Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Wouldn’t such a land become totally defiled? But you! You have prostituted yourself with many partners  — can you return to me? This is the LORD’s declaration.

²Look to the barren heights and see. Where have you not been immoral? You sat waiting for them beside the highways like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.

³This is why the showers haven’t come  — why there has been no spring rain. You have the brazen look of a prostitute and refuse to be ashamed.

⁴Haven’t you recently called to me, “My Father. You were my friend in my youth.

⁵Will he bear a grudge forever? Will he be endlessly infuriated?” This is what you have said, but you have done the evil things you are capable of.

⁶In the days of King Josiah the LORD asked me, “Have you seen what unfaithful Israel has done? She has ascended every high hill and gone under every green tree to prostitute herself there.

⁷I thought, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to me.’  But she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

⁸I observed that it was because unfaithful Israel had committed adultery that I had sent her away and had given her a certificate of divorce. Nevertheless, her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid but also went and prostituted herself.

⁹Indifferent to her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

¹⁰Yet in spite of all this, her treacherous sister Judah didn’t return to me with all her heart  — only in pretense.” This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹¹The LORD announced to me, “Unfaithful Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

¹²Go, proclaim these words to the north, and say, ‘Return, unfaithful Israel. This is the LORD’s declaration. I will not look on you with anger, for I am unfailing in my love. This is the LORD’s declaration. I will not be angry forever.

¹³Only acknowledge your guilt  — you have rebelled against the LORD your God. You have scattered your favors to strangers under every green tree and have not obeyed me. This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹⁴“‘Return, you faithless children  — this is the LORD’s declaration — for I am your master, and I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

¹⁵I will give you shepherds who are loyal to me, and they will shepherd you with knowledge and skill.

¹⁶When you multiply and increase in the land, in those days — this is the LORD’s declaration — no one will say again, “The ark of the LORD’s covenant.” It will never come to mind, and no one will remember or miss it. Another one will not be made.

¹⁷At that time Jerusalem will be called The LORD’s Throne, and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD in Jerusalem. They will cease to follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.

¹⁸In those days the house of Judah will join with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land I have given your ancestors to inherit.’”

¹⁹I thought, “How I long to make you my sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations.” I thought, “You will call me ‘My Father’ and never turn away from me.”

²⁰However, as a woman may betray her lover, so you have betrayed me, house of Israel. This is the LORD’s declaration.

²¹A sound is heard on the barren heights: the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy, for they have perverted their way; they have forgotten the LORD their God.

²²Return, you faithless children. I will heal your unfaithfulness. “Here we are, coming to you, for you are the LORD our God.

²³Surely, falsehood comes from the hills, commotion from the mountains, but the salvation of Israel is only in the LORD our God.

²⁴From the time of our youth the shameful one has consumed what our fathers have worked for — their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

²⁵Let us lie down in our shame; let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers, from the time of our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed the LORD our God.”

¹If you return, Israel — this is the LORD’s declaration — you will return to me, if you remove your abhorrent idols from my presence and do not waver,

²then you can swear, “As the LORD lives,” in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then the nations will be blessed by him and will pride themselves in him.

³For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: Break up the unplowed ground; do not sow among the thorns.

⁴Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts, men of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. Otherwise, my wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it because of your evil deeds.

⁵Declare in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: Blow the ram’s horn throughout the land. Cry out loudly and say: Assemble yourselves, and let’s flee to the fortified cities.

⁶Lift up a signal flag toward Zion. Run for cover! Don’t stand still! For I am bringing disaster from the north — a crushing blow.

⁷A lion has gone up from his thicket; a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to make your land a waste. Your cities will be reduced to uninhabited ruins.

⁸Because of this, put on sackcloth; mourn and wail, for the LORD’s burning anger has not turned away from us.

⁹“On that day” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “the king and the officials will lose their courage. The priests will tremble in fear, and the prophets will be scared speechless.”

¹⁰I said, “Oh no, Lord GOD, you have certainly deceived this people and Jerusalem, by announcing, ‘You will have peace,’ while a sword is at our throats.”

¹¹“At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, ‘A searing wind blows from the barren heights in the wilderness on the way to my dear people. It comes not to winnow or to sift;

¹²a wind too strong for this comes at my call. Now I will also pronounce judgments against them.’”

¹³Look, he advances like clouds; his chariots are like a storm. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!

¹⁴Wash the evil from your heart, Jerusalem, so that you will be delivered. How long will you harbor malicious thoughts?

