But he is wise and can bring them disaster. He does not change his warnings. He will rise up and fight against the evil people and against those who try to help evil people.
How terrible! Israel is a nation of sin, a people loaded down with guilt, a group of children doing evil, children who are full of evil. They have left the Lord; they hate God, the Holy One of Israel, and have turned away from him as if he were a stranger.
You will not be buried with those bodies, because you ruined your own country and killed your own people. The children of evil people will never be mentioned again.
The Lord will fight as he did at Mount Perazim. He will be angry as he was in the Valley of Gibeon. He will do his work, his strange work. He will finish his job, his strange job.
The Egyptians are only people and are not God. Their horses are only animals and are not spirit. The Lord will stretch out his arm, and the one who helps will stumble, and the people who wanted help will fall. All of them will be destroyed together.
A fool says foolish things, and in his mind he plans evil. A fool does things that are wicked, and he says wrong things about the Lord. A fool does not feed the hungry or let thirsty people drink water.
So the Lord is not happy with the young people, nor will he show mercy to the orphans and widows. All the people are separated from God and are very evil; they all speak lies. But the Lord is still angry; his hand is still raised to strike down the people.
Everyone should respect you, King of the nations; you deserve respect. Of all the wise people among the nations and in all the kingdoms, none of them is as wise as you.
So Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch son of Neriah, his secretary. As Jeremiah spoke, Baruch wrote on the scroll the same words that were on the scroll Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to the second scroll.
Then all the people who live in Egypt will know that I am the Lord. “ ‘Israel tried to lean on you for help, but you were like a crutch made out of a weak stalk of grass.
Just wait,” says the Lord. “Someday I will stand up as a witness. I have decided that I will gather nations and assemble kingdoms. I will pour out my anger on them, all my strong anger. My anger will be like fire that will burn up the whole world.
I commanded my words and laws to my servants the prophets, and they preached to your ancestors, who returned to me. They said, ‘The Lord All-Powerful did as he said he would. He punished us for the way we lived and for what we did.’ ”
God is not a human being, and he will not lie. He is not a human, and he does not change his mind. What he says he will do, he does. What he promises, he makes come true.
Every good promise that the Lord your God made has come true, and in the same way, his other promises will come true. He promised that evil will come to you and that he will destroy you from this good land that he gave you.
He is the only God, the One who saves us. To him be glory, greatness, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord for all time past, now, and forever. Amen.