'One' in the Bible

The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests living in Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.

Today, I am the One who has made you a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the population.

They stopped asking, “Where is the Lordwho brought us from the land of Egypt,who led us through the wilderness,through a land of deserts and ravines,through a land of drought and darkness,a land no one traveled throughand where no one lived?”

“Return, you faithless children”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“for I am your master, and I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

When you multiply and increase in the land, in those days”—the Lord’s declaration—“no one will say any longer, ‘The ark of the Lord’s covenant.’ It will never come to mind, and no one will remember or miss it. It will never again be made.

From the time of our youththe shameful one has consumedwhat our fathers have worked for—their flocks and their herds,their sons and their daughters.

Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;remove the foreskin of your hearts,men of Judah and residents of Jerusalem.Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fireand burn with no one to extinguish itbecause of your evil deeds.

And you, devastated one, what are you doingthat you dress yourself in scarlet,that you adorn yourself with gold jewelry,that you enlarge your eyes with paint?You beautify yourself for nothing.Your lovers reject you;they want to take your life.

I hear a cry like a woman in labor,a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child.The cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath,stretching out her hands:Woe is me, for my life is wearybecause of the murderers!

Do you not fear Me?This is the Lord’s declaration.Do you not tremble before Me,the One who set the sand as the boundary of the sea,an enduring barrier that it cannot cross?The waves surge, but they cannot prevail.They roar but cannot pass over it.

Instead, if you really change your ways and your actions, if you act justly toward one another,

The corpses of these people will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land, with no one to scare them away.

I have paid careful attention.They do not speak what is right.No one regrets his evil,asking, ‘What have I done?’Everyone has stayed his courselike a horse rushing into battle.

They bent their tongues like their bows;lies and not faithfulness prevail in the land,for they proceed from one evil to another,and they do not take Me into account.This is the Lord’s declaration.

Each one betrays his friend;no one tells the truth.They have taught their tongues to speak lies;they wear themselves out doing wrong.

I will raise weeping and a lamentover the mountains,a dirge over the wilderness grazing land,for they have been so scorchedthat no one passes through.The sound of cattle is no longer heard.From the birds of the sky to the animals,everything has fled—they have gone away.

Who is the man wise enough to understand this? Who has the Lord spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through?

Now hear the word of the Lord, you women.Pay attention to the word of His mouth.Teach your daughters a lamentand one another a dirge,

Speak as follows:This is what the Lord says:Human corpses will falllike manure on the surface of the field,like newly cut grain after the reaperwith no one to gather it.

But the one who boasts should boast in this,that he understands and knows Me—that I am Yahweh, showing faithful love,justice, and righteousness on the earth,for I delight in these things.This is the Lord’s declaration.

Yahweh, there is no one like You.You are great;Your name is great in power.

Who should not fear You,King of the nations?It is what You deserve.For among all the wise people of the nationsand among all their kingdoms,there is no one like You.

Jacob’s Portion is not like thesebecause He is the One who formed all things.Israel is the tribe of His inheritance;Yahweh of Hosts is His name.

My tent is destroyed;all my tent cords are snapped.My sons have departed from me and are no more.I have no one to pitch my tent againor to hang up my curtains.

I know, Lord,that a man’s way of life is not his own;no one who walks determines his own steps.

Yet they would not obey or pay attention; each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant, because they had not done what I commanded them to do.”

They have made it a desolation.It mourns, desolate, before Me.All the land is desolate,but no one takes it to heart.

Over all the barren heights in the wildernessthe destroyers have come,for the Lord has a sword that devoursfrom one end of the earth to the other.No one has peace.

After I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land.

The cities of the Negev are under siege;no one can help them.All of Judah has been taken into exile,taken completely into exile.

The people they are prophesying to will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. There will be no one to bury them—they, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. I will pour out their own evil on them.”

You did more evil than your fathers. Look, each one of you was following the stubbornness of his evil heart, not obeying Me.

Can one make gods for himself?But they are not gods.

He will be like a juniper in the Arabah;he cannot see when good comesbut dwells in the parched places in the wilderness,in a salt land where no one lives.

At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it.

and you are to proclaim to them: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: I will shatter these people and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be mended. They will bury the dead in Topheth because there is no other place for burials.

“Many nations will pass by this city and ask one another, ‘Why did the Lord do such a thing to this great city?’

Do not weep for the dead;do not mourn for him.Weep bitterly for the one who has gone away,for he will never return againand see his native land.

Woe for the one who builds his palacethrough unrighteousness,his upper rooms through injustice,who makes his fellow man serve without payand will not give him his wages,

Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered pot,a jar no one wants?Why are he and his descendants hurled outand cast into a land they have not known?

Through their dreams that they tell one another, they plan to cause My people to forget My name as their fathers forgot My name through Baal worship.

The prophet who has only a dream should recount the dream, but the one who has My word should speak My word truthfully, for what is straw compared to grain?”—this is the Lord’s declaration.

One basket contained very good figs, like early figs, but the other basket contained very bad figs, so bad they were inedible.

all the kings of the north, both near and far from one another;that is, all the kingdoms of the world which are on the face of the earth.Finally, the king of Sheshach will drink after them.

Those slain by the Lord on that day will be spread from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned, gathered, or buried. They will be like manure on the surface of the ground.

As for the prophet who prophesies peace—only when the word of the prophet comes true will the prophet be recognized as one the Lord has truly sent.”

this is what the Lord says: I am about to punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. There will not be even one of his descendants living among these people, nor will any ever see the good that I will bring to My people”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“for he has preached rebellion against the Lord.”

As for you, My servant Jacob,do not be afraid—this is the Lord’s declaration—and do not be dismayed, Israel,for without fail I will save you from far away,your descendants, from the land of their captivity!Jacob will return and have calm and quietwith no one to frighten him.

No one takes up the case for your sores.There is no healing for you.

But I will bring you healthand will heal you of your wounds—this is the Lord’s declaration—for they call you Outcast,Zion whom no one cares about.

Nations, hear the word of the Lord,and tell it among the far off coastlands!Say: The One who scattered Israel will gather him.He will watch over him as a shepherd guards his flock,

for the Lord has ransomed Jacoband redeemed him from the power of one stronger than he.

This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them”—the Lord’s declaration.

No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.”

This is what the Lord says:The One who gives the sun for light by day,the fixed order of moon and stars for light by night,who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar—Yahweh of Hosts is His name:

the One great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are on all the ways of the sons of men in order to give to each person according to his ways and the result of his deeds.

I will give them one heart and one way so that for their good and for the good of their descendants after them, they will fear Me always.

The flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them in the cities of the hill country, the cities of the Judean foothills, the cities of the Negev, the land of Benjamin—the cities surrounding Jerusalem and Judah’s cities, says the Lord.

so each man would free his male and female Hebrew slaves and no one would enslave his Judean brother.

“Go to the house of the Rechabites, speak to them, and bring them to one of the chambers of the temple of the Lord to offer them a drink of wine.”

Time and time again I have sent you all My servants the prophets, proclaiming: Turn, each one from his evil way of life, and correct your actions. Stop following other gods to serve them. Live in the land that I gave you and your ancestors. But you would not pay attention or obey Me.

Perhaps when the house of Judah hears about all the disaster I am planning to bring on them, each one of them will turn from his evil way. Then I will forgive their wrongdoing and their sin.”

Perhaps their petition will come before the Lord, and each one will turn from his evil way, for the anger and fury that the Lord has pronounced against this people are great.”

The officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah must hide yourselves and tell no one where you are.”

Therefore, this is what the Lord says concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on David’s throne, and his corpse will be thrown out to be exposed to the heat of day and the frost of night.

Then Johanan son of Kareah suggested to Gedaliah in private at Mizpah, “Let me go kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah. No one will know it. Why should he kill you and scatter all of Judah that has gathered to you so that the remnant of Judah would perish?”

In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family and one of the king’s chief officers, came with 10 men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. They ate a meal together there in Mizpah,

but then Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the 10 men who were with him got up and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, with the sword; he killed the one the king of Babylon had appointed in the land.

On the second day after he had killed Gedaliah, when no one knew yet,

Now the cistern where Ishmael had thrown all the corpses of the men he had struck down was a large one that King Asa had made in the encounter with Baasha king of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with the slain.

This is what the Lord says: I am about to hand over Pharaoh Hophra, Egypt’s king, to his enemies, to those who want to take his life, just as I handed over Judah’s King Zedekiah to Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar, who was his enemy, the one who wanted to take his life.’”

But you, My servant Jacob, do not be afraid,and do not be discouraged, Israel,for without fail I will save you from far awayand your descendants, from the land of their captivity!Jacob will return and have calm and quietwith no one to frighten him.

The destroyer will move against every town;not one town will escape.The valley will perish,and the plain will be annihilated,as the Lord has said.

The one who doesthe Lord’s business deceitfully is cursed,and the one who withholdshis sword from bloodshed is cursed.

Moab has been left quiet since his youth,settled like wine on its dregs.He hasn’t been poured from one container to anotheror gone into exile.So his taste has remained the same,and his aroma hasn’t changed.

Joy and celebration are taken from the fertile fieldand from the land of Moab.I have stopped the flow of wine from the winepresses;no one will tread with shouts of joy.The shouting is not a shout of joy.

In Moab, I will stop”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“the one who offers sacrifices on the high place and burns incense to his gods.

On all the rooftops of Moab and in her public squares, everyone is mourning because I have shattered Moab like a jar no one wants.” This is the Lord’s declaration.

Look, I am about to bring terror on you—this is the declaration ofthe Lord God of Hosts—from all those around you.You will be banished, each man headlong,with no one to gather up the fugitives.

As when Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighbors,” says the Lord, “no one will live there; no human being will even stay in it as a temporary resident.

Hazor will become a jackals’ den,a desolation forever.No one will live there;no human being will even stay in it as a temporary resident.

For a nation from the north will come against her;it will make her land desolate.No one will be living in it—both man and beast will escape.

In those days and at that time—this is the Lord’s declaration—one will search for Israel’s guilt,but there will be none,and for Judah’s sins,but they will not be found,for I will forgive those I leave as a remnant.

Summon the archers to Babylon,all who string the bow;camp all around her; let none escape.Repay her according to her deeds;just as she has done, do the same to her,for she has acted arrogantly against the Lord,against the Holy One of Israel.

The arrogant will stumble and fallwith no one to pick him up.I will set fire to his cities,and it will consume everything around him.”

Just as God demolished Sodom and Gomorrahand their neighboring towns—this is the Lord’s declaration—so no one will live there;no human being will even stay in itas a temporary resident.

For Israel and Judah are not left widowedby their God, the Lord of Hosts,though their land is full of guiltagainst the Holy One of Israel.

Jacob’s Portion is not like thesebecause He is the One who formed all things.Israel is the tribe of His inheritance;Yahweh of Hosts is His name.

No one will be able to retrieve a cornerstoneor a foundation stone from you,because you will become desolate forever.This is the Lord’s declaration.

Her cities have become a desolation,a dry and arid land,a land where no one lives,where no human being passes through.

May you not become cowardly and fearfulwhen the report is proclaimed in the land,for the report will come one year,and then another the next year.There will be violence in the landwith ruler against ruler.

Jeremiah wrote on one scroll about all the disaster that would come to Babylon; all these words were written against Babylon.

You must say, ‘Lord, You have threatened to cut off this place so that no one will live in it—man or beast. Indeed, it will remain desolate forever.’

As for the two pillars, the one reservoir, and the 12 bronze bulls under the water carts that King Solomon had made for the Lord’s temple, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure.

One pillar was 27 feet tall, had a circumference of 18 feet, was hollow—four fingers thick—

and had a bronze capital on top of it. One capital, encircled by bronze latticework and pomegranates, stood 7½ feet high. The second pillar was the same, with pomegranates.