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LXX Jeremiah

Septuagint

Septuagint · 1st Century B.C.E.

Textual questions dominate the Septuagint translation of Jeremiah. The LXX is 2,700 words shorter than the Masoretic text; The Dead Sea Scrolls also confirm the existence of a shorter Hebrew text-form which presumably served as the translator's model. This hypothesis now seems more likely than the main alternative one, that the translator(s) deliberately abbreviated a longer Hebrew text similar to the Masoretic text.

1The word of God that came to Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests, who dwelled in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin; 2 the word of God that came to him in the days of Josiah, son of Amos, the king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his kingdom. 3 And it happened in the days of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, the king of Judah, until the eleventh year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, the king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month. 4 And the word of the Lord came to him: 5 “I knew you before I formed you in the belly, and I sanctified you before you came out; I established you as a prophet to the nations.” 6 And I said, “Lord who is master, look, I do not know what to say, because I am a youth.” 7 And the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ for you will go to anyone to whom I send you, and you will speak anything I command you. 8 Do not be afraid of their face, for I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord. 9 And the Lord stretched out his hand toward me and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, “Look, I have placed my words into your mouth. 10 Look, I have appointed you today to nations and kingdoms, in order to root out and cast down and utterly destroy and build up and plant.” 11 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “What do you see?” And I said, “An almond staff.” 12 And the Lord said to me, “You have seen rightly, because I have stirred up over my words in order to do them.” 13 And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “A burning cauldron, and its face is from the face of the north.” 14 And the Lord said to me, “From the face of the north evils shall be kindled upon all who dwell in the land.” 15 “For look, I am convening all the kingdoms of the earth from the north,” says the Lord. “And they will come, and each one will set his throne against the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem and against all the walls that surround it and against all the cities of Judah. 16 And I will speak to them in judgment concerning all their evil, seeing as they have forsaken me and have sacrificed to foreign gods and have bowed down to the works of their hands. 17 And, you, gird up your loins and stand up and say anything I command you. Do not be afraid of their face or be terrified before them, for I am with you to deliver you,” says the Lord. 18 “Look, I have established you today as a firm city, and I have fortified all the kings of Judah, its rulers, and the people of the land as a brazen wall.

2And they will fight against you, and they shall not prevail against you, because I am with you to deliver you,” said the Lord. 2 And he said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘I have remembered the compassion of your youth and the love of his maturity when you followed the Holy One of Israel,’ says the Lord. 3 ‘Israel was holy to the Lord, the beginning of his offspring; everyone who is devouring him will go wrong; evils will come upon them,’ declares the Lord.” 4 Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and every family of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says the Lord: “What fault have your fathers found in me that they have removed themselves so far from me and have gone after vain things and come to nothing? 6 And did they not say, ‘Where is the Lord, who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who guided us through the wilderness, in an untried and untrodden land, in a waterless and barren land, in a land through which no one traveled and no person dwelled there? 7 And they brought you into Carmel for you to eat its fruit and its good things. And you went in and defiled my land, and you made my inheritance an abomination. 8 The priests did not say ‘Where is the Lord?’ And those who resist the law do not know me, and the shepherds act wickedly against me. And the prophets have prophesied to Baal and have gone after that which is unprofitable. 9 Because of this, I will still plead with you, and I will plead with the sons of your sons. 10 Therefore you came to the islands of Cyprus, and look, and send to Kedar and observe very much, and see whether such things have been done, 11 whether the nations will change their gods though they are not gods. But my people have changed their glory according to that which will not be helpful. 12 The heaven is amazed at this and shudders very excessively,” says the Lord. 13 “For my people have done two evil deeds: they have forsaken me, the spring of the water of life, and they have dug themselves a broken cistern that cannot hold water. 14 Is Israel not a slave? Is Israel not home-born? On what account has he become plunder? 15 The lions roared upon him, and they who ordered his land as a wilderness gave their voice. His cities are cast down to not be inhabited. 16 And the sons of Memphis and Tahpanhes have perceived you and mocked you. Was it not your forsaking me that did these things to you?”[1] 17 says the Lord your God. 18 “And now what have you to do withb the way of Egypt, to drink the water of Geon? And what have you to do withc the way of the Assyrians, to drink the water of the River? 19 Your apostasy will discipline you, and your wickedness will disgrace you. Know then and see that your forsaking me is bitter to you,” says the Lord your God. “I take no pleasure in you,” says the Lord your God. 20 “Because from eternity you broke your yoke into pieces; you have torn apart your bonds and said, ‘I will not serve you, but I will go upon every high hill and under every shady tree. There I will spread when I fornicate. 21 But I planted you as an entirely trustworthy, fruitful vine. How have you turned to bitterness as a foreign vine? 22 Even if you wash up with detergent and increase which kindf for yourself, you have been stained with your injustices before me,” says the Lord. 23 “How will you say, ‘I am not defiled, and I have not gone up after Baal’? See your ways in the place where men gather,g and know what you have done. In the evening her voice cries aloud; 24 she has spread her ways over the waters of the desert; in the lust of her soul she was borne by the wind; she was handed over. Who will return her? All who seek her will not grow weary; in her lowliness they will find her. 25 Turn back your foot from a rough way and your throat from thirst. But she said, ‘I will act as a man,’ for she had loved foreigners, and she went after them. 26 As the dishonor of a thief when he is caught, so the sons of Israel will be dishonored, they and their kings and their rulers and their priests and their prophets. 27 They said to the tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to the stone, ‘You have fathered me.’ And they have turned their back to me, and not their faces, and in the time of their evil they say, ‘Arise and save us! 28 And where are your gods that you have made for yourself? Will they rise up and deliver you in the time of your affliction? For your gods are as numerous as your cities, O Judah, and they sacrificed to Baal according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem.[2] 29 “Why do you speak to me, all you who act wickedly and all you who act lawlessly toward me?” says the Lord. 30 “I have struck your children in vain. You have not accepted discipline. A sword has devoured your prophets like a destroying lion, yet you were not afraid.” 31 Hear the word of the Lord. Thus, says the Lord: “Have I been a wilderness or a dry land to Israel? On what account have my people said, ‘We will not be ruled, and we will not come to you any longer’? 32 Will a bride forget her ornaments or a virgin her breast band? But my people have forgotten me for innumerablea days. 33 What further good thing will you practice in your ways to seek affection? Not so! But you have done evil so as to defile your ways. 34 And the blood of innocent souls was found in your hands. They were not found in holes but upon every oak. 35 And you said, ‘I am innocent; only let his anger turn away from me.’ Look, I plead to you when you say, ‘I have not sinned. 36 bWhy have you been very spiteful as to repeat your ways? And you will be disgraced by Egypt just as you will be disgraced by Assyria. For you will go out from there also, with your hands upon your head, because the Lord has rejected your hope, without prosperity in it.

3“If a man sends his wife away, and she leaves him and becomes anotherman’s wife, will she still return and returnc to him? Won’t that woman be defiled and defiled?d But you have committed fornication with many shepherds, and you have returned to me,” says the Lord. 2 “Lift up your eyes straight and look. Where have you not been defiled? You have sat for them by roadsides like a deserted crow, and you have defiled the land by your fornications and by your evil deeds. 3 And you kept many shepherds for a stumbling block to yourself. Your appearance was that of a prostitute; it was shameful to everyone. 4 Didn’t you refer to me as a home and as the father and leader of your virginity? 5 Will it remain for eternity or be preserved to the end? Look, you have spoken, and you have done these evil deeds, and you have prevailed.” 6 And the Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah, “Have you seen what the house of Israel has done to me? They go up on every high mountain and under every shaded tree, and they prostitute themselves there! 7 And I said, after she had committed all these fornications, ‘Return to me.’ Yet she did not return. And faithless Judah saw her faithlessness. 8 And therefore I saw about all the things by which I also saw, about all the things by which she was taken, by which the house of Israel had committed adultery, and for which I had sent her away and given her a divorce letter into her hand. Yet faithless Judah was not afraid, and she even went and committed fornication. 9 And her fornication came to nothing, and she committed adultery with the tree and the stone. 10 And despite all these things, faithless Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but falsely!” 11 And the Lord said to me, “Israel has justified its soul from faithless Judah. 12 Go! Read these words to the north and say, ‘Return to me, O house of Israel,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will not set my face against you, for I am merciful,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will not be full of wrath toward you for eternity. 13 Surely you must acknowledge your wrongdoing, because you have acted wickedly against the Lord your God, and you have spread your ways before strangers under every shaded tree, but you have not heard my voice,” says the Lord. 14 “Return, O sons who have departed,” says the Lord. “For I will have dominion over you, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and I will bring you to Zion. 15 And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, and in shepherding they will shepherd you with skill. 16 And this will happen: When you are multiplied and have increased upon the land, in those days,” says the Lord, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Holy One of Israel!’ It will not come upon the heart, and it will not be named or considered, and it will no longer be done. 17 In those days and in that season, they will call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all nations will be gathered to her, and they will no longer go after the imaginations of their evil heart. 18 In those days the house of Judah will come together with the house of Israel, and they will come upon it, upon the land that I caused their fathers to inherit, from the land of the north and from all territories.” 19 And I said, “So be it, Lord!” “For I will put you among the nations, and I will give you a land chosen as an inheritance from God Almighty, God of the nations. And I said you will call me father, and you will not turn away from me. 20 But as a woman rejects the one who is with her, so the house of Israel has rejected me,” says the Lord. 21 A voice from the lips was heard, a weeping and a supplication from the sons of Israel. For they have done wrong in their ways. They have forgotten their holy God. 22 “Return, O children who turn, and I will heal your wounds.” Look, we will be your servants; for you, O Lord, are our God. 23 Truly the hills and the strength of the mountains were a lie. Surely the salvation of Israel comes through the Lord our God. 24 But shame has consumed the labors of our fathers since our youth—their sheep and calves and their sons and daughters. 25 We have slept in our shame, and our dishonor has covered us. Because we have sinned before our God, we and our fathers, from our youth until this day, and we have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God.

4“If Israel returns, to me,” says the Lord, “she will return. If her abominations are turned from her mouth and she fears the face, 2 then you will swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ truly in judgment and in righteousness; nations will bless him and praise God in Jerusalem. 3 For Thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to those who dwell in Jerusalem: “Plow for yourselves the fallow land and do not sow among thorns. 4 Circumcise yourselves to God, and circumcise your hardened heart, O men of Judah and those who dwell in Jerusalem, lest his anger go out like a fire and burn, and there will be no one who can quench it from the face of your wicked practices.” 5 Make a declaration in Judah, and let it be heard in Jerusalem. Say, “Sound an alarm with a trumpet in the land! Cry out with a loud voice! Say, ‘Gather together and enter into the fortified cities. 6 Get up! Run away to Zion! Make haste! Do not stand around, for I am bringing disasters and a great destruction from the north.” 7 The lion has gone up out of his den. He has lifted himself up to destroy the nations utterly and has gone out from his place in order to make the land a desolation. And the cities will be taken down, for them not to be inhabited. 8 “Gird yourselves with sackcloth at these things, and hit yourself and raise the war cry, for the anger of the Lord will not turn back from you. 9 And this will happen on that day,” says the Lord: “The heart of the king will perish, and the heart of the ruler and the priests will be amazed, and the prophets will be astonished.” 10 And I said, “O master, Lord, then in deceiving you have surely deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying ‘There will be peace.’ Yet look, the sword has touched all the way to their soul.” 11 At that time they will say to this people and to Jerusalem, there is a wind of deception in the wilderness; the way of the daughter of my people is not toward purity or holiness. 12 A wind of fullness will come upon me, but now I am pronouncing judgments against them. 13 Look! He will come like a cloud, and his chariots will come like a storm; his horses will come swifter than eagles. Woe to us, because we are miserable. 14 Cleanse your heart from evil, O Jerusalem, so that you can be saved. How long will your distressful thoughts be within you? 15 For a voice announcing from Dan will come, and distress will be heard from mount Ephraim. 16 Remind the nations, “Look! It has come!” Declare in Jerusalem, “The bands have come from the land afar, and they have offered their voice upon the city of Judah.” 17 “Like those who guard a field, they have come around it, for you have neglected me,” says the Lord. 18 “Your ways and your pursuits have brought these things upon you. This is your wickedness, because it is bitter, because it has reached to your heart.” 19 I am pained in my belly and in the senses of my heart. My soul is anxious; my heart is torn. I will not be silent because my soul has heard the sound of a trumpet, the cry of battle. 20 And misery will be called distress, for all the land has become miserable. Suddenly the tent is in ruin; my curtain has been torn apart. 21 How long will I see fugitives, hearing the sound of trumpets? 22 For the leaders of my people do not know me. They are foolish and not wise children; they are skilled at acting evilly, but they do not know how to act well. 23 I looked at the land, and look! Nothing! And I looked to the sky, and it had no light. 24 I saw the mountains, and they were trembling, and all the hills were shaking. 25 I looked, and look! There was no human, and all the birds of the sky were terrified. 26 I saw, and look! Carmel was a desert, and all the cities had been burnt at the face of the Lord, and they had been removed at the face of his raging anger. 27 Thus says the Lord: “All the land will be deserted, but I will not bring the end. 28 Mourn at these things, O land, and grow dark, O heavens above! For I have spoken and will not change my mind. I have moved ahead, and I will not turn away from it. 29 The entire territory has fled at the sound of the horseman and the stretched bow. They have entered into caves and hidden among the groves, and they have gone up on the rocks. Every city has been forsaken; no person was living in them. 30 And as for you, what will you do? Even if you clothe yourself with scarlet and adorn yourself with golden ornaments, if you rub powder on your eyes, your adornment is in vain. Your lovers have rejected you; they seek your life. 31 Because I have heard the sound of your groaning, like a woman in labor, like a woman bearing her firstborn. The sound of the daughter of Zion will fail, and her hands will lose strength.” Woe is me! For my soul comes to an end on account of those who are destroyed!

5“Run around in the streets of Jerusalem and see and know and seek in its broad places, if you can find, if there is anyone who does justice and seeks faithfulness, and I will be merciful to him,” says the Lord. 2 “As the Lord lives,” they say. Therefore, are they not swearing in lies? 3 O Lord, your eyes are toward faithfulness. You have flogged them, and they have not worked. You have consumed them, and they did not want to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than a rock, and they did not want to turn back. 4 Then I said, “Perhaps they are needy, because they are were unable, because they did not know the ways of the Lord and the judgment of God. 5 I will go to the mighty and speak to them, because they have witnessed the way of the Lord and the judgment of God.” And look! They have broken the yoke with one accord; they have burst the bonds. 6 Because of this, a lion from the thicket has played with them, and a wolf has slain them all the way to the houses, and a panther has watched their cities. All those who go out from them will be hunted because they have multiplied their ungodly acts; they have become stronger in their aversions. 7 “For which of these will I be merciful to you? Your sons have forsaken me and have sworn by things that are not gods. I fed them, and they committed adultery and stayed in prostitutes’ houses. 8 They became wanton horses; each one vied for the wife of his neighbor. 9 Shall I not inspect them at these things?” says the Lord. “Or shall my soul not be avenged on a people such as this?” 10 “Go up on her fortifications and utterly destroy them. But do not make a full payment; leave her undergirding supports behind, for they are the Lord’s. 11 For in rejecting, the house of Israel has rejected me,” says the Lord. “And the house of Judah 12 has spoken falsely to their own Lord and has said, ‘These things are not so; evil things will not happen to us, and we will not see sword and famine. 13 Our prophets have become wind, and the word of the Lord was not in them.’” So, it will be with them. 14 On account of this, thus says the Lord Almighty: “Because of what you have spoken, namely this word, look! I have made my words in your mouth like fire, and this people like wood, and it will consume them. 15 Look! I am bringing a people from afar upon you, O house of Israel,” says the Lord, “a peoplea of whom he will not hear the sound of its tongue. 16 All of them are mighty men, and they will eat up your harvest 17 and your loaves, and they will devour your sons and your daughters, and they will devour your sheep and your calves, and they will devour your vineyards and your fig yards and your olive yards; and they will tread cities, your fortified cities upon which you have relied, with the sword. 18 And this will happen in that day,” says the Lord your God. “I will not make an end of you. 19 And this will happen, whenever you say, ‘For the sake of what has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ Then you will say to them, ‘Because you have served foreign gods in your land! Therefore you will serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’” 20 Proclaim these things to the house of Jacob and let them be heard in Judah. 21 “Hear these things now, foolish and senseless people whose eyes do not see, whose ears do not understand. 22 Will you not be afraid of me?” says the Lord, “or will you not cower before my face? He who stationed the sand as a boundary for the sea, as an eternal ordinance—and the sea will not pass over it. It will be stirred up but will not prevail; its waves will sound, but the sea will not pass over it. 23 But this people acquired a disobedient and resistant heart. And they have turned away and departed. 24 They have not said in their heart, ‘Let us indeed fear the Lord our God, who gives us the early and late rain according to the season of the fullness of the ordinance of the harvest, and who has defended us. 25 Your transgressions have perverted these things, and your sins have driven the good things away from you. 26 Because profane people have been found among my people, and snares have been set up to destroy the men utterly, and they are captured by them. 27 Just as a set trap is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Because of this, they have increased and have become wealthy. 28 And they have transgressed judgment. They have not judged the judgment of the orphan, and they have not decided the judgment of the widow. 29 Shall I not visit on account of this?” says the Lord. “Or shall my soul not be avenged on such a nation as this?” 30 Terrible and horrible deeds have been done upon the land. 31 The prophets prophesy unrighteous prophecies, and the priests clap their hands, and my people loved it this way. And what should you do for the things after these?

6Strengthen yourselves, sons of Benjamin, from the middle of Jerusalem, and sound the war trumpet into Tikvah, and raise a sign over Beth-haccherem. For evil things have peeped out from the north, and a great destruction is coming, 2 and your exaltation will be taken away, O daughter of Zion. 3 The shepherds and their flocks will come to her, and they will pitch tents on her, all around, and each of them will shepherd with his hand. 4 Prepare yourselves for war against her! Arise and let us go up against her at midday! Woe to us, because the day has set, because the shadows of the days are coming to an end. 5 Rise and let us go up against her at night and utterly destroy her foundations! 6 For Thus says the Lord: “Cut down her trees; pour power upon Jerusalem. O lying city, full oppression is in her! 7 As a cistern cools water, so wickedness refreshes her. Ungodliness and misery will be heard in her at her face always. 8 you will be disciplined, O Jerusalem! Let my spirit not depart from you; let me not make you an untraveled land that is not inhabited.” 9 For Thus says the Lord: “Glean! Glean the remnant of Israel as a vine! Return like one who gathers with his basket. 10 To whom shall I speak and warn that he will listen? Look! Their ears are uncircumcised, and they will not prevail to understand. Look! The saying of the Lord has come to them for a reproach; they will not wish for it at all. 11 And I satisfied my anger, and I held back, and I did not make an end of them. I will pour upon the children outside, upon the assembly of young men together, for a man and a woman will be captured, an elder after the fullness of days. 12 And their houses will be turned to others, their fields and wives at the same time, because I will stretch out my hand against those who dwell in this land,” says the Lord. 13 “For from the least of them to the greatest, they all have perpetrated lawlessness, from priest to false prophet; all have acted falsely. 14 And they healed the wound of my people disdainfully, saying, ‘Peace! Peace!’ But where is peace? 15 They were ashamed because they came to an end, but they were not ashamed like those who are ashamed. They did not know their dishonor. On account of this they will collapse when they fall, and at the time of visitation they will be destroyed,” said the Lord. 16 Thus says the Lord: “Stand on the roads, and see, and inquire of the eternal paths of the Lord, and see what is the good way! And proceed in it, and you will find purification for your souls.” But they said, “We will not go.” 17 I have set a watchman over you. Listen to the sound of the war trumpet! But they said, “We will not listen.” 18 On account of this, the nations and those who shepherd their flocks have heard. 19 Listen, O land of Israel! Look! I am bringing bad things upon this people, the fruit of their apostasy, for they have not regarded my words, and they have thrust my law away. 20 Why are you me bringing frankincense from Sheba and cinnamon from a distant land? Your whole burnt sacrifices are not acceptable, and your offerings do not please me. 21 On account of this, thus says the Lord: “Look! I am putting weakness upon this people, and fathers and sons will be weak together. A neighbor and his friend will perish.” 22 Thus says the Lord: “Look! A people is coming from the north, and nations will rise from the end of the earth. 23 They will capture with bow and spear. It is a bold nation, and they will show no mercy. Its sound is like a rolling sea. It will array itself like fire upon horses and chariots into battle against you, O daughter of Zion.” 24 We have heard the report of them; our hands are weakened. Affliction has seized us, labor pain like a woman giving birth. 25 Do not go out into the field or into the streets. Do not proceed, for the sword of the enemy is dwelling all around. 26 O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth! Spread yourself with ashes of sorrow, O beloved! Make a pitiable lamentation for yourself, because misery will come upon you suddenly. 27 I have given you as a test among a tested people, and you will know me when I have tested their way. 28 All of them are disobedient, going crookedly. They are copper and iron; all of them are utterly destroyed. 29 The bellows have come to an end because of the fire; the lead has come to an end. The silversmith coins money in vain; their wickedness is not melted away. 30 Call them rejected silver, for the Lord has rejected them.”

7 2 Hear the word of the Lord, all Judea! 3 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “Make your ways and your practices straight, and I will establish you in this place. 4 Do not persuade yourselves by lying words, for they will absolutely not help you, saying, ‘It is the temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! 5 For if in straightening you straighten your ways and your practices, and when making you make a judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6 and you do not oppress the stranger and the orphan and the widow, and you do not pour out innocent blood in this place, and you do not go after foreign gods to your detriment, 7 I will establish you in this place, in the land that I gave your fathers from eternity and until eternity. 8 But if you are convinced by lying words by which you will not be helped, 9 and you murder, and you commit adultery, and you steal, and you swear oaths on the basis of unrighteousness, and you burn incense to Baal and keep going after foreign gods that you have not known, 10 so that it goes badly for you; yet you have come and stood before me in the house where my name has been called upon it. And you have said, ‘We have removed ourselves to not do all these abominations. 11 Is my house, where my name has been called upon it there a cave of thieves before you? And look, I have seen this,” says the Lord. 12 “Because you went to my place, the one in Shiloh where I settled my name before. You have seen what I did to it because of the face of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because of all these deeds you have done, and I spoke to you and you did not listen to me, and I called you and you did not reply, 14 so I will do to the house which my name has been called upon it, which you have trusted, even the place I gave to you and your fathers, just as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you off from my face just as I cast off your brothers, all the seed of Ephraim.” 16 “And as for you, do not pray for this people, and do not consider them worthy of being shown mercy. And do not pray and do not come to me about them, because I will not listen. 17 Or don’t you see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and on the roads of Jerusalem? 18 Their children gather wood, and their fathers kindle a fire, and their women grind flour to make cakes for the host of heaven. And they pour out libations to foreign gods so that they might provoke me to anger. 19 Don’t they provoke me to anger?” says the Lord, “and don’t they also provoke themselves so that their faces are disgraced?” 20 On account of this, thus says the Lord: “Look, my wrath and anger will be poured out upon this place and upon the humans, and upon the livestock, and upon every tree of their field, and upon the fruit of the land. And it will burn, and it will not be quenched.” 21 Thus says the Lord: “Gather your whole burnt offerings with your sacrifices and eat meat. 22 For I did not speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt about whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 Instead, I commanded them this word, saying, ‘Hear my voice, and I will be a God for you, and you will be a people for me. And walk in all my ways that I have commanded you, so that it may be well with you. 24 And they did not hear me or pay attention with their ear, but they walked in the thoughts of their wicked heart, and they went backward and not forward 25 from the day that their fathers left the land of Egypt, even to this day. And I sent you all my servants the prophets by day, and I sent them early, 26 and they did not hear me or pay attention with their ear, and they stiffened their neck more than their fathers. 28 And you will say this word to them: ‘As for this nation, which has not heard the voice of the Lord or accepted discipline, faith has come to an end from their mouth.’” 29 Cut off your haira and throw it away, and lift a lamentation on your lips, for the Lord has rejected and thrust away the generation that has done these things. 30 “For the sons of Judah have done evil against me,” says the Lord. “They have arranged their abominations in the house upon which my name has been invoked, to defile it. 31 And they have built the altar of Topheth, which is in the ravine of the son of Ennom, to burn their sons and their daughters with fire, which I did not command them, and I did not intend in my heart. 32 On account of this, look, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “and they will no longer say, ‘The altar of Topheth’ and ‘The valley of the son of Ennom,’ but rather, ‘The valley of the slain.’ And they will bury people in Topheth because there is no other place. 33 And the corpses of this people will become food for the birds of heaven and the wild animals of the land. And there will be no one to scare them away. 34 And I will destroy the sound of cheering and the sound of rejoicing from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, the sound of the bridegroom and the sound of the bride, because all the land will be a desolation.”

8“At that time,” says the Lord, “they will bring the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of her rulers and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets and the bones of those who dwell in Jerusalem out of their tombs. 2 And they will air them to the sun and the moon and all the stars, and to all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served and followed and clung to and worshipped. They will be not mourned, and they will not be buried, and they will be an example on the face of the land, 3 because they chose death rather than life, even for all those of that generation who remain in every place where I have thrust them.” 4 For Thus says the Lord: “Does the one who falls not rise up, or the one who turns away not return? 5 On what account has this people of mine turned back in shameless aversion and been overcome by their choice, and did not want to return? 6 Give ear now and listen! Will they not speak like this: ‘There is no human who repents from his wickedness, saying, “What have I done?”’ The runner has ceased from his race like a sweating horse in its neighing. 7 Even the stork in the sky knew its time. The turtledove and the swallow of the field, the sparrow kept the seasons of their entrance. But my people did not know the judgments of the Lord. 8 How will you say, ‘We are clever, and the law of the Lord is with us?’ The lying pen has become futile to the scribes. 9 The wise were put to shame, and they were terrified and were captured, because they have rejected the law of the Lord. What wisdom is in them? 10 bBecause of this, I will give their wives to others and their fields to their heirs. 13 cAnd they will gather their fruit,” says the Lord. “There are no clusters of grapes on the vines, and no figs on the fig trees; even the leaves have fallen off. 14 What are we sitting on? Let us gather and go into the fortified cities, and let us be cast off, for God has cast us off. And he has given us water with gall, because we have sinned against him. 15 We gathered for peace, and there was no good, for a time of healing and look, there was haste! 16 We will hear the sound of his swift horses from Dan; the whole land quaked at the neighing sound of his horse cavalry; and he will come, and he will devour the land and its fullness, the city and those who dwell in it. 17 For look, I am dispatching deadly serpents against you, against which there is no charm, and they will bite you 18 incurably with pain, your heart failing. 19 Look! The sound of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land afar: ‘Is not the Lord in Zion? Or is there no king there?’ (On what account have they provoked me to anger with their graven images and with foreign vanities?) 20 ‘Summer has passed. Harvest has passed by, and we have not been saved. 21 I was saddened at the affliction of the daughter of my people. Birth pangs like those of a woman giving birth have overpowered me with anxiety. 22 Is there no resin in Gilead or no physician there? On what account has the healing of the daughter of my people not gone up?”

9aWho will giveb water for my head and a spring of tears for my eyes! Then I would lament this people of mine day and night, those of the daughter of my people who are wounded. 2 cWho would give me a remote lodging place in the wilderness? Will I leave my people behind and depart from them? Because they all commit adultery; they are an assembly of traitors. 3 And they bent their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not faith grew strong upon the land, for they went from evil to evil, and they did not know me. 4 Each of you: watch out for his neighbor! And do not trust his brother! Because every brother will strike with his heel, and every friend will walk deceitfully. 5 Each one will mock his friend; they shall not speak truth. Their tongue has learned to speak lies; they did wrong and did not cease turning to evil. 6 Usury upon usury, and deceit upon deceit; they were not wanting to know me. 7 Because of this, Thus says the Lord: “Look! I will purge them, and I will test them, for I will act because of the face of the evil of the daughter of my people. 8 Their tongue is a wounding javelin. The words of their mouth are deceitful; he speaks peaceful things to his friend, and he has enmity within himself. 9 Shall I not look at these things?” says the Lord, “or shall my soul not be avenged on such a people?” 10 Take up mourning upon the mountains! And take up a lamentation upon the paths of the desert! Because they have come to an end so that there is no one. They did not hear the sound of existence; they were confounded, from the birds of the sky even to the livestock; they have departed. 11 And I will put Jerusalem into captivity and into an abode of dragons, and I will make the cities of Judah into destruction so that it is uninhabited. 12 Who is the prudent person? So, let him understand this. And to whom has the word of the mouth of the Lord come? Let him declare it to you. Why has the land been destroyed, kindled like a wilderness so that nothing travels through it? 13 And the Lord said to me, “Because they forsook my law that I had put before their face, and they did not hear my voice, 14 but have gone after those things that please their wicked heart, and after idols that their fathers taught them to follow, 15 therefore, this is what the Lord the God of Israel says: ‘Look! I will feed them tribulation and give them water with gall to drink. 16 And I will scatter them among the nations that they and their fathers did not know, and I will send the sword upon them until they are consumed by it.’” 17 Thus says the Lord: “Summon the mourners and let them come! And send for the skilled and let them speak; 18 and let them take up a lamentation over you, and let your eyes bring down tears, and let your eyelashes flow with water. 19 Because the sound of a lamentable person was heard in Zion: ‘How have we endured hardship! We have been very disgraced, because we have forsaken the land, and we have cast down our tents.’” 20 Hear now, O women, the word of God, and let your ears receive the words of his mouth. And teach your daughters a dirge, and let a woman teach her friend a lamentation. 21 Because death has gone up through your windows; it has entered your land to destroy infants outside and young men from the wide-open spaces. 22 And the human dead will be an example upon the face of the plain of your land, like stubble behind a reaper. And there will be no one to gather it. 23 Thus says the Lord: “Let the wise not boast in his wisdom, and let the strong not boast in his strength, and let the wealthy not boast in his riches. 24 Rather let the one who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows that I am the Lord, the one who deals in mercy and judgment and righteousness upon the earth. For my will is in this,” says the Lord. 25 “Look! The day is coming,” says the Lord, “and I will visit upon all the circumcised their foreskins, 26 upon Egypt and upon Idumea and upon Edom and upon the sons of Ammon and upon the sons of Moab and upon everyone who shaves the things along his face, those who dwell in the desert, because every nation is uncircumcised in flesh, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in their heart.”

10Hear the word of the Lord, which he spoke against you, O house of Israel! 2 Thus says the Lord: “Do not learn according to the ways of the nations, and do not be afraid at the signs of the sky; for they are frightened before them, 3 because the ordinances of the nations are worthless. A tree is cut down from the forest; it is a carpenter’s work and a molten image. 4 They are adorned with silver and gold. With hammers and nails they have fastened them; they will fasten them, and they will not be moved. 5 It is beaten silver; they will not walk. 5 They will be lifted and carried, for they will not walk. Do not be afraid of them, because they shall not do harm, and there is no good in them. 9 Overlaid silver will come from Tarshish, gold of Mophaz and a goldsmith’s hand; they all are the work of artisans. They will put blue and purple on them.” 11 This is what you will say to them, “Let gods who have not made the sky and the land be destroyed from the land and from beneath this sky. 12 It is the Lord who made the earth with his power, who set up the inhabited world with his wisdom. And he has stretched out the sky with his insight, 13 and a quantity of water was in the sky, and he brought up clouds from the end of the earth. He turned lightning into rain and brought light out from his treasuries.[3] 14 Every person was foolish, without knowledge; every goldsmith was put to shame with respect to his carved images, because he cast false things; there is no breath in them. 15 They are worthless, works of mockery. At the time of their visitation, they will be utterly destroyed. 16 Such is not the portion of Jacob, because he who formed all things, he is his inheritance; the Lord is his name.” 17 He gathered your substance together from outside when it was residing in the choicest places. 18 Because Thus says the Lord: “Look! I am overthrowing those who dwell in this land with oppression so that your wound may be found. 19 Woe to you on account of your wound! Your wound is painful! And I said, ‘Indeed this is your wound, and it has taken hold of you. 20 Your tent has endured hardship. It was destroyed, and all your leather coverings were torn asunder.’ My sons and my sheep are no more. There is no longer a place for my tent, a place for my leather covering. 21 Because the shepherds have played the fool, and they did not seek the Lord. Therefore the whole pasture did not perceive, and they were scattered abroad. 22 A sound of a report! Look! It is coming, even a great earthquake from a land of the north, to arrange the cities of Judah into a ruin and a nest for sparrows.” 23 I have known, O Lord, that the way of humankind is not of himself, and a man will not go and establish his journey. 24 Discipline us, O Lord, but with justice and not with anger, so that you may not make us few. 25 Pour out your anger upon the nations that do not know you and upon the generations that have not invoked your name, because they have devoured Jacob and consumed him, and they have made his pastures deserted.

11The word that came from the Lord to Jeremiah, saying, 2 “Hear the words of this covenant, and you shall speak to the men of Judah and to those who dwell in Jerusalem. 3 And you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Lord the God of Israel says: “Cursed is the person who will not listen to the words of this covenant, 4 which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, ‘Hear my voice and do everything I have commanded you. And you will be my people, and I will be your God, 5 so that I might establish my oath that I swore to your fathers, to give to them a land flowing with milk and honey, just as it is this day.’”’” And I replied and said, “May it be, O Lord.” 6 And the Lord said to me, “Read these words in the cities of Judah and outside Jerusalem, saying, ‘Hear the words of this covenant and do them.’” 8 And they did not do them. 9 And the Lord said to me, “A conspiracy was found among the men of Judah and among those who dwell in Jerusalem. 10 They have turned back to the injustices of their fathers of the former times who did not want to listen to my words. And look! They went after foreign gods to serve them, and the house of Israel and the house of Judah have scattered my covenant, which I arranged with their fathers.” 11 Because of this, thus says the Lord: “Look! I am bringing calamities upon this people from which they will not be able to escape.a And they will cry out to me, and I will not listen to them. 12 And the cities of Judah and those who dwell in Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense. Will they deliver them in the time of their calamities? 13 Because your gods were as numerous as your cities, O Judah, and you have arranged altars as numerous as the exits of Jerusalem, to burn incense to Baal. 14 And as for you, do not pray for this people, and do not beseech me about them with supplication and prayer, because I will not listen whena they invoke me in the time of their affliction. 15 Why has the beloved performed an abomination in my house? Will prayers and holy flesh remove your evils from you, or will you escape these things? 16 The Lord called your name a beautiful olive tree, well shaded in appearance; at the sound of its pruning,b a fire was kindled upon it. The oppression was great upon you; its branches were rendered useless. 17 And the Lord who planted you has spoken calamities against you in return for the evils of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, because they have done this to themselves to provoke me to anger by their offering incense to the Baal.” 18 O Lord, make known to me and I will know. Then I saw their practices, 19 but I did not know, like an innocent lamb being led to be sacrificed. They reckoned an evil reckoning against me, saying, “Come, and let us throw wood into his bread and destroy him from the land of the living, and his name will no longer be remembered.” 20 O Lord who judges righteously, who tests the kidneys and the hearts, may I see your vengeance on them, because I have revealed my duty to you. 21 Because of this, thus says the Lord against the men of Anathoth who are seeking my soul, who say, “You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord; but if not, you will die by our hands,” 22 “Look! I will pay them a visit. Their young men will die by the sword, and their sons and their daughters will come to an end by famine. 23 And there will be no remnant of them, for I will bring calamities upon those who dwell in Anathoth in the year of their visitation.”

