At one moment I may speak about a nation or a kingdom to uproot it, pull it down, or destroy it.

At another moment I may speak about a nation or kingdom to build it or plant it.

"Now say to the people of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem, "This is what the LORD says: "Look, I'm designing a disaster just for you, and I'm making plans against you. Each one of you must repent from his evil way. Make your ways and deeds right."'

Does the snow of Lebanon ever vanish from its rocky slopes? Or does the cold water from a foreign land ever cease to flow?

Yet my people have forgotten me, and they burn incense to worthless idols that make them stumble in their journey on the ancient paths. They walk on trails, on a way that is not built up.

"Like the east wind, I'll scatter them before the enemy. I'll show them my back and not my face, on the day of their downfall.'"

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!"

LORD, pay attention to me. Listen to the voice of my accusers!

Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit to take my life. Remember! I stood before you and spoke good on their behalf in order to turn your wrath away from them.

Therefore, make their children undergo famine, and deliver them over to death in time of war. May their women be childless widows! May their men be slaughtered! May their young men be slain by the sword in battle!

Let a cry be heard from their houses because you have brought a raiding party against them suddenly. For they have dug a pit to capture me and have set traps for my feet.

But you, LORD, know all their plots to kill me. Don't forgive their iniquity, and don't erase their sin from your sight. Let them stumble before you. When it's time for you to be angry, act against them!

Go out to the Valley of Hinnom at the entrance to the Potsherd Gate, and there proclaim the words that I'm telling you.

"You are to say, "Hear this message from the LORD, you kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem!

""This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "I'm about to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of all who hear about it tingle. For they have forsaken me and have treated this place as foreign. In it they have burned incense to other gods that neither they, their ancestors, nor the kings of Judah knew. They have also filled this place with the blood of innocent people.

They built the high places for Baal to burn their children in the fire as a burnt offering to Baal something I didn't command, didn't say, nor did it ever enter my mind!

I'll shatter the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I'll make them fall by the sword before their enemies and at the hands of those seeking their lives. I'll give their dead bodies as food to the birds of the sky and to the animals of the land.

I'll cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and people will eat the flesh of their neighbors in the siege and in the distress to which their enemies and those seeking their lives will subject them."'"

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

and say to them, "This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "In this same way I'll break this people and this city, just as someone breaks a potter's vessel which he then cannot put back together again. They'll bury corpses in Topheth until there is no more room to bury anyone.

This is what I'll do to this place and its residents," declares the LORD, "making this city like Topheth.

The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be polluted like Topheth, as will be all the houses on whose roofs people burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out liquid offerings to other gods."'"

Then Jeremiah went from Topheth where the LORD had sent him to prophesy. He stood in the courtyard of the LORD's Temple, saying to all the people,

"This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "I'm about to bring on this city and all its towns all the disaster that I declared against it because they were determined not to obey my message.'"

The next day, Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, and Jeremiah told him, "The LORD has not named you Pashhur, but rather Magor-missabib.

For this is what the LORD says: "Look, I'm going to make you a terror to yourself and to all your loved ones. They'll fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. I'll give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He will take them into exile to Babylon, and he will execute them with swords.

I'll turn over all the wealth of this city, all its possessions, all its valuables, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah right into the hands of their enemies, and they'll plunder them, capture them, and take them to Babylon.

You, Pashhur, and all those living in your house will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon and there you will die. There you and all your loved ones to whom you have falsely prophesied will be buried.'"

You deceived me, LORD, and I've been deceived. You overpowered me, and you prevailed. I've become a laughing stock all day long, and everyone mocks me.

When I say, "I won't remember the LORD, nor will I speak in his name anymore, then there is this burning fire in my heart. It is bound up in my bones, I grow weary of trying to hold it in, and I cannot do it!

Butthe LORD is with me like a fearsome warrior. Therefore, those who pursue me will stumble and won't prevail. They'll be put to great shame, when they don't succeed. Their everlasting disgrace won't be forgotten.

LORD of the Heavenly Armies, who tests the righteous, who sees the inner motives and the heart, let me see you take vengeance on them, for I've committed my case to you.

Sing to the LORD, give praise to the LORD! For he saves the life of the poor from the hand of the wicked.

Let the day on which I was born be cursed. Don't let the day on which my mother gave birth to me be blessed.

Cursed is the person who brought the good news to my father, "A baby boy has been born to you," making him very happy.

because he didn't kill me in the womb, so that my mother would have been my grave and her womb forever pregnant.

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

The message that came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent to him Malchijah's son Pashhur and Maaseiah's son Zephaniah the priest:

"Please inquire of the LORD on our behalf, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is fighting against us. Perhaps the LORD will do some of his miraculous acts for us, and Nebuchadnezzar will depart from us."

Jeremiah told them, "This is what you are to say to Zedekiah,

"This is what the LORD God of Israel says: "I'm about to turn against you the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. I'll gather them into the center of this city.

I'll strike down the residents of this city, both people and animals, and they'll die from a terrible plague.

Afterwards," declares the LORD, "I'll give King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and the people those who are left in this city from the plague, the sword, and the famine into the control of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, right into the hand of their enemies and the hand of those who want to kill them. He'll execute them with swords and won't pity them. He won't spare them, nor will he have compassion on them."'

"You are to say to this people, "This is what the LORD says: "I'm about to set before you the way of life and the way of death.

Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, by famine, and by the plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live. He will save his life as a spoil of war.

Indeed, I'm firmly decided I'm sending calamity to this city, not good," declares the LORD. "It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will set it on fire."'

"To the house of the king of Judah say, "Hear this message from the LORD.

This is what the LORD says, house of David: "Judge appropriately every morning, and deliver those who have been robbed from the oppressor, so my anger does not break out like fire and burn with no one to put it out because of your evil deeds.

But I'll punish you according to what you have done," declares the LORD. "I'll start a fire in her forest, and it will consume everything around her."'"

This is what the LORD says: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah and tell him this:

"Listen to this message from the LORD, king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David you, your officials, and your people who enter these gates.

This is what the LORD says: "Uphold justice and righteousness. Deliver from their oppressor those who have been robbed. Don't mistreat or do violence to the alien, the orphan, or the widow, or shed the blood of innocent people in this place.

But if you don't listen to these words, I swear," declares the LORD, "that this house will become a ruin."'"

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.

I'll appoint people to destroy you men with their weapons. They'll cut down some of your choice cedars and incinerate them.

"Many nations will pass by this city and say to one another, "Why did the LORD do this to this great city?'

Then people will respond, "It is because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have bowed down to other gods and served them.'

"Don't cry for the dead or grieve for them. Weep bitterly for the one going away, because he won't return again nor see the land of his birth.

"For this is what the LORD says about Josiah's son Shallum, king of Judah, who reigned in place of his father Josiah: "He went out from this place and won't return to it again.

He will die in the place where they exiled him, and he won't ever see this land again.'"

Are you a king because you try to outdo everyone with cedar? Your father ate and drank and upheld justice and righteousness, did he not? And then it went well for him.

He judged the case of the poor and needy. And then it went well for him. Isn't this what it means to know me?

Therefore, this is what the LORD says about Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah, "They won't lament for him with these words: "How terrible, my brother, How terrible, my sister!' They won't lament for him with these words: "How terrible, lord, How terrible, your majesty!'

Go up to Lebanon and cry out, to Bashan and lift up your voice. Cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers have been crushed.

I spoke to you when you were secure, but you said, "I won't listen!" This has been your way since your youth, for you haven't obeyed me.

and give you to those who are trying to kill you, whom you fear that is, to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the Chaldeans.

I'll hurl you and the mother who gave birth to you into another land where you were not born, and there you will die.

As for the land to which you want to return, you won't return there!

