Confronting False Hope

¹The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (this was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon),

²which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem:

³From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years, the LORD’s word has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking; but you have not listened.

⁴The LORD has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them (but you have not listened or inclined your ear to hear),

⁵saying, “Return now everyone from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and to your fathers, from of old and even forever more.

⁶Don’t go after other gods to serve them or worship them, and don’t provoke me to anger with the work of your hands; then I will do you no harm.”

⁷“Yet you have not listened to me,” says the LORD, “that you may provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt.”

⁸Therefore the LORD of Armies says: “Because you have not heard my words,

⁹behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says the LORD, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around. I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.

¹⁰Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.

¹¹This whole land will be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

¹²“It will happen, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,” says the LORD, “for their iniquity. I will make the land of the Chaldeans desolate forever.

¹³I will bring on that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.

¹⁴For many nations and great kings will make bondservants of them, even of them. I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the work of their hands.”

¹⁵For the LORD, the God of Israel, says to me: “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.

¹⁶They will drink, and reel back and forth, and be insane, because of the sword that I will send among them.”

¹⁷Then I took the cup at the LORD’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom the LORD had sent me:

¹⁸Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, with its kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is today;

¹⁹Pharaoh king of Egypt, with his servants, his princes, and all his people;

²⁰and all the mixed people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the Philistines, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;

²¹Edom, Moab, and the children of Ammon;

²²and all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the isle which is beyond the sea;

²³Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who have the corners of their beard cut off;

²⁴and all the kings of Arabia, all the kings of the mixed people who dwell in the wilderness;

²⁵and all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes;

²⁶and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world, which are on the surface of the earth. The king of Sheshach will drink after them.

²⁷“You shall tell them, ‘The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Drink, and be drunk, vomit, fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.”’

²⁸It shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink, then you shall tell them, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “You shall surely drink.

²⁹For, behold, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name; and should you be utterly unpunished? You will not be unpunished; for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth, says the LORD of Armies.”’

³⁰“Therefore prophesy against them all these words, and tell them, “‘The LORD will roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation. He will mightily roar against his fold. He will give a shout, as those who tread grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.

³¹A noise will come even to the end of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with the nations. He will enter into judgment with all flesh. As for the wicked, he will give them to the sword,”’ says the LORD.”

³²The LORD of Armies says, “Behold, evil will go out from nation to nation, and a great storm will be raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth.”

³³The slain of the LORD will be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They won’t be lamented. They won’t be gathered or buried. They will be dung on the surface of the ground.

³⁴Wail, you shepherds, and cry. Wallow in dust, you leader of the flock; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions have fully come, and you will fall like fine pottery.

³⁵The shepherds will have no way to flee. The leader of the flock will have no escape.

³⁶A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the wailing of the leader of the flock, for the LORD destroys their pasture.

³⁷The peaceful folds are brought to silence because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

³⁸He has left his covert, as the lion; for their land has become an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppression, and because of his fierce anger.

¹In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the LORD:

²“The LORD says: ‘Stand in the court of the LORD’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah which come to worship in the LORD’s house, all the words that I command you to speak to them. Don’t omit a word.

³It may be they will listen, and every man turn from his evil way, that I may relent from the evil which I intend to do to them because of the evil of their doings.’”

⁴You shall tell them, “The LORD says: ‘If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law which I have set before you,

⁵to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you, even rising up early and sending them—but you have not listened—

⁶then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.’”

⁷The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the LORD’s house.

⁸When Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You shall surely die!

⁹Why have you prophesied in the LORD’s name, saying, ‘This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate, without inhabitant’?” All the people were crowded around Jeremiah in the LORD’s house.

¹⁰When the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the LORD’s house; and they sat in the entry of the new gate of the LORD’s house.

¹¹Then the priests and the prophets spoke to the princes and to all the people, saying, “This man is worthy of death, for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.”

¹²Then Jeremiah spoke to all the princes and to all the people, saying, “The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.

¹³Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the LORD your God’s voice; then the LORD will relent from the evil that he has pronounced against you.

¹⁴But as for me, behold, I am in your hand. Do with me what is good and right in your eyes.

¹⁵Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, on this city, and on its inhabitants; for in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”

¹⁶Then the princes and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets: “This man is not worthy of death; for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.”

¹⁷Then certain of the elders of the land rose up, and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying,

¹⁸“Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “‘Zion will be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.’

¹⁹Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Didn’t he fear the LORD, and entreat the favor of the LORD, and the LORD relented of the disaster which he had pronounced against them? We would commit great evil against our own souls that way!”

²⁰There was also a man who prophesied in the LORD’s name, Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath Jearim; and he prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah.

²¹When Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the princes heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Uriah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt.

²²Then Jehoiakim the king sent Elnathan the son of Achbor and certain men with him into Egypt.

²³They fetched Uriah out of Egypt and brought him to Jehoiakim the king, who killed him with the sword and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.

²⁴But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that they didn’t give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

¹In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

²the LORD says to me: “Make bonds and bars, and put them on your neck.

³Then send them to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the children of Ammon, to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.

⁴Give them a command to their masters, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says, “You shall tell your masters:

⁵‘I have made the earth, the men, and the animals that are on the surface of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm. I give it to whom it seems right to me.

