For after I have brought them ¹  to the land I promised to their ²  ancestors – one flowing with milk and honey – and they ³  eat their fill ⁴  and become fat, then they ⁵  will turn to other gods and worship them; they will reject me and break my covenant.

Shout for joy, O sky, for the Lord intervenes; ¹  shout out, you subterranean regions ²  of the earth. O mountains, give a joyful shout; you too, O forest and all your trees! ³  For the Lord protects ⁴  Jacob; he reveals his splendor through Israel. ⁵ 

I will break down the wall you coated with whitewash and knock it to the ground so that its foundation is exposed. When it falls you will be destroyed beneath it, ¹  and you will know that I am the Lord.

So Aaron said to them, “Break off the gold earrings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” ¹ 

I will punish you as an adulteress and murderer deserves. ¹  I will avenge your bloody deeds with furious rage. ² 

Those who share the king’s fine food will attempt to destroy him, and his army will be swept away; ¹  many will be killed in battle.

They ¹  charge ²  like warriors; they scale walls like soldiers. ³  Each one proceeds on his course; they do not alter ⁴  their path.

Then I took my staff “Pleasantness” and cut it in two to annul my covenant that I had made with all the people.

Then I cut the second staff “Binders” in two in order to annul the covenant of brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

“Again, you have heard that it was said to an older generation, ¹  ‘Do not break an oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ ² 

Or have you not read in the law that the priests in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are not guilty?

It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt and will cause boils to break out and fester ¹  on both people and animals in all the land of Egypt.”

Yet ¹  God will make you a permanent heap of ruins. ²  He will scoop you up ³  and remove you from your home; ⁴  he will uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)

It shatters in pieces like a clay jar, so shattered to bits that none of it can be salvaged. ¹  Among its fragments one cannot find a shard large enough ²  to scoop a hot coal from a fire ³  or to skim off water from a cistern.” ⁴ 

“But you, Jeremiah, ¹  get yourself ready! ²  Go and tell these people everything I instruct you to say. Do not be terrified of them, or I will give you good reason to be terrified of them. ³ 

The Lord told Jeremiah, ¹  “Tell Baruch, ²  ‘The Lord says, “I am about to tear down what I have built and to uproot what I have planted. I will do this throughout the whole earth. ³ 

Tell the ones who coat it with whitewash that it will fall. When there is a deluge of rain, hailstones ¹  will fall and a violent wind will break out. ² 

“Son of man, suppose a country sins against me by being unfaithful, and I stretch out my hand against it, cut off its bread supply, ¹  cause famine to come on it, and kill both people and animals.

But I will not remove ¹  my loyal love from him, nor be unfaithful to my promise. ² 

For the law brings wrath, because where there is no law there is no transgression ¹  either.