I said, "I will mourn for the mountains and weep for the pastures, because they have dried up, and no one travels through them. The sound of livestock is no longer heard; birds and wild animals have fled and gone."

"Judah is in mourning; its cities are dying, its people lie on the ground in sorrow, and Jerusalem cries out for help.

The land is full of people unfaithful to the LORD; they live wicked lives and misuse their power. Because of the LORD's curse the land mourns and the pastures are dry.

He made rich soil become a salty wasteland because of the wickedness of those who lived there.

The fields are bare; the ground mourns because the grain is destroyed, the grapes are dried up, and the olive trees are withered.

The grapevines and fig trees have withered; all the fruit trees have wilted and died. The joy of the people is gone.

Give orders for a fast; call an assembly! Gather the leaders and all the people of Judah into the Temple of the LORD your God and cry out to him!

We look on helpless as our crops are destroyed. There is no joy in the Temple of our God.

I saw that there were no people; even the birds had flown away.

And so I, the Sovereign LORD, will pour out my fierce anger on this Temple. I will pour it out on people and animals alike, and even on the trees and the crops. My anger will be like a fire that no one can put out.

And so the land will dry up, and everything that lives on it will die. All the animals and birds, and even the fish, will die."

Even though the fig trees have no fruit and no grapes grow on the vines, even though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no grain, even though the sheep all die and the cattle stalls are empty,

For we know that up to the present time all of creation groans with pain, like the pain of childbirth.

They have said that the prophets are nothing but windbags and that they have no message from the LORD. The LORD God Almighty said to me, "Jeremiah, because these people have said such things, I will make my words like a fire in your mouth. The people will be like wood, and the fire will burn them up."

prophets speak nothing but lies; priests rule as the prophets command, and my people offer no objections. But what will they do when it all comes to an end?"

You have done all this, and I have said nothing, so you thought that I am like you. But now I reprimand you and make the matter plain to you.

"Mortal man," he said, "this is what I, the Sovereign LORD, am saying to the land of Israel: This is the end for the whole land!

I will not spare you or show you any mercy. I am going to punish you for the disgusting things you have done, so that you will know that I am the LORD."

It's all over. This is the end. You are finished.

"Very soon now you will feel all the force of my anger. I am judging you for what you have done, and I will pay you back for all your disgusting conduct.

The day of disaster is coming. Violence is flourishing. Pride is at its height.

The time is coming. The day is near when buying and selling will have no more meaning, because God's punishment will fall on everyone alike.