Jeremiah 1

The word of the LORD came to me: {2} "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: "'I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown. {3} Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,'" declares the LORD. {4} Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, all you clans of the house of Israel. {5} This is what the LORD says: "What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. {6} They did not ask, 'Where is the LORD, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and rifts, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?' {7} I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable. {8} The priests did not ask, 'Where is the LORD?' Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols. {9} "Therefore I bring charges against you again," declares the LORD. "And I will bring charges against your children's children. {10} Cross over to the coasts of Kittim and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this: {11} Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. {12} Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror," declares the LORD. {13} "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. {14} Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth? Why then has he become plunder? {15} Lions have roared; they have growled at him. They have laid waste his land; his towns are burned and deserted. {16} Also, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have shaved the crown of your head. {17} Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking the LORD your God when he led you in the way? {18} Now why go to Egypt to drink water from the Shihor ? And why go to Assyria to drink water from the River ? {19} Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realise how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the LORD your God and have no awe of me," declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty. {20} "Long ago you broke off your yoke and tore off your bonds; you said, 'I will not serve you!' Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute. {21} I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine? {22} Although you wash yourself with soda and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me," declares the Sovereign LORD. {23} "How can you say, 'I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals'? See how you behaved in the valley; consider what you have done. You are a swift she-camel running here and there, {24} a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving-- in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her. {25} Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, 'It's no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.' {26} "As a thief is disgraced when he is caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced-- they, their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets. {27} They say to wood, 'You are my father,' and to stone, 'You gave me birth.' They have turned their backs to me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble, they say, 'Come and save us!' {28} Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah. {29} "Why do you bring charges against me? You have all rebelled against me," declares the LORD. {30} "In vain I punished your people; they did not respond to correction. Your sword has devoured your prophets like a ravening lion. {31} "You of this generation, consider the word of the LORD: "Have I been a desert to Israel or a land of great darkness? Why do my people say, 'We are free to roam; we will come to you no more'? {32} Does a maiden forget her jewelry, a bride her wedding ornaments? Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number. {33} How skilled you are at pursuing love! Even the worst of women can learn from your ways. {34} On your clothes men find the lifeblood of the innocent poor, though you did not catch them breaking in. Yet in spite of all this {35} you say, 'I am innocent; he is not angry with me.' But I will pass judgment on you because you say, 'I have not sinned.' {36} Why do you go about so much, changing your ways? You will be disappointed by Egypt as you were by Assyria. {37} You will also leave that place with your hands on your head, for the LORD has rejected those you trust; you will not be helped by them.

Jeremiah 3

"If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should he return to her again? Would not the land be completely defiled? But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers-- would you now return to me?" declares the LORD. {2} "Look up to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been ravished? By the roadside you sat waiting for lovers, sat like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness. {3} Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame. {4} Have you not just called to me: 'My Father, my friend from my youth, {5} will you always be angry? Will your wrath continue forever?' This is how you talk, but you do all the evil you can." {6} During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, "Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there. {7} I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. {8} I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. {9} Because Israel's immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. {10} In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense," declares the LORD. {11} The LORD said to me, "Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah. {12} Go, proclaim this message toward the north: "'Return, faithless Israel,' declares the LORD, 'I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful,' declares the LORD, 'I will not be angry forever. {13} Only acknowledge your guilt-- you have rebelled against the LORD your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me,'" declares the LORD. {14} "Return, faithless people," declares the LORD, "for I am your husband. I will choose you--one from a town and two from a clan--and bring you to Zion. {15} Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. {16} In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land," declares the LORD, "men will no longer say, 'The ark of the covenant of the LORD.' It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made. {17} At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. {18} In those days the house of Judah will join the house of Israel, and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your forefathers as an inheritance. {19} "I myself said, "'How gladly would I treat you like sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.' I thought you would call me 'Father' and not turn away from following me. {20} But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me, O house of Israel," declares the LORD. {21} A cry is heard on the barren heights, the weeping and pleading of the people of Israel, because they have perverted their ways and have forgotten the LORD their God. {22} "Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding." "Yes, we will come to you, for you are the LORD our God. {23} Surely the idolatrous commotion on the hills and mountains is a deception; surely in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel. {24} From our youth shameful gods have consumed the fruits of our fathers' labour-- their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters. {25} Let us lie down in our shame, and let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers; from our youth till this day we have not obeyed the LORD our God."

Jeremiah 4

"Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city. {2} Although they say, 'As surely as the LORD lives,' still they are swearing falsely." {3} O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent. {4} I thought, "These are only the poor; they are foolish, for they do not know the way of the LORD, the requirements of their God. {5} So I will go to the leaders and speak to them; surely they know the way of the LORD, the requirements of their God." But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke and torn off the bonds. {6} Therefore a lion from the forest will attack them, a wolf from the desert will ravage them, a leopard will lie in wait near their towns to tear to pieces any who venture out, for their rebellion is great and their backslidings many. {7} "Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I supplied all their needs, yet they committed adultery and thronged to the houses of prostitutes. {8} They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for another man's wife. {9} Should I not punish them for this?" declares the LORD. "Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this? {10} "Go through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not destroy them completely. Strip off her branches, for these people do not belong to the LORD. {11} The house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly unfaithful to me," declares the LORD. {12} They have lied about the LORD; they said, "He will do nothing! No harm will come to us; we will never see sword or famine. {13} The prophets are but wind and the word is not in them; so let what they say be done to them." {14} Therefore this is what the LORD God Almighty says: "Because the people have spoken these words, I will make my words in your mouth a fire and these people the wood it consumes. {15} O house of Israel," declares the LORD, "I am bringing a distant nation against you-- an ancient and enduring nation, a people whose language you do not know, whose speech you do not understand. {16} Their quivers are like an open grave; all of them are mighty warriors. {17} They will devour your harvests and food, devour your sons and daughters; they will devour your flocks and herds, devour your vines and fig trees. With the sword they will destroy the fortified cities in which you trust. {18} "Yet even in those days," declares the LORD, "I will not destroy you completely. {19} And when the people ask, 'Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?' you will tell them, 'As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own.' {20} "Announce this to the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah: {21} Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear: {22} Should you not fear me?" declares the LORD. "Should you not tremble in my presence? I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it. {23} But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned aside and gone away. {24} They do not say to themselves, 'Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives autumn and spring rains in season, who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.' {25} Your wrongdoings have kept these away; your sins have deprived you of good. {26} "Among my people are wicked men who lie in wait like men who snare birds and like those who set traps to catch men. {27} Like cages full of birds, their houses are full of deceit; they have become rich and powerful {28} and have grown fat and sleek. Their evil deeds have no limit; they do not plead the case of the fatherless to win it, they do not defend the rights of the poor. {29} Should I not punish them for this?" declares the LORD. "Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this? {30} "A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: {31} The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?

"Flee for safety, people of Benjamin! Flee from Jerusalem! Sound the trumpet in Tekoa! Raise the signal over Beth Hakkerem! For disaster looms out of the north, even terrible destruction. {2} I will destroy the Daughter of Zion, so beautiful and delicate. {3} Shepherds with their flocks will come against her; they will pitch their tents around her, each tending his own portion." {4} "Prepare for battle against her! Arise, let us attack at noon! But, alas, the daylight is fading, and the shadows of evening grow long. {5} So arise, let us attack at night and destroy her fortresses!" {6} This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Cut down the trees and build siege ramps against Jerusalem. This city must be punished; it is filled with oppression. {7} As a well pours out its water, so she pours out her wickedness. Violence and destruction resound in her; her sickness and wounds are ever before me. {8} Take warning, O Jerusalem, or I will turn away from you and make your land desolate so no one can live in it." {9} This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Let them glean the remnant of Israel as thoroughly as a vine; pass your hand over the branches again, like one gathering grapes." {10} To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the LORD is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it. {11} But I am full of the wrath of the LORD, and I cannot hold it in. "Pour it out on the children in the street and on the young men gathered together; both husband and wife will be caught in it, and the old, those weighed down with years. {12} Their houses will be turned over to others, together with their fields and their wives, when I stretch out my hand against those who live in the land," declares the LORD. {13} "From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. {14} They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace. {15} Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them," says the LORD. {16} This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it.' {17} I appointed watchmen over you and said, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!' But you said, 'We will not listen.' {18} Therefore hear, O nations; observe, O witnesses, what will happen to them. {19} Hear, O earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law. {20} What do I care about incense from Sheba or sweet calamus from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please me." {21} Therefore this is what the LORD says: "I will put obstacles before this people. Fathers and sons alike will stumble over them; neighbors and friends will perish." {22} This is what the LORD says: "Look, an army is coming from the land of the north; a great nation is being stirred up from the ends of the earth. {23} They are armed with bow and spear; they are cruel and show no mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride on their horses; they come like men in battle formation to attack you, O Daughter of Zion." {24} We have heard reports about them, and our hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labour. {25} Do not go out to the fields or walk on the roads, for the enemy has a sword, and there is terror on every side. {26} O my people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes; mourn with bitter wailing as for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us. {27} "I have made you a tester of metals and my people the ore, that you may observe and test their ways. {28} They are all hardened rebels, going about to slander. They are bronze and iron; they all act corruptly. {29} The bellows blow fiercely to burn away the lead with fire, but the refining goes on in vain; the wicked are not purged out. {30} They are called rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them."

