This is what the LORD says: "What did your ancestors find wrong with me that they left me, and pursued worthless things, and so they became worthless?

"They didn't ask, "Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through the land of desert and pits, through the land of dryness and deep darkness, a land that people don't pass through, and where no one lives?'

"The priests didn't say, "Where is the LORD?' and those handling the Law didn't know me. The rulers transgressed against me, the prophets prophesied by Baal, and they followed that which does not profit.

I planted you myself as a choice vine, from the very best seed. How did you turn against me into a degenerate and foreign vine?

On your skirts is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor, even though you didn't catch them breaking in. Yet despite all these things,

In the time of King Josiah the LORD told me, "Have you seen what unfaithful Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she committed fornication there.

I thought, "After she has done all these things, she will return to me.' But she didn't return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw this.

I saw that even though I had sent unfaithful Israel away for all her adulteries and had given her a divorce decree, her treacherous sister Judah didn't fear, and she, too, committed adultery.

Yet in all this her treacherous sister Judah didn't return to me with her whole heart, but rather deceptively," declares the LORD.

LORD, don't your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they didn't flinch. You brought them to an end, but they refused to receive discipline. They made their faces harder than stone, and they refused to repent.

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.

Listen, earth! I'm about to bring calamity on this people, on the fruit of their plans, because they didn't listen to my words and they rejected my instruction.

"Go to my place that was in Shiloh, where I first caused my name to dwell. See what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.

Now, because you have done all these things," declares the LORD, "I spoke to you over and over again, but you didn't listen. I called to you, but you didn't answer.

Just as I did to Shiloh, I'll do to the house in which you trust and which is called by my name, the place that I gave to you and your ancestors.

"Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the meat. Indeed, when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I didn't speak or command them about burnt offering and sacrifice,

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.'

But they didn't listen, nor did they pay attention. They pursued their own plans, stubbornly following their own evil desires. They went backward and not forward.

But they didn't listen to me, and they didn't pay attention. They stiffened their necks, and they did more evil than their ancestors.

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!

Listen! My people cry from a distant land: "Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is her king no longer there?" "Why did they provoke me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign gods?"

The LORD said, "It is because they have forsaken my Law that I gave them. They didn't obey me and didn't live according to it.

Tell this to them: "The gods who didn't make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from these heavens."

But they would not listen or turn their ear, and each of them stubbornly followed his own evil desires. So I brought on them all the consequences of this covenant that I commanded them to fulfill, but they did not.'"

I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I didn't know that they had devised schemes against me. They told themselves, "Let's destroy the tree with its fruit. Let's eliminate him from the land of the living, so his name won't be remembered again."

For just as the belt clings tightly to a person's waist, so I've made all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah cling tightly to me,' declares the LORD. "I did this so that they would be my people, name, praise, and glory. But they wouldn't listen.'

Then the LORD told me, "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I didn't send them, I didn't command them, and I didn't speak to them. They're proclaiming to you false visions, worthless predictions, and the delusions of their own minds.

I'll make them a horrifying sight to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Hezekiah's son Manasseh, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

I'll winnow them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land. I'll make them childless. I'll destroy my people, for they didn't change their ways.

I didn't sit in the company of those who have fun, and I didn't rejoice. Because of your hand on me, I sat alone, for you filled me with indignation.

Then say to them, "It is because your ancestors abandoned me,' declares the LORD. "They followed other gods, served them, worshipped them, abandoned me, and didn't keep my Law.

As a partridge gathers together eggs that it didn't lay, so is a person who amasses wealth unjustly. In the middle of his life it will leave him, and in the end he will prove to be a fool."

But they didn't listen, nor did they pay attention. They were determined not to listen and not to accept instruction.

They built the high places for Baal to burn their children in the fire as a burnt offering to Baal something I didn't command, didn't say, nor did it ever enter my mind!

because he didn't kill me in the womb, so that my mother would have been my grave and her womb forever pregnant.

Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow, and to finish my life living in shame?

"Many nations will pass by this city and say to one another, "Why did the LORD do this to this great city?'

Are you a king because you try to outdo everyone with cedar? Your father ate and drank and upheld justice and righteousness, did he not? And then it went well for him.

"Is this man Jehoiachin a despised and shattered jar, a vessel no one wants? Why were he and his descendants hurled away, thrown into a land that they didn't know?

I didn't send these prophets, but they ran anyway. I didn't speak to them, but they prophesied.

Look, I'm against those who prophesy based on false dreams," declares the LORD, "and relate them and lead my people astray with their lies and their recklessness. I didn't send them; I didn't command them, and they provide no benefit at all to these people," declares the LORD.

But you didn't listen to me," declares the LORD, "so as to provoke me with the idols you make with your hands to your own harm.

As soon as Jeremiah finished saying everything that the LORD had commanded him to say to all the people, the priests, the prophets, and all the people seized him, telling him as they did: "You must certainly die!

But know for certain that if you kill me, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and its residents because the LORD really did send me to you to say all these things for you to hear."

"Did Hezekiah king of Judah or anyone in Judah kill him? Didn't he fear the LORD and seek the LORD's favor, and so the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he had spoken to them about. We're bringing great disaster on ourselves.

