This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

The kindnesses of Jehovah! For we have not been consumed, For not ended have His mercies.

I said to myself, The Lord is my heritage; and because of this I will have hope in him.

Let him offer his cheek to the one who hits him; let him have his fill of insults.

But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

Who can speak a thing and have it come to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?

We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.

You have covered Yourself with anger
And pursued us;
You have slain [without pity] and have not spared.

You have covered Yourself with a cloud
So that no prayer can pass through.

You have made us scum and refuse
Among the peoples (Gentile nations).

All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

Panic and pitfall (traps, danger) have come on us,
Devastation and destruction.

My eyes have poured down unceasingly without respite,

They have chased me sore like a bird, they that are mine enemies without cause.

They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

Flowed have waters over my head, I have said, I have been cut off.

I have called your name, O Yahweh, from the depths of the pit.

You have heard my cry, "Do not shut your ear to my cry for help, for my relief!"

You came near in the day when I made my prayer to you: you said, Have no fear.

O Lord, You have pleaded my soul’s cause [You have guided my way and protected me];
You have rescued and redeemed my life.

O Lord, You have seen the wrong [done to me];
Judge my case.

You have seen all their vengeance,
All their schemes against me.

You have heard their reproach, O Lord,
And all their schemes against me.

(Tav) Pay them back what they deserve, O Lord, according to what they have done.

How tarnished the gold has become, the finest gold debased! Sacred stones have been scattered at every street corner.

The precious sons of Zion, Who are comparable with fine gold, How have they been reckoned earthen bottles, Work of the hands of a potter.

Even dragons have drawn out the breast, They have suckled their young ones, The daughter of my people is become cruel, Like the ostriches in a wilderness.

Cleaved hath the tongue of a suckling unto his palate with thirst, Infants asked bread, a dealer out they have none.

Those eating of dainties have been desolate in out-places, Those supported on scarlet have embraced dunghills.

Darker than blackness hath been their visage, They have not been known in out-places, Cleaved hath their skin unto their bone, It hath withered -- it hath been as wood.

Better have been the pierced of a sword Than the pierced of famine, For these flow away, pierced through, Without the increase of the field.

The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,

They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

Turn aside -- unclean,' they called to them, 'Turn aside, turn aside, touch not,' For they fled -- yea, they have wandered, They have said among nations: 'They do not add to sojourn.'

The face of Jehovah hath divided them, He doth not add to behold them, The face of priests they have not lifted up, Elders they have not favoured.

As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.

They have hunted our steps from going in our broad-places, Near hath been our end, fulfilled our days, For come hath our end.

Swifter have been our pursuers, Than the eagles of the heavens, On the mountains they have burned after us, In the wilderness they have laid wait for us.

Have joy and be glad, O daughter of Edom, living in the land of Uz: the cup will be given to you in your turn, and you will be overcome with wine and your shame will be seen.

{The Prayer of Jeremiah} Call to remembrance, O LORD, what we have suffered; consider and see our confusion.

Orphans we have been -- without a father, our mothers are as widows.

We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.

Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.

We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.

Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.

We have to get our bread at the risk of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.

They have ravished the women in Zion, the maids in the cities of Judah.

Princes by their hand have been hanged, The faces of elders have not been honoured.

The young men have borne the mill, and the youths have stumbled under the wood.

The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.

Our hearts no longer have any joy; our dancing is turned to mourning.

The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes have grown dim,

For the mount of Zion -- that is desolate, Foxes have gone up on it.

Why have you forgotten us forever? Why have you forsaken us {for so long}?

Unless You have utterly rejected us
And are exceedingly angry with us.

And it cometh to pass, in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth of the month, and I am in the midst of the Removed by the river Chebar, the heavens have been opened, and I see visions of God.

I was amazed to see a wind storm blow in from the north, consisting of a massive cloud and fire that was flashing back and forth, surrounded by bright light. From deep within the cloud, something was shining that appeared to have a color like bronze that had been placed in fire until it glowed.

Their legs were straight and their feet were like a calf’s hoof, and they gleamed like burnished bronze.

Their wheels and their construction details looked like gold-colored beryl. Each wheel was identical in form to the others, and they appeared to have been constructed and designed as if one wheel were within another.

And I see as the colour of copper, as the appearance of fire within it round about, from the appearance of his loins and upward, and from the appearance of his loins and downward, I have seen as the appearance of fire, and brightness is to it round about.

And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.

Yea, I will send thee unto a people that have rough visages and stiff stomachs: unto whom thou shalt say on this manner, 'This the LORD God himself hath spoken,'

and they -- whether they hear, or whether they forbear, for a rebellious house they are -- have known that a prophet hath been in their midst.

And you, son of man, have no fear of them or of their words, even if sharp thorns are round you and you are living among scorpions: have no fear of their words and do not be overcome by their looks, for they are an uncontrolled people.

You are to tell them whatever I have to say to them, whether they listen or not, since they are rebellious."

Then he told me, "Son of Man, go to the house of Israel and tell them what I have to say to them,

Not to many people of a strange speech and of an hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.

But the children of Israel will not give ear to you; for they have no mind to give ear to me: for all the children of Israel have a hard brow and a stiff heart.

Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.

As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

And go now to those who have been taken away as prisoners, to the children of your people, and say to them, This is what the Lord has said; if they give ear or if they do not.

Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

However, if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he will die in his sin; but you have freed yourself [from responsibility].

'And in the turning back of the righteous from his righteousness, and he hath done perversity, and I have put a stumbling-block before him, he dieth; because thou hast not warned him, in his sin he dieth, and not remembered is his righteousness that he hath done, and his blood from thy hand I require.

However, if you have warned the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning; also you have freed yourself [from responsibility].”

And the hand of the Lord was on me there; and he said, Get up and go out into the valley and there I will have talk with you.

'And thou, son of man, lo, they have put on thee thick bands, and have bound thee with them, and thou goest not forth in their midst;

And I will make your tongue fixed to the roof of your mouth, so that you have no voice and may not make protests to them: for they are an uncontrolled people.

But when I have talk with you I will make your mouth open, and you are to say to them, This is what the Lord has said: Let the hearer give ear; and as for him who will not, let him keep his ears shut: for they are an uncontrolled people.

For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

And lo, I have put on thee thick bands, and thou dost not turn from side to side till thy completing the days of thy siege.

"Wherefore, take unto thee wheat, barley, beans, growell seed, Millium and fitches: and put these together in a vessel, and make thee loaves of bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou must lie upon thy side: that thou mayest have bread to eat, for three hundred and ninety days.

And the meat that thou eatest, shall have a certain weight appointed: namely twenty shekels every day. This appointed meat shalt thou eat daily, from the beginning to the end.

And the Lord said, Even so the children of Israel will have unclean bread for their food among the nations where I am driving them.

Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.

Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.

And He saith unto me, 'Son of man, lo, I am breaking the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they have eaten bread by weight and with fear; and water by measure and with astonishment, they do drink;

so that they lack bread and water, and have been astonished one with another, and been consumed in their iniquity.

You are to burn up a third of it in the city when the days of the siege have ended; you are to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind, for I will draw a sword to chase after them.

Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.

And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them.

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you;

Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I am against thee, even I, And I have done in thy midst judgments, Before the eyes of the nations.

And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations.

Therefore fathers do eat sons in thy midst, And sons eat their fathers, And I have done in thee judgments, And have scattered all thy remnant to every wind.