"'At that time, declares the LORD, the bones of the kings and officials of Judah, the bones of the priests and prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves. {2} They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and served and which they have followed and consulted and worshiped. They will not be gathered up or buried, but will be like refuse lying on the ground. {3} Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life, declares the LORD Almighty.' {4} "Say to them, 'This is what the LORD says: "'When men fall down, do they not get up? When a man turns away, does he not return? {5} Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return. {6} I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done?" Each pursues his own course like a horse charging into battle. {7} Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the LORD. {8} "'How can you say, "We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD," when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely? {9} The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, what kind of wisdom do they have? {10} Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. {11} They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace. {12} Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished, says the LORD. {13} "'I will take away their harvest, declares the LORD. There will be no grapes on the vine. There will be no figs on the tree, and their leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them.'" {14} "Why are we sitting here? Gather together! Let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there! For the LORD our God has doomed us to perish and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against him. {15} We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there was only terror. {16} The snorting of the enemy's horses is heard from Dan; at the neighing of their stallions the whole land trembles. They have come to devour the land and everything in it, the city and all who live there." {17} "See, I will send venomous snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you," declares the LORD. {18} O my Comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me. {19} Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away: "Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?" "Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?" {20} "The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved." {21} Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me. {22} Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?

Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people. {2} Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people. {3} "They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me," declares the LORD. {4} "Beware of your friends; do not trust your brothers. For every brother is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer. {5} Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning. {6} You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me," declares the LORD. {7} Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says: "See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people? {8} Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks with deceit. With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets a trap for him. {9} Should I not punish them for this?" declares the LORD. "Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?" {10} I will weep and wail for the mountains and take up a lament concerning the desert pastures. They are desolate and untraveled, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds of the air have fled and the animals are gone. {11} "I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there." {12} What man is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross? {13} The LORD said, "It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. {14} Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them." {15} Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water. {16} I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them." {17} This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them. {18} Let them come quickly and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids. {19} The sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 'How ruined we are! How great is our shame! We must leave our land because our houses are in ruins.'" {20} Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD; open your ears to the words of his mouth. Teach your daughters how to wail; teach one another a lament. {21} Death has climbed in through our windows and has entered our fortresses; it has cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares. {22} Say, "This is what the LORD declares: "'The dead bodies of men will lie like refuse on the open field, like cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather them.'" {23} This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, {24} but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD. {25} "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh-- {26} Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart."

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: {2} "Listen to the terms of this covenant and tell them to the people of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem. {3} Tell them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Cursed is the man who does not obey the terms of this covenant-- {4} the terms I commanded your forefathers when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.' I said, 'Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. {5} Then I will fulfill the oath I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey'--the land you possess today." I answered, "Amen, LORD." {6} The LORD said to me, "Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: 'Listen to the terms of this covenant and follow them. {7} From the time I brought your forefathers up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, "Obey me." {8} But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep.'" {9} Then the LORD said to me, "There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. {10} They have returned to the sins of their forefathers, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their forefathers. {11} Therefore this is what the LORD says: 'I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. {12} The towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not help them at all when disaster strikes. {13} You have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah; and the altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.' {14} "Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress. {15} "What is my beloved doing in my temple as she works out her evil schemes with many? Can consecrated meat avert your punishment? When you engage in your wickedness, then you rejoice." {16} The LORD called you a thriving olive tree with fruit beautiful in form. But with the roar of a mighty storm he will set it on fire, and its branches will be broken. {17} The LORD Almighty, who planted you, has decreed disaster for you, because the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done evil and provoked me to anger by burning incense to Baal. {18} Because the LORD revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. {19} I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realise that they had plotted against me, saying, "Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more." {20} But, O LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. {21} "Therefore this is what the LORD says about the men of Anathoth who are seeking your life and saying, 'Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD or you will die by our hands'-- {22} therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine. {23} Not even a remnant will be left to them, because I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.'"

You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? {2} You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips but far from their hearts. {3} Yet you know me, O LORD; you see me and test my thoughts about you. Drag them off like sheep to be butchered! Set them apart for the day of slaughter! {4} How long will the land lie parched and the grass in every field be withered? Because those who live in it are wicked, the animals and birds have perished. Moreover, the people are saying, "He will not see what happens to us." {5} "If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan? {6} Your brothers, your own family-- even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you. {7} "I will forsake my house, abandon my inheritance; I will give the one I love into the hands of her enemies. {8} My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She roars at me; therefore I hate her. {9} Has not my inheritance become to me like a speckled bird of prey that other birds of prey surround and attack? Go and gather all the wild beasts; bring them to devour. {10} Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field; they will turn my pleasant field into a desolate wasteland. {11} It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares. {12} Over all the barren heights in the desert destroyers will swarm, for the sword of the LORD will devour from one end of the land to the other; no one will be safe. {13} They will sow wheat but reap thorns; they will wear themselves out but gain nothing. So bear the shame of your harvest because of the Lord's fierce anger." {14} This is what the LORD says: "As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them. {15} But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to his own inheritance and his own country. {16} And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, 'As surely as the LORD lives'--even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal--then they will be established among my people. {17} But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it," declares the LORD.

This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water." {2} So I bought a belt, as the LORD directed, and put it around my waist. {3} Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time: {4} "Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks." {5} So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD told me. {6} Many days later the LORD said to me, "Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there." {7} So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless. {8} Then the word of the LORD came to me: {9} "This is what the LORD says: 'In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. {10} These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt--completely useless! {11} For as a belt is bound around a man's waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me,' declares the LORD, 'to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.' {12} "Say to them: 'This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Every wineskin should be filled with wine.' And if they say to you, 'Don't we know that every wineskin should be filled with wine?' {13} then tell them, 'This is what the LORD says: I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land, including the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets and all those living in Jerusalem. {14} I will smash them one against the other, fathers and sons alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no pity or mercy or compassion to keep me from destroying them.'" {15} Hear and pay attention, do not be arrogant, for the LORD has spoken. {16} Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings the darkness, before your feet stumble on the darkening hills. You hope for light, but he will turn it to thick darkness and change it to deep gloom. {17} But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears, because the Lord's flock will be taken captive. {18} Say to the king and to the queen mother, "Come down from your thrones, for your glorious crowns will fall from your heads." {19} The cities in the Negev will be shut up, and there will be no one to open them. All Judah will be carried into exile, carried completely away. {20} Lift up your eyes and see those who are coming from the north. Where is the flock that was entrusted to you, the sheep of which you boasted? {21} What will you say when the LORD sets over you those you cultivated as your special allies? Will not pain grip you like that of a woman in labour? {22} And if you ask yourself, "Why has this happened to me?"-- it is because of your many sins that your skirts have been torn off and your body mistreated. {23} Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil. {24} "I will scatter you like chaff driven by the desert wind. {25} This is your lot, the portion I have decreed for you," declares the LORD, "because you have forgotten me and trusted in false gods. {26} I will pull up your skirts over your face that your shame may be seen-- {27} your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution! I have seen your detestable acts on the hills and in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you be unclean?"

This is the word of the LORD to Jeremiah concerning the drought: {2} "Judah mourns, her cities languish; they wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem. {3} The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns but find no water. They return with their jars unfilled; dismayed and despairing, they cover their heads. {4} The ground is cracked because there is no rain in the land; the farmers are dismayed and cover their heads. {5} Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass. {6} Wild donkeys stand on the barren heights and pant like jackals; their eyesight fails for lack of pasture." {7} Although our sins testify against us, O LORD, do something for the sake of your name. For our backsliding is great; we have sinned against you. {8} O Hope of Israel, its Savior in times of distress, why are you like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who stays only a night? {9} Why are you like a man taken by surprise, like a warrior powerless to save? You are among us, O LORD, and we bear your name; do not forsake us! {10} This is what the LORD says about this people: "They greatly love to wander; they do not restrain their feet. So the LORD does not accept them; he will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins." {11} Then the LORD said to me, "Do not pray for the well-being of this people. {12} Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague." {13} But I said, "Ah, Sovereign LORD, the prophets keep telling them, 'You will not see the sword or suffer famine. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place.'" {14} Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds. {15} Therefore, this is what the LORD says about the prophets who are prophesying in my name: I did not send them, yet they are saying, 'No sword or famine will touch this land.' Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine. {16} And the people they are prophesying to will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or their daughters. I will pour out on them the calamity they deserve. {17} "Speak this word to them: "'Let my eyes overflow with tears night and day without ceasing; for my virgin daughter--my people-- has suffered a grievous wound, a crushing blow. {18} If I go into the country, I see those slain by the sword; if I go into the city, I see the ravages of famine. Both prophet and priest have gone to a land they know not.'" {19} Have you rejected Judah completely? Do you despise Zion? Why have you afflicted us so that we cannot be healed? We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror. {20} O LORD, we acknowledge our wickedness and the guilt of our fathers; we have indeed sinned against you. {21} For the sake of your name do not despise us; do not dishonor your glorious throne. Remember your covenant with us and do not break it. {22} Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, O LORD our God. Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this.

