Jeremiah 15:5–11

⁵“Who will feel sorry for you, Jerusalem?

Who will weep for you?

Who will even bother to ask how you are?

⁶You have abandoned me

and turned your back on me,”

says the Lord.

“Therefore, I will raise my fist to destroy you.

I am tired of always giving you another chance.

⁷I will winnow you like grain at the gates of your cities

and take away the children you hold dear.

I will destroy my own people,

because they refuse to change their evil ways.

⁸There will be more widows

than the grains of sand on the seashore.

At noontime I will bring a destroyer

against the mothers of young men.

I will cause anguish and terror

to come upon them suddenly.

⁹The mother of seven grows faint and gasps for breath;

her sun has gone down while it is still day.

She sits childless now,

disgraced and humiliated.

And I will hand over those who are left

to be killed by the enemy.

I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Jeremiah’s Complaint

¹⁰Then I said,

“What sorrow is mine, my mother.

Oh, that I had died at birth!

I am hated everywhere I go.

I am neither a lender who threatens to foreclose

nor a borrower who refuses to pay—

yet they all curse me.”

¹¹The Lord replied,

“I will take care of you, Jeremiah.

Your enemies will ask you to plead on their behalf

in times of trouble and distress.