Yahweh replied to Jeremiah

3 Yahweh replied to me,

“They use their tongues to tell [MET] lies

like people shoot arrows with bows.

It is because they tell lies that they have become more powerful in this land,

and they do not know me.

4 Do not trust your neighbors and even your brothers!

They all are as deceitful as Jacob was.

They slander each other and tell lies about each other.

5 They deceive their friends

and never tell the truth.

They lie continually and, because of that, they have become skilled liars;

they do one oppressive thing after another, and are unable to stop doing it.

6 They habitually lie and deceive each other,

and no one will admit/say that I am God.

7 Therefore I, the Commander of the armies of angels, say this:

Listen carefully to what I say: I will cause my people to experience great afflictions,

like a metalworker puts metal in a hot fire [MET] to completely burn out the impure bits.

Because of all the evil things that my people have done,

there is absolutely nothing else [RHQ] that I can do.

8 What they say [MTY] injures people like [MET] poisoned arrows do.

They say to their neighbors, ‘I hope things will go well for you,’

while they are planning to kill them.

9 Should I not punish them for doing that [RHQ]?

Yes, I should certainly ◄get revenge on/give what they deserve to► the people of a nation that does things like that!”

10 So, I will weep and wail for the people who live in the mountains and in the ◄pastures/places where the livestock eat the grass►,

because those areas will be desolate, and no one will live there.

There will be no cattle there to call to each other,

and all the birds and wild animals will have fled to other places.

11 Yahweh also says, “I will cause Jerusalem to become a heap of ruins,

and only jackals/wolves will live there.

I will destroy the towns of Judah, with the result that they will be completely deserted;

no one will live there.”

12 I said, “Only people who are very wise [RHQ] can understand these things.

Only those who have been taught by Yahweh can [RHQ] explain these things to others.

The wise people are [RHQ] the only ones who can explain why the land will be completely ruined

with the result that everyone [RHQ] will be afraid to travel through it.”

13 Yahweh replied, “These things will happen because my people have rejected my laws which I gave to them;

they have not obeyed me or my instructions.

14 Instead, they have stubbornly done the things that they wanted to do.

They have worshiped the idols that represent the god Baal,

which is what their ancestors did.

15 So now listen to what I, the Commander of the armies of angels, the God of the Israelis, say:

What I will do will be like [MET] giving these people bitter things to eat and poison to drink:

16 I will scatter them to many nations which neither they nor their ancestors have known anything about;

I will enable their enemies to strike them with swords

until I have destroyed them.”

17 This is also what the Commander of the armies of angels says:

“Think about what is happening,

then summon those women who mourn when someone has died.

18 Tell them to come quickly and start to wail,

with the result that tears will stream down from your(pl) eyes.

19 Listen to the people of Jerusalem crying/lamenting, saying,

‘We have been ruined/destroyed!

We have experienced a terrible disaster!

Now we are very ashamed,

because our houses have been destroyed by our enemies, and we are being forced to leave our land.’ ”

20 You women, listen to what Yahweh says [MTY].

Pay attention to his words [DOU].

Teach your daughters to wail.

Teach each other how to sing funeral songs,

21 because people will be dying [PRS] in your houses and in palaces.

There will be no more children playing in the streets,

there will be no more young men gathering in the city squares/marketplaces.

22 There will be corpses scattered across the fields like dung;

their dead bodies will lie there like [SIM] grain that has been cut by reapers/farmers,

and there will be no one still alive to bury them.

23 Yahweh says this:

“Wise men should not boast about their being wise,

strong men should not boast about their being strong;

and rich people should not boast about their being rich.

24 Instead, those who want to boast should boast about their knowing me

and about understanding that I am Yahweh,

that I am kind and just and righteous,

that I faithfully love people,

and that I am delighted with people who act that way.

25-26 25-26There will be a time when I will punish all those people of Egypt and of the Moab people-group and of the Edom people-group and of the Ammon people-group,

all those people who live close to desert areas (OR, who cut their hair short to please their gods) far from Judah,

all those people who have changed their bodies by circumcising them [MET]

but who have not changed their inner beings.

I will punish the people of Judah also,

because they have not changed their inner beings, either.”