I sent all my servants the prophets to warn you over and over again. They said, “Every one of you, stop doing the evil things you have been doing and do what is right. ¹  Do not pay allegiance to other gods ²  and worship them. Then you can continue to live in this land that I gave to you and your ancestors.” But you did not pay any attention or listen to me.

Then he spoke up in the presence of all the people. “The Lord says, ‘In the same way I will break the yoke of servitude of all the nations to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon ¹  before two years are over.’” After he heard this, the prophet Jeremiah departed and went on his way. ² 

“‘This is because they have led my people astray saying, “All is well,” ¹  when things are not well. When anyone builds a wall without mortar, ²  they coat it with whitewash.

Do not neglect the spiritual gift you have, ¹  given to you and confirmed by prophetic words ²  when the elders laid hands on you. ³ 

Then the spirit of the Lord will rush upon you and you will prophesy with them. You will be changed into a different person.

So the prophet went back with him and ate and drank in his house. ¹ 

He told his sons, “Saddle my donkey,” and they did so. ¹ 

Then ¹  he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy contained in this book, because the time is near.

When Saul ¹  had finished prophesying, he went to the high place.

When Elisha arrived at the house, there was ¹  the child lying dead on his bed.

When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he was encouraged. ¹  He removed the detestable idols from the entire land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had seized in the Ephraimite hill country. He repaired the altar of the Lord in front of the porch of the Lord’s temple. ² 

Therefore, prophesy against them! Prophesy, son of man!”

“Seventy weeks ¹  have been determined concerning your people and your holy city to put an end to ²  rebellion, to bring sin ³  to completion, ⁴  to atone for iniquity, to bring in perpetual ⁵  righteousness, to seal up ⁶  the prophetic vision, ⁷  and to anoint a most holy place. ⁸ 

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part,

As for that prophet or dreamer, ¹  he must be executed because he encouraged rebellion against the Lord your God who brought you from the land of Egypt, redeeming you from that place of slavery, and because he has tried to entice you from the way the Lord your God has commanded you to go. In this way you must purge out evil from within. ² 

Oded, a prophet of the Lord, was there. He went to meet the army as they arrived in Samaria and said to them: “Look, because the Lord God of your ancestors was angry with Judah he handed them over to you. You have killed them so mercilessly that God has taken notice. ¹ 

“So now, our God – the great, powerful, and awesome God, who keeps covenant fidelity ¹  – do not regard as inconsequential ²  all the hardship that has befallen us – our kings, our leaders, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors, and all your people – from the days of the kings of Assyria until this very day!

I will personally hold responsible ¹  anyone who then pays no attention to the words that prophet ²  speaks in my name.

He found another man and said, “Wound me!” So the man wounded him severely. ¹ 

Then the Lord spoke to Jeremiah.