Jeremiah 10

1 Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel.
2 Thus says the LORD: Learn not the customs of the nations, and have no fear of the signs of the heavens, though the nations fear them.
3 For the cult idols of the nations are nothing, wood cut from the forest, Wrought by craftsmen with the adze,
4 adorned with silver and gold. With nails and hammers they are fastened, that they may not totter.
5 Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, they cannot speak; They must be carried about, for they cannot walk. Fear them not, they can do no harm, neither is it in their power to do good.
6 No one is like you, O LORD, great are you, great and mighty is your name.
7 Who would not fear you, King of the nations, for it is your due! Among all the wisest of the nations, and in all their domain, there is none like you.
8 One and all they are dumb and senseless, these idols they teach about are wooden:
9 Silver strips brought from Tarshish, and gold from Ophir, The work of the craftsman and the handiwork of the smelter, Clothed with violet and purple- all of them the work of artisans.
10 The LORD is true God, he is the living God, the eternal King, Before whose anger the earth quakes, whose wrath the nations cannot endure:
11 Thus shall you say of them: Let the gods that did not make heaven and earth perish from the earth, and from beneath these heavens!
12 He who made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his skill.
13 When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar, and he brings up clouds from the end of the earth; He makes the lightning flash in the rain, and releases stormwinds from their chambers.
14 Every man is stupid, ignorant; every artisan is put to shame by his idol: He has molded a fraud, without breath of life.
15 Nothingness are they, a ridiculous work; they will perish in their time of punishment.
16 Not like these is the portion of Jacob: he is the creator of all things; Israel is his very own tribe, LORD of hosts is his name.
17 Lift your bundle and leave the land, O city living in a state of siege!
18 For thus says the LORD: Behold, this time I will sling away the inhabitants of the land; I will hem them in, that they may be taken.
19 Woe is me! I am undone, my wound is incurable; Yet I had thought: if I make light of my wound, I can bear it.
20 My tent is ruined, all its cords are severed. My sons have left me, they are no more: no one to pitch my tent, no one to raise its curtains.
21 Yes, the shepherds were stupid as cattle, the LORD they sought not; Therefore they had no success, and all their flocks were scattered.
22 Listen! a noise! it comes closer, a great uproar from the northern land: To turn the cities of Judah into a desert haunt of jackals.
23 You know, O LORD, that man is not master of his way; Man's course is not within his choice, nor is it for him to direct his step.
24 Punish us, O LORD, but with equity, not in anger, lest you have us dwindle away.
25 Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not, on the tribes that call not upon your name; For they have devoured Jacob utterly, and laid waste his dwelling.

Jeremiah 11

1 The following message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
2 Speak to the men of Judah and to the citizens of Jerusalem,
3 saying to them: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not observe the terms of this covenant,
4 which I enjoined upon your fathers the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that iron foundry, saying: Listen to my voice and do all that I command you. Then you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
5 Thus I will fulfill the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey: the one you have today. Amen, LORD, I answered.
6 Then 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 obey them.
7 Urgently and constantly I warned your fathers to obey my voice, from the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt even to this day.
8 But they did not listen or give ear. Each one followed the hardness of his evil heart, till I brought upon them all the threats of this covenant which they had failed to observe as I commanded them.
9 A conspiracy has been found, the LORD said to me, among the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem.
10 They have returned to the crimes of their forefathers who refused to obey my words. They also have followed and served strange gods; the covenant which I had made with their fathers, the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken.
11 Therefore, thus says the LORD: See, I bring upon them misfortune which they cannot escape. Though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.
12 Then the cities of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to which they have been offering incense. But these gods will give them no help whatever when misfortune strikes.
13 For as numerous as your cities are your gods, O Judah! And as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars for offering sacrifice to Baal.
14 Do not intercede on behalf of this people, nor utter a plea for them. I will not listen when they call to me at the time of their misfortune.
15 What right has my beloved in my house, while she prepares her plots? Can vows and sacred meat turn away your misfortune from you? Will you still be jubilant
16 when you hear the great invasion? A spreading olive tree, goodly to behold, the LORD has named you; Now he sets fire to it, its branches burn.
17 The LORD of hosts who planted you has decreed misfortune for you because of the evil done by the house of Israel and by the house of Judah, who provoked me by sacrificing to Baal.
18 I knew it because the LORD informed me; at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings.
19 Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me: Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more.
20 But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge, searcher of mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause!
21 Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth who seek your life, saying, Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD; else you shall die by our hand.
22 Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: I am going to punish them. The young men shall die by the sword; their sons and daughters shall die by famine.
23 None shall be spared among them, for I will bring misfortune upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their punishment.

Jeremiah 12

1 You would be in the right, O LORD, if I should dispute with you; even so, I must discuss the case with you. Why does the way of the godless prosper, why live all the treacherous in contentment?
2 You planted them; they have taken root, they keep on growing and bearing fruit. You are upon their lips, but far from their inmost thoughts.
3 You, O Lord, know me, you see me, you have found that at heart I am with you. Pick them out like sheep for the slaughter, set them apart for the day of carnage.
4 How long must the earth mourn, the green of the whole countryside wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell in it beasts and birds disappear, because they say, God does not see our ways.
5 If running against men has wearied you, how will you race against horses? And if in a land of peace you fall headlong, what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?
6 For even your own brothers, the members of your father's house, betray you; they have recruited a force against you. Do not believe them, even if they are friendly to you in their words.
7 I abandon my house, cast off my heritage; The beloved of my soul I deliver into the hand of her foes.
8 My heritage has turned on me like a lion in the jungle; Because she has roared against me, I treat her as an enemy.
9 My heritage is a prey for hyenas, is surrounded by vultures; Come, gather together, all you beasts of the field, come and eat!
10 Many shepherds have ravaged my vineyard, have trodden my heritage underfoot; The portion that delighted me they have turned into a desert waste.
11 They have made it a mournful waste, desolate it lies before me, Desolate, all the land, because no one takes it to heart.
12 Upon every desert height brigands have come up. The LORD has a sword which consumes the land, from end to end: no peace for all mankind.
13 They have sown wheat and reaped thorns, they have tired themselves out to no purpose; They recoil before their harvest, the flaming anger of the LORD.
14 Thus says the LORD against all my evil neighbors who plunder the heritage which I gave my people Israel as their own: See, I will pluck them up from their land; the house of Judah I will pluck up in their midst.
15 But after plucking them up, I will pity them again and bring them back, each to his heritage, each to his land.
16 And if they carefully learn my people's custom of swearing by my name, As the LORD lives, they who formerly taught my people to swear by Baal shall be built up in the midst of my people.
17 But if they do not obey, I will uproot and destroy that nation entirely, says the LORD.