<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> says to the people of Judah,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;What right do you have to be in my temple, my beloved people?<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Many of you have done wicked things.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Can your acts of treachery be so easily canceled by sacred offerings<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">that you take joy in doing evil even while you make them?<n id="5" />p>

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Jerusalem,<n id="1" /> I will surely send you away for your own good.p> <p class="poetry">I will surely<n id="2" /> bring the enemy upon you in a time of trouble and distress.p>

And you have acted even more wickedly than your ancestors! Each one of you has followed the stubborn inclinations of your own wicked heart and not obeyed me.<n id="1" />

<p class="poetry">May those who persecute me be disgraced.p> <p class="poetry">Do not let me be disgraced.p> <p class="poetry">May they be dismayed.p> <p class="poetry">Do not let me be dismayed.p> <p class="poetry">Bring days of disaster on them.p> <p class="poetry">Bring on them the destruction they deserve.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

But if that nation does what displeases me and does not obey me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it.

<p class="poetry">Should good be paid back with evil?p> <p class="poetry">Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Just remember how I stood before youp> <p class="poetry">pleading on their behalf<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">to keep you from venting your anger on them.<n id="3" />p>

For I, the <sc>Lordsc>, say that<n id="1" /> I am determined not to deliver this city but to bring disaster on it.<n id="2" /> It will be handed over to the king of Babylon and he will destroy it with fire.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">My judgment will carry off all your leaders like a storm wind!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Your allies will go into captivity.p> <p class="poetry">Then you will certainly<n id="2" /> be disgraced and put to shamep> <p class="poetry">because of all the wickedness you have done.p>

<p class="poetry">For the land is full of people unfaithful to him.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">They live wicked lives and they misuse their power.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">So the land is dried up<n id="3" /> because it is under his curse.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">The pastures in the wilderness are withered.p>

<p class="poetry">So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery.p> <p class="poetry">They will stumble and fall headlong.p> <p class="poetry">For I will bring disaster on them.p> <p class="poetry">A day of reckoning is coming for them.&#8221;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> affirms it!<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">They continually say<n id="1" /> to those who reject what the <sc>Lordsc> has said,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Things will go well for you!&#8217;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">They say to all those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Nothing bad will happen to you!&#8217;p>

One basket had very good-looking figs in it. They looked like those that had ripened early.<n id="1" /> The other basket had very bad-looking figs in it, so bad they could not be eaten.

I will bring such disaster on them that all the kingdoms of the earth will be horrified. I will make them an object of reproach, a proverbial example of disaster. I will make them an object of ridicule, an example to be used in curses.<n id="1" /> That is how they will be remembered wherever I banish them.<n id="2" />

<p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all<n id="1" /> says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Disaster will soon come on one nation after another.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">A mighty storm of military destruction<n id="3" /> is rising upp> <p class="poetry">from the distant parts of the earth.&#8217;p>

But correct the way you have been living and do what is right.<n id="1" /> Obey the <sc>Lordsc> your God. If you do, the <sc>Lordsc> will forgo destroying you as he threatened he would.<n id="2" />

From earliest times, the prophets who preceded you and me invariably<n id="1" /> prophesied war, disaster,<n id="2" /> and plagues against many countries and great kingdoms.

&#8220;Find Jeremiah<n id="1" /> and look out for him.<n id="2" /> Do not do anything to harm him,<n id="3" /> but do with him whatever he tells you.&#8221;

The captain of the royal guard took Jeremiah aside and said to him, &#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> your God threatened this place with this disaster.

<t /><p class="bodytext">Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him heard about all the atrocities<n id="1" /> that Ishmael son of Nethaniah had committed.

This happened because of the wickedness the people living there did.<n id="1" /> They made me angry<n id="2" /> by worshiping and offering sacrifice to<n id="3" /> other gods whom neither they nor you nor your ancestors<n id="4" /> previously knew.<n id="5" />