God reached out, touched my mouth, and said, “Look! I’ve just put my words in your mouth—hand-delivered! See what I’ve done? I’ve given you a job to do among nations and governments—a red-letter day! Your job is to pull up and tear down, take apart and demolish, And then start over, building and planting.”

Giving Everything Away for Nothing

Unlucky mother—that you had me as a son, given the unhappy job of indicting the whole country! I’ve never hurt or harmed a soul, and yet everyone is out to get me. But, God knows, I’ve done everything I could to help them, prayed for them and against their enemies. I’ve always been on their side, trying to stave off disaster. God knows how I’ve tried! * * *

“Have any of these prophets bothered to meet with me, the true God? bothered to take in what I have to say? listened to and then lived out my Word? Look out! God’s hurricane will be let loose— my hurricane blast, Spinning the heads of the wicked like tops! God’s raging anger won’t let up Until I’ve made a clean sweep, completing the job I began. When the job’s done, you’ll see that it’s been well done.

Look out! God’s hurricane is let loose, his hurricane blast, Spinning the heads of the wicked like dust devils! God’s raging anger won’t let up Until he’s made a clean sweep completing the job he began. When the job’s done you’ll see it’s been well done. * * *

Then Jeremiah the prophet received this Message from God: “I, the God of Israel, want you to give this Message to the king of Judah, who has just sent you to me to find out what he should do. Tell him, ‘Get this: Pharaoh’s army, which is on its way to help you, isn’t going to stick it out. No sooner will they get here than they’ll leave and go home to Egypt. And then the Babylonians will come back and resume their attack, capture this city and burn it to the ground. I, God, am telling you: Don’t kid yourselves, reassuring one another, “The Babylonians will leave in a few days.” I tell you, they aren’t leaving. Why, even if you defeated the entire attacking Chaldean army and all that was left were a few wounded soldiers in their tents, the wounded would still do the job and burn this city to the ground.’” * * *

“My job is to stay here in Mizpah and be your advocate before the Chaldeans when they show up. Your job is to take care of the land: Make wine, harvest the summer fruits, press olive oil. Store it all in pottery jugs and settle into the towns that you have taken over.”

“Israel is a scattered flock, hunted down by lions. The king of Assyria started the carnage. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, Has completed the job, gnawing the bones clean.”

“I, God, opened my arsenal. I brought out my weapons of wrath. The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, has a job to do in Babylon. Come at her from all sides! Break into her granaries! Shovel her into piles and burn her up. Leave nothing! Leave no one! Kill all her young turks. Send them to their doom! Doom to them! Yes, Doomsday! The clock has finally run out on them. And here’s a surprise: Runaways and escapees from Babylon Show up in Zion reporting the news of God’s vengeance, taking vengeance for my own Temple.

Jeremiah the prophet gave a job to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when Seraiah went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon. It was in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. Seraiah was in charge of travel arrangements.