Jeremiah Is Brought to Trial

¹Soon after Jehoiakim son of Josiah became king of Judah,

²the Lord said to me, “Stand in the court of the Temple and proclaim all I have commanded you to say to the people who come from the towns of Judah to worship there. Do not leave out anything.

³Perhaps the people will listen and give up their evil ways. If they do, then I will change my mind about the destruction I plan to bring on them for all their wicked deeds.”

⁴The Lord told me to say to the people, “I, the Lord, have said that you must obey me by following the teaching that I gave you,

⁵and by paying attention to the words of my servants, the prophets, whom I have kept on sending to you. You have never obeyed what they said.

⁶If you continue to disobey, then I will do to this Temple what I did to Shiloh, and all the nations of the world will use the name of this city as a curse.”

⁷The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard me saying these things in the Temple,

⁸and as soon as I had finished all that the Lord had commanded me to speak, they grabbed me and shouted, “You ought to be killed for this!

⁹Why have you said in the Lord's name that this Temple will become like Shiloh and that this city will be destroyed and no one will live in it?” Then the people crowded around me.

¹⁰When the leaders of Judah heard what had happened, they hurried from the royal palace to the Temple and took their places at the New Gate.

¹¹Then the priests and the prophets said to the leaders and to the people, “This man deserves to be sentenced to death because he has spoken against our city. You heard him with your own ears.”

¹²Then I said, “The Lord sent me to proclaim everything that you heard me say against this Temple and against this city.

¹³You must change the way you are living and the things you are doing, and must obey the Lord your God. If you do, he will change his mind about the destruction that he said he would bring on you.

¹⁴As for me, I am in your power! Do with me whatever you think is fair and right.

¹⁵But be sure of this: if you kill me, you and the people of this city will be guilty of killing an innocent man, because it is the Lord who sent me to give you this warning.”

¹⁶Then the leaders and the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man spoke to us in the name of the Lord our God; he should not be put to death.”

¹⁷After that, some of the elders stood up and said to the people who had gathered,

¹⁸“When Hezekiah was king of Judah, the prophet Micah of Moresheth told all the people that the Lord Almighty had said, ‘Zion will be plowed like a field; Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins, and the Temple hill will become a forest.’

¹⁹King Hezekiah and the people of Judah did not put Micah to death. Instead, Hezekiah honored the Lord and tried to win his favor. And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he said he would bring on them. Now we are about to bring a terrible disaster on ourselves.”

²⁰(There was another man, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim, who spoke in the name of the Lord against this city and nation just as Jeremiah did.

²¹When King Jehoiakim and his soldiers and officials heard what Uriah had said, the king tried to have him killed. But Uriah heard about it; so he fled in terror and escaped to Egypt.

²²King Jehoiakim, however, sent Elnathan son of Achbor and some other men to Egypt to get Uriah.

²³They brought him back to King Jehoiakim, who had him killed and his body thrown into the public burial ground.)

²⁴But because I had the support of Ahikam son of Shaphan, I was not handed over to the people and killed.

Jeremiah Wears an Ox Yoke

¹Soon after Josiah's son Zedekiah became king of Judah, the Lord told me

²to make myself a yoke out of leather straps and wooden crossbars and to put it on my neck.

³Then the Lord told me to send a message to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through their ambassadors who had come to Jerusalem to see King Zedekiah.

⁴The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, told me to command them to tell their kings that the Lord had said:

⁵“By my great power and strength I created the world, human beings, and all the animals that live on the earth; and I give it to anyone I choose.

⁶I am the one who has placed all these nations under the power of my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, and I have made even the wild animals serve him.

⁷All nations will serve him, and they will serve his son and his grandson until the time comes for his own nation to fall. Then his nation will serve powerful nations and great kings.

⁸“But if any nation or kingdom will not submit to his rule, then I will punish that nation by war, starvation, and disease until I have let Nebuchadnezzar destroy it completely.

⁹Do not listen to your prophets or to those who claim they can predict the future, either by dreams or by calling up the spirits of the dead or by magic. They all tell you not to submit to the king of Babylonia.

¹⁰They are deceiving you and will cause you to be taken far away from your country. I will drive you out, and you will be destroyed.

¹¹But if any nation submits to the king of Babylonia and serves him, then I will let it stay on in its own land, to farm it and live there. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

¹²I said the same thing to King Zedekiah of Judah, “Submit to the king of Babylonia. Serve him and his people, and you will live.

¹³Why should you and your people die in war or of starvation or disease? That is what the Lord has said will happen to any nation that does not submit to the king of Babylonia.

¹⁴Do not listen to the prophets who tell you not to surrender to him. They are deceiving you.

¹⁵The Lord himself has said that he did not send them and that they are lying to you in his name. And so he will drive you out, and you will be killed, you and the prophets who are telling you these lies.”

¹⁶Then I told the priests and the people that the Lord had said: “Do not listen to the prophets who say that the Temple treasures will soon be brought back from Babylonia. They are lying to you.

¹⁷Don't listen to them! Submit to the king of Babylonia and you will live! Why should this city become a pile of ruins?

¹⁸If they are really prophets and if they have my message, let them ask me, the Lord Almighty, not to allow the treasures that remain in the Temple and in the royal palace to be taken to Babylonia.”

^19-20(When King Nebuchadnezzar took away to Babylonia the king of Judah, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, and the leading men of Judah and Jerusalem, he left the columns, the bronze tank, the carts, and some of the other Temple treasures.)

²¹“Listen to what I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, say about the treasures that are left in the Temple and in the royal palace in Jerusalem:

²²They will be taken to Babylonia and will remain there until I turn my attention to them. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Daniel's Vision of a Ram and a Goat

¹In the third year that Belshazzar was king, I saw a second vision.

²In the vision I suddenly found myself in the walled city of Susa in the province of Elam. I was standing by the Ulai River,

³and there beside the river I saw a ram that had two long horns, one of which was longer and newer than the other.

⁴I watched the ram butting with his horns to the west, the north, and the south. No animal could stop him or escape his power. He did as he pleased and grew arrogant.

⁵While I was wondering what this meant, a goat came rushing out of the west, moving so fast that his feet didn't touch the ground. He had one prominent horn between his eyes.

⁶He came toward the ram, which I had seen standing beside the river, and rushed at him with all his force.

⁷I watched him attack the ram. He was so angry that he smashed into him and broke the two horns. The ram had no strength to resist. He was thrown to the ground and trampled on, and there was no one who could save him.

⁸The goat grew more and more arrogant, but at the height of his power his horn was broken. In its place four prominent horns came up, each pointing in a different direction.

⁹Out of one of these four horns grew a little horn, whose power extended toward the south and the east and toward the Promised Land.

¹⁰It grew strong enough to attack the army of heaven, the stars themselves, and it threw some of them to the ground and trampled on them.

¹¹It even defied the Prince of the heavenly army, stopped the daily sacrifices offered to him, and ruined the Temple.

¹²People sinned there instead of offering the proper daily sacrifices, and true religion was thrown to the ground. The horn was successful in everything it did.

¹³Then I heard one angel ask another, “How long will these things that were seen in the vision continue? How long will an awful sin replace the daily sacrifices? How long will the army of heaven and the Temple be trampled on?”

¹⁴I heard the other angel answer, “It will continue for 2,300 evenings and mornings, during which sacrifices will not be offered. Then the Temple will be restored.”

The Angel Gabriel Explains the Vision

¹⁵I was trying to understand what the vision meant, when suddenly someone was standing in front of me.

¹⁶I heard a voice call out over the Ulai River, “Gabriel, explain to him the meaning of what he saw.”

¹⁷Gabriel came and stood beside me, and I was so terrified that I fell to the ground. He said to me, “Mortal man, understand the meaning. The vision has to do with the end of the world.”

¹⁸While he was talking, I fell to the ground unconscious. But he took hold of me, raised me to my feet,

¹⁹and said, “I am showing you what the result of God's anger will be. The vision refers to the time of the end.

²⁰“The ram you saw that had two horns represents the kingdoms of Media and Persia.

²¹The goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the prominent horn between his eyes is the first king.

²²The four horns that came up when the first horn was broken represent the four kingdoms into which that nation will be divided and which will not be as strong as the first kingdom.

²³“When the end of those kingdoms is near and they have become so wicked that they must be punished, there will be a stubborn, vicious, and deceitful king.

²⁴He will grow strong—but not by his own power. He will cause terrible destruction and be successful in everything he does. He will bring destruction on powerful men and on God's own people.

²⁵Because he is cunning, he will succeed in his deceitful ways. He will be proud of himself and destroy many people without warning. He will even defy the greatest King of all, but he will be destroyed without the use of any human power.

