And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,

And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying, 'What art thou seeing, Jeremiah?' And I say, 'A rod of an almond tree I am seeing.'

And there is a word of Jehovah unto me a second time, saying, 'What art thou seeing?' And I say, 'A blown pot I am seeing, and its face is from the north.'

And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,

And they did not say, 'Where [is] Yahweh, the one who brought us up from the land of Egypt, the one who led us in the desert, in a land of desert plains and gorges, in a land of dryness and deep darkness, in a land {that no one passes through}, and no human lives there?'

For go over [to] the coasts of Cyprus and look, and send [to] Kedar and consider very closely, and see if there has been [a thing] like this:

Why do they roar and cry then upon him, as a lion? They have made his land waste, his cities are so burnt up, that there is no man dwelling in them.

You can try to wash away your guilt with a strong detergent. You can use as much soap as you want. But the stain of your guilt is still there for me to see," says the Lord God.

"How can you say, 'I have not made myself unclean. I have not paid allegiance to the gods called Baal.' Just look at the way you have behaved in the Valley of Hinnom! Think about the things you have done there! You are like a flighty, young female camel that rushes here and there, crisscrossing its path.

Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst. But thou saidst, There is no hope; no, for I love strangers, and after them will I go.

Even in thy skirts, is there found, The blood of the lives of the helpless innocents, - Not in the act of breaking in, didst thou find them, yet the blood is on all these.

Also from there you will come out with your hands on your head, for Yahweh has rejected {those in whom you trust}, and you will not prosper through them.

"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.

Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; yet thou hast a harlot's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

Then Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah, the king, "Have you seen what apostate Israel has done? She has gone on every high hill and under every leafy tree and she has prostituted [herself] there.

Moreover, when ye be increased and multiplied in the land, then, sayeth the LORD, there shall no more boast be made of the ark of the LORD's Covenant: No man shall think upon it, neither shall any man make mention of it: for from thenceforth it shall neither be visited, nor honored with gifts.

At that time, shall they call Jerusalem, The throne of Yahweh, and there shall be gathered unto her all the nations - to the Name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem; and they shall walk no more after the stubbornness of their own wicked heart.

"I thought to myself, 'Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son! What a joy it would be for me to give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!' I thought you would call me, 'Father' and would never cease being loyal to me.

Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my wrath goes forth like the fire and burns, and there is no [one who] extinguishes [it], because of the evil of your deeds."

There hath come up a lion out of his thicket, Yea, a destroyer of nations - hath set forward, hath come forth out of his place, - To make thy land a desolation, Thy cities, shall fall in ruins, so as to have no inhabitant.

After that shall there come unto me a strong wind, and then will I also give sentence upon them."

I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void, at the heavens, and there was no light there.

I looked and behold, there was no person, and all of the birds of the sky had fled.

From the sound of a horseman and {an archer} every town flees, they enter in the thickets and among the rocks they climb. Every town [is] forsaken, and there is no person [who] lives in them.

Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that doeth justly, that seeketh truth; and I will pardon her.

Therefore a lion from [the] forest will kill them, A wolf [from the] desert plains will devastate them. A leopard [is] watching their cities, everyone [who] goes out from there will be torn, because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are numerous.

They have acted deceptively against Yahweh, And have said, Not He! Neither shall there come upon us, calamity, Nor sword nor famine, shall we see;

But the prophets, shall prove to be wind, And there is no one speaking in them, - Thus, shall it be done to themselves!

For there are sinners among my people: they keep watch, like men watching for birds; they put a net and take men in it.

That is how they have grown fat and sleek. There is no limit to the evil things they do. They do not plead the cause of the fatherless in such a way as to win it. They do not defend the rights of the poor.

For this is what the Lord of armies has said: Let trees be cut down and an earthwork be placed against Jerusalem: sorrow on the false town! inside her there is nothing but cruel ways.

Like as a conduit aboundeth in water, even so this city aboundeth in wickedness. Robbery and unrighteousness is heard in her, sorrow and wounds are ever there in my sight.

And they have treated the wound of my people lightly, {saying}, 'Peace, peace,' but there is no peace.

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

And therefore thus sayeth the LORD, 'Behold, I will make this people fall, and there shall fall from among them the father with the children; one neighbour shall perish with another.'"

Moreover, thus sayeth the LORD, "Behold, there shall come a people from the North, and a great people shall arise from the ends of the earth;

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

The fiery bellows of judgment burn fiercely. But there is too much dross to be removed. The process of refining them has proved useless. The wicked have not been purged.

"Stand in the gate of the house of Yahweh and proclaim there this word, and say, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, all of Judah, [those who] enter through these gates to bow in worship to Yahweh.

Do not trust in the deceptive and lying words [of the false prophets who claim that Jerusalem will be protected by God because of the temple], saying, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

But go now to my place which is in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell there at the first, and see what I did to it from the face of the evil of my people Israel.

And they have put up the high place of Topheth in the valley of the son of Hinnom, burning their sons and their daughters there in the fire; a thing which was not ordered by me and never came into my mind.

Therefore look, days [are] about to come," {declares} Yahweh, "and it will no longer be called Topheth or [the] Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter, and they will bury in Topheth {until there is no more place}.

And the bodies of this people will be food for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth; and there will be no one to send them away.

And death was chosen above life to all the remnant of those being left from this evil family, in all the places being left where I cast them out there, says Jehovah of armies.

I have listened attentively, and I have listened. They do not speak honestly, there is no man [who] regrets his wickedness, saying, 'What have I done?' All of them [are] turning to their ways of running, like a horse plunging into battle.

And they have treated the wound of the daughter of my people lightly, {saying}, 'Peace, peace,' but there is no peace.

"{I will take away their harvest}," {declares} Yahweh. "There are no grapes on the vine, and there are no figs on the fig tree, and the leaves wither, and [what] I gave to them passed over them." '"

Why [are] we sitting? Gather, and let us go into the fortified cities, and let us perish there, for Yahweh our God has caused us to perish, and has provided drink for us, water of poison, because we have sinned against Yahweh.

[We] hope for peace, but there is no good, for a time of healing, but there is terror.

For look, I [am] letting loose among you snakes, adders for which there is no incantation, and they will bite you," {declares} Yahweh.

Then I said, "There is no cure for my grief! I am sick at heart!

I hear my dear people crying out throughout the length and breadth of the land. They are crying, 'Is the Lord no longer in Zion? Is her divine King no longer there?'" The Lord answers, "Why then do they provoke me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?"

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no healer there? Why, then, has the healing of the daughter of my people not been restored?

There is wrong on wrong, deceit on deceit; they have given up the knowledge of me, says the Lord.

Give yourselves to weeping, crying out in sorrow for the mountains; and for the fields of the waste land send up a song of grief, because they are burned up, so that no one goes through; there is no sound of cattle; the bird of the heavens and the beast are in flight and are gone.

And I will make Jerusalem a mass of broken stones, the living-place of jackals; and I will make the towns of Judah a waste, with no man living there.

For there is a lamentable noise heard of Zion: 'O how are we so sore destroyed? O how are we so piteously confounded? We must forsake our own natural country, and we are shot out of our own lodgings.'"

Speak, 'thus {declares} Yahweh: "The dead body of the human will fall like dung upon the surface of the field, and like cut grain behind the reaper, and there is no [one who] gathers." '"

There is none like you, Yahweh, you [are] great and your name [is] great in might.

Who would not revere you, O king of the nations? For you it is fitting. For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you.

There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skilful men.

{When he utters his voice} [there is] a noise of water in the heavens, and he causes [the] mist to rise from [the] ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he causes [the] wind to go out from his storehouses.

{Everyone} is stupid, {without knowledge}, every goldsmith is ashamed by [his] divine image, for his cast image [is] an illusion, and [there is] no breath in them.

My tent is devastated, and all my tent cords are torn. My children have gone out [from] me, and they are not. There is no [one who] pitches my tent again, or [one who] puts up my tent curtains.

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."

And the Lord said to me, There is an evil design at work among the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem.

For as many cities as thou hast, O Judah, so many gods hast thou also: And look how many streets there be in thee, O Jerusalem: so many shameful altars have ye set up, to offer upon them unto Baal.

