But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.

Therefore I will beseech thee now, O LORD of Hosts, thou righteous judge, thou that tryest the reins and the hearts: let me see the avenged of them, for unto thee have I committed my cause.

And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.

But You, O Lord, know me [and understand my devotion to You];
You see me;
And You examine the attitude of my heart toward You.
Drag out the faithless like sheep for the slaughter [O Lord]
And set them apart for the day of slaughter.

For even your brothers, your father's family, even they have been untrue to you, crying loudly after you: have no faith in them, though they say fair words to you.

They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.

The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.

They have sown wheat but harvested thorns.
They have exhausted themselves but have no profit.
Be put to shame by your harvests
because of the Lord’s burning anger.

Now the word of Yahweh came to me a second [time], {saying},

So I went to the Euphrates and dug up the underwear and got it from the place where I had hidden it, but it was ruined—of no use at all.

These evil people, who refuse to listen to Me, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who have followed other gods to serve and worship—they will be like this underwear, of no use at all.

Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word; Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?

I will smash them against each other, fathers and sons alike”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “I will allow no mercy, pity, or compassion to keep Me from destroying them.”

Be obedient, give ear, take no disdain at it, for it is the LORD himself that speaketh!

The cities of the South (the Negev) have been closed up,
And there is no one to open them;
All Judah has been carried into exile,
Completely carried away into exile.

Then I said, "Look up, Jerusalem, and see the enemy that is coming from the north. Where now is the flock of people that were entrusted to your care? Where now are the 'sheep' that you take such pride in?

I have seen your disgusting acts, even your false behaviour and your cries of desire and your loose ways on the hills in the field. Unhappy are you, O Jerusalem, you have no desire to be made clean; how long will you be in turning back to me?

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah when there was no water.

"Judah shall mourn, men shall not go much more through his gates: the land shall be no more had in reputation, and the cry of Jerusalem shall break out.

And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.

Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.

Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.

And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.

Thus saith the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.

And the Lord said to me, Make no prayer for this people for their good.

And I replied, “Oh no, Lord God! The prophets are telling them, ‘You won’t see sword or suffer famine. I will certainly give you true peace in this place.’”

Then the Lord said to me, The prophets say false words in my name, and I gave them no orders, and I said nothing to them: what they say to you is a false vision and wonder-working words without substance, the deceit of their hearts.

Therefore, this is what the LORD says about the false prophets who prophesy in my name, "There will be no sword and famine in this land' (though I haven't sent them): "By the sword and by famine these prophets will be finished off!

And the people [to] whom they [are] prophesying will be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem {because of} the famine and the sword. And there will be no [one who] buries them, their wives, or their sons, or their daughters. And I will pour out on them their wickedness.

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.

Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul lothed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!

We know and acknowledge, O Lord,
Our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against You.

Then the Lord said to me, Even if Moses and Samuel came before me, I would have no desire for this people: send them away from before me, and let them go.

I will scatter thee abroad with the fan on every side of the land: I will waste my people and destroy them, for they have had no lust to turn from their own ways.

“Then I will make your enemies bring [you along with] your possessions
Into a land which you do not know [for there you will serve your conquerors];
For a fire has been kindled in My anger,
Which will burn upon you.”

O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.

I did not take my seat among the band of those who are glad, and I had no joy; I kept by myself because of your hand; for you have made me full of wrath.

For this cause the Lord has said, If you will come back, then I will again let you take your place before me; and if you give out what is of value and not that which has no value, you will be as my mouth: let them come back to you, but do not go back to them.

"Thou shalt take thee no wife, nor beget children in this place.

Death from evil diseases will overtake them; there will be no weeping for them and their bodies will not be put to rest; they will be like waste on the face of the earth: the sword and need of food will put an end to them; their dead bodies will be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.

Both the great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried, and they will not mourn for them, and no one will cut himself with a blade, and no one will shave himself for them.

No one will make a feast for them in sorrow, to give them comfort for the dead, or put to their lips the cup of comfort on account of their father or their mother.

“Now when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘For what reason has the Lord declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against the Lord our God?’

Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour.

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

But for now I, the Lord, say: "I will send many enemies who will catch these people like fishermen. After that I will send others who will hunt them out like hunters from all the mountains, all the hills, and the crevices in the rocks.

For my eyes are on all their ways: there is no cover for them from my face, and their evil-doing is not kept secret from my eyes.

O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

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

Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.

And you will, through your own fault, let go of your [grip on your] inheritance
That I gave you;
And I will make you serve your enemies
In a land which you do not know;
For you have kindled a fire in My anger
Which will burn forever.

And he will be like a juniper in the wilderness, and he will not see when good comes, and he will dwell [in the] parched places in the desert, [in] a land of salt flats, where no one lives.

For he will be like a tree planted by the waters, pushing out its roots by the stream; he will have no fear when the heat comes, but his leaf will be green; in a dry year he will have no care, and will go on giving fruit.

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

The deceitful maketh a nest, but bringeth forth no young: He cometh by riches, but not righteously. In the midst of his life must he leave them behind him, and at the last be found a very fool.

Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.

But as for me, I have not tried to escape from being a shepherd [walking] after You,
Nor have I longed for the woeful day [of judgment];
You know that, whatever I said
Was [spoken] in Your presence and was from You.

Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;

and carry forth no burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do any work; but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers,

But they gave no attention and would not give ear, but they made their necks stiff so that they might not give ear and might not get teaching.

And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;

But if you do not give ear to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and to let no weight be lifted and taken through the doors of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: then I will put a fire in its doorways, burning up the great houses of Jerusalem, and it will never be put out.

Now when I came to the Potter's house, I found him making his work upon a wheel.

Now and then there would be something wrong with the pot he was molding from the clay with his hands. So he would rework the clay into another kind of pot as he saw fit.

Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.

Shall not the snow that melteth upon the stony rocks of Lebanon moisten the fields? Or may the springs of waters be so graven away, that they run no more, give moistness, nor make fruitful?

Yet My people have forgotten Me.
They burn incense to false idols
that make them stumble in their ways
on the ancient roads
and walk on new paths, not the highway.

Then certain ones said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah, for instruction will never be lost from the priest, or counsel from the wise, or an oracle from the prophet. Come, let’s denounce him and pay no attention to all his words.”

Yet You, O Lord, know
All their deadly plotting against me;
Do not forgive their wickedness
Or blot out their sin from Your sight.
But let them be overthrown before You;
Deal with them in the time of Your anger.

And say, Hear the word of Jehovah, ye kings of Judah, and ye dwelling n Jerusalem; Thus said Jehovah of armies, God of Israel: Behold me bringing evil upon this place, which every one hearing. it, their ears shall tingle.

Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, that they knew not, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents,

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.

The Lord continued, "Now break the jar in front of those who have come here with you.

And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.

Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.

The next day following, Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks again. Then said Jeremiah unto him, "The LORD shall call thee no more Pashhur, that is, excellent and increasing; but Magormissabib, that is, fearful and afraid everywhere.

Lord, you coerced me into being a prophet, and I allowed you to do it. You overcame my resistance and prevailed over me. Now I have become a constant laughingstock. Everyone ridicules me.

because I have now preached long against malicious Tyranny, and showed them of destruction. For the which cause they cast the word of the LORD in my teeth, and take me ever to the worst.

But [if] I say, "I will not mention him and I will no longer speak in his name," then it becomes in my heart like a fire burning, locked up in my bones, and I struggle to contain [it], and I am not able.

And now, O LORD of Hosts, thou righteous searcher which knowest the reins and the very hearts: let me see them punished, for unto thee I commit my cause.

A curse on the day of my birth: let there be no blessing on the day when my mother had me.

Seek now: Jehovah for us; for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel is warring against us; perhaps Jehovah will do with us his wonders, and he shall go up from us.

that the Lord, the God of Israel, says, 'The forces at your disposal are now outside the walls fighting against King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the Babylonians who have you under siege. I will gather those forces back inside the city.

And after this -- an affirmation of Jehovah, I give Zedekiah king of Judah, And his servants, and the people, And those left in this city, From the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, Into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, And into the hand of their enemies, And into the hand of those seeking their life, And he hath smitten them by the mouth of the sword, He hath no pity on them, Nor doth he spare, nor hath he mercy.

For I have set my face against this city, sayeth the LORD, to plague it, and to do it no good. It must be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and be burnt with fire.'

Now, as to the house of the king of Judah, - hear ye the word of Yahweh: -

O house of David, thus says Yahweh, "Execute judgment in the morning, justice, and deliver [the] one who has been seized from [the] hand of [the] oppressor, lest my wrath goes forth like the fire and it burns, and there is no [one who] quenches [it] because of the evil of your deeds.

Listen, you who sit enthroned above the valley on a rocky plateau. I am opposed to you,' says the Lord. 'You boast, "No one can swoop down on us. No one can penetrate into our places of refuge."

Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

For this is what the LORD says about the house of the king of Judah, "You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon. Yet I'll surely make you a desert, towns where no one lives.

Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

For thus said Jehovah to Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, reigning, instead of Josiah his father, who went forth from this place: He shall no more return there:

But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.

Thinkest thou to reign, now that thou provokest me to wrath with thy Cedar trees? Did not thy father eat and drink, and prosper well, as long as he dealt with equity and righteousness?

He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD.

But your eyes and your heart are fixed only on profit for yourself, on causing the death of him who has done no wrong, and on violent and cruel acts.

So this is what the Lord has said about Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah: They will make no weeping for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they will make no weeping for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!

“He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey—
Dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.