Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

But the LORD said to me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatever I command thee thou shalt speak.

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

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

Then said the LORD to me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and its face is towards the north.

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

And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.

Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thy espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity 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 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 said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.

For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Thy own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine to me?

For though thou shalt wash thee with niter, and take thee much soap, yet thy iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD.

Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast 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 plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith the LORD.

O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? a land of darkness? why say my people, We are lords; we will come no more to thee?

Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger will turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned.

They say, If a man shall put away his wife, and she shall go from him, and become another man's, shall he return to her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.

Wilt thou not from this time cry to me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?

The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she hath gone up upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou to me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned to me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.

And the LORD said to me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

Go and proclaim these words towards the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause my anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.

Only acknowledge thy iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

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

But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.

Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.

If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return to me: and if thou wilt put away thy abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.

Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness towards the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,

Even a full wind from those places shall come to me: now also will I give sentence against them.

As keepers of a field they are against her on all sides; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD.

My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste; suddenly are my tents ruined, and my curtains in a moment.

For my people are foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, 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 travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.

Shall I not visit for these things? saith the 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, saith the LORD.

Wherefore thus saith the LORD 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 doeth the LORD our God all these things to us? then shalt thou answer them, As ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

Fear ye not me? saith the 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 its waves toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

Shall I not visit for these things? saith the 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 fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and devastation is heard in her; before me continually are grief and wounds.

Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.

To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

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

They have healed also 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 upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened to my words, nor to my law, but have rejected it.

To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a distant country? your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet to me.

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

I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.

And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.

But go ye 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 will I do to this 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 have done to Shiloh.

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

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

The children 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 provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, my anger and my fury 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 quenched.

But this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well to you.

Since the day that your fathers came forth from the land of Egypt to this day I have even sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them:

Yet they hearkened not to me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.

For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.

And 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 commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.

Yes, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.

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 in me.

Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a distant country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?

For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.

Is there no balm in Gilead: is there no physician there? why then is 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 way-faring 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 tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.

Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.

Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?

Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

Who is the wise man that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?

And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for skillful 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 that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD who exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.

They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it may not move.

For thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them that they may find it so.

Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.

My tabernacle is laid waste, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone from me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thy anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.

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

That I may perform 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 answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.

Then the 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.