The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah

¹ The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of thepriests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:

² towhom the word of Jehovah came in the days of Josiah the son ofAmon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

³ It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king ofJudah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son ofJosiah, king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalemcaptive in the fifth month.

⁴ Now the word of Jehovah cameunto me, saying,

⁵ Before I formed thee in the belly I knewthee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctifiedthee; I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.

⁶ Then said I, Ah, Lord Jehovah! behold, I know not how to speak;for I am a child.

⁷ But Jehovah said unto me, Say not, I ama child; for to whomsoever I shall send thee thou shalt go, andwhatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt speak.

⁸ Be notafraid because of them; for I am with thee to deliver thee,saith Jehovah.

⁹ Then Jehovah put forth his hand, andtouched my mouth; and Jehovah said unto me, Behold, I have putmy words in thy mouth:

¹⁰ see, I have this day set thee overthe nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break downand to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

¹¹ Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Jeremiah,what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond-tree.

¹² Then said Jehovah unto me, Thou hast well seen: for Iwatch over my word to perform it.

¹³ And the word of Jehovahcame unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And Isaid, I see a boiling caldron; and the face thereof is from thenorth.

¹⁴ Then Jehovah said unto me, Out of the north evilshall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

¹⁵ For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of thenorth, saith Jehovah; and they shall come, and they shall setevery one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem,and against all the walls thereof round about, and against allthe cities of Judah.

¹⁶ And I will utter my judgmentsagainst them touching all their wickedness, in that they haveforsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, andworshipped the works of their own hands.

¹⁷ Thou thereforegird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that Icommand thee: be not dismayed at them, lest I dismay thee beforethem.

¹⁸ For, behold, I have made thee this day a fortifiedcity, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls, against the wholeland, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof,against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.

¹⁹ And they shall fight against thee; but they shall notprevail against thee: for I am with thee, saith Jehovah, todeliver thee.

¹ And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

² Go,and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, Iremember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thineespousals; how thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in aland that was not sown.

³ Israel [was] holiness untoJehovah, the first-fruits of his increase: all that devour himshall be held guilty; evil shall come upon them, saith Jehovah.

⁴ Hear ye the word of Jehovah, O house of Jacob, and all thefamilies of the house of Israel:

⁵ thus saith Jehovah, Whatunrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they aregone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are becomevain?

⁶ Neither said they, Where is Jehovah that brought usup out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness,through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of droughtand of the shadow of death, through a land that none passedthrough, and where no man dwelt?

⁷ And I brought you into aplentiful land, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodnessthereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made myheritage an abomination.

⁸ The priests said not, Where isJehovah? and they that handle the law knew me not: the rulersalso transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied byBaal, and walked after things that do not profit.

⁹ Wherefore I will yet contend with you, saith Jehovah, and withyour children's children will I contend.

¹⁰ For pass over tothe isles of Kittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and considerdiligently; and see if there hath been such a thing.

¹¹ Hatha nation changed [its] gods, which yet are no gods? but mypeople have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.

¹² Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horriblyafraid, be ye very desolate, saith Jehovah.

¹³ For my peoplehave committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain ofliving waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns,that can hold no water.

¹⁴ Is Israel a servant? is he ahome-born [slave]? why is he become a prey?

¹⁵ The younglions have roared upon him, and yelled; and they have made hisland waste: his cities are burned up, without inhabitant.

¹⁶ The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crownof thy head.

¹⁷ Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, inthat thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, when he led thee by theway?

¹⁸ And now what hast thou to do in the way to Egypt, todrink the waters of the Shihor? or what hast thou to do in theway to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?

¹⁹ Thineown wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shallreprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thingand a bitter, that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, and thatmy fear is not in thee, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.

²⁰ For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bonds; andthou saidst, I will not serve; for upon every high hill andunder every green tree thou didst bow thyself, playing theharlot.

²¹ Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly aright seed: how then art thou turned into the degeneratebranches of a foreign vine unto me?

²² For though thou washthee with lye, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity ismarked before me, saith the Lord Jehovah.

²³ How canst thousay, I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baalim? see thyway in the valley, know what thou hast done: [thou art] a swiftdromedary traversing her ways;

²⁴ a wild ass used to thewilderness, that snuffeth up the wind in her desire; in heroccasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will notweary themselves; in her month they shall find her.

²⁵ Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst:but thou saidst, It is in vain; no, for I have loved strangers,and after them will I go.

²⁶ As the thief is ashamed when heis found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings,their princes, and their priests, and their prophets;

²⁷ whosay to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hastbrought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, andnot their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say,Arise, and save us.

²⁸ But where are thy gods that thou hastmade thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time ofthy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thygods, O Judah.

²⁹ Wherefore will ye contend with me? ye allhave transgressed against me, saith Jehovah.

³⁰ In vain haveI smitten your children; they received no correction: your ownsword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

³¹ O generation, see ye the word of Jehovah. Have I been awilderness unto Israel? or a land of thick darkness? whereforesay my people, We are broken loose; we will come no more untothee?

³² Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride herattire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

³³ How trimmest thou thy way to seek love! therefore eventhe wicked women hast thou taught thy ways.

³⁴ Also in thyskirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor:thou didst not find them breaking in; but it is because of allthese things.

³⁵ Yet thou saidst, I am innocent; surely hisanger is turned away from me. Behold, I will enter into judgmentwith thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned.

³⁶ Whygaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou shalt beashamed of Egypt also, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.

³⁷ From thence also shalt thou go forth, with thy hands upon thyhead: for Jehovah hath rejected those in whom thou trustest, andthou shalt not prosper with them.

¹ They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go fromhim, and become another man's, will he return unto her again?will not that land be greatly polluted? But thou hast played theharlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith Jehovah.

² Lift up thine eyes unto the bare heights, and see; wherehast thou not been lain with? By the ways hast thou sat forthem, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast pollutedthe land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.

³ Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath beenno latter rain; yet thou hast a harlot's forehead, thourefusedst to be ashamed.

⁴ Wilt thou not from this time cryunto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?

⁵ Willhe retain [his anger] for ever? will he keep it to the end?Behold, thou hast spoken and hast done evil things, and hast hadthy way.

⁶ Moreover Jehovah said unto me in the days ofJosiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israelhath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and underevery green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

⁷ And Isaid after she had done all these things, She will return untome; but she returned not: and her treacherous sister Judah sawit.

⁸ And I saw, when, for this very cause that backslidingIsrael had committed adultery, I had put her away and given hera bill of divorcement, yet treacherous Judah her sister fearednot; but she also went and played the harlot.

⁹ And it cameto pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that the land waspolluted, and she committed adultery with stones and withstocks.

¹⁰ And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judahhath not returned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly,saith Jehovah.

¹¹ And Jehovah said unto me, BackslidingIsrael hath showed herself more righteous than treacherousJudah.

¹² Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, andsay, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith Jehovah; I will notlook in anger upon you; for I am merciful, saith Jehovah, I willnot keep [anger] for ever.

¹³ Only acknowledge thineiniquity, that thou hast transgressed against Jehovah thy God,and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every greentree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith Jehovah.

¹⁴ Return, O backsliding children, saith Jehovah; for I am ahusband unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two ofa family, and I will bring you to Zion:

¹⁵ and I will giveyou shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you withknowledge and understanding.

¹⁶ And it shall come to pass,when ye are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days,saith Jehovah, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenantof Jehovah; neither shall it come to mind; neither shall theyremember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it bemade any more.

¹⁷ At that time they shall call Jerusalem thethrone of Jehovah; and all the nations shall be gathered untoit, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem: neither shall theywalk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

¹⁸ In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house ofIsrael, and they shall come together out of the land of thenorth to the land that I gave for an inheritance unto yourfathers.

¹⁹ But I said, How I will put thee among thechildren, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage ofthe hosts of the nations! and I said, Ye shall call me MyFather, and shall not turn away from following me.

²⁰ Surelyas a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have yedealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah.

²¹ A voice is heard upon the bare heights, the weeping [and]the supplications of the children of Israel; because they haveperverted their way, they have forgotten Jehovah their God.

²² Return, ye backsliding children, I will heal yourbackslidings. Behold, we are come unto thee; for thou artJehovah our God.

²³ Truly in vain is [the help that islooked for] from the hills, the tumult on the mountains: trulyin Jehovah our God is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴ But theshameful thing hath devoured the labor of our fathers from ouryouth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and theirdaughters.

²⁵ Let us lie down in our shame, and let ourconfusion cover us; for we have sinned against Jehovah our God,we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day; and wehave not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God.

¹ If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith Jehovah, if thouwilt return unto me, and if thou wilt put away thineabominations out of my sight; then shalt thou not be removed;

² and thou shalt swear, As Jehovah liveth, in truth, injustice, and in righteousness; and the nations shall blessthemselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

³ For thussaith Jehovah to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break upyour fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

⁴ Circumciseyourselves to Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of yourheart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest mywrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it,because of the evil of your doings.

⁵ Declare ye in Judah,and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in theland: cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go intothe fortified cities.

⁶ Set up a standard toward Zion: fleefor safety, stay not; for I will bring evil from the north, anda great destruction.

⁷ A lion is gone up from his thicket,and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he is gone forthfrom his place, to make thy land desolate, that thy cities belaid waste, without inhabitant.

⁸ For this gird you withsackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Jehovah isnot turned back from us.

⁹ And it shall come to pass at thatday, saith Jehovah, that the heart of the king shall perish, andthe heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished,and the prophets shall wonder.

¹⁰ Then said I, Ah, LordJehovah! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people andJerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the swordreacheth unto the life.

¹¹ At that time shall it be said tothis people and to Jerusalem, A hot wind from the bare heightsin the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not towinnow, nor to cleanse;

¹² a full wind from these shall comefor me: now will I also utter judgments against them.

¹³ Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots [shall be]as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe untous! for we are ruined.

¹⁴ O Jerusalem, wash thy heart fromwickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thine evilthoughts lodge within thee?

¹⁵ For a voice declareth fromDan, and publisheth evil from the hills of Ephraim:

¹⁶ makeye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem,[that] watchers come from a far country, and give out theirvoice against the cities of Judah.

¹⁷ As keepers of a fieldare they against her round about, because she hath beenrebellious against me, saith Jehovah.

¹⁸ Thy way and thydoings have procured these things unto thee; this is thywickedness; for it is bitter, for it reacheth unto thy heart.

¹⁹ My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; myheart is disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace; because thouhast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm ofwar.

²⁰ Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the wholeland is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, [and] mycurtains in a moment.

²¹ How long shall I see the standard,and hear the sound of the trumpet?

²² For my people arefoolish, they know me not; they are sottish children, and theyhave no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do goodthey have no knowledge.

²³ I beheld the earth, and, lo, itwas waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

²⁴ I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and allthe hills moved to and fro.

²⁵ I beheld, and, lo, there wasno man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.

²⁶ Ibeheld, and, lo, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and allthe cities thereof were broken down at the presence of Jehovah,[and] before his fierce anger.

²⁷ For thus saith Jehovah,The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a fullend.

²⁸ For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavensabove be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it,and I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.

²⁹ Every city fleeth for the noise of the horsemen andbowmen; they go into the thickets, and climb up upon the rocks:every city is forsaken, and not a man dwelleth therein.

³⁰ And thou, when thou art made desolate, what wilt thou do? Thoughthou clothest thyself with scarlet, though thou deckest theewith ornaments of gold, though thou enlargest thine eyes withpaint, in vain dost thou make thyself fair; [thy] lovers despisethee, they seek thy life.

³¹ For I have heard a voice as ofa woman in travail, the anguish as of her that bringeth forthher first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that gaspethfor breath, that spreadeth her hands, [saying], Woe is me now!for my soul fainteth before the murderers.

¹ Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, andsee now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if yecan find a man, if there be any that doeth justly, that seekethtruth; and I will pardon her.

² And though they say, AsJehovah liveth; surely they swear falsely.

³ O Jehovah, donot thine eyes look upon truth? thou hast stricken them, butthey were not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they haverefused to receive correction: they have made their faces harderthan a rock; they have refused to return.

⁴ Then I said,Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they know not theway of Jehovah, nor the law of their God:

⁵ I will get meunto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they know theway of Jehovah, and the law of their God. But these with oneaccord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

⁶ Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, a wolf ofthe evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch againsttheir cities; every one that goeth out thence shall be torn inpieces; because their transgressions are many, [and] theirbackslidings are increased.

⁷ How can I pardon thee? thychildren have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods:when I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, andassembled themselves in troops at the harlots' houses.

⁸ They were as fed horses roaming at large; every one neighedafter his neighbor's wife.

⁹ Shall I not visit for thesethings? saith Jehovah; and shall not my soul be avenged on sucha nation as this?

¹⁰ Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy;but make not a full end: take away her branches; for they arenot Jehovah's.

¹¹ For the house of Israel and the house ofJudah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith Jehovah.

¹² They have denied Jehovah, and said, It is not he; neithershall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

¹³ and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is notin them: thus shall it be done unto them.

¹⁴ Wherefore thussaith Jehovah, the God of hosts, Because ye speak this word,behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this peoplewood, and it shall devour them.

¹⁵ Lo, I will bring a nationupon you from far, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah: it is amighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose languagethou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.

¹⁶ Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.

¹⁷ And they shall eat up thy harvest, and thy bread, [which]thy sons and thy daughters should eat; they shall eat up thyflocks and thy herds; they shall eat up thy vines and thyfig-trees; they shall beat down thy fortified cities, whereinthou trustest, with the sword.

¹⁸ But even in those days,saith Jehovah, I will not make a full end with you.

¹⁹ Andit shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore hath Jehovahour God done all these things unto us? then shalt thou say untothem, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served foreign gods inyour land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is notyours.

²⁰ Declare ye this in the house of Jacob, and publishit in Judah, saying,

²¹ Hear now this, O foolish people, andwithout understanding; that have eyes, and see not; that haveears, and hear not:

²² Fear ye not me? saith Jehovah: willye not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for thebound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it?and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they notprevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it.

²³ But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; theyare revolted and gone.

²⁴ Neither say they in their heart,Let us now fear Jehovah our God, that giveth rain, both theformer and the latter, in its season; that preserveth unto usthe appointed weeks of the harvest.

²⁵ Your iniquities haveturned away these things, and your sins have withholden goodfrom you.

²⁶ For among my people are found wicked men: theywatch, as fowlers lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men.

²⁷ As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full ofdeceit: therefore they are become great, and waxed rich.

²⁸ They are waxed fat, they shine: yea, they overpass in deeds ofwickedness; they plead not the cause, the cause of thefatherless, that they may prosper; and the right of the needy dothey not judge.

²⁹ Shall I not visit for these things? saithJehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

³⁰ A wonderful and horrible thing is come to pass in theland:

³¹ the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bearrule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and whatwill ye do in the end thereof?

¹ Flee for safety, ye children of Benjamin, out of themidst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise upa signal on Beth-haccherem; for evil looketh forth from thenorth, and a great destruction.

² The comely and delicateone, the daughter of Zion, will I cut off.

³ Shepherds withtheir flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tentsagainst her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.

⁴ Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up atnoon. Woe unto us! for the day declineth, for the shadows of theevening are stretched out.

⁵ Arise, and let us go up bynight, and let us destroy her palaces.

⁶ For thus hathJehovah of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast up a moundagainst Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is whollyoppression in the midst of her.

⁷ As a well casteth forthits waters, so she casteth forth her wickedness: violence anddestruction is heard in her; before me continually is sicknessand wounds.

⁸ Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soulbe alienated from thee; lest I make thee a desolation, a landnot inhabited.

⁹ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, They shallthoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn again thyhand as a grape-gatherer into the baskets.

¹⁰ To whom shallI speak and testify, that they may hear? behold, their ear isuncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word ofJehovah is become unto them a reproach; they have no delight init.

¹¹ Therefore I am full of the wrath of Jehovah; I amweary with holding in: pour it out upon the children in thestreet, and upon the assembly of young men together; for eventhe husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him thatis full of days.

¹² And their houses shall be turned untoothers, their fields and their wives together; for I willstretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saithJehovah.

¹³ For from the least of them even unto thegreatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and fromthe prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

¹⁴ They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly,saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

¹⁵ Were theyashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were notat all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shallfall among them that fall; at the time that I visit them theyshall be cast down, saith Jehovah.

¹⁶ Thus saith Jehovah,Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, whereis the good way; and walk therein, and ye shall find rest foryour souls: but they said, We will not walk [therein].

¹⁷ And I set watchmen over you, [saying], Hearken to the sound ofthe trumpet; but they said, We will not hearken.

¹⁸ Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what isamong them.

¹⁹ Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil uponthis people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they havenot hearkened unto my words; and as for my law, they haverejected it.

²⁰ To what purpose cometh there to mefrankincense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country?your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrificespleasing unto me.

²¹ Therefore thus saith Jehovah, Behold, Iwill lay stumbling-blocks before this people; and the fathersand the sons together shall stumble against them; the neighborand his friend shall perish.

²² Thus saith Jehovah, Behold,a people cometh from the north country; and a great nation shallbe stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

²³ Theylay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy;their voice roareth like the sea, and they ride upon horses,every one set in array, as a man to the battle, against thee, Odaughter of Zion.

²⁴ We have heard the report thereof; ourhands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, [and] pangs asof a woman in travail.

²⁵ Go not forth into the field, norwalk by the way; for the sword of the enemy, [and] terror, areon every side.

²⁶ O daughter of my people, gird thee withsackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, asfor an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyershall suddenly come upon us.

²⁷ I have made thee a trier[and] a fortress among my people; that thou mayest know and trytheir way.

²⁸ They are all grievous revolters, going aboutwith slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them dealcorruptly.

²⁹ The bellows blow fiercely; the lead isconsumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for thewicked are not plucked away.

³⁰ Refuse silver shall menthem, because Jehovah hath rejected them.

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

² Stand in the gate of Jehovah's house, and proclaim therethis word, and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, all ye of Judah,that enter in at these gates to worship Jehovah.

³ Thussaith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways andyour doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

⁴ Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, thetemple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, are these.

⁵ Forif ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if yethoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;

⁶ if ye oppress not the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow,and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk afterother gods to your own hurt:

⁷ then will I cause you todwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers,from of old even for evermore.

⁸ Behold, ye trust in lyingwords, that cannot profit.

⁹ Will ye steal, murder, andcommit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal,and walk after other gods that ye have not known,

¹⁰ andcome and stand before me in this house, which is called by myname, and say, We are delivered; that ye may do all theseabominations?

¹¹ Is this house, which is called by my name,become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, haveseen it, saith Jehovah.

¹² But go ye now unto my place whichwas in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, andsee what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

¹³ And now, because ye have done all these works, saithJehovah, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, butye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not:

¹⁴ therefore will I do unto the house which is called by my name,wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and toyour fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

¹⁵ And I will cast you outof my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even thewhole seed of Ephraim.

¹⁶ Therefore pray not thou for thispeople, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither makeintercession to me; for I will not hear thee.

¹⁷ Seest thounot what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets ofJerusalem?

¹⁸ The children gather wood, and the fatherskindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes tothe queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto othergods, that they may provoke me to anger.

¹⁹ Do they provokeme to anger? saith Jehovah; [do they] not [provoke] themselves,to the confusion of their own faces?

²⁰ Therefore thus saiththe Lord Jehovah: Behold, mine anger and my wrath shall bepoured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and uponthe trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and itshall burn, and shall not be quenched.

²¹ Thus saith Jehovahof hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt-offerings unto yoursacrifices, and eat ye flesh.

²² For I spake not unto yourfathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them outof the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices:

²³ but this thing I commanded them, saying, Hearken unto myvoice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; andwalk ye in all the way that I command you, that it may be wellwith you.

²⁴ But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear,but walked in [their own] counsels [and] in the stubbornness oftheir evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

²⁵ Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land ofEgypt unto this day, I have sent unto you all my servants theprophets, daily rising up early and sending them:

²⁶ yetthey hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but madetheir neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.

²⁷ Andthou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will nothearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they willnot answer thee.

²⁸ And thou shalt say unto them, This isthe nation that hath not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah theirGod, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut offfrom their mouth.

²⁹ Cut off thy hair, [O Jerusalem], andcast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; forJehovah hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

³⁰ For the children of Judah have done that which is evil inmy sight, saith Jehovah: they have set their abominations in thehouse which is called by my name, to defile it.

³¹ And theyhave built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley ofthe son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in thefire; which I commanded not, neither came it into my mind.

³² Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that itshall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son ofHinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury inTopheth, till there be no place [to bury].

³³ And the deadbodies of this people shall be food for the birds of theheavens, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shallfrighten them away.

³⁴ Then will I cause to cease from thecities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice ofmirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom andthe voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.

¹ At that time, saith Jehovah, they shall bring out thebones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, andthe bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and thebones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves;

² and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon,and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and whichthey have served, and after which they have walked, and whichthey have sought, and which they have worshipped: they shall notbe gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung upon the faceof the earth.

³ And death shall be chosen rather than lifeby all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remainin all the places whither I have driven them, saith Jehovah ofhosts.

⁴ Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saithJehovah: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turnaway, and not return?

⁵ Why then is this people of Jerusalemslidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit,they refuse to return.

⁶ I hearkened and heard, but theyspake not aright: no man repenteth him of his wickedness,saying, What have I done? every one turneth to his course, as ahorse that rusheth headlong in the battle.

⁷ Yea, the storkin the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle-doveand the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming;but my people know not the law of Jehovah.

⁸ How do ye say,We are wise, and the law of Jehovah is with us? But, behold, thefalse pen of the scribes hath wrought falsely.

⁹ The wisemen are put to shame, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they haverejected the word of Jehovah; and what manner of wisdom is inthem?

¹⁰ Therefore will I give their wives unto others, andtheir fields to them that shall possess them: for every one fromthe least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness; fromthe prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

¹¹ And they have healed the hurt of the daughter of mypeople slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

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 them that fall; in the time oftheir visitation they shall be cast down, saith Jehovah.

¹³ I will utterly consume them, saith Jehovah: there shall be nograpes on the vine, nor figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf shallfade; and [the things that] I have given them shall pass awayfrom them.

¹⁴ Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, andlet us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silentthere; for Jehovah our God hath put us to silence, and given uswater of gall to drink, because we have sinned against Jehovah.

¹⁵ We looked for peace, but no good came; [and] for a timeof healing, and, behold, dismay!

¹⁶ The snorting of hishorses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of hisstrong ones the whole land trembleth; for they are come, andhave devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and thosethat dwell therein.

¹⁷ For, behold, I will send serpents,adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shallbite you, saith Jehovah.

¹⁸ Oh that I could comfort myselfagainst sorrow! my heart is faint within me.

¹⁹ Behold, thevoice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land thatis very far off: is not Jehovah in Zion? is not her King in her?Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, andwith foreign vanities?

²⁰ The harvest is past, the summer isended, and we are not saved.

²¹ For the hurt of the daughterof my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay hath taken hold on me.

²² Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there?why then is not the health of the daughter of my peoplerecovered?

¹ Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountainof tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of thedaughter of my people!

² Oh that I had in the wilderness alodging-place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people,and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly oftreacherous men.

³ And they bend their tongue, [as it were]their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land,but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and theyknow not me, saith Jehovah.

⁴ Take ye heed every one of hisneighbor, and trust ye not in any brother; for every brotherwill utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about withslanders.

⁵ And they will deceive every one his neighbor,and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue tospeak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity.

⁶ Thyhabitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuseto know me, saith Jehovah.

⁷ Therefore thus saith Jehovah ofhosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how [else]should I do, because of the daughter of my people?

⁸ Theirtongue is a deadly arrow; it speaketh deceit: one speakethpeaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart helayeth wait for him.

⁹ Shall I not visit them for thesethings? saith Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such anation as this?

¹⁰ For the mountains will I take up aweeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness alamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passeththrough; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both thebirds of the heavens and the beasts are fled, they are gone.

¹¹ And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place ofjackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,without inhabitant.

¹² Who is the wise man, that mayunderstand this? and [who is] he to whom the mouth of Jehovahhath spoken, that he may declare it? wherefore is the landperished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passeththrough?

¹³ And Jehovah saith, Because they have forsaken mylaw which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice,neither walked therein,

¹⁴ but have walked after thestubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, whichtheir fathers taught them;

¹⁵ therefore thus saith Jehovahof hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even thispeople, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

¹⁶ I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neitherthey nor their fathers have known; and I will send the swordafter them, till I have consumed them.

¹⁷ Thus saith Jehovahof hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, thatthey may come; and send for the skilful women, that they maycome:

¹⁸ and let them make haste, and take up a wailing forus, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gushout with waters.

¹⁹ For a voice of wailing is heard out ofZion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because wehave forsaken the land, because they have cast down ourdwellings.

²⁰ Yet hear the word of Jehovah, O ye women, andlet your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach yourdaughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation.

²¹ For death is come up into our windows, it is entered intoour palaces; to cut off the children from without, [and] theyoung men from the streets.

²² Speak, Thus saith Jehovah,The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung upon the open field,and as the handful after the harvestman; and none shall gather[them].

²³ Thus saith Jehovah, Let not the wise man glory inhis wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, letnot the rich man glory in his riches;

²⁴ but let him thatglorieth glory in this, that he hath understanding, and knowethme, that I am Jehovah who exerciseth lovingkindness, justice,and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight,saith Jehovah.

²⁵ Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, thatI will punish all them that are circumcised in [their]uncircumcision:

²⁶ Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and thechildren of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners [oftheir hair] cut off, that dwell in the wilderness; for all thenations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel areuncircumcised in heart.

¹ Hear ye the word which Jehovah speaketh unto you, Ohouse of Israel:

² thus saith Jehovah, Learn not the way ofthe nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for thenations are dismayed at them.

³ For the customs of thepeoples are vanity; for one cutteth a tree out of the forest,the work of the hands of the workman with the axe.

⁴ Theydeck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails andwith hammers, that it move not.

⁵ They are like apalm-tree, of turned work, and speak not: they must needs beborne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for theycannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.

⁶ Thereis none like unto thee, O Jehovah; thou art great, and thy nameis great in might.

⁷ Who should not fear thee, O King ofthe nations? for to thee doth it appertain; forasmuch as amongall the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate,there is none like unto thee.

⁸ But they are togetherbrutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but astock.

⁹ There is silver beaten into plates, which isbrought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of theartificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple fortheir clothing; they are all the work of skilful men.

¹⁰ But Jehovah is the true God; he is the living God, and aneverlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembleth, and thenations are not able to abide his indignation.

¹¹ Thusshall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavensand the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from underthe heavens.

¹² He hath made the earth by his power, hehath established the world by his wisdom, and by hisunderstanding hath he stretched out the heavens:

¹³ when heuttereth his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;he maketh lightnings for the rain, and bringeth forth the windout of his treasuries.

¹⁴ Every man is become brutish [andis] without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by hisgraven image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is nobreath in them.

¹⁵ They are vanity, a work of delusion: inthe time of their visitation they shall perish.

¹⁶ Theportion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of allthings; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah ofhosts is his name.

¹⁷ Gather up thy wares out of the land,O thou that abidest in the siege.

¹⁸ For thus saithJehovah, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land atthis time, and will distress them, that they may feel [it].

¹⁹ Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: butI said, Truly this is [my] grief, and I must bear it.

²⁰ Mytent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children aregone forth from me, and they are not: there is none to spread mytent any more, and to set up my curtains.

²¹ For theshepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Jehovah:therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks arescattered.

²² The voice of tidings, behold, it cometh, anda great commotion out of the north country, to make the citiesof Judah a desolation, a dwelling-place of jackals.

²³ OJehovah, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is notin man that walketh to direct his steps.

²⁴ O Jehovah,correct me, but in measure: not in thine anger, lest thou bringme to nothing.

²⁵ Pour out thy wrath upon the nations thatknow thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name:for they have devoured Jacob, yea, they have devoured him andconsumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

² Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto themen of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

³ andsay thou unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel:Cursed be the man that heareth not the words of this covenant,

⁴ which I commanded your fathers in the day that I broughtthem forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace,saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which Icommand you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God;

⁵ that I may establish the oath which I sware unto yourfathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as atthis day. Then answered I, and said, Amen, O Jehovah.

⁶ AndJehovah said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities ofJudah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye thewords of this covenant, and do them.

⁷ For I earnestlyprotested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them upout of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early andprotesting, saying, Obey my voice.

⁸ Yet they obeyed not,nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the stubbornnessof their evil heart: therefore I brought upon them all the wordsof this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they didthem not.

⁹ And Jehovah said unto me, A conspiracy is foundamong the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

¹⁰ They are turned back to the iniquities of theirforefathers, who refused to hear my words; and they are goneafter other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and thehouse of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with theirfathers.

¹¹ Therefore thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I willbring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape;and they shall cry unto me, but I will not hearken unto them.

¹² Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants ofJerusalem go and cry unto the gods unto which they offerincense: but they will not save them at all in the time of theirtrouble.

¹³ For according to the number of thy cities arethy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets ofJerusalem have ye set up altars to the shameful thing, evenaltars to burn incense unto Baal.

¹⁴ Therefore pray notthou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them;for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto mebecause of their trouble.

¹⁵ What hath my beloved to do inmy house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness [with] many, and theholy flesh is passed from thee? when thou doest evil, then thourejoicest.

¹⁶ Jehovah called thy name, A green olive-tree,fair with goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hathkindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.

¹⁷ For Jehovah of hosts, who planted thee, hath pronounced evilagainst thee, because of the evil of the house of Israel and ofthe house of Judah, which they have wrought for themselves inprovoking me to anger by offering incense unto Baal.

¹⁸ AndJehovah gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it: then thoushowedst me their doings.

¹⁹ But I was like a gentle lambthat is led to the slaughter; and I knew not that they haddevised devices against me, [saying], Let us destroy the treewith the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land ofthe living, that his name may be no more remembered.

²⁰ But, O Jehovah of hosts, who judgest righteously, who triest theheart and the mind, I shall see thy vengeance on them; for untothee have I revealed my cause.

²¹ Therefore thus saithJehovah concerning the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life,saying, Thou shalt not prophesy in the name of Jehovah, thatthou die not by our hand;

²² therefore thus saith Jehovahof hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die bythe sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine;

²³ and there shall be no remnant unto them: for I willbring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of theirvisitation.

¹ Righteous art thou, O Jehovah, when I contend withthee; yet would I reason the cause with thee: wherefore doth theway of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they at ease thatdeal very treacherously?

² Thou hast planted them, yea,they have taken root; they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit:thou art near in their mouth, and far from their heart.

³ But thou, O Jehovah, knowest me; thou seest me, and triest myheart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter,and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

⁴ How long shallthe land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country wither? forthe wickedness of them that dwell therein, the beasts areconsumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see ourlatter end.

⁵ If thou hast run with the footmen, and theyhave wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? andthough in a land of peace thou art secure, yet how wilt thou doin the pride of the Jordan?

⁶ For even thy brethren, andthe house of thy father, even they have dealt treacherously withthee; even they have cried aloud after thee: believe them not,though they speak fair words unto thee.

⁷ I have forsakenmy house, I have cast off my heritage; I have given the dearlybeloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.

⁸ Myheritage is become unto me as a lion in the forest: she hathuttered her voice against me; therefore I have hated her.

⁹ Is my heritage unto me as a speckled bird of prey? are the birdsof prey against her round about? go ye, assemble all the beastsof the field, bring them to devour.

¹⁰ Many shepherds havedestroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot,they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

¹¹ They have made it a desolation; it mourneth unto me,being desolate; the whole land is made desolate, because no manlayeth it to heart.

¹² Destroyers are come upon all thebare heights in the wilderness; for the sword of Jehovahdevoureth from the one end of the land even to the other end ofthe land: no flesh hath peace.

¹³ They have sown wheat, andhave reaped thorns; they have put themselves to pain, and profitnothing: and ye shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of thefierce anger of Jehovah.

¹⁴ Thus saith Jehovah against allmine evil neighbors, that touch the inheritance which I havecaused my people Israel to inherit: behold, I will pluck them upfrom off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah fromamong them.

¹⁵ And it shall come to pass, after that I haveplucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them; andI will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and everyman to his land.

¹⁶ And it shall come to pass, if they willdiligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, AsJehovah liveth; even as they taught my people to swear by Baal;then shall they be built up in the midst of my people.

¹⁷ But if they will not hear, then will I pluck up that nation,plucking up and destroying it, saith Jehovah.

¹ Thus saith Jehovah unto me, Go, and buy thee a linengirdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.

² So I bought a girdle according to the word of Jehovah,and put it upon my loins.

³ And the word of Jehovah cameunto me the second time, saying,

⁴ Take the girdle thatthou hast bought, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to theEuphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.

⁵ So Iwent, and hid it by the Euphrates, as Jehovah commanded me.

⁶ And it came to pass after many days, that Jehovah saidunto me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the girdle fromthence, which I commanded thee to hide there.

⁷ Then I wentto the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the placewhere I had hid it; and, behold, the girdle was marred, it wasprofitable for nothing.

⁸ Then the word of Jehovah cameunto me, saying,

⁹ Thus saith Jehovah, After this mannerwill I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.

¹⁰ This evil people, that refuse to hear my words, thatwalk in the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone afterother gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be asthis girdle, which is profitable for nothing.

¹¹ For as thegirdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused tocleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house ofJudah, saith Jehovah; that they may be unto me for a people, andfor a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they wouldnot hear.

¹² Therefore thou shalt speak unto them thisword: Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Every bottle shallbe filled with wine: and they shall say unto thee, Do we notcertainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?

¹³ Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah,Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even thekings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and theprophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, withdrunkenness.

¹⁴ And I will dash them one against another,even the fathers and the sons together, saith Jehovah: I willnot pity, nor spare, nor have compassion, that I should notdestroy them.

¹⁵ Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud; forJehovah hath spoken.

¹⁶ Give glory to Jehovah your God,before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon thedark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it intothe shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.

¹⁷ But ifye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for [your]pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears,because Jehovah's flock is taken captive.

¹⁸ Say thou untothe king and to the queen-mother, Humble yourselves, sit down;for your headtires are come down, even the crown of your glory.

¹⁹ The cities of the South are shut up, and there is noneto open them: Judah is carried away captive, all of it; it iswholly carried away captive.

²⁰ Lift up your eyes, andbehold them that come from the north: where is the flock thatwas given thee, thy beautiful flock?

²¹ What wilt thou say,when he shall set over thee as head those whom thou hast thyselftaught to be friends to thee? shall not sorrows take hold ofthee, as of a woman in travail?

²² And if thou say in thyheart, Wherefore are these things come upon me? for thegreatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts uncovered, and thyheels suffer violence.

²³ Can the Ethiopian change hisskin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, thatare accustomed to do evil.

²⁴ Therefore will I scatterthem, as the stubble that passeth away, by the wind of thewilderness.

²⁵ This is thy lot, the portion measured untothee from me, saith Jehovah; because thou hast forgotten me, andtrusted in falsehood.

²⁶ Therefore will I also uncover thyskirts upon thy face, and thy shame shall appear.

²⁷ I haveseen thine abominations, even thine adulteries, and thyneighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, on the hills in thefield. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! thou wilt not be made clean;how long shall it yet be?

¹ The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah concerningthe drought.

² Judah mourneth, and the gates thereoflanguish, they sit in black upon the ground; and the cry ofJerusalem is gone up.

³ And their nobles send their littleones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find nowater; they return with their vessels empty; they are put toshame and confounded, and cover their heads.

⁴ Because ofthe ground which is cracked, for that no rain hath been in theland, the plowmen are put to shame, they cover their heads.

⁵ Yea, the hind also in the field calveth, and forsaketh[her young], because there is no grass.

⁶ And the wildasses stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like jackals;their eyes fail, because there is no herbage.

⁷ Though ouriniquities testify against us, work thou for thy name's sake, OJehovah; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned againstthee.

⁸ O thou hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in thetime of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a sojourner in theland, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for anight?

⁹ Why shouldest thou be as a man affrighted, as amighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O Jehovah, art in themidst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.

¹⁰ Thus saith Jehovah unto this people, Even so have theyloved to wander; they have not refrained their feet: thereforeJehovah doth not accept them; now will he remember theiriniquity, and visit their sins.

¹¹ And Jehovah said untome, Pray not for this people for [their] good.

¹² When theyfast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offerburnt-offering and meal-offering, I will not accept them; but Iwill consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by thepestilence.

¹³ Then said I, Ah, Lord Jehovah! behold, theprophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neithershall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in thisplace.

¹⁴ Then Jehovah said unto me, The prophets prophesylies in my name; I sent them not, neither have I commanded them,neither spake I unto them: they prophesy unto you a lyingvision, and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit oftheir own heart.

¹⁵ Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerningthe prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yetthey say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By swordand famine shall those prophets be consumed.

¹⁶ And thepeople to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets ofJerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shallhave none to bury them-them, their wives, nor their sons, northeir daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.

¹⁷ And thou shalt say this word unto them, Let mine eyesrun down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; forthe virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach,with a very grievous wound.

¹⁸ If I go forth into thefield, then, behold, the slain with the sword! and if I enterinto the city, then, behold, they that are sick with famine! forboth the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and haveno knowledge.

¹⁹ Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thysoul loathed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is nohealing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for atime of healing, and, behold, dismay!

²⁰ We acknowledge, OJehovah, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for wehave sinned against thee.

²¹ Do not abhor [us], for thyname's sake; do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember,break not thy covenant with us.

²² Are there any among thevanities of the nations that can cause rain? or can the heavensgive showers? art not thou he, O Jehovah our God? therefore wewill wait for thee; for thou hast made all these things.

¹ Then said Jehovah unto me, Though Moses and Samuelstood before me, yet my mind would not be toward this people:cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

² And itshall come to pass, when they say unto thee, Whither shall we goforth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith Jehovah: Such asare for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to thesword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and suchas are for captivity, to captivity.

³ And I will appointover them four kinds, saith Jehovah: the sword to slay, and thedogs to tear, and the birds of the heavens, and the beasts ofthe earth, to devour and to destroy.

⁴ And I will causethem to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of theearth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah,for that which he did in Jerusalem.

⁵ For who will havepity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who will bemoan thee? or whowill turn aside to ask of thy welfare?

⁶ Thou hast rejectedme, saith Jehovah, thou art gone backward: therefore have Istretched out my hand against thee, and destroyed thee; I amweary with repenting.

⁷ And I have winnowed them with a fanin the gates of the land; I have bereaved [them] of children, Ihave destroyed my people; they returned not from their ways.

⁸ Their widows are increased to me above the sand of theseas; I have brought upon them against the mother of the youngmen a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors tofall upon her suddenly.

⁹ She that hath borne sevenlanguisheth; she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone downwhile it was yet day; she hath been put to shame and confounded:and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before theirenemies, saith Jehovah.

¹⁰ Woe is me, my mother, that thouhast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to thewhole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; [yet]every one of them doth curse me.

¹¹ Jehovah said, Verily Iwill strengthen thee for good; verily I will cause the enemy tomake supplication unto thee in the time of evil and in the timeof affliction.

¹² Can one break iron, even iron from thenorth, and brass?

¹³ Thy substance and thy treasures will Igive for a spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, evenin all thy borders.

¹⁴ And I will make [them] to pass withthine enemies into a land which thou knowest not; for a fire iskindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.

¹⁵ OJehovah, thou knowest; remember me, and visit me, and avenge meof my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: knowthat for thy sake I have suffered reproach.

¹⁶ Thy wordswere found, and I did eat them; and thy words were unto me a joyand the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by thy name, OJehovah, God of hosts.

¹⁷ I sat not in the assembly of themthat make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand;for thou hast filled me with indignation.

¹⁸ Why is my painperpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed?wilt thou indeed be unto me as a deceitful [brook], as watersthat fail?

¹⁹ Therefore thus saith Jehovah, If thou return,then will I bring thee again, that thou mayest stand before me;and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt beas my mouth: they shall return unto thee, but thou shalt notreturn unto them.

²⁰ And I will make thee unto this peoplea fortified brazen wall; and they shall fight against thee, butthey shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee to savethee and to deliver thee, saith Jehovah.

²¹ And I willdeliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeemthee out of the hand of the terrible.

¹ The word of Jehovah came also unto me, saying,

² Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons ordaughters, in this place.

³ For thus saith Jehovahconcerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are bornin this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, andconcerning their fathers that begat them in this land:

⁴ They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented,neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung upon theface of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, andby famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds ofthe heavens, and for the beasts of the earth.

⁵ For thussaith Jehovah, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither goto lament, neither bemoan them; for I have taken away my peacefrom this people, saith Jehovah, even lovingkindness and tendermercies.

⁶ Both great and small shall die in this land;they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, norcut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them;

⁷ neither shall men break [bread] for them in mourning, to comfortthem for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup ofconsolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

⁸ And thou shalt not go into the house of feasting to sitwith them, to eat and to drink.

⁹ For thus saith Jehovah ofhosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out ofthis place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice ofmirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom andthe voice of the bride.

¹⁰ And it shall come to pass, whenthou shalt show this people all these words, and they shall sayunto thee, Wherefore hath Jehovah pronounced all this great evilagainst us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that wehave committed against Jehovah our God?

¹¹ Then shalt thousay unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saithJehovah, and have walked after other gods, and have served them,and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have notkept my law;

¹² and ye have done evil more than yourfathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the stubbornnessof his evil heart, so that ye hearken not unto me:

¹³ therefore will I cast you forth out of this land into the landthat ye have not known, neither ye nor your fathers; and thereshall ye serve other gods day and night; for I will show you nofavor.

¹⁴ Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah,that it shall no more be said, As Jehovah liveth, that broughtup the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

¹⁵ but,As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the children of Israel fromthe land of the north, and from all the countries whither he haddriven them. And I will bring them again into their land that Igave unto their fathers.

¹⁶ Behold, I will send for manyfishers, saith Jehovah, and they shall fish them up; andafterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt themfrom every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the cleftsof the rocks.

¹⁷ For mine eyes are upon all their ways;they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquityconcealed from mine eyes.

¹⁸ And first I will recompensetheir iniquity and their sin double, because they have pollutedmy land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and havefilled mine inheritance with their abominations.

¹⁹ OJehovah, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in theday of affliction, unto thee shall the nations come from theends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inheritednought but lies, [even] vanity and things wherein there is noprofit.

²⁰ Shall a man make unto himself gods, which yetare no gods?

²¹ Therefore, behold, I will cause them toknow, this once will I cause them to know my hand and my might;and they shall know that my name is Jehovah.

¹ The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, [and]with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the tablet oftheir heart, and upon the horns of your altars;

² whilsttheir children remember their altars and their Asherim by thegreen trees upon the high hills.

³ O my mountain in thefield, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures for aspoil, [and] thy high places, because of sin, throughout all thyborders.

⁴ And thou, even of thyself, shalt discontinuefrom thy heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee toserve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for yehave kindled a fire in mine anger which shall burn for ever.

⁵ Thus saith Jehovah: Cursed is the man that trusteth inman, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth fromJehovah.

⁶ For he shall be like the heath in the desert,and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit theparched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited.

⁷ Blessed is the man that trusteth in Jehovah, and whosetrust Jehovah is.

⁸ For he shall be as a tree planted bythe waters, that spreadeth out its roots by the river, and shallnot fear when heat cometh, but its leaf shall be green; andshall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall ceasefrom yielding fruit.

⁹ The heart is deceitful above allthings, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?

¹⁰ I, Jehovah, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give everyman according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

¹¹ As the partridge that sitteth on [eggs] which she hathnot laid, so is he that getteth riches, and not by right; in themidst of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shallbe a fool.

¹² A glorious throne, [set] on high from thebeginning, is the place of our sanctuary.

¹³ O Jehovah, thehope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be put to shame.They that depart from me shall be written in the earth, becausethey have forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living waters.

¹⁴ Heal me, O Jehovah, and I shall be healed; save me, andI shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

¹⁵ Behold, theysay unto me, Where is the word of Jehovah? let it come now.

¹⁶ As for me, I have not hastened from being a shepherdafter thee; neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest:that which came out of my lips was before thy face.

¹⁷ Benot a terror unto me: thou art my refuge in the day of evil.

¹⁸ Let them be put to shame that persecute me, but let notme be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let not me bedismayed; bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them withdouble destruction.

¹⁹ Thus said Jehovah unto me: Go, andstand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby thekings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all thegates of Jerusalem;

²⁰ and say unto them, Hear ye the wordof Jehovah, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all theinhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:

²¹ Thus saith Jehovah, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burdenon the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;

²² neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on thesabbath day, neither do ye any work: but hallow ye the sabbathday, as I commanded your fathers.

²³ But they hearkenednot, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, thatthey might not hear, and might not receive instruction.

²⁴ And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me,saith Jehovah, to bring in no burden through the gates of thiscity on the sabbath day, but to hallow the sabbath day, to do nowork therein;

²⁵ then shall there enter in by the gates ofthis city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David,riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, themen of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this cityshall remain for ever.

²⁶ And they shall come from thecities of Judah, and from the places round about Jerusalem, andfrom the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from thehill-country, and from the South, bringing burnt-offerings, andsacrifices, and meal-offerings, and frankincense, and bringing[sacrifices of] thanksgiving, unto the house of Jehovah.

²⁷ But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day,and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalemon the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gatesthereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and itshall not be quenched.

¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

² Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there Iwill cause thee to hear my words.

³ Then I went down to thepotter's house, and, behold, he was making a work on the wheels.

⁴ And when the vessel that he made of the clay was marredin the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, asseemed good to the potter to make it.

⁵ Then the word ofJehovah came to me, saying,

⁶ O house of Israel, cannot Ido with you as this potter? saith Jehovah. Behold, as the clayin the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel.

⁷ At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, andconcerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and todestroy it;

⁸ if that nation, concerning which I havespoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that Ithought to do unto them.

⁹ And at what instant I shallspeak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to buildand to plant it;

¹⁰ if they do that which is evil in mysight, that they obey not my voice, then I will repent of thegood, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

¹¹ Nowtherefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants ofJerusalem, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I frame evilagainst you, and devise a device against you: return ye nowevery one from his evil way, and amend your ways and yourdoings.

¹² But they say, It is in vain; for we will walkafter our own devices, and we will do every one after thestubbornness of his evil heart.

¹³ Therefore thus saithJehovah: Ask ye now among the nations, who hath heard suchthings; the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.

¹⁴ Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of thefield? [or] shall the cold waters that flow down from afar bedried up?

¹⁵ For my people have forgotten me, they haveburned incense to false [gods]; and they have been made tostumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths,in a way not cast up;

¹⁶ to make their land anastonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeththereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.

¹⁷ I willscatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will showthem the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

¹⁸ Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices againstJeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, norcounsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, andlet us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed toany of his words.

¹⁹ Give heed to me, O Jehovah, andhearken to the voice of them that contend with me.

²⁰ Shallevil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for mysoul. Remember how I stood before thee to speak good for them,to turn away thy wrath from them.

²¹ Therefore deliver uptheir children to the famine, and give them over to the power ofthe sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; andlet their men be slain of death, [and] their young men smittenof the sword in battle.

²² Let a cry be heard from theirhouses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them; forthey have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.

²³ Yet, Jehovah, thou knowest all their counsel against meto slay me; forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out theirsin from thy sight; but let them be overthrown before thee; dealthou with them in the time of thine anger.

¹ Thus said Jehovah, Go, and buy a potter's earthenbottle, and [take] of the elders of the people, and of theelders of the priests;

² and go forth unto the valley ofthe son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harsith,and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee;

³ andsay, Hear ye the word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah, andinhabitants of Jerusalem: thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the Godof Israel, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, whichwhosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.

⁴ Because theyhave forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burnedincense in it unto other gods, that they knew not, they andtheir fathers and the kings of Judah; and have filled this placewith the blood of innocents,

⁵ and have built the highplaces of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire forburnt-offerings unto Baal; which I commanded not, nor spake it,neither came it into my mind:

⁶ therefore, behold, the dayscome, saith Jehovah, that this place shall no more be calledTopheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley ofSlaughter.

⁷ And I will make void the counsel of Judah andJerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by thesword before their enemies, and by the hand of them that seektheir life: and their dead bodies will I give to be food for thebirds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth.

⁸ And I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing; everyone that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because ofall the plagues thereof.

⁹ And I will cause them to eat theflesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; and theyshall eat every one the flesh of his friend, in the siege and inthe distress, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek theirlife, shall distress them.

¹⁰ Then shalt thou break thebottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,

¹¹ andshalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Even so will Ibreak this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter'svessel, that cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury inTopheth, till there be no place to bury.

¹² Thus will I dounto this place, saith Jehovah, and to the inhabitants thereof,even making this city as Topheth:

¹³ and the houses ofJerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which aredefiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the housesupon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host ofheaven, and have poured out drink-offerings unto other gods.

¹⁴ Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, whither Jehovah hadsent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of Jehovah'shouse, and said to all the people:

¹⁵ Thus saith Jehovah ofhosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring upon this cityand upon all its towns all the evil that I have pronouncedagainst it; because they have made their neck stiff, that theymay not hear my words.

¹ Now Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who waschief officer in the house of Jehovah, heard Jeremiahprophesying these things.

² Then Pashhur smote Jeremiah theprophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gateof Benjamin, which was in the house of Jehovah.

³ And itcame to pass on the morrow, that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiahout of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, Jehovah hath notcalled thy name Pashhur, but Magor-missabib.

⁴ For thussaith Jehovah, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, andto all thy friends; and they shall fall by the sword of theirenemies, and thine eyes shall behold it; and I will give allJudah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carrythem captive to Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.

⁵ Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and allthe gains thereof, and all the precious things thereof, yea, allthe treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand oftheir enemies; and they shall make them a prey, and take them,and carry them to Babylon.

⁶ And thou, Pashhur, and allthat dwell in thy house shall go into captivity; and thou shaltcome to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and there shalt thoube buried, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hastprophesied falsely.

⁷ O Jehovah, thou hast persuaded me,and I was persuaded; thou art stronger than I, and hastprevailed: I am become a laughing-stock all the day, every onemocketh me.

⁸ For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry,Violence and destruction! because the word of Jehovah is made areproach unto me, and a derision, all the day.

⁹ And if Isay, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in hisname, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shutup in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I cannot[contain].

¹⁰ For I have heard the defaming of many, terroron every side. Denounce, and we will denounce him, [say] all myfamiliar friends, they that watch for my fall; peradventure hewill be persuaded, and we shall prevail against him, and weshall take our revenge on him.

¹¹ But Jehovah is with me asa mighty one [and] a terrible: therefore my persecutors shallstumble, and they shall not prevail; they shall be utterly putto shame, because they have not dealt wisely, even with aneverlasting dishonor which shall never be forgotten.

¹² But, O Jehovah of hosts, that triest the righteous, that seestthe heart and the mind, let me see thy vengeance on them; forunto thee have I revealed my cause.

¹³ Sing unto Jehovah,praise ye Jehovah; for he hath delivered the soul of the needyfrom the hand of evil-doers.

¹⁴ Cursed be the day wherein Iwas born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.

¹⁵ Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father,saying, A man-child is born unto thee; making him very glad.

¹⁶ And let that man be as the cities which Jehovahoverthrew, and repented not: and let him hear a cry in themorning, and shouting at noontime;

¹⁷ because he slew menot from the womb; and so my mother would have been my grave,and her womb always great.

¹⁸ Wherefore came I forth out ofthe womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should beconsumed with shame?

¹ The word which came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, whenking Zedekiah sent unto him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, andZephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying,

² Inquire, I pray thee, of Jehovah for us; for Nebuchadrezzar kingof Babylon maketh war against us: peradventure Jehovah will dealwith us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go upfrom us.

³ Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus shall ye sayto Zedekiah:

⁴ Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel,Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in yourhands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, andagainst the Chaldeans that besiege you, without the walls; and Iwill gather them into the midst of this city.

⁵ And Imyself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and witha strong arm, even in anger, and in wrath, and in greatindignation.

⁶ And I will smite the inhabitants of thiscity, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.

⁷ And afterward, saith Jehovah, I will deliver Zedekiahking of Judah, and his servants, and the people, even such asare left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, andfrom the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king ofBabylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the handof those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with theedge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity,nor have mercy.

⁸ And unto this people thou shalt say, Thussaith Jehovah: Behold, I set before you the way of life and theway of death.

⁹ He that abideth in this city shall die bythe sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he thatgoeth out, and passeth over to the Chaldeans that besiege you,he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.

¹⁰ For I have set my face upon this city for evil, and notfor good, saith Jehovah: it shall be given into the hand of theking of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.

¹¹ Andtouching the house of the king of Judah, hear ye the word ofJehovah:

¹² O house of David, thus saith Jehovah, Executejustice in the morning, and deliver him that is robbed out ofthe hand of the oppressor, lest my wrath go forth like fire, andburn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of yourdoings.

¹³ Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of thevalley, [and] of the rock of the plain, saith Jehovah; you thatsay, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into ourhabitations?

¹⁴ And I will punish you according to thefruit of your doings, saith Jehovah; and I will kindle a fire inher forest, and it shall devour all that is round about her.

¹ Thus said Jehovah: Go down to the house of the king ofJudah, and speak there this word,

² And say, Hear the wordof Jehovah, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne ofDavid, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in bythese gates.

³ Thus saith Jehovah: Execute ye justice andrighteousness, and deliver him that is robbed out of the hand ofthe oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to thesojourner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocentblood in this place.

⁴ For if ye do this thing indeed, thenshall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sittingupon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he,and his servants, and his people.

⁵ But if ye will not hearthese words, I swear by myself, saith Jehovah, that this houseshall become a desolation.

⁶ For thus saith Jehovahconcerning the house of the king of Judah: Thou art Gilead untome, [and] the head of Lebanon; [yet] surely I will make thee awilderness, [and] cities which are not inhabited.

⁷ And Iwill prepare destroyers against thee, every one with hisweapons; and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and castthem into the fire.

⁸ And many nations shall pass by thiscity, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Whereforehath Jehovah done thus unto this great city?

⁹ Then theyshall answer, Because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah theirGod, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

¹⁰ Weep yenot for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep sore for him thatgoeth away; for he shall return no more, nor see his nativecountry.

¹¹ For thus saith Jehovah touching Shallum the sonof Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah hisfather, [and] who went forth out of this place: He shall notreturn thither any more.

¹² But in the place whither theyhave led him captive, there shall he die, and he shall see thisland no more.

¹³ Woe unto him that buildeth his house byunrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; that useth hisneighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not his hire;

¹⁴ that saith, I will build me a wide house and spaciouschambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is ceiled withcedar, and painted with vermilion.

¹⁵ Shalt thou reign,because thou strivest to excel in cedar? Did not thy father eatand drink, and do justice and righteousness? then it was wellwith him.

¹⁶ He judged the cause of the poor and needy;then it was well. Was not this to know me? saith Jehovah.

¹⁷ But thine eyes and thy heart are not but for thycovetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and foroppression, and for violence, to do it.

¹⁸ Therefore thussaith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king ofJudah: 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!

¹⁹ He shall be buried with the burial ofan ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰ Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice inBashan, and cry from Abarim; for all thy lovers are destroyed.

²¹ I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, Iwill not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, thatthou obeyedst not my voice.

²² The wind shall feed all thyshepherds, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely thenshalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.

²³ O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in thecedars, how greatly to be pitied shalt thou be when pangs comeupon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!

²⁴ As I live,saith Jehovah, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judahwere the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck theethence;

²⁵ and I will give thee into the hand of them thatseek thy life, and into the hand of them of whom thou artafraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon,and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

²⁶ And I will cast theeout, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, whereye were not born; and there shall ye die.

²⁷ But to theland whereunto their soul longeth to return, thither shall theynot return.

²⁸ Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel?is he a vessel wherein none delighteth? wherefore are they castout, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they knownot?

²⁹ O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Jehovah.

³⁰ Thus saith Jehovah, Write ye this man childless, a manthat shall not prosper in his days; for no more shall a man ofhis seed prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and rulingin Judah.

¹ Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter thesheep of my pasture! saith Jehovah.

² Therefore thus saithJehovah, the God of Israel, against the shepherds that feed mypeople: Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, andhave not visited them; behold, I will visit upon you the evil ofyour doings, saith Jehovah.

³ And I will gather the remnantof my flock out of all the countries whither I have driven them,and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall befruitful and multiply.

⁴ And I will set up shepherds overthem, who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor bedismayed, neither shall any be lacking, saith Jehovah.

⁵ Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise untoDavid a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and dealwisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

⁶ In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwellsafely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called: Jehovahour righteousness.

⁷ Therefore, behold, the days come,saith Jehovah, that they shall no more say, As Jehovah liveth,who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

⁸ but, As Jehovah liveth, who brought up and who led theseed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and fromall the countries whither I had driven them. And they shalldwell in their own land.

⁹ Concerning the prophets. Myheart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I am like adrunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because ofJehovah, and because of his holy words.

¹⁰ For the land isfull of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth;the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. And their course isevil, and their might is not right;

¹¹ for both prophet andpriest are profane; yea, in my house have I found theirwickedness, saith Jehovah.

¹² Wherefore their way shall beunto them as slippery places in the darkness: they shall bedriven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil upon them,even the year of their visitation, saith Jehovah.

¹³ And Ihave seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied byBaal, and caused my people Israel to err.

¹⁴ In theprophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: theycommit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the handsof evil-doers, so that none doth return from his wickedness:they are all of them become unto me as Sodom, and theinhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

¹⁵ Therefore thus saithJehovah of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feedthem with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; forfrom the prophets of Jerusalem is ungodliness gone forth intoall the land.

¹⁶ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Hearken notunto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: theyteach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, andnot out of the mouth of Jehovah.

¹⁷ They say continuallyunto them that despise me, Jehovah hath said, Ye shall havepeace; and unto every one that walketh in the stubbornness ofhis own heart they say, No evil shall come upon you.

¹⁸ Forwho hath stood in the council of Jehovah, that he shouldperceive and hear his word? who hath marked my word, and heardit?

¹⁹ Behold, the tempest of Jehovah, [even his] wrath, isgone forth, yea, a whirling tempest: it shall burst upon thehead of the wicked.

²⁰ The anger of Jehovah shall notreturn, until he have executed, and till he have performed theintents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall understand itperfectly.

²¹ I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: Ispake not unto them, yet they prophesied.

²² But if theyhad stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hearmy words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from theevil of their doings.

²³ Am I a God at hand, saith Jehovah,and not a God afar off?

²⁴ Can any hide himself in secretplaces so that I shall not see him? saith Jehovah. Do not I fillheaven and earth? saith Jehovah.

²⁵ I have heard what theprophets have said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, Ihave dreamed, I have dreamed.

²⁶ How long shall this be inthe heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, even the prophetsof the deceit of their own heart?

²⁷ that think to cause mypeople to forget my name by their dreams which they tell everyman to his neighbor, as their fathers forgat my name for Baal.

²⁸ The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; andhe that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What isthe straw to the wheat? saith Jehovah.

²⁹ Is not my wordlike fire? saith Jehovah; and like a hammer that breaketh therock in pieces?

³⁰ Therefore, behold, I am against theprophets, saith Jehovah, that steal my words every one from hisneighbor.

³¹ Behold, I am against the prophets, saithJehovah, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.

³² Behold, I am against them that prophesy lying dreams, saithJehovah, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by theirlies, and by their vain boasting: yet I sent them not, norcommanded them; neither do they profit this people at all, saithJehovah.

³³ And when this people, or the prophet, or apriest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of Jehovah?then shalt thou say unto them, What burden! I will cast you off,saith Jehovah.

³⁴ And as for the prophet, and the priest,and the people, that shall say, The burden of Jehovah, I willeven punish that man and his house.

³⁵ Thus shall ye sayevery one to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, Whathath Jehovah answered? and, What hath Jehovah spoken?

³⁶ And the burden of Jehovah shall ye mention no more: for everyman's own word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted thewords of the living God, of Jehovah of hosts our God.

³⁷ Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath Jehovah answeredthee? and, What hath Jehovah spoken?

³⁸ But if ye say, Theburden of Jehovah; therefore thus saith Jehovah: Because ye saythis word, The burden of Jehovah, and I have sent unto you,saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of Jehovah;

³⁹ therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will castyou off, and the city that I gave unto you and to your fathers,away from my presence:

⁴⁰ and I will bring an everlastingreproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not beforgotten.

¹ Jehovah showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figsset before the temple of Jehovah, after that Nebuchadrezzar kingof Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son ofJehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with thecraftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them toBabylon.

² One basket had very good figs, like the figsthat are first-ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs,which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

³ Then saidJehovah unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs;the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, that cannot beeaten, they are so bad.

⁴ And the word of Jehovah came untome, saying,

⁵ Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Likethese good figs, so will I regard the captives of Judah, whom Ihave sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, forgood.

⁶ For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and Iwill bring them again to this land: and I will build them, andnot pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck themup.

⁷ And I will give them a heart to know me, that I amJehovah: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God;for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.

⁸ Andas the bad figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad, surelythus saith Jehovah, So will I give up Zedekiah the king ofJudah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, thatremain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt,

⁹ I will even give them up to be tossed to and fro amongall the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and aproverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shalldrive them.

¹⁰ And I will send the sword, the famine, andthe pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off theland that I gave unto them and to their fathers.

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all thepeople of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son ofJosiah, king of Judah (the same was the first year ofNebuchadrezzar king of Babylon,)

² which Jeremiah theprophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all theinhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:

³ From the thirteenthyear of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even unto thisday, these three and twenty years, the word of Jehovah hath comeunto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising up early andspeaking; but ye have not hearkened.

⁴ And Jehovah hathsent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising up early andsending them, (but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your earto hear,)

⁵ saying, Return ye now every one from his evilway, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the landthat Jehovah hath given unto you and to your fathers, from ofold and even for evermore;

⁶ and go not after other gods toserve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to angerwith the work of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.

⁷ Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith Jehovah; that ye mayprovoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your ownhurt.

⁸ Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Because yehave not heard my words,

⁹ behold, I will send and take allthe families of the north, saith Jehovah, and [I will send] untoNebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bringthem against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, andagainst all these nations round about; and I will utterlydestroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, andperpetual desolations.

¹⁰ Moreover I will take from themthe voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of thebridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of themillstones, and the light of the lamp.

¹¹ And this wholeland shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and thesenations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

¹² And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished,that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saithJehovah, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; andI will make it desolate for ever.

¹³ And I will bring uponthat land all my words which I have pronounced against it, evenall that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesiedagainst all the nations.

¹⁴ For many nations and greatkings shall make bondmen of them, even of them; and I willrecompense them according to their deeds, and according to thework of their hands.

¹⁵ For thus saith Jehovah, the God ofIsrael, unto me: take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand,and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.

¹⁶ And they shall drink, and reel to and fro, and be mad,because of the sword that I will send among them.

¹⁷ Thentook I the cup at Jehovah's hand, and made all the nations todrink, unto whom Jehovah had sent me:

¹⁸ [to wit],Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, andthe princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment,a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day;

¹⁹ Pharaoh kingof Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;

²⁰ and all the mingled people, and all the kings of theland of the Uz, and all the kings of the Philistines, andAshkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;

²¹ Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon;

²² andall the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kingsof the isle which is beyond the sea;

²³ Dedan, and Tema,and Buz, and all that have the corners [of their hair] cut off;

²⁴ and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of themingled people that dwell in the wilderness;

²⁵ and all thekings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings ofthe Medes;

²⁶ and all the kings of the north, far and near,one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world, which areupon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drinkafter them.

²⁷ And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saithJehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink ye, and be drunken,and spew, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword whichI will send among you.

²⁸ And it shall be, if they refuseto take the cup at thy hand to drink, then shalt thou say untothem, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Ye shall surely drink.

²⁹ For, lo, I begin to work evil at the city which iscalled by my name; and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shallnot be unpunished; for I will call for a sword upon all theinhabitants of the earth, saith Jehovah of hosts.

³⁰ Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and sayunto them, Jehovah will roar from on high, and utter his voicefrom his holy habitation; he will mightily roar against hisfold; he will give a shout, as they that tread [the grapes],against all the inhabitants of the earth.

³¹ A noise shallcome even to the end of the earth; for Jehovah hath acontroversy with the nations; he will enter into judgment withall flesh: as for the wicked, he will give them to the sword,saith Jehovah.

³² Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Behold, evilshall go forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest shallbe raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

³³ Andthe slain of Jehovah shall be at that day from one end of theearth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not belamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung uponthe face of the ground.

³⁴ Wail, ye shepherds, and cry; andwallow [in ashes], ye principal of the flock; for the days ofyour slaughter and of your dispersions are fully come, and yeshall fall like a goodly vessel.

³⁵ And the shepherds shallhave no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.

³⁶ A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the wailing ofthe principal of the flock! for Jehovah layeth waste theirpasture.

³⁷ And the peaceable folds are brought to silencebecause of the fierce anger of Jehovah.

³⁸ He hath left hiscovert, as the lion; for their land is become an astonishmentbecause of the fierceness of the oppressing [sword], and becauseof his fierce anger.

¹ In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son ofJosiah, king of Judah, came this word from Jehovah, saying,

² Thus saith Jehovah: Stand in the court of Jehovah'shouse, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come toworship in Jehovah's house, all the words that I command thee tospeak unto them; diminish not a word.

³ It may be they willhearken, and turn every man from his evil way; that I may repentme of the evil which I purpose to do unto them because of theevil of their doings.

⁴ And thou shalt say unto them, Thussaith Jehovah: If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law,which I have set before you,

⁵ to hearken to the words ofmy servants the prophets, whom I send unto you, even rising upearly and sending them, but ye have not hearkened;

⁶ thenwill I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city acurse to all the nations of the earth.

⁷ And the priestsand the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speakingthese words in the house of Jehovah.

⁸ And it came to pass,when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that Jehovah hadcommanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests andthe prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, Thoushalt surely die.

⁹ Why hast thou prophesied in the name ofJehovah, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this cityshall be desolate, without inhabitant? And all the people weregathered unto Jeremiah in the house of Jehovah.

¹⁰ And whenthe princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from theking's house unto the house of Jehovah; and they sat in theentry of the new gate of Jehovah's [house].

¹¹ Then spakethe priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all thepeople, saying, This man is worthy of death; for he hathprophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.

¹² Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all thepeople, saying, Jehovah sent me to prophesy against this houseand against this city all the words that ye have heard.

¹³ Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey thevoice of Jehovah your God; and Jehovah will repent him of theevil that he hath pronounced against you.

¹⁴ But as for me,behold, I am in your hand: do with me as is good and right inyour eyes.

¹⁵ Only know ye for certain that, if ye put meto death, ye will bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and uponthis city, and upon the inhabitants thereof; for of a truthJehovah hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in yourears.

¹⁶ Then said the princes and all the people unto thepriests and to the prophets: This man is not worthy of death;for he hath spoken to us in the name of Jehovah our God.

¹⁷ Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to allthe assembly of the people, saying,

¹⁸ Micah the Morashtiteprophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spaketo all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts:Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall becomeheaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of aforest.

¹⁹ Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put himto death? did he not fear Jehovah, and entreat the favor ofJehovah, and Jehovah repented him of the evil which he hadpronounced against them? Thus should we commit great evilagainst our own souls.

²⁰ And there was also a man thatprophesied in the name of Jehovah, Uriah the son of Shemaiah ofKiriath-jearim; and he prophesied against this city and againstthis land according to all the words of Jeremiah:

²¹ andwhen Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty-men, and all theprinces, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death;but when Uriah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went intoEgypt:

²² and Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt,[namely], Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him,into Egypt;

²³ and they fetched forth Uriah out of Egypt,and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king, who slew him with thesword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the commonpeople.

²⁴ But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan waswith Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand ofthe people to put him to death.

¹ In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son ofJosiah, king of Judah, came this word unto Jeremiah fromJehovah, saying,

² Thus saith Jehovah to me: Make theebonds and bars, and put them upon thy neck;

³ and send themto the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king ofthe children of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the kingof Sidon, by the hand of the messengers that come to Jerusalemunto Zedekiah king of Judah;

⁴ and give them a charge untotheir masters, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God ofIsrael, Thus shall ye say unto your masters:

⁵ I have madethe earth, the men and the beasts that are upon the face of theearth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I giveit unto whom it seemeth right unto me.

⁶ And now have Igiven all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the kingof Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field also have Igiven him to serve him.

⁷ And all the nations shall servehim, and his son, and his son's son, until the time of his ownland come: and then many nations and great kings shall make himtheir bondman.

⁸ And it shall come to pass, that the nationand the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzarking of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yokeof the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saithJehovah, with the sword, and with the famine, and with thepestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

⁹ Butas for you, hearken ye not to your prophets, nor to yourdiviners, nor to your dreams, nor to your soothsayers, nor toyour sorcerers, that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not servethe king of Babylon:

¹⁰ for they prophesy a lie unto you,to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive youout, and ye should perish.

¹¹ But the nation that shallbring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, andserve him, that [nation] will I let remain in their own land,saith Jehovah; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.

¹² And I spake to Zedekiah king of Judah according to allthese words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the kingof Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.

¹³ Whywill ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine,and by the pestilence, as Jehovah hath spoken concerning thenation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

¹⁴ Andhearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you,saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon; for theyprophesy a lie unto you.

¹⁵ For I have not sent them, saithJehovah, but they prophesy falsely in my name; that I may driveyou out, and that ye may perish, ye, and the prophets thatprophesy unto you.

¹⁶ Also I spake to the priests and toall this people, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Hearken not to thewords of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold,the vessels of Jehovah's house shall now shortly be broughtagain from Babylon; for they prophesy a lie unto you.

¹⁷ Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live:wherefore should this city become a desolation?

¹⁸ But ifthey be prophets, and if the word of Jehovah be with them, letthem now make intercession to Jehovah of hosts, that the vesselswhich are left in the house of Jehovah, and in the house of theking of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon.

¹⁹ Forthus saith Jehovah of hosts concerning the pillars, andconcerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning theresidue of the vessels that are left in this city,

²⁰ whichNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried awaycaptive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, fromJerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;

²¹ yea, thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel,concerning the vessels that are left in the house of Jehovah,and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem:

²² They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be, untilthe day that I visit them, saith Jehovah; then will I bring themup, and restore them to this place.

¹ And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning ofthe reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in thefifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, whowas of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of Jehovah, in thepresence of the priests and of all the people, saying,

² Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Ihave broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

³ Within twofull years will I bring again into this place all the vessels ofJehovah's house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took awayfrom this place, and carried to Babylon:

⁴ and I will bringagain to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king ofJudah, with all the captives of Judah, that went to Babylon,saith Jehovah; for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

⁵ Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiahin the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all thepeople that stood in the house of Jehovah,

⁶ even theprophet Jeremiah said, Amen: Jehovah do so; Jehovah perform thywords which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels ofJehovah's house, and all them of the captivity, from Babylonunto this place.

⁷ Nevertheless hear thou now this wordthat I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people:

⁸ The prophets that have been before me and before thee ofold prophesied against many countries, and against greatkingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.

⁹ Theprophet that prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophetshall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, thatJehovah hath truly sent him.

¹⁰ Then Hananiah the prophettook the bar from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, and brake it.

¹¹ And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people,saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Even so will I break the yoke ofNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon within two full years from offthe neck of all the nations. And the prophet Jeremiah went hisway.

¹² Then the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah, afterthat Hananiah the prophet had broken the bar from off the neckof the prophet Jeremiah, saying,

¹³ Go, and tell Hananiah,saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Thou hast broken the bars of wood;but thou hast made in their stead bars of iron.

¹⁴ For thussaith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke ofiron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may servedNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and Ihave given him the beasts of the field also.

¹⁵ Then saidthe prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now,Hananiah: Jehovah hath not sent thee; but thou makest thispeople to trust in a lie.

¹⁶ Therefore thus saith Jehovah,Behold, I will send thee away from off the face of the earth:this year thou shalt die, because thou hast spoken rebellionagainst Jehovah.

¹⁷ So Hananiah the prophet died the sameyear in the seventh month.

¹ Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiahthe prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the eldersof the captivity, and to the priests, and to the prophets, andto all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captivefrom Jerusalem to Babylon,

² (after that Jeconiah the king,and the queen-mother, and the eunuchs, [and] the princes ofJudah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, weredeparted from Jerusalem,)

³ by the hand of Elasah the sonof Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah kingof Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,)saying,

⁴ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel,unto all the captivity, whom I have caused to be carried awaycaptive from Jerusalem unto Babylon:

⁵ Build ye houses, anddwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

⁶ Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and takewives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, thatthey may bear sons and daughters; and multiply ye there, and benot diminished.

⁷ And seek the peace of the city whither Ihave caused you to be carried away captive, and pray untoJehovah for it; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.

⁸ For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Letnot your prophets that are in the midst of you, and yourdiviners, deceive you; neither hearken ye to your dreams whichye cause to be dreamed.

⁹ For they prophesy falsely untoyou in my name: I have not sent them, saith Jehovah.

¹⁰ Forthus saith Jehovah, After seventy years are accomplished forBabylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you,in causing you to return to this place.

¹¹ For I know thethoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts ofpeace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end.

¹² And ye shall call upon me, and ye shall go and pray untome, and I will hearken unto you.

¹³ And ye shall seek me,and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

¹⁴ And I will be found of you, saith Jehovah, and I willturn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all thenations, and from all the places wither I have driven you, saithJehovah; and I will bring you again unto the place whence Icaused you to be carried away captive.

¹⁵ Because ye havesaid, Jehovah hath raised us up prophets in Babylon;

¹⁶ thus saith Jehovah concerning the king that sitteth upon thethrone of David, and concerning all the people that dwell inthis city, your brethren that are not gone forth with you intocaptivity;

¹⁷ thus saith Jehovah of hosts; Behold, I willsend upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, andwill make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are sobad.

¹⁸ And I will pursue after them with the sword, withthe famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to betossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth, to be anexecration, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach,among all the nations whither I have driven them;

¹⁹ because they have not hearkened to my words, saith Jehovah,wherewith I sent unto them my servants the prophets, rising upearly and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith Jehovah.

²⁰ Hear ye therefore the word of Jehovah, all ye of thecaptivity, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.

²¹ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel,concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah theson of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie unto you in my name: Behold,I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king ofBabylon; and he shall slay them before your eyes;

²² and ofthem shall be taken up a curse by all the captives of Judah thatare in Babylon, saying, Jehovah make thee like Zedekiah and likeAhab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;

²³ because they have wrought folly in Israel, and have committedadultery with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken words inmy name falsely, which I commanded them not; and I am he thatknoweth, and am witness, saith Jehovah.

