Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD. Behold, I do not know how to speak; for I am a child."

But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am a child;' for to whoever I shall send you, you shall go, and whatever I shall command you, you shall speak.

Do not be afraid because of them; for I am with you to deliver you," says the LORD.

"You therefore put your belt on your waist, arise, and speak to them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you before them.

They will fight against you; but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you," says the LORD, "to deliver you."

"Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the LORD, "I remember you, the devotion of your youth, the love of your weddings; how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

The priests did not say, 'Where is the LORD?' And those who handle the law did not know me. The rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

Has a nation changed its gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

"Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding shall reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and that my fear is not in you," says the Lord, GOD of Hosts.

"For of old time I have broken your yoke, and burst your bonds; and you said, 'I will not serve;' for on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed yourself, playing the prostitute.

"How can you say, 'I am not defiled. I have not gone after the Baals'? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind in her desire. When she is in heat, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In her month, they will find her.

who tell wood, 'You are my father;' and a stone, 'You have brought me out:' for they have turned their back to me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, 'Arise, and save us.'

Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found in your skirts. You did not find them breaking in; but it is because of all these things.

"Yet you said, 'I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.' "Behold, I will judge you, because you say, 'I have not sinned.'

From there also you shall go forth, with your hands on your head; for the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, and you shall not prosper with them.

"Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see. Where have you not been lain with? You have sat for them by the ways, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.

Will you not from this time cry to me, 'My Father, you are the guide of my youth?'

I said after she had done all these things, 'She will return to me;' but she did not return; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, did not fear; but she also went and played the prostitute.

Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense," says the LORD.

Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, 'Return, you backsliding Israel,' says the LORD; 'I will not look in anger on you; for I am merciful,' says the LORD. 'I will not keep anger forever.

Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,'" says the LORD.

"But I said, 'How I would put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations.' and I said, 'You shall call me "My Father," and shall not turn away from following me.'

Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God."

"If you will return, Israel," says the LORD, "if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you shall not be removed;

For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, "Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns.

Set up a standard toward Zion. Flee for safety. Do not wait; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction."

At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, "A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse;

"For my people are foolish, they do not know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge."

For thus says the LORD, "The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.

For this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not relented, neither will I turn back from it."

Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers; they go into the thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.

O LORD, do your eyes not look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.

Then I said, "Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they do not know the way of the LORD, nor the law of their God.

"Go up on her walls, and destroy; but do not make a full end. Take away her branches; for they are not the LORD's.

They have denied the LORD, and said, "It is not he; neither shall evil come on us; neither shall we see sword nor famine.

The prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them."

Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far, house of Israel," says the LORD. "It is a mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, neither understand what they say.

"But even in those days," says the LORD, "I will not make a full end with you.

It will happen, when you say, 'Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?' Then you shall say to them, 'Just like you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.'

'Hear now this, foolish people, and without understanding; who have eyes, and do not see; who have ears, and do not hear:

Do you not fear me?' says the LORD 'Won't you tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it can't pass it? And though its waves toss themselves, yet they can't prevail; though they roar, yet they can't pass over it.'

They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They do not plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they do not judge the right of the needy.

"Shall I not punish for these things?" says the LORD. "Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces."

Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from you; lest I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited."

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down," says the LORD.

Thus says the LORD, "Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, 'Where is the good way?' and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." But they said, "We will not walk in it."

"I set watchmen over you, saying, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet.'" But they said, "We will not listen."

Hear, earth. 'Behold, I will bring disaster on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.

To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.'

Do not go forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and terror, are on every side."

The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away.

Do not trust in lying words, saying, "The LORD's temple, The LORD's temple, The LORD's temple, are these."

if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt:

Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known,

Now, because you have done all these works, says the LORD, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear; and I called you, but you did not answer:

Therefore do not pray for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear you.

Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

Do they provoke me to anger?" says the LORD. "Do they not provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?"

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched."

For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:

But they did not listen nor turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

yet they did not listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers."

"You shall speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you.

You shall tell them, 'This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of the LORD their God, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.

and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung on the surface of the earth.

"Moreover you shall tell them, 'Thus says the LORD: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return?

I listened and heard, but they did not speak what is right: no man repents him of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done?" Everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.

Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times; and the turtledove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people do not know the LORD's law.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No. They were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says the LORD.

For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you," says the LORD.

"'The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.'

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.

"They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me," says the LORD.

"Take heed everyone of his neighbor, and do not trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders.

They will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity.

Shall I not visit them for these things?" says the LORD; "shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?"

The LORD says, "Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein,

Thus says the LORD, "Do not let the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, do not let the rich man glory in his riches;

Thus says the LORD, "Do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them.

They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move.

They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and do not speak: they must be carried, because they can't go. Do not be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good."

Who should not fear you, King of the nations? For it appertains to you; because among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like you.

But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to withstand his indignation.

You shall say this to them: 'The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.'

The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of hosts is his name."

For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of the LORD: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.

LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.

LORD, correct me, but in measure: not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you, and on the families that do not call on your name: for they have devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation."

Yet they did not obey, nor turn their ear, but walked everyone in the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not do them.'"

Therefore thus says the LORD, 'Behold, I will bring disaster on them, which they shall not be able to escape; and they shall cry to me, but I will not listen to them.

Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry to the gods to which they offer incense: but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

Therefore do not pray for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me because of their trouble."

But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter; and I did not know that they had devised devices against me, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered."

Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, "You shall not prophesy in the name of the LORD, that you not die by our hand;"