The Lord again asked me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a pot of boiling water; it is tipped toward us from the north.”

In response to all this I said, “Ah, Lord God, you have surely allowed the people of Judah and Jerusalem to be deceived by those who say, ‘You will be safe!’ But in fact a sword is already at our throats.”

Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, “We are safe! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!”

For I solemnly warned your ancestors to obey me. I warned them again and again, ever since I delivered them out of Egypt until this very day.

Then the Lord told me about some men from Anathoth who were threatening to kill me. They had threatened, “Stop prophesying in the name of the Lord or we will kill you!”

Cursed be the man who made my father very glad when he brought him the news that a baby boy had been born to him!

So the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the people who were living in Jerusalem.

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

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah early in the reign of Josiah’s son, King Zedekiah of Judah.

Charge them to give their masters a message from me. Tell them, ‘The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says to give your masters this message.

Do not listen to the prophets who are telling you that you do not need to serve the king of Babylon. For they are prophesying lies to you.

But shortly after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah.

“Go and tell Hananiah that the Lord says, ‘You have indeed broken the wooden yoke. But you have only succeeded in replacing it with an iron one!

He sent it with Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah. King Zedekiah of Judah had sent these men to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The letter said:

And all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will use them as examples when they put a curse on anyone. They will say, “May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab whom the king of Babylon roasted to death in the fire!”

For he has even sent a message to us here in Babylon. He wrote and told us, “You will be there a long time. Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce.”’”

“The Lord God of Israel says, ‘Write everything that I am about to tell you in a scroll.

“After I had given the copies of the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord,

“The Lord God of Israel has a message for you. ‘I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt where they had been slaves. It stipulated,

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah when Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah.