When Truth Is Rejected: False Security, Broken Covenants, and the Cost of Disobedience
Jeremiah 8
1 “At that time,” says Yahweh, “they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves. 2 They will spread them before the sun, the moon, and all the army of the sky, which they have loved, which they have served, after which they have walked, which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered or buried. They will be like dung on the surface of the ground. 3 Death will be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says Yahweh of Armies.
4 “Moreover you shall tell them, Yahweh says: ‘Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return? 5 Why then has this people of Jerusalem turned away with a perpetual backsliding? They cling to deceit. They refuse to return. 6 I listened and heard, but they didn’t speak aright. No man repents of his wickedness, saying, “What have I done?” Everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle. 7 Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times. The turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don’t know Yahweh’s law.
8 “‘How do you say, “We are wise, and Yahweh’s law is with us”? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely. 9 The wise men are disappointed. They are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected Yahweh’s word; and what kind of wisdom is in them? 10 Therefore I will give their wives to others, and their fields to those who will possess them. For everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely. 11 They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. 12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they will fall among those who fall. In the time of their visitation they will be cast down,” says Yahweh.
13 “‘I will utterly consume them,’ says Yahweh. ‘There will be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf will fade; and the things that I have given them will pass away.’”
14 Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let’s enter into the fortified cities, and let’s be silent there; for Yahweh our God has put us to silence, and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh. 15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay! 16 The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan. At the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles; for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those who dwell therein.
17 “For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they will bite you,” says Yahweh.
18 Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is faint within me. 19 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: “Isn’t Yahweh in Zion? Isn’t her King in her?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign idols?”
20 “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.”
21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt. I mourn. Dismay has taken hold on me. 22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
Jeremiah 9
1 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! 2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. 3 “They bend their tongue, as it were their bow, for falsehood; and they have grown strong in the land, but not for truth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,” says Yahweh.
4 “Everyone beware of his neighbor, and don’t trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go around with slanders. 5 Everyone will deceive his neighbor, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves committing iniquity. 6 Your habitation is in the middle of deceit. Through deceit they refuse to know me,” says Yahweh.
7 Therefore Yahweh of Armies says, “Behold, I will melt them, and test them; for how else should I deal with the daughter of my people? 8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lays wait for him. 9 Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10 “I will weep and wail for the mountains, and take up a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are burned up, so that no one passes through. Men can’t hear the voice of the livestock. Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled. They are gone. 11 I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? Who is he to whom the mouth of Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished and been burned up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?
13 Yahweh says, “Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked in it, 14 but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.” 15 Therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them poisoned water to drink. 16 I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.”
17 Yahweh of Armies says, “Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come. 18 Let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters. 19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, ‘How we are ruined! We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.’”
20 Yet hear Yahweh’s word, you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbor a lamentation. 21 For death has come up into our windows. It has entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets.
22 Speak, Yahweh says, “The dead bodies of men will fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman; and no one will gather them.”
23 Yahweh says, “Don’t let the wise man glory in his wisdom. Don’t let the mighty man glory in his might. Don’t let the rich man glory in his riches. 24 But let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for I delight in these things,” says Yahweh.
25 “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will punish all those who are circumcised only in their flesh: 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab, and all who have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”
Jeremiah 10
1 Hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you, house of Israel! 2 Yahweh says, “Don’t learn the way of the nations, and don’t be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them. 3 For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe. 4 They deck it with silver and with gold. They fasten it with nails and with hammers, so that it can’t move. 5 They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don’t speak. They must be carried, because they can’t go. Don’t be afraid of them; for they can’t do evil, neither is it in them to do good.”
6 There is no one like you, Yahweh. You are great, and your name is great in might. 7 Who wouldn’t fear you, King of the nations? For it belongs to you; because among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is no one like you. 8 But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood. 9 There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman and of the hands of the goldsmith. Their clothing is blue and purple. They are all the work of skillful men. 10 But Yahweh is the true God. He is the living God, and an everlasting King. At his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations aren’t able to withstand his indignation.
11 “You shall say this to them: ‘The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.’”
12 God has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens. 13 When he utters his voice, the waters in the heavens roar, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings for the rain, and brings the wind out of his treasuries.
14 Every man has become brutish and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. 15 They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation they will perish. 16 The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance. Yahweh of Armies is his name.
17 Gather up your wares out of the land, you who dwell under siege. 18 For Yahweh says, “Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel it.”
19 Woe is me because of my injury! My wound is grievous; but I said, “Truly this is my grief, and I must bear it.” 20 My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken. My children have gone away from me, and they are no more. There is no one to spread my tent any more, to set up my curtains. 21 For the shepherds have become brutish, and have not inquired of Yahweh. Therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.
22 The voice of news, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling place of jackals.
23 Yahweh, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man who walks to direct his steps. 24 Yahweh, correct me, but in measure; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing. 25 Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, and on the families that don’t call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob. Yes, they have devoured him, consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.
Jeremiah 11
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, 2 “Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 3 and say to them, Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: ‘Cursed is the man who doesn’t hear the words of this covenant, 4 which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, “Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you; so you shall be my people, and I will be your God; 5 that I may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day.”’”
Then I answered, and said, “Amen, Yahweh.”
6 Yahweh said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Hear the words of this covenant, and do them. 7 For I solemnly warned your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and warning them, saying, “Obey my voice.” 8 Yet they didn’t obey or turn their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of their evil heart. Therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they didn’t do them.’”
9 Yahweh said to me, “A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words; and they have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers. 11 Therefore Yahweh says, ‘Behold, I will bring evil on them, which they will not be able to escape; and they will cry to me, but I will not listen to them. 12 Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to which they offer incense; but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble. 13 For according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.’
14 “Therefore don’t pray for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me because of their trouble.
15 “What has my beloved to do in my house, since she has worked lewdness with many, and the holy flesh has passed from you? When you do evil, then you rejoice.” 16 Yahweh called your name, “A green olive tree, beautiful with goodly fruit.” With the noise of a great storm he has kindled fire on it, and its branches are broken. 17 For Yahweh of Armies, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger by offering incense to Baal.
18 Yahweh gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it. Then you showed me their doings. 19 But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter; and I didn’t know that they had devised plans against me, saying, “Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit, and let’s cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.” 20 But, Yahweh of Armies, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I will see your vengeance on them; for to you I have revealed my cause.
21 Therefore Yahweh says concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, “You shall not prophesy in Yahweh’s name, that you not die by our hand”; 22 therefore Yahweh of Armies says, “Behold, I will punish them. The young men will die by the sword. Their sons and their daughters will die by famine. 23 There will be no remnant to them; for I will bring evil on the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.”
Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.
