Jeremiah 10:19–25

¹⁹The people of Jerusalem cried out,

“How badly we are hurt!

Our wounds will not heal.

And we thought this was something we could endure!

²⁰Our tents are ruined;

the ropes that held them have broken.

Our children have all gone away;

there is no one left to put up our tents again;

there is no one to hang their curtains.”

²¹I answered, “Our leaders are stupid;

they do not ask the Lord for guidance.

This is why they have failed,

and our people have been scattered.

²²Listen! News has come!

There is a great commotion in a nation to the north;

its army will turn the cities of Judah into a desert,

a place where jackals live.”

²³Lord, I know that no one is the master of his own destiny;

no person has control over his own life.

²⁴Correct your people, Lord;

but do not be too hard on us

or punish us when you are angry;

that would be the end of us.

²⁵Turn your anger on the nations that do not worship you

and on the people who reject you.

They have killed your people;

they have destroyed us completely and left our country in ruins.