9. Then the Lord stretched out his hand, touched my lips, and said to me, “Listen, I am giving you the words you must speak.
10. Today I give you authority over nations and kingdoms to uproot and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
11. The Lord asked me, “Jeremiah, what do you see?”I answered, “A branch of an almond tree.”
12. “You are right,” the Lord said, “and I am watching to see that my words come true.”
13. Then the Lord spoke to me again. “What else do you see?” he asked.I answered, “I see a pot boiling in the north, and it is about to tip over this way.”
14. He said to me, “Destruction will boil over from the north on all who live in this land,
15. because I am calling all the nations in the north to come. Their kings will set up their thrones at the gates of Jerusalem and round its walls, and also round the other cities of Judah.
16. I will punish my people because they have sinned; they have abandoned me, have offered sacrifices to other gods, and have made idols and worshipped them.
17. Get ready, Jeremiah; go and tell them everything I command you to say. Do not be afraid of them now, or I will make you even more afraid when you are with them.