The ground is cracked, because there has been no rain in the land. The farmers are disappointed, and they cover their heads in shame.

Even the doe in the field gives birth and then abandons her young because there is no grass.

Wild donkeys stand on the barren hills. They pant for air like jackals. Their eyesight fails because there is no vegetation."

LORD,even though our iniquities testify against us, do something for the sake of your name. Indeed, our apostasies are many, and we have sinned against you.

Why are you like a man taken by surprise, like a strong man who can't deliver? You are among us, LORD, and your name is the one by which we're called. Don't abandon us!

This is what the LORD says to these people: "Yes, they do love to wander, and they haven't restrained their feet. So the LORD won't accept them now. He will remember their iniquity and punish their sin."

Therefore, this is what the LORD says about the false prophets who prophesy in my name, "There will be no sword and famine in this land' (though I haven't sent them): "By the sword and by famine these prophets will be finished off!

Have you completely rejected Judah? Do you despise Zion? Why have you struck us, so that there is no healing for us? We hoped for peace, but no good came, for a time of healing, but there was only terror.

For the sake of your name don't despise us. Don't dishonor your glorious throne. Remember, don't break your covenant with us!

"When they say to you, "Where can we go?', say to them, "This is what the LORD says: "Those destined for death, to death will go; those destined for the sword, to the sword will go; and those destined for captivity, to captivity will go.

"I'll give away your wealth and your treasures as plunder, for free, because of all your sins throughout your territory.

Why is my pain unending and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You are like a deceptive brook, whose waters cannot be depended on.

Therefore, this is what the LORD says: "If you repent, I'll take you back and you will stand before me. If you speak what is worthwhile, instead of what is worthless, then you will be my spokesman. People will turn to you, but you aren't to turn to them.

For this is what the LORD says about the sons and daughters who are born in this place, about their mothers who give birth to them, and about their fathers who father them in this land:

For this is what the LORD says: "Don't go to a house where there is mourning, don't go to lament, nor to express sorrow to them. For I've taken my peace away from this people," declares the LORD, "as well as gracious love and compassion.

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "In this place I'm about to bring an end to the sounds of happiness and rejoicing, the sounds of the bridegroom and the bride. I'll do it in front of your eyes and in your time.

"When you speak all these words to this people, they'll say to you, "Why has the LORD pronounced all this disaster against us? What is our iniquity, and what is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?'

Then say to them, "It is because your ancestors abandoned me,' declares the LORD. "They followed other gods, served them, worshipped them, abandoned me, and didn't keep my Law.

You have done even more evil than your ancestors, and each one of you is stubbornly following his own evil desires, refusing to listen to me.

"Therefore, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when it will no longer be said, "As surely as the LORD lives, who brought up the Israelis from the land of Egypt.'

Rather it will be said, "As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelis up from the land of the north and from all the lands to which the LORD had banished them.' I'll bring them back to their land, which I gave to their ancestors.

For I am watching all their ways; they are not hidden from my sight. Their iniquity is not concealed from my eyes.

LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in a time of difficulty, to you the nations will come, and from the ends of the earth they'll say, "Surely our ancestors inherited deception, things that are worthless, and in which there is no profit."

Therefore, I'm about to make them understand; this time I'll make them understand my power and strength, so they'll understand that my name is the LORD.

The sin of Judah is engraved with an iron stylus. It is inscribed with a diamond point on the tablet of their heart and on the horns of their altars.

My mountain in the field, your wealth and your treasures I'll give as spoil; along with your high places as the price of your sin throughout your territory.

This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the person who trusts in mankind, who makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

Blessed is the person who trusts in the LORD, making the LORD his trust.

"The heart is more deceitful than anything. It is incurable who can know it?

As a partridge gathers together eggs that it didn't lay, so is a person who amasses wealth unjustly. In the middle of his life it will leave him, and in the end he will prove to be a fool."

A glorious throne exalted from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.

Look, they're saying to me, "Where is the message from the LORD? Let it come about!"

The LORD told me, "Go, stand in the gate of the people, where the kings of Judah come in and go out, and in the other gates of Jerusalem as well.

This is what the LORD says: "Be careful! On the Sabbath day, don't carry any load or bring anything through the gates of Jerusalem.