²⁶This vision about the evening and morning sacrifices which has been explained to you will come true. But keep it secret now, because it will be a long time before it does come true.”

²⁷I was depressed and ill for several days. Then I got up and went back to the work that the king had assigned to me, but I was puzzled by the vision and could not understand it.

Daniel Prays for His People

¹Darius the Mede, who was the son of Xerxes, ruled over the kingdom of Babylonia.

²In the first year of his reign I was studying the sacred books and thinking about the seventy years that Jerusalem would be in ruins, according to what the Lord had told the prophet Jeremiah.

³And I prayed earnestly to the Lord God, pleading with him, fasting, wearing sackcloth, and sitting in ashes.

⁴I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed the sins of my people. I said, “Lord God, you are great, and we honor you. You are faithful to your covenant and show constant love to those who love you and do what you command.

⁵“We have sinned, we have been evil, we have done wrong. We have rejected what you commanded us to do and have turned away from what you showed us was right.

⁶We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our rulers, our ancestors, and our whole nation.

⁷You, Lord, always do what is right, but we have always brought disgrace on ourselves. This is true of all of us who live in Judea and in Jerusalem and of all the Israelites whom you scattered in countries near and far because they were unfaithful to you.

⁸Our kings, our rulers, and our ancestors have acted shamefully and sinned against you, Lord.

⁹You are merciful and forgiving, although we have rebelled against you.

¹⁰We did not listen to you, O Lord our God, when you told us to live according to the laws which you gave us through your servants the prophets.

¹¹All Israel broke your laws and refused to listen to what you said. We sinned against you, and so you brought on us the curses that are written in the Law of Moses, your servant.

¹²You did what you said you would do to us and our rulers. You punished Jerusalem more severely than any other city on earth,

¹³giving us all the punishment described in the Law of Moses. But even now, O Lord our God, we have not tried to please you by turning from our sins or by following your truth.

¹⁴You, O Lord our God, were prepared to punish us, and you did, because you always do what is right, and we did not listen to you.

¹⁵“O Lord our God, you showed your power by bringing your people out of Egypt, and your power is still remembered. We have sinned; we have done wrong.

¹⁶You have defended us in the past, so do not be angry with Jerusalem any longer. It is your city, your sacred hill. All the people in the neighboring countries look down on Jerusalem and on your people because of our sins and the evil our ancestors did.

¹⁷O God, hear my prayer and pleading. Restore your Temple, which has been destroyed; restore it so that everyone will know that you are God.

¹⁸Listen to us, O God; look at us and see the trouble we are in and the suffering of the city that bears your name. We are praying to you because you are merciful, not because we have done right.

¹⁹Lord, hear us. Lord, forgive us. Lord, listen to us, and act! In order that everyone will know that you are God, do not delay! This city and these people are yours.”

Gabriel Explains the Prophecy

²⁰I went on praying, confessing my sins and the sins of my people Israel and pleading with the Lord my God to restore his holy Temple.

²¹While I was praying, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came flying down to where I was. It was the time for the evening sacrifice to be offered.

²²He explained, “Daniel, I have come here to help you understand the prophecy.

²³When you began to plead with God, he answered you. He loves you, and so I have come to tell you the answer. Now pay attention while I explain the vision.

²⁴“Seven times seventy years is the length of time God has set for freeing your people and your holy city from sin and evil. Sin will be forgiven and eternal justice established, so that the vision and the prophecy will come true, and the holy Temple will be rededicated.

²⁵Note this and understand it: From the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until God's chosen leader comes, seven times seven years will pass. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses, and will stand for seven times sixty-two years, but this will be a time of troubles.

²⁶And at the end of that time God's chosen leader will be killed unjustly. The city and the Temple will be destroyed by the invading army of a powerful ruler. The end will come like a flood, bringing the war and destruction which God has prepared.

²⁷That ruler will have a firm agreement with many people for seven years, and when half this time is past, he will put an end to sacrifices and offerings. The Awful Horror will be placed on the highest point of the Temple and will remain there until the one who put it there meets the end which God has prepared for him.”

⁹You may make your plans, but God directs your actions.

¹⁰The king speaks with divine authority; his decisions are always right.

¹¹The Lord wants weights and measures to be honest and every sale to be fair.

¹²Kings cannot tolerate evil, because justice is what makes a government strong.