HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1048
J EREMIA H 1 3
Do not trust them,
no matter how pleasantly they speak.
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“I have abandoned my people, my special
possession.
I have surrendered my dearest ones to
their enemies.
My chosen people have roared at me like
a lion of the forest,
so I have treated them with contempt.
My chosen people act like speckled
vultures,*
but they themselves are surrounded by
vultures.
Bring on the wild animals to pick their
corpses clean!
“Many rulers have ravaged my vineyard,
trampling down the vines
and turning all its beauty into a barren
wilderness.
They have made it an empty wasteland;
I hear its mournful cry.
The whole land is desolate,
and no one even cares.
On all the bare hilltops,
destroying armies can be seen.
The sword of the Lord devours people
from one end of the nation to the other.
No one will escape!
My people have planted wheat
but are harvesting thorns.
They have worn themselves out,
but it has done them no good.
They will harvest a crop of shame
because of the fierce anger of the Lord.”
A Message for Israel’s Neighbors
14 Now this is what the Lord says: “I will uproot
from their land all the evil nations reaching out
for the possession I gave my people Israel. And I
will uproot Judah from among them. 15 But afterward I will return and have compassion on all of
them. I will bring them home to their own lands
again, each nation to its own possession. 16 And if
these nations truly learn the ways of my people,
and if they learn to swear by my name, saying, ‘As
surely as the Lord lives’ (just as they taught my
people to swear by the name of Baal), then they
will be given a place among my people. 17 But any
nation who refuses to obey me will be uprooted
and destroyed. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
Jeremiah’s Linen Loincloth
This is what the Lord said to me: “Go
and buy a linen loincloth and put it on,
but do not wash it.” 2 So I bought the loincloth
as the Lord directed me, and I put it on.
3 Then the Lord gave me another message:
4 “Take the linen loincloth you are wearing, and
go to the Euphrates River.* Hide it there in a
hole in the rocks.” 5 So I went and hid it by the
Euphrates as the Lord had instructed me.
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6 A long time afterward the Lord said to me,
“Go back to the Euphrates and get the loincloth
I told you to hide there.” 7 So I went to the Euphrates and dug it out of the hole where I had
hidden it. But now it was rotting and falling
apart. The loincloth was good for nothing.
8 Then I received this message from the Lord:
9 “This is what the Lord says: This shows how
I will rot away the pride of Judah and Jerusalem. 10 These wicked people refuse to listen to
me. They stubbornly follow their own desires
and worship other gods. Therefore, they will
become like this loincloth—good for nothing!
11 As a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I created Judah and Israel to cling to me, says the
Lord. They were to be my people, my pride, my
glory—an honor to my name. But they would
not listen to me.
12 “So tell them, ‘This is what the Lord, the
God of Israel, says: May all your jars be filled
with wine.’ And they will reply, ‘Of course! Jars
are made to be filled with wine!’
13 “Then tell them, ‘No, this is what the Lord
means: I will fill everyone in this land with
drunkenness—from the king sitting on David’s
throne to the priests and the prophets, right
down to the common people of Jerusalem.
14 I will smash them against each other, even
parents against children, says the Lord. I will
not let my pity or mercy or compassion keep me
from destroying them.’”
A Warning against Pride
15 Listen and pay attention!
Do not be arrogant, for the Lord has
spoken.
16 Give glory to the Lord your God
before it is too late.
Acknowledge him before he brings darkness
upon you,
causing you to stumble and fall on the
darkening mountains.
For then, when you look for light,
you will find only terrible darkness and
gloom.
17 And if you still refuse to listen,
I will weep alone because of your pride.
My eyes will overflow with tears,
because the Lord’s flock will be led away
into exile.
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Say to the king and his mother,
“Come down from your thrones
and sit in the dust,
for your glorious crowns
will soon be snatched from your heads.”
The towns of the Negev will close their
gates,
and no one will be able to open them.
12:9 Or speckled hyenas. 13:4 Hebrew Perath; also in 13:5,
6, 7.