Don't bring any load out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor are you to do any work. You are to consecrate the Sabbath day, just as I commanded your ancestors.

But if you don't listen to me, to consecrate the Sabbath day and not carry any load as you enter the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I'll start a fire in its gates. It will consume the palaces of Jerusalem and won't be extinguished."'"

"Now say to the people of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem, "This is what the LORD says: "Look, I'm designing a disaster just for you, and I'm making plans against you. Each one of you must repent from his evil way. Make your ways and deeds right."'

But they'll say, "It's useless! We will follow our plans and each of us will pursue his own evil desires.'

"Therefore, this is what the LORD says: "Ask the nations. Who has ever heard of anything like this? You have done a most horrible thing, virgin Israel.

Yet my people have forgotten me, and they burn incense to worthless idols that make them stumble in their journey on the ancient paths. They walk on trails, on a way that is not built up.

Then they said, "Come, let's make up a plot against Jeremiah. After all, the priest's instruction, the wise man's counsel, and the prophet's message won't be destroyed. So let's verbally attack him. Pay no attention to anything he says!"

This is what the LORD says: "Go and buy a potter's clay jug. Take along some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests.

""This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "I'm about to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of all who hear about it tingle. For they have forsaken me and have treated this place as foreign. In it they have burned incense to other gods that neither they, their ancestors, nor the kings of Judah knew. They have also filled this place with the blood of innocent people.

They built the high places for Baal to burn their children in the fire as a burnt offering to Baal something I didn't command, didn't say, nor did it ever enter my mind!

I'll shatter the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I'll make them fall by the sword before their enemies and at the hands of those seeking their lives. I'll give their dead bodies as food to the birds of the sky and to the animals of the land.

and say to them, "This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "In this same way I'll break this people and this city, just as someone breaks a potter's vessel which he then cannot put back together again. They'll bury corpses in Topheth until there is no more room to bury anyone.

This is what I'll do to this place and its residents," declares the LORD, "making this city like Topheth.

The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be polluted like Topheth, as will be all the houses on whose roofs people burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out liquid offerings to other gods."'"

"This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "I'm about to bring on this city and all its towns all the disaster that I declared against it because they were determined not to obey my message.'"

For this is what the LORD says: "Look, I'm going to make you a terror to yourself and to all your loved ones. They'll fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. I'll give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He will take them into exile to Babylon, and he will execute them with swords.

Indeed, as often as I speak, I cry out, and shout, "Violence and destruction!" For this message from the LORD has caused me constant reproach and derision.

When I say, "I won't remember the LORD, nor will I speak in his name anymore, then there is this burning fire in my heart. It is bound up in my bones, I grow weary of trying to hold it in, and I cannot do it!

Butthe LORD is with me like a fearsome warrior. Therefore, those who pursue me will stumble and won't prevail. They'll be put to great shame, when they don't succeed. Their everlasting disgrace won't be forgotten.

Cursed is the person who brought the good news to my father, "A baby boy has been born to you," making him very happy.

"Please inquire of the LORD on our behalf, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is fighting against us. Perhaps the LORD will do some of his miraculous acts for us, and Nebuchadnezzar will depart from us."

Jeremiah told them, "This is what you are to say to Zedekiah,

"This is what the LORD God of Israel says: "I'm about to turn against you the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. I'll gather them into the center of this city.

"You are to say to this people, "This is what the LORD says: "I'm about to set before you the way of life and the way of death.

Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, by famine, and by the plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live. He will save his life as a spoil of war.

This is what the LORD says, house of David: "Judge appropriately every morning, and deliver those who have been robbed from the oppressor, so my anger does not break out like fire and burn with no one to put it out because of your evil deeds.

"Look, I'm against you, city dwelling in the valley, rock of the plain," declares the LORD, "those of you who say, "Who can come down against us and who can enter our habitations?'

This is what the LORD says: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah and tell him this:

This is what the LORD says: "Uphold justice and righteousness. Deliver from their oppressor those who have been robbed. Don't mistreat or do violence to the alien, the orphan, or the widow, or shed the blood of innocent people in this place.

For this is what the LORD says about the house of the king of Judah, "You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon. Yet I'll surely make you a desert, towns where no one lives.

Then people will respond, "It is because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have bowed down to other gods and served them.'

