Haftarah Portion for 07/29/2023

Jeremiah is told not to pray for the people who have done evil. God has set a green olive tree on fire because of their wickedness. The people have provoked God by worshipping Baal. They have plotted against Jeremiah, but he asks God for vengeance. The men of Anathoth want to kill Jeremiah for prophesying in God's name. God will punish them by causing the death of their young men and scarcity of food. Jeremiah chapter 11 verses 14 through 23 And you, do not pray for this people or lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I do not hear them in the time that they cry out to me because of their evil. Why should my beloved be in my house? She has done wickedness with many, and does the set-apart flesh remove your evil from you? Then ye rejoice? Yahweh has named you, green olive tree, beautiful, of goodly fruit, with a noise of a great sound, he has set it on fire, and its branches shall be broken. And Yahweh of hosts, who planted you, has spoken evil against you for the evil of the house of Yisrael, and of the house of Yehudah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me, by burning incense to Baal. And Yahweh made it known to me, and I know it. Then you showed me their deeds, but I was like a gentle lamb brought to the slaughter, and I did not know that they had plotted against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more. But, O Yahweh of hosts, who judges righteously, who tries kidneys and heart, let me see your vengeance upon them, for unto you I have revealed my cause. Therefore thus said Yahweh concerning the men of Anathoth, who are seeking your life, saying, Do not prophesy in the name of Yahweh, lest you die by our hand. Therefore thus said Yahweh of hosts, See, I am punishing them. The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by scarcity of food, and there shall be no remnant of them, for I bring evil on the men of Anathoth the year of their punishment.