They are like lusty, well-fed ¹  stallions. Each of them lusts after ²  his neighbor’s wife.

So I, the Lord, affirm ¹  that I am opposed to those prophets who steal messages from one another that they claim are from me. ² 

You must change ¹  the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly. ² 

Their tongues are like deadly arrows. ¹  They are always telling lies. ²  Friendly words for their neighbors come from their mouths. But their minds are thinking up ways to trap them. ³ 

“‘People from other nations will pass by this city. They will ask one another, “Why has the Lord done such a thing to this great city?”

So I, Jeremiah, tell you, ¹  “Each of you people should say to his friend or his relative, ‘How did the Lord answer? Or what did the Lord say?’ ² 

I will make many stumble. ¹  They will fall over one another in their hurry to flee. ²  They will say, ‘Get up! Let’s go back to our own people. Let’s go back to our homelands because the enemy is coming to destroy us.’ ³ 

I will reduce the people of this city to desperate straits during the siege imposed on it by their enemies who are seeking to kill them. I will make them so desperate that they will eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters and the flesh of one another.”’” ¹ 

“People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. ¹  For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” ²  says the Lord. “For ³  I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”

When they had heard it all, ¹  they expressed their alarm to one another. ²  Then they said to Baruch, “We must certainly give the king a report about everything you have read!” ³