Study Desk

I have listened to them very carefully, but they don't say what is right. They are not sorry for their sins. They don't think about the evil they have done. They do things without thinking. They are like horses running into a battle.

Listen to my people. Everywhere in this country, people are crying for help. They say, "Is the Lord still at Zion? Is Zion's King still there?" But God says, "The people of Judah worshiped their worthless foreign idols. That made me very angry! Why did they do that?"

If my head were filled with water, and if my eyes were a fountain of tears, I would cry day and night for my people who have been destroyed.

Should I punish the people of Judah for doing these things?" This message is from the Lord . "You know I should punish a nation such as this. I should give it the punishment it deserves."

I, Jeremiah, will cry for the mountains. I will sing a funeral song for the empty fields, because all the animals were taken away. No one travels there now. The sounds of cattle cannot be heard. The birds have flown away, and the animals are gone.

The Lord says, "I will make the city of Jerusalem a pile of garbage. It will be a home for jackals. I will destroy the cities in the land of Judah, so no one will live there."

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

The people say, ‘Let those women come quickly and cry for us. Then our eyes will fill with tears that flow over our eyelids like streams of water.'

My tent is ruined. All its ropes are broken. My children left me. They are gone. No one is left to put up my tent. No one is left to fix a shelter for me.

Listen! A loud noise! The noise is coming from the north. It will destroy the cities of Judah. Judah will become an empty desert. It will be a home for jackals.

So this is what the Lord says: "I will soon make something terrible happen to the people of Judah. They will not be able to escape. They will be sorry and cry to me for help, but I will not listen to them.

The people in the towns of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem will go and pray to their idols for help. They burn incense to those idols. But their idols will not be able to help the people of Judah when that terrible disaster comes.

"People of Judah, you have many idols—there are as many idols as there are towns in Judah. You have built many altars for worshiping that disgusting god Baal—there are as many altars as there are streets in Jerusalem.

"As for you, Jeremiah, don't pray for these people of Judah. Don't beg for them. Don't say prayers for them. I will not listen. They will suffer and then call to me for help, but I will not listen.

But you know my heart, Lord . You see me and test my mind. Drag the evil people away like sheep to be killed. Choose them for the day of slaughter.

They have turned it into an empty desert. It is dry and dead. The whole land has been ruined, and no one is left to care for it.

The people will plant wheat, but they will harvest only thorns. They will work hard until they are very tired, but they will get nothing for all their work. They will be ashamed of their crop. The Lord 's anger caused this."

This is what the Lord says: "I will tell you what I will do for all those who live around the land of Israel. They are very wicked. They have destroyed the land I gave to the people of Israel. I will pull the evil people up and throw them out of their land, and I will pull the people of Judah up with them.

But after I pull them up out of their land, I will feel sorry for them. I will bring each family back to its own property and to its own land.

So I went to Perath and dug the loincloth out of the crack in the rocks where I had hidden it. But now I could not wear the loincloth, because it was ruined. It was not good for anything.