King James Bible - Old Testament Jeremiah

Jeremiah prophesied in the days of Josiah, king of Judah. God made him a prophet from birth. He told him that evil would come from the north. He wondered why Israel had strayed and killed her prophets. Judah still stood because God was merciful. Israel was like a woman who had dealt treacherously with her husband, God. Jeremiah warned them to get circumcised. God would make the land desolate. He would bring a foreign nation to rule over Israel. This nation would come out of the north. If the people would keep the commandments they would be preserved. Wealth and graven images had to be abandoned.

Jeremiah told them that He abandoned his heritage to speak the words of God. The unrighteous would be forgiven if they turned to God. Whoever did not turn to the Lord would be scattered over the earth. Fathers and sons would be turned against each other and nations would fall. Children born into this evil would suffer the sins of their fathers. God promised to make the people know His power. Jeremiah begged God to heal the people and lamented that Israel plotted against Him.

God told Jeremiah to go into the valley and proclaim everything He heard. He was to smash an earthen bottle and say that God would break the city as easily. The king of Judah asked Jeremiah whether God would help them fight Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Jeremiah said that God would help Babylon prevail. God told Jeremiah that the people acted holy but kept evil in their hearts. He planned to deliver them to Babylon and have no rule in Judah. God compared Israel to figs; He planned to save only the good ones.

Jeremiah asked the people to turn to God before they were overrun by people from the north and Babylon. All must pledge themselves to God or suffer. Another prophet spoke to the king promising that God would break the bonds of Babylon. Jeremiah retorted that this would not happen unless they revisited the covenant of their forefathers. Jeremiah was imprisoned and God promised that Judah would fall to Babylon. God told him that a man will come to him asking to buy a field. Jeremiah was to keep the evidence of the purchase. The rest of the city was to fall to the enemy.

"Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south: for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the LORD." Jeremiah, 32:44

God's word returned to Jeremiah in prison. When the people are saved, there would be no king. God told him to have all the Jewish servants set free. God told Jeremiah to seal His words in a book. Another man wrote the words down for him. He read this book to common people and princes. A king burned it and commanded that the scribe and the prophet be seized. Josiah's son asked for Jeremiah to pray for him, but He was put into prison when He prophesied the fall of Judah.

He remained in prison and continued to prophesy. Babylon laid siege to Judah and the house of Josiah was destroyed. Jeremiah was loosed from his chains. Ishmael was sent to slay him and all the Jews He can find. Jeremiah prayed to God and was told not to enter Egypt but stay in the land. He told the loyal people to fight against Egypt. All the countries around them were to suffer. Even Babylon was destined to fall to an enemy. Beasts and men would be slain.

A great nation would come from the north and be the most powerful. The nations would fall and Judah would be ruined. The last king of Judah was taken to Babylon and made to watch his sons die. Babylon burned the house of God and destroyed the city. One of Josiah's sons lived out his days in Babylon.