That is why the rains have been withheld, and the spring rains have not come. Yet in spite of this you are obstinate as a prostitute. You refuse to be ashamed of what you have done.

But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and gone their own way.

The Lord said to Jeremiah:

The Lord said to Jeremiah:

The Lord said to Jeremiah:

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah.

So now, Jeremiah said, “The Lord told me,

“Israel is not a slave, is he? He was not born into slavery, was he? If not, why then is he being carried off?

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah about the drought.

They are dismayed because the ground is cracked because there has been no rain in the land. The farmers, too, are dismayed and bury their faces in their hands.

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

Now the Lord had spoken to Jeremiah while he was still confined in the courtyard of the guardhouse,

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah about the nations.

By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city was so severe the residents had no food.

The Lord began to speak to him in the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon ruled over Judah.

Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own is to be a hideout for robbers? You had better take note! I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord.

Why must I continually suffer such painful anguish? Why must I endure the sting of their insults like an incurable wound? Will you let me down when I need you like a brook one goes to for water, but that cannot be relied on?”

But I have not pestered you to bring disaster. I have not desired the time of irreparable devastation. You know that. You are fully aware of every word that I have spoken.

For whenever I prophesy, I must cry out, “Violence and destruction are coming!” This message from the Lord has made me an object of continual insults and derision.

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah at the beginning of the reign of Josiah’s son, King Jehoiakim of Judah.