The LORD said to me, "Do not pray for this people for their good.

Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets prophesy lies in my name; I did not send them, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke I to them: they prophesy to you a lying vision, and divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart.

The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them?them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness on them."

"You shall say this word to them, 'Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound.

Do not abhor us, for your name's sake; do not disgrace the throne of your glory: remember, do not break your covenant with us.

Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren't you he, LORD our God? Therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things."

Then the LORD said to me, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

It shall happen, when they tell 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 captivity, to captivity.

I will appoint over them four kinds, says the LORD: the sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy.

I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask of your welfare?

Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.

She who has borne seven languishes; she has given up the spirit; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been disappointed and confounded: and their residue will I deliver to the sword before their enemies," says the LORD.

"Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth. I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet everyone of them curses me."

The LORD said, "Most certainly I will strengthen you for good; most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the time of evil and in the time of distress.

I will make them to pass with your enemies into a land which you do not know; for a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn on you."

"LORD, you know; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; do not take me away in your longsuffering: know that for your sake I have suffered reproach.

Your words were found, and I ate them; and your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name, LORD, God of Hosts.

Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook, as waters that fail?"

Therefore thus says the LORD, "If you return, then will I bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: they shall return to you, but you shall not return to them.

I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you," says the LORD.

The word of the LORD came also to me, saying,

They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth.

For thus says the LORD, 'Do not enter into the house of mourning, neither go to lament, neither bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the LORD, even loving kindness and tender mercies.

Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them;

neither shall men break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

and you have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you do not listen to me:

therefore I will cast you forth out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no favor.'

but, 'As the LORD lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them.' I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.

"LORD, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, 'Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, vanity and things in which there is no profit.

Shall a man make to himself gods, which yet are no gods?'"

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

You, even of yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you do not know: for you have kindled a fire in my anger which shall burn forever."

I, the LORD, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you; neither have I desired the woeful day; you know: that which came out of my lips was before your face.

Do not be a terror to me: you are my refuge in the day of evil.

Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but let not me be disappointed; let them be dismayed, but do not let me be dismayed; bring on them the day of disaster, and destroy them with double destruction."

Thus said the LORD to me: "Go, and stand in the gate of the children of the people, through which the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;

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

neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day holy, neither do any work: but make the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.

It shall happen, if you diligently listen to me," says the LORD, "to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein;

They shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the hill country, and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meal offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, to the house of the LORD.

But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched."'"

The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

"Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words."

Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was making a work on the wheels.

When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

"'House of Israel, can't I do with you as this potter?' says the LORD. 'Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.'

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it;

if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;

if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them.

Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the LORD: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return now everyone from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.'

But they say, 'It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do everyone after the stubbornness of his evil heart.'"

For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false gods; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up;

to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.

I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity."

Then they said, "Come, and let us make plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words."

"Give heed to me, LORD, and listen to the voice of those who contend with me.

Shall evil be recompensed for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.

Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, and their young men struck of the sword in battle.

Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you shall bring a troop suddenly on them; for they have dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.

Yet, LORD, you know all their counsel against me to kill me; do not forgive their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be overthrown before you; deal you with them in the time of your anger."

and go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you;

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

and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt offerings to Baal; which I did not command, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind:

I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life: and their dead bodies will I give to be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth.

I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, shall distress them."'

and shall tell them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that can't be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury.

Thus will I do to this place," says the LORD, "and to its inhabitants, even making this city as Topheth:

and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings to other gods."'"

Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD's house, and said to all the people:

It happened on the next day, that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, "The LORD has not called your name 'Pashhur,' but 'Magor-Missabib.'

For thus says the LORD, 'Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself, and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall kill them with the sword.

Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all its gains, and all the precious things of it, yes, all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies; and they shall make them a prey, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.

You, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house shall go into captivity; and you shall come to Babylon, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.'"

LORD, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded; you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am become a laughing-stock all the day, every one mocks me.

For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, "Violence and destruction." because the word of the LORD is made a reproach to me, and a derision, all the day.

If I say, "I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name," then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I can't contain it.

But, the LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance on them; for to you have I revealed my cause.

Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD; for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evildoers.

Cursed is the day in which I was born: do not let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.

Cursed is the man who brought news to my father, saying, A boy is born to you; making him very glad.

Why came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying,

"Please inquire of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us: perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us."

Then Jeremiah said to them, "You shall tell Zedekiah:

I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and animal: they shall die of a great pestilence.

To this people you shall say, "Thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.

He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he who goes out, and passes over to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be to him for a prey.

I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings," says the LORD; "and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is around her."'"

Thus said the LORD: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,

Thus says the LORD: "Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the foreigner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place.

For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah: "You are Gilead to me, the head of Lebanon. Yet surely I will make you a wilderness, cities which are not inhabited.

Many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this great city?'

Do not weep for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him who goes away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country."