¹⁵For a voice announces from Dan, proclaiming malice from Mount Ephraim.

¹⁶Warn the nations: Look! Proclaim to Jerusalem: Those who besiege are coming from a distant land; they raise their voices against the cities of Judah.

¹⁷They have her surrounded like those who guard a field, because she has rebelled against me. This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹⁸Your way and your actions have brought this on you. This is your punishment. It is very bitter, because it has reached your heart!

¹⁹My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in agony! Oh, the pain in my heart! My heart pounds; I cannot be silent. For you, my soul, have heard the sound of the ram’s horn — the shout of battle.

²⁰Disaster after disaster is reported because the whole land is destroyed. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, my tent curtains, in a moment.

²¹How long must I see the signal flag and hear the sound of the ram’s horn?

²²“For my people are fools; they do not know me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing what is evil, but they do not know how to do what is good.”

²³I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty. I looked to the heavens, and their light was gone.

²⁴I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills shook.

²⁵I looked, and there was no human being, and all the birds of the sky had fled.

²⁶I looked, and the fertile field was a wilderness. All its cities were torn down because of the LORD and his burning anger.

²⁷For this is what the LORD says: The whole land will be a desolation, but I will not finish it off.

²⁸Because of this, the earth will mourn; the skies above will grow dark. I have spoken; I have planned, and I will not relent or turn back from it.

²⁹Every city flees at the sound of the horseman and the archer. They enter the thickets and climb among the rocks. Every city is abandoned; no inhabitant is left.

³⁰And you, devastated one, what are you doing that you dress yourself in scarlet, that you adorn yourself with gold jewelry, that you enhance your eyes with makeup? You beautify yourself for nothing. Your lovers reject you; they intend to take your life.

³¹I hear a cry like a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child. The cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands: “Woe is me, for my life is weary because of the murderers!”

¹Roam through the streets of Jerusalem. Investigate; search in her squares. If you find one person, any who acts justly, who pursues faithfulness, then I will forgive her.

²When they say, “As the LORD lives,” they are swearing falsely.

³LORD, don’t your eyes look for faithfulness? You have struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They made their faces harder than rock, and they refused to return.

⁴Then I thought: They are just the poor; they have been foolish. For they don’t understand the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.

⁵I will go to the powerful and speak to them. Surely they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God. However, these also had broken the yoke and torn off the chains.

⁶Therefore, a lion from the forest will strike them down. A wolf from arid plains will ravage them. A leopard stalks their cities. Anyone who leaves them will be torn to pieces because their rebellious acts are many, their unfaithful deeds numerous.

⁷Why should I forgive you? Your children have abandoned me and sworn by those who are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery; they gashed themselves at the prostitute’s house.

⁸They are well-fed, eager stallions, each neighing after someone else’s wife.

⁹Should I not punish them for these things? This is the LORD’s declaration. Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?

¹⁰Go up among her vineyard terraces and destroy them, but do not finish them off. Prune away her shoots, for they do not belong to the LORD.

¹¹They, the house of Israel and the house of Judah, have dealt very treacherously with me. This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹²They have contradicted the LORD and insisted, “It won’t happen. Harm won’t come to us; we won’t see sword or famine.”

¹³The prophets become only wind, for the LORD’s word is not in them. This will in fact happen to them.

¹⁴Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD of Armies says: Because you have spoken this word, I am going to make my words become fire in your mouth. These people are the wood, and the fire will consume them.

¹⁵I am about to bring a nation from far away against you, house of Israel. This is the LORD’s declaration. It is an established nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose speech you do not understand.

¹⁶Their quiver is like an open grave; they are all warriors.

¹⁷They will consume your harvest and your food. They will consume your sons and your daughters. They will consume your flocks and your herds. They will consume your vines and your fig trees. With the sword they will destroy your fortified cities in which you trust.

¹⁸“But even in those days” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “I will not finish you off.

¹⁹When people ask, ‘For what offense has the LORD our God done all these things to us? ’ You will respond to them, ‘Just as you abandoned me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

²⁰“Declare this in the house of Jacob; proclaim it in Judah, saying:

²¹Hear this, you foolish and senseless people. They have eyes, but they don’t see. They have ears, but they don’t hear.

²²Do you not fear me? This is the LORD’s declaration. Do you not tremble before me, the one who set the sand as the boundary of the sea, an enduring barrier that it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot pass over it.

²³But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and have gone away.

