The words of  ¹Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,

To whom the word of Jehovah came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon the king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah the king of Judah until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah the king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

Now the word of Jehovah came to me, saying:

Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you;
And before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you.
I have  ¹appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

Then I said, Alas, Lord Jehovah!
Indeed, I do not know how to speak,
For I am a youth.

But Jehovah said to me,
Do not say, I am a youth;
For everywhere I send you, you shall go;
And everything I command you, you shall speak.

Do not be afraid of their faces,
For I am with you to deliver you, declares Jehovah.

Then Jehovah stretched out His hand and touched my mouth; and Jehovah said to me,
Now I have put My words in your mouth.

See, I have appointed you this day
Over the nations and over the kingdoms
To  ¹pluck up and to break down,
To destroy and to tear down,
To build up and to plant.

Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, What do you see, Jeremiah?
And I said, I see a  ¹rod of an almond tree.

And Jehovah said to me, You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.

Then the word of Jehovah came to me a second time, saying, What do you see? And I said, I see a  ¹boiling pot, and it is facing away from the north.

And Jehovah said to me, Out of the north evil will be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land.

For I am now calling all the families from the kingdoms of the north, declares Jehovah, and they will come and set each one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem and against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah.

And I will utter My judgment on them concerning all their wickedness by which they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods and have worshipped the works of their own hands.

You therefore gird up your loins, and rise up and speak to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, lest I dismay you in their presence.

And I am now making you today into a  ¹fortified city and into an iron pillar and into bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.

And they will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you, declares Jehovah, to deliver you.

And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Jehovah:
I remember concerning you the kindness of your youth,
The love of your  ¹bridal days,
When you followed after Me in the wilderness,
In a land that was not sown.

Israel was holiness to Jehovah,
The firstfruits of His  ¹increase;
All who ate of it were guilty;
Evil came upon them,
Declares Jehovah.

Hear the word of Jehovah, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel.

Thus says Jehovah:
What iniquity did your fathers find in Me
That they went far away from Me
And walked after  ¹vanity
And became vain?

And they did not say, Where is Jehovah,
Who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
Who brought us through the wilderness,
Through a land of deserts and pits,
Through a land of drought and the shadow of death,
Through a land that no one passes through
And where no man dwells?

And I brought you into the land of the fruited field,
To eat its fruit and its goodness.
But you came and defiled My land
And made My inheritance an abomination.

The priests did not say,
Where is Jehovah?
And those who handle the law did not know Me,
And the shepherds transgressed against Me,
And the prophets prophesied by Baal
And followed after things that did not benefit them.

Therefore I will yet contend with you, declares Jehovah;
And with your children's children I will contend.

For pass over to the coastlands of Kittim and see,
And send someone to Kedar and consider carefully,
And see if there has ever been anything like this.

Has a nation ever exchanged its gods,
Even though they are no gods?
But My people have exchanged their  ¹glory
For that which does not benefit them.

Be appalled at this, O heavens,
And be horrified; be very desolate,
Declares Jehovah.

For My people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me,
The  ¹fountain of living waters,
To hew out for themselves cisterns,
Broken cisterns,
Which hold no water.

Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn slave?
Why has he become a prey?

The young lions roared over him;
They sounded their voices.
And they have made his land a waste;
His cities are burned, without inhabitant.

Also the children of Memphis and Tahpanhes
Have shaved the crown of your head.

Have you not done this to yourself
By your forsaking Jehovah your God
When He was leading you in the way?

And now what do you have on the road to  ¹Egypt,
To drink the waters of the  ²Shihor?
And what do you have on the road to Assyria,
To drink the waters of the  ³River?

Your own wickedness will correct you,
And your  ¹apostasies will reprove you.
Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing,
That you have forsaken Jehovah your God
And that My fear is not in you,
Declares the Lord Jehovah of hosts.

For long ago you broke your yoke;
You tore off your bonds;
And you said, I will not serve!
Indeed upon every high hill
And under every flourishing tree
You have lain down, you have committed  ¹fornication.

Yet I, I had planted you as a choice vine,
Wholly a faithful seed.
How then have you turned yourself before Me
Into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?

For though you wash yourself with lye
And make use of much soap,
Your iniquity remains as a stain before Me,
Declares the Lord Jehovah.

How can you say, I am not defiled;
I have not gone after the Baals?
Look at your way in the valley;
Know what you have done.
You are like a swift young camel entangling her ways,

Like a wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness,
Panting after the wind in her desire.
In her passion who can turn her away?
None that seek her will weary themselves:
They will find her in her month.

