1
📚✭The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. 2 📚The word of the LORD came✭ to him in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3 📚✭It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, up to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until Jerusalem was carried away into exile in the fifth month.God calls Jeremiah to his work
4 📚Then the word of the LORD
came to me, saying:
5 📚“Before I formed✭ you in the womb,
I knew✭ you, and before you were born
I sanctified✭ you, and I ordained you✭
a prophet to the nations”.
6 📚✭Then I said, “Ah, Lord God✭! Look, I cannot speak, for I am a child”.
7 📚✭But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am a child’, for you will go to all to whom I send you, and you will speak whatever I command you. 8 📚Do not be afraid✭ of their faces, for I am with you✭ to defend✭ you”, said the LORD.
9 📚✭Then the LORD put out his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me,
“Look, I have put my words in your mouth.
10 📚✭See, today I have set you over the nations
and over the kingdoms, to root out,
and to pull down, and to destroy,
and to throw down, to build,
and to plant”.
11 📚✭Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree”.
12 📚✭Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well; for I will watch over my word to fulfil it”.
13 📚✭And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, and its face is toward the north”.
14 📚Then the LORD said to me, “Out of the north a disaster will burst out on all the inhabitants of the land. 15 📚For, see, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD,
“And they will come, and each of them
will set his throne at the entrance
of the gates of Jerusalem,
and against all its surrounding walls,
and against all the cities of Judah.
16 📚✭And I will utter my judgments against
them concerning all their wickedness,
because they have forsaken me
and burned incense to other gods,
and worshipped the works
of their own hands.
17 📚✭“Therefore make yourself ready,
and arise and speak to them all that
I command you.
Do not be afraid of their faces,
so that I do not make you fear
before them.
18 📚✭For, see, today I have made you
a fortified city, and an iron pillar,
and bronze walls against the whole land,
against the kings of Judah, against its princes,
against its priests, and against the people
of the land.
19 📚And they will fight against you,
but they will not prevail against you;
for I am with you, says the LORD,
to deliver you”.