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1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Hear the words of this covenant, and speak them to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 3 Tell them: This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant, 4 which I commanded your ancestors on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace. I said, ‘Obey my voice and do all that I command you. You will be my people, and I will be your God,’ 5 so that I might fulfill the oath I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is today.” Then I answered, “Amen, LORD.”
6 The LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. 7 For I solemnly warned your ancestors from the day I brought them up from the land of Egypt to this day, warning them early and persistently: ‘Obey my voice.’ 8 But they did not listen or incline their ears; each followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not do them.”
9 The LORD said to me, “A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 They have returned to the iniquities of their early ancestors, who refused to listen to my words; they have followed other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant, which I made with their ancestors.”
11 Therefore this is what the LORD says: “Look, I am bringing disaster upon them from which they cannot escape. They will cry out to me, but I will not listen to them. 12 Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but those gods will not save them at all in their time of disaster. 13 For you have as many gods as cities, Judah, and you have set up as many altars to the shameful thing as there are streets in Jerusalem—altars for burning incense to Baal.
14 As for you, do not pray for this people or lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I will not listen when they cry to me because of their disaster.
15 What is my beloved doing in my house, after her many evil schemes?
Consecrated meat will pass away from you.
When you do evil, then you rejoice!
16 The LORD called you a flourishing olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form.
With the sound of a great tumult he has set fire to it, and its branches are broken.
17 The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced disaster against you because of the evil the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done to their own harm, provoking me to anger by burning incense to Baal.”
18 The LORD made it known to me, and I knew;
then you showed me their deeds.
19 But I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter.
I did not know they were plotting against me: “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit;
let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name is remembered no more.”
20 But you, LORD of hosts, who judge righteously, who test the inward parts and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them, for I have laid my case before you.
21 Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning the men of Anathoth who seek your life and say, “Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, so that you will not die by our hands”—
22 therefore this is what the LORD of hosts says: “Look, I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword; their sons and daughters will die by famine. 23 No remnant of them will remain, for I will bring disaster upon the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.”