²⁴They have not said to themselves, ‘Let’s fear the LORD our God, who gives the seasonal rains, both autumn and spring, who guarantees to us the fixed weeks of the harvest.’

²⁵Your guilty acts have diverted these things from you. Your sins have withheld my bounty from you,

²⁶for wicked men live among my people. They watch like hunters lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men.

²⁷Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have grown powerful and rich.

²⁸They have become fat and sleek. They have also excelled in evil matters. They have not taken up cases, such as the case of the fatherless, so they might prosper, and they have not defended the rights of the needy.

²⁹Should I not punish them for these things? This is the LORD’s declaration. Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?

³⁰An appalling, horrible thing has taken place in the land.

³¹The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it like this. But what will you do at the end of it?

¹“Run for cover out of Jerusalem, Benjaminites. Sound the ram’s horn in Tekoa; raise a smoke signal over Beth-haccherem, for disaster threatens from the north, even a crushing blow.

²Though she is beautiful and delicate, I will destroy Daughter Zion.

³Shepherds and their flocks will come against her; they will pitch their tents all around her. Each will pasture his own portion.

⁴Set them apart for war against her; rise up, let’s attack at noon. Woe to us, for the day is passing; the evening shadows grow long.

⁵Rise up, let’s attack by night. Let us destroy her fortresses.”

⁶For this is what the LORD of Armies says: Cut down the trees; raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem. This city must be punished. There is nothing but oppression within her.

⁷As a well gushes out its water, so she pours out her evil. Violence and destruction resound in her. Sickness and wounds keep coming to my attention.

⁸Be warned, Jerusalem, or I will turn away from you; I will make you a desolation, a land without inhabitants.

⁹This is what the LORD of Armies says: Glean the remnant of Israel as thoroughly as a vine. Pass your hand once more like a grape gatherer over the branches.

¹⁰Who can I speak to and give such a warning that they will listen? Look, their ear is uncircumcised, so they cannot pay attention. See, the word of the LORD has become contemptible to them — they find no pleasure in it.

¹¹But I am full of the LORD’s wrath; I am tired of holding it back. Pour it out on the children in the street, on the gathering of young men as well. For both husband and wife will be captured, the old with the very old.

¹²Their houses will be turned over to others, their fields and wives as well, for I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land. This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹³For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is making profit dishonestly. From prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.

¹⁴They have treated my people’s brokenness superficially, claiming, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.

¹⁵Were they ashamed when they acted so detestably? They weren’t at all ashamed. They can no longer feel humiliation. Therefore, they will fall among the fallen. When I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD.

¹⁶This is what the LORD says: Stand by the roadways and look. Ask about the ancient paths, “Which is the way to what is good?” Then take it and find rest for yourselves. But they protested, “We won’t!”

¹⁷I appointed watchmen over you and said, “Listen for the sound of the ram’s horn.” But they protested, “We won’t listen!”

¹⁸Therefore listen, you nations and you witnesses, learn what the charge is against them.

¹⁹Listen, earth! I am about to bring disaster on these people, the fruit of their own plotting, for they have paid no attention to my words. They have rejected my instruction.

²⁰What use to me is frankincense from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please me.

²¹Therefore, this is what the LORD says: I am going to place stumbling blocks before these people; fathers and sons together will stumble over them; friends and neighbors will also perish.

²²This is what the LORD says: Look, an army is coming from a northern land; a great nation will be stirred up from the remote regions of the earth.

²³They grasp bow and javelin. They are cruel and show no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, lined up like men in battle formation against you, Daughter Zion.

²⁴We have heard about it, and our hands have become weak. Distress has seized us — pain, like a woman in labor.

²⁵Don’t go out to the fields; don’t walk on the road. For the enemy has a sword; terror is on every side.

²⁶My dear people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in the dust. Mourn as you would for an only son, a bitter lament, for suddenly the destroyer will come on us.

²⁷I have appointed you to be an assayer among my people — a refiner  — so you may know and assay their way of life.

²⁸All are stubborn rebels spreading slander. They are bronze and iron; all of them are corrupt.

²⁹The bellows blow, blasting the lead with fire. The refining is completely in vain; the evil ones are not separated out.

³⁰They are called rejected silver, for the LORD has rejected them.

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

²“Stand in the gate of the house of the LORD and there call out this word: ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the LORD.

³“‘This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your actions, and I will allow you to live in this place.

⁴Do not trust deceitful words, chanting, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.”

⁵Instead, if you really correct your ways and your actions, if you act justly toward one another,

⁶if you no longer oppress the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow and no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods, bringing harm on yourselves,

⁷I will allow you to live in this place, the land I gave to your ancestors long ago and forever.

