Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou came forth out of the womb I sanctified thee. I have appointed thee a prophet to the nations.

Then LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And LORD said to me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.

See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

Then LORD said to me, Thou have well seen. For I watch over my word to perform it.

And I will utter my judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

For, behold, I have made thee this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the rulers of it, against the priests of it, and against the people of the l

Thus says LORD: What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and have become vain?

Has a nation changed [its] gods, which yet are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

For my people have committed two evils: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

The young lions have roared upon him, and yelled, and they have made his land waste. His cities are burned up, without inhabitant.

The sons also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of thy head.

Have thou not procured this to thyself, in that thou have forsaken LORD thy God when he led thee by the way?

And now what have thou to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? Or what have thou to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?

Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou have forsaken LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, says the Lord, L

For from old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bonds. And thou said, I will not serve, for upon every high hill and under every green tree thou bowed thyself, playing the harlot.

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,

Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst. But thou said, It is in vain. No, for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.

who say to a block of wood, Thou are my father, and to a stone, Thou have brought me forth. For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.

But where are thy gods that thou have made thee? Let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble. For according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.

Why will ye contend with me? Ye have all transgressed against me, says LORD.

In vain I have smitten your sons. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a destroying lion.

O generation, see ye the word of LORD. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Why do my people say, We have broken loose. We will come no more to thee?

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

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

Yet thou said, I am innocent. Surely his anger is turned away from me. Behold, I will enter into judgment with thee because thou say, I have not sinned.

O LORD, do not thine eyes look upon truth? Thou have stricken them, but they were not grieved. Thou have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused t

I will go to the great men, and will speak to them, for they know the way of LORD, and the law of their God. But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

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.

For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, says LORD.

They have denied LORD, and said, It is not he. Neither shall evil come upon us, nor shall we see sword nor famine.

And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Why has LORD our God done all these things to us? Then thou shall say to them, Just as ye have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so ye shall serve strangers in a land t

Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding, who have eyes, and see not, who have ears, and hear not:

Do ye not fear me? says LORD. Will ye not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it? And though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet they cannot prevai

But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart. They have revolted and gone.

Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you.

As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grown rich.

They have grown fat. They shine. Yea, they overflow in deeds of wickedness. They do not plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper. And they do not judge the right of the needy.

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means. And my people love to have it so. And what will ye do in the end thereof?

To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken. Behold, the word of LORD has become to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

They have also lightly healed the hurt of my people, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

Hear, O earth: Behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened to my words. And as for my law, they have rejected it.

They lay hold on bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses. Each one set in array, as a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Zion.

We have heard the report of it. Our hands grow feeble. Anguish has taken hold of us, [and] pangs as of a woman in travail.

I have made thee a prover [and] a fortress among my people, that thou may know and try their way.

Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that ye have not known,

Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says LORD.

And now, because ye have done all these works, says LORD. And I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not, and I called you, but ye answered not,

And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.

For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, says LORD. They have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.

And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.

And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshipped. T

And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I have driven them, says LORD of hosts.

I hearkened and heard, but they did not speak aright. No man repents of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Everyone turns to his course as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.

The wise men are put to shame. They are dismayed and taken. Lo, they have rejected the word of LORD, and what manner of wisdom is in them?

And they have lightly healed the hurt of the daughter of my people, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

I will utterly consume them, says LORD. There shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade, and [things] I have given them shall pass away from them.

Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there. For LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against LORD.

The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan. At the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles. For they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those who dwell therein.

Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off: Is not LORD in Zion? Is not her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with foreign vanities?

And they bend their tongue--their bow--for falsehood, and they have grown strong in the land, but not for truth. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says LORD.

And they will deceive each one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves to commit iniquity.

And LORD says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, nor walked in it,

but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them.

I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.

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.

Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the sons of Ammon, and Moab, and all who have the corners [of their hair] cut off, who dwell in the wilderness. For all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in

Thus ye shall say to them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.

My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken. My sons have gone forth from me, and they are not. There is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

For the shepherds have become brutish, and have not inquired of LORD. Therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.

Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name. For they have devoured Jacob. Yea, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with the

For according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem ye have set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.

For LORD of hosts, who planted thee, has pronounced evil against thee because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have wrought for themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense to Baal

But, O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously, who tries the heart and the mind, I shall see thy vengeance on them, for to thee I have revealed my case.

Thou have planted them. Yea, they have taken root, they grow. Yea, they bring forth fruit. Thou are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.

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?

For even thy brothers, and the house of thy father, even they have dealt treacherously with thee, even they have cried aloud after thee. Believe them not, though they speak fair words to thee.

I have forsaken my house. I have cast off my heritage. I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.

My heritage has become to me as a lion in the forest. She has uttered her voice against me. Therefore I have hated her.

Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard. They have trodden my portion under foot. They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

They have made it a desolation. It mourns to me, being desolate. The whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.

Destroyers have come upon all the bare heights in the wilderness. For the sword of LORD devours from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land. No flesh has peace.

They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns. They have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing. And ye shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce anger of LORD.

Thus says LORD against all my evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: Behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.

And it shall come to pass, after I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them. And I will bring them again, each man to his heritage, and each man to his land.

Take the sash that thou have bought, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.

This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and have gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this sash, which is good for nothing.

For as the sash clings to the loins of a man, so I have caused to cling to me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, says LORD, that they may be to me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory

And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, says LORD. I will not pity, nor spare, nor have compassion, that I should not destroy them.

Say thou to the king and to the queen-mother: Humble yourselves. Sit down, for your coronets have come down, even the crown of your glory.

What will thou say when he shall set over thee as head those whom thou thyself have taught to be friends to thee? Shall not sorrows take hold of thee as of a woman in travail?

And if thou say in thy heart, Why have these things come upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity thy skirts are uncovered, and thy heels suffer violence.

This is thy lot, the portion measured to thee from me, says LORD, because thou have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.

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?

Though our iniquities testify against us, work thou for thy name's sake, O LORD. For our backslidings are many. We have sinned against thee.

Thus says LORD to this people: Even so they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.

Then I said, Ah, lord LORD! Behold, the prophets say to them, Ye shall not see the sword, nor shall ye have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.

Then LORD said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I did not send them, nor have I commanded them, nor did I speak to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision, and divination, and a thing of naught, and the deceit of the