Then I said, “Alas, Lord God!
Behold, I do not know how to speak,
Because I am a youth.”

But the Lord said to me,
“Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’
Because everywhere I send you, you shall go,
And all that I command you, you shall speak.

Be not afraid because of them; for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith Jehovah.

The LORD told me, "You have observed well, because I'm watching over my message, to make sure it comes about."

because I'm about to summon all the families and kingdoms from the north," declares the LORD. "They'll come and each one will set up his seat at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all of its surrounding walls, and against all of the towns of Judah.

And I will pass my judgments on them because of all their wickedness [in] that they have forsaken me, and they made sacrifices to other gods, and they bowed in worship to the works of their hands.

'And thou, thou dost gird up thy loins, and hast arisen, and spoken unto them all that I command thee: be not affrighted because of them, lest I affright thee before them.

They'll fight against you, but they won't prevail against you, because I am with you," declares the LORD, "to deliver you."

"Go thy way, cry in the ears of Jerusalem, and say, 'Thus sayeth the LORD: I remember thee for the kindness of thy youth, and because of thy steadfast love: in that thou followedst me through the wilderness, in an untilled land.

"Do so because my people have committed a double wrong: they have rejected me, the fountain of life-giving water, and they have dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns which cannot even hold water."

Has not this come on you because you have given up the Lord your God, who was your guide by the way?

Do not chase after other gods until your shoes wear out and your throats become dry. But you say, 'It is useless for you to try and stop me because I love those foreign gods and want to pursue them!'

“How well you prepare your path
To seek and obtain [adulterous] love!
Even the most wicked of women
Have learned [indecent] ways from you.

Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor: thou didst not find them breaking in; but it is because of all these things.

yet you say, 'But I am innocent, surely his anger has turned away from me.' Look, I [am] entering into judgment with you because of your saying, 'I have not sinned.'

Moreover, you will come away from Egypt with your hands covering your faces in sorrow and shame because the Lord will not allow your reliance on them to be successful and you will not gain any help from them.

And though she saw that, because Israel, turning away from me, had been untrue to me, I had put her away and given her a statement in writing ending the relation between us, still Judah, her false sister, had no fear, but went and did the same.

And it was because of the frivolity of her fornication that she defiled the land and committed adultery with the stone and with the tree.

"A voice [is] heard on [the] barren heights, the weeping of the pleas for mercy of the children of Israel, because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God.

Come back to me, you wayward people. I want to cure your waywardness. Say, 'Here we are. We come to you because you are the Lord our God.

"Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us, because both we and our ancestors have sinned against the LORD our God from our youth until this present time. We haven't obeyed the LORD our God."

Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my wrath goes forth like the fire and burns, and there is no [one who] extinguishes [it], because of the evil of your deeds."

Because of this gird yourselves [with] sackcloth, lament and wail, for {the burning anger} of Yahweh has not turned back from us.

Like watchers of a field they were against her from all around, because she has rebelled against me," {declares} Yahweh.

"You obtained this for yourself [because of] your way and your deeds. This [is] your doom, for [it is] bitter, yes, it has reached up to your heart."

My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace; because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

The Lord answered, "This will happen because my people are foolish. They do not know me. They are like children who have no sense. They have no understanding. They are skilled at doing evil. They do not know how to do good."

I looked, and the fertile field was a wilderness.
All its cities were torn down
because of the Lord
and His burning anger.

All this will happen because the Lord said, "The whole land will be desolate; however, I will not completely destroy it.

Because of this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above will become dark. Because I have spoken, I have planned, and I have not relented, and I will not turn back from it."

All the land is in flight because of the noise of the horsemen and the bowmen; they have taken cover in the woodland and up on the rocks: every town has been given up, not a man is living in them.

For I hear a voice, as of a woman in travail, anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion: she moaneth, she spreadeth forth her hands, saying, Woe unto me! for my soul faileth because of murderers.

I thought, "Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way. They act like fools because they do not know what the Lord demands. They do not know what their God requires of them.

Therefore a lion from [the] forest will kill them, A wolf [from the] desert plains will devastate them. A leopard [is] watching their cities, everyone [who] goes out from there will be torn, because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are numerous.

Because of these [things] shall I not punish?" {declares} Yahweh, "and on a nation who [is] like this, shall I not take revenge?

"Climb up upon their walls, beat them down, but destroy them not utterly: cut off their branches because they are not the LORD's.

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, "Because you have spoken this word, look, I [am] making my words in your mouth like a fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them.

"So then, Jeremiah, when your people ask, 'Why has the Lord our God done all this to us?' tell them, 'It is because you rejected me and served foreign gods in your own land. So you must serve foreigners in a land that does not belong to you.'

Even for me, will ye have no reverence? Enquireth Yahweh, And because of me, will ye not he pained? In that though I placed the sand as a bound to the sea, A decree age-abiding, and it should not pass beyond it, - When they would toss themselves Then should they not prevail, When the waves thereof would roar Then should they not pass beyond it,

Because of these [things] shall I not punish?" {declares} Yahweh, "and on a nation who [is] like this, shall I not take revenge?

All of this is because the Lord who rules over all has said: 'Cut down the trees around Jerusalem and build up a siege ramp against its walls. This is the city which is to be punished. Nothing but oppression happens in it.

"That is because, from the least important to the most important of them, all of them are greedy for dishonest gain. Prophets and priests alike, all of them practice deceit.

Let them be put to shame because they have done disgusting things. They had no shame, they were not able to become red with shame: so they will come down with those who are falling: when my punishment comes on them, they will be made low, says the Lord.

Hear, O earth, look, I [am] about to bring disaster to this people, the fruit of their plans, because they have not listened attentively to my words, and my teaching, they have rejected it also.

Do not go out into the field, And in the road, do not walk,-Because a sword, hath the foe, - Terror round about!

Refuse silver shall men them, because Jehovah hath rejected them.

Do not trust in the deceptive and lying words [of the false prophets who claim that Jerusalem will be protected by God because of the temple], saying, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

"For go now to my place that [was] in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell in the beginning, and see what I did to it {because of} the wickedness of my people Israel.

And now, because of your doing all these things," {declares} Yahweh, "and {I have spoken to you over and over again}, and you have not listened, and I called you, and you have not answered,

Then the Lord said, "As for you, Jeremiah, do not pray for these people! Do not cry out to me or petition me on their behalf! Do not plead with me to save them, because I will not listen to you.

"Cut off your hair and throw it away; let your lamentations rise on the barren heights, because the LORD has rejected and abandoned the generation that is subject to his wrath.

The Lord says, "I have rejected them because the people of Judah have done what I consider evil. They have set up their disgusting idols in the temple which I have claimed for my own and have defiled it.

“Therefore, take note! Days are coming”—the Lord’s declaration—“when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. Topheth will become a cemetery, because there will be no other burial place.

Therefore I will give their wives to others, their fields to conquerors, because from [the] smallest to [the] greatest, all of them make profit [for] unlawful gain, from prophet to priest, all of them practice deceit.

Let them be put to shame because they have done disgusting things. They had no shame, they were not able to become red with shame: so they will come down with those who are falling: in the time of their punishment they will be made low, says the Lord.

Why [are] we sitting? Gather, and let us go into the fortified cities, and let us perish there, for Yahweh our God has caused us to perish, and has provided drink for us, water of poison, because we have sinned against Yahweh.

Because I afflicted not sorrow upon myself, my heart was sick upon me.

Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with foreign idols?

"Because of the wound of the daughter of my people I am broken down, I mourn, horror has seized me.

Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has not the [spiritual] health of the daughter of my people been restored?

I wish I had a lodging place in the desert where I could spend some time like a weary traveler. Then I would desert my people and walk away from them because they are all unfaithful to God, a congregation of people that has been disloyal to him.

“Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor,
And do not trust any brother;
Because every brother deals craftily,
And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

You yourself live in the midst of deception, and because they are deceived they do not know me," declares the LORD.

Therefore, thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Look, I [am] about to refine them, and I will test them, for what else can I do, because of the {presence} of the daughter of my people?

Because of these [things] shall I not punish them?" {declares} Yahweh, "On a nation that [is] like this shall I not take revenge?

For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing, and for [the] pastures of [the] desert a lament, because they are laid waste so that no man passes through. And [the] sounds of cattle are not heard, from [the] birds of heaven to [the] animals they have fled, they are gone.

