Jeremiah 15:1–14

¹Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go! ²If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says:

‘Those destined for death, to death;

those destined for the sword, to the sword;^a

those destined for famine, to famine;

and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’

³I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. ⁴I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.

⁵Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem?

Who will mourn for you?

Who will turn aside

to ask about your welfare?

⁶You have forsaken Me, declares the LORD.

You have turned your back.

So I will stretch out My hand against you

and I will destroy you;

I am weary of showing compassion.

⁷I will scatter them with a winnowing fork

at the gates of the land.

I will bereave and destroy My people

who have not turned from their ways.

⁸I will make their widows more numerous

than the sand of the sea.

I will bring a destroyer at noon

against the mothers of young men.

I will suddenly bring upon them

anguish and dismay.

⁹The mother of seven will grow faint;

she will breathe her last breath.

Her sun will set while it is still day;

she will be disgraced and humiliated.

And the rest I will put to the sword

in the presence of their enemies,”

declares the LORD.

¹⁰Woe to me, my mother,

that you have borne me,

a man of strife and conflict

in all the land.

I have neither lent nor borrowed,

yet everyone curses me.

¹¹The LORD said:

“Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose;

surely I will intercede with your enemy

in your time of trouble,

in your time of distress.

¹²Can anyone smash iron —

iron from the north — or bronze?

¹³Your wealth and your treasures

I will give up as plunder,

without charge for all your sins

within all your borders.

¹⁴Then I will enslave you to your enemies

in a land^b you do not know,

for My anger will kindle a fire

that will burn against you.”