Jeremiah

Replying to @josiah.servant

I’ve written a lament for him.

He told me he knew me before he made me in the womb. Chose me before I was born. A prophet to the nations.

I said: oh, Lord God, I don’t know how to speak. I’m only a child.

Replying to @jeremiah

He said don’t say “I’m only a child.” Go wherever I send you. Say whatever I tell you. Don’t be afraid of them. I’m with you.

Then he reached out and touched my mouth. There, he said. I’ve put my words in your mouth.

He asked me what I could see. A branch from an almond tree. Right, he said, because I’m watching over my word to make it happen. In our language almond and watching sound almost the same.

Second one: a pot on the boil, tipping towards us from the north. That’s where the disaster is coming from.

They’ll fight me. They won’t win. He’s made me a fortified city, an iron pillar, a bronze wall.

The LORD says he remembers how it was. Us, young, in love, following him through the desert like a bride.

My people have done two things wrong. They’ve walked away from him, the spring of living water. And they’ve dug their own cisterns. Cracked ones that can’t hold water.

They tell a piece of wood, you’re my father. They tell a stone, you gave birth to me. Then trouble comes and suddenly it’s “Come and save us!”

Come back, you unfaithful children, he says, and I’ll cure you of being unfaithful.

My insides. My insides. I’m doubled over. My heart is pounding and I can’t keep quiet. I can hear the trumpet. The battle alarm.

I looked at the earth, and it was empty and formless. At the sky, and there was no light. The mountains were shaking. There were no people. Even the birds had gone.

He told me to go up and down the streets of Jerusalem and look properly. Search the squares. Find one person who does what’s right and wants the truth, and he’ll forgive the city.

Prophets and priests, all of them on the make. They put a plaster on my people’s wound and say “Peace, peace.” There is no peace.

Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it. You’ll find rest for your souls. They said: we won’t.

Stop chanting “the temple of the LORD” at each other like it keeps you safe. You steal, murder, cheat on your wives, lie under oath, burn incense to Baal, then walk in here and say “we’re safe”? Has his temple become a den of robbers?

Go to Shiloh, he says. That’s the first place he chose to be worshipped. Go and look at what he did to it. He’ll do the same to this temple you trust in.

The books of Samuel@booksofsamuelThe news brings on Phinehas’s wife’s labour, and it kills her. She names the boy Ichabod, “no glory”. The glory has gone from Israel, because the ark of God has been taken.

Replying to @bookofjeremiah

Told them the LORD sent me to say every word they’d heard. Change your ways and he may change his mind. As for me, I’m in your hands. But kill me and you’ll have innocent blood on this whole city.

The kids gather wood, the dads light the fire, the mums knead dough to bake cakes for the Queen of Heaven, a goddess. Whole families at it.

He’s told me not to pray for these people. Not to plead for them. He won’t listen.

Even the stork knows when to come back. The dove, the swift, the thrush all keep their seasons. My people don’t know what the LORD asks of them.

Replying to @jerusalem.local

Is there no balm in Gilead? No doctor there? Then why won’t my people heal?

I wish my head were a spring and my eyes a fountain of tears. I’d cry day and night for my people.

Don’t let the clever boast about being clever, or the strong about being strong, or the rich about their money. If you want to boast, the LORD says, boast that you know me. That I’m the one who is kind and fair and does what’s right on the earth. That’s what I love.

Their idols: a tree cut down on the hillside, carved, covered in silver and gold, nailed down so it won’t fall over. Like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch. Can’t talk. Has to be carried because it can’t walk. Don’t be scared of them.

LORD, I know a person’s life isn’t their own. Nobody gets to plan their own path.

Found out the people of my own home town have been plotting to kill me. Anathoth. I had no idea. I was like a lamb being led off to be slaughtered. The LORD had to show me. Their message to me: stop prophesying in the LORD’s name or we’ll kill you ourselves.

Honest question, LORD. You’re always in the right when I bring you a case. But why do the wicked do so well? Why do cheats have it so easy?

Replying to @jeremiah

His answer: if you’ve raced men on foot and they’ve worn you out, how are you going to keep up with horses? Even your own family has turned on you.

Told to buy a linen loincloth and wear it, and not let it get wet. Then go to Perath and hide it in a crack in the rocks. Went back ages later and dug it up. Ruined. No use for anything.

Replying to @jeremiah

That’s Judah’s pride, he said. He made them to cling to him like a loincloth clings to a man’s waist. They wouldn’t listen.

Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard its spots? Then you can’t do good either, you’re so used to doing wrong.

Replying to @jerusalem.local

I told the LORD the prophets keep promising no sword, no famine, lasting peace. He said they’re prophesying lies in his name. He never sent them. Never spoke to them.

He told me even if Moses and Samuel stood in front of him, his heart still wouldn’t go out to these people.

Samuel@samuelAnd me? I’d be sinning against the LORD if I ever stopped praying for you.

Mother, why did you ever have me? Everyone in the land fights with me. I’ve never lent or borrowed a thing, and they all curse me.

When your words came, I ate them. They were my joy, the delight of my heart. I carry your name, LORD God of armies.

Replying to @jeremiah

Never sat with the party crowd. You had your hand on me, so I sat on my own.

Told not to marry or have children here. Not to go to funerals. Not to go to feasts either.

Anyone who trusts in people and turns away from the LORD is under a curse. Anyone who trusts in the LORD is blessed. They’re like a tree planted by water, roots reaching for the stream. Heat comes, the leaves stay green. A dry year, and it still bears fruit.

The heart is more deceitful than anything. Beyond cure. Who can understand it?

Heal me, LORD, and I’ll be healed. Save me, and I’ll be saved.

Replying to @jeremiah

What they keep saying to me: so where’s this word of the LORD, then? Go on, let it happen.

Told to go down to the potter’s house. He was working at the wheel. The pot he was shaping went wrong in his hands, so he made it into another pot, however he thought best.

Replying to @jeremiah

The LORD’s point: you’re the clay, and he’s the potter. If he warns a nation it’ll be torn down and it turns from its evil, he holds back the disaster. And if he promises good to a nation that then does evil, he holds back the good.

Heard them talking. Come on, let’s make plans against Jeremiah. We’ll still have priests and wise men and prophets without him. Let’s take him down with words and ignore everything he says.

Replying to @jeremiah

Should good be paid back with evil? They’ve dug a pit for me. Remember, LORD, I stood in front of you and spoke up for them.

Bought a clay jar from a potter. Took some of the elders and senior priests out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom, by the Potsherd Gate, and told them what the LORD said. Then I smashed the jar in front of them. That’s what he’ll do to this city. Like a pot that can never be mended.

Replying to @pashhur.priest

He let me out next morning. I told him the LORD has a new name for him. Not Pashhur. Magor-missabib. Terror on every side.

You tricked me, LORD, and I let myself be tricked. You were stronger than me. Now I’m a joke all day long. Everyone makes fun of me.

Replying to @jeremiah

But if I say I’ll never mention him again, never speak in his name, it’s like a fire shut up in my bones. I’m worn out holding it in. I can’t.

I curse the day I was born. Why did I ever come out of the womb, just to see trouble and sorrow and end my days in shame?

Built on wrongdoing, by neighbours working for nothing. No wages. Does cedar make you a king? Your father ate and drank too, and he did what was right and fair. He stood up for the poor and needy, and things went well for him. Isn’t that what it means to know me? says the LORD.

Jehoiakim, king of Judah@king.jehoiakim · JerusalemI am building myself a great palace. Spacious upstairs rooms, wide windows, cedar panelling, painted red.

The days are coming, says the LORD, when he’ll raise up a good Branch from David’s family. A king who rules wisely and does what’s right and fair in the land. His name: The LORD Our Righteousness.

Isn’t my word like fire, the LORD says. Like a hammer that smashes a rock.

Twenty-three years. From King Josiah’s thirteenth year to today the LORD’s been speaking to me, and I’ve been telling you, again and again. You haven’t listened.

Replying to @jeremiah

So here’s what’s coming. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the one the LORD calls his servant. No more wedding songs. No millstones grinding. No lamplight. This land will be a ruin, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.

Replying to @jeremiah

And when the seventy years are over, it’s Babylon’s turn.

Brought the whole Rechabite family into one of the side rooms at the LORD’s temple. Set jugs of wine and cups in front of them and said, have a drink.

Replying to @jeremiah

That was the point. They’ve kept their ancestor’s word all these years. The LORD has spoken to Judah again and again, and they haven’t listened once.

Replying to @jeremiah

And a promise for them from the LORD: Jonadab son of Rechab will always have a descendant to serve him.

Replying to @baruch.scribe

A word from the LORD for you, Baruch. Are you looking for great things for yourself? Stop looking. Disaster is coming on everyone. But wherever you go, you’ll come out alive.

Two baskets of figs in front of the temple. One very good, like the ones that ripen early. The other so bad you couldn’t eat them. The good ones are the people taken to Babylon, the LORD says. He’ll keep his eye on them, bring them back, and give them a heart to know him.

Replying to @jerusalem.local

Zedekiah, his officials, and the rest who stayed here.

Wrote a letter to the exiles in Babylon. It’s going with the men King Zedekiah is sending to Nebuchadnezzar.

Replying to @jeremiah

Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat what grows. Get married and have children, and let your children marry. Grow there, don’t shrink. Work for the good of the city he’s sent you to, and pray for it. If it does well, so will you.

When Babylon’s seventy years are up, he’ll come and keep his promise and bring you home. He knows the plans he has for you, he says. Plans for your good, not for harm. Plans to give you a future and a hope.

Replying to @jeremiah

You’ll call to him, and he’ll listen. You’ll look for him and you’ll find him, when you look with all your heart.

Replying to @shemaiah.nehelamite

The LORD never sent Shemaiah. He’s got you trusting a lie.

New king, Zedekiah. Envoys in town from Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon. The LORD told me to make a yoke, the wooden bar oxen wear, and wear it on my neck, and send their kings a message: put your neck under the king of Babylon’s yoke and you’ll stay in your own land.

Replying to @jeremiah

Same to you, King Zedekiah. Serve the king of Babylon and live. Why die? Don’t listen to the prophets telling you otherwise. They’re lying to you.

Replying to @hananiah.gibeon

I said amen. I hope he does. But a prophet who promises peace only gets recognised when it actually comes true.

Word for Hananiah. You broke a yoke of wood. You’ve made one of iron in its place. The LORD didn’t send you, and you’ve got these people trusting a lie. This year you’ll die.

Hananiah son of Azzur@hananiah.gibeonTook the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and broke it in front of everyone. That’s how the LORD will break Nebuchadnezzar’s yoke off every nation, within two years.

Seraiah, the king’s quartermaster, is going to Babylon with King Zedekiah. Gave him a scroll with everything that’s coming to Babylon written on it. Told him: when you get there, read it all out. Then tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates. Babylon will sink like that, and never rise again.

Replying to @king.zedekiah

The LORD says he’s fighting against this city himself. In anger, and in fury.

And to the people: the LORD is putting in front of you the way of life and the way of death. Stay in the city and you’ll die in battle, or of hunger, or of disease. Go out and surrender to the Babylonians and live.

Moses@mosesI’ve set life and death in front of you, blessing and curse. So choose life, so that you and your children can live.

Replying to @bookofjeremiah

The LORD says you turned round and did the right thing. You proclaimed freedom. Then you took it back. So now he’s proclaiming freedom for you. Freedom to fall to war, disease and famine.

