Jeremiah

1

¹ The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,
² To whom the word of Jehovah came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon the king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
³ It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah the king of Judah until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah the king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.
⁴ Now the word of Jehovah came to me, saying:
⁵ Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; / And before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you. / I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.
⁶ Then I said, Alas, Lord Jehovah! / Indeed, I do not know how to speak, / For I am a youth.
⁷ But Jehovah said to me, / Do not say, I am a youth; / For everywhere I send you, you shall go; / And everything I command you, you shall speak.
⁸ Do not be afraid of their faces, / For I am with you to deliver you, declares Jehovah.
⁹ Then Jehovah stretched out His hand and touched my mouth; and Jehovah said to me,Now I have put My words in your mouth.
¹⁰ See, I have appointed you this day / Over the nations and over the kingdoms / To pluck up and to break down, / To destroy and to tear down, / To build up and to plant.
¹¹ Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
¹² And Jehovah said to me, You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.
¹³ Then the word of Jehovah came to me a second time, saying, What do you see? And I said, I see a boiling pot, and it is facing away from the north.
¹⁴ And Jehovah said to me, Out of the north evil will be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land.
¹⁵ For I am now calling all the families from the kingdoms of the north, declares Jehovah, and they will come and set each one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem and against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah.
¹⁶ And I will utter My judgment on them concerning all their wickedness by which they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods and have worshipped the works of their own hands.
¹⁷ You therefore gird up your loins, and rise up and speak to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, lest I dismay you in their presence.
¹⁸ And I am now making you today into a fortified city and into an iron pillar and into bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.
¹⁹ And they will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you, declares Jehovah, to deliver you.

2

¹ And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
² Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Jehovah: / I remember concerning you the kindness of your youth, / The love of your bridal days, / When you followed after Me in the wilderness, / In a land that was not sown.
³ Israel was holiness to Jehovah, / The firstfruits of His increase; / All who ate of it were guilty; / Evil came upon them, / Declares Jehovah.
⁴ Hear the word of Jehovah, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel.
⁵ Thus says Jehovah: / What iniquity did your fathers find in Me / That they went far away from Me / And walked after vanity / And became vain?
⁶ And they did not say, Where is Jehovah, / Who brought us up from the land of Egypt, / Who brought us through the wilderness, / Through a land of deserts and pits, / Through a land of drought and the shadow of death, / Through a land that no one passes through / And where no man dwells?
⁷ And I brought you into the land of the fruited field, / To eat its fruit and its goodness. / But you came and defiled My land / And made My inheritance an abomination.
⁸ The priests did not say, / Where is Jehovah? / And those who handle the law did not know Me, / And the shepherds transgressed against Me, / And the prophets prophesied by Baal / And followed after things that did not benefit them.
⁹ Therefore I will yet contend with you, declares Jehovah; / And with your children’s children I will contend.
¹⁰ For pass over to the coastlands of Kittim and see, / And send someone to Kedar and consider carefully, / And see if there has ever been anything like this.
¹¹ Has a nation ever exchanged its gods, / Even though they are no gods? / But My people have exchanged their glory / For that which does not benefit them.
¹² Be appalled at this, O heavens, / And be horrified; be very desolate, / Declares Jehovah.
¹³ For My people have committed two evils: / They have forsaken Me, / The fountain of living waters, / To hew out for themselves cisterns, / Broken cisterns, / Which hold no water.
¹⁴ Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn slave? / Why has he become a prey?
¹⁵ The young lions roared over him; / They sounded their voices. / And they have made his land a waste; / His cities are burned, without inhabitant.
¹⁶ Also the children of Memphis and Tahpanhes / Have shaved the crown of your head.
¹⁷ Have you not done this to yourself / By your forsaking Jehovah your God / When He was leading you in the way?
¹⁸ And now what do you have on the road to Egypt, / To drink the waters of the Shihor? / And what do you have on the road to Assyria, / To drink the waters of the River?
¹⁹ Your own wickedness will correct you, / And your apostasies will reprove you. / Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing, / That you have forsaken Jehovah your God / And that My fear is not in you, / Declares the Lord Jehovah of hosts.
²⁰ For long ago you broke your yoke; / You tore off your bonds; / And you said, I will not serve! / Indeed upon every high hill / And under every flourishing tree / You have lain down, you have committed fornication.
²¹ Yet I, I had planted you as a choice vine, / Wholly a faithful seed. / How then have you turned yourself before Me / Into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?
²² For though you wash yourself with lye / And make use of much soap, / Your iniquity remains as a stain before Me, / Declares the Lord Jehovah.
²³ How can you say, I am not defiled; / I have not gone after the Baals? / Look at your way in the valley; / Know what you have done. / You are like a swift young camel entangling her ways,
²⁴ Like a wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness, / Panting after the wind in her desire. / In her passion who can turn her away? / None that seek her will weary themselves: / They will find her in her month.
²⁵ Keep your foot from being unshod / And your throat from thirst; / But you said, It is hopeless. / No! For I have loved strangers, / And I will go after them.
²⁶ As the thief is ashamed when he is found, / So the house of Israel is ashamed — / They, their kings, their princes, / And their priests and their prophets,
²⁷ Who say to a tree, You are my father; / And to a stone, You have brought me forth — / For they have turned their back to Me, / And not their faces. / Yet in a time of their trouble they will say, / Arise and save us.
²⁸ But where are your gods, whom you made for yourselves? / Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble; / For according to the number of your cities / Are your gods, O Judah.
²⁹ Why do you contend with Me? / You have all transgressed against Me, / Declares Jehovah.
³⁰ In vain I have stricken your children: / They have taken no correction. / Your own sword has devoured your prophets / Like a destroying lion.
³¹ O generation, attend to the word of Jehovah: / Have I been a wilderness to Israel, / Or a land of deep darkness? / Why do My people say, We roam about; / We will no longer come to You?
³² Can the virgin forget her ornaments, / Or the bride her attire? / But My people have forgotten Me / For days without number.
³³ How you prepare your ways / To seek love! / Therefore you have even taught / Wicked women your ways.
³⁴ Also on your skirts is found / The lifeblood of the innocent poor. / You did not find them breaking in, / But killed them because of all these things.
³⁵ But you said, I am innocent; / Surely His anger will turn from me. / I am about to enter into judgment with you, / Because you say, I have not sinned.
³⁶ Why do you go about so much / To change your way? / You will be put to shame by Egypt also, / Even as you were put to shame by Assyria.
³⁷ Indeed, from it you will go forth / With your hands upon your head; / For Jehovah has rejected those in whom you trust, / And you will not prosper by them.

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¹ It is said, / If a man divorces his wife / And she goes from him / And becomes another man’s wife, / Will he return to her again? / Will not that land be / Utterly polluted? / But you have committed fornication with many lovers. / Yet return to Me, declares Jehovah.
² Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see: / Where have you not been ravished? / By the roads you sat for them, / Like an Arab in the desert; / And you have polluted the land / With your fornication and your wickedness.
³ Therefore the showers have been withheld, / And there has been no spring rain. / But you have had a harlot’s forehead; / You refused to be ashamed.
⁴ Have you not just now called out to Me, My Father, / You are the guide of my youth?
⁵ Will He preserve His anger forever? / Will He keep it perpetually? / This you have spoken; yet you have done what evil things / That you could.
⁶ Then Jehovah said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what Israel the apostate has done? She went up on every high mountain and under every flourishing tree and committed fornication there.
⁷ And I said, After she has done all these things, she will return to Me; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
⁸ And I saw that because of all the adultery that Israel the apostate committed I divorced her and gave her a certificate of divorce, yet her sister Judah the treacherous did not fear but went and committed fornication also.
⁹ And because she treated her fornication lightly, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.
¹⁰ And yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but instead falsely, declares Jehovah.
¹¹ And Jehovah said to me, Israel the apostate has shown herself to be more righteous than Judah the treacherous.
¹² Go and proclaim these words to the north, and say, / Return, O Israel the apostate, declares Jehovah; / And I will not let My countenance fall toward you; / For I am merciful, declares Jehovah; / I will not keep My anger forever.
¹³ Only acknowledge your iniquity, / That you have transgressed against Jehovah your God / And have turned your ways here and there to strangers under every flourishing tree, / And have not listened to My voice, declares Jehovah.
¹⁴ Return, O apostate children, declares Jehovah, for I am a Husband to you; and I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and will bring you to Zion.
¹⁵ And I will give you shepherds according to My own heart, who will feed you knowledge and understanding.
¹⁶ And when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, declares Jehovah, they will no longer say, The Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah! And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it or visit it; and it will not be made again.
¹⁷ At that time they will call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah, and all the nations will be gathered to it because the name of Jehovah is at Jerusalem; and they will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
¹⁸ In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land which I have given to their fathers as an inheritance.
¹⁹ But I said, / How I will put you among the sons, / And give you a pleasant land, / An inheritance of the most ornate of the nations! / And I said, You will call Me, My Father, / And will not turn away from Me.
²⁰ Surely as a woman acts treacherously by departing from her husband, / So you have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, declares / Jehovah.
²¹ A voice is heard on the bare heights, / The weeping, the supplications, of the children of Israel; / For they have perverted their way; / They have forgotten Jehovah their God.
²² Return, O apostate children; / I will heal you of your apostasies. / Now we come to You, / For You are Jehovah our God.
²³ Surely in vain have we hoped for anything from the hills; / The mountains are a tumult; / Surely in Jehovah our God / Is the salvation of Israel.
²⁴ But shame has devoured the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
²⁵ Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against Jehovah our God, we and our fathers, since our youth even unto this day; and we have not listened to the voice of Jehovah our God.

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¹ If you will return, O Israel, declares Jehovah, / Return to Me; / And if you put away your detestable things from My presence / And do not wander,
² And swear, As Jehovah lives, / In truth and in justice and in righteousness, / Then the nations will bless themselves in Him, / And in Him they will glory.
³ For thus says Jehovah to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, / Break up your fallow ground, / And do not sow among thorns.
⁴ Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, / And remove the foreskins of your heart, / Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, / Lest My wrath go forth like fire / And burn, and there be no one to quench it / Because of the evil of your deeds.
⁵ Declare in Judah / And proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: / Blow the trumpet in the land; / Cry aloud and say, / Gather yourselves and let us go / Into the fortified cities.
⁶ Raise up a standard toward Zion. / Seek refuge; do not stay; / For I am bringing evil from the north, / And great destruction.
⁷ A lion has come up from his thicket, / And a destroyer of nations has set out. / He has gone forth from his place / To make your land a waste; / Your cities will be ruins, / Without an inhabitant.
⁸ For this, gird yourselves with sackcloth, / Wail and howl; / For the burning anger of Jehovah / Has not turned away from us.
⁹ And in that day, declares Jehovah, the heart of the king and the heart of the princes will fail; and the priests will be appalled, and the prophets will be astounded.
¹⁰ And I said, Alas, Lord Jehovah, surely You have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You will have peace; whereas the sword reaches to the soul.
¹¹ At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of My people, not for winnowing nor for purging
¹² (A wind too strong for these), will come from Me; now I will also utter judgments against them.
¹³ Here he is coming up like clouds, / And his chariots like the whirlwind; / His horses are swifter than eagles. / Woe to us for we are devastated!
¹⁴ Wash your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, / That you may be saved. / How long will your evil thoughts / Lodge within you?
¹⁵ For a voice declares from Dan / And announces affliction from the hill country of Ephraim.
¹⁶ Make mention to the nations; yes, / Announce against Jerusalem. / Besiegers are coming from a distant land / And utter their voice against the cities of Judah.
¹⁷ Like those who watch over a field, they are against her all around / Because she has rebelled against Me, declares Jehovah.
¹⁸ Your way and your deeds / Have caused these things to happen to you. / This is your wickedness. Indeed it is bitter! / Indeed it reaches to your heart!
¹⁹ My bowels, my bowels; I am writhing. / Oh, the walls of my heart! / My heart is moaning within me; / I cannot be silent; / For you hear, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, / The alarm of war.
²⁰ Destruction upon destruction is proclaimed, / For the whole land is devastated. / Suddenly my tents are devastated, / And my curtains in a moment.
²¹ How long will I see the standard, / And hear the sound of the trumpet?
²² For My people are foolish; / They do not know Me. / They are stupid children / And have no understanding. / They are wise to do evil, / But they do not know to do good.
²³ I looked at the earth, and there it was, waste and emptiness; / And at the heavens, and they had no light.
²⁴ I looked at the mountains, and there they were, shaking, / And all the hills were swaying.
²⁵ I looked, and there was no man, / And all the birds of the heavens had fled.
²⁶ I looked, and there was the fruitful land, a wilderness, / And all its cities were torn down / Before Jehovah, before His burning anger.
²⁷ For thus says Jehovah, / The whole land will be a desolation, / But I will not make a full end;
²⁸ For this the earth will mourn, / And the heavens above will be dark; / Because I have spoken, I have purposed; / And I have not repented, nor will I turn from it.
²⁹ At the sound of horsemen and archers / Every city flees; / They go into the thickets / And climb up on the rocks. / Every city is forsaken, / And not even one inhabits them.
³⁰ And you, O desolate one, what will you do? / Although you dress in scarlet, / Although you are adorned with ornaments of gold,Although you enlarge your eyes with paint, / In vain do you beautify yourself; / Your lovers despise you; / They seek your life.
³¹ For I heard a cry like that of a woman in travail, / Anguish like that of a woman bringing forth her first child, / The sound of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath; / She stretches out her hands, saying, / Woe is me, / For my soul is fainting before murderers.

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¹ Go to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem, / And look now and know, / And seek in her open squares / If you can find a man, / If there is anyone who executes justice, / Who seeks faithfulness; / And I will pardon her.
² And although they say, As Jehovah lives, / Nevertheless they swear falsely.
³ O Jehovah, are not Your eyes upon faithfulness? / You have stricken them, / But they did not writhe; / You have consumed them, / But they refused to take correction. / They have made their faces harder than rock; / They have refused to turn.
⁴ Then I said, But they are the poor; / They are foolish; / For they do not know the way of Jehovah, / The ordinance of their God.
⁵ I will go to the great / And speak with them; / Surely these know the way of Jehovah, / The ordinance of their God. / But together they both have broken the yoke; / They have torn off the bonds.
⁶ Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them; / A wolf of the deserts will destroy them. / A leopard is watching their cities; / Everyone who goes out from them will be torn in pieces; / Because they multiplied their transgressions, / And their apostasies are great in number.
⁷ Why should I pardon you? / Your children have forsaken Me / And sworn by those who are not gods. / When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery / And trooped to the house of harlots.
⁸ Like well-fed horses they roam about, / Each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife.
⁹ Shall I not punish because of these things? / Declares Jehovah; / And on a nation such as this / Shall My soul not avenge itself?
¹⁰ Go up through her vine rows and destroy, / But do not make a full end; / Strip away her branches, / For they are not Jehovah’s.
¹¹ For the house of Israel and the house of Judah / Have dealt very treacherously with Me, declares Jehovah.
¹² They have denied Jehovah / And have said, He is not; / And evil will not come upon us, / Nor will we see sword and famine;
¹³ And the prophets will become wind, / And the word is not in them; / Thus it will be done to them.
¹⁴ Therefore thus says Jehovah / The God of hosts: / Because they have spoken this word, / I am now making My words / A fire in your mouth, / And this people wood; / And it will consume them.
¹⁵ I am now bringing upon you / A nation from afar, / O house of Israel, declares Jehovah. / It is an enduring nation, / It is an ancient nation; / A nation whose language you do not know, / Nor can you understand what they say.
¹⁶ Their quiver is like an open grave; / All of them are mighty men.
¹⁷ And they will eat up your harvest and your bread; / They will eat up your sons and your daughters; / They will eat up your flocks and your herds; / They will eat up your vines and your fig trees; / They will demolish with the sword your fortified cities, / In which you trust.
¹⁸ Yet even in those days, declares Jehovah, I will not make a full end of you.
¹⁹ And when they say, Why has Jehovah our God done all these things to us? you shall say to them, As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
²⁰ Declare this in the house of Jacob, / And announce it in the house of Judah, saying,
²¹ Now hear this, / O people, who are foolish and without understanding, / Who have eyes but do not see, / Who have ears but do not hear:
²² Do you not fear Me, declares Jehovah; / Do you not tremble at My presence; / Who have set the sand as a boundary for the sea / By an eternal statute, so it cannot pass over it? / Although its waves toss, they cannot prevail; / Although they roar, they cannot pass over it.
²³ But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; / They have turned aside and have gone away.
²⁴ And they do not say in their heart, / Let us now fear Jehovah our God, who gives us rain, / Both the early rain and the late rain, in its season, / Who preserves the appointed weeks of the harvest for us.
²⁵ Your iniquities have turned these things away, / And your sins have withheld from you what is good.
²⁶ For wicked men are found among My people; / They lie in wait like fowlers crouching; / They set a trap, / They catch men.
²⁷ Like a cage full of birds, / So their houses are full of deceit; / Therefore they have become great and rich.
²⁸ They are fat; they are sleek; / Indeed they surpass in deeds of wickedness; / They do not judge the cause, / The cause of the orphan, but they prosper; / And the right of the needy they do not judge.
²⁹ Shall I not punish because of these things? / Declares Jehovah; / And on a nation such as this / Shall My soul not avenge itself?
³⁰ An appalling and horrible thing / Has happened in the land:
³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, / And the priests rule by their own authority; / And My people love it this way. / But what will you do at the end of it?

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¹ Seek refuge, O children of Benjamin, / From the midst of Jerusalem; / And blow the trumpet in Tekoa / And raise up a signal on Beth-haccherem; / For evil looks down from the north, / And great destruction.
² The comely and delicate one, / The daughter of Zion, I will cut off.
³ Shepherds will come to her / With their flocks; / They will pitch tents against her all around; / They will feed each one in his place.
⁴ Prepare war against her; / Rise up, and let us go up at noon. / Woe to us, for the day has declined, / For the shadows of evening are lengthening.
⁵ Rise up, and let us go up at night / And destroy her palaces.
⁶ For thus says Jehovah of hosts, / Cut down her trees and build up / A mound against Jerusalem. / This is the city to be punished; / In her midst there is only oppression.
⁷ As a cistern keeps its waters fresh, / So she has kept her wickedness fresh. / Violence and destruction are heard in her; / Sickness and wounds are always before Me.
⁸ Be admonished, O Jerusalem, / Lest My desire for you depart, / Lest I make you a desolation, / An uninhabited land.
⁹ Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / They will thoroughly glean like a vine / The remnant of Israel; / Pass your hand again over the branches / Like a grape gatherer.
¹⁰ To whom shall I speak and testify, / That they may hear? / Indeed, their ear is uncircumcised, / And they are unable to listen. / See, the word of Jehovah has become a reproach to them; / They have no delight in it.
¹¹ Yet I am full of the wrath of Jehovah; / I am weary of holding it in. / Pour it out upon the children in the street / And upon the assembly of the young men together; / For even the husband with the wife will be taken; / The old man, with the one who is full of days.
¹² And their houses will be turned over to others, / Fields and wives together; / For I will stretch out My hand / Over the inhabitants of the land, / Declares Jehovah.
¹³ For from the least of them to the greatest of them, / Everyone is wresting unjust gain; / And from the prophet to the priest, / Everyone is dealing falsely.
¹⁴ And they have healed / The brokenness of My people slightly, / Saying, Peace, peace; / Although there is no peace.
¹⁵ Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? / They were not at all ashamed; / They did not even know to blush. / Therefore they will fall with those who fall; / At the time I punish them, they will stumble, / Says Jehovah.
¹⁶ Thus says Jehovah, / Stand by the ways and see, / And ask for the ancient paths; / Ask where the good way is, and walk in it; / And you will find rest for your souls. / But they said, We will not walk in it.
¹⁷ So I set watchmen over you, saying, / Listen to the sound of the trumpet. / But they said, We will not listen.
¹⁸ Therefore hear, O nations, / And understand, O assembly, / What I will do to them.
¹⁹ Listen, O earth; I am now bringing evil / On this people, / The fruit of their thoughts; / Because they have not listened to My words, / And they have also rejected My law.
²⁰ For what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba, / And sweet cane from a distant land? / Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, / And your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me.
²¹ Therefore thus says Jehovah, / I am now laying before this people stumbling blocks, / And fathers and sons together / Will stumble against them; / A neighbor and his friend will perish.
²² Thus says Jehovah, / See, a people is coming from the land of the north, / And a great nation is stirring from the uttermost parts of the earth.
²³ They grasp bow and spear; / They are cruel and have no mercy; / Their voice roars like the sea; / And they ride upon horses, / Set in array as a man for battle / Against you, O daughter of Zion.
²⁴ We have heard its report; / Our hands are feeble; / Distress has seized us, / Pain like a woman in childbirth.
²⁵ Do not go out into the field, / And do not walk on the road; / For the enemy has a sword; / Terror is on every side.
²⁶ O daughter of my people, gird yourself in sackcloth / And roll in ashes; / Mourn as for an only son, / A most bitter wailing; / For suddenly the destroyer / Will come upon us.
²⁷ I have set you as a trier among My people, as a fortress, / That you may know and try their way.
²⁸ All of them are most rebellious, / Going about as slanderers; / They are bronze and iron; / All of them act corruptly.
²⁹ The bellows are burned; / The lead is consumed by the fire; / The refining continues in vain, / For the wicked are not removed.
³⁰ Men will call them rejected silver, / Because Jehovah has rejected them.