Then the LORD said to me: "Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go! {2} And if they ask you, 'Where shall we go?' tell them, 'This is what the LORD says: "'Those destined for death, to death; those for the sword, to the sword; those for starvation, to starvation; those for captivity, to captivity.' {3} "I will send four kinds of destroyers against them," declares the LORD, "the sword to kill and the dogs to drag away and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. {4} I will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem. {5} "Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Who will mourn for you? Who will stop to ask how you are? {6} You have rejected me," declares the LORD. "You keep on backsliding. So I will lay hands on you and destroy you; I can no longer show compassion. {7} I will winnow them with a winnowing fork at the city gates of the land. I will bring bereavement and destruction on my people, for they have not changed their ways. {8} I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. At midday I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of their young men; suddenly I will bring down on them anguish and terror. {9} The mother of seven will grow faint and breathe her last. Her sun will set while it is still day; she will be disgraced and humiliated. I will put the survivors to the sword before their enemies," declares the LORD. {10} Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth, a man with whom the whole land strives and contends! I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me. {11} The LORD said, "Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose; surely I will make your enemies plead with you in times of disaster and times of distress. {12} "Can a man break iron-- iron from the north--or bronze? {13} Your wealth and your treasures I will give as plunder, without charge, because of all your sins throughout your country. {14} I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for my anger will kindle a fire that will burn against you." {15} You understand, O LORD; remember me and care for me. Avenge me on my persecutors. You are long-suffering--do not take me away; think of how I suffer reproach for your sake. {16} When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty. {17} I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation. {18} Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable? Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails? {19} Therefore this is what the LORD says: "If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them. {20} I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you," declares the LORD. {21} "I will save you from the hands of the wicked and redeem you from the grasp of the cruel."

Then the word of the LORD came to me: {2} "You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place." {3} For this is what the LORD says about the sons and daughters born in this land and about the women who are their mothers and the men who are their fathers: {4} "They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like refuse lying on the ground. They will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth." {5} For 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, because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people," declares the LORD. {6} "Both high and low will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, and no one will cut himself or shave his head for them. {7} No one will offer food to comfort those who mourn for the dead--not even for a father or a mother--nor will anyone give them a drink to console them. {8} "And do not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down to eat and drink. {9} For this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Before your eyes and in your days I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in this place. {10} "When you tell these people all this and they ask you, 'Why has the LORD decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the LORD our God?' {11} then say to them, 'It is because your fathers forsook me,' declares the LORD, 'and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. {12} But you have behaved more wickedly than your fathers. See how each of you is following the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying me. {13} So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.' {14} "However, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when men will no longer say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' {15} but they will say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers. {16} "But now I will send for many fishermen," declares the LORD, "and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. {17} My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. {18} I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols." {19} O LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, "Our fathers possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good. {20} Do men make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!" {21} "Therefore I will teach them-- this time I will teach them my power and might. Then they will know that my name is the LORD.

"Judah's sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars. {2} Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills. {3} My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country. {4} Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever." {5} This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. {6} He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. {7} "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. {8} He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." {9} The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? {10} "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve." {11} Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay is the man who gains riches by unjust means. When his life is half gone, they will desert him, and in the end he will prove to be a fool. {12} A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. {13} O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water. {14} Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. {15} They keep saying to me, "Where is the word of the LORD? Let it now be fulfilled!" {16} I have not run away from being your shepherd; you know I have not desired the day of despair. What passes my lips is open before you. {17} Do not be a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster. {18} Let my persecutors be put to shame, but keep me from shame; let them be terrified, but keep me from terror. Bring on them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction. {19} This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and stand at the gate of the people, through which the kings of Judah go in and out; stand also at all the other gates of Jerusalem. {20} Say to them, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and all people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem who come through these gates. {21} This is what the LORD says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. {22} Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your forefathers. {23} Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline. {24} But if you are careful to obey me, declares the LORD, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work on it, {25} then kings who sit on David's throne will come through the gates of this city with their officials. They and their officials will come riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever. {26} People will come from the towns of Judah and the villages around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin and the western foothills, from the hill country and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings, incense and thank offerings to the house of the LORD. {27} But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.'"

