Jeremiah 44
44
Worshiping Other Gods Brings Horrible Trouble
1A message from the Lord came to Jeremiah. It was about all the Jews living in Lower Egypt. They were living in Migdol, Tahpanhes and Memphis. It was also about all the Jews living in Upper Egypt. 2The Lord who rules over all is the God of Israel. He said, “You saw all the trouble I brought on Jerusalem. I also brought it on all the towns in Judah. Today they lie there deserted and destroyed. 3That’s because of the evil things their people did. They made me very angry. They burned incense to other gods. And they worshiped them. They and you and your people of long ago never knew those gods. 4Again and again I sent my servants the prophets. They said, ‘Don’t worship other gods! The Lord hates it!’ 5But the people didn’t listen. They didn’t pay any attention. They didn’t turn from their sinful ways. They didn’t stop burning incense to other gods. 6So my burning anger was poured out. It blazed out against the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. It made them the dry and empty places they are today.”
7The Lord God who rules over all is the God of Israel. He says, “Why do you want to bring all this trouble on yourselves? You are removing from Judah its men and women, its children and babies. Not one of you will be left. 8Why do you want to make me angry with the gods your hands have made? Why do you burn incense to the gods of Egypt, where you now live? You will destroy yourselves. All the nations on earth will use your name as a curse. They will say you are shameful. 9Have you forgotten the evil things done by your people of long ago? The kings and queens of Judah did those same things. So did you and your wives. They were done in the land of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. 10To this day the people of Judah have not made themselves humble in my sight. They have not shown any respect for me. They have not obeyed my law. They have not followed the rules I gave you and your people of long ago.”
11The Lord who rules over all is the God of Israel. He says, “I have decided to bring horrible trouble on you. I will destroy the whole land of Judah. 12I will destroy the people of Judah who are left. They had decided to go to Egypt and make their homes there. But all of them will die in Egypt. They will die of war or hunger. All of them will die, from the least important of them to the most important. They will die of war or hunger. People will use their name as a curse. They will be shocked at them. They will say bad things about them. And they will say they are shameful. 13I will use war, hunger and plague to punish the Jews who live in Egypt. I punished Jerusalem in the same way. 14None of the people of Judah who have gone to live in Egypt will escape. Not one of them will live to return to Judah. They long to return and live there. But only a few will escape from Egypt and go back.”
15All the Jews who were living in Lower and Upper Egypt gathered to give Jeremiah their answer. A large crowd had come together. It included men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods. Their wives were there with them. All of them said to Jeremiah, 16“We won’t listen to the message you have spoken to us in the Lord’s name! 17We will certainly do everything we said we would. We’ll burn incense to the female god called the Queen of Heaven. We’ll pour out drink offerings to her. We’ll do just as we and our people of long ago have done. Our kings and our officials also did it. All of us did it in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food. We were well off. We didn’t suffer any harm. 18But then we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven. We stopped pouring out drink offerings to her. And ever since that time we haven’t had anything. Instead, we’ve been dying of war and hunger.”
19The women added, “We burned incense to the Queen of Heaven. We poured out drink offerings to her. And our husbands knew we were making cakes that looked like her. They knew we were pouring out drink offerings to her.”
20Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people who were answering him. He spoke to men and women alike. He said, 21“Didn’t the Lord know you were burning incense in the towns of Judah? Didn’t he care that you were also doing it in the streets of Jerusalem? You and your people of long ago were doing it. Your kings and officials were doing it too. So were the rest of the people in the land. 22The Lord couldn’t put up any longer with the evil things you were doing. He hated the things you did. So your land became a curse. It became a dry and empty desert. No one lived there. And that’s the way it still is today. 23You have burned incense to other gods. You have sinned against the Lord. You haven’t obeyed him or his law. You haven’t followed his rules. You haven’t lived up to the terms of the covenant he made with you. That’s why all this trouble has come on you. You have seen it with your own eyes.”
24Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people. That included the women. He said, “All you people of Judah in Egypt, listen to the Lord’s message. 25The Lord who rules over all is the God of Israel. He says, ‘You and your wives have done what you promised you would do. You said, “We will certainly keep the promises we made to the Queen of Heaven. We’ll burn incense to her. We’ll pour out drink offerings to her.” ’
“Go ahead then. Do what you said you would! Keep your promises! 26But listen to the Lord’s message. Listen, all you Jews living in Egypt. ‘I make a promise by my own great name,’ says the Lord. ‘Here is what I promise. “No one from Judah who lives anywhere in Egypt will ever again pray in my name. None of them will ever make this promise. They will never say, ‘You can be sure that the Lord and King is alive.’ ” 27I am watching over them to do them harm and not good. The Jews in Egypt will die of war and hunger until all of them are destroyed. 28Some will not be killed. They will return to Judah from Egypt. But they will be very few. Then all the people of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know the truth. They will know whether what I say or what they say will come true.
