It is better to be content with ¹  what the eyes can see ²  than for one’s heart always to crave more. ³  This continual longing ⁴  is futile – like ⁵  chasing the wind.

Also, do not pay attention to everything that people ¹  say; otherwise, ²  you might even hear ³  your servant cursing you.

But he does not agree with this, his mind does not reason this way, ¹  for his goal is to destroy, and to eliminate many nations. ² 

Certainly ¹  caraway seed is not threshed with a sledge, nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin seed. ²  Certainly caraway seed is beaten with a stick, and cumin seed with a flail.

No, this is the kind of fast I want. ¹  I want you ²  to remove the sinful chains, to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke, to set free the oppressed, ³  and to break every burdensome yoke.

But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God; your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. ¹ 

In spite of all this, ¹  Israel’s sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so,” ²  says the Lord.

But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They followed the stubborn inclinations of their own wicked hearts. They acted worse and worse instead of better. ¹ 

Even if they fast, I will not hear their cries for help. Even if they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. ¹  Instead, I will kill them through wars, famines, and plagues.” ² 

So I, the Lord, say: ¹  “The time will soon come that people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Hinnom Valley. But they will call this valley ²  the Valley of Slaughter!

But the next day Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks. When he did, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord’s name for you is not ‘Pashhur’ but ‘Terror is Everywhere.’ ¹ 

The Lord says, ¹  “At that time young women will dance and be glad. Young men and old men will rejoice. ²  I will turn their grief into gladness. I will give them comfort and joy in place of their sorrow.

Rather, each person will die for his own sins. The teeth of the person who eats the sour grapes will themselves grow numb. ¹ 

“Find Jeremiah ¹  and look out for him. ²  Do not do anything to harm him, ³  but do with him whatever he tells you.”

Doom is coming upon you who live in the land! The time is coming, the day ¹  is near. There are sounds of tumult, not shouts of joy, on the mountains. ² 

so that the house of Israel will no longer go astray from me, nor continue to defile themselves by all their sins. They will be my people and I will be their God, ¹  declares the sovereign Lord.’”

From one of them came a small horn. ¹  But it grew to be very big, toward the south and the east and toward the beautiful land. ² 

Where ¹  then is your king, that he may save you in all your cities? Where are ²  your rulers for whom you asked, saying, “Give me a king and princes”?

Be certain of this, ¹  the time is ²  coming,” says the sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine through the land – not a shortage of food or water but an end to divine revelation! ³ 

If ¹  you had known what this means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice,’ ²  you would not have condemned the innocent.