12You are righteous, O Lord, for I will make a defense to you. Surely, I will speak of judgments to you. Why is it that the way of the ungodly prospers? That all those who deal treacherously in transgressions thrive? 2 You planted them, and they took root. They bore children, and they produced fruit. You are near to their mouth and far from their kidneys. 3 And you, O Lord, you know me. You have tested my heart before you. Purify them unto the day of their slaughter. 4 How long will the land mourn, and all the grass of the field dry up from the evil of those who dwell in it? Livestock and birds have been removed because they said, “God will not see my ways.” 5 Your feet are running, and they are failing you. How will you prepare against horses? And you did not trust in a land of peace. How will you do against the insolence of the Jordan? 6 Because even your brothers and your father’s house, even they have dealt treacherously with you. They also cried aloud. They were gathered together after you. Do not trust them because they speak good things to you. 7 I have forsaken my house; I have let go of my inheritance; I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies. 8 My inheritance has become to me like a lion in a thicket. She has sent her voice upon me. Because of this, I hated her. 9 Is my inheritance a hyena’s cave to me, or is a cave all around her? Go, gather all the wild animals of the field together and let them come to eat her. 10 Many shepherds have utterly destroyed my vineyard. They have defiled my portion; they have turneda my desired portion into an impassable wilderness. 11 It was made into a ruin of annihilation. Because of me the whole land was destroyed by destruction, because there is no one who minds. 12 Those who are miserable have come to every passage in the wilderness, because the sword of the Lord will devour from the edge of the land. There is no peace for any flesh. 13 Sow wheat and reap thistle. Their lots will not benefit them. Be ashamed of your boasting, of your disgracing before the Lord. 14 For Thus says the Lord concerning all the evil neighbors who touch my inheritance that I have allotted to my people Israel. “Look! I am dragging them from their land, and I will throw Judah out from the middle of them. 15 And this will happen after I throw them out: I will turn and have mercy upon them, and I will settle them, each one in his inheritance and each one in his land. 16 And this will happen if, when they are learning, they learn the way of my people, swearing by my name, “As the Lord lives!” just as they taught my people to swear an oath to Baal; and it will be built in the middle of my people. 17 But if they do not turn, then I will lift up that nation with destruction and annihilation.”

13Thus says the Lord: “Go and get a linen girdle for yourself, and place it around your loins, and it shall not pass through water.” 2 And I acquired the girdle according to the word of the Lord, and I placed it around my loins. 3 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 4 “Take the girdle that is around your loins, and rise up and walk by the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.” 5 And I went, and I hid it by the Euphrates as the Lord commanded me. 6 And this happened: After many days the Lord also said to me, “Rise up! Go by the Euphrates and retrieve the girdle that I commanded you to hide.” 7 And I went by the Euphrates River, and I dug, and I took the girdle out of the place where I had buried it, and look! It was utterly destroyed, which made it useful for nothing. 8 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “Thus says the Lord, 9 ‘So I will destroy the insolence of Judah and the insolence of Jerusalem, 10 this great insolence, those who are unwilling to listen to my words and have gone after foreign gods, to serve them and worship them. They will be like this girdle that is useful for nothing. 11 Because just as the girdle clings around the loins of a man, so I made the house of Israel and all the house of Judah cling to me, for them to become a notable people for me, both as a boast and for glory; and they did not listen to me. 12 And you shall say to this people, ‘Every wineskin will be filled with wine.’ And this will happen if they say to you, ‘Will we, knowing, know that every wineskin will be filled with wine? 13 And you will say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Look! I will fill with intoxicating drink those who dwell in this land: their rulers, the sons of David who are seated upon their throne, and the priests and the prophets and Judah and all who dwell in Jerusalem. 14 And I will scatter them, a man and his brother, and their fathers and their sons at the same time. I will not yearn,” says the Lord, “and I will not spare, and I will not have pity at their destruction.”’” 15 Hear and pay attention and do not be lifted up, because the Lord has spoken. 16 Give glory to the Lord your God before darkness comes, and before your feet stumble on dark mountains; and you will wait for daylight, and the shadow of death will be there, and they will be placed in darkness. 17 But if you do not hear, your soul will weep in secret on account of the face of insolence. And your eyes will bring down tears, for the flock of the Lord has been crushed.[4] 18 Say to the king and to those who rule: “Be made low and sit down, because your crown of glory has been removed from your head.” 19 The cities toward the south were enclosed, and there was no one who could open it. Judah was sent into exile. They finished a complete captivity. 20 Lift up your eyes, O Jerusalem, and see those who are coming from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you, the sheep of your glory? 21 What will you say when they visit you? And you taught them lessons for authority concerning you. Will birth pangs not take hold of you, just as a woman giving birth? 22 And if you say in your heart, “Why have these things happened to me?” it is because of the greatness of your injustice that your back parts were uncovered, that your heels were put to shame. 23 Will an Ethiopian change his skin and the leopard its spots? And will you be able to do well, after learning evil? 24 “And I scattered them like firewood, carried by the wind into the desert. 25 This is your lot and portion for resisting me,” says the Lord, “since you have forgotten me and have hoped in lies. 26 And I will uncover your back parts before your face, and your dishonor will be seen, 27 both your adultery and your neighing and the alienation of your fornication. I have seen your abominations upon the hills and in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem, because you were not cleansed after me. How much longer?”

14And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah concerning the drought: 2 Judah mourned, and her gates were emptied, and they were darkened in the land, and the cry of Jerusalem went up. 3 And her nobles sent their young men for water. They came upon the cisterns, and they did not find water, and they returned their vessels empty. 4 And the labors of the land have come to an end because there was no rain. The farmers were put to shame; they covered their heads. 5 Even the does in the field gave birth, and they abandoned their young because there was no vegetation. 6 Wild asses stood by wooded valleys; they drew wind. Their eyes came to an end because there was no hay.[5] 7 Our sins have stood against us, O Lord; act for us for your sake, because our sins before you are many, because we have sinned against you. 8 You are the endurance of Israel, O Lord, and you save in time of calamity. Why have you become like a foreigner upon the land and like an indigenous person turning to lodging? 9 You will not be like a sleeping person or like a man who is unable to save. And you are among us, O Lord, and your name has been called upon us. Do not forget us! 10 Thus says the Lord to this people: “They have loved to move their feet, and they have not held back, and God did not prosper among them. Now will he remember their wrongdoing.” 11 And the Lord said to me, “Do not pray concerning this people for their good, 12 because if they fast, I will not listen to their prayer; and if they offer whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, I will not be pleased with them. Because I will put an end to them by sword and by famine and by death.” 13 And I said, “One who is, Lord, look! Their prophets are prophesying and saying, ‘You will see no sword, and there will be no famine among you, because I will put truth and peace upon the land and in this place.’” 14 And the Lord said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, and I did not command them, and I did not speak to them, because they are prophesying false visions and divinations and omens and choices of their heart to you.” 15 Because of this, Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets, “The prophets who prophesy lie in my name, but I did not send them who say, ‘Sword and famine will not come upon this land.’ They will die a sickly death, and the prophets will come to an end by famine. 16 And the people to whom they are prophesying will also be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem, from the face of the sword and the famine, and there will be no one to bury them, and as for their wives and their sons and their daughters, I also will pour their evil upon them. 17 And you shall say to them this word: ‘Bring tears down on your eyes day and night, and do not let them cease, because the daughter of my people has been crushed with affliction and with an very painful blow.’” 18 If I go out into the field, and look: those wounded by the sword! And if I enter into the city, and look: the distress of famine! For priest and prophet have gone into a land that they had not known. 19 When rejecting, did you not reject Judah, and has your soul not departed from Zion? Why did you mock us and there is no healing for us? We waited for peace and there was no good, for a time of healing, and look, trouble! 20 We learned of our sins, O Lord, the injustices of our fathers, because we have sinned before you. 21 Desist on account of your name; do not destroy the throne of your glory. Remember, and do not scatter your covenant with us. 22 Among the idols of the nations is there anyone who brings rain or will give the sky its abundance? Are you not he? And we will wait on you, O Lord, because you have done all this.

15And the Lord said to me, “If Moses and Samuel stood before my face, my soul would not be toward them. Send this people away and let them go! 2 And this will happen: “If they say to you, ‘Where will we go?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: “All who go to death, to death, and all who go to the sword, to the sword, and all who go to famine, to famine, and all who go to captivity, to captivity.” 3 And I will take vengeance upon them in four ways,” says the Lord, “the sword for slaughter, and the dogs for tearing, and the wild animals of the land and the birds of the sky for food and corruption. 4 And I will hand them over to all the kingdoms of the earth for tribulation, on account of Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, concerning all that he did in Jerusalem. 5 Who will have pity upon you, O Jerusalem? And who will be afraid on account of you, or who will return peace to you? 6 You have turned back from me,” says the Lord. “You will go backward, and I will stretch out my hand and utterly destroy you, and I will no longer spread them out. 7 And I will scatter them in a dispersion through the gates of my people. They are made childless; they destroyed my people on account of their evil doings. 8 Their widows were multiplied more than the sand of the sea. I have brought young men against their mother, misery at noon. I cast trembling and haste upon her suddenly. 9 She who brought forth seven sons has wasted away; her soul succumbed. The sun set on her while still in the middle of the day. She was disgraced and reproached. I will give those of them who remain to the sword before their enemies.” 10 Woe is me! O mother! As whom did you give birth to me?a A man condemned and judged by all the land! I did not help, and no one helped anyone. My strength has come to an end among those who cursed me. 11 May they prosper, O Master.b Otherwise, I stood before you in the time of their calamity and in the time of their oppression, for good against the enemy. 12 Will iron be known? Your strength is a bronze covering. 13 And I will give your treasures as plunder in exchange for all your sins and inside all your boundaries. 14 And I will enslave you to your enemies all around, in the land that you have not known, because a fire has been kindled by my anger; it will burn upon you. 15 O Lord, remember me and visit me, and hold me guiltless before those who pursue me, not for forbearance. 16 by those who reject your words. Make an end of them, and your word shall be to me as cheer and delight to my heart, because your name has been invoked upon me, O Lord Almighty. 17 I did not sit in the assembly of those who mock, but I was reverent at the face of your hand. I was seated by myself because I was filled with bitterness. 18 Why do those who grieve me prevail over me? My wound is severe. How will I be healed? When it came, it came to me like false water without faith. 19 Because of this, thus says the Lord: “If you return, then I will restore you, and you will stand before my face. And if you bring out what is valued from the worthy, you will serve as my mouth. And they will turn to you, and you will not turn to them. 20 And I will give you to this people as a fortified bronze wall, and they will fight against you, and they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you 21 and to deliver you from the hand of evildoers, and to redeem you from the hand of the plague.”

16c“And you, do not take a wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, 2 “and no son or daughter will be born to you in this place.” 3 Because thus says the Lord about the sons and about the daughters who were born in this place and about their mothers who gave them birth and about their fathers who begot them in this land: 4 “They will die a sickly death. They will not be mourned or buried. They will serve as an example on the face of the earth both for the wild animals of the earth and the winged creatures of the sky. They will fall by the sword, and they will come to an end by famine.” 5 Thus says the Lord: “Do not enter into their mourning feasts and do not go to mourn, and you should not mourn them, because I have removed my peace from this people. 6 They shall certainly not cut themselves and certainly not make gashes or be shaved. 7 And certainly no bread will be broken in their grief, for comfort on account of the dead. They will not give him a cup for comfort to drink on account of his father and mother. 8 You will not enter into a drinking house to sit with them to eat and to drink.” 9 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “Look! I am destroying the sound of joy and the sound of cheer from this place before your eyes and in your days, the voice of a bridegroom and the voice of a bride. 10 And this will happen when you have told this people all these sayings; then they will say to you, ‘Why has the Lord spoken all these calamities against us? What is our injustice? And what is our sin that we have sinned in the presence of the Lord our God? 11 And you will say to them, ‘“Because your fathers have forsaken me,” says the Lord, “and have gone after foreign gods and served them and worshipped them, and they have forsaken me and do not keep my law. 12 And you have done more evil than your fathers, and look, you each keep going after what is pleasing to your evil heart so as not to listen to me. 13 And I will cast you off from this land into the land that you and your fathers have not known, and there you will serve other gods who will not offer mercy to you.”’” 14 “Because of this, look, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “and they will no longer say, ‘The Lord lives, he who brought the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ 15 but instead, ‘The Lord lives, who brought the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the territories where they had been forced.’ And I will restore them to their land that I gave to their fathers. 16 Look! I am sending many fishermen,” says the Lord, “and they will go fishing for them; and after these things, I will send many hunters, and they will hunt them atop every mountain and atop every hill and from the crevices of the rocks; 17 because my eyes are on all their ways, and their wrongs are not hidden before my eyes. 18 And I will repay through all their wickedness and their sins by which they have profaned my land, with the carcasses of their abominations and with their lawlessness by which they have trespassed my inheritance.” 19 O Lord, you are my strength and my help and my refuge in the days of calamity. To you the nations will come, from the ends of the land, and they will say, “How have our fathers acquired false idols?” and “There is no benefit in them. 20 Shall a human make gods for himself?” and “These are not gods!” 21 Because of this, look, I will make my hand evident to them at this time, and I will make my power known to them, and they will know that my name is the Lord.

17Cursed is the person who has hope in humankind and who will lean the flesh of his arm on him and his heart is removed from the Lord. 6 And he will be like the tamarisk in the desert; he will not see when good things come. And he will encamp by the sea and in the wilderness, in a briny land that is not inhabited. 7 And blessed is the person who trusts the Lord, and the Lord will be his hope. 8 And he will be like a tree flourishing beside the waters, and it will cast its roots into the moisture. It will not fear when heat comes, and there will be wooded branches on it. It will not fear in the year of drought, and it will not cease making fruit. 9 The heart is deeper than all things; a person is also. And who will understand him? 10 I, the Lord, who visits hearts and tests the kidneys to give each according to his ways and according to the fruits of his pursuits. 11 The partridge sang; it collected what it did not bring forth. So is the one who makes his wealth without judgment: at the midpoint of his days, they will forsake him, and at his end he will be crazy. 12 A throne of glory, highly exalted, is our sanctuary! 13 O endurance of Israel! O Lord! Let all who forsake you be disgraced; let those who have turned away be written upon the earth, because they have forsaken the spring of life, the Lord. 14 Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved, because you are my boast. 15 Look! They say to me, “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come!” 16 But I have not grown weary of following after you, and I have not desired the day of humankind; you understand. What goes out through my lips is before your face. 17 Do not become like an estranged person to me, by sparing me in an evil day. 18 Let those who pursue me be disgraced, and may I not be ashamed. May they be terrified, and may I not be afraid. Bring an evil day upon them; wound them with a double wound! 19 Thus says the Lord: “Go and stand in the gates of the sons of your people, those through which the rulers of Judah enter, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem. 20 And you shall say to them the word of the Lord: “O kings of Judah, and all Judah and all Jerusalem who enter by these gates. 21 Thus says the Lord: ‘Guard your souls, and do not take up burdens on the Sabbath days and do not enter the gates of Jerusalem. 22 aAnd do not carry burdens from your houses on Sabbath days, and you shall do no labor. Sanctify the Sabbath days just as I commanded your fathers, and they did not listen or incline their ear. 23 And they hardened their neck more than their fathers so as not to hear me and so as not to receive instruction. 24 And this will happen, if you listen to me,’ says the Lord, ‘so as not to carry burdens through the gates of this city on the Sabbath days and sanctify the Sabbath days not to do any labor: 25 Then the kings and rulers will enter through the gates of this city, seated upon the throne of David and riding upon their chariots and horses, they and their rulers, men of Judah and those who dwell in Jerusalem, and this city will be established for eternity. 26 And they will come from the cities of Judah, and from all around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the land of the plain, and from the mountain, and from the land toward the south, bearing whole burnt offerings and sacrifices and incense and manna and frankincense, bringing praise to the house of the Lord. 27 And this will happen, if you do not listen to me so as to sanctify the Sabbath days, so as not to lift up burdens and not to enter the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath days; then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it will devour blocks of houses of Jerusalem, and it will not be quenched.’”

18The word that came from the Lord to Jeremiah, saying, 2 “Rise up and go down to the house of the potter, and there you will hear my words.” 3 And I went down to the potter’s house and look, he was doing work on the stones. 4 And the vessel that he was making fell in his hands, and he remade it as another vessel, as it pleased him to do. 5 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 6 “Shall I not be able to do with you just as this potter, O house of Israel? Look, in my hands you are like the clay is to the potter. 7 Finally I will speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to remove and destroy it. 8 And let that nation turn from all their evil, and I will change my mind concerning the evil that I have planned to do to them.[6] 9 And finally I will speak concerning a nation and a kingdom to rebuild and to plant it, 10 and they do evil before me so as not to hear my voice. And I will change my mind concerning the good things that I have spoken to do to them. 11 And now, say to the men of Judah and to those who dwell in Jerusalem: ‘Look, I am shaping calamities against you, and I am counting a plan against you. Let each now turn away from his evil way, and you will make your pursuits good.’” 12 And they said, “We will be manly, because we will pursue our perversions, and we will each do the pleasures of his evil heart.” 13 Because of this, thus says the Lord: “Ask now among the nations: Who has heard such horrible things that the virgin of Israel has done very much? 14 Will the knollsa come to an end from a rock, or does the snow from Lebanon come to an end? Will water carried violently by wind turn around? 15 Because my people have forgotten me; they burned incense in vain, and they will become feeble in their ways, to go upon eternal reeds that have no path for traveling, 16 to appoint their land for destruction, even an eternal hissing. All who walk it will be amazed and will shake their head. 17 I will scatter them according to the face of their enemies like a burning wind. I will show them the day of their destruction.” 18 And they said, “Come, let us plan a plan against Jeremiah, because the law will not perish from a priest or counsel from a wise man or a word from a prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us hear all his words.” 19 Listen to me, O Lord, and listen to the sound of my plea. 20 Are evil things returned in place of good? Because they are saying words against my life, and they have hidden their punishment from me. Remember me standing before your face to speak good things for them, so as to turn back your rage from them. 21 Therefore give their sons to famine, and gather them to the hand of the sword. Let their women be childless and widows, and let their men be slain to death and their young men felled by the sword in battle. 22 Let there be a shout in their houses! You shall bring thieves suddenly upon them, because they undertook a word for my capture and hid traps for me! 23 And you, O Lord, you knew all their counsels against me for death. Do not allow their injustices to go unpunished, and do not plaster over their sins from your face. Let their weakness be before you; deal with them in a time of your anger.

