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Jeremiah 19-21
Contemporary English Version
Jeremiah 19-21
Contemporary English Version
Jeremiah and the Clay Jar
19 The Lord said:
Jeremiah, go to the pottery shop and buy a clay jar. Then take along some of the city officials and leading priests 2 (A) and go to Hinnom Valley, just outside Potsherd[a] Gate. Tell the people that I have said:
3 I am the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, and you kings of Judah and you people of Jerusalem had better pay attention. I am going to bring so much trouble on this valley that everyone who hears about it will be shocked. 4-5 (B) The people of Judah stopped worshiping me and made this valley into a place of worship for Baal and other gods that have never helped them or their ancestors or their kings. And they have committed murder here, burning their young, innocent children as sacrifices to Baal. I have never even thought of telling you to do that. 6 So watch out! Someday this place will no longer be called Topheth or Hinnom Valley. It will be called Slaughter Valley!
7 You people of Judah and Jerusalem may have big plans, but here in this valley I'll ruin[b] those plans. I'll let your enemies kill you, and I'll tell the birds and wild animals to eat your dead bodies. 8 I will turn Jerusalem into a pile of rubble, and every passerby will be shocked and horrified and will make insulting remarks. 9 And while your enemies are trying to break through your city walls to kill you, the food supply will run out. You will become so hungry that you will eat the flesh of your friends and even of your own children.
10 Jeremiah, as soon as you have said this, smash the jar while the people are watching. 11 Then tell them that I have also said:
I am the Lord All-Powerful, and I warn you that I will shatter Judah and Jerusalem just like this jar that is broken beyond repair. You will bury your dead here in Topheth, but so many of you will die that there won't be enough room.
12-13 I will make Jerusalem as unclean as Topheth, by filling the city with your dead bodies. I will do this because you and your kings have gone up to the roofs of your houses and burned incense to the stars in the sky, as though they were gods. And you have given sacrifices of wine to foreign gods.
Jeremiah Speaks in the Temple Courtyard
14 I went to Topheth, where I told the people what the Lord had said. Then I went to the temple courtyard and shouted to the people, 15 “Listen, everyone! Some time ago, the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, warned you that he would bring disaster on Jerusalem and all nearby villages. But you were stubborn and refused to listen. Now the Lord is going to bring the disaster he promised.”
Pashhur Arrests Jeremiah
20 Pashhur son of Immer was a priest and the chief of temple security. He heard what I had said, 2 and so he hit me.[c] Then he had me arrested and put in chains[d] at the Benjamin Gate in the Lord's temple.[e] 3 The next day, when Pashhur let me go free, I told him that the Lord had said:
No longer will I call you Pashhur. Instead, I will call you Afraid-of-Everything.[f] 4 You will be afraid, and you will bring fear to your friends as well. You will see enemies kill them in battle. Then I will let the king of Babylonia take everyone in Judah prisoner, killing some and dragging the rest away to Babylonia. 5 He will clean out the royal treasury and take everything else of value from Jerusalem.
6 Pashhur, you are guilty of telling lies and claiming they were messages from me. That's why I will let the Babylonians take you, your family, and your friends as prisoners to Babylonia, where you will all die and be buried.
Jeremiah Complains to the Lord
7 You tricked me, Lord,
and I was really fooled.
You are stronger than I am,
and you have defeated me.
People never stop sneering
and insulting me.
8 You have let me announce
only injustice and death.
Your message has brought me
nothing but insults
and trouble.
9 Sometimes I tell myself
not to think about you, Lord,
or even mention your name.
But your message burns
in my heart and bones,
and I cannot keep silent.
10 I heard the crowds whisper,
“Everyone is afraid.
Now's our chance
to accuse Jeremiah!”
All of my so-called friends
are just waiting
for me to make a mistake.
They say, “Maybe Jeremiah
can be tricked.
Then we can overpower him
and get even at last.”
11 But you, Lord,
are a mighty soldier,
standing at my side.
Those troublemakers
will fall down and fail—
terribly embarrassed,
forever ashamed.
12 Lord All-Powerful,
you test those who do right,
and you know every heart
and mind.
I have told you my complaints,
so let me watch you
take revenge on my enemies.
13 I sing praises to you, Lord.
You rescue the oppressed
from the wicked.
14 (C) Put a curse on the day I was born!
Don't bless that day.
15 Put a curse on the man
who told my father, “Good news!
You have a son.”
16 May that man be like the towns
you destroyed without pity.
Let him hear shouts of alarm
in the morning
and battle cries at noon.
17 He deserves to die
for not killing me
before I was born.
Then my mother's body
would have been my grave.
18 Why did I have to be born?
Was it just to suffer
and die in shame?
