<p class="poetry">Does a young woman forget to put on her jewels?p> <p class="poetry">Does a bride forget to put on her bridal attire?p> <p class="poetry">But my people have forgotten mep> <p class="poetry">for more days than can even be counted.p>

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8220;Watch out!<n id="1" /> The time is soon coming when I will punish all those who are circumcised only in the flesh.<n id="2" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">&#8220;Indeed a time is coming,&#8221;<n id="1" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="2" /> &#8220;when the city of Jerusalem<n id="3" /> will be rebuilt as my special city.<n id="4" /> It will be built from the Tower of Hananel westward to the Corner Gate.<n id="5" />

<p class="bodytext">Ten days later the <sc>Lordsc> spoke to Jeremiah.

Many days later the <sc>Lordsc> said to me, &#8220;Go at once to Perath and get<n id="1" /> the shorts I ordered you to bury there.&#8221;

<p class="poetry">Their widows will become in my sight more numerous<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">than the grains of sand on the seashores.p> <p class="poetry">At noontime I will bring a destroyerp> <p class="poetry">against the mothers of their young men.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">I will cause anguish<n id="3" /> and terrorp> <p class="poetry">to fall suddenly upon them.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="bodytext">Yet<n id="1" /> I, the <sc>Lordsc>, say:<n id="2" /> &#8220;A new time will certainly come.<n id="3" /> People now affirm their oaths with &#8216;I swear as surely as the <sc>Lordsc> lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.&#8217;

<p class="poetry">&#8220;I, the <sc>Lordsc>, promise<n id="1" /> that a new time will certainly come<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">when I will raise up for them a righteous branch,<n id="3" /> a descendant of David.p> <p class="poetry">He will rule over them with wisdom and understanding<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">and will do what is just and right in the land.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;So I, the <sc>Lordsc>, say:<n id="1" /> &#8216;A new time will certainly come.<n id="2" /> People now affirm their oaths with &#8220;I swear as surely as the <sc>Lordsc> lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.&#8221;

<t /><p class="bodytext">&#8220;Indeed, a time is coming,&#8221;<n id="1" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="2" /> &#8220;when I will cause people and animals to sprout up in the lands of Israel and Judah.<n id="3" />

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;Indeed, a time is coming,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="1" /> &#8220;when I will make a new covenant<n id="2" /> with the people of Israel and Judah.<n id="3" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">&#8220;I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm:<n id="1" /> &#8216;The time will certainly come when I will fulfill my gracious promise concerning the nations of Israel and Judah.<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">So<n id="1" /> Jeremiah was put in prison in a cell in the dungeon in Jonathan&#8217;s house.<n id="2" /> He<n id="3" /> was kept there for a long time.

<p class="poetry">But the time is coming when I will sendp> <p class="poetry">men against Moab who will empty it out.p> <p class="poetry">They will empty the towns of their people,p> <p class="poetry">then will lay those towns in ruins.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it!<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;So the time will certainly come<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">when I will punish the idols of Babylon.p> <p class="poetry">Her whole land will be put to shame.p> <p class="poetry">All her mortally wounded will collapse in her midst.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Yes, but the time will certainly come,&#8221;<n id="1" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;when I will punish her idols.p> <p class="poetry">Throughout her land the mortally wounded will groan.p>

<p class="poetry">I am as full of anger as you are, <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I am tired of trying to hold it in.&#8221;p> <p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> answered,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Vent it, then,<n id="3" /> on the children who play in the streetp> <p class="poetry">and on the young men who are gathered together.p> <p class="poetry">Husbands and wives are to be included,<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">as well as the old and those who are advanced in years.p>

So, watch out!&#8221;<n id="1" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>. &#8220;The time will soon come when people will no longer call those places Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom. But they will call that valley<n id="2" /> the Valley of Slaughter and they will bury so many people in Topheth they will run out of room.<n id="3" />

So I, the <sc>Lordsc>, say:<n id="1" /> &#8220;The time will soon come that people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Hinnom Valley. But they will call this valley<n id="2" /> the Valley of Slaughter!

Before two years are over, I will bring back to this place everything that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took from it and carried away to Babylon.