The Terrible Drought

¹The Lord said to me concerning the drought,

²“Judah is in mourning; its cities are dying, its people lie on the ground in sorrow, and Jerusalem cries out for help.

³The rich people send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns, but find no water; they come back with their jars empty. Discouraged and confused, they hide their faces.

⁴Because there is no rain and the ground is dried up, the farmers are sick at heart; they hide their faces.

⁵In the field the mother deer abandons her newborn fawn because there is no grass.

⁶The wild donkeys stand on the hilltops and pant for breath like jackals; their eyesight fails them because they have no food.

⁷My people cry out to me, ‘Even though our sins accuse us, help us, Lord, as you have promised. We have turned away from you many times; we have sinned against you.

⁸You are Israel's only hope; you are the one who saves us from disaster. Why are you like a stranger in our land, like a traveler who stays for only one night?

⁹Why are you like someone taken by surprise, like a soldier powerless to help? Surely, Lord, you are with us! We are your people; do not abandon us.’”

¹⁰The Lord says about these people, “They love to run away from me, and they will not control themselves. So I am not pleased with them. I will remember the wrongs they have done and punish them because of their sins.”

¹¹The Lord said to me, “Do not ask me to help these people.

¹²Even if they fast, I will not listen to their cry for help; and even if they offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not be pleased with them. Instead, I will kill them in war and by starvation and disease.”

¹³Then I said, “Sovereign Lord, you know that the prophets are telling the people that there will be no war or starvation, because you have promised, they say, that there will be only peace in our land.”

¹⁴But the Lord replied, “The prophets are telling lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I give them any orders or speak one word to them. The visions they talk about have not come from me; their predictions are worthless things that they have imagined.

¹⁵I, the Lord, tell you what I am going to do to those prophets whom I did not send but who speak in my name and say war and starvation will not strike this land—I will kill them in war and by starvation.

¹⁶The people to whom they have said these things will be killed in the same way. Their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, and there will be no one to bury them. This will happen to all of them—including their wives, their sons, and their daughters. I will make them pay for their wickedness.”

¹⁷The Lord commanded me to tell the people about my sorrow and to say: “May my eyes flow with tears day and night, may I never stop weeping, for my people are deeply wounded and are badly hurt.

¹⁸When I go out in the fields, I see the bodies of men killed in war; when I go into the towns, I see people starving to death. Prophets and priests carry on their work, but they don't know what they are doing.”

The People Plead with the Lord

¹⁹Lord, have you completely rejected Judah? Do you hate the people of Zion? Why have you hurt us so badly that we cannot be healed? We looked for peace, but nothing good happened; we hoped for healing, but terror came instead.

²⁰We have sinned against you, Lord; we confess our own sins and the sins of our ancestors.

²¹Remember your promises and do not despise us; do not bring disgrace on Jerusalem, the place of your glorious throne. Do not break the covenant you made with us.

²²None of the idols of the nations can send rain; the sky by itself cannot make showers fall. We have put our hope in you, O Lord our God, because you are the one who does these things.

Doom for the People of Judah

¹Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were standing here pleading with me, I would not show these people any mercy. Make them go away; make them get out of my sight.

²When they ask you where they should go, tell them that I have said: Some are doomed to die by disease— that's where they will go! Others are doomed to die in war— that's where they will go! Some are doomed to die of starvation— that's where they will go! Others are doomed to be taken away as prisoners— that's where they will go!

³I, the Lord, have decided that four terrible things will happen to them: they will be killed in war; their bodies will be dragged off by dogs; birds will eat them, and wild animals will devour what is left over.

⁴I will make all the people of the world horrified at them because of what Hezekiah's son Manasseh did in Jerusalem when he was king of Judah.”

⁵The Lord says, “Who will pity you, people of Jerusalem, and who will grieve over you? Who will stop long enough to ask how you are?

⁶You people have rejected me; you have turned your backs on me. So I reached out and crushed you because I was tired of controlling my anger.

⁷In every town in the land I threw you to the wind like straw. I destroyed you, my people, I killed your children because you did not stop your evil ways.

⁸There are more widows in your land than grains of sand by the sea. I killed your young men in their prime and made their mothers suffer. I suddenly struck them with anguish and terror.

⁹The mother who lost her seven children has fainted, gasping for breath. Her daylight has turned to darkness; she is disgraced and sick at heart. I will let your enemies kill those of you who are still alive. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Jeremiah Complains to the Lord

¹⁰What an unhappy man I am! Why did my mother bring me into the world? I have to quarrel and argue with everyone in the land. I have not lent any money or borrowed any; yet everyone curses me.

¹¹Lord, may all their curses come true if I have not served you well, if I have not pleaded with you on behalf of my enemies when they were in trouble and distress.

¹²(No one can break iron, especially the iron from the north that is mixed with bronze.)

