"They didn't ask, "Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through the land of desert and pits, through the land of dryness and deep darkness, a land that people don't pass through, and where no one lives?'

You have done this to yourselves, have you not, by forsaking the LORD your God, when he is the one who led you on the way?

"But where are your gods that you made for yourselves? Let them rise up, if they can deliver you in the time of your trouble. You have as many gods as you have towns, Judah.

"Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us, because both we and our ancestors have sinned against the LORD our God from our youth until this present time. We haven't obeyed the LORD our God."

Declare in Judah, make known in Jerusalem, by saying, "Blow the trumpet in the land, cry out, and say, "Gather together and let's go to the fortified cities!'

I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void, at the heavens, and there was no light there.

Let me go to the leaders and speak to them. For they know the LORD's way, the requirement of their God." "But they, all together, have broken the yoke and torn off the restraints.

They don't say to themselves, "Let's fear the LORD our God, who gives rain in its season, both the autumn and the spring rain. He sets aside for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.'

Prepare for war against her. Get ready, let's attack at noon! How terrible for us that the day is coming to an end, and that the evening shadows are lengthening.

Get ready, let's attack at night, and destroy her fortresses."

This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Let them glean the remnant of Israel as thoroughly as they would the vine. Pass your hand over them like grape gatherers over the branches.

The bellows blow fiercely to consume the lead with the fire. The assayer keeps on refining, but the impurities aren't separated out.

"Change your ways and your deeds, and I'll let you live in this place. Don't trust deceptive words like these, and say, "The Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD,'

then I'll let you dwell in this land, the land that I gave to your ancestors forever and ever.

"Cut off your hair and throw it away; let your lamentations rise on the barren heights, because the LORD has rejected and abandoned the generation that is subject to his wrath.

Why are we sitting here? Join together! Let's go to the fortified cities and perish there! For the LORD our God has condemned us to perish and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against him.

Let them hurry and lament for us. Let tears run down from our eyes, and let our eyelids flow with water.

"Now, you women, hear the message from the LORD; listen to what he has to say! Teach your daughters how to mourn, let every woman teach her friend how to lament.

Rather, let the one who boasts, boast in this: that he understands and knows me, for I am the LORD who acts with gracious love, justice, and righteousness in the land. I delight in these things," declares the LORD.

I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I didn't know that they had devised schemes against me. They told themselves, "Let's destroy the tree with its fruit. Let's eliminate him from the land of the living, so his name won't be remembered again."

LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the righteous judge, the one who tests feelings and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them, for I've committed my cause to you.

This is what the LORD told me: "Go and buy a linen belt for yourself, and put it around your waist. But don't let it get wet."

Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the mountains at twilight. You hope for light, but he turns it into deep darkness. He changes it into heavy gloom.

I've seen your detestable behavior: your adulteries, your passionate neighing, your lewd immorality on the hills in the field. How terrible it will be for you, Jerusalem! You are unclean. How much longer will this go on?"

"And deliver this message to them: "Let tears run down my face, night and day, and don't let them stop, because my virgin daughter my people will be broken with a powerful blow, with a severe wound.

Then the LORD told me, "Even if Moses and Samuel were standing before me, I wouldn't be favorably disposed toward this people. Send them out of my presence! Let them go!

You will let go of your inheritance which I gave you, and I'll make you serve your enemies in a land that you don't know. For with my anger you have started a fire that will burn forever.

Look, they're saying to me, "Where is the message from the LORD? Let it come about!"

Let those who pursue me be put to shame, but don't put me to shame. Let them be terrified, but don't let me be terrified. Bring the day of judgment on them, and destroy them with double destruction!

This is what the LORD says: "Be careful! On the Sabbath day, don't carry any load or bring anything through the gates of Jerusalem.

Don't bring any load out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor are you to do any work. You are to consecrate the Sabbath day, just as I commanded your ancestors.

If you listen to me carefully," declares the LORD, "and don't bring a load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, and you consecrate the Sabbath day and don't do any work on it,

But if you don't listen to me, to consecrate the Sabbath day and not carry any load as you enter the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I'll start a fire in its gates. It will consume the palaces of Jerusalem and won't be extinguished."'"

Then they said, "Come, let's make up a plot against Jeremiah. After all, the priest's instruction, the wise man's counsel, and the prophet's message won't be destroyed. So let's verbally attack him. Pay no attention to anything he says!"

Let a cry be heard from their houses because you have brought a raiding party against them suddenly. For they have dug a pit to capture me and have set traps for my feet.

But you, LORD, know all their plots to kill me. Don't forgive their iniquity, and don't erase their sin from your sight. Let them stumble before you. When it's time for you to be angry, act against them!

Indeed, I hear many people whispering, "Terror on every side. Denounce him, let's denounce him!" All my close friends watch my steps and say, "Perhaps he will be deceived, and we can prevail against him and take vengeance on him."

LORD of the Heavenly Armies, who tests the righteous, who sees the inner motives and the heart, let me see you take vengeance on them, for I've committed my case to you.

Let the day on which I was born be cursed. Don't let the day on which my mother gave birth to me be blessed.

May that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without compassion. Let him hear a cry in the morning, and a battle cry at noon,

"Among the prophets of Samaria I saw a disgusting thing, for they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.

Let the prophet who has a dream relate the dream, but let whoever receives my message speak my message truthfully. What does straw have in common with wheat?" declares the LORD.

Look, I'm against those who prophesy based on false dreams," declares the LORD, "and relate them and lead my people astray with their lies and their recklessness. I didn't send them; I didn't command them, and they provide no benefit at all to these people," declares the LORD.

I'll destroy the sounds of gladness and rejoicing from them, the sounds of the bridegroom and the bride, the sound of the hand mill and also the light of the lamp.

But I'll let the nation that brings its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him remain in its own land," declares the LORD, "and they'll work it and remain in it."'"

If they're prophets, and if they have a message from the LORD, let them plead with the LORD of the Heavenly Armies so that the utensils that remain in the LORD's Temple, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem might not be taken to Babylon.

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Don't let the prophets and diviners who are among you deceive you, and don't listen to them when they tell you their dreams.

For there will be a day when the watchmen will call out on the hills of Ephraim, "Arise, let's go up to Zion to the LORD our God.'"

They'll come crying, and I'll lead them as they pray for mercy. I'll make them walk by streams of water, along a straight path on which they won't stumble. For I am Israel's father, and Ephraim is my firstborn."

"I've certainly heard Ephraim shuddering with grief as they said, "You have disciplined me, and I'm disciplined like an untrained calf. Restore me, and let me return, for you are the LORD my God.

This is what the LORD says, who gives the sun for light by day, the laws that govern the moon and stars for light by night, and who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. The LORD of the Heavenly Armies is his name:

They built the high places of Baal that are in the Hinnom Valley in order to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech something that I didn't command, nor did it ever enter my mind for them to require this utterly repugnant thing and lead Judah into sin."

I'm about to gather my people from all the lands where I've driven them in my anger, wrath, and great indignation. I'll bring them back to this place and let them live in safety.

Now when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, "Come on! Let's go to Jerusalem because of the army of the Chaldeans and the army of Aram. And now we're living in Jerusalem.'"

Perhaps their pleas for help will come to the LORD's attention, and each of them will turn from his evil lifestyle in light of the great anger and wrath that the LORD has declared against this people."

Then the officials told Baruch, "Go, hide yourself, both you and Jeremiah, and don't let anyone know where you are."

Then the officials told the king, "Let this man be put to death because he's undermining the efforts of the soldiers who remain in this city and that of all the people by speaking words like these to them. Indeed, this man is not seeking the well-being of this people, but rather their harm."

So they threw Jeremiah into a cistern that belonged to the king's son Malchijah and was located in the courtyard of the guard. When they let Jeremiah down with ropes, because there was no water in the cistern only mud Jeremiah sank into the mud.

Then Zedekiah told Jeremiah, "Don't let anyone know about these words and you won't die.

This is how Jerusalem was captured: In the tenth month of the ninth year of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it.

Then Kareah's son Jonathan spoke privately to Gedaliah at Mizpah: "Let me go kill Nethaniah's son Ishmael, and no one will know. Why should he take your life? Otherwise all the Judeans who have gathered around you will be scattered, and the remnant of Judah will perish."

Horses, get up! Chariots, drive furiously! Let the warriors go forward, Ethiopia and Put, who carry shields, and the Lydians who handle and bend the bow.

They repeatedly stumble and fall. They say to each other, "Get up! Let's go back to our people and to the land of our birth, away from the oppressor's sword.'

There they'll cry out, "Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is just a big noise. He has let the appointed time pass by.'

To Moab: This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "How terrible for Nebo, for it's laid waste. Kiriathaim is put to shame, it's captured. The fortress is put to shame, it's shattered.

The pride of Moab is no more. In Heshbon they plotted evil against her: "Come and let's eliminate her as a nation.' Madmen will also be silenced, and the sword will pursue you.

Gladness and rejoicing will be taken away from the fruitful land. From the land of Moab I'll cause the wine in the wine presses to stop flowing. The workers won't tread the grapes with a loud shout. There will be no shout!

Leave your orphans. I'll keep them alive. Let your widows trust in me."

My people have become lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them toward the mountains. They go from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their resting place.

Eliminate from Babylon the one who plants seeds and the one who uses the sickle at harvest time. Because of the oppressor's sword, let each one turn toward his own people and flee to his own land."

Put all her bulls to the sword, let them go down to the slaughter. How terrible for them because their day has come, the time of their judgment.

"Summon many to Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Camp all around her, let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds. Do to her just as she has done. For she has behaved arrogantly against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.

This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "The people of Israel are oppressed, along with the people of Judah. All their captors have held on to them and refused to let them go.

Don't let the archer bend the bow; don't let him rise up in his armor. Don't spare her young men. Completely destroy her entire army.

We tried to heal Babylon, but she wouldn't be healed. Leave her, and let each of us go to his own country. For her judgment has reached to the heavens, and is lifted up to the sky.

The LORD will vindicate us. Come! Let us declare the work of the LORD our God in Zion.

Go, you who escaped the sword! Don't stand around! Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come to your mind.

For the LORD is destroying Babylon, and he will make the loud sounds from her disappear. Their waves will roar like many waters, the noise of their voices will sound forth.