7

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
² Stand in the gate of the house of Jehovah, and proclaim this word there and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, all Judah, who enter through these gates to worship Jehovah.
³ Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
⁴ Do not trust in the words of falsehood that say, The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, these buildings are the temple of Jehovah.
⁵ But if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice between a man and his neighbor,
⁶ If you do not oppress the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor go after other gods to your own ruin;
⁷ Then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers from eternity to eternity.
⁸ See, you are trusting in words of falsehood that do not benefit you.
⁹ Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal and go after other gods which you have not known,
¹⁰ Then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered! — that you may do all these abominations?
¹¹ Has this house which is called by My name become a den of robbers in your eyes? Yet I, even I, have seen it, declares Jehovah.
¹² But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I caused My name to dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.
¹³ And now, because you have done all these works, declares Jehovah, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not listen, and I called you, but you did not answer;
¹⁴ Therefore I will do to the house that is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place that I gave you and your fathers as I have done to Shiloh.
¹⁵ And I will cast you out from before Me, as I cast out all your brothers, all the seed of Ephraim.
¹⁶ And as for you, do not pray for this people, nor lift up a ringing cry or a prayer for them; and do not intercede with Me, for I will not hear you.
¹⁷ Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
¹⁸ The children gather wood, and the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger.
¹⁹ Are they provoking Me to anger? declares Jehovah. Are they not provoking themselves, to the shaming of their own faces?
²⁰ Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast and on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.
²¹ Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the flesh.
²² For I did not speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.
²³ But this is what I commanded them, saying, Hear My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and walk in all the way which I command you, that it may go well with you.
²⁴ But they did not listen or incline their ear, but walked in the counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts and went backward and not forward.
²⁵ From the day that your fathers came out from the land of Egypt unto this day I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.
²⁶ But they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers.
²⁷ So you shall speak to them all these words, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.
²⁸ And you shall say to them, This is the nation which did not listen to the voice of Jehovah their God and did not take correction; the truth has perished and is cut off from their mouth.
²⁹ Cut off your hair and throw it away, / And take up a lamentation on the bare heights; / For Jehovah has rejected and forsaken / The generation of His overflowing wrath.
³⁰ For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight, declares Jehovah; they have set their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it.
³¹ And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, something I did not command, nor did it come up in My heart.
³² Therefore, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth because there will be no other place.
³³ And the corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth; and no one will frighten them away.
³⁴ And I will cause the voice of gladness and the voice of joy to cease, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem; for the land will become a waste.

8

¹ At that time, declares Jehovah, they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its princes and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves.
² And they will spread them out to the sun and to the moon and to all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served and which they have gone after and which they have sought and which they have worshipped; and they will not be gathered up or buried; they will be like dung on the surface of the ground.
³ And death will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family, that remains in all the places where I have driven them, declares Jehovah of hosts.
⁴ And you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah,Do men fall and not rise again? / If one turns away, does he not return?
⁵ Why has this people Jerusalem / Turned away in perpetual apostasy? / They hold fast to deceit; / They refuse to turn back.
⁶ I have listened carefully and heard; / They have not spoken rightly; / There is no one who repents of his wickedness, / Saying, What have I done? / Everyone turns to his own course, / Like a horse rushing headlong into battle.
⁷ Even the stork in the sky / Knows its appointed times, / And the turtledove and the swallow and the crane / Keep the time of their coming; / But My people do not know / The ordinance of Jehovah.
⁸ How can you say, We are wise, / And the law of Jehovah is with us? / But look, the false pen of the scribes / Has turned it into falsehood.
⁹ The wise men are put to shame; / They are dismayed and are taken;See, they have rejected the word of Jehovah; / And what wisdom do they have?
¹⁰ Therefore I will give their wives to others, / Their fields to those who will possess them; / For from the small unto the great, / Everyone is wresting unjust gain; / From the prophet even to the priest, / Everyone is dealing falsely.
¹¹ And they have healed / The brokenness of the daughter of My people slightly, / Saying, Peace, peace, / Although there is no peace.
¹² Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? / They were not at all ashamed; / They did not even know to blush. / Therefore they will fall with those who fall; / At the time of their punishment they will stumble, / Says Jehovah.
¹³ I will utterly take them away, / Declares Jehovah; / There are no grapes on the vine, / And there are no figs on the fig tree; / Even the leaves are withered; / And what I gave them has passed away from them.
¹⁴ Why do we sit? Gather yourselves, / And let us go up to the fortified cities / And be silent there, / Because Jehovah our God has silenced us / And made us drink poisonous water, / Because we have sinned against Jehovah.
¹⁵ We hoped for peace, but no good came; / For a time of healing, but there was terror.
¹⁶ The snorting of their horses / Is heard from Dan; / At the sound of the neighing of their stallions / The whole land quakes. / And they come and devour the land and its fullness, / The city and those who dwell in it.
¹⁷ For I will send among you serpents, / Adders, for which there is no enchantment; / And they will bite you, / Declares Jehovah.
¹⁸ Oh that there were comforting to me in sorrow! / My heart within me is faint.
¹⁹ It is the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people / From a land very far away: / Is Jehovah not in Zion? / Is her King not in her? / Why have they provoked Me to anger / With their graven images and with strange idols?
²⁰ The harvest has passed, the summer has ended, / And we are not saved.
²¹ For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken. / I mourn; horror has taken hold of me.
²² Is there no balm in Gilead? / Is there no physician there? / Why then has the recovery of the daughter of my people / Not occurred?

9

¹ Oh that my head were waters, / And my eye a fountain of tears, / That I might weep day and night / For the slain of the daughter of my people!
² Oh that I had a traveler’s lodging place in the wilderness / That I might leave my people and go away from them, / For all of them are adulterers and an assembly of treacherous men.
³ They bend their tongue like their bow; / Falsehood, and not truth, / Prevails in the land; / For they proceed from evil to evil, / And they do not know Me, declares Jehovah.
⁴ Let each man be on guard against his neighbor / And not confide in any brother; / For every brother only supplants, / And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
⁵ And everyone deceives his neighbor / And does not speak the truth; / They teach their tongue to speak falsehood; / They weary themselves committing iniquity.
⁶ Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; / Through deceit they refuse to know Me, / Declares Jehovah.
⁷ Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, / Indeed, I will refine them and test them; / For what else can I do because of the daughter of My people?
⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow; / It speaks deceit. / Each speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, / But in his heart he lays an ambush for him.
⁹ Shall I not punish them for these things? / Declares Jehovah; / And on a nation such as this / Shall My soul not avenge itself?
¹⁰ For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing, / And for the pastures of the wilderness, a lamentation; / Because they have been burned up so that no one passes through, / And the sound of cattle is not heard; / Both the birds of the sky and the beasts / Have fled and have gone.
¹¹ And I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, / A habitation of jackals; / And I will make the cities of Judah / A desolation without inhabitant.
¹² Who is the wise man who can understand this, and he to whom the mouth of Jehovah has spoken, that he might declare it? Why is the land destitute, burned like the wilderness, so that no one passes through?
¹³ And Jehovah said, Because they have forsaken My law, which I set before them, and have not listened to My voice or walked in My law,
¹⁴ But have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them;
¹⁵ Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink.
¹⁶ And I will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers knew, and send the sword after them until I have consumed them.
¹⁷ Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / Consider, and call for the mourning women to come, / And send for the skillful women to come;
¹⁸ Let them hasten and take up a wailing for us, / That our eyes may shed tears / And our eyelids may pour forth water.
¹⁹ For a voice of wailing / Was heard from Zion:How we are ruined! / We are utterly put to shame! / For we have forsaken the land / Because they have cast down our dwellings.
²⁰ Therefore listen, O women, to the word of Jehovah, / And let your ear receive the word of His mouth; / And teach your daughters wailing, / And let each teach her neighbor a lamentation.
²¹ For death has come up through our windows; / It has entered our palaces / To cut off the children from the streets, / The young men from the open squares.
²² Speak: Thus declares Jehovah, / And the corpses of men will fall / Like dung on the surface of the field / And like a sheaf after the reaper, / And there will be no one to gather them.
²³ Thus says Jehovah, / Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, / And let not the mighty man glory in his might; / Let not the rich man glory in his riches.
²⁴ But let him who glories glory in this, / That he has insight and knows Me, / That I am Jehovah who exercises lovingkindness, / Justice, and righteousness on earth; / For in these things I delight, declares Jehovah.
²⁵ Indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will punish all those who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised:
²⁶ Egypt and Judah and Edom and the children of Ammon and Moab and all those who cut the corners of their hair, who inhabit the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.

10

¹ Hear the word which Jehovah speaks to you, O house of Israel.
² Thus says Jehovah, / Do not learn the way of the nations, / And do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens, / Although the nations are terrified by them.
³ For the customs of the peoples are vanity, / Because their god is a tree cut from the forest, / The work of the hands of a craftsman with an ax.
⁴ He adorns it with silver and with gold; / They fasten it with nails and hammers / So that it cannot totter.
⁵ They are like a post in a cucumber field, / And they cannot speak; / They must be carried / Because they cannot walk. / Do not be afraid of them, / For they cannot do evil, / And neither is it in them to do good.
⁶ There is none like You, O Jehovah; / You are great, / And Your name is great in might.
⁷ Who would not fear You, / O King of the nations? / For it befits You, / For among all the wise of the nations / And in all their kingdoms / There is none like You.
⁸ But they are altogether stupid and foolish; / The instruction of their idols is mere wood.
⁹ Beaten silver / Is brought from Tarshish, / And gold from Uphaz, / The work of a craftsman / And of the hands of a goldsmith. / Their clothing is blue and purple; / All of them are the work of skillful men.
¹⁰ But Jehovah is the true God; / He is the living God and the eternal King. / At His wrath the earth quakes, / And the nations cannot endure His indignation.
¹¹ Thus you shall say to them, The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth, these will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.
¹² It is He who made the earth by His power, / Who established the world by His wisdom, / And by His understanding He stretched out the heavens.
¹³ When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, / And He causes the vapors to rise from the ends of the earth; / He makes lightning for the rain / And brings forth wind from His treasuries.
¹⁴ Every man is stupid, without knowledge; / Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idol; / For his molten image is falsehood, / And there is no breath in them.
¹⁵ They are vanity, the work of delusion; / At the time of their punishment they will perish.
¹⁶ The Portion of Jacob is not like these; / For He is the One who formed everything, / And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; / Jehovah of hosts is His name.
¹⁷ Gather up your bundle from the ground, / O inhabitant under siege.
¹⁸ For thus says Jehovah, / I will sling out / The inhabitants of the land / At this time, / And I will bring distress on them, / That they may find it.
¹⁹ Woe is me because of my hurt! / My wound is grievous. / But I said, Truly this is my affliction, / And I must bear it.
²⁰ My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken; / My children have gone from me and they are not; / There is no one who will spread out my tent again / And set up my curtains.
²¹ For the shepherds are stupid / And have not sought Jehovah; / Therefore they have not prospered, / And all their flock is scattered.
²² The sound of a report! Here it comes, / Even a great commotion from the land of the north, / To make the cities of Judah / A desolation, a habitation of jackals.
²³ I know, O Jehovah, / That a man’s way is not in himself; / It is not in the man who walks / To direct his step.
²⁴ Correct me, O Jehovah, but in measure, / Not in Your anger lest You bring me to nothing.
²⁵ Pour out Your wrath on the nations / Who do not know You / And upon the families / Who do not call upon Your name; / For they have devoured Jacob, yes, devoured him and brought him to an end, / And they have desolated his habitation.

11

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
² Listen to the words of this covenant and speak them to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
³ And you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Cursed is the man who does not listen to the words of this covenant,
⁴ Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to My voice and do the things according to all which I command you; and you will be My people and I will be your God,
⁵ That I may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. And I answered and said, Amen, Jehovah.
⁶ And Jehovah said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear the words of this covenant and do them.
⁷ For I solemnly warned your fathers in the day that I brought them up from the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising up early and warning, saying, Listen to My voice.
⁸ But they did not listen or incline their ear, but all walked in the stubbornness of their evil heart; therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, and they have not done them.
⁹ And Jehovah said to me, A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
¹⁰ They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to listen to My words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers.
¹¹ Therefore thus says Jehovah, I am about to bring evil upon them, from which they cannot escape; and they will cry to Me, but I will not listen to them.
¹² Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.
¹³ For according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to that shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal.
¹⁴ And as for you, do not pray for this people, nor lift up a ringing cry or a prayer for them; for I will not hear when they call to Me because of their trouble.
¹⁵ What has My beloved to do in My house, / Since she has committed lewdness with many / And the holy flesh has passed from you? / When you do evil, then you rejoice.
¹⁶ Jehovah called your name, / A flourishing olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form; / With the sound of a great tumult / He has set fire to it, / And its branches are broken.
¹⁷ And Jehovah of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done for themselves, to provoke Me to anger by burning incense to Baal.
¹⁸ And Jehovah made it known to me, so I knew; then You showed me their deeds.
¹⁹ And I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter, and I did not know that they devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living that his name be remembered no longer.
²⁰ But, O Jehovah of hosts, who judges righteously, / Who tests the inward parts and the heart, / Let me see Your vengeance on them, / For I have revealed my cause to You.
²¹ Therefore thus says Jehovah concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, Do not prophesy in the name of Jehovah, that you may not die by our hand;
²² Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, I am about to punish them: The young men will die by the sword; their sons and their daughters will die by famine;
²³ And they will have no remnant, because I will bring evil to the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.

12

¹ You are righteous, O Jehovah, / When I plead my cause with You; / Yet I will speak with You of Your judgments: / Why does the way of the wicked prosper? / Why are all those who deal treacherously at ease?
² You have planted them; they have also taken root; / They go on and bring forth fruit. / You are near, in their mouth, / But far from their inward parts.
³ And You, O Jehovah, know me; You see me / And try my heart toward You. / Pull them out like sheep for the slaying, / And set them apart for the day of slaughter.
⁴ How long will the land mourn / And the grass of every field dry up? / Because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it, / Beasts and birds are swept away, / Because they said, He will not see our end.
⁵ If you have run with footmen and they have wearied you, / How then will you compete with horses? / If you are secure in a land of peace, / How then will you do in the majesty of the Jordan?
⁶ For even your brothers and the house of your father, / Even they have dealt treacherously with you; / Even they have cried aloud after you. / Do not believe them, although they speak good things to you.
⁷ I have forsaken My house; / I have abandoned My inheritance; / I have given the beloved of My soul / Into the hand of her enemies.
⁸ My inheritance has become to Me / Like a lion in the forest; / She lifted up her voice against Me, / Therefore I hated her.
⁹ Is My inheritance a speckled bird of prey to Me? / Are the birds of prey against her all around? / Go, gather all the beasts of the field; / Bring them to devour.
¹⁰ Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard; / They have trampled down My portion; / They have made My pleasant portion / A desolate wilderness.
¹¹ They have made it a desolation; / Desolate, it mourns to Me; / The whole land has been desolated / Because no one lays it to heart.
¹² Upon all the bare heights in the wilderness / Destroyers have come, For the sword of Jehovah devours / From one end of the land to the other end of the land; / No flesh has peace.
¹³ They have sown wheat, and they reap thorns; / They have worn themselves out, but they profit nothing; / Therefore be ashamed of your produce / Because of the burning anger of Jehovah.
¹⁴ Thus says Jehovah concerning all My evil neighbors, who have touched the inheritance which I caused My people Israel to inherit, I am about to pluck them up out of their land, and I will pluck up the house of Judah out from their midst.
¹⁵ And after I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them and bring them again, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land.
¹⁶ And if they will diligently learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, saying, As Jehovah lives, even as they taught My people to swear by Baal, they will be built up in the midst of My people.
¹⁷ But if they do not listen, I will pluck up that nation, plucking it up and destroying it, declares Jehovah.

13

¹ Thus said Jehovah to me, Go and buy yourself a linen girdle, and put it on your loins, but do not put it in water.
² So I bought a girdle according to the word of Jehovah and put it upon my loins.
³ And the word of Jehovah came to me a second time, saying,
⁴ Take the girdle which you bought, which is upon your loins, and rise up; go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.
⁵ And I went and I hid it by the Euphrates, as Jehovah had commanded me.
⁶ And at the end of many days Jehovah said to me, Rise up; go to the Euphrates, and take from there the girdle which I commanded you to hide there.
⁷ And I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the girdle from the place where I had hidden it; and there the girdle was, spoiled and good for nothing.
⁸ And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
⁹ Thus says Jehovah, Even so I will destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.
¹⁰ This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart and go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, will be even like this girdle, which is good for nothing.
¹¹ For as this girdle clings to the loins of a man, so I have caused all the house of Israel and all the house of Judah to cling to Me, declares Jehovah, that they might be to Me a people and a name and a praise and a glory; but they would not listen.
¹² And you shall speak to them this word, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Every wineskin will be filled with wine. And they will say to you, Do we not know very well that every wineskin will be filled with wine?
¹³ Then you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah, I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land and the kings who sit in David’s place on his throne and the priests and the prophets and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness,
¹⁴ And I will dash them one against the other, both the fathers and the sons together, declares Jehovah; I will not spare or pity or have compassion so as not to destroy them.
¹⁵ Hear and give ear and do not be proud, / For Jehovah has spoken.
¹⁶ Give glory to Jehovah your God, / Before He brings darkness, / And before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains; / And you will look for light, / But He will turn it into a shadow of death / And make it deep darkness.
¹⁷ And if you will not hear it, / My soul will weep in secret places for your pride; / And my eye will weep bitterly and shed tears, / Because the flock of Jehovah has been taken captive.
¹⁸ Say to the king and to the queen mother, / Humble yourselves and sit down, / For your beautiful crown / Has come down from your heads.
¹⁹ The cities of the south have been shut up, / And there is no one to open them; / All Judah has been taken into exile, / Wholly taken into exile.
²⁰ Lift up your eyes, / And see those who come from the north. / Where is the flock that was given to you, / Your beautiful sheep?
²¹ What will you say when He appoints over you as head / Those whom you yourself have trained to be your friends? / Will not pains take hold of you, / Like those of a woman in travail?
²² And if you say in your heart, / Why have these things happened to me? / It is because of the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are uncovered, / That your heels suffer violence.
²³ Can the Cushite change his skin, / Or the leopard his spots? / Then you also may be able to do good, / Who are accustomed to do evil.
²⁴ Therefore I will scatter them like chaff driven / By the wind of the wilderness.
²⁵ This is your lot, / The portion measured out to you from Me, / Declares Jehovah, / Because you have forgotten Me / And have trusted in falsehood.
²⁶ I will also strip your skirts off over your head, / And your shame will be seen.
²⁷ Your adulteries and your neighings, / The lewdness of your fornication / Upon the hills, in the field, / Your detestable things — I have seen. / Woe to you, O Jerusalem! / How long a time will you still not be clean?

