Jeremiah 21
21
No Deliverance from Babylon
1The Lord spoke through Jeremiah when King Zedekiah sent Pashhur son of Malkijah and Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, the priest, to speak with him. They begged Jeremiah, 2“Please speak to the Lord for us and ask him to help us. King Nebuchadnezzar#21:2 Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar; also in 21:7. of Babylon is attacking Judah. Perhaps the Lord will be gracious and do a mighty miracle as he has done in the past. Perhaps he will force Nebuchadnezzar to withdraw his armies.”
3Jeremiah replied, “Go back to King Zedekiah and tell him, 4‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I will make your weapons useless against the king of Babylon and the Babylonians#21:4 Or Chaldeans; also in 21:9. who are outside your walls attacking you. In fact, I will bring your enemies right into the heart of this city. 5I myself will fight against you with a strong hand and a powerful arm, for I am very angry. You have made me furious! 6I will send a terrible plague upon this city, and both people and animals will die. 7And after all that, says the Lord, I will hand over King Zedekiah, his staff, and everyone else in the city who survives the disease, war, and famine. I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and to their other enemies. He will slaughter them and show them no mercy, pity, or compassion.’
8“Tell all the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: Take your choice of life or death! 9Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, famine, or disease, but those who go out and surrender to the Babylonians will live. Their reward will be life! 10For I have decided to bring disaster and not good upon this city, says the Lord. It will be handed over to the king of Babylon, and he will reduce it to ashes.’
Judgment on Judah’s Kings
11“Say to the royal family of Judah, ‘Listen to this message from the Lord! 12This is what the Lord says to the dynasty of David:
“‘Give justice each morning to the people you judge!
Help those who have been robbed;
rescue them from their oppressors.
Otherwise, my anger will burn like an unquenchable fire
because of all your sins.
13I will personally fight against the people in Jerusalem,
that mighty fortress—
the people who boast, “No one can touch us here.
No one can break in here.”
14And I myself will punish you for your sinfulness,
says the Lord.
I will light a fire in your forests
that will burn up everything around you.’”
Currently Selected:
Jeremiah 21: NLT
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
For more information about the NLT:
Jeremiah 21
21
1This is the message that came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent Pashhur, son of Malchijah, and the priest Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah to talk with him. They said, 2“Please speak with the Lord on our behalf because Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, is attacking us. Perhaps the Lord will do some miracle for us like all those miracles he used to do, so that Nebuchadnezzar will retreat from us.”
3But Jeremiah replied, “Tell Zedekiah this: 4This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I'm going to turn the weapons you're holding against you, the weapons you're using to fight the king of Babylon and the Babylonian army outside the wall besieging you. I'm going to bring them right into the center of this city. 5I myself will fight against you with all my power and might, with the full force of my furious anger. 6I will kill those living in this city, human beings and animals. They will die from a terrible plague.
7After that, declares the Lord, I'm going to hand you over, Zedekiah king of Judah, as well as your officers and the people who are left in this city after the plague and war and famine, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to your enemies who want you dead. He will attack you; he won't spare you or show you any pity or mercy.
8Tell the people this as well: This is what the Lord says: Look, I'm placing before you the path of life and the path of death. 9If you stay in this city you'll die either by sword or famine or plague, but if you leave and surrender to the Babylonians who are besieging you, you will live. In fact it will be like gaining your life as plunder from a war. 10For I am determined to bring disaster on this city, and not blessings, declares the Lord. It will be handed over to the king of Babylon, who will destroy it with fire.
11In addition tell the royal family of the king of Judah to listen to the Lord's message: 12Descendants of David, this is what the Lord says: Make sure you judge fairly every day. Protect those who are being unjustly treated from those corrupt people, otherwise because of their evil actions my anger will blaze out like fire that can't be put out. 13Watch out, because I'm going to fight against you people who live above the valley on top of a flat rock,#21:13. Since this message was addressed to the royal family of Judah this reference is taken to refer to the royal fortresses of the City of David above Jerusalem. declares the Lord. You say, ‘Who can attack us? Who can break down our defenses?’ 14I'm going to punish you as you deserve for what you've done, declares the Lord. I will set your forest#21:14. Solomon's palace was referred to as the “Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.” 1 Kings 7:2; 1 Kings 10:21. on fire and it will burn up everything around you.”
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com