The MacArthur Study Bible, NKJV

  2“Judah mourns,

  And aher gates languish;

  They bmourn for the land,

  And cthe cry of Jerusalem has gone up.

  3Their nobles have sent their lads for water;

  They went to the cisterns and found no water.

  They returned with their vessels empty;

  They were dashamed and confounded

  e And covered their heads.

  4Because the ground is parched,

  For there was fno rain in the land,

  The plowmen were ashamed;

  They covered their heads.

  5Yes, the deer also gave birth in the field,

  But 1left because there was no grass.

  6And gthe wild donkeys stood in the desolate heights;

  They sniffed at the wind like jackals;

  Their eyes failed because there was no grass.”

  7O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us,

  Do it hfor Your name’s sake;

  For our backslidings are many,

  We have sinned against You.

  8i O the Hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble,

  Why should You be like a stranger in the land,

  And like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?

  9Why should You be like a man astonished,

  Like a mighty one jwho cannot save?

  Yet You, O LORD, kare in our midst,

  And we are called by Your name;

  Do not leave us!

  10Thus says the LORD to this people:

  l“Thus they have loved to wander;

  They have not restrained their feet.

  Therefore the LORD does not accept them;

  m He will remember their iniquity now,

  And punish their sins.”

  11Then the LORD said to me, n“Do not pray for this people, for their good.

  12o“When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and pwhen they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But qI will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.”

  13rThen I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you 2assured speace in this place.’ ”

  14And the LORD said to me, t“The prophets prophesy lies in My name. uI have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, 3divination, a worthless thing, and the vdeceit of their heart.

  15“Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, whom I did not send, wand who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land’—‘By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed!

  16‘And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; xthey will have no one to bury them—them nor their wives, their sons nor their daughters—for I will pour their wickedness on them.’

  17“Therefore you shall say this word to them:

  y‘Let my eyes flow with tears night and day,

  And let them not cease;

  z For the virgin daughter of my people

  Has been broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow.

  18If I go out to athe field,

  Then behold, those slain with the sword!

  And if I enter the city,

  Then behold, those sick from famine!

  Yes, both prophet and bpriest go about in a land they do not know.’ ”

  The People Plead for Mercy

  19c Have You utterly rejected Judah?

  Has Your soul loathed Zion?

  Why have You stricken us so that dthere is no healing for us?

  e We looked for peace, but there was no good;

  And for the time of healing, and there was trouble.

  20We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness

  And the iniquity of our ffathers,

  For gwe have sinned against You.

  21Do not abhor us, for Your name’s sake;

  Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory.

  h Remember, do not break Your covenant with us.

  22i Are there any among jthe idols of the nations that can cause krain?

  Or can the heavens give showers?

  l Are You not He, O LORD our God?

  Therefore we will wait for You,

  Since You have made all these.

  Jeremiah 15

  The LORD Will Not Relent

  1Then the LORD said to me, a“Even if bMoses and cSamuel stood before Me, My 1mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth.

  2“And it shall be, if they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the LORD:

  d“Such as are for death, to death;

  And such as are for the sword, to the sword;

  And such as are for the famine, to the famine;

  And such as are for the ecaptivity, to the captivity.” ’

  3“And I will fappoint over them four forms of destruction,” says the LORD: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, gthe birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.

  4“I will hand them over to htrouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of iManasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

  5“For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem?

  Or who will bemoan you?

  Or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing?

  6j You have forsaken Me,” says the LORD,

  “You have kgone backward.

  Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you;

  l I am 2weary of relenting!

  7And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land;

  I will mbereave them of children;

  I will destroy My people,

  Since they ndo not return from their ways.

  8Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas;

  I will bring against them,

  Against the mother of the young men,

  A plunderer at noonday;

  I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them osuddenly.

  9“Shep languishes who has borne seven;

  She has breathed her last;

  q Her sun has gone down

  While it was yet day;

  She has been ashamed and confounded.

  And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword

  Before their enemies,” says the LORD.

  Jeremiah’s Dejection

  10r Woe is me, my mother,

  That you have borne me,

  A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole 3earth!

  I have neither lent for interest,

  Nor have men lent to me for interest.

  Every one of them curses me.

  11The LORD said:

  “Surely it will be well with your remnant;

  Surely I will cause sthe enemy to intercede with you

  In the time of adversity and in the time of affliction.

  12Can anyone break iron,

  The northern iron and the bronze?

  13Your wealth and your treasures

  I will give as tplunder without price,

  Because of all your sins,

  Throughout your territories.

  14And I will 4make you cross over with your enemies

  u Into a land which you do not know;

  For a vfire is kindled in My anger,

  Which shall burn upon you.”

  15O LORD, wYou know;

  Remember me and 5visit me,

  And xtake vengeance for me on my persecutors.

  In Your enduring patience, do not take me away.

  Know that yfor Your sake I have suffered rebuke.

  16Your words were found, and I zate them,

  And aYour word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;

  For I am called by Your name,

>   O LORD God of hosts.

  17b I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers,

  Nor did I rejoice;

  I sat alone because of Your hand,

  For You have filled me with indignation.

  18Why is my cpain perpetual

  And my wound incurable,

  Which refuses to be healed?

  Will You surely be to me dlike an unreliable stream,

  As waters that 6fail?

  The LORD Reassures Jeremiah

  19Therefore thus says the LORD:

  e“If you return,

  Then I will bring you back;

  You shall fstand before Me;

  If you gtake out the precious from the vile,

  You shall be as My mouth.

  Let them return to you,

  But you must not return to them.

  20And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze hwall;

  And they will fight against you,

  But ithey shall not prevail against you;

  For I am with you to save you

  And deliver you,” says the LORD.

  21“I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,

  And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.”

  Jeremiah 16

  Jeremiah’s Life-Style and Message

  1The word of the LORD also came to me, saying,

  2“You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.”

  3For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land:

  4“They shall die agruesome deaths; they shall not be blamented nor shall they be cburied, but they shall be dlike refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their ecorpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”

  5For thus says the LORD: f“Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people,” says the LORD, “lovingkindness and mercies.

  6“Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; gneither shall men lament for them, hcut themselves, nor imake themselves bald for them.

  7“Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to jdrink for their father or their mother.

  8“Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”

  9For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, kI will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of 1mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

  10“And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, l‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’

  11“then you shall say to them, m‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the LORD; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law.

  12‘And you have done nworse than your fathers, for behold, oeach one 2follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.

  13p‘Therefore I will cast you out of this land qinto a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’

  God Will Restore Israel

  (cf. Jer. 23:7, 8)

  14“Therefore behold, the rdays are coming,” says the LORD, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’

  15“but, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the snorth and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For tI will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.

  16“Behold, I will send for many ufishermen,” says the LORD, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

  17“For My veyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.

  18“And first I will repay wdouble for their iniquity and their sin, because xthey have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.”

  19O LORD, ymy strength and my fortress,

  z My refuge in the day of affliction,

  The Gentiles shall come to You

  From the ends of the earth and say,

  “Surely our fathers have inherited lies,

  Worthlessness and aunprofitable things.”

  20Will a man make gods for himself,

  b Which are not gods?

  21“Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know,

  I will cause them to know

  My hand and My might;

  And they shall know that cMy name is the LORD.

  Jeremiah 17

  Judah’s Sin and Punishment

  1“The sin of Judah is awritten with a bpen of iron;

  With the point of a diamond it is cengraved

  On the tablet of their heart,

  And on the horns of your altars,

  2While their children remember

  Their altars and their dwooden1 images

  By the green trees on the high hills.

  3O My mountain in the field,

  I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures,

  And your high places of sin within all your borders.

  4And you, even yourself,

  Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you;

  And I will cause you to serve your enemies

  In ethe land which you do not know;

  For fyou have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.”

  5Thus says the LORD:

  g“Cursed is the man who trusts in man

  And makes hflesh his 2strength,

  Whose heart departs from the LORD.

  6For he shall be ilike a shrub in the desert,

  And jshall not see when good comes,

  But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,

  k In a salt land which is not inhabited.

  7“Blessedl is the man who trusts in the LORD,

  And whose hope is the LORD.

  8For he shall be mlike a tree planted by the waters,

  Which spreads out its roots by the river,

  And will not 3fear when heat comes;

  But its leaf will be green,

  And will not be anxious in the year of drought,

  Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

  9“The nheart is deceitful above all things,

  And 4desperately wicked;

  Who can know it?

  10I, the LORD, osearch the heart,

  I test the 5mind,

  p Even to give every man according to his ways,

  According to the fruit of his doings.

  11“ As a partridge that 6broods but does not hatch,

  So is he who gets riches, but not by right;

  It qwill leave him in the midst of his days,

  And at his end he will be ra fool.”

  12A glorious high throne from the beginning

  Is the place of our sanctuary.

  13O LORD, sthe hope of Israel,

  t All who forsake You shall be ashamed.

  “Those who depart from Me

  Shall be uwritten in the earth,

  Because they have forsaken the LORD,

  The vfountain of living waters.”

  Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance

  14Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed;

  Save me, and I shall be saved,

  For wYou are my praise.

  15Inde
ed they say to me,

  x“Where is the word of the LORD?

  Let it come now!”

  16As for me, yI have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You,

  Nor have I desired the woeful day;

  You know what came out of my lips;

  It was right there before You.

  17Do not be a terror to me;

  z You are my hope in the day of doom.

  18a Let them be ashamed who persecute me,

  But bdo not let me be put to shame;

  Let them be dismayed,

  But do not let me be dismayed.

  Bring on them the day of doom,

  And cdestroy7 them with double destruction!

  Hallow the Sabbath Day

  19Thus the LORD said to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;

  20“and say to them, d‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates.

  21‘Thus says the LORD: e“Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;

  22“nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I fcommanded your fathers.

  23g“But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but 8made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.

  24“And it shall be, hif you heed Me carefully,” says the LORD, “to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the iSabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it,

  25j“then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever.

  26“And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from kthe places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from lthe 9lowland, from the mountains and from mthe 10South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing nsacrifices of praise to the house of the LORD.

  27“But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then oI will kindle a fire in its gates, pand it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be qquenched.” ’ ”