14

¹ The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
² Judah mourns, / And her gates languish; / In black they mourn on the ground, / And the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
³ And their nobles send their servants for water; / They come to cisterns, / And they find no water; / They return with their vessels empty; / They are ashamed and confounded / And cover their heads.
⁴ Because the ground is cracked, / For there has been no rain on the earth, / The farmers are ashamed; / They cover their heads.
⁵ For even the hind in the field gives birth and abandons its young / Because there is no grass.
⁶ And the wild asses stand on the bare heights; / They pant after the wind like jackals; / Their eyes fail, / For there is no herbage.
⁷ Although our iniquities testify against us, / O Jehovah, act for Your name’s sake, / For our apostasies have become many; / We have sinned against You.
⁸ O Hope of Israel, / Its Savior in a time of distress, / Why should You be like a sojourner in the land, / Like a traveler who turns aside to lodge for the night?
⁹ Why should You be like an astonished man, / Like a mighty man who is unable to save? / Yet You are in our midst, O Jehovah, / And we are called by Your name; / Do not leave us.
¹⁰ Thus says Jehovah to this people, Even so they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore Jehovah has no delight in them; now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.
¹¹ And Jehovah said to me, Do not pray for the welfare of this people.
¹² When they fast, I will not listen to their cry; when they offer up a burnt offering and a meal offering, I will not accept them; but by sword and by famine and by pestilence I will consume them.
¹³ And I said, Ah, Lord Jehovah! Indeed, the prophets say to them, You will not see sword, nor will you have famine, for I will give you assured peace in this place.
¹⁴ And Jehovah said to me, The prophets prophesy falsehood in My name; I did not send them or command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision and divination and a worthless thing and the deceit of their own heart.
¹⁵ Therefore thus says Jehovah concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, although I did not send them, yet they say, A sword and famine will not be in this land: By sword and by famine those prophets will be consumed.
¹⁶ And the people to whom they prophesy will be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and there will be no one to bury them — them, their wives, and their sons and their daughters — and I will pour out their own wickedness on them.
¹⁷ And you shall speak this word to them, / Let my eyes run down with tears / Night and day, and let them not cease; / For the virgin daughter of my people is broken with great brokenness, / A very grievous wound.
¹⁸ If I go forth into the field — / Look, those slain by the sword; / And if I come into the city — / Look, those diseased with famine. / For both the prophet and the priest / Will go about in a land that they do not know.
¹⁹ Have You utterly rejected Judah? / Or does Your soul loathe Zion? / Why have You stricken us / So that there is no healing for us? / We looked for peace, but no good came; / And for a time of healing, but there was terror.
²⁰ We acknowledge, O Jehovah, our wickedness, / The iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against You.
²¹ Do not hold us in contempt, for Your name’s sake; / Do not dishonor Your throne of glory; / Remember and do not break Your covenant with us.
²² Are there among the vanities of the nations any that can bring rain, / Or in the heavens any that can give showers? / Are You not He, O Jehovah our God? / Therefore we wait for You, / For You have made all these things.

15

¹ And Jehovah said to me, Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My soul would not turn toward this people. Send them out of My sight and let them go.
² And when they say to you, Where shall we go? Then you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah,Those who are for death to death, / And those who are for the sword to the sword, / And those who are for famine to famine, / And those who are for captivity to captivity.
³ And I will visit them with four kinds of punishment, declares Jehovah: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
⁴ And I will make them a horror among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
⁵ For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem, / And who will lament for you; / And who will turn aside to ask / After your welfare?
⁶ You have forsaken Me, / Declares Jehovah. / You keep going backward, / And I have stretched out My hand against you / And have destroyed you; / I have become weary of repenting.
⁷ And I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork / In the gates of the land; / I have bereaved them of children / And destroyed My people; / They have not turned back from their ways.
⁸ Their widows have increased before Me / More than the sand of the seas; / I have brought to them, / Against the mother of the young men, / A spoiler at noon; / I have caused anguish and terror / To fall on her suddenly.
⁹ She who has borne seven languishes; / She has breathed out her life. / Her sun has gone down while it is still day; / She is put to shame and confounded. / And the rest of them I will give up to the sword / Before their enemies, / Declares Jehovah.
¹⁰ Woe is me, my mother, because you bore me, / A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole land. / I have not lent with interest, / Nor have they lent to me; / Yet everyone curses me.
¹¹ Jehovah said, Surely I will set you free for your good; / Indeed I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you / In a time of trouble and in a time of distress.
¹² Can one break iron, / Iron from the north, or bronze?
¹³ Your wealth and your treasures / I will give as plunder without price, / And that for all your sins, / And within all your borders.
¹⁴ I will cause your enemies to bring it / Into a land you do not know; / For a fire is kindled in My anger, / Which will burn against you.
¹⁵ O Jehovah, You know; / Remember me and visit me, / And avenge me of my persecutors. / Do not let Your long-suffering for them prevail and have me taken away; / Know that for Your sake I bear reproach.
¹⁶ Your words were found and I ate them, / And Your word became to me / The gladness and joy of my heart, / For I am called by Your name, / O Jehovah, God of hosts.
¹⁷ I did not sit in the assembly of mockers, nor did I exult. / Because of Your hand I sat alone, / For You have filled me with indignation.
¹⁸ Why is my pain unceasing, / And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? / Will You indeed be to me like a deceitful brook? / Like waters that fail?
¹⁹ Therefore thus says Jehovah, / If you return, I will restore you; / You will stand before Me; / And if you bring out the precious from the worthless, / You will be as My mouth; / They will turn to you, / But you will not turn to them.
²⁰ And I will make you to this people / A fortified wall of bronze; / And they will fight against you, / But they will not prevail against you; / For I am with you / To save you and deliver you, / Declares Jehovah.
²¹ And I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked / And redeem you from the hand of those who terrorize.

16

¹ The word of Jehovah also came to me, saying,
² You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place.
³ For thus says Jehovah concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place and concerning their mothers who bear them and concerning their fathers who beget them in this land:
⁴ They will die grievous deaths and will not be mourned or buried; they will be as dung on the surface of the ground and will be consumed by sword and by famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.
⁵ For thus says Jehovah, Do not enter the house of mourning, and do not go to mourn, and do not lament for them, for I have taken away My peace from this people, declares Jehovah, My lovingkindness and compassions.
⁶ Both the great and the small will die in this land; they will not be buried, nor will they be mourned; and no one will cut himself or make himself bald for them.
⁷ Nor will they break bread for them in mourning to comfort anyone for the dead or give them a cup of consolation to drink for his father or for his mother.
⁸ And you shall not enter the house of feasting to sit with them and eat and drink.
⁹ For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of gladness and the voice of joy, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
¹⁰ And when you tell this people all these words and they say to you, Why has Jehovah pronounced all this great evil against us? And what is our iniquity? And what is our sin which we have sinned against Jehovah our God?
¹¹ Then you shall say to them, Because your fathers have forsaken Me, declares Jehovah, and they have gone after other gods to serve them and to worship them; but Me they have forsaken, and My law they have not kept.
¹² And you have done more evil than your fathers; for indeed, you go about, each one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, without listening to Me.
¹³ And I will cast you far away from this land into a land which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will not show favor to you.
¹⁴ Therefore indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when it will no longer be said, As Jehovah lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,
¹⁵ But, As Jehovah lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where He had driven them; for I will bring them back to their own land, which I gave to their fathers.
¹⁶ I am soon sending many fishermen, declares Jehovah, and they will catch them; and afterward I will send many hunters, and they will hunt for them from every mountain and from every hill and from the clefts of the rocks.
¹⁷ For My eyes are upon all their ways; they are not concealed from My face, neither is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.
¹⁸ But first I will recompense double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have profaned My land with the corpses of their detestable things, and their abominations have filled My inheritance.
¹⁹ O Jehovah, my strength and my stronghold, / My refuge in the day of distress; / To You the nations come / From the ends of the earth and say, / Surely our fathers inherited falsehood / And vanity, in which there is no profit.
²⁰ Shall a man make gods for himself, / Though they are no gods?
²¹ Therefore now, I am causing them to know; / At this time I will cause them to know / My hand and My might, / And they will know that My name is Jehovah.

17

¹ The sin of Judah is written / With an iron pen; / With the point of an adamant it is engraved / On the tablet of their heart / And on the horns of your altars,
² While their children remember / Their altars and their Asherahs / Beside flourishing trees / Upon high hills.
³ O My mountain in the field, / Your wealth and all your treasures / I will give as plunder, / Your high places, because of sin, / Within all your borders.
⁴ And you yourself will let go of your inheritance, / Which I gave to you; / And I will cause you to serve your enemies / In a land which you do not know; / For you have kindled a fire in My anger, / Which will burn forever.
⁵ Thus says Jehovah, / Cursed is the man who trusts in man / And makes flesh his arm / And whose heart turns away from Jehovah.
⁶ And he will be like a shrub in the desert / And will not see when good comes; / But he will dwell in the parched places in the wilderness, / A land of salt and uninhabited.
⁷ Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah / And whose trust Jehovah is.
⁸ And he will be like a tree transplanted beside water, / Which sends out its roots by a stream, / And will not be afraid when heat comes; / For its leaves remain flourishing, / And it will not be anxious in the year of drought / And will not cease to bear fruit.
⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things, / And it is incurable; / Who can know it?
¹⁰ I, Jehovah, search the heart / And test the inward parts, / Even to give to each one according to his ways, / According to the fruit of his deeds.
¹¹ As a partridge broods over what she has not laid, / A man makes riches but not rightly; / In the midst of his days they will leave him, / And at his end he will be a fool.
¹² A throne of glory set on high from the beginning / Is the place of our sanctuary.
¹³ You are the hope of Israel, O Jehovah; / All who forsake You will be put to shame. / Those who turn away from Me will be written in the earth / Because they forsook Jehovah, / The fountain of living waters.
¹⁴ Heal me, O Jehovah, and I will be healed; / Save me and I will be saved, / For You are my praise.
¹⁵ Indeed, they say to me, / Where is the word of Jehovah? / Let it come now!
¹⁶ But as for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after You, / And I have not desired a day of disaster. / You know that what came out of my lips / Was before Your face.
¹⁷ Do not become a terror to me; / You are my refuge in an evil day.
¹⁸ Let those who persecute me be put to shame, but as for me, do not let me be put to shame; / Let them be dismayed, but do not let me be dismayed. / Bring upon them an evil day, / And break them with a double destruction.
¹⁹ Thus said Jehovah to me, Go and stand in the gate of the sons of the people, through which the kings of Judah come in and through which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem,
²⁰ And say to them, Hear the word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah and all Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter through these gates:
²¹ Thus says Jehovah, Take heed to your souls and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring anything through the gates of Jerusalem.
²² And do not bring out any burden from your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work; but sanctify the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
²³ But they did not listen or incline their ear; rather they stiffened their neck that they might not hear or receive correction.
²⁴ But if indeed you listen to Me, declares Jehovah, and bring no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but sanctify the Sabbath day and do not do any work on it,
²⁵ Then kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding on chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, will come through the gates of this city; and this city will be inhabited forever.
²⁶ And they will come from the cities of Judah and the places surrounding Jerusalem and from the land of Benjamin and from the lowland and from the hill country and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices and meal offerings and frankincense and bringing thanksgiving to the house of Jehovah.
²⁷ But if you do not listen to Me to sanctify the Sabbath day and not to bear a burden when coming in through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and will not be extinguished.

18

¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
² Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear My words.
³ So I went down to the potter’s house, and he was there doing work at his wheel.
⁴ But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand; so he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good for the potter to make.
⁵ And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
⁶ Am I not able to do with you, O house of Israel, as this potter does? declares Jehovah. Indeed, as the clay is in the hand of the potter, so you are in My hand, O house of Israel.
⁷ At the moment that I speak about a nation or about a kingdom, to pluck it up or to break it down or to destroy it,
⁸ And if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will repent of the evil that I intended to do to it.
⁹ And at the moment that I speak about a nation or a kingdom, to build it up or to plant it,
¹⁰ And if it does evil in My sight by not listening to My voice, then I will repent of the good with which I said I would benefit it.
¹¹ And now speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Jehovah, Look, I am forming evil against you and devising a plan against you. Return now, each one of you from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.
¹² But they say, It is hopeless! For we will walk after our own devices and everyone will do according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.
¹³ Therefore thus says Jehovah, / Ask now among the nations, / Who has heard such things? / The virgin of Israel / Has done a very horrible thing.
¹⁴ Does the snow of Lebanon / Leave the rock of the field? / Or will the cold flowing waters / Coming from afar be dried up?
¹⁵ But My people have forgotten Me; / They burn incense to vanity,And they have been stumbled in their ways / From the ancient paths / To walk on bypaths, / On a way which is not cast up,
¹⁶ To make their land an astonishment, / A thing to be hissed at forever. / Everyone who passes by will be astonished / And shake his head.
¹⁷ Like the east wind I will scatter them / Before the enemy; / I will show them My back and not My face / In the day of their calamity.
¹⁸ Then they said, Come, let us devise plots against Jeremiah; for the law will not perish from the priest or counsel from the wise man or a word from the prophet. Come, let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
¹⁹ Give heed to me, O Jehovah, / And listen to the voice of those who contend with me.
²⁰ Shall evil be recompensed for good? / For they have dug a pit for my life. / Remember how I stood before You / To speak good for their sake, / To turn away Your wrath from them.
²¹ Therefore deliver up their children to famine, / And give them over to the power of the sword; / And let their wives become / Bereaved of child and be widows; / And let their men be slaughtered to death, / Their young men struck by the sword in battle.
²² Let a cry be heard from their houses / When You suddenly bring upon them a troop; / For they have dug a pit to capture me / And have hidden snares for my feet.
²³ Yet You, O Jehovah, know / All their counsel against me for my death. / Do not be propitious to their iniquity, / And do not blot out their sin from before You; / But let them be overthrown before You; / Deal with them in the time of Your anger.

19

¹ Thus says Jehovah, Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jar, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests;
² And go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is at the entrance of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words which I will speak to you,
³ And say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I am about to bring evil upon this place, at which the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle;
⁴ Because they have forsaken Me and have estranged this place from Me and have burned incense in it to other gods, which neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent,
⁵ And they have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come up in My heart.
⁶ Therefore indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when this place will no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter.
⁷ And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life, and I will give their corpses to the birds of heaven and to the beasts of the earth for food.
⁸ And I will make this city an astonishment and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss at all its wounds.
⁹ And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and each one will eat his neighbor’s flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life distress them.
¹⁰ And you shall break the jar in the sight of the men who go with you.
¹¹ And you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, So I will break this people and this city in the same way as one breaks the potter’s vessel so that it cannot be repaired anymore, and they will bury in Topheth because there will be no other place to bury.
¹² Thus I will deal with this place, declares Jehovah, and with its inhabitants, so as to make this city like Topheth.
¹³ And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be like the place Topheth, defiled because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burnt incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.
¹⁴ Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where Jehovah had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the house of Jehovah and said to all the people,
¹⁵ Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I am about to bring to this city and upon all its cities all the evil that I have spoken against it because they have stiffened their neck so as not to hear My words.

20

¹ Now Pashhur the son of Immer, the priest, who was chief officer in the house of Jehovah, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.
² And Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were at the upper gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of Jehovah.
³ And on the next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, Jehovah no longer calls your name Pashhur, but Magor-missabib.
⁴ For thus says Jehovah, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends, and they will fall by the sword of their enemies while your eyes look on; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will exile them to Babylon and strike them with the sword.
⁵ I will also give all the wealth of this city and all its gains and all its precious things; indeed all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them and capture them and bring them to Babylon.
⁶ And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house will go into captivity and you will go to Babylon and die there and be buried there, you and all your friends to whom you prophesied falsely.
⁷ You have enticed me, O Jehovah, and I let myself be enticed; / You have laid hold of me and have prevailed. / I have become a laughingstock all day long; / Everyone mocks me.
⁸ For whenever I speak, I cry out; / I proclaim violence and destruction; / For the word of Jehovah has become to me / A reproach and a derision all day long.
⁹ But if I say, I will not mention Him / Or speak anymore in His name, / Then it is in my heart like a burning fire, / Shut up in my bones, / And I am weary of holding it in, / Nor can I.
¹⁰ For I hear the slander of many, / Terror on every side: / Denounce; yes, let us denounce him. / Every familiar friend / Is watching for my stumbling: / Perhaps he will be deceived so we can prevail against him / And take our revenge on him.
¹¹ But Jehovah is with me like a mighty one who terrifies; / Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail; / They will be greatly ashamed, for they have not prospered, / With an eternal humiliation that will not be forgotten.
¹² But, O Jehovah of hosts, who tries the righteous, / Who sees the inward parts and the heart, / Let me see Your vengeance on them, / For I have revealed my cause to You.
¹³ Sing to Jehovah; / Praise Jehovah; / For He has delivered the soul of the poor / From the hand of the evildoers.
¹⁴ Cursed be the day / On which I was born; / Let not the day be blessed / On which my mother bore me.
¹⁵ Cursed be the man who brought good news / To my father, saying, / A male child has been born to you, / Causing him much joy.
¹⁶ And let that man be like the cities / Which Jehovah overthrew and did not repent, / And let him hear the cry in the morning / And the alarm in the noontime;
¹⁷ Because he did not put me to death at the womb, / That my mother might be my grave, / And her womb always pregnant.
¹⁸ Why is this? Did I come out from the womb / To see trouble and sorrow, / That my days may be spent in shame?

21

¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,
² Inquire for us of Jehovah, for Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps Jehovah will deal with us according to all His wonderful deeds, so that he goes up from us.
³ Then Jeremiah said to them, Thus you will say to Zedekiah,
⁴ Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, I am about to turn back the weapons of war which are in your hand and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans, who are besieging you outside the walls; and I will gather them together into the midst of this city.
⁵ I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm and in anger and wrath and great indignation.
⁶ And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they will die of a great pestilence.
⁷ And afterward, declares Jehovah, I will deliver Zedekiah the king of Judah and his servants and the people who remain in this city after the pestilence and after the sword and after the famine into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life, and he will strike them with the edge of the sword and will not pity them or spare them or have compassion on them.
⁸ And to this people you shall say, Thus says Jehovah, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.
⁹ He who remains in this city will die by sword and by famine and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live and have his own life as spoil.
¹⁰ For I have set My face against this city for evil and not for good, declares Jehovah; it will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.
¹¹ And to the house of the king of Judah say, Hear the word of Jehovah,
¹² O house of David, thus says Jehovah: / Execute judgment every morning, / And deliver him who has been robbed from the hand of the oppressor, / Lest My wrath go forth like fire / And burn, and there be no one to extinguish it, / Because of the evil of your deeds.
¹³ Indeed, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, / O rock of the plateau, declares Jehovah, / Those who say, Who will come down against us, / And who will enter into our habitations?
¹⁴ But I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds, / Declares Jehovah, / And I will kindle a fire in her forest, / And it will devour all that is around her.

