The Lord's Will for Jeremiah's Life

¹Again the Lord spoke to me and said,

²“Do not marry or have children in a place like this.

³I will tell you what is going to happen to the children who are born here and to their parents.

⁴They will die of terrible diseases, and no one will mourn for them or bury them. Their bodies will lie like piles of manure on the ground. They will be killed in war or die of starvation, and their bodies will be food for the birds and the wild animals.

⁵“You must not enter a house where there is mourning. Do not grieve for anyone. I will no longer bless my people with peace or show them love and mercy.

⁶The rich and the poor will die in this land, but no one will bury them or mourn for them. Not one of you will gash yourself or shave your head to show your grief.

⁷No one will eat or drink with anyone to offer comfort when a loved one dies. No one will show sympathy, not even for someone who has lost a father or mother.

⁸“Do not enter a house where people are feasting. Do not sit down with them to eat and drink.

⁹Listen to what I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, have to say. I will silence the sounds of joy and gladness and the happy sounds of wedding feasts. The people here will live to see this happen.

¹⁰“When you tell them all this, they will ask you why I have decided to punish them so harshly. They will ask what crime they are guilty of and what sin they have committed against the Lord their God.

¹¹Then tell them that the Lord has said, ‘Your ancestors turned away from me and worshiped and served other gods. They abandoned me and did not obey my teachings.

¹²But you have done even worse than your ancestors. All of you are stubborn and evil, and you do not obey me.

¹³So then, I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. And there you will serve other gods day and night, and I will show you no mercy.’”

The Return from Exile

¹⁴The Lord says, “The time is coming when people will no longer swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁵Instead, they will swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of a northern land and out of all the other countries where I had scattered them. I will bring them back to their own country, to the land that I gave their ancestors. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

The Coming Punishment

¹⁶The Lord says, “I am sending for many fishermen to come and catch these people. Then I will send for many hunters to hunt them down on every mountain and hill and in the caves among the rocks.

¹⁷I see everything they do. Nothing is hidden from me; their sins do not escape my sight.

¹⁸I will make them pay double for their sin and wickedness, because they have defiled my land with idols that are as lifeless as corpses, and have filled it with their false gods.”

Jeremiah's Prayer of Confidence in the Lord

¹⁹Lord, you are the one who protects me and gives me strength; you help me in times of trouble. Nations will come to you from the ends of the earth and say, “Our ancestors had nothing but false gods, nothing but useless idols.

²⁰Can people make their own gods? No, if they did, those would not really be gods.”

²¹“So then,” says the Lord, “once and for all I will make the nations know my power and my might; they will know that I am the Lord.”

The Sin and Punishment of Judah

¹The Lord says, “People of Judah, your sin is written with an iron pen; it is engraved on your hearts with a diamond point and carved on the corners of your altars.

²Your people worship at the altars and the symbols that have been set up for the goddess Asherah by every green tree and on the hilltops

³and on the mountains in the open country. I will have your enemies take away your wealth and your treasures because of all the sins you have committed throughout your land.

⁴You will have to give up the land I gave you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land you know nothing about, because my anger is like a fire, and it will burn forever.”

Various Sayings

⁵The Lord says, “I will condemn those who turn away from me and put their trust in human beings, in the strength of mortals.

⁶He is like a bush in the desert, which grows in the dry wasteland, on salty ground where nothing else grows. Nothing good ever happens to him.

⁷“But I will bless the person who puts his trust in me.

⁸He is like a tree growing near a stream and sending out roots to the water. It is not afraid when hot weather comes, because its leaves stay green; it has no worries when there is no rain; it keeps on bearing fruit.

⁹“Who can understand the human heart? There is nothing else so deceitful; it is too sick to be healed.

¹⁰I, the Lord, search the minds and test the hearts of people. I treat each of them according to the way they live, according to what they do.”

¹¹The person who gets money dishonestly is like a bird that hatches eggs it didn't lay. In the prime of life he will lose his riches, and in the end he is nothing but a fool.

¹²Our Temple is like a glorious throne, standing on a high mountain from the beginning.

¹³Lord, you are Israel's hope; all who abandon you will be put to shame. They will disappear like names written in the dust, because they have abandoned you, the Lord, the spring of fresh water.

Jeremiah Asks the Lordfor Help

¹⁴Lord, heal me and I will be completely well; rescue me and I will be perfectly safe. You are the one I praise!

¹⁵The people say to me, “Where are those threats the Lord made against us? Let him carry them out now!”

¹⁶But, Lord, I never urged you to bring disaster on them; I did not wish a time of trouble for them. Lord, you know this; you know what I have said.

¹⁷Do not be a terror to me; you are my place of safety when trouble comes.

