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¹LORD, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you. So let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil people so happy?

²You have planted them, and they have taken root and prospered. Your name is on their lips, but you are far from their hearts.

³But as for me, LORD, you know my heart. You see me and test my thoughts. Drag these people away like sheep to be butchered! Set them aside to be slaughtered!

⁴How long must this land mourn? Even the grass in the fields has withered. The wild animals and birds have disappeared because of the evil in the land. For the people have said, “The LORD doesn’t see what’s ahead for us!”

⁵“If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses? If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan?

⁶Even your brothers, members of your own family, have turned against you. They plot and raise complaints against you. Do not trust them, no matter how pleasantly they speak.

⁷“I have abandoned my people, my special possession. I have surrendered my dearest ones to their enemies.

⁸My chosen people have roared at me like a lion of the forest, so I have treated them with contempt.

⁹My chosen people act like speckled vultures, but they themselves are surrounded by vultures. Bring on the wild animals to pick their corpses clean!

¹⁰“Many rulers have ravaged my vineyard, trampling down the vines and turning all its beauty into a barren wilderness.

¹¹They have made it an empty wasteland; I hear its mournful cry. The whole land is desolate, and no one even cares.

¹²On all the bare hilltops, destroying armies can be seen. The sword of the LORD devours people from one end of the nation to the other. No one will escape!

¹³My people have planted wheat but are harvesting thorns. They have worn themselves out, but it has done them no good. They will harvest a crop of shame because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”

¹⁴Now this is what the LORD says: “I will uproot from their land all the evil nations reaching out for the possession I gave my people Israel. And I will uproot Judah from among them.

¹⁵But afterward I will return and have compassion on all of them. I will bring them home to their own lands again, each nation to its own possession.

¹⁶And if these nations truly learn the ways of my people, and if they learn to swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives’ (just as they taught my people to swear by the name of Baal), then they will be given a place among my people.

¹⁷But any nation who refuses to obey me will be uprooted and destroyed. I, the LORD, have spoken!”

¹This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy a linen loincloth and put it on, but do not wash it.”

²So I bought the loincloth as the LORD directed me, and I put it on.

³Then the LORD gave me another message:

⁴“Take the linen loincloth you are wearing, and go to the Euphrates River. Hide it there in a hole in the rocks.”

⁵So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as the LORD had instructed me.

⁶A long time afterward the LORD said to me, “Go back to the Euphrates and get the loincloth I told you to hide there.”

⁷So I went to the Euphrates and dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it. But now it was rotting and falling apart. The loincloth was good for nothing.

⁸Then I received this message from the LORD:

⁹“This is what the LORD says: This shows how I will rot away the pride of Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁰These wicked people refuse to listen to me. They stubbornly follow their own desires and worship other gods. Therefore, they will become like this loincloth — good for nothing!

¹¹As a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I created Judah and Israel to cling to me, says the LORD. They were to be my people, my pride, my glory — an honor to my name. But they would not listen to me.

¹²“So tell them, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: May all your jars be filled with wine.’ And they will reply, ‘Of course! Jars are made to be filled with wine!’

¹³“Then tell them, ‘No, this is what the LORD means: I will fill everyone in this land with drunkenness — from the king sitting on David’s throne to the priests and the prophets, right down to the common people of Jerusalem.

¹⁴I will smash them against each other, even parents against children, says the LORD. I will not let my pity or mercy or compassion keep me from destroying them.’”

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

¹⁶Give glory to the LORD your God before it is too late. Acknowledge him before he brings darkness upon you, causing you to stumble and fall on the darkening mountains. For then, when you look for light, you will find only terrible darkness and gloom.

¹⁷And if you still refuse to listen, I will weep alone because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the LORD’s flock will be led away into exile.

¹⁸Say to the king and his mother, “Come down from your thrones and sit in the dust, for your glorious crowns will soon be snatched from your heads.”

¹⁹The towns of the Negev will close their gates, and no one will be able to open them. The people of Judah will be taken away as captives. All will be carried into exile.

