<p class="poetry">The sovereign master<n id="1" /> says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;These people say they are loyal to me;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">they say wonderful things about me,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">but they are not really loyal to me.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">Their worship consists ofp> <p class="poetry">nothing but man-made ritual.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">This is a message<n id="1" /> about the animals in the Negev:p> <p class="poetry">Through a land of distress and danger,p> <p class="poetry">inhabited by lionesses and roaring lions,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">by snakes and darting adders,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">they transport<n id="4" /> their wealth on the backs of donkeys,p> <p class="poetry">their riches on the humps of camels,p> <p class="poetry">to a nation that cannot help them.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">The light of the full moon will be like the sun&#8217;s glarep> <p class="poetry">and the sun&#8217;s glare will be seven times brighter,p> <p class="poetry">like the light of seven days,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">when the <sc>Lordsc> binds up his people&#8217;s fractured bones<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and heals their severe wound.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the chief adviser, &#8220;Speak to your servants in Aramaic,<n id="1" /> for we understand it. Don&#8217;t speak with us in the Judahite dialect<n id="2" /> in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.&#8221;

<p class="poetry">This is what the sovereign <sc>Lordsc> says:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Look I will raise my hand to the nations;p> <p class="poetry">I will raise my signal flag to the peoples.p> <p class="poetry">They will bring your sons in their armsp> <p class="poetry">and carry your daughters on their shoulders.p>

<p class="poetry">This is what your sovereign master,<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> your God, says:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Look, I have removed from your handp> <p class="poetry">the cup of intoxicating wine,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">the goblet full of my anger.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">You will no longer have to drink it.p>

<p class="poetry">And now, what do we have here?&#8221;<n id="1" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>.p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Indeed my people have been carried away for nothing,p> <p class="poetry">those who rule over them taunt,&#8221;<n id="2" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;and my name is constantly slandered<n id="3" /> all day long.p>

<p class="poetry">No foreigner who becomes a follower of<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> should say,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;The <sc>Lordsc> will certainly<n id="2" /> exclude me from his people.&#8217;p> <p class="poetry">The eunuch should not say,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Look, I am like a dried-up tree.&#8217;&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">I will bring them to my holy mountain;p> <p class="poetry">I will make them happy in the temple where people pray to me.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar,p> <p class="poetry">for my temple will be known as a temple where all nations may pray.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

I, the <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="1" /> hereby promise to make you<n id="2" /> as strong as a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall. You will be able to stand up against all who live in<n id="3" /> the land, including the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and all the people of the land.

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Do so because my people have committed a double wrong:p> <p class="poetry">they have rejected me,p> <p class="poetry">the fountain of life-giving water,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and they have dug cisterns for themselves,p> <p class="poetry">cracked cisterns which cannot even hold water.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">You people of this generation,p> <p class="poetry">listen to what the <sc>Lordsc> says.p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Have I been like a wilderness to you, Israel?p> <p class="poetry">Have I been like a dark and dangerous land to you?<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Why then do you<n id="2" /> say, &#8216;We are free to wander.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">We will not come to you any more?&#8217;p>

<p class="bodytext">Because of that,<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc>, the God who rules over all,<n id="2" /> said to me,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Because these people have spoken<n id="4" /> like this,<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">I will make the words that I put in your mouth like fire.p> <p class="poetry">And I will make this people like woodp> <p class="poetry">which the fiery judgments you speak will burn up.&#8221;<n id="6" />p>

<p class="poetry">Hear this, you peoples of the earth:<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Take note!<n id="2" /> I am about to bring disaster on these people.p> <p class="poetry">It will come as punishment for their scheming.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">For they have paid no attention to what I have said,<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">and they have rejected my law.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>

So, go to the place in Shiloh where I allowed myself to be worshiped<n id="1" /> in the early days. See what I did to it<n id="2" /> because of the wicked things my people Israel did.

I also explicitly commanded them:<n id="1" /> &#8220;Obey me. If you do, I<n id="2" /> will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you<n id="3" /> and things will go well with you.&#8221;

<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>

Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors<n id="1" /> to keep<n id="2" /> when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace.<n id="3" /> I said at that time,<n id="4" /> &#8220;Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement<n id="5" /> exactly as I commanded you. If you do,<n id="6" /> you will be my people and I will be your God.<n id="7" />

So, Jeremiah,<n id="1" /> do not pray for these people. Do not cry out to me or petition me on their behalf. Do not plead with me to save them.<n id="2" /> For I will not listen to them when they call out to me for help when disaster strikes them.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>