Jeremiah

1:1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:

1:2 To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

1:3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, to the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

1:4 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

1:5 Before I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations.

1:6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

1:7 But the LORD said to me, Say not, I am a child: for you shall go to all that I shall send you, and whatever I command you you shall speak.

1:8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with you to deliver you, said the LORD.

1:9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

1:10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

1:11 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what see you? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.

1:12 Then said the LORD to me, You have well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

1:13 And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, What see you? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.

1:14 Then the LORD said to me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth on all the inhabitants of the land.

1:15 For, see, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, said the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.

1:16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

1:17 You therefore gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command you: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound you before them.

1:18 For, behold, I have made you this day a defended city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.

1:19 And they shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you, said the LORD, to deliver you.

2:1 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

2:2 Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus said the LORD; I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals, when you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

2:3 Israel was holiness to the LORD, and the first fruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come on them, said the LORD.

2:4 Hear you the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:

2:5 Thus said the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

2:6 Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelled?

2:7 And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.

2:8 The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

2:9 Why I will yet plead with you, said the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead.

2:10 For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send to Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.

2:11 Has a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

2:12 Be astonished, O you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be you very desolate, said the LORD.

2:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

2:14 Is Israel a servant? is he a home born slave? why is he spoiled?

2:15 The young lions roared on him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.

2:16 Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of your head.

2:17 Have you not procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God, when he led you by the way?

2:18 And now what have you to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what have you to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?

2:19 Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backslidings shall reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and that my fear is not in you, said the Lord GOD of hosts.

2:20 For of old time I have broken your yoke, and burst your bands; and you said, I will not transgress; when on every high hill and under every green tree you wander, playing the harlot.

2:21 Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine to me?

2:22 For though you wash you with nitre, and take you much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, said the Lord GOD.

2:23 How can you say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim?  see your way in the valley, know what you have done: you are a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

2:24 A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.

2:25 Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst: but you said, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.

2:26 As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets.

2:27 Saying to a stock, You are my father; and to a stone, You have brought me forth: for they have turned their back to me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.

2:28 But where are your gods that you have made you? let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah.

2:29 Why will you plead with me? you all have transgressed against me, said the LORD.

2:30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

2:31 O generation, see you the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? a land of darkness? why say my people, We are lords; we will come no more to you?

2:32 Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

2:33 Why trim you your way to seek love? therefore have you also taught the wicked ones your ways.

2:34 Also in your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but on all these.

2:35 Yet you say, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with you, because you say, I have not sinned.

2:36 Why gad you about so much to change your way? you also shall be ashamed of Egypt, as you were ashamed of Assyria.

2:37 Yes, you shall go forth from him, and your hands on your head: for the LORD has rejected your confidences, and you shall not prosper in them.

3:1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return to her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, said the LORD.

3:2 Lift up your eyes to the high places, and see where you have not been lien with. In the ways have you sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your prostitutions and with your wickedness.

3:3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; and you had a whore's forehead, you refused to be ashamed.

3:4 Will you not from this time cry to me, My father, you are the guide of my youth?

3:5 Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end?  Behold, you have spoken and done evil things as you could.

3:6 The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she is gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot.

3:7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn you to me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

3:8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

3:9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her prostitution, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

3:10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart, but feignedly, said the LORD.

3:11 And the LORD said to me, The backsliding Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

3:12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, you backsliding Israel, said the LORD; and I will not cause my anger to fall on you: for I am merciful, said the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.

3:13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, said the LORD.

3:14 Turn, O backsliding children, said the LORD; for I am married to you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

3:15 And I will give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

3:16 And it shall come to pass, when you be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, said the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.

3:17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.

3:18 In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance to your fathers.

3:19 But I said, How shall I put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, You shall call me, My father; and shall not turn away from me.

3:20 Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, said the LORD.

3:21 A voice was heard on the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.

3:22 Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.  Behold, we come to you; for you are the LORD our God.

3:23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.

3:24 For shame has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

3:25 We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covers us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.

4:1 If you will return, O Israel, said the LORD, return to me: and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight, then shall you not remove.

4:2 And you shall swear, The LORD lives, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

4:3 For thus said the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

4:4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

4:5 Declare you in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow you the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defended cities.

4:6 Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

4:7 The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make your land desolate; and your cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

4:8 For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.

4:9 And it shall come to pass at that day, said the LORD, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.

4:10 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You shall have peace; whereas the sword reaches to the soul.

4:11 At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,

4:12 Even a full wind from those places shall come to me: now also will I give sentence against them.

4:13 Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! for we are spoiled.

4:14 O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your vain thoughts lodge within you?

4:15 For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes affliction from mount Ephraim.

4:16 Make you mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.

4:17 As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she has been rebellious against me, said the LORD.

4:18 Your way and your doings have procured these things to you; this is your wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reaches to your heart.

4:19 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

4:20 Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.

4:21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

4:22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are silly children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

4:23 I beheld the earth, and, see, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

4:24 I beheld the mountains, and, see, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.

4:25 I beheld, and, see, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.

4:26 I beheld, and, see, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.

4:27 For thus has the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

4:28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.

4:29 The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.

4:30 And when you are spoiled, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with crimson, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you rend your face with painting, in vain shall you make yourself fair; your lovers will despise you, they will seek your life.

4:31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that mourns herself, that spreads her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

5:1 Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man, if there be any that executes judgment, that seeks the truth; and I will pardon it.

5:2 And though they say, The LORD lives; surely they swear falsely.

5:3 O LORD, are not your eyes on the truth? you have stricken them, but they have not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

5:4 Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.

5:5 I will get me to the great men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

5:6 Why a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goes out there shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.

5:7 How shall I pardon you for this? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.

5:8 They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbor's wife.

5:9 Shall I not visit for these things? said the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

5:10 Go you up on her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD's.

5:11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, said the LORD.

5:12 They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come on us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

5:13 And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done to them.

5:14 Why thus said the LORD God of hosts, Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

5:15 See, I will bring a nation on you from far, O house of Israel, said the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you know not, neither understand what they say.

5:16 Their quiver is as an open sepulcher, they are all mighty men.

5:17 And they shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat: they shall eat up your flocks and your herds: they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees: they shall impoverish your fenced cities, wherein you trusted, with the sword.

5:18 Nevertheless in those days, said the LORD, I will not make a full end with you.

5:19 And it shall come to pass, when you shall say, Why does the LORD our God all these things to us? then shall you answer them, Like as you have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not your's.

5:20 Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,

5:21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:

5:22 Fear you not me? said the LORD: will you not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

5:23 But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.

5:24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

5:25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you.

5:26 For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that sets snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

5:27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.

5:28 They are waxen fat, they shine: yes, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

5:29 Shall I not visit for these things? said the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

5:30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;

5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end thereof?

6:1 O you children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the middle of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem: for evil appears out of the north, and great destruction.

6:2 I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman.

6:3 The shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.

6:4 Prepare you war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! for the day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

6:5 Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.

6:6 For thus has the LORD of hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the middle of her.

6:7 As a fountain casts out her waters, so she casts out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds.

6:8 Be you instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you; lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited.

6:9 Thus said the LORD of hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn back your hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets.

6:10 To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot listen: behold, the word of the LORD is to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

6:11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out on the children abroad, and on the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.

6:12 And their houses shall be turned to others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land, said the LORD.

6:13 For from the least of them even to the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely.

6:14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

6:15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? no, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, said the LORD.

6:16 Thus said the LORD, Stand you in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

6:17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Listen to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not listen.

6:18 Therefore hear, you nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.

6:19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.

6:20 To what purpose comes there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet to me.

6:21 Therefore thus said the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall on them; the neighbor and his friend shall perish.

6:22 Thus said the LORD, Behold, a people comes from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.

6:23 They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride on horses, set in array as men for war against you, O daughter of Zion.

6:24 We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

6:25 Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.

6:26 O daughter of my people, gird you with sackcloth, and wallow yourself in ashes: make you mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come on us.

6:27 I have set you for a tower and a fortress among my people, that you may know and try their way.

6:28 They are all grievous rebels, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.

6:29 The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melts in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.

6:30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD has rejected them.

7:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

7:2 Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.

7:3 Thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

7:4 Trust you not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.

7:5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor;

7:6 If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:

7:7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

7:8 Behold, you trust in lying words, that cannot profit.

7:9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you know not;

7:10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

7:11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, said the LORD.

7:12 But go you now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

7:13 And now, because you have done all these works, said the LORD, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not; and I called you, but you answered not;

7:14 Therefore will I do to this house, which is called by my name, wherein you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

7:15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

7:16 Therefore pray not you for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear you.

7:17 See you not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

7:18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

7:19 Do they provoke me to anger? said the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?

7:20 Therefore thus said the Lord GOD; Behold, my anger and my fury shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on beast, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

7:21 Thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat flesh.

7:22 For I spoke not to your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:

7:23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk you in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well to you.

7:24 But they listened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

7:25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day I have even sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:

7:26 Yet they listened not to me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.

7:27 Therefore you shall speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you.

7:28 But you shall say to them, This is a nation that obeys not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receives correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

7:29 Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

7:30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, said the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.

7:31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.

7:32 Therefore, behold, the days come, said the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.

7:33 And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.

7:34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.

8:1 At that time, said the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:

8:2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung on the face of the earth.

8:3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places where I have driven them, said the LORD of hosts.

8:4 Moreover you shall say to them, Thus said the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?

8:5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slid back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

8:6 I listened and heard, but they spoke not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rushes into the battle.

8:7 Yes, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.

8:8 How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? See, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.

8:9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: see, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?

8:10 Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely.

8:11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

8:12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? no, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, said the LORD.

8:13 I will surely consume them, said the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

8:14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defended cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

8:15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!

8:16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.

8:17 For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, said the LORD.

8:18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

8:19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?

8:20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

8:21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment has taken hold on me.

8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

9:2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

9:3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth on the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, said the LORD.

9:4 Take you heed every one of his neighbor, and trust you not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders.

9:5 And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.

9:6 Your habitation is in the middle of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, said the LORD.

9:7 Therefore thus said the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?

9:8 Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in heart he lays his wait.

9:9 Shall I not visit them for these things? said the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

9:10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.

9:11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.

9:12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perishes and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passes through?

9:13 And the LORD said, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;

9:14 But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:

9:15 Therefore thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

9:16 I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.

9:17 Thus said the LORD of hosts, Consider you, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:

9:18 And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.

9:19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.

9:20 Yet hear the word of the LORD, O you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation.

9:21 For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.

9:22 Speak, Thus said the LORD, Even the carcasses of men shall fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.

9:23 Thus said the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

9:24 But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, said the LORD.

9:25 Behold, the days come, said the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;

9:26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

10:1 Hear you the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel:

10:2 Thus said the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

10:3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.

10:4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

10:5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

10:6 For as much as there is none like to you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might.

10:7 Who would not fear you, O King of nations? for to you does it appertain: for as much as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like to you.

10:8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.

10:9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.

10:10 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.

10:11 Thus shall you say to them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.

10:12 He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by his discretion.

10:13 When he utters his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning with rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasures.

10:14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

10:15 They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

10:16 The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.

10:17 Gather up your wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.

10:18 For thus said the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.

10:19 Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous; but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.

10:20 My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

10:21 For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.

10:22 Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.

10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps.

10:24 O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

10:25 Pour out your fury on the heathen that know you not, and on the families that call not on your name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

11:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying,

11:2 Hear you the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

11:3 And say you to them, Thus said the LORD God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeys not the words of this covenant,

11:4 Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall you be my people, and I will be your God:

11:5 That I may perform the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.

11:6 Then the LORD said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear you the words of this covenant, and do them.

11:7 For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.

11:8 Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do: but they did them not.

11:9 And the LORD said to me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

11:10 They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.

11:11 Therefore thus said the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil on them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry to me, I will not listen to them.

11:12 Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry to the gods to whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

11:13 For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.

11:14 Therefore pray not you for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me for their trouble.

11:15 What has my beloved to do in my house, seeing she has worked lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from you? when you do evil, then you rejoice.

11:16 The LORD called your name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire on it, and the branches of it are broken.

11:17 For the LORD of hosts, that planted you, has pronounced evil against you, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense to Baal.

11:18 And the LORD has given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then you showed me their doings.

11:19 But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.

11:20 But, O LORD of hosts, that judge righteously, that try the reins and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for to you have I revealed my cause.

11:21 Therefore thus said the LORD of the men of Anathoth, that seek your life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that you die not by our hand:

11:22 Therefore thus said the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine:

11:23 And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil on the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.

12:1 Righteous are you, O LORD, when I plead with you: yet let me talk with you of your judgments: Why does the way of the wicked prosper?  why are all they happy that deal very treacherously?

12:2 You have planted them, yes, they have taken root: they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their reins.

12:3 But you, O LORD, know me: you have seen me, and tried my heart toward you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

12:4 How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our last end.

12:5 If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the swelling of Jordan?

12:6 For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; yes, they have called a multitude after you: believe them not, though they speak fair words to you.

12:7 I have forsaken my house, I have left my heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.

12:8 My heritage is to me as a lion in the forest; it cries out against me: therefore have I hated it.

12:9 My heritage is to me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come you, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.

12:10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

12:11 They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourns to me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.

12:12 The spoilers are come on all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.

12:13 They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

12:14 Thus said the LORD against all my evil neighbors, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them.

12:15 And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.

12:16 And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD lives; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the middle of my people.

