I replied, "Ah, LORD God! Look, I don't know how to speak, because I'm only a young man."

"As for you, get ready! Stand up and tell them everything that I've commanded you. Don't be frightened as you face them, or I'll frighten you right in front of them.

"I brought you into the fruitful land to eat its fruit and its good things. But you came in, defiled my land, and made my inheritance into an abomination.

You have done this to yourselves, have you not, by forsaking the LORD your God, when he is the one who led you on the way?

Your wickedness will be punished, and you will be corrected due to your acts of apostasy. Know and see that it's evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God, but the fear of me is not in you," declares the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies.

Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me," declares the Lord GOD.

"Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have rebelled against the LORD your God, and have scattered your favors to strangers under every green tree. But you haven't obeyed me,' declares the LORD.

I'll give you shepherds after my own heart, and they'll shepherd you with knowledge and good sense."

"A voice is heard on the barren heights, the weeping and pleading of the children of Israel because they have perverted their way. They have forgotten the LORD their God."

"Turn back, unfaithful people, and I'll heal your unfaithfulness." "Look, we're coming to you because you are the LORD our God.

Truly the hills are a deception, and the mountains are confusion. Truly, in the LORD our God is Israel's salvation."

"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."

Then I replied, "Ah, Lord GOD, you have completely deceived this people and Jerusalem when you said, "You will have peace,' while the sword is at their throat!"

"For my people are foolish, they don't know me. They're stupid children, they have no understanding. They're skilled at doing evil, but how to do good, they don't know."

Then I said, "These are only the poor, they're foolish, for they don't know the LORD's way, the requirement of their God.

Let me go to the leaders and speak to them. For they know the LORD's way, the requirement of their God." "But they, all together, have broken the yoke and torn off the restraints.

Therefore, this is what the LORD God of the Heavenly Armies says: "Because you people have said this, my words in your mouth will become a fire and these people the wood. The fire will destroy them.

When the people ask, "Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?' you are to say to them, "Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.'"

They don't say to themselves, "Let's fear the LORD our God, who gives rain in its season, both the autumn and the spring rain. He sets aside for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.'

Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have held back from you what is good.

Prepare for war against her. Get ready, let's attack at noon! How terrible for us that the day is coming to an end, and that the evening shadows are lengthening.

Get ready, let's attack at night, and destroy her fortresses."

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Cut down trees and set up siege works against Jerusalem. It is the city to be judged, and there is oppression throughout the entire city.

Were they ashamed because they did what was repugnant to God? They were not ashamed at all they don't even know how to blush! Therefore they'll fall with those who fall. When I punish them, they'll be brought down," says the LORD.

This is what the LORD says: "Stand beside the roads and watch. Ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is. Walk in it and find rest for yourselves. But they said, "We won't walk in it!'

What good is frankincense that comes from Sheba to me, or sweet cane from a distant country? Your burnt offerings aren't acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me."

"Stand at the gate of the LORD's Temple and proclaim this message there. Say, "Listen to this message from the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD.'"

This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says:

and then come to stand before me in this house that is called by my name and say, "We're delivered' so we can continue to do all these things that are repugnant to God?

Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: "I'm about to pour out my anger and my wrath on this place, on people and animals, on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground. It will burn, and it won't be put out."

This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says:

but I did give them this command: "Obey me and I'll be your God, and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you so it will go well for you.'

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.'

"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.

"You are to say to them, "This is what the LORD says: "Will a person fall down and then not get up? Will someone turn away and then not turn back again?

Are they ashamed because they have done what is repugnant to God? They weren't ashamed at all; they don't even know how to blush! Therefore they'll fall with those who fall. When I punish them, they'll be brought down," says the LORD.

Why are we sitting here? Join together! Let's go to the fortified cities and perish there! For the LORD our God has condemned us to perish and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against him.

We waited for peace, but no good has come, for a time of healing, but instead there was terror.

Therefore, this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Look, I'll make these people eat wormwood and drink poisoned water.

Speak! "This is what the LORD says: "The corpses of people will fall like dung on the surface of the field, and like a row of cut grain behind the harvester when there is no one to gather it."'"

For the practices of the people are worthless. Indeed, a tree is cut down from the forest; it's the work of the hands of a craftsman with an ax.

Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field. They can't speak! They must always be carried because they can't walk! Don't be afraid of them because they can do no harm, nor can they do any good."

The LORD is the true God; he's the living God and the everlasting king. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

You are to say to them, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: "Cursed is the person who does not listen to the words of this covenant

which I commanded to your ancestors on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace. I said, "Obey me and do everything that I commanded you. Then you will be my people and I'll be your God.'

This is what the LORD told me: "Go and buy a linen belt for yourself, and put it around your waist. But don't let it get wet."

Take the belt that you bought and that is around your waist. Get up and go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a crevice in the rock."

After a long time, the LORD told me, "Arise, go to the Euphrates, and get the belt that I commanded you to hide there."

I went to the Euphrates and dug it up. I got the belt from the place where I had hidden it. The belt was ruined! It was not good for anything.

This evil people that refuses to listen to my words, that stubbornly pursues their own desires, and that follows other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt that is not good for anything.

"This is what you're to tell them: "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: "Every wineskin is to be filled with wine."' When they say to you, "Don't we know very well that every wineskin is to be filled with wine?',

Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the mountains at twilight. You hope for light, but he turns it into deep darkness. He changes it into heavy gloom.

Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots? Then you who are trained to do evil will also be able to do good.

Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD, look! The prophets are saying to them, "You won't see the sword and you won't experience famine. Rather, I'll give you lasting peace in this place.'"

Have you completely rejected Judah? Do you despise Zion? Why have you struck us, so that there is no healing for us? We hoped for peace, but no good came, for a time of healing, but there was only terror.

Can any of the worthless gods of the nations make it rain? Can the heavens themselves bring forth showers? Aren't you the one who does this, LORD our God? So we hope in you, for you are the one who does all these things.

The LORD said, "Have I not set you free for a good purpose? Have I not intervened for you with your enemies in times of trouble and times of distress?

Your words were found, and I consumed them. Your words were joy and my hearts delight, because I bear your name, LORD God of the Heavenly Armies.

Both the most and the least important people will die in this land, and they won't be buried. People won't mourn for them. They won't cut themselves, nor will they shave their heads for them.

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "In this place I'm about to bring an end to the sounds of happiness and rejoicing, the sounds of the bridegroom and the bride. I'll do it in front of your eyes and in your time.

"When you speak all these words to this people, they'll say to you, "Why has the LORD pronounced all this disaster against us? What is our iniquity, and what is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?'

Can a person make a god for himself? They are not gods!

He will be like a bush in the desert, and he won't see when good comes. He will dwell in parched places in the wilderness, a land of salt, without inhabitants.

The LORD told me, "Go, stand in the gate of the people, where the kings of Judah come in and go out, and in the other gates of Jerusalem as well.

But if that nation does evil in my eyes by not obeying me, I'll change my mind about the good that I said I would bring on it.

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.

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

""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.

"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.'"

Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate of the Temple.

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

"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.

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."'

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

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.'

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.

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."

"Am I a God who is near," declares the LORD, "rather than a God who is far away?

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.

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."

"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.

For this is what the LORD God of Israel says to me, "Take this cup of the wine of burning anger from my hand and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.

"You are to say to them, "This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Drink, get drunk, and vomit! Fall down and don't get up because of the sword I'm sending among you."'

When the Judean officials heard all these things, they came up from the king's house to the LORD's Temple and sat in the doorway of the New Gate of the LORD's Temple.

Now, change your habits and your deeds and obey the LORD your God, and the LORD will change his mind about the disaster that he told you about.

Look, I'm in your hands, so do with me what you think is good and right.

The officials and all the people told the priests and the prophets, "No death sentence for this man because he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God."

Some of the elders of the land got up and told all the assembled people,

Give them this order for their masters: "This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says, and this is what you are to say to your masters,

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel says about the vessels that remain in the LORD's Temple, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem,

"This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "I've broken the yoke of the king of Babylon,

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "I've put an iron yoke on the necks of all these nations to serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. They'll serve him, and I've even given the wild animals to him."'"

"This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles who were taken from Jerusalem into exile to Babylon,

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Don't let the prophets and diviners who are among you deceive you, and don't listen to them when they tell you their dreams.

"For this is what the LORD says: "When Babylon's seventy years are completed, I'll take note of you and will fulfill my good promises to you by bringing you back to this place.

This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says about Kolaiah's son Ahab and Maaseiah's son Zedekiah, who are prophesying lies to you in my name, "I'm about to give them into the domination of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will kill them before your eyes.

"This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Because you sent letters in your own name to all the people who are in Jerusalem, to Maaseiah's son Zephaniah the priest and to all the priests