Judah Has Broken the Lord's Agreement

1-3The Lord God told me to say to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:

I, the Lord, am warning you that I will put a curse on anyone who doesn't keep the agreement I made with Israel. So pay attention to what it says. 4My commands haven't changed since I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, a nation that seemed like a blazing furnace where iron ore is melted. I told your ancestors that if they obeyed my commands, I would be their God, and they would be my people. 5Then I did what I had promised and gave them this wonderful land, where you now live.

“Yes, Lord,” I replied, “that's true.”

6Then the Lord told me to say to everyone on the streets of Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah:

Pay attention to the commands in my agreement with you. 7Ever since I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I have been telling your people to obey me. But you and your ancestors 8have always been stubborn. You have refused to listen, and instead you have done whatever your sinful hearts have desired.

You have not kept the agreement we made, so I will make you suffer every curse that goes with it.

9The Lord said to me:

Jeremiah, the people of Judah and Jerusalem are plotting against me. 10They have sinned in the same way their ancestors did, by turning from me and worshiping other gods. The northern kingdom of Israel broke the agreement I made with your ancestors, and now the southern kingdom of Judah+ has done the same.

11Here is what I've decided to do. I will bring suffering on the people of Judah and Jerusalem, and no one will escape. They will beg me to help, but I won't listen to their prayers. 12-13Then they will offer sacrifices to their other gods and ask them for help. After all, the people of Judah have more gods than towns, and more shameful altars for Baal than there are streets in Jerusalem. But those gods won't be able to rescue the people of Judah from disaster.

14Jeremiah, don't pray for these people or beg me to rescue them. If you do, I won't listen, and I certainly won't listen if they pray!

15Then the Lord told me to say to the people of Judah:

You are my chosen people,

but you have no right

to be here in my temple,

doing such evil things.

The sacrifices you offer me

won't protect you from disaster,

so stop celebrating.+

16Once you were like an olive tree

covered with fruit.

But soon I will send a noisy mob

to break off your branches

and set you on fire.

17I am the Lord All-Powerful. You people of Judah were like a tree that I had planted, but you have made me angry by offering sacrifices to Baal, just as the northern kingdom did. And now I'm going to pull you up by the roots.

The Plot To Kill Jeremiah

* 18Some people plotted to kill me.

And like a lamb

being led to the butcher,

I knew nothing

about their plans.

19But then the Lord told me

that they had planned

to chop me down like a tree—

fruit and all—

so that no one would ever

remember me again.

20 I prayed, “Lord All-Powerful,

you always do what is right,

and you know every thought.

So I trust you to help me

and to take revenge.”

21Then the Lord said:

Jeremiah, some men from Anathoth+ say they will kill you, if you keep on speaking for me. 22But I will punish them. Their young men will die in battle, and their children will starve to death. 23And when I am finished, no one from their families will be left alive.