Then I said, Ah, lord LORD! Behold, I know not how to speak, for I am a child.

Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says LORD, I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, how thou went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed. How then have thou turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?

How can thou say, I am not defiled; I have not gone after the Baalim? See thy way in the valley. Know what thou have done, a swift dromedary traversing her ways,

How thou trim thy way to seek love! Therefore even the wicked women thou have taught thy ways.

How can I pardon thee? Thy sons have forsaken me, and sworn by those who are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the harlots' houses.

How can ye say, We are wise, and the law of LORD is with us? But, behold, the FALSE pen of the scribes has wrought falsely.

Therefore thus says LORD of hosts: Behold, I will melt them, and try them, for how [else] should I do, because of the daughter of my people?

For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How we are ruined! We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.

How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell therein, the beasts are consumed, and the birds, because they said, He shall not see our latter end.

If thou have run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how can thou contend with horses? And though in a land of peace thou are secure, yet how will thou do in the pride of the Jordan?

I have seen thine abominations, even thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, on the hills, in the field. Woe to thee, O Jerusalem! Thou will not be made clean. How long shall it yet be?

Shall evil be recompensed for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before thee to speak good for them, to turn away thy wrath from them.

O inhabitant of Lebanon, who makes thy nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied thou shall be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!

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

How long will thou go here and there, O thou backsliding daughter? For LORD has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man.

And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How did thou write all these words at his mouth?

Moreover Jeremiah said to king Zedekiah, How have I sinned against thee, or against thy servants, or against this people, that ye have put me in prison?

The word that LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt.

Baldness has come upon Gaza. Ashkelon is brought to naught, the remnant of their valley. How long will thou cut thyself?

O thou sword of LORD, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard. Rest, and be still.

How can thou be quiet, since LORD has given thee a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea-shore. He has appointed it there.

How can ye say, We are mighty men, and valiant men for the war?

All ye who are round about him, bemoan him, and all ye who know his name, say, How the strong staff has broken, the beautiful rod!

How it is broken down! [How] they do wail! How Moab has turned the back with shame! So Moab shall become a derision and a horror to all who are round about him.

How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of my joy?

How the hammer of the whole earth is cut apart and broken! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!

How Sheshach is taken, and the praise of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!