So I bought them and put them on.

"Go to the Euphrates River and hide the shorts in a hole in the rocks."

Some time later the LORD told me to go back to the Euphrates and get the shorts.

Then the LORD spoke to me again. He said,

These evil people have refused to obey me. They have been as stubborn and wicked as ever, and have worshiped and served other gods. So then, they will become like these shorts that are no longer any good.

The LORD God said to me, "Jeremiah, tell the people of Israel that every wine jar should be filled with wine. They will answer that they know every wine jar should be filled with wine.

Then I will smash them like jars against one another, old and young alike. No pity, compassion, or mercy will stop me from killing them."

Honor the LORD, your God, before he brings darkness, and you stumble on the mountains; before he turns into deep darkness the light you hoped for.

The LORD said to me, "Tell the king and his mother to come down from their thrones, because their beautiful crowns have fallen from their heads.

Jerusalem, look! Your enemies are coming down from the north! Where are the people entrusted to your care, your people you were so proud of ?

If you ask why all this has happened to you---why your clothes have been torn off and you have been raped---it is because your sin is so terrible.

The LORD will scatter you like straw that is blown away by the desert wind.

The LORD himself will strip off your clothes and expose you to shame.

"Judah is in mourning; its cities are dying, its people lie on the ground in sorrow, and Jerusalem cries out for help.

Because there is no rain and the ground is dried up, the farmers are sick at heart; they hide their faces.

The wild donkeys stand on the hilltops and pant for breath like jackals; their eyesight fails them because they have no food.

You are Israel's only hope; you are the one who saves us from disaster. Why are you like a stranger in our land, like a traveler who stays for only one night?

The LORD says about these people, "They love to run away from me, and they will not control themselves. So I am not pleased with them. I will remember the wrongs they have done and punish them because of their sins."

Even if they fast, I will not listen to their cry for help; and even if they offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not be pleased with them. Instead, I will kill them in war and by starvation and disease."

But the LORD replied, "The prophets are telling lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I give them any orders or speak one word to them. The visions they talk about have not come from me; their predictions are worthless things that they have imagined.

The people to whom they have said these things will be killed in the same way. Their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, and there will be no one to bury them. This will happen to all of them---including their wives, their sons, and their daughters. I will make them pay for their wickedness."

When I go out in the fields, I see the bodies of men killed in war; when I go into the towns, I see people starving to death. Prophets and priests carry on their work, but they don't know what they are doing."

We have sinned against you, LORD; we confess our own sins and the sins of our ancestors.

None of the idols of the nations can send rain; the sky by itself cannot make showers fall. We have put our hope in you, O LORD our God, because you are the one who does these things.

When they ask you where they should go, tell them that I have said: Some are doomed to die by disease--- that's where they will go! Others are doomed to die in war--- that's where they will go! Some are doomed to die of starvation--- that's where they will go! Others are doomed to be taken away as prisoners--- that's where they will go!

I will make all the people of the world horrified at them because of what Hezekiah's son Manasseh did in Jerusalem when he was king of Judah."

You people have rejected me; you have turned your backs on me. So I reached out and crushed you because I was tired of controlling my anger.

There are more widows in your land than grains of sand by the sea. I killed your young men in their prime and made their mothers suffer. I suddenly struck them with anguish and terror.

What an unhappy man I am! Why did my mother bring me into the world? I have to quarrel and argue with everyone in the land. I have not lent any money or borrowed any; yet everyone curses me.

(No one can break iron, especially the iron from the north that is mixed with bronze.)

I will make them serve their enemies in a land they know nothing about, because my anger is like fire, and it will burn forever."

You spoke to me, and I listened to every word. I belong to you, LORD God Almighty, and so your words filled my heart with joy and happiness.

Why do I keep on suffering? Why are my wounds incurable? Why won't they heal? Do you intend to disappoint me like a stream that goes dry in the summer?"

I will make you like a solid bronze wall as far as they are concerned. They will fight against you, but they will not defeat you. I will be with you to protect you and keep you safe.

He breaks off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will be clean and bear more fruit.

Remain united to me, and I will remain united to you. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it can do so only if it remains in the vine. In the same way you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me.

Those who do not remain in me are thrown out like a branch and dry up; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, where they are burned.

My Father's glory is shown by your bearing much fruit; and in this way you become my disciples.

If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.

My commandment is this: love one another, just as I love you.

And you are my friends if you do what I command you.

You did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of him in my name.

"If the world hates you, just remember that it has hated me first.

Remember what I told you: 'Slaves are not greater than their master.' If people persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours too.

They would not have been guilty of sin if I had not come and spoken to them; as it is, they no longer have any excuse for their sin.

They would not have been guilty of sin if I had not done among them the things that no one else ever did; as it is, they have seen what I did, and they hate both me and my Father.

"The Helper will come---the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God and who comes from the Father. I will send him to you from the Father, and he will speak about me.