²⁴ And concerningShemaiah the Nehelamite thou shalt speak, saying,

²⁵ Thusspeaketh Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Becausethou hast sent letters in thine own name unto all the peoplethat are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, thepriest, and to all the priests, saying,

²⁶ Jehovah hathmade thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that theremay be officers in the house of Jehovah, for every man that ismad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldest put himin the stocks and in shackles.

²⁷ Now therefore, why hastthou not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who maketh himself aprophet to you,

²⁸ forasmuch as he hath sent unto us inBabylon, saying, [The captivity] is long: build ye houses, anddwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them?

²⁹ And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears ofJeremiah the prophet.

³⁰ Then came the word of Jehovah untoJeremiah, saying,

³¹ Send to all them of the captivity,saying, Thus saith Jehovah concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite:Because that Shemaiah hath prophesied unto you, and I sent himnot, and he hath caused you to trust in a lie;

³² thereforethus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will punish Shemaiah theNehelamite, and his seed; he shall not have a man to dwell amongthis people, neither shall he behold the good that I will dounto my people, saith Jehovah, because he hath spoken rebellionagainst Jehovah.

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

² Thus speaketh Jehovah, the God of Israel, saying, Writethee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.

³ For, lo, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will turnagain the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saithJehovah; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gaveto their fathers, and they shall possess it.

⁴ And theseare the words that Jehovah spake concerning Israel andconcerning Judah.

⁵ For thus saith Jehovah: We have heard avoice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.

⁶ Ask yenow, and see whether a man doth travail with child: wherefore doI see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman intravail, and all faces are turned into paleness?

⁷ Alas!for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even thetime of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.

⁸ And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah of hosts,that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thybonds; and strangers shall no more make him their bondman;

⁹ but they shall serve Jehovah their God, and David theirking, whom I will raise up unto them.

¹⁰ Therefore fearthou not, O Jacob my servant, saith Jehovah; neither bedismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thyseed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return,and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.

¹¹ For I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to save thee: for Iwill make a full end of all the nations whither I have scatteredthee, but I will not make a full end of thee; but I will correctthee in measure, and will in no wise leave thee unpunished.

¹² For thus saith Jehovah, Thy hurt is incurable, and thywound grievous.

¹³ There is none to plead thy cause, thatthou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.

¹⁴ All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not: for Ihave wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with thechastisement of a cruel one, for the greatness of thineiniquity, because thy sins were increased.

¹⁵ Why criestthou for thy hurt? thy pain is incurable: for the greatness ofthine iniquity, because thy sins were increased, I have donethese things unto thee.

¹⁶ Therefore all they that devourthee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one ofthem, shall go into captivity; and they that despoil thee shallbe a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.

¹⁷ For I will restore health unto thee, and I will healthee of thy wounds, saith Jehovah; because they have called theean outcast, [saying], It is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

¹⁸ Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will turn again thecaptivity of Jacob's tents, and have compassion on hisdwelling-places; and the city shall be builded upon its ownhill, and the palace shall be inhabited after its own manner.

¹⁹ And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voiceof them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and theyshall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall notbe small.

²⁰ Their children also shall be as aforetime, andtheir congregation shall be established before me; and I willpunish all that oppress them.

²¹ And their prince shall beof themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from the midst ofthem; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approachunto me: for who is he that hath had boldness to approach untome? saith Jehovah.

²² And ye shall be my people, and I willbe your God.

²³ Behold, the tempest of Jehovah, [even his]wrath, is gone forth, a sweeping tempest: it shall burst uponthe head of the wicked.

²⁴ The fierce anger of Jehovahshall not return, until he have executed, and till he haveperformed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shallunderstand it.

¹ At that time, saith Jehovah, will I be the God of allthe families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

² Thussaith Jehovah, The people that were left of the sword foundfavor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause himto rest.

³ Jehovah appeared of old unto me, [saying], Yea,I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore withlovingkindness have I drawn thee.

⁴ Again will I buildthee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: again shaltthou be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in thedances of them that make merry.

⁵ Again shalt thou plantvineyards upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters shallplant, and shall enjoy [the fruit thereof].

⁶ For thereshall be a day, that the watchmen upon the hills of Ephraimshall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto Jehovah ourGod.

⁷ For thus saith Jehovah, Sing with gladness forJacob, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish ye,praise ye, and say, O Jehovah, save thy people, the remnant ofIsrael.

⁸ Behold, I will bring them from the north country,and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, [and]with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and herthat travaileth with child together: a great company shall theyreturn hither.

⁹ They shall come with weeping; and withsupplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk byrivers of waters, in a straight way wherein they shall notstumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is myfirst-born.

¹⁰ Hear the word of Jehovah, O ye nations, anddeclare it in the isles afar off; and say, He that scatteredIsrael will gather him, and keep him, as shepherd doth hisflock.

¹¹ For Jehovah hath ransomed Jacob, and redeemed himfrom the hand of him that was stronger than he.

¹² And theyshall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow untothe goodness of Jehovah, to the grain, and to the new wine, andto the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: andtheir soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall notsorrow any more at all.

¹³ Then shall the virgin rejoice inthe dance, and the young men and the old together; for I willturn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and makethem rejoice from their sorrow.

¹⁴ And I will satiate thesoul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall besatisfied with my goodness, saith Jehovah.

¹⁵ Thus saithJehovah: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitterweeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuseth to becomforted for her children, because they are not.

¹⁶ Thussaith Jehovah: Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyesfrom tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith Jehovah; andthey shall come again from the land of the enemy.

¹⁷ Andthere is hope for thy latter end, saith Jehovah; and [thy]children shall come again to their own border.

¹⁸ I havesurely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus], Thou hastchastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed [tothe yoke]: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou artJehovah my God.

¹⁹ Surely after that I was turned, Irepented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon mythigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bearthe reproach of my youth.

²⁰ Is Ephraim my dear son? is hea darling child? for as often as I speak against him, I doearnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearneth forhim; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith Jehovah.

²¹ Set thee up waymarks, make thee guide-posts; set thy hearttoward the highway, even the way by which thou wentest: turnagain, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.

²² How long wilt thou go hither and thither, O thoubacksliding daughter? for Jehovah hath created a new thing inthe earth: a woman shall encompass a man.

²³ Thus saithJehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Yet again shall they usethis speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, whenI shall bring again their captivity: Jehovah bless thee, Ohabitation of righteousness, O mountain of holiness.

²⁴ AndJudah and all the cities thereof shall dwell therein together,the husbandmen, and they that go about with flocks.

²⁵ ForI have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have Ireplenished.

²⁶ Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and mysleep was sweet unto me.

²⁷ Behold, the days come, saithJehovah, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house ofJudah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.

²⁸ And it shall come to pass that, like as I have watched over themto pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroyand to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant,saith Jehovah.

²⁹ In those days they shall say no more, Thefathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are seton edge.

³⁰ But every one shall die for his own iniquity:every man that eateth the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set onedge.

³¹ Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I willmake a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the houseof Judah:

³² not according to the covenant that I made withtheir fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bringthem out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake,although I was a husband unto them, saith Jehovah.

³³ Butthis is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israelafter those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in theirinward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will betheir God, and they shall be my people:

³⁴ and they shallteach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother,saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the leastof them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I willforgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.

³⁵ Thus saith Jehovah, who giveth the sun for a light byday, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a lightby night, who stirreth up the sea, so that the waves thereofroar; Jehovah of hosts is his name:

³⁶ If these ordinancesdepart from before me, saith Jehovah, then the seed of Israelalso shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.

³⁷ Thus saith Jehovah: If heaven above can be measured, and thefoundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I alsocast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done,saith Jehovah.

³⁸ Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah,that the city shall be built to Jehovah from the tower ofHananel unto the gate of the corner.

³⁹ And the measuringline shall go out further straight onward unto the hill Gareb,and shall turn about unto Goah.

⁴⁰ And the whole valley ofthe dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields unto thebrook Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east,shall be holy unto Jehovah; it shall not be plucked up, northrown down any more for ever.

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah in thetenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenthyear of Nebuchadrezzar.

² Now at that time the king ofBabylon's army was besieging Jerusalem; and Jeremiah the prophetwas shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king ofJudah's house.

³ For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut himup, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saithJehovah, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the kingof Babylon, and he shall take it;

⁴ and Zedekiah king ofJudah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, butshall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon,and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shallbehold his eyes;

⁵ and he shall bring Zedekiah to Babylon,and there shall he be until I visit him, saith Jehovah: thoughye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper?

⁶ AndJeremiah said, The word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

⁷ Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come untothee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth; for theright of redemption is thine to buy it.

⁸ So Hanamel mineuncle's son came to me in the court of the guard according tothe word of Jehovah, and said unto me, Buy my field, I praythee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; forthe right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine;buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word ofJehovah.

⁹ And I bought the field that was in Anathoth ofHanamel mine uncle's son, and weighed him the money, evenseventeen shekels of silver.

¹⁰ And I subscribed the deed,and sealed it, and called witnesses, and weighed him the moneyin the balances.

¹¹ So I took the deed of the purchase,both that which was sealed, [according to] the law and custom,and that which was open:

¹² and I delivered the deed of thepurchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, inthe presence of Hanamel mine uncle's [son], and in the presenceof the witnesses that subscribed the deed of the purchase,before all the Jews that sat in the court of the guard.

¹³ And I charged Baruch before them, saying,

¹⁴ Thus saithJehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, this deedof the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open,and put them in an earthen vessel; that they may continue manydays.

¹⁵ For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God ofIsrael: Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again bebought in this land.

¹⁶ Now after I had delivered the deedof the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed untoJehovah, saying,

¹⁷ Ah Lord Jehovah! behold, thou hast madethe heavens and the earth by thy great power and by thineoutstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for thee,

¹⁸ who showest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest theiniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children afterthem; the great, the mighty God, Jehovah of hosts is his name;

¹⁹ great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes areopen upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give every oneaccording to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:

²⁰ who didst set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,even unto this day, both in Israel and among [other] men; andmadest thee a name, as at this day;

²¹ and didst bringforth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, andwith wonders, and with a strong hand, and with an outstretchedarm, and with great terror;

²² and gavest them this land,which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a landflowing with milk and honey;

²³ and they came in, andpossessed it, but they obeyed not thy voice, neither walked inthy law; they have done nothing of all that thou commandedstthem to do: therefore thou hast caused all this evil to comeupon them.

²⁴ Behold, the mounds, they are come unto thecity to take it; and the city is given into the hand of theChaldeans that fight against it, because of the sword, and ofthe famine, and of the pestilence; and what thou hast spoken iscome to pass; and, behold, thou seest it.

²⁵ And thou hastsaid unto me, O Lord Jehovah, Buy thee the field for money, andcall witnesses; whereas the city is given into the hand of theChaldeans.

²⁶ Then came the word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah,saying,

²⁷ Behold, I am Jehovah, the God of all flesh: isthere anything too hard for me?

²⁸ Therefore thus saithJehovah: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of theChaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon,and he shall take it:

²⁹ and the Chaldeans, that fightagainst this city, shall come and set this city on fire, andburn it, with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offeredincense unto Baal, and poured out drink-offerings unto othergods, to provoke me to anger.

³⁰ For the children of Israeland the children of Judah have done only that which was evil inmy sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have onlyprovoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saithJehovah.

³¹ For this city hath been to me a provocation ofmine anger and of my wrath from the day that they built it evenunto this day; that I should remove it from before my face,

³² because of all the evil of the children of Israel and ofthe children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me toanger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, andtheir prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants ofJerusalem.

³³ And they have turned unto me the back, andnot the face: and though I taught them, rising up early andteaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receiveinstruction.

³⁴ But they set their abominations in thehouse which is called by my name, to defile it.

³⁵ And theybuilt the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of theson of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to passthrough [the fire] unto Molech; which I commanded them not,neither came it into my mind, that they should do thisabomination, to cause Judah to sin.

³⁶ And now thereforethus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, concerning this city,whereof ye say, It is given into the hand of the king of Babylonby the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence:

³⁷ Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries, whither Ihave driven them in mine anger, and in my wrath, and in greatindignation; and I will bring them again unto this place, and Iwill cause them to dwell safely:

³⁸ and they shall be mypeople, and I will be their God:

³⁹ and I will give themone heart and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for thegood of them, and of their children after them:

⁴⁰ and Iwill make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will notturn away from following them, to do them good; and I will putmy fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me.

⁴¹ Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and Iwill plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart andwith my whole soul.

⁴² For thus saith Jehovah: Like as Ihave brought all this great evil upon this people, so will Ibring upon them all the good that I have promised them.

⁴³ And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof ye say, It isdesolate, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of theChaldeans.

⁴⁴ Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribethe deeds, and seal them, and call witnesses, in the land ofBenjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the citiesof Judah, and in the cities of the hill-country, and in thecities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South: for Iwill cause their captivity to return, saith Jehovah.

¹ Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah thesecond time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the guard,saying,

² Thus saith Jehovah that doeth it, Jehovah thatformeth it to establish it; Jehovah is his name:

³ Callunto me, and I will answer thee, and will show thee greatthings, and difficult, which thou knowest not.

⁴ For thussaith Jehovah, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of thiscity, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which arebroken down [to make a defence] against the mounds and againstthe sword;

⁵ while [men] come to fight with the Chaldeans,and to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slainin mine anger and in my wrath, and for all whose wickedness Ihave hid my face from this city:

⁶ Behold, I will bring ithealth and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal untothem abundance of peace and truth.

⁷ And I will cause thecaptivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, andwill build them, as at the first.

⁸ And I will cleanse themfrom all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me;and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinnedagainst me, and whereby they have transgressed against me.

⁹ And [this city] shall be to me for a name of joy, for apraise and for a glory, before all the nations of the earth,which shall hear all the good that I do unto them, and shallfear and tremble for all the good and for all the peace that Iprocure unto it.

¹⁰ Thus saith Jehovah: Yet again thereshall be heard in this place, whereof ye say, It is waste,without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, andin the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man andwithout inhabitant and without beast,

¹¹ the voice of joyand the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and thevoice of the bride, the voice of them that say, Give thanks toJehovah of hosts, for Jehovah is good, for his lovingkindness[endureth] for ever; [and of them] that bring [sacrifices of]thanksgiving into the house of Jehovah. For I will cause thecaptivity of the land to return as at the first, saith Jehovah.

¹² Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Yet again shall there be inthis place, which is waste, without man and without beast, andin all the cities thereof, a habitation of shepherds causingtheir flocks to lie down.

¹³ In the cities of thehill-country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities ofthe South, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places aboutJerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks againpass under the hands of him that numbereth them, saith Jehovah.

¹⁴ Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I willperform that good word which I have spoken concerning the houseof Israel and concerning the house of Judah.

¹⁵ In thosedays, and at that time, will I cause a Branch of righteousnessto grow up unto David; and he shall execute justice andrighteousness in the land.

¹⁶ In those days shall Judah besaved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely; and this is [the name]whereby she shall be called: Jehovah our righteousness.

¹⁷ For thus saith Jehovah: David shall never want a man to sit uponthe throne of the house of Israel;

¹⁸ neither shall thepriests the Levites want a man before me to offerburnt-offerings, and to burn meal-offerings, and to do sacrificecontinually.

¹⁹ And the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah,saying,

²⁰ Thus saith Jehovah: If ye can break my covenantof the day, and my covenant of the night, so that there shallnot be day and night in their season;

²¹ then may also mycovenant be broken with David my servant, that he shall not havea son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites thepriests, my ministers.

²² As the host of heaven cannot benumbered, neither the sand of the sea measured; so will Imultiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites thatminister unto me.

²³ And the word of Jehovah came toJeremiah, saying,

²⁴ Considerest thou not what this peoplehave spoken, saying, The two families which Jehovah did choose,he hath cast them off? thus do they despise my people, that theyshould be no more a nation before them.

²⁵ Thus saithJehovah: If my covenant of day and night [stand] not, if I havenot appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;

²⁶ thenwill I also cast away the seed of Jacob, and of David myservant, so that I will not take of his seed to be rulers overthe seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause theircaptivity to return, and will have mercy on them.

¹ The word which came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, whenNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all thekingdoms of the earth that were under his dominion, and all thepeoples, were fighting against Jerusalem, and against all thecities thereof, saying:

² Thus saith Jehovah, the God ofIsrael, Go, and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him,Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will give this city into the handof the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire:

³ and thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely betaken, and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall beholdthe eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with theemouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon.

⁴ Yet hearthe word of Jehovah, O Zedekiah king of Judah: thus saithJehovah concerning thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword;

⁵ thou shalt die in peace; and with the burnings of thy fathers,the former kings that were before thee, so shall they make aburning for thee; and they shall lament thee, [saying], Ah Lord!for I have spoken the word, saith Jehovah.

⁶ Then Jeremiahthe prophet spake all these words unto Zedekiah king of Judah inJerusalem,

⁷ when the king of Babylon's army was fightingagainst Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that wereleft, against Lachish and against Azekah; for these [alone]remained of the cities of Judah [as] fortified cities.

⁸ The word that came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, after that theking Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people that wereat Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;

⁹ that everyman should let his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant,that is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free; that none should makebondmen of them, [to wit], of a Jew his brother.

¹⁰ And allthe princes and all the people obeyed, that had entered into thecovenant, that every one should let his man-servant, and everyone his maid-servant, go free, that none should make bondmen ofthem any more; they obeyed, and let them go:

¹¹ butafterwards they turned, and caused the servants and thehandmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and broughtthem into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

¹² Therefore the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah from Jehovah,saying,

¹³ Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: I made acovenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forthout of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying,

¹⁴ At the end of seven years ye shall let go every man hisbrother that is a Hebrew, that hath been sold unto thee, andhath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free fromthee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclinedtheir ear.

¹⁵ And ye were now turned, and had done thatwhich is right in mine eyes, in proclaiming liberty every man tohis neighbor; and ye had made a covenant before me in the housewhich is called by my name:

¹⁶ but ye turned and profanedmy name, and caused every man his servant, and every man hishandmaid, whom ye had let go free at their pleasure, to return;and ye brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servantsand for handmaids.

¹⁷ Therefore thus saith Jehovah: ye havenot hearkened unto me, to proclaim liberty, every man to hisbrother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim untoyou a liberty, saith Jehovah, to the sword, to the pestilence,and to the famine; and I will make you to be tossed to and froamong all the kingdoms of the earth.

¹⁸ And I will give themen that have transgressed my covenant, that have not performedthe words of the covenant which they made before me, when theycut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof;

¹⁹ the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, theeunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, thatpassed between the parts of the calf;

²⁰ I will even givethem into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of themthat seek their life; and their dead bodies shall be for foodunto the birds of the heavens, and to the beasts of the earth.

