Beginning

14 The Word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.

² “Judah has mourned, and its gates are desolate. They have been brought to heaviness, to the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.

³ “And their nobles have sent their inferiors to the water, who came to the wells and found no water. They returned with their vessels empty. They were ashamed and confounded and covered their heads.

⁴ “For the ground was destroyed because there was no rain on the Earth. The plowmen were ashamed, covering their heads.

⁵ “Yea, the deer also calved in the field, and left it, because there was no grass.

⁶ “And the wild donkeys stood in the high places and drew in their wind like dragons. Their eyes failed because there was no grass.”

⁷ O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, deal with us according to Your Name. For our rebellions are many. We sinned against You.

⁸ O, You Hope of Israel, its Savior in the time of trouble! Why are You as a stranger in the land, as one who passes through, to tarry for a night?

⁹ Why are You as a man astonished, and as a strong man who cannot help? Yet You, O LORD, are in the midst of us. And Your Name has called upon us. Do not forsake us.

¹⁰ Thus says the LORD to this people: “Thus have they delighted in wandering. They have not refrained their feet.” Therefore, the LORD has no delight in them. He will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins.

¹¹ Then said the LORD to me, “You shall not pray to do this people good.

¹² “When they fast, I will not hear their cry. And when they offer Burnt Offering, and an oblation, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.”

¹³ Then I answered, “Ah, LORD God, behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall famine come upon you. But I will give you assured peace in this place.’”

¹⁴ Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My Name. I have not sent them, nor did I Command them, nor did I speak to them. They prophesy to you a false vision, and divination, and vanity, and deceitfulness of their own heart.”

¹⁵ Therefore thus says the LORD: “Concerning the prophets that prophesy in My Name whom I have not sent, yet they say, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land,’ by sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.

¹⁶ “And the people to whom these prophets prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, because of the famine and the sword, and there shall be no one to bury them and their wives and their sons and their daughters. For I will pour their wickedness upon them.

¹⁷ “Therefore, you shall say this Word to them, ‘Let my eyes drop down tears night and day without ceasing. For the virgin daughter of my people is destroyed with a great destruction, with a very grievous plague.

¹⁸ ‘For if I go into the field, behold the slain with the sword. And if I enter into the city, also behold those who are sick from hunger. Moreover, the Prophet and the priest go wandering into a land that they do not know.’”

¹⁹ Have You utterly rejected Judah? Or has Your Soul abhorred Zion? Why have You stricken us, so that we cannot be healed? We looked for peace and there is no good, and for the time of health and behold trouble.

²⁰ We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers. For we have sinned against You.

²¹ Do not abhor. For Your Name’s sake, do not cast down the throne of Your Glory. Remember. Do not break Your Covenant with us.

²² Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can give rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Is it not You, O LORD our God? Therefore, we will wait upon You. For You have made all these things.

15 Then the LORD said to me, “Even though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My affection could not be toward this people. Cast them out of My sight and let them depart.

² “And if they say to you, ‘Where shall we go?’ then tell them, ‘Thus says the LORD: ‘Such as are appointed to death, to death. And such as are for the sword, to the sword. And such as are for the famine, to the famine. And such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.’

³ “And I will appoint over them four kinds—” says the LORD, “the sword to slay and the dogs to tear in pieces and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the Earth—to devour and to destroy.

⁴ “I will also scatter them in all kingdoms of the Earth, because of Manasseh—the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah—for that which he did in Jerusalem.

⁵ “Who shall then have pity upon you, O Jerusalem? Or who shall be sorry for you? Or who shall go to pray for your peace?

⁶ “You have forsaken Me,” says the LORD, “gone backward. Therefore, I will stretch out My Hand against you, and destroy you. I am weary with pity.

⁷ “And I will scatter them with the fan in the gates of the Earth. I have wasted, destroyed My people. They would not repent from their ways.

⁸ “Their widows are increased by Me above the sand of the sea. I have brought upon them, against the assembly of the young men, a destroyer at noon. I have caused him to fall upon them and the city, suddenly and speedily.

⁹ “She who has borne seven has been made weak. Her heart has failed. The Sun has failed her while it was day. She has been confounded and ashamed. And I will deliver their residue to the sword, before their enemies,” says the LORD.

¹⁰ Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a contentious man, and a man who strives with the whole Earth! I have neither lent with usury, nor have men lent to me with usury. Everyone curses me.

¹¹ The LORD said, “Surely your remnant shall have wealth. Surely I will cause your enemy to enjoin you in the time of trouble, and in the time of affliction.

¹² “Shall the iron break the iron, and the bronze, from the North?

¹³ “I will give your substance and your treasures to be plundered without payment because of all your sins within all your borders.

¹⁴ “And I will make you go with your enemies into a land that you do not know. For a fire is kindled in My anger, which shall burn you.”

¹⁵ O LORD, You know. Remember me and visit me and avenge me on my persecutors. Do not take me away in the continuance of Your anger! Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke.

¹⁶ Your Words were found and I ate them. And Your Word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart! For Your Name is called upon me, O LORD, God of Hosts!

¹⁷ I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers, nor did I rejoice, but sat alone, because of Your plague. For You have filled me with indignation.

¹⁸ Why is my heaviness continual and my plague desperate and cannot be healed? Are You as a liar to me, as waters that fail?

¹⁹ Therefore thus says the LORD: “If you return, then I will bring you back. And you shall stand before Me. And if you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be according to My Word. Let them return to you, but do not return to them.