⁶Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant. I have also given the animals of the field to him to serve him.

⁷All the nations will serve him, his son, and his son’s son, until the time of his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings will make him their bondservant.

⁸“‘“‘It will happen that I will punish the nation and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon,’ says the LORD, ‘with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

⁹But as for you, don’t listen to your prophets, to your diviners, to your dreams, to your soothsayers, or to your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, “You shall not serve the king of Babylon;”

¹⁰for they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land, so that I would drive you out, and you would perish.

¹¹But the nation that brings their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, that nation I will let remain in their own land,’ says the LORD; ‘and they will till it and dwell in it.’”’”

¹²I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.

¹³Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

¹⁴Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon;’ for they prophesy a lie to you.

¹⁵For I have not sent them,” says the LORD, “but they prophesy falsely in my name; that I may drive you out, and that you may perish, you, and the prophets who prophesy to you.”

¹⁶Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, the LORD says, “Don’t listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, ‘Behold, the vessels of the LORD’s house will now shortly be brought again from Babylon;’ for they prophesy a lie to you.

¹⁷Don’t listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon, and live. Why should this city become a desolation?

¹⁸But if they are prophets, and if the LORD’s word is with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of Armies, that the vessels which are left in the LORD’s house, in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, don’t go to Babylon.

¹⁹For the LORD of Armies says concerning the pillars, concerning the sea, concerning the bases, and concerning the rest of the vessels that are left in this city,

²⁰which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon didn’t take when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem—

²¹yes, the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says concerning the vessels that are left in the LORD’s house, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem:

²²‘They will be carried to Babylon, and there they will be, until the day that I visit them,’ says the LORD; ‘then I will bring them up, and restore them to this place.’”

¹That same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was of Gibeon, spoke to me in the LORD’s house, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,

²“The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says, ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

³Within two full years I will bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD’s house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon.

⁴I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, who went to Babylon,’ says the LORD; ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’”

⁵Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people who stood in the LORD’s house,

⁶even the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the LORD do so. May the LORD perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD’s house, and all those who are captives, from Babylon to this place.

⁷Nevertheless listen now to this word that I speak in your ears, and in the ears of all the people:

⁸The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, of evil, and of pestilence.

⁹As for the prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet happens, then the prophet will be known, that the LORD has truly sent him.”

¹⁰Then Hananiah the prophet took the bar from off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, and broke it.

¹¹Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “The LORD says: ‘Even so I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from off the neck of all the nations within two full years.’” Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way.

¹²Then the LORD’s word came to Jeremiah, after Hananiah the prophet had broken the bar from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,

¹³“Go, and tell Hananiah, saying, ‘The LORD says, “You have broken the bars of wood, but you have made in their place bars of iron.”

¹⁴For the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says, “I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they will serve him. I have also given him the animals of the field.”’”

¹⁵Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie.

¹⁶Therefore the LORD says, ‘Behold, I will send you away from off the surface of the earth. This year you will die, because you have spoken rebellion against the LORD.’”

¹⁷So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

¹Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon,

²(after Jeconiah the king, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem),

³by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon). It said:

⁴The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon:

⁵“Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit.

⁶Take wives and father sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there, and don’t be diminished.

⁷Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.”

⁸For the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Don’t let your prophets who are among you and your diviners deceive you. Don’t listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.

⁹For they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them,” says the LORD.

¹⁰For the LORD says, “After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says the LORD, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.

¹²You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

¹³You shall seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.

¹⁴I will be found by you,” says the LORD, “and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you,” says the LORD. “I will bring you again to the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive.”

¹⁵Because you have said, “The LORD has raised us up prophets in Babylon,”

¹⁶the LORD says concerning the king who sits on David’s throne, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who haven’t gone with you into captivity,

¹⁷the LORD of Armies says: “Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that can’t be eaten, they are so bad.

¹⁸I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of horror, an astonishment, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them,

¹⁹because they have not listened to my words,” says the LORD, “with which I sent to them my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but you would not hear,” says the LORD.

²⁰Hear therefore the LORD’s word, all you captives whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.

²¹The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie to you in my name: “Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he will kill them before your eyes.

²²A curse will be taken up about them by all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, ‘The LORD make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;’

²³because they have done foolish things in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely, which I didn’t command them. I am he who knows, and am witness,” says the LORD.

²⁴Concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite you shall speak, saying,

²⁵“The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says, ‘Because you have sent letters in your own name to all the people who are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying,

²⁶“The LORD has made you priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest, that there may be officers in the LORD’s house, for every man who is crazy and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in the stocks and in shackles.

²⁷Now therefore, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you,

²⁸because he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, The captivity is long. Build houses, and dwell in them. Plant gardens, and eat their fruit?”’”

²⁹Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the hearing of Jeremiah the prophet.

³⁰Then the LORD’s word came to Jeremiah, saying,

³¹“Send to all of the captives, saying, ‘The LORD says concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: “Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I didn’t send him, and he has caused you to trust in a lie,”

³²therefore the LORD says, “Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his offspring. He will not have a man to dwell among this people. He won’t see the good that I will do to my people,” says the LORD, “because he has spoken rebellion against the LORD.”’”