The LORD told me, "You have observed well, because I'm watching over my message, to make sure it comes about."

because I'm about to summon all the families and kingdoms from the north," declares the LORD. "They'll come and each one will set up his seat at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all of its surrounding walls, and against all of the towns of Judah.

"You, generation, pay attention to this message from the LORD! Am I the desert to Israel, or a land of gloom? Why do my people say, "We're free to roam? We won't come to you anymore.'

"And in those days when you increase in numbers and multiply in the land," declares the LORD, "people will no longer say, "The Ark of the Covenant of the LORD,' and it won't come to mind, and they won't remember it or miss it, nor will it be made again.

In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and together they'll come to the land that I gave your ancestors as an inheritance."

Look, he comes up like clouds, and his chariots are like a whirlwind. His horses are as swift as eagles. Woe to us we're destroyed!

"Tell the nations, "Here they come!' Proclaim to Jerusalem, "The besieging forces are coming from a distant land. They cry out against the cities of Judah.

"They have lied about the LORD by saying, "He wouldn't do that! Disaster won't come on us. We won't see sword and famine.

Shepherds and their flocks will come against her. They'll pitch their tents all around her, and every one will tend his flock in his own place.

What good is frankincense that comes from Sheba to me, or sweet cane from a distant country? Your burnt offerings aren't acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me."

Daughter of my people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as one mourns at the death of an only son. For the destroyer will come on us suddenly.

"Stand at the gate of the LORD's Temple and proclaim this message there. Say, "Listen to this message from the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD.'"

and then come to stand before me in this house that is called by my name and say, "We're delivered' so we can continue to do all these things that are repugnant to God?

We waited for peace, but no good has come, for a time of healing, but instead there was terror.

This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Think about what I'm saying! Indeed, call out the professional mourners! Send for the best of them to come.

For death comes up through our windows; it has come into our palaces to eliminate children from the streets and young men from the town squares.

They're worthless, a work of mockery, and when the time of punishment comes, they'll perish.

On all the barren heights in the desert destroyers will come. Indeed, a sword of the LORD will devour from one end of the land to the other. There will be no peace for any person.

Say to the king and the queen mother, "Come take a lowly seat, because your beautiful crowns have fallen off your heads."

I'll make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. At noontime I'll send a destroyer against the mother of a young man. I'll cause terror and anguish to come to her unexpectedly.

"They'll die of deadly diseases. People won't mourn for them, nor will they be buried. They'll be dung on the surface of the ground, and they'll come to an end with the sword and with famine. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the land."

LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in a time of difficulty, to you the nations will come, and from the ends of the earth they'll say, "Surely our ancestors inherited deception, things that are worthless, and in which there is no profit."

He will be like a bush in the desert, and he won't see when good comes. He will dwell in parched places in the wilderness, a land of salt, without inhabitants.

He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by a stream. He won't fear when the heat comes, and his leaves will be green. In a year of drought he won't be concerned, nor will he stop producing fruit."

Look, they're saying to me, "Where is the message from the LORD? Let it come about!"

I haven't run away from being your shepherd, and I haven't longed for the day of sickness. You know what comes out from my lips, it's open before you.

The LORD told me, "Go, stand in the gate of the people, where the kings of Judah come in and go out, and in the other gates of Jerusalem as well.

then kings and princes, sitting on the throne of David will come through the gates of this city. They, their princes, the men of Judah, and the residents of Jerusalem will come riding in chariots and on horses, and this city will be inhabited forever.

They'll come from the cities of Judah, from the places around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, and incense, and bringing thanksgiving offerings to the LORD's Temple.

Then they said, "Come, let's make up a plot against Jeremiah. After all, the priest's instruction, the wise man's counsel, and the prophet's message won't be destroyed. So let's verbally attack him. Pay no attention to anything he says!"

"Then you are to break the jug in front of the men who have come with you,

Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow, and to finish my life living in shame?

"Look, I'm against you, city dwelling in the valley, rock of the plain," declares the LORD, "those of you who say, "Who can come down against us and who can enter our habitations?'

You who live in Lebanon, who build your nest in the cedars, how you will groan when pains come upon you, pain like that of a woman giving birth.

This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Don't listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you; they're giving you false hopes. They declare visions from their own minds they don't come from the LORD!