⁸But look, you keep trusting in deceitful words that cannot help.

⁹“‘Do you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known?

¹⁰Then do you come and stand before me in this house that bears my name and say, “We are rescued, so we can continue doing all these detestable acts”?

¹¹Has this house, which bears my name, become a den of robbers in your view? Yes, I too have seen it. This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹²“‘But return to my place that was at Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first. See what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.

¹³Now, because you have done all these things — this is the LORD’s declaration — and because I have spoken to you time and time again but you wouldn’t listen, and I have called to you, but you wouldn’t answer,

¹⁴what I did to Shiloh I will do to the house that bears my name  — the house in which you trust — the place that I gave you and your ancestors.

¹⁵I will banish you from my presence, just as I banished all of your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.’

¹⁶“As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not offer a cry or a prayer on their behalf, and do not beg me, for I will not listen to you.

¹⁷Don’t you see how they behave in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁸The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods so that they provoke me to anger.

¹⁹But are they really provoking me?” This is the LORD’s declaration. “Isn’t it they themselves being provoked to disgrace?”

²⁰Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: “Look, my anger — my burning wrath — is about to be poured out on this place, on people and animals, on the tree of the field, and on the produce of the land. My wrath will burn and not be quenched.”

²¹This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves,

²²for when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them or command them concerning burnt offering and sacrifice.

²³However, I did give them this command: ‘Obey me, and then I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.’

²⁴Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention but followed their own advice and their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.

²⁵Since the day your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until today, I have sent all my servants the prophets to you time and time again.

²⁶However, my people wouldn’t listen to me or pay attention but became obstinate; they did more evil than their ancestors.

²⁷“When you speak all these things to them, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer you.

²⁸Therefore, declare to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the LORD their God and would not accept discipline. Truth has perished — it has disappeared from their mouths.

²⁹Cut off the hair of your sacred vow and throw it away. Raise up a dirge on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned the generation under his wrath.’

³⁰“For the Judeans have done what is evil in my sight.” This is the LORD’s declaration. “They have set up their abhorrent things in the house that bears my name in order to defile it.

³¹They have built the high places of Topheth in Ben Hinnom Valley in order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought.

³²“Therefore, look, the days are coming”  — the LORD’s declaration — “when this place will no longer be called Topheth and Ben Hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter. Topheth will become a cemetery, because there will be no other burial place.

³³The corpses of these people will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land, with no one to scare them away.

³⁴I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and gladness and the voices of the groom and the bride, for the land will become a desolate waste.

¹“At that time” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of her officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the residents of Jerusalem will be brought out of their graves.

²They will be exposed to the sun, the moon, and all the stars in the sky, which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped. Their bones will not be collected and buried but will become like manure on the soil’s surface.

³Death will be chosen over life by all the survivors of this evil family, those who remain wherever I have banished them.” This is the declaration of the LORD of Armies.

⁴“You are to say to them: This is what the LORD says: Do people fall and not get up again? If they turn away, do they not return?

⁵Why have these people turned away? Why is Jerusalem always turning away? They take hold of deceit; they refuse to return.

⁶I have paid careful attention. They do not speak what is right. No one regrets his evil, asking, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone has stayed his course like a horse rushing into battle.

⁷Even storks in the sky know their seasons. Turtledoves, swallows, and cranes are aware of their migration, but my people do not know the requirements of the LORD.

⁸“How can you claim, ‘We are wise; the law of the LORD is with us’? In fact, the lying pen of scribes has produced falsehood.

⁹The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and snared. They have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom do they really have?

¹⁰Therefore, I will give their wives to other men, their fields to new occupants, for from the least to the greatest, everyone is making profit dishonestly. From prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.

¹¹They have treated the brokenness of my dear people superficially, claiming, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.

¹²Were they ashamed when they acted so detestably? They weren’t at all ashamed. They can no longer feel humiliation. Therefore, they will fall among the fallen. When I punish them, they will collapse,” says the LORD.

¹³I will gather them and bring them to an end. This is the LORD’s declaration. There will be no grapes on the vine, no figs on the fig tree, and even the leaf will wither. Whatever I have given them will be lost to them.

¹⁴Why are we just sitting here? Gather together; let us enter the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has destroyed us. He has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

¹⁵We hoped for peace, but there was nothing good; for a time of healing, but there was only terror.

¹⁶From Dan, the snorting of horses is heard. At the sound of the neighing of mighty steeds, the whole land quakes. They come to devour the land and everything in it, the city and all its residents.

¹⁷Indeed, I am about to send snakes among you, poisonous vipers that cannot be charmed. They will bite you. This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹⁸My joy has flown away; grief has settled on me. My heart is sick.

¹⁹Listen — the cry of my dear people from a faraway land, “Is the LORD no longer in Zion, her King not within her?” Why have they angered me with their carved images, with their worthless foreign idols?

²⁰Harvest has passed, summer has ended, but we have not been saved.

²¹I am broken by the brokenness of my dear people. I mourn; horror has taken hold of me.

²²Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? So why has the healing of my dear people not come about?

¹If my head were a flowing spring, my eyes a fountain of tears, I would weep day and night over the slain of my dear people.

²If only I had a traveler’s lodging place in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a solemn assembly of treacherous people.

³They bent their tongues like their bows; lies and not faithfulness prevail in the land, for they proceed from one evil to another, and they do not take me into account. This is the LORD’s declaration.

⁴Everyone has to be on guard against his friend. Don’t trust any brother, for every brother will certainly deceive, and every friend spread slander.

⁵Each one betrays his friend; no one tells the truth. They have taught their tongues to speak lies; they wear themselves out doing wrong.

⁶You live in a world of deception. In their deception they refuse to know me. This is the LORD’s declaration.

⁷Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies says: I am about to refine them and test them, for what else can I do because of my dear people?

⁸Their tongues are deadly arrows — they speak deception. With his mouth one speaks peaceably with his friend, but inwardly he sets up an ambush.

⁹Should I not punish them for these things? This is the LORD’s declaration. Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?

¹⁰I will raise weeping and a lament over the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness grazing land, for they have been so scorched that no one passes through. The sound of cattle is no longer heard. From the birds of the sky to the animals, everything has fled — they have gone away.

¹¹I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a jackals’ den. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, an uninhabited place.

¹²Who is the person wise enough to understand this? Who has the LORD spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through?

¹³The LORD said, “It is because they abandoned my instruction, which I set before them, and did not obey my voice or walk according to it.

¹⁴Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts and followed the Baals as their fathers taught them.”

¹⁵Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to feed this people wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink.

¹⁶I will scatter them among the nations that they and their fathers have not known. I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”

¹⁷This is what the LORD of Armies says: Consider, and summon the women who mourn; send for the skillful women.

¹⁸Let them come quickly to raise a lament over us so that our eyes may overflow with tears, our eyelids be soaked with weeping.

¹⁹For a sound of lamentation is heard from Zion: How devastated we are. We are greatly ashamed, for we have abandoned the land; our dwellings have been torn down.

²⁰Now hear the word of the LORD, you women. Pay attention to the words from his mouth. Teach your daughters a lament and one another a dirge,

²¹for Death has climbed through our windows; it has entered our fortresses, cutting off children from the streets, young men from the squares.

²²“Speak as follows: ‘This is what the LORD declares: Human corpses will fall like manure on the surface of the field, like newly cut grain after the reaper with no one to gather it.

²³“‘This is what the LORD says: The wise person should not boast in his wisdom; the strong should not boast in his strength; the wealthy should not boast in his wealth.

²⁴But the one who boasts should boast in this: that he understands and knows me  — that I am the LORD, showing faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things. This is the LORD’s declaration.

²⁵“‘Look, the days are coming — this is the LORD’s declaration — when I will punish all the circumcised yet uncircumcised:

²⁶Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair on their temples. All these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.’”

¹Hear the word that the LORD has spoken to you, house of Israel.

²This is what the LORD says: Do not learn the way of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, although the nations are terrified by them,

³for the customs of the peoples are worthless. Someone cuts down a tree from the forest; it is worked by the hands of a craftsman with a chisel.

⁴He decorates it with silver and gold. It is fastened with hammer and nails, so it won’t totter.

⁵Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them for they can do no harm  — and they cannot do any good.

⁶LORD, there is no one like you. You are great; your name is great in power.

⁷Who should not fear you, King of the nations? It is what you deserve. For among all the wise people of the nations and among all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.

⁸They are both stupid and foolish, instructed by worthless idols made of wood!

⁹Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz. The work of a craftsman and of a goldsmith’s hands is clothed in blue and purple, all the work of skilled artisans.

¹⁰But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and eternal King. The earth quakes at his wrath, and the nations cannot endure his rage.

¹¹You are to say this to them: “The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under these heavens.”

