Yahweh’s promise to punish Judah

1Yahweh said, “It is as though a list of the sins committed by the people of Judah is engraved with an iron chisel, or engraved using the fine point of a very hard stone, on the altars where they worship idols. And it is as though this list is engraved on their inner beings!

2Even their children are happy to go to the altars to worship their gods, and to the poles that represent the goddess Asherah at which their parents worshiped, shrines that are underneath all the big trees
and on all the high hills.

3So, I will allow your enemies to capture Zion, your holy hill, and all your wealth and your ◄treasures/valuable things►,
and even the shrines on all those hills,
because of the sins that you people have committed throughout your land.

4The wonderful land that I gave to you will no longer belong to you.
I will tell your enemies to take you to a land that you do not know about, and you will become their slaves. I will do that because I am extremely angry with you; my being angry is like a fire that will burn forever.”

5This is also what Yahweh says: “I will curse/condemn those who trust in human beings to help them, those who rely on their own strength
and turn away from me.

6They are like dry bushes in the desert, they are people who will not experience any good things. Those people will live in the barren desert in a salty area, where nothing grows.

7But I am pleased with those who trust in me, Yahweh, and who confidently expect me to take care of them.

8Those people are like [SIM] fruit trees that have been planted along a riverbank, trees that have roots that go down into the wet ground beside the water. They are trees whose leaves remain green when it becomes hot, trees that continue to bear fruit when there are many months in which there is no rain.

9Human minds are extremely corrupt/deceitful, and you cannot change that.
It is also completely impossible [RHQ] for anyone to understand that.

10But I, Yahweh, search what is in everyone’s inner being, and I examine what they are thinking. I will give all people rewards, what they deserve for what they have done.”

11I, Jeremiah, agree, because I know that people who become rich by doing things that are unjust are like birds that hatch eggs that they ◄did not lay/stole from another nest►. So, when those people have lived only half of the years that they expect to live, their wealth will disappear. Then other people will realize that those rich people have been foolish.

12Yahweh, your temple is like a glorious throne that is still on a high hill.

13You are the one whom we Israeli people confidently expect to bless us, and all those who turn away from you will be disgraced. Their names will be written only in the dust, and will soon disappear, because they have abandoned you, who are like [MET] a fountain where people obtain fresh water.

14Yahweh, please heal me, because if you heal me, I will truly be healed. If you rescue me, I will truly be safe,
because you are the only one whom I praise.

15People often ridicule me and say,
“You tell us messages that you say came from Yahweh, but ◄why have the things that you predicted not happened?/those predictions have not come true!►” [RHQ]

16Yahweh, you appointed me to take care of your people like a shepherd takes care of his sheep [MET]; I have not abandoned that work, and you know that I have not previously wanted this time of disaster to come to people who ridicule me. And you know everything that I have said [MTY] to your people.

17Do not cause me to be terrified! When disasters come/occur, you are the one to whom I will go to be safe.

18So now, cause those who ◄persecute me/cause me to suffer► to be ashamed and dismayed, but do not do things to me that will cause me to be ashamed and dismayed. Cause them to be terrified! Do to them many things that will completely destroy them!

Keeping the Sabbath day holy

19This is what Yahweh said to me: “Go to the city gates in Jerusalem. First go to the gate where the kings of Judah go in and out of the city, and then go to each of the other gates.

20Say to the people at each gate, ‘You kings of Judah and everyone else who is living in Jerusalem and all you other people of Judah who enter these gates, listen to this message from Yahweh!

21He says, “Listen to this warning carefully! Stop doing work on ◄Sabbath/our rest► days! Stop carrying loads through these gates on those days!

22Do not carry loads out of your houses or do any other work on Sabbath days! Instead, cause Sabbath days to be ◄holy/set apart for me►. I commanded your ancestors to do that,

23but they did not listen to me or obey me. When I did things to correct them, they stubbornly [IDM] refused to pay attention to what I said or to accept it.

24But I say that if you obey me, and if you do not carry loads through these gates on Sabbath days or do any other work on Sabbath days, and if you dedicate the Sabbath days to me,

25kings of Judah [MTY] and their officials will continue to go in and out of these gates. There will always be someone who is a descendant of [MTY] King David ruling here [MTY] in Jerusalem. Kings and their officials will go in and out of these gates, riding in chariots and on horses, and there will be people living in this city forever.

26And people will come to Jerusalem bringing offerings to be completely burned on the altar and other offerings. They will bring to the temple grain offerings and incense and offerings to thank me. People will bring those offerings from the towns in Judah and the villages near Jerusalem and from the land where the tribe of Benjamin lives and from the western foothills and from the desert in the south.

27But if you do not pay attention to what I say, and if you refuse to dedicate the Sabbath days to me, and if you continue to carry loads through these gates into the city on Sabbath days, I will burn these gates completely. The fire will spread to the palaces, and no one will be able to put out that fire.”’”