<p class="bodytext">&#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> says,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;That is why I will scatter your people<n id="2" /> like chaffp> <p class="poetry">that is blown away by a desert wind.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">But Babylonia will be put to great shame.p> <p class="poetry">The land where you were born<n id="1" /> will be disgraced.p> <p class="poetry">Indeed,<n id="2" /> Babylonia will become the least important of all nations.p> <p class="poetry">It will become a dry and barren desert.p>

<p class="poetry">You are like a wild female donkey brought up in the wilderness.p> <p class="poetry">In her lust she sniffs the wind to get the scent of a male.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">No one can hold her back when she is in heat.p> <p class="poetry">None of the males need wear themselves out chasing after her.p> <p class="poetry">At mating time she is easy to find.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">For the land is full of people unfaithful to him.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">They live wicked lives and they misuse their power.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">So the land is dried up<n id="3" /> because it is under his curse.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">The pastures in the wilderness are withered.p>

<p class="bodytext">The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah say these things in the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple.

<t /><p class="bodytext">I said,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;I will weep and mourn<n id="2" /> for the grasslands on the mountains,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">I will sing a mournful song for the pastures in the wildernessp> <p class="poetry">because they are so scorched no one travels through them.p> <p class="poetry">The sound of livestock is no longer heard there.p> <p class="poetry">Even the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the fieldsp> <p class="poetry">have fled and are gone.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;&#8216;For the <sc>Lordsc> says concerning the palace of the king of Judah,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;This place looks like a veritable forest of Gilead to me.p> <p class="poetry">It is like the wooded heights of Lebanon in my eyes.p> <p class="poetry">But I swear that I will make it like a wildernessp> <p class="poetry">whose towns have all been deserted.<n id="1" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal<n id="1" /> son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur<n id="2" /> son of Malkijah had heard<n id="3" /> the things that Jeremiah had been telling the people. They had heard him say,

Then Azariah<n id="1" /> son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and other arrogant men said to Jeremiah, &#8220;You are telling a lie! The <sc>Lordsc> our God did not send you to tell us, &#8216;You must not go to Egypt and settle there.&#8217;