Jeremiah

¹ with a steel chisel, A steel chisel with a diamond point— engraved on their granite hearts, engraved on the stone corners of their altars.

² sex-and-religion altars and sacred sex shrines Anywhere there's a grove of trees, anywhere there's an available hill.

³ for giving away everything you have. All your 'things' will serve as reparations for your sins all over the country.

⁴ The inheritance I gave you. I'll make you slaves of your enemies in a far-off and strange land. My anger is hot and blazing and fierce, and no one will put it out."

⁵ "Cursed is the strong one who depends on mere humans, Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone and sets God aside as dead weight.

⁶ out of touch with the good earth. He lives rootless and aimless in a land where nothing grows.

⁷ the woman who sticks with God.

⁸ putting down roots near the rivers— Never a worry through the hottest of summers, never dropping a leaf, Serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit every season.

⁹ a puzzle that no one can figure out.

¹⁰ and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be."

¹¹ in another bird's nest Is the person who gets rich by cheating. When the eggs hatch, the deceit is exposed. What a fool he'll look like then!

¹² a throne of glory, exalted!

¹³ All who leave you end up as fools, Deserters with nothing to show for their lives, who walk off from God, fountain of living waters— and wind up dead!

¹⁴ Put me back together again. You are my praise!

¹⁵ "So where's this 'Word of God'? We'd like to see something happen!"

¹⁶ I never wanted trouble. You know what I've said. It's all out in the open before you.

¹⁷ Give me some relief!

¹⁸ Let them be disgraced, not me. Bring down upon them the day of doom. Lower the boom. Boom!

¹⁹ God's Message to me: "Go stand in the People's Gate, the one used by Judah's kings as they come and go, and then proceed in turn to all the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰ Tell them: 'Listen, you kings of Judah, listen to God's Message—and all you people who go in and out of these gates, you listen!

²¹ " 'This is God's Message. Be careful, if you care about your lives, not to desecrate the Sabbath by turning it into just another workday, lugging stuff here and there.

²² Don't use the Sabbath to do business as usual. Keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors.

²³ They never did it, as you know. They paid no attention to what I said and went about their own business, refusing to be guided or instructed by me.

²⁴ " 'But now, take seriously what I tell you. Quit desecrating the Sabbath by busily going about your own work, and keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing business as usual.

²⁵ Then kings from the time of David and their officials will continue to ride through these gates on horses or in chariots. The people of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem will continue to pass through them, too. Jerusalem will always be filled with people.

²⁶ People will stream in from all over Judah, from the province of Benjamin, from the Jerusalem suburbs, from foothills and mountains and deserts. They'll come to worship, bringing all kinds of offerings—animals, grains, incense, expressions of thanks—into the Sanctuary of God.

²⁷ " 'But if you won't listen to me, won't keep the Sabbath holy, won't quit using the Sabbath for doing your own work, busily going in and out of the city gates on your self-important business, then I'll burn the gates down. In fact, I'll burn the whole city down, palaces and all, with a fire nobody will be able to put out!' "