Now the word of LORD came to me, saying,

But LORD said to me, Say not, I am a child. For to whomever I shall send thee thou shall go, and whatever I shall command thee thou shall speak.

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

Moreover the word of LORD came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what do thou see? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.

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

And the word of LORD came to me the second time, saying, What do thou see? And I said, I see a boiling caldron, and the face of it is from the north.

Then LORD said to me, Out of the north evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

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.

And the word of LORD came to me, saying,

Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says LORD, I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, how thou went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

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?

And I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat the fruit of it and the goodness of it. But when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.

The priests did not say, Where is LORD? and those who handle the law did not know me. The rulers also transgressed against me. And the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

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.

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

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?

For though thou wash thee with lye, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, says lord LORD.

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.

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

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.

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.

Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them; a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them; a leopard shall watch against their cities. Everyone who goes out from there shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are m

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.

Shall I not visit for these things? says LORD. And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

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

Therefore thus says LORD, the God of hosts: Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

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

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

For among my people are found wicked men. They watch as fowlers lay in wait. They set a trap; they catch men.

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.

Shall I not visit for these things? says LORD. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

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?

As a well casts forth its waters, so she casts forth her wickedness. Violence and destruction is heard in her. Continually before me is sickness and wounds.

Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from thee, lest I make thee a desolation, a land not inhabited.

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.

And their houses shall be turned to others, their fields and their wives together. For I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, says LORD.

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.

To what purpose does there come to me frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.

O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes. Make thee mourning, as for an only son, a most bitter lamentation. For the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.

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

and [then] come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered, that ye may do all these abominations?

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.

But go ye now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

therefore I will do to the house, which is called by my name, in which ye trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

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

Therefore pray thou not for this people, nor lift up cry nor prayer for them. Neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear thee.

The sons gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the 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.

Do they provoke me to anger? says LORD, [and] not themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?

Therefore thus says lord LORD: Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground. And it shall burn, and shall not be quen

But this thing I commanded them, saying, Hearken to my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people. And walk ye in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.

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.

Yet they hearkened not to me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff. They did worse than their fathers.

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.

Yea, the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times, and the turtledove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming, but my people know not the law of LORD.

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

Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is faint within me.

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?

For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt. I mourn. Dismay has taken hold on me.

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

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.

Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit. Through deceit they refuse to know me, says LORD.

Therefore thus says LORD of hosts: Behold, I will melt them, and try them, for how [else] should I do, because of the daughter of my people?

Shall I not visit them for these things? says LORD. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

Who is the wise man, who may understand this, and he to whom the mouth of LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through?

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

Thus says LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come, and send for the skilful women, that they may come.

And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.

but let him who boasts boast in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am LORD who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth. For in these things I delight, says LORD.

For thus says LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel [it].

Woe is me because of my hurt! My wound is grievous, but I said, Truly this is [my] grief, and I must bear it.

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.

O LORD, correct me, but in measure, not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.

which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you, so ye shall be my people, and I will b

that I may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day. Then I answered, and said, Amen, O LORD.

And LORD said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them.

For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.

And LORD said to me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

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

Therefore thus says LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape. And they shall cry to me, but I will not hearken to them.

Therefore do not pray thou for this people, nor lift up cry nor prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me because of their trouble.

What has my beloved to do in my house, seeing she has wrought lewdness [with] many, and the holy flesh has passed from thee? When thou do evil, then thou rejoice.

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

And LORD gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it. Then thou showed me their doings.

But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter. And I knew not that they had devised devices against me, [saying], Let us destroy the tree with the fruit of it. And let us cut him off from the land of the living, that hi

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.

But thou, O LORD, know me. Thou see me, and try my heart toward thee. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

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.

Is my heritage to me as a speckled bird of prey? Are the birds of prey against her round about? Go ye, assemble all the beasts of the field; bring them to devour.

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.

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, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, As LORD lives, even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people.

Thus says LORD to me, Go, and buy thee a linen sash, and put it upon thy loins, and do not put it in water.