19Then the Lord said to me, “Go and get a wine jar formed of clay, and you shall bring some of the elders of the people and the priests, 2 and you shall go out to the common burial place of the sons of their children, which is at the doors of the gate of the Charsith Gate; and there read all these words that I will speak to you. 3 And you will say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and men of Judah, and those who dwell in Jerusalem, and those who enter these gates. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “Look, I am bringing calamities upon this place, so that the ears of everyone who hears them will ring. 4 Because they have forsaken me, and they have alienated this place, and in it they have burned incense to foreign gods that they and their fathers had not known, and the kings of Judah have filled this place with innocent blood. 5 And they have built high places to Baal to burn their sons in the fire, which I did not command or intend in my heart. 6 Therefore look, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “and this place will not be called ‘Breakdown’ and ‘Graveyard of the Sons of Ennom,’ but instead ‘Graveyard of Slaughter. 7 And I will slaughter the counsel of Judah and the counsel of Jerusalem in this place, and I will overthrow them with the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their souls. And I will give their corpses to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth for food. 8 And I will bring this city down for destruction and for hissing. Everyone who passes by it will look angry and will hiss on account of all its wound.[7] 9 And they will eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and each one will eat the flesh of his neighbor in the fortification and siege with which their enemies will besiege them.” 10 And you shall crush the wine jar at the eyes of the men who go out with you, 11 and you shall say, “Thus says the Lord: ‘I will crush this people and this city like this, just as a vessel of clay that cannot be healed is crushed. 12 For I will act this way,” says the Lord, “to this place and to those who dwell in it, for this city to be appointed as the one that breaks down. 13 And houses of Jerusalem and houses of the rulers of Judah will be like the breaking-down place because of their impurities in all the houses in which they burned incense on their housetops to all the host of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to foreign gods.”’” 14 And Jeremiah came from Breakdown where the Lord sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the house of the Lord and said to all the people, 15 “Thus says the Lord: ‘Look, I am bringing all the calamities that I have spoken against this city and against all its cities and upon its villages against it, because they have hardened their neck not to listen to my commandments.’”

20And Pashhur the priest, son of Immer, (this one also was appointed leader of the house of the Lord) heard Jeremiah prophesying these words. 2 And he struck him and threw him into the waterfall that was by the gate of a house designated as the attic, which was in the house of the Lord. 3 And Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the waterfall, and Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord has not called your name Pashhur but rather ‘Sojourner. 4 Because thus says the Lord: ‘Look, I am giving you up to deportation with all your friends, and they will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. And I will give you and all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, and they will deport them and cut them down by the sword. 5 And I will give all the strength of this city and all her toils and all the treasures of the king of Judah into the hands of his enemies, and they will bring them to Babylon. 6 And you and all those who dwell in your house will go in captivity, and you will die in Babylon, and you will be buried there, you and all your friends to whom you prophesied lies.’” 7 O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you were mighty, and you have prevailed. I have become as a laughingstock every day; I continue to be mocked. 8 Because I will laugh with my bitter word. I will call upon faithlessness and misery, because the word of the Lord has become a reproach to me and a joke my whole day. 9 And I said “I shall not name the name of the Lord, and I will no longer speak in his name.” And it became like a kindled fire burning in my bones, and I have become weak everywhere, and I have not been able to bear up. 10 Because I have heard the blame of many gathered from all around all around: “Gather together, and let us gather together against him, all men who are his friends! Watch his intention, whether he shall be deceived, and let us prevail against him and take our vengeance upon him.” 11 But the Lord is with me, just as a powerful warrior; therefore, they pursued and were unable to perceive. They were put to extreme shame because they did not perceive their dishonor, which will not be forgotten for eternity. 12 O Lord, who approves what is righteous, who understands the kidneys and the hearts, may I see your vengeance among them, because I have revealed my pleas to you. 13 Sing to the Lord! Praise him, because he has delivered the life of the poor from the hand of evildoers. 14 Cursed be the day in which I was born! May the day on which my mother brought me forth not be longed for! 15 Cursed be the person who brought the good news to my father, saying, “A boy was born to you!” and being cheerful. 16 Let that person be like the cities that the Lord overthrew in anger and did not feel regret. 17 because he did not kill me in the womb, so that my mother would become my tomb for me, or her womb perpetually pregnant with me. 18 Why is it that I have come forth from the womb to see troubles and toils, and my days continued in shame?

21The word that came from the Lord to Jeremiah when king Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur, son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah, son of Manasseh the priest, saying, 2 “Inquire of the Lord concerning us (because the king of Babylon has stood against us) if the Lord will act according to all his wonders, and he will depart from us.” 3 And Jeremiah said to them, “You shall say this to Zedekiah, king of Judah: 4 ‘Thus says the Lord: “Look, I am turning back the weapons of war with which you make war against the Chaldeans, who have confined you from outside the wall in the middle of this city. 5 And I myself will make war against you with an outstretched hand and with a mighty arm, with anger and great wrath. 6 And I will strike all those who dwell in this city, humans and livestock, with great death, and they will die. 7 And after these things,” thus says the Lord, “I will give Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his children and the people that are left in this city from death and famine and the sword into the hands of their enemies who seek their souls; and they will cut them down with the edge of the sword. I will not spare against them, and I shall not have pity on them.”[8] 8 And you will say to this people, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Look, I myself have placed the way of life and the way of death before your face. 9 He who sits in this city will die by the sword and by famine, and he who goes out to side with the Chaldeans who have confined you will live, and his life will be spoils, and he will live. 10 Because I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good. It will be handed into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.”’” 11 O house of the king of Judah, hear the word of the Lord. 12 O house of David, Thus says the Lord: “Render judgment in the morning and prosper, and take the spoils from the hand of him who wrongs him, in order that my wrath may not be kindled like a fire and burn, and there will be no one who will quench it. 13 Look, I am against you, O inhabitants of the valley of Tyre, the plain, who say ‘Who will terrify us, or who will go in to the dwelling place? 14 And I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it will consume everything around her.”

22Thus says the Lord: “Go and descend to the house of the king of Judah, and you shall speak this word there; 2 and you will say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah who sits upon the throne of David, you and your household and your people and those who enter by these gates. 3 Thus says the Lord: “Do justice and righteousness and deliver the one who is plundered from the hand of the one who wrongs him. And do not oppress the stranger and the orphan and the widow, and do not act wickedly, and do not pour out innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you really do this thing, also kings will enter by the gate of this house, seated upon the throne of David and mounted upon chariots and horses, they and their servants and their people. 5 But if you will do not these things, I have sworn by myself,” says the Lord, “that this house will become a ruin, 6 because Thus says the Lord against the house of the king of Judah: ‘You are Gilead to me, O ruler of Lebanon. If I do not make you into a desert, cities not to be inhabited! 7 And I will bring a destroyera and his axe against you, and they will cut down your choice cedars and cast them into the fire. 8 And the nations will pass through this city and each will say to his friend, “Why did the Lord do this to this great city?” 9 And they will say, “Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God, and they worshipped foreign gods and served them.”’”’” 10 Do not weep for the dead or wail for him. Weep with weeping for him who is going away, for he no longer returns, nor will he see his country. 11 Because Thus says the Lord with respect to Shallum, son of Josiah, who was reigning in place of Josiah his father, who went away from this place: “He will no longer return there; 12 instead, he will die in the place where I exiled him, and he will never see this land again.” 13 He who builds his house without righteousness and his upper rooms without judgment will labor alongside his friend for free,c and he shall not pay his wages to him. 14 “You built a suitable house for yourself, ventilated upper rooms distinguished by windows and paneled with cedar and anointed with red earth. 15 Will you reign because you were provoked by Achaz your father? They will not eat and drink; it is better for you to render judgment and righteousness. 16 They did not know; they did not render judgment for the low or justice for the needy. Is this not because you do not know me?” says the Lord. 17 Look, neither your eyes nor your heart are good things, but they are directed toward your greed and toward the innocent blood to pour it out, and toward injustice and toward murder to do these things. 18 Therefore, thus says the Lord against Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, even against this man: “They shall not mourn for him, ‘O brother!’ And they will not weep for him, ‘Alas, lord! 19 He will be buried with the burial of a donkey; swept away, he will be thrown beyond the gate of Jerusalem.” 20 Go up to Lebanon and cry out, and give your voice unto Bashan, and shout to the other side of the sea, because all your lovers have been crushed. 21 I spoke to you in your transgression, and you said, “I will not listen.” This was your way from your youth; you have not listened to my voice. 22 The wind will shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers will go out in captivity, because then you will be put to shame and dishonored because of all your lovers. 23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, nesting among the cedars, you will sigh when pain comes upon you as she who gives birth. 24 “As I live,” says the Lord, “even if Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, in becoming becomes a signet ring upon my right hand, I will remove you from there 25 and hand you into the hands of those who seek your life, whom you are afraid of from their face, into the hands of the Chaldeans. 26 And I will cast you and your mother who birthed you into a land where you were not birthed, and there you will die.” 27 But they shall not return to the land that they pray for with their souls. 28 Jeconiah was dishonored like a vessel that there is no need of it, that was cast out and thrown into a land that he had not known. 29 Land, O land, hear the word of the Lord: 30 “Record this man as a castaway person, because he shall not be raised up from his seed to sit upon the throne of David as ruler again in Judah.”

23O shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of their pasture! 2 Because of this, thus says the Lord against those who shepherd my people: “You have scattered my sheep and thrust them out and not looked after them. Look, I will take revenge upon you according to your evil pursuits. 3 And I myself will receive the remnant of my people upon every land where I have thrust them out, and I will appoint them to their pasture, and they will increase and multiply. 4 And I will raise up for them shepherds who will shepherd them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified,” says the Lord. 5 “Look, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “and I will raise up a righteous rising for David, and a king will reign and understand and perform justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days both Judah will be delivered, and Israel will encamp confidently, and this is his name, which the Lord will call him: “Jozadak.” 7 “Therefore look, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “and they will no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the house of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ 8 but ‘As the Lord lives, who gathered all the seed of Israel from the land of the north and from all the territories where he had thrust them, and restored them to their land. 9 Among the prophets: my heart was crushed within me; all my bones were shaken. I became like a broken man and like a person seized by wine, on account of the face of the Lord and on account of the wondrous face of his glory. 10 Because the land mourned on account of the face of these things. The pastures of the wilderness were dried up, and their thicket became evil and similarly their strength. 11 Because priest and prophet were defiled, and I saw their wickedness in my house. 12 Therefore let their way be to them like a fall in darkness, and they will be tripped up and fall in it, because I will bring calamities upon them in the year of their visitation. 13 And among the prophets of Samaria I saw transgressions of the law. They prophesied through the Baal and led my people Israel astray. 14 And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen horrible things: adulterers and those who walk in lies and strengthen the hands of many so that each one of them does not turn back from his evil way. They have all become to me like Sodom, and those who dwell in it just like Gomorrah. 15 Therefore thus says the Lord: “Look, I myself will feed them pain, and I will give them bitter water to drink because defilement went out from the prophets of Jerusalem to the whole land.” 16 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets, because they bring visions to nothing by themselves; they speak from their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord. 17 They say to those who reject the word of the Lord, ‘There will be peace to you,’ and to all who walk by their will, to all who walk by the deception of his heart, they said, ‘Evil will not come upon you. 18 Because who has stood in the assembly of the Lord and seen his word? Who has paid attention and listened? 19 Look! An earthquake from the Lord! And wrath goes out like a whirlwind; gathered up, it will come upon the ungodly. 20 And the anger of the Lord will no longer turn back until he has done it, from the undertaking of his heart. At the end of days, they will perceive it. 21 I did not send the prophets, and they kept running. And I did not speak to them, and they kept prophesying. 22 And if they had stood in support of me and heard my words, also my people might have turned themselves back from their evil pursuits. 23 I am a God nearby and not a God far off. 24 If someone is hidden in secret then will I not see him? Do I not fill the sky and the land?” says the Lord. 25 “I have heard the things that the prophets have spoken; they are prophesying lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed a dream! 26 How long will there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy, when they prophesy the will of their heart, 27 who plan to forget my law with their dreams that each one recites in detail to his friend, just as their fathers have forgotten my name by the Baal? 28 Let the prophet in whom the dream is recite his dream in detail. And let him to whom my word comes recite my word in truth in detail. What is the chaff to the grain? 29 aSo are my words,” says the Lord. “Look! Are not my words like fire and like an axe smiting a rock? 32 Because of this, look! I am against the prophets who prophesy false dreams and have not recited them in detail, and led my people astray by their lies and by their leading astray, and I did not send them, and I did not command them, and they will not help this people with help. 33 And if this people or a priest or a prophet would ask you, ‘What is the oracle of the Lord?’ then you shall say to them, ‘“You are the oracle and I will strike you,” says the Lord. 34 As for the prophet and the priests and the people who might say, ‘Oracle of the Lord,’ then I will avenge that person and his house. 35 This is what you shall say, each to his friend and each to his brother, ‘What was answered by the Lord?’ and ‘What has the Lord spoken? 36 And do not call it ‘Oracle of the Lord’ any longer, because his word to humankind will be the oracle, 37 ‘And why has the Lord our God spoken?’” 38 Therefore this is what the Lord our God says: “Because those of you who have said this word, ‘Oracle of the Lord,’ and I sent to you, saying, ‘You shall not say, “Oracle of the Lord.” 39 Therefore look, I myself am taking and striking you and the city that I have given you and your fathers. 40 And I will place an eternal reproach and an eternal dishonor into you that will not be forgotten.’”

24The Lord showed me two baskets of figs laid according to the face of the temple of the Lord after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, exiled Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the rulers and the craftsmen and the prisoners and the neighbors from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. 2 The one basket was of very good figs like early figs, and the other basket was of very bad figs that could not be eaten due to their badness. 3 And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs; the good ones are very good, and the bad ones, which will not be eaten due to their badness, are very bad.” 4 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, so I will acknowledge the Judeans who have been exiled, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans for good things. 6 And I will set my eyes upon them for good things, and I will restore them to this land for good things. And I will rebuild them, and I shall not tear them down, and I will plant them and shall not pluck them up. 7 And I will give them a heart for them to know me, that I am the Lord, and they will be a people for me, and I will be a God for them, for they will return to me with their whole heart. 8 And like the bad figs, which could not be eaten due to their badness, thus says the Lord: ‘In this way I will hand over Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his nobles and those of Jerusalem who remain in this land and who dwell in Egypt. 9 And I will makea them a scattering to all the kingdoms of the earth, and a reproach and an illustration and a hated thing and a curse in every place I have thrust them. 10 And I will send them famine and death and the sword until they come to an end from the land that I have given them.’”

25The word that came to Jeremiah against all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, 2 which he spoke to all the people of Judah and to those who dwell in Jerusalem, saying, 3 “In the thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Amos, king of Judah, and until this day for twenty-three years, I spoke to you, rising early and speaking. 4 And I sent you my servants, the prophets, sending them at dawn, and you did not listen or pay attention with your ears, 5 saying, ‘Turn back, each of you, from his evil way and from your evil pursuits, and you will dwell upon the land that I gave you and your fathers from eternity to eternity. 6 Don’t go after foreign gods to serve them and worship them, so that you do not provoke me by the works of your hands so as to mistreat you. 7 And you did not hear me.” 8 Therefore, thus says the Lord: “Since you have not trusted my words, 9 look, I am sending and will take a family from the north, and I will bring them against this land and against those who dwell in it and against all the nations surrounding it. And I will desolate them and give them up to destruction and hissing and an eternal reproach. 10 And I will destroy the sound of joy and the sound of merriment from them, the sound of the bridegroom and the sound of the bride, the scent of perfume and the light of the lamp. 11 And all the land will be a ruin, and they will be slaves among the nations for seventy years. 12 And when seventy years have been completed, I will avenge that nation, and I will make them an eternal destruction. 13 And I will bring against that land all my words that I have spoken against it, all that is written in this document.” 14 aWhat Jeremiah prophesied against the nations of Elam. 15 Thus says the Lord: “Let the bow of Elam be broken, the power of their sovereignty. 16 And I will bring the four winds from the four edges of the sky against Elam, and I will scatter them among all these winds, and there will be no nation to which those who were thrust out of Elam will not come. 17 And I will terrify them before their enemies who seek their life. And I will bring bad things upon them, according to the wrath of my anger, and I will send my sword after them until they are consumed. 18 And I will set my throne in Elam, and from there I will send a king and nobles. 19 And this will happen in the end of days: I will also return the captivity of Elam,” says the Lord.

