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

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.

The LORD stretched out his hand, touched my mouth, and then told me, "Look, I've put my words in your mouth.

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

The LORD told me, "You have observed well, because I'm watching over my message, to make sure it comes about."

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."

Then the LORD told me, "From the north disaster will pour out on all who live in the land,

because I'm about to summon all the families and kingdoms from the north," declares the LORD. "They'll come and each one will set up his seat at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all of its surrounding walls, and against all of the towns of Judah.

"Go and announce to Jerusalem: "This is what the LORD says: "I remember the loyal devotion of your youth, your love as a bride. You followed me in the desert, in a land that was not planted.

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?

"I brought you into the fruitful land to eat its fruit and its good things. But you came in, defiled my land, and made my inheritance into an abomination.

Heavens, be appalled at this, be shocked, be utterly devastated," declares the LORD.

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.

Now, what are you doing on the road to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? And what are you doing on the road to Assyria, to drink the waters of the Euphrates?

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!'"

On your skirts is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor, even though you didn't catch them breaking in. Yet despite all these things,

You will also go out from this place with your hands over your heads. For the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, and you won't prosper through them."

"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.

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.

Have you not just called out to me, "My father, you are the friend of my youth

will he hold on to his anger forever, will he persist in his wrath to the end?' Look, you have spoken and done evil things, and you have succeeded in it."

In the time of King Josiah the LORD told me, "Have you seen what unfaithful Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she committed fornication there.

Yet in all this her treacherous sister Judah didn't return to me with her whole heart, but rather deceptively," declares the LORD.

"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.

At that time people will call Jerusalem, "The Throne of the LORD," and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. They'll no longer stubbornly follow their own evil desires.

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.

Circumcise yourselves to the LORD and remove the foreskin of your heart, you men of Judah and residents of Jerusalem, or else my wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to put it out, because of your evil deeds."

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!'

A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his place to make your land a waste. Your cities will be ruined, and without inhabitants.

Then I replied, "Ah, Lord GOD, you have completely deceived this people and Jerusalem when you said, "You will have peace,' while the sword is at their throat!"

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.

A wind too strong for that is coming at my bidding. Now I'm judging them as I speak."

"Tell the nations, "Here they come!' Proclaim to Jerusalem, "The besieging forces are coming from a distant land. They cry out against the cities of Judah.

"Your lifestyles and your actions have brought these things on you. This is your calamity it is indeed bitter, for it has reached your heart!"

"For my people are foolish, they don't know me. They're stupid children, they have no understanding. They're skilled at doing evil, but how to do good, they don't know."

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

I looked at the mountains; they were quaking, and all the hills moved back and forth.

For this is what the LORD says: "The entire land will be devastated, but I won't completely destroy it.

Because of this, the land will mourn, and the heavens above will be dark. Because I have spoken and decided, I won't turn back from doing it."

At the sound of the horseman and the archer the entire city flees. Its residents go into the thickets and climb among the rocks. Every city is abandoned, and no one lives in them.

You are ruined! What are you doing dressing in scarlet, putting on golden ornaments, and highlighting your eyes with makeup? You are making yourself beautiful in vain. Your lovers reject you they're out to kill you.

I heard a cry like that of a woman in labor, anguish like one giving birth to her firstborn, the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for air, stretching out her hand: "Woe is me! I'm about to faint in front of killers!"

Therefore a lion from the forest will attack them, a wolf from the desert will devastate them. A leopard is watching their towns, and everyone who goes out of them will be torn to pieces. For their transgressions are many, and their apostasies numerous.

Therefore, this is what the LORD God of the Heavenly Armies says: "Because you people have said this, my words in your mouth will become a fire and these people the wood. The fire will destroy 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.

"Yet even in those days," declares the LORD, "I won't destroy you completely.

"Declare this to the descendants of Jacob, and proclaim it in Judah:

"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.'

Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have held back from you what is good.

"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.

The prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?"

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."

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Cut down trees and set up siege works against Jerusalem. It is the city to be judged, and there is oppression throughout the entire city.

This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Let them glean the remnant of Israel as thoroughly as they would the vine. Pass your hand over them like grape gatherers over the branches.

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.

I'm full of the wrath of the LORD, and I'm tired of holding it back. Pour it out on the children in the street and on the groups of young men gathered together. Indeed, both husband and wife will be caught in it, the old and the very old.

Their houses will be turned over to others their fields and wives together when I stretch out my hand against those who live in the land," declares the LORD.

Were they ashamed because they did what was repugnant to God? They were not ashamed at all they don't even know how to blush! Therefore they'll fall with those who fall. When I punish them, they'll be brought down," says the LORD.

This is what the LORD says: "Stand beside the roads and watch. Ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is. Walk in it and find rest for yourselves. But they said, "We won't walk in it!'

Therefore, hear, nations, and know, congregation, what will happen to them.

What good is frankincense that comes from Sheba to me, or sweet cane from a distant country? Your burnt offerings aren't acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me."

Therefore, this is what the LORD says: "I'm about to put stumbling blocks in front of this people, and fathers and sons will stumble over them together. The neighbor and his friends will perish."

This is what the LORD says: "Look, people are coming from a northern country. A great nation is stirring from the ends of the earth.

We have heard the news about it, and our hands are limp. Distress has seized us like a woman in labor.

Don't go out into the field, and don't travel on the road, because the enemy has a sword, and terror is on every side.

Daughter of my people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as one mourns at the death of an only son. For the destroyer will come on us suddenly.

The bellows blow fiercely to consume the lead with the fire. The assayer keeps on refining, but the impurities aren't separated out.

"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.'"

This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says:

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,

"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.

I'll cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out all your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.

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

The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven, and they pour out liquid offerings to other gods in order to provoke me.

Are they provoking me?" asks the LORD. "Is it not themselves, and to their own shame?"

Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: "I'm about to pour out my anger and my wrath on this place, on people and animals, on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground. It will burn, and it won't be put out."

This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says:

"Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the meat. Indeed, when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I didn't speak or command them about burnt offering and sacrifice,

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 tell them all these things, but they won't listen to you. You will call out to them, but they won't answer 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.'

"Cut off your hair and throw it away; let your lamentations rise on the barren heights, because the LORD has rejected and abandoned the generation that is subject to his wrath.

"For the people of Judah have done evil in my eyes," declares the LORD. "They have put their detestable idols in the house that is called by my name in order to defile it.

They have built high places at Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire. I didn't command this, and it never entered my mind!

"Therefore, the time is near," declares the LORD, "when it will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. They'll bury in Topheth because there is no other place to do it.

"At that time," declares the LORD, "the bones of the king of Judah, the bones of his officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the residents of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves.

They'll be spread out to the sun, the moon, and all the stars of the heavens, which they loved and served, and which they followed, consulted, and worshipped. Their bones won't be collected, nor will they be buried. They'll be like dung on the surface of the ground.

"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?

Are they ashamed because they have done what is repugnant to God? They weren't ashamed at all; they don't even know how to blush! Therefore they'll fall with those who fall. When I punish them, they'll be brought down," says the LORD.

"I would have gathered them," declares the LORD, "but there were no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig tree, and their leaves were withered. What I've given them has been taken away."'"

"The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan. At the neighing of their stallions, the whole earth quakes. They're coming to devour the land and all it contains, the city and all who live in it.

Therefore, this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Look, I'm about to refine and test them. Because they're my people, what else can I do?

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?