Jeremiah 11:1-8,14-20 11The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.3You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed be anyone who does not heed the words of this covenant, 4which I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron-smelter, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God, 5that I may perform the oath that I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day. Then I answered, ‘So be it, Lord.’ 6 And the Lord said to me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. 7For I solemnly warned your ancestors when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice. 8Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of an evil will. So I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not. 14 As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble. 15What right has my beloved in my house, when she has done vile deeds? Can vows* and sacrificial flesh avert your doom? Can you then exult?16The Lord once called you, ‘A green olive tree, fair with goodly fruit’; but with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. 17The Lord of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal.  18 It was the Lord who made it known to me, and I knew;    then you showed me their evil deeds.  19 But I was like a gentle lamb    led to the slaughter. And I did not know it was against me    that they devised schemes, saying, ‘Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,    let us cut him off from the land of the living,    so that his name will no longer be remembered!’  20 But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously,    who try the heart and the mind, let me see your retribution upon them,    for to you I have committed my cause.