Day 176 of 365

¹Now Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

²Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of the Lord.

³It happened on the next day, that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, "The Lord has not called your name 'Pashhur,' but 'Magormissabib.'

⁴For thus says the Lord, 'Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself, and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall kill them with the sword.

⁵Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all its gains, and all the precious things of it, yes, all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies; and they shall make them a prey, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.

⁶You, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house shall go into captivity; and you shall come to Babylon, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.'"

⁷Lord, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded; you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am become a laughing-stock all the day, every one mocks me.

⁸For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, "Violence and destruction!" because the word of the Lord is made a reproach to me, and a derision, all the day.

⁹If I say, "I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name," then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I can't contain it.

¹⁰For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side. "Denounce, and we will denounce him," say all my familiar friends, those who watch for my fall; "perhaps he will be persuaded, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him."

¹¹But the Lord is with me as an awesome mighty one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail; they shall be utterly disappointed, because they have not dealt wisely, even with an everlasting dishonor which shall never be forgotten.

¹²But, the Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance on them; for to you have I revealed my cause.

¹³Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord; for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evildoers.

¹⁴Cursed is the day in which I was born: do not let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.

¹⁵Cursed is the man who brought news to my father, saying, A boy is born to you; making him very glad.

¹⁶Let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew, and did not repent: and let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime;

¹⁷because he did not kill me from the womb; and so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.

¹⁸Why came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when king Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying,

²"Please inquire of the Lord for us; for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us: perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us."

³Then Jeremiah said to them, "You shall tell Zedekiah:

⁴'Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, "Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans who besiege you, without the walls; and I will gather them into the midst of this city.

⁵I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation.

⁶I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and animal: they shall die of a great pestilence.

⁷Afterward," says the Lord, "I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, even such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life: and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy."'

⁸To this people you shall say, "Thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.

⁹He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he who goes out, and passes over to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be to him for a prey.

¹⁰For I have set my face on this city for evil, and not for good,' says the Lord: 'it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.'

¹¹Touching the house of the king of Judah, hear the word of the Lord:

¹²'House of David, thus says the Lord, "Execute justice in the morning, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

¹³Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, and of the rock of the plain," says the Lord; "you that say, 'Who shall come down against us? Or who shall enter into our habitations?'

¹⁴I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings," says the Lord; "and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is around her."'"

¹Thus said the Lord: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,

²Say, 'Hear the word of the Lord, king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter in by these gates.

³Thus says the Lord: "Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the foreigner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place.

⁴For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

⁵But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation."

⁶For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah: "You are Gilead to me, the head of Lebanon. Yet surely I will make you a wilderness, cities which are not inhabited.

⁷I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons; and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

⁸Many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, 'Why has the Lord done thus to this great city?'

⁹Then they shall answer, 'Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshiped other gods, and served them.'

¹⁰Do not weep for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him who goes away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country."

¹¹For thus says the Lord touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went forth out of this place: "He shall not return there any more.

¹²But in the place where they have led him captive, there shall he die, and he shall see this land no more."

¹³Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his rooms by injustice; who uses his neighbor's service without wages, and doesn't give him his hire;

¹⁴who says, "I will build me a wide house and spacious rooms," and cuts him out windows; and it is ceiling with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

¹⁵Shall you reign, because you strive to excel in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.

¹⁶He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Wasn't this to know me?' says the Lord.

¹⁷''But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

¹⁸Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: "they shall not lament for him, saying, 'Ah my brother! or, Ah sister!' They shall not lament for him, saying, 'Ah lord!' or, 'Ah his glory!'

¹⁹He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all your lovers are destroyed.

²¹I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, 'I will not hear.' This has been your way from your youth, that you did not obey my voice.

²²The wind shall feed all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity: surely then you will be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness.

²³Inhabitant of Lebanon, who makes your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied you will be when pangs come on you, the pain as of a woman in travail!

²⁴As I live," says the Lord, "though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand, yet would I pluck you there;

²⁵and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of them of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

²⁶I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country, where you were not born; and there you will die.

²⁷But to the land whereunto their soul longs to return, there shall they not return."

²⁸Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? Is he a vessel in which none delights? Why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they do not know?

²⁹O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.

³⁰Thus says the Lord, "Write this man childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for no more shall a man of his seed prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling in Judah.

¹"Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!" says the Lord.

²Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people: "You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings," says the Lord.

³"I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and multiply.

⁴I will set up shepherds over them, who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking," says the Lord.

⁵"Behold, the days come," says the Lord, "that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

⁶In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name by which he shall be called: 'The Lord our righteousness.'

⁷Therefore behold, the days come," says the Lord, "that they shall no more say, 'As the Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt';

⁸but, 'As the Lord lives, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had driven them.' They shall dwell in their own land."'

⁹Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the Lord, and because of his holy words.

¹⁰For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. "Their course is evil, and their might is not right;

¹¹for both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house have I found their wickedness," says the Lord.

¹²"Therefore their way shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation," says the Lord.

¹³"I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.

¹⁴In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none does return from his wickedness: they are all of them become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.

¹⁵Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: 'Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is ungodliness gone forth into all the land.'

¹⁶Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.

¹⁷They say continually to those who despise me, "The Lord has said, 'You shall have peace'"; and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, "No evil shall come on you."

¹⁸For who has stood in the council of the Lord, that he should perceive and hear his word? Who has marked my word, and heard it?

¹⁹Behold, the storm of the Lord, his wrath, has gone forth. Yes, a whirling storm. It shall burst on the head of the wicked.

²⁰The anger of the Lord shall not return, until he has executed, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand it perfectly.

²¹I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.

²²But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

²³Am I a God at hand,' says the Lord, 'and not a God afar off?

²⁴Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him?' says the Lord. 'Do I not fill heaven and earth?' says the Lord.

²⁵'I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, "I have dreamed, I have dreamed."

²⁶How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart,

²⁷who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name for Baal.

²⁸The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat?' says the Lord.

²⁹'Isn't my word like fire?' says the Lord; 'and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

³⁰Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,' says the Lord, 'who steal my words everyone from his neighbor.

³¹Behold, I am against the prophets,' says the Lord, 'who use their tongues, and say, "He says."

³²Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams,' says the Lord, 'and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: yet I did not send them, nor commanded them; neither do they profit this people at all,' says the Lord.

³³'When this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, "What is the burden of the Lord?" Then you shall tell them, "What burden! I will cast you off," says the Lord.

³⁴As for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, who shall say, "The burden of the Lord," I will even punish that man and his house.

³⁵You shall say everyone to his neighbor, and everyone to his brother, "What has the Lord answered?" and, "What has the Lord spoken?"

³⁶You shall mention the burden of the Lord no more: for every man's own word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts our God.

³⁷You shall say to the prophet, "What has the Lord answered you?" and, "What has the Lord spoken?"

³⁸But if you say, "The burden of the Lord"; therefore thus says the Lord: Because you say this word, "The burden of the Lord," and I have sent to you, saying, "You shall not say, 'The burden of the Lord'";

³⁹therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off, and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from my presence:

⁴⁰and I will bring an everlasting reproach on you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.'"