The Sin of Jerusalem

¹People of Jerusalem, run through your streets! Look around! See for yourselves! Search the marketplaces! Can you find one person who does what is right and tries to be faithful to God? If you can, the Lord will forgive Jerusalem.

²Even though you claim to worship the Lord, you do not mean what you say.

³Surely the Lord looks for faithfulness. He struck you, but you paid no attention; he crushed you, but you refused to learn. You were stubborn and would not turn from your sins.

⁴Then I thought, “These are only the poor and ignorant. They behave foolishly; they don't know what their God requires, what the Lord wants them to do.

⁵I will go to the people in power and talk with them. Surely they know what their God requires, what the Lord wants them to do.” But all of them have rejected the Lord's authority and refuse to obey him.

⁶That is why lions from the forest will kill them; wolves from the desert will tear them to pieces, and leopards will prowl through their towns. If those people go out, they will be torn apart because their sins are numerous and time after time they have turned from God.

⁷The Lord asked, “Why should I forgive the sins of my people? They have abandoned me and have worshiped gods that are not real. I fed my people until they were full, but they committed adultery and spent their time with prostitutes.

⁸They were like well-fed stallions wild with desire, each lusting for his neighbor's wife.

⁹Shouldn't I punish them for these things and take revenge on a nation such as this?

¹⁰I will send enemies to cut down my people's vineyards, but not to destroy them completely. I will tell them to strip away the branches, because those branches are not mine.

¹¹The people of Israel and Judah have betrayed me completely. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

The Lord Rejects Israel

¹²The Lord's people have denied him and have said, “He won't really do anything. We won't have hard times; we won't have war or famine.”

^13-14They have said that the prophets are nothing but windbags and that they have no message from the Lord. The Lord God Almighty said to me, “Jeremiah, because these people have said such things, I will make my words like a fire in your mouth. The people will be like wood, and the fire will burn them up.”

¹⁵People of Israel, the Lord is bringing a nation from far away to attack you. It is a strong and ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know.

¹⁶Their archers are mighty soldiers who kill without mercy.

¹⁷They will devour your crops and your food; they will kill your sons and your daughters. They will slaughter your flocks and your herds and destroy your vines and fig trees. The fortified cities in which you trust will be destroyed by their army.

¹⁸The Lord says, “Yet even in those days I will not completely destroy my people.

¹⁹When they ask why I did all these things, tell them, Jeremiah, that just as they turned away from me and served foreign gods in their own land, so they will serve strangers in a land that is not theirs.”

God Warns His People

²⁰The Lord says, “Tell the descendants of Jacob, tell the people of Judah:

²¹Pay attention, you foolish and stupid people, who have eyes, but cannot see, and have ears, but cannot hear.

²²I am the Lord; why don't you fear me? Why don't you tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary of the sea, a permanent boundary that it cannot cross. The sea may toss, but it cannot go beyond it; the waves may roar, but they cannot break through.

²³But you people! You are stubborn and rebellious; you have turned aside and left me.

²⁴You never thought to honor me, even though I send the autumn rains and the spring rains and give you the harvest season each year.

²⁵Instead, your sins have kept these good things from you.

²⁶“Evildoers live among my people; they lie in wait like those who lay nets to catch birds, but they have set their traps to catch people.

²⁷Just as a hunter fills a cage with birds, they have filled their houses with loot. That is why they are powerful and rich,

²⁸why they are fat and well fed. There is no limit to their evil deeds. They do not give orphans their rights or show justice to the oppressed.

²⁹“But I, the Lord, will punish them for these things; I will take revenge on this nation.

³⁰A terrible and shocking thing has happened in the land:

³¹prophets speak nothing but lies; priests rule as the prophets command, and my people offer no objections. But what will they do when it all comes to an end?”

God Appoints Ezekiel as a Lookout

¹The Lord spoke to me.

²“Mortal man,” he said, “tell your people what happens when I bring war to a land. The people of that country choose one of their number to be a lookout.

³When he sees the enemy approaching, he sounds the alarm to warn everyone.

⁴If someone hears it but pays no attention and the enemy comes and kills him, then he is to blame for his own death.

