How can you say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? 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 sniffs in the wind in her desire; in her mating time who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.

Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

They say, If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man's, may he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, says the LORD.

And I said after she had done all these things, Turn you unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

And I saw, when for all the causes for which backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

And it came to pass through the lightness of her harlotry, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with trees.

And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned unto me with her whole heart, but in pretense, says the LORD.

Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says the LORD.

Like keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she has been rebellious against me, says the LORD.

For I have heard a voice like a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewails herself, that spreads her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

Go you up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her branches; for they are not the LORD's.

The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed everyone in his own place.

Prepare you war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are lengthening.

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

For thus has the LORD of hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be punished; she is full of oppression in the midst of her.

As a fountain casts out her waters, so she casts out her wickedness: violence and plundering are heard in her; before me continually are grief and wounds.

Yea, the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times; and the turtledove and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the law of the LORD.

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?

Yet hear the word of the LORD, O you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbor lamentation.

I have forsaken my house, I have left my heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.

My heritage is unto me like a speckled bird of prey, the birds round about are against her; come you, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.

She that has borne seven languishes: she has breathed her last; her sun has gone down while it was yet day: she has been ashamed and confounded: and the rest of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says the LORD.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.

For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went forth out of this place; He shall not return here any more:

Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the ends of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travails with child together: a great company shall return there.

Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for grain, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

Thus says the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.

Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Take from here thirty men with you, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern, before he dies.

And now, behold, I loose you this day from the chains which were upon your hand. If it seems good unto you to come with me into Babylon, come; and I will look well after you: but if it seems wrong unto you to come with me into Babylon, remain here: behold, all the land is before you: where it seems good and convenient for you to go, there go.

But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goes forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of food, and were well-off, and saw no evil.

But since we ceased to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have lacked all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.

And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, apart from our husbands?

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying; You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hands, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her: you will surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows.

Also her hired soldiers are in the midst of her like fatted calves; for they also are turned back, and have fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity had come upon them, and the time of their punishment.

Her sound shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, like hewers of wood.

They shall cut down her forest, says the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.

Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.

Moab is plundered, and gone up out of her cities, and her chosen young men have gone down to the slaughter, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and watch; ask him that flees, and her that escapes, and say, What has happened?

O you that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that makes her nest in the sides of the cave's mouth.

Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs, says the LORD.

Why boast yourself in the valleys, your flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come against me?

I have heard a rumor from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent unto the nations, saying, Gather you together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.

Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the thickets of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will arraign me? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?

Damascus has grown feeble, and turns herself to flee, and fear has seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.

Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, says the LORD of hosts.

Declare you among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.

For out of the north there comes up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell in it: they shall move, they shall depart, both man and beast.

For, lo, I will raise up and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from there she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a skilled warrior; none shall return in vain.

And Chaldea shall be a plunder: all that plunder her shall be satisfied, says the LORD.

Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: everyone that goes by Babylon shall be appalled, and hiss at all her plagues.

Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all you that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against the LORD.

Shout against her round about: she has given her hand: her foundations have fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do unto her.

Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left.

Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them! for their day has come, the time of their punishment.

Call together the archers against Babylon: all you that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none of them escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do unto her: for she has been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, says the LORD.

A sword is upon the Chaldeans, says the LORD, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.

A sword is upon the diviners; and they shall become fools: a sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed.

A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mixed people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed.

A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad over their idols.

Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the thickets of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will arraign me? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?

And will send unto Babylon winnowers, that shall winnow her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.

Against him that bends let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifts himself up in his armor: and spare you not her young men; destroy you utterly all her army.

Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets.

Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD's vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense.

Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, that made all the earth drunk: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country: for her judgment reaches unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

Set you up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.

Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, their captains, and all their rulers, and all the land of their dominion.

The mighty men of Babylon have ceased to fight, they have remained in their strongholds: their might has failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwelling places; her bars are broken.

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.

Therefore thus says the LORD; Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.

Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land in which no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass by there.

My people, go you out of the midst of her, and deliver yourselves every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.

Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is in them, shall sing for Babylon: for the plunderers shall come unto her from the north, says the LORD.

Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will execute judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan.

Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall plunderers come unto her, says the LORD.

Because the LORD has plundered Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is raised:

Because the plunderer has come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, everyone of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompenses shall surely repay.

And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

Thus says the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and the nations, because of the fire, and they shall be weary.

And you shall say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.