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: {2} "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." {3} So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. {4} But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. {5} Then the word of the LORD came to me: {6} "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the LORD. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. {7} If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, {8} and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. {9} And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, {10} and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it. {11} "Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, 'This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.' {12} But they will reply, 'It's no use. We will continue with our own plans; each of us will follow the stubbornness of his evil heart.'" {13} Therefore this is what the LORD says: "Inquire among the nations: Who has ever heard anything like this? A most horrible thing has been done by Virgin Israel. {14} Does the snow of Lebanon ever vanish from its rocky slopes? Do its cool waters from distant sources ever cease to flow? {15} Yet my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to worthless idols, which made them stumble in their ways and in the ancient paths. They made them walk in bypaths and on roads not built up. {16} Their land will be laid waste, an object of lasting scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads. {17} Like a wind from the east, I will scatter them before their enemies; I will show them my back and not my face in the day of their disaster." {18} They said, "Come, let's make plans against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priest will not be lost, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let's attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says." {19} Listen to me, O LORD; hear what my accusers are saying! {20} Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember that I stood before you and spoke in their behalf to turn your wrath away from them. {21} So give their children over to famine; hand them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives be made childless and widows; let their men be put to death, their young men slain by the sword in battle. {22} Let a cry be heard from their houses when you suddenly bring invaders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet. {23} But you know, O LORD, all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.

This is what the LORD says: "Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests {2} and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, {3} and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. {4} For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. {5} They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal--something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. {6} So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. {7} "'In this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. {8} I will devastate this city and make it an object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds. {9} I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh during the stress of the siege imposed on them by the enemies who seek their lives.' {10} "Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, {11} and say to them, 'This is what the LORD Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter's jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. {12} This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth. {13} The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth--all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.'" {14} Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the Lord's temple and said to all the people, {15} "This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: 'Listen! I am going to bring on this city and the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.'"

When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the chief officer in the temple of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, {2} he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the Lord's temple. {3} The next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "The Lord's name for you is not Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib. {4} For this is what the LORD says: 'I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I will hand all Judah over to the king of Babylon, who will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword. {5} I will hand over to their enemies all the wealth of this city--all its products, all its valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away as plunder and carry it off to Babylon. {6} And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into exile to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.'" {7} O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived ; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. {8} Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. {9} But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. {10} I hear many whispering, "Terror on every side! Report him! Let's report him!" All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, "Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him." {11} But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten. {12} O LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. {13} Sing to the LORD! Give praise to the LORD! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked. {14} Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! {15} Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, "A child is born to you--a son!" {16} May that man be like the towns the LORD overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon. {17} For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever. {18} Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?.'"

The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. They said: {2} "Inquire now of the LORD for us because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is attacking us. Perhaps the LORD will perform wonders for us as in times past so that he will withdraw from us." {3} But Jeremiah answered them, "Tell Zedekiah, {4} 'This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I am about to turn against you the weapons of war that are in your hands, which you are using to fight the king of Babylon and the Babylonians who are outside the wall besieging you. And I will gather them inside this city. {5} I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in anger and fury and great wrath. {6} I will strike down those who live in this city--both men and animals--and they will die of a terrible plague. {7} After that, declares the LORD, I will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the people in this city who survive the plague, sword and famine, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to their enemies who seek their lives. He will put them to the sword; he will show them no mercy or pity or compassion.' {8} "Furthermore, tell the people, 'This is what the LORD says: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death. {9} Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging you will live; he will escape with his life. {10} I have determined to do this city harm and not good, declares the LORD. It will be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will destroy it with fire.' {11} "Moreover, say to the royal house of Judah, 'Hear the word of the LORD; {12} O house of David, this is what the LORD says: "'Administer justice every morning; rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done-- burn with no one to quench it. {13} I am against you, Jerusalem, you who live above this valley on the rocky plateau, declares the LORD-- you who say, "Who can come against us? Who can enter our refuge?" {14} I will punish you as your deeds deserve, declares the LORD. I will kindle a fire in your forests that will consume everything around you.'"