²⁰ “And I will make you a strong brazen wall to this people. And they shall fight against you. But they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you, to save you, and to deliver you,” says the LORD.

²¹ “And I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked. And I will redeem you out of the hand of the tyrants.”

16 The Word of the LORD came also to me, saying,

² “You shall neither take yourself a wife nor have sons or daughters in this place.”

³ For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bear them, and concerning their fathers who beget them in this land:

⁴ “They shall die of deaths and diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung upon the Earth. And they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine. And their carcasses shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the beasts of the earth.”

⁵ For thus says the LORD: “Do not enter into the house of mourning, or go to lament, or be moved for them. For I have taken My Peace from this people,” says the LORD, “mercy and compassion.

⁶ “Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, nor shall men lament for them or cut themselves or make themselves bald for them.

⁷ “They shall not stretch out for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead, nor shall they give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

⁸ “Also, you shall not go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.”

⁹ For thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, in your days, in your eyes, I will cause the voice of mirth to cease from this place, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰ “And when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great plague against us?’ or ‘What is our iniquity and what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’

¹¹ “Then shall you say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the LORD, ‘and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and worshipped them, and have forsaken Me, and have not kept My Law,

¹² ‘and you have done worse than your fathers (for behold, each one walks after the stubbornness of his wicked heart and will not hear Me),

¹³ ‘therefore I will drive you out of this land into a land that you do not know, you nor your fathers. And there you shall serve other gods, day and night, for I will show you no grace.

¹⁴ ‘Behold, therefore,’ says the LORD, ‘the days come that it shall no more be said, “The LORD lives, Who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,”

¹⁵ ‘but, “The LORD lives, Who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North, and from all the lands where He had scattered them.” And I will bring them back into their land that I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶ ‘Behold,’ says the LORD, ‘I will send out many fishermen, and they shall fish for them. And afterward, I will send out many hunters. And they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the caves of the rocks.

¹⁷ ‘For My Eyes are upon all their ways. They are not hidden from My Face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My Eyes.

¹⁸ ‘And first, I will repay their iniquity and their sin double, because they have defiled My land, and have filled My inheritance with their filthy carcasses and their abominations.’”

¹⁹ O LORD, my fortress and my strength and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to You from the ends of the world, and shall say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, in which there was no profit.”

²⁰ Shall a man make gods for himself, and they are not gods?

²¹ “Behold, therefore, I will teach them this once. I will show them My Hand and My Power. And they shall know that My Name is the LORD.”

17 “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with the point of a diamond, engraved upon the tablet of their heart and upon the horns of your altars.

² “They remember their altars as their children, with their groves by the green trees, upon the high hills.

³ “O, My mountain in the field! I will give your substance, all your treasures, to be plundered, for the sin of your high places, throughout all your borders.

⁴ “And you, even you, shall release your heritage that I gave you. And I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land, which you do not know. For you have kindled a fire in My anger, which shall burn forever.”

⁵ Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and withdraws his heart from the LORD.

⁶ “For he shall be like the heath in the wilderness, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

⁷ “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

⁸ “For he shall be as a tree that is planted by the water, which spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not feel when the heat comes. But her leaf shall be green and shall not care for the year of drought. Nor shall it cease from yielding fruit.

⁹ “The heart is deceitful and wicked above all things, who can know it?

¹⁰ “I, the LORD, search the heart, test the inner core, to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his works.

¹¹ “As the partridge gathers those which she has not brought forth, he who gets riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days. And at his end, he shall be a fool.”

¹² As a glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary!

¹³ O LORD! The hope of Israel, whoever forsakes You shall be confounded! Those who depart from you shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the Fountain of Living Waters.

¹⁴ Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be whole! Save me, and I shall be saved! For You are my praise!

¹⁵ Behold, they say to me, “Where is the Word of the LORD? Let it come now.”

¹⁶ But I, myself, have not run away from being a shepherd after You. Nor have I desired the day of misery. You know. That which came out of my lips was before You.

¹⁷ Do not be terrible to me. You are my hope in the day of adversity.

¹⁸ Let those who persecute me be confounded. But do not let me be confounded. Let them be afraid, but do not let me be afraid. Bring upon them the day of adversity and destroy them with double destruction.

¹⁹ Thus has the LORD said to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem,

²⁰ “and say to them, ‘Hear the Word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter in by these gates!

²¹ ‘Thus says the LORD: “Take heed to your souls, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem

²² “or carry forth burdens out of your houses on the Sabbath day, or do any work. But sanctify the Sabbath, as I Commanded your Fathers.”

²³ ‘But they did not obey, nor did they incline their ears, but made their necks stiff and would not hear or receive correction.

²⁴ “Nevertheless, if you will hear Me,” says the LORD, “and bear no burden through the gates of the city on the Sabbath day, but sanctify the Sabbath day, so that you do no work on it,

²⁵ “then shall the kings and the princes enter in at the gates of this city, and shall sit upon the throne of David, and shall ride upon chariots and upon horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall remain forever.

²⁶ “And they shall come — from the cities of Judah, and from around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the South — who shall bring Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices and Meat Offerings and incense, shall bring sacrifices of praise into the House of the LORD.

²⁷ “But if you will not hear Me, to sanctify the Sabbath day and not bear a burden or go through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates. And it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. And it shall not be quenched.”’”