But where are your gods you made for yourself?
Let them rise up and save you
in your time of disaster if they can,
for your gods are as numerous as your cities, Judah.

Let us lie down in our shame;
let our disgrace cover us.
We have sinned against the Lord our God,
both we and our fathers,
from the time of our youth even to this day.
We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

Declare in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say:

Blow the ram’s horn throughout the land.
Cry out loudly and say:
Assemble yourselves,
and let’s flee to the fortified cities.

They have not said to themselves,
‘Let’s fear the Lord our God,
who gives the rain, both early and late, in its season,
who guarantees to us the fixed weeks of the harvest.’

Set them apart for war against her;
rise up, let’s attack at noon.
Woe to us, for the day is passing;
the evening shadows grow long.

Rise up, let’s attack by night.
Let us destroy her fortresses.”

Why are we just sitting here?
Gather together; let us enter the fortified cities
and perish there,
for the Lord our God has destroyed us.
He has given us poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the Lord.

Let them come quickly to raise a lament over us
so that our eyes may overflow with tears,
our eyelids soaked with weeping.

You must tell them: This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let a curse be on the man who does not obey the words of this covenant,

for I was like a docile lamb led to slaughter.
I didn’t know that they had devised plots against me:
“Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit;
let’s cut him off from the land of the living
so that his name will no longer be remembered.”

But, Lord of Hosts, who judges righteously,
who tests heart and mind,
let me see Your vengeance on them,
for I have presented my case to You.

You are to speak this word to them:
Let my eyes overflow with tears;
day and night may they not stop,
for the virgin daughter of my people
has been destroyed by a great disaster,
an extremely severe wound.

Then the Lord said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My compassions would not reach out to these people. Send them from My presence, and let them go.

Hear how they keep challenging me,
“Where is the word of the Lord?
Let it come!”

Let my persecutors be put to shame,
but don’t let me be put to shame.
Let them be terrified, but don’t let me be terrified.
Bring on them the day of disaster;
shatter them with total destruction.

Then certain ones said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah, for instruction will never be lost from the priest, or counsel from the wise, or an oracle from the prophet. Come, let’s denounce him and pay no attention to all his words.”

Therefore, hand their children over to famine,
and pour the sword’s power on them.
Let their wives become childless and widowed,
their husbands slain by deadly disease,
their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

Let a cry be heard from their houses
when You suddenly bring raiders against them,
for they have dug a pit to capture me
and have hidden snares for my feet.

But You, Lord, know
all their deadly plots against me.
Do not wipe out their guilt;
do not blot out their sin before You.
Let them be forced to stumble before You;
deal with them in the time of Your anger.

For I have heard the gossip of many people,
“Terror is on every side!
Report him; let’s report him!”
Everyone I trusted watches for my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived
so that we might prevail against him
and take our vengeance on him.”

Lord of Hosts, testing the righteous
and seeing the heart and mind,
let me see Your vengeance on them,
for I have presented my case to You.

May the day I was born
be cursed.
May the day my mother bore me
never be blessed.

Let that man be like the cities
the Lord demolished without compassion.
Let him hear an outcry in the morning
and a war cry at noontime

If they are indeed prophets and if the word of the Lord is with them, let them intercede with the Lord of Hosts not to let the articles that remain in the Lord’s temple, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem go to Babylon.’

For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Don’t let your prophets who are among you and your diviners deceive you, and don’t listen to the dreams you elicit from them,

For there will be a day when watchmen will call out
in the hill country of Ephraim,
“Get up, let’s go up to Zion,
to Yahweh our God!”

Yet I will certainly bring health and healing to it and will indeed heal them. I will let them experience the abundance of peace and truth.

However, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched into the land, we said: Come, let’s go into Jerusalem to get away from the Chaldean and Aramean armies. So we have been living in Jerusalem.”

Then Zedekiah warned Jeremiah, “Don’t let anyone know about these things or you will die.

“Take him, look after him, and don’t let any harm come to him; do for him whatever he says.”

Then Johanan son of Kareah suggested to Gedaliah in private at Mizpah, “Let me go kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah. No one will know it. Why should he kill you and scatter all of Judah that has gathered to you so that the remnant of Judah would perish?”

Rise up, you cavalry!
Race furiously, you chariots!
Let the warriors go out—
Cush and Put,
who are able to handle shields,
and the Ludim,
who are able to handle and string the bow.

He continues to stumble.
Indeed, each falls over the other.
They say, “Get up! Let’s return to our people
and to the land of our birth,
away from the sword that oppresses.”

There they will cry out,
“Pharaoh king of Egypt was all noise;
he let the opportune moment pass.”

There is no longer praise for Moab;
they plan harm against her in Heshbon:
Come, let’s cut her off from nationhood.
Also, Madmen, you will be silenced;
the sword will pursue you.

Abandon your fatherless; I will preserve them;
let your widows trust in Me.

Put all her young bulls to the sword;
let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them, because their day has come,
the time of their punishment.

Summon the archers to Babylon,
all who string the bow;
camp all around her; let none escape.
Repay her according to her deeds;
just as she has done, do the same to her,
for she has acted arrogantly against the Lord,
against the Holy One of Israel.

Don’t let the archer string his bow;
don’t let him put on his armor.
Don’t spare her young men;
completely destroy her entire army!

We tried to heal Babylon,
but she could not be healed.
Abandon her!
Let each of us go to his own land,
for her judgment extends to the sky
and reaches as far as the clouds.

The Lord has brought about our vindication;
come, let’s tell in Zion
what the Lord our God has accomplished.

says the inhabitant of Zion;
“Let the violence done to me and my family be done to Babylon.
Let my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
says Jerusalem.

You who have escaped the sword,
go and do not stand still!
Remember the Lord from far away,
and let Jerusalem come to your mind.