15“What right has My beloved in My house
         When she has done many vile deeds?
         Can the sacrificial flesh take away from you your disaster,
         So that you can rejoice?”

16The LORD called your name,
         “A green olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form”;
         With the noise of a great tumult
         He has kindled fire on it,
         And its branches are worthless.

17The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me by offering up sacrifices to Baal.

Plots against Jeremiah

18Moreover, the LORD made it known to me and I knew it;
         Then You showed me their deeds.

19But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter;
         And I did not know that they had devised plots against me, saying,
         “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
         And let us cut him off from the land of the living,
         That his name be remembered no more.”

20But, O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously,
         Who tries the feelings and the heart,
         Let me see Your vengeance on them,
         For to You have I committed my cause.

      21Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, “Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, so that you will not die at our hand”; 22therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, “Behold, I am about to punish them! The young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters will die by famine; 23and a remnant will not be left to them, for I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth—the year of their punishment.”

NASB ©1995