Some who survive in battle will return to the land of Judah from the land of Egypt. But they will be very few indeed! Then the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will know whose word proves true, mine or theirs.’

The following is a record of what Jeremiah son of Hilkiah prophesied. He was one of the priests who lived at Anathoth in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin.

Then the Lord said, “This means destruction will break out from the north on all who live in the land.

Like lions his enemies roar victoriously over him; they raise their voices in triumph. They have laid his land waste; his cities have been burned down and deserted.

Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone.

“I looked at the land and saw that it was an empty wasteland. I looked up at the sky, and its light had vanished.

All this will happen because the Lord said, “The whole land will be desolate; however, I will not completely destroy it.

So take warning, Jerusalem, or I will abandon you in disgust and make you desolate, a place where no one can live.”

If you stop doing these things, I will allow you to continue to live in this land which I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession.

Then the dead bodies of these people will be left on the ground for the birds and wild animals to eat. There will not be any survivors to scare them away.

The Lord is the one who by his power made the earth. He is the one who by his wisdom established the world. And by his understanding he spread out the skies.

But after I have uprooted the people of those nations, I will relent and have pity on them. I will restore the people of each of those nations to their own lands and to their own country.

“The people of Judah are in mourning. The people in her cities are pining away. They lie on the ground expressing their sorrow. Cries of distress come up to me from Jerusalem.

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.

You have been the object of Israel’s hopes. You have saved them when they were in trouble. Why have you become like a resident foreigner in the land? Why have you become like a traveler who only stops in to spend the night?

The Lord continued, “In every town in the land I will purge them like straw blown away by the wind. I will destroy my people. I will kill off their children. I will do so because they did not change their behavior.

I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you know nothing about. For my anger is like a fire that will burn against you.”

So their land will become an object of horror. People will forever hiss out their scorn over it. All who pass that way will be filled with horror and will shake their heads in derision.

You will never come back to this land to which you will long to return!”

Then some of the elders of Judah stepped forward and spoke to all the people gathered there. They said,