26In the beginning of Zedekiah the king reigning, this word came concerning Elam. 2 For Egypt, against the power of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, who was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish whom Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, struck in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah: 3 Take up weapons and shields and advance to battle! 4 And saddle the horses; mount up, horsemen! And appoint yourselves with your helmets; strike with spears and put on your breastplates! 5 Why is it that they are terrified and withdraw backward? “Because their mighty ones will be smitten. They have fled in flight. and did not turn back, surrounded all around,” says the Lord. 6 Let the swift not flee and let the strong not escape to the north; the forces beside the Euphrates are weak, and they have fallen. 7 Who is this who shall rise like a river, and like rivers surge with water? 8 The waters of Egypt will rise up like a river, and said, “I will rise up and cover the land, and I will destroy those who dwell in it!” 9 Mount up upon the horses; prepare the chariots! Go out, O warriors of the Ethiopians and Libyans, fully armed with weapons! And Lydians, go up; stretch the bow! 10 And that day is a day of vengeance to the Lord our God, to avenge his enemies; and the sword of the Lord will devour and be filled up and become drunk with their blood, for it is a sacrifice for the Lord from the land of the north upon the Euphrates River. 11 Go up, O Gilead, and take resin to the virgin daughter of Egypt! You have multiplied your remedies in vain; there is no help for you. 12 Nations have heard your voice, and the earth was filled with your cry, because a warrior became weak toward a warrior; both have fallen at the same time. 13 The things that the Lord spoke by the hand of Jeremiah, the coming of the king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt. 14 Declare in Migdol, and proclaim in Memphis; you shall say, “Stand up and be ready, because a sword has devoured your yew tree.” 15 Why has Apis, your chosen calf, fled from you? He has not remained because the Lord weakened him. 16 And your multitude was weak, and they fell, and each one kept saying to his neighbor, “Let us rise up and turn back to our people in our homeland, from the face of the Greek sword!” 17 Call the name of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, Saon-Hesbi-Hemoed. 18 “As I live,” says the Lord God, “I swear that he will come like Itabyrion among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea. 19 Make implements of exile for yourself, O daughter of Egypt who dwells, for Memphis will become a ruin, and it will be called ‘Woe!’ on account of the absence of inhabitants in it. 20 Egypt is an adorned heifer; a piece of the north came upon her. 21 And her hired servants with her are like well-fed fatted calves with her, so that even they were turned back and have fled with one accord. They did not stand, because a day of annihilation has come upon them, and a time of their vengeance. 22 A sound like a hissing serpent, for they are going in the sand. They will come upon her with axes. 23 Like those who chop wood, they will cut down her forest,” says the Lord, “because it shall not be compared, for it increased more than locusts, and they are innumerable. 24 The daughter of Egypt was disgraced; she was handed over into the hands of a people from the north.” 25 “Look! I am avenging Amon, her son, upon Pharaoh, and upon those who trust in him. 27 But as for you, do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, or be terrified, Israel; for look, I am delivering you from afar, and your seed out of their captivity. And Jacob will return and be still and sleep, and there will be no one who troubles him. 28 Do not be afraid, my servant Jacob,” says the Lord, “because I am with you. The undaunted and delicate image has been handed over; for I will make a full payment among every place into which I have thrust you, but I will not make you come to an end! And I will instruct you in justice, and I will not hold you guiltless.”

27The word of the Lord that he spoke against Babylon. 2 Declare among the nations and make it heard and do not hide. Say: “Babylon has been taken! Bel the undaunted image has been disgraced; Merodach the delicate image was handed over. 3 Because a nation from the north has gone up against her. This nation will make her land a ruin, and there will be no one who dwells in her, from humankind even to cattle. 4 In those days and at that time the sons of Israel will come, they and the sons of Judah upon it; they will go walking and weeping, seeking the Lord their God. 5 They will ask the way to Zion, for here they will put their face, and they will come and flee for refuge to the Lord God. For the eternal covenant will not be forgotten.” 6 “My people have become lost sheep. Their shepherds have thrust them out. They have led them astray upon the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their bed. 7 All those who find them will consume them. Their enemies said, ‘Let us not abandon them because they have sinned against the Lord. There is a pasture of righteousness for the one who gathered their fathers. 8 Be alienated from the middle of Babylon and from the land of the Chaldeans, and go out and become like dragons according to the face of sheep; 9 for look, I am awakening gatherings of nations from the land of the north against Babylon, and they will array themselves against her. From thence she will be taken, like an arrow of a skilled warrior will not return in vain. 10 And Chaldea will be for plunder; all who plunder her will be fully satisfied. 11 Because you were cheerful, and you were boasting while plundering my inheritance. Because you were leaping about like cattle in the vegetation, and you were butting horns like bulls. 12 Your mother was put to extreme shame, a mother for good things, the last of nations, deserted. 13 On account of the wrath of the Lord she will not be inhabited, and all of her will become a ruin, and everyone who travels through Babylon will be sullen and hiss at her every wound. 14 Array yourselves against Babylon all around; everyone who bends the bow! Shoot at her! Do not spare with your arrows. 15 And prevail against her; her hands are weakened; her bulwarks have fallen, and her wall is utterly destroyed. Because vengeance is from God, avenge upon her. As she has done, do to her. 16 Utterly destroy from Babylon the seed, the one who holds the sickle at harvest time. On account of the face of the Greek sword each of them will return to his people, and each of them will flee into his land.” 17 Israel is a wandering sheep; lions have forced him out. The first, the king of Assyria, ate him; and this later one, the king of Babylon, ate his bones. 18 Therefore thus says the Lord: “Look! I am avenging upon the king of Babylon and upon his land, just as I took revenge upon the king of Assyria. 19 And I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he will feed on Carmel and on Mount Ephraim and in Gilead, and his soul will be satisfied. 20 In those days and at that time they will seek the injustice of Israel, and there will be none; and they will seek the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, because I will be merciful to those who remain upon the land,” says the Lord. 21 “Go up against her bitterly, and against those who dwell in her. Avenge, O sword, and destroy!” says the Lord, “and act according to everything that I am commanding you.” 22 The sound of battle and great destruction in the land of the Chaldeans! 23 How the hammer of all the earth is broken and crushed! How Babylon has become a destruction among the nations! 24 They will come upon you, and you, like Babylon, will not know it, and you will be taken. You were found and taken, because you stood against the Lord. 25 The Lord has opened his storehouse, and he has brought out the vessels of his wrath, because there is a work for the Lord God in the land of the Chaldeans,[9] 26 for her times have come. Open her storehouses! Search her as a cave, and utterly destroy her. Let there be no remnant of her. 27 Dry up all her fruits and let them go down to slaughter. Woe to them, because their day has come, and their season of vengeance. 28 The sound of fleeing and escaping from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance from the Lord our God. 29 Summon against Babylon a multitude of all who stretch a bow! Pitch camp against her all around; let there be none who escape from her. Repay her according to her works. Do to her according to everything that she has done, for she has stood against the Lord, the holy God of Israel. 30 “Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all her men who are warriors will be thrown away,” says the Lord. 31 “Look! I am against you, O wanton one,” says the Lord, “because your day has come, and your time of vengeance. 32 And your insolence will become weak and fall. And there will be no one who can raise it. And I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it will devour all the things around her.” 33 Thus says the Lord: “The sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have been oppressed; all their captors have oppressed them together, because they did not want to send them away. 34 And he who redeems them is strong; the Lord Almighty is his name. He will judge with judgment against his adversaries, so that he might lift the land up and sharpen at those who dwell in Babylon 35 a sword against the Chaldeans and against those who dwell in Babylon and against her nobles and against her wise men; 36 a sword against her warriors, and they will be weakened; a sword against their horses and against their chariots; 37 a sword against their warriors and against the mixture that is in her midst, and they will be like women; a sword against her storehouses, and they will be scattered 38 over her water, and they will be disgraced, for it is a land of graven images; and among the islands where they were boasting. 39 Therefore apparitions will dwell among the islands, and daughters of Sirens will dwell in her. They will by no means be inhabited any longer, for eternity. 40 Just as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and those who border upon them,” says the Lord, “no person shall dwell there, and no child of humankind will by any means dwell there. 41 Look, a people is coming from the north, and a great nation, and many kings will be awakened from the end of the land, 42 holding bow and dagger. This people is reckless and shall show no mercy. Their voice will resound like the sea; they will ride on horses, prepared like a fire for war, against you, O daughter of Babylon! 43 The king of Babylon heard their report, and his hands were weakened. Distress prevailed over him, birth pangs like a woman giving birth. 44 Look, just as a lion will rise up from the Jordan unto Gaithan, that I will banish them quickly from her, and I will set every young man against her, for who is like me? And who will stand against me? And who is this shepherd that will stand before my face?” 45 Therefore hear the plan of the Lord that he has taken against Babylon, and his reasonings that he has made against those dwelling among the Chaldeans: cursed if the lambs of their sheep shall not be utterly destroyed; cursed if their pasture is not destroyed. 46 Because the earth will be shaken at the sound of the conquest of Babylon, and the cry will be heard among the nations.

28Thus says the Lord: “Look, I am stirring up an utterly destructive burning wind against Babylon and against the Chaldeans who live there. 2 And I will send insolent people to Babylon, and they will despise her, and they will treat her land with indignity. Woe against Babylon all around on the day of her affliction! 3 He who stretches out his bow should stretch it, and whoever has armor should put it on. And do not spare her young men and destroy all of her power. 4 And they will fall, slain in the land of the Chaldeans and pierced through outside of her, 5 for Israel and Judah were not bereaved of their God, of the Lord Almighty, because their land was filled with injustice against the holy things of Israel.” 6 Flee from the middle of Babylon, and each of you rescue his life! And do not be cast away in her injustice, because the time of her vengeance is from the Lord. He is repaying her repayment to her. 7 Babylon was a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, making the whole land drunk. The nations drank of her wine; therefore they were shaken. 8 And suddenly Babylon fell and was crushed. Wail for her! Take resin to her destruction, in case she will be healed. 9 We treated Babylon, and she was not cured. Let us forsake her and let us each depart to his land. Because her judgment has drawn near to the sky. It has risen up to the stars. 10 The Lord has brought forth his judgment. Come, and let us declare the works of the Lord our God in Zion. 11 Prepare the arrows! Fill the quivers! The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the king of the Medes, because his wrath is against Babylon to utterly destroy her, because it is the vengeance of the Lord; it is the vengeance of his people. 12 Lift up a sign upon the walls of Babylon! Set up quivers! Rouse the guards! Prepare the armor! Because the Lord has undertaken, and he will do that which he has spoken against those who dwell in Babylon; 13 although encamped by much water and by the multitude of her storehouses, your end truly has come in your inward parts. 14 Because the Lord has sworn according to his arm, “Therefore I will fill you with people like locusts, and those who come down will speak against you.” 15 When he was making the earth by his power, preparing the world by his wisdom, he stretched out the heavens by his understanding. 16 He made the sound of water in the sky into a voice, and he brought up clouds from the extremities of the earth. He made lightning become rain, and he brought out daylight from its storehouses.[10] 17 Every person is rendered futile, apart from knowledge; every goldsmith has been disgraced by reason of his graven images, because they have cast lies; there is no breath in them. 18 They are worthless, works to be ridiculed. At the time of their visitation they will be destroyed. 19 Jacob’s portion is not like that, because he who formed all things is his inheritance; the Lord is his name. 20 “You are scattering the implements of battle for me, and I will scatter nations among you, and I will take up kings from you. 21 And I will scatter horse and rider among you, 22 and I will scatter chariots and their horsemen among you. And I will scatter young man and virgin among you, and I will scatter man and woman among you. 23 And I will scatter shepherd and his flock among you, and I will scatter farmer and his field among you, and I will scatter your leaders and commanders among you. 24 And I will repay Babylon and all the Chaldeans who live there all their evil that they have done against Zion before your eyes,” says the Lord. 25 “Look! I am against you, O corrupted mountain that corrupts the whole earth. And I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will roll you down upon the rocks, and I will give you up like a burned mountain. 26 And they shall not take a stone from you for a corner and a stone for a foundation, because you will become a ruin for eternity,” says the Lord. 27 Lift up a sign against the land; sound the trumpet among the nations with a trumpet! Sanctify nations against her! Summon against her; raise up kings from me, even for the Ashkenazis. Set up batteries of war against her! Mount up against her cavalry like a multitude of locusts! 28 Bring nations up against her, the king of the Medes and of all the earth, his leaders and all his commanders! 29 The land quaked and toiled, for the reckoning of the Lord stood against Babylon to establish the land of Babylon as a ruin, and for it to be uninhabited. 30 The warriors of Babylon gave up fighting; they will sit there in the fortification. Their power has been shattered; they have become like women. Her tents were set on fire; her bars were crushed. 31 A pursuer will pursue to a meeting of pursuers, and a reporter to a meeting of reporters, in order to report to the king of Babylon, because his city has been conquered. 32 They were taken at the ends of its passages, and their communities were burned with fire, and its men, the warriors, keep coming out. 33 For Thus says the Lord: “The houses of the king of Babylon will be threshed like a threshing floor in season; a little longer and her harvest will come.” 34 “Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has devoured me; he has divided me; a gentle darkness has seized me. He has swallowed me like a dragon; his belly was filled by my delicacy. 35 “My hardships and my miseries have thrust me out into Babylon!” she who dwells in Zion will say. And “My blood be upon the Chaldeans dwelling there!” Jerusalem will say. 36 Therefore thus says the Lord: “Look! I will judge your adversary, and I will avenge your vengeance, and I will desolate her sea, and I will dry up her spring. 37 And Babylon will become a ruin, and she will not be inhabited, 38 because they were stirred up together like lions, and like the cubs of a lion. 39 When they are hot, I will give them a drink, and I will make them drunk in order that they might go into a deep sleep, and sleep an eternal sleep, and shall not be awakened,” says the Lord. 40 “And bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, and like rams with kids.” 41 How the boast of the whole earth was taken and hunted! How Babylon has become a ruin among the nations! 42 The sea has come up against Babylon with the sound of its waves, and she has been covered over. 43 Her cities have become like a waterless and impassable land. No one will dwell in her, and no son of humanity will lodge in her. 44 And I will avenge upon Babylon and bring out from her mouth that which she has swallowed, and nations will no longer gather to her. 49 And the slain of all the earth will fall in Babylon. 50 You survivors from the land, go, and do not stop! Those of you who are from afar, remember the Lord! And let Jerusalem rise upon your heart. 51 We were disgraced because we have heard our reproach. Disgrace has covered our face; aliens have entered into our holy places, into the house of the Lord. 52 “Therefore, look! The days!” says the Lord, “and I will avenge upon her graven images, and in her whole land the wounded will fall; 53 because even if Babylon should rise up like the sky and because even if she should fortify her walls with strength, her destroyers will come from me,” says the Lord. 54 A sound of a shout in Babylon! And a great destruction in the land of the Chaldeans! 55 Because the Lord has utterly destroyed Babylon and destroyed her loud voice, ringing like many waters. He gave her voice unto destruction. 56 Because misery has come upon Babylon; her warriors were captured; their bow was terrified, because God is repaying them. 57 “The Lord is repaying, and he will make her leaders and her wise men, and her commanders drunk with drunkenness,” says the King; the Lord Almighty is his name. 58 Thus says the Lord: “The wall of Babylon was enlarged; destroyed, it will be utterly destroyed. And her high gates will be set on fire, and the people will not be wearied in vain, and nations will come to an end in their rule.” 59 The word that the Lord commanded Jeremiah the prophet to speak to Seraiah, son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he was going from Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon, in the fourth year of his kingdom. And Seraiah was the ruler of the gifts. 60 And Jeremiah wrote in a single scroll all the calamities that would come upon Babylon, all these words that were written concerning Babylon. 61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you come to Babylon, you should also see and read all these words. 62 And you shall say, ‘O Lord! Lord, you, you yourself have spoken against this place to utterly destroy it, and for no inhabitant, from human to animal, to exist in it, because it will be a destruction for eternity. 63 And this shall happen when you stop reading this scroll, and you shall tie a stone on it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates. 64 And you shall say, ‘Babylon will sink like this, and it shall not rise up from the face of the Chaldeans whom I am bringing upon her.’”

29Against the foreigners. The Lord says these things: 2 “Look! Waters are rising from the north and will become an overflowing torrent, and it will overflow the land and its fullness, a city and those who dwell in her. And the people will cry out, and all those who dwell in the land will shout 3 at the sound of his assault, at the hooves of his feet, and at the quaking of his chariots, the sound of his wheels. Fathers did turn not back for their sons on account of the feebleness of their hands, 4 in the day that is coming to destroy all the foreigners. And I will destroy Tyre and Sidon and all those of their help who remain, because the Lord will utterly destroy those of the islands who remain.” 5 Baldness has come upon Gaza; Ashkelon has been cast off, and the remnant of the Anakim. 6 How long will you smite, O sword of the Lord? How long will you not be quiet? Return to your scabbard! Stop and be lifted up! 7 How will it be quiet, and the Lord has commanded it to be awakened against Ashkelon and against the seashores, against those that remain? 8 bTo Edom. Thus, says the Lord: “There is no longer any wisdom in Teman; counsel has perished from the wise; their wisdom is gone. 9 Their place was deceived. Sink deep into sitting, those who dwell in Dedan, because he did troublesome things, and I brought them in the time that I visited him. 10 Because grape gatherers have come who will not leave a remnant for you. They will put their hand like thieves by night. 11 Because I myself have laid waste to Esau; I have uncovered their hiding places. They shall not be able to hide. They will be destroyed because of the hand of his brother, my neighbor. 12 for your fatherless to be left so that he will live. And I will live, and widows will trust me.” 13 For thus says the Lord: “They who were not accustomed to drink the cup drank it. And being held guiltless, you shall not be held guiltless. 14 Because I have sworn according to myself,” says the Lord, “for you will become an impassable site and a reproach and a curse in the middle of her, and all her cities will be deserted into eternity.” 15 I have heard a report from the Lord, and he has sent messengers to the nations: “Gather together and come alongside against her! Rise up to battle! 16 I made you small among the nations, despised among humans. 17 Your fun has laid hands on you; the temerity of your heart has destroyed holes of rocks; it has captured the power of a high hill. For he has raised high his nest just like an eagle; I will take you down from there. 18 And Edom will become inaccessible; all who pass by will hiss at her. 19 Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and her resident foreigners were overthrown,” says the Lord Almighty, “no person wil sit there, and no son of a human will ever inhabit there. 20 Look! Like a lion he will rise up from the middle of the Jordan to a place of Aitham, because I will banish them quickly from her. And now appoint the young men over her, for who is like me? And who will stand against me? And who is this shepherd who will stand before my face?” 21 Therefore hear the plan of the Lord that he has planned against Edom, and his reckoning that he reckoned against those who dwell in Teman: Surely the least of the sheep are swept away; surely their lodging is laid waste upon her, 22 because the earth was frightened at the sound of their fall, and the cry of the sea was not heard. 23 Look! Like an eagle, he will see and stretch out its wings over her strongholds! And the heart of the strong man of Edom will be like the heart of a woman in labor on that day.”

