1 This is the word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch son of Neriah when he wrote these words on a scroll at Jeremiah’s dictation in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:
2 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch:
3 ‘You have said, “Woe is me, because the Lord has added misery to my pain! I am worn out with groaning and have found no rest.” ’
4 “This is what you are to say to him: ‘This is what the Lord says: What I have built I am about to demolish, and what I have planted I am about to uproot — the whole land!
5 But as for you, do you seek great things for yourself? Stop seeking! For I am about to bring disaster on every living creature’ — this is the Lord’s declaration — ‘but I will grant you your life like the spoils of war wherever you go.’ ”