The Lord Will Fight against Jerusalem
21 King Zedekiah[g] of Judah sent for Pashhur son of Malchiah and for a priest named Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. Then he told them, “Talk with Jeremiah for me.”
So they came to me and said, 2 (D) “King Nebuchadnezzar[h] of Babylonia has attacked Judah. Please ask the Lord to work miracles for our people, as he has done in the past, so that Nebuchadnezzar will leave us alone.”
3-7 I told them that the Lord God of Israel had told me to say to King Zedekiah:
The Babylonians have surrounded Jerusalem and want to kill you and your people. You are asking me to save you, but you have made me furious. So I will stretch out my mighty arm and fight against you myself. Your army is using spears and swords to fight the Babylonians, but I will make your own weapons turn and attack you. I will send a horrible disease to kill many of the people and animals in Jerusalem, and there will be nothing left to eat. Finally, I will let King Nebuchadnezzar and his army fight their way to the center of Jerusalem and capture everyone who is left alive, including you and your officials. But Nebuchadnezzar won't be kind or show any mercy—he will have you killed! I, the Lord, have spoken.
8 (E) Then I told them that the Lord had said:
People of Jerusalem, I, the Lord, give you the choice of life or death. 9 The Babylonian army has surrounded Jerusalem, so if you want to live, you must go out and surrender to them. But if you want to die because of hunger, disease, or war, then stay here in the city. 10 I have decided not to rescue Jerusalem. Instead, I am going to let the king of Babylonia burn it to the ground. I, the Lord, have spoken.
The Lord Warns the King of Judah
* 11 Pay attention, you that belong
to the royal family.
12 Each new day, make sure
that justice is done,
and rescue those
who are being robbed.
Or else my anger will flame up
like a fire that never goes out.
13 Jerusalem,
from your mountaintop
you look out over the valleys[i]
and think you are safe.
But I, the Lord, am angry,
14 and I will punish you
as you deserve.
I'll set your palace[j] on fire,
and everything around you
will go up in smoke.
Footnotes
- 19.2 Potsherd: A piece of broken pottery.
- 19.7 ruin: In Hebrew “ruin” sounds like “jar” (see verse 1).
- 20.2 hit me: Or “beat me up” or “had me beaten up.”
- 20.2 in chains: Or “in the stocks” (a wooden frame with holes for the hands, neck, or feet of a prisoner) or “in a prison cell.”
- 20.2 the Benjamin Gate in the Lord's temple: The Hebrew text has “the upper Benjamin Gate in the temple”; the lower Benjamin Gate may have been the city gate of that name.
- 20.3 Afraid-of-Everything: Hebrew “Magor-Missabib.”
- 21.1 Zedekiah: See the note at 1.3.
- 21.2 Nebuchadnezzar: Ruled 605–562 b.c.
- 21.13 Jerusalem … valleys: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 21.14 your palace: The Hebrew text has “the forest”; the largest room in the king's palace was known as Forest Hall (see 1 Kings 7.2,3).
Jeremiah 19-21
New International Version
Jeremiah 19-21
New International Version
19 This is what the Lord says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter.(A) Take along some of the elders(B) of the people and of the priests 2 and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom,(C) near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, 3 and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings(D) of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster(E) on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.(F) 4 For they have forsaken(G) me and made this a place of foreign gods(H); they have burned incense(I) in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.(J) 5 They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children(K) in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.(L) 6 So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth(M) or the Valley of Ben Hinnom,(N) but the Valley of Slaughter.(O)
7 “‘In this place I will ruin[a] the plans(P) of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies,(Q) at the hands of those who want to kill them, and I will give their carcasses(R) as food(S) to the birds and the wild animals. 8 I will devastate this city and make it an object of horror and scorn;(T) all who pass by will be appalled(U) and will scoff because of all its wounds.(V) 9 I will make them eat(W) the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemies(X) will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them.’
10 “Then break the jar(Y) while those who go with you are watching, 11 and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will smash(Z) this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury(AA) the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. 12 This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth. 13 The houses(AB) in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled(AC) like this place, Topheth—all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs(AD) to all the starry hosts(AE) and poured out drink offerings(AF) to other gods.’”
14 Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court(AG) of the Lord’s temple and said to all the people, 15 “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on this city and all the villages around it every disaster(AH) I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked(AI) and would not listen(AJ) to my words.’”
Jeremiah and Pashhur
20 When the priest Pashhur son of Immer,(AK) the official(AL) in charge of the temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, 2 he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten(AM) and put in the stocks(AN) at the Upper Gate of Benjamin(AO) at the Lord’s temple. 3 The next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord’s name(AP) for you is not Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side.(AQ) 4 For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes(AR) you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I will give(AS) all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, who will carry(AT) them away to Babylon or put them to the sword. 5 I will deliver all the wealth(AU) of this city into the hands of their enemies—all its products, all its valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away(AV) as plunder and carry it off to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into exile to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied(AW) lies.’”
Jeremiah’s Complaint
7 You deceived[b](AX) me, Lord, and I was deceived[c];
you overpowered(AY) me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed(AZ) all day long;
everyone mocks(BA) me.
8 Whenever I speak, I cry out
proclaiming violence and destruction.(BB)
So the word of the Lord has brought me
insult and reproach(BC) all day long.
9 But if I say, “I will not mention his word
or speak anymore in his name,”(BD)
his word is in my heart like a fire,(BE)
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;(BF)
indeed, I cannot.
10 I hear many whispering,
“Terror(BG) on every side!
Denounce(BH) him! Let’s denounce him!”
All my friends(BI)
are waiting for me to slip,(BJ) saying,
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
then we will prevail(BK) over him
and take our revenge(BL) on him.”
11 But the Lord(BM) is with me like a mighty warrior;
so my persecutors(BN) will stumble and not prevail.(BO)
They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced;(BP)
their dishonor will never be forgotten.
12 Lord Almighty, you who examine the righteous
and probe the heart and mind,(BQ)
let me see your vengeance(BR) on them,
for to you I have committed(BS) my cause.
13 Sing(BT) to the Lord!
Give praise to the Lord!
He rescues(BU) the life of the needy
from the hands of the wicked.(BV)
14 Cursed be the day I was born!(BW)
May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
15 Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,
who made him very glad, saying,
“A child is born to you—a son!”
16 May that man be like the towns(BX)
the Lord overthrew without pity.
May he hear wailing(BY) in the morning,
a battle cry at noon.
17 For he did not kill me in the womb,(BZ)
with my mother as my grave,
her womb enlarged forever.
18 Why did I ever come out of the womb(CA)
to see trouble(CB) and sorrow
and to end my days in shame?(CC)
God Rejects Zedekiah’s Request
21 The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah(CD) sent to him Pashhur(CE) son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah(CF) son of Maaseiah. They said: 2 “Inquire(CG) now of the Lord for us because Nebuchadnezzar[d](CH) king of Babylon(CI) is attacking us. Perhaps the Lord will perform wonders(CJ) for us as in times past so that he will withdraw from us.”
3 But Jeremiah answered them, “Tell Zedekiah, 4 ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am about to turn(CK) against you the weapons of war that are in your hands, which you are using to fight the king of Babylon and the Babylonians[e] who are outside the wall besieging(CL) you. And I will gather them inside this city. 5 I myself will fight(CM) against you with an outstretched hand(CN) and a mighty arm(CO) in furious anger and in great wrath. 6 I will strike(CP) down those who live in this city—both man and beast—and they will die of a terrible plague.(CQ) 7 After that, declares the Lord, I will give Zedekiah(CR) king of Judah, his officials and the people in this city who survive the plague,(CS) sword and famine, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon(CT) and to their enemies(CU) who want to kill them.(CV) He will put them to the sword;(CW) he will show them no mercy or pity or compassion.’(CX)
8 “Furthermore, tell the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: See, I am setting before you the way of life(CY) and the way of death. 9 Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague.(CZ) But whoever goes out and surrenders(DA) to the Babylonians who are besieging you will live; they will escape with their lives.(DB) 10 I have determined to do this city harm(DC) and not good, declares the Lord. It will be given into the hands(DD) of the king of Babylon, and he will destroy it with fire.’(DE)
11 “Moreover, say to the royal house(DF) of Judah, ‘Hear the word of the Lord. 12 This is what the Lord says to you, house of David:
“‘Administer justice(DG) every morning;
rescue from the hand of the oppressor(DH)
the one who has been robbed,
or my wrath will break out and burn like fire(DI)
because of the evil(DJ) you have done—
burn with no one to quench(DK) it.
13 I am against(DL) you, Jerusalem,
you who live above this valley(DM)
on the rocky plateau, declares the Lord—
you who say, “Who can come against us?
Who can enter our refuge?”(DN)
14 I will punish you as your deeds(DO) deserve,
declares the Lord.
I will kindle a fire(DP) in your forests(DQ)
that will consume everything around you.’”
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 19:7 The Hebrew for ruin sounds like the Hebrew for jar (see verses 1 and 10).
- Jeremiah 20:7 Or persuaded
- Jeremiah 20:7 Or persuaded
- Jeremiah 21:2 Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, of which Nebuchadnezzar is a variant; here and often in Jeremiah and Ezekiel
- Jeremiah 21:4 Or Chaldeans; also in verse 9
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New International Version (NIV) 
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