When יהוה has washed away the filth of the daughters of Tsiyon, and rinsed away the blood of Yerushalayim from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning,
“They have turned back to the crookednesses of their forefathers who refused to hear My words, and they have gone after other mighty ones to serve them. The house of Yisra’ĕ
But I was like a gentle lamb brought to the slaughter. And I did not know that they had plotted against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more.”
‘This evil people, who refuse to hear My Words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and walk after other mighty ones to serve them and to bow themselves to them, is like this girdle which is completely useless.
Then they said, “Come and let us devise plans against Yirmeyahu, for the Torah shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not listen to any of his words.”
For I heard many mocking, “Fear on every side!” “Expose,” they say, “yea, let us expose him!” All my friends watched for my stumbling, saying, “He might be lured away, so that we prevail against him, and take our revenge on him.”
“My people have perished for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being priest for Me. Since you have forgotten the Torah of your Elohim, I also forget your children.
“And I shall bring the third into fire, and refine them as silver is refined, and try them as gold is tried. They shall call on My Name, and I shall answer them. I shall say, ‘This is My people,’ while they say, ‘יהוה is my Elohim.’ ”