30For the sons of Ammon. Thus says the Lord: “Are there no people in Israel, or have they no successor? Why has Milcom taken Gilead? And why will their people inhabit their cities? 2 Therefore look! The days are coming,” says the Lord, “and I will cause the tumult of battle to be heard against Rabbah, and they will become untraveled and a ruin, and her altars will be burned with fire, and Israel will succeed in its rule. 3 Raise the war cry, Heshbon, because it is destroyed! Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah! Gird on sackcloth and beat your breast, because Melchol will go into captivity, his priests and his rulers together. 4 Why do you rejoice in the plains of the Anakim, O daughter of temerity, who trusts upon her storehouses, who says ‘Who will go in against me? 5 Look! I myself am bringing fear upon you,” says the Lord, “by reason of all who are dwelling round you, and you will be scattered, each before his face. And there will be no one to gather them.” 6 cFor Kedar, queen of the temple court, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck. Thus, says the Lord: “Rise up and go up against Kedar, and striked the sons of Kedem. 7 They will take their tents and their sheep. They will take their garments and all their vessels and their camels for themselves and summon destruction against them all around. 8 Flee exceedingly! Sink deep into sitting, you who are seated in the court of the temple, because the king of Babylon has planned a plan against you and has reckoned a purpose. 9 Rise up and go up against a nation at ease, sitting in relaxation! They have no doors, no bolt pins, no bars; they lodge alone. 10 And their camels will become plunder, and the multitude of their livestock destruction. And I will winnow them before every wind, being mixed before their face. I will bring their reversal from every side of them,” says the Lord. 11 “And the court of the temple will become a place for sparrows, and untraveled until eternity. No human shall dwell there. And no son of a human shall settle there.” 12 eFor Damascus. Themar and Arpad were disgraced, because they have heard an evil report. They were confounded; they were angered; they will not be able to rest. 13 Damascus has failed; she was turned back to flight; trembling has seized her. 14 “How did she not forsake my city? They loved the village. 15 Therefore young men will fall in your streets, and all your warrior men will fall,” says the Lord. 16 “And I will kindle a fire at the wall of Damascus, and it will devour the blocks of houses of the son of Hadad.”

31For Moab. Thus says the Lord: “Woe upon Nebo, because it was destroyed! Kiriathaim was taken; Amath and Hagath were put to shame. 2 There is no more healing for Moab; there is insolence in Heshbon. He planned evil against her. ‘We cut her off from being a nation!’ She will completely cease; a sword will go behind you. 3 For there is a voice of those who are crying out a destruction and great affliction from Horonaim: 4 ‘Moab has been crushed! 5 that Luhith was filled with weeping; he will go up weeping on the road of Horonaim; you have heard the cry of affliction. 6 Flee and save your lives and become like a wild ass in the desert! 7 Since you had trusted in your fortification, you will also be captured. And Chemosh will go out into captivity, and his priests and his rulers together. 8 And destruction will come upon every city; it shall not be saved. And the valley will perish, and the plain will be utterly destroyed, as the Lord said. 9 Give signs to Moab, for she will be touched with an infection, and all her cities will be untrodden. From where will there be an inhabitant for her? 10 Cursed be the one who does the works of the Lord carelessly, lifting up his sword from blood. 11 Moab was at rest since childhood and has trusted in his glory. He did not pour from vessel to vessel, and he was not going into captivity. Therefore his taste stayed in him, and his scent did not come to an end. 12 Therefore look, its days are coming,” says the Lord, “and I will send him an outpouring, and they will pour him out; and his vessels will be ground up, and his horns will be cut up. 13 And Moab will be disgraced on account of Chemosh, just as the house of Israel should be put to shame on account of Bethel, because they entrusted their hope in them. 14 “How will you say, ‘We are strong, and a human is powerful in war’? 15 Moab has been destroyed; his city and his choice young men went down to slaughter. 16 The day of Moab is close to coming, and his wickedness very swiftly. 17 Rouse for him, everyone all around him; all of you, give out his name. Say, ‘How has the renowned staff, the mighty rod been crushed? 18 Come down from glory and sit, seated on moist ground. Dibon is broken, because Moab was destroyed. One who outrages your stronghold has come up against you. 19 Stand on the road and observe, you who are seated in Aroer! And ask him who flees and is delivered, and say, ‘What has happened? 20 “Moab has been disgraced because he has been crushed. Lament and cry out! Declare in Arnon that Moab has been destroyed. 21 And judgment is coming against the land of Mishor, against Helon and Rhephas and Mephaath, 22 and against Dibon, and against Nebo, and against the house of Diblathaim, 23 and against Kiriathaim, and against the house of Gamul, and against the house of Meon, 24 and against Kerioth, and against Bozrah, and against all the cities of Moab, those who are far away and those who are near. 25 The horn of Moab has been brought down, and his arm has been crushed. 26 Make him drunk, for he was magnified against the Lord, and Moab will clap with his hand, and he also will become a laughingstock. 27 And surely Israel himself became a laughingstock to you. And he was found among your thefts because you were fighting against him. 28 Those who dwell in Moab have left the cities and lived among the rocks. They became like pigeons nesting in the rocks at the mouth of a pit. 29 And I heard the insolence of Moab; he acted exceedingly insolently in his insolence and his arrogance, and his heart was lifted up. 30 But I knew his works. Was it not sufficient for him that he acted this way? 31 “Therefore cry aloud against Moab on all sides! Shout to the men of Keir Hadas from drought. 32 Like the weeping for Jazer, I will weep aloud concerning you, O vine of Sibmah! Your vine branches passed through the sea; they reached the cities of Jazer; destruction has fallen upon your fruit and upon your fruit-gatherers. 33 Joy and cheer were swept away from Moab, and wine was in your wine vats. They did not tread in the morning, nor in the afternoon did they act. 34 Their cities gave forth their voice by a cry from Heshbon as far as Aitam, from Zoar as far as Horonaim and the message of Salaseia; because even the water of Nimrim will become burnt. 35 And I will destroy Moab,” declares the Lord, “who goes up on the altar and burns incense for his gods. 36 Therefore, the heart of Moab is like pipes making a humming noise. My heart is against the shorn people, just like pipes making a humming noise. Therefore that which was preserved has perished on account of the people. 37 They will be shaved, every head in every place, and every beard will be shaved, and all hands will beat the breast, and upon every waist there will be sackcloth, 38 even on all the housetops of Moab, and in her streets, because I have crushed her,” declares the Lord, “like a useless vessel.” 39 How she has changed! How Moab has turned her back! She has been put to shame, and Moab has become a laughingstock and an object of hatred to all around her. 40 For this is what the Lord said: 41 “Akkaron was taken, and the strongholds were captured. 42 And Moab will be destroyed by a mob, for he was magnified against the Lord. 43 A trap and fear and the pit are upon you, seated one of Moab. 44 He who flees from fear will fall into the pit, and he who comes up out of the pit will be captured in the trap, for I will bring these things against Moab in the year of their visitation.”

32This is what the Lord, the God of Israel said: “Take this cup of unmixed wine from my hand, and you shall give drink to all the nations to which I am sending you. 2 And they will vomit and be enraged from the face of the sword that I am sending between them.” 3 And I took the cup from the hand of the Lord, and I gave drink to the nations to which the Lord sent me: 4 Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and kings of Judah and its rulers, in order to make them deserted and untraveled and hissed at; 5 and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his servants and his nobles, 6 and all his people, and all the mixed people and all the foreign kings, Ashkelon and Gaza, and Ekron, and those of Ashdod who remain, 7 and Edom, and Moab, and the sons of Ammon, 8 and the kings of Tyre and the kings of Sidon, and the kings who are on the other side of the sea; 9 and Dedan, and Teman, and Rosh and everything shaved with respect to its face, 10 and all the mixed people who are lodging in the desert, 11 and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Persians, 12 and all the kings from the east wind, those who are far away and those who are near, each with his brother; and all the kingdoms that are on the face of the earth. 13 “And you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty said: “Drink! Get drunk, and you shall vomit, and you shall fall and shall not stand before the face of the sword that I myself am sending between you.” 14 And this will happen whenever they are unwilling to take the cup from your hand to drink it: You will say: ‘This is what the Lord said, “You will certainly drink it! 15 For I am beginning to mistreat a city on which my name was named. And you will certainly not be cleansed, for I am summoning a sword against those who dwell on the earth.” 16 And you shall prophesy these words against them, and you shall say, ‘The Lord will speak from on high; he will give forth his voice from his holy place. He will speak a word against his place, and they will reply like a turtledove, and destruction is coming upon those who dwell on the earth, 17 upon a part of the earth, for the Lord has a judgment against the nations. He judges toward all flesh, and the ungodly will be given to the sword,’ says the Lord.” 18 This is what the Lord said: “Look, calamity is coming from nation to nation, and a great storm is going out from the ends of the earth! 19 And there will be people slain by the Lord on the day of the Lord from one part of the earth to another part of the earth. They shall not be buried; they will be like filth on the face of the land. 20 Shout aloud, O shepherds, and cry out and beat your breasts, O rams of the sheep, for your days to the slaughter have been completed, and you will fall just like the choicest rams! 21 And escape will vanish from the shepherds, and deliverance from the rams of the sheep. 22 A sound of a shout from the shepherds! And a loud noise from the sheep and from the rams, because the Lord has destroyed their feeding place. 23 And he will make the vestiges of peace cease on account of the face of the wrath of my anger. 24 Like a lion, he has forsaken his lodging, for their land has become untraveled, on account of the presence of the great sword.

33At the beginning of King Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, this word came from the Lord: 2 This is what the Lord said: “Stand in the court of the house of the Lord and speak to all the Judeans and all who come to worship in the house of the Lord all the words that I commanded you to speak to them; do not hold back a word.[11] 3 Perhaps they will hear and turn back, each from his evil way, and I will desist from the calamities that I am planning to do to them on account of their evil pursuits. 4 And you shall say, ‘This is what the Lord said: “If you do not listen to me, to walk in my ordinances that I have given before your face, 5 to listen to the words of my servants the prophets that I am sending you early in the morning (and I sent them and you did not listen to me), 6 I will also give this house up like Shiloh; and I will give the city up as a curse to all the nations of every land.”’” 7 And the priests and the false prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord.[12] 8 And this happened: Jeremiah ceased speaking all those things that the Lord had appointed for him to speak to all the people, and the priests and the false prophets and all the people captured him, saying, “You will surely be put to death!” 9 Because you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, “This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be deserted by its inhabitants!” Then all the people assembled against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. 10 And the rulers of Judah heard this matter, and they went up from the house of the king to the house of the Lord, and they sat in the entrance of the new gate. 11 And the priests and the false prophets said to the rulers and to all the people, “A judgment of death be upon this person, because he prophesied against this city, as you heard in your ears.” 12 And Jeremiah said to the rulers and to all the people, saying, “The Lord sent me to prophesy all the words that you have heard against this house and against this city. 13 And now make your ways and your works better, and listen to the voice of the Lord, and the Lord will desist from the calamities that he has spoken against you. 14 And look! I am in your hands; do to me as is expedient and as is best to you. 15 But you must surely know that if you slay me, you are bringing innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and upon those who dwell in it, for the Lord has truly sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.” 16 And the rulers and all the people said to the priests and to the false prophets, “There is no judgment of death upon this man, because he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.” 17 And some men of the elders of the land rose up and said to the whole assembly of the people: 18 “Micaiah the Moreshethite lived in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and he said to all the people of Judah, ‘This is what the Lord said: “Zion will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will be untraveled, and the mountain of the house will become a forest grove.” 19 Hezekiah and all Judah surely did not slay him. Was it not that they feared the Lord, and they pleaded before the Lord, and the Lord desisted from the calamities that he had spoken against them? And we have done great evils against our lives!” 20 And there was a person prophesying in the name of the Lord, Uriah, the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim, and he prophesied concerning this land according to all the words of Jeremiah. 21 And king Jehoiakim and all the rulers heard all his words and sought to kill him, and Uriah heard it and went to Egypt. 22 And the king sent men to Egypt, 23 and they brought him from there and led him to the king. And he struck him with a sword and threw him into the tomb of the sons of his people. 24 In any case, the hand of Ahikam son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah so as not to hand over him into the hands of the people, not to kill him.

34This is what the Lord said: “Make bonds and chains and put them around your neck. 2 And you shall send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the sons of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hands of their messengers who are coming to their meeting to Jerusalem, to Zedekiah, king of Judah. 3 And you shall command them to say to their lords: ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel said: “This is what you will say to your lords: 4 ‘I made the earth by my great power and by my high arm. And I will give it to whomever seems right in my eyes. 5 I have given the earth to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to serve him, and the wild animals of the field to work for him. 6 And I will visit the nation and the kingdom, any that do not throw their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, by the sword and by famine,’ said the Lord, ‘until they come to an end in his hand. 7 And you, do not listen to your false prophets and your diviners and your dreamers and your omens and your sorcerers, when they are saying, “You shall not work for the king of Babylon,” 8 because they are prophesying lies to you, to remove you from your land. 9 And the nation that brings its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and labors for him, I will also leave it upon its land, and it will serve him, and it will dwell in its land.’”’” 10 And I spoke to Zedekiah, king of Judah, according to all these words, saying, “Bring your neck and work for the king of Babylon, 11 for they are prophesying unjustly to you, 12 because I did not send them,” declares the Lord, “and they are prophesying wrongly in my name so as to destroy you; and you and your prophets who prophesy lies wrongly to you will be destroyed.[13] 13 I have spoken to you and all this people and the priests, saying, ‘This is what the Lord said: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, ‘Look, the vessels of the house of the Lord will return from Babylon,’ because they are prophesying wrongly to you. 14 I did not send them. 15 If they are prophets and if the word of the Lord is in them, let them come to me, 16 because this is what the Lord said: ‘Even the remaining vessels 17 that the king of Babylon did not take when he exiled Jeconiah from Jerusalem 18 will go into Babylon,’ says the Lord.”’”

35And it happened in the fourth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fifth month: Hananiah, the son of Azzur, the false prophet from Gibeon said to me in the house of the Lord, in the eyes of the priests and all the people, saying, 2 “This is what the Lord said: ‘I have crushed the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 In two more years of days, I will return the vessels of the house of the Lord into this place, 4 and Jeconiah and the captivity of Judah, for I will crush the yoke of the king of Babylon.’” 5 And Jeremiah said to Hananiah in the eyes of all the people, and in the eyes of the priests who stood in the house of the Lord, 6 and Jeremiah said, “Truly, may you act this way, O Lord! Confirm your word that you are prophesying, to return the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the captivity from Babylon to this place. 7 In any case, hear the word of the Lord that I am saying into your ears and into the ears of all the people. 8 The prophets who came before me and before you from eternity also prophesied about much land and about a kingdom great for war. 9 As for the prophet who prophesied for peace, after the thing comes, they will know the prophet whom the Lord has sent them in faithfulness.” 10 And Hananiah took the chains from the neck of Jeremiah in the eyes of all the people and crushed them. 11 And Hananiah said in the eyes of all the people, saying, “This is what the Lord said: ‘In this way I will crush the yoke of the king of Babylon from the necks of all the nations.’” And Jeremiah went on his way. 12 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after Hananiah crushed the chains from his neck, saying: 13 “Go, and say to Hananiah, saying, ‘This is what the Lord said: “You have crushed wooden chains, but I will make iron chains in their place.” 14 Because this is what the Lord said: “I have put an iron yoke upon the neck of all the nations to work for the king of Babylon.”’” 15 And Jeremiah said to Hananiah, “The Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in what is wrong. 16 Therefore this is what the Lord said: ‘Look! I am dispatching you from the face of the earth; this year you will die.’” 17 And he died in the seventh month.

36And these are the words of the document that Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the elders of the exile and to the priests and to the false prophets—a letter to the exile in Babylon and to all the people, 2 after the departure of Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, and every free person and prisoner and craftsman from Jerusalem, 3 by the hand of Eleasah, son of Shaphan, and Gemariah, son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Babylon in Babylon, saying, 4 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel said against the exile I exiled from Jerusalem: 5 ‘Build houses and settle down, and plant orchards and eat their fruit, 6 and take wives and bear children, sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands. And multiply and do not diminish, 7 and seek the peace of the land into which I exiled you, and pray to the Lord concerning them, because your peace is with their peace. 8 Because this is what the Lord said: ‘Do not let the false prophets who are among you persuade you, and do not let your seers persuade you, and do not listen to your dreams that you are dreaming, 9 for they are prophesying to you wrongly in my name, and I did not send them. 10 Because this is what the Lord said: ‘When the seventy years are about to be completed for Babylon, I will visit you and establish my words upon you, to return your people to this place. 11 And I will make a plan of peace and not calamity over you, to give these things to you. 12 And pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 And seek me, and you will find me, because you will seek me with your whole heart, 14 and I will appear to you.’” 15 Because you said, “The Lord has appointed prophets for us in Babylon,” 21 this is what the Lord said concerning Ahab and concerning Zedekiah: “Look! I am giving them into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will strike them before your eyes. 22 And they will receive a curse from them on the whole exile of Judah in Babylon, saying, ‘May the Lord do with you as he did with Zedekiah, and as he did with Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,’ 23 because of the lawlessness that they did in Israel. And they committed adultery with the wives of their citizens, and they spoke a word in my name that I did not command them, and I am a witness,” says the Lord. 24 “And to Shemaiah the Nehelamite you shall say, 25 ‘I did not send you in my name.’ And to Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah the priest, say, 26 ‘The Lord has given you as priest in place of Jehoiada the priest, to be an overseer in the house of the Lord, over every person who is prophesying and over every madman. And you will give him over to the guardhouse and to the portcullis. 27 And now why have you joined in reviling Jeremiah, the one from Anathoth who is prophesying to you? 28 Was it not because of this he sent a message to you in Babylon, saying, “It is far off; build houses and settle, and plant gardens and eat their fruit!”?’” 29 And Zephaniah read the document in the ears of Jeremiah. 30 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, 31 “Send to the exile, saying, ‘This is what the Lord said concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: “Since Shemaiah prophesied to you and I did not send him, and he has made you trust upon error, 32 therefore this is what the Lord said: ‘Look! I will make a visit upon Shemaiah and upon his family, and he will have no person in your midst to see the good things that I will do for you; they will not see them.’”’”

