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Jeremiah 11

11 This is another message that Yahweh told me: 2 “Listen to the words of this agreement and tell them to the people who live in Jerusalem and to the people who live in the other cities in Judah. 3 Then tell them that I, Yahweh, the God whom the Israelite people worship, said that I will curse everyone who does not obey what Moses wrote in that agreement that I made with them. 4 It is the same agreement that I made with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt. What happened to them in Egypt was terrible; it was as though they were living in a hot furnace. When I brought them out of Egypt, I told them to obey me, and to do everything that I had commanded them to do. I also told them that if they obeyed me, they would be my people and I would be their God. 5 Now tell these people that if they obey me, I will do what I promised to do for their ancestors. I will enable them to continue living in this very fertile land in which they now live.”

I replied, “Yahweh, I hope that what you have said may happen.”

6 Then Yahweh said to me, “Go into the streets of Jerusalem and to the other cities in Judah. Proclaim my message to the people. Tell them to listen to the agreement that I made with their ancestors and to obey it. 7 Also tell them that when I brought their ancestors out of Egypt, I solemnly pleaded with them many times to obey me, and I am still pleading with you now. 8 But they did not obey me or pay any attention to me. Instead everyone continued to be stubborn and to do the evil things that they wanted to do. I commanded them to do what was written in the agreement, but they refused. So I punished them in all the ways that I promised in the agreement that I would.”

9 Then Yahweh said to me, “The people of Jerusalem and the other cities in Judah are rebelling against me. 10 Their forefathers refused to do what I told them to do, and now these people have returned to committing the sins that their forefathers committed. They are worshiping other gods. The people of Israel and the people of Judah disobeyed the agreement that I made with their ancestors. 11 So now I, Yahweh, am warning them that I will cause them to experience disasters, and they will not escape. And when they call out for me to help them, I will not pay attention to them. 12 When that happens, the people in Jerusalem and other cities in Judah will offer sacrifices and burn incense to their gods and ask for their help, but those gods will not be able to save them when those disasters happen to them. 13 There are as many gods in Judah as there are cities in Judah. The people of Jerusalem have erected as many altars to burn incense to that shameful god Baal as there are streets in Jerusalem.

14 Jeremiah, do not pray for these people, and do not plead with me to rescue them because I will not pay attention when they call out to me to help them because they are in distress.

The people of Judah whom I love certainly no longer have a right to come to my temple,

because they have done many evil things.

Making sacrifices of meat to me certainly will not protect them from disasters.

When they do evil things, then they rejoice.

16 I previously said that they were like a beautiful olive tree that was full of green leaves

and had a lot of good olives on it.

But now I will send their enemies to attack them furiously,

and it will be as though I caused lightning to strike that olive tree and break off its branches and cause it to catch on fire. 17 It is as though the people of Israel and Judah were a beautiful olive tree that I, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, planted,

but now, because they have done an evil thing by burning incense to the false god Baal, they have caused me to become angry.

So now I have decided to destroy them.”

18 Then Yahweh revealed to me my enemies evil plot so I knew that they were planning to kill me. 19 Before he did that, I was like a gentle lamb that someone was leading away in order to slaughter it and I did not know what they were planning to do. I did not know that they were saying, “Let us get rid of this tree and its fruit! Let us kill him so that no one will remember him.”

20 Then I prayed, “Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, you judge people justly,

and you examine everything that we are thinking.

Allow me to watch you getting revenge on the people who want to kill me,

because I have committed my cause to you.”

21 Therefore this is what Yahweh says concerning the men of my own town, Anathoth, who want to kill me, and they told me to stop prophesying what Yahweh told me to say or they would kill me. 22 So Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, said about them, “I will certainly punish them. Their young men will die in wars, and their children will die because they will have no food. 23 I have set a time when I will bring disasters to the people of Anathoth, and when that happens, none of them will remain alive.”