And Yahweh said, "Because of their forsaking my law that I set {before} them, and they have not obeyed my voice, and have not walked in it,

For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion, 'How we are devastated! We are very ashamed because we have left the land, because they have overthrown our dwelling places.'

That is, I will punish the Egyptians, the Judeans, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples. I will do so because none of the people of those nations are really circumcised in the Lord's sight. Moreover, none of the people of Israel are circumcised when it comes to their hearts."

Thus, saith Yahweh - Unto the way of the nations, become not ye accustomed, Nor at the signs of the heavens, be ye dismayed, - Because the nations are dismayed at them.

For the customs of the peoples are delusion;
Because it is wood cut from the forest,
The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool.

They are like a palm-tree, of turned work, and speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.

Because there is none like Thee, O Jehovah, Great art Thou, and great Thy name in might.

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 Yahweh [is] the true God, he [is] the living God, and {an everlasting king}. Because of his wrath the earth quakes, and [the] nations cannot endure his anger.

Jacob’s Portion is not like these
because He is the One who formed all things.
Israel is the tribe of His inheritance;
Yahweh of Hosts is His name.

Woe to me, because of my wound. My wound [is] incurable. But I said, "Surely this [is my] sickness, and I must bear it."

Because the shepherds are stupid and don't seek the LORD, therefore, they don't prosper, and their flock is scattered.

Pour out thine indignation rather upon the Gentiles, that know thee not, and upon the people that call not on thy name: And that because they have consumed, devoured and destroyed Jacob, and have rooted out his glory.

Yet they would not obey or pay attention; each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant, because they had not done what I commanded them to do.”

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

And Yahweh of hosts, the [one who] planted you, has spoken evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, that they have done to themselves, to provoke me to anger by making smoke offerings to Baal."

So I said to the Lord, "O Lord who rules over all, you are a just judge! You examine people's hearts and minds. I want to see you pay them back for what they have done because I trust you to vindicate my cause."

{How long} will the land mourn, and the vegetation of every field dry up, because of the wickedness of those who live in it? [The] animals and [the] birds are swept away, because they have said, "He does not see our future."

They have made it a desolation; it mourneth unto me, being desolate; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.

They have sown wheat and they have reaped thorns. They are exhausted, they do not profit. And they will be ashamed of your produce, because of {the burning anger} of Yahweh."

But if you will not listen to it, my inner self will weep in secret places, because of {the presence of} [your] pride. And my eyes will weep bitterly, and they will melt [in] tears, because the flock of Yahweh has been taken captive.

Say to the king and the queen mother, "Come take a lowly seat, because your beautiful crowns have fallen off your heads."

And if you say in your heart, 'Why have these [things] happened to me?' Because of the greatness of your iniquity your skirts are uncovered; your heels have endured violence.

This [is] your lot, the portion of your measure from me," {declares} Yahweh, "because you have forgotten me, and you have trusted in the lie.

Because of the ground, [which] is cracked because there was no rain on the ground. [The] farmers are ashamed, they cover their heads.

For even [the] doe in the field gives birth and forsakes [her young], because there is no green growth.

And wild asses stand on [the] barren heights, they gasp [for] breath like the jackals. Their eyes fail because there is no vegetation."

And the people [to] whom they [are] prophesying will be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem {because of} the famine and the sword. And there will be no [one who] buries them, their wives, or their sons, or their daughters. And I will pour out on them their wickedness.

"And deliver this message to them: "Let tears run down my face, night and day, and don't let them stop, because my virgin daughter my people will be broken with a powerful blow, with a severe wound.

If I go out into the countryside, I see those who have been killed in battle. If I go into the city, I see those who are sick because of starvation. For both prophet and priest go about their own business in the land without having any real understanding.'"

Do not be turned from us in disgust, because of your name; do not put shame on the seat of your glory: keep us in mind, let not your agreement with us be broken.

Do any of the worthless idols of the nations cause rain to fall? Do the skies themselves send showers? Is it not you, O Lord our God, who does this? So we put our hopes in you because you alone do all this."

And I will make them a terror to all of the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, because of what he did in Jerusalem.

The Lord continued, "In every town in the land I will purge them like straw blown away by the wind. I will destroy my people. I will kill off their children. I will do so because they did not change their behavior.