
Jeremiah

   {1:1} The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who
were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: {1:2} to whom the word of
[1>]Yahweh[<1] came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of
Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. {1:3} It came also in the
days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the end of the
eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the
carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. {1:4} Now the
word of Yahweh came to me, saying, {1:5} "Before I formed you in the
belly, I knew you. Before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified
you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." {1:6} Then I said,
"Ah, [2>]Lord[<2] Yahweh! Behold, I don't know how to speak; for I am a
child."

   {1:7} But Yahweh said to me, "Don't say, 'I am a child;' for to
whoever I shall send you, you shall go, and whatever I shall command
you, you shall speak. {1:8} Don't be afraid because of them; for I am
with you to deliver you," says Yahweh. {1:9} Then Yahweh put forth his
hand, and touched my mouth; and Yahweh said to me, "Behold, I have put
my words in your mouth. {1:10} Behold, I have this day set you over the
nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to
destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." {1:11} Moreover the
word of Yahweh came to me, saying, "Jeremiah, what do you see?"

   I said, "I see a branch of an almond tree."

   {1:12} Then Yahweh said to me, "You have seen well; for I watch over
my word to perform it."

   {1:13} The word of Yahweh came to me the second time, saying, "What
do you see?"

   I said, "I see a boiling caldron; and it is tipping away from the
north."

   {1:14} Then Yahweh said to me, "Out of the north evil will break out
on all the inhabitants of the land. {1:15} For, behold, I will call all
the families of the kingdoms of the north," says Yahweh; "and they
shall come, and they shall each set his throne at the entrance of the
gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls all around, and against
all the cities of Judah. {1:16} I will utter my judgments against them
touching all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have
burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own
hands.

   {1:17} "You therefore put your belt on your waist, arise, and speak
to them all that I command you. Don't be dismayed at them, lest I
dismay you before them. {1:18} For, behold, I have made you this day a
fortified city, and an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole
land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its
priests, and against the people of the land. {1:19} They will fight
against you; but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you,"
says Yahweh, "to deliver you."

   {2:1} The word of Yahweh came to me, saying, {2:2} "Go, and cry in
the ears of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh, "I remember for you
the kindness of your youth, the love of your weddings; how you went
after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. {2:3} Israel
was holiness to Yahweh, the first fruits of his increase. All who
devour him shall be held guilty. Evil shall come on them,"' says
Yahweh."

   {2:4} Hear the word of Yahweh, O house of Jacob, and all the
families of the house of Israel! {2:5} Thus says Yahweh, "What
unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far
from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? {2:6}
Neither did they say, 'Where is Yahweh who brought us up out of the
land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of
deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of
death, through a land that none passed through, and where no man
lived?' {2:7} I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat its fruit and
its goodness; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my
heritage an abomination. {2:8} The priests didn't say, 'Where is
Yahweh?' and those who handle the law didn't know me. The rulers also
transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and
walked after things that do not profit.

   {2:9} "Therefore I will yet contend with you," says Yahweh, "and I
will contend with your children's children. {2:10} For pass over to the
islands of Kittim, and see; and send to Kedar, and consider diligently;
and see if there has been such a thing. {2:11} Has a nation changed its
gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory
for that which does not profit.

   {2:12} "Be astonished, you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid.
Be very desolate," says Yahweh. {2:13} "For my people have committed
two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut
them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. {2:14} Is
Israel a servant? Is he a native-born slave? Why has he become a prey?
{2:15} The young lions have roared at him, and yelled. They have made
his land waste. His cities are burned up, without inhabitant. {2:16}
The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of
your head.

   {2:17} "Haven't you procured this to yourself, in that you have
forsaken Yahweh your [3>]God[<3], when he led you by the way? {2:18}
Now what have you to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the
Shihor? Or what have you to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the
waters of the River?

   {2:19} "Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding
shall reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and
a bitter, that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, and that my fear is
not in you," says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies. {2:20} "For of old time I
have broken your yoke, and burst your bonds; and you said, 'I will not
serve;' for on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed
yourself, playing the prostitute. {2:21} Yet I had planted you a noble
vine, wholly a right seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate
branches of a foreign vine to me? {2:22} For though you wash yourself
with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me,"
says the Lord Yahweh.

   {2:23} "How can you say, 'I am not defiled. I have not gone after
the Baals'? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done. You
are a swift dromedary traversing her ways; {2:24} a wild donkey used to
the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind in her desire. When she is in
heat, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary
themselves. In her month, they will find her.

   {2:25} "Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from
thirst. But you said, 'It is in vain. No, for I have loved strangers,
and I will go after them.' {2:26} As the thief is ashamed when he is
found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their
princes, and their priests, and their prophets; {2:27} who tell wood,
'You are my father;' and a stone, 'You have brought me out:' for they
have turned their back to me, and not their face; but in the time of
their trouble they will say, 'Arise, and save us.'

   {2:28} "But where are your gods that you have 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, Judah.

   {2:29} "Why will you contend with me? You all have transgressed
against me," says Yahweh.

   {2:30} "I have struck your children in vain. They received no
correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a
destroying lion. {2:31} Generation, consider the word of Yahweh. Have I
been a wilderness to Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Why do my
people say, 'We have broken loose. We will come to you no more?'

   {2:32} "Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?
Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number. {2:33} How
well you prepare your way to seek love! Therefore you have taught even
the wicked women your ways. {2:34} Also the blood of the souls of the
innocent poor is found in your skirts. You did not find them breaking
in; but it is because of all these things.

   {2:35} "Yet you said, 'I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned
away from me.'

   "Behold, I will judge you, because you say, 'I have not sinned.'
{2:36} Why do you go about so much to change your way? You will be
ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria. {2:37} From
there also you shall go forth, with your hands on your head; for Yahweh
has rejected those in whom you trust, and you shall not prosper with
them.

   {3:1} "They say, 'If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from
him, and become another man's, will he return to her again?' Wouldn't
that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with
many lovers; yet return again to me," says Yahweh.

   {3:2} "Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have
you not been lain with? You have sat for them by the ways, as an
Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your
prostitution and with your wickedness. {3:3} Therefore the showers have
been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a
prostitute's forehead, you refused to be ashamed. {3:4} Will you not
from this time cry to me, 'My Father, you are the guide of my youth?'

   {3:5} "'Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the
end?' Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had
your way."

   {3:6} Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king,
"Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up
on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played
the prostitute. {3:7} I said after she had done all these things, 'She
will return to me;' but she didn't return; and her treacherous sister
Judah saw it. {3:8} I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding
Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill
of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, didn't fear; but she
also went and played the prostitute. {3:9} It happened through the
lightness of her prostitution, that the land was polluted, and she
committed adultery with stones and with stocks. {3:10} Yet for all this
her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole
heart, but only in pretense," says Yahweh.

   {3:11} Yahweh said to me, "Backsliding Israel has shown herself more
righteous than treacherous Judah. {3:12} Go, and proclaim these words
toward the north, and say, 'Return, you backsliding Israel,' says
Yahweh; 'I will not look in anger on you; for I am merciful,' says
Yahweh. 'I will not keep anger forever. {3:13} Only acknowledge your
iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have
scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you
have not obeyed my voice,' says Yahweh." {3:14} "Return, backsliding
children," says Yahweh; "for I am a husband to you. I will take you one
of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. {3:15} I
will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with
knowledge and understanding. {3:16} It shall come to pass, when you are
multiplied and increased in the land, in those days," says Yahweh,
"they shall say no more, 'The ark of the covenant of Yahweh!' neither
shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall
they miss it; neither shall it be made any more. {3:17} At that time
they shall call Jerusalem 'The throne of Yahweh;' and all the nations
shall be gathered to it, to the name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem. Neither
shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
{3:18} In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of
Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to
the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.

   {3:19} "But I said, 'How I would put you among the children, and
give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the
nations!' and I said, 'You shall call me "My Father," and shall not
turn away from following me.'

   {3:20} "Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so
you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel," says Yahweh.
{3:21} A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping and the
petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their
way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God. {3:22} Return, you
backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding.

   "Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God. {3:23}
Truly in vain is help from the hills, the tumult on the mountains.
Truly the salvation of Israel is in Yahweh our God. {3:24} But the
shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth,
their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. {3:25}
Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we
have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth
even to this day. We have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God."

   {4:1} "If you will return, Israel," says Yahweh, "if you will return
to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then
you shall not be removed; {4:2} and you shall swear, 'As Yahweh lives,'
in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. The nations shall bless
themselves in him, and in him shall they glory."

   {4:3} For thus says Yahweh to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem,
"Break up your fallow ground, and don't sow among thorns. {4:4}
Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins of your
heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go
forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the
evil of your doings. {4:5} Declare in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem;
and say, 'Blow the trumpet in the land!' Cry aloud and say, 'Assemble
yourselves! Let us go into the fortified cities!' {4:6} Set up a
standard toward Zion. Flee for safety! Don't wait; for I will bring
evil from the north, and a great destruction."

   {4:7} A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of
nations; he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make
your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.
{4:8} For this clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the
fierce anger of Yahweh hasn't turned back from us. {4:9} "It shall
happen at that day," says Yahweh, "that the heart of the king shall
perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be
astonished, and the prophets shall wonder."

   {4:10} Then I said, "Ah, Lord Yahweh! Surely you have greatly
deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, 'You shall have peace;'
whereas the sword reaches to the heart."

   {4:11} At that time shall it 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 to winnow, nor to cleanse; {4:12} a full
wind from these shall come for me. Now I will also utter judgments
against them."

   {4:13} Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be
as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we
are ruined. {4:14} Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you
may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?
{4:15} For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes evil from the hills
of Ephraim: {4:16} "Tell the nations; behold, publish against
Jerusalem, 'Watchers come from a far country, and raise their voice
against the cities of Judah. {4:17} As keepers of a field, they are
against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,'"
says Yahweh. {4:18} "Your way and your doings have brought these things
to you. This is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to
your heart."

   {4:19} My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my
heart is disquieted in me; I can't hold my peace; because you have
heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. {4:20}
Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste:
suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment. {4:21}
How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

   {4:22} "For my people are foolish, they don't know me. They are
foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in
doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge." {4:23} I saw the
earth, and, behold, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they
had no light. {4:24} I saw the mountains, and behold, they trembled,
and all the hills moved back and forth. {4:25} I saw, and behold, there
was no man, and all the birds of the sky had fled. {4:26} I saw, and
behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all its cities were
broken down at the presence of Yahweh, before his fierce anger. {4:27}
For thus says Yahweh, "The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I
not make a full end. {4:28} For this the earth will mourn, and the
heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it,
and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it."

   {4:29} Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers;
they go into the thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city is
forsaken, and not a man dwells therein. {4:30} You, when you are made
desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet,
though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your
eyes with paint, in vain do you make yourself beautiful; your lovers
despise you, they seek your life. {4:31} For I have heard a voice as of
a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who brings forth her first
child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who
spreads her hands, saying, "Woe is me now! For my soul faints before
the murderers."

   {5:1} "Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see
now, and know, and seek in the broad places of it, if you can find a
man, if there are any who does justly, who seeks truth; and I will
pardon her. {5:2} Though they say, 'As Yahweh lives;' surely they swear
falsely."

   {5:3} O Yahweh, don't your eyes look on truth? You have stricken
them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have
refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a
rock. They have refused to return.

   {5:4} Then I said, "Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for
they don't know the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their God. {5:5} I
will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way
of Yahweh, and the law of their God." But these with one accord have
broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. {5:6} Therefore a lion out of the
forest shall kill them, a wolf of the evenings shall destroy them, a
leopard shall watch against their cities; everyone who goes out there
shall be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many, and
their backsliding is increased.

   {5:7} "How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and
sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they
committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the
prostitutes' houses. {5:8} They were as fed horses roaming at large:
everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife. {5:9} Shouldn't I punish
them for these things?" says Yahweh; "and shouldn't my soul be avenged
on such a nation as this?

   {5:10} "Go up on her walls, and destroy; but don't make a full end.
Take away her branches; for they are not Yahweh's. {5:11} For the house
of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against
me," says Yahweh.

   {5:12} They have denied Yahweh, and said, "It is not he; neither
shall evil come on us; neither shall we see sword nor famine. {5:13}
The prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them. Thus shall
it be done to them."

   {5:14} Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, "Because you
speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and
this people wood, and it shall devour them. {5:15} Behold, I will bring
a nation on you from far, house of Israel," says Yahweh. "It is a
mighty nation. It is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you
don't know, neither understand what they say. {5:16} Their quiver is an
open tomb, they are all mighty men. {5:17} They shall eat up your
harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat.
They shall eat up your flocks and your herds. They shall eat up your
vines and your fig trees. They shall beat down your fortified cities,
in which you trust, with the sword.

   {5:18} "But even in those days," says Yahweh, "I will not make a
full end with you. {5:19} It will happen, when you say, 'Why has Yahweh
our God done all these things to us?' Then you shall say to them, 'Just
like you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so you
shall serve strangers in a land that is not yours.'

   {5:20} "Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah,
saying, {5:21} 'Hear now this, foolish people, and without
understanding; who have eyes, and don't see; who have ears, and don't
hear: {5:22} Don't you fear me?' says Yahweh 'Won't you tremble at my
presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a
perpetual decree, that it can't pass it? and though its waves toss
themselves, yet they can't prevail; though they roar, yet they can't
pass over it.'

   {5:23} "But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they
have revolted and gone. {5:24} Neither do they say in their heart, 'Let
us now fear Yahweh our God, who gives rain, both the former and the
latter, in its season; who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the
harvest.'

   {5:25} "Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins
have withheld good from you. {5:26} For among my people are found
wicked men. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They
catch men. {5:27} As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full
of deceit. Therefore they have become great, and grew rich. {5:28} They
have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excell in deeds of wickedness.
They don't plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may
prosper; and they don't judge the right of the needy.

   {5:29} "Shall I not punish for these things?" says Yahweh. "Shall
not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

   {5:30} "An astonishing and horrible thing has happened in the land.
{5:31} The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own
authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the
end of it?

   {6:1} "Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the midst
of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on
Beth Haccherem; for evil looks forth from the north, and a great
destruction. {6:2} The comely and delicate one, the daughter of Zion,
will I cut off. {6:3} Shepherds with their flocks shall come to her;
they shall pitch their tents against her all around; they shall feed
everyone in his place."

   {6:4} "Prepare war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe
to us! For the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are
stretched out. {6:5} Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us
destroy her palaces." {6:6} For Yahweh of Armies said, "Cut down trees,
and cast up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited;
she is wholly oppression in the midst of her. {6:7} As a well casts
forth its waters, so she casts forth her wickedness: violence and
destruction is heard in her; before me continually is sickness and
wounds. {6:8} Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from
you; lest I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited."

   {6:9} Thus says Yahweh of Armies, "They shall thoroughly glean the
remnant of Israel like a vine. Turn again your hand as a grape gatherer
into the baskets."

   {6:10} To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear?
Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can't listen. Behold, the
word of Yahweh has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in
it. {6:11} Therefore I am full of the wrath of Yahweh. I am weary with
holding in.
"Pour it out on the children in the street,
   and on the assembly of young men together;
for even the husband with the wife shall be taken,
   the aged with him who is full of days.
{6:12} Their houses shall be turned to others,
   their fields and their wives together;
for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the land, says
      Yahweh."
{6:13} "For from their least even to their greatest, everyone is given
      to covetousness;
   and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.
{6:14} They have healed also the hurt of my people superficially,
   saying, 'Peace, peace!' when there is no peace.
{6:15} Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?
   No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
   at the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down," says Yahweh.

   {6:16} Thus says Yahweh, "Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the
old paths, 'Where is the good way?' and walk in it, and you will find
rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.' {6:17} I
set watchmen over you, saying, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!'
But they said, 'We will not listen!' {6:18} Therefore hear, you
nations, and know, congregation, what is among them. {6:19} Hear,
earth! Behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the fruit of
their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words; and as for
my law, they have rejected it. {6:20} To what purpose comes there to me
frankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your
burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me."

   {6:21} Therefore thus says Yahweh, "Behold, I will lay stumbling
blocks before this people. The fathers and the sons together shall
stumble against them. The neighbor and his friend shall perish." {6:22}
Thus says Yahweh, "Behold, a people comes from the north country. A
great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.
{6:23} They take hold of bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no
mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses,
everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of
Zion."

   {6:24} We have heard its report; our hands become feeble: anguish
has taken hold of us, and pains as of a woman in labor. {6:25} Don't go
forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy
and terror, are on every side. {6:26} Daughter of my people, clothe
yourself with sackcloth, and wallow in ashes! Mourn, as for an only
son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come on
us.

   {6:27} "I have made you a tester of metals and a fortress among my
people; that you may know and try their way. {6:28} They are all
grievous rebels, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron:
they all of them deal corruptly. {6:29} The bellows blow fiercely; the
lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the
wicked are not plucked away. {6:30} Men will call them rejected silver,
because Yahweh has rejected them."

   {7:1} The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, {7:2}
"Stand in the gate of Yahweh's house, and proclaim there this word, and
say, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah, who enter in at these
gates to worship Yahweh. {7:3} Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of
Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell
in this place. {7:4} Don't trust in lying words, saying, Yahweh's
temple, Yahweh's temple, Yahweh's temple, are these. {7:5} For if you
thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute
justice between a man and his neighbor; {7:6} if you don't oppress the
foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don't shed innocent blood
in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt: {7:7}
then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave
to your fathers, from of old even forevermore. {7:8} Behold, you trust
in lying words, that can't profit. {7:9} Will you steal, murder, and
commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk
after other gods that you have not known, {7:10} and 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? {7:11} Is this
house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your
eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says Yahweh. {7:12} But go now
to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the
first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
{7:13} Now, because you have done all these works, says Yahweh, and I
spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn't hear; and I
called you, but you didn't answer: {7:14} therefore will I do to the
house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place
which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. {7:15} I
will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers,
even the whole seed of Ephraim. {7:16} Therefore don't pray for this
people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make
intercession to me; for I will not hear you. {7:17} Don't you see what
they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? {7:18}
The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the
women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to
pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to
anger. {7:19} Do they provoke me to anger? says Yahweh. Don't they
provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces? {7:20}
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, my anger and my wrath
shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the
trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn,
and shall not be quenched. {7:21} Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God
of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat.
{7:22} For I didn't speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day
that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt
offerings or sacrifices: {7:23} but this thing I commanded them,
saying, Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my
people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well
with you. {7:24} But they didn't listen nor turn their ear, but walked
in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and
went backward, and not forward. {7:25} Since the day that your fathers
came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all
my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:
{7:26} yet they didn't listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but made
their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers. {7:27} You shall
speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you
shall also call to them; but they will not answer you. {7:28} You shall
tell them, This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of
Yahweh their God, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is
cut off from their mouth. {7:29} Cut off your hair, and throw it away,
and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected
and forsaken the generation of his wrath. {7:30} For the children of
Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, says Yahweh: they have
set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to
defile it. {7:31} 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; which I didn't command, nor did it come into my
mind. {7:32} Therefore behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it
shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom,
but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, until
there is no place to bury. {7:33} The dead bodies of this people shall
be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and
none shall frighten them away. {7:34} Then will I cause to cease from
the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of
mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the
voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.

    {8:1} At that time, says Yahweh, they shall bring out the bones of
the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the
priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves; {8:2} and they shall
spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the army of the sky,
which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they
have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped:
they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung on
the surface of the earth. {8:3} Death shall be chosen rather than life
by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all
the places where I have driven them, says Yahweh of Armies. {8:4}
Moreover you shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh: Shall men fall, and not
rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return? {8:5} Why then is
this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they
hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. {8:6} I listened and heard,
but they didn't speak aright: no man repents him of his wickedness,
saying, What have I done? everyone turns to his course, as a horse that
rushes headlong in the battle. {8:7} Yes, the stork in the sky knows
her appointed times; and the turtledove and the swallow and the crane
observe the time of their coming; but my people don't know Yahweh's
law. {8:8} How do you say, We are wise, and the law of Yahweh is with
us? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely. {8:9}
The wise men are disappointed, they are dismayed and taken: behold,
they have rejected the word of Yahweh; and what kind of wisdom is in
them? {8:10} Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their
fields to those who shall possess them: for everyone from the least
even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to
the priest every one deals falsely. {8:11} They have healed the hurt of
the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is
no peace. {8:12} Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?
nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore
shall they fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation
they shall be cast down, says Yahweh. {8:13} I will utterly consume
them, says Yahweh: no grapes shall be on the vine, nor figs on the fig
tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them
shall pass away from them. {8:14} Why do we sit still? Assemble
yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be
silent there; for Yahweh our God has put us to silence, and given us
water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh. {8:15}
We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and
behold, dismay! {8:16} The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at
the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles;
for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it;
the city and those who dwell therein. {8:17} For, behold, I will send
serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall
bite you, says Yahweh. {8:18} Oh that I could comfort myself against
sorrow! My heart is faint within me. {8:19} Behold, the voice of the
cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off:
isn't Yahweh in Zion? Isn't her King in her? Why have they provoked me
to anger with their engraved images, and with foreign vanities? {8:20}
The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. {8:21}
For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay
has taken hold on me. {8:22} Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no
physician there? why then isn't the health of the daughter of my people
recovered?

    {9:1} Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears,
that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my
people! {9:2} Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of
wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they
are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. {9:3} They bend
their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in
the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and
they don't know me, says Yahweh. {9:4} Take heed everyone of his
neighbor, and don't trust in any brother; for every brother will
utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders. {9:5}
They will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth:
they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to
commit iniquity. {9:6} Your habitation is in the midst of deceit;
through deceit they refuse to know me, says Yahweh. {9:7} Therefore
thus says Yahweh of Armies, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for
how should I deal with the daughter of my people? {9:8} Their tongue is
a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor
with his mouth, but in his heart he lays wait for him. {9:9} Shall I
not visit them for these things? says Yahweh; shall not my soul be
avenged on such a nation as this? {9:10} For the mountains will I take
up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a
lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passes through;
neither can men hear the voice of the livestock; both the birds of the
sky and the animals are fled, they are gone. {9:11} I will make
Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals; and I will make the
cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant. {9:12} Who is the
wise man, that may understand this? Who is he to whom the mouth of
Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land perished and
burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through? {9:13} Yahweh
says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and
have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein, {9:14} but have
walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals,
which their fathers taught them; {9:15} therefore thus says Yahweh of
Armies, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people,
with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. {9:16} I will
scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their
fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have
consumed them. {9:17} Thus says Yahweh of Armies, Consider, and call
for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful
women, that they may come: {9:18} and let them make haste, and take up
a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our
eyelids gush out with waters. {9:19} For a voice of wailing is heard
out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we
have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.
{9:20} Yet hear the word of Yahweh, you women, and let your ear receive
the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and everyone
her neighbor lamentation. {9:21} For death has come up into our
windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from
outside, and the young men from the streets. {9:22} Speak, Thus says
Yahweh, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung on the open field,
and as the handful after the harvester; and none shall gather them.
{9:23} Thus says Yahweh, Don't let the wise man glory in his wisdom,
neither let the mighty man glory in his might, don't let the rich man
glory in his riches; {9:24} but let him who glories glory in this, that
he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises
loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these
things I delight, says Yahweh. {9:25} Behold, the days come, says
Yahweh, that I will punish all those who are circumcised in
uncircumcision: {9:26} Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of
Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners of their hair cut off,
who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and
all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.

   {10:1} Hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you, house of Israel!
{10:2} Thus says Yahweh, "Don't learn the way of the nations, and don't
be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at
them. {10:3} For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a
tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the
axe. {10:4} They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with
nails and with hammers, that it not move. {10:5} They are like a palm
tree, of turned work, and don't speak: they must be carried, because
they can't go. Don't be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither
is it in them to do good." {10:6} There is none like you, Yahweh; you
are great, and your name is great in might. {10:7} Who should not fear
you, King of the nations? For it appertains to you; because among all
the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is
none like you. {10:8} But they are together brutish and foolish: the
instruction of idols! it is but a stock. {10:9} There is silver beaten
into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the
work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and
purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skillful men.
{10:10} But Yahweh is the true God; he is the living God, and an
everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are
not able to withstand his indignation. {10:11} You shall say this to
them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these
shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens. {10:12} He has
made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his
wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens:
{10:13} when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the
heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;
he makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his
treasuries. {10:14} Every man has become brutish and without knowledge;
every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten
image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. {10:15} They are
vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall
perish. {10:16} The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the
former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance:
Yahweh of Armies is his name. {10:17} Gather up your wares out of the
land, you who live under siege. {10:18} For thus says Yahweh, Behold, I
will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will
distress them, that they may feel it. {10:19} Woe is me because of my
hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is my grief, and I
must bear it. {10:20} My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are
broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are no more: there
is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. {10:21}
For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Yahweh:
therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.
{10:22} The voice of news, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out
of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a
dwelling place of jackals. {10:23} Yahweh, I know that the way of man
is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
{10:24} Yahweh, correct me, but in measure: not in your anger, lest you
bring me to nothing. {10:25} Pour out your wrath on the nations that
don't know you, and on the families that don't call on your name: for
they have devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him,
and have laid waste his habitation.

   {11:1} The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, {11:2}
Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah, and to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem; {11:3} and say to them, Thus says Yahweh,
the God of Israel: Cursed is the man who doesn't hear the words of this
covenant, {11:4} which I commanded your fathers in the day that I
brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace,
saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command
you: so you shall be my people, and I will be your God; {11:5} that I
may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a
land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day. Then answered I, and
said, Amen, Yahweh. {11:6} Yahweh 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. {11:7} For I earnestly
protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the
land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying,
Obey my voice. {11:8} Yet they didn't obey, nor turn their ear, but
walked everyone in the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I
brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them
to do, but they didn't do them. {11:9} Yahweh said to me, A conspiracy
is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of
Jerusalem. {11:10} They are turned back to the iniquities of their
forefathers, who refused to hear my words; and they are 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. {11:11}
Therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will bring evil on them, which
they shall not be able to escape; and they shall cry to me, but I will
not listen to them. {11:12} Then shall the cities of Judah and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry to the gods to which they offer
incense: but they will not save them at all in the time of their
trouble. {11:13} For according to the number of your cities are your
gods, Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem
have you set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn
incense to Baal. {11:14} Therefore don't pray for this people, neither
lift up cry nor prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time
that they cry to me because of their trouble. {11:15} What has my
beloved to do in my house, since she has worked lewdness with many, and
the holy flesh is passed from you? when you do evil, then you rejoice.
{11:16} Yahweh called your name, A green olive tree, beautiful with
goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire on
it, and its branches are broken. {11:17} For Yahweh of Armies, 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 worked
for themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense to Baal.
{11:18} Yahweh gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it: then you showed
me their doings. {11:19} But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to
the slaughter; and I didn't know that they had 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 may be no more
remembered. {11:20} But, Yahweh of Armies, who judges righteously, who
tests the heart and the mind, I shall see your vengeance on them; for
to you have I revealed my cause. {11:21} Therefore thus says Yahweh
concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, You shall
not prophesy in the name of Yahweh, that you not die by our hand;
{11:22} therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, Behold, I will punish
them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their
daughters shall die by famine; {11:23} and there shall be no remnant to
them: for I will bring evil on the men of Anathoth, even the year of
their visitation.

   {12:1} You are righteous, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet I
would reason the cause with you: why does the way of the wicked
prosper? why are all they at ease who deal very treacherously? {12:2}
You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they
bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their
heart. {12:3} But you, Yahweh, know me; you see me, and try my heart
toward you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare
them for the day of slaughter. {12:4} How long shall the land mourn,
and the herbs of the whole country wither? for the wickedness of those
who dwell therein, the animals are consumed, and the birds; because
they said, He shall not see our latter end. {12:5} If you have run with
the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with
horses? and though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you
do in the pride of the Jordan? {12:6} For even your brothers, and the
house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; even
they have cried aloud after you: don't believe them, though they speak
beautiful words to you. {12:7} I have forsaken my house, I have cast
off my heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the
hand of her enemies. {12:8} My heritage has become to me as a lion in
the forest: she has uttered her voice against me; therefore I have
hated her. {12:9} Is my heritage to me as a speckled bird of prey? are
the birds of prey against her all around? Go, assemble all the animals
of the field, bring them to devour. {12:10} Many shepherds have
destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they
have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. {12:11} They have
made it a desolation; it mourns to me, being desolate; the whole land
is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart. {12:12} Destroyers
have come on all the bare heights in the wilderness; for the sword of
Yahweh devours from the one end of the land even to the other end of
the land: no flesh has peace. {12:13} They have sown wheat, and have
reaped thorns; they have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing:
and you shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce anger of
Yahweh. {12:14} Thus says Yahweh against all my evil neighbors, who
touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit:
behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the
house of Judah from among them. {12:15} It shall happen, after that I
have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them; and I
will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his
land. {12:16} It shall happen, if they will diligently learn the ways
of my people, to swear by my name, As Yahweh lives; even as they taught
my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built up in the midst of
my people. {12:17} But if they will not hear, then will I pluck up that
nation, plucking up and destroying it, says Yahweh.

   {13:1} Thus says Yahweh to me, Go, and buy yourself a linen belt,
and put it on your waist, and don't put it in water. {13:2} So I bought
a belt according to the word of Yahweh, and put it on my waist. {13:3}
The word of Yahweh came to me the second time, saying, {13:4} Take the
belt that you have bought, which is on your waist, and arise, go to the
Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock. {13:5} So I went,
and hid it by the Euphrates, as Yahweh commanded me. {13:6} It happened
after many days, that Yahweh said to me, Arise, go to the Euphrates,
and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide there.
{13:7} Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the belt from
the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the belt was marred, it
was profitable for nothing. {13:8} Then the word of Yahweh came to me,
saying, {13:9} Thus says Yahweh, In this way I will mar the pride of
Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. {13:10} This evil people, who
refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart,
and are gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall
even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing. {13:11} For as
the belt clings to the waist of a man, so have I caused to cling to me
the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, says Yahweh;
that they may be to me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise,
and for a glory: but they would not hear. {13:12} Therefore you shall
speak to them this word: Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Every
bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall tell you, Do we not
certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? {13:13}
Then you shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will fill all the
inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit on David's throne, and
the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
with drunkenness. {13:14} I will dash them one against another, even
the fathers and the sons together, says Yahweh: I will not pity, nor
spare, nor have compassion, that I should not destroy them. {13:15}
Hear, and give ear; don't be proud; for Yahweh has spoken. {13:16} Give
glory to Yahweh your God, before he causes darkness, and before your
feet stumble on the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he
turns it into the shadow of death, and makes it gross darkness. {13:17}
But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for your
pride; and my eye shall weep bitterly, and run down with tears, because
Yahweh's flock is taken captive. {13:18} Say to the king and to the
queen mother, Humble yourselves, sit down; for your headdresses have
come down, even the crown of your glory. {13:19} The cities of the
South are shut up, and there is none to open them: Judah is carried
away captive, all of it; it is wholly carried away captive. {13:20}
Lift up your eyes, and see those who come from the north: where is the
flock that was given you, your beautiful flock? {13:21} What will you
say, when he shall set over you as head those whom you have yourself
taught to be friends to you? shall not sorrows take hold of you, as of
a woman in travail? {13:22} If you say in your heart, Why are these
things come on me? for the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts
uncovered, and your heels suffer violence. {13:23} Can the Ethiopian
change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good,
who are accustomed to do evil. {13:24} Therefore will I scatter them,
as the stubble that passes away, by the wind of the wilderness. {13:25}
This is your lot, the portion measured to you from me, says Yahweh;
because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood. {13:26}
Therefore will I also uncover your skirts on your face, and your shame
shall appear. {13:27} I have seen your abominations, even your
adulteries, and your neighing, the lewdness of your prostitution, on
the hills in the field. Woe to you, Jerusalem! You will not be made
clean; how long shall it yet be?

   {14:1} The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah concerning the
drought. {14:2} Judah mourns, and its gates languish, they sit in black
on the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. {14:3} Their nobles
send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and
find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are
disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads. {14:4} Because of
the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the
plowmen are disappointed, they cover their heads. {14:5} Yes, the hind
also in the field calves, and forsakes her young, because there is no
grass. {14:6} The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights, they pant for
air like jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no herbage. {14:7}
Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name's sake,
Yahweh; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.
{14:8} You hope of Israel, its Savior in the time of trouble, why
should you be as a foreigner in the land, and as a wayfaring man who
turns aside to stay for a night? {14:9} Why should you be like a scared
man, as a mighty man who can't save? Yet you, Yahweh, are in the midst
of us, and we are called by your name; don't leave us. {14:10} Thus
says Yahweh to this people, Even so have they loved to wander; they
have not refrained their feet: therefore Yahweh does not accept them;
now he will remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. {14:11}
Yahweh said to me, Don't pray for this people for their good. {14:12}
When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt
offering and meal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume
them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. {14:13}
Then I said, Ah, Lord Yahweh! behold, the prophets tell them, You shall
not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I will give you
assured peace in this place. {14:14} Then Yahweh said to me, The
prophets prophesy lies in my name; I didn't send them, neither have I
commanded them, neither spoke I to them: they prophesy to you a lying
vision, and divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their
own heart. {14:15} Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets
who prophesy in my name, and I didn't send them, yet they say, Sword
and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those
prophets be consumed. {14:16} The people to whom they prophesy shall be
cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the
sword; and they shall have none to bury them--them, their wives, nor
their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness on
them. {14:17} You shall say 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 a great breach, with a very
grievous wound. {14:18} If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the
slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then, behold, those
who are sick with famine! for both the prophet and the priest go about
in the land, and have no knowledge. {14:19} Have you utterly rejected
Judah? has your soul loathed Zion? why have you struck us, and there is
no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a
time of healing, and behold, dismay! {14:20} We acknowledge, Yahweh,
our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned
against you. {14:21} Do not abhor us, for your name's sake; do not
disgrace the throne of your glory: remember, don't break your covenant
with us. {14:22} Are there any among the vanities of the nations that
can cause rain? or can the sky give showers? Aren't you he, Yahweh our
God? therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.

   {15:1} Then Yahweh said to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before
me, yet my mind would not be toward this people: cast them out of my
sight, and let them go forth. {15:2} It shall happen, when they tell
you, Where shall we go forth? Then you shall tell them, Thus says
Yahweh: Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword,
to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such
as are for captivity, to captivity. {15:3} I will appoint over them
four kinds, says Yahweh: the sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and
the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to
destroy. {15:4} I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all
the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah,
king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. {15:5} For who will
have pity on you, Jerusalem? or who will bemoan you? or who will turn
aside to ask of your welfare? {15:6} You have rejected me, says Yahweh,
you have gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against
you, and destroyed you; I am weary with repenting. {15:7} I have
winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land; I have bereaved them
of children, I have destroyed my people; they didn't return from their
ways. {15:8} Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the
seas; I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a
destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her
suddenly. {15:9} She who has borne seven languishes; she has given up
the spirit; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been
disappointed and confounded: and their residue will I deliver to the
sword before their enemies, says Yahweh. {15:10} Woe is me, my mother,
that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the
whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet everyone
of them curses me. {15:11} Yahweh said, Most certainly I will
strengthen you for good; most certainly I will cause the enemy to make
supplication to you in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
{15:12} Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass?
{15:13} Your substance and your treasures will I give for a spoil
without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.
{15:14} I will make them to pass with your enemies into a land which
you don't know; for a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn on
you. {15:15} Yahweh, you know; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me
of my persecutors; don't take me away in your longsuffering: know that
for your sake I have suffered reproach. {15:16} Your words were found,
and I ate them; and your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my
heart: for I am called by your name, Yahweh, God of Armies. {15:17} I
didn't sit in the assembly of those who make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat
alone because of your hand; for you have filled me with indignation.
{15:18} Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses
to be healed? Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook, as waters
that fail? {15:19} Therefore thus says Yahweh, If you return, then will
I bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take forth
the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: they shall return
to you, but you shall not return to them. {15:20} I will make you to
this people a fortified bronze wall; and they shall fight against you,
but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you
and to deliver you, says Yahweh. {15:21} I will deliver you out of the
hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the
terrible.

   {16:1} The word of Yahweh came also to me, saying, {16:2} You shall
not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this
place. {16:3} For thus says Yahweh concerning the sons and concerning
the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers
who bore them, and concerning their fathers who became their father in
this land: {16:4} They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be
lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the
surface of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by
famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the sky,
and for the animals of the earth. {16:5} For thus says Yahweh, Don't
enter into the house of mourning, neither go to lament, neither bemoan
them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, says Yahweh,
even loving kindness and tender mercies. {16:6} Both great and small
shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, neither shall men
lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them;
{16:7} neither shall men break bread for them in mourning, to comfort
them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation
to drink for their father or for their mother. {16:8} You shall not go
into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.
{16:9} For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Behold, I
will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your
days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the
bridegroom and the voice of the bride. {16:10} It shall happen, when
you shall show this people all these words, and they shall tell you,
Why has Yahweh pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is
our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against Yahweh
our God? {16:11} Then you shall tell them, Because your fathers have
forsaken me, says Yahweh, and have walked after other gods, and have
served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken me, and have
not kept my law; {16:12} and you have done evil more than your fathers;
for, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil
heart, so that you don't listen to me: {16:13} therefore will I cast
you forth out of this land into the land that you have not known,
neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day
and night; for I will show you no favor. {16:14} Therefore behold, the
days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no more be said, As Yahweh lives,
who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; {16:15}
but, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the
land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them.
I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.
{16:16} Behold, I will send for many fishermen, says Yahweh, and they
shall fish them up; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and
they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out
of the clefts of the rocks. {16:17} For my eyes are on all their ways;
they are not hidden from my face, neither is their iniquity concealed
from my eyes. {16:18} First I will recompense their iniquity and their
sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of
their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their
abominations. {16:19} Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my
refuge in the day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the
ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nothing
but lies, vanity and things in which there is no profit. {16:20} Shall
a man make to himself gods, which yet are no gods? {16:21} Therefore
behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause them to know
my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is Yahweh.

   {17:1} The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the
point of a diamond: it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on
the horns of your altars; {17:2} while their children remember their
altars and their Asherim by the green trees on the high hills. {17:3}
My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your
treasures for a spoil, and your high places, because of sin, throughout
all your borders. {17:4} You, even of yourself, shall discontinue from
your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your
enemies in the land which you don't know: for you have kindled a fire
in my anger which shall burn forever. {17:5} Thus says Yahweh: Cursed
is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart
departs from Yahweh. {17:6} For he shall be like the heath in the
desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the
parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited. {17:7}
Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose trust Yahweh is.
{17:8} For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out
its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its
leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought,
neither shall cease from yielding fruit. {17:9} The heart is deceitful
above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?
{17:10} I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every
man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.
{17:11} As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so
is he who gets riches, and not by right; in the midst of his days they
shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a fool. {17:12} A glorious
throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
{17:13} Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be
disappointed. Those who depart from me shall be written in the earth,
because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring of living waters. {17:14}
Heal me, O Yahweh, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be
saved: for you are my praise. {17:15} Behold, they tell me, Where is
the word of Yahweh? let it come now. {17:16} As for me, I have not
hurried from being a shepherd after you; neither have I desired the
woeful day; you know: that which came out of my lips was before your
face. {17:17} Don't be a terror to me: you are my refuge in the day of
evil. {17:18} Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but let not me
be disappointed; let them be dismayed, but don't let me be dismayed;
bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double
destruction. {17:19} Thus said Yahweh to me: Go, and stand in the gate
of the children of the people, through which the kings of Judah come
in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
{17:20} and tell them, Hear the word of Yahweh, you kings of Judah, and
all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these
gates: {17:21} Thus says Yahweh, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no
burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
{17:22} neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath
day holy, neither do any work: but make the Sabbath day, as I commanded
your fathers. {17:23} But they didn't listen, neither turn their ear,
but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not
receive instruction. {17:24} It shall happen, if you diligently listen
to me, says Yahweh, to bring in no burden through the gates of this
city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no
work therein; {17:25} then shall there enter in by the gates of this
city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in
chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and
the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever.
{17:26} They shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places
around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland,
and from the hill country, and from the South, bringing burnt
offerings, and sacrifices, and meal offerings, and frankincense, and
bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, to the house of Yahweh. {17:27}
But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not
to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath
day; then will I kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the
palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

   {18:1} The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, {18:2}
Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to
hear my words. {18:3} Then I went down to the potter's house, and
behold, he was making a work on the wheels. {18:4} When the vessel that
he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it
again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. {18:5}
Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, {18:6} House of Israel,
can't I do with you as this potter? says Yahweh. Behold, as the clay in
the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel. {18:7} At
what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a
kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; {18:8} if
that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I
will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them. {18:9} At what
instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to
build and to plant it; {18:10} if they do that which is evil in my
sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good,
with which I said I would benefit them. {18:11} Now therefore, speak to
the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus
says Yahweh: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device
against you: return you now everyone from his evil way, and amend your
ways and your doings. {18:12} But they say, It is in vain; for we will
walk after our own devices, and we will do everyone after the
stubbornness of his evil heart. {18:13} Therefore thus says Yahweh: Ask
now among the nations, who has heard such things; the virgin of Israel
has done a very horrible thing. {18:14} Shall the snow of Lebanon fail
from the rock of the field? Shall the cold waters that flow down from
afar be dried up? {18:15} For my people have forgotten me, they have
burned incense to false gods; and they have been made to stumble in
their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built
up; {18:16} to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual
hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his
head. {18:17} I will scatter them as with an east wind before the
enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their
calamity. {18:18} Then they said, Come, and let us devise devices
against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor
counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us
strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his
words. {18:19} Give heed to me, Yahweh, and listen to the voice of
those who contend with me. {18:20} Shall evil be recompensed for good?
for they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to
speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them. {18:21}
Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over
to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and
widows; and let their men be slain of death, and their young men struck
of the sword in battle. {18:22} Let a cry be heard from their houses,
when you shall bring a troop suddenly on them; for they have dug a pit
to take me, and hid snares for my feet. {18:23} Yet, Yahweh, you know
all their counsel against me to kill me; don't forgive their iniquity,
neither blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be overthrown
before you; deal you with them in the time of your anger.

   {19:1} Thus said Yahweh, Go, and buy a potter's earthen bottle, and
take some of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the
priests; {19:2} and go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which
is by the entry of the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that
I shall tell you; {19:3} and say, Hear the word of Yahweh, kings of
Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says Yahweh of Armies, the
God of Israel, Behold, I will bring evil on this place, which whoever
hears, his ears shall tingle. {19:4} Because they have forsaken me, and
have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods,
that they didn't know, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah;
and have filled this place with the blood of innocents, {19:5} and have
built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt
offerings to Baal; which I didn't command, nor spoke it, neither came
it into my mind: {19:6} therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh,
that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the
son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter. {19:7} 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 their dead bodies will I give to be food for the
birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth. {19:8} I will make
this city an astonishment, and a hissing; everyone who passes thereby
shall be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. {19:9} I will
cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their
daughters; and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend, in the
siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek
their life, shall distress them. {19:10} Then you shall break the
bottle in the sight of the men who go with you, {19:11} and shall tell
them, Thus says Yahweh of Armies: Even so will I break this people and
this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that can't be made whole
again; and they shall bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury.
{19:12} Thus will I do to this place, says Yahweh, and to its
inhabitants, even making this city as Topheth: {19:13} and the houses
of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled,
shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs
they have burned incense to all the army of the sky, and have poured
out drink offerings to other gods. {19:14} Then came Jeremiah from
Topheth, where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the
court of Yahweh's house, and said to all the people: {19:15} Thus says
Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring on this city
and on all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it;
because they have made their neck stiff, that they may not hear my
words.

   {20:1} Now Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief
officer in the house of Yahweh, heard Jeremiah prophesying these
things. {20:2} Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in
the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the
house of Yahweh. {20:3} It happened on the next day, that Pashhur
brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him,
Yahweh has not called your name Pashhur, but Magormissabib. {20:4} For
thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself, and to
all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies,
and your eyes shall see it; and I will give all Judah into the hand of
the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and
shall kill them with the sword. {20:5} Moreover I will give all the
riches of this city, and all its gains, and all the precious things of
it, yes, all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the
hand of their enemies; and they shall make them a prey, and take them,
and carry them to Babylon. {20:6} You, Pashhur, and all who dwell in
your house shall go into captivity; and you shall come to Babylon, and
there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you, and all your
friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely. {20:7} Yahweh, you have
persuaded me, and I was persuaded; you are stronger than I, and have
prevailed: I am become a laughing-stock all the day, every one mocks
me. {20:8} For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, Violence and
destruction! because the word of Yahweh is made a reproach to me, and a
derision, all the day. {20:9} If I say, I will not make mention of him,
nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a
burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I
can't. {20:10} For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every
side. Denounce, and we will denounce him, say all my familiar friends,
those who watch for my fall; perhaps he will be persuaded, and we shall
prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him. {20:11} But
Yahweh is with me as an awesome mighty one: therefore my persecutors
shall stumble, and they shall not prevail; they shall be utterly
disappointed, because they have not dealt wisely, even with an
everlasting dishonor which shall never be forgotten. {20:12} But,
Yahweh of Armies, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the
mind, let me see your vengeance on them; for to you have I revealed my
cause. {20:13} Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh; for he has delivered the
soul of the needy from the hand of evildoers. {20:14} Cursed is the day
in which I was born: don't let the day in which my mother bore me be
blessed. {20:15} Cursed is the man who brought news to my father,
saying, A boy is born to you; making him very glad. {20:16} Let that
man be as the cities which Yahweh overthrew, and didn't repent: and let
him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime; {20:17}
because he didn't kill me from the womb; and so my mother would have
been my grave, and her womb always great. {20:18} Why came I forth out
of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed
with shame?

   {21:1} The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, when king
Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the
son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, {21:2} Please inquire of Yahweh
for us; for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us:
perhaps Yahweh will deal with us according to all his wondrous works,
that he may go up from us. {21:3} Then Jeremiah said to them, You shall
tell Zedekiah: {21:4} Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Behold, I
will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which
you fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans who
besiege you, without the walls; and I will gather them into the midst
of this city. {21:5} I myself will fight against you with an
outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in wrath,
and in great indignation. {21:6} I will strike the inhabitants of this
city, both man and animal: they shall die of a great pestilence. {21:7}
Afterward, says Yahweh, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his
servants, and the people, even such as are left in this city from the
pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and
into the hand of those who seek their life: and he shall strike them
with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity,
nor have mercy. {21:8} To this people you shall say, Thus says Yahweh:
Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. {21:9}
He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine,
and by the pestilence; but he who goes out, and passes over to the
Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be to him
for a prey. {21:10} For I have set my face on this city for evil, and
not for good, says Yahweh: it shall be given into the hand of the king
of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. {21:11} Touching the house
of the king of Judah, hear the word of Yahweh: {21:12} House of David,
thus says Yahweh, Execute justice in the morning, and deliver him who
is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my wrath go forth like
fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your
doings. {21:13} Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley,
and of the rock of the plain, says Yahweh; you that say, Who shall come
down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations? {21:14} I
will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says Yahweh; and
I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is
around her.

   {22:1} Thus said Yahweh: Go down to the house of the king of Judah,
and speak there this word, {22:2} Say, Hear the word of Yahweh, king of
Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and
your people who enter in by these gates. {22:3} Thus says Yahweh:
Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of
the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the
foreigner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood
in this place. {22:4} For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there
enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting on the throne of
David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his
people. {22:5} But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself,
says Yahweh, that this house shall become a desolation. {22:6} For thus
says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are Gilead
to me, the head of Lebanon. Yet surely I will make you a wilderness,
cities which are not inhabited. {22:7} I will prepare destroyers
against you, everyone with his weapons; and they shall cut down your
choice cedars, and cast them into the fire. {22:8} Many nations shall
pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Why
has Yahweh done thus to this great city? {22:9} Then they shall answer,
Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh their God, and worshiped
other gods, and served them. {22:10} Don't weep for the dead, neither
bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him who goes away; for he shall
return no more, nor see his native country. {22:11} For thus says
Yahweh touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned
instead of Josiah his father, and who went forth out of this place: He
shall not return there any more. {22:12} But in the place where they
have led him captive, there shall he die, and he shall see this land no
more. {22:13} Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and
his rooms by injustice; who uses his neighbor's service without wages,
and doesn't give him his hire; {22:14} who says, I will build me a wide
house and spacious rooms, and cuts him out windows; and it is ceiling
with cedar, and painted with vermilion. {22:15} Shall you reign,
because you strive to excel in cedar? Didn't your father eat and drink,
and do justice and righteousness? then it was well with him. {22:16} He
judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Wasn't this
to know me? says Yahweh. {22:17} But your eyes and your heart are not
but for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for
oppression, and for violence, to do it. {22:18} Therefore thus says
Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: they
shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! They
shall not lament for him, saying Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! {22:19} He
shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth
beyond the gates of Jerusalem. {22:20} Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and
lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all your lovers
are destroyed. {22:21} I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said,
I will not hear. This has been your way from your youth, that you
didn't obey my voice. {22:22} The wind shall feed all your shepherds,
and your lovers shall go into captivity: surely then you will be
ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness. {22:23} Inhabitant of
Lebanon, who makes your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied
you will be when pangs come on you, the pain as of a woman in travail!
{22:24} As I live, says Yahweh, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king
of Judah were the signet on my right hand, yet would I pluck you there;
{22:25} and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life,
and into the hand of them of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
{22:26} I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another
country, where you were not born; and there you will die. {22:27} But
to the land whereunto their soul longs to return, there shall they not
return. {22:28} Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? is he a
vessel in which none delights? why are they cast out, he and his seed,
and are cast into the land which they don't know? {22:29} O earth,
earth, earth, hear the word of Yahweh. {22:30} Thus says Yahweh, Write
you this man childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for no
more shall a man of his seed prosper, sitting on the throne of David,
and ruling in Judah.

