Woe to me, my mother, For thou hast borne me a man of strife, And a man of contention to all the land, I have not lent on usury, Nor have they lent on usury to me -- All of them are reviling 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 has my pain been perpetual
And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
Will you indeed be to me like a deceptive brook
With water that is unreliable?

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 the LORD 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, ye have done still worse than your fathers; and there ye are walking every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, not to hearken unto 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, behold, days are coming, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, As Jehovah liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine 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."

Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no 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, O Lord, and I will be healed;
Save me and I will be saved,
For You are my praise.

Lo, they are saying unto me: 'Where is the word of Jehovah? pray, 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.

Do not be a terror to me;
You are my refuge and my hope 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.

O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine 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.’

Doth snow of Lebanon Cease from the rock of the field? Failed are the cold strange waters that flow?

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, O Lord [and intercede];
Listen to what my adversaries are saying [and are plotting against me]—

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, lo, days are coming -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- and this place is not called any more, Tophet, and Valley of the son of Hinnom, but, Valley of 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."'"

'And thou hast broken the bottle before the eyes of the men who are going with thee,

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.

[Jeremiah said,] O Lord, You have persuaded me and I was deceived;
You are stronger than I and You have prevailed.
I am a laughingstock all day long;
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 have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side: Report, and we will report it. All my familiars are watching for my stumbling: Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him; and we shall 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,

But Jeremiah answered, “This is what you are to say to Zedekiah:

Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.

And afterward, saith the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and 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.

Whoso is abiding in this city -- dieth, By sword, and by famine, and by pestilence, And whoso is going forth, And hath fallen unto the Chaldeans, Who are laying siege against you -- liveth, And his life hath been to him for a spoil.

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.

Lo, I am against thee -- an affirmation of Jehovah, O inhabitant of the valley, rock of the plain, Who are saying, Who cometh down against us? And who cometh into our habitations?

Hear a word of Jehovah, O king of Judah, who art sitting on the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people, who are coming in at 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 saith the LORD unto the king's house of Judah; Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities which 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 thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.

“O inhabitant of [Jerusalem, whose palaces are made from the cedars of] Lebanon,
You who nest in the cedars,
How you will groan and how miserable you will be when pains come on you,
Pain like a woman in childbirth!

And I will place you in the hand of those who seek your life and in the hand of those whom you fear, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

And to the land whither they are lifting up their soul to return, Thither they do not return.

Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?

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

Therefore, Thus, saith Yahweh God of Israel, Concerning the shepherds who are tending my people, - Ye have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and Nave not visited them, - Behold me! visiting upon you the wickedness of your doings Declareth Yahweh.

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.

Lo, days are coming -- an affirmation of Jehovah, And I have raised to David a righteous shoot, And a king hath reigned and acted wisely, And done judgment and righteousness in the earth.

Therefore behold, days are coming, saith Jehovah, that they shall no more say, As Jehovah liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of 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 because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.

For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.

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.

I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them 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 said Jehovah of Hosts: Ye do not hearken unto the words Of the prophets who are prophesying to you, They are making you vain things, A vision of their own heart they speak, Not from the mouth of Jehovah.

“They are continually saying to those who despise Me [and My word],
‘The Lord has said, “You will have peace”’;
And they say to everyone who walks after the stubbornness of his own heart,
‘No evil will come on 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.

Lo, I am against the prophets of false dreams, An affirmation of Jehovah, And they recount them, and cause my people to err, By their falsehoods, and by their instability, And I -- I have not sent them, Nor have I commanded them, And they are not at all profitable to this people, An affirmation of Jehovah.

And when this people, or the prophet, Or a priest, doth ask thee, saying, What is the burden of Jehovah? Then thou hast said unto them: Ye are the burden, and I have left you, An affirmation of Jehovah.

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?

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.