12:17 But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, said the LORD.

13:1 Thus said the LORD to me, Go and get you a linen girdle, and put it on your loins, and put it not in water.

13:2 So I got a girdle according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins.

13:3 And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying,

13:4 Take the girdle that you have got, which is on your loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.

13:5 So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.

13:6 And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said to me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from there, which I commanded you to hide there.

13:7 Then I went to Euphrates, and dig, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing.

13:8 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

13:9 Thus said the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.

13:10 This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.

13:11 For as the girdle sticks to the loins of a man, so have I caused to stick to me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, said the LORD; that they might be to me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.

13:12 Therefore you shall speak to them this word; Thus said the LORD God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say to you, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?

13:13 Then shall you say to them, Thus said the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit on David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.

13:14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, said the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.

13:15 Hear you, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD has spoken.

13:16 Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.

13:17 But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and my eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock is carried away captive.

13:18 Say to the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory.

13:19 The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them: Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive.

13:20 Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?

13:21 What will you say when he shall punish you? for you have taught them to be captains, and as chief over you: shall not sorrows take you, as a woman in travail?

13:22 And if you say in your heart, Why come these things on me?  For the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts discovered, and your heels made bore.

13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

13:24 Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness.

13:25 This is your lot, the portion of your measures from me, said the LORD; because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.

13:26 Therefore will I discover your skirts on your face, that your shame may appear.

13:27 I have seen your adulteries, and your neighings, the lewdness of your prostitution, and your abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! will you not be made clean? when shall it once be?

14:1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.

14:2 Judah mourns, and the gates thereof languish; they are black to the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.

14:3 And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.

14:4 Because the ground is beat down, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.

14:5 Yes, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.

14:6 And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.

14:7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do you it for your name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.

14:8 O the hope of Israel, the savior thereof in time of trouble, why should you be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night?

14:9 Why should you be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet you, O LORD, are in the middle of us, and we are called by your name; leave us not.

14:10 Thus said the LORD to this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD does not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.

14:11 Then said the LORD to me, Pray not for this people for their good.

14:12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

14:13 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say to them, You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.

14:14 Then the LORD said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke to them: they prophesy to you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their heart.

14:15 Therefore thus said the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.

14:16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness on them.

14:17 Therefore you shall say this word to them; Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.

14:18 If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword!  and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine!  yes, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.

14:19 Have you utterly rejected Judah? has your soul loathed Zion? why have you smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!

14:20 We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against you.

14:21 Do not abhor us, for your name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of your glory: remember, break not your covenant with us.

14:22 Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? are not you he, O LORD our God?  therefore we will wait on you: for you have made all these things.

15:1 Then said the LORD to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

15:2 And it shall come to pass, if they say to you, Where shall we go forth? then you shall tell them, Thus said the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.

15:3 And I will appoint over them four kinds, said the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.

15:4 And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

15:5 For who shall have pity on you, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan you? or who shall go aside to ask how you do?

15:6 You have forsaken me, said the LORD, you are gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against you, and destroy you; I am weary with repenting.

15:7 And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people since they return not from their ways.

15:8 Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall on it suddenly, and terrors on the city.

15:9 She that has borne seven languishes: she has given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she has been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, said the LORD.

15:10 Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them does curse me.

15:11 The LORD said, Truly it shall be well with your remnant; truly I will cause the enemy to entreat you well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

15:12 Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?

15:13 Your substance and your treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.

15:14 And I will make you to pass with your enemies into a land which you know not: for a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn on you.

15:15 O LORD, you know: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in your long-suffering: know that for your sake I have suffered rebuke.

15:16 Your words were found, and I did eat them; and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name, O LORD God of hosts.

15:17 I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand: for you have filled me with indignation.

15:18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? will you be altogether to me as a liar, and as waters that fail?

15:19 Therefore thus said the LORD, If you return, then will I bring you again, and you shall stand before me: and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: let them return to you; but return not you to them.

15:20 And I will make you to this people a fenced brazen wall: and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you: for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, said the LORD.

15:21 And I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.

16:1 The word of the LORD came also to me, saying,

16:2 You shall not take you a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters in this place.

16:3 For thus said the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bore them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;

16:4 They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung on the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcasses shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

16:5 For thus said the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, said the LORD, even loving kindness and mercies.

16:6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:

16:7 Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

16:8 You shall not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

16:9 For thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

16:10 And it shall come to pass, when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall say to you, Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?

16:11 Then shall you say to them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, said the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

16:12 And you have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not listen to me:

16:13 Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that you know not, neither you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other gods day and night; where I will not show you favor.