Woe to me, my mother, that you gave birth to me, a man of contention and quarreling {to the whole land}. I have not lent out and {I have not borrowed}. All of them [are] cursing me.

Can you people who are like iron and bronze break that iron fist from the north?

O Lord, you have knowledge: keep me in mind and come to my help, and give their right reward to those who are attacking me; take me not away, for you are slow to be angry: see how I have undergone shame because of you from all those who make little of your word;

I did not take my seat among the band of those who are glad, and I had no joy; I kept by myself because of your hand; for you have made me full of wrath.

Why is my pain endless, and my wound incurable? It refuses to become healed. Truly you are to me like a deceitful [brook], waters [that] are not trustworthy.

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.

You are not to take a wife for yourself or have sons or daughters in this place.

For thus saith Jehovah concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land:

Of painful deaths they die, They are not lamented, nor are they buried, For dung on the face of the ground they are, And by sword and by famine are consumed, And their carcase hath been for food To the fowl of the heavens, And to the beast of the earth.

"Moreover I, the Lord, tell you: 'Do not go into a house where they are having a funeral meal. Do not go there to mourn and express your sorrow for them. For I have stopped showing them my good favor, my love, and my compassion. I, the Lord, so affirm it!

And died have great and small in this land, They are not buried, and none lament for them, Nor doth any cut himself, nor become bald for them.

And you are not to go into the house of feasting, or be seated with them to take food or drink.

Then you are to say to them, ‘It is because your forefathers have forsaken Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and have followed other gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law.

And {you have behaved badly} more than your ancestors, and look, you [are] going each one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, without listening to me.

So I will hurl you from this land into a land that you and your fathers are not familiar with. There you will worship other gods both day and night, for I will not grant you grace.

{Therefore} look, days [are] coming,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and it will no longer be said, "{As Yahweh lives}, who led up the {Israelites} from the land of Egypt,"

For my eyes [are] on all their ways, they are not hidden {from before me}, and their iniquity is not concealed from before my eyes.

Then I said, "Lord, you give me strength and protect me. You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble. Nations from all over the earth will come to you and say, 'Our ancestors had nothing but false gods -- worthless idols that could not help them at all.

Can a human make for himself gods? Yet they [are] not gods!"

Their children are always thinking about their altars and their sacred poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, set up beside the green trees on the high hills

They will be like a tree planted near a stream whose roots spread out toward the water. It has nothing to fear when the heat comes. Its leaves are always green. It has no need to be concerned in a year of drought. It does not stop bearing fruit.

Like the partridge, getting eggs together but not producing young, is a man who gets wealth but not by right; before half his days are ended, it will go from him, and at his end he will be foolish.

Then I said, "Lord, from the very beginning you have been seated on your glorious throne on high. You are the place where we can find refuge.

The hope of Israel is Jehovah, All forsaking Thee are ashamed, And 'My apostates' in the earth are written, For they have forsaken Jehovah, A fountain of living waters.

Heal me, Yahweh, and I will be healed, save me, and I will be saved, for you [are] my praise.

Look, they [are] saying to me, "Where [is] the word of Yahweh? Please let it come."

But I have not pestered you to bring disaster. I have not desired the time of irreparable devastation. You know that. You are fully aware of every word that I have spoken.

You must not become to me a terror, you [are] my refuge in [the] day of disaster.

Let them be put to shame who are attacking me, but let me not be shamed; let them be overcome with fear, but let me not be overcome: send on them the day of evil, and put them to destruction twice over.

and thou hast said unto them: Hear a word of Jehovah, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all inhabitants of Jerusalem, who are coming in by these gates,

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.

Then people will come from the cities of Judah and from the area around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the Judean foothills, from the hill country and from the Negev bringing burnt offerings and sacrifice, grain offerings and frankincense, and thank offerings to the house of the Lord.

"Like this potter, am I not able to do to you, O house of Israel?" {declares} Yahweh. "Look, like the clay in the hand of the potter, so [are] you in my hand, O house of Israel.

There are times, Jeremiah, when I threaten to uproot, tear down, and destroy a nation or kingdom.

And there are times when I promise to build up and establish a nation or kingdom.

But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

Does the snow of Lebanon leave from [the] crags of Sirion? Or are [the] cold waters flowing from distant mountains dried up?

Yet my people have forgotten me and offered sacrifices to worthless idols! This makes them stumble along in the way they live and leave the old reliable path of their fathers. They have left them to walk in bypaths, in roads that are not smooth and level.

Pay attention to me, Lord.
Hear what my opponents are saying!

Should good be paid back with evil? Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me. Just remember how I stood before you pleading on their behalf to keep you from venting your anger on them.

Therefore, give up their sons to famine, And cause them to run on the sides of the sword, And their wives are bereaved and widows, And their men are slain by death, Their young men smitten by sword in battle,

And Thou, O Jehovah, Thou hast known, All their counsel against me is for death, Thou dost not cover over their iniquity, Nor their sin from before Thee blottest out, And they are made to stumble before Thee, In the time of Thine anger work against them!

"You are to say, "Hear this message from the LORD, you kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem!

They have built places here for worship of the god Baal so that they could sacrifice their children as burnt offerings to him in the fire. Such sacrifices are something I never commanded them to make! They are something I never told them to do! Indeed, such a thing never even entered my mind!

"{Therefore} look, days [are] about to come," {declares} Yahweh, "when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, {but} the Valley of the Slaughter.

In this place I will thwart the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will deliver them over to the power of their enemies who are seeking to kill them. They will die by the sword at the hands of their enemies. I will make their dead bodies food for the birds and wild beasts to eat.

I will reduce the people of this city to desperate straits during the siege imposed on it by their enemies who are seeking to kill them. I will make them so desperate that they will eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters and the flesh of one another."'"

“Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the people traveling with you,

and you are to proclaim to them: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: I will shatter these people and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be mended. They will bury the dead in Topheth because there is no other place for burials.

and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink-offerings unto other gods.

and Pashhur smiteth Jeremiah the prophet, and putteth him unto the stocks, that are by the high gate of Benjamin, that is by the house of Jehovah.

For thus said Jehovah: Lo, I am making thee for a fear to thyself, And to all loving thee, And they have fallen by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes are beholding, And all Judah I give into the hand of the king of Babylon, And he hath removed them to Babylon, And he hath smitten them with the sword.

And you, Pashhur, and all who are in your house, will go away prisoners: you will come to Babylon, and there your body will be put to rest, you and all your friends, to whom you said false words.

O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived: you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am in derision daily, everyone mocks me.

For whenever I prophesy, I must cry out, "Violence and destruction are coming!" This message from the Lord has made me an object of continual insults and derision.

For I hear the rumor of many, "Terror [is] from all around, denounce [him], yes, let us denounce him!" {All my close friends} [are] watchers of my stumbling, [saying], "perhaps he can be persuaded, and we can prevail over him, and we can take our revenge on him."

Why is this? from the womb I have come out, To see labour and sorrow, Yea, consumed in shame are my days!

These are the words that the LORD spake unto Jeremiah, what time as king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashhur the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, priest, saying,

Then Jeremiah said to them, This is what you are to say to Zedekiah:

'Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: "Look, I [am] about to turn back the weapons of war that [are] in your hands, [with] which you [are] fighting against them, the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are laying siege to you from outside the wall, and I will gather them into the center of this city.

And afterward, saith Jehovah, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, even such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.

And to this people you are to say, The Lord has said, See, I put before you the way of life and the way of death.

He who stays in this city will die by the sword, or by the famine, or by the plague. And he who goes out and goes over to the Chaldeans who are laying siege to you will live, and his life will be to him as booty.

O royal family descended from David. The Lord says: 'See to it that people each day are judged fairly. Deliver those who have been robbed from those who oppress them. Otherwise, my wrath will blaze out against you. It will burn like a fire that cannot be put out because of the evil that you have done.

See, I am against you, you who are living on the rock of the valley, says the Lord; you who say, Who will come down against us? or who will get into our houses?

You are to say: Hear the word of the Lord, king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David—you, your officers, and your people who enter these gates.

If you are careful to obey these commands, then the kings who follow in David's succession and ride in chariots or on horses will continue to come through the gates of this palace, as will their officials and their subjects.

For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah, "You [are like] Gilead to me, [like] the head of the Lebanon. {Surely} I will make you a desert, [like] cities [that] are not inhabited.

Do you reign as king because you [are] competing in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and he did justice and righteousness, then it was well with him?

But thine eyes and thy heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

Go up [to] Lebanon and cry out, and in Bashan lift up your voice, and cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers are shattered.

O you who are living in Lebanon, making your living-place in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied will you be when pains come on you, as on a woman in childbirth!

And I would give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those from whom you [are] frightened by their presence, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

As for the land to which they are {longing} to return, they will not return.

[Is] this man Coniah a despised, shattered vessel? Or a vessel [in which] there is no delight? Why are he and his offspring thrown far, and cast away to the land that they do not know?"

A curse is on the keepers who are causing the destruction and loss of the sheep of my field, says the Lord.

Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,” declares the Lord.

Then I myself will regather those of my people who are still alive from all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back to their homeland. They will greatly increase in number.

And I have raised for them shepherds, And they have fed them, And they fear no more, nor are affrighted, Nor are they lacking -- an affirmation of Jehovah.

"Look, days [are] coming," {declares} Yahweh, "when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he will reign [as] king, and he will achieve success, and he will do justice and righteousness in the land.

"{Therefore} look, days [are] coming," {declares} Yahweh, "when they will no longer say, '{As Yahweh lives}, who led up the {Israelites} from the land of Egypt,'

About the prophets. My heart is broken in me, all my bones are shaking; I am like a man full of strong drink, like a man overcome by wine; because of the Lord, and because of his holy words.

For the land is full [of] adulterers; for the land mourns because of a curse. [The] pastures of [the] desert are dry, and their evil has been their way of running, and their power [is] not right.

"For both prophet as well as priest are godless, even in my temple I have found their wickedness," {declares} Yahweh.

Therefore is their way to them as slippery places, Into thick darkness they are driven, And they have fallen in it, For I bring in against them evil, The year of their inspection, An affirmation of Jehovah.

In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evil-doers, so that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

So then I, the Lord who rules over all, have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem: 'I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment. For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason that ungodliness has spread throughout the land.'"

Thus says Yahweh of hosts, "You must not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They [are] deluding you [with] visions of their {mind}, They do not speak from the mouth of Yahweh.

[They are] continually saying to those who disregard the word of Yahweh, 'Peace it will be to you,' and [to] {each one} who walks in the stubbornness of his heart they say, 'Calamity will not come upon you.'

But just watch! The wrath of the Lord will come like a storm! Like a raging storm it will rage down on the heads of those who are wicked.

But if they had stood in my inner circle, they would have proclaimed my message to my people. They would have caused my people to turn from their wicked ways and stop doing the evil things they are doing.

The Lord says, "I have heard what those prophets who are prophesying lies in my name are saying. They are saying, 'I have had a dream! I have had a dream!'

How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;

Who are devising to cause My people To forget My name by their dreams, That they recount each to his neighbour, As their fathers forgot my name for Baal.

So I, the Lord, affirm that I am opposed to those prophets who steal messages from one another that they claim are from me.

Lo, I am against the prophets, An affirmation of Jehovah, Who are making smooth their tongue, And they affirm -- an affirmation.

I am against those who prophesy false dreams”—the Lord’s declaration—“telling them and leading My people astray with their falsehoods and their boasting. It was not I who sent or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people”—this is the Lord’s declaration.

"Now when this people, or a prophet, or a priest, ask you, {saying}, 'What [is] the burden of Yahweh?' then you shall say to them, '{You are the burden}, and I will forsake you,'" {declares} Yahweh.

But this is what you are to say, every man to his neighbour and every man to his brother, What answer has the Lord given? and, What has the Lord said?

You must no longer say that the Lord's message is burdensome. For what is 'burdensome' really pertains to what a person himself says. You are misrepresenting the words of our God, the living God, the Lord who rules over all.