Children are gathering firewood, fathers are building fires with it, and women are mixing dough to bake cakes to offer to the goddess they call the Queen of Heaven. ¹  They are also pouring out drink offerings to other gods. They seem to do all this just ²  to trouble me.

When his voice thunders, ¹  the heavenly ocean roars. He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons. ²  He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain. He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it. ³ 

Vent your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you. ¹  Vent it on the peoples ²  who do not worship you. ³  For they have destroyed the people of Jacob. ⁴  They have completely destroyed them ⁵  and left their homeland in utter ruin.

“Moreover I, the Lord, tell you: ¹  ‘Do not go into a house where they are having a funeral meal. Do not go there to mourn and express your sorrow for them. For I have stopped showing them my good favor, ²  my love, and my compassion. I, the Lord, so affirm it! ³ 

The Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, ¹  when one of these people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, ‘What burdensome message ²  do you have from the Lord?’ Tell them, ‘You are the burden, ³  and I will cast you away. ⁴  I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁵ 

The sounds of battle ¹  will resound to the ends of the earth. For the Lord will bring charges against the nations. ²  He will pass judgment on all humankind and will hand the wicked over to be killed in war.’ ³  The Lord so affirms it! ⁴ 

He has said, ‘They will be carried off to Babylon. They will remain there until it is time for me to show consideration for them again. ¹  Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.’ I, the Lord, affirm this!” ² 

The prophet Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles Nebuchadnezzar had carried off from Jerusalem ¹  to Babylon. It was addressed to the elders who were left among the exiles, to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the other people who were exiled in Babylon. ² 

“The Lord has made you priest in place of Jehoiada. ¹  He has put you in charge in the Lord’s temple of controlling ²  any lunatic ³  who pretends to be a prophet. ⁴  And it is your duty to put any such person in the stocks ⁵  with an iron collar around his neck. ⁶ 

One of their own people will be their leader. Their ruler will come from their own number. ¹  I will invite him to approach me, and he will do so. ²  For no one would dare approach me on his own. ³  I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁴ 

Indeed, the people of Israel are my dear children. They are the children I take delight in. ¹  For even though I must often rebuke them, I still remember them with fondness. So I am deeply moved with pity for them ²  and will surely have compassion on them. I, the Lord, affirm it! ³ 

This will happen because the people of Israel and Judah have repeatedly done what displeases me ¹  from their earliest history until now ²  and because they ³  have repeatedly made me angry by the things they have done. ⁴  I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁵ 

So King Zedekiah made a secret promise to Jeremiah and sealed it with an oath. He promised, ¹  “As surely as the Lord lives who has given us life and breath, ²  I promise you this: I will not kill you or hand you over to those men who want to kill you.” ³ 

Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears. They are cruel and show no mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride forth on their horses. Lined up in formation like men going into battle, they are coming against you, fair Babylon! ¹ 

When his voice thunders, the waters in the heavens roar. He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons. He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain. He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it.

That is, I will punish the Egyptians, the Judeans, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples. ¹  I will do so because none of the people of those nations are really circumcised in the Lord’s sight. ²  Moreover, none of the people of Israel ³  are circumcised when it comes to their hearts.” ⁴ 

But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me! Each one of them followed the stubborn inclinations of his own wicked heart. So I brought on them all the punishments threatened in the covenant because they did not carry out its terms as I commanded them to do.’” ¹ 

Then I said, “Lord, ¹  have you completely rejected the nation of Judah? Do you despise ²  the city of Zion? Why have you struck us with such force that we are beyond recovery? ³  We hope for peace, but nothing good has come of it. We hope for a time of relief from our troubles, but experience terror. ⁴ 

I, the Lord, affirm ¹  that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. ²  I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. ³  I, the Lord, affirm it!” ⁴ 

For take note, I am already beginning to bring disaster on the city that I call my own. ¹  So how can you possibly avoid being punished? ²  You will not go unpunished! For I am proclaiming war against all who live on the earth. I, the Lord who rules over all, ³  affirm it!’ ⁴