I set a trap for you, Babylon; you were caught before you knew it. You fought against me. So you were found and captured. ¹ 

They will attack you but they will not be able to overcome you, for I will be with you to rescue you,” says the Lord.

You steal. ¹  You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to ²  other gods whom you have not previously known.

You will not always be angry with me, will you? You will not be mad at me forever, will you?’ ¹  That is what you say, but you continually do all the evil that you can.” ² 

“Before I formed you in your mother’s womb ¹  I chose you. ²  Before you were born I set you apart. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I answer you, you will certainly kill me. ¹  If I give you advice, you will not listen to me.”

When you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you. If you seek me with all your heart and soul, ¹ 

You also have done all these things, says the Lord, and I have spoken to you over and over again. ¹  But you have not listened! You have refused to respond when I called you to repent! ² 

I, the Lord, say: ¹  ‘You people have deserted me! You keep turning your back on me.’ ²  So I have unleashed my power against you ³  and have begun to destroy you. ⁴  I have grown tired of feeling sorry for you!” ⁵ 

I will force you and your mother who gave you birth into exile. You will be exiled to ¹  a country where neither of you were born, and you will both die there.

“‘But just look at you! ¹  You are putting your confidence in a false belief ²  that will not deliver you. ³ 

the wars you fear will catch up with you there in the land of Egypt. The starvation you are worried about will follow you there to ¹  Egypt. You will die there. ² 

While you were feeling secure I gave you warning. ¹  But you said, “I refuse to listen to you.” That is the way you have acted from your earliest history onward. ²  Indeed, you have never paid attention to me.

I said, ¹  “There is no one like you, Lord. ²  You are great. And you are renowned for your power. ³ 

I will have compassion on you so that he in turn will have mercy on you and allow you to return to your land.’

I will certainly save you. You will not fall victim to violence. ¹  You will escape with your life ²  because you trust in me. I, the Lord, affirm it!”’” ³ 

I brought you ¹  into a fertile land so you could enjoy ²  its fruits and its rich bounty. But when you entered my land, you defiled it; ³  you made the land I call my own ⁴  loathsome to me.

You must change ¹  the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly. ² 

So ¹  I will carry you far off ²  and throw you away. I will send both you and the city I gave to you and to your ancestors out of my sight. ³ 

‘Call on me in prayer and I will answer you. I will show you great and mysterious ¹  things which you still do not know about.’