   {23:1} Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my
pasture! says Yahweh. {23:2} Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of
Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my
flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will
visit on you the evil of your doings, says Yahweh. {23:3} I will gather
the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven
them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be
fruitful and multiply. {23:4} I will set up shepherds over them, who
shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither
shall any be lacking, says Yahweh. {23:5} Behold, the days come, says
Yahweh, that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he shall
reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and
righteousness in the land. {23:6} In his days Judah shall be saved, and
Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name by which he shall be
called: Yahweh our righteousness. {23:7} Therefore behold, the days
come, says Yahweh, that they shall no more say, As Yahweh lives, who
brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; {23:8} but,
As Yahweh lives, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of
Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had
driven them. They shall dwell in their own land. {23:9} Concerning the
prophets. My heart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I am like a
drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of Yahweh,
and because of his holy words. {23:10} For the land is full of
adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pastures of
the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is
not right; {23:11} for both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my
house have I found their wickedness, says Yahweh. {23:12} Therefore
their way shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness: they
shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil on them,
even the year of their visitation, says Yahweh. {23:13} I have seen
folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused
my people Israel to err. {23:14} In the prophets of Jerusalem also I
have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and
they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none does return from
his wickedness: they are all of them become to me as Sodom, and its
inhabitants as Gomorrah. {23:15} Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies
concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and
make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem
is ungodliness gone forth into all the land. {23:16} Thus says Yahweh
of Armies, Don't listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to
you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and
not out of the mouth of Yahweh. {23:17} They say continually to those
who despise me, Yahweh has said, You shall have peace; and to everyone
who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, No evil shall
come on you. {23:18} For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that
he should perceive and hear his word? who has marked my word, and heard
it? {23:19} Behold, the storm of Yahweh, his wrath, has gone forth.
Yes, a whirling storm. It shall burst on the head of the wicked.
{23:20} The anger of Yahweh shall not return, until he has executed,
and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter
days you shall understand it perfectly. {23:21} I sent not these
prophets, yet they ran: I didn't speak to them, yet they prophesied.
{23:22} But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my
people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and
from the evil of their doings. {23:23} Am I a God at hand, says Yahweh,
and not a God afar off? {23:24} Can any hide himself in secret places
so that I shall not see him? says Yahweh. Don't I fill heaven and
earth? says Yahweh. {23:25} I have heard what the prophets have said,
who prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
{23:26} How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who
prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart?
{23:27} who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams
which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my
name for Baal. {23:28} The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a
dream; and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What
is the straw to the wheat? says Yahweh. {23:29} Isn't my word like
fire? says Yahweh; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
{23:30} Therefore behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, who
steal my words everyone from his neighbor. {23:31} Behold, I am against
the prophets, says Yahweh, who use their tongues, and say, He says.
{23:32} Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says
Yahweh, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and
by their vain boasting: yet I didn't send them, nor commanded them;
neither do they profit this people at all, says Yahweh. {23:33} When
this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, What
is the burden of Yahweh? Then you shall tell them, What burden! I will
cast you off, says Yahweh. {23:34} As for the prophet, and the priest,
and the people, who shall say, The burden of Yahweh, I will even punish
that man and his house. {23:35} You shall say everyone to his neighbor,
and everyone to his brother, What has Yahweh answered? and, What has
Yahweh spoken? {23:36} You shall mention the burden of Yahweh no more:
for every man's own word shall be his burden; for you have perverted
the words of the living God, of Yahweh of Armies our God. {23:37} You
shall say to the prophet, What has Yahweh answered you? and, What has
Yahweh spoken? {23:38} But if you say, The burden of Yahweh; therefore
thus says Yahweh: Because you say this word, The burden of Yahweh, and
I have sent to you, saying, You shall not say, The burden of Yahweh;
{23:39} therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast
you off, and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from
my presence: {23:40} and I will bring an everlasting reproach on you,
and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

   {24:1} Yahweh showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs set before
Yahweh's temple, after that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried
away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the
princes of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and
had brought them to Babylon. {24:2} One basket had very good figs, like
the figs that are first-ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs,
which could not be eaten, they were so bad. {24:3} Then Yahweh said to
me, What do you see, Jeremiah? I said, Figs; the good figs, very good;
and the bad, very bad, that can't be eaten, they are so bad. {24:4} The
word of Yahweh came to me, saying, {24:5} Thus says Yahweh, the God of
Israel: Like these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Judah,
whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for
good. {24:6} For I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring
them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down;
and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. {24:7} I will give them a
heart to know me, that I am Yahweh: and they shall be my people, and I
will be their God; for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
{24:8} As the bad figs, which can't be eaten, they are so bad, surely
thus says Yahweh, So will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his
princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, who remain in this land, and
those who dwell in the land of Egypt, {24:9} I will even give them up
to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth for
evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all
places where I shall drive them. {24:10} I will send the sword, the
famine, and the pestilence, among them, until they be consumed from off
the land that 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, king of Judah
(the same was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), {25:2}
which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah, and to all
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: {25:3} From the thirteenth year
of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these
twenty-three years, the word of Yahweh has come to me, and I have
spoken to you, rising up early and speaking; but you have not listened.
{25:4} Yahweh has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising up
early and sending them (but you have not listened, nor inclined your
ear to hear) {25:5} saying, Return now everyone from his evil way, and
from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that Yahweh has
given to you and to your fathers, from of old and even forevermore;
{25:6} and don't go after other gods to serve them or worship them, and
don't provoke me to anger with the work of your hands; and I will do
you no harm. {25:7} Yet you have not listened to me, says Yahweh; that
you may provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own
hurt. {25:8} Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies: Because you have not
heard my words, {25:9} behold, I will send and take all the families of
the north, says Yahweh, and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of
Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against
its inhabitants, and against all these nations around; and I will
utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and
perpetual desolations. {25:10} Moreover I will take from them the voice
of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the
voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the
lamp. {25:11} This whole land shall be a desolation, and an
astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy
years. {25:12} It shall happen, when seventy years are accomplished,
that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, says Yahweh,
for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it
desolate forever. {25:13} I will bring on that land all my words which
I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book,
which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. {25:14} For many
nations and great kings shall make bondservants of them, even of them;
and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to
the work of their hands. {25:15} For thus says Yahweh, the God of
Israel, to me: take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause
all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. {25:16} They shall
drink, and reel back and forth, and be mad, because of the sword that I
will send among them. {25:17} Then took I the cup at Yahweh's hand, and
made all the nations to drink, to whom Yahweh had sent me: {25:18}
Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and its kings, and its princes, to
make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it
is this day; {25:19} Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his
princes, and all his people; {25:20} and all the mixed people, and all
the kings of the land of the Uz, and all the kings of the Philistines,
and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; {25:21}
Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon; {25:22} and all the kings of
Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the isle which is
beyond the sea; {25:23} Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all who have the
corners of their beard cut off; {25:24} and all the kings of Arabia,
and all the kings of the mixed people who dwell in the wilderness;
{25:25} and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all
the kings of the Medes; {25:26} and all the kings of the north, far and
near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world, which are on
the surface of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after
them. {25:27} You shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God
of Israel: Drink, and be drunk, vomit, fall, and rise no more, because
of the sword which I will send among you. {25:28} It shall be, if they
refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink, then you shall tell them,
Thus says Yahweh of Armies: You shall surely drink. {25:29} For,
behold, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name;
and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished; for
I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth, says
Yahweh of Armies. {25:30} Therefore prophesy you against them all these
words, and tell them, Yahweh will roar from on high, and utter his
voice from his holy habitation; he will mightily roar against his fold;
he will give a shout, as those who tread grapes, against all the
inhabitants of the earth. {25:31} A noise shall come even to the end of
the earth; for Yahweh has a controversy with the nations; he will enter
into judgment with all flesh: as for the wicked, he will give them to
the sword, says Yahweh. {25:32} Thus says Yahweh of Armies, Behold,
evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great storm shall be
raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth. {25:33} The slain of
Yahweh shall be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other
end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor
buried; they shall be dung on the surface of the ground. {25:34} Wail,
you shepherds, and cry; and wallow in dust, you principal of the flock;
for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are fully come,
and you shall fall like a goodly vessel. {25:35} The shepherds shall
have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape. {25:36}
A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the wailing of the principal
of the flock! for Yahweh lays waste their pasture. {25:37} The
peaceable folds are brought to silence because of the fierce anger of
Yahweh. {25:38} He has left his covert, as the lion; for their land has
become an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppression, and
because of his fierce anger.

   {26:1} In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah,
king of Judah, came this word from Yahweh, saying, {26:2} Thus says
Yahweh: Stand in the court of Yahweh's house, and speak to all the
cities of Judah, which come to worship in Yahweh's house, all the words
that I command you to speak to them; don't diminish a word. {26:3} It
may be they will listen, and turn every man from his evil way; that I
may repent me of the evil which I purpose to do to them because of the
evil of their doings. {26:4} You shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh: If
you will not listen to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before
you, {26:5} to listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I
send to you, even rising up early and sending them, but you have not
listened; {26:6} then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make
this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. {26:7} The priests
and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words
in the house of Yahweh. {26:8} It happened, when Jeremiah had made an
end of speaking all that Yahweh had commanded him to speak to all the
people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold
on him, saying, You shall surely die. {26:9} Why have you prophesied in
the name of Yahweh, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this
city shall be desolate, without inhabitant? All the people were
gathered to Jeremiah in the house of Yahweh. {26:10} When the princes
of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to the
house of Yahweh; and they sat in the entry of the new gate of Yahweh's
house. {26:11} Then spoke the priests and the prophets to the princes
and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy of death; for he has
prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears. {26:12}
Then spoke Jeremiah to all the princes and to all the people, saying,
Yahweh sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all
the words that you have heard. {26:13} Now therefore amend your ways
and your doings, and obey the voice of Yahweh your God; and Yahweh will
repent him of the evil that he has pronounced against you. {26:14} But
as for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as is good and right
in your eyes. {26:15} Only know for certain that, if you put me to
death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, and on this city,
and on its inhabitants; for of a truth Yahweh has sent me to you to
speak all these words in your ears. {26:16} Then the princes and all
the people said to the priests and to the prophets: This man is not
worthy of death; for he has spoken to us in the name of Yahweh our God.
{26:17} Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spoke to
all the assembly of the people, saying, {26:18} Micah the Morashtite
prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all
the people of Judah, saying, Thus says Yahweh of Armies: Zion shall be
plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain
of the house as the high places of a forest. {26:19} Did Hezekiah king
of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Didn't he fear Yahweh, and
entreat the favor of Yahweh, and Yahweh relented of the disaster which
he had pronounced against them? Thus should we commit great evil
against our own souls. {26:20} There was also a man who prophesied in
the name of Yahweh, Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath Jearim; and he
prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the
words of Jeremiah: {26:21} and when Jehoiakim the king, with all his
mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to
put him to death; but when Uriah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and
went into Egypt: {26:22} and Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt,
Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him, into Egypt;
{26:23} and they fetched forth Uriah out of Egypt, and brought him to
Jehoiakim the king, who killed him with the sword, and cast his dead
body into the graves of the common people. {26:24} But the hand of
Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give
him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

   {27:1} In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah,
king of Judah, came this word to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, {27:2}
Thus says Yahweh to me: Make bonds and bars, and put them on your neck;
{27:3} 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 king of Judah; {27:4} and give them a command to their
masters, saying, Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, You
shall tell your masters: {27:5} I have made the earth, the men and the
animals that are on the surface of the earth, by my great power and by
my outstretched arm; and I give it to whom it seems right to me. {27:6}
Now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the
king of Babylon, my servant; and the animals of the field also have I
given him to serve him. {27:7} All the nations shall serve him, and his
son, and his son's son, until the time of his own land come: and then
many nations and great kings shall make him their bondservant. {27:8}
It shall happen, that the nation and the kingdom which will not serve
the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put their
neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish,
says Yahweh, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the
pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. {27:9} But as for
you, don't you listen to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to
your dreams, nor to your soothsayers, nor to your sorcerers, who speak
to you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon: {27:10} for
they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land, and that
I should drive you out, and you should perish. {27:11} But the nation
that shall bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and
serve him, that nation will I let remain in their own land, says
Yahweh; and they shall till it, and dwell therein. {27:12} I spoke to
Zedekiah 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. {27:13} Why will you die, you and your people, by the
sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as Yahweh has spoken
concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? {27:14}
Don't listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, You
shall not serve the king of Babylon; for they prophesy a lie to you.
{27:15} For I have not sent them, says Yahweh, but they prophesy
falsely in my name; that I may drive you out, and that you may perish,
you, and the prophets who prophesy to you. {27:16} Also I spoke to the
priests and to all this people, saying, Thus says Yahweh: Don't listen
to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, Behold, the
vessels of Yahweh's house shall now shortly be brought again from
Babylon; for they prophesy a lie to you. {27:17} Don't listen to them;
serve the king of Babylon, and live: why should this city become a
desolation? {27:18} But if they be prophets, and if the word of Yahweh
be with them, let them now make intercession to Yahweh of Armies, that
the vessels which are left in the house of Yahweh, and in the house of
the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, don't go to Babylon. {27:19} For
thus says Yahweh of Armies concerning the pillars, and concerning the
sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the
vessels that are left in this city, {27:20} which Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon didn't take, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son
of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the
nobles of Judah and Jerusalem; {27:21} yes, thus says Yahweh of Armies,
the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that are left in the house of
Yahweh, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem:
{27:22} They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be,
until the day that I visit them, says Yahweh; then will I bring them
up, and restore them to this place.

   {28:1} It happened the same year, in the beginning of the reign of
Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that
Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was of Gibeon, spoke to me
in the house of Yahweh, in the presence of the priests and of all the
people, saying, {28:2} Thus speaks Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel,
saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. {28:3} Within
two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of
Yahweh's house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this
place, and carried to Babylon: {28:4} and I will bring again to this
place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with all the
captives of Judah, who went to Babylon, says Yahweh; for I will break
the yoke of the king of Babylon. {28:5} Then the prophet Jeremiah said
to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the
presence of all the people who stood in the house of Yahweh, {28:6}
even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: Yahweh do so; Yahweh perform your
words which you have prophesied, to bring again the vessels of Yahweh's
house, and all them of the captivity, from Babylon to this place.
{28:7} Nevertheless hear you now this word that I speak in your ears,
and in the ears of all the people: {28:8} The prophets who have been
before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries, and
against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. {28:9}
The prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet shall
happen, then shall the prophet be known, that Yahweh has truly sent
him. {28:10} Then Hananiah the prophet took the bar from off the
prophet Jeremiah's neck, and broke it. {28:11} Hananiah spoke in the
presence of all the people, saying, Thus says Yahweh: Even so will I
break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon within two full years
from off the neck of all the nations. The prophet Jeremiah went his
way. {28:12} Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, after that
Hananiah the prophet had broken the bar from off the neck of the
prophet Jeremiah, saying, {28:13} Go, and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus
says Yahweh: You have broken the bars of wood; but you have made in
their place bars of iron. {28:14} For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the
God of Israel: I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these
nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they
shall serve him: and I have given him the animals of the field also.
{28:15} Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, Hear
now, Hananiah: Yahweh has not sent you; but you make this people to
trust in a lie. {28:16} Therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will send
you away from off the surface of the earth: this year you shall die,
because you have spoken rebellion against Yahweh. {28:17} So Hananiah
the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

   {29:1} Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the
prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders of the
captivity, and to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the people,
whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon,
{29:2} (after that Jeconiah the king, the queen mother, the eunuchs,
the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths, had
departed from Jerusalem), {29:3} by the hand of Elasah the son of
Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah
sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), saying, {29:4} Thus
says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, to all the captivity, whom I
have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon:
{29:5} Build houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat
their fruit. {29:6} Take wives, and father 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 don't be diminished.
{29:7} Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried
away captive, and pray to Yahweh for it; for in its peace you shall
have peace. {29:8} For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel:
Don't let your prophets who are in the midst of you, and your diviners,
deceive you; neither listen to your dreams which you cause to be
dreamed. {29:9} For they prophesy falsely to you in my name: I have not
sent them, says Yahweh. {29:10} For thus says Yahweh, After seventy
years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my
good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. {29:11}
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says Yahweh, thoughts
of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future. {29:12} You
shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to
you. {29:13} You shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for
me with all your heart. {29:14} I will be found by you, says Yahweh,
and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all
the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says
Yahweh; and I will bring you again to the place from where I caused you
to be carried away captive. {29:15} Because you have said, Yahweh has
raised us up prophets in Babylon; {29:16} thus says Yahweh concerning
the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people
who dwell in this city, your brothers who haven't gone forth with you
into captivity; {29:17} thus says Yahweh of Armies; Behold, I will send
on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them
like vile figs, that can't be eaten, they are so bad. {29:18} I will
pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the
pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed back and forth among all
the kingdoms of the earth, to be an object of horror, and an
astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations
where I have driven them; {29:19} because they have not listened to my
words, says Yahweh, with which I sent to them my servants the prophets,
rising up early and sending them; but you would not hear, says Yahweh.
{29:20} Hear therefore the word of Yahweh, all you of the captivity,
whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon. {29:21} Thus says
Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of
Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a
lie to you in my name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall kill them before your
eyes; {29:22} and of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captives
of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and
like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire; {29:23}
because they have worked folly in Israel, and have committed adultery
with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely,
which I didn't command them; and I am he who knows, and am witness,
says Yahweh. {29:24} Concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite you shall
speak, saying, {29:25} Thus speaks Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel,
saying, Because you have sent letters in your own name to all the
people who are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the
priest, and to all the priests, saying, {29:26} Yahweh has made you
priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest, that there may be officers
in the house of Yahweh, for every man who is mad, and makes himself a
prophet, that you should put him in the stocks and in shackles. {29:27}
Now therefore, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes
himself a prophet to you, {29:28} because he has sent to us in Babylon,
saying, The captivity is long: build houses, and dwell in them; and
plant gardens, and eat their fruit? {29:29} Zephaniah the priest read
this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet. {29:30} Then came the
word of Yahweh to Jeremiah, saying, {29:31} Send to all them of the
captivity, saying, Thus says Yahweh concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite:
Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I didn't send him, and he
has caused you to trust in a lie; {29:32} therefore thus says Yahweh,
Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed; he shall
not have a man to dwell among this people, neither shall he see the
good that I will do to my people, says Yahweh, because he has spoken
rebellion against Yahweh.

