Jeremiah 13 - Prayer Tents

People Who Do Only What They Want to Do

13GOD told me, "Go and buy yourself some linen shorts. Put them on and keep them on. Don't even take them off to wash them."H559H3068H1980H7069H6593H232H7760H4975H935H4325 2So I bought the shorts as GOD directed and put them on.H7069H232H1697H3068H7760H4975 3Then GOD told me,H1697H3068H8145H559 4"Take the shorts that you bought and go straight to Perath and hide them there in a crack in the rock."H3947H232H7069H4975H6965H3212H6578H2934H5357H5553 5So I did what GOD told me and hid them at Perath.H3212H2934H6578H3068H6680 6Next, after quite a long time, GOD told me, "Go back to Perath and get the linen shorts I told you to hide there."H7093H7227H3117H3068H559H6965H3212H6578H3947H232H6680H2934 7So I went back to Perath and dug them out of the place where I had hidden them. The shorts by then had rotted and were worthless.H3212H6578H2658H3947H232H4725H2934H232H7843H6743 8GOD explained,H1697H3068H559 9"This is the way I am going to ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem—H559H3068H7843H1347H3063H7227H1347H3389 10a wicked bunch of people who won't obey me, who do only what they want to do, who chase after all kinds of no-gods and worship them. They're going to turn out as rotten as these old shorts.H7451H5971H3987H8085H1697H1980H8307H3820H3212H310H312H430H5647H7812H232H6743 11Just as shorts clothe and protect, so I kept the whole family of Israel under my care"—GOD's Decree—"so that everyone could see they were my people, a people I could show off to the world and be proud of. But they refused to do a thing I said.H232H1692H4975H376H1692H1004H3478H1004H3063H5002H3068H5971H8034H8416H8597H8085 12"And then tell them this: 'GOD's Message, personal from the God of Israel: Every wine jug should be full of wine.' "And they'll say, 'Of course. We know that. Every wine jug should be full of wine!'H559H1697H559H3068H430H3478H5035H4390H3196H559H3045H3045H5035H4390H3196 13"Then you'll say, 'This is what GOD says: Watch closely. I'm going to fill every person who lives in this country—the kings who rule from David's throne, the priests, the prophets, the citizens of Jerusalem—with wine that will make them drunk.H559H559H3068H4390H3427H776H4428H3427H1732H3678H3548H5030H3427H3389H7943 14And then I'll smash them, smash the wine-filled jugs—old and young alike. Nothing will stop me. Not an ounce of pity or mercy or compassion will slow me down. Every last drunken jug of them will be smashed!'"H5310H376H251H1H1121H3162H5002H3068H2550H2347H7355H7843

The Light You Always Took for Granted

15Then I said, Listen. Listen carefully: Don't stay stuck in your ways! It's GOD's Message we're dealing with here.H8085H238H1361H3068H1696 16Let your lives glow bright before GOD before he turns out the lights, Before you trip and fall on the dark mountain paths. The light you always took for granted will go out and the world will turn black.H5414H3519H3068H430H2821H7272H5062H5399H2022H6960H216H7760H6757H7896H7896H6205 17If you people won't listen, I'll go off by myself and weep over you, Weep because of your stubborn arrogance, bitter, bitter tears, Rivers of tears from my eyes, because GOD's sheep will end up in exile.H8085H5315H1058H4565H6440H1466H5869H1830H1830H3381H1832H3068H5739H7617 18Tell the king and the queen-mother, "Come down off your high horses. Your dazzling crowns will tumble off your heads."H559H4428H1377H8213H3427H4761H3381H5850H8597 19The villages in the Negev will be surrounded, everyone trapped, And Judah dragged off to exile, the whole country dragged to oblivion.H5892H5045H5462H6605H3063H1540H7965H1540 20Look, look, Jerusalem! Look at the enemies coming out of the north! What will become of your flocks of people, the beautiful flocks in your care?H5375H5869H7200H935H6828H5739H5414H8597H6629 21How are you going to feel when the people you've played up to, looked up to all these years Now look down on you? You didn't expect this? Surprise! The pain of a woman having a baby!H559H6485H3925H441H7218H2256H270H802H3205 22Do I hear you saying, "What's going on here? Why me?" The answer's simple: You're guilty, hugely guilty. Your guilt has your life endangered, your guilt has you writhing in pain.H559H3824H7122H7230H5771H7757H1540H6119H2554 23Can an African change skin? Can a leopard get rid of its spots? So what are the odds on you doing good, you who are so long-practiced in evil?H3569H2015H5785H5246H2272H3201H3190H3928H7489 24"I'll blow these people away— like wind-blown leaves.H6327H7179H5674H7307H4057 25You have it coming to you. I've measured it out precisely." GOD's Decree. "It's because you forgot me and embraced the Big Lie, that so-called god Baal.H1486H4490H4055H5002H3068H7911H982H8267 26I'm the one who will rip off your clothes, expose and shame you before the watching world.H2834H7757H6440H7036H7200 27Your obsessions with gods, gods, and more gods, your goddess affairs, your god-adulteries. Gods on the hills, gods in the fields— every time I look you're off with another god. O Jerusalem, what a sordid life! Is there any hope for you!"H7200H5004H4684H2154H2184H8251H1389H7704H188H3389H2891H5750H310