For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beasts are fled; they are gone.

For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we plundered! we are greatly ashamed, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.

Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will punish all them who are circumcised with the uncircumcised;

Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the farthest corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

Thus says the LORD, Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them.

For the customs of the people are vain: for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

Since as there is none like unto you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might.

But they are altogether senseless and foolish: the wooden idol is a doctrine of vanities.

Silver beaten into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman, and of the hands of the goldsmith: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of skillful men.

They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their judgment they shall perish.

My tent is plundered, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent anymore, and to set up my curtains.

They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.

The LORD called your name, A green olive tree, fair, and with good fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.

Righteous are you, O LORD, when I plead with you: yet let me talk with you of your judgments: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they happy that deal very treacherously?

You have planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.

How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell in it? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our latter end.

My heritage is unto me like a speckled bird of prey, the birds round about are against her; come you, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.

And if you say in your heart, Why come these things upon me? For the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered, and your heels made bare.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, that are accustomed to doing evil.

O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do it for your name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.

Why should you be as a man confused, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; leave us not.

If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.

Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? are not you he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon you: for you have made all these things.

And it shall come to pass, if they say unto you, Where shall we go forth? then you shall tell them, Thus says the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.

You have forsaken me, says the LORD, you are gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against you, and destroy you; I am weary of relenting.

Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.

For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bore them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;

For my eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from my eyes.

Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?

Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise.

Be not a terror unto me: you are my hope in the day of evil.

O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? says the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived: you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am in derision daily, everyone mocks me.

Thus says the LORD God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, who besiege you outside the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.

And afterward, says the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.

For thus says the LORD unto the king's house of Judah; You are Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make you a wilderness; and cities which are not inhabited.

But your eyes and your heart are for nothing but for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from the passes: for all your lovers are destroyed.

Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel in which is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his descendants, and are cast into a land which they know not?

For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their might is not right.

For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, says the LORD.

I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none does return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.

How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;

One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

Then said the LORD unto me, What see you, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.

Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.

And as the bad figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad; surely thus says the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the rest of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:

And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, says the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.

And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that are written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.

And all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastlands which are beyond the sea,

Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the farthest corners,

And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.

A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, says the LORD.

Wail, you shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, you leaders of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are come; and you shall fall like a choice vessel.

And the peaceful habitations are cut down because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed right unto me.

But if they are prophets, and if the word of the LORD is with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon.

Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the rest of the elders who were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon;

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;

For thus says the LORD, That after seventy years are accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.

Know that thus says the LORD of the king that sits upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwell in this city, and of your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity;

Thus says the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.

And because of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, The LORD make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;

Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because you have sent letters in your name unto all the people that are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Mahseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying,

And these are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah.

Ask you now, and see whether a man does travail with child? why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?

I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: restore me, and I shall return; for you are the LORD my God.

In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.

Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for your eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:

And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the siege mounds, and by the sword;

Thus says the LORD; Again there shall be heard in this place, which you say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast,

Neither shall you build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days you shall dwell in tents; that you may live many days in the land where you are sojourners.

The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father's commandment: yet I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but you hearkened not unto me.

Then said the princes unto Baruch, Go hide, you and Jeremiah; and let no man know where you are.

And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, You are deserting to the Chaldeans.

Where are now your prophets who prophesied unto you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land?

And, behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and those women shall say, Your friends have set upon you, and have prevailed against you: your feet have sunk in the mire, and they have turned away from you.

But I will deliver you in that day, says the LORD: and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.

Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, Let me go, I pray you, and I will slay Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man shall know it: why should he slay you, that all the Jews who are gathered unto you should be scattered, and the remnant in Judah perish?

And said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech you, our supplication be accepted before you, and pray for us unto the LORD your God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes do behold us:)

Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; be not afraid of him, says the LORD: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.

And when he comes, he shall strike the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death; and such as are for captivity to captivity; and such as are for the sword to the sword.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; You have seen all the destruction that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwells in them,

Therefore my fury and my anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day.

They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.

Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to all the women, Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt:

Behold, I will watch over them for harm, and not for good: and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there is an end of them.

Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose words shall stand, mine, or theirs.

Why have I seen them dismayed and turned back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled in haste, and look not back: for fear was all around, says the LORD.

Who is this that comes up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?

Egypt rises up like a flood, and its waters are moved like the rivers; and he says, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and its inhabitants.

The nations have heard of your shame, and your cry has filled the land: for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, and they are fallen both together.

Why are your valiant men swept away? they stood not, because the LORD did drive them.

Also her hired soldiers are in the midst of her like fatted calves; for they also are turned back, and have fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity had come upon them, and the time of their punishment.

They shall cut down her forest, says the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.

O you sword of the LORD, how long will it be before you are quiet? put yourself into your scabbard, rest, and be still.

How say you, We are mighty and strong men for the war?

All you that are about him, bemoan him; and all you that know his name, say, How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod!