1. The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch, son of Neriah, when he wrote on a scroll words from Jeremiah’s own mouth in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:
2. Thus says the Lord, God of Israel, to you, Baruch.
3. You said, “Woe is me! the Lord has added grief to my pain. I have worn myself out with groaning; rest eludes me.”
4. You must say this to him. Thus says the Lord: What I have built, I am tearing down; what I have planted, I am uprooting: all this land.
5. And you, do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them! I am bringing evil on all flesh—oracle of the Lord—but I will grant you your life as spoils of war, wherever you may go.