So I said to the Lord, ¹  “O Lord who rules over all, ²  you are a just judge! You examine people’s hearts and minds. ³  I want to see you pay them back for what they have done because I trust you to vindicate my cause.” ⁴ 

You will probably ask yourself, ¹  ‘Why have these things happened to me? Why have I been treated like a disgraced adulteress whose skirt has been torn off and her limbs exposed?’ ²  It is because you have sinned so much. ³ 

Why must I continually suffer such painful anguish? Why must I endure the sting of their insults like an incurable wound? Will you let me down when I need you like a brook one goes to for water, but that cannot be relied on?” ¹ 

And you have acted even more wickedly than your ancestors! Each one of you has followed the stubborn inclinations of your own wicked heart and not obeyed me. ¹ 

You are the one in whom Israel may find hope. ¹  All who leave you will suffer shame. Those who turn away from you ²  will be consigned to the nether world. ³  For they have rejected you, the Lord, the fountain of life. ⁴ 

But you are always thinking and looking for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means. Your eyes and your heart are set on killing some innocent person and committing fraud and oppression. ¹ 

You may feel as secure as a bird nesting in the cedars of Lebanon. But oh how you ¹  will groan ²  when the pains of judgment come on you. They will be like those of a woman giving birth to a baby. ³ 

The Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, ¹  when one of these people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, ‘What burdensome message ²  do you have from the Lord?’ Tell them, ‘You are the burden, ³  and I will cast you away. ⁴  I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁵ 

Then the Lord said to me, ¹  “Tell them that the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ²  says, ³  ‘Drink this cup ⁴  until you get drunk and vomit. Drink until you fall down and can’t get up. ⁵  For I will send wars sweeping through you.’ ⁶ 

Wail and cry out in anguish, you rulers! Roll in the dust, you who shepherd flocks of people! ¹  The time for you to be slaughtered has come. You will lie scattered and fallen like broken pieces of fine pottery. ² 

Jeremiah had just barely finished saying all the Lord had commanded him to say to all the people. All at once some ¹  of the priests, the prophets, and the people grabbed him and shouted, “You deserve to die! ² 

But correct the way you have been living and do what is right. ¹  Obey the Lord your God. If you do, the Lord will forgo destroying you as he threatened he would. ² 

You show unfailing love to thousands. ¹  But you also punish children for the sins of their parents. ²  You are the great and powerful God who is known as the Lord who rules over all. ³ 

But he only got as far as the Benjamin Gate. ¹  There an officer in charge of the guards named Irijah, ²  who was the son of Shelemiah and the grandson of Hananiah, stopped him. He seized Jeremiah and said, ³  “You are deserting to the Babylonians!” ⁴ 

Now he has brought it about. The Lord has done just as he threatened to do. This disaster has happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not obey him. ¹ 

You are making a fatal mistake. ¹  For you sent me to the Lord your God and asked me, ‘Pray to the Lord our God for us. Tell us what the Lord our God says and we will do it.’ ² 

Why do you brag about your great power? Your power is ebbing away, ¹  you rebellious people of Ammon, ²  who trust in your riches and say, ‘Who would dare to attack us?’

The sword is outside; pestilence and famine are inside the house. Whoever is in the open field will die by the sword, and famine and pestilence will consume everyone in the city.

Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘The corpses you have dumped ¹  in the midst of the city ²  are the meat, and this city ³  is the cooking pot, but I will take you out of it. ⁴ 

“Son of man, you are living in the midst of a rebellious house. ¹  They have eyes to see, but do not see, and ears to hear, but do not hear, ²  because they are a rebellious house.