<p class="poetry">Do not let your mouth cause you<n id="1" /> to sin,p> <p class="poetry">and do not tell the priest,<n id="2" /> &#8220;It was a mistake!&#8221;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Why make God angry at you<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">so that he would destroy the work of your hands?&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">To every man whom God has given wealth, and possessions,p> <p class="poetry">he has also given him the ability<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">to eat from them, to receive his reward and to find enjoyment in his toil;p> <p class="poetry">these things<n id="2" /> are the gift of God.p>

<p class="poetry">I discovered this:<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">More bitter than death is the kind of<n id="2" /> woman<n id="3" /> who is like a hunter&#8217;s snare;<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">her heart is like a hunter&#8217;s net and her hands are like prison chains.p> <p class="poetry">The man who pleases God escapes her,p> <p class="poetry">but the sinner is captured by her.p>

<p class="poetry">For<n id="1" /> the burial place is already prepared;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">it has been made deep and wide for the king.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">The firewood is piled high on it.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s breath, like a stream flowing with brimstone,p> <p class="poetry">will ignite it.p>

<p class="bodytext">When Josiah was king of Judah, the <sc>Lordsc> said to me, &#8220;Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done.<n id="1" /> You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods.<n id="2" />

She also saw<n id="1" /> that I gave wayward Israel her divorce papers and sent her away because of her adulterous worship of other gods.<n id="2" /> Even after her unfaithful sister Judah had seen this,<n id="3" /> she still was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other gods.<n id="4" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">In the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah, the <sc>Lordsc> spoke to Jeremiah<n id="1" /> concerning all the people of Judah. (That was the same as the first year that Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon.)<n id="2" />

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> told Jeremiah,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Tell Baruch,<n id="2" /> &#8216;The <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8220;I am about to tear down what I have built and to uproot what I have planted. I will do this throughout the whole earth.<n id="3" />

<p class="poetry">Shout the battle cry from all around the city.p> <p class="poetry">She will throw up her hands in surrender.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Her towers<n id="2" /> will fall.p> <p class="poetry">Her walls will be torn down.p> <p class="poetry">Because I, the <sc>Lordsc>, am wreaking revenge,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">take out your vengeance on her!p> <p class="poetry">Do to her as she has done!p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Sharpen<n id="1" /> your arrows!p> <p class="poetry">Fill your quivers!<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> will arouse a spirit of hostility in<n id="3" /> the kings of Media.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">For he intends to destroy Babylonia.p> <p class="poetry">For that is how the <sc>Lordsc> will get his revenge &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">how he will get his revenge for the Babylonians&#8217; destruction of his temple.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="bodytext">On the tenth<n id="1" /> day of the fifth month,<n id="2" /> in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard<n id="3" /> who served<n id="4" /> the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem.

Then for your part take an iron frying pan<n id="1" /> and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it. It is to be under siege; you are to besiege it. This is a sign<n id="2" /> for the house of Israel.p>

&#8220;Son of man, your brothers,<n id="1" /> your relatives,<n id="2" /> and the whole house of Israel, all of them are those to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem<n id="3" /> have said, &#8216;They have gone<n id="4" /> far away from the <sc>Lordsc>; to us this land has been given as a possession.&#8217;p>

The person who sins is the one who will die. A son will not suffer<n id="1" /> for his father&#8217;s iniquity, and a father will not suffer<n id="2" /> for his son&#8217;s iniquity; the righteous person will be judged according to his righteousness, and the wicked person according to his wickedness.<n id="3" />p>

On that day I swore<n id="1" /> to bring them out of the land of Egypt to a land which I had picked out<n id="2" /> for them, a land flowing with milk and honey,<n id="3" /> the most beautiful of all lands.

I also swore<n id="1" /> to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them to the land I had given them &#8211; a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands.

<p class="poetry">&#8220;And you, son of man, prophesy,p> <p class="poetry">and clap your hands together.p> <p class="poetry">Let the sword strike twice, even three times!p> <p class="poetry">It is a sword for slaughter,p> <p class="poetry">a sword for the great slaughter surrounding them.p>

They will sing this lament over you:<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;&#8216;How you have perished &#8211; you have vanished<n id="2" /> from the seas,p> <p class="poetry">O renowned city, once mighty in the sea,p> <p class="poetry">she and her inhabitants, who spread their terror!<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;&#8216;On that day I will assign Gog a grave in Israel. It will be the valley of those who travel east of the sea; it will block the way of the travelers. There they will bury Gog and all his horde; they will call it the valley of Hamon-Gog.<n id="1" />

If you don&#8217;t inform me of the dream, there is only one thing that is going to happen to you.<n id="1" /> For you have agreed among yourselves to report to me something false and deceitful<n id="2" /> until such time as things might change. So tell me the dream, and I will have confidence<n id="3" /> that you can disclose its interpretation.&#8221;p>