Look, I will take control of his mind; he will receive a report and return to his own land. I will cut him down with a sword in his own land.”’”

Indeed Sheol does not give you thanks; death does not praise you. Those who descend into the pit do not anticipate your faithfulness.

The living person, the living person, he gives you thanks, as I do today. A father tells his sons about your faithfulness.

For I am the Lord your God, the one who takes hold of your right hand, who says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, I am helping you.’

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. From the east I will bring your descendants; from the west I will gather you.

I will say to the north, ‘Hand them over!’ and to the south, ‘Don’t hold any back!’ Bring my sons from distant lands, and my daughters from the remote regions of the earth,

Turn to me so you can be delivered, all you who live in the earth’s remote regions! For I am God, and I have no peer.

Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! Truly I am God, I have no peer; I am God, and there is none like me,

Look at Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who gave you birth. When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, but I blessed him and gave him numerous descendants.

Make your tent larger, stretch your tent curtains farther out! Spare no effort, lengthen your ropes, and pound your stakes deep.

Do not be afraid of those to whom I send you, for I will be with you to protect you,” says the Lord.

They are like lusty, well-fed stallions. Each of them lusts after his neighbor’s wife.

The Lord commanded the enemy, “March through the vineyards of Israel and Judah and ruin them. But do not destroy them completely. Strip off their branches for these people do not belong to the Lord.

“Hear the terms of the covenant I made with Israel and pass them on to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem.

Not one of them will survive. I will bring disaster on those men from Anathoth who threatened you. A day of reckoning is coming for them.”

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah about the drought.

Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for good to come to these people!

Cursed be the day I was born! May that day not be blessed when my mother gave birth to me.

Each of you should merely ask the prophet, ‘What answer did the Lord give you? Or what did the Lord say?’

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