¹²He made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom, and spread out the heavens by his understanding.

¹³When he thunders, the waters in the heavens are in turmoil, and he causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings the wind from his storehouses.

¹⁴Everyone is stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image, for his cast images are a lie; there is no breath in them.

¹⁵They are worthless, a work to be mocked. At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed.

¹⁶Jacob’s Portion is not like these because he is the one who formed all things. Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of Armies is his name.

¹⁷Gather up your belongings from the ground, you who live under siege.

¹⁸For this is what the LORD says: Look, I am flinging away the land’s residents at this time and bringing them such distress that they will feel it.

¹⁹Woe to me because of my brokenness — I am severely wounded! I exclaimed, “This is my intense suffering, but I must bear it.”

²⁰My tent is destroyed; all my tent cords are snapped. My sons have departed from me and are no more. I have no one to pitch my tent again or to hang up my curtains.

²¹For the shepherds are stupid: They don’t seek the LORD. Therefore they have not prospered, and their whole flock is scattered.

²²Listen! A noise — it is coming — a great commotion from the land to the north. The cities of Judah will be made desolate, a jackals’ den.

²³I know, LORD, that a person’s way of life is not his own; no one who walks determines his own steps.

²⁴Discipline me, LORD, but with justice — not in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing.

²⁵Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t recognize you and on the families that don’t call on your name, for they have consumed Jacob; they have consumed him and finished him off and made his homeland desolate.

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

²“Listen to the words of this covenant and tell them to the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem.

³Tell them, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: “Let a curse be on the man who does not obey the words of this covenant,

⁴which I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace.” I declared, “Obey me, and do everything that I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God,”

⁵in order to establish the oath I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is today.’” I answered, “Amen, LORD.”

⁶The LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Obey the words of this covenant and carry them out.’

⁷For I strongly warned your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt until today, warning them time and time again, ‘Obey me.’

⁸Yet they would not obey or pay attention; each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant, because they had not done what I commanded them to do.”

⁹The LORD said to me, “A conspiracy has been discovered among the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem.

¹⁰They have returned to the iniquities of their fathers who refused to obey my words and have followed other gods to worship them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah broke my covenant I made with their ancestors.

¹¹“Therefore, this is what the LORD says: I am about to bring on them disaster that they cannot escape. They will cry out to me, but I will not hear them.

¹²Then the cities of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods they have been burning incense to, but they certainly will not save them in their time of disaster.

¹³Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, Judah, and the altars you have set up to Shame  — altars to burn incense to Baal — as numerous as the streets of Jerusalem.

¹⁴“As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not raise up a cry or a prayer on their behalf, for I will not be listening when they call out to me at the time of their disaster.

¹⁵What right does my beloved have to be in my house, having carried out so many evil schemes? Can holy meat prevent your disaster so you can celebrate?

¹⁶The LORD named you a flourishing olive tree, beautiful with well-formed fruit. He has set fire to it, and its branches are consumed with the sound of a mighty tumult.

¹⁷“The LORD of Armies who planted you has decreed disaster against you, because of the disaster the house of Israel and the house of Judah brought on themselves when they angered me by burning incense to Baal.”

¹⁸The LORD informed me, so I knew. Then you helped me to see their deeds,

¹⁹for I was like a docile lamb led to slaughter. I didn’t know that they had devised plots against me: “Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit; let’s cut him off from the land of the living so that his name will no longer be remembered.”

²⁰But, LORD of Armies, who judges righteously, who tests heart and mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for I have presented my case to you.

²¹Therefore, here is what the LORD says concerning the people of Anathoth who intend to take your life. They warn, “Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, or you will certainly die at our hand.”

²²Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies says: “I am about to punish them. The young men will die by the sword; their sons and daughters will die by famine.

²³They will have no remnant, for I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.”

¹You will be righteous, LORD, even if I bring a case against you. Yet, I wish to contend with you: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the treacherous live at ease?

²You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their conscience.

³As for you, LORD, you know me; you see me. You test whether my heart is with you. Drag the wicked away like sheep to slaughter and set them apart for the day of killing.

⁴How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither? Because of the evil of its residents, animals and birds have been swept away, for the people have said, “He cannot see what our end will be.”

⁵If you have raced with runners and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in a peaceful land, what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?

⁶Even your brothers — your own father’s family — even they were treacherous to you; even they have cried out loudly after you. Do not have confidence in them, though they speak well of you.

⁷I have abandoned my house; I have deserted my inheritance. I have handed the love of my life over to her enemies.