The LORD called thee a green olive tree, a fair one, a fruitful one, a goodly one: but now that there is a contrary report of thee abroad, he will burn thee up, and destroy thy branches.

But I was like a gentle lamb taken to be put to death; I had no thought that they were designing evil against me, saying, Come and let us make trouble his food, cutting him off from the land of the living, so that there may be no more memory of his name.

and there shall be no remnant unto them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.

They have made it a desolation. Desolate, it mourns to me. All the land is made desolate, but there is no person taking [it] to heart.

Upon all [the] barren heights in the desert destroyers have come, for [the] sword of Yahweh devours, from [one] end of [the] land to the [other] end of the land, there is no peace for all flesh.

"I, the Lord, also have something to say concerning the wicked nations who surround my land and have attacked and plundered the land that I gave to my people as a permanent possession. I say: 'I will uproot the people of those nations from their lands and I will free the people of Judah who have been taken there.

And there is a word of Jehovah unto me a second time, saying,

"Take the loincloth that you bought, that [is] on your loins, and stand up, go [to the] Euphrates and hide it there in the cleft of the rock."

{And then}, {after a long time}, then Yahweh said to me, "Stand up, go [to the] Euphrates and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there."

And I shall go to Euphrates, and dig, and take the girdle from the place which I hid it there: and behold, the girdle was corrupted, it will not profit for anything.

And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying, 'Thus said Jehovah:

The towns of the Negev are shut up, and there is no [one who] opens [them]. All of Judah is deported; it is deported [in] completeness.

But there is little hope for you ever doing good, you who are so accustomed to doing evil. Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard remove its spots?

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah when there was no water.

Their great men have sent their servants for water: they come to the holes and there is no water to be seen; they come back with nothing in their vessels; they are overcome with shame and fear, covering their heads.

Because of the ground, [which] is cracked because there was no rain on the ground. [The] farmers are ashamed, they cover their heads.

For even [the] doe in the field gives birth and forsakes [her young], because there is no green growth.

And wild asses stand on [the] barren heights, they gasp [for] breath like the jackals. Their eyes fail because there is no vegetation."

“Therefore, this is what the Lord says concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, though I did not send them, and who say, ‘There will never be sword or famine in this land.’ By sword and famine these prophets will meet their end.

And the people [to] whom they [are] prophesying will be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem {because of} the famine and the sword. And there will be no [one who] buries them, their wives, or their sons, or their daughters. And I will pour out on them their wickedness.

If I go out into the open country, there are those put to death by the sword! and if I go into the town, there are those who are diseased from need of food! for the prophet and the priest go about in the land and have no knowledge.

Have you completely rejected Judah? Or has your soul loathed Zion? Why have you struck us so that there is no healing for us? We hope for peace, but there is no good, and for a time of healing, but look, there is terror.

Are there [any] among the idols of the nation [who] cause rain to pour? Or can the heavens give showers? [Is] it not you, Yahweh our God? Therefore, we hope in you, for you do all these [things].

“Then I will make your enemies bring [you along with] your possessions
Into a land which you do not know [for there you will serve your conquerors];
For a fire has been kindled in My anger,
Which will burn upon you.”

And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying:

"You shall not take for yourself a wife, there shall not be for you sons and daughters in this place."

Death from evil diseases will overtake them; there will be no weeping for them and their bodies will not be put to rest; they will be like waste on the face of the earth: the sword and need of food will put an end to them; their dead bodies will be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.

"Moreover I, the Lord, tell you: 'Do not go into a house where they are having a funeral meal. Do not go there to mourn and express your sorrow for them. For I have stopped showing them my good favor, my love, and my compassion. I, the Lord, so affirm it!

There shall not one visit another, to mourn with them for their dead, or to comfort them. One shall not offer another the cup of consolation, to forget their heaviness for father and mother.

and you, ye have done still worse than your fathers; and there ye are walking every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, not to hearken unto me:

So I will throw you from this land to the land that you have not known, you or your ancestors, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will not show you favor.

But Jehovah lives who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands where he thrust them away there: and I turned them back upon their land which I gave to their fathers.