Reading Plan
Comprehensive Reading Plan (365 days) New Testament Reading Plan (83 days) Old Testament Plan (282 days) Old/New Testament Plan (365 days) Survey Reading Plan (61 days) Through-the-Bible Reading Plan (365 days)
Bible Version
Apostles' Bible Complete (2004) King James Version (1769) New King James Version (1982) Today's English Version (Good News Bible) (1992) Voice In Wilderness (2006)
1
The LORD told me to go and buy a clay jar. He also told me to take some of the elders of the people and some of the older priests,
2
and to go through Potsherd Gate out to Hinnom Valley. There I was to proclaim the message that he would give me.
3
The LORD told me to say, "Kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem, listen to what I, the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, have to say. I am going to bring such a disaster on this place that everyone who hears about it will be stunned.
4
I am going to do this because the people have abandoned me and defiled this place by offering sacrifices here to other gods---gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah have known anything about. They have filled this place with the blood of innocent people,
5
and they have built altars for Baal in order to burn their children in the fire as sacrifices. I never commanded them to do this; it never even entered my mind.
6
So then, the time will come when this place will no longer be called Topheth or Hinnom Valley. Instead, it will be known as Slaughter Valley.
7
In this place I will frustrate all the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will let their enemies triumph over them and kill them in battle. I will give their corpses to the birds and the wild animals as food.
8
I will bring such terrible destruction on this city that everyone who passes by will be shocked and amazed.
9
The enemy will surround the city and try to kill its people. The siege will be so terrible that the people inside the city will eat one another and even their own children."
10
Then the LORD told me to break the jar in front of those who had gone with me
11
and to tell them that the LORD Almighty had said, "I will break this people and this city, and it will be like this broken clay jar that cannot be put together again. People will bury their dead even in Topheth because there will be nowhere else to bury them.
12
I promise that I will make this city and its inhabitants like Topheth.
13
The houses of Jerusalem, the houses of the kings of Judah, and indeed all the houses on whose roofs incense has been burned to the stars and where wine has been poured out as an offering to other gods---they will all be as unclean as Topheth."
14
Then I left Topheth, where the LORD had sent me to proclaim his message. I went and stood in the court of the Temple and told all the people
15
that the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, had said, "I am going to bring on this city and on every nearby town all the punishment that I said I would, because you are stubborn and will not listen to what I say."
1
When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was the chief officer of the Temple, heard me proclaim these things,
2
he had me beaten and placed in chains near the upper Benjamin Gate in the Temple.
3
The next morning, after Pashhur had released me from the chains, I said to him, "The LORD did not name you Pashhur. The name he has given you is 'Terror Everywhere.'
4
The LORD himself has said, 'I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to your friends, and you will see them all killed by the swords of their enemies. I am going to put all the people of Judah under the power of the king of Babylonia; he will take some away as prisoners to his country and put others to death.
5
I will also let their enemies plunder all the wealth of this city and seize all its possessions and property, even the treasures of the kings of Judah, and carry everything off to Babylonia.
6
As for you, Pashhur, you and all your family will also be captured and taken off to Babylonia. There you will die and be buried, along with all your friends to whom you have told so many lies.' "
7
LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived. You are stronger than I am, and you have overpowered me. Everyone makes fun of me; they laugh at me all day long.
8
Whenever I speak, I have to cry out and shout, "Violence! Destruction!" LORD, I am ridiculed and scorned all the time because I proclaim your message.
9
But when I say, "I will forget the LORD and no longer speak in his name," then your message is like a fire burning deep within me. I try my best to hold it in, but can no longer keep it back.
10
I hear everybody whispering, "Terror is everywhere! So let's report him to the authorities!" Even my close friends wait for my downfall. "Perhaps he can be tricked," they say; "then we can catch him and get revenge."
11
But you, LORD, are on my side, strong and mighty, and those who persecute me will fail. They will be disgraced forever, because they cannot succeed. Their disgrace will never be forgotten.
12
But, Almighty LORD, you test people justly; you know what is in their hearts and minds. So let me see you take revenge on my enemies, for I have placed my cause in your hands.
13
Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD! He rescues the oppressed from the power of evil people.
14
Curse the day I was born! Forget the day my mother gave me birth!
15
Curse the one who made my father glad by bringing him the news, "It's a boy! You have a son!"
16
May he be like those cities that the LORD destroyed without mercy. May he hear cries of pain in the morning and the battle alarm at noon,
17
for not killing me before I was born. Then my mother's womb would have been my grave.
18
Why was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow, to end my life in disgrace?
1
King Zedekiah of Judah sent to me Pashhur son of Malchiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah with this request:
2
"Please speak to the LORD for us, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army are besieging the city. Maybe the LORD will perform one of his miracles for us and force Nebuchadnezzar to retreat."
3
Then the LORD spoke to me, and I told those who had been sent to me
4
to tell Zedekiah that the LORD, the God of Israel, had said, "Zedekiah, I am going to defeat your army that is fighting against the king of Babylonia and his army. I will pile up your soldiers' weapons in the center of the city.
5
I will fight against you with all my might, my anger, my wrath, and my fury.
6
I will kill everyone living in this city; people and animals alike will die of a terrible disease.
7
But as for you, your officials, and the people who survive the war, the famine, and the disease---I will let all of you be captured by King Nebuchadnezzar and by your enemies, who want to kill you. Nebuchadnezzar will put you to death. He will not spare any of you or show mercy or pity to any of you. I, the LORD, have spoken."
8
Then the LORD told me to say to the people, "Listen! I, the LORD, am giving you a choice between the way that leads to life and the way that leads to death.
9
Anyone who stays in the city will be killed in war or by starvation or disease. But those who go out and surrender to the Babylonians, who are now attacking the city, will not be killed; they will at least escape with their life.
10
I have made up my mind not to spare this city, but to destroy it. It will be given over to the king of Babylonia, and he will burn it to the ground. I, the LORD, have spoken."
11
The LORD told me to give this message to the royal house of Judah, the descendants of David: "Listen to what I, the LORD, am saying. See that justice is done every day. Protect the person who is being cheated from the one who is cheating him. If you don't, the evil you are doing will make my anger burn like a fire that cannot be put out.
13
You, Jerusalem, are sitting high above the valleys, like a rock rising above the plain. But I will fight against you. You say that no one can attack you or break through your defenses.
14
But I will punish you for what you have done. I will set your palace on fire, and the fire will burn down everything around it. I, the LORD, have spoken."
