“It did no good for me to punish your people. They did not respond to such correction. You slaughtered your prophets like a voracious lion.” ¹ 

Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land ¹  through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone. ² 

They offer only superficial help for the harm my people have suffered. ¹  They say, ‘Everything will be all right!’ But everything is not all right! ² 

They offer only superficial help for the hurt my dear people ¹  have suffered. ²  They say, “Everything will be all right!” But everything is not all right! ³ 

I, the Lord, probe into people’s minds. I examine people’s hearts. ¹  I deal with each person according to how he has behaved. I give them what they deserve based on what they have done.

The Lord who rules over all ¹  says, ‘I will bring war, ²  starvation, and disease on them. I will treat them like figs that are so rotten ³  they cannot be eaten.

Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Babylonians. ¹  The Babylonians might hand me over to them and they will torture me.” ² 

“Moab has vaunted itself against me. So make him drunk with the wine of my wrath ¹  until he splashes ²  around in his own vomit, until others treat him as a laughingstock.

He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than ¹  the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

א (Alef) ¹ Alas! ²  Gold has lost its luster; ³  pure gold loses value. ⁴  Jewels ⁵  are scattered on every street corner. ⁶ 

“‘For this is what the sovereign Lord says: I will deal with you according to what you have done when you despised your oath by breaking your covenant.

does not engage in usury or charge interest, ¹  but refrains ²  from wrongdoing, promotes true justice ³  between men,

Treat my Sabbaths as holy ¹  and they will be a reminder of our relationship, ²  and then you will know that I am the Lord your God.”

Because I will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked, my sword will go out from its sheath against everyone ¹  from the south ²  to the north.

The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have wronged the poor and needy; they have oppressed the foreigner who lives among them and denied them justice. ¹ 

Then compare our appearance ¹  with that of ²  the young men who are eating the royal delicacies; ³  deal with us ⁴  in light of what you see.”

Israel has rebelled ¹  like a stubborn heifer! Soon ²  the Lord will put them out to pasture like a lamb in a broad field! ³ 

You made people like fish in the sea, like animals in the sea ¹  that have no ruler.

“The Lord who rules over all said, ‘Exercise true judgment and show brotherhood and compassion to each other.

You are offering improper sacrifices on my altar, yet you ask, ‘How have we offended you?’ By treating the table ¹  of the Lord as if it is of no importance!