"Is this man Jehoiachin a despised and shattered jar, a vessel no one wants? Why were he and his descendants hurled away, thrown into a land that they didn't know?

Land, land, land, listen to this message from the LORD!

Therefore, this is what the LORD God of Israel says about the shepherds who are shepherding my people, "You have scattered my flock and driven them away. You haven't taken care of them, and now I'm about to take care of you because of your evil deeds," declares the LORD.

"I'll gather the remnant of my flock from all the countries where I've driven them, and bring them back to their pasture where they'll be fruitful and increase in numbers.

Among the prophets of Jerusalem I saw a horrible thing, for they commit adultery and live a lie. They strengthen the hands of those who do evil, so that no one repents of his evil. All of them are like Sodom to me, and her residents like Gomorrah."

Therefore, this is what the LORD God of the Heavenly Armies says about the prophets, "I'm about to make them eat wormwood and drink poisoned water, because godlessness has spread from the prophets of Jerusalem throughout the land."

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.'

But who has stood in the LORD's council to see and hear his message? Who has paid attention to his message and obeyed it?

The LORD's anger won't turn back until he has accomplished what he intended to do. In the future you will clearly understand it.

I didn't send these prophets, but they ran anyway. I didn't speak to them, but they prophesied.

If they had stood in my council and had delivered my words to my people, then they would have turned them back from their evil way, from their evil deeds."

If a person hides himself in secret places, will I not see him?" declares the LORD. "I fill the heavens and the earth, do I not?" declares the LORD.

With their dreams that they relate to one another, they plan to make my people forget my name just as their ancestors forgot my name by embracing Baal.

Look, I'm against the prophets," declares the LORD, "who use their tongues to issue a declaration.

Look, I'm against those who prophesy based on false dreams," declares the LORD, "and relate them and lead my people astray with their lies and their recklessness. I didn't send them; I didn't command them, and they provide no benefit at all to these people," declares the LORD.

"Jeremiah, when these people, the prophet, or a priest ask you, "What is the oracle of the LORD?' say to them, "You are the burden, and I'll cast you out,'" declares the LORD.

This is what you should say to one another and among yourselves, "What has the LORD answered?' or "What has the LORD said?'

But you are to no longer mention the oracle of the LORD, because the oracle is only for the person to whom the LORD gives his message, and you have overturned the words of the living God, the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, our God.

This is what you should say to the prophet, "What has the LORD answered?' or "What has the LORD said?'

Since you're saying, "We have an oracle of the LORD,' therefore this is what the LORD says: He will answer your message with this message, "Burden of the LORD,' and I'll send you away with these words: "Don't say, "Oracle of the LORD."'

I'll bring on you everlasting reproach and everlasting humiliation that won't ever be forgotten."

After Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had taken Jehoiakim's son Jeconiah, king of Judah, along with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the smiths from Jerusalem into exile, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed right in front of the Temple of the LORD.

One basket contained very good figs like the first figs that ripen on the tree. The other basket contained very bad figs that were too bad to be eaten.

The LORD told me, "What do you see?" I replied, "Figs. The good figs are very good, and the bad figs are very bad. They're too bad to be eaten."

Then this message from the LORD came to me:

"This is what the LORD God of Israel says: "Like these good figs, so I'll regard as good the exiles of Judah whom I sent from this place to the land of the Chaldeans.

I'll look at them with good intentions, and I'll bring them back to this land. I'll build them up. I won't tear them down; I'll plant them and not rip them up.

I'll give them the ability to know me, for I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God when they return to me with all their heart.

""Like the bad figs that are too bad to be eaten for this is what the LORD says so I'll give up on Zedekiah king of Judah, along with his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem that is left in this land, and those living in the land of Egypt.

I'll make them into a horrifying sight to all the kingdoms of the earth; into a cause for contempt, into a byword, into a taunt, and into a curse in all the places to which I drive them.

This message from the LORD came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah. (This was also the first year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.)