37The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, to say: 2 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said, saying, ‘Write all the words that I have spoken to you upon a document, 3 for look, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will return the exile of my people, Israel and Judah,’ said the Lord, ‘and I will return them to the land that I have given to their fathers, and they will rule over it.’” 4 And these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah. 5 This is what the Lord said: “You will hear a sound of fear; there is fear, and there is no peace. 6 Ask and see if a male has given birth, and concerning the fear with which they will hold their loins and deliverance, for I have seen all humankind, and his hands were upon his loins. They turned their faces; they became jaundiced. 7 For that day is great, and there is none such as this, and it is an oppressive time for Jacob, 8 and he will be delivered from this. On that day,” said the Lord, “I will crush the yoke from their neck, and I will break their bonds, and they will not labor for foreigners. 9 And they will labor for the Lord their God, and I will raise up David their king for them.” 12 This is what the Lord said: “I raised up a fracture; your wound was painful. 13 There is none to judge your case; you were cured for pain; there is no help for you. 14 All your friends have forgotten you; they shall not inquire about you. Because I made fun of you with a wound of an enemy, with a severe discipline. Your sins multiplied over all your injustices. 16 Therefore all who eat you will be eaten, and all your enemies will eat all their flesh. Your sins have been multiplied over the multitude of your injustices. They have done these things to you. And those who tore you apart will become torn to pieces, and I will give as plunder all who plunder you. 17 Because I will bring up your healing. I will cure you from your painful wound,” declares the Lord, “for you were called ‘Scattered.’ She is your prey, for he is not seeking her.” 18 This is what the Lord said: “Look! I myself am returning the exile of Jacob. And I will have mercy upon his exile, and the city will be built upon her height, and the people will be established according to its judgment. 19 And singers will go out from them, and the sound of jesting, and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few. 20 And their sons will enter as in the former times, and their testimonies will be lifted up before my face, and I will visit those who afflict them. 21 And his mighty ones will be over them, and his rulers will come out from him. And I will gather them, and they will return to me, for who is this who gave his heart to return to me?” says the Lord. 23 Because the angry wrath of the Lord has gone out; returning wrath has gone out. It will come against the ungodly. 24 The wrath of the anger of the Lord shall not turn back until he has accomplished, and until he has brought about the undertaking of his heart. In the last days you will know these things.

38“At that time,” the Lord said, “I will become a God for the race of Israel, and they will become a people for me.” 2 This is what the Lord said: “I found him warm in the desert with those who had been destroyed by the sword.” Go, and do not destroy Israel! 3 The Lord appeared to him from afar: “I have loved you with an eternal love; therefore I have drawn you in compassion. 4 For I will build you, and you will be built, O virgin Israel! You will seize your tambourine, and you will come out with an assembly of people playing. 5 For you planted vineyards on the mountains of Samaria.” Plant and praise, 6 because there is a day of calling for those who plead for the mountains of Ephraim, “Get up and go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.” 7 Because this is what the Lord said to Jacob: “Be cheerful and neigh at the head of the nations. Make a hearing and give praise! Say, ‘The Lord saved his people, the remnant of Israel. 8 Look! I myself am bringing them from the north, and I will gather them from the ends of the earth at the feast of Phasek, and they will give birth to a large crowd, and they will return here. 9 They went out with weeping, and I will bring them back with comfort, lodging them by trenches of water, on the right path. And they shall not wander in it, for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.” 10 Hear the words of the Lord, O nations, and declare them in the islands far away. Say, “He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him like he who tends his flock.” 11 Because the Lord has redeemed Jacob. He has delivered him from the hand of those stronger than he. 12 And they will come and be cheerful on Mount Zion, and they will come to the good things of the Lord, to a land of grain and wine and fruit and livestock and sheep. And their souls will be just like a fruitful tree, and they will no longer be hungry. 13 At that time the virgins will rejoice in an assembly of young men, and the aged women will rejoice. And I will turn their grief to joy and make them cheerful. 14 I will magnify and make the souls of the priests drunk, the sons of Levi. And my people will be filled with my good things. 15 This is what the Lord said: “A voice of lamentation and weeping and mourning was heard in Ramah. Rachel, weeping over her sons, was unwilling to desist, because they were no more.”[14] 16 This is what the Lord said: “Let your voice cease from weeping, and your eyes from your tears, because there is a reward for your works, and they will return from the land of their enemies, 17 a stable place for your children. 18 I have heard a hearing, Ephraim lamenting, ‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined. I was not taught like a calf. Return to me, and I will return, because you are the Lord my God. 19 Because after my captivity I repented, and after I knew, I groaned for the day of shame; and I declared to you that I received disgrace since my youth. 20 Ephraim is a beloved son to me, a child to revel in. For because my words are in him, I will remember him with remembrance. Therefore I hurried for him; in showing mercy I will show mercy to him,” says the Lord. 21 Set yourself up, O Zion; make retaliation. Give your heart to the shoulders. Return on the road that you had gone, O virgin Israel. Return to your cities, mourning. 22 How long will you turn back, dishonored daughter? For the Lord has created salvation for a fresh planting; people will go about in deliverance. 23 For this is what the Lord said: “They will still say this word in the land of Judah and in his cities when I will return his exile back: ‘Blessed be the Lord on his righteous holy mountain! 24 And there will be inhabitants in the cities of Judah and in his whole land, together with the farmer, and he will be taken with the flock. 25 Because I made every thirsty soul drunk, and I filled every hungry soul. 26 Therefore I was awakened and I saw, and my sleep was sweet to me. 27 Therefore look! The days are coming,” says the Lord, “and I will sow Israel and Judah with the seed of a human and with the seed of an animal. 28 And this will happen: just as I was watching over them to take down and to mistreat, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord. 29 In those days they shall not say, “The fathers have eaten unripe grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge.” 30 But rather, each will die for his own sins, and the teeth of the one who eats unripe grapes will be set on edge. 31 “Look! The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “and I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not according to the covenant that I established with their fathers on the day I seized their hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not remain in my covenant, and I neglected them,” declares the Lord.[15] 33 “For this is my covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord. “In giving, I will give my laws into their mind, and I will write them upon their hearts. And I will become a God for them, and they will become a people for me. 34 And each one will not teach his fellow citizen, or each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord!’ because everyone will know me, from the smallest of them to the greatest of them, because I will be gracious to their injustices. And I shall not remember their sins any longer. 35 Even if the heavens were raised up to the heights,” declares the Lord, “and the ground of the earth lowered downward, even then I would not reject the race of Israel,” declares the Lord, “concerning all the things they have done.” 36 This is what the Lord said, he who gives the sun as light for the day, the moon and stars as light for the night, and the shout in the sea and its waves roared; the Lord Almighty is his name. 37 “If these laws cease from before my face,” declares the Lord, “then the race of Israel will cease to be a people before my face all the days. 38 Look, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “and a city will be built for the Lord from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner. 39 And its measurement will go out opposite them to the hills of Gareb, and it will be surrounded all around with choice stones. 40 And all Asaremoth to Nachal Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate to the east, will be a sanctuary to the Lord. And it will never again come to an end, and it will not be taken down for eternity.

39aThe word that came from the Lord to Jeremiah in the tenth year of King Zedekiah; this was the eighteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. 2 And the power of the king of Babylon fenced in Jerusalem, and Jeremiah was being guarded in the court of the guard that was in the king’s house, 3 in which king Zedekiah had shut him, saying, “Why did you prophesy, saying, ‘This is what the Lord said: “Look, I am giving this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will take it, 4 and Zedekiah shall not be saved from the hand of the Chaldeans. Because in surrender he will be handed over into the hands of the king of Babylon, and his mouth will speak to his mouth, and his eyes will see his eyes. 5 And Zedekiah will go into Babylon, and he will dwell there.”’?” 6 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, 7 “Look, Hanamel, son of Shallum your father’s brother, is coming to you, saying, ‘Buy my field that is in Anathoth for yourself, because the judgment is yours to receive it as a property.’” 8 And Hanamel, son of Shallum my father’s brother, came to me in the court of the guard, and he said, “Buy my field that is in the land of Benjamin, which is in Anathoth, because it is your judgment to buy it, and you are the elder.” And I knew that it was a word of the Lord. 9 And I bought the field of Hanamel, son of my father’s brother, and I set down seventeen shekels of silver for him. 10 And I wrote on a document and sealed it and affirmed a witness and set the silver down on a scale. 11 And I took the sealed purchase document, 12 and I gave it to Baruch, son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, before the eyes of Hanamel, son of my father’s brother, and before the eyes of the men who stood by and wrote in the purchase document, and before the eyes of the Judeans who were in the court of the guard. 13 And I charged Baruch before their eyes, saying: 14 “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Take this purchase document and the document that has been read, and you shall put it in a vessel of clay, so that it will remain many days. 15 Because this is what the Lord said: “Fields and houses and vineyards will be created again in this land.”’” 16 And I prayed to the Lord after I had given the purchase document to Baruch, son of Neriah, saying, 17 “O Lord who is, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and your high and elevated arm; nothing is hidden from you, 18 who do mercy to thousands and repay the sins of the fathers to the bosoms of their children after them, great mighty God, 19 Lord of the great council, and mighty in works, the great Almighty God, and glorious Lord (your eyes are upon the ways of the sons of humans, granting to each one according to his way); 20 who did signs and wonders in the land of Egypt up to this day (and in Israel and among the earthborn), and made a name for yourself as at this day, 21 and brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders, with a strong hand and with a high arm 22 and with great sights, and gave them this land that you swore to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey! 23 And they entered and took it and did not listen to your voice and did not walk in your commands. They did not do any of those things that you commanded to them, for all these calamities to happen to them. 24 Look, a crowd has come against the city to capture it, and the city will be given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting it, from the face of the sword and famine. As you spoke, so it will be. 25 And you say to me, ‘Buy yourself the field with money.’ And I wrote a document and sealed it and took the testimony of witnesses, and the city was given into the hands of the Chaldeans.” 26 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 27 “I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; nothing will be hidden from me. 28 Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel said: ‘When it has been given, this city will be given over to the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will receive it. 29 And the Chaldeans will come making war upon this city; and they will burn this city with fire, and they will burn the houses in which they burned incense to Baal on their housetops and poured out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me, 30 because the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah were alone in doing evil before my eyes since their youth, 31 because this city was against my anger and for my rage, from the day they built it and until this day, to remove it from my face, 32 because of all the evils of the sons of Israel and of Judah that they did to provoke me, they and their kings and their rulers and their priests and their prophets, men of Judah and those who dwell in Jerusalem. 33 And they turned their back to me and not their face, and I have taught them in the morning, and I have taught, and they have heard no longer to receive discipline. 34 And they put their defilement in the house in which my name is invoked upon it, by their uncleannesses. 35 And they built altars to Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to offer their sons and their daughters to King Molech, which I did not command; and it did not go up upon my heart for them to do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.’” 36 And now this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said against the city of which you say, “It will be handed over into the hands of the king of Babylon by the sword and famine and dispatch”: 37 “Look, I am gathering them from every land where I scattered them in my wrath and my anger and great irritation, and I will return them to this place, and I will settle them in security. 38 And they will become a people for me, and I will become a God for them. 39 And I will give them another way and another heart, to fear me every day, and for good for them and their children after them. 40 And I will establish an everlasting covenant with them, which I shall not turn away from them, and I will put my fear into their heart in order that they do not depart from me. 41 And I will visit them to do good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness and with all my heart and with all my soul. 42 Because this is what the Lord said: ‘Just as I have brought all these great calamities upon this people, so I myself will bring upon them all the good things that I have spoken upon them. 43 And fields will again be bought in the land about which you say, “It will be untraveled by humans and animal, and they were handed over to the hands of the Chaldeans.” 44 And they will buy fields with silver; and you will write a document, and you will seal it and affirm it by witnesses in the land of Benjamin and around Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountain of the Shephelah and in the cities of the Negeb, because I will turn back their exile.’”

40And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time (and he was still confined in the court of the guard), saying, 2 “This is what the Lord said, who makes the earth and forms it to establish it; the Lord is his name: 3 ‘Cry out to me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things that you do not know. 4 Because this is what the Lord said concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the king of Judah, which have been taken down for stakes and fortifications 5 to fight against the Chaldeans and to fill it with the corpses of the people whom I struck in my wrath and in my anger, and I turned back my face from them for all their evils: 6 ‘Look, I myself am bringing healing and remedy to her (and I will make it evident to them, and I will cure her) and peace and faith. 7 And I will return the exile of Judah and the exile of Israel, and I will build them just as also the former time. 8 And I will cleanse them from all their injustices that they sinned against me, and I shall not remember their sins with which they sinned against me and withdrew from me. 9 And it will be for cheer and praise, and for majesty to all the people of the earth, whoever will hear all the good things that I will do. And they will fear and be embittered concerning all the good and concerning all the peace that I will make for them. 10 This is what the Lord said: ‘There will yet be heard in this place of which you say, “It is a desert without humans and animals in the cities of Judah and outside Jerusalem that are deserted, with the result that there is no human or animals,” 11 a sound of cheer and a sound of gladness, a voice of a bridegroom and a voice of a bride, a voice saying, “Acknowledge the Lord Almighty, because the Lord is precious, because his mercy is for eternity”; and they will bring gifts to the house of the Lord, because I will return all the exile of that land according to the former time,’ said the Lord. 12 This is what the Lord of power said: ‘There will be lodgings for shepherds resting their sheep in this desert place where no person or cattle are, in all its cities. 13 Sheep will yet pass under the hand of he who counts, in the cities of the hill country, and in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negeb, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the surroundings of Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah,’ said the Lord.”

41The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord (and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his whole army and all the land of his rule were fighting him against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah), saying: 2 “This is what the Lord said: ‘Go to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and you shall say to him, “This is what the Lord said: ‘This city in surrender will be handed over to the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it and burn it with fire. 3 Even you shall not be saved from his hand; and you will be taken with a taking, and you will be given into his hands, and your eyes will see his eyes, and you will go into Babylon. 4 But hear the word the Lord, O Zedekiah, king of Judah! Thus, says the Lord: 5 ‘You will die in peace. And as they lamented your fathers who reigned before you, they will also lament you. And they will smite you as far as Hades, because I have spoken a word,’ said the Lord.”’” 6 And Jeremiah spoke all these words to King Zedekiah in Jerusalem, 7 and the power of the king of Babylon was waging war against Jerusalem and against the cities of Judah and against Lachish and against Azekah, because these remained among the cities of Judah, fortified cities. 8 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah had completed a covenant with the people to call a release, 9 to send away free each male servant of his and each female servant, the Hebrew man and Hebrew woman, so as not to enslave a man from Judah. 10 And all the nobles and all the people who had entered into the covenant for each to send his male servant and his female servant changed their minda and pushed 11 them to become male servants and female servants. 12 And a word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: 13 “This is what the Lord said: ‘I made a covenant with your fathers on the day that I delivered them out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, saying, 14 “When six years have been fulfilled, you shall send your brother free, the Hebrew who will be sold to you, and he shall work for you for only six years. Then you shall send him away free.” And they did not listen to me, and they did not incline their ear. 15 And today they have turned to do that which is upright before my eyes, each one to call for a release of his neighbor; and they finished the covenant at my face in the house that my name is invoked upon it. 16 And you have turned and profaned my name, for each one to bring back his male servant and each one his female servant, whom you had sent away free for their life, for yourself as male servants and female servants. 17 Therefore this is what the Lord said: ‘You did not listen to me for each one to call a release for his neighbor. Look, I am calling a release for you to the sword and to death and to famine, and I will make you a dispersion to all the kingdoms of the earth. 18 And I will give the men who transgress my covenant, those who did not stand by my covenant that they made before my face, the calf that they made to work for it, 19 the rulers of Judah and those who are lords and the priests and the people. 20 And I will give them to their enemies, and their carcasses will be food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the earth. 21 And as for Zedekiah king of Judah and their rulers, I will give them into the hands of their enemies, and the power of the king of Babylon will come against those who run away from them. 22 Look, I am commanding,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will return them to this land, and they will fight against it and receive it, and burn it and the cities of Judah with fire. And I will makeb them deserted without inhabitants.’”

