This message from the LORD came to me, asking, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" I replied, "I see an almond branch."

This message from the LORD came to me a second time: "What do you see?" I replied, "I see a boiling pot, and its mouth is tilted away from the north."

Although they say, "As surely as the LORD lives,' still they are swearing falsely."

"You don't fear me, do you?' declares the LORD. "You don't tremble before me, do you? I'm the one who put the sand as a boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot cross. Though the waves toss, they cannot prevail against it, though they roar, they cannot cross it.'

They grab bow and spear; they're cruel and show no mercy. Their sound roars like the sea as they ride on horses, deployed like men ready for battle against you, daughter of Zion."

I'll make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. At noontime I'll send a destroyer against the mother of a young man. I'll cause terror and anguish to come to her unexpectedly.

"Therefore, the time is coming," declares the LORD, "when people will no longer say, "As surely as the LORD lives who brought up the Israelis from the land of Egypt,'

but they'll say, "As surely as the LORD lives who brought the descendants of the Israelis from the land of the north and from all the lands where I had driven them and brought them into the land.' Then they'll live in their own land."

"Among the prophets of Samaria I saw a disgusting thing, for they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.

Among the prophets of Jerusalem I saw a horrible thing, for they commit adultery and live a lie. They strengthen the hands of those who do evil, so that no one repents of his evil. All of them are like Sodom to me, and her residents like Gomorrah."

But you didn't listen to me," declares the LORD, "so as to provoke me with the idols you make with your hands to your own harm.

Jeremiah said, "It's a lie! I'm not going over to the Chaldeans." But Irijah would not listen to him, and he arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials.

"Now, this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Why are you doing great harm to yourselves so as to cut off from Judah man and woman, child and infant from you, leaving yourselves without a remnant?

A drought against her waters. They'll dry up. For it's a land of idols, and they go mad over their terrifying images.

They grab bow and spear. They're cruel and show no mercy. Their sound roars like the sea, as they ride on horses deployed like men ready for battle against you, daughter of Babylon.