Study Desk

Yet they say to each other, ‘Don't come too close or you will defile me! I am holier than you!' These people are a stench in my nostrils, an acrid smell that never goes away.

Has any nation ever traded its gods for new ones, even though they are not gods at all? Yet my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols!

Does a young woman forget her jewelry, or a bride her wedding dress? Yet for years on end my people have forgotten me.

And yet you say, ‘I have done nothing wrong. Surely God isn't angry with me!' But now I will punish you severely because you claim you have not sinned.

Yet you say to me, ‘Father, you have been my guide since my youth.

"Yet even in those days I will not blot you out completely," says the Lord .

the prophets give false prophecies, and the priests rule with an iron hand. Worse yet, my people like it that way! But what will you do when the end comes?

"The harvest is finished, and the summer is gone," the people cry, "yet we are not saved!"

Then I said, "What sorrow is mine, my mother. Oh, that I had died at birth! I am hated everywhere I go. I am neither a lender who threatens to foreclose nor a borrower who refuses to pay— yet they all curse me."

Yet I curse the day I was born! May no one celebrate the day of my birth.

"I have not sent these prophets, yet they run around claiming to speak for me. I have given them no message, yet they go on prophesying.

In all history there has never been such a time of terror. It will be a time of trouble for my people Israel. Yet in the end they will be saved!

And yet, O Sovereign Lord , you have told me to buy the field—paying good money for it before these witnesses—even though the city will soon be handed over to the Babylonians."

"This is what the Lord says: You have said, ‘This is a desolate land where people and animals have all disappeared.' Yet in the empty streets of Jerusalem and Judah's other towns, there will be heard once more

At this time the Babylonian army was besieging Jerusalem, Lachish, and Azekah—the only fortified cities of Judah not yet captured.

Perhaps even yet they will turn from their evil ways and ask the Lord 's forgiveness before it is too late. For the Lord has threatened them with his terrible anger."

Jeremiah had not yet been imprisoned, so he could come and go among the people as he pleased.

But suddenly Babylon, too, has fallen. Weep for her. Give her medicine. Perhaps she can yet be healed.

Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this:

Yet it happened because of the sins of her prophets and the sins of her priests, who defiled the city by shedding innocent blood.