Immerse: Prophets - Flipbook - Page 294
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IMMERSE
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PROPHETS
43:13–44:15
these stones that I have hidden. He will spread his royal canopy over them.
And when he comes, he will destroy the land of Egypt. He will bring death
to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and
war to those destined for war. He will set fire to the temples of Egypt’s
gods; he will burn the temples and carry the idols away as plunder. He
will pick clean the land of Egypt as a shepherd picks fleas from his cloak.
And he himself will leave unharmed. He will break down the sacred pil
lars standing in the temple of the sun in Egypt, and he will burn down the
temples of Egypt’s gods.’”
This is the message Jeremiah received concerning the Judeans living in
northern Egypt in the cities of Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in
southern Egypt as well: “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the
God of Israel, says: You saw the calamity I brought on Jerusalem and all
the towns of Judah. They now lie deserted and in ruins. They provoked
my anger with all their wickedness. They burned incense and worshiped
other gods—gods that neither they nor you nor any of your ancestors had
ever even known.
“Again and again I sent my servants, the prophets, to plead with them,
‘Don’t do these horrible things that I hate so much.’ But my people would
not listen or turn back from their wicked ways. They kept on burning in
cense to these gods. And so my fury boiled over and fell like fire on the
towns of Judah and into the streets of Jerusalem, and they are still a deso
late ruin today.
“And now the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, asks you:
Why are you destroying yourselves? For not one of you will survive—not
a man, woman, or child among you who has come here from Judah, not
even the babies in your arms. Why provoke my anger by burning incense
to the idols you have made here in Egypt? You will only destroy yourselves
and make yourselves an object of cursing and mockery for all the nations
of the earth. Have you forgotten the sins of your ancestors, the sins of the
kings and queens of Judah, and the sins you and your wives committed in
Judah and Jerusalem? To this very hour you have shown no remorse or
reverence. No one has chosen to follow my word and the decrees I gave to
you and your ancestors before you.
“Therefore, this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Is
rael, says: I am determined to destroy every one of you! I will take this
remnant of Judah—those who were determined to come here and live in
Egypt—and I will consume them. They will fall here in Egypt, killed by
war and famine. All will die, from the least to the greatest. They will be an
object of damnation, horror, cursing, and mockery. I will punish them in
