A Covenant They Refused to Keep
11 1 The word that came to Jeremiah from our Father:
2 "Hear the words of this covenant, and speak them to the people of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem. 3 Say to them: This is what the Father of Israel says: Cursed is the one who will not listen to 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, saying: Obey me and do everything I command you, so you will be my children and I will be your Father. a a v4 The iron furnace pictures Egypt's crushing slave labor — scorching, relentless bondage with no way out. 5 Then I will 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, our Father."
6 Our Father 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 For I solemnly warned your ancestors on the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and I have kept warning them to this very day, again and again, saying: Obey me. 8 Yet they did not obey or pay attention; each one followed his own stubborn, evil heart. So I brought on them all the words of this covenant that I had commanded them to keep, but they did not keep them.
9 Our Father said to me: "A conspiracy has been found among the people of Judah and among those who live in Jerusalem. 10 They have returned to the sins of their 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 that I made with their ancestors. 11 Therefore this is what our Father says: I am about to bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. 12 Then the cities of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods they burn incense to, but they cannot save them at all in the time of their trouble. 13 For your gods have become as many as your cities, Judah; and the altars you have set up to that shameful thing are as many as the streets of Jerusalem — altars to burn incense to Baal.
14 So do not pray for this people, or raise any cry or prayer for them, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble.
15 What right does my beloved have in my house, when she has carried out so many wicked schemes? Can sacred meat avert your doom? When your disaster comes, will you then rejoice? b b v15 Sacred meat: the portions of animal sacrifices brought to the Temple as offerings to God. 16 Our Father once called you a thriving olive tree, beautiful with well-formed fruit. But with the roar of a mighty storm he will set it on fire, and its branches will be broken.
17 The Father of heaven's armies, who planted you, has decreed disaster against you, because of the evil the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done — provoking me to anger by burning incense to Baal.
A Plot Against Jeremiah
18 Our Father made it known to me, and I knew; then you showed me their deeds. 19 But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize they had plotted against me, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that no one will remember his name." 20 But Father of heaven's armies, you who judge righteously, who test the heart and the mind, let me see your justice on them, for I have committed my cause to you.
21 Therefore this is what our Father says concerning the people of Anathoth who are trying to kill you and saying, "Do not prophesy in the name of our Father, or we will kill you" c c v21 Anathoth was Jeremiah's own hometown, a priestly town just north of Jerusalem — so this plot against him came from his own neighbors and kin. 22 —therefore this is what the Father of heaven's armies says: I am about to punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and their daughters by famine. 23 Not even a remnant will be left to them, for I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth when their time of punishment comes.