Jeremiah

11 The word that occurred to Jeremiah* from Jehovah, saying: 2 “Hear the words of this covenant, YOU men!

“And you must speak+ them to the men* of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 3 and you must say to them, ‘This is what Jehovah the God of Israel has said: “Cursed is the man* that does not listen to the words of this covenant,+ 4 which I commanded YOUR forefathers in the day of my bringing them out of the land of Egypt,+ out of the furnace of iron,+ saying, ‘Obey my voice, and YOU must do things according to all that I command YOU;+ and YOU will certainly become my people and I myself shall become YOUR God,*+ 5 for the purpose of carrying out the oath that I swore to YOUR forefathers,+ to give them the land flowing with milk and honey,+ as in this day.’”’”

And I proceeded to answer and say: “Amen,* O Jehovah.”

6 And Jehovah went on to say to me: “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem,+ saying, ‘Hear, YOU people, the words of this covenant, and YOU must do them.+ 7 For I solemnly admonished YOUR forefathers in the day of my bringing them up out of the land of Egypt+ and down to this day, rising up early and admonishing, saying: “Obey my voice.”+ 8 But they did not listen or incline their ear,+ but they kept walking each one in the stubbornness of their bad heart;+ and so I brought upon them all the words of this covenant that I commanded [them] to do, but that they did not do.’”

9 Furthermore, Jehovah said to me: “Conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.+ 10 They have returned to the errors of their forefathers,+ the first ones, who refused to obey* my words, but who themselves have walked after other gods* in order to serve them.+ The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I concluded with their forefathers.+ 11 Therefore this is what Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am bringing upon them a calamity+ that they will not be able to get out of;+ and they will certainly call to me for aid, but I shall not listen to them.+ 12 And the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will have to go and call for aid to the gods* to which they are making sacrificial smoke,+ but which will positively bring no salvation to them in the time of their calamity.+ 13 For your gods have become as many as your cities, O Judah;+ and as many altars as the streets of Jerusalem YOU people have placed for the shameful thing,+ altars to make sacrificial smoke to Baʹal.’+

14 “And as for you, do not pray in behalf of this people, and do not lift up in their behalf an entreating cry or a prayer,+ for I shall not be listening in the time of their calling out to me in regard to their calamity.*+

15 “What business does my beloved one have in my house,+ that many of them should do this thing,+ the [evil] device?+ And with holy flesh will they make [it] pass over from upon you,+ when your calamity [comes]? At that time will you exult?+ 16 ‘A luxuriant olive tree, pretty with fruit [and] in form,’ is what Jehovah has called your name.+ With sound of the great roaring, he has set a fire blazing against her, and they have broken its branches.+

17 “And Jehovah of armies himself, the Planter of you,*+ has spoken against you a calamity on account of the badness of the house of Israel+ and the house of Judah that they have committed on their own part to offend me in making sacrificial smoke to Baʹal.”+

18 And Jehovah himself has informed me that I may know. At that time you caused me to see their dealings.+ 19 And I was like a male lamb, an intimate one, that is brought to slaughter,+ and I did not know that it was against me that they thought out schemes:+ “Let us bring to ruin the tree with its food, and let us cut him off from the land of the living ones,+ that his very name may no more be remembered.” 20 But Jehovah of armies is judging with righteousness;+ he is examining the kidneys* and the heart.+ O may I see your vengeance on them, for it is to you that I have revealed my case at law.+

21 Therefore this is what Jehovah has said against the men of Anʹa·thoth+ who are seeking for your soul,* saying: “You must not prophesy in the name of Jehovah,+ that you may not die at our hand”; 22 therefore this is what Jehovah of armies has said: “Here I am turning my attention upon them. The young men themselves will die by the sword.+ Their sons and their daughters themselves will die by the famine.+ 23 And not even a remnant will there come to be for them, because I shall bring calamity upon the men of Anʹa·thoth,+ the year of their being given attention.”+