<p class="poetry">These people make promises in the name of the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">But the fact is,<n id="2" /> what they swear to is really a lie.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">You must be truthful, honest and uprightp> <p class="poetry">when you take an oath saying, &#8216;As surely as the <sc>Lordsc> lives!&#8217;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">If you do,<n id="2" /> the nations will pray to be as blessed by him as you arep> <p class="poetry">and will make him the object of their boasting.&#8221;<n id="3" />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="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;

<p class="poetry">I the King, whose name is the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all,<n id="1" /> swear this:p> <p class="poetry">I swear as surely as I live that<n id="2" /> a conqueror is coming.p> <p class="poetry">He will be as imposing as Mount Tabor is among the mountains,p> <p class="poetry">as Mount Carmel is against the backdrop of the sea.<n id="3" />p>

But they must make sure you learn to follow the religious practices of my people.<n id="1" /> Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal.<n id="2" /> But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying, &#8220;As surely as the <sc>Lordsc> lives, I swear.&#8221;<n id="3" /> If they do these things,<n id="4" /> then they will be included among the people I call my own.<n id="5" />

But in that time they will affirm them with &#8216;I swear as surely as the <sc>Lordsc> lives who delivered the people of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished them.&#8217; At that time I will bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> says,<n id="1" />p> <p class="bodytext">&#8220;As surely as I am the living God, you, Jeconiah,<n id="2" /> king of Judah, son of Jehoiakim, will not be the earthly representative of my authority. Indeed, I will take that right away from you.<n id="3" />

But at that time they will affirm them with &#8220;I swear as surely as the <sc>Lordsc> lives who delivered the descendants of the former nation of Israel<n id="1" /> from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished<n id="2" /> them.&#8221;<n id="3" /> At that time they will live in their own land.&#8217;&#8221;p>

So King Zedekiah made a secret promise to Jeremiah and sealed it with an oath. He promised,<n id="1" /> &#8220;As surely as the <sc>Lordsc> lives who has given us life and breath,<n id="2" /> I promise you this: I will not kill you or hand you over to those men who want to kill you.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

But<n id="1" /> listen to what the <sc>Lordsc> has to say, all you people of Judah who are living in the land of Egypt. The <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8216;I hereby swear by my own great name that none of the people of Judah who are living anywhere in Egypt will ever again invoke my name in their oaths! Never again will any of them use it in an oath saying, &#8220;As surely as the Lord <sc>Godsc> lives&#8230;.&#8221;<n id="2" />