¹³ And the Lord said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have ^(A)not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, ¹⁴ but they have ^(B)walked according to the ^[a]dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, ^(C)which their fathers taught them,” ¹⁵ therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will ^(D)feed them, this people, ^(E)with wormwood, and give them ^[b]water of gall to drink. ¹⁶ I will ^(F)scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. ^(G)And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”

The People Mourn in Judgment

¹⁷ Thus says the Lord of hosts:

²² Speak, “Thus says the Lord:

²³ Thus says the Lord:

²⁵ “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that ^(Q)I will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised— ²⁶ Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all who are in the ^(R)farthest corners, who dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are ^(S)uncircumcised in the heart.”

¹¹ then you shall say to them, ^(A)‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the Lord; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. ¹² And you have done ^(B)worse than your fathers, for behold, ^(C)each one ^[a]follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me. ^13 (D)Therefore I will cast you out of this land ^(E)into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’

God Will Restore Israel^(F)

¹⁴ “Therefore behold, the ^(G)days are coming,” says the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ ¹⁵ but, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the ^(H)north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For ^(I)I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶ “Behold, I will send for many ^(J)fishermen,” says the Lord, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. ¹⁷ For My ^(K)eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes. ¹⁸ And first I will repay ^(L)double for their iniquity and their sin, because ^(M)they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.”

¹⁰ They have not been ^(A)humbled,^[a] to this day, nor have they ^(B)feared; they have not walked in My law or in My statutes that I set before you and your fathers.’

¹¹ “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, ^(C)I will set My face against you for catastrophe and for ^[b]cutting off all Judah. ¹² And I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to dwell there, and ^(D)they shall all be consumed and fall in the land of Egypt. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine. They shall die, from the least to the greatest, by the sword and by famine; and ^(E)they shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse and a reproach! ^13 (F)For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, ¹⁴ so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt to dwell there shall escape or survive, lest they return to the land of Judah, to which they ^(G)desire^[c] to return and dwell. For ^(H)none shall return except those who escape.’ ”

¹⁵ Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, with all the women who stood by, a great multitude, and all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying: ¹⁶ “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, ^(I)we will not listen to you! ¹⁷ But we will certainly do ^(J)whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the ^(K)queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of ^[d]food, were well-off, and saw no trouble. ¹⁸ But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.”

¹⁹ The women also said, ^(L)“And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands’ permission?”

²⁰ Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people—the men, the women, and all the people who had given him that answer—saying: ²¹ “The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them, and did it not come into His mind? ²² So the Lord could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you committed. Therefore your land is a desolation, an astonishment, a curse, and without an inhabitant, ^(M)as it is this day. ²³ Because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against the Lord, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord or walked in His law, in His statutes or in His testimonies, ^(N)therefore this calamity has happened to you, as at this day.”

²⁴ Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, “Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt! ²⁵ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: ‘You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, “We will surely keep our vows that we have made, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” You will surely keep your vows and perform your vows!’ ²⁶ Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: ‘Behold, ^(O)I have sworn by My ^(P)great name,’ says the Lord, ‘that ^(Q)My name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, “The Lord God lives.” ²⁷ Behold, I will watch over them for adversity and not for good. And all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt ^(R)shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end to them. ²⁸ Yet ^(S)a small number who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah; and all the remnant of Judah, who have gone to the land of Egypt to dwell there, shall know whose words will stand, Mine or theirs. ²⁹ And this shall be a sign to you,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that My words will surely ^(T)stand against you for adversity.’

³⁰ “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, ^(U)I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave ^(V)Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy who sought his life.’ ”

¹¹ Yes, ^(A)all Israel has transgressed Your law, and has departed so as not to obey Your voice; therefore the curse and the oath written in the ^(B)Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against Him.

Judgment on Judah

⁴ Thus says the Lord: