Study Desk

So I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. Everyone, from the least important to the greatest, is greedy for money. Even the prophets and priests all tell lies.

We hoped to have peace, but nothing good has come. We hoped for a time when he would heal us, but only terror has come.

Because my people are crushed, I am crushed. I cry loudly and am afraid for them.

I wish my head were like a spring of water and my eyes like a fountain of tears! Then I could cry day and night for my people who have been killed.

"Watch out for your friends, and don't trust your own relatives, because every relative is a cheater, and every friend tells lies about you.

Shouldn't I punish the people for doing this?" says the Lord . "Shouldn't I give a nation like this the punishment it deserves?"

I, Jeremiah, will cry loudly for the mountains and sing a funeral song for the empty fields. They are empty, and no one passes through. The mooing of cattle cannot be heard. The birds have flown away, and the animals are gone.

"I, the Lord , will make the city of Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a home for wild dogs. I will destroy the cities of Judah so no one can live there."

This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: "Now, think about these things! Call for the women who cry at funerals to come. Send for those women who are good at that job.

Let them come quickly and cry loudly for us. Then our eyes will fill with tears, and streams of water will flow from our eyelids.

How terrible it will be for me because of my injury. My wound cannot be healed. Yet I told myself, "This is my sickness; I must suffer through it."

My tent is ruined, and all its ropes are broken. My children have gone away and left me. No one is left to put up my tent again or to set up a shelter for me.

The shepherds are stupid and don't ask the Lord for advice. So they do not have success, and all their flocks are scattered and lost.

Listen! The news is coming. A loud noise comes from the north to make the towns of Judah an empty desert and a home for wild dogs!

that I made with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt. Egypt was like a furnace for melting iron!' I told them, ‘Obey me and do everything I command you. Then you will be my people, and I will be your God.

So this is what the Lord says: ‘I will soon bring a disaster on the people of Judah which they will not be able to escape. They will cry to me for help, but I will not listen to them.

"As for you, Jeremiah, don't pray for these people or cry out for them or ask anything for them. I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble.

But you know my heart, Lord . You see me and test my thoughts about you. Drag the evil people away like sheep to be butchered. Set them aside for the day of killing.

The people have planted wheat, but they have harvested only thorns. They have worked hard until they were very tired, but they have nothing for all their work. They are ashamed of their poor harvest, because the Lord 's terrible anger has caused this."

But after I pull them up, I will feel sorry for them again. I will bring each person back to his own property and to his own land.