1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:
2. Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Write all the words that I have spoken to you in a book.
3. For surely the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah. The Lord says, I also will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.
4. These are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah.
5. For thus says the Lord: I have heard a sound of trembling,of fear, and not of peace.
6. Ask now, and see,can a male labor with child?Why do I see every manwith his hands on his loins, as a woman in labor,and all faces turned pale?
7. Alas! for that day is great,so that no one is like it;it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble,but he shall be saved out of it.
8. For it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord of Hosts,that I shall break his yoke from off their neckand tear away their bonds,and strangers shall no longer make them their slaves.