Jeremiah Speaking to the People
Schrift | Jeremiah 2 Jeremiah 23 |
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Jeremiah Chapter 21 The word of the LORD came to me, saying,2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.3 Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt; disaster came upon them, declares the LORD.”4 Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel.5 Thus says the LORD: “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?6 They did not say, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?’7 And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.8 The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit.9 “Therefore I still contend with you, declares the LORD, and with your children’s children I will contend.10 For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Kedar and examine with care; see if there has been such a thing.11 Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD,13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.14 “Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn servant? Why then has he become a prey?15 The lions have roared against him; they have roared loudly. They have made his land a waste; his cities are in ruins, without inhabitant.16 Moreover, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have shaved the crown of your head.17 Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the LORD your God, when he led you in the way?18 And now what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?19 Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God; the fear of me is not in you, declares the Lord GOD of hosts.20 “For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, ‘I will not serve.’ Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore.21 Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?22 Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord GOD.23 How can you say, ‘I am not unclean, I have not gone after the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done— a restless young camel running here and there,24 a wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her.25 Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, ‘It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners, and after them I will go.’26 “As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed: they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets,27 who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us!’28 But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah.29 “Why do you contend with me? You have all transgressed against me, declares the LORD.30 In vain have I struck your children; they took no correction; your own sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.31 And you, O generation, behold the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Why then do my people say, ‘We are free, we will come no more to you’?32 Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.33 “How well you direct your course to seek love! So that even to wicked women you have taught your ways.34 Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the guiltless poor; you did not find them breaking in. Yet in spite of all these things35 you say, ‘I am innocent; surely his anger has turned from me.’ Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’36 How much you go about, changing your way! You shall be put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria.37 From it too you will come away with your hands on your head, for the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, and you will not prosper by them. Jeremiah Chapter 231 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD.2 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD.3 Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.4 I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD.5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’7 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’8 but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’Then they shall dwell in their own land.”9 Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD and because of his holy words.10 For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right.11 “Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in my house I have found their evil, declares the LORD.12 Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness, into which they shall be driven and fall, for I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment, declares the LORD.13 In the prophets of Samaria I saw an unsavory thing: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.14 But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evil; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”15 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them with bitter food and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”16 Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’ ”18 For who among them has stood in the council of the LORD to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened?19 Behold, the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked.20 The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his heart. In the latter days you will understand it clearly.21 “I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.22 But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.23 “Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away?24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD.25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’26 How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart,27 who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal?28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the LORD.29 Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who steal my words from one another.31 Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who use their tongues and declare, ‘declares the LORD.’32 Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the LORD, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the LORD.33 “When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?’you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden, and I will cast you off, declares the LORD.’34 And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, ‘The burden of the LORD,’I will punish that man and his household.35 Thus shall you say, every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, ‘What has the LORD answered?’or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’36 But ‘the burden of the LORD’you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man’s own word, and you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.37 Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the LORD answered you?’or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’38 But if you say, ‘The burden of the LORD,’thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have said these words, “The burden of the LORD,” when I sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The burden of the LORD,’ ”39 therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers.40 And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.’ ” |
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