Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for you shall go to all that I shall send you, and whatsoever I command you you shall speak.

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

See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what see you? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.

Then said the LORD unto me, You have well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What see you? And I said, I see a boiling pot; and it is facing away from the north.

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

For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set everyone his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls round about, and against all the cities of Judah.

Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?

The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

For from of old I have broken your yoke, and burst your bands; and you said, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree you wander, playing the harlot.

Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate plant of a wild vine unto me?

Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst: but you said, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.

Lift up your eyes unto the high places, and see where you have not been lain with. In the ways have you sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your harlotries and with your wickedness.

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

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

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

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

If you will return, O Israel, says the LORD, return unto me: and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight, then shall you not be moved.

Set up the standard toward Zion: take refuge, delay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You shall have peace; when the sword reaches unto the soul.

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

For thus has the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the law of their God.

They have lied about the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

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

O you children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a signal of fire in Beth-haccherem: for evil appears out of the north, and great destruction.

For thus has the LORD of hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be punished; she is full of oppression in the midst of her.

Thus says the LORD, Stand you in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it.

Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

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

They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against you, O daughter of Zion.

Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.

I have set you for a tester and a fortress among my people, that you may know and test their way.

But go you now unto 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.

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

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

Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

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

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

My tent is plundered, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent anymore, and to set up my curtains.

That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto 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 unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear you the words of this covenant, and do them.

And the LORD said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal.

How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell in it? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our latter end.

And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide there.

Then shall you say unto them, Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.

Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your rule shall come down, even the crown of your glory.

Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.

Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say unto them, You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.

Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.

Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not turn toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with your remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to treat you well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand: for you have filled me with indignation.

Also you shall not go into the house of feasting, to sit with them, to eat and to drink.

Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;

If it does evil in my sight, that it obeys not my voice, then I will change from the good, with which I said I would benefit them.

And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own plans, and we will everyone do the imagination of his evil heart.

Then said they, Come, and let us devise plots against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

Yet, LORD, you know all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight, but let them be overthrown before you; deal thus with them in the time of your anger.

Then shall you break the flask in the sight of the men that go with you,

Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD's house; and said to all the people,

And it came to pass the next day, that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD has not called your name Pashhur, but Magor-missabib.

Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary from holding it back, and I could not.

For I heard the mocking of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my friends watched for my fall, saying, Perhaps he will be deceived, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus shall you say to Zedekiah:

And unto this people you shall say, Thus says the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.

For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, says the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.

I spoke unto you in your prosperity; but you said, I will not hear. This has been your manner from your youth, that you obeyed not my voice.

And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, says the LORD.

They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD has said, You shall have peace; and they say unto everyone that walks after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.

I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

The LORD showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

Then said the LORD unto me, What see you, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.

For I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

They said, Turn you again now everyone from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given unto you and to your fathers forever and ever:

And you shall say unto them, Thus says the LORD; If you will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you,

When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king's house unto the house of the LORD, and sat down in the entrance of the new gate of the LORD's house.

Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.

Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD,

Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD's house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.

Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD has not sent you; but you make this people to trust in a lie.

Because you have said, The LORD has raised us up prophets in Babylon;

Set up signposts, make yourself landmarks: set your heart toward the highway, even the way which you went: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.

Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.

Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.

In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.

But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eats the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.

And Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

So Hanamel my uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray you, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

And I gave the deed of purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of Hanamel my uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses that signed the deed of purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.

Who has set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day, and in Israel, and among other men; and have made yourself a name, as at this day;

And you have said unto me, O Lord GOD, Buy the field for money, and take witnesses; for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

And the Chaldeans, that fight against this city, shall come and set fire to this city, and burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink offerings unto other gods, to provoke me to anger.

But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it.

For thus says the LORD; David shall never lack a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel;

And you were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and you had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name: