Jeremiah 29:19
Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the LORD, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith the LORD. Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the LORD, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith the LORD.
The declaration stands inside the written exchange between Jeremiah in Jerusalem, the Jewish captives in Babylon, and the false prophets who were misleading them, at the height of the dispute over true and false prophecy during the Babylonian captivity. It was addressed to a people in exile who were being urged by pretended messengers of God to expect a speedy release, in opposition to Jeremiah's divinely given counsel to settle into their captivity. The controversy therefore turned on whose prophetic word would be believed and obeyed.
The stated ground of the coming judgment was that they had not listened to the Lord's words. Those words had been faithfully carried to them by His servants the prophets, whom He had persistently and earnestly sent with early and repeated effort. Yet they persistently refused to hear, and that willful rejection made their punishment deserved.