²¹ And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I giveinto the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them thatseek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon'sarmy, that are gone away from you.

²² Behold, I willcommand, saith Jehovah, and cause them to return to this city;and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it withfire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, withoutinhabitant.

¹ The word which came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah in thedays of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

² Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them,and bring them into the house of Jehovah, into one of thechambers, and give them wine to drink.

³ Then I tookJaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and hisbrethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of theRechabites;

⁴ and I brought them into the house of Jehovah,into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, theman of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which wasabove the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper ofthe threshold.

⁵ And I set before the sons of the house ofthe Rechabites bowls full of wine, and cups; and I said untothem, Drink ye wine.

⁶ But they said, We will drink nowine; for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us,saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons, forever:

⁷ neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, norplant vineyard, nor have any; but all your days ye shall dwellin tents; that ye may live many days in the land wherein yesojourn.

⁸ And we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the sonof Rechab, our father, in all that he charged us, to drink nowine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters;

⁹ nor to build houses for us to dwell in; neither have wevineyard, nor field, nor seed:

¹⁰ but we have dwelt intents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadabour father commanded us.

¹¹ But it came to pass, whenNebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that wesaid, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army ofthe Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians; so wedwell at Jerusalem.

¹² Then came the word of Jehovah untoJeremiah, saying,

¹³ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the Godof Israel: Go, and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitantsof Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to mywords? saith Jehovah.

¹⁴ The words of Jonadab the son ofRechab, that he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, areperformed; and unto this day they drink none, for they obeytheir father's commandment: but I have spoken unto you, risingup early and speaking; and ye have not hearkened unto me.

¹⁵ I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets,rising up early and sending them, saying, Return ye now everyman from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not afterother gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which Ihave given to you and to your fathers: but ye have not inclinedyour ear, nor hearkened unto me.

¹⁶ Forasmuch as the sonsof Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment oftheir father which he commanded them, but this people hath nothearkened unto me;

¹⁷ therefore thus saith Jehovah, the Godof hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring upon Judah andupon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I havepronounced against them; because I have spoken unto them, butthey have not heard; and I have called unto them, but they havenot answered.

¹⁸ And Jeremiah said unto the house of theRechabites, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel:Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father,and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that hecommanded you;

¹⁹ therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts,the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want aman to stand before me for ever.

¹ And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakimthe son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came untoJeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

² Take thee a roll of abook, and write therein all the words that I have spoken untothee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all thenations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days ofJosiah, even unto this day.

³ It may be that the house ofJudah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them;that they may return every man from his evil way; that I mayforgive their iniquity and their sin.

⁴ Then Jeremiahcalled Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote from the mouthof Jeremiah all the words of Jehovah, which he had spoken untohim, upon a roll of a book.

⁵ And Jeremiah commandedBaruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house ofJehovah:

⁶ therefore go thou, and read in the roll, whichthou hast written from my mouth, the words of Jehovah in theears of the people in Jehovah's house upon the fast-day; andalso thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come outof their cities.

⁷ It may be they will present theirsupplication before Jehovah, and will return every one from hisevil way; for great is the anger and the wrath that Jehovah hathpronounced against this people.

⁸ And Baruch the son ofNeriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commandedhim, reading in the book the words of Jehovah in Jehovah'shouse.

⁹ Now it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakimthe son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that allthe people in Jerusalem, and all the people that came from thecities of Judah unto Jerusalem, proclaimed a fast beforeJehovah.

¹⁰ Then read Baruch in the book the words ofJeremiah in the house of Jehovah, in the chamber of Gemariah theson of Shaphan, the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry ofthe new gate of Jehovah's house, in the ears of all the people.

¹¹ And when Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son ofShaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of Jehovah,

¹² he went down into the king's house, into the scribe'schamber: and, lo, all the princes were sitting there, [to wit],Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, andElnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, andZedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.

¹³ ThenMicaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, whenBaruch read the book in the ears of the people.

¹⁴ Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, theson of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Baruch, saying, Take inthy hand the roll wherein thou hast read in the ears of thepeople, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll inhis hand, and came unto them.

¹⁵ And they said unto him,Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it intheir ears.

¹⁶ Now it came to pass, when they had heard allthe words, they turned in fear one toward another, and said untoBaruch, We will surely tell the king of all these words.

¹⁷ And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How didst thou writeall these words at his mouth?

¹⁸ Then Baruch answered them,He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and Iwrote them with ink in the book.

¹⁹ Then said the princesunto Baruch, Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah; and let no manknow where ye are.

²⁰ And they went in to the king into thecourt; but they had laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishamathe scribe; and they told all the words in the ears of the king.

²¹ So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll; and he tookit out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read itin the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes thatstood beside the king.

²² Now the king was sitting in thewinter-house in the ninth month: and [there was a fire in] thebrazier burning before him.

²³ And it came to pass, whenJehudi had read three or four leaves, that [the king] cut itwith the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in thebrazier, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was inthe brazier.

²⁴ And they were not afraid, nor rent theirgarments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heardall these words.

²⁵ Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah andGemariah had made intercession to the king that he would notburn the roll; but he would not hear them.

²⁶ And the kingcommanded Jerahmeel the king's son, and Seraiah the son ofAzriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch thescribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but Jehovah hid them.

²⁷ Then the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, after that the kinghad burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at themouth of Jeremiah, saying,

²⁸ Take thee again another roll,and write in it all the former words that were in the firstroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned.

²⁹ Andconcerning Jehoiakim king of Judah thou shalt say, Thus saithJehovah: Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thouwritten therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainlycome and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thenceman and beast?

³⁰ Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerningJehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon thethrone of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the dayto the heat, and in the night to the frost.

³¹ And I willpunish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; andI will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronouncedagainst them, but they hearkened not.

³² Then took Jeremiahanother roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son ofNeriah, who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all thewords of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned inthe fire; and there were added besides unto them many like words.

¹ And Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned as king,instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar kingof Babylon made king in the land of Judah.

² But neitherhe, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did hearkenunto the words of Jehovah, which he spake by the prophetJeremiah.

³ And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son ofShelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to theprophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now unto Jehovah our God for us.

⁴ Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people; forthey had not put him into prison.

⁵ And Pharaoh's army wascome forth out of Egypt; and when the Chaldeans that werebesieging Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they brake up fromJerusalem.

⁶ Then came the word of Jehovah unto the prophetJeremiah, saying,

⁷ Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel,Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me toinquire of me: Behold, Pharaoh's army, which is come forth tohelp you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.

⁸ Andthe Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city; andthey shall take it, and burn it with fire.

⁹ Thus saithJehovah, Deceive not yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans shallsurely depart from us; for they shall not depart.

¹⁰ Forthough ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fightagainst you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yeawould they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this citywith fire.

¹¹ And it came to pass that, when the army ofthe Chaldeans was broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh'sarmy,

¹² then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to gointo the land of Benjamin, to receive his portion there, in themidst of the people.

¹³ And when he was in the gate ofBenjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name wasIrijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he laidhold on Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou art falling away tothe Chaldeans.

¹⁴ Then said Jeremiah, It is false; I am notfalling away to the Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him; soIrijah laid hold on Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes.

¹⁵ And the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him,and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; forthey had made that the prison.

¹⁶ When Jeremiah was comeinto the dungeon-house, and into the cells, and Jeremiah hadremained there many days;

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 Jehovah? And Jeremiah said,There is. He said also, Thou shalt be delivered into the hand ofthe king of Babylon.

¹⁸ Moreover Jeremiah said unto kingZedekiah, Wherein have I sinned against thee, or against thyservants, or against this people, that ye have put me in prison?

¹⁹ Where now are your prophets that prophesied unto you,saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, noragainst this land?

²⁰ And now hear, I pray thee, O my lordthe king: let my supplication, I pray thee, be presented beforethee, that thou cause me not to return to the house of Jonathanthe scribe, lest I die there.

²¹ Then Zedekiah the kingcommanded, and they committed Jeremiah into the court of theguard; and they gave him daily a loaf of bread out of thebakers' street, until all the bread in the city was spent. ThusJeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

¹ And Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the sonof Pashhur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the sonof Malchijah, heard the words that Jeremiah spake unto all thepeople, saying,

² Thus saith Jehovah, He that abideth inthis city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by thepestilence; but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live,and his life shall be unto him for a prey, and he shall live.

³ Thus saith Jehovah, This city shall surely be given intothe hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he shall takeit.

⁴ Then the princes said unto the king, Let this man, wepray thee, be put to death; forasmuch as he weakeneth the handsof the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of allthe people, in speaking such words unto them: for this manseeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt.

⁵ AndZedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand; for the kingis not he that can do anything against you.

⁶ Then tookthey Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchijah theking's son, that was in the court of the guard: and they letdown Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water,but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire.

⁷ Now whenEbed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch, who was in the king'shouse, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon (the kingthen sitting in the gate of Benjamin,)

⁸ Ebed-melech wentforth out of the king's house, and spake to the king, saying,

⁹ My lord the king, these men have done evil in all thatthey have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast intothe dungeon; and he is like to die in the place where he is,because of the famine; for there is no more bread in the city.

¹⁰ Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian,saying, Take from hence thirty men with thee, and take upJeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die.

¹¹ So Ebed-melech took the men with him, and went into the house ofthe king under the treasury, and took thence rags and worn-outgarments, and let them down by cords into the dungeon toJeremiah.

¹² And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said untoJeremiah, Put now these rags and worn-out garments under thinearmholes under the cords. And Jeremiah did so.

¹³ So theydrew up Jeremiah with the cords, and took him up out of thedungeon: and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

¹⁴ Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah theprophet unto him into the third entry that is in the house ofJehovah: and the king said unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee athing; hide nothing from me.

¹⁵ Then Jeremiah said untoZedekiah, If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put meto death? and if I give thee counsel, thou wilt not hearken untome.

¹⁶ So Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto Jeremiah,saying, As Jehovah liveth, that made us this soul, I will notput thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand ofthese men that seek thy life.

¹⁷ Then said Jeremiah untoZedekiah, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, the God ofIsrael: If thou wilt go forth unto the king of Babylon'sprinces, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not beburned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thy house.

¹⁸ But if thou wilt 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 thou shalt not escape outof their hand.

¹⁹ And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah,I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen away to the Chaldeans,lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me.

²⁰ But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseechthee, the voice of Jehovah, in that which I speak unto thee: soit shall be well with thee, and thy soul shall live.

²¹ Butif thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that Jehovah hathshowed me:

²² behold, all the women that are left in theking of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king ofBabylon's princes, and those women shall say, Thy familiarfriends have set thee on, and have prevailed over thee: [nowthat] thy feet are sunk in the mire, they are turned away back.

²³ And they shall bring out all thy wives and thy childrento the Chaldeans; and thou shalt not escape out of their hand,but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon: and thoushalt cause this city to be burned with fire.

²⁴ Then saidZedekiah unto Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and thoushalt not die.

²⁵ But if the princes hear that I havetalked with thee, and they come unto thee, and say unto thee,Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king; hide itnot from us, and we will not put thee to death; also what theking said unto thee:

²⁶ then thou shalt say unto them, Ipresented my supplication before the king, that he would notcause me to return to Jonathan's house, to die there.

²⁷ Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, and asked him; and hetold them according to all these words that the king hadcommanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matterwas not perceived.

²⁸ So Jeremiah abode in the court of theguard until the day that Jerusalem was taken.

¹ And it came to pass when Jerusalem was taken, (in theninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, cameNebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army againstJerusalem, and besieged it;

² in the eleventh year ofZedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, abreach was made in the city,)

³ that all the princes of theking of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, [to wit],Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, Rab-saris,Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, with all the rest of the princes ofthe king of Babylon.

⁴ And it came to pass that, whenZedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, thenthey fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the wayof the king's garden, through the gate betwixt the two walls;and he went out toward the Arabah.

⁵ But the army of theChaldeans pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in theplains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought himup to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land ofHamath; and he gave judgment upon him.

⁶ Then the king ofBabylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes:also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.

⁷ Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him in fetters,to carry him to Babylon.

⁸ And the Chaldeans burned theking's house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brakedown the walls of Jerusalem.

⁹ Then Nebuzaradan the captainof the guard carried away captive into Babylon the residue ofthe people that remained in the city, the deserters also thatfell away to him, and the residue of the people that remained.

¹⁰ But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of thepoor of the people, that had nothing, in the land of Judah, andgave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

¹¹ NowNebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiahto Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying,

¹² Takehim, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto himeven as he shall say unto thee.

¹³ So Nebuzaradan thecaptain of the guard sent, and Nebushazban, Rab-saris, andNergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, and all the chief officers of the kingof Babylon;

¹⁴ they sent, and took Jeremiah out of thecourt of the guard, and committed him unto Gedaliah the son ofAhikam, the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so hedwelt among the people.

¹⁵ Now the word of Jehovah cameunto Jeremiah, while he was shut up in the court of the guard,saying,

¹⁶ Go, and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian,saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold,I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good;and they shall be accomplished before thee in that day.

¹⁷ But I will deliver thee in that day, saith Jehovah; and thoushalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou artafraid.

¹⁸ For I will surely save thee, and thou shalt notfall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee;because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith Jehovah.

¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, afterthat Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go fromRamah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all thecaptives of Jerusalem and Judah, that were carried away captiveunto Babylon.

² And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah,and said unto him, Jehovah thy God pronounced this evil uponthis place;

³ and Jehovah hath brought it, and doneaccording as he spake: because ye have sinned against Jehovah,and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come uponyou.

⁴ And now, behold, I loose thee this day from thechains which are upon thy hand. If it seem good unto thee tocome with me into Babylon, come, and I will look well unto thee;but if it seem ill unto thee to come with me into Babylon,forbear: behold, all the land is before thee; whither it seemethgood and right unto thee to go, thither go.

⁵ Now while hewas not yet gone back, Go back then, [said he], to Gedaliah theson of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon hathmade governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him amongthe people; or go wheresoever it seemeth right unto thee to go.So the captain of the guard gave him victuals and a present, andlet him go.

⁶ Then went Jeremiah unto Gedaliah the son ofAhikam to Mizpah, and dwelt with him among the people that wereleft in the land.

⁷ Now when all the captains of the forcesthat were in the fields, even they and their men, heard that theking of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor inthe land, and had committed unto him men, and women, andchildren, and of the poorest of the land, of them that were notcarried away captive to Babylon;

⁸ then they came toGedaliah to Mizpah, [to wit], Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, andJohanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son ofTanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniahthe son of the Maacathite, they and their men.

⁹ AndGedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan sware unto themand to their men, saying, Fear not to serve the Chaldeans: dwellin the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be wellwith you.

¹⁰ As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah, tostand before the Chaldeans that shall come unto us: but ye,gather ye wine and summer fruits and oil, and put them in yourvessels, and dwell in your cities that ye have taken.

¹¹ Likewise when all the Jews that were in Moab, and among thechildren of Ammon, and in Edom, and that were in all thecountries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant ofJudah, and that he had set over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam,the son of Shaphan;

¹² then all the Jews returned out ofall places whither they were driven, and came to the land ofJudah, to Gedaliah, unto Mizpah, and gathered wine and summerfruits very much.

¹³ Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah,and all the captains of the forces that were in the fields, cameto Gedaliah to Mizpah,

¹⁴ and said unto him, Dost thou knowthat Baalis the king of the children of Ammon hath sent Ishmaelthe son of Nethaniah to take thy life? But Gedaliah the son ofAhikam believed them not.

¹⁵ Then Johanan the son of Kareahspake to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, Let me go, I praythee, and I will slay Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no manshall know it: wherefore should he take thy life, that all theJews that are gathered unto thee should be scattered, and theremnant of Judah perish?

¹⁶ But Gedaliah the son of Ahikamsaid unto Johanan the son of Kareah, Thou shalt not do thisthing; for thou speakest falsely of Ishmael.

¹ Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmaelthe 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 unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there theydid eat bread together in Mizpah.

² Then arose Ishmael theson of Nethaniah, and the ten men that were with him, and smoteGedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword,and slew him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor overthe land.

³ Ishmael also slew all the Jews that were withhim, [to wit], with Gedaliah, at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans thatwere found there, the men of war.

⁴ And it came to pass thesecond day after he had slain Gedaliah, and no man knew it,

⁵ that there came men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and fromSamaria, even fourscore men, having their beards shaven andtheir clothes rent, and having cut themselves, withmeal-offerings and frankincense in their hand, to bring them tothe house of Jehovah.

⁶ And Ishmael the son of Nethaniahwent forth from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as hewent: and it came to pass, as he met them, he said unto them,Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.

⁷ And it was so, whenthey came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son ofNethaniah slew them, [and cast them] into the midst of the pit,he, and the men that were with him.

⁸ But ten men werefound among them that said unto Ishmael, Slay us not; for wehave stores hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and ofoil, and of honey. So he forbare, and slew them not among theirbrethren.

⁹ Now the pit wherein Ishmael cast all the deadbodies of the men whom he had slain, by the side of Gedaliah(the same was that which Asa the king had made for fear ofBaasha king of Israel,) Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled itwith them that were slain.

¹⁰ Then Ishmael carried awaycaptive all the residue of the people that were in Mizpah, eventhe king's daughters, and all the people that remained inMizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committedto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; Ishmael the son of Nethaniahcarried them away captive, and departed to go over to thechildren of Ammon.

¹¹ But when Johanan the son of Kareah,and all the captains of the forces that were with him, heard ofall the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done,

¹² then they took all the men, and went to fight with Ishmael theson of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are inGibeon.

¹³ Now it came to pass that, when all the peoplethat were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and allthe captains of the forces that were with him, then they wereglad.

¹⁴ So all the people that Ishmael had carried awaycaptive from Mizpah turned about and came back, and went untoJohanan the son of Kareah.

¹⁵ But Ishmael the son ofNethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to thechildren of Ammon.

¹⁶ Then took Johanan the son of Kareah,and all the captains of the forces that were with him, all theremnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the sonof Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after that he had slain Gedaliah theson of Ahikam, [to wit], the men of war, and the women, and thechildren, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon:

¹⁷ and they departed, and dwelt in Geruth Chimham, which isby Beth-lehem, to go to enter into Egypt,

¹⁸ because of theChaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the sonof Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the kingof Babylon made governor over the land.

¹ Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan theson of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all thepeople from the least even unto the greatest, came near,

² and said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we pray thee, oursupplication be presented before thee, and pray for us untoJehovah thy God, even for all this remnant; for we are left buta few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:

³ that Jehovahthy God may show us the way wherein we should walk, and thething that we should do.

⁴ Then Jeremiah the prophet saidunto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto Jehovahyour God according to your words; and it shall come to pass thatwhatsoever thing Jehovah shall answer you, I will declare itunto you; I will keep nothing back from you.

