Jeremiah 21
21
The Lord Will Fight against Jerusalem
1King Zedekiah#21.1 Zedekiah: See the note at 1.3. of Judah sent for Pashhur son of Malchiah and for a priest named Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. Then he told them, “Talk with Jeremiah for me.”
So they came to me and said, 2#2 K 25.1-11; 2 Ch 36.17-21. “King Nebuchadnezzar#21.2 Nebuchadnezzar: Ruled 605–562 b.c. of Babylonia has attacked Judah. Please ask the Lord to work miracles for our people, as he has done in the past, so that Nebuchadnezzar will leave us alone.”
3-7I told them that the Lord God of Israel had told me to say to King Zedekiah:
The Babylonians have surrounded Jerusalem and want to kill you and your people. You are asking me to save you, but you have made me furious. So I will stretch out my mighty arm and fight against you myself. Your army is using spears and swords to fight the Babylonians, but I will make your own weapons turn and attack you. I will send a horrible disease to kill many of the people and animals in Jerusalem, and there will be nothing left to eat. Finally, I will let King Nebuchadnezzar and his army fight their way to the center of Jerusalem and capture everyone who is left alive, including you and your officials. But Nebuchadnezzar won't be kind or show any mercy—he will have you killed! I, the Lord, have spoken.
8 #
4 Macc 15.2. Then I told them that the Lord had said:
People of Jerusalem, I, the Lord, give you the choice of life or death. 9The Babylonian army has surrounded Jerusalem, so if you want to live, you must go out and surrender to them. But if you want to die because of hunger, disease, or war, then stay here in the city. 10I have decided not to rescue Jerusalem. Instead, I am going to let the king of Babylonia burn it to the ground. I, the Lord, have spoken.
The Lord Warns the King of Judah
* 11Pay attention, you that belong
to the royal family.
12Each new day, make sure
that justice is done,
and rescue those
who are being robbed.
Or else my anger will flame up
like a fire that never goes out.
13Jerusalem,
from your mountaintop
you look out over the valleys#21.13 Jerusalem … valleys: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
and think you are safe.
But I, the Lord, am angry,
14and I will punish you
as you deserve.
I'll set your palace#21.14 your palace: The Hebrew text has “the forest”; the largest room in the king's palace was known as Forest Hall (see 1 Kings 7.2,3). on fire,
and everything around you
will go up in smoke.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 21
21
1The word that came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, 2Inquire, I pray thee, of Jehovah for us; for Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that Jehovah will deal with us according to all his marvellous works, that he may go up from us. 3And Jeremiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah: 4Thus saith Jehovah the God#GodHebrew: Elohim of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans who besiege you, outside the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city. 5And I myself will fight against you with a stretched-out hand, and with a strong arm, and in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath. 6And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence. 7And afterwards, saith Jehovah, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life, and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword: he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.
8And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. 9He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that goeth out, and deserteth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey. 10For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith Jehovah: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. 11And touching the house of the king of Judah, hear ye the word of Jehovah. 12House of David, thus saith Jehovah: Judge with justice in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go forth like fire and burn, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings. 13Behold, I am against thee, inhabitress of the valley, the rock of the plain, saith Jehovah; ye that say, Who shall come down against us, or who shall enter into our dwellings? 14And I will visit you according to the fruit of your doings, saith Jehovah; and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is round about her.
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First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.