For the LORD of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have worked for themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense to Baal."

But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter; and I did not know that they had devised devices against me, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered."

"But, the LORD of hosts, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I shall see your vengeance on them; for to you have I revealed my cause."

Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, "You shall not prophesy in the name of the LORD, that you not die by our hand;"

therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine;

and there shall be no remnant to them: for I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation."

But you, LORD, know me; you see me, and try my heart toward you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

"If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?

For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; even they have cried aloud after you: do not believe them, though they speak beautiful words to you.

My heritage has become to me as a lion in the forest: she has uttered her voice against me; therefore I have hated her.

Is my heritage to me as a speckled bird of prey? Are the birds of prey against her all around? Go, assemble all the animals of the field, bring them to devour.

They have made it a desolation; it mourns to me, being desolate; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.

Destroyers have come on all the bare heights in the wilderness; for the sword of the LORD devours from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh has peace.

They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns; they have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing: and you shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

Thus says the LORD against all my evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: 'behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.

It shall happen, after that I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them; and I will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.

It shall happen, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, "As the LORD lives;" even as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built up in the midst of my people.

Thus says the LORD to me, "Go, and buy yourself a linen belt, and put it on your waist, and do not put it in water."

So I bought a belt according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my waist.

The word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying,

"Take the belt that you have bought, which is on your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock."

It happened after many days, that the LORD said to me, "Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide there."

Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the belt from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the belt was marred, it was profitable for nothing.

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing.

For as the belt clings to the waist of a man, so have I caused to cling to me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah,' says the LORD; 'that they might be my people, for a name, for praise, and for glory. But they would not listen.

Therefore you shall speak to them this word: 'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, "Every bottle shall be filled with wine:"' and they shall tell you, 'Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?'

"Hear, and give ear; do not be proud; for the LORD has spoken.

Give glory to the LORD your God, before he causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death, and makes it gross darkness.

"Say to the king and to the queen mother, 'Humble yourselves, sit down; for your headdresses have come down, even the crown of your glory.

The cities toward the Negev are shut, and there is no one to open them: Judah is carried away into exile, all of it; it is wholly carried away into exile.'"

What will you say, when he shall set over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? Shall not sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?

Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

This is your lot, the portion measured to you from me,' says the LORD; 'because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.

I have seen your abominations, even your adulteries, and your neighing, the lewdness of your prostitution, on the hills in the field. Woe to you, Jerusalem. You will not be made clean; how long shall it yet be?'"

The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.

Their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads.

You hope of Israel, its Savior in the time of trouble, why should you be as a foreigner in the land, and as a wayfaring man who turns aside to stay for a night?

Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can't save? Yet you, LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not leave us."

Thus says the LORD to this people, "Even so have they loved to wander; they have not refrained their feet: therefore the LORD does not accept them; now he will remember their iniquity, and visit their sins."

The LORD said to me, "Do not pray for this people for their good.

Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets prophesy lies in my name; I did not send them, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke I to them: they prophesy to you a lying vision, and divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart.

The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them?them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness on them."

"You shall say this word to them, 'Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound.

Do not abhor us, for your name's sake; do not disgrace the throne of your glory: remember, do not break your covenant with us.

Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren't you he, LORD our God? Therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things."

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

It shall happen, when they tell you, 'Where shall we go forth?' Then you shall tell them, 'Thus says the LORD: "Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.

I will appoint over them four kinds, says the LORD: the sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy.

I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask of your welfare?

Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.

She who has borne seven languishes; she has given up the spirit; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been disappointed and confounded: and their residue will I deliver to the sword before their enemies," says the LORD.

"Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth. I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet everyone of them curses me."

The LORD said, "Most certainly I will strengthen you for good; most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the time of evil and in the time of distress.

I will make them to pass with your enemies into a land which you do not know; for a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn on you."

"LORD, you know; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; do not take me away in your longsuffering: know that for your sake I have suffered reproach.

Your words were found, and I ate them; and your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name, LORD, God of Hosts.

Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook, as waters that fail?"

Therefore thus says the LORD, "If you return, then will I bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: they shall return to you, but you shall not return to them.

I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you," says the LORD.

The word of the LORD came also to me, saying,

They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth.

For thus says the LORD, 'Do not enter into the house of mourning, neither go to lament, neither bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the LORD, even loving kindness and tender mercies.

Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them;

neither shall men break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

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

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

and you have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you do not listen to me:

therefore I will cast you forth out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no favor.'

but, 'As the LORD lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them.' I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.

"LORD, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, 'Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, vanity and things in which there is no profit.

Shall a man make to himself gods, which yet are no gods?'"

"Therefore behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is the LORD.

You, even of yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you do not know: for you have kindled a fire in my anger which shall burn forever."

I, the LORD, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you; neither have I desired the woeful day; you know: that which came out of my lips was before your face.

Do not be a terror to me: you are my refuge in the day of evil.

Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but let not me be disappointed; let them be dismayed, but do not let me be dismayed; bring on them the day of disaster, and destroy them with double destruction."

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

Thus says the LORD, "Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;

neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day holy, neither do any work: but make the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.

It shall happen, if you diligently listen to me," says the LORD, "to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein;

They shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the hill country, and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meal offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, to the house of the LORD.

But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched."'"

The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

"Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words."

Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was making a work on the wheels.

When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

"'House of Israel, can't I do with you as this potter?' says the LORD. 'Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.'

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it;

if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;

if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them.

Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the LORD: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return now everyone from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.'

But they say, 'It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do everyone after the stubbornness of his evil heart.'"

For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false gods; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up;

to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.

I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity."