The words of Hilkiah's son Jeremiah, who was one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.

This message from the LORD came to him during the thirteenth year of the reign of Ammon's son Josiah, the king of Judah,

and during the reign of Josiah's son Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and continued until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month, at the end of the eleventh year of the reign of Josiah's son Zedekiah, the king of Judah.

Then the LORD told me, "Don't say, "I'm only a young man,' for you will go everywhere I send you, and you will speak everything I command you.

See, today I've appointed you to prophesy about nations and kingdoms, to pull up and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant."

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."

This is what the LORD says: "What did your ancestors find wrong with me that they left me, and pursued worthless things, and so they became worthless?

"The priests didn't say, "Where is the LORD?' and those handling the Law didn't know me. The rulers transgressed against me, the prophets prophesied by Baal, and they followed that which does not profit.

"Indeed, go over to the coasts of Cyprus and see, send to Kedar and pay very close attention. See if there has ever been such a thing as this!

Young lions roar at him, they cry out loudly. They have made his land into a wasteland, and his cities are destroyed so they are without inhabitants.

Your wickedness will be punished, and you will be corrected due to your acts of apostasy. Know and see that it's evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God, but the fear of me is not in you," declares the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies.

"How can you say, "I'm not defiled. I haven't gone after the Baals.'? Look at what you've done in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift young camel galloping aimlessly;

a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her passion. When she's in heat, who can turn her away? None of the males who pursue her need to tire themselves out, for in her month they'll find her."

"Don't run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you say, "It's hopeless! Because I love foreign gods, I'll go after them!'"

"As a thief is disgraced when he's caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets,

who say to a tree, "You are my father,' and to a stone, "You gave birth to me.' They have turned their back to me, but not their faces. In the time of their trouble, they'll say, "Rise up! Deliver us!'"

"You, generation, pay attention to this message from the LORD! Am I the desert to Israel, or a land of gloom? Why do my people say, "We're free to roam? We won't come to you anymore.'

you say, "I'm innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.'" "I'm about to bring charges against you because you say, "I haven't sinned.'

Why do you go about changing your mind so much? You will also be disappointed by Egypt, just as you were disappointed by Assyria.

"When a man divorces his wife, she leaves him and becomes another man's wife, will the first husband return to her again? The land would be deeply polluted, would it not? Since you have committed fornication with many lovers, would you now return to me?" declares the LORD.

"Look up to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been ravished? You have sat beside the road, waiting for them like a nomad in the desert. And you have polluted the land with your fornication and your wickedness.

This is why the rain has been withheld and there are no spring showers. Yet you have a harlot's look and you refuse to be ashamed.

I thought, "After she has done all these things, she will return to me.' But she didn't return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw this.

I saw that even though I had sent unfaithful Israel away for all her adulteries and had given her a divorce decree, her treacherous sister Judah didn't fear, and she, too, committed adultery.

She took her fornication so lightly that she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

Go, proclaim these words to the north, and say, "Return, unfaithful Israel,' declares the LORD. "I won't look on you in anger, for I am gracious,' declares the LORD. "I won't remain angry forever.

"And in those days when you increase in numbers and multiply in the land," declares the LORD, "people will no longer say, "The Ark of the Covenant of the LORD,' and it won't come to mind, and they won't remember it or miss it, nor will it be made again.

Instead, like an unfaithful wife leaves her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me, house of Israel," declares the LORD.

Truly the hills are a deception, and the mountains are confusion. Truly, in the LORD our God is Israel's salvation."

For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, "Break up your unplowed ground, and don't sow among thorns.

Declare in Judah, make known in Jerusalem, by saying, "Blow the trumpet in the land, cry out, and say, "Gather together and let's go to the fortified cities!'

So, put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, because the burning anger of the LORD has not turned away from us."

At that time, it will be told this people and to Jerusalem, "A scorching wind from the barren heights in the desert is coming toward my people, and it's not for winnowing or cleansing.

Jerusalem, wash your evil from your heart so that you may be delivered. How long will you harbor evil schemes within you?

How long will I see the battle standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?

"Wander through the streets of Jerusalem. Look and investigate; search through her squares and see whether you find anyone even one person there doing justice and seeking truth. Then I'll forgive them.

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

Then I said, "These are only the poor, they're foolish, for they don't know the LORD's way, the requirement of their God.

Let me go to the leaders and speak to them. For they know the LORD's way, the requirement of their God." "But they, all together, have broken the yoke and torn off the restraints.

Why should I forgive you? Your sons have forsaken me, and you have sworn by those who aren't gods. When I gave them enough food to satisfy them, they committed adultery and marched to the prostitute's house.

They were well-fed, lusty stallions, each one neighing after his neighbor's wife.

"Go through her rows of vines and destroy them, but don't completely destroy them. Strip away her branches, because they aren't the LORD's.

"They have lied about the LORD by saying, "He wouldn't do that! Disaster won't come on us. We won't see sword and famine.

The prophets are nothing but wind, and the word is not in them. So may the disaster happen to them!'"

People of Israel, I'm now bringing a nation from far away to attack you," declares the LORD. "It is an enduring nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you don't know. And you won't understand what they say.

When the people ask, "Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?' you are to say to them, "Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.'"

"Hear this, you foolish and stupid people: They have eyes, but don't see; they have ears, but don't hear.

"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 don't say to themselves, "Let's fear the LORD our God, who gives rain in its season, both the autumn and the spring rain. He sets aside for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.'

"Evil men are found among my people. They lie in wait like someone who traps birds. They set a trap, but they do so to catch people.

Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are filled with treachery. This is how they have become prominent and rich,

Prepare for war against her. Get ready, let's attack at noon! How terrible for us that the day is coming to an end, and that the evening shadows are lengthening.

Get ready, let's attack at night, and destroy her fortresses."

As a well keeps its waters fresh, so the city keeps her wickedness fresh. Violence and destruction are heard in her, sickness and wounds are always before me.

To whom will I speak and give a warning so they'll listen? Look, their ears are closed, and they cannot hear. Look, this message from the LORD is contemptible to them; they don't delight in it.

They treated my people's wound superficially, telling them, "Peace, peace,' but there is no peace.

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."

"Stand at the gate of the LORD's Temple and proclaim this message there. Say, "Listen to this message from the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD.'"

"Change your ways and your deeds, and I'll let you live in this place. Don't trust deceptive words like these, and say, "The Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD,'

and if you don't oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, and don't shed an innocent person's blood in this place, and if you don't follow other gods to your own harm,

and then come to stand before me in this house that is called by my name and say, "We're delivered' so we can continue to do all these things that are repugnant to God?

"Go to my place that was in Shiloh, where I first caused my name to dwell. See what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.

Don't you see what they're doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

but I did give them this command: "Obey me and I'll be your God, and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you so it will go well for you.'

You will say to them, "This is the nation that wouldn't listen to the voice of the LORD its God and wouldn't accept correction. Truth has perished; it has been eliminated from their discussions.'

"You are to say to them, "This is what the LORD says: "Will a person fall down and then not get up? Will someone turn away and then not turn back again?

I've listened and I've heard, and what they say is not right. No one repents of his evil and says, "What have I done?' "They all turn to their own course like a horse racing into battle.

How can you say, "We're wise, and the Law of the LORD is with us,' when, in fact, the deceitful pen of the scribe has made it into something that deceives.

The wise men will be put to shame. They'll be dismayed and taken captive. Look, they have rejected the message from the LORD! So what kind of wisdom do they have?

They have treated my people's wound superficially, telling them, "Peace, peace,' when there is no peace.

Why are we sitting here? Join together! Let's go to the fortified cities and perish there! For the LORD our God has condemned us to perish and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against him.

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? So why is there no healing for my people?

Oh, that I had a lodging place for travelers in the desert, so that I could leave my people and go away from them. For all of them are adulterers, a band of traitors.

Who is the wise person who understands this, and to whom has the LORD spoken so that he may declare it? Why is the land destroyed, ruined like the desert, without anyone passing through it?

"Now, you women, hear the message from the LORD; listen to what he has to say! Teach your daughters how to mourn, let every woman teach her friend how to lament.

For the practices of the people are worthless. Indeed, a tree is cut down from the forest; it's the work of the hands of a craftsman with an ax.

They decorate it with silver and gold. They secure it with nails and hammers so it won't totter.

The LORD is the true God; he's the living God and the everlasting king. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation.

For this is what the LORD says: "I'm going to throw out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and I'll bring distress on them so they'll experience it."

The sound of a report, it's coming now! There is a great commotion from a land in the north to make the towns of Judah desolate, a refuge for jackals."

LORD, I know that a person's life is not his to control, nor does a person establish his way in life.

You are to say to them, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: "Cursed is the person who does not listen to the words of this covenant

As a result, I'll fulfill the oath that I made with your ancestors to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, just as is the case today."'" Then I answered, "So be it, LORD."

The LORD told me, "Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. You are to say, "Listen to the words of this covenant and do them.

But they would not listen or turn their ear, and each of them stubbornly followed his own evil desires. So I brought on them all the consequences of this covenant that I commanded them to fulfill, but they did not.'"

"What right does my beloved have in my house, when she has carried out many evil schemes? Can sacrificial flesh turn disaster away from you, so you can rejoice?"

The LORD made it known to me, and so I understood. Then you showed me their malicious deeds.

I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I didn't know that they had devised schemes against me. They told themselves, "Let's destroy the tree with its fruit. Let's eliminate him from the land of the living, so his name won't be remembered again."

LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the righteous judge, the one who tests feelings and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them, for I've committed my cause to you.

Therefore, this is what the LORD says about the men of Anathoth who seek to kill you, all the while threatening you, "Don't prophesy in the name of the LORD so you won't die by our hand!"

You plant them and they take root, they grow and bear fruit. "You are near to us," they say with their mouths, but the truth is that you're far from their hearts.

You know me, LORD. You see me and test my thoughts toward you. Pull the wicked out like sheep for slaughter; set them apart for the day of butchering.

How long will the land mourn and the vegetation of every field dry up? Because of the wickedness of those who live in it, animals and birds are swept away. For they say, "He does not see our future."

Indeed, even your brothers and your father's family conspire against you. Even they cry out after you loudly. Don't believe them, even though they speak friendly words to you.

So I bought the belt according to the LORD's instruction, and put it around my waist.

So I went and hid it at the Euphrates, just as the LORD had commanded me.

For just as the belt clings tightly to a person's waist, so I've made all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah cling tightly to me,' declares the LORD. "I did this so that they would be my people, name, praise, and glory. But they wouldn't listen.'

"This is what you're to tell them: "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: "Every wineskin is to be filled with wine."' When they say to you, "Don't we know very well that every wineskin is to be filled with wine?',

then say to them, "This is what the LORD says: "I'm about to make all the inhabitants of this land drunk the kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the residents of Jerusalem.