11 Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people. 12Although they may fast, I will not listen to their cry; although they may offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague.”

13“Ah, Lord GOD!” I replied, “Look, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword or suffer famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.’”

14“The prophets are prophesying lies in My name,” replied the Lord. “I did not send them or appoint them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, a worthless divination, the futility and delusion of their own minds.

15 Therefore this is what the Lord says about the prophets who prophesy in My name: I did not send them, yet they say, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’

By sword and famine these very prophets will meet their end! 16And the people to whom they prophesy will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem because of famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or their daughters. I will pour out their own evil upon them.

17 You are to speak this word to them:

1 Then the Lord said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go! 2If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the Lord says:

3 I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.

11 The Lord said:

19 Therefore this is what the Lord says:

1 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2“You must not marry or have sons or daughters in this place.”

3 For this is what the Lord says concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and the mothers who bore them, and the fathers who fathered them in this land: 4“They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried, but will lie like dung on the ground. They will be finished off by sword and famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth.”

5 Indeed, this is what the Lord says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal. Do not go to mourn or show sympathy, for I have removed from this people My peace, My loving devotion, and My compassion,” declares the Lord.

6“Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, nor will anyone cut himself or shave his head for them. 7No food will be offered to comfort those who mourn the dead; not even a cup of consolation will be given for the loss of a father or mother.

8 You must not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down with them to eat and drink. 9For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to remove from this place, before your very eyes and in your days, the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom.

10 When you tell these people all these things, they will ask you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’

11 Then you are to answer them: ‘It is because your fathers have forsaken Me, declares the Lord, and followed other gods, and served and worshiped them. They abandoned Me and did not keep My instruction. 12And you have done more evil than your fathers. See how each of you follows the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying Me. 13So I will cast you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

14 Yet behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of Egypt.’ 15Instead they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and all the other lands to which He had banished them.’ For I will return them to their land that I gave to their forefathers.

9 Surely you recall, brothers, our labor and toil. We worked night and day so that we would not be a burden to anyone while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless our conduct was among you who believed. 11For you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children— 12encouraging you, comforting you, and urging you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

13 And we continually thank God because, when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God, which is also now at work in you who believe.

14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Judea that are in Christ Jesus. You suffered from your own countrymen the very things they suffered from the Jews, 15who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men, 16hindering us from telling the Gentiles how they may be saved. As a result, they continue to heap up their sins to full capacity; the utmost wrath has come upon them.

17 Brothers, although we were torn away from you for a short time (in person, not in heart), our desire to see you face to face was even more intense. 18For we wanted to come to you — indeed I, Paul, tried again and again — but Satan obstructed us. 19After all, who is our hope, our joy, our crown of boasting, if it is not you yourselves in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? 20You are indeed our glory and our joy.

1 So when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left on our own in Athens. 2We sent Timothy, our brother and fellow worker for God in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3so that none of you would be shaken by these trials. For you know that we are destined for this. 4Indeed, when we were with you, we kept warning you that we would suffer persecution; and as you know, it has come to pass. 5For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter had somehow tempted you and that our labor might have been in vain.

6 But just now, Timothy has returned from his visit with the good news about your faith, your love, and the fond memories you have preserved, longing to see us just as we long to see you. 7For this reason, brothers, in all our distress and persecution, we have been reassured about you, because of your faith. 8For now we can go on living, as long as you are standing firm in the Lord.

9 How can we adequately thank God for you in return for our great joy over you in His presence? 10Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith.

11 Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you. 12And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone else, just as our love for you overflows, 13so that He may establish your hearts in blamelessness and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. Amen.

1 These are additional proverbs of Solomon, which were copied by the men of Hezekiah king of Judah: