Jeremiah is sad

10 ‘I will weep for the mountains.

I will cry for the fields in the wilderness.

There is no grass for the animals to eat.

Nobody travels through those places.

There is no sound of cows and sheep.

The birds and the wild animals have all disappeared.’

11 The Lord replied,

‘I will make Jerusalem a heap of stones.

Only wild animals will live there.

I will destroy the towns of Judah

so that nobody can live in them.’

12 I said,

‘Nobody is wise enough to understand this. The Lord has not told anyone, so that he can explain it to others. Why has our land become like a desert so that nobody travels through it? Does anyone know the answer?’

13 The Lord answered, ‘It is because my people have not accepted the laws that I gave to them. They have not obeyed me. They have not lived in the way that I told them to live. 14 Instead, they have done whatever they wanted to do. They have served the gods of Baal, as their ancestors taught them to do.’ 15 So the Lord Almighty, Israel's God, says this: ‘I will punish my people with trouble and pain. I will give them food that is bitter. They will drink water that is poison. 16 I will send them away as prisoners. They will live among foreign nations that they had never heard about. Their ancestors had not heard about them either. I will send enemies to chase after them until I have destroyed them.’

17 The Lord Almighty said this:

‘Think about what is happening!

Call the women who weep at funerals.

Bring those women who know what to do.’

18 ‘Yes, tell them to come quickly

to sing funeral songs for us.

Then tears will pour from our eyes,

and we will not stop weeping.

19 Listen to the people who are crying in Jerusalem!

They say,

“A terrible thing has happened to us!

We are very ashamed!

Our enemies have destroyed our houses.

Now we have to leave our land.” ’

20 ‘Now hear the Lord's message, you women.

Listen to what he says to you.

Teach your daughters how to weep.

Teach each other this funeral song:

21 “Death has come to visit us!

It has come into our strong houses.

Death has taken away our children

who play in the streets.

It has taken away our young men

who meet together in the streets.”

22 The Lord says this:

Dead bodies of people will lie everywhere on the ground.

They will lie there like dung

that a farmer puts on his fields.

They will lie there like crops at harvest time

that nobody has picked up.’

23 The Lord says,

‘Wise people should not be proud of their wisdom.

Powerful people should not be proud of their power.

And rich people should not be proud that they are rich.

24 If they want to be proud about something,

they should be proud that they know me.

They should boast that they understand who I am.

I am the Lord.

I am faithful in my love for my people.

I always do what is right and fair.

It makes me happy when people live in that way too.’

25 The Lord says, ‘Be careful! Very soon I will punish all people who do not respect me. Those people may be circumcised, but if they do not respect me, I will punish them. 26 Those people include the Egyptians, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites and the people of Judah. I will also punish the people who live in the desert and who cut their hair short. Those people are not circumcised to give honour to me. The Israelites are the same. Their bodies are circumcised, but they do not want to obey my covenant with them.’

Jeremiah 10

1 People of Israel, listen to what the Lord says to you.

2 The Lord says,

‘Do not copy the way that people of other nations live.

They are afraid of strange things that they see in the sky.

But you must not be afraid of those things.

3 The customs of those people are useless.

They cut down a tree in the forest.

A worker uses his tools to make it into an idol.

4 He covers it with silver and gold

to make it look beautiful.

He uses nails to fix it together

so that it will not fall down.

5 Those idols cannot speak.

They are like scarecrows that a farmer puts in his field of vegetables.

The idols cannot walk,

so people have to carry them.

So do not be afraid of them.

They cannot hurt you.

And they do not have any power to help you.’

6 There is nobody like you, Lord.

You are great and your name shows your power.

7 Everyone should respect you,

the King who rules all the nations.

You deserve that people give you honour.

There is nobody like you anywhere in the world.

Among all the wise people of the nations

and among all their kings,

there is no one like you.

8 The people of those nations are stupid and foolish.

They think that wooden idols can teach them something!

9 They bring thin silver from Spain.

They bring gold from Uphaz.

Workers who know how to use wood and metal

make the idols look beautiful.

They put valuable blue and purple clothes on the idols.

Workers who have special skills do this.

10 But the Lord is the only true God.

He is the God who is alive.

He is the King who rules for ever.

When he is angry, the earth shakes.

None of the nations can stop his anger.

11 Tell the nations this:

‘Your gods did not make the earth or the sky.

They will disappear completely from everywhere on earth

and everywhere in the sky.’

12 But the Lord used his power to make the earth.

He used his wisdom to make it strong.

He knew how to put the sky to cover the earth.

13 When he shouts like thunder,

the water in the sky roars.

He causes clouds to rise from the far places of the earth.

He causes bright lightning to show in the storms.

He opens his rooms so that the wind comes out

and it blows everywhere.

14 People who worship idols are stupid.

They do not understand what they are doing.

The men who make idols will be ashamed.

They make images of gods that are false.

None of their idols have the breath of life in them.

15 They are useless things that people should laugh at.

When the time for their punishment arrives,

God will destroy them.

16 The God that Jacob's descendants worship

is not like those idols.

He created everything.

He chose the Israelites as the people who would belong to him.

His name is the Lord Almighty.