A reading from the Book of Jeremiah.

"'Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem,

blow the trumpet and tochoa, and raise a signal on Beth Hackerum,

for disaster looms out of the north and great destruction.

"'The lovely and delicately bred I will destroy, the daughter of Zion,

shepherds with their flock shall come against her, they shall pitch their tents around her, they shall pasture each in his

place, prepare war against her, arise and let us attack at noon. Go to us for the day declines,

for the shadows of evening lengthen. Arise and let us attack by night, and destroy her palaces,

for thus says the Lord of hosts, cut down her trees, cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem,

this is the city that must be punished, there is nothing but oppression within her.

As a well keeps its water fresh, so she keeps fresh her evil. Violence and destruction are heard within her.

Sickness and wounds are ever before me. Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I turn from you and disgust,

lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land. Thus says the Lord of hosts, they shall glean thoroughly

as a vine, the remnant of Israel, like a grape-gatherer, pass your hand

again over its branches. To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear. Behold,

their ears are uncircumcised. They cannot listen. Behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object

of scorn. They take no pleasure in it. Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord. I am weary of holding it in,

poured out upon the children in the street, and upon the gatherings of young men also. Both

husband and wife shall be taken, the elderly and the very aged, their houses shall be turned over to

others, their fields and wives together, for I will stretch out my hand against the

inhabitants of the land, declares the Lord. For from the least of the greatest of them,

everyone is greedy for unjust gain, and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed

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