The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,

to whom the Word of Jehovah came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

It also came in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the exiling of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

And Jehovah put forth His hand, and touched my mouth. And Jehovah said to me, Behold, I have put My Words in your mouth.

And you must gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command you. Do not be terrified at their faces, lest I prostrate you before them.

Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, So says Jehovah, I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothals, when you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

So says Jehovah, What injustice have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me and have walked after vanity, and have become vain?

Nor did they say, Where is Jehovah who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of dry places, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man lived?

The priests did not say, Where is Jehovah? And they who handle the Law did not know Me; the shepherds also rebelled against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things not profitable.

Therefore I will contend with you, says Jehovah, and with your son's sons I will enter into judgment.

Has a nation changed their gods who are yet no gods? But My people have changed their Glory for that which does not profit.

Is Israel a servant? Or is he a servant of the house? Why has he become a prey?

The young lions roared against him; they gave their voice. And they made his land a waste; his cities are burned without inhabitant.

Also the sons of Noph and Tahapanes have fed on the crown of your head.

Have you not brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken Jehovah your God, when He led you by the way?

And now what is for you toward the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? Or what for you toward Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?

Your own evil shall correct you, and your backslidings shall reprove you, therefore know and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken Jehovah your God, and that My fear is not in you, says the Lord Jehovah of Hosts.

For long ago you broke your yoke and tore up your bonds; and you said, I will not transgress, when on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down like a harlot.

For though you wash yourself with potash, and multiply soap for yourself, yet your iniquity is marked before Me, says the Lord Jehovah.

How can you say, I am not defiled; I have not gone after the Baals? See your way in the valley, know what you have done! You are a swift camel crossing its ways;

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

saying to a tree, You are my father; and to a stone, You gave me birth. For they have turned their back to Me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise and save us!

But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble; for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah.

In vain I have stricken your sons; they received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

O generation, see the Word of Jehovah. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of darkness? Why do My people say, We roam freely; we will come no more to You?

Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number.

Why did you trim your way to seek love? Therefore you have also taught the evil women your ways.

Also in your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents; I did not find them by breaking in, but on all these.

Why do you go about so much to change your way? You also shall be ashamed of Egypt, as you were ashamed of Assyria.

Yes, you shall go out from this place, and your hands on your head. For Jehovah has rejected those in whom you trust, and you will not prosper by them.

Lift up your eyes to the high places, and see. Where have you not been lain with? By the highways you have sat for them, like the Arabian in the wilderness; and you have defiled the land with your fornications and with your wickedness.

Will you not from this time cry to Me, My father, You are the guide of my youth?

Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have sinned against Jehovah your God and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice, says Jehovah.

In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance to your fathers.

Return, O backsliding sons, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come to You; for You are Jehovah our God.

Truly, for delusion comes from the high hills, tumult on the mountains. Truly, in Jehovah our God is the salvation of Israel.

For shame has eaten up the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covers us; for we have sinned against Jehovah our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God.

If you will return, O Israel, says Jehovah, return to Me. And if you will put away your abominations out of your sight, then you shall not be moved.

For so says Jehovah to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns.

Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of your heart, men of Judah and people of Jerusalem; lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn so that none can put it out; because of the evil of your doings.

The lion has come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the nations has set out; he has left his place to make your land a waste. Your cities will fall into ruins without inhabitant.

Behold, he shall come up like clouds, and his chariots like a tempest. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are plundered!

O Jerusalem, cleanse your heart from evil so that you may be saved. How long shall your vain thoughts lodge within you?

Tell it to the nations: Behold! proclaim against Jerusalem! Besiegers are going to come from a distant land; and they will set their voice against the cities of Judah.

Like watchmen of a field, they are against her all around; because she rebelled against Me, says Jehovah.

Your way and your doings have brought these things on you; this is your evil, because it is bitter, because it reaches to your heart.

My bowels, my bowels! I convulse in pain. O walls of my heart! My heart is restless within me; I cannot be silent because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the ram's horn, the alarm of war.

Ruin on ruin is cried; for the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are laid waste, my curtains in a moment.

For My people are foolish; they have not known Me; they are stupid sons, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

I looked on the mountains, and, lo, they quaked; and all the hills were shaken.

I looked, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down before the face of Jehovah, before His fierce anger.

And you, O desolate one, what will you do? Though you dress with crimson, though you put on ornaments of gold, though you make your eyes large with paint, you shall make yourself beautiful in vain; your lovers will despise you; they will seek your life.

O Jehovah, are not Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have destroyed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return.

So I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they do not know the way of Jehovah, nor the judgment of their God.

Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, and a wolf of the deserts shall rob them; a leopard shall watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out from them shall be torn in pieces, because their sins are many and their backslidings are multiplied.

Why shall I pardon you for this? Your sons have forsaken Me, and have sworn by No-gods. When I adjured them, then they committed adultery, and gathered themselves by troops in a harlot's house.

They were like lusty, well-fed stallions in the morning; every one neighing after his neighbor's wife.

Go up on her vine-rows and destroy; but do not make a full end; take away her branches, for they are not Jehovah's.

Therefore so says Jehovah, the God of Hosts, Because you spoke this word, behold, I will make My Words in your mouth fire, and these people wood, and it shall devour them.

Their quiver is as an open grave; they are all mighty men.

And they shall eat up your harvest and your bread. They will devour your sons and your daughters. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig-trees. One shall beat down your fortified cities with the sword, those in which you trust.

And it will be, when you shall say, Why does Jehovah our God do all these things to us? Then You shall answer them, Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they have revolted and are gone.

And they do not say in their heart, Let us now fear Jehovah our God, who gives both the former and the latter rain in its season; He reserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good from you.

For among My people are found wicked ones; they lie in wait, as one who sets snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and grown rich.

Prepare war against her; arise and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! For the day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

As a fountain keeps fresh her waters, so she keeps fresh her evil; violence and spoil is heard in her; always before Me are grief and wounds.

So says Jehovah of Hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel like a vine; turn back your hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets.

To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are not circumcised, and they cannot listen. Behold, the Word of Jehovah is to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, nor could they blush; therefore they shall fall among those who fall. At the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, says Jehovah.

So says Jehovah, Stand 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.

Why does frankincense come to Me from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not pleasing, nor your sacrifices sweet to 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 on horses, set in order like a man for war against you, O daughter of Zion.

We have heard the rumor of it; our hands become feeble; anguish has taken hold of us, and pain, like a woman in labor.

Do not go out into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear are on every side.

They are all grievous revolters, walking in slanders; they are bronze and iron; they are all corrupters.

The bellows are burned, the lead is melted by the fire; the refiner melts in vain; for the wicked are not plucked away.

So says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, Make your ways and your doings good, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

Do not trust in lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, The temple of Jehovah, The temple of Jehovah are these.

For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you completely do judgment between a man and his neighbor;

if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your hurt;

then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever.

and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I also have seen, says Jehovah.

But go now to 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.

therefore I will do to this house, which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, the whole seed of Ephraim.

So says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: Put your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat flesh.

For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.

But I commanded them this thing, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people; and walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, so that it may be well with you.

But they did not listen, nor bow their ear, but walked in their own plans, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.

Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending.

Yet they did not listen to Me, nor bow down their ear, but hardened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

Cut off your hair and throw it away, and take up a weeping on the high places. For Jehovah has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.

And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the rest of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them, says Jehovah of Hosts.

How do you say, We are wise, and the Law of Jehovah is with us? Lo, certainly the lying pen of the scribes has written falsely.

The wise are ashamed, they are terrified, and are captured. Lo, they have turned away from the Word of Jehovah; and what wisdom is in them?