Jeremiah 2:2

2:2 “Go and declare in the hearing of the people of Jerusalem: ‘This is what the Lord says: “I have fond memories of you, how devoted you were to me in your early years. I remember how you loved me like a new bride; you followed me through the wilderness, through a land that had never been planted.

Jeremiah 2:6

2:6 They did not ask:

‘Where is the Lord who delivered us out of Egypt,

who brought us through the wilderness,

through a land of desert sands and rift valleys,

through a land of drought and deep darkness,

through a land in which no one travels,

and where no one lives?’

Jeremiah 2:31

2:31 You people of this generation,

listen to what the Lord says.

“Have I been like a wilderness to you, Israel?

Have I been like a dark and dangerous land to you?

Why then do you say, ‘We are free to wander.

We will not come to you any more?’

Jeremiah 9:10

The Coming Destruction Calls For Mourning

9:10 I said,

“I will weep and mourn for the grasslands on the mountains,

I will sing a mournful song for the pastures in the wilderness

because they are so scorched no one travels through them.

The sound of livestock is no longer heard there.

Even the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the fields

have fled and are gone.”

Jeremiah 9:12

9:12 I said,

“Who is wise enough to understand why this has happened?

Who has a word from the Lord that can explain it?

Why does the land lie in ruins?

Why is it as scorched as a desert through which no one travels?”

Jeremiah 9:26

9:26 That is, I will punish the Egyptians, the Judeans, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples. I will do so because none of the people of those nations are really circumcised in the Lord’s sight. Moreover, none of the people of Israel are circumcised when it comes to their hearts.”

Jeremiah 12:12

12:12 A destructive army will come marching

over the hilltops in the desert.

For the Lord will use them as his destructive weapon

against everyone from one end of the land to the other.

No one will be safe.

Jeremiah 22:6

22:6 “‘For the Lord says concerning the palace of the king of Judah,

“This place looks like a veritable forest of Gilead to me.

It is like the wooded heights of Lebanon in my eyes.

But I swear that I will make it like a wilderness

whose towns have all been deserted.