The Living Bible (241 page)

Jeremiah
10

Hear the word of the Lord, O Israel:

    
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 Don’t act like the people who make horoscopes and try to read their fate and future in the stars! Don’t be frightened by predictions such as theirs, for it is all a pack of lies. Their ways are futile and foolish. They cut down a tree and carve an idol;
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 they decorate it with gold and silver and fasten it securely in place with hammer and nails so that it won’t fall over.
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 And there stands their god like a helpless scarecrow in a garden! It cannot speak, and it must be carried, for it cannot walk. Don’t be afraid of such a god, for it can neither harm nor help nor do you any good.

    
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 O Lord, there is no other god like you. For you are great, and your name is full of power.
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 Who would not fear you, O King of nations? (And that title belongs to you alone!) Among all the wise men of the earth and in all the kingdoms of the world there isn’t anyone like you.

    
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 The wisest of men who worship idols are altogether stupid and foolish.
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 They bring beaten sheets of silver from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz and give them to skillful goldsmiths who make their idols; then they clothe these gods in royal purple robes that expert tailors make.

    
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 But the Lord is the only true God, the living God, the everlasting King. The whole earth shall tremble at his anger; the world shall hide before his displeasure.

    
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 Say this to those who worship other gods: Your so-called gods, who have not made the heavens and earth, shall vanish from the earth.
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 But our God formed the earth by his power and wisdom, and by his intelligence he hung the stars in space and stretched out the heavens.
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 It is his voice that echoes in the thunder of the storm clouds. He causes mist to rise upon the earth; he sends the lightning and brings the rain, and from his treasuries he brings the wind.

    
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 But foolish men without knowledge of God bow before their idols. It is a shameful business that these men are in, for what they make are frauds, gods without life or power in them.
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 All are worthless, silly; they will be crushed when their makers perish.
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 But the God of Jacob is not like these foolish idols. He is the Creator of all, and Israel is his chosen nation. The Lord Almighty is his name.

    
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 Pack your bags, he says. Get ready now to leave; the siege will soon begin.
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 For suddenly I’ll fling you from this land and pour great troubles down; at last you shall feel my wrath.

    
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Desperate is my wound. My grief is great. My sickness is incurable, but I must bear it.
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My home is gone; my children have been taken away, and I will never see them again. There is no one left to help me rebuild my home.
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 The shepherds of my people have lost their senses; they no longer follow God nor ask his will. Therefore they perish, and their flocks are scattered.
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 Listen! Hear the terrible sound of great armies coming from the north. The cities of Judah shall become dens of jackals.

    
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 O Lord, I know it is not within the power of man to map his life and plan his course—
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 so you correct me, Lord; but please be gentle. Don’t do it in your anger, for I would die.
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 Pour out your fury on the nations who don’t obey the Lord, for they have destroyed Israel and made a wasteland of this entire country.

Jeremiah
11

Then the Lord spoke to Jeremiah once again and said:

    
Remind the men of Judah and all the people of Jerusalem that I made a contract with their fathers—and cursed is the man who does not heed it!
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 For I told them at the time I brought them out of slavery in Egypt that if they would obey me and do whatever I commanded them, then they and all their children would be mine and I would be their God.
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 And now, Israel, obey me, says the Lord, so that I can do for you the wonderful things I swore I would if you obeyed. I want to give you a land that “flows with milk and honey,” as it is today.

    
Then I replied, “So be it, Lord!”

    
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 Then the Lord said: Broadcast this message in Jerusalem’s streets—go from city to city throughout the land and say, Remember this agreement that your fathers made with God, and do all the things they promised him they would.
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 For I solemnly said to your fathers when I brought them out of Egypt—and have kept on saying it over and over again until this day: Obey my every command!
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 But your fathers didn’t do it. They wouldn’t even listen. Each followed his own stubborn will and his proud heart. Because they refused to obey, I did to them all the evils stated in the contract.