⁵ Then theysaid to Jeremiah, Jehovah be a true and faithful witness amongstus, if we do not according to all the word wherewith Jehovah thyGod shall send thee to us.

⁶ Whether it be good, or whetherit be evil, we will obey the voice of Jehovah our God, to whomwe send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey thevoice of Jehovah our God.

⁷ And it came to pass after tendays, that the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah.

⁸ Thencalled he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of theforces that were with him, and all the people from the leasteven to the greatest,

⁹ and said unto them, Thus saithJehovah, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present yoursupplication before him:

¹⁰ If ye will still abide in thisland, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I willplant you, and not pluck you up; for I repent me of the evilthat I have done unto you.

¹¹ Be not afraid of the king ofBabylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saithJehovah: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you fromhis hand.

¹² And I will grant you mercy, that he may havemercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.

¹³ But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land; so thatye obey not the voice of Jehovah your God,

¹⁴ saying, No;but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see nowar, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger ofbread; and there will we dwell:

¹⁵ now therefore hear yethe word of Jehovah, O remnant of Judah: Thus saith Jehovah ofhosts, the God of Israel, If ye indeed set your faces to enterinto Egypt, and go to sojourn there;

¹⁶ then it shall cometo pass, that the sword, which ye fear, shall overtake you therein the land of Egypt; and the famine, whereof ye are afraid,shall follow hard after you there in Egypt; and there ye shalldie.

¹⁷ So shall it be with all the men that set theirfaces to go into Egypt to sojourn there: they shall die by thesword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; and none of themshall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring uponthem.

¹⁸ For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God ofIsrael: As mine anger and my wrath hath been poured forth uponthe inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my wrath be poured forthupon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt; and ye shall be anexecration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach;and ye shall see this place no more.

¹⁹ Jehovah hath spokenconcerning you, O remnant of Judah, Go ye not into Egypt: knowcertainly that I have testified unto you this day.

²⁰ Forye have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for ye sent meunto Jehovah your God, saying, Pray for us unto Jehovah our God;and according unto all that Jehovah our God shall say, sodeclare unto us, and we will do it:

²¹ and I have this daydeclared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of Jehovahyour God in anything for which he hath sent me unto you.

²² Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, bythe famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither yedesire to go to sojourn there.

¹ And it came to pass that, when Jeremiah had made anend of speaking unto all the people all the words of Jehovahtheir God, wherewith Jehovah their God had sent him to them,even all these words,

² then spake Azariah the son ofHoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men,saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely: Jehovah our Godhath not sent thee to say, Ye shall not go into Egypt to sojournthere;

³ but Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee onagainst us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, thatthey may put us to death, and carry us away captive to Babylon.

⁴ So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of theforces, and all the people, obeyed not the voice of Jehovah, todwell in the land of Judah.

⁵ But Johanan the son ofKareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnantof Judah, that were returned from all the nations whither theyhad been driven, to sojourn in the land of Judah;

⁶ themen, and the women, and the children, and the king's daughters,and every person that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard hadleft with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan; andJeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah;

⁷ andthey came into the land of Egypt; for they obeyed not the voiceof Jehovah: and they came unto Tahpanhes.

⁸ Then came theword of Jehovah unto Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying,

⁹ Takegreat stones in thy hand, and hide them in mortar in thebrickwork, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house inTahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah;

¹⁰ and sayunto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel:Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon,my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that Ihave hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them.

¹¹ And he shall come, and shall smite the land of Egypt;such as are for death [shall be given] to death, and such as arefor captivity to captivity, and such as are for the sword to thesword.

¹² And I will kindle a fire in the houses of thegods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them awaycaptive: and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as ashepherd putteth on his garment; and he shall go forth fromthence in peace.

¹³ He shall also break the pillars ofBeth-shemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses ofthe gods of Egypt shall he burn with fire.

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jewsthat dwelt in the land of Egypt, that dwelt at Migdol, and atTahpanhes, and at Memphis, and in the country of Pathros,saying,

² Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel:Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem,and upon all the cities of Judah; and, behold, this day they area desolation, and no man dwelleth therein,

³ because oftheir wickedness which they have committed to provoke me toanger, in that they went to burn incense, [and] to serve othergods, that they knew not, neither they, nor ye, nor yourfathers.

⁴ Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants theprophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Oh, do notthis abominable thing that I hate.

⁵ But they hearkenednot, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, toburn no incense unto other gods.

⁶ Wherefore my wrath andmine anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities ofJudah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted anddesolate, as it is this day.

⁷ Therefore now thus saithJehovah, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Wherefore commitye [this] great evil against your own souls, to cut off from youman and woman, infant and suckling, out of the midst of Judah,to leave you none remaining;

⁸ in that ye provoke me untoanger with the works of your hands, burning incense unto othergods in the land of Egypt, whither ye are gone to sojourn; thatye may be cut off, and that ye may be a curse and a reproachamong all the nations of the earth?

⁹ Have ye forgotten thewickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings ofJudah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your ownwickedness, and the wickedness of your wives which theycommitted in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁰ They are not humbled even unto this day, neither havethey feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that Iset before you and before your fathers.

¹¹ Therefore thussaith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set myface against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.

¹² And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their facesto go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shallall be consumed; in the land of Egypt shall they fall; theyshall be consumed by the sword and by the famine; they shalldie, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and bythe famine; and they shall be an execration, [and] anastonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.

¹³ For I willpunish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punishedJerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence;

¹⁴ so that none of the remnant of Judah, that are gone intothe land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or be left, toreturn into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire toreturn to dwell there: for none shall return save such as shallescape.

¹⁵ Then all the men who knew that their wivesburned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by,a great assembly, even all the people that dwelt in the land ofEgypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,

¹⁶ As for theword that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of Jehovah, wewill not hearken unto thee.

¹⁷ But we will certainlyperform every word that is gone forth out of our mouth, to burnincense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour outdrink-offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers,our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in thestreets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of victuals, andwere well, and saw no evil.

¹⁸ But since we left offburning incense to the queen of heaven, and pouring outdrink-offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and havebeen consumed by the sword and by the famine.

¹⁹ And whenwe burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured outdrink-offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her,and pour out drink-offerings unto her, without our husbands?

²⁰ Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, andto the women, even to all the people that had given him thatanswer, saying,

²¹ The incense that ye burned in the citiesof Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye and your fathers,your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did notJehovah remember them, and came it not into his mind?

²² sothat Jehovah could not longer bear, because of the evil of yourdoings, and because of the abominations which ye have committed;therefore is your land become a desolation, and an astonishment,and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day.

²³ Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinnedagainst Jehovah, and have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah, norwalked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies;therefore this evil is happened unto you, as it is this day.

²⁴ Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to allthe women, Hear the word of Jehovah, all Judah that are in theland of Egypt:

²⁵ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God ofIsrael, saying, Ye and your wives have both spoken with yourmouths, and with your hands have fulfilled it, saying, We willsurely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense tothe queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her:establish then your vows, and perform your vows.

²⁶ Therefore hear ye the word of Jehovah, all Judah that dwell inthe land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, saithJehovah, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of anyman of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, As the LordJehovah liveth.

²⁷ Behold, I watch over them for evil, andnot for good; and all the men of Judah that are in the land ofEgypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, untilthere be an end of them.

²⁸ And they that escape the swordshall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah,few in number; and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone intothe land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose word shallstand, mine, or theirs.

²⁹ And this shall be the sign untoyou, saith Jehovah, that I will punish you in this place, thatye may know that my words shall surely stand against you forevil:

³⁰ Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will give PharaohHophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into thehand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king ofJudah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, who washis enemy, and sought his life.

¹ The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruchthe son of Neriah, when he wrote these word in a book at themouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son ofJosiah, king of Judah, saying,

² Thus saith Jehovah, theGod of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch:

³ Thou didst say, Woeis me now! for Jehovah hath added sorrow to my pain; I am wearywith my groaning, and I find no rest.

⁴ Thus shalt thou sayunto him, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, that which I have builtwill I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluckup; and this in the whole land.

⁵ And seekest thou greatthings for thyself? seek them not; for, behold, I will bringevil upon all flesh, saith Jehovah; but thy life will I giveunto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.

¹ The word of Jehovah which came to Jeremiah the prophetconcerning the nations.

² Of Egypt: concerning the army ofPharaoh-neco king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates inCarchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in thefourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah.

³ Prepare ye the buckler and shield, and draw near tobattle.

⁴ Harness the horses, and get up, ye horsemen, andstand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, put on thecoats of mail.

⁵ Wherefore have I seen it? they aredismayed and are turned backward; and their mighty ones arebeaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back: terror is onevery side, saith Jehovah.

⁶ Let not the swift flee away,nor the mighty man escape; in the north by the river Euphrateshave they stumbled and fallen.

⁷ Who is this that riseth uplike the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers?

⁸ Egypt riseth up like the Nile, and his waters tossthemselves like the rivers: and he saith, I will rise up, I willcover the earth; I will destroy cities and the inhabitantsthereof.

⁹ Go up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and letthe mighty men go forth: Cush and Put, that handle the shield;and the Ludim, that handle and bend the bow.

¹⁰ For thatday is [a day] of the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, a day ofvengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and thesword shall devour and be satiate, and shall drink its fill oftheir blood; for the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, hath a sacrifice inthe north country by the river Euphrates.

¹¹ Go up intoGilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain dostthou use many medicines; there is no healing for thee.

¹² The nations have heard of thy shame, and the earth is full ofthy cry; for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty,they are fallen both of them together.

¹³ The word thatJehovah spake to Jeremiah the prophet, how that Nebuchadrezzarking of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish inMemphis and in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand forth, and prepare thee;for the sword hath devoured round about thee.

¹⁵ Why arethy strong ones swept away? they stood not, because Jehovah diddrive them.

¹⁶ He made many to stumble, yea, they fell oneupon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to ourown people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressingsword.

¹⁷ They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but anoise; he hath let the appointed time pass by.

¹⁸ As Ilive, saith the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts, surelylike Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea, soshall he come.

¹⁹ O thou daughter that dwellest in Egypt,furnish thyself to go into captivity; for Memphis shall become adesolation, and shall be burnt up, without inhabitant.

²⁰ Egypt is a very fair heifer; [but] destruction out of the northis come, it is come.

²¹ Also her hired men in the midst ofher are like calves of the stall; for they also are turned back,they are fled away together, they did not stand: for the day oftheir calamity is come upon them, the time of their visitation.

²² The sound thereof shall go like the serpent; for theyshall march with an army, and come against her with axes, ashewers of wood.

²³ They shall cut down her forest, saithJehovah, though it cannot be searched; because they are morethan the locusts, and are innumerable.

²⁴ The daughter ofEgypt shall be put to shame; she shall be delivered into thehand of the people of the north.

²⁵ Jehovah of hosts, theGod of Israel, saith: Behold, I will punish Amon of No, andPharaoh, and Egypt, with her gods, and her kings; even Pharaoh,and them that trust in him:

²⁶ and I will deliver them intothe hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand ofNebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of hisservants; and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the daysof old, saith Jehovah.

²⁷ But fear not thou, O Jacob myservant, neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will savethee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity;and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and noneshall make him afraid.

²⁸ Fear not thou, O Jacob myservant, saith Jehovah; for I am with thee: for I will make afull end of all the nations whither I have driven thee; but Iwill not make a full end of thee, but I will correct thee inmeasure, and will in no wise leave thee unpunished.

¹ The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah the prophetconcerning the Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.

² Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, waters rise up out of thenorth, and shall become an overflowing stream, and shalloverflow the land and all that is therein, the city and themthat dwell therein; and the men shall cry, and all theinhabitants of the land shall wail.

³ At the noise of thestamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, at the rushing of hischariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers look notback to their children for feebleness of hands;

⁴ becauseof the day that cometh to destroy all the Philistines, to cutoff from Tyre and Sidon every helper that remaineth: for Jehovahwill destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the isle ofCaphtor.

⁵ Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is broughtto nought, the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cutthyself?

⁶ O thou sword of Jehovah, how long will it be erethou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard; rest, and bestill.

⁷ How canst thou be quiet, seeing Jehovah hath giventhee a charge? Against Ashkelon, and against the sea-shore,there hath he appointed it.

¹ Of Moab. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God ofIsrael: Woe unto Nebo! for it is laid waste; Kiriathaim is putto shame, it is taken; Misgab is put to shame and broken down.

² The praise of Moab is no more; in Heshbon they havedevised evil against her: Come, and let us cut her off frombeing a nation. Thou also, O Madmen, shalt be brought tosilence: the sword shall pursue thee.

³ The sound of a cryfrom Horonaim, desolation and great destruction!

⁴ Moab isdestroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.

⁵ For by the ascent of Luhith with continual weeping shall they goup; for at the descent of Horonaim they have heard the distressof the cry of destruction.

⁶ Flee, save your lives, and belike the heath in the wilderness.

⁷ For, because thou hasttrusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou also shalt betaken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity, his priestsand his princes together.

⁸ And the destroyer shall comeupon every city, and no city shall escape; the valley also shallperish, and the plain shall be destroyed; as Jehovah hathspoken.

⁹ Give wings unto Moab, that she may fly and gether away: and her cities shall become a desolation, without anyto dwell therein.

¹⁰ Cursed be he that doeth the work ofJehovah negligently; and cursed be he that keepeth back hissword from blood.

¹¹ Moab hath been at ease from his youth,and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied fromvessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: thereforehis taste remaineth in him, and his scent is not changed.

¹² Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that Iwill send unto him them that pour off, and they shall pour himoff; and they shall empty his vessels, and break their bottlesin pieces.

¹³ And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as thehouse of Israel was ashamed of Beth-el their confidence.

¹⁴ How say ye, We are mighty men, and valiant men for the war?

¹⁵ Moab is laid waste, and they are gone up into hiscities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter,saith the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts.

¹⁶ Thecalamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hastethfast.

¹⁷ All ye that are round about him, bemoan him, andall ye that know his name; say, How is the strong staff broken,the beautiful rod!

¹⁸ O thou daughter that dwellest inDibon, come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst; for thedestroyer of Moab is come up against thee, he hath destroyed thystrongholds.

¹⁹ O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way,and watch: ask him that fleeth, and her that escapeth; say, Whathath been done?

²⁰ Moab is put to shame; for it is brokendown: wail and cry; tell ye it by the Arnon, that Moab is laidwaste.

²¹ And judgment is come upon the plain country, uponHolon, and upon Jahzah, and upon Mephaath,

²² and uponDibon, and upon Nebo, and upon Beth-diblathaim,

²³ and uponKiriathaim, and upon Beth-gamul, and upon Beth-meon,

²⁴ andupon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of theland of Moab, far or near.

²⁵ The horn of Moab is cut off,and his arm is broken, saith Jehovah.

²⁶ Make ye himdrunken; for he magnified himself against Jehovah: and Moabshall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.

²⁷ For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he foundamong thieves? for as often as thou speakest of him, thouwaggest the head.

²⁸ O ye inhabitants of Moab, leave thecities, and dwell in the rock; and be like the dove that makethher nest over the mouth of the abyss.

²⁹ We have heard ofthe pride of Moab, [that] he is very proud; his loftiness, andhis pride, and his arrogancy, and the haughtiness of his heart.

³⁰ I know his wrath, saith Jehovah, that it is nought; hisboastings have wrought nothing.

³¹ Therefore will I wailfor Moab; yea, I will cry out for all Moab: for the men ofKir-heres shall they mourn.

³² With more than the weepingof Jazer will I weep for thee, O vine of Sibmah: thy branchespassed over the sea, they reached even to the sea of Jazer: uponthy summer fruits and upon thy vintage the destroyer is fallen.

³³ And gladness and joy is taken away from the fruitfulfield and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to ceasefrom the winepresses: none shall tread with shouting; theshouting shall be no shouting.

³⁴ From the cry of Heshboneven unto Elealeh, even unto Jahaz have they uttered theirvoice, from Zoar even unto Horonaim, to Eglath-shelishiyah: forthe waters of Nimrim also shall become desolate.

³⁵ Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab, saith Jehovah, him thatoffereth in the high place, and him that burneth incense to hisgods.

³⁶ Therefore my heart soundeth for Moab like pipes,and my heart soundeth like pipes for the men of Kir-heres:therefore the abundance that he hath gotten is perished.

³⁷ For every head is bald, and every beard clipped: upon all thehands are cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.

³⁸ On allthe housetops of Moab and in the streets thereof there islamentation every where; for I have broken Moab like a vesselwherein none delighteth, saith Jehovah.

³⁹ How is it brokendown! [how] do they wail! how hath Moab turned the back withshame! so shall Moab become a derision and a terror to all thatare round about him.

⁴⁰ For thus saith Jehovah: Behold, heshall fly as an eagle, and shall spread out his wings againstMoab.

⁴¹ Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds are seized,and the heart of the mighty men of Moab at that day shall be asthe heart of a woman in her pangs.

⁴² And Moab shall bedestroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himselfagainst Jehovah.

⁴³ Fear, and the pit, and the snare, areupon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith Jehovah.

⁴⁴ He thatfleeth from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he thatgetteth up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for Iwill bring upon him, even upon Moab, the year of theirvisitation, saith Jehovah.

⁴⁵ They that fled stand withoutstrength under the shadow of Heshbon; for a fire is gone forthout of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and hathdevoured the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of thetumultuous ones.

⁴⁶ Woe unto thee, O Moab! the people ofChemosh is undone; for thy sons are taken away captive, and thydaughters into captivity.

⁴⁷ Yet will I bring back thecaptivity of Moab in the latter days, saith Jehovah. Thus far isthe judgment of Moab.

¹ Of the children of Ammon. Thus saith Jehovah: HathIsrael no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth Malcam possessGad, and his people well in the cities thereof?

² Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I willcause an alarm of war to be heard against Rabbah of the childrenof Ammon; and it shall become a desolate heap, and her daughtersshall be burned with fire: then shall Israel possess them thatdid possess him, saith Jehovah.

³ Wail, O Heshbon, for Aiis laid waste; cry, ye daughters of Rabbah, gird you withsackcloth: lament, and run to and fro among the fences; forMalcam shall go into captivity, his priests and his princestogether.

⁴ Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, thyflowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in hertreasures, [saying], Who shall come unto me?

⁵ Behold, Iwill bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts,from all that are round about thee; and ye shall be driven outevery man right forth, and there shall be none to gathertogether the fugitives.

⁶ But afterward I will bring backthe captivity of the children of Ammon, saith Jehovah.

⁷ OfEdom. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Is wisdom no more in Teman?is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?

⁸ Flee ye, turn back, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants ofDedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the timethat I shall visit him.

⁹ If grape-gatherers came to thee,would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night,would they not destroy till they had enough?

