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The people do not obey the Lord's message
42 All the army officers went to speak to the prophet Jeremiah. They included Kareah's son Johanan and Hoshaiah's son Jezaniah. All the people went with them, important people and ordinary people. 2 They said to Jeremiah, ‘Please listen to us. Pray to the Lord your God for those of us who remain alive. You can see that only a few of us remain from the many people that we were before. 3 Please ask the Lord to tell us where we should go. Ask him what we should do.’
4 The prophet Jeremiah replied, ‘I agree to do that. I will pray to the Lord your God, as you have asked me to do. I will tell you everything that the Lord says to answer you. I will not hide anything from you.’
5 They said to Jeremiah, ‘We promise to do everything that the Lord sends you to say to us. We ask the Lord to listen to our promise. May he punish us if we do not do what we have promised to do. 6 We have asked you to pray to the Lord our God for us. We will obey what he tells us to do. We will obey him whether we like what he tells us, or whether we do not like it. We will obey him because we want to enjoy a good life.’
7 Ten days after that, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. 8 So Jeremiah told Kareah's son Johanan, the other army officers and all the people to come to him. That included everyone, important people and ordinary people. 9 Jeremiah said to them, ‘You sent me to ask the Lord, Israel's God, what you should do. He says this to you: 10 “You should stay here in the land of Judah. If you do that, I will build you up and make you strong again. I will not knock you down. I will help you to grow in the land, like plants with good roots. I will not pull you up. I have punished you with terrible trouble, and that makes me very sad. So now I will help you. 11 You are afraid of the king of Babylon now, but do not be afraid of him any more. I am with you to help you. I will save you and I will rescue you from his power. I, the Lord, promise you this. 12 I will be kind and I will help you. I will cause the king of Babylon to be kind to you. He will let you return to your own land as your home.”
13 You must not refuse to obey this message from the Lord your God. Do not say, “We will not stay here in this land.” 14 Do not say, “We refuse to stay here. Instead, we will go to live in Egypt. There, we will not have trouble from wars. We will not hear the noise of trumpets as people fight battles. We will not be hungry because there is no food.” 15 If you say those things, then the Lord has a message for you, you people who remain in Judah. The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “If you decide to go and live in Egypt, I will cause you to have the same troubles there. 16 You are afraid of wars here, but I will cause wars to hurt you in Egypt. You worry that you might be hungry here, but I will make you hungry in Egypt. Finally, you will die in Egypt. 17 All the people who decide to go and live in Egypt will die there. War, famine or disease will kill everyone. Nobody will escape from the terrible trouble that I will send. Nobody will remain alive.”
18 The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “If you go to Egypt, I will be very angry with you. I punished the people of Jerusalem because I was very angry with them. I will be as angry as that with you, if you go to Egypt. Other people will think that you are disgusting. They will insult you. They will use your name as a curse, because God has cursed you. You will never see this land of Judah again.”
19 Listen to me, you people who still remain in Judah. The Lord has said to you, “Do not go to Egypt.” You must understand that I am now warning you. 20 You made a terrible mistake when you asked me to pray to the Lord your God for you. You told me, “Tell us everything that the Lord our God says, and we will do it.” 21 Today I have told you what he said. But you still do not want to obey the Lord. You will not do what he sent me to tell you. 22 So now I tell you this: When you go to the place where you want to live, war, famine or disease will kill you.’
The people of Judah go to Egypt
43 Jeremiah finished telling the people the Lord's message to them. He told them everything that the Lord their God had sent him to tell them. 2 Then Hoshaiah's son Azariah and Kareah's son Johanan and some other proud men said to Jeremiah, ‘You are speaking lies! The Lord our God has not sent you to say to us, “You must not go to Egypt to live there.” 3 You are telling us what Neriah's son Baruch wants you to say. He wants to hurt us. He wants the soldiers from Babylon to kill us, or to take us as prisoners to Babylon.’
4 So Kareah's son Johanan, all the other army officers and all the other people did not obey the Lord's command. They refused to stay in Judah. 5 Instead, Johanan and all the officers led the people away. Those were the people who had returned from all the nations where their enemies had taken them as prisoners. They had returned to their homes in Judah. 6 Now the army officers led them away. They also took the men, women and children that Captain Nebuzaradan had allowed to remain with Gedaliah. They included the king's daughters. (Gedaliah was Ahikam's son and Shaphan's grandson.) They took the prophet Jeremiah and Neriah's son Baruch with them.
7 The people went to Egypt because they did not obey the Lord. They went as far as the city of Tahpanhes.
8 When they arrived in Tahpanhes, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. 9 He said, ‘Choose some large stones and take them to Pharaoh's palace that is here in Tahpanhes. Bury the stones under the path at the entrance of the palace. Do it while the people of Judah are watching you. 10 Then say to the people, “The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says this: I will call for my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, to come here. He will put his throne on the path over these stones that I have hidden. They will put up a royal tent for him to sit under. 11 He will come here and he will attack Egypt.
Those who should become ill and die will die.
Those who should go away as prisoners
will go away as prisoners.
Those who should die in war will die in war.
12 He will burn the temples of Egypt's gods with fire. He will burn their gods or he will carry them away. He will take everything that he wants from Egypt. He will return home in good health. 13 He will knock down the pillars of the temple where people worship their sun god. He will destroy all the temples of Egypt's gods.” ’
God will punish the people of Judah
44 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah about the people of Judah who were now living in Egypt. They were living in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis and places in the south part of Egypt. 2 This was the Lord's message to them:
‘The Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “You saw the great trouble that I sent to the people of Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. Their towns have become heaps of stones and nobody lives in them. 3 That happened because of the wicked things that the people did in those places. They offered sacrifices to other gods. They worshipped gods that they never knew before. You and your ancestors did not know those gods either. That made me very angry. 4 Many times I sent my servants the prophets to speak to them. They warned them, ‘Do not do this disgusting thing that the Lord hates!’ 5 But the people there did not listen to my message. They refused to obey me. They did not stop doing wicked things. They did not stop offering sacrifices to other gods. 6 So I became very angry with the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I sent them terrible trouble, like a fire that burned their towns and their streets. That is why their towns have become heaps of stones, as they still are today.”
7 Now the Lord God Almighty, Israel's God, says, “You are causing more trouble for yourselves. Why are you doing that? All the men, women, children and babies will disappear from Judah. None of your people will remain alive. 8 You continue to make me angry because of the things that you are doing. You are offering sacrifices to the gods of Egypt, where you now live. As a result, you will destroy yourselves. The people of all the other nations will use your name as a curse. They will all laugh at you. 9 Do not forget about all the wicked things that your ancestors did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. I punished them, as well as their kings and their kings' wives. And I punished you and your wives too. 10 Even now your people are still proud. They have not respected my authority. They have not obeyed the laws and commands that I gave to you and to your ancestors.”
11 So the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says, “Listen to me! I will certainly cause you to have great trouble. I will destroy all Judah's people. 12 I will remove the people who remained in Judah and who decided to come here to live in Egypt. They will all die here. War or famine will kill them. All of them will die here in Egypt, important people and ordinary people. Other people will think that they are disgusting. They will insult them. They will use their name as a curse, because God has cursed them. 13 I will punish the people who have come to live in Egypt. War, famine or disease will kill them, in the way that I punished the people of Jerusalem. 14 None of the people who remained in Judah and who came to live here in Egypt will escape. They will not remain alive to return to Judah. They may want very much to return, but only a few will be able to run away and go home.” ’
15 A large crowd of Judah's people listened to Jeremiah. They came from the places where they now lived in the north and the south of Egypt. Some men were there who knew that their wives were offering sacrifices to other gods. Those men and their wives said to Jeremiah, 16 ‘We do not believe that your message really comes from the Lord. 17 So we will continue to do what we have promised to do. We will make sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven. We will pour out drink offerings to her.[a] That is what our ancestors, our kings and our leaders did when we lived in Jerusalem and in the other towns of Judah. When we did that, we had plenty of food to eat. We enjoyed a good life and we had no troubles. 18 But since we stopped offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven, we have not had those good things. War and famine have been killing our people.’
19 The women said, ‘It is true that we offered sacrifices and drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven. We also made cakes that were like her image. But our husbands knew what we were doing and they helped us.’
20 Then Jeremiah said this to all those men and women who had answered him:
21 ‘The Lord saw everything that you were doing. You must surely realize that! He knew about the things that you, your ancestors, your kings, your leaders and all the people were doing. He remembered all the sacrifices that you offered to other gods in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. 22 Finally, he had to punish you for the wicked and disgusting things that you were doing. Because of that, your land has become an empty place, like a desert. Its towns are heaps of stones where nobody lives. People use its name as a curse. 23 That happened because you have offered sacrifices to other gods. You have done many sins against the Lord. You have refused to obey him. You have not obeyed his laws, his teaching or his commands. That is why all this trouble has happened to you now.’
A good soldier for Christ
2 Timothy, you are like my own child. Let God make you strong. He is kind, so trust him to help you, because you belong to Christ Jesus. 2 You have heard the message that I have taught. Many other people also heard it and they agree that it is true. Now you must tell the same message to other people who will be able to teach it to even more people. They should be people that you can trust as honest people and who can teach well.
3 Be patient through the troubles that we Christians have. Be brave and strong, like a good soldier for Christ Jesus. 4 Any soldier who fights in a war does not become busy with other things. He only wants to fight well to make his captain happy. 5 It is the same with an athlete who runs a race.[a] He cannot win the race unless he obeys the rules. 6 A farmer works hard to grow plants for food. So he should be the first person to receive some of that food. 7 Think carefully about what I am saying to you. The Lord will help you to understand all these things.
8 Jesus Christ is a descendant of King David.[b] God caused him to become alive again after his death. Remember that! These facts are part of the good news that I tell people. 9 And I have many troubles because I tell that good news to people. They have even put me in a prison, like someone who has done something bad. But nobody can keep God's message in a prison!
10 So I continue to be patient and brave during all these troubles. I do that so that I can help the people that God has chosen to belong to him. I want God to save them too, because of what Christ Jesus has done for them. As a result, they will live with God for ever, in the beautiful place where he lives.
11 We all know that this is true:
‘If we have died with Christ in this world,
we will also live with him in the future world.[c]
12 If we continue to be strong during troubles here,
we will also rule with him there in heaven.
But if we say that we do not know Christ,
he will also say that he does not know us.
13 Even if we no longer trust him,
he will still be someone that people can trust.
He will always remain true to his nature.’[d]
A good worker for God
14 Continue to tell these things to God's people there, so that they remember them. Use God's authority and warn them not to quarrel about words. To quarrel about little things does not help anyone. Instead, it destroys those people who listen.
15 Always try very much to serve God in a way that makes him happy. Then he will accept you as a good worker that he can trust. You must teach God's true message correctly. Then you will have no reason to be ashamed of your work. 16 But stay away from people who talk about silly things that are not important to God. A message like that causes people to live more and more in a way that does not please God. 17 It causes people to become sick in their spirits. More and more people become sick as a result. Hymenaeus and Philetus are two of the people who teach that kind of false message. 18 They no longer teach God's true message. They say that God will not raise dead people any more, because he has already given life to dead people. In this way they have confused the minds of some people, so that they no longer believe in Christ.
19 But the group of true believers remains strong, like the foundation under a building. God has written his message there. It says, ‘The Lord knows who his own people are.’[e] It also says, ‘Everyone who says that he belongs to the Lord must stop doing bad things.’
20 In a big house, there are different kinds of dishes. There are some dishes that people have made from gold or from silver. They see those dishes as valuable things. There are also dishes that people have made from wood or from clay. Those dishes are not special things and they may get dirty. 21 It is like that with people who serve God as their Master. People who keep themselves clean from those bad things will be like valuable dishes. Their master can use them for a special purpose. They will be ready for him to use them for every kind of good work.
This psalm is a song to sing on Sabbath days.
A song to praise God
92 It is good to thank the Lord!
We sing to praise your name, Most High God.
2 We sing in the morning
to thank you for your faithful love.
We sing at night
to say that you are always faithful.
3 We make beautiful music
with lutes, harps and lyres.[a]
4 The things that you do, Lord,
make me very happy.
I sing with joy
because of the things that your hands have made!
5 Yes, Lord, you have done great things!
Your thoughts are more than we can understand!
6 Here is something that stupid people do not know.
Fools do not understand it.
7 Wicked people may continue to grow,
like green grass.
Evil people may grow like weeds.
But in the end you will destroy them
and they will never grow again.[b]
8 You, Lord, will rule as King for ever!
9 Yes, Lord, look at your enemies!
Your enemies will all die!
Those people who do evil things will all disappear!
10 You have made me as strong as a wild bull.
You have poured pure olive oil on me.[c]
11 With my own eyes,
I have seen my enemies fall.
With my own ears,
I have heard them cry out in pain.
12 Righteous people will do well,
like a palm tree that makes new leaves.
They will become strong,
like a tall cedar tree in Lebanon.
13 They are like trees that someone has planted in the Lord's house.
They grow well in the yard of our God's temple.
14 When they are old,
they will still give fruit!
They will always be strong,
with fresh, green leaves.
15 They will tell everyone,
‘The Lord always does what is right.
He is my strong, safe rock.
There is nothing bad in him.’
The Lord is King![d]
93 The Lord rules as King!
He wears royal power as his clothes.
His strength is like a belt round his body.[e]
So the world is safe and strong.
Nothing can shake it from its place.
2 You, Lord, have always ruled as King,
since before the beginning of time.
3 The floods of water have risen up, Lord.
They have risen with a loud noise.
Their waves beat against the land.[f]
4 But the Lord rules as King
high above everything!
He rules over the powerful waves of the sea,
with all their great noise!
5 Lord, your rules remain strong and true.
Your house will always be holy,
because you are holy.
3 There are right ways to punish a horse or a donkey.
The right way to punish a fool is to beat him with a stick.
4 If someone asks you a silly question, do not give him a silly answer.
Be careful that you do not become as silly as he is.
5 If someone asks you a silly question, give him a silly answer.
Then he will know that he is not as wise as he thinks he is.[a]
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