Replying to @bookofjeremiah

Don’t kid yourselves that they’ve gone for good. Pharaoh’s army will go home, and the Babylonians will be back to burn this city. Even if all that was left of them was wounded men in tents, they’d get up and do it.

Replying to @irijah.gate

That’s a lie. I’m not deserting to anyone. I was going to Benjamin to claim my share of the family land.

Replying to @hanamel.anathoth

The LORD told me you’d come. So I bought it. Seventeen shekels of silver weighed out on the scales. Signed, sealed, witnesses, the lot.

Replying to @hanamel.anathoth

Gave both copies of the deed to Baruch in front of everyone in the courtyard, and told him to put them in a clay jar so they’d last a long time. Because the LORD says houses and fields and vineyards will be bought in this land again.

Lord God. You made the heavens and the earth by your great power. Nothing is too hard for you. The siege ramps are up against the city, and you’ve told me to buy a field.

Replying to @jeremiah

His answer: I am the LORD, the God of everyone alive. Is anything too hard for me? Fields will be bought in this land again.

Still locked up, and he says: call to me and I’ll answer you, and tell you great and hidden things you don’t know.

In this place you’re all calling a wasteland, you’ll hear it again. Laughter. Wedding songs. People bringing thank offerings to the LORD’s temple and singing: give thanks to the LORD, he is good, his love lasts for ever.

Jeremiah@jeremiahSo here’s what’s coming. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the one the LORD calls his servant. No more wedding songs. No millstones grinding. No lamplight. This land will be a ruin, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.

He’s told me to write it all down in a book. The days are coming when he’ll bring his people home to the land he gave their ancestors.

I have loved you with an everlasting love, he says. I’ve drawn you to me with kindness that won’t let go. I’ll build you up again. You’ll pick up your tambourines and go out dancing.

A voice in Ramah. Crying, bitter crying. Rachel crying for her children. She won’t let anyone comfort her, because they’re gone.

Jacob@jacob · Road to BethlehemRachel died on the road near Bethlehem, giving birth. A very hard labour. With her last breath she named our son Ben-oni, son of my sorrow. I called him Benjamin, son of my right hand.

Replying to @jeremiah

Stop crying, the LORD tells her. Dry your eyes. Your children will come back from the enemy’s land. There’s hope for your future.

Woke up after that and looked around. Honestly, that was a lovely sleep.

The days are coming, says the LORD, when he’ll make a new covenant with Israel and Judah. A new agreement, not like the one he made when he took their ancestors by the hand out of Egypt, which they broke. This time he’ll put his law in their minds and write it on their hearts. He’ll be their God and they’ll be his people. Nobody will need to teach their neighbour to know the LORD, because they’ll all know him, from the least to the greatest. He’ll forgive what they’ve done, and never remember their sins again.

In chains at Ramah, with everyone from Jerusalem and Judah being taken off to Babylon.

Liked by Nebuzaradan

A word the LORD gave me for Ebed-Melech back when I was still shut up in the courtyard of the guard: when the city falls, you’ll be rescued. You won’t be handed over to the men you’re afraid of. Because you trusted in him.

Ebed-Melech the Cushite@ebedmelechGrabbed old rags and worn-out clothes from under the palace storeroom and let them down to him on the ropes. Shouted down: put these under your arms, under the ropes. He did, and we pulled him up.

Replying to @johanan.kareah

Ten days later the LORD answered. Stay in this land and he’ll build you up and not pull you down. Don’t be afraid of the king of Babylon. The LORD is with you to save you. But go to Egypt and the sword you’re afraid of will catch up with you there.

Buried some big stones in the clay of the brick pavement at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace here in Tahpanhes, with people watching. Nebuchadnezzar will set up his throne right on top of them.

Replying to @woman.in.pathros

Go ahead then, says the LORD. Keep your vows. And you’ll find out whose word stands, his or yours.

Then a long run of messages for the nations around us: Egypt, the Philistines, Moab, Edom and the rest. The last and longest was for Babylon itself. Babylon will be taken. Her gods put to shame.