   {30:1} The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, {30:2}
Thus speaks Yahweh, the God of Israel, saying, Write all the words that
I have spoken to you in a book. {30:3} For, behold, the days come, says
Yahweh, that I will turn again the captivity of my people Israel and
Judah, says Yahweh; and I will cause them to return to the land that I
gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. {30:4} These are the
words that Yahweh spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah. {30:5}
For thus says Yahweh: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and
not of peace. {30:6} Ask now, and see whether a man does travail with
child: why do I see every man with his hands on his waist, as a woman
in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? {30:7} Alas! for
that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of
Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. {30:8} It shall come
to pass in that day, says Yahweh of Armies, that I will break his yoke
from off your neck, and will burst your bonds; and strangers shall no
more make him their bondservant; {30:9} but they shall serve Yahweh
their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up to them. {30:10}
Therefore don't you be afraid, O Jacob my servant, says Yahweh; neither
be dismayed, Israel: for, behold, I will save you from afar, and your
seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and
shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid. {30:11} For
I am with you, says Yahweh, to save you: for I will make a full end of
all the nations where I have scattered you, but I will not make a full
end of you; but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave
you unpunished. {30:12} For thus says Yahweh, Your hurt is incurable,
and your wound grievous. {30:13} There is none to plead your cause,
that you may be bound up: you have no healing medicines. {30:14} All
your lovers have forgotten you; they don't seek you: for I have wounded
you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one,
for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased.
{30:15} Why do you cry for your hurt? Your pain is incurable: for the
greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased, I have
done these things to you. {30:16} Therefore all those who devour you
shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, everyone of them, shall go
into captivity; and those who despoil you shall be a spoil, and all who
prey on you will I give for a prey. {30:17} For I will restore health
to you, and I will heal you of your wounds, says Yahweh; because they
have called you an outcast, saying, It is Zion, whom no man seeks
after. {30:18} Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I will turn again the
captivity of Jacob's tents, and have compassion on his dwelling places;
and the city shall be built on its own hill, and the palace shall be
inhabited in its own way. {30:19} Out of them shall proceed
thanksgiving and the voice of those who make merry: and I will multiply
them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they
shall not be small. {30:20} Their children also shall be as before, and
their congregation shall be established before me; and I will punish
all who oppress them. {30:21} Their prince shall be of themselves, and
their ruler shall proceed from their midst; and I will cause him to
draw near, and he shall approach to me: for who is he who has had
boldness to approach to me? says Yahweh. {30:22} You shall be my
people, and I will be your God. {30:23} Behold, the storm of Yahweh,
his wrath, has gone forth, a sweeping storm: it shall burst on the head
of the wicked. {30:24} The fierce anger of Yahweh will not return,
until he has executed, and until he has performed the intentions of his
heart. In the latter days you will understand it.

   {31:1} At that time, says Yahweh, will I be the God of all the
families of Israel, and they shall be my people. {31:2} Thus says
Yahweh, The people who were left of the sword found favor in the
wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. {31:3}
Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an
everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you.
{31:4} Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of
Israel: again you shall be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go
forth in the dances of those who make merry. {31:5} Again you shall
plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant,
and shall enjoy its fruit. {31:6} For there shall be a day, that the
watchmen on the hills of Ephraim shall cry, Arise, and let us go up to
Zion to Yahweh our God. {31:7} For thus says Yahweh, Sing with gladness
for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish, praise, and
say, Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel. {31:8} Behold, I
will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the
uttermost parts of the earth, along with the blind and the lame, the
woman with child and her who travails with child together: a great
company shall they return here. {31:9} They shall come with weeping;
and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by
rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble;
for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. {31:10} Hear
the word of Yahweh, you nations, and declare it in the islands afar
off; and say, He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as
shepherd does his flock. {31:11} For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and
redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he. {31:12}
They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow to the
goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil,
and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be
as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. {31:13}
Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the
old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort
them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. {31:14} I will satiate
the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied
with my goodness, says Yahweh. {31:15} Thus says Yahweh: A voice is
heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her
children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they
are no more. {31:16} Thus says Yahweh: Refrain your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says Yahweh;
and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. {31:17} There is
hope for your latter end, says Yahweh; and your children shall come
again to their own border. {31:18} I have surely heard Ephraim
bemoaning himself thus, You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as
an untrained calf: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are Yahweh
my God. {31:19} Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after
that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even
confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth. {31:20} Is Ephraim
my dear son? is he a darling child? for as often as I speak against
him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearns for
him; I will surely have mercy on him, says Yahweh. {31:21} Set up road
signs, make guideposts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way
by which you went: turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these
your cities. {31:22} How long will you go here and there, you
backsliding daughter? for Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth:
a woman shall encompass a man. {31:23} Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the
God of Israel, Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of
Judah and in its cities, when I shall bring again their captivity:
Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.
{31:24} Judah and all its cities shall dwell therein together, the
farmers, and those who go about with flocks. {31:25} For I have
satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I replenished.
{31:26} On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.
{31:27} Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will sow the house
of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the
seed of animal. {31:28} It shall happen that, like as I have watched
over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy
and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, says
Yahweh. {31:29} In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have
eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. {31:30}
But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the
sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. {31:31} Behold, the days
come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of
Israel, and with the house of Judah: {31:32} not according to the
covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by
the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they
broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh. {31:33} But this
is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in
their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be
my people: {31:34} and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor,
and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know
me, from their least to their greatest, says Yahweh: for I will forgive
their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more. {31:35} Thus
says Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances
of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the
sea, so that its waves roar; Yahweh of Armies is his name: {31:36} If
these ordinances depart from before me, says Yahweh, then the seed of
Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever. {31:37}
Thus says Yahweh: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations
of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the
seed of Israel for all that they have done, says Yahweh. {31:38}
Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that the city shall be built to
Yahweh from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner. {31:39} The
measuring line shall go out further straight onward to the hill Gareb,
and shall turn about to Goah. {31:40} The whole valley of the dead
bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the
corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy to Yahweh; it
shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever.

   {32:1} The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the tenth year
of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of
Nebuchadnezzar. {32:2} Now at that time the king of Babylon's army 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. {32:3} For
Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Why do you prophesy,
and say, Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will give this city into the hand
of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; {32:4} and Zedekiah king
of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall
surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall
speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall see his eyes; {32:5}
and he shall bring Zedekiah to Babylon, and he shall be there until I
visit him, says Yahweh: though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall
not prosper? {32:6} Jeremiah said, The word of Yahweh came to me,
saying, {32:7} Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle shall come
to you, saying, Buy my field that is in Anathoth; for the right of
redemption is yours to buy it. {32:8} So Hanamel my uncle's son came to
me in the court of the guard according to the word of Yahweh, and said
to me, Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of
Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is
yours; buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of
Yahweh. {32:9} I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my
uncle's son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of
silver. {32:10} I subscribed the deed, and sealed it, and called
witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances. {32:11} So I took
the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the
terms and conditions, and that which was open; {32:12} and I delivered
the deed of the 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 subscribed the deed of the purchase,
before all the Jews who sat in the court of the guard. {32:13} I
commanded Baruch before them, saying, {32:14} Thus says Yahweh of
Armies, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase
which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an
earthen vessel; that they may continue many days. {32:15} For thus says
Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards
shall yet again be bought in this land. {32:16} Now after I had
delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I
prayed to Yahweh, saying, {32:17} Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, you have made
the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched
arm; there is nothing too hard for you, {32:18} who show loving
kindness to thousands, and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into
the bosom of their children after them; the great, the mighty God,
Yahweh of Armies is his name; {32:19} great in counsel, and mighty in
work; whose eyes are open on all the ways of the sons of men, to give
everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his
doings: {32:20} who performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,
even to this day, both in Israel and among other men; and made yourself
a name, as in this day; {32:21} and brought forth 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;
{32:22} and gave them this land, which you swore to their fathers to
give them, a land flowing with milk and honey; {32:23} and they came
in, and possessed it, but they didn't obey your voice, neither walked
in your law; they have done nothing of all that you commanded them to
do: therefore you have caused all this evil to come on them. {32:24}
Behold, the mounds, they have come to the city to take it; and the city
is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because
of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence; and what you
have spoken has happened; and behold, you see it. {32:25} You have said
to me, Lord Yahweh, Buy the field for money, and call witnesses;
whereas the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. {32:26} Then
came the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah, saying, {32:27} Behold, I am
Yahweh, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?
{32:28} Therefore thus says Yahweh: Behold, I will give this city into
the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon, and he shall take it: {32:29} and the Chaldeans, who fight
against this city, shall come and set this city on fire, and burn it,
with the houses, on whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal, and
poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.
{32:30} For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done
only that which was evil in my sight from their youth; for the children
of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands,
says Yahweh. {32:31} For this city has been to me a provocation of my
anger and of my wrath from the day that they built it even to this day;
that I should remove it from before my face, {32:32} 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. {32:33} They have turned to me the back, and
not the face: and though I taught them, rising up early and teaching
them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction. {32:34} But
they set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to
defile it. {32:35} They built the high places of Baal, which are in the
valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to
pass through fire to Molech; which I didn't command them, neither did
it come into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause
Judah to sin. {32:36} Now therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of
Israel, concerning this city, about which you say, It is given into the
hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the
pestilence: {32:37} Behold, I will gather them out of all the
countries, where I have driven them in my anger, and in my wrath, and
in great indignation; and I will bring them again to this place, and I
will cause them to dwell safely: {32:38} and they shall be my people,
and I will be their God: {32:39} and I will give them one heart and one
way, that they may fear me forever, for their good, and of their
children after them: {32:40} and I will make an everlasting covenant
with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them
good; and I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart
from me. {32:41} Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I
will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my
whole soul. {32:42} For thus says Yahweh: Like as I have brought all
this great evil on this people, so will I bring on them all the good
that I have promised them. {32:43} Fields shall be bought in this land,
about which you say, It is desolate, without man or animal; it is given
into the hand of the Chaldeans. {32:44} Men shall buy fields for money,
and subscribe the deeds, and seal them, and call witnesses, in the land
of Benjamin, and in the places about 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 South: for I will cause their
captivity to return, says Yahweh.

   {33:1} Moreover the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah the second time,
while he was yet shut up in the court of the guard, saying, {33:2} Thus
says Yahweh who does it, Yahweh who forms it to establish it; Yahweh is
his name: {33:3} Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you
great things, and difficult, which you don't know. {33:4} For thus says
Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and
concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are broken down to
make a defense against the mounds and against the sword; {33:5} while
men come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the dead
bodies of men, whom I have killed in my anger and in my wrath, and for
all whose wickedness I have hidden my face from this city: {33:6}
Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I
will reveal to them abundance of peace and truth. {33:7} I will cause
the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will
build them, as at the first. {33:8} I will cleanse them from all their
iniquity, by which they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all
their iniquities, by which they have sinned against me, and by which
they have transgressed against me. {33:9} This city shall be to me for
a name of joy, for a praise and for a glory, before all the nations of
the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do to them, and shall
fear and tremble for all the good and for all the peace that I procure
to it. {33:10} Thus says Yahweh: Yet again there shall be heard in this
place, about which you say, It is waste, without man and without
animal, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem,
that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without
animal, {33:11} the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice
of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who
say, Give thanks to Yahweh of Armies, for Yahweh is good, for his
loving kindness endures forever; who bring thanksgiving into the house
of Yahweh. For I will cause the captivity of the land to return as at
the first, says Yahweh. {33:12} Thus says Yahweh of Armies: Yet again
shall there be in this place, which is waste, without man and without
animal, and in all its cities, a habitation of shepherds causing their
flocks to lie down. {33:13} In the cities of the hill country, in the
cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South, and in the land
of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of
Judah, shall the flocks again pass under the hands of him who numbers
them, says Yahweh. {33:14} Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I
will perform that good word which I have spoken concerning the house of
Israel and concerning the house of Judah. {33:15} In those days, and at
that time, will I cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up to David;
and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. {33:16} In
those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely; and
this is the name by which she shall be called: Yahweh our
righteousness. {33:17} For thus says Yahweh: David shall never want a
man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; {33:18} neither shall
the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings,
and to burn meal offerings, and to do sacrifice continually. {33:19}
The word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, saying, {33:20} Thus says Yahweh:
If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night,
so that there shall not be day and night in their season; {33:21} then
may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he shall not
have a son to reign on his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my
ministers. {33:22} As the army of the sky can't be numbered, neither
the sand of the sea measured; so will I multiply the seed of David my
servant, and the Levites who minister to me. {33:23} The word of Yahweh
came to Jeremiah, saying, {33:24} Don't consider what this people has
spoken, saying, The two families which Yahweh chose, he has cast them
off? thus do they despise my people, that they should be no more a
nation before them. {33:25} Thus says Yahweh: If my covenant of day and
night fails, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and
earth; {33:26} then will I also cast away the seed of Jacob, and of
David my servant, so that I will not take of his seed to be rulers over
the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity
to return, and will have mercy on them.

   {34:1} The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, when
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms
of the earth that were under his dominion, and all the peoples, were
fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of it, saying:
{34:2} Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Go, and speak to Zedekiah
king of Judah, and tell him, Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will give this
city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with
fire: {34:3} and you shall not escape out of his hand, but shall surely
be taken, and delivered into his hand; and your eyes shall see the eyes
of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with you mouth to mouth, and
you shall go to Babylon. {34:4} Yet hear the word of Yahweh, O Zedekiah
king of Judah: thus says Yahweh concerning you, You shall not die by
the sword; {34:5} you shall die in peace; and with the burnings of your
fathers, the former kings who were before you, so shall they make a
burning for you; and they shall lament you, saying, Ah Lord! for I have
spoken the word, says Yahweh. {34:6} Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke
all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, {34:7} when the
king of Babylon's army was fighting against Jerusalem, and against all
the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah;
for these alone remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities.
{34:8} The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after that the king
Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem,
to proclaim liberty to them; {34:9} that every man should let his male
servant, and every man his female servant, who is a Hebrew or a
Hebrewess, go free; that none should make bondservants of them, of a
Jew his brother. {34:10} All the princes and all the people obeyed, who
had entered into the covenant, that everyone should let his male
servant, and everyone his female servant, go free, that none should
make bondservants of them any more; they obeyed, and let them go:
{34:11} but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the
handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into
subjection for servants and for handmaids. {34:12} Therefore the word
of Yahweh came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, {34:13} Thus says
Yahweh, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the
day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of bondage, saying, {34:14} At the end of seven years you shall
let go every man his brother who is a Hebrew, who has been sold to you,
and has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you: but
your fathers didn't listen to me, neither inclined their ear. {34:15}
You had now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in
proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and you had made a
covenant before me in the house which is called by my name: {34:16} but
you turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant, and
every man his handmaid, whom you had let go free at their pleasure, to
return; and you brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants
and for handmaids. {34:17} Therefore thus says Yahweh: you have not
listened to me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and
every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim to you a liberty, says
Yahweh, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will
make you to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the
earth. {34:18} I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant,
who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before
me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts; {34:19}
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; {34:20} I will even give them into the hand of their
enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and their dead
bodies shall be for food to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of
the earth. {34:21} Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give
into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek
their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, who have
gone away from you. {34:22} Behold, I will command, says Yahweh, and
cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and
take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a
desolation, without inhabitant.

   {35:1} The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the days of
Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, {35:2} Go to the
house of the Rechabites, and speak to them, and bring them into the
house of Yahweh, into one of the rooms, and give them wine to drink.
{35:3} Then 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; {35:4} and I brought them into the house of Yahweh,
into the room of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God,
which was by the room of the princes, which was above the room of
Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the threshold. {35:5} I set
before the sons of the house of the Rechabites bowls full of wine, and
cups; and I said to them, Drink wine! {35:6} But they said, We will
drink no wine; for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us,
saying, You shall drink no wine, neither you, nor your sons, forever:
{35:7} neither shall you build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard,
nor have any; but all your days you shall dwell in tents; that you may
live many days in the land in which you live. {35:8} We have obeyed the
voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he
commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons,
or our daughters; {35:9} nor to build houses for us to dwell in;
neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed: {35:10} but we have
lived in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab
our father commanded us. {35:11} But it happened, when Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, Come, and let us
go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of
the army of the Syrians; so we dwell at Jerusalem. {35:12} Then came
the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah, saying, {35:13} Thus says Yahweh of
Armies, the God of Israel: Go, and tell the men of Judah and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction to listen to
my words? says Yahweh. {35:14} The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab,
that he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are performed; and to
this day they drink none, for they obey their father's commandment: but
I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking; and you have not
listened to me. {35:15} I have sent also to you all my servants the
prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Return now every
man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and don't go after other
gods to serve them, and you shall dwell in the land which I have given
to you and to your fathers: but you have not inclined your ear, nor
listened to me. {35:16} Because the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab
have performed the commandment of their father which he commanded them,
but this people has not listened to me; {35:17} therefore thus says
Yahweh, the God of Armies, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring on
Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have
pronounced against them; because I have spoken to them, but they have
not heard; and I have called to them, but they have not answered.
{35:18} Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, Thus says Yahweh
of Armies, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the commandment
of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according
to all that he commanded you; {35:19} therefore thus says Yahweh of
Armies, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a
man to stand before me forever.

   {36:1} It happened in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of
Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh,
saying, {36:2} Take a scroll of a book, and write therein all the words
that I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and
against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of
Josiah, even to this day. {36:3} It may be that the house of Judah will
hear all the evil which I purpose to do to them; that they may return
every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and
their sin. {36:4} Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and
Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of Yahweh, which
he had spoken to him, on a scroll of a book. {36:5} Jeremiah commanded
Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I can't go into the house of Yahweh:
{36:6} therefore you go, and read in the scroll, which you have written
from my mouth, the words of Yahweh in the ears of the people in
Yahweh's house on the fast day; and also you shall read them in the
ears of all Judah who come out of their cities. {36:7} It may be they
will present their supplication before Yahweh, and will return everyone
from his evil way; for great is the anger and the wrath that Yahweh has
pronounced against this people. {36:8} Baruch the son of Neriah did
according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in
the book the words of Yahweh in Yahweh's house. {36:9} Now it happened
in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the
ninth month, that all the people in Jerusalem, and all the people who
came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem, proclaimed a fast before
Yahweh. {36:10} Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in
the house of Yahweh, in the room of Gemariah the son of Shaphan, the
scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of Yahweh's
house, in the ears of all the people. {36:11} When Micaiah the son of
Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words
of Yahweh, {36:12} he went down into the king's house, into the
scribe's room: and behold, all the princes were 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 princes. {36:13} Then Micaiah declared to them
all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears
of the people. {36:14} Therefore 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 have 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. {36:15} They said to him, Sit down now, and
read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears. {36:16} Now it
happened, when they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one
toward another, and said to Baruch, We will surely tell the king of all
these words. {36:17} They asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How did
you write all these words at his mouth? {36:18} Then Baruch answered
them, He pronounced all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote
them with ink in the book. {36:19} Then the princes said to Baruch, Go,
hide, you and Jeremiah; and let no man know where you are. {36:20} They
went in to the king into the court; but they had laid up the scroll in
the room of Elishama the scribe; and they told all the words in the
ears of the king. {36:21} So the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll;
and he took it out of the room of Elishama the scribe. Jehudi read it
in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes who stood
beside the king. {36:22} Now the king was sitting in the winter house
in the ninth month: and there was a fire in the brazier burning before
him. {36:23} It happened, when Jehudi had read three or four leaves,
that the king cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that
was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that
was in the brazier. {36:24} They were not afraid, nor tore their
garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all these
words. {36:25} Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made
intercession to the king that he would not burn the scroll; but he
would not hear them. {36:26} The king commanded Jerahmeel the king's
son, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to
take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but Yahweh hid them.
{36:27} Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, after that the king
had burned the scroll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of
Jeremiah, saying, {36:28} Take again another scroll, and write in it
all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the
king of Judah has burned. {36:29} Concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah
you shall say, Thus says Yahweh: You have burned this scroll, saying,
Why have you written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall
certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from
there man and animal? {36:30} Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning
Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit on the throne of
David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and
in the night to the frost. {36:31} I will punish him and his seed and
his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring on them, and on the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the evil that I
have pronounced against them, but they didn't listen. {36:32} Then took
Jeremiah another scroll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of
Neriah, who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of
the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and
there were added besides to them many like words.

   {37:1} Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned as king, instead of Coniah
the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in
the land of Judah. {37:2} But neither he, nor his servants, nor the
people of the land, listened to the words of Yahweh, which he spoke by
the prophet Jeremiah. {37:3} Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of
Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to the
prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now to Yahweh our God for us. {37:4} Now
Jeremiah came in and went out among the people; for they had not put
him into prison. {37:5} Pharaoh's army had come forth out of Egypt; and
when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them,
they broke up from Jerusalem. {37:6} Then came the word of Yahweh to
the prophet Jeremiah, saying, {37:7} Thus says Yahweh, the God of
Israel, You shall tell the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire
of me: Behold, Pharaoh's army, which has come forth to help you, shall
return to Egypt into their own land. {37:8} The Chaldeans shall come
again, and fight against this city; and they shall take it, and burn it
with fire. {37:9} Thus says Yahweh, Don't deceive yourselves, saying,
The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us; for they shall not depart.
{37:10} For though you had struck the whole army of the Chaldeans who
fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yes
would they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.
{37:11} It happened that, when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up
from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army, {37:12} then Jeremiah went
forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to receive his
portion there, in the midst of the people. {37:13} When he was in the
gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was
Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he laid hold on
Jeremiah the prophet, saying, You are falling away to the Chaldeans.
{37:14} Then Jeremiah said, It is false; I am not falling away to the
Chaldeans. But he didn't listen to him; so Irijah laid hold on
Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes. {37:15} 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 that the prison. {37:16} When
Jeremiah had come into the dungeon house, and into the cells, and
Jeremiah had remained there many days; {37:17} Then Zedekiah the king
sent, and fetched him: and the king asked him secretly in his house,
and said, Is there any word from Yahweh? Jeremiah said, There is. He
said also, You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.
{37:18} Moreover Jeremiah said to king Zedekiah, Wherein have I sinned
against you, or against your servants, or against this people, that you
have put me in prison? {37:19} Where now are your prophets who
prophesied to you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against
you, nor against this land? {37:20} Now please hear, my lord the king:
please let my supplication be presented before you, that you not cause
me to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.
{37:21} Then Zedekiah the king commanded, and they committed Jeremiah
into the court of the guard; and they gave him daily a loaf of bread
out of the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city was spent.
Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

   {38:1} 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 spoke to all the people,
saying, {38:2} Thus says Yahweh, He who remains in this city shall die
by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he who goes
forth to the Chaldeans shall live, and his life shall be to him for a
prey, and he shall live. {38:3} Thus says Yahweh, This city shall
surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and
he shall take it. {38:4} Then the princes said to the king, "Please let
this man be put to death; because he weakens the hands of the men of
war who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in
speaking such words to them: for this man doesn't seek the welfare of
this people, but the hurt." {38:5} Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he
is in your hand; for the king is not he who can do anything against
you. {38:6} Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of
Malchijah the king's son, that was in the court of the guard: and they
let down Jeremiah with cords. In the dungeon there was no water, but
mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire. {38:7} Now when Ebedmelech the
Ethiopian, a eunuch, who was in the king's house, heard that they had
put Jeremiah in the dungeon (the king then sitting in the gate of
Benjamin), {38:8} Ebedmelech went forth out of the king's house, and
spoke to the king, saying, {38:9} 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 dungeon; and he is likely to die in the place where he
is, because of the famine; for there is no more bread in the city.
{38:10} Then the king commanded Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, Take
from here thirty men with you, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of
the dungeon, before he dies. {38:11} So Ebedmelech took the men with
him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took
there rags and worn-out garments, and let them down by cords into the
dungeon to Jeremiah. {38:12} Ebedmelech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah,
Put now these rags and worn-out garments under your armpits under the
cords. Jeremiah did so. {38:13} So they drew up Jeremiah with the
cords, and took him up out of the dungeon: and Jeremiah remained in the
court of the guard. {38:14} Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took
Jeremiah the prophet to him into the third entry that is in the house
of Yahweh: and the king said to Jeremiah, I will ask you something.
Hide nothing from me. {38:15} Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, If I
declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death? and if I give
you counsel, you will not listen to me. {38:16} So Zedekiah the king
swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying, As Yahweh lives, who made us this
soul, I will not put you to death, neither will I give you into the
hand of these men who seek your life. {38:17} Then Jeremiah said to
Zedekiah, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, the God of Israel: If
you will go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then your soul
shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and you shall
live, and your house. {38:18} But if you will not go forth to the king
of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of
the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not
escape out of their hand. {38:19} Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, I
am afraid of the Jews who are fallen away to the Chaldeans, lest they
deliver me into their hand, and they mock me. {38:20} But Jeremiah
said, They shall not deliver you. Obey, I beg you, the voice of Yahweh,
in that which I speak to you: so it shall be well with you, and your
soul shall live. {38:21} But if you refuse to go forth, this is the
word that Yahweh has shown me: {38:22} behold, all the women who are
left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of
Babylon's princes, and those women shall say, Your familiar friends
have set you on, and have prevailed over you. Your feet are sunk in the
mire, they have turned away back. {38:23} They shall bring out all your
wives and your children to the Chaldeans; and you shall not escape out
of their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon:
and you shall cause this city to be burned with fire. {38:24} Then
Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and you
shall not die. {38:25} But if the princes hear that I have talked with
you, and they come to you, and tell you, Declare to us now what you
have said to the king; don't hide it from us, and we will not put you
to death; also what the king said to you: {38:26} then you shall tell
them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not
cause me to return to Jonathan's house, to die there. {38:27} Then came
all the princes to Jeremiah, and asked him; and he told them according
to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off
speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived. {38:28} So
Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem
was taken.

   {39:1} It happened when Jerusalem was taken, (in the ninth year of
Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and besieged it; {39:2} in
the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of
the month, a breach was made in the city), {39:3} that all the princes
of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, Nergal
Sharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergal Sharezer, Rabmag,
with all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon. {39:4} It
happened that, when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war
saw them, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by
the way of the king's garden, through the gate between the two walls;
and he went out toward the Arabah. {39:5} But the army of the Chaldeans
pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and
when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he gave judgment on him.
{39:6} Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah
before his eyes: also the king of Babylon killed all the nobles of
Judah. {39:7} Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him in
fetters, to carry him to Babylon. {39:8} The Chaldeans burned the
king's house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and broke down
the walls of Jerusalem. {39:9} Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the
guard carried away captive into Babylon the residue of the people who
remained in the city, the deserters also who fell away to him, and the
residue of the people who remained. {39:10} But Nebuzaradan the captain
of the guard left of the poor of the people, who had nothing, in the
land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.
{39:11} Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon commanded Nebuzaradan the
captain of the guard concerning Jeremiah, saying, {39:12} Take him, and
look well to him, and do him no harm; but do to him even as he shall
tell you. {39:13} So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent, and
Nebushazban, Rabsaris, and Nergal Sharezer, Rabmag, and all the chief
officers of the king of Babylon; {39:14} they sent, and took Jeremiah
out of the court of the guard, and committed him to Gedaliah the son of
Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so he lived
among the people. {39:15} Now the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah,
while he was shut up in the court of the guard, saying, {39:16} Go, and
speak to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, Thus says Yahweh of Armies,
the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring my words on this city for evil,
and not for good; and they shall be accomplished before you in that
day. {39:17} But I will deliver you in that day, says Yahweh; and you
shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.
{39:18} For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the
sword, but your life shall be for a prey to you; because you have put
your trust in me, says Yahweh.

   {40:1} The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after that
Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he
had taken him being bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem
and Judah, who were carried away captive to Babylon. {40:2} The captain
of the guard took Jeremiah, and said to him, Yahweh your God pronounced
this evil on this place; {40:3} and Yahweh has brought it, and done
according as he spoke: because you have sinned against Yahweh, and have
not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing has come on you. {40:4} Now,
behold, I release you this day from the chains which are on your hand.
If it seems good to you to come with me into Babylon, come, and I will
take care of you; but if it seems bad to you to come with me into
Babylon, don't: behold, all the land is before you; where it seems good
and right to you to go, there go. {40:5} Now while he had not yet gone
back, Go back then, he said, to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of
Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of
Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wherever it seems
right to you to go. So the captain of the guard gave him food and a
present, and let him go. {40:6} Then went Jeremiah to Gedaliah the son
of Ahikam to Mizpah, and lived with him among the people who were left
in the land. {40:7} Now when all the captains of the forces who were in
the fields, even they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had
made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed
to him men, and women, and children, and of the poorest of the land, of
those who were not carried away captive to Babylon; {40:8} then they
came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, 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. {40:9} Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the
son of Shaphan swore to them and to their men, saying, Don't be afraid
to serve the Chaldeans: dwell in the land, and serve the king of
Babylon, and it shall be well with you. {40:10} As for me, behold, I
will dwell at Mizpah, to stand before the Chaldeans who shall come to
us: but you, gather wine and summer fruits and oil, and put them in
your vessels, and dwell in your cities that you have taken. {40:11}
Likewise when all the Jews who were in Moab, and among the children of
Ammon, and in Edom, and who were in all the countries, heard that the
king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set over
them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan; {40:12} then all
the Jews returned out of all places where they were driven, and came to
the land of Judah, to Gedaliah, to Mizpah, and gathered wine and summer
fruits very much. {40:13} Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah, and all
the captains of the forces who were in the fields, came to Gedaliah to
Mizpah, {40:14} and said to him, Do you know 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 didn't believe them. {40:15}
Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly,
saying, Please let me go, and I will kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah,
and no man shall know it: why should he take your life, that all the
Jews who are gathered to you should be scattered, and the remnant of
Judah perish? {40:16} But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan
the son of Kareah, You shall not do this thing; for you speak falsely
of Ishmael.

   {41:1} Now it happened in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of
Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal and one of the chief
officers of the king, and ten men with him, came to Gedaliah the son of
Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they ate bread together in Mizpah. {41:2}
Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men who were with
him, and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the
sword, and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over
the land. {41:3} Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with him,
with Gedaliah, at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the
men of war. {41:4} It happened the second day after he had killed
Gedaliah, and no man knew it, {41:5} that there came men from Shechem,
from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even eighty men, having their beards
shaved and their clothes torn, and having cut themselves, with meal
offerings and frankincense in their hand, to bring them to the house of
Yahweh. {41:6} Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went forth from Mizpah to
meet them, weeping all along as he went: and it happened, as he met
them, he said to them, Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. {41:7} It
was so, when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son
of Nethaniah killed them, and cast them into the midst of the pit, he,
and the men who were with him. {41:8} But ten men were found among
those who said to Ishmael, Don't kill us; for we have stores hidden in
the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he
stopped, and didn't kill them among their brothers. {41:9} Now the pit
in which Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had
killed, by the side of Gedaliah (the same was who which Asa the king
had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel), Ishmael the son of
Nethaniah filled it with those who were killed. {41:10} Then Ishmael
carried away captive all the residue of the people who were in Mizpah,
even the king's daughters, and all the people who remained in Mizpah,
whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the
son of Ahikam; Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive,
and departed to go over to the children of Ammon. {41:11} But when
Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were
with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had
done, {41:12} then they took all the men, and went to fight with
Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that
are in Gibeon. {41:13} Now it happened that, 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, then they were glad. {41:14} So all
the people who Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned
about and came back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah. {41:15} But
Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and
went to the children of Ammon. {41:16} Then took Johanan the son of
Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, all the
remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of
Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after that he had killed Gedaliah the son of
Ahikam, the men of war, and the women, and the children, and the
eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon: {41:17} and they
departed, and lived in Geruth Chimham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to
enter into Egypt, {41:18} because of the Chaldeans; for they were
afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had killed
Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor over
the land.

   {42:1} Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of
Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the
least even to the greatest, came near, {42:2} and said to Jeremiah the
prophet, Please let our supplication be presented before you, and pray
for us to Yahweh your God, even for all this remnant; for we are left
but a few of many, as your eyes do see us: {42:3} that Yahweh your God
may show us the way in which we should walk, and the thing that we
should do. {42:4} Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have heard
you; behold, I will pray to Yahweh your God according to your words;
and it shall happen that whatever thing Yahweh shall answer you, I will
declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you. {42:5} Then they
said to Jeremiah, Yahweh be a true and faithful witness among us, if we
don't do according to all the word with which Yahweh your God shall
send you to us. {42:6} Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we
will obey the voice of Yahweh our God, to whom we send you; that it may
be well with us, when we obey the voice of Yahweh our God. {42:7} It
happened after ten days, that the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah.
{42:8} Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains
of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even
to the greatest, {42:9} and said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of
Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him:
{42:10} If you will still live in this land, then will I build you, and
not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I
grieve over the distress that I have brought on you. {42:11} Don't be
afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; don't be afraid
of him, says Yahweh: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you
from his hand. {42:12} I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy
on you, and cause you to return to your own land. {42:13} But if you
say, We will not dwell in this land; so that you don't obey the voice
of Yahweh your God, {42:14} saying, No; but we will go into the land of
Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet,
nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell: {42:15} now
therefore hear the word of Yahweh, O remnant of Judah: Thus says Yahweh
of Armies, the God of Israel, If you indeed set your faces to enter
into Egypt, and go to live there; {42:16} then it shall happen, that
the sword, which you fear, shall overtake you there in the land of
Egypt; and the famine, about which you are afraid, shall follow close
behind you there in Egypt; and there you shall die. {42:17} So shall it
be with all the men who set their faces to go into Egypt to live there:
they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; and
none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring on
them. {42:18} For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: As my
anger and my wrath has been poured forth on the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, so shall my wrath be poured forth on you, when you shall
enter into Egypt; and you shall be an object of horror, and an
astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place
no more. {42:19} Yahweh has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah,
Don't you go into Egypt: know certainly that I have testified to you
this day. {42:20} For you have dealt deceitfully against your own
souls; for you sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, Pray for us to
Yahweh our God; and according to all that Yahweh our God shall say, so
declare to us, and we will do it: {42:21} and I have this day declared
it to you; but you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh your God in
anything for which he has sent me to you. {42:22} Now therefore know
certainly that you shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the
pestilence, in the place where you desire to go to live there.

   {43:1} It happened that, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking
to all the people all the words of Yahweh their God, with which Yahweh
their God had sent him to them, even all these words, {43:2} then spoke
Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the
proud men, saying to Jeremiah, You speak falsely: Yahweh our God has
not sent you to say, You shall not go into Egypt to live there; {43:3}
but Baruch the son of Neriah sets you on against us, to deliver us into
the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death, and carry us
away captive to Babylon. {43:4} So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all
the captains of the forces, and all the people, didn't obey the voice
of Yahweh, to dwell in the land of Judah. {43:5} But Johanan the son of
Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of
Judah, who were returned from all the nations where they had been
driven, to live in the land of Judah; {43:6} the men, and the women,
and the children, and the king's daughters, and every person who
Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of
Ahikam, the son of Shaphan; and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the
son of Neriah; {43:7} and they came into the land of Egypt; for they
didn't obey the voice of Yahweh: and they came to Tahpanhes. {43:8}
Then came the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, {43:9}
Take great stones in your hand, and hide them in mortar in the brick
work, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the
sight of the men of Judah; {43:10} and tell them, Thus says Yahweh of
Armies, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar
the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne on these
stones that I have hidden; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over
them. {43:11} He shall come, and shall strike the land of Egypt; such
as are for death shall be put to death, and such as are for captivity
to captivity, and such as are for the sword to the sword. {43:12} I
will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall
burn them, and carry them away captive: and he shall array himself with
the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment; and he shall go
forth from there in peace. {43:13} He shall also break the pillars of
Beth Shemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods
of Egypt shall he burn with fire.

   {44:1} The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who
lived in the land of Egypt, who lived at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and
at Memphis, and in the country of Pathros, saying, {44:2} Thus says
Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: You have seen all the evil that I
have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the cities of Judah; and behold,
this day they are a desolation, and no man dwells therein, {44:3}
because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to
anger, in that they went to burn incense, to serve other gods, that
they didn't know, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. {44:4}
However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and
sending them, saying, Oh, don't do this abominable thing that I hate.
{44:5} But they didn't listen, nor inclined their ear to turn from
their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods. {44:6} Therefore my
wrath and my anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of
Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and
desolate, as it is this day. {44:7} Therefore now thus says Yahweh, the
God of Armies, the God of Israel: Why do you commit great evil against
your own souls, to cut off from yourselves man and woman, infant and
nursing child out of the midst of Judah, to leave yourselves none
remaining; {44:8} in that you provoke me to anger with the works of
your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where
you have gone to live; that you may be cut off, and that you may be a
curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? {44:9} 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 committed in
the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem? {44:10} They are
not humbled even to this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in
my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your
fathers. {44:11} Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of
Israel: Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut
off all Judah. {44:12} I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set
their faces to go into the land of Egypt to live there, and they shall
all be consumed; in the land of Egypt shall they fall; they shall be
consumed by the sword and by the famine; they shall die, from the least
even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine; and they shall be
an object of horror, an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.
{44:13} For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I
have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the
pestilence; {44:14} so that none of the remnant of Judah, who have gone
into the land of Egypt to live there, shall escape or be left, to
return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to
dwell there: for none shall return save such as shall escape. {44:15}
Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other
gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, even all the
people who lived in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah,
saying, {44:16} As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name
of Yahweh, we will not listen to you. {44:17} But we will certainly
perform every word that is gone forth out of our mouth, to burn incense
to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we
have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities
of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of
food, and were well, and saw no evil. {44:18} But since we left off
burning incense to the queen of the sky, and pouring out drink
offerings to her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by
the sword and by the famine. {44:19} When we burned incense to the
queen of the sky, and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make
her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her, without
our husbands? {44:20} Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men,
and to the women, even to all the people who had given him an answer,
saying, {44:21} The incense that 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, didn't Yahweh remember them, and
didn't it come into his mind? {44:22} so that Yahweh could no longer
bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the
abominations which you have committed; therefore your land has become a
desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it
is this day. {44:23} Because you have burned incense, and because you
have sinned against Yahweh, and have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh,
nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies;
therefore this evil has happened to you, as it is this day. {44:24}
Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people, and to all the women, Hear
the word of Yahweh, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt: {44:25}
Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, saying, You and your
wives have both spoken with your mouths, and with your hands have
fulfilled it, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have
vowed, to burn incense to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink
offerings to her: establish then your vows, and perform your vows.
{44:26} Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah who dwell in the
land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says Yahweh, that
my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all
the land of Egypt, saying, As the Lord Yahweh lives. {44:27} Behold, I
watch 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 the sword and by the
famine, until they are all gone. {44:28} Those who escape the sword
shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, few in
number; and all the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of
Egypt to live there, shall know whose word shall stand, mine, or
theirs. {44:29} This shall be the sign to you, says Yahweh, that I will
punish you in this place, that you may know that my words shall surely
stand against you for evil: {44:30} Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will
give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and
into the hand of those who seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of
Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his
enemy, and sought his life.

   {45:1} The message that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son
of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at the mouth of
Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of
Judah, saying, {45:2} Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to you,
Baruch: {45:3} You said, Woe is me now! for Yahweh has added sorrow to
my pain; I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest. {45:4} You
shall tell him, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, that which I have built will
I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up; and this
in the whole land. {45:5} Do you seek great things for yourself? Don't
seek them; for, behold, I will bring evil on all flesh, says Yahweh;
but your life will I give to you for a prey in all places where you go.

   {46:1} The word of Yahweh which came to Jeremiah the prophet
concerning the nations. {46:2} Of Egypt: concerning the army of Pharaoh
Necoh king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish,
which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck in the fourth year of
Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah. {46:3} Prepare the buckler
and shield, and draw near to battle! {46:4} Harness the horses, and get
up, you horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the
spears, put on the coats of mail. {46:5} Why have I seen it? they are
dismayed and are turned backward; and their mighty ones are beaten
down, and have fled apace, and don't look back: terror is on every
side, says Yahweh. {46:6} Don't let the swift flee away, nor the mighty
man escape; in the north by the river Euphrates have they stumbled and
fallen. {46:7} Who is this who rises up like the Nile, whose waters
toss themselves like the rivers? {46:8} Egypt rises up like the Nile,
and his waters toss themselves like the rivers: and he says, I will
rise up, I will cover the earth; I will destroy cities and its
inhabitants. {46:9} Go up, you horses; and rage, you chariots; and let
the mighty men go forth: Cush and Put, who handle the shield; and the
Ludim, who handle and bend the bow. {46:10} For that day is of the
Lord, Yahweh of Armies, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of
his adversaries: and the sword shall devour and be satiate, and shall
drink its fill of their blood; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a
sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates. {46:11} Go up
into Gilead, and take balm, virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain do you
use many medicines; there is no healing for you. {46:12} The nations
have heard of your shame, and the earth is full of your cry; for the
mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, they are fallen both of
them together. {46:13} The word that Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah the
prophet, how that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon should come and strike
the land of Egypt. {46:14} Declare in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and
publish in Memphis and in Tahpanhes: say, Stand forth, and prepare; for
the sword has devoured around you. {46:15} Why are your strong ones
swept away? they didn't stand, because Yahweh pushed them. {46:16} He
made many to stumble, yes, they fell one on another: and they said,
Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our
birth, from the oppressing sword. {46:17} They cried there, Pharaoh
king of Egypt is but a noise; he has let the appointed time pass by.
{46:18} As I live, says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies,
surely like Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea, so
shall he come. {46:19} You daughter who dwells in Egypt, furnish
yourself to go into captivity; for Memphis shall become a desolation,
and shall be burnt up, without inhabitant. {46:20} Egypt is a very
beautiful heifer; but destruction out of the north has come, it has
come. {46:21} Also her hired men in the midst of her are like calves of
the stall; for they also are turned back, they are fled away together,
they didn't stand: for the day of their calamity has come on them, the
time of their visitation. {46:22} The sound of it shall go like the
serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with
axes, as wood cutters. {46:23} They shall cut down her forest, says
Yahweh, though it can't be searched; because they are more than the
locusts, and are innumerable. {46:24} The daughter of Egypt shall be
disappointed; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the
north. {46:25} Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I
will punish Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with her gods, and her
kings; even Pharaoh, and those who trust in him: {46:26} and I will
deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives, and into the
hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his
servants; and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old,
says Yahweh. {46:27} But don't you be afraid, Jacob my servant, neither
be dismayed, Israel: for, behold, I will save you from afar, and your
seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and
shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid. {46:28}
Don't you be afraid, O Jacob my servant, says Yahweh; for I am with
you: for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven
you; but I will not make a full end of you, but I will correct you in
measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished.



   {47:1} The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet
concerning the Philistines, before that Pharaoh struck Gaza. {47:2}
Thus says Yahweh: Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall
become an overflowing stream, and shall overflow the land and all that
is therein, the city and those who dwell therein; and the men shall
cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail. {47:3} At the
noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, at the rushing
of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers don't look
back to their children for feebleness of hands; {47:4} because of the
day that comes to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and
Sidon every helper who remains: for Yahweh will destroy the
Philistines, the remnant of the isle of Caphtor. {47:5} Baldness has
come on Gaza; Ashkelon is brought to nothing, the remnant of their
valley: how long will you cut yourself? {47:6} You sword of Yahweh, how
long will it be before you be quiet? Put up yourself into your
scabbard; rest, and be still. {47:7} How can you be quiet, since Yahweh
has given you a command? Against Ashkelon, and against the seashore,
there has he appointed it.



   {48:1} Of Moab. Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Woe
to Nebo! for it is laid waste; Kiriathaim is disappointed, it is taken;
Misgab is put to shame and broken down. {48:2} The praise of Moab is no
more; in Heshbon they have devised evil against her: Come, and let us
cut her off from being a nation. You also, Madmen, shall be brought to
silence: the sword shall pursue you. {48:3} The sound of a cry from
Horonaim, desolation and great destruction! {48:4} Moab is destroyed;
her little ones have caused a cry to be heard. {48:5} For by the ascent
of Luhith with continual weeping shall they go up; for at the descent
of Horonaim they have heard the distress of the cry of destruction.
{48:6} Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.
{48:7} For, because you have trusted in your works and in your
treasures, you also shall be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into
captivity, his priests and his princes together. {48:8} The destroyer
shall come on every city, and no city shall escape; the valley also
shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed; as Yahweh has spoken.
{48:9} Give wings to Moab, that she may fly and get her away: and her
cities shall become a desolation, without any to dwell therein. {48:10}
Cursed is he who does the work of Yahweh negligently; and cursed is he
who keeps back his sword from blood. {48:11} Moab has been at ease from
his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied
from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity: therefore
his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed. {48:12}
Therefore behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will send to him
those who pour off, and they shall pour him off; and they shall empty
his vessels, and break their bottles in pieces. {48:13} Moab shall be
ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their
confidence. {48:14} How do you say, We are mighty men, and valiant men
for the war? {48:15} Moab is laid waste, and they are gone up into his
cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, says
the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies. {48:16} The calamity of Moab
is near to come, and his affliction hurries fast. {48:17} All you who
are around him, bemoan him, and all you who know his name; say, How is
the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod! {48:18} You daughter who
dwells in Dibon, come down from your glory, and sit in thirst; for the
destroyer of Moab has come up against you, he has destroyed your
strongholds. {48:19} Inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and watch:
ask him who flees, and her who escapes; say, What has been done?
{48:20} Moab is disappointed; for it is broken down: wail and cry; tell
it by the Arnon, that Moab is laid waste. {48:21} Judgment has come on
the plain country, on Holon, and on Jahzah, and on Mephaath, {48:22}
and on Dibon, and on Nebo, and on Beth Diblathaim, {48:23} and on
Kiriathaim, and on Beth Gamul, and on Beth Meon, {48:24} and on
Kerioth, and on Bozrah, and on all the cities of the land of Moab, far
or near. {48:25} The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken,
says Yahweh. {48:26} Make him drunken; for he magnified himself against
Yahweh: and Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in
derision. {48:27} For wasn't Israel a derision to you? was he found
among thieves? for as often as you speak of him, you shake your head.
{48:28} You inhabitants of Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the
rock; and be like the dove that makes her nest over the mouth of the
abyss. {48:29} We have heard of the pride of Moab. He is very proud;
his loftiness, and his pride, and his arrogance, and the haughtiness of
his heart. {48:30} I know his wrath, says Yahweh, that it is nothing;
his boastings have worked nothing. {48:31} Therefore will I wail for
Moab; yes, I will cry out for all Moab: for the men of Kir Heres shall
they mourn. {48:32} With more than the weeping of Jazer will I weep for
you, vine of Sibmah: your branches passed over the sea, they reached
even to the sea of Jazer: on your summer fruits and on your vintage the
destroyer is fallen. {48:33} Gladness and joy is taken away from the
fruitful field and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to
cease from the wine presses: none shall tread with shouting; the
shouting shall be no shouting. {48:34} From the cry of Heshbon even to
Elealeh, even to Jahaz have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even to
Horonaim, to Eglath Shelishiyah: for the waters of Nimrim also shall
become desolate. {48:35} Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab, says
Yahweh, him who offers in the high place, and him who burns incense to
his gods. {48:36} Therefore my heart sounds for Moab like pipes, and my
heart sounds like pipes for the men of Kir Heres: therefore the
abundance that he has gotten is perished. {48:37} For every head is
bald, and every beard clipped: on all the hands are cuttings, and on
the waist sackcloth. {48:38} On all the housetops of Moab and in its
streets there is lamentation every where; for I have broken Moab like a
vessel in which none delights, says Yahweh. {48:39} How it is broken
down! How they wail! How Moab has turned the back with shame! So shall
Moab become a derision and a terror to all who are around him. {48:40}
For thus says Yahweh: Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall
spread out his wings against Moab. {48:41} Kerioth is taken, and the
strongholds are seized, and the heart of the mighty men of Moab at that
day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. {48:42} Moab shall
be destroyed from being a people, because he has magnified himself
against Yahweh. {48:43} Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are on you,
inhabitant of Moab, says Yahweh. {48:44} He who flees from the fear
shall fall into the pit; and he who gets up out of the pit shall be
taken in the snare: for I will bring on him, even on Moab, the year of
their visitation, says Yahweh. {48:45} Those who fled stand without
strength under the shadow of Heshbon; for a fire is gone forth out of
Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and has devoured the
corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.
{48:46} Woe to you, O Moab! the people of Chemosh is undone; for your
sons are taken away captive, and your daughters into captivity. {48:47}
Yet will I bring back the captivity of Moab in the latter days, says
Yahweh. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.



   {49:1} Of the children of Ammon. Thus says Yahweh: Has Israel no
sons? has he no heir? why then does Malcam possess Gad, and his people
well in its cities? {49:2} Therefore behold, the days come, says
Yahweh, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard against Rabbah of
the children of Ammon; and it shall become a desolate heap, and her
daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Israel possess those
who possessed him, says Yahweh. {49:3} Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is laid
waste; cry, you daughters of Rabbah, clothe yourself in sackcloth:
lament, and run back and forth among the fences; for Malcam shall go
into captivity, his priests and his princes together. {49:4} Why do you
glory in the valleys, your flowing valley, backsliding daughter? who
trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come to me? {49:5} Behold,
I will bring a fear on you, says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, from all
who are around you; and you shall be driven out every man right forth,
and there shall be none to gather together the fugitives. {49:6} But
afterward I will bring back the captivity of the children of Ammon,
says Yahweh. {49:7} Of Edom. Thus says Yahweh of Armies: Is wisdom no
more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom
vanished? {49:8} Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths, inhabitants of
Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau on him, the time that I
shall visit him. {49:9} If grape gatherers came to you, would they not
leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, wouldn't they destroy
until they had enough? {49:10} But I have made Esau bare, I have
uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself:
his seed is destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbors; and he is
no more. {49:11} Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them
alive; and let your widows trust in me. {49:12} For thus says Yahweh:
Behold, they to whom it didn't pertain to drink of the cup shall
certainly drink; and are you he who shall altogether go unpunished? You
shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink. {49:13} For I have
sworn by myself, says Yahweh, that Bozrah shall become an astonishment,
a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all its cities shall be perpetual
wastes. {49:14} I have heard news from Yahweh, and an ambassador is
sent among the nations, saying, Gather yourselves together, and come
against her, and rise up to the battle. {49:15} For, behold, I have
made you small among the nations, and despised among men. {49:16} As
for your terror, the pride of your heart has deceived you, O you who
dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill:
though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you
down from there, says Yahweh. {49:17} Edom shall become an
astonishment: everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall
hiss at all its plagues. {49:18} As in the overthrow of Sodom and
Gomorrah and the neighbor cities of it, says Yahweh, no man shall dwell
there, neither shall any son of man live therein. {49:19} Behold, he
shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the
strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and
whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and
who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd who will stand
before me? {49:20} Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has
taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the
inhabitants of Teman: Surely they shall drag them away, the little ones
of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.
{49:21} The earth trembles at the noise of their fall; there is a cry,
the noise which is heard in the [4>]Red Sea[<4]. {49:22} Behold, he
shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his wings against
Bozrah: and the heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day shall be as
the heart of a woman in her pangs. {49:23} Of Damascus. Hamath is
confounded, and Arpad; for they have heard evil news, they are melted
away: there is sorrow on the sea; it can't be quiet. {49:24} Damascus
has grown feeble, she turns herself to flee, and trembling has seized
on her: anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in
travail. {49:25} How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of my
joy? {49:26} Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all
the men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, says Yahweh of
Armies. {49:27} I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it
shall devour the palaces of Ben Hadad. {49:28} Of Kedar, and of the
kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck. Thus
says Yahweh: Arise, go up to Kedar, and destroy the children of the
east. {49:29} Their tents and their flocks shall they take; they shall
carry away for themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and
their camels; and they shall cry to them, Terror on every side! {49:30}
Flee, wander far off, dwell in the depths, you inhabitants of Hazor,
says Yahweh; for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel
against you, and has conceived a purpose against you. {49:31} Arise, go
up to a nation that is at ease, that dwells without care, says Yahweh;
that have neither gates nor bars, that dwell alone. {49:32} Their
camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their livestock a spoil:
and I will scatter to all winds those who have the corners of their
beards cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every side of
them, says Yahweh. {49:33} Hazor shall be a dwelling place of jackals,
a desolation forever: no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son
of man live therein. {49:34} The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah
the prophet concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah
king of Judah, saying, {49:35} Thus says Yahweh of Armies: Behold, I
will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might. {49:36} On Elam
will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of the sky, and will
scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation where
the outcasts of Elam shall not come. {49:37} I will cause Elam to be
dismayed before their enemies, and before those who seek their life;
and I will bring evil on them, even my fierce anger, says Yahweh; and I
will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them; {49:38} and
I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from there king and
princes, says Yahweh. {49:39} But it shall happen in the latter days,
that I will bring back the captivity of Elam, says Yahweh.



   {50:1} The word that Yahweh spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the
land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet. {50:2} Declare among
the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and don't
conceal: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is disappointed, Merodach is
dismayed; her images are disappointed, her idols are dismayed. {50:3}
For out of the north there comes up a nation against her, which shall
make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they are fled,
they are gone, both man and animal. {50:4} In those days, and in that
time, says Yahweh, the children of Israel shall come, they and the
children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and
shall seek Yahweh their God. {50:5} They shall inquire concerning Zion
with their faces turned toward it, saying, Come, and join yourselves to
Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten. {50:6}
My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go
astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone
from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place. {50:7}
All who found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, We
are not guilty, because they have sinned against Yahweh, the habitation
of righteousness, even Yahweh, the hope of their fathers. {50:8} Flee
out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the
Chaldeans, and be as the male goats before the flocks. {50:9} For,
behold, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company
of great nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves
in array against her; from there she shall be taken: their arrows shall
be as of an expert mighty man; none shall return in vain. {50:10}
Chaldea shall be a prey: all who prey on her shall be satisfied, says
Yahweh. {50:11} Because you are glad, because you rejoice, O you who
plunder my heritage, because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out
the grain, and neigh as strong horses; {50:12} your mother shall be
utterly disappointed; she who bore you shall be confounded: behold, she
shall be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a
desert. {50:13} Because of the wrath of Yahweh she shall not be
inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate: everyone who goes by
Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. {50:14} Set
yourselves in array against Babylon all around, all you who bend the
bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against Yahweh.
{50:15} Shout against her all around: she has submitted herself; her
bulwarks are fallen, her walls are thrown down; for it is the vengeance
of Yahweh: take vengeance on her; as she has done, do to her. {50:16}
Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him who handles the sickle in the
time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn
everyone to his people, and they shall flee everyone to his own land.
{50:17} Israel is a hunted sheep; the lions have driven him away:
first, the king of Assyria devoured him; and now at last Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon has broken his bones. {50:18} Therefore thus says
Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Behold, I will punish the king of
Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria. {50:19} I
will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and
Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in
Gilead. {50:20} In those days, and in that time, says Yahweh, the
iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them
whom I leave as a remnant. {50:21} Go up against the land of Merathaim,
even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: kill and utterly
destroy after them, says Yahweh, and do according to all that I have
commanded you. {50:22} A sound of battle is in the land, and of great
destruction. {50:23} How is the hammer of the whole earth cut apart and
broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! {50:24} I
have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, Babylon, and you
weren't aware: you are found, and also caught, because you have striven
against Yahweh. {50:25} Yahweh has opened his armory, and has brought
forth the weapons of his indignation; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies,
has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans. {50:26} Come against her
from the utmost border; open her storehouses; cast her up as heaps, and
destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left. {50:27} Kill all her
bulls; let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them! for their day
has come, the time of their visitation. {50:28} The voice of those who
flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the
vengeance of Yahweh our God, the vengeance of his temple. {50:29} Call
together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow;
encamp against her all around; let none of it escape: recompense her
according to her work; according to all that she has done, do to her;
for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel.
{50:30} Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all her
men of war will be brought to silence in that day, says Yahweh. {50:31}
Behold, I am against you, you proud one, says the Lord, Yahweh of
Armies; for your day has come, the time that I will visit you. {50:32}
The proud one shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up; and
I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all who are
around him. {50:33} Thus says Yahweh of Armies: The children of Israel
and the children of Judah are oppressed together; and all who took them
captive hold them fast; they refuse to let them go. {50:34} Their
Redeemer is strong; Yahweh of Armies is his name: he will thoroughly
plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the
inhabitants of Babylon. {50:35} A sword is on the Chaldeans, says
Yahweh, and on the inhabitants of Babylon, and on her princes, and on
her wise men. {50:36} A sword is on the boasters, and they shall become
fools; a sword is on her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed.
{50:37} A sword is on their horses, and on their chariots, and on all
the mixed people who are in the midst of her; and they shall become as
women: a sword is on her treasures, and they shall be robbed. {50:38} A
drought is on her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land
of engraved images, and they are mad over idols. {50:39} Therefore the
wild animals of the desert with the wolves shall dwell there, and the
ostriches shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited
forever; neither shall it be lived in from generation to generation.
{50:40} As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor
cities of it, says Yahweh, so shall no man dwell there, neither shall
any son of man live therein. {50:41} Behold, a people comes from the
north; and a great nation and many kings shall be stirred up from the
uttermost parts of the earth. {50:42} They lay hold on bow and spear;
they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and
they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle,
against you, daughter of Babylon. {50:43} The king of Babylon has heard
the news of them, and his hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of
him, pains as of a woman in labor. {50:44} Behold, the enemy shall come
up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong
habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever
is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will
appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd who can stand before me?
{50:45} Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against
Babylon; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the
Chaldeans: Surely they shall drag them away, even the little ones of
the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.
{50:46} At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth trembles, and
the cry is heard among the nations.



   {51:1} Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon,
and against those who dwell in Lebkamai, a destroying wind. {51:2} I
will send to Babylon strangers, who shall winnow her; and they shall
empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her
around. {51:3} Against him who bends let the archer bend his bow, and
against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail: and don't spare
her young men; utterly destroy all her army. {51:4} They shall fall
down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in her
streets. {51:5} For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, of his God, of
Yahweh of Armies; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy
One of Israel. {51:6} Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every
man his life; don't be cut off in her iniquity: for it is the time of
Yahweh's vengeance; he will render to her a recompense. {51:7} Babylon
has been a golden cup in Yahweh's hand, who made all the earth drunken:
the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
{51:8} Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take
balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. {51:9} We would have
healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go
everyone into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and
is lifted up even to the skies. {51:10} Yahweh has brought forth our
righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Yahweh our
God. {51:11} Make sharp the arrows; hold firm the shields: Yahweh has
stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; because his purpose is
against Babylon, to destroy it: for it is the vengeance of Yahweh, the
vengeance of his temple. {51:12} Set up a standard against the walls of
Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes;
for Yahweh has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning
the inhabitants of Babylon. {51:13} You who dwell on many waters,
abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your
covetousness. {51:14} Yahweh of Armies has sworn by himself, saying,
Surely I will fill you with men, as with the canker worm; and they
shall lift up a shout against you. {51:15} He has made the earth by his
power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his
understanding has he stretched out the heavens: {51:16} when he utters
his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes
the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning for
the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries. {51:17}
Every man has become brutish without knowledge. Every goldsmith is
disappointed by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there
is no breath in them. {51:18} They are vanity, a work of delusion: in
the time of their visitation they shall perish. {51:19} The portion of
Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and is the
tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name. {51:20} You are
my battle axe and weapons of war: and with you will I break in pieces
the nations; and with you will I destroy kingdoms; {51:21} and with you
will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; {51:22} and with you
will I break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein; and with
you will I break in pieces man and woman; and with you will I break in
pieces the old man and the youth; and with you will I break in pieces
the young man and the virgin; {51:23} and with you will I break in
pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with you will I break in pieces
the farmer and his yoke; and with you will I break in pieces governors
and deputies. {51:24} I will render to Babylon and to all the
inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in
your sight, says Yahweh. {51:25} Behold, I am against you, destroying
mountain, says Yahweh, which destroys all the earth; and I will stretch
out my hand on you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you
a burnt mountain. {51:26} They shall not take of you a stone for a
corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate for
ever, says Yahweh. {51:27} Set up a standard in the land, blow the
trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call
together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz:
appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough
canker worm. {51:28} Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the
Medes, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of their
dominion. {51:29} The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of
Yahweh against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a
desolation, without inhabitant. {51:30} The mighty men of Babylon have
forborne to fight, they remain in their strongholds; their might has
failed; they are become as women: her dwelling places are set on fire;
her bars are broken. {51:31} One runner will run to meet another, and
one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his
city is taken on every quarter: {51:32} and the passages are seized,
and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are
frightened. {51:33} For thus says Yahweh of Armies, 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 shall come for
her. {51:34} Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has
crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has, like a monster,
swallowed me up, he has filled his maw with my delicacies; he has cast
me out. {51:35} The violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon,
shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and, My blood be on the inhabitants
of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. {51:36} Therefore thus says Yahweh:
Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will
dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry. {51:37} Babylon shall become
heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing,
without inhabitant. {51:38} They shall roar together like young lions;
they shall growl as lions' cubs. {51:39} When they are heated, I will
make their feast, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice,
and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says Yahweh. {51:40} I will
bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.
{51:41} How is Sheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth
seized! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! {51:42}
The sea has come up on Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of
its waves. {51:43} Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and
a desert, a land in which no man dwells, neither does any son of man
pass thereby. {51:44} I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon, and I
will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up; and
the nations shall not flow any more to him: yes, the wall of Babylon
shall fall. {51:45} My people, go away from the midst of her, and save
yourselves every man from the fierce anger of Yahweh. {51:46} Don't let
your heart faint, neither fear for the news that shall be heard in the
land; for news shall come one year, and after that in another year
shall come news, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler. {51:47}
Therefore behold, the days come, that I will execute judgment on the
engraved images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be confounded; and
all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. {51:48} Then the heavens
and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over
Babylon; for the destroyers shall come to her from the north, says
Yahweh. {51:49} As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so
at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land. {51:50} You who have
escaped the sword, go, don't stand still; remember Yahweh from afar,
and let Jerusalem come into your mind. {51:51} We are confounded,
because we have heard reproach; confusion has covered our faces: for
strangers have come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh's house. {51:52}
Therefore behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will execute
judgment on her engraved images; and through all her land the wounded
shall groan. {51:53} Though Babylon should mount up to the sky, and
though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall
destroyers come to her, says Yahweh. {51:54} The sound of a cry from
Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
{51:55} For Yahweh lays Babylon waste, and destroys out of her the
great voice; and their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their
voice is uttered: {51:56} for the destroyer has come on her, even on
Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bows are broken in pieces;
for Yahweh is a God of recompenses, he will surely requite. {51:57} I
will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her
deputies, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep,
and not wake up, says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies. {51:58}
Thus says Yahweh of Armies: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly
overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the
peoples shall labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they
shall be weary. {51:59} 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 chief quartermaster. {51:60} Jeremiah wrote in a book
all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are
written concerning Babylon. {51:61} Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you
come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words, {51:62} and
say, Yahweh, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that
none shall dwell therein, neither man nor animal, but that it shall be
desolate forever. {51:63} It shall be, when you have made an end of
reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into
the midst of the Euphrates: {51:64} and you shall say, Thus shall
Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because of the evil that I will
bring on her; and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of
Jeremiah.



   {52:1} 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 of Libnah. {52:2} He did that which was evil
in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
{52:3} For through the anger of Yahweh it happened in Jerusalem and
Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled
against the king of Babylon. {52:4} It happened in the ninth year of
his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against
Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it
round about. {52:5} So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of
king Zedekiah. {52:6} In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the
month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread
for the people of the land. {52:7} Then a breach was made in the city,
and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by
the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's
garden; (now the Chaldeans were against the city all around;) and they
went toward the Arabah. {52:8} But the army of the Chaldeans pursued
after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all
his army was scattered from him. {52:9} Then they took the king, and
carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath;
and he gave judgment on him. {52:10} The king of Babylon killed the
sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he killed also all the princes of
Judah in Riblah. {52:11} He put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king
of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put
him in prison until the day of his death. {52:12} Now in the fifth
month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of
king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan the captain of
the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem:
{52:13} and he burned the house of Yahweh, and the king's house; and
all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burned he with
fire. {52:14} All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain
of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around. {52:15}
Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the
poorest of the people, and the residue of the people who were left in
the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babylon, and
the residue of the multitude. {52:16} But Nebuzaradan the captain of
the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vineyard keepers and
farmers. {52:17} The Chaldeans broke the pillars of brass that were in
the house of Yahweh, and the bases and the bronze sea that were in the
house of Yahweh in pieces, and carried all the of their brass to
Babylon. {52:18} They also took away the pots, the shovels, the
snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and all the vessels of brass with
which they ministered. {52:19} The captain of the guard took away the
cups, the fire pans, the basins, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons,
and the bowls; that which was of gold, in gold, and that which was of
silver, in silver. {52:20} They took the two pillars, the one sea, and
the twelve bronze bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon
had made for the house of Yahweh. The brass of all these vessels was
without weight. {52:21} As for the pillars, the height of the one
pillar was eighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits encircled it;
and its thickness was four fingers. It was hollow. {52:22} A capital of
brass was on it; and the height of the one capital was five cubits,
with network and pomegranates on the capital all around, all of brass:
and the second pillar also had like these, and pomegranates. {52:23}
There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates
were one hundred on the network all around. {52:24} The captain of the
guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest,
and the three keepers of the threshold: {52:25} and out of the city he
took an officer who was set over the men of war; and seven men of those
who saw the king's face, 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.
{52:26} Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought
them to the king of Babylon to Riblah. {52:27} The king of Babylon
struck them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So
Judah was carried away captive out of his land. {52:28} This is the
people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year
three thousand twenty-three Jews; {52:29} in the eighteenth year of
Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred
thirty-two persons; {52:30} in the three and twentieth year of
Nebuchadnezzar Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away
captive of the Jews seven hundred forty-five persons: all the persons
were four thousand and six hundred. {52:31} It happened in the seven
and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the
twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that
Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up
the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of
prison; {52:32} and he spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above
the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon, {52:33} and
changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him
continually all the days of his life: {52:34} and for his allowance,
there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every
day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.





________________________________________________________________________

Footnotes:
[1] {1:2} "Yahweh" is God's proper Name, sometimes rendered "LORD" (all
caps) in other translations.

[2] {1:6} The word translated "Lord" is "Adonai."

[3] {2:17} The Hebrew word rendered "God" is "Elohim."

[4] {49:21} or, Sea of Reeds

