But I want you to go there the next time the people are fasting. You are to read the scroll aloud, so that they will hear everything that the LORD has said to me and that I have dictated to you. Do this where everyone can hear you, including the people of Judah who have come in from their towns.

As soon as Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king cut them off with a small knife and threw them into the fire. He kept doing this until the entire scroll was burned up.

The LORD told me to say to the king, "You have burned the scroll, and you have asked Jeremiah why he wrote that the king of Babylonia would come and destroy this land and kill its people and its animals.

said to me, "Write down in a book everything that I have told you,

In the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah, Baruch wrote down what I had dictated to him. Then I told him

I wrote in a book an account of all the destruction that would come on Babylonia, as well as all these other things about Babylonia.

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write an account of this victory, so that it will be remembered. Tell Joshua that I will completely destroy the Amalekites."

Moses wrote God's Law in a book, taking care not to leave out anything.

But it was in the city of Ecbatana in the province of Media that a scroll was found, containing the following record:

Will no one listen to what I am saying? I swear that every word is true. Let Almighty God answer me. If the charges my opponent brings against me were written down so that I could see them,

and so I answered, "Here I am; your instructions for me are in the book of the Law.

The LORD said to me, "Take a large piece of writing material and write on it in large letters: 'Quick Loot, Fast Plunder.'

God told me to write down in a book what the people are like, so that there would be a permanent record of how evil they are.

They are always rebelling against God, always lying, always refusing to listen to the LORD's teachings.

I saw a hand reaching out toward me, and it was holding a scroll.

God said, "Mortal man, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel."

He said, "Mortal man, eat this scroll that I give you; fill your stomach with it." I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey.

The LORD gave me this answer: "Write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance.

Put it in writing, because it is not yet time for it to come true. But the time is coming quickly, and what I show you will come true. It may seem slow in coming, but wait for it; it will certainly take place, and it will not be delayed.

I looked again, and this time I saw a scroll flying through the air.

Then he said to me, "On it is written the curse that is to go out over the whole land. On one side of the scroll it says that every thief will be removed from the land; and on the other side it says that everyone who tells lies under oath will also be taken away.

I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who sits on the throne; it was covered with writing on both sides and was sealed with seven seals.

But there was no one in heaven or on earth or in the world below who could open the scroll and look inside it.

Then one of the elders said to me, "Don't cry. Look! The Lion from Judah's tribe, the great descendant of David, has won the victory, and he can break the seven seals and open the scroll."

The Lamb went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who sits on the throne.

They sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to break open its seals. For you were killed, and by your sacrificial death you bought for God people from every tribe, language, nation, and race.

said to me, "Write down in a book everything that I have told you,

I write down countless teachings for the people, but they reject them as strange and foreign.

Listen to the LORD's message, you descendants of Jacob, you tribes of Israel.

That is why the rains were held back, and the spring showers did not come. You even look like a prostitute; you have no shame.

You won't always be angry; you won't be mad at me forever.' Israel, that is what you said, but you did all the evil you could."

I thought that after she had done all this, she would surely return to me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it all.

and was not at all ashamed. She defiled the land, and she committed adultery by worshiping stones and trees.

I have seen the sin of Samaria's prophets: they have spoken in the name of Baal and have led my people astray.

But I have seen the prophets in Jerusalem do even worse: they commit adultery and tell lies; they help people to do wrong, so that no one stops doing what is evil. To me they are all as bad as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

From the very beginning of their history the people of Israel and the people of Judah have displeased me and made me angry by what they have done.

because of all the evil that has been done by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, together with their kings and leaders, their priests and prophets.

They even placed their disgusting idols in the Temple built for my worship, and they have defiled it.

The LORD was angry with the Israelites and banished them from his sight, leaving only the kingdom of Judah.

The LORD rejected all the Israelites, punishing them and handing them over to cruel enemies until at last he had banished them from his sight.

"I chose you before I gave you life, and before you were born I selected you to be a prophet to the nations."

Today I give you authority over nations and kingdoms to uproot and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant."

'I am going to send for all the peoples from the north and for my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. I am going to bring them to fight against Judah and its inhabitants and against all the neighboring nations. I am going to destroy this nation and its neighbors and leave them in ruins forever, a terrible and shocking sight. I, the LORD, have spoken.

This whole land will be left in ruins and will be a shocking sight, and the neighboring nations will serve the king of Babylonia for seventy years.

I will punish Babylonia with all the disasters that I threatened to bring on the nations when I spoke through Jeremiah---all the disasters recorded in this book.

The LORD, the God of Israel, said to me, "Here is a wine cup filled with my anger. Take it to all the nations to whom I send you, and make them drink from it.

So I took the cup from the LORD's hand, gave it to all the nations to whom the LORD had sent me, and made them drink from it.

Here is the list of all the others who had to drink from the cup: the king of Egypt, his officials and leaders; all the Egyptians and all the foreigners in Egypt; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the Philistine cities of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what remains of Ashdod; all the people of Edom, Moab, and Ammon; all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; all the kings of the Mediterranean lands; the cities of Dedan, Tema, and Buz; all the people who cut their hair short; all the kings of Arabia; all the kings of the desert tribes; all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media; all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another. Every nation on the face of the earth had to drink from it. Last of all, the king of Babylonia will drink from it.

(SEE 25:19)

(SEE 25:19)

(SEE 25:19)

Then the LORD said to me, "Tell the people that I, the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, am commanding them to drink until they are drunk and vomit, until they fall down and cannot get up, because of the war that I am sending against them.

I will begin my work of destruction in my own city. Do they think they will go unpunished? No, they will be punished, for I am going to send war on all the people on earth. I, the LORD Almighty, have spoken.

Before the king of Egypt attacked Gaza, the LORD spoke to me about Philistia.

They will hear the hoofbeats of horses, the clatter of chariots, the rumble of wheels. Parents will not turn back for their children; their hands will hang limp at their sides.

Great sorrow has come to the people of Gaza, and Ashkelon's people are silent. How long will the rest of Philistia mourn?

But how can it rest, when I have given it work to do? I have commanded it to attack Ashkelon and the people who live on the coast."

The LORD spoke to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon was king of Judah,

and he spoke to him again when Josiah's son Jehoiakim was king. After that, the LORD spoke to him many times, until the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah. In the fifth month of that year the people of Jerusalem were taken into exile.

"For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon was king of Judah until this very day, the LORD has spoken to me, and I have never failed to tell you what he said. But you have paid no attention.