Has a nation ever changed gods when they aren't even gods? But my people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit.

You have done this to yourselves, have you not, by forsaking the LORD your God, when he is the one who led you on the way?

a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her passion. When she's in heat, who can turn her away? None of the males who pursue her need to tire themselves out, for in her month they'll find her."

"As a thief is disgraced when he's caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets,

"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.

"And in those days when you increase in numbers and multiply in the land," declares the LORD, "people will no longer say, "The Ark of the Covenant of the LORD,' and it won't come to mind, and they won't remember it or miss it, nor will it be made again.

Then I replied, "Ah, Lord GOD, you have completely deceived this people and Jerusalem when you said, "You will have peace,' while the sword is at their throat!"

Why should I forgive you? Your sons have forsaken me, and you have sworn by those who aren't gods. When I gave them enough food to satisfy them, they committed adultery and marched to the prostitute's house.

When the people ask, "Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?' you are to say to them, "Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.'"

Their houses will be turned over to others their fields and wives together when I stretch out my hand against those who live in the land," declares the LORD.

Were they ashamed because they did what was repugnant to God? They were not ashamed at all they don't even know how to blush! Therefore they'll fall with those who fall. When I punish them, they'll be brought down," says the LORD.

"Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the meat. Indeed, when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I didn't speak or command them about burnt offering and sacrifice,

"Therefore, the time is near," declares the LORD, "when it will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. They'll bury in Topheth because there is no other place to do it.

How can you say, "We're wise, and the Law of the LORD is with us,' when, in fact, the deceitful pen of the scribe has made it into something that deceives.

They have treated my people's wound superficially, telling them, "Peace, peace,' when there is no peace.

Are they ashamed because they have done what is repugnant to God? They weren't ashamed at all; they don't even know how to blush! Therefore they'll fall with those who fall. When I punish them, they'll be brought down," says the LORD.

Speak! "This is what the LORD says: "The corpses of people will fall like dung on the surface of the field, and like a row of cut grain behind the harvester when there is no one to gather it."'"

"Look, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I'll punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh:

When his voice sounds there is thunder from the waters of heaven, and he makes clouds rise up from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings wind out of his storehouses.

They're worthless, a work of mockery, and when the time of punishment comes, they'll perish.

"Jeremiah, don't pray for this people and don't cry or pray for them. I won't listen when they cry out to me because of their disaster.

"What right does my beloved have in my house, when she has carried out many evil schemes? Can sacrificial flesh turn disaster away from you, so you can rejoice?"

Not one of them will be left, for I'll bring disaster on the men of Anathoth when I punish them."

You are righteous, LORD, even when I bring a complaint to you. But I want to discuss justice with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper, while all who are treacherous are at ease?

"This is what you're to tell them: "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: "Every wineskin is to be filled with wine."' When they say to you, "Don't we know very well that every wineskin is to be filled with wine?',

I'll smash them against each other, even fathers against their sons," declares the LORD. "I'll have no pity, mercy, or compassion when I destroy them."'"

What will you say when the LORD appoints over you as your head those whom you taught to be your allies? Pain will seize you like that seizing a woman about to give birth, will it not?

When you say to yourselves, "Why have all these things happened to me?' It's because of the extent of your iniquity that your skirt has been lifted up, and your heels have suffered violence.

"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.

"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?'

"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.'

When their sons remember, they remember their altars and their Asherah poles beside green trees on the high hills.

He will be like a bush in the desert, and he won't see when good comes. He will dwell in parched places in the wilderness, a land of salt, without inhabitants.

He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by a stream. He won't fear when the heat comes, and his leaves will be green. In a year of drought he won't be concerned, nor will he stop producing fruit."

But you, LORD, know all their plots to kill me. Don't forgive their iniquity, and don't erase their sin from your sight. Let them stumble before you. When it's time for you to be angry, act against them!

"""Therefore, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when this place will no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of Hinnom, but rather the Valley of Slaughter.

When the priest Pashhur, Immer's son, who was the officer in charge of the LORD's Temple heard Jeremiah prophesying these words,

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.

The message that came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent to him Malchijah's son Pashhur and Maaseiah's son Zephaniah the priest:

I spoke to you when you were secure, but you said, "I won't listen!" This has been your way since your youth, for you haven't obeyed me.

You who live in Lebanon, who build your nest in the cedars, how you will groan when pains come upon you, pain like that of a woman giving birth.

"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.

"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,'

"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.

I'll give them the ability to know me, for I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God when they return to me with all their heart.

"Then when the seventy years have passed, I'll judge the king of Babylon and that nation, declares the LORD, I'll judge the land of the Chaldeans for their iniquity and I'll make it a desolation forever.

When the Judean officials heard all these things, they came up from the king's house to the LORD's Temple and sat in the doorway of the New Gate of the LORD's Temple.

that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon didn't take when he took Jehoiakim's son Jeconiah, king of Judah, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem from Jerusalem into exile to Babylon

When a prophet prophesies peace, and what the prophet speaks comes about, he will be known as the prophet whom the LORD has truly sent."

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Don't let the prophets and diviners who are among you deceive you, and don't listen to them when they tell you their dreams.

"For this is what the LORD says: "When Babylon's seventy years are completed, I'll take note of you and will fulfill my good promises to you by bringing you back to this place.

When you call out to me and come and pray to me, I'll hear you.

You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

because they didn't listen to my words,' declares the LORD. "When I sent my servants, the prophets, to you again and again, you didn't listen,' declares the LORD.

Indeed, the time will come,' declares the LORD, "when I'll restore the security of my people Israel and Judah,' says the LORD. "I'll bring them back to the land that I gave to their ancestors, and they'll possess it.'"

For there will be a day when the watchmen will call out on the hills of Ephraim, "Arise, let's go up to Zion to the LORD our God.'"

This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "They'll again speak this message in the land of Judah and its towns when I restore their fortunes: "The LORD bless you, righteous dwelling, holy mountain.'

"Look, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I'll sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah using people and animals as seed.

"Look, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

"Look, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when the city of the LORD will be rebuilt from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.

""Look, the time is coming,' declares the LORD, "when I'll fulfill the good promise that I spoke concerning the house of Israel and Judah.

But then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves whom you had set free according to their desire, and you forced them to become male and female slaves."'

I'll give over the men who transgressed my covenant, who haven't fulfilled the terms of the covenant that they made before me when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts

Now when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, "Come on! Let's go to Jerusalem because of the army of the Chaldeans and the army of Aram. And now we're living in Jerusalem.'"

When Gemariah's son Micaiah, the grandson of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD from the scroll,

Micaiah told them all the things that he had heard when Baruch read from the scroll to the people.

When they heard all the words, they turned to one another in fear, saying to Baruch, "We must report all these things to the king."

Pharaoh's army had come out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.

When the Chaldean army was leaving Jerusalem because of Pharaoh's army,

So they threw Jeremiah into a cistern that belonged to the king's son Malchijah and was located in the courtyard of the guard. When they let Jeremiah down with ropes, because there was no water in the cistern only mud Jeremiah sank into the mud.

Jeremiah told Zedekiah, "When I tell you, you will surely put me to death, won't you? And when I give you advice, you don't listen to me."

When all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, he replied to them exactly as the king had ordered him. So they stopped speaking with him because the conversation had not been overheard.

When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled and went out of the city at night through the king's garden through the gate between the two walls. Then he went out on the road toward the Arabah.

The Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah on the plains of Jericho. When they seized him they brought him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed judgment on him.

This is the message that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had released him from Ramah, when he was bound in chains, along with all the exiles from Jerusalem and Judah who were being taken into exile in Babylon.

When he still did not respond, Nebuzaradan said, "Return to Ahikam's son Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and remain with him among the people or go wherever it seems right for you to go." Then the captain of the guard gave him an allowance of food and a gift and sent him off.

Now on the day after Gedaliah was killed, when as yet no one knew about it,

When they reached the middle of the city, Nethaniah's son Ishmael and the men who were with him slaughtered them and threw them into a cistern.

When all the people who were with Ishmael saw Kareah's son Jonathan and all the military leaders who were with him, they were glad.

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Just as my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. You will be a curse and an object of horror, ridicule, and scorn, and you will never again see this place.'

When Jeremiah had finished telling all the people all the words that the LORD their God had sent him to tell them that is, all these words

This is the message that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Neriah's son Baruch, when in the fourth year of the reign of Josiah's son King Jehoiakim of Judah had, at Jeremiah's dictation, written these words in a scroll:

Her cry will be like that of a fleeing serpent when they come in strength. They're coming to her with axes like woodcutters.

How can it be quiet, when the LORD has ordered disaster to come to Ashkelon and the seashore? That's where he has assigned it."

"Therefore, look, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I'll send those who tip over vessels to him, and they'll tip him over. They'll empty his vessels and shatter his jars.

Therefore, look, the time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I'll cause a battle cry to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites. It will become a desolate mound, and its towns will be burned with fire. Israel will take possession of those who possessed him," says the LORD.

Flee, turn around! Go to a remote place to stay, residents of Dedan! For I'll bring Esau's disaster on him at the time when I punish him.

Just as when God overthrew Sodom, Gomorrah, and their neighbors," declares the LORD, "so also no one will live there. No human being will reside in it.

When his voice sounds, there is thunder from the waters of heaven, and he makes clouds rise up from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings wind out of his storehouses.

They're worthless, a work of mockery, and when the time of punishment comes, they'll perish.

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it's pounded down. In just a little while, the time of her harvest will come."

When they're excited I'll serve them their banquet, and make them drunk until they're merry. They'll sleep forever and won't wake up," declares the LORD.

Therefore, look, days are coming when I'll punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire land will be put to shame, and all her slain will fall in her midst.

"Therefore, look, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I'll punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan.

This is the message that Jeremiah the prophet delivered to Neriah's son Seraiah, the grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with King Zedekiah of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was the quartermaster.

Jeremiah told Seraiah, "When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words,

When you finish reading this scroll, tie a rock around it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates.

Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.