The Skeptics Annotated Bible (586 page)

12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

13 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things:
the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.

(18.13)
“The virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
” (She had sex with another god.)

14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?

15 Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;

(18.16-17)

16
To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.

(18.16)
“To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.”

17
I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

(18.17)
“I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.”
God will scatter the Israelites before their enemy. And then, on “the day of their calamity,” he’ll show them his backside instead of his face.

18 Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

19 Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.

20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.

21 Therefore
deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword
in battle.

(18.21)
“Deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword.”
Jeremiah asks God to kill the young men in war and the children with starvation.

22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.

23 Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me:
forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight
, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine anger.

(18.23)
“Forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight.”

(19.1-10) Another pot prophecy. Jeremiah smashes a pot in front of people to show what God’s going to do to them.

19
Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle
, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;

2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate,
and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,

(19.1-2)
“Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle … and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee.”

3 And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold
, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.

(19.3)
“I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.”