⁸My inheritance has behaved toward me like a lion in the forest. She has roared against me. Therefore, I hate her.

⁹Is my inheritance like a hyena to me? Are birds of prey circling her? Go, gather all the wild animals; bring them to devour her.

¹⁰Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard; they have trampled my plot of land. They have turned my desirable plot into a desolate wasteland.

¹¹They have made it a desolation. It mourns, desolate, before me. All the land is desolate, but no one takes it to heart.

¹²Over all the barren heights in the wilderness the destroyers have come, for the LORD has a sword that devours from one end of the earth to the other. No one has peace.

¹³They have sown wheat but harvested thorns. They have exhausted themselves but have no profit. Be put to shame by your harvests because of the LORD’s burning anger.

¹⁴This is what the LORD says: “Concerning all my evil neighbors who attack the inheritance that I bequeathed to my people, Israel, I am about to uproot them from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from them.

¹⁵After I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land.

¹⁶If they will diligently learn the ways of my people  — to swear by my name, ‘As the LORD lives,’ just as they taught my people to swear by Baal — they will be built up among my people.

¹⁷However, if they will not obey, then I will uproot and destroy that nation.” This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen undergarment and put it on. But do not put it in water.”

²So I bought underwear as the LORD instructed me and put it on.

³Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time:

⁴“Take the underwear that you bought and are wearing, and go at once to the Euphrates and hide it in a rocky crevice.”

⁵So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.

⁶A long time later the LORD said to me, “Go at once to the Euphrates and get the underwear that I commanded you to hide there.”

⁷So I went to the Euphrates and dug up the underwear and got it from the place where I had hidden it, but it was ruined — of no use at all.

⁸Then the word of the LORD came to me:

⁹“This is what the LORD says: Just like this I will ruin the great pride of both Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁰These evil people, who refuse to listen to me, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who have followed other gods to serve and bow in worship — they will be like this underwear, of no use at all.

¹¹Just as underwear clings to one’s waist, so I fastened the whole house of Israel and of Judah to me”  — this is the LORD’s declaration — “so that they might be my people for my fame, praise, and glory, but they would not obey.

¹²“Say this to them: ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Every jar should be filled with wine.’ Then they will respond to you, ‘Don’t we know that every jar should be filled with wine?’

¹³And you will say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am about to fill all who live in this land — the kings who reign for David on his throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the residents of Jerusalem — with drunkenness.

¹⁴I will smash them against each other, fathers and sons alike — this is the LORD’s declaration. I will allow no mercy, pity, or compassion to keep me from destroying them.’”

¹⁵Listen and pay attention. Do not be proud, for the LORD has spoken.

¹⁶Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the mountains at dusk. You wait for light, but he brings darkest gloom and makes total darkness.

¹⁷But if you will not listen, my innermost being will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, for the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.

¹⁸Say to the king and the queen mother: Take a humble seat, for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads.

¹⁹The cities of the Negev are under siege; no one can help them. All of Judah has been taken into exile, taken completely into exile.

²⁰Look up and see those coming from the north. Where is the flock entrusted to you, the sheep that were your pride?

²¹What will you say when he appoints close friends as leaders over you, ones you yourself trained? Won’t labor pains seize you, as they do a woman in labor?

²²And when you ask yourself, “Why have these things happened to me?” it is because of your great guilt that your skirts have been stripped off, your body exposed.

²³Can the Cushite change his skin, or a leopard his spots? If so, you might be able to do what is good, you who are instructed in evil.

²⁴I will scatter you like drifting chaff before the desert wind.

²⁵This is your lot, what I have decreed for you — this is the LORD’s declaration — because you have forgotten me and trusted in lies.

²⁶I will pull your skirts up over your face so that your shame might be seen.

²⁷Your adulteries and your lustful neighing, your depraved prostitution on the hills, in the fields — I have seen your abhorrent acts. Woe to you, Jerusalem! You are unclean — for how long yet?

¹This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:

²Judah mourns; her city gates languish. Her people are on the ground in mourning; Jerusalem’s cry rises up.

³Their nobles send their servants for water. They go to the cisterns; they find no water; their containers return empty. They are ashamed and humiliated; they cover their heads.

⁴The ground is cracked since no rain has fallen on the land. The farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.

⁵Even the doe in the field gives birth and abandons her fawn since there is no grass.

⁶Wild donkeys stand on the barren heights panting for air like jackals. Their eyes fail because there are no green plants.

