"Indeed, go over to the coasts of Cyprus and see, send to Kedar and pay very close attention. See if there has ever been such a thing as this!

"Look up to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been ravished? You have sat beside the road, waiting for them like a nomad in the desert. And you have polluted the land with your fornication and your wickedness.

This is why the rain has been withheld and there are no spring showers. Yet you have a harlot's look and you refuse to be ashamed.

Instead, like an unfaithful wife leaves her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me, house of Israel," declares the LORD.

"My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain. Oh, the aching of my heart! My heart pounds within me; I cannot keep silent. For I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm for war.

For both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly unfaithful to me," declares the LORD.

You will say to them, "This is the nation that wouldn't listen to the voice of the LORD its God and wouldn't accept correction. Truth has perished; it has been eliminated from their discussions.'

They have built high places at Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire. I didn't command this, and it never entered my mind!

"Therefore, the time is near," declares the LORD, "when it will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. They'll bury in Topheth because there is no other place to do it.

How can you say, "We're wise, and the Law of the LORD is with us,' when, in fact, the deceitful pen of the scribe has made it into something that deceives.

"I would have gathered them," declares the LORD, "but there were no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig tree, and their leaves were withered. What I've given them has been taken away."'"

The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we haven't been delivered.

"Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, for then I would cry day and night for those of my people who have been killed.

The LORD told me, "Conspiracy has been found among the people of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem.

If you don't listen, I'll cry secretly because of your pride. My eyes will cry bitterly, flowing tears, because the LORD's flock has been taken captive.

What will you say when the LORD appoints over you as your head those whom you taught to be your allies? Pain will seize you like that seizing a woman about to give birth, will it not?

When you say to yourselves, "Why have all these things happened to me?' It's because of the extent of your iniquity that your skirt has been lifted up, and your heels have suffered violence.

The ground is cracked, because there has been no rain in the land. The farmers are disappointed, and they cover their heads in shame.

Why is my pain unending and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You are like a deceptive brook, whose waters cannot be depended on.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"In those days people will no longer say, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, but the children's teeth have been set on edge.'

Zedekiah, king of Judah, won't escape from the Chaldeans, for he has surely been given over to the king of Babylon. He will speak to him face to face and look at him eye to eye.

Look, the siege ramps have reached the city to take it. Because of the sword, famine, and plague, the city has been given over to the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you said has happened, and you are watching it occur!

Indeed, the Israelis and Judeans have been doing only evil in my presence since their youth. Indeed, the Israelis have done nothing but provoke me by what they have made with their hands," declares the LORD.

"Haven't you noticed what these people have been saying? "The LORD rejected the two families that he had chosen!' They have contempt for my people and no longer consider them a nation.

Now Jeremiah was still going in and out among the people since he had not yet been put in prison.

Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch in the king's house, heard that Jeremiah had been put in the cistern. The king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate,

When all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, he replied to them exactly as the king had ordered him. So they stopped speaking with him because the conversation had not been overheard.

All the leaders of the forces who were in the field along with their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Ahikam's son Gedaliah over the men, women, children, and the poor of the land who had not been taken into exile in Babylon.

So all the Judeans returned from all the countries where they had been scattered. They came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and they gathered wine and summer fruit in great abundance.

Don't be afraid of the king of Babylon as you have been. Don't fear him,' declares the LORD, "because I am with you to save you and deliver you from his control.

Kareah's son Johanan and all the military leaders took the entire remnant of Judah that had returned from all the nations where they had been scattered to settle in the land of Judah

From the time we stopped offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out liquid offerings to her, we have lacked everything, and we have been consumed by the sword and famine.

"You have said, "How terrible for me, for the LORD has added sorrow to my pain. I'm weary with my groaning, and I haven't found rest."'

Moab has been at ease from his youth. He has been undisturbed like wine on its dregs and not poured from vessel to vessel. He has not gone into exile. Therefore, his flavor has remained, and his aroma has not changed.

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.

"I'll kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it will devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad."

At the shout that Babylon has been seized, the earth will be shaken, and the cry will be heard among the nations.

Indeed, Israel and Judah haven't been abandoned by their God, by the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, although their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel."

One runner runs to meet another runner, and one messenger to meet another messenger, to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been seized from one end to the other.

The fords have been captured, and the marshes burned with fire. The soldiers are terrified.

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.

From the city he arrested one of the officers who had been in charge of the troops, seven men from the king's personal advisors who were found in the city, the secretary of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land, and 60 men of the people of the land who were found inside the city.