OEB JER section

The "Burden" of the Lord No More

33 When a layman or a prophet or a priest asketh thee what is the burden of Jehovah, tell them, "You" saith Jehovah, "are the burden, and I will cast you off. 34 As for the prophet, the priest, or the layman, who speaks any more of Jehovah’s ’burden,’, that man and his household I will visit with judgment. 35 You must say to one another, ’What is Jehovah’s answer?’ or ’What is Jehovah’s message?’ 36 But you are not to make mention to the burden of Jehovah any more. Every man’s own (uninspired) word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, Jehovah of Hosts, our God. 38 If, however, you persist in speaking of ’the burden of Jehovah,’ Jehovah pronounces this word of doom: Because you persist in using this expression ’burden of Jehovah,’ despite My explicit command to you not to use it, 39 I will lift you up and cast you out of My sight – you and the city I gave to you and your fathers, 40 and I will lay upon you everlasting reproach and unending disgrace which shall never be forgotten."

24 After Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with the princes, the craftsmen and the smiths, had been carried from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, into exile in Babylon, Jehovah in a vision showed me two baskets of figs set down in front of Jehovah’s Temple. 2 One basket contained excellent figs, like the figs that are first ripe: the figs in the other were very bad, so bad that they could not be eaten."

3 Then Jehovah said to me, "What seest thou, Jeremiah?" And I answered, "Figs – the good figs very good, and the bad very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten."

4 Thereupon this message came to me from Jehovah, 5 "Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel: As with these good figs, so will I regard with favour the exiles of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans. 6 I will set Mine eyes upon them for good, and bring them back to this land. I will not pull them down, but I will build them; I will not pluck them up, but I will plant them; 7 and I will give them a heart to understand me, that I am Jehovah. They shall be My people and I will be their God, if they turn to Me with all their heart.

8 As for the figs that were too bad to eat, Thus saith Jehovah: They are symbolic of the fate of Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes, and the survivors of Jerusalem that are left in this land, and those whose home is in the land of Egypt. 9 For I will make them an object of consternation among every kingdom in the world, a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in every place to which I shall drive them; 10 and I will send among them sword, famine and pestilence, till they perish from the land that I gave to them and their forefathers.

The Divine Judgment to be Executed by the Babylonians upon Judah, upon the Neighbouring Nations, and upon the World at Large

Demonstration version—prototype quality only—still in development

OEB by section JER 23:33

The "Burden" of the Lord No More