All of you, gather together and listen! Who among them ¹  announced these things? The Lord’s ally ²  will carry out his desire against Babylon; he will exert his power against the Babylonians. ³ 

Among the smooth stones of the stream are the idols you love; they, they are the object of your devotion. ¹  You pour out liquid offerings to them, you make an offering. Because of these things I will seek vengeance. ² 

Even your clothes are stained with the lifeblood of the poor who had not done anything wrong; you did not catch them breaking into your homes. ¹  Yet, in spite of all these things you have done, ² 

“The way you have lived and the things you have done ¹  will bring this on you. This is the punishment you deserve, and it will be painful indeed. ²  The pain will be so bad it will pierce your heart.” ³ 

So, go to the place in Shiloh where I allowed myself to be worshiped ¹  in the early days. See what I did to it ²  because of the wicked things my people Israel did.

You also have done all these things, says the Lord, and I have spoken to you over and over again. ¹  But you have not listened! You have refused to respond when I called you to repent! ² 

I also explicitly commanded them: ¹  “Obey me. If you do, I ²  will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you ³  and things will go well with you.”

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 

They will be like a shrub ¹  in the desert. They will not experience good things even when they happen. It will be as though they were growing in the desert, in a salt land where no one can live.

He upheld the cause of the poor and needy. So things went well for Judah.’ ¹  The Lord says, ‘That is a good example of what it means to know me.’ ² 

They continually say ¹  to those who reject what the Lord has said, ²  ‘Things will go well for you!’ ³  They say to all those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts, ‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’

But if they had stood in my inner circle, ¹  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.

Do not pay allegiance to ¹  other gods and worship and serve them. Do not make me angry by the things that you do. ²  Then I will not cause you any harm.’

So, now the Lord says, ¹  ‘You have not listened to me. But ²  you have made me angry by the things that you have done. ³  Thus you have brought harm on yourselves.’

He has already spoken about these things that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon did not take away when he carried Jehoiakim’s son King Jeconiah of Judah and the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem away as captives. ¹ 

For after we turned away from you we repented. After we came to our senses ¹  we beat our breasts in sorrow. ²  We are ashamed and humiliated because of the disgraceful things we did previously.’ ³ 

Perhaps then they will ask the Lord for mercy and will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. ¹  For the Lord has threatened to bring great anger and wrath against these people.” ² 

Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal ¹  son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur ²  son of Malkijah had heard ³  the things that Jeremiah had been telling the people. They had heard him say,

Have you forgotten all the wicked things that have been done in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem by your ancestors, by the kings of Judah and their ¹  wives, by you and your wives?

“Moab, you trust in the things you do and in your riches. So you too will be conquered. Your god Chemosh ¹  will go into exile ²  along with his priests and his officials.