You must change<n id="1" /> the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly.<n id="2" />

<p class="poetry">Everyone must be on his guard around his friends.p> <p class="poetry">He must not even trust any of his relatives.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">For every one of them will find some way to cheat him.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">And all of his friends will tell lies about him.p>

<p class="poetry">They will lay it waste.p> <p class="poetry">It will lie parched<n id="1" /> and empty before me.p> <p class="poetry">The whole land will be laid waste.p> <p class="poetry">But no one living in it will pay any heed.<n id="2" />p>

And I will smash them like wine bottles against one another, children and parents alike.<n id="1" /> I will not show any pity, mercy, or compassion. Nothing will keep me from destroying them,&#8217;<n id="2" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>.&#8221;p>

<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>

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="bodytext">&#8220;&#8216;People from other nations will pass by this city. They will ask one another, &#8220;Why has the <sc>Lordsc> done such a thing to this great city?&#8221;

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Do you really think anyone can hide himselfp> <p class="poetry">where I cannot see him?&#8221; the <sc>Lordsc> asks.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Do you not know that I am everywhere?&#8221;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">the <sc>Lordsc> asks.<n id="3" />p>

How long will they go on plotting<n id="1" /> to make my people forget who I am<n id="2" /> through the dreams they tell one another? That is just as bad as what their ancestors<n id="3" /> did when they forgot who I am by worshiping the god Baal.<n id="4" />

<p class="bodytext">So I, Jeremiah, tell you,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Each of you people should say to his friend or his relative, &#8216;How did the <sc>Lordsc> answer? Or what did the <sc>Lordsc> say?&#8217;<n id="2" />

Maybe they will pay attention and each of them will stop living the evil way they do.<n id="1" /> If they do that, then I will forgo destroying them<n id="2" /> as I had intended to do because of the wicked things they have been doing.<n id="3" />

For I, the <sc>Lordsc>, promise: &#8220;David will never lack a successor to occupy<n id="1" /> the throne over the nation of Israel.<n id="2" />

Nor will the Levitical priests ever lack someone to stand before me and continually offer up burnt offerings, sacrifice cereal offerings, and offer the other sacrifices.&#8221;&#8217;&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

So the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel who rules over all says, &#8216;Jonadab son of Rechab will never lack a male descendant to serve me.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

eighty men arrived from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria.<n id="1" /> They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes, and cut themselves to show they were mourning.<n id="2" /> They were carrying grain offerings and incense to present at the temple of the <sc>Lordsc> in Jerusalem.<n id="3" />

I will indeed<n id="1" /> see to it that disaster, not prosperity, happens to them.<n id="2" /> All the people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will die in war or from starvation until not one of them is left.

<p class="poetry">I will make many stumble.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">They will fall over one another in their hurry to flee.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">They will say, &#8216;Get up!p> <p class="poetry">Let&#8217;s go back to our own people.p> <p class="poetry">Let&#8217;s go back to our homelandsp> <p class="poetry">because the enemy is coming to destroy us.&#8217;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">I will bring terror on you from every side,&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">says the Lord <sc>Godsc> who rules over all.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;You will be scattered in every direction.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">No one will gather the fugitives back together.p>

<p class="poetry">Edom will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrahp> <p class="poetry">and the towns that were around them.p> <p class="poetry">No one will live there.p> <p class="poetry">No human being will settle in it,&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">says the <sc>Lordsc>.p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Hazor will become a permanent wasteland,p> <p class="poetry">a place where only jackals live.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">No one will live there.p> <p class="poetry">No human being will settle in it.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>