Jeremiah 15:5–11

⁵“Jerusalem, who will have pity on you?

Who will sob over you?

Who will stop to ask how you are doing?

⁶You have said no to me,” announces the Lord.

“You keep on turning away from me.

So I will destroy you with my own hands.

I can’t show you my tender love anymore.

⁷I will stand at the city gates of the land.

I will separate the straw from the grain.

I will destroy my people. I will bring great sorrow on them.

They have not changed their ways.

⁸I will increase the number of their widows.

They will be more than the grains of sand on the seashore.

At noon I will bring a destroyer

against the mothers of the young men among my people.

All at once I will bring down on them

great suffering and terror.

⁹Mothers who have many children will grow weak.

They will take their last breath.

The sun will set on them while it is still day.

They will be dishonored and put to shame.

All those who are left alive I will kill with swords.

I will have their enemies do it,”

announces the Lord.

¹⁰My mother, I wish I had never been born!

The whole land opposes me.

They fight against me.

I haven’t made loans to anyone.

And I haven’t borrowed anything.

But everyone still calls down curses on me.

¹¹The Lord said,

“Jeremiah, I will keep you safe for a good purpose.

I will make your enemies ask you to pray for them.

They will make their appeal to you

when they are in great trouble.