Keep your foot from being unshod
And your throat from thirst;
But you said, It is hopeless.
No! For I have loved strangers,
And I will go after them.

As the thief is ashamed when he is found,
So the house of Israel is ashamed —
They, their kings, their princes,
And their priests and their prophets,

Who say to a tree, You are my father;
And to a stone, You have brought me forth —
For they have turned their back to Me,
And not their faces.
Yet in a time of their trouble they will say,
Arise and save us.

But where are your gods, whom you made for yourselves?
Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble;
For according to the number of your cities
Are your gods, O Judah.

Why do you contend with Me?
You have all transgressed against Me,
Declares Jehovah.

In vain I have stricken your children:
They have taken no correction.
Your own sword has devoured your prophets
Like a destroying lion.

O generation, attend to the word of Jehovah:
Have I been a wilderness to Israel,
Or a land of deep darkness?
Why do My people say, We roam about;
We will no longer come to You?

Can the virgin forget her  ¹ornaments,
Or the bride her attire?
But My people have forgotten Me
For days  ²without number.

How you prepare your ways
To seek love!
Therefore you have even taught
Wicked women your ways.

Also on your skirts is found
The lifeblood of the innocent poor.
You did not find them breaking in,
But killed them because of all these things.

But you said, I am innocent;
Surely His anger will turn from me.
I am about to enter into judgment with you,
Because you say, I have not sinned.

Why do you go about so much
To change your way?
You will be put to shame by Egypt also,
Even as you were put to shame by Assyria.

Indeed, from it you will go forth
With your hands upon your head;
For Jehovah has rejected those in whom you trust,
And you will not prosper by them.

It is said,
If a man divorces his wife
And she goes from him
And becomes another man's wife,
Will he return to her again?
Will not that land be
Utterly polluted?
But you have committed fornication with many lovers.
 ¹Yet return to Me, declares Jehovah.

Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see:
Where have you not been ravished?
By the roads you sat for them,
Like an Arab in the desert;
And you have polluted the land
With your fornication and your wickedness.

Therefore the showers have been withheld,
And there has been no spring rain.
But you have had a harlot's forehead;
You refused to be ashamed.

Have you not just now called out to Me, My Father,
You are the guide of my youth?

Will He preserve His anger forever?
Will He keep it perpetually?
This you have spoken; yet you have done what evil things
That you could.

Then Jehovah said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what  ¹Israel the apostate has done? She went up on every high mountain and under every flourishing tree and committed fornication there.

And I said, After she has done all these things, she will return to Me; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

And I saw that because of all the adultery that Israel the apostate committed I divorced her and gave her a certificate of divorce, yet her sister Judah the treacherous did not fear but went and committed fornication also.

And because she treated her fornication lightly, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

And yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but instead falsely, declares Jehovah.

And Jehovah said to me, Israel the apostate has shown herself to be more righteous than Judah the treacherous.

Go and proclaim these words to the  ¹north, and say,
 ²Return, O Israel the apostate, declares Jehovah;
And I will not let My countenance fall toward you;
For I am merciful, declares Jehovah;
I will not keep My anger forever.

Only acknowledge your iniquity,
That you have transgressed against Jehovah your God
And have turned your ways here and there to strangers under every flourishing tree,
And have not listened to My voice, declares Jehovah.

Return, O apostate children, declares Jehovah, for I am a Husband to you; and I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and will bring you to Zion.

And I will give you shepherds according to My own heart, who will feed you knowledge and understanding.

And when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, declares Jehovah, they will no longer say, The  ¹Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah! And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it or visit it; and it will not be made again.

At that time they will call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah, and all the nations will be  ¹gathered to it because the name of Jehovah is at Jerusalem; and they will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

In those days the house of  ¹Judah will walk with the house of  ¹Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land which I have given to their fathers as an inheritance.

But I said,
How I will put you among the sons,
And give you a pleasant land,An inheritance of the most ornate of the nations!
And I said, You will call Me, My Father,
And will not turn away from Me.

Surely as a woman acts treacherously by departing from her husband,
So you have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, declares Jehovah.

A voice is heard on the bare heights,
The weeping, the supplications, of the children of Israel;
For they have perverted their way;
They have forgotten Jehovah their God.

Return, O apostate children;I will heal you of your apostasies.
Now we come to You,
For You are Jehovah our God.

Surely in vain have we hoped for anything from the hills;
The mountains are a tumult;
Surely in Jehovah our God
Is the salvation of Israel.

But shame has devoured the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against Jehovah our God, we and our fathers, since our youth even unto this day; and we have not listened to the voice of Jehovah our God.