The following message came to Jeremiah from the Lord: For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Write all the words I have spoken to you in a book.

In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, the prophet Hananiah, son of Azzur, from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

Brothers and sisters: What will separate us from the love of Christ?

Thus says the Lord:/ All you who are thirsty,/ come to the water!/ You who have no money,/ come, receive grain and eat;/ come, without paying and without cost,/ drink wine and milk!/ Why spend your money for what is not bread;/ your wages for what fails to satisfy?/ Heed me, and you shall eat well,/ you shall delight in rich fare./ Come to me heedfully,/ listen, that you may have life./ I will renew with you the everlasting covenant,/ the benefits assured to David.

The priests and prophets said to the princes and to all the people, “This man deserves death; he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.” Jeremiah gave this answer to the princes and all the people: “It was the Lord who sent me to prophesy against this house and city all that you have heard.

In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this message came from the Lord: Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the house of the Lord and speak to the people of all the cities of Judah who come to worship in the house of the Lord; what­ever I command you, tell them, and omit nothing.

This word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: Rise up, be off to the potter’s house; there I will give you my message.

Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth!/ a man of strife and contention to all the land!/ I neither borrow nor lend,/ yet all curse me./ When I found your words, I devoured them;/ they became my joy and the happiness of my heart,/ Because I bore your name,/ O Lord, God of hosts./ I did not sit celebrating/ in the ­circle of merrymakers;/ Under the weight of your hand I sat alone/ because you filled me with indignation./ Why is my pain continuous,/ my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?/ You have indeed become for me a treacherous brook,/ whose waters do not abide!/ Thus the Lord answered me:/ If you repent, so that I restore you,/ in my presence you shall stand;/ If you bring forth the precious without the vile,/ you shall be my mouthpiece./ Then it shall be they who turn to you,/ and you shall not turn to them;/ And I will make you toward this people/ a solid wall of brass./ Though they fight against you,/ they shall not prevail,/ For I am with you,/ to deliver and rescue you, says the Lord./ I will free you from the hand of the wicked,/ and rescue you from the grasp of the violent.

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.

Let my eyes stream with tears/ day and night, without rest,/ Over the great destruction which overwhelms/ the ­virgin daughter of my people,/ over her incurable wound./ If I walk out into the field,/ look!