HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1054
J EREMIA H 1 9
And in all their trouble I will turn my back
on them
and refuse to notice their distress.”
A Plot against Jeremiah
18 Then the people said, “Come on, let’s plot a
way to stop Jeremiah. We have plenty of priests
and wise men and prophets. We don’t need him
to teach the word and give us advice and prophecies. Let’s spread rumors about him and ignore
what he says.”
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Lord, hear me and help me!
Listen to what my enemies are saying.
Should they repay evil for good?
They have dug a pit to kill me,
though I pleaded for them
and tried to protect them from your
anger.
So let their children starve!
Let them die by the sword!
Let their wives become childless widows.
Let their old men die in a plague,
and let their young men be killed in
battle!
Let screaming be heard from their homes
as warriors come suddenly upon them.
For they have dug a pit for me
and have hidden traps along my path.
Lord, you know all about their murderous
plots against me.
Don’t forgive their crimes and blot out
their sins.
Let them die before you.
Deal with them in your anger.
Jeremiah’s Shattered Jar
This is what the Lord said to me: “Go
and buy a clay jar. Then ask some of the
leaders of the people and of the priests to follow
you. 2 Go out through the Gate of Broken Pots to
the garbage dump in the valley of Ben-Hinnom,
and give them this message. 3 Say to them, ‘Listen to this message from the Lord, you kings
of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem! This is what
the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel,
says: I will bring a terrible disaster on this place,
and the ears of those who hear about it will ring!
4 “‘For Israel has forsaken me and turned this
valley into a place of wickedness. The people
burn incense to foreign gods—idols never before acknowledged by this generation, by their
ancestors, or by the kings of Judah. And they
have filled this place with the blood of innocent
children. 5 They have built pagan shrines to Baal,
and there they burn their sons as sacrifices to
Baal. I have never commanded such a horrible
deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing! 6 So beware, for the time is
coming, says the Lord, when this garbage dump
will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of
Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
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7 “‘For I will upset the careful plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will allow the people to
be slaughtered by invading armies, and I will
leave their dead bodies as food for the vultures
and wild animals. 8 I will reduce Jerusalem to
ruins, making it a monument to their stupidity.
All who pass by will be astonished and will gasp
at the destruction they see there. 9 I will see to it
that your enemies lay siege to the city until all
the food is gone. Then those trapped inside will
eat their own sons and daughters and friends.
They will be driven to utter despair.’
10 “As these men watch you, Jeremiah, smash
the jar you brought. 11 Then say to them, ‘This is
what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: As this
jar lies shattered, so I will shatter the people of
Judah and Jerusalem beyond all hope of repair.
They will bury the bodies here in Topheth, the
garbage dump, until there is no more room for
them. 12 This is what I will do to this place and
its people, says the Lord. I will cause this city
to become defiled like Topheth. 13 Yes, all the
houses in Jerusalem, including the palace of
Judah’s kings, will become like Topheth—all
the houses where you burned incense on the
rooftops to your star gods, and where liquid offerings were poured out to your idols.’”
14 Then Jeremiah returned from Topheth, the
garbage dump where he had delivered this message, and he stopped in front of the Temple of
the Lord. He said to the people there, 15 “This
is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God
of Israel, says: ‘I will bring disaster upon this
city and its surrounding towns as I promised,
because you have stubbornly refused to listen
to me.’”
Jeremiah and Pashhur
Now Pashhur son of Immer, the priest
in charge of the Temple of the Lord,
heard what Jeremiah was prophesying. 2 So he
arrested Jeremiah the prophet and had him
whipped and put in stocks at the Benjamin Gate
of the Lord’s Temple.
3 The next day, when Pashhur finally released
him, Jeremiah said, “Pashhur, the Lord has
changed your name. From now on you are to
be called ‘The Man Who Lives in Terror.’* 4 For
this is what the Lord says: ‘I will send terror
upon you and all your friends, and you will
watch as they are slaughtered by the swords of
the enemy. I will hand the people of Judah over
to the king of Babylon. He will take them captive
to Babylon or run them through with the sword.
5 And I will let your enemies plunder Jerusalem.
All the famed treasures of the city—the precious
jewels and gold and silver of your kings—will be
carried off to Babylon. 6 As for you, Pashhur, you
and all your household will go as captives to
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20:3 Hebrew Magor-missabib, which means “surrounded by
terror”; also in 20:10.