The Hebrew Prophets

Then ADONAI put out his hand and touched my mouth, and ADONAI said to me, "There! I have put my words in your mouth.

Today I have placed you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant."

The word of ADONAI came to me, asking, "Yirmeyahu, what do you see?" I answered, "I see a branch from an almond tree [Hebrew: shaked].

Then ADONAI said to me, "You have seen well, because I am watching [Hebrew: shoked] to fulfill my word."

A second time the word of ADONAI came to me, asking, "What do you see?" I answered, "I see a caldron tilted away from the north, over a fire fanned by the wind."

Then ADONAI said to me, "From the north calamity will boil over onto everyone living in the land,

because I will summon all the families in the kingdoms of the north," says ADONAI, "and they will come and sit, each one, on his throne at the entrance to the gates of Yerushalayim, opposite its walls, all the way around, and opposite all the cities of Y'hudah.

I will pronounce my judgments against them for all their wickedness in abandoning me, offering incense to other gods and worshipping what their own hands made.

"But you, dress for action; stand up and tell them everything I order you to say. When you confront them, don't break down; or I will break you down in front of them!

For today, you see, I have made you into a fortified city, a pillar of iron, a wall of bronze against the whole land - against the kings of Y'hudah, against its princes, against its cohanim and the people of the land.

They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you," says ADONAI, "to rescue you."

The word of ADONAI came to me:

"Go and shout in the ears of Yerushalayim that this is what ADONAI says: 'I remember your devotion when you were young; how, as a bride, you loved me; how you followed me through the desert, through a land not sown.

"'Isra'el is set aside for ADONAI, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devour him will incur guilt; evil will befall them," says ADONAI.

Hear the word of ADONAI, house of Ya'akov and all families in the house of Isra'el;

here is what ADONAI says: "What did your ancestors find wrong with me to make them go so far away from me, to make them go after nothings and become themselves nothings?

They didn't ask, 'Where is ADONAI, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the desert, through a land of wastes and ravines, through a land of drought and death-dark shadows, through a land where no one travels and where no one ever lived?'

I brought you into a fertile land to enjoy its fruit and all its good things; but when you entered, you defiled my land and made my heritage loathsome.

The cohanim didn't ask, 'Where is ADONAI?' Those who deal with the Torah did not know me, the people's shepherds rebelled against me; the prophets prophesied by Ba'al and went after things of no value.

"So again I state my case against you," says ADONAI, "and state it against your grandchildren too.

Cross to the coasts of the Kitti'im and look; send to Kedar and observe closely; see if anything like this has happened before:

has a nation ever exchanged its gods (and theirs are not gods at all!)? Yet my people have exchanged their Glory for something without value.

Be aghast at this, you heavens! Shudder in absolute horror!" says ADONAI.

"For my people have committed two evils: they have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water!

"Is Isra'el a slave, born into serfdom? If not, why has he become plunder?