²⁰Open up your eyes and see the armies marching down from the north! Where is your flock — your beautiful flock — that he gave you to care for?

²¹What will you say when the LORD takes the allies you have cultivated and appoints them as your rulers? Pangs of anguish will grip you, like those of a woman in labor!

²²You may ask yourself, “Why is all this happening to me?” It is because of your many sins! That is why you have been stripped and raped by invading armies.

²³Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard take away its spots? Neither can you start doing good, for you have always done evil.

²⁴“I will scatter you like chaff that is blown away by the desert winds.

²⁵This is your allotment, the portion I have assigned to you,” says the LORD, “for you have forgotten me, putting your trust in false gods.

²⁶I myself will strip you and expose you to shame.

²⁷I have seen your adultery and lust, and your disgusting idol worship out in the fields and on the hills. What sorrow awaits you, Jerusalem! How long before you are pure?”

¹This message came to Jeremiah from the LORD, explaining why he was holding back the rain:

²“Judah wilts; commerce at the city gates grinds to a halt. All the people sit on the ground in mourning, and a great cry rises from Jerusalem.

³The nobles send servants to get water, but all the wells are dry. The servants return with empty pitchers, confused and desperate, covering their heads in grief.

⁴The ground is parched and cracked for lack of rain. The farmers are deeply troubled; they, too, cover their heads.

⁵Even the doe abandons her newborn fawn because there is no grass in the field.

⁶The wild donkeys stand on the bare hills panting like thirsty jackals. They strain their eyes looking for grass, but there is none to be found.”

⁷The people say, “Our wickedness has caught up with us, LORD, but help us for the sake of your own reputation. We have turned away from you and sinned against you again and again.

⁸O Hope of Israel, our Savior in times of trouble, why are you like a stranger to us? Why are you like a traveler passing through the land, stopping only for the night?

⁹Are you also confused? Is our champion helpless to save us? You are right here among us, LORD. We are known as your people. Please don’t abandon us now!”

¹⁰So this is what the LORD says to his people: “You love to wander far from me and do not restrain yourselves. Therefore, I will no longer accept you as my people. Now I will remember all your wickedness and will punish you for your sins.”

¹¹Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for these people anymore.

¹²When they fast, I will pay no attention. When they present their burnt offerings and grain offerings to me, I will not accept them. Instead, I will devour them with war, famine, and disease.”

¹³Then I said, “O Sovereign LORD, their prophets are telling them, ‘All is well — no war or famine will come. The LORD will surely send you peace.’”

¹⁴Then the LORD said, “These prophets are telling lies in my name. I did not send them or tell them to speak. I did not give them any messages. They prophesy of visions and revelations they have never seen or heard. They speak foolishness made up in their own lying hearts.

¹⁵Therefore, this is what the LORD says: I will punish these lying prophets, for they have spoken in my name even though I never sent them. They say that no war or famine will come, but they themselves will die by war and famine!

¹⁶As for the people to whom they prophesy — their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and war. There will be no one left to bury them. Husbands, wives, sons, and daughters — all will be gone. For I will pour out their own wickedness on them.

¹⁷Now, Jeremiah, say this to them: “Night and day my eyes overflow with tears. I cannot stop weeping, for my virgin daughter — my precious people — has been struck down and lies mortally wounded.

¹⁸If I go out into the fields, I see the bodies of people slaughtered by the enemy. If I walk the city streets, I see people who have died of starvation. The prophets and priests continue with their work, but they don’t know what they’re doing.”

¹⁹LORD, have you completely rejected Judah? Do you really hate Jerusalem? Why have you wounded us past all hope of healing? We hoped for peace, but no peace came. We hoped for a time of healing, but found only terror.

²⁰LORD, we confess our wickedness and that of our ancestors, too. We all have sinned against you.

²¹For the sake of your reputation, LORD, do not abandon us. Do not disgrace your own glorious throne. Please remember us, and do not break your covenant with us.

²²Can any of the worthless foreign gods send us rain? Does it fall from the sky by itself? No, you are the one, O LORD our God! Only you can do such things. So we will wait for you to help us.