¹⁸Bring disgrace on those who persecute me, but spare me, Lord. Fill them with terror, but do not terrify me. Bring disaster on them and break them to pieces.

On Observing the Sabbath

¹⁹The Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, go and announce my message at the People's Gate, through which the kings of Judah enter and leave the city; then go to all the other gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰Tell the kings and all the people of Judah and everyone who lives in Jerusalem and enters these gates, to listen to what I say.

²¹Tell them that if they love their lives, they must not carry any load on the Sabbath; they must not carry anything in through the gates of Jerusalem

²²or carry anything out of their houses on the Sabbath. They must not work on the Sabbath; they must observe it as a sacred day, as I commanded their ancestors.

²³Their ancestors did not listen to me or pay any attention. Instead, they became stubborn; they would not obey me or learn from me.

²⁴“Tell these people that they must obey all my commands. They must not carry any load in through the gates of this city on the Sabbath. They must observe the Sabbath as a sacred day and must not do any work at all.

²⁵Then their kings and princes will enter the gates of Jerusalem and have the same royal power that David had. Together with the people of Judah and of Jerusalem, they will ride in chariots and on horses, and the city of Jerusalem will always be filled with people.

²⁶People will come from the towns of Judah and from the villages around Jerusalem; they will come from the territory of Benjamin, from the foothills, from the mountains, and from southern Judah. They will bring to my Temple burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, as well as thank offerings.

²⁷But they must obey me and observe the Sabbath as a sacred day. They must not carry any load through the gates of Jerusalem on that day, for if they do, I will set the gates of Jerusalem on fire. Fire will burn down the palaces of Jerusalem, and no one will be able to put it out.”

The Lord's Portion of the Country

¹When the land is divided to give each tribe a share, one part is to be dedicated to the Lord. It is to be 10 miles long by 8 miles wide. The entire area will be holy.

²In this area there is to be a square plot of land for the Temple, 840 feet on each side, entirely surrounded by an open space 84 feet wide.

³Half of this area, a section 10 miles by 4 miles, is to be measured off; it will contain the Temple, the holiest place of all.

⁴It will be a holy part of the country, set aside for the priests who serve the Lord in his Temple. It will contain their houses and the section of land for the Temple.

⁵The other half of the area is to be set aside as the possession of the Levites, who do the work in the Temple. There will be towns there for them to live in.

⁶Next to the holy area, another section, 10 miles long and 2 miles wide, is to be set aside for a city where any of the people of Israel may live.

Land for the Prince

⁷Land is also to be set aside for the ruling prince. From the west boundary of the holy area it will extend west to the Mediterranean Sea; and from the east boundary it will extend to the eastern border of the country, so that its length will be the same as the length of one of the areas allotted to the tribes of Israel.

⁸This area will be the share the ruling prince will have in the land of Israel, so that he will no longer oppress the people, but will let the rest of the country belong to the tribes of Israel.

Rules for the Prince

⁹The Sovereign Lord said, “You have sinned too long, you rulers of Israel! Stop your violence and oppression. Do what is right and just. You must never again drive my people off their land. I, the Sovereign Lord, am telling you this.

¹⁰“Everyone must use honest weights and measures:

¹¹“The ephah for dry measure is to be equal to the bath for liquid measure. The standard is the homer. The resulting measures are as follows: 1 homer = 10 ephahs = 10 baths

¹²“Your weights are to be as follows: 20 gerahs = 1 shekel 60 shekels = 1 mina

^13-15“This is the basis on which you are to make your offerings: Wheat: 1/60th of your harvest Barley: 1/60th of your harvest Olive oil: 1/100th of the yield of your trees (Measure it by the bath 10 baths = 1 homer = 1 kor) Sheep: 1 sheep out of every 200 from the meadows of Israel “You are to bring grain offerings, animals to be burned whole, and animals for fellowship offerings, so that your sins will be forgiven. I, the Sovereign Lord, command it.

¹⁶“All the people of the land must take these offerings to the ruling prince of Israel.

¹⁷It will be his duty to provide the animals to be burned whole, the grain offerings, and the wine offerings for the whole nation of Israel at the New Moon Festivals, the Sabbaths, and the other festivals. He is to provide the sin offerings, the grain offerings, the offerings to be burned whole, and the fellowship offerings, to take away the sins of the people of Israel.”

The Festivals

¹⁸The Sovereign Lord said, “On the first day of the first month you are to sacrifice a bull without any defects and purify the Temple.

¹⁹The priest will take some of the blood of this sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the Temple, on the four corners of the altar, and on the posts of the gateways to the inner courtyard.

²⁰On the seventh day of the month you are to do the same thing on behalf of anyone who sins unintentionally or through ignorance. In this way you will keep the Temple holy.

²¹“On the fourteenth day of the first month you will begin the celebration of the Passover Festival. For seven days everyone will eat bread made without yeast.

²²On the first day of the festival the ruling prince must offer a bull as a sacrifice for his sins and for those of all the people.

²³On each of the seven days of the festival he is to sacrifice to the Lord seven bulls and seven rams without any defects and burn them whole. He is also to sacrifice a male goat each day as a sin offering.

²⁴For each bull and each ram that is sacrificed, there is to be an offering of half a bushel of grain and three quarts of olive oil.

²⁵“For the Festival of Shelters, which begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the prince will offer on each of the seven days the same sacrifice for sin, the same offerings to be burned whole, and the same offerings of grain and olive oil.”

The Prince and the Festivals

¹The Sovereign Lord says, “The east gateway to the inner courtyard must be kept closed during the six working days, but it is to be opened on the Sabbath and at the New Moon Festival.

²The ruling prince will go from the outer courtyard into the entrance room of the gateway and stand beside the posts of the gate while the priests burn his sacrifices whole and offer his fellowship offerings. There at the gate he must worship and then go back out. The gate must not be shut until evening.

³Each Sabbath and each New Moon Festival all the people are also to bow down and worship the Lord in front of the gate.

⁴On the Sabbath the prince is to bring to the Lord, as sacrifices to be burned whole, six lambs and one ram, all without any defects.

⁵With each ram he is to bring an offering of half a bushel of grain, and with each lamb he is to bring whatever he wants to give. For each half-bushel of grain offering he is to bring three quarts of olive oil.

⁶At the New Moon Festival he will offer a young bull, six lambs, and a ram, all without any defects.

⁷With each bull and each ram the offering is to be half a bushel of grain, and with each lamb the offering is to be whatever the prince wants to give. Three quarts of olive oil are to be offered with each half-bushel of grain.

⁸The prince must leave the entrance room of the gateway and go out by the same way he went in.

⁹“When the people come to worship the Lord at any festival, those who enter by the north gate are to leave by the south gate after they have worshiped, and those who enter by the south gate are to leave by the north gate. No one may go out by the same way he entered, but must leave by the opposite gate.

¹⁰The prince is to come in when the people come, and leave when they leave.

¹¹On the feast days and at the festivals the grain offering will be half a bushel with each bull or ram, and whatever the worshiper wants to give with each lamb. Three quarts of olive oil are to be offered with each half-bushel of grain.

¹²“When the ruling prince wants to make a voluntary offering to the Lord, either an offering to be burned whole or a fellowship offering, the east gate to the inner courtyard will be opened for him. He is to make the offering in the same way he does on the Sabbath, and the gate is to be closed after he goes back out.”

The Daily Offering

¹³The Lord says, “Every morning a one-year-old lamb without any defects is to be burned whole as an offering to the Lord. This offering must be made every day.

¹⁴Also an offering of five pounds of flour is to be made every morning, along with one quart of olive oil for mixing with the flour. The rules for this offering to the Lord are to be in force forever.

¹⁵The lamb, the flour, and the olive oil are to be offered to the Lord every morning forever.”

The Prince and the Land

¹⁶The Sovereign Lord commands: “If the ruling prince gives any of the land he owns to one of his sons as a present, it will belong to that son as a part of his family property.

¹⁷But if the ruling prince gives any of his land to anyone who is in his service, it will become the prince's property again when the Year of Restoration comes. It belongs to him, and only he and his sons can own it permanently.

¹⁸The ruling prince must not take any of the people's property away from them. Any land he gives to his sons must be from the land that is assigned to him, so that he will not oppress any of my people by taking their land.”

The Temple Kitchens

¹⁹Then the man took me to the entrance of the rooms facing north near the gate on the south side of the inner courtyard. These are holy rooms for the priests. He pointed out a place on the west side of the rooms

²⁰and said, “This is the place where the priests are to boil the meat offered as sacrifices for sin or as repayment offerings, and to bake the offerings of flour, so that nothing holy is carried to the outer courtyard, where it might harm the people.”

^21-22Then he led me to the outer courtyard and showed me that in each of its four corners there was a smaller courtyard, 68 feet long and 48 feet wide.

²³Each one had a stone wall around it, with fireplaces built against the wall.

²⁴The man told me, “These are the kitchens where the Temple servants are to boil the sacrifices the people offer.”

¹⁷Better to eat vegetables with people you love than to eat the finest meat where there is hate.

¹⁸Hot tempers cause arguments, but patience brings peace.

¹⁹If you are lazy, you will meet difficulty everywhere, but if you are honest, you will have no trouble.

²⁰Wise children make their fathers happy. Only fools despise their mothers.