<p class="poetry">I am as full of anger as you are, <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I am tired of trying to hold it in.&#8221;p> <p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> answered,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Vent it, then,<n id="3" /> on the children who play in the streetp> <p class="poetry">and on the young men who are gathered together.p> <p class="poetry">Husbands and wives are to be included,<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">as well as the old and those who are advanced in years.p>

<p class="poetry">Are they ashamed because they have done such shameful things?p> <p class="poetry">No, they are not at all ashamed.p> <p class="poetry">They do not even know how to blush!p> <p class="poetry">So they will die, just like others have died.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">They will be brought to ruin when I punish them,&#8221;p> <p class="bodytext">says the <sc>Lordsc>.p>

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said to his people:<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;You are standing at the crossroads. So consider your path.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Ask where the old, reliable paths<n id="3" /> are.p> <p class="poetry">Ask where the path is that leads to blessing<n id="4" /> and follow it.p> <p class="poetry">If you do, you will find rest for your souls.&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">But they said, &#8220;We will not follow it!&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">So, this is what the <sc>Lordsc> says:p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;I will assuredly<n id="1" /> make these people stumble to their doom.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Parents and children will stumble and fall to their destruction.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Friends and neighbors will die.&#8217;p>

You also have done all these things, says the <sc>Lordsc>, and I have spoken to you over and over again.<n id="1" /> But you have not listened! You have refused to respond when I called you to repent!<n id="2" />

So, watch out!&#8221;<n id="1" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>. &#8220;The time will soon come when people will no longer call those places Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom. But they will call that valley<n id="2" /> the Valley of Slaughter and they will bury so many people in Topheth they will run out of room.<n id="3" />

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8220;When that time comes,<n id="1" /> the bones of the kings of Judah and its leaders, the bones of the priests and prophets and of all the other people who lived in Jerusalem will be dug up from their graves.

However, I will leave some of these wicked people alive and banish them to other places. But wherever these people who survive may go, they will wish they had died rather than lived,&#8221;<n id="1" /> says the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Are they ashamed because they have done such disgusting things?p> <p class="poetry">No, they are not at all ashamed!p> <p class="poetry">They do not even know how to blush!p> <p class="poetry">So they will die just like others have died.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">They will be brought to ruin when I punish them,p> <p class="poetry">says the <sc>Lordsc>.p>

<p class="poetry">I hear my dear people<n id="1" /> crying out<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">throughout the length and breadth of the land.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">They are crying, &#8216;Is the <sc>Lordsc> no longer in Zion?p> <p class="poetry">Is her divine King<n id="4" /> no longer there?&#8217;&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> answers,<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Why then do they provoke me to anger with their images,p> <p class="poetry">with their worthless foreign idols?&#8221;<n id="6" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> says,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows.p> <p class="poetry">Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">They have become powerful in the land,p> <p class="poetry">but they have not done so by honest means.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Indeed, they do one evil thing after another<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">and do not pay attention to me.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="bodytext">I said,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Who is wise enough to understand why this has happened?<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Who has a word from the <sc>Lordsc> that can explain it?<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Why does the land lie in ruins?p> <p class="poetry">Why is it as scorched as a desert through which no one travels?&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said to me, &#8220;Announce all the following words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: &#8216;Listen to the terms of my covenant with you<n id="1" /> and carry them out!

<p class="poetry">For though I, the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all,<n id="1" /> planted you in the land,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">I now decree that disaster will come on you<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">because the nations of Israel and Judah have done evilp> <p class="poetry">and have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">A destructive army<n id="1" /> will come marchingp> <p class="poetry">over the hilltops in the desert.p> <p class="poetry">For the <sc>Lordsc> will use them as his destructive weapon<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">against<n id="3" /> everyone from one end of the land to the other.p> <p class="poetry">No one will be safe.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;I, the <sc>Lordsc>, also have something to say concerning<n id="1" /> the wicked nations who surround my land<n id="2" /> and have attacked and plundered<n id="3" /> the land that I gave to my people as a permanent possession.<n id="4" /> I say: &#8216;I will uproot the people of those nations from their lands and I will free the people of Judah who have been taken there.<n id="5" />

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="bodytext">&#8220;So tell them,<n id="1" /> &#8216;The <sc>Lord,sc> the God of Israel, says, &#8220;Every wine jar is made to be filled with wine.&#8221;&#8217;<n id="2" /> And they will probably say to you, &#8216;Do you not think we know<n id="3" /> that every wine jar is supposed to be filled with wine?&#8217;

Then<n id="1" /> tell them, &#8216;The <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8220;I will soon fill all the people who live in this land with stupor.<n id="2" /> I will also fill the kings from David&#8217;s dynasty,<n id="3" /> the priests, the prophets, and the citizens of Jerusalem with stupor.<n id="4" />

<p class="bodytext">Then the <sc>Lordsc> said to me, &#8220;Those prophets are prophesying lies while claiming my authority!<n id="1" /> I did not send them. I did not commission them.<n id="2" /> I did not speak to them. They are prophesying to these people false visions, worthless predictions,<n id="3" /> and the delusions of their own mind.