Then the Lord spoke about these people. ¹  “They truly ²  love to go astray. They cannot keep from running away from me. ³  So I am not pleased with them. I will now call to mind ⁴  the wrongs they have done ⁵  and punish them for their sins.”

Because of this the land will mourn and the sky above will grow black. ¹  For I have made my purpose known ²  and I will not relent or turn back from carrying it out.” ³ 

But the next day Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks. When he did, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord’s name for you is not ‘Pashhur’ but ‘Terror is Everywhere.’ ¹ 

So all these Judeans returned to the land of Judah from the places where they had been scattered. They came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. Thus they harvested a large amount of wine and dates and figs. ¹ 

“My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds ¹  have allow them to go astray. They have wandered around in the mountains. They have roamed from one mountain and hill to another. ²  They have forgotten their resting place.

Not one of them will survive. ¹  I will bring disaster on those men from Anathoth who threatened you. ²  A day of reckoning is coming for them.” ³ 

For whenever I prophesy, ¹  I must cry out, ²  “Violence and destruction are coming!” ³  This message from the Lord ⁴  has made me an object of continual insults and derision.

So now be very sure of this: You will die from war, starvation, or disease in the place where you want to go and live.”

I said, “Indeed, ¹  let them come quickly and sing a song of mourning for us. Let them wail loudly until tears stream from our own eyes and our eyelids overflow with water.

The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. He went and got it from the room of Elishama, the royal secretary. Then he himself ¹  read it to the king and all the officials who were standing around him.

But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be handed over to the Babylonians ¹  and they will burn it down. You yourself will not escape from them.’” ² 

Listen! News is coming even now. ¹  The rumble of a great army is heard approaching ²  from a land in the north. ³  It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble, places where only jackals live.

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah ¹  after Nebuzaradan the captain of the royal guard had set him free at Ramah. ²  He had taken him there in chains ³  along with all the people from Jerusalem ⁴  and Judah who were being carried off to exile to Babylon.

The prophet Jeremiah answered them, “Agreed! ¹  I will indeed pray to the Lord your God as you have asked. I will tell you everything the Lord replies in response to you. ²  I will not keep anything back from you.”

All the people who are determined to go and settle in Egypt will die from war, starvation, or disease. No one will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.’

But for now I, the Lord, say: ¹  “I will send many enemies who will catch these people like fishermen. After that I will send others who will hunt them out like hunters from all the mountains, all the hills, and the crevices in the rocks. ² 

Now listen to what the Lord has to say, you descendants ¹  of Jacob, all you family groups from the nation ²  of Israel.

The Lord told me, ¹  “Go down ²  to the palace of the king of Judah. Give him a message from me there. ³ 

Baruch answered, “Yes, they came from his own mouth. He dictated all these words to me and I wrote them down in ink on this scroll.” ¹ 

So they pulled Jeremiah up from the cistern with ropes. Jeremiah, however, still remained confined ¹  to the courtyard of the guardhouse.