Then I, Jeremiah, said, “Lord GOD, you have tricked the people of Judah and Jerusalem. You said to them, ‘You will have peace.’ But now the sword is pointing at their throats!”
“Those people lied about the Lord. They said, ‘He will not do anything to us. Nothing bad will happen to us. We will never see an army attack us. We will never starve.’
People did not think it was important to have a true knowledge of God. So God left them and allowed them to have their own worthless thinking. And so they do what they should not do.
Because people did those things, God left them and let them do the shameful things they wanted to do. Women stopped having natural sex with men and started having sex with other women.
People wanted only to do evil. So God left them and let them go their sinful way. And so they became completely immoral and used their bodies in shameful ways with each other.
As soon as I finished speaking for God, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died! I fell to the ground. I bowed with my face touching the ground and said, “Oh, Lord GOD, you are going to completely destroy all the survivors of Israel!”
Young men and old men lie on the ground in the streets of the city. My young women and young men have been killed by the sword. You killed them on the day of your anger. You killed them without mercy!
Some of the people hate the real messages from the Lord, so the prophets give them a different message. They say, ‘You will have peace.’ Some of the people are very stubborn. They do only what they want to do. So the prophets say, ‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’
They should bandage the wounds my people have suffered, but they treat their wounds like small scratches. They say, “It’s all right, everything is all right.” But it is not all right!
They should bandage the wounds my people have suffered, but they treat their wounds like small scratches. They say, ‘It’s all right, everything is all right.’ But it is not all right!
“The way you lived and the things you did brought this trouble to you. It is your evil that made your life so hard. Your evil life brought the pain that hurts deep in your heart.”
Lord, why are you pushing us away from you? Why are you making it hard for us to follow you? Come back to us! We are your servants. Come to us and help us! Our tribes belong to you.
They tell the prophets, “Don’t see dreams about things we should do. Don’t tell us the truth. Say nice things to us and make us feel good. See only good things for us.