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21 I did not send those prophets.
But they have still run to speak to you.
I did not tell them what to say,
but they have continued to prophesy.
22 If they had really met with me,
they would have spoken my message to my people.
They would have caused my people to turn away from their wicked way of life.
They would have stopped my people doing evil things.’
23 The Lord says, ‘Am I a God in only one place?
No! I see everything everywhere!
24 Do you think you can hide
in a place where I cannot see you?
You should know that I am everywhere,
in the heavens above and on the earth.’
That is what the Lord says.
25 ‘I have heard the lies that these prophets are saying. They say that they have messages from me. They say, “God has spoken to me in a dream!” 26 But all their words are lies. Their messages are their own ideas. When will they stop deceiving people? 27 They want to make my people forget who I am. They use their dreams to do this. They tell them to each other. They are as bad as their ancestors. They also forgot who I am when they worshipped the false god, Baal.
28 If a prophet has a dream, he should say what it is. If a prophet receives a message from me, he should speak that message faithfully. But dreams are very different from my messages. Straw is not the same as wheat! 29 A message from me is like a fire that burns things. It is like a hammer that breaks a rock into pieces.’ That is what the Lord says.
30 ‘I tell you that I am against those prophets! They say that they speak messages from me. But they are using each other's ideas. 31 They say, “This message is from the Lord,” but it is their own words that they speak. 32 Yes, I am against those who have dreams and use them to deceive people. They are using cruel lies to lead the people away from me. I did not send those prophets to speak on my behalf. They do nothing to help my people.’ That is what the Lord says.
33 The Lord said, ‘Jeremiah, someone may ask you a question. He may be one of these people or a prophet or a priest. He may ask you, “What message of trouble is the Lord telling us now?” Then you must say to him, “You are the trouble! The Lord says that he will go away from you.” 34 If a prophet, a priest, or anyone else says, “I have a message of trouble from the Lord,” I will punish that person. I will punish his whole family too.
35 Instead, each of you should ask your friends, “What is the Lord's answer?” or “What has the Lord said?” 36 But you must not speak any more about “a message of trouble from the Lord”. It is the person's own message that brings the trouble. In that way, you change the true message of our God, the living God who is the Lord Almighty. 37 You should ask the prophet, “What answer did the Lord give to you?” or “What did the Lord say?” 38 You must no longer say, “What is the message of trouble from the Lord?” If you continue to say that when I have told you not to say it, this is what will happen: 39 I will pick you up and I will throw you away! I will send you all a long way away from me. I will chase out all the people of this city that I gave to you and to your ancestors. 40 I will make you very ashamed. People will never forget your great shame.’
Jeremiah's vision of figs
24 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took Jeconiah away as his prisoner. Jeconiah was the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah.[a] Nebuchadnezzar also took all Jeconiah's officers and the workers in Judah who had special skills. He took them all away from Jerusalem to Babylon as his prisoners.
After that happened, the Lord showed me a vision. I saw two baskets of figs. Somebody had put them in front of the Lord's temple. 2 One basket had very good figs, like those that are ready to eat early in the year. The other basket had very bad figs. They were too bad to eat.
3 Then the Lord asked me, ‘What do you see, Jeremiah?’
I answered, ‘Figs. The good figs are very good. But the bad figs are so bad that nobody can eat them.’
4 Then the Lord gave me this message:
5 ‘The Lord, Israel's God, says, “The people that I sent away from Judah to Babylon as prisoners are like the good figs. I see them as good. 6 I will watch them carefully and I will take care of them. I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and make them strong. I will not knock them down. I will help them to grow in the land, like plants with good roots. I will not pull them up.[b] 7 I will cause them to want to know me. They will know that I am the Lord. They will be my people and I will be their God, because they will choose to return to me.”
8 But I, the Lord, also tell you this: “King Zedekiah of Judah and his officers are like the bad figs. That is true of the people who still live in Jerusalem, and those who have run away to Egypt to live there. They are all like the figs that are too bad to eat. 9 I will send great trouble to punish them. It will make everyone afraid. The people of all the kingdoms on the earth will think that they are disgusting. People will insult them. They will use them as an example in proverbs. They will use their name as a curse. That will happen in all the places where I send my people. 10 I will send war, famine and disease to kill them. I will destroy them all. They will disappear from the land that I gave to them and to their ancestors.” ’
Judah's people will be in a foreign land for 70 years
25 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah in the fourth year that Jehoiakim ruled Judah as king. Jehoiakim was the son of King Josiah. It was also the first year that Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon. The Lord's message was about the people of Judah. 2 So the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the people who were living in Jerusalem.
3 He said, ‘For 23 years the Lord has been giving me his messages. I started to tell you his messages when Amon's son Josiah had been ruling Judah for 13 years. I have continued to tell you many times what the Lord has said, even until today. But you have refused to listen.
4 The Lord has also sent his servants, the prophets, to speak to you many times. You have refused to listen to them too. 5 The Lord's message to you was, “Turn away from your wicked way of life. Stop doing the evil things that you are doing. If you do that, you may continue to live in this land. It is the land that the Lord gave to you and to your ancestors to be their home for ever. 6 Do not look for other gods that you can serve and worship. Do not continue to do things that make me angry. Then I will not hurt you.”
7 So now the Lord says, “You have refused to listen to my messages. You have continued to do things that make me angry. So you have brought trouble on yourselves.”
8 The Lord Almighty says, “You have not listened to my messages. 9 So I, the Lord, tell you that I will call the nations in the north to come. I will call my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, to come. I will bring them to attack this land and the people who live here. They will also attack all the nations that are around you. I will completely destroy this land, its people and all the nations around it. Their houses will become heaps of stones for ever. The land will become a terrible place. People will always see how foolish my people are. 10 Everywhere, I will stop people's happy songs and their marriage parties. Nobody will make flour any more. Nobody will light lamps in their homes. 11 This whole place will be as empty as a desert. Nobody will live here. The people of Judah and these other nations will serve the king of Babylon for 70 years.”
12 The Lord also says, “But after the 70 years have finished, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation. I will punish them for their sins. I will destroy the land of the Babylonians. It will be a heap of stones for ever. 13 I will certainly do to them all the terrible things that I have spoken about. I will do to them everything that is written in this book. I will cause them to have all the trouble that Jeremiah prophesies against all the nations.[c] 14 Many nations and great kings will have power over the king of Babylon and his people. The Babylonians will become their slaves. In that way, I will punish the Babylonians for all the bad things that they did to my people.” ’
Jeremiah's vision of a cup of wine
15 The Lord, Israel's God, said to me, ‘Take this cup from me. It is full of wine that shows my great anger. Take it to the nations where I send you. Make them drink this wine of punishment. 16 When they drink it, they will walk like people who are drunk. They will seem to be crazy, because they know that I will send armies to attack them.’
17 So I took the cup from the Lord's hand. In my vision, I took it to the nations where the Lord sent me. I made them drink the wine of his punishment. 18 I went to Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah. I made the people of Judah, its kings and its officers drink from the cup. It was to destroy them all. Judah would become a terrible place. People would see that its people are very foolish. They would use their name as a curse. That is already happening today.
19 I also took the cup of punishment to these people:
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his officers, his servants and his people;
20 the foreign people who lived in Egypt;
all the kings of Uz;
all the kings of the Philistines (They were the kings of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and the people who were still living in Ashdod);
21 the people of Edom, Moab and Ammon;
22 all the kings of Tyre and all the kings of Sidon;
the kings of the nations around the Mediterranean Sea;
23 the people of Dedan, Tema, and Buz;
the people who live in the desert and who cut their hair short;
24 all the kings of Arabia and the kings of the tribes who live in the desert;
25 all the kings of Zimri, Elam and Media;
26 all the kings of the nations in the north, those who live near together and those who live far apart;
the people of all the other kingdoms everywhere on the earth.
Finally, the king of Babylon will have to drink the wine of the Lord's great anger.
27 Then the Lord said to me, ‘Tell them that the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “Drink the wine from this cup until you become drunk. Drink so much that you are sick. Drink it until you fall down and cannot get up again, because you know that I will send armies to attack you.”
28 But people may refuse to take the cup from you. They may refuse to drink from it. Then you must tell them that the Lord Almighty says this: “You must drink this wine of my punishment! 29 I have already begun to punish Jerusalem, the city that is my special home. So do not think that I will leave you other nations alone! I will certainly punish you too. I will send war against everyone who lives on the earth. That is what the Lord Almighty says will happen!”
30 Now Jeremiah, prophesy this message against them:
“The Lord will shout from his high place above.
He will roar like a lion that is ready to attack his land.
He will make a noise like thunder from his holy home.
He will shout aloud like people who are stamping on grapes
to make wine.
He will shout against everyone who lives on the earth.
31 People everywhere will hear his message.
The Lord will accuse the nations of their sins,
and he will judge all the people on the earth.
He will send war to kill all the wicked people.”
That is what the Lord says.
32 The Lord Almighty also says this:
“Listen to me! Great trouble will come to every single nation.
War will come like a great storm
from the ends of the earth.”
33 At that time, dead bodies will lie everywhere,
all over the earth.
Those will be people that the Lord has killed.
Nobody will weep for them.
Nobody will take their bodies
to bury them in the ground.
Their dead bodies will lie on the ground like dung.
34 You leaders should have been like shepherds
to take care of my people.
But now it is time for you to weep!
Roll on the ground in the dust!
The time of your death has arrived.
You will lie on the ground,
like pieces of a broken pot.
35 The leaders will not be able to run away and hide.
The shepherds of my people will not escape.
36 Listen to the leaders as they weep!
The Lord's people were like their sheep.
Now the shepherds are weeping loudly,
because the Lord is destroying their fields.
37 The Lord will completely destroy the fields
where the sheep quietly ate the grass.
He will do that because he is very angry.
38 The Lord will come out,
like a lion that comes out of its cave.
He will make their land a terrible place.
Cruel armies will destroy the land,
because of the Lord's great anger.’
The day when the Lord Jesus will return
2 Our Christian friends, we must explain something now about the time when our Lord Jesus Christ will return. That is the time when he will bring us all together to be with him. 2 Please do not become easily confused about this. Do not let yourselves become afraid because of false messages about the Lord's return. Some people are telling you that the great day of the Lord's return has already happened.[a] Some of these people say that God's Spirit has shown them a message like that. Other people might say that the message came from us. Or they might say that we wrote it in a letter.[b]
3 Do not let anyone deceive you like that in any way. That day will not happen until certain other things have happened. Before that day, there will be a time when many people will turn against God. Also, the man who is completely against God will appear.[c] God will surely destroy him in the end. 4 This man will be God's great enemy. He will say that he is greater than everything that people call their gods. He will say that he is greater than everything that people worship. As a result, he will even go into the temple. He will sit down there like a king. He will tell everyone that he himself is God.
5 I told you these things when I was with you. I am sure that you remember that.
6 Something makes it impossible for this man to come now. And you know what it is. But this man will appear at the proper time. 7 His power is already working secretly to turn people against God. But there is someone who makes it impossible for him to work freely. That person will continue to make it impossible, until God takes that person away. 8 Then the man who is against God will appear. But the Lord Jesus will come, and he will kill that man. Jesus will blow him away with breath from his mouth. When Jesus appears with great power, that enemy of God will be there no longer![d]
9 When the enemy of God appears, he will be doing Satan's work. Satan will give him the power to do great things and miracles that are false. 10 He will do all kinds of bad things that deceive people. The people that he deceives are people that God will destroy. Those people believe false things because they have refused to accept God's true message. If they had loved that true message, God would have saved them. 11 For this reason, God causes their minds to accept something that is wrong. They believe a false message. 12 As a result, God will punish all of them. They have refused to believe what is true. Instead, they have enjoyed doing very bad things.
The believers must continue to trust God
13 We always thank God for you, our Christian friends that the Lord loves. We ought to thank God, because he has chosen to save you. God chose you to belong to him, as some of the first people that he would save. You believed God's true message. And God's Spirit makes you separate from things that are bad. 14 We told you God's good news. That is how God called you to come to him. He saved you so that you would join with our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven.
15 Because of that, our Christian friends, you must continue to trust Christ. Continue to believe the true things that we taught you. Those are the things that we told you when we were with you. We also wrote about them in our letter to you.
16 We ask our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, our Father, to help you. God has shown that he loves us very much. He has helped us to be brave and strong for all time. We continue to hope for the good things that will come. Yes, God has been very kind to us! 17 We pray that he will continue to help you and make you strong. Then you will always be able to do good things and to say good things.
Korah's sons wrote this song for the music leader. Use special music.
The journey to Zion
84 Lord Almighty,
the temple where you live is beautiful!
2 I want very much to go to the Lord's temple.
I very much want to be in the temple yards.
With all that I am, and with great joy,
I sing to you, the God who lives for ever!
3 In your temple,
even sparrows[a] have their homes.
Swallows builds their nests there,
to take care of their babies.
They can be near to your altars,
Lord Almighty, my king and my God.
4 You have truly blessed those people
who live in your temple.
They can praise you all the time!
Selah.
5 You have blessed those people
who come to you to make them strong.
They love to travel to your temple in Zion.
6 As they go through the dry Baka valley,
springs of water appear there!
The autumn rain covers the valley with pools.
7 The people become stronger as they travel,
until each one meets with God in Zion.[b]
8 Lord God Almighty,
please listen to my prayer!
God of Jacob, hear me!
Selah.
9 God, look at our king,
the one who protects us like a shield!
Take care of the king that you have chosen.
10 I would rather be near your temple for one day
than have a thousand days anywhere else.
I would rather stand near the door of God's temple
than live among wicked people.
11 The Lord God is like a sun
and a shield for his people.
He is kind to his people
and he gives glory to them.
To those who do what is right,
he gives every good thing that they need.
12 Lord Almighty,
you have truly blessed everyone who trusts in you!
15 If you are patient, you may make a ruler change his mind. If you speak a quiet word, you can remove a difficult problem.
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