And it happened, the Word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

But Jehovah said to me, Do not say, I am a boy; for you shall go to all that I shall send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.

And Jehovah put forth His hand, and touched my mouth. And Jehovah said to me, Behold, I have put My Words in your mouth.

And the Word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.

And Jehovah said to me, You have seen well; for I will watch over My Word to perform it.

And the Word of Jehovah came to me the second time, saying, What do you see? And I said, I see a boiling pot; and its face is from the face of the north.

And Jehovah said to me, Out of the north an evil will be set loose on all the inhabitants of the land.

And I will pronounce My judgments against them regarding all their evil, those who have forsaken Me, and burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.

And the Word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, So says Jehovah, I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothals, when you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

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?

And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat its fruit and its goodness; but when you entered, you defiled My land and made My inheritance an abomination.

The priests did not say, Where is Jehovah? And they who handle the Law did not know Me; the shepherds also rebelled against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things not profitable.

Has a nation changed their gods who are yet 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, to hew out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Your own evil shall correct you, and your backslidings shall reprove you, therefore know and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken Jehovah your God, and that My fear is not in you, says the Lord Jehovah of Hosts.

Yet I planted you a noble vine, wholly a true seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate shoots of an alien vine to Me?

For though you wash yourself with potash, and multiply soap for yourself, yet your iniquity is marked before Me, says the Lord Jehovah.

saying to a tree, You are my father; and to a stone, You gave me birth. 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 you plead with Me? You all have sinned against Me, says Jehovah.

O generation, see the Word of Jehovah. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of darkness? Why do My people say, We roam freely; we will come no more to You?

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

Yet you say, Because I am innocent, surely His anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with you, because you say, I have not sinned.

They say, If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him and will be for another man, will he return to her again? Would not that land be greatly defiled? But you play the harlot with many lovers; yet come back to Me, says Jehovah.

Will you not from this time cry to Me, My father, You are the guide of my youth?

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.

And I said after she had done all these things, Turn to Me! But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, says Jehovah.

And Jehovah said to me, The backsliding Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

Go and cry these words toward the north, and say, Return, O backsliding Israel, says Jehovah; and I will not cause My anger to fall on you; for I am merciful, says Jehovah, and I will not keep anger forever.

Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have sinned against Jehovah your God and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice, says Jehovah.

And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

But I said, How shall I put you among the sons, and give you a pleasant land, a beautiful inheritance among the hosts of nations? And I said, You shall call Me, My Father, and shall not turn away from Me.

Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says Jehovah.

If you will return, O Israel, says Jehovah, return to Me. And if you will put away your abominations out of your sight, then you shall not be moved.

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.

At that time it shall be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind from the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of My people, not to sift nor to cleanse.

A wind more full than these shall come for Me. Now also I will utter judgments against them.

O Jerusalem, cleanse your heart from evil so that you may be saved. How long shall your vain thoughts lodge within you?

Like watchmen of a field, they are against her all around; because she rebelled against Me, says Jehovah.

My bowels, my bowels! I convulse in pain. O walls of my heart! My heart is restless within me; I cannot be silent because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the ram's horn, the alarm of war.

Ruin on ruin is cried; for the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are laid waste, my curtains in a moment.

For My people are foolish; they have not known Me; they are stupid sons, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

For I have heard a voice as of a woman in labor, the anguish as one bearing her first child, the voice of Zion's daughter, gasping and spreading her hands, saying, Woe to me now! For my soul faints because of murderers.

Why shall I pardon you for this? Your sons have forsaken Me, and have sworn by No-gods. When I adjured them, then they committed adultery, and gathered themselves by troops in a harlot's house.

Shall I not judge for these things? says Jehovah. 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 deceitfully against Me, says Jehovah.

Therefore so says Jehovah, the God of Hosts, Because you spoke this word, behold, I will make My Words in your mouth fire, and these people wood, and it shall devour them.

And it will be, when you shall say, Why does Jehovah our God do all these things to us? Then You shall answer them, Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

Do you not fear Me? says Jehovah. Will you not tremble at My presence, I who have placed the sand for the boundary of the sea by a never-ending decree, so that it cannot pass it? And though they toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail; though its waves roar, yet they cannot pass over it?

For among My people are found wicked ones; they lie in wait, as one who sets snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

They have become fat, they shine. Yes, they go past the deeds of the wicked; they do not judge the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may get rich; and they do not judge the right of the needy.

Shall I not visit for these things? says Jehovah. 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 you do at the end of it?

As a fountain keeps fresh her waters, so she keeps fresh her evil; violence and spoil is heard in her; always before Me are grief and wounds.

O Jerusalem, you must be instructed, lest My soul depart from you; lest I make you desolate, a land without people.

To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are not circumcised, and they cannot listen. Behold, the Word of Jehovah is to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

And their houses shall be turned to others, together with their fields and wives; for I will stretch out My hand on the people of the land, says Jehovah.

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

Hear, O earth; behold, I will bring evil on this people, the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to My Words, nor to My Law, but have rejected it.

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.

O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth, and wallow in ashes; make mourning for yourself, as for an only son, most bitter weeping; for the ravager shall suddenly come on us.

I have set you up an assayer, an examiner among My people, that you 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 to do all these abominations?

Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I also have seen, says Jehovah.

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

therefore I will do to this house, which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

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

Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up cry nor prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you.

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.

Do they vex Me? says Jehovah. Is it not themselves, to the shame of their own faces?

Therefore so says the Jehovah God; Behold, My anger and My fury shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be put out.

But I commanded them this thing, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people; and walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, so that it may be well with you.

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

Yet they did not listen to Me, nor bow down their ear, but hardened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

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

They have built the high places of Tophet, 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 them, nor did it come into My heart.

Yea, the stork in the heavens knows her seasons; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow watch the time of their coming; but my people do not know the judgment of Jehovah.

For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint within me.

Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people, from a far country. Is not Jehovah in Zion? Is not her King in her? Why have they provoked Me with their graven images, with foreign vanities?

For the breaking of the daughter of my people I am broken; I am in gloom; horror has seized me.

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the healing of the daughter of My people not come?

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 for traveling men, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies. But they are not mighty for the truth on the earth; for they go from evil to evil, and they do not know Me, says Jehovah.

Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me, says Jehovah.

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?

Shall I not visit them for these things? says Jehovah; shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

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

And Jehovah says, Because they have forsaken My Law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, and have not walked in it,

So says Jehovah of Hosts, Think carefully, and call for the wailers, that they may come. And send for the wise women, that they may come;

and let them make haste and take up a weeping for us, so that our eyes may run down with tears, and waters flow from our eyelids.

but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am Jehovah, doing kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth; for in these I delight, says Jehovah.

For so says Jehovah, Behold, I will sling out the people of the land at this time, and will distress them, so that they may find Me.

Woe to me for my breaking! My wound is grievous; but I said, Truly this is a malady, and I must bear it.

My tabernacle is ravaged, and all my cords are broken; My sons went away from me, and they are not. There is none to stretch out My tabernacle any more, and to set up My curtains.

O Jehovah, correct me, but with judgment; not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing.

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

so that I may fulfil the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then I answered and said, Amen, O Jehovah.