19. Before this, I was like a gentle lamb waiting to be butchered. I did not know they had made plans against me. They said:“Let us destroy the tree and its fruit!Let’s kill him!Then people will forget him!”
20. But, Lord of heaven’s armies, you are a fair judge.You know how to test peoples’ hearts and minds.I will tell you what I have against them.And I will let you give them the punishment they should have!
21. So the Lord speaks about the men from Anathoth who were planning to kill Jeremiah. Those men say, “Don’t prophesy in the name of the Lord. If you do, we will kill you!”
22. So this is what the Lord of heaven’s armies says: “I will soon punish the men from Anathoth. Their young men will die in war. Their sons and daughters will die from hunger.
23. No one from the city of Anathoth will be left alive. I will cause a disaster to happen to them that year.”