They are like lusty, well-fed ¹  stallions. Each of them lusts after ²  his neighbor’s wife.

Each of the pillars was about 27 feet ¹  high, about 18 feet ²  in circumference, three inches ³  thick, and hollow.

Kings will come against it with their armies. ¹  They will encamp in siege all around it. ²  Each of them will devastate the portion assigned to him. ³ 

And you have acted even more wickedly than your ancestors! Each one of you has followed the stubborn inclinations of your own wicked heart and not obeyed me. ¹ 

So I, Jeremiah, tell you, ¹  “Each of you people should say to his friend or his relative, ‘How did the Lord answer? Or what did the Lord say?’ ² 

Rather, each person will die for his own sins. The teeth of the person who eats the sour grapes will themselves grow numb. ¹ 

But after I have uprooted the people of those nations, I will relent ¹  and have pity on them. I will restore the people of each of those nations to their own lands ²  and to their own country.

But then you turned right around ¹  and showed that you did not honor me. ²  Each of you took back your male and female slaves whom you had freed as they desired, and you forced them to be your slaves again. ³ 

Each of you should merely ask the prophet, ‘What answer did the Lord give you? Or what did the Lord say?’ ¹ 

“Come back to me, my wayward sons,” says the Lord, “for I am your true master. ¹  If you do, ²  I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion.

I said, ¹  “So now, ²  you wailing women, hear what the Lord says. ³  Open your ears to the words from his mouth. Teach your daughters this mournful song, and each of you teach your neighbor ⁴  this lament.

You plan great things and you do mighty deeds. ¹  You see everything people do. ²  You reward each of them for the way they live and for the things they do. ³ 

I, the Lord, probe into people’s minds. I examine people’s hearts. ¹  I deal with each person according to how he has behaved. I give them what they deserve based on what they have done.

Foreigners living there will say, ¹  ‘We tried to heal her, but she could not be healed. Let’s leave Babylonia ²  and each go back to his own country. For judgment on her will be vast in its proportions. It will be like it is piled up to heaven, stacked up into the clouds.’ ³ 

“Every seven years each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you for six years, you shall set them free.” ¹  But your ancestors did not obey me or pay any attention to me.

He said through them, ¹  ‘Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and stop doing the evil things you are doing. ²  If you do, I will allow you to continue to live here in the land that I gave to you and your ancestors as a lasting possession. ³ 

Maybe they will pay attention and each of them will stop living the evil way they do. ¹  If they do that, then I will forgo destroying them ²  as I had intended to do because of the wicked things they have been doing. ³ 

But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me! Each one of them followed the stubborn inclinations of his own wicked heart. So I brought on them all the punishments threatened in the covenant because they did not carry out its terms as I commanded them to do.’” ¹ 

O royal family descended from David. ¹  The Lord says: ‘See to it that people each day ²  are judged fairly. ³  Deliver those who have been robbed from those ⁴  who oppress them. Otherwise, my wrath will blaze out against you. It will burn like a fire that cannot be put out because of the evil that you have done. ⁵ 

But they just keep saying, ‘We do not care what you say! ¹  We will do whatever we want to do! We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly!’” ²