Make those who are hurting me be ashamed, but don’t bring shame to me. Let them be terrified, but keep me from terror. Bring the day of disaster on my enemies. Destroy them, and destroy them again.
“Jeremiah, get ready. Stand up and tell them everything I command you to say. Don’t be afraid of the people, or I will give you good reason to be afraid of them.
But, Lord All-Powerful, you are a fair judge. You know how to test peoples’ hearts and minds. I have told you what I have against them. So let me see you give them the punishment they deserve.
But you know my heart, Lord. You see me and test my thoughts about you. Drag the evil people away like sheep to be butchered. Set them aside for the day of killing.
“Jeremiah, speak this message to the people of Judah: ‘Let my eyes be filled with tears night and day, without stopping. My people have received a terrible blow; they have been hurt badly.
I will pay back the people of Judah twice for every one of their sins, because they have made my land unclean. They have filled my country with their hateful idols.”
Lord, hope of Israel, those who leave you will be shamed. People who quit following the Lord will be like a name written in the dust, because they have left the Lord, the spring of living water.
Lord, I didn’t run away from being the shepherd you wanted. I didn’t want the terrible day to come. You know everything I have said; you see all that is happening.
This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and stand at the People’s Gate of Jerusalem, where the kings of Judah go in and out. And then go to all the other gates of Jerusalem.
But the Lord is with me like a strong warrior, so those who are chasing me will trip and fall; they will not defeat me. They will be ashamed because they have failed, and their shame will never be forgotten.
Give that city the same as she gave to others. Pay her back twice as much as she did. Prepare wine for her that is twice as strong as the wine she prepared for others.