For I didn't send them," declares the LORD, "and they're falsely prophesying in my name, so I will drive both you and the prophets who prophesy to you out of the land."

that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon didn't take when he took Jehoiakim's son Jeconiah, king of Judah, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem from Jerusalem into exile to Babylon

The prophet Jeremiah told the prophet Hananiah, "Listen, Hananiah! The LORD didn't send you, and you are causing these people to trust in a lie.

Indeed, they're prophesying lies to you in my name. I didn't send them,' declares the LORD.

"But this is what the LORD says about the king who sits on David's throne, and about the people who live in this city your brothers who didn't go with you into exile:

because they didn't listen to my words,' declares the LORD. "When I sent my servants, the prophets, to you again and again, you didn't listen,' declares the LORD.

because they did something stupid in Israel. They committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and in my name they spoke lies that I didn't command them. I'm the one who knows, and I'm a witness," declares the LORD.'"

And now, why didn't you rebuke Jeremiah from Anathoth who prophesies to you?

"Send a message to all the exiles: "This is what the LORD says about Shemaiah from Nehelam, "Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, even though I didn't send him, and has made you trust a lie,"

where Zedekiah had confined him. Zedekiah had said, "Why did you prophesy and say these things? You said, "This is what the LORD says: "I'm about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.

They came and took possession of it, but they didn't obey you or walk according to your Law. They didn't do what you commanded them to do, so you caused all this calamity to happen to them.

They have turned their backs to me rather than their faces. Even though I taught them, teaching them again and again, they didn't listen to accept correction.

They built the high places of Baal that are in the Hinnom Valley in order to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech something that I didn't command, nor did it ever enter my mind for them to require this utterly repugnant thing and lead Judah into sin."

"At the end of seven years, each of you is to set free your fellow Hebrew who has sold himself to you and has served you for six years. You are to send him out from you with no further obligation." But your ancestors didn't obey me or pay attention.

You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming release for one another, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name.

Therefore, this is what the LORD God of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel says: "Look, I'm bringing on Judah and all the residents of Jerusalem all the disaster that I pronounced against them, because I spoke to them, but they didn't listen, and I called out to them, but they didn't answer."'"

So Neriah's son Baruch did just as Jeremiah the prophet instructed him, reading the words of the LORD from the scroll at the LORD's Temple.

Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll to all the people at the LORD's Temple. He did this from the office of Shaphan's son Gemariah the scribe, in the upper court at the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD's Temple.

Then they asked Baruch, "Please tell us how you wrote all the words. Did Jeremiah dictate them all?"

The king and all his officials who were listening to these words were not afraid, nor did they tear their garments.

Concerning Jehoiakim, king of Judah, you are to say, "This is what the LORD says: "You burned this scroll, all the while saying, "Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon will definitely come, destroy this land, and eliminate both people and animals from it?'"

Ebed-melech the Ethiopian told Jeremiah, "Put the worn out rags and clothes under your armpits under the ropes," and Jeremiah did as he said.

Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who did not have anything, and he gave them vineyards and fields on that day.

And now the LORD has brought it about and has done just as he said. Because you people sinned against the LORD and didn't obey him, this has happened to you.

When he still did not respond, Nebuzaradan said, "Return to Ahikam's son Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and remain with him among the people or go wherever it seems right for you to go." Then the captain of the guard gave him an allowance of food and a gift and sent him off.

They told him, "Are you aware that Baalis, the king of the people of Ammon, has sent Nethaniah's son Ishmael to take your life?" But Ahikam's son Gedaliah did not believe them.

Ten men who were among them told Ishmael, "Don't kill us, because we have stores of wheat, barley, oil, and honey hidden in the field." So Ishmael stopped and did not kill them or their companions.

Hoshaiah's son Azariah, Kareah's son Johanan, and all the arrogant men told Jeremiah, "You're lying! The LORD our God didn't send you to say, "Don't go to Egypt to settle there.'

So Kareah's son Johanan, all the military leaders, and all the people did not obey the instructions given by the LORD to remain in the land of Judah.

So they went into the land of Egypt, because they did not obey the LORD, and they travelled as far as Tahpanhes.

because of the wickedness that they did, provoking me to anger by continuing to offer sacrifices and worship other gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors had known.

"But they didn't listen or pay attention by turning from their wickedness and not offering sacrifices to other gods.

Have you forgotten the evil deeds of your ancestors, the evil deeds of the kings of Judah, the evil deeds of their wives, your evil deeds, and the evil deeds of your wives, that they did in the land of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem?

Rather, we will keep doing everything that we said we would by offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and by pouring out liquid offerings to her just as we, our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders did in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had plenty of bread, things went well for us, and we didn't experience disaster.

"As for the sacrifices that you, your ancestors, your kings, your officials, and the people of the land offered in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, the LORD remembered them, did he not? And they came to his attention, did they not?

The LORD could no longer bear it because of your evil deeds and the repulsive things that you did. So your land has become a ruin and an object of horror and ridicule without an inhabitant, as is the case today.

Because you offered sacrifices and sinned against the LORD, you didn't obey the LORD and didn't live according to his Law, his statutes, or his testimonies; therefore, this disaster has happened to you, as is the case today."

"Before your eyes I'll repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil that they did in Zion," declares the LORD.