The voices of the commanders-in-chief were hushed, and their tongues would cling to the roofs of their mouths."

I set an example of the way to live, as a leader would; I lived like a king among his army; like one who comforts mourners."

"But now they mock me; men who are far younger than I, whose fathers I would have hated to entrust with my own sheep dogs.

"They would pluck off herbs from salt marshes to eat; and roots of the broom shrub for food.

What would I have from God above, what heritage from the Almighty on high,

if I've raised my hand against an orphan when I thought I would against him in court,

this is also a sin that deserves to be judged, since I would have tried to deceive God above."

Have I feared large crowds? Has my family's contempt ever terrified me so that I remained silent and wouldn't go outside?"

since I don't know the first thing about how to flatter; and the one who made me would sweep me away as if I were nothing."

every living thing would die all at once, and mankind would return to dust."

He won't examine mankind further, that they would go before God to judgment.

Indeed would you annul my justice and condemn me, just so you can claim that you're righteous?

"Look! Anyone's hope to capture him will prove itself false; anyone would be terrified just by looking at him.

You would frustrate the plans of the oppressed, but the LORD is their refuge.

But when I stumbled, they rejoiced and gathered together. They gathered together against me attackers whom I did not know. They tore me apart and would not stop.

You rebuke by chastening a man with the consequence of iniquities; you destroy what is attractive to him, as one would treat a moth. Indeed, every person is a puff of wind. Interlude

wouldn't God find out since he knows the secrets of the heart?

for it would cost too much to redeem his life, and the payments would go on forever

"If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is mine along with everything in it.

Indeed, you do not delight in sacrifices, or I would give them, nor do you desire burnt offerings.

Would that Israel's deliverance come out of Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice and Israel will be glad. To the Director: With stringed instruments. A Davidic instruction, when the Ziphites came and told Saul, "David is hiding among us, is he not?"

How long will you rage against someone? Would you attack him as if he were a leaning wall or a tottering fence?

Were I to cherish iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not listen to me.

If I say, "I will talk like this," I would betray a generation of your children.

He led them to safety so they would not fear. As for their enemies, the sea covered them.

Listen, My people and I will warn you. Israel, if only you would obey me!

If only my people would obey me, if only Israel would walk in my ways!

Then I would quickly subdue their enemies. I would turn against their foes.

for a day in your Temple courts is better than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather stand at the entrance of God's house than live in the tent of wickedness.

If the LORD had not been my helper, I would have quickly become silent.

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the flock in his care. If only you would listen to his voice today,

so they would declare the name of the LORD in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem,

He would have destroyed them but for Moses, his chosen one, who stood in the breach before him to avert his destructive wrath.

So he swore an oath concerning them that he would cause them to die in the wilderness,

It was for my good that I was humbled; so that I would learn your statutes.

Had your instruction not been my pleasure, I would have died in my affliction.

then they would have devoured us alive, when their anger burned against us.

Then the flood waters would have overwhelmed us, the torrent would have flooded over us;

the swollen waters would have swept us away.

Were I to count them, they would number more than the sand. When I awake, I will be with you.

God, if only you would execute the wicked, so that the men guilty of bloodshed would get away from me,

when he set a boundary for the sea so the waters would not exceed his limits, when he marked out the foundations of the earth.

A fool finds no satisfaction in trying to understand, for he would rather express his own opinion.

I had just passed them when I found the one I love. I held him and wouldn't let him go until I brought him to my mother's house, to the room of the one who conceived me.

If only you were like a brother to me, like one who nursed at my mother's breasts. If I found you outside I would kiss you, and no one would view me with contempt.

I would lead you, I would bring you to the house of my mother who used to teach me. I would give you some spiced wine to drink, from the juice of my pomegranates.

Mighty bodies of water cannot extinguish love, rivers cannot put it out. If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, he would surely be viewed with contempt.

If the Lord of the Heavenly Armies hadn't left us a few survivors, we would be like Sodom; we would be like Gomorrah.

who made the world like a desert, who destroyed its cities, who would not open the jails for his prisoners?'

I am not angry. If only the vineyard could give me briers and thorns to battle, I would march against it, and I would burn it all up.

to whom he said, "This is the resting place, so give rest to the weary"' and, "This is the place of repose" - but they would not listen.

Lebanon would not provide enough fuel, nor are its animals enough for a burnt offering.

"Who handed Jacob over to looters, and Israel to robbers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? After all, they weren't willing to walk in his ways, and they wouldn't obey his instruction,

Who would shape a god or cast an image that profits nothing?