¹⁰ But I havemade Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shallnot be able to hide himself: his seed is destroyed, and hisbrethren, and his neighbors; and he is not.

¹¹ Leave thyfatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thywidows trust in me.

¹² For thus saith Jehovah: Behold, theyto whom it pertained not to drink of the cup shall assuredlydrink; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thoushalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink.

¹³ For I have sworn by myself, saith Jehovah, that Bozrah shallbecome an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; andall the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes.

¹⁴ I haveheard tidings from Jehovah, and an ambassador is sent among thenations, [saying], Gather yourselves together, and come againsther, and rise up to the battle.

¹⁵ For, behold, I have madethee small among the nations, and despised among men.

¹⁶ Asfor thy terribleness, the pride of thy heart hath deceived thee,O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest theheight of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as highas the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith Jehovah.

¹⁷ And Edom shall become an astonishment: every one thatpasseth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all theplagues thereof.

¹⁸ As in the overthrow of Sodom andGomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof, saith Jehovah, no manshall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.

¹⁹ Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the pride ofthe Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenlymake them run away from it; and whoso is chosen, him will Iappoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me atime? and who is the shepherd that will stand before me?

²⁰ Therefore hear ye the counsel of Jehovah, that he hath takenagainst Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed againstthe inhabitants of Teman: Surely they shall drag them away,[even] the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make theirhabitation desolate over them.

²¹ The earth trembleth atthe noise of their fall; there is a cry, the noise whereof isheard in the Red Sea.

²² Behold, he shall come up and flyas the eagle, and spread out his wings against Bozrah: and theheart of the mighty men of Edom at that day shall be as theheart of a woman in her pangs.

²³ Of Damascus. Hamath isconfounded, and Arpad; for they have heard evil tidings, theyare melted away: there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.

²⁴ Damascus is waxed feeble, she turneth herself to flee,and trembling hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have takenhold of her, as of a woman in travail.

²⁵ How is the cityof praise not forsaken, the city of my joy?

²⁶ Thereforeher young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of warshall be brought to silence in that day, saith Jehovah of hosts.

²⁷ And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and itshall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.

²⁸ Of Kedar, and ofthe kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylonsmote. Thus saith Jehovah: Arise ye, go up to Kedar, and destroythe children of the east.

²⁹ Their tents and their flocksshall they take; they shall carry away for themselves theircurtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and theyshall cry unto them, Terror on every side!

³⁰ Flee ye,wander far off, dwell in the depths, O ye inhabitants of Hazor,saith Jehovah; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath takencounsel against you, and hath conceived a purpose against you.

³¹ Arise, get you up unto a nation that is at ease, thatdwelleth without care, saith Jehovah; that have neither gatesnor bars, that dwell alone.

³² And their camels shall be abooty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I willscatter unto all winds them that have the corners [of theirhair] cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every sideof them, saith Jehovah.

³³ And Hazor shall be adwelling-place of jackals, a desolation for ever: no man shalldwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.

³⁴ The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah the prophetconcerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah kingof Judah, saying,

³⁵ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Behold, Iwill break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might.

³⁶ And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quartersof heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; andthere shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall notcome.

³⁷ And I will cause Elam to be dismayed before theirenemies, and before them that seek their life; and I will bringevil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith Jehovah; and I willsend the sword after them, till I have consumed them;

³⁸ and I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thenceking and princes, saith Jehovah.

³⁹ But it shall come topass in the latter days, that I will bring back the captivity ofElam, saith Jehovah.

¹ The word that Jehovah spake concerning Babylon,concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.

² Declare ye among the nations and publish, and set up astandard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Belis put to shame, Merodach is dismayed; her images are put toshame, her idols are dismayed.

³ For out of the north therecometh up a nation against her, which shall make her landdesolate, and none shall dwell therein: they are fled, they aregone, both man and beast.

⁴ In those days, and in thattime, saith Jehovah, the children of Israel shall come, they andthe children of Judah together; they shall go on their wayweeping, and shall seek Jehovah their God.

⁵ They shallinquire concerning Zion with their faces thitherward, [saying],Come ye, and join yourselves to Jehovah in an everlastingcovenant that shall not be forgotten.

⁶ My people have beenlost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray; theyhave turned them away on the mountains; they have gone frommountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting-place.

⁷ All that found them have devoured them; and theiradversaries said, We are not guilty, because they have sinnedagainst Jehovah, the habitation of righteousness, even Jehovah,the hope of their fathers.

⁸ Flee out of the midst ofBabylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and beas the he-goats before the flocks.

⁹ For, lo, I will stirup and cause to come up against Babylon a company of greatnations from the north country; and they shall set themselves inarray against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrowsshall be as of an expert mighty man; none shall return in vain.

¹⁰ And Chaldea shall be a prey: all that prey upon hershall be satisfied, saith Jehovah.

¹¹ Because ye are glad,because ye rejoice, O ye that plunder my heritage, because yeare wanton as a heifer that treadeth out [the grain], and neighas strong horses;

¹² your mother shall be utterly put toshame; she that bare you shall be confounded: behold, she shallbe the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, anda desert.

¹³ Because of the wrath of Jehovah she shall notbe inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate: every one thatgoeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all herplagues.

¹⁴ Set yourselves in array against Babylon roundabout, all ye that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows:for she hath sinned against Jehovah.

¹⁵ Shout against herround about: she hath submitted herself; her bulwarks arefallen, her walls are thrown down; for it is the vengeance ofJehovah: take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her.

¹⁶ Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleththe sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressingsword they shall turn every one to his people, and they shallflee every one to his own land.

¹⁷ Israel is a huntedsheep; the lions have driven him away: first, the king ofAssyria devoured him; and now at last Nebuchadrezzar king ofBabylon hath broken his bones.

¹⁸ Therefore thus saithJehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will punish theking of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king ofAssyria.

¹⁹ And I will bring Israel again to his pasture,and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall besatisfied upon the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.

²⁰ Inthose days, and in that time, saith Jehovah, the iniquity ofIsrael shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and thesins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardonthem whom I leave as a remnant.

²¹ Go up against the landof Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants ofPekod: slay and utterly destroy after them, saith Jehovah, anddo according to all that I have commanded thee.

²² A soundof battle is in the land, and of great destruction.

²³ Howis the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how isBabylon become a desolation among the nations!

²⁴ I havelaid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, andthou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, becausethou hast striven against Jehovah.

²⁵ Jehovah hath openedhis armory, and hath brought forth the weapons of hisindignation; for the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, hath a work [to do]in the land of the Chaldeans.

²⁶ Come against her from theutmost border; open her store-houses; cast her up as heaps, anddestroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left.

²⁷ Slayall her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe untothem! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.

²⁸ The voice of them that flee and escape out of the landof Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Jehovah our God,the vengeance of his temple.

²⁹ Call together the archersagainst Babylon, all them that bend the bow; encamp against herround about; let none thereof escape: recompense her accordingto her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her;for she hath been proud against Jehovah, against the Holy One ofIsrael.

³⁰ Therefore shall her young men fall in herstreets, and all her men of war shall be brought to silence inthat day, saith Jehovah.

³¹ Behold, I am against thee, Othou proud one, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts; for thy day iscome, the time that I will visit thee.

³² And the proud oneshall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up; and I willkindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all that areround about him.

³³ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Thechildren of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressedtogether; and all that took them captive hold them fast; theyrefuse to let them go.

³⁴ Their Redeemer is strong; Jehovahof hosts is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause, thathe may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants ofBabylon.

³⁵ A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith Jehovah,and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, andupon her wise men.

³⁶ A sword is upon the boasters, andthey shall become fools; a sword is upon her mighty men, andthey shall be dismayed.

³⁷ A sword is upon their horses,and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people thatare in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a swordis upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed.

³⁸ Adrought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; for itis a land of graven images, and they are mad over idols.

³⁹ Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wolves shalldwell there, and the ostriches shall dwell therein: and it shallbe no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in fromgeneration to generation.

⁴⁰ As when God overthrew Sodomand Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof, saith Jehovah, soshall no man dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourntherein.

⁴¹ Behold, a people cometh from the north; and agreat nation and many kings shall be stirred up from theuttermost parts of the earth.

⁴² They lay hold on bow andspear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roarethlike the sea; and they ride upon horses, every one set in array,as a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon.

⁴³ The king of Babylon hath heard the tidings of them, andhis hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of him, [and]pangs as of a woman in travail.

⁴⁴ Behold, [the enemy]shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan againstthe strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run awayfrom it; and whoso is chosen, him will I appoint over it: forwho is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is theshepherd that can stand before me?

⁴⁵ Therefore hear ye thecounsel of Jehovah, that he hath taken against Babylon; and hispurposes, that he hath purposed against the land of theChaldeans: Surely they shall drag them away, [even] the littleones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitationdesolate over them.

⁴⁶ At the noise of the taking ofBabylon the earth trembleth, and the cry is heard among thenations.

¹ Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up againstBabylon, and against them that dwell in Leb-kamai, a destroyingwind.

² And I will send unto Babylon strangers, that shallwinnow her; and they shall empty her land: for in the day oftrouble they shall be against her round about.

³ Against[him that] bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against [himthat] lifteth himself up in his coat of mail: and spare ye nother young men; destroy ye utterly all her host.

⁴ And theyshall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrustthrough in her streets.

⁵ For Israel is not forsaken, norJudah, of his God, of Jehovah of hosts; though their land isfull of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

⁶ Flee out ofthe midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; be not cutoff in her iniquity: for it is the time of Jehovah's vengeance;he will render unto her a recompense.

⁷ Babylon hath been agolden cup in Jehovah's hand, that made all the earth drunken:the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations aremad.

⁸ Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail forher; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.

⁹ We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsakeher, and let us go every one into his own country; for herjudgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to theskies.

¹⁰ Jehovah hath brought forth our righteousness:come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.

¹¹ Make sharp the arrows; hold firm the shields: Jehovahhath stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; becausehis purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it: for it is thevengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance of his temple.

¹² Setup a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watchstrong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Jehovah hathboth purposed and done that which he spake concerning theinhabitants of Babylon.

¹³ O thou that dwellest upon manywaters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, the measure ofthy covetousness.

¹⁴ Jehovah of hosts hath sworn byhimself, [saying], Surely I will fill thee with men, as with thecanker-worm; and they shall lift up a shout against thee.

¹⁵ He hath made the earth by his power, he hath establishedthe world by his wisdom, and by his understanding hath hestretched out the heavens:

¹⁶ when he uttereth his voice,there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causeth thevapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makethlightnings for the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of histreasuries.

¹⁷ Every man is become brutish [and is] withoutknowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his image; for hismolten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

¹⁸ They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time oftheir visitation they shall perish.

¹⁹ The portion of Jacobis not like these; for he is the former of all things; and[Israel] is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts ishis name.

²⁰ Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war: andwith thee will I break in pieces the nations; and with thee willI destroy kingdoms;

²¹ and with thee will I break in piecesthe horse and his rider;

²² and with thee will I break inpieces the chariot and him that rideth therein; and with theewill I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I breakin pieces the old man and the youth; and with thee will I breakin pieces the young man and the virgin;

²³ and with theewill I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with theewill I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke [of oxen];and with thee will I break in pieces governors and deputies.

²⁴ And I will render unto Babylon and to all theinhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done inZion in your sight, saith Jehovah.

²⁵ Behold, I am againstthee, O destroying mountain, saith Jehovah, which destroyest allthe earth; and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and rollthee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.

²⁶ And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner,nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate forever, saith Jehovah.

²⁷ Set ye up a standard in the land,blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations againsther, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni,and Ashkenaz: appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses tocome up as the rough canker-worm.

²⁸ Prepare against herthe nations, the kings of the Medes, the governors thereof, andall the deputies thereof, and all the land of their dominion.

²⁹ And the land trembleth and is in pain; for the purposesof Jehovah against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylona desolation, without inhabitant.

³⁰ The mighty men ofBabylon have forborne to fight, they remain in theirstrongholds; their might hath failed; they are become as women:her dwelling-places are set on fire; her bars are broken.

³¹ One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger tomet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is takenon every quarter:

³² and the passages are seized, and thereeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war areaffrighted.

³³ For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God ofIsrael: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor at thetime when it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time ofharvest shall come for her.

³⁴ Nebuchadrezzar the king ofBabylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me anempty vessel, he hath, like a monster, swallowed me up, he hathfilled his maw with my delicacies; he hath cast me out.

³⁵ The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shallthe inhabitant of Zion say; and, My blood be upon theinhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.

³⁶ Thereforethus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will plead thy cause, and takevengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make herfountain dry.

³⁷ And Babylon shall become heaps, adwelling-place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing,without inhabitant.

³⁸ They shall roar together like younglions; they shall growl as lions' whelps.

³⁹ When they areheated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunken,that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and notwake, saith Jehovah.

⁴⁰ I will bring them down like lambsto the slaughter, like rams with he-goats.

⁴¹ How isSheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth seized! how isBabylon become a desolation among the nations!

⁴² The seais come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude ofthe waves thereof.

⁴³ Her cities are become a desolation, adry land, and a desert, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neitherdoth any son of man pass thereby.

⁴⁴ And I will executejudgment upon Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of hismouth that which he hath swallowed up; and the nations shall notflow any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

⁴⁵ My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and saveyourselves every man from the fierce anger of Jehovah.

⁴⁶ And let not your heart faint, neither fear ye for the tidingsthat shall be heard in the land; for tidings shall come oneyear, and after that in another year [shall come] tidings, andviolence in the land, ruler against ruler.

⁴⁷ Therefore,behold, the days come, that I will execute judgment upon thegraven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall beconfounded; and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

⁴⁸ Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein,shall sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall comeunto her from the north, saith Jehovah.

⁴⁹ As Babylon hathcaused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall theslain of all the land.

⁵⁰ Ye that have escaped the sword,go ye, stand not still; remember Jehovah from afar, and letJerusalem come into your mind.

⁵¹ We are confounded,because we have heard reproach; confusion hath covered ourfaces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah'shouse.

⁵² Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah,that I will execute judgment upon her graven images; and throughall her land the wounded shall groan.

⁵³ Though Babylonshould mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify theheight of her strength, yet from me shall destroyers come untoher, saith Jehovah.

⁵⁴ The sound of a cry from Babylon, andof great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

⁵⁵ ForJehovah layeth Babylon waste, and destroyeth out of her thegreat voice; and their waves roar like many waters; the noise oftheir voice is uttered:

⁵⁶ for the destroyer is come uponher, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bowsare broken in pieces; for Jehovah is a God of recompenses, hewill surely requite.

⁵⁷ And I will make drunk her princesand her wise men, her governors and her deputies, and her mightymen; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saiththe King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts.

⁵⁸ Thus saithJehovah of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterlyoverthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; andthe peoples shall labor for vanity, and the nations for thefire; and they shall be weary.

⁵⁹ The word which Jeremiahthe prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son ofMahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah toBabylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was chiefchamberlain.

⁶⁰ And Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evilthat should come upon Babylon, even all these words that arewritten concerning Babylon.

⁶¹ And Jeremiah said toSeraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, then see that thou readall these words,

⁶² and say, O Jehovah, thou hast spokenconcerning this place, to cut it off, that none shall dwelltherein, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolatefor ever.

⁶³ And it shall be, when thou hast made an end ofreading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and castit into the midst of the Euphrates:

⁶⁴ and thou shalt say,Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because of theevil that I will bring upon her; and they shall be weary. Thusfar are the words of Jeremiah.

¹ Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began toreign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and hismother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

² And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah,according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

³ For through theanger of Jehovah did it come to pass in Jerusalem and Judah,until he had cast them out from his presence. And Zedekiahrebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁴ And it came to passin the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenthday of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, heand all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it;and they built forts against it round about.

⁵ So the citywas besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.

⁶ Inthe fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine wassore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people ofthe land.

⁷ Then a breach was made in the city, and all themen of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by theway of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king'sgarden; (now the Chaldeans were against the city round about;)and they went toward the Arabah.

⁸ But the army of theChaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in theplains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.

⁹ Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the kingof Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he gave judgmentupon him.

¹⁰ And the king of Babylon slew the sons ofZedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judahin Riblah.

¹¹ And he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and theking of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him toBabylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

¹² Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month,which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadrezzar, king ofBabylon, came Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stoodbefore the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem:

¹³ and heburned the house of Jehovah, and the king's house; and all thehouses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burned he withfire.

¹⁴ And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were withthe captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalemround about.

¹⁵ Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guardcarried away captive of the poorest of the people, and theresidue of the people that were left in the city, and those thatfell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the residue ofthe multitude.

¹⁶ But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guardleft of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers andhusbandmen.

¹⁷ And the pillars of brass that were in thehouse of Jehovah, and the bases and the brazen sea that were inthe house of Jehovah, did the Chaldeans break in pieces, andcarried all the brass of them to Babylon.

¹⁸ The pots also,and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the basins, and thespoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered,took they away.

¹⁹ And the cups, and the firepans, and thebasins, and the pots, and the candlesticks, and the spoons, andthe bowls-that which was of gold, in gold, and that which was ofsilver, in silver,- the captain of the guard took away.

²⁰ The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve brazen bulls thatwere under the bases, which king Solomon had made for the houseof Jehovah-the brass of all these vessels was without weight.

²¹ And as for the pillars, the height of the one pillar waseighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits did compass it; andthe thickness thereof was four fingers: it was hollow.

²² And a capital of brass was upon it; and the height of the onecapital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates upon thecapital round about, all of brass: and the second pillar alsohad like unto these, and pomegranates.

²³ And there wereninety and six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranateswere a hundred upon the network round about.

²⁴ And thecaptain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, andZephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of thethreshold:

²⁵ and out of the city he took an officer thatwas set over the men of war; and seven men of them that saw theking's face, that were found in the city; and the scribe of thecaptain of the host, who mustered the people of the land; andthreescore men of the people of the land, that were found in themidst of the city.

²⁶ And Nebuzaradan the captain of theguard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon toRiblah.

²⁷ And the king of Babylon smote them, and put themto death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carriedaway captive out of his land.

²⁸ This is the people whomNebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year threethousand Jews and three and twenty;

²⁹ in the eighteenthyear of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalemeight hundred thirty and two persons;

³⁰ in the three andtwentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar Nebuzaradan the captain of theguard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty andfive persons: all the persons were four thousand and sixhundred.

³¹ And it came to pass in the seven and thirtiethyear of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in thetwelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, thatEvil-merodach king of Babylon, in the [first] year of his reign,lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought himforth out of prison;

³² and he spake kindly to him, and sethis throne above the throne of the kings that were with him inBabylon,

³³ and changed his prison garments. And[Jehoiachin] did eat bread before him continually all the daysof his life:

³⁴ and for his allowance, there was acontinual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every daya portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

• Subpages
• Headers applying DefaultSort key