The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, among the priests who [were] in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin,

[to] whom the word of Yahweh came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, the king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

Then Yahweh stretched out his hand and he touched my mouth, and Yahweh said to me, "Look, I have put my words in your mouth.

And the word of Yahweh came to me, {saying}, "What [are] you seeing, Jeremiah?" And I said, "I [am] seeing a branch of an almond tree."

And the word of Yahweh came to me a second [time], {saying}, "What [are] you seeing?" And I said, "I [am] seeing a {boiling} pot, and its face [is] from [the] face of [the] north."

But you, you must gird your loins, and stand, and speak to them all that I command you. {Do not be afraid of them}, or I will shatter you {before} them.

"Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, {saying}, 'Thus says Yahweh, "I remember [concerning] you the loyal love of your childhood, the love of your betrothal-time, your going after me in the desert, in [the] land not sown.

Israel [was] holy to Yahweh, the first fruit of his produce. All [those who] ate it were held guilty; disaster came to them," {declares} Yahweh.'"

Thus says Yahweh: "What injustice did your ancestors find in me that they were far from me, and they went after the vanity, and they became vain?

And they did not say, 'Where [is] Yahweh, the one who brought us up from the land of Egypt, the one who led us in the desert, in a land of desert plains and gorges, in a land of dryness and deep darkness, in a land {that no one passes through}, and no human lives there?'

The priests did not say, 'Where [is] Yahweh?' and those who handle the law did not know me, and the shepherds have {rebelled against me}, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and they went after [things which] do not profit.

{Therefore} I again bring a lawsuit against you," {declares} Yahweh, "and with {your children} I bring a lawsuit.

Has a nation exchanged gods? And they [are] not gods! But my people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit.

[Is] Israel a slave? Or {a slave born in a house}? Why has he become plunder?

[The] young lions have roared against him, they have {raised} their voices. And they have made his land as horror; his cities are destroyed, {without} an inhabitant.

Moreover, people of Memphis and Tahpanhes will {shave} your skull.

Did you not do this to yourself, [by] forsaking Yahweh, your God, at the time of your leading in the way?

Your wickedness will chastise you, and your apostasies will reprove you. Therefore know and see that [it is] evil and bitter, your forsaking of Yahweh, your God, and fear of me [is] not in you," {declares} the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.

"For from long ago you have broken your yoke, you tore to pieces your bonds. And you said, 'I will not serve!' But on every high hill and under every leafy tree you [were] lying down [as] a prostitute.

For if you wash with natron, and you {use much soap}, your guilt [is] sticking as a stain {before} me," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

"How can you say, 'I have not defiled myself, I have not gone after the Baals?' Look at your way in the valley, know what you have done. [You are] a young she-camel, interweaving her ways.

Restrain your foot from [being] barefoot, and your throat from thirst. But you said, '[It is] hopeless. No! For I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.'

[Those who] say to the tree, 'You [are] my father,' and to the stone, 'You gave birth [to] me.' For they have turned [their] {backs} to me, and not [their] faces. But in the time of their trouble they say, 'Arise and save us.'

But where [are] your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble. For [according to] the number of your towns are your gods, Judah.

"For {in vain} I have struck your children. They accepted no discipline. Your sword devoured your prophets, like a ravening lion.

O generation, you see the word of Yahweh. Have I been a desert to Israel? Or a land of great darkness? Why do my people say, 'We roam about freely, we will not come again to you'?

Can a young woman forget her ornaments? [Or] a bride her sashes? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

How well you do [on] your way to seek love! {Therefore} even [to] the wicked [woman] you can teach your ways.

Also on your skirts is found [the] blood of [the] life of [the] innocent, [the] poor. You did not find them in the act of breaking into a house. But in spite of all these [things],

yet you say, 'But I am innocent, surely his anger has turned away from me.' Look, I [am] entering into judgment with you because of your saying, 'I have not sinned.'

How you go about so much changing your way! Also by Egypt you will be put to shame, just as you were put to shame by Assyria.

Also from there you will come out with your hands on your head, for Yahweh has rejected {those in whom you trust}, and you will not prosper through them.

"Lift up your eyes at [the] barren heights, and see where you have not been ravished. Beside the roads you sat for them like an Arab in the desert, and you have defiled [the] land with your fornication and with your wickedness.

Have you not just now called to me, 'My father, you [are] the close friend of my youth?

Only acknowledge your guilt, that against Yahweh your God you have rebelled, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every leafy tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,' {declares} Yahweh."

"Return, apostate children," {declares} Yahweh. "For {I am your master}, and I will take you one from a city and two from a clan, and I will bring you [to] Zion.

In those days the house of Judah will walk along with the house of Israel and they will come together from [the] land of [the] north to the land that I gave as an inheritance [to] your ancestors.

Return, apostate children, I will heal your backsliding. 'Look, we come to you, for you are Yahweh our God.

Surely, an illusion [comes] from [the] hills, [the] turmoil [on] the mountains. Surely, in Yahweh our God [is] the salvation of Israel.

But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our ancestors from our youth, their flocks, and their cattle, their sons and their daughters.

Let us lie down in our shame, and let our disgrace cover us. For against Yahweh our God we have sinned, we and our ancestors, from our youth and until this day. and we have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God.'

If you return, Israel," {declares} Yahweh, "you return to me. And if you remove your abominations from my {presence}, and you do not wander,

Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my wrath goes forth like the fire and burns, and there is no [one who] extinguishes [it], because of the evil of your deeds."

A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has gone out from his place to make your land as a horror, your cities will go to ruin {without} inhabitant.

Look, he comes up like the clouds, and his chariots [are] like the whirlwind, his horses are swifter than eagles, woe to us, for we are devastated.

Cleanse your heart from wickedness, Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. {How long} will your thoughts of mischief dwell in your inner part?

"Report to the nations, 'Here they are!' Proclaim against Jerusalem, 'Besiegers [are] coming {from a distant land}, and they raise their voice against the cities of Judah.'

Like watchers of a field they were against her from all around, because she has rebelled against me," {declares} Yahweh.

"You obtained this for yourself [because of] your way and your deeds. This [is] your doom, for [it is] bitter, yes, it has reached up to your heart."

My bowels, my bowels! I writhe! The walls of my heart! My heart is restless within me, I cannot keep silent, for I hear [in] my inner self the sound of a horn, [the] alarm of war.

Destruction on destruction is proclaimed, for all of the land is devastated. Suddenly my tents are devastated, my tent curtains in a moment.

"For my people [are] foolish, they have not known me. They [are] foolish children, and they do not have insight. They [are] skillful at doing evil, and they do not know [how] to do good."

I looked at the earth, and behold, it was wasteland and emptiness, and to the heavens, and [they were] without their light.

I looked at the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, and all of the hills were jolted to and fro.

I looked and behold, the fruitful land [was] a desert, and all of its cities were ruined before Yahweh, before the face of {his burning anger}.

And you, devastated one, what [do] you do, that you put on crimson, that you adorn yourself [with] ornaments of gold, that you make your eyes look bigger with the eye make-up? In vain you beautify yourself. [Your] lovers reject you; they seek your life.

Yahweh, do not your eyes [look] for honesty? You have struck them, but they felt no pain, you have destroyed them, they refused to take discipline. They have hardened their faces more than rock, they have refused to turn back.

Then I said, "[They are] just simple people, they are foolish, for they know not the way of Yahweh, the law of their God.

Therefore a lion from [the] forest will kill them, A wolf [from the] desert plains will devastate them. A leopard [is] watching their cities, everyone [who] goes out from there will be torn, because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are numerous.

"{How} can I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me, and they have sworn by [those who are] not gods. But I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and flocked [to] the house of a prostitute.

They were well-fed lusty horses, they neighed each to the wife of his neighbor.

Go up through her vineyards and destroy, but you must not make complete destruction. Remove her branches, for they [are] not to Yahweh.

And the prophets are like wind, and the word [is] not in them.' Thus it will be done to them."

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, "Because you have spoken this word, look, I [am] making my words in your mouth like a fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them.

Their quiver [is] like an open tomb, all of them [are] warriors.

And they will eat your harvest and your food, they will eat your sons and your daughters, they will eat your flock and your herd, they will eat your vine and your fig tree, they will smash with the sword {your fortified cities}, in which you trust.

