For I have withdrawn My favor from that people
—declares the LORD—
My kindness and compassion.
6Great and small alike shall die in this land,
They shall not be buried; men shall not lament them,
Nor gash and tonsure themselves for them.
7They shall not break breadb for a mournerc
To comfort him for a bereavement,
Nor offer one a cup of consolation
For the loss of his father or mother.
8Nor shall you enter a house of feasting,
To sit down with them to eat and drink.
9For thus said the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to banish from this place, in your days and before your eyes, the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of bridegroom and bride.
10And when you announce all these things to that people, and they ask you, “Why has the LORD decreed upon us all this fearful evil? What is the iniquity and what the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?” 11say to them, “Because your fathers deserted Me—declares the LORD—and followed other gods and served them and worshiped them; they deserted Me and did not keep My Instruction. 12And you have acted worse than your fathers, every one of you following the willfulness of his evil heart and paying no heed to Me. 13Therefore I will hurl you out of this land to a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods, day and night; for I will show you no mercy.”
14Assuredly, a time is coming—declares the LORD—when it shall no more be said, “As the LORD lives who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt,” 15but rather, “As the LORD lives who brought the Israelites out of the northland, and out of all the lands to which He had banished them.” For I will bring them back to their land, which I gave to their fathers.
16Lo, I am sending for many fishermen
—declares the LORD—
And they shall haul them out;
And after that I will send for many hunters,
And they shall hunt them
Out of every mountain and out of every hill
And out of the clefts of the rocks.
17For My eyes are on all their ways,
They are not hidden from My presence,
Their iniquity is not concealed from My sight.
18I will pay them in fulld—
Nay, doubly for their iniquity and their sins—
Because they have defiled My land
With the corpses of their abominations,e
And have filled My own possession
With their abhorrent things.
19O LORD, my strength and my stronghold,
My refuge in a day of trouble,
To You nations shall come
From the ends of the earth and say:
Our fathers inherited utter delusions,
Things that are futile and worthless.
20Can a man make gods for himself?
No-gods are they!
21Assuredly, I will teach them,
Once and for all I will teach them
My power and My might.
And they shall learn that My name is LORD.
17
The guilt of Judah is inscribed
With a stylus of iron,
Engraved with an adamant point
On the tablet of their hearts,
a-And on the horns of their altars,
2While their children remember-a
Their altars and sacred posts,
By verdant trees,
Upon lofty hills.
3b-Because of the sin of your shrines
Throughout your borders,
I will make your rampart a heap in the field,
And all your treasures a spoil.-b
4c-You will forfeit,-c by your own act,
The inheritance I have given you;
I will make you a slave to your enemies
In a land you have never known.
For you have kindled the flame of My wrath
Which shall burn for all time.
5Thus said the LORD:
Cursed is he who trusts in man,
Who makes mere flesh his strength,
And turns his thoughts from the LORD.
6He shall be like a bushd in the desert,
Which does not sense the coming of good:
It is set in the scorched places of the wilderness,
In a barren land without inhabitant.
7Blessed is he who trusts in the LORD,
Whose trust is the LORD alone.
8He shall be like a tree planted by waters,
Sending forth its roots by a stream:
It does not sense the coming of heat,
Its leaves are ever fresh;
It has no care in a year of drought,
It does not cease to yield fruit.
9Most devious is the heart;
It is perverse—who can fathom it?
10I the LORD probe the heart,
Search the mind—
To repay every man according to his ways,
With the proper fruit of his deeds.
11b-Like a partridge hatching what she did not lay,-b
So is one who amasses wealth by unjust means;
In the middle of his life it will leave him,
And in the end he will be proved a fool.
12O Throne of Glory exalted from of old,
Our Sacred Shrine!
13O Hope of Israel! O LORD!
All who forsake You shall be put to shame,
Those in the land who turn from Youe
Shall be doomedf men,
For they have forsaken the LORD,
The Fount of living waters.
14Heal me, O LORD, and let me be healed;
Save me, and let me be saved;
For You are my glory.
15See, they say to me:
“Where is the prediction of the LORD?
Let it come to pass!”
16But I have not g-evaded
Being a shepherd in your service,-g
Nor have I longed for the fatal day.
You know the utterances of my lips,
They were ever before You.
17Do not be a cause of dismay to me;
You are my refuge in a day of calamity.
18Let my persecutors be shamed,
And let not me be shamed;
Let them be dismayed,
And let not me be dismayed.
Bring on them the day of disaster,
And shatter them with double destruction.
19Thus said the LORD to me: Go and stand in the People’s Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go forth, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, 20and say to them: Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter by these gates!
21Thus said the LORD: Guard yourselves for your own sake against carrying burdensh on the sabbath day, and bringing them through the gates of Jerusalem. 22Nor shall you carry out burdens from your houses on the sabbath day, or do any work, but you shall hallow the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. (23But they would not listen or turn their ear; they stiffened their necks and would not pay heed or accept discipline.) 24If you obey Me—declares the LORD—and do not bring in burdens through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day and do no work on it, 25then through the gates of this city shall enter kings who sit upon the throne of David, with their officers— riding on chariots and horses, they and their officers—and the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited for all time. 26And people shall come from the towns of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the Shephelah, and from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, meal offerings and frankincense, and bringing offerings of thanksgiving to the House of the LORD. 27But if you do not obey My command to hallow the sabbath day and to carry in no burdens through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will set fire to its gates; it shall consume the fortresses of Jerusalem and it shall not be extinguished.
18The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2“Go down to the house of a potter, and there I will impart My words to you.” 3So I went down to the house of a potter, and found him working at the wheel. 4a-And if the vessel he was making was spoiled, as happens to clay in the potter’s hands,-a he would make it into another vessel, such as the potter saw fit to make.
5Then the word of the LORD came to me: 6O House of Israel, can I not deal with you like this potter?—says the LORD. Just like clay in the hands of the potter, so are you in My hands, O House of Israel! 7At one moment I may decree that a nation or a kingdom shall be uprooted and pulled down and destroyed; 8but if that nation against which I made the decree turns back from its wickedness, I change My mind concerning the punishment I planned to bring on it. 9At another moment I may decree that a nation or a kingdom shall be built and planted; 10but if it does what is displeasing to Me and does not obey Me, then I change My mind concerning the good I planned to bestow upon it.
11And now, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus said the LORD: I am devisingb disaster for you and laying plans against you. Turn back, each of you, from your wicked ways, and mend your ways and your actions! 12But they will say, “It is no use. We will keep on following our own plans; each of us will act in the willfulness of his evil heart.”
13Assuredly, thus said the LORD:
Inquire among the nations:
Who has heard anything like this?
Maiden Israel has done
A most horrible thing.
14cDoes one forsake Lebanon snow
From the mountainous rocks?
Does one abandon cool water
Flowing from afar?
15Yet My people have forgotten Me:
They sacrifice to a delusion:
They are made to stumble in their ways—
The ancient paths—
And to walk instead on byways,
On a road not built up.
16So their land will become a desolation,
An object of hissingd for all time.
Every passerby will be appalled
And will shake his head.d
17Like the east wind, I will scatter them
Before the enemy.
e-I will look upon their back, not their face,-e
In their day of disaster.
18They said,f “Come let us devise a plot against Jeremiah—for instruction shall not fail from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor oracle from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and we
