The human mind is more deceitful than anything else. It is incurably bad. ¹  Who can understand it?

King Zedekiah said to them, “Very well, you can do what you want with him. ¹  For I cannot do anything to stop you.” ² 

“Find Jeremiah ¹  and look out for him. ²  Do not do anything to harm him, ³  but do with him whatever he tells you.”

I did not send those prophets. Yet they were in a hurry to give their message. ¹  I did not tell them anything. Yet they prophesied anyway.

Therefore, the Lord says, “Ask the people of other nations whether they have heard of anything like this. Israel should have been like a virgin. But she has done something utterly revolting!

you say, ‘I have not done anything wrong, so the Lord cannot really be angry with me any more.’ But, watch out! ¹  I will bring down judgment on you because you say, ‘I have not committed any sin.’

Even your clothes are stained with the lifeblood of the poor who had not done anything wrong; you did not catch them breaking into your homes. ¹  Yet, in spite of all these things you have done, ² 

I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors ¹  have known anything about. I will send people chasing after them with swords ²  until I have destroyed them.’” ³ 

Some time later ¹  Zedekiah sent and had Jeremiah brought to him at the third entrance ²  of the Lord’s temple. The king said to Jeremiah, “I would like to ask you a question. Do not hide anything from me when you answer.” ³ 

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.”

Then some people ¹  said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! ²  There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. ³  Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! ⁴  Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”

But when they came in and took possession of it, they did not obey you or live as you had instructed them. They did not do anything that you commanded them to do. ¹  So you brought all this disaster on them.

I will do so because these people ¹  have rejected me and have defiled ²  this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors ³  nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children. ⁴ 

The officials may hear that I have talked with you. They may come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you. ¹  Do not hide anything from us. If you do, we will kill you.’ ² 

“I am the Lord, the God of all humankind. There is, indeed, nothing too difficult for me. ¹ 

This day ¹  I have told you what he said. ²  But you do not want to obey the Lord by doing what he sent me to tell you. ³ 

Go west ¹  across the sea to the coasts of Cyprus ²  and see. Send someone east to Kedar ³  and have them look carefully. See if such a thing as this has ever happened:

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

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

So I went to Perath and dug up ¹  the shorts from the place where I had buried them. I found ²  that they were ruined; they were good for nothing.