Has a nation changed their gods who are yet no gods? But My people have changed their Glory for that which does not profit.

The young lions roared against him; they gave their voice. And they made his land a waste; his cities are burned without inhabitant.

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 camel crossing its ways;

saying to a tree, You are my father; and to a stone, You gave me birth. 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!

But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble; for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah.

Will you not from this time cry to Me, My father, You are the guide of my youth?

Return, O backsliding sons, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come to You; for You are Jehovah our God.

Behold, he shall come up like clouds, and his chariots like a tempest. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are plundered!

Tell it to the nations: Behold! proclaim against Jerusalem! Besiegers are going to come from a distant land; and they will set their voice against the cities of Judah.

Like watchmen of a field, they are against her all around; because she rebelled against Me, says Jehovah.

Ruin on ruin is cried; for the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are laid waste, my curtains in a moment.

For My people are foolish; they have not known Me; they are stupid sons, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

O Jehovah, are not Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have destroyed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return.

So I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they do not know the way of Jehovah, nor the judgment of their God.

Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, and a wolf of the deserts shall rob them; a leopard shall watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out from them shall be torn in pieces, because their sins are many and their backslidings are multiplied.

Go up on her vine-rows and destroy; but do not make a full end; take away her branches, for they are not Jehovah's.

Their quiver is as an open grave; they are all mighty men.

But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they have revolted and are gone.

For among My people are found wicked ones; they lie in wait, as one who sets snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and grown rich.

Prepare war against her; arise and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! For the day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

As a fountain keeps fresh her waters, so she keeps fresh her evil; violence and spoil is heard in her; always before Me are grief and wounds.

To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are not circumcised, and they cannot listen. Behold, the Word of Jehovah is to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

Why does frankincense come to Me from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not pleasing, nor your sacrifices sweet to Me.

They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride on horses, set in order like a man for war against you, O daughter of Zion.

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

They are all grievous revolters, walking in slanders; they are bronze and iron; they are all corrupters.

The bellows are burned, the lead is melted by the fire; the refiner melts in vain; for the wicked are not plucked away.

Do not trust in lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, The temple of Jehovah, The temple of Jehovah are these.

and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

How do you say, We are wise, and the Law of Jehovah is with us? Lo, certainly the lying pen of the scribes has written falsely.

The wise are ashamed, they are terrified, and are captured. Lo, they have turned away from the Word of Jehovah; and what wisdom is in them?

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

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place for traveling men, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies. But they are not mighty for the truth on the earth; for they go from evil to evil, and they do not know Me, says Jehovah.

I will take up a weeping and a wailing for the mountains, and a mourning for the pastures of the wilderness; because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; nor can men hear the voice of the cattle. Both the birds of the heavens and the beast have fled; they are gone.

For a voice of weeping is heard out of Zion. How are we plundered! We are greatly ashamed, because we have forsaken the land, because they have thrown down our tents.

Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the sons of Ammon, and Moab, and all who are in the outermost corners, who dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are not circumcised, and all the house of Israel, those not circumcised in heart.

So says Jehovah, Do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be terrified at the signs of the heavens; for the nations are terrified at them.

For the customs of the people are vain; for one cuts a tree out of the forest with the axe, the work of the hands of the workman.

They are like a rounded post, and they cannot speak. They must surely be lifted, because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them; for they cannot do evil nor good, for it is not in them.

There is none like You, O Jehovah; You are great, and Your name is great in might.

But they are all at once foolish and animal-like; the tree is an example of vanities.

Silver beaten into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the goldsmith. Violet and purple is their clothing; they are all the work of skillful ones.

They are vanity, the work of delusion; in the time of their judgment they shall perish.

My tabernacle is ravaged, and all my cords are broken; My sons went away from me, and they are not. There is none to stretch out My tabernacle any more, and to set up My curtains.

Jehovah called your name, a green olive tree, fair, with fine fruit. With the sound of a great storm He has set fire to it, and its branches are worthless.

Righteous are You, O Jehovah, that I might contend with You; yet let me speak with You about Your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are all those happy who deal treacherously?

You have planted them; yea, they take root. They grow, yea, they make fruit. You are near in their mouth and far from their reins.

My inheritance is like a speckled bird to Me; the birds all around are against her. Go, gather all the beasts of the field, bring them to devour.

They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns. They are worn out, but they do not profit. And they shall be ashamed of your harvests because of the fierce anger of Jehovah.

The cities of the south have been shut up, and none are opening; Judah has been exiled, all of it has been peacefully exiled.

And if you say in your heart, Why do these things come on me? It is because of the greatness of your iniquity; your skirts are bared, and your heels suffer violence.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard its spots? Then you also may do good, who are accustomed to doing evil.

Judah mourns, and its gates droop. They are black to the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up.

O Jehovah, though our iniquities testify against us, act for Your name's sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against You.

Why should You be as a man stunned, as one mighty, yet who cannot save? Yet You, O Jehovah, are in our midst, and we are called by Your name. Do not leave us!

Then I said, Ah, O Lord Jehovah! Behold, the prophets are saying to them, You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine; but I will give you true peace in this place.

Are there any among the vanities of the nations who make rain fall? Or can the heavens give showers? Is it not You, O Jehovah our God? Then we will wait on You; for You do all these things.

And it will be, if they say to you, Where shall we go? Then you shall tell them, So says Jehovah: Those who are for death, go to death; and those for the sword, to the sword; and those for the famine, to the famine; and those for the captivity, to the captivity.

Their widows are more numerous about Me than the sand of the seas; I have brought on them, against a mother of a young man, a ravager at noonday; I have caused anguish and terror to fall on her suddenly.

Why has my pain been without end, and why is my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You surely are to me like a deceitful brook, waters that cannot be trusted.

For so says Jehovah concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who fathered them in this land:

For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.

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

Heal me, O Jehovah, and I shall be healed, save me, and I shall be saved; for You are my praise.

Do not be a terror to me; You are my hope in the day of evil.

O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? says Jehovah. Behold, As the clay in the potter's hands, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.

O Jehovah, You have deceived me, and I was deceived. You are stronger than I, and You have prevailed. I am in derision all the day; everyone laughs at me.

And afterward, says Jehovah, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and those who are left in this city from the plague, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life. And he shall strike them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, nor have pity, nor have mercy.

He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the plague. But he who goes out and falls to the Chaldeans who are all around you, he shall live, and his life shall be his prize.

For so says Jehovah to the king of Judah's house, You are Gilead to Me, and the head of Lebanon. Yet surely I will make you a wilderness, cities with no people.

But your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your unjust gain, and to shed innocent blood, and for cruelty, and to do violence.

Go up to Lebanon, and cry. And lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim, for all your lovers are destroyed.

Is this man Coniah a despised broken jar? Is he a vessel in which there is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they do not know?

For the land is full of adulterers. Yes, because of cursing the land mourns; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their power is not right.

For both prophet and priest are ungodly; yes, in My house I have found their evil, says Jehovah.

I have also seen in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing; they commit adultery and walk in falsehood. They also strengthen to the hands of evildoers, so that none returns from his evil; they are all of them like Sodom to Me, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.

How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? But they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart,

Then Jehovah said to me, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs are very good, and the bad are very bad, so that they cannot be eaten, they are so bad.

And like the bad figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad; surely so says Jehovah, So I will give to Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his rulers, and the rest of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt;

And I will send the sword, the famine, and the plague among them until they are destroyed from the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.

And it shall be, when seventy years are fulfilled I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, and the land of the Chaldeans, says Jehovah, for their iniquity, and I will make it an everlasting ruin.

and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are on the face of the earth; and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.

A noise shall come to the ends of the earth; for Jehovah has a controversy with the nations; He will enter into judgment with all flesh. He will give those who are wicked to the sword, says Jehovah.

Howl, shepherds, and cry; and roll, leaders of the flock! For the days of your slaughter and of your scatterings are fulfilled; and you shall fall like a desirable vessel.

And the peaceful pastures are cut down because of the fierce anger of Jehovah.

Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah indeed put him to death? Did he not fear Jehovah, and pray to Jehovah, and Jehovah repented of the evil which He had spoken against them? So we are doing great evil against our souls.

But if they are prophets, and if the Word of Jehovah is with them, let them now pray to Jehovah of Hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of Jehovah, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon.

And these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon.

And a curse shall be taken up from them by all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, May Jehovah make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,

So says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because you have sent letters in your name to all the people who are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying,

And these are the Words that Jehovah spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah.

Ask now, and see whether a man is giving birth? Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, like a woman in labor, and all faces are turned into paleness?

There is none to plead your cause; for your ulcer there are no healing medicines for you.

All your lovers have forgotten you; they do not seek you. For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the greatness of your iniquity; because your sins are many.

Why do you cry over your crushing? Your pain is incurable, for the greatness of your iniquity; because your sins are many, I have done these things to you.

So says Jehovah: A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her sons; she refuses to be comforted for her sons, because they are not.

I have surely heard Ephraim mourning to himself, saying, You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bull not broken in; turn me, and I shall be turned. For You are Jehovah my God.

In those days they shall not say any more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the sons are dull.