<p class="bodytext">What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s anger when he drove them out of his sight.<n id="1" /> Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

He burned down the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house.

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> showed me two baskets of figs sitting before his temple. This happened after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon deported Jehoiakim&#8217;s son, King Jeconiah of Judah. He deported him and the leaders of Judah, along with the craftsmen and metal workers, and took them to Babylon.<n id="1" />

<p class="bodytext">I also told the priests and all the people, &#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8216;Do not listen to what your prophets are saying. They are prophesying to you that<n id="1" /> the valuable articles taken from the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple will be brought back from Babylon very soon.<n id="2" /> But they are prophesying a lie to you.

Now it happened just as the <sc>Lordsc> had said! My cousin Hanamel<n id="1" /> came to me in the courtyard of the guardhouse. He said to me, &#8216;Buy my field which is at Anathoth in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. Buy it for yourself since you are entitled as my closest relative to take possession of it for yourself.&#8217; When this happened, I recognized that the <sc>Lordsc> had indeed spoken to me.

So I, the <sc>Lordsc>, say: &#8220;You have not really obeyed me and granted freedom to your neighbor and fellow countryman.<n id="1" /> Therefore, I will grant you freedom, the freedom<n id="2" /> to die in war, or by starvation or disease. I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it!<n id="3" /> I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to you.<n id="4" />

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" />

For I will soon summon all the peoples of the kingdoms of the north,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc>. &#8220;They will come and their kings will set up their thrones<n id="1" /> near the entrances of the gates of Jerusalem.<n id="2" /> They will attack all the walls surrounding it, and all the towns in Judah.<n id="3" />

<p class="poetry">They did not ask:p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Where is the <sc>Lordsc> who delivered us out of Egypt,p> <p class="poetry">who brought us through the wilderness,p> <p class="poetry">through a land of desert sands and rift valleys,p> <p class="poetry">through a land of drought and deep darkness,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">through a land in which no one travels,p> <p class="poetry">and where no one lives?&#8217;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Your priests<n id="1" /> did not ask, &#8216;Where is the <sc>Lordsc>?&#8217;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Those responsible for teaching my law<n id="3" /> did not really know me.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">Your rulers rebelled against me.p> <p class="poetry">Your prophets prophesied in the name of the god Baal.<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">They all worshiped idols that could not help them.<n id="6" />p>

<p class="poetry">Your own wickedness will bring about your punishment.p> <p class="poetry">Your unfaithful acts will bring down discipline on you.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Know, then, and realize how utterly harmful<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">it was for you to reject me, the <sc>Lordsc> your God,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">to show no respect for me,&#8221;<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">says the Lord <sc>Godsc> who rules over all.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">You people of this generation,p> <p class="poetry">listen to what the <sc>Lordsc> says.p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Have I been like a wilderness to you, Israel?p> <p class="poetry">Have I been like a dark and dangerous land to you?<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Why then do you<n id="2" /> say, &#8216;We are free to wander.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">We will not come to you any more?&#8217;p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;If a man divorces his wifep> <p class="poetry">and she leaves him and becomes another man&#8217;s wife,p> <p class="poetry">he may not take her back again.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Doing that would utterly defile the land.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">But you, Israel, have given yourself as a prostitute to many gods.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">So what makes you think you can return to me?&#8221;<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">says the <sc>Lordsc>.p>

<p class="poetry">Just as ritual circumcision cuts away the foreskinp> <p class="poetry">as an external symbol of dedicated covenant commitment,p> <p class="poetry">you must genuinely dedicate yourselves to the <sc>Lordsc>p> <p class="poetry">and get rid of everything that hinders your commitment to me,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.p> <p class="poetry">If you do not,<n id="2" /> my anger will blaze up like a flaming fire against youp> <p class="poetry">that no one will be able to extinguish.p> <p class="poetry">That will happen because of the evil you have done.&#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>

<p class="bodytext">Because of that,<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc>, the God who rules over all,<n id="2" /> said to me,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Because these people have spoken<n id="4" /> like this,<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">I will make the words that I put in your mouth like fire.p> <p class="poetry">And I will make this people like woodp> <p class="poetry">which the fiery judgments you speak will burn up.&#8221;<n id="6" />p>

<p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> says,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Listen,<n id="2" /> nation of Israel!<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">I am about to bring a nation from far away to attack you.p> <p class="poetry">It will be a nation that was founded long agop> <p class="poetry">and has lasted for a long time.p> <p class="poetry">It will be a nation whose language you will not know.p> <p class="poetry">Its people will speak words that you will not be able to understand.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>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;You should fear me!&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc>.p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;You should tremble in awe before me!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I made the sand to be a boundary for the sea,p> <p class="poetry">a permanent barrier that it can never cross.p> <p class="poetry">Its waves may roll, but they can never prevail.p> <p class="poetry">They may roar, but they can never cross beyond that boundary.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="bodytext">I answered,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Who would listenp> <p class="poetry">if I spoke to them and warned them?<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Their ears are so closed<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">that they cannot hear!p> <p class="poetry">Indeed,<n id="4" /> what the <sc>Lordsc> says is offensive to them.p> <p class="poetry">They do not like it at all.<n id="5" />p>