22

¹ Thus says Jehovah, Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak this word there,
² And say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people, who enter through these gates:
³ Thus says Jehovah, Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver him who has been robbed from the hand of the oppressor, and do no wrong, do no violence, to the sojourner, the orphan, or the widow; nor shed innocent blood in this place.
⁴ For if you indeed do this thing, then kings sitting in David’s place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses — the king and his servants and his people will come through the gates of this house;
⁵ But if you do not listen to these things, I swear by Myself, declares Jehovah, that this house will become a ruin.
⁶ For thus says Jehovah concerning the house of the king of Judah,You are Gilead to Me, / The summit of Lebanon; / Yet I will surely make you a wilderness, / Cities that are not inhabited.
⁷ And I will set apart destroyers against you, / Each with his weapons; / And they will cut down your choice cedars / And cast them into the fire.
⁸ And many nations will pass by this city, and they will say each one to his neighbor, Why has Jehovah done this to this great city?
⁹ And they will say, It is because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.
¹⁰ Do not weep for the one who died, nor lament for him; / But weep bitterly for the one who goes away, / For he will no longer return and see / The land of his birth.
¹¹ For thus says Jehovah concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who became king in the place of Josiah his father, who went away from this place: He will not return there anymore;
¹² But in the place where they have exiled him he will die and never see this land again.
¹³ Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness / And his upper rooms by injustice, / Who uses his neighbor’s service without wages / And does not give him recompense for his work,
¹⁴ Who says, I will build myself a large house / With spacious upper chambers, / And cuts out for it windows; and it is paneled with cedar / And painted with vermilion.
¹⁵ Are you a king because you / Excel in cedar? / Did not your father eat and drink, / And execute judgment and righteousness? Thus it was well with him.
¹⁶ He judged the cause of the poor and needy; thus it was well. / Is not this to know Me? / Declares Jehovah.
¹⁷ But you have eyes and a heart / Only for your unjust gain / And for shedding innocent blood / And for oppression and doing violence.
¹⁸ Therefore thus says Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, / They will not wail for him, saying, / Alas, my brother! or, Alas, sister! / They will not wail for him, saying, / Alas, lord! or, Alas, his majesty!
¹⁹ He will be buried with the burial of a donkey — / Dragged and cast out / Beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
²⁰ Go up to Lebanon and cry out; / And lift up your voice in Bashan, / And cry out from Abarim, / For all your lovers have been shattered.
²¹ I spoke to you in your prosperity; / But you said, I will not listen. / This has been your way from your youth, / That you have not listened to My voice.
²² The wind will shepherd all your shepherds, / And your lovers will go into captivity; / Then you will be ashamed and confounded / Because of all your wickedness.
²³ O inhabitant of Lebanon, / Nested among the cedars, / How you will be pitied when pains come to you, / Anguish like that of a woman giving birth.
²⁴ As I live, declares Jehovah, Even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a signet ring on My right hand, yet I would tear you off,
²⁵ And I would give you into the hand of those who seek your life and into the hand of those whom you fear, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
²⁶ I will cast you and your mother who bore you far away into another land where you were not born, and there you will die.
²⁷ But to the land to which they desire to return, they will not return.
²⁸ Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered container? / Or is he a vessel no one delights in? / Why are he and his seed thrown away / And cast into a land which they do not know?
²⁹ O land, land, land, / Hear the word of Jehovah:
³⁰ Thus says Jehovah, / Write down this man as childless, / A man who will not prosper in his days; / For none of his seed will prosper / By sitting on the throne of David / Or by ruling again in Judah.

23

¹ Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture, declares Jehovah.
² Therefore thus says Jehovah the God of Israel concerning the shepherds who shepherd My people, You have scattered My flock and driven them away and have not visited them; I will visit upon you the evil of your deeds, declares Jehovah.
³ Then I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their pasture; and they will be fruitful and multiply.
⁴ And I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they will no longer fear or be dismayed, nor will any be missing, declares Jehovah.
⁵ Indeed, days are coming, / Declares Jehovah, / When I will raise up to David a righteous Shoot; / And He will reign as King and act prudently / And will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
⁶ In His days Judah will be saved, / And Israel will dwell securely; / And this is His name by which He will be called, / Jehovah our righteousness.
⁷ Therefore indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when they will no longer say, As Jehovah lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
⁸ But, As Jehovah lives, who brought up and led back the seed of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where I had driven them, that they might dwell in their own land.
⁹ Concerning the prophets:My heart is broken within me; / All my bones fail. / I have become like a man who is drunk, / Even like a mighty man who is overcome by wine, / Because of Jehovah / And because of the words of His holiness.
¹⁰ For the land is full of adulterers; / For the land mourns because of the curse. / The pastures of the wilderness are dried up, / And the course they run is evil, / And their might is not right.
¹¹ For both the prophet and the priest are profane; / Even in My house I have found their wickedness, / Declares Jehovah.
¹² Therefore their way will become like slippery paths for them; / In the darkness they will be driven and will fall in it; / For I will bring evil on them / In the year of their punishment, declares Jehovah.
¹³ And in the prophets of Samaria / I have seen an offensive thing: / They prophesied by Baal / And led My people Israel astray.
¹⁴ And yet in the prophets of Jerusalem / I have seen a horrible thing: / The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood; / And they strengthen the hands of evildoers, / So that none turn / From their wickedness. / All of them have become to Me like Sodom / And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
¹⁵ Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts concerning the prophets: / I will feed them with wormwood / And give them poisonous water to drink, / For profaneness has gone forth / From the prophets of Jerusalem into all the land.
¹⁶ Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you; / They are leading you to vanity; / They speak a vision of their own heart, / Not out of the mouth of Jehovah.
¹⁷ They say continually to those who despise Me, / Jehovah has spoken, You will have peace; / And to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, / They say, Evil will not come upon you.
¹⁸ For who has stood in the council of Jehovah, / That he should perceive and hear His word? / Who has given heed to His word and listened?
¹⁹ Look, the storm wind of Jehovah! Wrath has gone forth, / Even a whirling tempest; / It will whirl down on the head of the wicked.
²⁰ The anger of Jehovah will not turn back / Until He has executed and until He has accomplished / The purposes of His heart; / In the last days / You will understand it clearly.
²¹ I did not send the prophets, / But they ran forth; / I did not speak to them, / Yet they prophesied.
²² But if they had stood in My council / And had caused My people to hear My words, / They would have turned them from their evil way / And from the evil of their deeds.
²³ Am I a God who is near, declares Jehovah, / And not a God who is far off?
²⁴ Can a man hide himself in secret places, / So that I will not see him? declares Jehovah. / Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? / Declares Jehovah.
²⁵ I have heard what the prophets say, who prophesy falsehood in My name, saying, I have dreamed; I have dreamed.
²⁶ How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy falsehood and who are prophets of the deceit of their own heart,
²⁷ Who think to cause My people to forget My name with their dreams which they tell, each one to his neighbor, even as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?
²⁸ The prophet who has a dream, let him tell the dream; and he with whom is My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the straw to the grain? declares Jehovah.
²⁹ Is not My word thus — like fire, declares Jehovah, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
³⁰ Therefore indeed, I am against the prophets, declares Jehovah, who steal My words, each one from his neighbor.
³¹ Indeed, I am against the prophets, declares Jehovah, who use their tongues and declare, He has declared.
³² Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams, declares Jehovah, and who tell them and lead My people astray by their lies and by their recklessness, although I did not send them or command them; neither do they profit this people at all, declares Jehovah.
³³ And when this people or the prophet or priest asks you, saying, What is the burden of Jehovah? then you shall say to them, What burden? I will even cast you off, declares Jehovah.
³⁴ And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, The burden of Jehovah, I will punish that man and his household.
³⁵ Thus you shall say every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, What has Jehovah answered? or, What has Jehovah spoken?
³⁶ And you shall mention no more the burden of Jehovah, for every man’s word will be his own burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, Jehovah of hosts, our God.
³⁷ Thus you shall say to the prophet, What has Jehovah answered you? or, What has Jehovah spoken?
³⁸ But if you say, The burden of Jehovah, therefore thus says Jehovah, Because you have said this word, The burden of Jehovah, and I have sent to you, saying, You shall not say, The burden of Jehovah,
³⁹ Therefore, I will utterly forget you and cast away from My presence you and the city which I gave to you and to your fathers.
⁴⁰ And I will bring upon you eternal reproach and eternal humiliation, which will not be forgotten.

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¹ Jehovah showed me, and there were two baskets of figs placed before the temple of Jehovah, after Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon had exiled Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and the princes of Judah and the craftsmen and the smiths from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon.
² One basket had very good figs, like first ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten because of their rottenness.
³ And Jehovah said to me, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs. The good figs are very good; the bad figs are very bad, which cannot be eaten because of their rottenness.
⁴ Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
⁵ Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Like these good figs, so I will regard those who are exiled of Judah, whom I have sent from this place to the land of the Chaldeans, for good.
⁶ And I will set My eyes upon them for good and will bring them back to this land and build them up and not tear them down, and I will plant them and not uproot them.
⁷ And I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am Jehovah; and they will be My people, and I will be their God; for they will return to Me with their whole heart.
⁸ And like the bad figs that cannot be eaten because of their rottenness, thus says Jehovah, so I will make Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his princes and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and those who dwell in the land of Egypt —
⁹ I will even make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth for evil, to be a reproach and a proverb and a byword and a curse in all the places where I will drive them.
¹⁰ And I will send sword and famine and pestilence upon them until they are consumed from the land which I gave to them and to their fathers.

25

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah (that is, the first year of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon),
² Which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,
³ From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, the king of Judah, even unto this day, these twenty-three years, the word of Jehovah came to me, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you have not listened.
⁴ And Jehovah sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, but you have not listened or inclined your ear to hear,
⁵ Saying, Turn now every one from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell upon the land which Jehovah has given you and your fathers from eternity to eternity;
⁶ And do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them; and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm.
⁷ Yet you have not listened to Me, declares Jehovah, that you might provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.
⁸ Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, Because you have not listened to My words,
⁹ I will send for and take all the families of the north, declares Jehovah, that is, for Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and I will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations and will utterly destroy them and make them an astonishment and a hissing and an eternal reproach.
¹⁰ And I will cause the voice of gladness and the voice of joy to perish from them, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.
¹¹ And this whole land will become a desolation and a waste, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
¹² Then after the seventy years have been fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation for their iniquity, declares Jehovah, as well as the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it an eternal desolation.
¹³ And I will bring upon that land all My words which I have spoken against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations.
¹⁴ For many nations and great kings will make them serve them, even them, and I will recompense them according to their doing and according to the work of their hands.
¹⁵ For thus said Jehovah the God of Israel to me, Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and make all the nations to whom I am sending you drink it.
¹⁶ And they will drink and stagger and become mad because of the sword which I am sending among them.
¹⁷ And I took the cup from Jehovah’s hand and made all the nations to whom Jehovah sent me drink it:
¹⁸ Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and her kings, her princes, to make them a desolation, a waste, a hissing and a curse, as it is this day;
¹⁹ Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and his servants and his princes and all his people;
²⁰ And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines (even Ashkelon and Gaza and Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod);
²¹ Edom and Moab and the children of Ammon;
²² And all the kings of Tyre and all the kings of Sidon and the kings of the islands across the sea;
²³ And Dedan and Tema and Buz and all who cut the corners of their hair;
²⁴ And all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mingled people who dwell in the wilderness;
²⁵ And all the kings of Zimri and all the kings of Elam and all the kings of Media;
²⁶ And all the kings of the north, near and far, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the earth which are upon the surface of the ground and the king of Sheshach will drink it after them.
²⁷ And you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Drink and be drunk, and vomit and fall, and rise no longer, because of the sword which I am sending among you.
²⁸ And if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, You shall surely drink it.
²⁹ For I am now beginning to bring evil on the city which is called by My name, and will you indeed go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling for a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares Jehovah of hosts.
³⁰ Therefore you shall prophesy against them all these words and say to them, / Jehovah will roar from on high, / And He will utter His voice from His holy habitation; / He will roar mightily against His habitation; / He will respond with a shout like those who tread grapes, / Against all the inhabitants of the earth.
³¹ The tumult comes to the ends of the earth, / For Jehovah has a dispute with the nations. / He is entering into judgment with all flesh / And will give up the wicked to the sword, / Declares Jehovah.
³² Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / Evil is now going forth / From nation to nation, / And a great storm wind is being stirred up / From the uttermost parts of the earth.
³³ And those slain by Jehovah on that day will be from one end of the earth unto the other end of the earth; they will not be mourned or gathered or buried; they will be as dung on the surface of the ground.
³⁴ Howl, O shepherds, and cry out / And roll in ashes, O majestic ones of the flock; / For your days of slaughter have been fulfilled, / And I will disperse you, so that you fall like a precious vessel.
³⁵ And refuge will perish from the shepherds, / And an escape from the majestic ones of the flock.
³⁶ The sound of the cry of the shepherds! / And the howl of the majestic ones of the flock! / For Jehovah is destroying their pasture;
³⁷ And the habitations of peace are destroyed / Because of the burning anger of Jehovah.
³⁸ Like a young lion He has left His lair, / For their land has become a waste, / Because of the oppressing sword / And because of His burning anger.

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¹ In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came from Jehovah, saying,
² Thus says Jehovah, Stand in the court of the house of Jehovah and speak to all the cities of Judah, who come to worship in the house of Jehovah, all the words which I command you to speak to them, and do not take away a word.
³ Perhaps they will listen and turn, every one from his evil way, that I may repent of the evil which I intend to do to them because of the evil of their deeds.
⁴ And you shall say to them, Thus says Jehovah, If you will not listen to Me to walk in My law, which I have set before you,
⁵ To listen to the words of My servants the prophets, whom I send to you, rising up early and sending them — and you have not listened —
⁶ Then I will make this house like Shiloh, and this city I will make a curse to all the nations of the earth.
⁷ And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of Jehovah.
⁸ And when Jeremiah had finished speaking everything that Jehovah had commanded him to speak unto all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, You will surely die!
⁹ Why have you prophesied in the name of Jehovah, saying, This house will be like Shiloh and this city will be a desolation, without inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of Jehovah.
¹⁰ And the princes of Judah heard these things, and they went up from the king’s house to the house of Jehovah and took their seat at the entrance of the new gate of the house of Jehovah.
¹¹ And the priests and the prophets spoke to the princes and to all the people, saying, A sentence of death on this man! For he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.
¹² Then Jeremiah spoke to all the princes and to all the people, saying, Jehovah sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words which you have heard.
¹³ Now therefore amend your ways and your deeds and listen to the voice of Jehovah your God, and Jehovah will repent of the evil which He has spoken against you.
¹⁴ But as for me, here I am, in your hands; do with me as is good and right in your eyes.
¹⁵ Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and upon her inhabitants; for truly Jehovah has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.
¹⁶ Then the princes and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, This man is not worthy of a sentence of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of Jehovah our God.
¹⁷ And some of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying,
¹⁸ Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah the king of Judah and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus says Jehovah of hosts,Zion will be plowed as a field, / And Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, / And the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.
¹⁹ Did Hezekiah the king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear Jehovah and entreat the favor of Jehovah, and did not Jehovah repent of the evil which He had spoken against them? But we are about to bring a great evil on ourselves.
²⁰ And there was another man who prophesied in the name of Jehovah, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim, and he prophesied against this city and against this land words like all those of Jeremiah.
²¹ And when King Jehoiakim and all his mighty men and all the princes heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Uriah heard, he was afraid and fled and went to Egypt.
²² And King Jehoiakim sent certain men to Egypt, that is, Elnathan the son of Achbor and men with him to Egypt;
²³ And they brought Uriah out of Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, and he struck him with the sword and threw his corpse into the graves of the common people.
²⁴ Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not given into the hands of the people to put him to death.

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¹ In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
² Thus said Jehovah to me, Make for yourself bonds and yoke bars, and put them on your neck;
³ And send them to the king of Edom and to the king of Moab and to the king of the children of Ammon and to the king of Tyre and to the king of Sidon by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah the king of Judah.
⁴ And command them to go to their masters, saying, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Thus you shall say to your masters,
⁵ It is I who made the earth, and the people and the animals who are on the face of the earth, by My great power and by My outstretched arm; and I give it to whomever it seems right in My own eyes.
⁶ And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and I have also given him the beasts of the field to serve him.
⁷ And all the nations will serve him and his son and his son’s son until the time of his own land comes, when many nations and great kings will make him serve them.
⁸ But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon and will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with sword and with famine and with pestilence, declares Jehovah, until I have consumed them by his hand.
⁹ But as for you, do not listen to your prophets and to your diviners and to your dreams and to your soothsayers and to your sorcerers who speak to you, saying, You will not serve the king of Babylon.
¹⁰ For they prophesy falsehood to you, with the result that you will be removed far from your land; and I will drive you out, and you will perish.
¹¹ But any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave in its own land, declares Jehovah, to till it and dwell there.
¹² And I spoke to Zedekiah the king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
¹³ Why will you die, you and your people, by sword, by famine, and by pestilence, as Jehovah has spoken concerning the nation which will not serve the king of Babylon?
¹⁴ And do not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, You will not serve the king of Babylon; for they are prophesying falsehood to you.
¹⁵ For I have not sent them, declares Jehovah; but they prophesy falsely in My name, with the result that I will drive you out and you will perish, you and the prophets who prophesy to you.
¹⁶ And I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus says Jehovah, Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, The vessels of the house of Jehovah will now shortly be brought back from Babylon; for they are prophesying falsehood to you.
¹⁷ Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation?
¹⁸ But if they are prophets and if the word of Jehovah is with them, let them intercede to Jehovah of hosts that the vessels which are left in the house of Jehovah and in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon.
¹⁹ For thus says Jehovah of hosts concerning the pillars and concerning the sea and concerning the bases and concerning the rest of the vessels which are left in this city,
²⁰ Which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon did not take when he took into exile Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem.
²¹ For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels which are left in the house of Jehovah and in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem,
²² They will be carried to Babylon and remain there until the day I visit them, declares Jehovah; then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.

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¹ And in that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of Jehovah in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying,
² Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
³ Within two full years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the house of Jehovah, which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon took from this place and carried to Babylon.
⁴ And Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, I will bring back to this place, declares Jehovah; for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
⁵ Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who were standing in the house of Jehovah.
⁶ And the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen! May Jehovah do so. May Jehovah establish your words which you have prophesied and bring back the vessels of the house of Jehovah and all the exiles from Babylon to this place.
⁷ Nevertheless hear now this word which I am about to speak in your ears and in the ears of all the people.
⁸ The prophets who were before me and before you since long ago prophesied against many lands and against great kingdoms, of war and of evil and of pestilence.
⁹ The prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then the prophet will be known as one whom Jehovah has truly sent.
¹⁰ Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke bar from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah and broke it.
¹¹ And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus says Jehovah, Even so I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within two full years. Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way.
¹² And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke bar from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
¹³ Go and speak to Hananiah, saying, Thus says Jehovah, You have broken the wooden yoke bars, but you have made in their place iron yoke bars.
¹⁴ For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I have put an iron yoke upon the neck of all these nations that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon; and they will serve him. And I have also given the beasts of the field to him.
¹⁵ And the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, Listen now, O Hananiah, Jehovah has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in falsehood.
¹⁶ Therefore thus says Jehovah, I will send you from the face of the earth. This year you will die because you have spoken rebellion against Jehovah.
¹⁷ And the prophet Hananiah died in that very year in the seventh month.

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¹ And these are the words of the letter which the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile and to the priests and to the prophets and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon
² (After King Jeconiah and the queen mother and the eunuchs, and the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen and the smiths had gone out from Jerusalem),
³ By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah the king of Judah sent to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon at Babylon, saying:
⁴ Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon,
⁵ Build houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat their produce.
⁶ Take wives and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there and do not become few.
⁷ And seek the peace of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to Jehovah for it; for in its peace you will have peace.
⁸ For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Do not let your prophets, who are in your midst, and your diviners deceive you; and do not listen to your dreams, which you cause to be dreamed.
⁹ For they prophesy to you falsely in My name; and I have not sent them, declares Jehovah.
¹⁰ For thus says Jehovah, When seventy years are fulfilled for Babylon, I will visit you and establish My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.
¹¹ For I know the thoughts that I think about you, declares Jehovah, thoughts of peace and not for evil, to give you a latter end and a hope.
¹² Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you;
¹³ And you will seek Me and find Me if you search for Me with all your heart;
¹⁴ And I will be found by you, declares Jehovah. And I will turn your captivity and gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, declares Jehovah, and bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.
¹⁵ If you say, Jehovah has raised up for us prophets in Babylon,
¹⁶ Indeed thus says Jehovah concerning the king who sits on the throne of David and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who did not go out with you into exile:
¹⁷ Thus says Jehovah of hosts, I am about to send upon them sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like vile figs, which cannot be eaten because of rottenness.
¹⁸ And I will pursue them with sword, with famine, and with pestilence, and I will make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth to be a curse and an astonishment and a hissing and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them;
¹⁹ Because they have not listened to My words, declares Jehovah, which I sent to them by My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending; but you did not listen, declares Jehovah.
²⁰ Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.
²¹ Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you falsehood in My name, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and he will strike them before your eyes.
²² And because of them a curse will be taken up by all the exiles from Judah who are in Babylon, saying, May Jehovah make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;
²³ Because they have committed folly in Israel and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have spoken a word of falsehood in My name, which I did not command them to do; indeed I am the One who knows and am witness, declares Jehovah.
²⁴ And you shall speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying,
²⁵ Thus speaks Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because you have sent letters in your own name to all the people who are in Jerusalem and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying,
²⁶ Jehovah has made you a priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, that there should be officers in the house of Jehovah over every madman who prophesies so that you might put him in the stocks and in the iron collar.
²⁷ And now why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who prophesies to you?
²⁸ For he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, It will be a long time; build houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat their produce.
²⁹ And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet.
³⁰ Then the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,
³¹ Send word to all the exiles, saying, Thus says Jehovah concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite, Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, when I did not send him, and has made you trust in falsehood,
³² Therefore thus says Jehovah, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his seed: He will not have anyone living among this people and will not see the good that I am about to do to My people, declares Jehovah, because he has spoken rebellion against Jehovah.

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¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
² Thus speaks Jehovah the God of Israel, saying, Write in a book all the words which I have spoken to you.
³ Yes indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will turn the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, says Jehovah, and I will bring them back to the land which I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it.
⁴ And these are the words which Jehovah spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah:
⁵ For thus says Jehovah, / We have heard a voice of trembling, / Of fear and not of peace.
⁶ Ask now and see / Whether a man can give birth. / Why do I see every man / With his hands on his loins like a woman about to give birth / And every face turned pale?
⁷ Alas! For that day is great, / And there is none like it; / And it is a time of distress for Jacob, / But he will be saved out of it.
⁸ And on that day, declares Jehovah of hosts, I will break his yoke from your neck and tear off your bonds, and strangers will no longer make him serve them.
⁹ But they will serve Jehovah their God and David their King, whom I will raise up for them.
¹⁰ Therefore do not fear, O Jacob My servant, declares Jehovah, / And do not be dismayed, O Israel; / For indeed, I will save you from afar, / And your seed from the land of their captivity; / And Jacob will return and be undisturbed and at ease, / And no one will frighten him.
¹¹ For I am with you, declares Jehovah, to save you; / For I will make a full end of all the nations to which I have scattered you; / But I will not make a full end of you, / But will correct you in measure / And will by no means leave you unpunished.
¹² For thus says Jehovah, / Your hurt is incurable; / Your wound is grievous.
¹³ There is none to judge your judgment, to bind your wound; / There are no healing medicines for you.
¹⁴ All your lovers have forgotten you; / They do not search for you; / For I have struck you with the striking of an enemy, / With the chastisement of one who is cruel, / Because of the greatness of your iniquity; / Your sins are numerous.
¹⁵ Why do you cry out over your hurt? / Your pain is incurable. / Because of the greatness of your iniquity, / Because your sins are numerous, / I have done these things to you.
¹⁶ Therefore all those who consume you will be consumed, / And all those who distress you, every one of them, will go into captivity; / And those who plunder you will become plunder, / And all those who prey on you I will make a prey.
¹⁷ For I will bring you recovery / And will heal you of your wounds, declares Jehovah; / Because they have called you an outcast, saying, / She is Zion, whom no one searches after.
¹⁸ Thus says Jehovah, / I will turn the captivity of the tents of Jacob / And have compassion on his dwelling places; / And the city will be rebuilt on its mound, / And the palace will be inhabited after its own manner.
¹⁹ And out from them will come thanksgiving / And the voice of those who make merry. / And I will multiply them, so that they will not be few; / And I will cause them to be honored, so that they will not be small.
²⁰ And their children will be as they were of old, / And their assembly will be established before Me; / And I will punish all those who oppress them,
²¹ And their leader will be one of them. / And their ruler will come out from their midst, / And I will bring him near, and he will approach Me. / For who else would be bold enough / To approach Me? declares Jehovah.
²² And you will be My people, / And I will be your God.
²³ Look, the storm wind of Jehovah! / Wrath has gone forth, / A whirling tempest; / It will whirl down on the head of the wicked.
²⁴ The burning anger of Jehovah will not turn back, / Until He has executed and until He has accomplished / The purposes of His heart; / In the last days / You will understand it.

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¹ At that time, declares Jehovah, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be My people.
² Thus says Jehovah,The people who survived the sword / Found favor in the wilderness — / Even Israel, when I went to give him rest.
³ Jehovah appeared to me from afar, saying, / Indeed I have loved you with an eternal love, / Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.
⁴ I will build you again, and you will be built, / O virgin of Israel. / Again you will adorn yourself with your tambourines / And will go forth in the dance of those who make merry.
⁵ Again you will plant vineyards / On the mountains of Samaria; / The planters will plant / And will partake of the fruit.
⁶ For there will be a day when watchmen call out / In the hill country of Ephraim, / Saying, Arise and let us go up to Zion, / To Jehovah our God.
⁷ For thus says Jehovah, / Give a ringing shout with joy for Jacob, / And cry out at the head of the nations; / Announce, praise, and say, / O Jehovah, save Your people, / The remnant of Israel.
⁸ I will bring them / From the land of the north, / And I will gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, / The blind and the lame among them, / The pregnant woman and she who is travailing together, / A great assembly; they will return here.
⁹ They will come with weeping, / And with supplications I will lead them. / I will cause them to walk by the waterbrooks / In a straight way, in which they will not stumble; / For I am a Father to Israel, / And Ephraim is My firstborn.
¹⁰ Hear the word of Jehovah, O nations, / And declare in the coastlands from afar, / And say, He who scattered Israel will gather him / And keep him, as a shepherd his flock.
¹¹ For Jehovah has ransomed Jacob / And redeemed him from the hand of one stronger than he.
¹² And they will come and sing in the height of Zion, / And they will flow forth to the goodness of Jehovah — / To the grain and to the new wine and to the fresh oil / And to the young of the flock and of the herd; / And their soul will be like a watered garden, / And they will not languish anymore.
¹³ Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, / And the young men and the old men together, / And I will turn their mourning to gladness / And comfort them and cause them to rejoice after their sorrow.
¹⁴ And I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, / And My people will be satisfied with My goodness, / Declares Jehovah.
¹⁵ Thus says Jehovah, / A voice is heard in Ramah, / A wailing, a very bitter weeping. / Rachel is weeping for her children; / She refuses to be comforted for her children, / Because they are no more.
¹⁶ Thus says Jehovah, / Hold back your voice from weeping / And your eyes from tears; / For there is a reward for your work, declares Jehovah; / And they will return from the land of the enemy.
¹⁷ And there is hope for your latter end, declares Jehovah, / That your children will return to their own border.
¹⁸ Indeed I have heard Ephraim lamenting, / You have chastised me, and I was chastised, / Like an untrained calf; / Bring me back that I may be restored, / For You are Jehovah my God.
¹⁹ For after I turned back, I repented; / And after I was instructed, / I struck myself on the thigh. / I was ashamed and even confounded, / For I bear the reproach of my youth.
²⁰ Is Ephraim a precious son to Me? / Or a child of My good pleasure? / For as often as I speak against him, / I surely remember him more; / Therefore My bowels moan for him; / I will surely have mercy on him, declares Jehovah.
²¹ Set up road markers for yourself; / Make signposts for yourself; / Pay attention to the highway, / The way you went; / Return, O virgin of Israel; / Return to these cities of yours.
²² How long will you wander here and there, / O apostate daughter? / For Jehovah has created a new thing in the earth: / A female will encompass a mighty man.
²³ Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Once more they will say this word in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I turn again their captivity,Jehovah bless you, O habitation of righteousness, / O mountain of holiness.
²⁴ And Judah and all its cities will dwell together in it, the farmers and they who wander with the flocks.
²⁵ For I have satisfied the weary soul and filled every languishing soul.
²⁶ At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.
²⁷ Indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast.
²⁸ And as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares Jehovah.
²⁹ In those days they will no longer say,The fathers eat sour grapes, / And the children’s teeth are set on edge.
³⁰ For everyone will die for his own iniquity; every man who eats sour grapes, his own teeth will be set on edge.
³¹ Indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
³² Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by their hand to bring them out from the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was their Husband, declares Jehovah.
³³ But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares Jehovah: I will put My law in their inward parts and write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.
³⁴ And they will no longer teach, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for all of them will know Me, from the little one among them even to the great one among them, declares Jehovah, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.
³⁵ Thus says Jehovah, / Who gives the sun for light by day / And the order of the moon and the stars for light by night, / Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar — / Jehovah of hosts is His name —
³⁶ If this order departs / From before Me, declares Jehovah, / Then the seed of Israel will also cease / From being a nation before Me forever.
³⁷ Thus says Jehovah, / If the heavens above can be measured, / And the foundations of the earth below can be examined carefully, / Then I will also cast off all the seed of Israel / For all they have done, declares Jehovah.
³⁸ Indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when the city will be built unto Jehovah from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.
³⁹ And the measuring line will go out even further beyond it to the hill of Gareb and will turn toward Goah.
⁴⁰ And the whole valley of corpses and of fatty ashes and all the fields as far as the brook of Kidron unto the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east will be holy to Jehovah; it will not be uprooted or torn down anymore forever.

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¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah in the tenth year of Zedekiah the king of Judah. That year was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.
² Now at that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Judah’s house.
³ For Zedekiah the king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Why do you prophesy, saying, Thus says Jehovah, I am about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it;
⁴ And Zedekiah the king of Judah will not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but he will surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and will speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes will see his eyes;
⁵ And he will bring Zedekiah to Babylon, and he will be there until I visit him, declares Jehovah; though you fight with the Chaldeans, you will not prosper?
⁶ And Jeremiah said, The word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
⁷ Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, Buy for yourself my field which is in Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption to buy it.
⁸ And Hanamel, my uncle’s son, came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of Jehovah and said to me, Buy my field which is in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin, for you have the right of possession, and the right of redemption is yours; buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of Jehovah.
⁹ And I bought the field which was in Anathoth from Hanamel, my uncle’s son, and I weighed out for him the money, seventeen shekels of silver.
¹⁰ And I signed and sealed the deed and called witnesses and weighed out the money on scales.
¹¹ Then I took the deed of purchase, the sealed part, containing the terms and conditions, and the open part;
¹² And I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel, my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, before all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the guard.
¹³ And I commanded Baruch in their presence, saying,
¹⁴ Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Take these deeds, this deed of purchase, both the one which is sealed and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel that they may remain many days.
¹⁵ For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Houses and fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.
¹⁶ And after I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to Jehovah, saying,
¹⁷ Ah, Lord Jehovah! It is You who have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm. Nothing is too wonderful for You,
¹⁸ Who show lovingkindness to thousands of generations but repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. O great and mighty God, whose name is Jehovah of hosts,
¹⁹ Great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, giving to each according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds;
²⁰ Who have set signs and wonders unto this day in the land of Egypt and in Israel and among mankind and have made a name for Yourself, as in this day.
²¹ And You brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders, and with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror.
²² And You gave them this land, which You had sworn to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey.
²³ And they entered and took possession of it, but they did not listen to Your voice or walk in Your law. They have not done anything of all that You commanded them to do; therefore You have caused all this evil to happen to them.
²⁴ See the siege mounds, which come up to the city to capture it. And the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans, who are fighting against it, by sword and famine and pestilence. And what You have spoken has come to pass, even as You see it.
²⁵ But You, O Lord Jehovah, said to me, Buy for yourself the field with money and call witnesses. Yet the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.
²⁶ And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,
²⁷ Indeed, I am Jehovah, the God of all flesh. Is anything too wonderful for Me?
²⁸ Therefore thus says Jehovah, I am now giving this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and he will take it.
²⁹ And the Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will come and set this city on fire, and they will burn it and the houses upon whose roofs the people have offered incense to Baal and poured out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger.
³⁰ For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil in My sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked Me to anger by the work of their hands, declares Jehovah.
³¹ For this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and of My wrath, from the day that they built it even unto this day, so that I should remove it from My sight;
³² Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me to anger — they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
³³ And they have turned their back to Me and not their face, although I taught them, rising up early and teaching; but they would not listen so as to receive instruction.
³⁴ And they set up their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it.
³⁵ And they built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom in order to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through fire to Molech, something I did not command them to do, nor did it come up in My heart that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
³⁶ And now therefore thus says Jehovah the God of Israel concerning this city of which you say, It has been given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword and by famine and by pestilence.
³⁷ Indeed, I will gather them out from all the lands where I have driven them in My anger and in My wrath and in great indignation; and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in safety.
³⁸ And they will be My people, and I will be their God;
³⁹ And I will give them one heart and one way, to fear Me all the days, for their own good and for the good of their children after them.
⁴⁰ And I will make an eternal covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put My fear into their hearts, so that they will not turn away from Me.
⁴¹ And I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness with all My heart and with all My soul.
⁴² For thus says Jehovah, Just as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I promised them.
⁴³ And fields will be bought in this land of which you are saying, It is a desolation, without man or beast; it has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.
⁴⁴ They will buy fields with money and sign and seal deeds and call witnesses in the land of Benjamin and all around Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah and in the cities of the hill country and in the cities of the lowland and in the cities of the Negev, for I will turn their captivity, declares Jehovah.

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¹ And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah a second time while he was still shut up in the court of the guard, saying,
² Thus says Jehovah who does it, Jehovah who formed it to establish it — Jehovah is His name —
³ Call unto Me, and I will answer you and tell you great and hidden things, which you do not know.
⁴ For thus says Jehovah the God of Israel concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which were torn down as a defense against the siege mounds and against the sword,
⁵ And who came to fight with the Chaldeans and to fill the houses with the corpses of men whom I have struck in My anger and My wrath, and this city from which I have hidden My face because of all their wickedness:
⁶ I am about to bring it recovery and healing and will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth.
⁷ And I will turn the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel and build them up as in the former time.
⁸ And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, by which they have sinned against Me, and forgive all their iniquities, by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me.
⁹ And it will be a name of gladness and a praise and a glory to Me before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good that I am about to do for them; and they will fear and tremble because of all the good and because of all the peace that I am about to provide for it.
¹⁰ Thus says Jehovah, Again there will be heard in this place concerning which you say, It is a waste, without man and without beast, and in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast,
¹¹ The voice of gladness and the voice of joy and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride and the voice of those who say, Praise Jehovah of hosts, for Jehovah is good, for His lovingkindness is forever, as they bring a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the house of Jehovah; for I will turn the captivity of the land, as in the former time, says Jehovah.
¹² For thus says Jehovah of hosts, Again there will be in this place which is a waste, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, a habitation of shepherds making their flock lie down.
¹³ In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland and in the cities of the Negev and in the land of Benjamin and all around Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, the flock will again pass under the hand of the one who counts them, says Jehovah.
¹⁴ Indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will establish the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah.
¹⁵ In those days and at that time I will cause a Shoot of righteousness to shoot forth unto David, and He will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
¹⁶ In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely; and this is the name by which she will be called: Jehovah our righteousness.
¹⁷ For thus says Jehovah, David will never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel,
¹⁸ And the Levitical priests will never lack a man before Me to offer up a burnt offering and to offer up a meal offering and to make a sacrifice continually.
¹⁹ And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,
²⁰ Thus says Jehovah, If you can break My covenant with respect to the day and My covenant with respect to the night, so that day and night will not be at their appointed time,
²¹ Then also My covenant can be broken with David My servant, so that he will not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levitical priests as My ministers.
²² As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the seed of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.
²³ And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,
²⁴ Have you not seen what this people has spoken, saying, The two families which Jehovah has chosen, these He has rejected? And they despise My people, so that they are no longer a nation in their sight.
²⁵ Thus says Jehovah, If My covenant with respect to day and night does not stand, if I have not established the statutes of heaven and earth,
²⁶ Then I will also reject the seed of Jacob and David My servant and will not take rulers from his seed to be over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for I will turn their captivity and will have compassion on them.

