Jeremiah Laments for and Prays for the Soon-to-be-Judged People

17 Gather your belongings together and prepare to leave the land,

you people of Jerusalem who are being besieged.

18 For the Lord says, “I will now throw out

those who live in this land.

I will bring so much trouble on them

that they will actually feel it.”

19 And I cried out, “We are doomed!

Our wound is severe!

We once thought, ‘This is only an illness.

And we will be able to bear it!’

20 But our tents have been destroyed.

The ropes that held them in place have been ripped apart.

Our children are gone and are not coming back.

There is no survivor to put our tents back up,

no one left to hang their tent curtains in place.

21 For our leaders are stupid.

They have not sought the Lord’s advice.

So they do not act wisely,

and the people they are responsible for have all been scattered.

22 Listen! News is coming even now.

The rumble of a great army is heard approaching from a land in the north.

It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble,

places where only jackals live.

23 Lord, we know that people do not control their own destiny.

It is not in their power to determine what will happen to them.

24 Correct us, Lord, but only in due measure.

Do not punish us in anger or you will reduce us to nothing.

25 Vent your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you.

Vent it on the peoples who do not worship you.

For they have destroyed the people of Jacob.

They have completely destroyed them

and left their homeland in utter ruin.

11 The Lord said to Jeremiah: 2 “Hear the terms of the covenant I made with Israel and pass them on to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. 3 Tell them that the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Anyone who does not keep the terms of the covenant will be under a curse. 4 Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors to keep when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace. I said at that time, “Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement exactly as I commanded you. If you do, you will be my people and I will be your God. 5 Then I will keep the promise I swore on oath to your ancestors to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.” That is the very land that you still live in today.’ ” And I responded, “Amen! Let it be so, Lord!”

6 The Lord said to me, “Announce all the following words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the terms of my covenant with you and carry them out! 7 For I solemnly warned your ancestors to obey me. I warned them again and again, ever since I delivered them out of Egypt until this very day. 8 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.’ ”

9 The Lord said to me, “The people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem have plotted rebellion against me! 10 They have gone back to the evil ways of their ancestors of old who refused to obey what I told them. They, too, have paid allegiance to other gods and worshiped them. Both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors. 11 So I, the Lord, say this: ‘I will soon bring disaster on them which they will not be able to escape! When they cry out to me for help, I will not listen to them. 12 Then those living in the towns of Judah and in Jerusalem will go and cry out for help to the gods to whom they have been sacrificing. However, those gods will by no means be able to save them when disaster strikes them. 13 This is in spite of the fact that the people of Judah have as many gods as they have towns and the citizens of Jerusalem have set up as many altars to sacrifice to that disgusting god, Baal, as they have streets in the city!’ 14 So, Jeremiah, 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. For I will not listen to them when they call out to me for help when disaster strikes them.”

15 The Lord says to the people of Judah,

“What right do you have to be in my temple, my beloved people?

Many of you have done wicked things.

Can your acts of treachery be so easily canceled by sacred offerings

that you take joy in doing evil even while you make them?

16 I, the Lord, once called you a thriving olive tree,

one that produced beautiful fruit.

But I will set you on fire,

fire that will blaze with a mighty roar.

Then all your branches will be good for nothing.

17 For though I, the Lord who rules over all, planted you in the land,

I now decree that disaster will come on you

because the nations of Israel and Judah have done evil

and have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal.”