"Before I formed you in your mother's womb I chose you. Before you were born I set you apart. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations."

You must be truthful, honest and upright when you take an oath saying, 'As surely as the Lord lives!' If you do, the nations will pray to be as blessed by him as you are and will make him the object of their boasting."

"At that time the people of Judah and Jerusalem will be told, 'A scorching wind will sweep down from the hilltops in the desert on my dear people. It will not be a gentle breeze for winnowing the grain and blowing away the chaff.

The Lord says, "Listen, nation of Israel! I am about to bring a nation from far away to attack you. It will be a nation that was founded long ago and has lasted for a long time. It will be a nation whose language you will not know. Its people will speak words that you will not be able to understand.

"You should fear me!" says the Lord. "You should tremble in awe before me! I made the sand to be a boundary for the sea, a permanent barrier that it can never cross. Its waves may roll, but they can never prevail. They may roar, but they can never cross beyond that boundary."

Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own is to be a hideout for robbers? You had better take note! I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord.

"The Lord says, 'That is why I will scatter your people like chaff that is blown away by a desert wind.

They will be like a shrub in the desert. They will not experience good things even when they happen. It will be as though they were growing in the desert, in a salt land where no one can live.

The Lord told Jeremiah, "Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take with you some of the leaders of the people and some of the leaders of the priests.

"The Lord has made you priest in place of Jehoiada. He has put you in charge in the Lord's temple of controlling any lunatic who pretends to be a prophet. And it is your duty to put any such person in the stocks with an iron collar around his neck.

You should have reprimanded Jeremiah from Anathoth who is pretending to be a prophet among you!

The Lord affirms, "The descendants of Israel will not cease forever to be a nation in my sight. That could only happen if the fixed ordering of the heavenly lights were to cease to operate before me."

"You have surely noticed what these people are saying, haven't you? They are saying, 'The Lord has rejected the two families of Israel and Judah that he chose.' So they have little regard that my people will ever again be a nation.

They answered Jeremiah, "May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not do just as the Lord sends you to tell us to do.

I the King, whose name is the Lord who rules over all, swear this: I swear as surely as I live that a conqueror is coming. He will be as imposing as Mount Tabor is among the mountains, as Mount Carmel is against the backdrop of the sea.

The people of Moab will be disappointed by their god Chemosh. They will be as disappointed as the people of Israel were when they put their trust in the calf god at Bethel.

Moab will be destroyed and no longer be a nation, because she has vaunted herself against the Lord.

Look! Like an eagle with outspread wings, a nation will soar up and swoop down on Bozrah. At that time the soldiers of Edom will be as fearful as a woman in labor."

Destructive forces will come against her horses and her chariots. Destructive forces will come against all the foreign troops within her; they will be as frightened as women! Destructive forces will come against her treasures; they will be taken away as plunder!

The soldiers of Babylonia will stop fighting. They will remain in their fortified cities. They will lose their strength to do battle. They will be as frightened as women. The houses in her cities will be set on fire. The gates of her cities will be broken down.

The sea has swept over Babylon. She has been covered by a multitude of its waves.