I, the Lord, probe into people’s minds. I examine people’s hearts. I deal with each person according to how he has behaved. I give them what they deserve based on what they have done.

Listen to what they are saying to me. They are saying, “Where are the things the Lord threatens us with? Come on! Let’s see them happen!”

The Lord told Jeremiah, “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take with you some of the leaders of the people and some of the leaders of the priests.

I, the Lord, say: ‘That is how I will deal with this city and its citizens. I will make it like Topheth.

Lord, you coerced me into being a prophet, and I allowed you to do it. You overcame my resistance and prevailed over me. Now I have become a constant laughingstock. Everyone ridicules me.

But I will punish you as your deeds deserve,’ says the Lord. ‘I will set fire to your palace; it will burn up everything around it.’”

The Lord told me, “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah. Give him a message from me there.

The answer will come back, “It is because they broke their covenant with the Lord their God and worshiped and served other gods.”

He upheld the cause of the poor and needy. So things went well for Judah.’ The Lord says, ‘That is a good example of what it means to know me.’

The Lord says, “The leaders of my people are sure to be judged. They were supposed to watch over my people like shepherds watch over their sheep. But they are causing my people to be destroyed and scattered.

Under his rule Judah will enjoy safety and Israel will live in security. This is the name he will go by: ‘The Lord has provided us with justice.’

Moreover, the Lord says, “Both the prophets and priests are godless. I have even found them doing evil in my temple!

But just watch! The wrath of the Lord will come like a storm! Like a raging storm it will rage down on the heads of those who are wicked.

My message is like a fire that purges dross! It is like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces! I, the Lord, so affirm it!

So I, the Lord, affirm that I am opposed to those prophets who steal messages from one another that they claim are from me.

I, the Lord, affirm that I am opposed to those prophets who are using their own tongues to declare, ‘The Lord declares….’

So, now the Lord says, ‘You have not listened to me. But you have made me angry by the things that you have done. Thus you have brought harm on yourselves.’

“Therefore, the Lord who rules over all says, ‘You have not listened to what I said.

Listen to the cries of anguish of the leaders. Listen to the wails of the shepherds of the flocks. They are wailing because the Lord is about to destroy their lands.

The Lord told me, “Make a yoke out of leather straps and wooden crossbars and put it on your neck.