<p class="poetry">Alas, what a terrible time of trouble it is!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">There has never been any like it.p> <p class="poetry">It is a time of trouble for the descendants of Jacob,p> <p class="poetry">but some of them will be rescued out of it.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Flee to save your lives.p> <p class="poetry">Do not let yourselves be killed because of her sins.p> <p class="poetry">For it is time for the <sc>Lordsc> to wreak his revenge.p> <p class="poetry">He will pay Babylonia<n id="2" /> back for what she has done.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">The people of those nations<n id="1" /> are both stupid and foolish.p> <p class="poetry">Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless!<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">The human mind is more deceitful than anything else.p> <p class="poetry">It is incurably bad.<n id="1" /> Who can understand it?p>

<p class="bodytext">In the seventh month of that very same year<n id="1" /> the prophet Hananiah died.p>

<t /><p class="poetry">&#8220;Israel is not a slave, is he?p> <p class="poetry">He was not born into slavery, was he?<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">If not, why then is he being carried off?p>

But I will completely uproot and destroy any of those nations that will not pay heed,&#8217;&#8221;<n id="1" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>.p>

<p class="poetry">He upheld the cause of the poor and needy.p> <p class="poetry">So things went well for Judah.&#8217;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;That is a good example of what it means to know me.&#8217;<n id="2" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> spoke<n id="1" /> to Jeremiah a second time while he was still confined in the courtyard of the guardhouse.<n id="2" />

In those days and at that time I will raise up for them a righteous descendant<n id="1" /> of David.p> <p class="bodytext">&#8220;&#8216;He will do what is just and right in the land.

King Zedekiah said to them, &#8220;Very well, you can do what you want with him.<n id="1" /> For I cannot do anything to stop you.&#8221;<n id="2" />

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Moab has vaunted itself against me.p> <p class="poetry">So make him drunk with the wine of my wrath<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">until he splashes<n id="2" /> around in his own vomit,p> <p class="poetry">until others treat him as a laughingstock.p>

<p class="poetry">So her young men will fall in her city squares.p> <p class="poetry">All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">says the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">A drought will come upon her land;p> <p class="poetry">her rivers and canals will be dried up.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">All of this will happen because her land is filled with idols.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Her people act like madmen because of<n id="3" /> those idols they fear.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> says,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Listen,<n id="2" /> nation of Israel!<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">I am about to bring a nation from far away to attack you.p> <p class="poetry">It will be a nation that was founded long agop> <p class="poetry">and has lasted for a long time.p> <p class="poetry">It will be a nation whose language you will not know.p> <p class="poetry">Its people will speak words that you will not be able to understand.p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;When this happens,&#8221;<n id="1" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;the king and his officials will lose their courage.p> <p class="poetry">The priests will be struck with horror,p> <p class="poetry">and the prophets will be speechless in astonishment.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;At that time the people of Judah and Jerusalem<n id="1" /> will be told,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;A scorching wind will sweep downp> <p class="poetry">from the hilltops in the desert on<n id="2" /> my dear people.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">It will not be a gentle breezep> <p class="poetry">for winnowing the grain and blowing away the chaff.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;These people have denied what the <sc>Lordsc> says.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">They have said, &#8216;That is not so!<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">No harm will come to us.p> <p class="poetry">We will not experience war and famine.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">All of this is because<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all<n id="2" /> has said:p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Cut down the trees around Jerusalemp> <p class="poetry">and build up a siege ramp against its walls.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">This is the city which is to be punished.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">Nothing but oppression happens in it.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">For the religion<n id="1" /> of these people is worthless.p> <p class="poetry">They cut down a tree in the forest,p> <p class="poetry">and a craftsman makes it into an idol with his tools.<n id="2" />p>