<t /><p class="bodytext">I said,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Oh, mother, how I regret<n id="2" /> that you ever gave birth to me!p> <p class="poetry">I am always starting arguments and quarrels with the people of this land.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">I have not lent money to anyone and I have not borrowed from anyone.p> <p class="poetry">Yet all of these people are treating me with contempt.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

<p class="bodytext">I said,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;<sc>Lordsc>, you know how I suffer.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Take thought of me and care for me.p> <p class="poetry">Pay back for me those who have been persecuting me.p> <p class="poetry">Do not be so patient with them that you allow them to kill me.p> <p class="poetry">Be mindful of how I have put up with their insults for your sake.p>

<p class="poetry">As your words came to me I drank them in,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and they filled my heart with joy and happinessp> <p class="poetry">because I belong to you.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Why must I continually suffer such painful anguish?p> <p class="poetry">Why must I endure the sting of their insults like an incurable wound?p> <p class="poetry">Will you let me down when I need youp> <p class="poetry">like a brook one goes to for water, but that cannot be relied on?&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">For whenever I prophesy,<n id="1" /> I must cry out,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Violence and destruction are coming!&#8221;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">This message from the <sc>Lordsc><n id="4" /> has made mep> <p class="poetry">an object of continual insults and derision.p>

<p class="poetry">He says, &#8220;I will build myself a large palacep> <p class="poetry">with spacious upper rooms.&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">He cuts windows in its walls,p> <p class="poetry">panels it<n id="1" /> with cedar, and paints its rooms red.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">At that time I will be the God of all the clans of Israel<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and they will be my people.p> <p class="poetry">I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it!&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

&#8216;You have said, &#8220;I feel so hopeless!<n id="1" /> For the <sc>Lordsc> has added sorrow to my suffering.<n id="2" /> I am worn out from groaning. I can&#8217;t find any rest.&#8221;&#8217;&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">In fact,<n id="1" /> I hear a cry like that of a woman in labor,p> <p class="poetry">a cry of anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first baby.p> <p class="poetry">It is the cry of Daughter Zion<n id="2" /> gasping for breath,p> <p class="poetry">reaching out for help,<n id="3" /> saying, &#8220;I am done in!<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">My life is ebbing away before these murderers!&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">I will go to the leaders<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and speak with them.p> <p class="poetry">Surely they know what the <sc>Lordsc> demands.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Surely they know what their God requires of them.&#8221;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authorityp> <p class="poetry">and refuse to submit to him.<n id="4" />p>

I also explicitly commanded them:<n id="1" /> &#8220;Obey me. If you do, I<n id="2" /> will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you<n id="3" /> and things will go well with you.&#8221;

Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors<n id="1" /> to keep<n id="2" /> when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace.<n id="3" /> I said at that time,<n id="4" /> &#8220;Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement<n id="5" /> exactly as I commanded you. If you do,<n id="6" /> you will be my people and I will be your God.<n id="7" />

For,&#8217; I say,<n id="1" /> &#8216;just as shorts cling tightly to a person&#8217;s body, so I bound the whole nation of Israel and the whole nation of Judah<n id="2" /> tightly<n id="3" /> to me.&#8217; I intended for them to be my special people and to bring me fame, honor, and praise.<n id="4" /> But they would not obey me.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>

<p class="poetry">But I see the prophets of Jerusalem<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">doing something just as shocking.p> <p class="poetry">They are unfaithful to mep> <p class="poetry">and continually prophesy lies.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil,p> <p class="poetry">with the result that they do not stop their evildoing.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom,p> <p class="poetry">and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah.<n id="4" />p>

I will give them the desire to acknowledge that I<n id="1" /> am the <sc>Lordsc>. I will be their God and they will be my people. For they will wholeheartedly<n id="2" /> return to me.&#8217;p>

<p class="poetry">Indeed, the people of Israel are my dear children.p> <p class="poetry">They are the children I take delight in.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">For even though I must often rebuke them,p> <p class="poetry">I still remember them with fondness.p> <p class="poetry">So I am deeply moved with pity for them<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and will surely have compassion on them.p> <p class="poetry">I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it!<n id="3" />p>

&#8220;But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel<n id="1" /> after I plant them back in the land,&#8221;<n id="2" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="3" /> &#8220;I will<n id="4" /> put my law within them<n id="5" /> and write it on their hearts and minds.<n id="6" /> I will be their God and they will be my people.<n id="7" />p>

This will happen because<n id="1" /> the people of this city have aroused my anger and my wrath since the time they built it until now.<n id="2" /> They have made me so angry that I am determined to remove<n id="3" /> it from my sight.

All the nations will hear about all the good things which I will do to them. This city will bring me fame, honor, and praise before them for the joy that I bring it. The nations will tremble in awe at all the peace and prosperity that I will provide for it.&#8217;<n id="1" />p>