"For this is what the LORD says about Josiah's son Shallum, king of Judah, who reigned in place of his father Josiah: "He went out from this place and won't return to it again.

Therefore, this is what the LORD says about Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah, "They won't lament for him with these words: "How terrible, my brother, How terrible, my sister!' They won't lament for him with these words: "How terrible, lord, How terrible, your majesty!'

"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

and give you to those who are trying to kill you, whom you fear that is, to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the Chaldeans.

As for the land to which you want to return, you won't return there!

"Is this man Jehoiachin a despised and shattered jar, a vessel no one wants? Why were he and his descendants hurled away, thrown into a land that they didn't know?

This is what the LORD says: "Write this man off as childless, a man who does not prosper in his lifetime. None of his descendants will succeed in sitting on the throne of David, or ever ruling in Judah again.'"

Therefore, this is what the LORD God of Israel says about the shepherds who are shepherding my people, "You have scattered my flock and driven them away. You haven't taken care of them, and now I'm about to take care of you because of your evil deeds," declares the LORD.

"The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I'll raise up a righteous branch for David. He will be a king who rules wisely, and he will administer justice and righteousness in the land.

In his time Judah will be delivered and Israel will dwell in safety. This is the name by which he will be known: "The LORD Our Righteousness.'

"Therefore, the time is coming," declares the LORD, "when people will no longer say, "As surely as the LORD lives who brought up the Israelis from the land of Egypt,'

but they'll say, "As surely as the LORD lives who brought the descendants of the Israelis from the land of the north and from all the lands where I had driven them and brought them into the land.' Then they'll live in their own land."

Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me, and all my bones shake. I'm like a drunk man, like a person overcome with wine, because of the LORD, and because of his holy words.

Indeed, the land is full of adulterers. Indeed, the land mourns because of the curse; the pastures of the wilderness have dried up. The adulterers' lifestyles are evil, and they use their strength for what is not right.

Therefore, this is what the LORD God of the Heavenly Armies says about the prophets, "I'm about to make them eat wormwood and drink poisoned water, because godlessness has spread from the prophets of Jerusalem throughout the land."

This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Don't listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you; they're giving you false hopes. They declare visions from their own minds they don't come from the LORD!

"Am I a God who is near," declares the LORD, "rather than a God who is far away?

How long will this go on? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy from the deceit that is in their hearts?

With their dreams that they relate to one another, they plan to make my people forget my name just as their ancestors forgot my name by embracing Baal.

"My message is like fire or like a hammer that shatters rock, is it not?" declares the LORD.

Look, I'm against the prophets," declares the LORD, "who use their tongues to issue a declaration.

"Jeremiah, when these people, the prophet, or a priest ask you, "What is the oracle of the LORD?' say to them, "You are the burden, and I'll cast you out,'" declares the LORD.

"As for the prophet, the priest, or the people who say, "I have an oracle of the LORD,' I'll judge that person and his household.

This is what you should say to one another and among yourselves, "What has the LORD answered?' or "What has the LORD said?'

But you are to no longer mention the oracle of the LORD, because the oracle is only for the person to whom the LORD gives his message, and you have overturned the words of the living God, the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, our God.

This is what you should say to the prophet, "What has the LORD answered?' or "What has the LORD said?'

Since you're saying, "We have an oracle of the LORD,' therefore this is what the LORD says: He will answer your message with this message, "Burden of the LORD,' and I'll send you away with these words: "Don't say, "Oracle of the LORD."'

"This is what the LORD God of Israel says: "Like these good figs, so I'll regard as good the exiles of Judah whom I sent from this place to the land of the Chaldeans.

""Like the bad figs that are too bad to be eaten for this is what the LORD says so I'll give up on Zedekiah king of Judah, along with his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem that is left in this land, and those living in the land of Egypt.

This is what Jeremiah the prophet told all the people of Judah and all the residents of Jerusalem:

But you didn't listen to me," declares the LORD, "so as to provoke me with the idols you make with your hands to your own harm.

"Therefore, this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Because you haven't listened to my message,

I'll bring on that land all the things I spoke against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied about the nations.

For this is what the LORD God of Israel says to me, "Take this cup of the wine of burning anger from my hand and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.

Jerusalem, the cities of Judah, its kings and officials to make them into a ruin, an object of horror and scorn, and a curse, as it is this day;