And neither had you heard, nor did you understand, nor did you open your ear long ago. Indeed, I knew that you would act very deceitfully, and they would call you a rebel from birth.

Now if only you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your success like the waves of the sea.

Your descendants would've been like the sand, and your offspring like its numberless grains. Their name wouldn't have been cut off or annihilated out of my reach.

"For this is like the waters of Noah to me, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again spread over the earth; so have I sworn that I won't be angry with you again and that I won't rebuke you.

You grew tired with your many wanderings, but you wouldn't say: "It is hopeless.' You found new strength for your desire, and so you did not falter.

For I won't accuse forever, nor will I always be angry; for then the human spirit would grow faint before me even the souls that I have created.

If only you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence

This is what the LORD says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you would build for me, and where will my resting place be?

"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.

"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.

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.

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.'

"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."'"

"Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, for then I would cry day and night for those of my people who have been killed.

Who wouldn't fear you, king of the nations? This is what you deserve! Indeed, among all the wise men of the nations, and throughout all their kingdoms, there is no one like you!

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.'"

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.'

Then the LORD told me, "Even if Moses and Samuel were standing before me, I wouldn't be favorably disposed toward this people. Send them out of my presence! Let them go!

But if that nation does evil in my eyes by not obeying me, I'll change my mind about the good that I said I would bring on it.

because he didn't kill me in the womb, so that my mother would have been my grave and her womb forever pregnant.

"As certainly as I'm alive and living," declares the LORD, "even if Jehoiakim's son King Jehoiachin of Judah were a signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off

If they had stood in my council and had delivered my words to my people, then they would have turned them back from their evil way, from their evil deeds."

Again and again, the LORD sent all his servants, the prophets, to you, but you wouldn't listen or even turn your ears in my direction to hear.

and listen to the words of my servants, the prophets, whom I've sent to you over and over but you wouldn't listen

Their leader will be one of their own, and their ruler will come from among them. I'll bring him near, and he will approach me, for who would otherwise dare to approach me?' declares the LORD.

This is what the LORD says: "If the heavens could be measured above, or the foundations of the earth be searched out below, then I also would reject all the descendants of Israel because of everything they have done," declares the LORD.

And you gave them this land which you had promised their ancestors that you would give them a land flowing with milk and honey.

"This is what the LORD says: "If you could break my covenant with the day and night so that day and night wouldn't occur at the proper time,

then my covenant with my servant David might also be broken so that he wouldn't have a son sitting on his throne, and so also with my servants the Levitical priests.

Each person was to set free his male and female slaves who were Hebrews, so that no Jewish person would enslave his brother.

All the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant agreed that each would set his male and female slaves free so that they would not enslave them any longer. They obeyed and they released them.

As Jehudi would read three or four columns, the king would cut it with a scribe's knife and throw it into the fire which was in the stove, until all the scroll was burned in the fire in the stove.

Even though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.

I'll punish him, his descendants, and his officials for their iniquity. I'll bring on them, on the residents of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah all the calamity about which I've warned them, but they would not listen."'"

Indeed, even if you defeated the entire Chaldean army that is fighting against you, and they had only wounded men left in their tents, they would get up and burn this city with fire.'"'"

Jeremiah said, "It's a lie! I'm not going over to the Chaldeans." But Irijah would not listen to him, and he arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials.

Rather, we will keep doing everything that we said we would by offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and by pouring out liquid offerings to her just as we, our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders did in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had plenty of bread, things went well for us, and we didn't experience disaster.

If the grape harvesters came to you, would they not leave gleanings? If thieves came at night, they would destroy only until they had enough.

We tried to heal Babylon, but she wouldn't be healed. Leave her, and let each of us go to his own country. For her judgment has reached to the heavens, and is lifted up to the sky.

Jeremiah wrote on a single scroll all the disasters that would come on Babylon, all these things that were written about Babylon.

and say, "LORD, you have declared about this place that you would destroy it so that there wouldn't be an inhabitant in it, neither human nor animal, because it will be a wasteland forever.'

Uncleanness has soiled her skirts, and she gave no thought to what would follow. She fell in such a startling way, with no one to comfort her. Look, LORD, upon my affliction, because my enemy is boasting.

He bent his bow against us as would an enemy, his right hand cocked as would an adversary. He has killed everyone in whom we took pride; in the tent of cherished Zion he poured out his anger like fire.

None of the kings of the earth would have believed, nor the world's inhabitants, that the adversary and the enemy could have breached the gates of Jerusalem.

Our eyes failed, searching in vain for hope; we kept watching and looking for a nation that would not help.

Whatever direction these spirits went, the wheels would be lifted up along with them, because the wheels were alive.