Don&#8217;t listen to Hezekiah!&#8217; For this is what the king of Assyria says, &#8216;Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me.<n id="1" /> Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

&#8220;O <sc>Lordsc> who commands armies, O God of Israel, who is enthroned on the cherubim!<n id="1" /> You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the sky<n id="2" /> and the earth.

&#8220;Please, <sc>Lordsc>. Remember how I have served you<n id="1" /> faithfully and with wholehearted devotion,<n id="2" /> and how I have carried out your will.&#8221;<n id="3" /> Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">I will lead the blind along an unfamiliar way;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I will guide them down paths they have never traveled.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">I will turn the darkness in front of them into light,p> <p class="poetry">and level out the rough ground.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">This is what I will do for them.p> <p class="poetry">I will not abandon them.p>

<p class="poetry">No one thinks to himself,p> <p class="poetry">nor do they comprehend or understand and say to themselves:p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;I burned half of it in the fire &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">yes, I baked bread over the coals;p> <p class="poetry">I roasted meat and ate it.p> <p class="poetry">With the rest of it should I make a disgusting idol?p> <p class="poetry">Should I bow down to dry wood?&#8217;<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">Shout for joy, O sky, for the <sc>Lordsc> intervenes;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">shout out, you subterranean regions<n id="2" /> of the earth.p> <p class="poetry">O mountains, give a joyful shout;p> <p class="poetry">you too, O forest and all your trees!<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">For the <sc>Lordsc> protects<n id="4" /> Jacob;p> <p class="poetry">he reveals his splendor through Israel.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">For this is what the <sc>Lordsc> says,p> <p class="poetry">the one who created the sky &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">he is the true God,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">the one who formed the earth and made it;p> <p class="poetry">he established it,p> <p class="poetry">he did not create it without order,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">he formed it to be inhabited &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;I am the <sc>Lordsc>, I have no peer.p>

<p class="poetry">Why do you forget<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc>, who made you,p> <p class="poetry">who stretched out the sky<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and founded the earth?p> <p class="poetry">Why do you constantly tremble all day long<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">at the anger of the oppressor,p> <p class="poetry">when he makes plans to destroy?p> <p class="poetry">Where is the anger of the oppressor?<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">In the same way, the promise that I makep> <p class="poetry">does not return to me, having accomplished nothing.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">No, it is realized as I desirep> <p class="poetry">and is fulfilled as I intend.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">They seek me day after day;p> <p class="poetry">they want to know my requirements,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">like a nation that does what is rightp> <p class="poetry">and does not reject the law of their God.p> <p class="poetry">They ask me for just decrees;p> <p class="poetry">they want to be near God.p>

<p class="poetry">This is what the <sc>Lordsc> says:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;When<n id="1" /> juice is discovered in a cluster of grapes,p> <p class="poetry">someone says, &#8216;Don&#8217;t destroy it, for it contains juice.&#8217;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">So I will do for the sake of my servants &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">I will not destroy everyone.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">I predestine you to die by the sword,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">all of you will kneel down at the slaughtering block,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">because I called to you, and you did not respond,p> <p class="poetry">I spoke and you did not listen.p> <p class="poetry">You did evil before me;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">you chose to do what displeases me.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">My hand made them;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">that is how they came to be,&#8221;<n id="2" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>.p> <p class="poetry">I show special favor<n id="3" /> to the humble and contrite,p> <p class="poetry">who respect what I have to say.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">So I will choose severe punishment<n id="1" /> for them;p> <p class="poetry">I will bring on them what they dread,p> <p class="poetry">because I called, and no one responded,p> <p class="poetry">I spoke and they did not listen.p> <p class="poetry">They did evil before me;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">they chose to do what displeases me.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Do so because my people have committed a double wrong:p> <p class="poetry">they have rejected me,p> <p class="poetry">the fountain of life-giving water,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and they have dug cisterns for themselves,p> <p class="poetry">cracked cisterns which cannot even hold water.&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">When Josiah was king of Judah, the <sc>Lordsc> said to me, &#8220;Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done.<n id="1" /> You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods.<n id="2" />

In those days, your population will greatly increase<n id="1" /> in the land. At that time,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc>, &#8220;people will no longer talk about having the ark<n id="2" /> that contains the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s covenant with us.<n id="3" /> They will not call it to mind, remember it, or miss it. No, that will not be done any more!<n id="4" />

<p class="poetry">And you, Zion, city doomed to destruction,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">you accomplish nothing<n id="2" /> by wearing a beautiful dress,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">decking yourself out in jewels of gold,p> <p class="poetry">and putting on eye shadow!<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">You are making yourself beautiful for nothing.p> <p class="poetry">Your lovers spurn you.p> <p class="poetry">They want to kill you.<n id="5" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Go up and down<n id="2" /> through the streets of Jerusalem.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Look around and see for yourselves.p> <p class="poetry">Search through its public squares.p> <p class="poetry">See if any of you can find a single personp> <p class="poetry">who deals honestly and tries to be truthful.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">If you can,<n id="5" /> then I will not punish this city.<n id="6" />p>

&#8220;So then, Jeremiah,<n id="1" /> when your people<n id="2" /> ask, &#8216;Why has the <sc>Lordsc> our God done all this to us?&#8217; tell them, &#8216;It is because you rejected me and served foreign gods in your own land. So<n id="3" /> you must serve foreigners<n id="4" /> in a land that does not belong to you.&#8217;p>