Then Jeremiah replied to all the people, both men and women, who responded to him in this way. ¹ 

Then the dead bodies of these people will be left on the ground for the birds and wild animals to eat. ¹  There will not be any survivors to scare them away.

Why, then, do these people of Jerusalem ¹  continually turn away from me in apostasy? They hold fast to their deception. ²  They refuse to turn back to me. ³ 

Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for good to come to these people! ¹ 

The Lord told Jeremiah, ¹  “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. ²  Take with you ³  some of the leaders of the people and some of the leaders ⁴  of the priests.

Then some of the elders of Judah ¹  stepped forward and spoke to all the people gathered there. They said,

But listen to what I say to you and to all these people. ¹ 

(Now Jeremiah had not yet been put in prison. ¹  So he was still free to come and go among the people as he pleased. ² 

Jeremiah started to leave Jerusalem to go to the territory of Benjamin. He wanted to make sure he got his share of the property that was being divided up among his family there. ¹ 

Here is the official record of the number of people ¹  Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: In the seventh year, ²  3,023 Jews;

Jeremiah had just barely finished saying all the Lord had commanded him to say to all the people. All at once some ¹  of the priests, the prophets, and the people grabbed him and shouted, “You deserve to die! ² 

All the people living in Jerusalem ¹  and all the people who came into Jerusalem from the towns of Judah came to observe a fast before the Lord. The fast took place in the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah. ² 

Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, ¹  took captive the rest of the people who were left in the city. He carried them off to Babylon along with the people who had deserted to him. ² 

Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took into exile some of the poor, ¹  the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the rest of the craftsmen.

Then the Lord said, ¹  “As for you, Jeremiah, ²  do not pray for these people! Do not cry out to me or petition me on their behalf! Do not plead with me to save them, ³  because I will not listen to you.

So then, listen to what I, the Lord God of Israel who rules over all, ¹  say. ²  ‘I will make these people eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment. ³ 

Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for ¹  these people, I would not feel pity for them! ²  Get them away from me! Tell them to go away! ³ 

Then Jeremiah left Topheth where the Lord had sent him to give that prophecy. He went to the Lord’s temple and stood ¹  in its courtyard and called out to all the people.

“But ¹  tell the people of Jerusalem ²  that the Lord says, ‘I will give you a choice between two courses of action. One will result in life; the other will result in death. ³ 

The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah say these things in the Lord’s temple.