¹³The Lord said to me, “I will send enemies to carry away the wealth and treasures of my people, in order to punish them for the sins they have committed throughout the land.

¹⁴I will make them serve their enemies in a land they know nothing about, because my anger is like fire, and it will burn forever.”

¹⁵Then I said, “Lord, you understand. Remember me and help me. Let me have revenge on those who persecute me. Do not be so patient with them that they succeed in killing me. Remember that it is for your sake that I am insulted.

¹⁶You spoke to me, and I listened to every word. I belong to you, Lord God Almighty, and so your words filled my heart with joy and happiness.

¹⁷I did not spend my time with other people, laughing and having a good time. In obedience to your orders I stayed by myself and was filled with anger.

¹⁸Why do I keep on suffering? Why are my wounds incurable? Why won't they heal? Do you intend to disappoint me like a stream that goes dry in the summer?”

¹⁹To this the Lord replied, “If you return, I will take you back, and you will be my servant again. If instead of talking nonsense you proclaim a worthwhile message, you will be my prophet again. The people will come back to you, and you will not need to go to them.

²⁰I will make you like a solid bronze wall as far as they are concerned. They will fight against you, but they will not defeat you. I will be with you to protect you and keep you safe.

²¹I will rescue you from the power of wicked and violent people. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

The Lord Returns to the Temple

¹The man took me to the gate that faces east,

²and there I saw coming from the east the dazzling light of the presence of the God of Israel. God's voice sounded like the roar of the sea, and the earth shone with the dazzling light.

³This vision was like the one I had seen when God came to destroy Jerusalem, and the one I saw by the Chebar River. Then I threw myself face downward on the ground.

⁴The dazzling light passed through the east gate and went into the Temple.

⁵The Lord's spirit lifted me up and took me into the inner courtyard, where I saw that the Temple was filled with the glory of the Lord.

⁶The man stood beside me there, and I heard the Lord speak to me out of the Temple:

⁷“Mortal man, here is my throne. I will live here among the people of Israel and rule them forever. Neither the people of Israel nor their kings will ever again disgrace my holy name by worshiping other gods or by burying the corpses of their dead kings.

⁸The kings built the doorsills and doorposts of their palace right against the doorsills and doorposts of my Temple, so that there was only a wall between us. They disgraced my holy name by all the disgusting things they did, and so in my anger I destroyed them.

⁹Now they must stop worshiping other gods and remove the corpses of their kings. If they do, I will live among them forever.”

¹⁰And the Lord continued, “Mortal man, tell the people of Israel about the Temple, and let them study its plan. Make them ashamed of their sinful actions.

¹¹Then if they are ashamed of what they have done, explain the plan of the Temple to them: its design, its entrances and exits, its shape, the arrangement of everything, and all its rules and regulations. Write all this down for them so that they can see how everything is arranged and can carry out all the rules.

¹²This is the law of the Temple: All the area surrounding it on the top of the mountain is sacred and holy.”

The Altar

¹³These are the measurements of the altar, using the same unit of measure as in measuring the Temple. All around the base of the altar there was a gutter 20 inches deep and 20 inches wide, with a rim at the outside edge 10 inches high.

¹⁴The lowest section of the altar, from the top of the base, was 4 feet high. The next section was set back from the edge 20 inches all around, and was 7 feet high. The section after that was also set back from the edge 20 inches all around.

¹⁵This top section, on which the sacrifices were burned, was also 7 feet high. The projections on the four corners were higher than the rest of the top.

¹⁶The top of the altar was a square, 20 feet on each side.

¹⁷The middle section was also a square, 24 feet on each side, with a rim at the outside edge 10 inches high. (The gutter was 20 inches wide.) The steps going up the altar were on the east side.

The Consecration of the Altar

¹⁸The Sovereign Lord said to me, “Mortal man, listen to what I tell you. When the altar is built, you are to dedicate it by burning sacrifices on it and by sprinkling on it the blood of the animals that were sacrificed.

¹⁹Those priests belonging to the tribe of Levi who are descended from Zadok are the only ones who are to come into my presence to serve me. I, the Sovereign Lord, command this. You will give them a young bull to offer as a sacrifice for sin.

²⁰You are to take some of its blood and put it on the projections on the top corners of the altar, on the corners of the middle section of the altar, and all around its edges. In this way you will purify the altar and consecrate it.

²¹You are to take the bull that is offered as a sacrifice for sin and burn it at the specified place outside the Temple area.

²²The next day you are to take a male goat without any defects and offer it as a sacrifice for sin. Purify the altar with its blood the same way you did with the bull.

²³When you have finished doing that, take a young bull and a young ram, both of them without any defects,

²⁴and bring them to me. The priests will sprinkle salt on them and burn them as an offering to me.

²⁵Each day for seven days you are to offer a goat, a bull, and a ram as sacrifices for sin. All of them must be without any defects.

²⁶For seven days the priests are to consecrate the altar and make it ready for use.