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¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah when Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion and all the peoples were fighting against Jerusalem and against all its cities, saying,
² Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Go and speak to Zedekiah the king of Judah and say to him, Thus says Jehovah, I am about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire;
³ And you will not escape from his hand but will surely be captured and given into his hand; and your eyes will see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with you mouth to mouth, and you will go into Babylon.
⁴ Yet hear the word of Jehovah, O Zedekiah king of Judah, Thus says Jehovah concerning you, You will not die by the sword.
⁵ You will die in peace; and as there were burnings for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so men will burn spices for you and wail for you, saying, Alas, lord! Indeed, it is I who have spoken the word, declares Jehovah.
⁶ Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah the king of Judah in Jerusalem
⁷ When the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah, for these were the fortified cities that remained among the cities of Judah.
⁸ The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them,
⁹ That every one should set free his male servant and every one his female servant, who is a Hebrew male or a Hebrew female, so that no one should exact service of them, that is, of a Jew his brother.
¹⁰ And all the princes and all the people who had entered into the covenant obeyed, so as to set free every one his male servant and every one his female servant, so that no one would exact service of them again; and they obeyed and set them free.
¹¹ But afterward they turned around and took back the male servants and the female servants, whom they had set free, and they brought them into subjection as male servants and as female servants.
¹² And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
¹³ Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying,
¹⁴ At the end of every seven years each of you shall set free his brother who is a Hebrew, who was sold to you and has served you six years, and you shall set him free from you; but your fathers did not listen to Me or incline their ear.
¹⁵ And though you had turned in these days and done what is right in My eyes to proclaim liberty, each one to his neighbor, and made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My name;
¹⁶ You turned back and profaned My name when you took back each one his male servant and each one his female servant, whom you had set free according to their desire, and brought them into subjection to be your male servants and your female servants.
¹⁷ Therefore thus says Jehovah, You have not listened to Me to proclaim liberty each one to his brother and each one to his neighbor; I am now proclaiming liberty to you, declares Jehovah, to sword and to pestilence and to famine, and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
¹⁸ And I will give the men who transgressed My covenant and did not establish the words of the covenant which they made before Me when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts,
¹⁹ The princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs and the priests and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf —
²⁰ Indeed, I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life, and their corpses will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.
²¹ And Zedekiah the king of Judah and his princes I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life and into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you.
²² I hereby give the command, declares Jehovah, to bring them back to this city; and they will fight against it and capture it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

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¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, saying,
² Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak with them and bring them to the house of Jehovah, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.
³ So I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites,
⁴ And I brought them to the house of Jehovah, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was near the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the threshold.
⁵ And I set before the members of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine and cups; and I said to them, Drink wine.
⁶ But they said, We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, You shall not drink wine, you and your sons, forever.
⁷ And you shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed, and you shall not plant a vineyard or have one; but you shall dwell in tents all your days, that you may live many days on the land where you are sojourning.
⁸ And we have listened to the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, to all that he commanded us: to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, and our daughters,
⁹ And not to build houses for us to dwell in; neither do we have a vineyard or a field or seed.
¹⁰ But we have dwelt in tents and have listened to and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.
¹¹ But when Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon came up against the land we said, Come and let us go to Jerusalem from before the army of the Chaldeans and from before the army of the Syrians. So we are dwelling in Jerusalem.
¹² Then the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,
¹³ Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Go and say to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction by listening to My words? declares Jehovah.
¹⁴ The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, by which he commanded his sons to drink no wine, have been established, and they have drunk no wine unto this day, for they have obeyed the command of their father. But I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking, yet you have not listened to Me.
¹⁵ I have also sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Turn now every one from his evil way, and amend your deeds, and do not go after other gods to serve them; and you will dwell in the land which I gave to you and to your fathers; but you did not incline your ear or listen to Me.
¹⁶ But the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have established the commandment of their father, which he commanded them, yet this people have not listened to Me.
¹⁷ Therefore thus says Jehovah the God of hosts, the God of Israel: I am about to bring on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil which I have spoken against them; because I spoke to them, but they did not listen; and I called to them, but they did not answer.
¹⁸ But to the house of the Rechabites Jeremiah said, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Because you have listened to the commandment of Jonadab your father and have kept all his commandments and have done according to all that he commanded you;
¹⁹ Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab the son of Rechab will never lack a man to stand before Me forever.

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¹ And in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
² Take a scroll book and write on it all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel and concerning Judah and concerning all the nations from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day.
³ Perhaps the house of Judah will listen to all the evil which I intend to do to them so that they may turn, each one from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
⁴ Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of Jehovah, which He had spoken to him, on a scroll book.
⁵ And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am restrained; I cannot go to the house of Jehovah;
⁶ Therefore you shall go and read in the scroll on which you have written from my mouth the words of Jehovah in the ears of the people in the house of Jehovah on the day of fasting; and you shall also read them in the ears of all Judah who come from their cities.
⁷ Perhaps their supplication will come before Jehovah, and each one will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath which Jehovah has spoken against this people.
⁸ And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, to read in the book the words of Jehovah in the house of Jehovah.
⁹ And in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, in the ninth month, they proclaimed a fast before Jehovah for all the people in Jerusalem and for all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem.
¹⁰ Then Baruch read the words of Jeremiah in the book in the house of Jehovah, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of the house of Jehovah, in the ears of all the people.
¹¹ When Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of Jehovah from the book,
¹² He went down to the king’s house into the chamber of the scribe. And there they were, all the princes sitting there: Elishama the scribe and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah and Elnathan the son of Achbor and Gemariah the son of Shaphan and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah and all the other princes.
¹³ And Micaiah told them all the words which he had heard when Baruch read in the book in the ears of the people.
¹⁴ Then all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, Take in your hand the scroll in which you read in the ears of the people and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them.
¹⁵ And they said to him, Sit down now and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears.
¹⁶ And when they heard all the words, they turned in fear one to another and said to Baruch, Indeed we must report all these words to the king.
¹⁷ And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us please, how did you write all these words? Was it from his mouth?
¹⁸ Then Baruch said to them, He read to me all these words from his mouth, and I wrote with ink in the book.
¹⁹ Then the princes said to Baruch, Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.
²⁰ So they went to the king in the court, but they had deposited the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe; and they reported all the words in the ears of the king.
²¹ Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king and in the ears of all the princes who stood by the king.
²² Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, and the fire of the brazier was burning before him.
²³ And as Jehudi would read three or four columns, the king would cut it with a scribe’s knife and throw the pieces into the fire which was in the brazier, until the whole scroll was consumed in the fire which was in the brazier.
²⁴ And the king and all his servants who heard all these words were not afraid and did not rend their garments.
²⁵ Even when Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.
²⁶ And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son and Seraiah the son of Azriel and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but Jehovah hid them.
²⁷ And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll and the words which Baruch had written from the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,
²⁸ Take again another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned.
²⁹ And concerning Jehoiakim the king of Judah you shall say, Thus says Jehovah, You have burned this scroll, saying, Why have you written in it, saying, The king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land and will cause man and beast to cease from it?
³⁰ Therefore thus says Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim the king of Judah, He will have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his corpse will be cast out to the heat by day and to the frost by night.
³¹ And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity, and I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and on the men of Judah all the evil which I have spoken against them. But they would not listen.
³² Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the son of Neriah, the scribe, and he wrote on it from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim the king of Judah had burned in the fire; and many more words like those were added to them.

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¹ And Zedekiah the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah, reigned as king instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim.
² But he did not listen, neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land, to the words of Jehovah, which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.
³ And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Pray to Jehovah our God for us.
⁴ Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people, for they had not yet put him in prison.
⁵ And the army of Pharaoh had come out of Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.
⁶ Then the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying,
⁷ Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, Thus you shall say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: Pharaoh’s army, which came out to you to help, is now returning to its own land of Egypt.
⁸ The Chaldeans will again return and fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire.
⁹ Thus says Jehovah, Do not deceive yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans will surely go away from us; for they will not go away.
¹⁰ For even if you had struck down the whole army of the Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and only wounded men remained among them, they would rise up each one in his tent and burn this city with fire.
¹¹ And when the army of the Chaldeans had withdrawn from Jerusalem at the presence of the army of Pharaoh,
¹² Jeremiah tried to go out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to receive a portion there among the people.
¹³ When he was at the Gate of Benjamin, there was a captain of the guard there whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, and he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, You are deserting to the Chaldeans!
¹⁴ And Jeremiah said, It is false! I am not deserting to the Chaldeans. But he did not listen to him. And Irijah seized Jeremiah and brought him to the princes.
¹⁵ And the princes were angry with Jeremiah and struck him and put him in prison, in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made it into a prison.
¹⁶ When Jeremiah came to the dungeon and to the cells, Jeremiah remained there many days.
¹⁷ And Zedekiah the king sent and took him out; and the king questioned him in his house secretly and said, Is there any word from Jehovah? And Jeremiah said, There is. And he said, You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.
¹⁸ And Jeremiah also said to Zedekiah the king, In what have I sinned against you or against your servants or against this people, that you have put me in prison?
¹⁹ And where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land?
²⁰ And now hear, O my lord the king; let my supplication come before you, and do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.
²¹ So Zedekiah the king commanded, and they placed Jeremiah in the court of the guard, and gave him a loaf of bread daily from the bakers’ street, until all the bread was gone from the city. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

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¹ And Shephatiah the son of Mattan and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur and Jucal the son of Shelemiah and Pashhur the son of Malchijah heard the words that Jeremiah was speaking to all the people, saying,
² Thus says Jehovah, He who remains in this city will die by sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live and have his own life as spoil and live.
³ Thus says Jehovah, This city will surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.
⁴ Then the princes said to the king, Now let this man be put to death, because of the way he is weakening the hands of the men of war who are left in this city and the hands of all the people by speaking such words to them; for this man is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their harm.
⁵ Then King Zedekiah said, He is now in your hand, for the king can do nothing against you.
⁶ So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the pit of Malchijah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the pit there was no water but only mire, and Jeremiah sank into the mire.
⁷ When Ebed-melech the Cushite, a eunuch, heard, while he was in the king’s house, that they had put Jeremiah into the pit (now the king was sitting at the Gate of Benjamin),
⁸ Ebed-melech went out from the king’s house and spoke to the king, saying,
⁹ O my lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the pit; and he will die in the place where he is because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city.
¹⁰ Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite, saying, Take from here thirty men with you, and bring Jeremiah the prophet up out of the pit before he dies.
¹¹ So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went to the king’s house under the treasury and took old rags and worn-out garments from there, and let them down with ropes into the pit to Jeremiah.
¹² And Ebed-melech the Cushite said to Jeremiah, Put the old rags and garments under your armpits below the ropes. And Jeremiah did so.
¹³ So they drew Jeremiah up with the ropes and lifted him out of the pit, and Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guard.
¹⁴ Then King Zedekiah sent men and had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance which is in the house of Jehovah; and the king said to Jeremiah, I am going to ask you something; do not hide anything from me.
¹⁵ And Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, If I tell you, indeed will you not put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.
¹⁶ Then King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah secretly, saying, As Jehovah lives, who made these lives of ours, I will not put you to death or give you into the hand of those men who seek your life.
¹⁷ Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, Thus says Jehovah the God of hosts, the God of Israel, If you will indeed surrender to the princes of the king of Babylon, you will live, and this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your house will live.
¹⁸ But if you do not surrender to the princes of the king of Babylon, this city will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they will burn it with fire, and you will not escape out of their hand.
¹⁹ Then Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews who have deserted to the Chaldeans, that they will give me into their hand and they will abuse me.
²⁰ And Jeremiah said, They will not give you up. Listen now to the voice of Jehovah in what I am speaking to you, and it will be well with you, and your soul will live.
²¹ But if you refuse to surrender, this is the word that Jehovah has shown me:
²² Then all the women who have been left in the house of the king of Judah will be brought out to the princes of the king of Babylon, and the women will say concerning the king, Your familiar friends / Have deceived you and prevailed over you; / While your feet sank in the mire, / They turned away from you.
²³ And they will lead out all your wives and your sons to the Chaldeans, and you yourself will not escape from their hand but will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and you will cause this city to be burned with fire.
²⁴ Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, Let no one know of these words, and you will not die.
²⁵ But if the princes hear that I have spoken with you and they come to you and say to you, Tell us now what you said to the king; do not hide it from us, and we will not put you to death; now what did the king say to you?
²⁶ Then you shall say to them, I made my supplication before the king that he would not send me back to the house of Jonathan to die there.
²⁷ Then all the princes came to Jeremiah and asked him. And he told them according to all these words which the king commanded. So they ceased to speak with him, for the matter had not been heard.
²⁸ So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was captured.

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¹ And when Jerusalem was captured (in the ninth year of Zedekiah the king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon and his whole army came to Jerusalem and besieged it;
² In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city),
³ All the princes of the king of Babylon came and sat down in the middle gate: Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebu, Sar-sechim the Rab-saris, Nergal-sharezer the Rab-mag, and all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon.
⁴ And when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, they fled and went out from the city by night by way of the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls; and he went out by the way toward the Arabah.
⁵ And the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgments on him.
⁶ Then the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes at Riblah; the king of Babylon also slaughtered all the nobles of Judah.
⁷ And he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze fetters to bring him to Babylon.
⁸ And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the houses of the people with fire and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
⁹ And the rest of the people who remained in the city, both the deserters who deserted to him and the rest of the people who remained, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard carried away into exile to Babylon.
¹⁰ But some of the poorest people who had nothing, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard left in the land of Judah and gave them vineyards and fields at that time.
¹¹ And Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon commanded concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, saying,
¹² Take him and look after him, and do no evil to him, but deal with him just as he tells you.
¹³ So Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard sent men, and Nebushazban the Rab-saris and Nergal-sharezer the Rab-mag and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon
¹⁴ Also sent men and took Jeremiah from the court of the guard and gave him to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him home. And he dwelt among the people.
¹⁵ Now the word of Jehovah had come to Jeremiah when he was shut up in the court of the guard, saying,
¹⁶ Go and speak to Ebed-melech the Cushite, saying, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I am about to bring My words against this city for evil and not for good; and they will come to pass before you on that day.
¹⁷ But I will deliver you on that day, declares Jehovah, and you will not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.
¹⁸ For I will surely save you, and you will not fall by the sword, but you will have your own life as spoil, because you have put your trust in Me, declares Jehovah.

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¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah after Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him while he was bound in chains among all the exiles of Jerusalem and Judah, who were being exiled to Babylon.
² Now the captain of the bodyguard had taken Jeremiah and said to him, Jehovah your God spoke this evil against this place.
³ And Jehovah has caused it to come to pass and done as He had spoken, because all of you have sinned against Jehovah and have not listened to His voice; therefore this thing has come upon you.
⁴ And now I release you today from the chains which are on your hands. If it is good in your sight to come to Babylon with me, come, and I will look after you; but if it is evil in your sight to come with me to Babylon, let it be so. See, all the land is before you; wherever it is good and right in your sight to go, there go.
⁵ While he had still not turned away, he said, Return to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wherever it is right in your sight to go. And the captain of the bodyguard gave him an allowance of food and a present and let him go.
⁶ And Jeremiah came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam at Mizpah and dwelt with him among the people who were left in the land.
⁷ And when all the captains of the forces that were in the field, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam over the land and had committed to him men and women and little children and those of the poor of the land who had not been exiled to Babylon,
⁸ They came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, that is, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men.
⁹ And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore to them and to their men, saying, Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans; dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you.
¹⁰ Now as for me, I will dwell in Mizpah to stand before the Chaldeans who come to us; but you, gather wine and summer fruit and oil and put them in your storage vessels, and dwell in your cities which you have taken.
¹¹ And all the Jews who were in Moab and among the children of Ammon and in Edom and who were in all the lands also heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah and had appointed over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan.
¹² And all the Jews returned from all the places to which they had been driven and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and gathered wine and summer fruit in great abundance.
¹³ And Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces who were in the field came to Gedaliah at Mizpah.
¹⁴ And they said to him, Are you at all aware that Baalis the king of the children of Ammon has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take your life? But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam would not believe them.
¹⁵ Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke secretly to Gedaliah in Mizpah, saying, Let me go and strike Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no one will know. Why should he take your life and all the Jews who are gathered to you be scattered and the remnant of Judah perish?
¹⁶ But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah, Do not do this thing, for you are speaking falsehood concerning Ishmael.

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¹ And in the seventh month Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family and one of the chief officers of the king, and ten men with him came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam at Mizpah. And there they ate bread together in Mizpah.
² Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him rose up and struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword and put him to death, whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor in the land.
³ And Ishmael also struck down all the Jews who were with him, that is, with Gedaliah in Mizpah, as well as the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war.
⁴ And on the next day after he had put Gedaliah to death, and no one knew about it,
⁵ Men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, eighty men, with shaved beards and torn garments, having cut themselves and having meal offerings and incense in their hand to bring to the house of Jehovah.
⁶ And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went; and as he met them he said to them, Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.
⁷ And when they came into the midst of the city, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, he and the men who were with him, slaughtered them and cast them into the pit.
⁸ But ten men were found among them who said to Ishmael, Do not kill us, for we have hidden stores of wheat and barley and oil and honey in the field. So he refrained and did not put them to death along with their brothers.
⁹ And the pit into which Ishmael cast all the corpses of the men whom he had slain because of Gedaliah (it was the one which Asa the king had made on account of Baasha the king of Israel), Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled with the slain.
¹⁰ Then Ishmael took captive all the remnant of the people who were in Mizpah: the king’s daughters and all the people who were left in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; so Ishmael the son of Nethaniah took them captive and went out to cross over to the children of Ammon.
¹¹ But when Johanan the son of Kareah and all the leaders of the forces who were with him heard of all the evil which Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done,
¹² They took all the men and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and they found him by the great pool which was in Gibeon.
¹³ And when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces who were with him, they rejoiced.
¹⁴ And so all the people whom Ishmael had taken captive from Mizpah turned around and came back and went to Johanan the son of Kareah.
¹⁵ But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men and went to the children of Ammon.
¹⁶ Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces with him took all the remnant of the people whom he brought back from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after he had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam: mighty men, men of war, and women and little children and eunuchs whom he brought back from Gibeon.
¹⁷ And they went and stayed in Geruth Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, in order to go and enter into Egypt
¹⁸ Because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them since Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

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¹ And all the captains of the forces and Johanan the son of Kareah and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah and all the people, from the small even unto the great, came near
² And said to Jeremiah the prophet, Let our supplication come before you, and pray for us to Jehovah your God for all this remnant — for we are left only a few out of many, as your eyes see us —
³ That Jehovah your God may tell us the way in which we should go and the thing which we should do.
⁴ Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have heard. I will pray to Jehovah your God according to your words; and whatever Jehovah answers you, I will tell you; I will not withhold anything from you.
⁵ And they said to Jeremiah, May Jehovah be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not do according to every word with which Jehovah your God sends you to us.
⁶ Whether it is good or whether it is evil, we will listen to the voice of Jehovah our God, to whom we send you, that it may be well with us, when we listen to the voice of Jehovah our God.
⁷ And at the end of ten days the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah.
⁸ Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces who were with him and all the people, from the small even unto the great,
⁹ And said to them, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before Him:
¹⁰ If you will still remain in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up; for I repent of the evil which I have done to you.
¹¹ Do not fear the king of Babylon, whom you fear. Do not fear him, declares Jehovah, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand.
¹² And I will show compassions to you, that he may have compassion on you and may bring you back to your own land.
¹³ But if you say, We will not remain in this land, so that you do not listen to the voice of Jehovah your God,
¹⁴ Saying, No, but we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the sound of the trumpet or be hungry for bread, and we will dwell there;
¹⁵ Then hear now the word of Jehovah, O remnant of Judah: Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, If indeed you set your faces to go to Egypt and go to sojourn there,
¹⁶ Then the sword, which you fear, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, about which you are worried, will follow hard after you there in Egypt; and you will die there.
¹⁷ And all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt, to sojourn there, will die by sword, by famine, and by pestilence; and they will have no survivors or any who have escaped from the evil which I will bring on them.
¹⁸ For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, As My anger and My wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. And you will become an execration and an astonishment and a curse and a reproach, and you will see this place no more.
¹⁹ Jehovah has spoken concerning you, O remnant of Judah, Do not go to Egypt! Know assuredly that today I have testified against you,
²⁰ That you deceived yourselves when you sent me to Jehovah your God, saying, Pray for us to Jehovah our God, and whatever Jehovah our God says, tell this to us, and we will do it.
²¹ And today I have told you, but you have not listened to the voice of Jehovah your God in anything for which He has sent me to you.
²² And now therefore know assuredly that you will die by sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go and sojourn.

