Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Jeremiah 11
The broken covenant
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
“Hear the words of this covenant, and speak them to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Tell them: This is what the LORD, Israel’s God, says: Cursed is anyone who does not listen to the words of this covenant, which I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the iron furnace. I said, ‘Listen to my voice and do everything I command you. Then you will be my people, and I will be your God.’
This was to fulfill the oath I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is today.” I answered, “Amen, LORD.”
The LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s streets: Hear the words of this covenant and do them!
From the day I brought your ancestors up from Egypt until today, I warned them insistently, again and again: ‘Listen to my voice.’
But they did not listen or incline their ears. Each followed the stubbornness of their evil heart. So I brought on them all the terms of this covenant, which I commanded them to carry out, but they did not.”
The LORD said to me, “A conspiracy has been found among the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
They have returned to the sins of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors.
So this is what the LORD says: Look, I am bringing a disaster on them that they cannot escape. They will cry out to me, but I will not listen to them.
Then Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s inhabitants will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn offerings. But those gods will certainly not save them in their time of disaster.
Judah, you have as many gods as cities. You have set up as many altars to Shame as there are streets in Jerusalem—altars for burning offerings to Baal.
As for you, do not pray for this people or lift up a cry or prayer for them. I will not listen when they call to me because of their disaster.
What is my beloved doing in my house
while so many carry out wicked schemes?
Sacred meat will pass away from you;
you rejoice in your evil.
The LORD called you
‘A flourishing olive tree, beautiful with fine fruit.’
With the sound of a great roar,
he set it on fire,
and its branches were broken.
The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced disaster against you because of the evil the house of Israel and the house of Judah did, provoking me by burning offerings to Baal.”
The plot at Anathoth
The LORD made it known to me, and I knew. Then you showed me what they were doing.
I was like a tame lamb led to slaughter. I did not know they were plotting against me: “Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit! Let’s cut him off from the land of the living, so his name is remembered no more.”
But LORD of hosts, you judge justly
and test the innermost being and heart.
Let me see your vengeance on them,
for I have laid my case before you.
So this is what the LORD says about the men of Anathoth who seek your life and say, “Do not prophesy in the LORD’s name, or you will die by our hands.”
This is what the LORD of hosts says: “Look, I am calling them to account. Their young men will die by the sword; their sons and daughters will die of hunger.
No remnant will remain for them, for I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth in the year they are called to account.”