²⁷When the week is over, the priests are to begin offering on the altar the burnt offerings and the fellowship offerings of the people. Then I will be pleased with all of you. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.”

The Use of the East Gate

¹The man led me to the outer gate at the east side of the Temple area. The gate was closed,

²and the Lord said to me, “This gate will stay closed and will never be opened. No human being is allowed to use it, because I, the Lord God of Israel, have entered through it. It is to remain closed.

³The ruling prince, however, may go there to eat a holy meal in my presence. He is to enter and leave the gateway through the entrance room at the inner end.”

Rules for Admission to the Temple

⁴Then the man took me through the north gate to the front of the Temple. As I looked, I saw that the Temple of the Lord was filled with the dazzling light of his presence. I threw myself face downward on the ground,

⁵and the Lord said to me, “Mortal man, pay attention to everything you see and hear. I am going to tell you the rules and regulations for the Temple. Note carefully which persons are allowed to go in and out of the Temple, and which persons are not allowed.

⁶“Tell those rebellious people of Israel that I, the Sovereign Lord, will no longer tolerate the disgusting things that they have been doing.

⁷They have profaned my Temple by letting uncircumcised foreigners, people who do not obey me, enter the Temple when the fat and the blood of the sacrifices are being offered to me. So my people have broken my covenant by all the disgusting things they have done.

⁸They have not taken charge of the sacred rituals in my Temple, but instead have put foreigners in charge.

⁹“I, the Sovereign Lord, declare that no uncircumcised foreigner, no one who disobeys me, will enter my Temple, not even a foreigner who lives among the people of Israel.”

The Levites Are Excluded from the Priesthood

¹⁰The Lord said to me, “I am punishing those Levites who, together with the rest of the people of Israel, deserted me and worshiped idols.

¹¹They may serve me in the Temple by taking charge of the gates and by performing the work of the Temple. They may kill the animals which the people offer for burnt offerings and for sacrifices, and they are to be on duty to serve the people.

¹²But because they conducted the worship of idols for the people of Israel and in this way led the people into sin, I, the Sovereign Lord, solemnly swear that they must be punished.

¹³They are not to serve me as priests or to go near anything that is holy to me or to enter the Most Holy Place. This is the punishment for the disgusting things they have done.

¹⁴I am assigning to them the menial work that is to be done in the Temple.”

The Priests

¹⁵The Sovereign Lord said, “Those priests belonging to the tribe of Levi who are descended from Zadok, however, continued to serve me faithfully in the Temple when the rest of the people of Israel turned away from me. So now they are the ones who are to serve me and come into my presence to offer me the fat and the blood of the sacrifices.

¹⁶They alone will enter my Temple, serve at my altar, and conduct the Temple worship.

¹⁷When they enter the gateway to the inner courtyard of the Temple, they are to put on linen clothing. They must not wear anything made of wool when they are on duty in the inner courtyard or in the Temple.

¹⁸So that they won't perspire, they are to wear linen turbans and linen trousers, but no belt.

¹⁹Before they go to the outer courtyard where the people are, they must first take off the clothes they wore on duty in the Temple and leave them in the holy rooms. They are to put on other clothing in order to keep their sacred clothing from harming the people.

²⁰“Priests must neither shave their heads nor let their hair grow long. They are to keep it a proper length.

²¹Priests must not drink any wine before going into the inner courtyard.

²²No priest may marry a divorced woman; he is to marry only an Israelite virgin or the widow of another priest.

²³“The priests are to teach my people the difference between what is holy and what is not, and between what is ritually clean and what is not.

²⁴When a legal dispute arises, the priests are to decide the case according to my laws. They are to keep the religious festivals according to my rules and regulations, and they are to keep the Sabbaths holy.

²⁵“A priest is not to become ritually unclean by touching a corpse, unless it is one of his parents, one of his children or a brother or an unmarried sister.

²⁶After he has become clean again, he must wait seven days

²⁷and then go into the inner courtyard of the Temple and offer a sacrifice for his purification, so that he can serve in the Temple again. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.

²⁸“The priests have the priesthood as their share of what I have given Israel to be handed down from one generation to another. They are not to hold property in Israel; I am all they need.

²⁹The grain offerings, the sin offerings, and the repayment offerings will be the priests' food, and they are to receive everything in Israel that is set apart for me.

³⁰The priests are to have the best of all the first harvest and of everything else that is offered to me. Each time the people bake bread, they are to give the priests the first loaf as an offering, and my blessing will rest on their homes.

³¹The priests must not eat any bird or animal that dies a natural death or is killed by another animal.”

¹³When people are happy, they smile, but when they are sad, they look depressed.

¹⁴Intelligent people want to learn, but stupid people are satisfied with ignorance.

¹⁵The life of the poor is a constant struggle, but happy people always enjoy life.

¹⁶Better to be poor and fear the Lord than to be rich and in trouble.