Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD. Behold, I do not know how to speak; for I am a child."

"Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the LORD, "I remember you, the devotion of your youth, the love of your weddings; how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

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

"How can you say, 'I am not defiled. I have not gone after the Baals'? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

How well you prepare your way to seek love. Therefore you have taught even the wicked women your ways.

"But I said, 'How I would put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations.' and I said, 'You shall call me "My Father," and shall not turn away from following me.'

Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?

How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

"How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes' houses.

How can you say, "We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us?" But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely.

Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how should I deal with the daughter of my people?

For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, 'How are we 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 animals are consumed, and the birds; because they said, "He shall not see our latter end."

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

I have seen your abominations, even your adulteries, and your neighing, the lewdness of your prostitution, on the hills in the field. Woe to you, Jerusalem. You 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 you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.

Inhabitant of Lebanon, who makes your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied you will be when pangs come on you, 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 you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man."

They asked Baruch, saying, "Tell us now, How did you write all these words at his mouth?"

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

Baldness has come on Gaza; Ashkelon is brought to nothing, the remnant of their valley: how long will you cut yourself?

You sword of the LORD, "how long will it be before you be quiet? Put up yourself into your scabbard; rest, and be still."

How can you be quiet, since the LORD has given you a command? Against Ashkelon, and against the seashore, there has he appointed it.'"

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

All you who are around him, bemoan him, and all you who know his name; say, "How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod."

How it is broken down. How they wail. How Moab has turned the back with shame. So shall Moab become a derision and a terror to all who are around him.'

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

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

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