They keep on saying to those who despise me, "The LORD has said, "You will have peace."' To all who stubbornly follow their own desires they say, "Disaster won't come upon you.'

"From the thirteenth year of the reign of Ammon's son Josiah, the king of Judah, until the present time, for 23 years this message from the LORD has come to me, and I've spoken to you again and again, but you haven't listened.

Then send messengers to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon through the envoys who come to Jerusalem to king Zedekiah of Judah.

All the nations will serve him, his son, and his grandson until his country's time also comes, and then many nations and great kings will use him as a slave.

When a prophet prophesies peace, and what the prophet speaks comes about, he will be known as the prophet whom the LORD has truly sent."

When you call out to me and come and pray to me, I'll hear you.

Indeed, the time will come,' declares the LORD, "when I'll restore the security of my people Israel and Judah,' says the LORD. "I'll bring them back to the land that I gave to their ancestors, and they'll possess it.'"

Thanksgiving and the sounds of laughter will come out of them. I'll cause them to increase in numbers and not decrease. I'll honor them and not make them insignificant.

Their leader will be one of their own, and their ruler will come from among them. I'll bring him near, and he will approach me, for who would otherwise dare to approach me?' declares the LORD.

The fierce anger of the LORD won't turn back until he has accomplished and established the plan of his heart. In the days to come, you will understand this.

They'll come crying, and I'll lead them as they pray for mercy. I'll make them walk by streams of water, along a straight path on which they won't stumble. For I am Israel's father, and Ephraim is my firstborn."

They'll come and cry out with joy on the heights of Zion. They'll be radiant over the LORD's goodness, over the grain, the new wine, the fresh oil, and over the young of the flocks and herds. Their lives will be like a well-watered garden. They'll never again grow faint.

The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will come, set this city on fire, and burn it along with the houses on whose roofs incense was burned to Baal and liquid offerings were poured out to other gods in order to provoke me.

Now when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, "Come on! Let's go to Jerusalem because of the army of the Chaldeans and the army of Aram. And now we're living in Jerusalem.'"

Perhaps their pleas for help will come to the LORD's attention, and each of them will turn from his evil lifestyle in light of the great anger and wrath that the LORD has declared against this people."

Then all the officials sent Nethaniah's son Jehudi, (who was also the grandson of Shelemiah and Cushi's great-grandson), to Baruch, who said, "Take the scroll that you read to the people and come." Neriah's son Baruch took the scroll with him and went to them.

Concerning Jehoiakim, king of Judah, you are to say, "This is what the LORD says: "You burned this scroll, all the while saying, "Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon will definitely come, destroy this land, and eliminate both people and animals from it?'"

Pharaoh's army had come out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.

"This is what the LORD God of Israel says: "This is what you are to say to the king of Judah who sent you to me to inquire of me, "Look, Pharaoh's army that has come to help will go back to its own land of Egypt,

and then the Chaldeans will come back to fight against this city, to capture it, and burn it with fire."'

Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, telling you: "The king of Babylon won't come against you or against this land'?

If the officials hear that I've spoken with you, and they come to you and say, "Tell us what you told the king, and what the king told you; don't hide it from us, and we won't put you to death,'

Now, look, I've freed you today from the chains that were on your hands. If you want to come with me to Babylon, come, and I'll look after you. But if you don't want to come with me to Babylon, don't. Look, the whole land lies before you, so go wherever it seems good and right for you to go."

As for me, I'll remain at Mizpah to represent you before the Chaldeans who come to us. As for you, gather wine, summer fruit, and oil. Put it in your containers and live in your cities that you have taken over."

Nethaniah's son Ishmael went out from Mizpah to meet them, crying as he went. As he met them he told them, "Come meet with Ahikam's son Gedaliah."

He will come and attack the land of Egypt those meant for death will be put to death, those meant for captivity will be taken captive, and those meant for the sword will be put to the sword.

And why have you provoked me to anger by the works of your hands, by offering sacrifices to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to settle so that you cut yourselves off and become an object of ridicule and scorn among all the nations of the earth?

I'll take the remnant of Judah that determined to go to the land of Egypt to settle there, and all of them will come to an end in the land of Egypt. They'll fall by the sword, and they'll come to an end by famine. They'll become a curse, an object of horror, ridicule, and scorn.

The ones who escape the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, few in number. Then all the remnant of Judah who have come into the land of Egypt to settle will know whose message will stand, mine or theirs.

As certainly as I'm alive and living," declares the King, whose name is the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, "Indeed, one will come like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea.

Her cry will be like that of a fleeing serpent when they come in strength. They're coming to her with axes like woodcutters.

How can it be quiet, when the LORD has ordered disaster to come to Ashkelon and the seashore? That's where he has assigned it."

The pride of Moab is no more. In Heshbon they plotted evil against her: "Come and let's eliminate her as a nation.' Madmen will also be silenced, and the sword will pursue you.

The sound of crying will come from Horonaim, devastation and great destruction.

A destroyer will come to every town and no town will escape. The valley will be ruined and the plateau destroyed." This is what the LORD has said!

Moab will be destroyed, and the enemy will come up against her cities. Her finest young men will go down to slaughter," declares the King, whose name is the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

"Come down from glory, and sit on parched ground, O woman who lives in Dibon, for the destroyer of Moab will come up against you to destroy you. He will destroy your strongholds.

Judgment has come to the plateau: to Holon and Jahzah, and against Mephaath,

"The one who flees from the terror will fall into a pit. And the one who comes up out of the pit will be caught in a trap. For I'll bring upon her, that is upon Moab, the time of her punishment," declares the LORD.

Why do you boast in your valleys? Your valley is flowing away, faithless daughter, who trusted in her treasures, saying, "Who will come against me?'

I've heard a message from the LORD, and a messenger has been sent among the nations: "Gather together and come up against her, and rise up to fight.

Look, like a lion comes up from the thicket of the Jordan to a pasture that grows year round, so I'll drive them away from her in an instant, and I'll appoint whomever is chosen over her. Indeed, who is like me? Who gives me counsel? Who is the shepherd who will stand against me?"

In those days, and at that time," declares the LORD, "the people of Israel will come together with the people of Judah. They'll be weeping as they travel along, and they'll be seeking the LORD their God.

They'll ask the way to Zion, turning their faces in that direction. They'll come and join themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that won't be forgotten.

Come to her from afar. Open up her barns. Pile her up like heaps of grain, and completely destroy her. Don't leave any survivors.

Put all her bulls to the sword, let them go down to the slaughter. How terrible for them because their day has come, the time of their judgment.

"The sound of fugitives and refugees will come from the land of Babylon to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, vengeance for his Temple.

"Look, like a lion comes up from the thicket of the Jordan to a pasture that grows year round, so I'll drive them away from her in an instant, and I'll appoint whomever is chosen over her. Indeed, who is like me? Who gives me counsel? Who is the shepherd who will stand against me?"

I'll send foreigners to Babylon, and they'll winnow her, and devastate her land. They'll come against her from every side on the day of her disaster.

The LORD will vindicate us. Come! Let us declare the work of the LORD our God in Zion.

You who live beside many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, your life thread is cut.

They're worthless, a work of mockery, and when the time of punishment comes, they'll perish.

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it's pounded down. In just a little while, the time of her harvest will come."

The sea will come up against Babylon, and she will be covered by wave upon wave.

I'll punish Bel in Babylon, and I'll make what he has swallowed come out of his mouth. The nations will no longer stream to him. Even the wall of Babylon will fall.

"Come out of her, my people, flee for your lives from the LORD's anger!

Do this now, so your heart does not grow faint, and so you don't become frightened because of the rumors that are heard in the land a rumor comes one year and then after it another rumor comes the next year about violence in the land and one ruler against another ruler.

Then the heavens and the earth and all that are in them will shout for joy about Babylon because the destroyers will come out of the north against her," declares the LORD.

Go, you who escaped the sword! Don't stand around! Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come to your mind.

We have been put to shame because we have heard insults. Disgrace has covered our faces because foreigners have come into the Holy Places of the LORD's house.

Though Babylon should reach up to the heavens and fortify her high fortresses, from me destroyers will come to her," declares the LORD.

Jeremiah wrote on a single scroll all the disasters that would come on Babylon, all these things that were written about Babylon.

Jeremiah told Seraiah, "When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words,