    
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 Again the Lord spoke to me and said: I have discovered a conspiracy against me among the men of Judah and Jerusalem.
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 They have returned to the sins of their fathers, refusing to listen to me and worshiping idols. The agreement I made with their fathers is broken and canceled.
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 Therefore, the Lord says, I am going to bring calamity down upon them, and they shall not escape. Though they cry for mercy, I will not listen to their pleas.
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 Then they will pray to their idols and burn incense before them, but that cannot save them from their time of anguish and despair.
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 O my people, you have as many gods as there are cities, and your altars of shame (your altars to burn incense to Baal) are along every street in Jerusalem.

    
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 Therefore, Jeremiah, pray no longer for this people, neither weep nor plead for them; for I will not listen to them when they are finally desperate enough to beg me for help.
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 What right do my beloved people have to come anymore to my Temple? For you have been unfaithful and worshiped other gods. Can promises and sacrifices now avert your doom and give you life and joy again?

    
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 The Lord used to call you his green olive tree, beautiful to see and full of good fruit; but now he has sent the fury of your enemies to burn you up and leave you broken and charred.
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 It is because of the wickedness of Israel and Judah in offering incense to Baal that the Lord Almighty who planted the tree has ordered it destroyed.

    
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 Then the Lord told me all about their plans and showed me their evil plots.
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 I had been as unsuspecting as a lamb or ox on the way to slaughter. I didn’t know that they were planning to kill me! “Let’s destroy this man and all his messages,” they said. “Let’s kill him so that his name will be forever forgotten.”

    
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 O Lord Almighty, you are just. See the hearts and motives of these men. Repay them for all that they have planned! I look to you for justice.

    
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 And the Lord replied, The men of the city of Anathoth shall be punished for planning to kill you. They will tell you not to prophesy in God’s name on pain of death. And so their young men shall die in battle; their boys and girls shall starve.
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 Not one of these plotters of Anathoth shall survive, for I will bring a great disaster upon them. Their time has come.

Jeremiah
12

O Lord, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you to decide. Now let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil men so happy?
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 You plant them. They take root and their business grows. Their profits multiply, and they are rich. They say, “Thank God!” But in their hearts they give no credit to you.
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 But as for me—Lord, you know my heart—you know how much it longs for you. (And I am poor,
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O Lord!) Lord, drag them off like helpless sheep to the slaughter. Judge them, O God!

    
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 How long must this land of yours put up with all their goings-on? Even the grass of the field groans and weeps over their wicked deeds! The wild animals and birds have moved away, leaving the land deserted. Yet the people say, “God won’t bring judgment on us. We’re perfectly safe!”

    
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 The Lord replied to me: If racing with mere men—these men of Anathoth—has wearied you, how will you race against horses, against the king, his court, and all his evil priests?
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If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in Jordan’s jungles?
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 Even your own brothers, your own family, have turned against you. They have plotted to call for a mob to lynch you. Don’t trust them, no matter how pleasantly they speak. Don’t believe them.

    
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 Then the Lord said: I have abandoned my people, my inheritance; I have surrendered my dearest ones to their enemies.
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 My people have roared at me like a lion of the forest, so I have treated them as though I hated them.
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 My people have fallen. I will bring upon them swarms of vultures and wild animals to pick the flesh from their corpses.

    
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 Many foreign rulers have ravaged my vineyard, trampling down the vines, and turning all its beauty into barren wilderness.
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 They have made it desolate; I hear its mournful cry. The whole land is desolate and no one cares.
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 Destroying armies plunder the land; the sword of the Lord devours from one end of the nation to the other; nothing shall escape.
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 My people have sown wheat but reaped thorns; they have worked hard, but it does them no good. They shall harvest a crop of shame, for the fierce anger of the Lord is upon them.

    
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 And now the Lord says this to the evil nations, the nations surrounding the land God gave his people Israel: See, I will force you from your land just as Judah will be forced from hers;
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 but afterwards I will return and have compassion on all of you and will bring you home to your own land again, each man to his inheritance.
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 And if these heathen nations quickly learn my people’s ways and claim me as their God instead of Baal (whom they taught my people to worship), then they shall be strong among my people.
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 But any nation refusing to obey me will be expelled again and finished, says the Lord.