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¹ And when Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all the words of Jehovah their God, with which Jehovah their God had sent him to them, all these words,
² Azariah the son of Hoshaiah and Johanan the son of Kareah and all the proud men spoke to Jeremiah, saying, You are speaking falsehood; Jehovah our God has not sent you to say, You shall not go to Egypt to sojourn there.
³ But Baruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us so as to give us into the hand of the Chaldeans that they may put us to death or take us into exile to Babylon.
⁴ So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces and all the people did not listen to the voice of Jehovah to remain in the land of Judah.
⁵ But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces took all the remnant of Judah, who had returned from all the nations where they had been driven in order to sojourn in the land of Judah,
⁶ The men and the women and the little children and the king’s daughters and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as well as Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah;
⁷ And they came to the land of Egypt (for they did not listen to the voice of Jehovah) and came as far as Tahpanhes.
⁸ Then the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying,
⁹ Take large stones in your hand, and hide them in the mortar in the brickwork which is at the entrance of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes in the sight of the Jews.
¹⁰ And say to them, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I am going to send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and I will set his throne above these stones which I have hidden; and he will spread his canopy over them.
¹¹ And he will come and strike the land of Egypt: those who are for death to death, and those who are for captivity to captivity, and those who are for the sword to the sword.
¹² And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt, and he will burn them and carry them away captive; and he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd wraps himself with his garment; and he will go out from there in peace.
¹³ And he will smash the pillars of Beth-shemesh, which is in the land of Egypt, and he will burn the houses of the gods of Egypt with fire.

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¹ The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwelt in the land of Egypt, who dwelt at Migdol and at Tahpanhes and at Memphis and in the land of Pathros, saying,
² Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, You have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah; and see, today they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them,
³ Because of their wickedness which they did to provoke Me to anger, in that they went to burn incense to serve other gods, which they did not know, neither they, you, nor your fathers.
⁴ Yet I sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Do not do this abominable thing which I hate.
⁵ But they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, so as not to burn incense to other gods.
⁶ And My wrath and My anger poured forth and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became a waste and a desolation, as they are this day.
⁷ And now thus says Jehovah the God of hosts, the God of Israel, Why do you do a great evil against your souls, so as to cut off from yourselves man and woman, little one and nursing child, from the midst of Judah, leaving yourselves no remnant,
⁸ Provoking Me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have come to sojourn, so that you might be cut off and that you might become a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
⁹ Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers and the wickedness of the kings of Judah and the wickedness of their wives and your own wickedness and the wickedness of your wives, which they did in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
¹⁰ They have not become contrite even to this day, nor have they feared or walked in My law or in My statutes, which I set before you and before your fathers.
¹¹ Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, I will set My face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.
¹² And I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go to the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they will all be consumed; in the land of Egypt they will fall; by sword and by famine they will be consumed. From the small even unto the great, by sword and by famine they will die; and they will become an execration, an astonishment, and a curse and a reproach.
¹³ And I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem: with sword, with famine, and with pestilence.
¹⁴ And there will not be one who has escaped nor a survivor of the remnant of Judah, who went to sojourn there in the land of Egypt, even to return to the land of Judah, where they desire to return to dwell; for they will not return, except for some who will escape.
¹⁵ Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods and all the women who stood by, a great assemblage, even all the people who dwelt in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah, saying,
¹⁶ As for the word which you have spoken to us in the name of Jehovah, we will not listen to you.
¹⁷ But we will surely do everything which has gone out of our mouth, burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, just as we ourselves and our fathers, our kings, and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for we had plenty of food and were well off and did not see evil.
¹⁸ But since we ceased burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by sword and by famine.
¹⁹ And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out libations to her, did we make cakes to her, making images of her and pouring out libations to her, without our husbands?
²⁰ Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people concerning the men and concerning the women, even concerning all the people who had given him that answer, saying,
²¹ As for the incense which you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not Jehovah remember them, and did it not come up in His heart?
²² And Jehovah was no longer able to bear it because of the evil of your deeds, because of the abominations which you committed; therefore your land has become a desolation and an astonishment and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day.
²³ Because you burned incense and because you sinned against Jehovah and did not listen to the voice of Jehovah or walk in His law or in His statutes or in His testimonies, therefore this evil has happened to you, as it is this day.
²⁴ Then Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, Hear the word of Jehovah, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt:
²⁵ Thus speaks Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths and have fulfilled it with your hands, saying, We will surely perform our vows by which we have vowed to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out libations to her. Establish then your vows, and by all means perform your vows.
²⁶ Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt, I have sworn by My great name, says Jehovah: My name shall no longer be called upon by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, As the Lord Jehovah lives.
²⁷ I will be watchful over them for evil and not for good, and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by sword and by famine until there is an end of them.
²⁸ And those who escape the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in number, and all the remnant of Judah who came to the land of Egypt to sojourn there will know whose word will be established, Mine or theirs.
²⁹ And this will be a sign to you, declares Jehovah, that I will punish you in this place, so that you will know that My words will surely be established against you for evil:
³⁰ Thus says Jehovah, I will give Pharaoh Hophra, the king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, into the hand of those who seek his life, just as I gave Zedekiah the king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, who was his enemy and sought his life.

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¹ The word which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book from the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, saying,
² Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, concerning you, O Baruch:
³ You said, Woe is me! For Jehovah has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning and have not found rest.
⁴ Thus you shall say to him, Thus says Jehovah, What I have built I am about to tear down; and what I have planted I am about to pluck up, even this whole land.
⁵ And are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for I am about to bring evil upon all flesh, declares Jehovah, but I will give your own life to you as spoil in all places where you may go.

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¹ The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations:
² Concerning Egypt: Concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates at Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon struck down in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah:
³ Prepare the buckler and shield, / And draw near to battle.
⁴ Harness the horses, / And mount the steeds; / And take your stand with helmets on; / Polish the spears; / Put on the armor.
⁵ Why have I seen it? / They are dismayed; / They are turning backward; / And their mighty men are crushed and flee in hasty flight, / And they do not look back; terror is on every side, / Declares Jehovah.
⁶ Let not the swift one flee away / And the mighty man escape; / In the north by the river Euphrates / They have stumbled and fallen.
⁷ Who is this who rises up like the Nile, / Like rivers whose waters surge?
⁸ Egypt rises up like the Nile, / Even like rivers whose waters surge. / And he says, I will rise up and will cover the land; / I will destroy the city and the inhabitants in it.
⁹ Go up, O horses, / And drive furiously, O chariots; / And let the mighty men go forth: / Cush and Put, who handle the shield, / And the Ludim, who handle and bend the bow.
¹⁰ For this day belongs to the Lord Jehovah of hosts, / A day of vengeance to avenge Himself on His adversaries; / And the sword will devour and be satisfied, / And it will drink its fill of their blood; / For there is a sacrifice to the Lord Jehovah of hosts / In the land of the north by the river Euphrates.
¹¹ Go up to Gilead and take balm, / O virgin daughter of Egypt. / In vain you have used many medicines — / There is no healing for you.
¹² The nations have heard of your disgrace, / And your cry has filled the earth; / For mighty man has stumbled against mighty man; / Both of them have fallen together.
¹³ The word which Jehovah spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt:
¹⁴ Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol; / Proclaim also in Memphis and in Tahpanhes. / Say, Take your stand, and prepare yourself; / For the sword has devoured all around you.
¹⁵ Why are your mighty men prostrate? / He does not stand, because Jehovah has cast him down.
¹⁶ He made many stumble; / A man even fell against his neighbor; / And they said, Arise and let us return / To our own people and to the land of our birth, / Away from the sword of the oppressor.
¹⁷ There they cried, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is but a noise; / He has let the appointed time pass by.
¹⁸ As I live, says the King, / Whose name is Jehovah of hosts, / Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, / And Carmel is by the sea, so he will come.
¹⁹ Prepare for yourself baggage for captivity, / O inhabitant, O daughter of Egypt; / For Memphis will become a waste, / And it will be burned, without inhabitant.
²⁰ Egypt is a beautiful heifer; / A gadfly from the north has come on her.
²¹ Also her hired men in her midst / Are like fattened calves. / But they have also turned back; / They have fled together; they did not stand. / For the day of their calamity has come on them, / The time of their punishment.
²² Her sound is like that of a serpent going away; / For they go forth in force, / And with axes they come against her, / Like those who fell trees.
²³ They will cut down her forest, declares Jehovah, / Although it is impenetrable; / For they are more numerous than locusts / And are without number.
²⁴ The daughter of Egypt is put to shame; / She is given into the hand of a people from the north.
²⁵ Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, says, I will punish Amon of No and Pharaoh and Egypt and her gods and her kings, even Pharaoh and those who trust in him.
²⁶ And I will give them into the hand of those who seek their life, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon and into the hand of his servants; and afterward she will be inhabited as in the days of old, declares Jehovah.
²⁷ But as for you, O Jacob My servant, do not fear; / And do not be dismayed, O Israel. / For indeed I will save you from afar / And your seed from the land of their captivity; / And Jacob will return and be undisturbed / And at ease, and no one will frighten him.
²⁸ As for you, O Jacob My servant, do not fear, declares Jehovah, / For I am with you; / For I will make a full end of all the nations / To which I have driven you; / Yet I will not make a full end of you, / But will correct you in measure / And will by no means leave you unpunished.

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¹ The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines before Pharaoh struck Gaza.
² Thus says Jehovah, / See, waters are rising up from the north / And will become an overflowing stream; / And they will overflow the land and all that fills it, / The city and those who dwell in it; / And men will cry out, / And every inhabitant of the land will howl.
³ At the sound of the stamping of the hooves of his stallions, / At the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, / The fathers will not turn back for their children, / Because of the feebleness of their hands,
⁴ Because of the day which is coming, / To destroy all the Philistines, / To cut off from Tyre and Sidon / Every helper who survives; / For Jehovah will destroy the Philistines, / The remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.
⁵ Baldness has come upon Gaza; / Ashkelon has been cut off. / O remnant of their valley, / How long will you cut yourself?
⁶ Alas, O sword of Jehovah, / How long until you are quiet? Put yourself into your sheath; / Rest and be still.
⁷ How can it be quiet, / When Jehovah has commanded it? / Against Ashkelon and against the seacoast — / There He has appointed it.

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¹ Concerning Moab: / Thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: / Woe to Nebo, for it is destroyed; / Kiriathaim is put to shame; it is captured; / The lofty retreat is put to shame and dismayed.
² The praise of Moab is no more; / In Heshbon they have devised evil against her, saying: / Come and let us cut her off from being a nation. / You also, O Madmen, will be brought to silence; / A sword will go after you.
³ The sound of a cry from Horonaim, / Desolation and great destruction!
⁴ Moab is destroyed; / Her young have caused a cry to be heard.
⁵ For by the ascent of Luhith / Continual weeping will go up; / For by the descent of Horonaim / They have heard the distress of the cry of destruction.
⁶ Flee, save your life, / And be like a shrub in the wilderness.
⁷ For because of your trust in your works and in your treasures, / You also will be captured; / And Chemosh will go forth into exile; / His priests and his princes together.
⁸ And a destroyer will come to every city, / And no city will escape; / The valley will also perish, / And the plateau will be destroyed, / As Jehovah has said.
⁹ Give wings to Moab, / That she may fly and go away; / And her cities will become a waste, / Without inhabitant in them.
¹⁰ Cursed is he who does the work of Jehovah negligently, / And cursed is he who keeps his sword from blood.
¹¹ Moab has been at ease from his youth; / And he is settled on his lees / And has not been emptied from vessel to vessel; / Nor has he gone into exile. / Therefore his taste remains in him, / And his scent is not changed.
¹² Therefore indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will send pourers to him, and they will pour him out and empty his vessels and shatter his jars.
¹³ And Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.
¹⁴ How can you say, We are mighty men / And valiant men for war?
¹⁵ Moab has been destroyed, / And its cities have gone up in smoke, / And its choice young men have gone down to slaughter, / Declares the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts.
¹⁶ The calamity of Moab is near to coming, / And his affliction hastens quickly.
¹⁷ Lament for him, all who are around him / And all who know his name; / Say, How the strong rod is broken, / The glorious staff.
¹⁸ Come down from glory and sit in thirst, / O daughter who dwells in Dibon, / For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you; / He has destroyed your strongholds.
¹⁹ Stand by the way and watch, / O inhabitant of Aroer; / Ask him who flees and her who escapes, / And say, What has happened?
²⁰ Moab is put to shame, for it is shattered. / Howl and cry out; / Declare in Arnon / That Moab is devastated.
²¹ And judgment has come upon the land of the Plateau, on Holon and on Jahzah and on Mephaath
²² And on Dibon and on Nebo and on Beth-diblathaim
²³ And on Kiriathaim and on Beth-gamul and on Beth-meon
²⁴ And on Kerioth and on Bozrah and on all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near.
²⁵ The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, declares Jehovah.
²⁶ Make him drunk, because he magnified himself against Jehovah; so Moab will wallow in his vomit and will also be in derision.
²⁷ For was not Israel a derision to you? Or was he found among thieves? For as often as you speak of him, you shake your head.
²⁸ Leave the cities and dwell in the rock, / O inhabitants of Moab, / And be like a dove who nests / On the sides of the mouth of the pit.
²⁹ We have heard of the pride of Moab — / He is extremely proud — / Of his loftiness and his pride and his arrogance / And of the haughtiness of his heart.
³⁰ I know of his insolence, declares Jehovah; / His boastings are all untrue; / They have accomplished nothing.
³¹ Therefore I will wail for Moab, / I will even cry out for all Moab; / There will be mourning for the men of Kir-heres.
³² With more than the weeping of Jazer / I will weep for you, O vine of Sibmah. / Your shoots have crossed over to the sea; / They have reached as far as the sea, to Jazer; / On your summer fruit and on your vintage / The destroyer has fallen.
³³ Rejoicing and exultation are taken away / From the fruited field and from the land of Moab. / And I have caused the wine from the wine presses to cease; / No one will tread them with the harvest shout; / The harvest shout will be no harvest shout.
³⁴ From the cry of Heshbon as far as Elealeh, even as far as Jahaz, they have uttered their voice, from Zoar as far as Horonaim and to Eglath-shelishiyah; for even the waters of Nimrim will become a devastation.
³⁵ And I will bring to an end in Moab the one who offers up in high places and burns incense to his gods, declares Jehovah.
³⁶ Therefore My heart will moan for Moab like flutes; for the men of Kir-heres My heart will also moan like flutes. As a result, the abundance he has produced has perished.
³⁷ For every head is bald, and every beard is shaved off; there are cuts on all the hands, and sackcloth on the loins.
³⁸ On all the roofs of Moab and in her open squares there is wailing everywhere, for I have broken Moab like a vessel which no one desires, declares Jehovah.
³⁹ How it is shattered! they howl. How Moab has turned his back in shame! So Moab has become a derision and a terror to all who are around him.
⁴⁰ For thus says Jehovah, / One will swoop down like an eagle / And spread its wings against Moab.
⁴¹ Kerioth is captured, / And the strongholds are seized, / And the heart of the mighty men of Moab in that day / Will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
⁴² And Moab will be destroyed from being a people, / Because he magnified himself against Jehovah.
⁴³ Dread, pit, and snare / Are upon you, O inhabitant of Moab, / Declares Jehovah.
⁴⁴ He who flees from dread / Will fall into the pit, / And he who comes up out of the pit / Will be taken in the snare; / For I will bring upon her, upon Moab, / The year of their punishment, declares Jehovah.
⁴⁵ In the shadow of Heshbon / Those who flee stand without strength; / For fire has gone forth from Heshbon / And a flame from the midst of Sihon; / And it has consumed the corner of Moab / And the top of the head of the sons of tumult.
⁴⁶ Woe to you, O Moab! / The people of Chemosh have perished, / For your sons have been taken captive, / And your daughters have gone into captivity.
⁴⁷ But I will turn again the captivity of Moab / In the last days, declares Jehovah. / Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

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¹ Concerning the children of Ammon: / Thus says Jehovah, / Does Israel have no sons? / Or has he no heir? / Why has Malcam possessed Gad, / And why do his people dwell in his cities?
² Therefore indeed, days are coming, declares Jehovah, / When I will cause the alarm of war to be heard / Against Rabbah of the children of Ammon. / And it will become a mound of desolation, / And its villages will be burned with fire. / And Israel will dispossess those who dispossess him, / Says Jehovah.
³ Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai has been destroyed; / Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah. / Gird yourselves with sackcloth and wail, / And run to and fro among the enclosures; / For Malcam will go into exile, / Together with his priests and his princes.
⁴ Why do you boast in your valleys? / Your valley is flowing away, / O apostate daughter, / Who trusts in her treasures, saying, / Who will come against me?
⁵ I will bring dread upon you, / Declares the Lord Jehovah of hosts, / From all around you; / And each one will be driven out headlong, / And no one will gather him who flees.
⁶ But afterward I will turn again / The captivity of the children of Ammon, / Declares Jehovah.
⁷ Concerning Edom: / Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / Is there no more wisdom in Teman? / Has counsel perished from those who understand? / Is their wisdom spent?
⁸ Flee, turn back, dwell in hidden places, / O inhabitants of Dedan, / For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him / At the time I punish him.
⁹ If the grape gatherers came to you, / Would they not leave gleanings? / If thieves came by night, / Would they not destroy only enough for themselves?
¹⁰ But I have stripped Esau bare; / I have exposed his secret places, / And he is not able to conceal himself. / His seed is destroyed, and his brothers and his neighbors; / And he is no more.
¹¹ Leave your orphans behind; I will preserve them alive, / And let your widows trust in Me.
¹² For thus says Jehovah, Those whose judgment was not to drink the cup will certainly drink it. And will you by any means be left unpunished? You will not be left unpunished, for you will certainly drink it.
¹³ For I have sworn by Myself, declares Jehovah, that Bozrah will become a waste, a reproach, a ruin and a curse; and all her cities will become eternal desolations.
¹⁴ I have heard a report from Jehovah, / And an envoy is sent among the nations, saying, / Gather yourselves together, and come against her, / And arise for war.
¹⁵ For, indeed, I have made you small among the nations, / Despised among men.
¹⁶ Your terribleness, the pride of your heart, / Has beguiled you, / O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, / Who grasp the height of the hill. / Though you make your nest as high as an eagle’s, / I will bring you down from there, declares Jehovah.
¹⁷ And Edom will become an astonishment; everyone who passes by her will be astonished and will hiss at all her wounds.
¹⁸ As when Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown with its neighbors, says Jehovah, no one will dwell there, nor will a son of man sojourn in her.
¹⁹ Indeed, one will come up like a lion from the majesty of the Jordan against a secure habitation, for I will suddenly make them run away from her; and whoever is chosen I will appoint over her. For who is like Me? And who can appoint Me a time? And who is that shepherd who can stand before Me?
²⁰ Therefore hear the counsel of Jehovah, which He purposed against Edom, and His thoughts, which He has thought against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they will drag them off, the little ones of the flock; surely He will make their habitation a desolation because of them.
²¹ The earth quaked at the sound of their fall. There is a cry; the sound of it has been heard in the Red Sea.
²² Indeed, He will mount up and swoop down like an eagle, and spread out His wings over Bozrah; and the heart of the mighty men of Edom in that day will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
²³ Concerning Damascus: / Hamath and Arpad are put to shame / Because they have heard an evil report. / They melt; anxiety is on the sea; / It cannot be quiet.
²⁴ Damascus has become feeble; / She has turned to flee, / And panic has taken hold of her; / Pain and anguish seize her, / Like a woman giving birth.
²⁵ How the city of praise is not forsaken, / The town of My joy.
²⁶ Therefore her young men will fall in her open squares, / And all the men of war will be silenced in that day, declares Jehovah of hosts.
²⁷ And I will set fire to the wall of Damascus, / And it will consume the palaces of Ben-hadad.
²⁸ Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon struck down:Thus says Jehovah:Arise, go up against Kedar, / And destroy the children of the east.
²⁹ And they will take away their tents and their flocks; / Their curtains and all their vessels / And their camels they will carry away for themselves, / And they will call out to one another, Terror is on every side!
³⁰ Flee, wander far away, dwell in hidden places, / O inhabitants of Hazor, declares Jehovah; / For Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon / Has taken counsel against you / And has devised a plan against you.
³¹ Arise, go up against a nation without care, / One that dwells securely, declares Jehovah. / It has no gates and bars; / They dwell alone.
³² And their camels will become plunder, / And the multitude of their livestock spoil; / And I will scatter those who cut the corners of their hair into every wind, / And I will bring their calamity from every side of them, / Declares Jehovah.
³³ And Hazor will become a habitation of jackals, / An eternal desolation; / No one will dwell there; / Neither will a son of man sojourn in it.
³⁴ The word of Jehovah which came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the king of Judah, saying,
³⁵ Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / I am about to break the bow of Elam, / The chief part of their might.
³⁶ And I will bring against Elam four winds / From the four ends of the heavens, / And I will scatter them into all these winds, / And there will not be a nation / To which those who are driven out from Elam will not go.
³⁷ And I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies / And before those who seek their life; / And I will bring evil upon them, / Even My burning anger, declares Jehovah. / And I will send the sword after them, / Until I make an end of them.
³⁸ And I will set My throne in Elam, / And I will destroy king and princes from there, / Declares Jehovah.
³⁹ But in the last days, / I will turn again the captivity of Elam, / Declares Jehovah.

