My message is like a fire that purges dross! ¹  It is like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces! ²  I, the Lord, so affirm it! ³ 

So my heart moans for Moab like a flute playing a funeral song. Yes, like a flute playing a funeral song, my heart moans for the people of Kir Heres. For the wealth they have gained will perish.

“Hazor will become a permanent wasteland, a place where only jackals live. ¹  No one will live there. No human being will settle in it.” ² 

I will make you serve your enemies ¹  in a land that you know nothing about. For my anger is like a fire that will burn against you.”

Babylon will become a heap of ruins. Jackals will make their home there. ¹  It will become an object of horror and of hissing scorn, a place where no one lives. ² 

And there are times when I promise to build up and establish ¹  a nation or kingdom.

For the religion ¹  of these people is worthless. They cut down a tree in the forest, and a craftsman makes it into an idol with his tools. 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.

How long will you vacillate, ¹  you who were once like an unfaithful daughter? ²  For I, the Lord, promise ³  to bring about something new ⁴  on the earth, something as unique as a woman protecting a man!’” ⁵ 

Just watch! The wrath of the Lord will come like a storm. Like a raging storm it will rage down on the heads of those who are wicked.

“Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, ¹  “when I will make a new covenant ²  with the people of Israel and Judah. ³ 

The Lord says, ¹  “Listen, ²  nation of Israel! ³  I am about to bring a nation from far away to attack you. It will be a nation that was founded long ago and has lasted for a long time. It will be a nation whose language you will not know. Its people will speak words that you will not be able to understand.

Egypt is like a beautiful young cow. But northern armies will attack her like swarms of stinging flies. ¹ 

I planted you in the land like a special vine of the very best stock. Why in the world have you turned into something like a wild vine that produces rotten, foul-smelling grapes? ¹ 

Does a young woman forget to put on her jewels? Does a bride forget to put on her bridal attire? But my people have forgotten me for more days than can even be counted.

So ¹  Jeremiah was put in prison in a cell in the dungeon in Jonathan’s house. ²  He ³  was kept there for a long time.

There are times, Jeremiah, ¹  when I threaten to uproot, tear down, and destroy a nation or kingdom. ² 

In fact, ¹  I hear a cry like that of a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first baby. It is the cry of Daughter Zion ²  gasping for breath, reaching out for help, ³  saying, “I am done in! ⁴  My life is ebbing away before these murderers!”

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Beware! An army ¹  is coming from a land in the north. A mighty nation is stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth.

“Israel is not a slave, is he? He was not born into slavery, was he? ¹  If not, why then is he being carried off?