⁷Though our iniquities testify against us, LORD, act for your name’s sake. Indeed, our rebellions are many; we have sinned against you.

⁸Hope of Israel, its Savior in time of distress, why are you like a resident alien in the land, like a traveler stopping only for the night?

⁹Why are you like a helpless man, like a warrior unable to save? Yet you are among us, LORD, and we bear your name. Don’t leave us!

¹⁰This is what the LORD says concerning these people: Truly they love to wander; they never rest their feet. So the LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.

¹¹Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of these people.

¹²If they fast, I will not hear their cry of despair. If they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. Rather, I will finish them off by sword, famine, and plague.”

¹³And I replied, “Oh no, Lord GOD! The prophets are telling them, ‘You won’t see sword or suffer famine. I will certainly give you lasting peace in this place.’”

¹⁴But the LORD said to me, “These prophets are prophesying a lie in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, worthless divination, the deceit of their own minds.

¹⁵“Therefore, this is what the LORD says concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, though I did not send them, and who say, ‘There will never be sword or famine in this land.’ By sword and famine these prophets will meet their end.

¹⁶The people they are prophesying to will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. There will be no one to bury them  — they, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. I will pour out their own evil on them.”

¹⁷You are to speak this word to them: Let my eyes overflow with tears; day and night may they not stop, for the virgin daughter of my people has been destroyed by a crushing blow, an extremely severe wound.

¹⁸If I go out to the field, look — those slain by the sword! If I enter the city, look — those ill from famine! For both prophet and priest travel to a land they do not know.

¹⁹Have you completely rejected Judah? Do you detest Zion? Why do you strike us with no hope of healing for us? We hoped for peace, but there was nothing good; for a time of healing, but there was only terror.

²⁰We acknowledge our wickedness, LORD, the iniquity of our fathers; indeed, we have sinned against you.

²¹For your name’s sake, don’t despise us. Don’t disdain your glorious throne. Remember your covenant with us; do not break it.

²²Can any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Or can the skies alone give showers? Are you not the LORD our God? We therefore put our hope in you, for you have done all these things.

¹Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before me, my compassions would not reach out to these people. Send them from my presence, and let them go.

²If they ask you, ‘Where will we go? ’ tell them: This is what the LORD says: Those destined for death, to death; those destined for the sword, to the sword. Those destined for famine, to famine; those destined for captivity, to captivity.

³“I will ordain four kinds of judgment for them” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land to devour and destroy.

⁴I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

⁵Who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Who will show sympathy toward you? Who will turn aside to ask about your well-being?

⁶You have left me.” This is the LORD’s declaration. “You have turned your back, so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you. I am tired of showing compassion.

⁷I scattered them with a winnowing fork at the city gates of the land. I made them childless; I destroyed my people. They would not turn from their ways.

⁸I made their widows more numerous than the sand of the seas. I brought a destroyer at noon against the mother of young men. I suddenly released on her agitation and terrors.

⁹The mother of seven grew faint; she breathed her last breath. Her sun set while it was still day; she was ashamed and humiliated. The rest of them I will give over to the sword in the presence of their enemies.” This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹⁰Woe is me, my mother, that you gave birth to me, a man who incites dispute and conflict in all the land. I did not lend or borrow, yet everyone curses me.

¹¹The LORD said: Haven’t I set you loose for your good? Haven’t I punished you in a time of trouble, in a time of distress with the enemy?

¹²Can anyone smash iron, iron from the north, or bronze?

¹³I will give up your wealth and your treasures as plunder, without cost, for all your sins in all your borders.

¹⁴Then I will make you serve your enemies in a land you do not know, for my anger will kindle a fire that will burn against you.

¹⁵You know, LORD; remember me and take note of me. Avenge me against my persecutors. In your patience, don’t take me away. Know that I suffer disgrace for your honor.

¹⁶Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became a delight to me and the joy of my heart, for I bear your name, LORD God of Armies.

¹⁷I never sat with the band of revelers, and I did not celebrate with them. Because your hand was on me, I sat alone, for you filled me with indignation.

¹⁸Why has my pain become unending, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You truly have become like a mirage to me — water that is not reliable.

¹⁹Therefore, this is what the LORD says: If you return, I will take you back; you will stand in my presence. And if you speak noble words, rather than worthless ones, you will be my spokesman. It is they who must return to you; you must not return to them.

²⁰Then I will make you a fortified wall of bronze to this people. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to save you and rescue you. This is the LORD’s declaration.

²¹I will rescue you from the power of evil people and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.