Jeremiah 11:1-4
The People Have Violated Their Covenant with God
11:1 The Lord said to Jeremiah:
11:2 “Hear the terms of the covenant I made with Israel and pass them on to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem.
11:3 Tell them that the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Anyone who does not keep the terms of the covenant will be under a curse.
11:4 Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors to keep when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace. I said at that time, “Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement exactly as I commanded you. If you do, you will be my people and I will be your God.
Jeremiah 11:10-12
11:10 They have gone back to the evil ways
of their ancestors of old who refused to obey what I told them. They, too, have paid allegiance to
other gods and worshiped them. Both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah
have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors.
11:11 So I, the
Lord, say this:
‘I will soon bring disaster on them which they will not be able to escape! When they cry out to me for help, I will not listen to them.
11:12 Then those living in the towns of Judah and in Jerusalem will
go and cry out for help to the gods to whom they have been sacrificing. However, those gods will by no means
be able to save them when disaster strikes them.