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¹ The word which Jehovah spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:
² Declare among the nations and proclaim; / Lift up a banner, proclaim it. / Do not conceal it, but say, / Babylon is captured; / Bel is put to shame; / Merodach is shattered; / Her images are put to shame; / Her idols are dismayed.
³ For a nation has come up against her from the north; / It will make her land a waste, / And there will be no inhabitant in it; / Both man and beast have fled; they are gone away.
⁴ In those days and at that time, declares Jehovah, / The children of Israel will come, / Both they and the children of Judah together; / They will go along with weeping as they go, / And they will seek Jehovah their God.
⁵ They will ask for the way to Zion / With their faces toward it, saying: / Come and let us join ourselves to Jehovah / In an eternal covenant that will not be forgotten.
⁶ My people are lost sheep; / Their shepherds have led them astray; / They have made them turn aside on the mountains; / They have gone from mountain to hill; / They have forgotten their resting place.
⁷ All who found them have devoured them, / And their adversaries have said, We are not guilty, / Because they have sinned against Jehovah, / The habitation of righteousness, / Even Jehovah, the hope of their fathers.
⁸ Flee from the midst of Babylon, / And go out from the land of the Chaldeans, / And be as male goats / Before the flock.
⁹ For I am about to stir up and bring up against Babylon / An assembly of great nations from the land of the north; / And they will set themselves in array against her, / And she will be taken captive from there. / Their arrows will be like those of an expert mighty man; / None will return empty-handed.
¹⁰ And Chaldea will become spoil; / All those who spoil her will be satisfied, declares Jehovah.
¹¹ Because you rejoiced, because you exulted, / O you who plunder My inheritance, / Because you spring about as a threshing heifer, / And you neigh like stallions,
¹² Your mother has been greatly ashamed; / She who bore you has become a reproach: / Indeed, she has become the last of the nations, / A wilderness, a dry land and a desert.
¹³ Because of the wrath of Jehovah she will not be inhabited, / But she will become a complete desolation; / For every one who passes by Babylon will be astonished / And will hiss at all her wounds.
¹⁴ Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around, / All those who bend the bow; / Shoot at her; spare no arrow; / Because she has sinned against Jehovah;
¹⁵ Raise a shout against her all around. / She has surrendered; her buttresses have fallen, / Her walls have been torn down; / For this is the vengeance of Jehovah: / Take vengeance on her; / As she has done, so do to her.
¹⁶ Cut off the sower from Babylon, / And the one who handles a sickle in the time of harvest;Because of the sword of the oppressor / Each one will turn to his people, / And each one flee to his own land.
¹⁷ Israel is a scattered sheep; / Lions have driven him away.First the king of Assyria devoured him, and last this Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has gnawed his bones.
¹⁸ Therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of Assyria.
¹⁹ And I will bring Israel back to his habitation, / And he will feed on Carmel and Bashan, / And in the hill country of Ephraim and in Gilead / His soul will be satisfied.
²⁰ In those days and at that time, declares Jehovah, / The iniquity of Israel will be sought, but there will be none; / And the sin of Judah, but it will not be found; / For I will forgive those whom I will leave as a remnant.
²¹ Go up against her, against the land of Merathaim / And against the inhabitants of Pekod. / Desolate and utterly destroy them, declares Jehovah, / And do according to all that I commanded you.
²² The sound of war is in the land, / And great destruction.
²³ How the hammer of the whole earth / Is cut down and broken! / How Babylon has become an astonishment / Among the nations!
²⁴ I have set a snare for you, and you also have been taken captive, / O Babylon, and you did not know; / You were found, and you also were seized, / Because you engaged in war with Jehovah.
²⁵ Jehovah has opened His armory / And has brought out the weapons of His wrath, / For this is the work of the Lord Jehovah of hosts / Against the land of the Chaldeans.
²⁶ Come against her from every side; / Open her granaries. / Pile her up like heaps; / Destroy her utterly; / Let nothing of her remain.
²⁷ Slay all her oxen; / Let them go down to slaughter.Woe to them, for their day has come, / The time of their punishment.
²⁸ There is a sound of those who flee and escape / From the land of Babylon, / To declare in Zion / The vengeance of Jehovah our God, / The vengeance for His temple.
²⁹ Summon archers against Babylon, / All those who bend the bow. / Encamp against her all around; / Let there be no escape. / Recompense her according to her work; / According to all that she has done, so do to her. / For she has acted proudly against Jehovah, / Against the Holy One of Israel.
³⁰ Therefore her young men will fall in her open squares, / And all her men of war will be silenced in that day, / Declares Jehovah.
³¹ Indeed, I am against you, O Pride, / Declares the Lord Jehovah of hosts; / For your day has come, / The time that I punish you.
³² And Pride will stumble and fall, / And there will be no one to raise him up. / And I will kindle a fire in his cities, / And it will devour all that is around him.
³³ Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / The children of Israel / And the children of Judah are oppressed together; / And all who took them captive held them fast; / They refused to let them go.
³⁴ Their Redeemer is strong; / Jehovah of hosts is His name. / He will surely plead their cause, / That He may give rest to the land / But trouble to the inhabitants of Babylon.
³⁵ The sword is against the Chaldeans, declares Jehovah, / And against the inhabitants of Babylon / And against her princes and against her wise men.
³⁶ The sword is against the liars, and they will become fools; / The sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.
³⁷ The sword is against their horses and against their chariots / And against all the mingled people who are in her midst, / And they will become like women. / The sword is against her treasuries, / And they will be plundered.
³⁸ Drought is upon her waters, / And they will dry up; / For it is a land of graven images, / And they are mad over terrifying idols.
³⁹ Therefore desert animals will dwell there with hyenas, / And ostriches will dwell in her. / It will not be inhabited forever; / It will not be dwelt in from generation to generation.
⁴⁰ As when God overthrew Sodom / And Gomorrah with its neighbors, / Declares Jehovah, / So no one will dwell there; / Nor will a son of man sojourn in it.
⁴¹ A people is now coming from the north, / And a great nation and many kings / Are stirring from the uttermost parts of the earth.
⁴² They grasp bow and spear; / They are cruel and have no mercy. / Their voice roars like the sea, / And they ride upon horses, / Set in array as a man for battle / Against you, O daughter of Babylon.
⁴³ The king of Babylon has heard the report about them, / And his hands are feeble; / Distress has seized him, / Pain like a woman in childbirth.
⁴⁴ Indeed, one will come up like a lion / From the majesty of the Jordan against a secure habitation; / For I will suddenly make them run away from her; / And whoever is chosen I will appoint over her. / For who is like Me? And who can appoint Me a time? / And who is that shepherd who can stand before Me?
⁴⁵ Therefore hear the counsel of Jehovah, / Which He purposed against Babylon, / And His thoughts, which He has thought / Against the land of the Chaldeans: / Surely they will drag them off, the little ones of the flock; / Surely He will make their habitation a desolation because of them.
⁴⁶ At the sound of Babylon being seized / The earth trembles, / And a cry is heard among the nations.

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¹ Thus says Jehovah,I will stir up against Babylon and against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai / A destroying wind.
² And I will send strangers against Babylon, and they will winnow her, / And they will empty her land / When they come against her from every side / In the evil day.
³ Against him who bends, let the archer bend his bow, / And against him who stands up in his armor; / And do not spare her young men, / But utterly destroy all her army.
⁴ And they will fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans / And pierced through in her streets.
⁵ For neither Israel nor Judah is forsaken / By his God, by Jehovah of hosts; / But their land is full of guilt / Against the Holy One of Israel.
⁶ Flee from the midst of Babylon, / And let each man save his life; / Do not be cut off in her iniquity; / For this is a time of vengeance to Jehovah; / He will give full recompense to her.
⁷ Babylon has been a golden cup in Jehovah’s hand / That has made all the earth drunk. / The nations have drunk of her wine; / Therefore the nations have become mad.
⁸ Suddenly Babylon has fallen and become broken; / Howl over her; / Take balm for her pain, / If perhaps she may be healed.
⁹ We tried to heal Babylon, but she is not healed; / Forsake her, and let each one of us go to his own land; / For her judgment has reached to heaven / And has been lifted up to the clouds.
¹⁰ Jehovah has brought forth our righteousnesses; / Come and let us relate in Zion / The work of Jehovah our God.
¹¹ Polish the arrows, / Take up the shields.Jehovah has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His purpose is against Babylon, to destroy her; for this is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance for His temple.
¹² Lift up a standard against the walls of Babylon; / Make the watch strong. / Set the watchmen; / Prepare the ambushers; / For Jehovah has both purposed and done / What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
¹³ O you who dwell by many waters, / Abundant in treasures, / Your end has come, / The measure of your unjust gain.
¹⁴ Jehovah of hosts has sworn by Himself, / I will surely fill you with men like locusts, / And they will raise a shout of victory over you.
¹⁵ It is He who made the earth by His power, / Who established the world by His wisdom, / And by His understanding He stretched out the heavens.
¹⁶ When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, / And He causes the vapors to rise from the ends of the earth; / He makes lightning for the rain / And brings forth wind from His treasuries.
¹⁷ Every man is stupid, without knowledge; / Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idol; / For his molten image is falsehood, / And there is no breath in them.
¹⁸ They are vanity, the work of delusion; / At the time of their punishment they will perish.
¹⁹ The Portion of Jacob is not like these; / For He is the One who formed everything, / And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; / Jehovah of hosts is His name.
²⁰ He says, You are My hammer, / My weapons of war; / And with you I will shatter nations, / And with you I will destroy kingdoms,
²¹ And with you I will shatter the horse and his rider, / And with you I will shatter the chariot and its rider,
²² And with you I will shatter man and woman, / And with you I will shatter old man and young, / And with you I will shatter young man and virgin,
²³ And with you I will shatter the shepherd and his flock, / And with you I will shatter the farmer and his yoke of oxen, / And with you I will shatter governors and officials.
²⁴ And I will repay Babylon / And all the inhabitants of Chaldea / With all their evil which they have done / In Zion before your eyes, declares Jehovah.
²⁵ Indeed, I am against you, O mountain of destruction, / Declares Jehovah, / Which destroys the whole earth; / And I will stretch out My hand upon you / And roll you down from the rocks / And make you a burning mountain.
²⁶ And they will not take from you a stone for the corner / Or a stone for the foundations; / For you will be an eternal desolation, declares Jehovah.
²⁷ Lift up a standard in the land; / Blow a trumpet among the nations; / Prepare the nations against her; / Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; / Appoint an officer against her; / Bring up the horses like terrifying locusts.
²⁸ Prepare the nations against her, / The kings of the Medes, / Their governors and all their officials, / And all the land of their dominion.
²⁹ And the land trembles and writhes, / For the purposes of Jehovah against Babylon stand, / To make the land of Babylon a waste, / Without inhabitant.
³⁰ The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting; / They remain in strongholds; / Their might has failed; they have become like women. / Her dwellings are on fire; her bars are broken.
³¹ Runner runs to meet runner, / And messenger to meet messenger, / To announce to the king of Babylon / That his city has been captured from end to end.
³² And the crossing places have been seized, / And they burn the marshes with fire, / And the men of war are terrified.
³³ For thus says Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, / The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor / At the time when it is trodden; / Yet a little while and the time of harvest will come to her.
³⁴ Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me; / He has crushed me; / He has made me an empty vessel; / He has swallowed me up like a dragon; / He has filled his stomach with my delicacies; / He has washed me out.
³⁵ The violence done to me and my flesh be on Babylon! / The inhabitant of Zion will say; / And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea! / Jerusalem will say.
³⁶ Therefore thus says Jehovah, / I will indeed plead your cause / And execute vengeance for you; / And I will dry up her sea / And make her fountain dry.
³⁷ And Babylon will become a heap of ruins, / A habitation of jackals, / An astonishment and a hissing, / Without inhabitant.
³⁸ They will roar together like young lions; / They will growl like lions’ whelps.
³⁹ When they are inflamed, I will set out their drink; / And I will make them drunk, that they may be merry / And sleep an eternal sleep / And not wake up, declares Jehovah.
⁴⁰ And I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, / Like rams with male goats.
⁴¹ How Sheshach has been captured, / And the praise of all the earth seized! / How Babylon has become an astonishment / Among the nations!
⁴² The sea has come up over Babylon; / She is covered with the multitude of its waves.
⁴³ Her cities have become a waste, / A dry land and a desert, / A land in which no one dwells, / Through which no person passes.
⁴⁴ And I will punish Bel in Babylon / And bring what he has swallowed out of his mouth; / And the nations will not stream unto him any longer; / Even the wall of Babylon will fall down.
⁴⁵ Come out from the midst of her, My people, / And let each man save his life / From the burning anger of Jehovah.
⁴⁶ And lest your heart faint / And you become afraid at the report that will be heard in the land — / For the report will come in one year; / And after that a report in another year / And violence in the earth, / Ruler against ruler —
⁴⁷ Therefore indeed, days are coming, / When I will punish the idols of Babylon; / And her whole land will be put to shame, / And all her slain will fall in her midst.
⁴⁸ And the heavens and the earth and all which is in them / Will give a ringing shout over Babylon; / For out of the north the destroyers will come against her, / Declares Jehovah.
⁴⁹ Babylon is also to fall for the slain of Israel, / As the slain of all the earth have fallen for Babylon.
⁵⁰ You who have escaped the sword, / Go and do not stand still; / Remember Jehovah from afar, / And let Jerusalem come up in your heart.
⁵¹ We have been put to shame, for we have heard reproach; / Disgrace has covered our faces; / For strangers have come / Into the holy places of the house of Jehovah.
⁵² Therefore indeed, days are coming, / Declares Jehovah, / When I will punish her idols, / And throughout her land the wounded will groan.
⁵³ Though Babylon mount up to the heavens, / And though she fortify the height of her strength, / Destroyers will come from Me to her, / Declares Jehovah.
⁵⁴ The sound of a cry from Babylon, / And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
⁵⁵ For Jehovah is destroying Babylon, / And He will cause the loud voice to perish from her. / And their waves roar like many waters; / The noise of their voice is raised.
⁵⁶ For a destroyer has come upon her, upon Babylon, / And her mighty men are taken captive; / Their bows are broken into pieces; / For Jehovah is a God of recompense; / He will repay in full.
⁵⁷ And I will make her princes and her wise men drunk, / Her governors and her officials and her mighty men; / And they will sleep an eternal sleep / And not wake up, declares the King, / Whose name is Jehovah of hosts.
⁵⁸ Thus says Jehovah of hosts, / The broad walls of Babylon will be utterly laid bare; / Her high gates will be burned with fire. / So the peoples will have labored in vain; / And the nations, only for fire; and they will have wearied themselves.
⁵⁹ The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. (Now Seraiah was quartermaster.)
⁶⁰ And Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
⁶¹ And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, see that you read all these words;
⁶² And say, O Jehovah, You have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, so that nothing should dwell in it, neither man nor animal, for it will be an eternal desolation.
⁶³ And as soon as you have finished reading this book, you shall bind a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates,
⁶⁴ And say, Thus Babylon will sink and will not rise up because of the evil which I will bring upon it, and they will weary themselves. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

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¹ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.
² And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
³ For it was through the anger of Jehovah that this came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah until He cast them out from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
⁴ And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon came, he and his whole army, against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around.
⁵ So the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
⁶ In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was so severe within the city that there was no food for the people of the land.
⁷ Then the city was breached, and all the men of war fled; and they went out from the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, while the Chaldeans were all around the city; and they went by the way toward the Arabah.
⁸ And the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.
⁹ And they seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgments on him.
¹⁰ Then the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the princes of Judah at Riblah.
¹¹ And he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze fetters. And the king of Babylon brought him to Babylon and put him in prison until the day of his death.
¹² And in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month (this was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, who stood before the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
¹³ And he burned the house of Jehovah and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every large house he burned with fire.
¹⁴ And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the bodyguard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.
¹⁵ And the poor of the people and the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who deserted to the king of Babylon and the rest of the multitude, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard carried away into exile.
¹⁶ But Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and field workers.
¹⁷ And the Chaldeans broke in pieces the bronze pillars, which were in the house of Jehovah, and the bases and the bronze sea, which were in the house of Jehovah. And they carried all their bronze to Babylon.
¹⁸ And they took away the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the basins and the small cups and all the bronze vessels with which they ministered.
¹⁹ And the captain of the bodyguard took away the large cups and the firepans and the basins and the pots and the lampstands and the small cups and the bowls: that which was of gold, for its gold, and that which was of silver, for its silver.
²⁰ As for the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze oxen, which were under the bases, which King Solomon made for the house of Jehovah, the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weight.
²¹ And as for the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and it was twelve cubits in circumference, and it was four fingers in thickness; it was hollow.
²² And a bronze capital was upon it; and the height of each capital was five cubits; and the network and pomegranates were upon the capital all around, all of bronze; and the second pillar and the pomegranates were like these.
²³ And there were ninety-six pomegranates toward the open air; all the pomegranates on the network were a hundred all around.
²⁴ And the captain of the bodyguard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three doorkeepers.
²⁵ And from the city he took one eunuch, who was overseer of the men of war, and seven men from the king’s inner circle who were found in the city, and the scribe of the captain of the army, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city.
²⁶ And Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon in Riblah.
²⁷ And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death in Riblah, in the land of Hamath; so Judah was carried away into exile out of its land.
²⁸ These are the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried into exile: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews;
²⁹ In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, eight hundred and thirty-two persons from Jerusalem;
³⁰ In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard carried from the Jews seven hundred and forty-five persons into exile. There were four thousand six hundred persons in all.
³¹ And in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin the king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, Evil-merodach the king of Babylon, in the year that he became king, released Jehoiachin the king of Judah and brought him out of prison.
³² And he spoke with him kindly and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon.
³³ And Jehoiachin changed his prison garments and ate his food before him continually all the days of his life.
³⁴ And for his allowance, a continual allowance was given to him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day, all the days of his life until the day of his death.