Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah which all the male and female singers use to mourn Josiah to this very day. It has become customary in Israel to sing these; they are recorded in the Book of Laments.

The Lord God of their ancestors ¹  continually warned them through his messengers, ²  for he felt compassion for his people and his dwelling place.

This took place to fulfill the Lord’s message delivered through Jeremiah. ¹  The land experienced ²  its sabbatical years; ³  it remained desolate for seventy years, ⁴  as prophesied. ⁵ 

I recognized the fact that God had not sent him, for he had spoken the prophecy against me as a hired agent of Tobiah and Sanballat. ¹ 

Then you ¹  spoke through a vision to your faithful followers ²  and said: “I have energized a warrior; ³  I have raised up a young man ⁴  from the people.

Ephraim’s leader is Samaria, and Samaria’s leader is the son of Remaliah. If your faith does not remain firm, then you will not remain secure.” ¹ 

Indeed, they will hear meaningless gibberish, senseless babbling, a syllable here, a syllable there. ¹ 

Isaiah ¹  asked, “What have they seen in your palace?” Hezekiah replied, “They have seen everything in my palace. I showed them everything in my treasuries.”

I look, but there is no one, among them there is no one who serves as an adviser, that I might ask questions and receive answers.

Now they come into being, ¹  not in the past; before today you did not hear about them, so you could not say, ‘Yes, ²  I know about them.’

“These people have denied what the Lord says. ¹  They have said, ‘That is not so! ²  No harm will come to us. We will not experience war and famine. ³ 

The Lord said, ¹  “I appointed prophets as watchmen to warn you, ²  saying: ‘Pay attention to the warning sound of the trumpet!’” ³  But they said, “We will not pay attention!”

Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, ¹  “We are safe! ²  The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!” ³ 

Then the Lord told me about ¹  some men from Anathoth ²  who were threatening to kill me. ³  They had threatened, ⁴  “Stop prophesying in the name of the Lord or we will kill you!” ⁵ 

I will bring on that land everything that I said I would. I will bring on it everything that is written in this book. I will bring on it everything that Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. ¹ 

Then Jeremiah made his defense before all the officials and all the people. ¹  “The Lord sent me to prophesy everything you have heard me say against this temple and against this city.

Now there was another man ¹  who prophesied as the Lord’s representative ²  against this city and this land just as Jeremiah did. His name was Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim. ³ 

Then all the army officers, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah ¹  and all the people of every class, ²  went to the prophet Jeremiah.

You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it.

“Take note, son of man, the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for distant days; he is prophesying about the far future.’