Jeremiah Chapter 11

¹ A Message from Yahveh to Jeremiah

Judah’s Broken Covenant

² “Listen to this covenant and tell the people in Judah and Jerusalem ³ that Yahveh God of Israel says, ‘People are under a curse who ignore the covenant ⁴ that I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, the iron furnace. I said, “If you listen to what I’m telling you, you’ll be my people, and I’ll be your God.”   ⁵ Doing what I tell you confirms the oath I swore to give you a land flowing with milk and honey, like it is now.’”

I answered, “Yes, Yahveh.”

⁶ He told me,

“Deliver this message in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, ‘Do what the covenant says. ⁷ From the time I brought your ancestors up from Egypt till now, I solemnly and persistently warned them to listen to me, ⁸ but they didn‘t. They followed their own stubborn hearts. So I brought on them what the terms of the covenant warned would happen if they didn’t keep it.’”               

Jer 11:1-8

⁹ Then Yahveh said,

“I’ve found mutiny among the people in Judah and Jerusalem. ¹⁰ They’ve returned to their ancestors’ sins by going after other gods. Israel and Judah have broken the covenant I made with their forefathers. ¹¹So I’m going to bring a disaster they can’t escape. Even if they call out to me, I’ll ignore them. ¹² Then the towns in Judah and the people in Jerusalem will call out to the gods they burn incense to, but they won’t save them when disaster comes. ¹³ Judah, you have as many gods as towns. You have as many incense altars to Baal as you have streets in Jerusalem.

 ¹⁴ “So, Jeremiah, don’t pray for my people or lift up a cry for them in this disaster. ¹⁵ What right does my beloved have to live in my house when she’s done so many disgusting things? Can sacrificing meat make her disaster go away and make her happy?”                           

Jer 11:9-15

¹⁶ Yahveh once called you a green olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form. With the noise of great fury, he’s set it on fire and burned up its branches. ¹⁷ Israel and Judah, Yahveh of Hosts that planted you has pronounced disaster on you because you’ve provoked him by burning incense to Baal.

A Plot Against Jeremiah

¹⁸ Yahveh, I found out from you their plots against me.

¹⁹ I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter;

      I didn’t know they’d said,

      “Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit;

      let’s cut him off from the land of the living

            so nobody remembers him.”

²⁰ But, Yahveh of Hosts, who judges justly,

            who tries heart and mind,

      let me see you pay them back,

            because I’ve turned my worries over to you.            

Jer 11:16-20

²¹ So this is what Yahveh says about the ones in Anathoth that tell me they’ll kill me if I prophesy in his name:

         ²²“Their young men will die by the sword;

                  their boys and girls will starve to death;

            ²³ None of them will survive the disaster

                                                      l’m bringing to punish them.”

Jer 11:21-23