29“ ‘I will give you a sign that I will punish you in this place,’ announces the Lord. ‘Then you can be sure that my warnings of harm against you will come true.’ 30The Lord says, ‘I am going to hand over Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt. I will hand him over to his enemies who want to kill him. In the same way, I handed over King Zedekiah to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. He was the enemy who wanted to kill Zedekiah.’ ”
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Jeremiah 44: NIrV
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Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®
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Jeremiah 44
44
1 The word that came through Jeremiah to all the Jews who were living in the land of Egypt, living at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Memphis, and in the land of Pathros, saying:
2 "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You yourselves have seen all this evil that I have led over Jerusalem and over all the cities of Judah. And behold, they are desolate to this day, and there is no inhabitant in them,
3 because of the wickedness which they have done, so that they provoked me to wrath, and because they went to offer sacrifice and worship to strange gods, which neither they, nor you, nor your fathers knew.
4 And I sent to you all my servants, the prophets, rising in the night, and sending, and saying: 'Do not choose to do this abominable word, which I hate.'
5 But they did not listen, nor did they incline their ear, so that they would convert from their evil, and so that they would not sacrifice to strange gods.
6 And so my indignation and my fury was fanned and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. And they have been turned into desolation and devastation, just as it is this day.
7 And now, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil against your own souls, so that, among you, man and woman, child and infant would pass away from the midst of Judah, and so that no remnant at all would be left behind of you?
8 For you have provoked me by the works of your hands, by sacrificing to strange gods in the land of Egypt, into which you have entered in order to live there, and so that you would perish and become a curse and a disgrace before all the nations of the earth.
9 How could you have forgotten the evils of your fathers, and the evils of the kings of Judah, and the evils of their wives, and your own evils, and the evils of your own wives, which they have done in the land of Judah and in the regions of Jerusalem?
10 They have not been cleansed, even to this day. And they have not feared, and they have not walked in the law of the Lord and in my precepts, which I have given before you and before your fathers.
11 For this reason, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face upon you for evil. And I will disperse all of Judah.
12 And I will take the remnant of Judah, who had set their faces so that they would enter into the land of Egypt and live there, and they will all be consumed in the land of Egypt. They will fall by the sword and by famine. And they will be consumed, from the least, even to the greatest. By sword and by famine shall they die. And they will be an oath, and a wonder, and a curse, and a disgrace.
13 And I will visit against those who are living in the land of Egypt, just as I have visited against Jerusalem: with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence.
14 And there will be no one who escapes, of those who remain among the remnant of the Jews, those who have gone to sojourn in the land of Egypt. And they wish to be returned to the land of Judah, for they lift up their souls so that they might return and live there. But there will be no one who may return, except those who will flee."
15 Then all the men, knowing that their wives were sacrificing to strange gods, and all of the women, a great multitude of whom were standing there, and all of the people who were living in the land of Egypt at Pathros, responded to Jeremiah, by saying:
16 "Concerning the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not heed you.
17 But we will continue to do every word which proceeds from our own mouth, so that we sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and we pour out libations to her, just as we and our fathers have done, our kings and our leaders, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For we were filled with bread, and it was well with us, and we saw no evil.
18 But since the time that we ceased to offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and to pour out libations to her, we have been in need of all things, and we have been consumed by the sword and by famine.
19 But when we offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, do we make cakes for her worship and offer libations to her without our husbands?"
20 And Jeremiah spoke to all the people, facing the men, and facing the women, and facing all the people who had responded this word to him, saying:
21 "Was this not the sacrifice that you offered in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your leaders, and the people of the land, which has been called to mind by the Lord and which has entered into his heart?
22 And the Lord could no longer bear this, because of the evil of your intentions, and because of the abominations that you have done. And so, your land has become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, and it is without an inhabitant, even to this day.
23 This is because you have sacrificed to idols, and you have sinned against the Lord. And you have not heeded the voice of the Lord, and you have not walked in his law, and in his precepts, and in his testimonies. It is for this reason that these evils have happened to you, just as it is today."
24 Then Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women: "Listen to the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt:
25 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: You and your wives have spoken it with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hands, saying: 'Let us perform our vows that we have made, so that we may offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and pour out libations to her.' You have fulfilled your vows and accomplished their works.
26 Because of this, listen to the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, who live in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the Lord, that my name will never again be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in the land of Egypt, saying: 'As the Lord God lives.'
27 Behold, I will be vigilant over them for harm, and not for good. And all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be consumed, by the sword and by famine, until they are thoroughly consumed.
28 And a few men, who will flee from the sword, will return from the land of Egypt into the land of Judah. And all the remnant of Judah, who had entered into the land of Egypt so as to live there, will know whose word will be completed, mine or theirs.
29 And this will be a sign to you, says the Lord, that I will visit against you in this place, so that truly you may know that my words will be completed against you for harm."
30 Thus says the Lord: "Behold, I will deliver Pharaoh Hophra, the king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of those who are seeking his life, just as I delivered Zedekiah, the king of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, his enemy and the one who was seeking his life."
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