<p class="poetry">For our leaders<n id="1" /> are stupid.p> <p class="poetry">They have not sought the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s advice.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">So they do not act wisely,p> <p class="poetry">and the people they are responsible for<n id="3" /> have all been scattered.p>

<p class="poetry"><sc>Lordsc>, you have always been fairp> <p class="poetry">whenever I have complained to you.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Why are wicked people successful?<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives?p>

<p class="poetry">The people I call my own attack me like birds of prey or like hyenas.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">But other birds of prey are all around them.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Let all the nations gather together like wild beasts.p> <p class="poetry">Let them come and destroy these people I call my own.<n id="3" />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>

So I went to Perath and dug up<n id="1" /> the shorts from the place where I had buried them. I found<n id="2" /> that they were ruined; they were good for nothing.p>

I will make all the people in all the kingdoms of the world horrified at what has happened to them because of what Hezekiah&#8217;s son Manasseh, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

For I see everything they do. Their wicked ways are not hidden from me. Their sin is not hidden away where I cannot see it.<n id="1" />

<p class="poetry">You are the one in whom Israel may find hope.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">All who leave you will suffer shame.p> <p class="poetry">Those who turn away from you<n id="2" /> will be consigned to the nether world.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">For they have rejected you, the <sc>Lordsc>, the fountain of life.<n id="4" />p>

Do not carry any loads out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day.<n id="1" /> But observe the Sabbath day as a day set apart to the <sc>Lord,sc><n id="2" /> as I commanded your ancestors.<n id="3" />

<p class="bodytext">Then Jeremiah left Topheth where the <sc>Lordsc> had sent him to give that prophecy. He went to the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple and stood<n id="1" /> in its courtyard and called out to all the people.

<p class="poetry">For whenever I prophesy,<n id="1" /> I must cry out,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Violence and destruction are coming!&#8221;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">This message from the <sc>Lordsc><n id="4" /> has made mep> <p class="poetry">an object of continual insults and derision.p>

Then I myself will regather those of my people<n id="1" /> who are still alive from all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back to their homeland.<n id="2" /> They will greatly increase in number.

<t /><p class="poetry">Here is what the <sc>Lordsc> says concerning the false prophets:<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">My heart and my mind are deeply disturbed.p> <p class="poetry">I tremble all over.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">I am like a drunk person,p> <p class="poetry">like a person who has had too much wine,<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">because of the way the <sc>Lordsc>p> <p class="poetry">and his holy word are being mistreated.<n id="5" />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>

Over and over again<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> has sent<n id="2" /> his servants the prophets to you. But you have not listened or paid attention.<n id="3" />

This whole area<n id="1" /> will become a desolate wasteland. These nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years.&#8217;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="bodytext">So I took the cup from the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s hand. I made all the nations to whom he sent me drink the wine of his wrath.<n id="1" />

<p class="poetry">The sounds of battle<n id="1" /> will resound to the ends of the earth.p> <p class="poetry">For the <sc>Lordsc> will bring charges against the nations.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">He will pass judgment on all humankindp> <p class="poetry">and will hand the wicked over to be killed in war.&#8217;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> so affirms it!<n id="4" />p>

If you do not obey me,<n id="1" /> then I will do to this temple what I did to Shiloh.<n id="2" /> And I will make this city an example to be used in curses by people from all the nations on the earth.&#8217;&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah say these things in the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple.