Jeremiah 13:18-27

18Tell the king and his mother, “Come down from your thrones. Your beautiful crowns will soon fall from your heads.”

19The cities in the south of Judah will keep their gates shut. Nobody will go in or out of the cities. Enemies will take the people of Judah away as prisoners. They will take them all into exile.

20Leaders of Jerusalem, look up! See the enemy that is coming from the north. What has happened to your people? You were proud of them and you should have taken care of them. You are like shepherds who have lost their sheep.

21The Lord will choose other people to rule over you. They are people that you wanted to be your friends, but now they will have power over you. So what will you say about that? You will be afraid and in much pain, like a woman who is giving birth to a baby.

22You may ask, “Why are these things happening to me?” It is because of your many terrible sins. Like an adulteress, they have torn off your dress to make you ashamed.

23You have done evil things for a long time. So you cannot now start to do good things. Can anyone change the colour of his skin? Can a leopard remove the marks on its body? No! And you cannot change yourselves either.’

24The Lord says, ‘I will blow you away, as a hot desert wind blows away straw.

25That is how I have decided to punish you. It is what you deserve because you have forgotten me. You have trusted in false gods.

26So I will cause you to be very ashamed, like a woman whose dress they have removed.

27People of Jerusalem, you are in terrible trouble! I have seen the disgusting things that you do. You are like a woman who has not been faithful to her husband. Like a prostitute, you look for other gods to serve. You cannot control yourselves, as you do disgusting things on the hills and in the fields. Will you never be clean and pure again?’