They surround me and say hateful things; they attack me for no reason.

With my lips I proclaim all the regulations you have revealed.

I will speak about your regulations before kings and not be ashamed.

Your statutes have been my songs in the house where I live.

I claim your rules as my permanent possession, for they give me joy.

Your instructions are a doorway through which light shines. They give insight to the untrained.

May my tongue sing about your instructions, for all your commands are just.

You open your hand, and fill every living thing with the food they desire.

They bind their kings in chains, and their nobles in iron shackles,

Because they hated moral knowledge, and did not choose to fear the Lord,

who delight in doing evil, they rejoice in perverse evil;

Keep my commands so that you may live, and obey my instruction as your most prized possession.

for their hearts contemplate violence, and their lips speak harm.

for all the large ships, for all the impressive ships.

Look, ambassadors cry out in the streets; messengers sent to make peace weep bitterly.

Then the Lord spoke to me again and said,

Then I said, “Lord, from the very beginning you have been seated on your glorious throne on high. You are the place where we can find refuge.

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

That was when the Lord spoke to Jeremiah,

The Lord gave the prophet Jeremiah a message for them. He told him to tell them,