Jeremiah 13

1 The LORD said to me: Go buy yourself a linen loincloth; wear it on your loins, but do not put it in water.
2 I bought the loincloth, as the LORD commanded, and put it on.
3 A second time the word of the LORD came to me thus:
4 Take the loincloth which you bought and are wearing, and go now to the Parath; there hide it in a cleft of the rock.
5 Obedient to the LORD'S command, I went to the Parath and buried the loincloth.
6 After a long interval, he said to me: Go now to the Parath and fetch the loincloth which I told you to hide there.
7 Again I went to the Parath, sought out and took the loincloth from the place where I had hid it. But it was rotted, good for nothing!
8 Then the message came to me from the LORD:
9 Thus says the LORD: So also I will allow the pride of Judah to rot, the great pride of Jerusalem.
10 This wicked people who refuse to obey my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts, and follow strange gods to serve and adore them, shall be like this loincloth which is good for nothing.
11 For, as close as the loincloth clings to a man's loins, so had I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD; to be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty. But they did not listen.
12 Now speak to them this word: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Every wineflask is meant to be filled with wine. If they reply, Do we not know that every wineflask is meant to be filled with wine?
13 say to them: Thus says the LORD: Beware! I am filling with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land, the kings who succeed to David's throne, the priests and prophets, and all the citizens of Jerusalem.
14 I will dash them against each other, fathers and sons together, says the LORD; I will show no compassion, I will not spare or pity, but will destroy them.
15 Give ear, listen humbly, for the LORD speaks.
16 Give glory to the LORD, your God, before it grows dark; Before your feet stumble on darkening mountains; Before the light you look for turns to darkness, changes into black clouds.
17 If you do not listen to this in your pride, I will weep in secret many tears; My eyes will run with tears for the LORD'S flock, led away to exile.
18 Say to the king and to the queen mother: come down from your throne; From your heads fall your magnificent crowns.
19 The cities of the Negeb are besieged, with no one to relieve them; All Judah is banished in universal exile.
20 Lift up your eyes and see men coming from the north. Where is the flock entrusted to you, the sheep that were your glory?
21 What will you say when they place as rulers over you those whom you taught to be your lovers? Will not pangs seize you like those of a woman giving birth?
22 If you ask in your heart why these things befall you: For your great guilt your skirts are stripped away and you are violated.
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin? the leopard his spots? As easily would you be able to do good, accustomed to evil as you are.
24 I will scatter them like chaff that flies when the desert wind blows.
25 This is your lot, the portion measured out to you from me, says the LORD. Because you have forgotten me, and trusted in the lying idol,
26 I now will strip off your skirts from you, so that your shame will appear.
27 Your adulteries, your neighings, your shameless prostitutions: On the hills in the highlands I see these horrible crimes of yours. Woe to you, Jerusalem, how long will it yet be before you become clean!

Jeremiah 14

1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
2 Judah mourns, her gates are lifeless; Her people sink down in mourning: from Jerusalem ascends a cry of anguish.
3 The nobles send their servants for water, but when they come to the cisterns They find no water and return with empty jars. Ashamed, despairing, they cover their heads
4 because of the stricken soil; Because there is no rain in the land the farmers are ashamed, they cover their heads.
5 Even the hind in the field deserts her offspring because there is no grass.
6 The wild asses stand on the bare heights, gasping for breath like jackals; Their eyes grow dim, because there is no vegetation to be seen.
7 Even though our crimes bear witness against us, take action, O LORD, for the honor of your name--Even though our rebellions are many, though we have sinned against you.
8 O Hope of Israel, O LORD, our savior in time of need! Why should you be a stranger in this land, like a traveler who has stopped but for a night?
9 Why are you like a man dumbfounded, a champion who cannot save? You are in our midst, O LORD, your name we bear: do not forsake us!
10 Thus says the LORD of this people: They so love to wander that they do not spare their feet. The LORD has no pleasure in them; now he remembers their guilt, and will punish their sins.
11 Then the LORD said to me: Do not intercede for this people.
12 If they fast, I will not listen to their supplication. If they offer holocausts or cereal offerings, I will not accept them. Rather, I will destroy them with the sword, famine, and pestilence.
13 Ah! Lord GOD, I replied, it is the prophets who say to them, You shall not see the sword; famine shall not befall you. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place.
14 Lies these prophets utter in my name, the LORD said to me. I did not send them; I gave them no command nor did I speak to them. Lying visions, foolish divination, dreams of their own imagination, they prophesy to you.
15 Therefore, thus says the LORD: Concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, though I did not send them; who say, Sword and famine shall not befall this land: by the sword and famine shall these prophets meet their end.
16 The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem by famine and the sword. No one shall bury them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour out upon them their own wickedness.
17 Speak to them this word: Let my eyes stream with tears day and night, without rest, Over the great destruction which overwhelms the virgin daughter of my people, over her incurable wound.
18 If I walk out into the field, look! those slain by the sword; If I enter the city, look! those consumed by hunger. Even the prophet and the priest forage in a land they know not.
19 Have you cast Judah off completely? Is Zion loathsome to you? Why have you struck us a blow that cannot be healed? We wait for peace, to no avail; for a time of healing, but terror comes instead.
20 We recognize, O LORD, our wickedness, the guilt of our fathers; that we have sinned against you.
21 For your name's sake spurn us not, disgrace not the throne of your glory; remember your covenant with us, and break it not.
22 Among the nations' idols is there any that gives rain? Or can the mere heavens send showers? Is it not you alone, O LORD, our God, to whom we look? You alone have done all these things.

Jeremiah 15

1 The LORD said to me: Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them away from me.
2 If they ask you where they should go, tell them, Thus says the LORD: Whoever is marked for death, to death; whoever is marked for the sword, to the sword; whoever is marked for famine, to famine; whoever is marked for captivity, to captivity.
3 Four kinds of scourge I have decreed against them, says the LORD: the sword to slay them; dogs to drag them about; the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy them.
4 And I will make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.
5 Who will pity you, Jerusalem, who will console you? Who will stop to ask about your welfare?
6 You have disowned me, says the LORD, turned your back upon me; And so I stretched out my hand to destroy you, I was weary of sparing you.
7 I winnowed them with the fan in every city gate. I destroyed my people through bereavement; they returned not from their evil ways.
8 Their widows were more numerous before me than the sands of the sea. I brought against the mother of youths the spoiler at midday; Suddenly I struck her with anguish and terror.
9 The mother of seven swoons away, gasping out her life; Her sun sets in full day, she is disgraced, despairing. Their survivors I will give to the sword before their enemies, says the LORD.
10 Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth! a man of strife and contention to all the land! I neither borrow nor lend, yet all curse me.
11 Tell me, LORD, have I not served you for their good? Have I not interceded with you in the time of misfortune and anguish?
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15 You know I have. Remember me, LORD, visit me, and avenge me on my persecutors. Because of your long-suffering banish me not; know that for you I have borne insult.
16 When I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart, Because I bore your name, O LORD, God of hosts.
17 I did not sit celebrating in the circle of merrymakers; Under the weight of your hand I sat alone because you filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain continuous, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become for me a treacherous brook, whose waters do not abide!
19 Thus the LORD answered me: If you repent, so that I restore you, in my presence you shall stand; If you bring forth the precious without the vile, you shall be my mouthpiece. Then it shall be they who turn to you, and you shall not turn to them;
20 And I will make you toward this people a solid wall of brass. Though they fight against you, they shall not prevail, For I am with you, to deliver and rescue you, says the LORD.
21 I will free you from the hand of the wicked, and rescue you from the grasp of the violent.