{And then}, when you [people] say, 'Why has Yahweh our God done all of these [things] to us?' Then you will say to them, 'As you have forsaken me and have served gods of a foreign land in your land, so will you serve strangers in {a land that does not belong to you}.'

And they do not say in their hearts, 'Let us fear please Yahweh our God, the [one who] gives [the] autumn rain and [the] spring rain in its season, {the set times of the harvest} he keeps for us.'

Your iniquities have disturbed these, and your sins have kept away the good from you.

For wicked people are found among my people, they lie in wait like the hiding of fowlers, they set up a trap, they catch humans.

Like a cage full of birds, so their houses [are] full of fraud. {Therefore} they have become great, and they have become rich.

They have grown fat, they have grown sleek, also, {their evil deeds have no limit}. They do not judge [with] justice, [the] legal cause of [the] orphan, or allow it to succeed, and [the] legal case of [the] poor, they do not defend.

{Sanctify} war against her. Arise, and let us attack at noon. Woe to us, for the day turns, for [the] shadows of evening are lengthened.

As a water well keeps its water cool, so she keeps cool her wickedness. Violence and destruction are heard within her, sickness and wounds [are] continually {before me}.

Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "They will thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine, turn back your hand over [the] branches like a grape-gatherer.

To whom shall I speak and admonish, that they may hear? Look, their ears [are] {closed}, and they are not able to listen attentively. Look, the word of Yahweh is to them an object of scorn, they do not delight in it.

Have they acted ashamed, for they have committed a detestable thing? Not at all, nor were they ashamed; they did not know to feel humiliated. {Therefore} they will fall among [those who] fall at the time I punish them, they will stumble," says Yahweh.

Thus says Yahweh: "Stand at [the] roads and look, and ask for [the] ancient paths, where the way of the good [is], and walk in it, and find rest for your inner selves. But they said, 'We will not walk [in it].'

What [is] this to me? Frankincense comes from Sheba, and the precious spice reed from a distant land. Your burnt offerings [are] not {acceptable}, your sacrifices are not pleasing to me."

[The] bow and [the] short sword they grasp [are] cruel, and they show no mercy. Their sound roars like the sea, and on horses they ride, drawn up like a man for battle against you, O daughter of Zion."

We have heard news of it, our hands grow slack, anxiety has grasped us, pain as a [woman who] gives birth.

All of them [are] stubborn rebels, going about [talking] slander. [They are] bronze and iron, they [are] all behaving corruptly.

[The] bellows are burned up, lead is consumed by fire. {In vain} {he keeps on refining}, but [the] wicked are not torn apart.

{They are called} rejected silver, For Yahweh has rejected them."

Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Make your ways and your deeds good and let me dwell with you in this place.

Do not trust in {the deceitful words}, {saying}, 'The temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, they [are] the temple of Yahweh.'

For if you truly make your ways and your deeds good, if you truly do justice between a man and his neighbor,

you do not oppress [the] alien, [the] orphan, and [the] widow, you do not shed innocent blood in this place, and you do not go after other gods {to your harm},

then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your ancestors {forever and ever}.

Look, you [are] relying for yourselves on {deceitful words} without benefiting.

And then you come and you stand {before} me in this house, which is called {by my name}, and you say, 'we are safe {to go on doing} all of these detestable things.'

Has this house, which is called {by my name}, become a cave of robbers in your eyes? Look, I, even I, have seen [it]," {declares} Yahweh.

"For go now to my place that [was] in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell in the beginning, and see what I did to it {because of} the wickedness of my people Israel.

And now, because of your doing all these things," {declares} Yahweh, "and {I have spoken to you over and over again}, and you have not listened, and I called you, and you have not answered,

therefore I will do to the house that is called {by my name}, in which you [are] trusting, and to the place that I gave to you and to your ancestors {what} I did to Shiloh.

And I will cast you {out of my sight} just as I cast out all of your blood relatives, all of the offspring of Ephraim." '

"And you, you must not pray for this people, and you must not lift up for them a cry of entreaty or a prayer, and you must not plead with me, for I [will] not hear you.

[Do] you not see what they [are] doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

The children [are] gathering wood, and the fathers [are] kindling the fire, and the women [are] kneading dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out libations to other gods for the sake of provoking me to anger.