.”

God’s Decree.

Giving Everything Away for Nothing

10-11 Unlucky mother—that you had me as a son,

given the unhappy job of indicting the whole country!

I’ve never hurt or harmed a soul,

and yet everyone is out to get me.

But,Godknows, I’ve done everything I could to help them,

prayed for them and against their enemies.

I’ve always been on their side, trying to stave off disaster.

God knows how I’ve tried!

12-14 “O Israel, O Judah, what are your chances

against the iron juggernaut from the north?

In punishment for your sins, I’m giving away

everything you’ve got, giving it away for nothing.

I’ll make you slaves to your enemies

in a strange and far-off land.

My anger is blazing and fierce,

burning in hot judgment against you.”

15-18 You know where I am,God! Remember what I’m doing here!

Take my side against my detractors.

Don’t stand back while they ruin me.

Just look at the abuse I’m taking!

When your words showed up, I ate them—

swallowed them whole. What a feast!

What delight I took in being yours,

OGod,God-of-the-Angel-Armies!

I never joined the party crowd

in their laughter and their fun.

Led by you, I went off by myself.

You’d filled me with indignation. Their sin had me seething.

But why, why this chronic pain,

this ever worsening wound and no healing in sight?

You’re nothing,God, but a mirage,

a lovely oasis in the distance—and then nothing!

19-21 This is howGodanswered me:

“Take back those words, and I’ll take you back.

Then you’ll stand tall before me.

Use words truly and well. Don’t stoop to cheap whining.

Then, but only then, you’ll speak for me.

Let your words changethem.

Don’t change your words to suit them.

I’ll turn you into a steel wall,

a thick steel wall, impregnable.

They’ll attack you but won’t put a dent in you

because I’m at your side, defending and delivering.”

God’s Decree.

“I’ll deliver you from the grip of the wicked.

I’ll get you out of the clutch of the ruthless.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/85/32k/JER/15-c7b04472dd54300b6010772298c23b7c.mp3?version_id=97—