¹The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who are in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, ²To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, the king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. ³And this came to pass in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, up to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, the king of Judah – up to the deportation of Jerusalem in the fifth month. ⁴And the word of the Lord came to me and said,

⁵“Before I formed you in the belly,

I knew you,

And before you came out of the womb,

I sanctified you.

I have appointed you

As a prophet to the nations.”

⁶Then I said,

“Oh, my Lord the Lord,

Look, I do not know how to speak,

For I am just a lad.”

⁷But the Lord said to me,

“Do not say,

‘I am just a lad’,

For you shall go everywhere I send you,

And you shall speak everything I command you.

⁸Do not fear their presence;

I am with you to deliver you”,

Says the Lord.

⁹Then the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth, at which the Lord said to me,

“Look, I have put my words in your mouth.

¹⁰See, I have appointed you today

Over the nations and over the kingdoms,

To tear down and to demolish

And to destroy and to devastate,

To build and to plant.”

¹¹Then the word of the Lord came to me and said, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “I see a rod of almond tree wood.” ¹²And the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I will watch over my word, to carry it out.” ¹³And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, and he said, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, and its face is turned from the north.” ¹⁴And the Lord said to me,

“Evil will break out from the north

Over all the inhabitants of the land.

¹⁵For I am about to call

All the families of the kingdoms of the north,

Says the Lord,

And they will come,

And each king will direct his throne

To the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem,

And against all its walls round about,

And against all the cities of Judah.

¹⁶And I will pronounce my judgments on them,

Concerning all their evil,

In that they have forsaken me

And burned incense to other gods

And have worshipped the works of their hands.

¹⁷But you gird up your loins and arise,

And tell them everything that I command you.

Do not be afraid of them,

So that I do not cause you dismay in their presence.

¹⁸And as for my part,

Look, I have made you today

A fortified city and an iron column,

And copper walls, all over the land,

To the kings of Judah, to its officers, to its priests,

And to the people of the land.

¹⁹And they will fight against you,

But they will not prevail over you,

For I am with you,

Says the Lord,

To deliver you.”