So says Jehovah, What injustice have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me and have walked after vanity, and have become vain?

For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, to hew out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

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 camel crossing its ways;

a wild ass used to the wilderness; in the desire of her passion she snuffs at the wind; in her time who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not tire themselves; in her month they will find her.

But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble; for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah.

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

Jehovah also said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and has fornicated there.

Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of your heart, men of Judah and people of Jerusalem; lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn so that none can put it out; because of the evil of your doings.

Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in her open places, if you can find a man, if there is one who does justice, who seeks the truth; and I will pardon her.

But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they have revolted and are gone.

Why does frankincense come to Me from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not pleasing, nor your sacrifices sweet to Me.

The sons gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger.

Therefore so says Jehovah of Hosts, Behold, I will melt them and try them; for what else can I do for the daughter of My people?

I will take up a weeping and a wailing for the mountains, and a mourning for the pastures of the wilderness; because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; nor can men hear the voice of the cattle. Both the birds of the heavens and the beast have fled; they are gone.

If you have run with footmen, and they wore you out, then how can you compete with horses? And if you feel secure in the land of peace, then how will you do in the swelling of the Jordan?

Say to the king and to the queen mother, Humble yourselves, sit down; for your greatness shall come down, even the crown of your glory.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard its spots? Then you also may do good, who are accustomed to doing evil.

Judah mourns, and its gates droop. They are black to the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up.

If I go out into the field, then I see those killed with the sword! And if I enter into the city, then, behold, sicknesses of famine! Yes, both the prophet and the priest have gone up into a land that they do not know.

Are there any among the vanities of the nations who make rain fall? Or can the heavens give showers? Is it not You, O Jehovah our God? Then we will wait on You; for You do all these things.

You have forsaken Me, says Jehovah; you have gone backward; therefore I will stretch out My hand against you, and destroy you; I am weary with repenting.

She who bore seven languishes; she has breathed out her life; her sun has gone down while it was yet day. She has been ashamed and humiliated; and I will deliver the rest of them to the sword before their enemies, says Jehovah.

Can one break iron, iron or bronze from the north?

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?

O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? says Jehovah. Behold, As the clay in the potter's hands, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.

O house of David, so says Jehovah: Do judgment in the morning, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest My fury go out like fire, and burn so that none can put it out, because of the evil of your doings.

But your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your unjust gain, and to shed innocent blood, and for cruelty, and to do violence.

As I live, says Jehovah, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on My right hand, yet I would pull you out of there!

Is this man Coniah a despised broken jar? Is he a vessel in which there is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they do not know?

So Jehovah of Hosts says this concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them wormwood, and make them drink poisonous water; for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone forth into all the land.

Behold, the tempest of Jehovah has gone forth in fury, a whirling tempest. It shall whirl on the head of the wicked.

Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? says Jehovah. Do I not fill the heavens and earth? says Jehovah.

(After Jeconiah the king, and the queen mother, and the eunuchs, the rulers of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, had departed from Jerusalem.)

so says Jehovah of the king who sits on the throne of David, and of all the people who dwell in this city, and of your brothers who have not gone out with you into captivity;

So says Jehovah, If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be searched out, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says Jehovah.

So says Jehovah: If you can break My covenant of the day and My covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season,

And King Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah.

And Zedekiah the king commanded that they should put Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him a piece of bread out of the bakers' street daily, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.

And while he had not yet gone back, he said, Go back also to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and live with him among the people. Or go wherever it seems right to you to go. So the chief of the executioners gave him food and a reward, and let him go.

in that you provoke Me to wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to live, that you might cut yourselves off and that you might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?

So that none of the remnant of Judah who has gone into the land of Egypt to live there shall escape or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah to which they have a desire to return to live there. For none shall return except those who escape.

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

But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked all things, and have been devoured by the sword and by the famine.

And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make our cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our men?

So says Jehovah 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 fulfil our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to her. You will surely fulfil your vows and surely carry out your vows.

Yet the small number that escapes the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah; and all the remnant of Judah (who have gone into the land of Egypt to live there) shall know whose word shall stand, Mine or theirs.

How can it be quiet, since Jehovah has given it a command? He has set it there against Ashkelon, and against the seashore.

Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile. Therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.

Moab is plundered and has come up out of her cities. And his chosen young men have gone down to the slaughter, says the King whose name is Jehovah of Hosts.

O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for you with the weeping of Jazer. Your plants have gone over the sea; they reach to the sea of Jazer. A ravager has fallen on your summer fruits and on your grape crop.

But I have made Esau bare; I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself. His seed is ravaged, and his brothers, and his neighbors, and he is gone.

My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.

O you who live on many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, and the measure of your unjust gain.