Then the Lord said to me:

Do not say, “I am only a youth,”
for you will go to everyone I send you to
and speak whatever I tell you.

The Lord said to me, “You have seen correctly, for I watch over My word to accomplish it.”

Then the Lord said to me, “Disaster will be poured out from the north on all who live in the land.

you claim, “I am innocent.
His anger is sure to turn away from me.”
But I will certainly judge you
because you have said, “I have not sinned.”

I said, “Oh no, Lord God, You have certainly deceived this people and Jerusalem, by announcing, ‘You will have peace,’ while a sword is at our throats.”

“At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, ‘A searing wind blows from the barren heights in the wilderness on the way to My dear people. It comes not to winnow or to sift;

They have not said to themselves,
‘Let’s fear the Lord our God,
who gives the rain, both early and late, in its season,
who guarantees to us the fixed weeks of the harvest.’

I appointed watchmen over you
and said: Listen for the sound of the ram’s horn.
But they protested, “We won’t listen!”

The Lord said, “It is because they abandoned My instruction that I set in front of them and did not obey My voice or walk according to it.

The Lord said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Obey the words of this covenant and carry them out.

The Lord said to me, “A conspiracy has been discovered among the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem.

How long will the land mourn
and the grass of every field wither?
Because of the evil of its residents,
animals and birds have been swept away,
for the people have said,
“He cannot see what our end will be.”

This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen undergarment and put it on, but do not put it in water.”

A long time later the Lord said to me, “Go at once to the Euphrates and get the underwear that I commanded you to hide there.”

Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of these people.

But the Lord said to me, “These prophets are prophesying a lie in My name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, worthless divination, the deceit of their own minds.

Then the Lord said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My compassions would not reach out to these people. Send them from My presence, and let them go.

The Lord said:

I will certainly set you free and care for you.
I will certainly intercede for you
in a time of trouble,
in your time of distress, with the enemy.

“However, take note! The days are coming”—the Lord’s declaration—“when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives who brought the Israelites from the land of Egypt,’

This is what the Lord said to me, “Go and stand at the People’s Gate, through which the kings of Judah enter and leave, as well as at all the gates of Jerusalem.

However, if it does what is evil in My sight by not listening to My voice, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do to it.

Then certain ones said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah, for instruction will never be lost from the priest, or counsel from the wise, or an oracle from the prophet. Come, let’s denounce him and pay no attention to all his words.”

The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-missabib,

I spoke to you when you were secure.
You said, “I will not listen.”
This has been your way since youth;
indeed, you have never listened to Me.

“The days are coming”—the Lord’s declaration—“when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives who brought the Israelites from the land of Egypt,’

They keep on saying to those who despise Me, ‘The Lord has said: You will have peace.’ They have said to everyone who follows the stubbornness of his heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’”

“I have heard what the prophets who prophesy a lie in My name have said, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’

But if you say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ then this is what the Lord says: Because you have said, ‘The burden of the Lord,’ and I specifically told you not to say, ‘The burden of the Lord,’

The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs! The good figs are very good, but the bad figs are extremely bad, so bad they are inedible.”

This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and make all the nations I am sending you to, drink from it.

Then the priests and prophets said to the officials and all the people, “This man deserves the death sentence because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”

Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and the people, “The Lord sent me to prophesy all the words that you have heard against this temple and city.

Some of the elders of the land stood up and said to all the assembled people,

“Micah the Moreshite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah and said to all the people of Judah, ‘This is what the Lord of Hosts says:

Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become ruins,
and the temple mount a forested hill.’

“This is what the Lord said to me: Make chains and yoke bars for yourself and put them on your neck.

In that same year, at the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur from Gibeon said to me in the temple of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people,

The prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the Lord do so. May the Lord make the words you have prophesied come true and may He restore the articles of the Lord’s temple and all the exiles from Babylon to this place!

The prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord did not send you, but you have led these people to trust in a lie.

You have said, “The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon!”

“In those days, it will never again be said:

The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.

“Then my cousin Hanamel came to the guard’s courtyard as the Lord had said and urged me, ‘Please buy my field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for you own the right of inheritance and redemption. Buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

Yet You, Lord God, have said to me: Buy the field with silver and call in witnesses—even though the city has been handed over to the Chaldeans!”

“Now therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to this city about which you said, ‘It has been handed over to Babylon’s king through sword, famine, and plague’:

“Have you not noticed what these people have said? They say, ‘The Lord has rejected the two families He had chosen.’ My people are treated with contempt and no longer regarded as a nation among them.

I set jars filled with wine and some cups before the sons of the house of the Rechabites and said to them, “Drink wine!”

However, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched into the land, we said: Come, let’s go into Jerusalem to get away from the Chaldean and Aramean armies. So we have been living in Jerusalem.”

Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites: “This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you have obeyed the command of your ancestor Jonadab and have kept all his commands and have done all that he commanded you,

They said to him, “Sit down and read it in our hearing.” So Baruch read it in their hearing.

When they had heard all the words, they turned to each other in fear and said to Baruch, “We must surely tell the king all these things.”

Baruch said to them, “At his dictation. He recited all these words to me while I was writing on the scroll in ink.”

The officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah must hide yourselves and tell no one where you are.”

Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “How have I sinned against you or your servants or these people that you have put me in prison?

The officials then said to the king, “This man ought to die, because he is weakening the morale of the warriors who remain in this city and of all the people by speaking to them in this way. This man is not seeking the well-being of this people, but disaster.”

King Zedekiah said, “Here he is; he’s in your hands since the king can’t do anything against you.”

King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and received him at the third entrance of the Lord’s temple. The king said to Jeremiah, “I am going to ask you something; don’t hide anything from me.”

Jeremiah therefore said to Zedekiah, “This is what the Lord, the God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘If indeed you surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then you will live, this city will not be burned down, and you and your household will survive.

But King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am worried about the Judeans who have deserted to the Chaldeans. They may hand me over to the Judeans to abuse me.”

If the officials hear that I have spoken with you and come and demand of you, ‘Tell us what you said to the king; don’t hide anything from us and we won’t kill you. Also, what did the king say to you?’

The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, “The Lord your God decreed this disaster on this place,

When Jeremiah had not yet turned to go, Nebuzaradan said to him: “Return to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and stay with him among the people or go wherever you want to go.” So the captain of the guard gave him a ration and a gift and released him.

Ishmael son of Nethaniah came out of Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he came. When he encountered them, he said: “Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam!”

However, there were 10 men among them who said to Ishmael, “Don’t kill us, for we have hidden treasure in the field—wheat, barley, oil, and honey!” So he stopped and did not kill them along with their companions.

Jeremiah the prophet and said, “May our petition come before you; pray to the Lord your God on our behalf, on behalf of this entire remnant (for few of us remain out of the many, as you can see with your own eyes),

So Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard. I will now pray to the Lord your God according to your words, and every word that the Lord answers you I will tell you; I won’t withhold a word from you.”

And they said to Jeremiah, “As for every word the Lord your God sends you to tell us, if we don’t act accordingly, may the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us.

He said to them, “This is what the Lord says, the God of Israel to whom you sent me to bring your petition before Him:

Instead, we will do everything we said we would: burn incense to the queen of heaven and offer drink offerings to her just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in Judah’s cities and in Jerusalem’s streets. Then we had enough food and good things and saw no disaster,

And the women said, “When we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it apart from our husbands’ knowledge that we made sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

Then Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, “Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt.

‘You have said, “Woe is me, because the Lord has added misery to my pain! I am worn out with groaning and have found no rest.”’

The destroyer will move against every town;
not one town will escape.
The valley will perish,
and the plain will be annihilated,
as the Lord has said.

All who found them devoured them.
Their adversaries said, “We’re not guilty;
instead, they have sinned against the Lord,
their righteous grazing land,
the hope of their ancestors, the Lord.”