<p class="poetry">No,<n id="1" /> a wind too strong for that will come at my bidding.p> <p class="poetry">Yes, even now I, myself, am calling down judgment on them.&#8217;<n id="2" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Later the <sc>Lordsc> asked me, &#8220;What do you see, Jeremiah?&#8221; I answered, &#8220;I see a branch of an almond tree.&#8221;

&#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel has a message for you.<n id="1" /> &#8216;I made a covenant with your ancestors<n id="2" /> when I brought them out of Egypt where they had been slaves.<n id="3" /> It stipulated,<n id="4" />

<p class="poetry">They will be like a tree planted near a streamp> <p class="poetry">whose roots spread out toward the water.p> <p class="poetry">It has nothing to fear when the heat comes.p> <p class="poetry">Its leaves are always green.p> <p class="poetry">It has no need to be concerned in a year of drought.p> <p class="poetry">It does not stop bearing fruit.p>

&#8220;Send a message to all the exiles in Babylon. Tell them, &#8216;The <sc>Lordsc> has spoken about Shemaiah the Nehelamite. &#8220;Shemaiah has spoken to you as a prophet even though I did not send him. He is making you trust in a lie.<n id="1" />

<t /><p class="poetry"><sc>Lordsc>, you coerced me into being a prophet,p> <p class="poetry">and I allowed you to do it.p> <p class="poetry">You overcame my resistance and prevailed over me.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Now I have become a constant laughingstock.p> <p class="poetry">Everyone ridicules me.p>

<p class="poetry">May that man be like the cities<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">that the <sc>Lordsc> destroyed without showing any mercy.p> <p class="poetry">May he hear a cry of distress in the morningp> <p class="poetry">and a battle cry at noon.p>

<p class="poetry">Alas, what a terrible time of trouble it is!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">There has never been any like it.p> <p class="poetry">It is a time of trouble for the descendants of Jacob,p> <p class="poetry">but some of them will be rescued out of it.<n id="2" />p>

So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, Nebushazban, who was a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer, who was a high official,<n id="1" /> and all the other officers of the king of Babylon

<p class="poetry">You have been the object of Israel&#8217;s hopes.p> <p class="poetry">You have saved them when they were in trouble.p> <p class="poetry">Why have you become like a resident foreigner<n id="1" /> in the land?p> <p class="poetry">Why have you become like a traveler who only stops in to spend the night?p>

<p class="poetry">No one will use any of your stones as a cornerstone.p> <p class="poetry">No one will use any of them in the foundation of his house.p> <p class="poetry">For you will lie desolate forever,&#8221;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">says the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">We hoped for good fortune, but nothing good has come of it.p> <p class="poetry">We hoped for a time of relief, but instead we experience terror.<n id="1" />p>

Everyone was supposed to free their male and female Hebrew slaves. No one was supposed to keep a fellow Judean enslaved.<n id="1" />

<p class="poetry">The people of those nations<n id="1" /> are both stupid and foolish.p> <p class="poetry">Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless!<n id="2" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> spoke<n id="1" /> to Jeremiah a second time while he was still confined in the courtyard of the guardhouse.<n id="2" />

The <sc>Lordsc> gave the prophet Jeremiah a message for them. He told him to tell them,<n id="1" />

&#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel has a message for you, Baruch.

<p class="poetry">The sea has swept over Babylon.p> <p class="poetry">She has been covered by a multitude<n id="1" /> of its waves.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;It did no good for me to punish your people.p> <p class="poetry">They did not respond to such correction.p> <p class="poetry">You slaughtered your prophetsp> <p class="poetry">like a voracious lion.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">I will surely punish them for doing such things!&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc>.p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;I will surely bring retribution on such a nation as this!&#8221;<n id="1" />p>