Jeremiah 11:1-10

The Broken Covenant

11¹ The Message that came to Jeremiah from God: ² "Preach to the people of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem. ³ Tell them this: 'This is God's Message, the Message of Israel's God to you. Anyone who does not keep the terms of this covenant is cursed. ⁴ The terms are clear. I made them plain to your ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt, out of the iron furnace of suffering. ⁵ This will provide the conditions in which I will be able to do what I promised your ancestors: to give them a fertile and lush land. And, as you know, that's what I did.'" "Yes, God," I replied. "That's true." ⁶ God continued: "Preach all this in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Say, 'Listen to the terms of this covenant and carry them out! ⁷ I warned your ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt and I've kept up the warnings. I haven't quit warning them for a moment. I warned them from morning to night: "Obey me or else!" ⁸ But they didn't obey. They paid no attention to me. They did whatever they wanted to do, whenever they wanted to do it, until finally I stepped in and ordered the punishments set out in the covenant, which, despite all my warnings, they had ignored.'" ⁹ Then God said, "There's a conspiracy among the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ They've plotted to reenact the sins of their ancestors - the ones who disobeyed me and decided to go after other gods and worship them. Israel and Judah are in this together, mindlessly breaking the covenant I made with their ancestors."