⁵His death is his own fault, because he paid no attention to the warning. If he had paid attention, he could have escaped.

⁶If, however, the lookout sees the enemy coming and does not sound the alarm, the enemy will come and kill those sinners, but I will hold the lookout responsible for their death.

⁷“Now, mortal man, I am making you a lookout for the nation of Israel. You must pass on to them the warnings I give you.

⁸If I announce that an evil person is going to die but you do not warn him to change his ways so that he can save his life, then he will die, still a sinner, and I will hold you responsible for his death.

⁹If you do warn an evil person and he doesn't stop sinning, he will die, still a sinner, but your life will be spared.”

Individual Responsibility

¹⁰The Lord spoke to me. “Mortal man,” he said, “repeat to the Israelites what they are saying: ‘We are burdened with our sins and the wrongs we have done. We are wasting away. How can we live?’

¹¹Tell them that as surely as I, the Sovereign Lord, am the living God, I do not enjoy seeing sinners die. I would rather see them stop sinning and live. Israel, stop the evil you are doing. Why do you want to die?

¹²“Now, mortal man, tell the Israelites that when someone good sins, the good he has done will not save him. If an evil person stops doing evil, he won't be punished, and if a good man starts sinning, his life will not be spared.

¹³I may promise life to someone good, but if he starts thinking that his past goodness is enough and begins to sin, I will not remember any of the good he did. He will die because of his sins.

¹⁴I may warn someone evil that he is going to die, but if he stops sinning and does what is right and good—

¹⁵for example, if he returns the security he took for a loan or gives back what he stole—if he stops sinning and follows the laws that give life, he will not die, but live.

¹⁶I will forgive the sins he has committed, and he will live because he has done what is right and good.

¹⁷“And your people say that what I do isn't right! No, it's their way that isn't right.

¹⁸When someone righteous stops doing good and starts doing evil, he will die for it.

¹⁹When someone evil quits sinning and does what is right and good, he has saved his life.

²⁰But Israel, you say that what I do isn't right. I am going to judge you by what you do.”

The News of Jerusalem's Fall

²¹On the fifth day of the tenth month of the twelfth year of our exile, someone who had escaped from Jerusalem came and told me that the city had fallen.

²²The evening before he came, I had felt the powerful presence of the Lord. When the man arrived the next morning, the Lord gave me back the power of speech.

The Sins of the People

²³The Lord spoke to me.

²⁴“Mortal man,” he said, “the people who are living in the ruined cities of the land of Israel are saying: ‘Abraham was only one man, and he was given the whole land. There are many of us, so now the land is ours.’

²⁵“Tell them what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying: You eat meat with the blood still in it. You worship idols. You commit murder. What makes you think that the land belongs to you?

²⁶You rely on your swords. Your actions are disgusting. Everyone commits adultery. What makes you think that the land is yours?

²⁷“Tell them that I, the Sovereign Lord, warn them that as surely as I am the living God, the people who live in the ruined cities will be killed. Those living in the country will be eaten by wild animals. Those hiding in the mountains and in caves will die of disease.

²⁸I will make the country a desolate wasteland, and the power they were so proud of will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will be so wild that no one will be able to travel through them.

²⁹When I punish the people for their sins and make the country a wasteland, then they will know that I am the Lord.”

The Results of the Prophet's Message

³⁰The Lord said, “Mortal man, your people are talking about you when they meet by the city walls or in the doorways of their houses. They say to one another, ‘Let's go and hear what word has come from the Lord now.’

³¹So my people crowd in to hear what you have to say, but they don't do what you tell them to do. Loving words are on their lips, but they continue their greedy ways.

³²To them you are nothing more than an entertainer singing love songs or playing a harp. They listen to all your words and don't obey a single one of them.

³³But when all your words come true—and they will come true—then they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

²¹If you want to be happy, be kind to the poor; it is a sin to despise anyone.

²²You will earn the trust and respect of others if you work for good; if you work for evil, you are making a mistake.

²³Work and you will earn a living; if you sit around talking you will be poor.

²⁴Wise people are rewarded with wealth, but fools are known by their foolishness.