42The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, saying: 2 “Go to the house of the Rechabites, and you shall bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the courts, and you shall give them wine to drink.” 3 And I brought Jaazaniah, son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and his sons, and all the house of the Rechabites. 4 And I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the priestly chamber of the sons of Ionan, son of Hananiah, son of Gedaliah the man of God, who was near to the house of the rulers who were over the house of Maaseiah, son of Shallum, the guard of the temple court. 5 And I put a jar of wine and a cup before their face, and I said, “Drink wine.” 6 And they said, “We shall not drink wine because our father Jonadab, the son of Rechab, commanded us saying, ‘You and your sons shall not drink wine until eternity. 7 And you shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed, and you will not have a vineyard, because you will live in tents for all your days, so that you may live many days upon the land on which you spent time. 8 And we and our wives and our sons and our daughters obeyed the voice of Jonadab our father so as not to drink wine all our days, 9 not to build a house to dwell in; we had no vineyard or field or seed. 10 And we lived in tents and obeyed and acted according to all that our father Jonadab commanded us. 11 And this happened when Nebuchadnezzar went up against the land: Then we said that we would come in, and we entered Jerusalem from the face of the power of the Chaldeans and from the face of the power of the Arameans, and we were living there.” 12 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 13 “Thus says the Lord: ‘Go and say to the people of Judah and those who dwell in Jerusalem, “Shall you not receive instruction so as to hear my words? 14 The sons of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, stood firm at the word that he commanded his children, not to drink wine, and they did not drink. And I spoke to you early, and I spoke, and you did not listen. 15 And I sent you my male servants the prophets, saying: ‘Turn back, each of you, from his evil way, and improve your practices, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and you will live upon the land that I gave to you and your fathers.’ And you did not incline your ears and did not listen. 16 And the sons of Jonadab, son of Rechab, stood by the commandment of their father, but this people did not obey me.” 17 Therefore this is what the Lord said: “Look, I am bringing all the calamities that I have spoken against Judah and against those who dwell in Jerusalem.” 18 Because of this, this is what the Lord said: “Since the sons of Jonadab, son of Rechab, have obeyed the commandment of their father to do as their father commanded them, 19 there shall not lack a man of the sons of Jonadab, son of Rechab, to stand before my face all the days of the land.’”

43In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, a word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Take for yourself a papyrus document and write upon it all the words that I spoke to you against Jerusalem and against Judah and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you in the days of Josiah, king of Judah, to this day. 3 Perhaps the house of Judah will hear all the calamities I am planning to do to them, and they might return from their evil ways, and I will be gracious about their injustices and their sins.” 4 And Jeremiah called Baruch, son of Neriah, and he wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord that he spoke to him in a papyrus document. 5 And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying: “I am being guarded. I am not able to enter the house of the Lord. 6 So you shall read from this papyrus roll in the ears of the people in the house of the Lord on the day of fasting. And you will read it to them in the ears of everyone of Judah who comes from their city. 7 Perhaps mercy will fall before the face of the Lord for them, and they will return from their evil way, for the anger and the wrath of the Lord that he spoke against this people is great.” 8 And Baruch did according to all the things that Jeremiah commanded him, to read from the document the words of the Lord in the house of the Lord. 9 And this happened in the eighth year of king Jehoiakim, in the ninth month: All the people in Jerusalem and the house of Judah called an assembly for a fast before the face of the Lord. 10 And Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the document in the house of the Lord, in the house of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, the scribe, in the upper court at the entrance of the new gate of the house of the Lord, and in ears of all the people. 11 And Micaiah, son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the document. 12 And he went down to the house of the king, to the house of the scribe, and look, all the rulers were seated there: Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah, son of Shelemiah, and Jonathan, son of Achbor, and Gemariah, son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah, son of Hananiah, and all the rulers. 13 And Micaiah reported to them all the words that he had heard Baruch read in the ears of the people. 14 And all the rulers sent the son of Nethaniah, son of Shelemiah, son of Cushi, to Baruch, son of Neriah, saying, “The papyrus scroll from which you read in the ears of the people, take it in your hand and come.” And Baruch took the papyrus scroll and went down to them. 15 And they said to him, “Read it in our ears again.” And Baruch read it. 16 And this happened when they heard all the words: They each took counsel with his neighbor, and they said, “Reporting, we should report all these words to the king.” 17 And they asked Baruch, saying: “Where did you write all these words?”[16] 18 And Baruch said, “Jeremiah declared all these words to me from his own mouth, and I was writing them in the document.” 19 And they said to Baruch, “Go, hide yourself, you and Jeremiah; let no person know where you are.” 20 And they went in to the king, into the temple court, and they put the papyrus scroll for safekeeping in the house of Elishama, and they reported all the words to the king. 21 And the king sent Jehudi to take the papyrus scroll, and he took it from the house of Elishama, and Jehudi read it in the ears of the king and in the ears of all the rulers who were standing around the king. 22 And the king was sitting in the winter house, and there was a hearth of fire before his face. 23 And this happened when Jehudi was reading three or four leaves of papyrus: He kept cutting them with a scribe’s razor and throwing them into the fire that was upon the hearth, until the entire papyrus scroll came to an end in the fire that was upon the hearth. 24 And the king and his male servants who were listening to all these words did not seek the Lord and did not tear their garments. 25 And Elnathan and Gedaliah suggested to the king to burn up the papyrus scroll. 26 And the king commanded Jerahmeel, son of the king, and Seraiah, son of Azriel, to capture Baruch and Jeremiah. But they were hidden. 27 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after the king burned up the papyrus scroll, all the words that Baruch had written from the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, 28 “Take another papyrus roll for yourself again, and write all the words that were on the papyrus scroll that king Jehoiakim burned up. 29 And you shall say, ‘This is what the Lord said: “You burned this papyrus scroll, saying: ‘Why have you written upon it saying the king of Babylon in entering will enter and utterly destroy this land, and human and animals will come to an end from it?’” 30 Therefore this is what the Lord said against Jehoiakim, king of Judah: “He will not have anyone sitting on the throne of David, and his carcass will be thrown away in the heat of the day and in the frost of the night. 31 And I will pay a visit to him and upon his family and upon his male servants. And I will bring upon him and upon those who dwell in Jerusalem and upon the land of Judah all the calamities that I have spoken to them and to which they have not listened.”’” 32 And Baruch took another papyrus document, and he wrote upon it from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim had burned up, and many more words like these were added to it.

44And Zedekiah son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar made king to rule Judah, became king in place of Jehoiakim. 2 And he and his male servants and the people of the land did not listen to the words of the Lord that he spoke by the hand of Jeremiah. 3 And King Zedekiah sent Jehucal, son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah the priest, to Jeremiah, saying, “Pray now for us to the Lord!” 4 And Jeremiah went and passed through the middle of the city, and they had not put him in the guardhouse. 5 And the force of Pharaoh went out from Egypt, and the Chaldeans heard the report of them, and they rose up against Jerusalem. 6 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, 7 “This is what the Lord said: ‘This is what you shall say to the king of Judah who has sent you to seek me: “Look, the force of Pharaoh, which came out to you for aid, will return to the land of Egypt. 8 And the Chaldeans themselves will turn and fight against this city and capture it and burn it with fire. 9 Because this is what the Lord said: ‘Do not ponder in your souls, saying, “The Chaldeans, in departing will depart from us,” because they shall not go away. 10 Even if you should strike the whole force of the Chaldeans who make war with you, and anyone pierced should be left, each in his place, these will rise up and burn this city with fire.’”’” 11 And this happened when the force of the Chaldeans had gone up from Jerusalem from the face of the force of Pharaoh: 12 Jeremiah went out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to buy a property from there in the middle of the people. 13 And he was at the gate of Benjamin; and there was a person with whom he had lodged—Zeruiah, son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah—and he captured Jeremiah, saying, “You are fleeing to the Chaldeans!” 14 And he said, “That is a lie. I am not fleeing to the Chaldeans!” And he did not listen to him, and Zeruiah captured Jeremiah and brought him to the rulers. 15 And the rulers were embittered against Jeremiah and struck him and sent him to the house of Jonathan the scribe, because they had made this house into a guardhouse. 16 And Jeremiah went into the house of the cistern and into the vaulted room, and he sat there many days. 17 And Zedekiah sent and called him, and the king questioned him secretly to say whether there was any word from the Lord, and he said, “There is! You will be handed over to the hands of the king of Babylon.” 18 And Jeremiah said to the king, “What wrong have I done to you and your male servants and this people, that you have put me into the guardhouse? 19 And where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against this land!’? 20 And now, O lord king, let mercy fall for me before your face, and why are you returning me to the house of Jonathan the scribe, and I will not die there?” 21 And the king gave orders, and they cast him into the guardhouse, and they gave him one loaf of bread per day from outside where they bake, until the bread came to an end in the city. And Jeremiah sat in the court of the guard.

45And Shephatiah, son of Mattan, and Gedaliah, son of Pashhur, and Jehucal, son of Shelemiah, heard the word that Jeremiah spoke against the people, saying, 2 “This is what the Lord said: ‘He who dwells in this city will die by the sword and hunger, and he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live, and his soul will become a discovery, and he will live. 3 Because this is what the Lord said: ‘This city, being handed over, will be handed over into the hands of the force of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.’” 4 And they said to the king, “Indeed, let that person be destroyed because he is weakeningb the hands of the people who make war, who remain in the city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking to them according to these words, for this person is not encouraging peace to this people, but rather evil.” 5 And the king said, “Look, he is in your hands,” because the king had no power against them. 6 And they threw him into the cistern of Malchiah, son of the king, who was in the court of the guard, and they let him down into the cistern. And there was no water in the cistern, but rather mud, and he was in the mud. 7 And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian (and he was in the house of the king) heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. And the king was in the gates of Benjamin. 8 And he went out to him, and he spoke to the king, and he said, 9 “You have done wickedly with what you have done, killing this person from the face of the famine, because there is no longer any bread in the city.” 10 And the king commanded Ebed-melech, saying, “Take thirty people in your hand from here, and bring him up out of the cistern, so that he does not die.” 11 And Ebed-melech took the people, and he entered into the house of the king, the subterranean chamber; and he took old rags and old ropes from there, and he threw them into the cistern to Jeremiah. 12 And he said, “Put these under the ropes.” And Jeremiah did so. 13 And they drew him up with the ropes and brought him up out of the cistern. And Jeremiah sat in the court of the guard. 14 And the king sent and summoned him to himself, to the house of Aselisel, which was in the house of the Lord, and the king said to him, “I will ask you about a matter; now you must not hide anything from me.” 15 And Jeremiah said to the king, “If I report it to you, will you not put me to death? And if I advise you, you shall not listen to me.” 16 And the king swore to him, saying, “As the Lord lives, who made for us this life, cursed if I will not kill you and not give you into the hands of these people!” 17 And Jeremiah said to him, “This is what the Lord said: ‘If in going out you go to the leaders of the king of Babylon, your soul will live, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house will live. 18 And if you do not go out to give this city into the hands of the Chaldeans, then they will burn it with fire, and you shall not be saved.’” 19 And the king said to Jeremiah, “I have an issue with the Judeans who have fled to the Chaldeans, not to give me into their hands, and they will mock me.” 20 And Jeremiah said, “They will not hand you over. Obey the word of the Lord, which I am telling you, and it will be better for you, and your soul will live. 21 And if you did not want to go out, this is the word that the Lord has shown to me: 22 And look, all the women who are left in the house of the king of Judah were being led out to the rulers of the king of Babylon, and these were saying, ‘Your peaceful men have deceived you, and they will prevail over you and destroy your feet with slipperiness. They have turned away from you. 23 And they will lead your women and your children out to the Chaldeans, and you shall not be saved, because you will be captured by the hand of the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned.” 24 And the king said to him, “Let no person know of these words, and you shall not die. 25 But if the rulers hear that I have spoken to you, and they come to you and say to you, ‘Tell us what the king said to you; you must not hide it from us, and we shall not kill you. So what did the king speak to you? 26 And you shall say to them, ‘I am throwing my compassion before the eyes of the king to return me to the house of Jonathan to die there.’” 27 And all the rulers came to Jeremiah and questioned him, and he reported to them according to all these words that the king commanded him. And they were silent, because the word of the Lord was not heard. 28 And Jeremiah sat in the court of the guard until the time at which Jerusalem was captured.

46And this happened in the ninth month of Zedekiah king of Judah: Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his force approached against Jerusalem, and they besieged it. 2 And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth of the month, the city was broken. 3 And all the leaders of the king of Babylon went in and sat in the middle gate: Nergalsharezer and Samgar-nebo and Sarsechim and Rabsaris Nergal-sharezer, Rabmag and the rest of the leaders of the king of Babylon. 14 bAndc they sent and took Jeremiah from the court of the guard, and they gave him to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan; and they brought him, and he sat in the middle of the people. 15 dAnd the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in the court of the guard, saying, 16 “Go and say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel said: “Look, I am bringing my words against this city, for evil and not for good. 17 And I will save you on that day, and I shall not give you into the hands of the people of whom you were frightened from the face of them, 18 because in saving I will save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, and your life will be as a discovery, because you have trusted upon me,”’ declares the Lord.”

47The word that came from the Lord to Jeremiah after Nebuzaradan, the chief from Ramah, sent him away, when he took those who were brought to Babylon in handcuffs in the middle of the exile of Judah. 2 And the chief took him and told him, “The Lord your God has spoken these evils against this place, 3 and the Lord has done this because you have sinned against him and have not obeyed his voice. 4 Look, I have released you from the handcuffs that are upon your hands. If it is good before you to come with me to Babylon, and I will set my eyes upon you. 5 But if not, run away; return to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed in the land of Judah, and live with him in the middle of the people in the land of Judah. Go into every place that is good in your eyes to go.” And the chief gave to him a gift, and he sent him away. 6 And he went to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and he sat in the middle of those people who remained in the land. 7 And all the leaders of the force that were in the field, they and their men, listened, because the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah in the land and placed before him their men and women whom he had not exiled into Babylon. 8 And Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, and Johanan, son of Kareah, and Seraiah, son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ophe the Netophathitete, and Jaazaniah, son of the Maacathite, they and their men, came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. 9 And Gedaliah swore to them and their men, saying, “Do not be afraid from the face of the subjects of the Chaldeans. Settle in the land and work for the king of Babylon, and it will be better for you. 10 And look, I am seated before you at Mizpah to stand before the face of the Chaldeans who may come upon you. And as for you, gather wine and fruit and olive oil, and throw them into your vessels, and dwell in the cities that you have prevailed against.” 11 And all the Judeans who were in Moab and among the sons of Ammon and in Edom and in every land heard that the king of Babylon had given a remnant to Judah and that he had appointed Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, over them. 12 And they came to Gedaliah into the land of Judah at Mizpah, and they gathered wine and very much fruit and olive oil. 13 And Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the force who were in the field came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. 14 And they said to him, “Do you know with knowledge that Baalis, king of the sons of Ammon, has sent Ishmael to you to strike your soul?” And Gedaliah did not believe them. 15 And Johanan told Gedaliah secretly at Mizpah, “I will go now and strike Ishmael, and let no one know, lest he strike your life; and all those Judeans who are gathered to you be scattered, and those of Judah who remain will be destroyed.” 16 And Gedaliah said to Johanan, “Do not do this deed, for you are saying lies about Ishmael.”

48And this happened in the seventh month: Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, son of Eleasah, from the royal family, and ten men with him, came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. And they ate bread there together. 2 And Ishmael and the ten men who were with him rose up, and he struck Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon had set over the land, 3 and he struck all the Judeans who were with him at Mizpah, and all the Chaldeans who were found there. 4 And this happened on the second day after his striking Gedaliah and no person knew it:[17] 5 And men arrived from Shechem and from Salem and from Samaria, eighty men with beards shaven and cloaks torn, and striking their breasts, and manna and frankincense in their hands to bring into the house of the Lord. 6 And Ishmael came out to meet them. They kept going and weeping, and he said to them, “Enter to Gedaliah.” 7 And this happened when they entered into the middle of the city: he slayed them into the cistern. 8 And ten men were found there, and they said to Ishmael, “Do not kill us, for we have stores in the field: wheat and barley honey and olive oil.” And he passed by and did not kill them in the middle of their brothers. 9 And the cistern into which Ishmael had thrown all those whom he had struck down was a large cistern. This is the one king Asa had made from the face of Baasha king of Israel. Ishmael filled this full with the slain. 10 And Ishmael turned away all the people who were left at Mizpah and the daughter of the king, whom the chief had placed with Gedaliah, son of Ahikam. And he departed to beyond the sons of Ammon. 11 And Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the force, those with him, heard all the evil things that Ishmael had done. 12 And they brought their whole army and departed to make war against him. And they found him at a large body of water in Gibeon. 13 And this happened when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan and the leaders of the force with him: 14 then they returned to Johanan. 15 And Ishmael was saved with eight people, and he departed to the sons of Ammon. 16 And Johanan and all the leaders of the force, those with him, took all the rest of the people who had turned away from Ishmaelstrong men in war—and the women and the other things and the eunuchs whom he had returned from Gibeon, 17 and they departed and settled in Geruth Chimham, which is toward Bethlehem, to go into Egypt 18 from the face of the Chaldeans, because they were afraid of their face, because Ishmael had struck down Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

49And all the leaders of the force, and Johanan and Azariah, son of Maaseiah, and all the people, from the small to the great, came 2 to Jeremiah the prophet and said to him, “Let our mercy now fall according to your face, and pray to the Lord your God concerning these who are left, for few of the many are left, as your eyes see. 3 And let the Lord your God declare to us the way in which we shall go, and the thing that we shall do.” 4 And Jeremiah said to them, “I have heard. Look, I will pray to the Lord our God according to your words. And it will happen: the word, whatever the Lord will answer, I will declare it to you. I shall not hide a word from you.” 5 And they said to Jeremiah, “Let the Lord be among us as a righteous and faithful witness: cursed if we will not act in the way according to every word that the Lord will send to us. 6 And whether good or evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you to him, that it might become better for us, for we will listen to the voice of the Lord our God.” 7 And this happened after ten days: The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 And he summoned Johanan and the leaders of the force and all the people from the small to the great 9 and said, “This is what the Lord said: 10 ‘If you, settling, settle in this land, I will build you up and shall not tear down; and I will plant you and shall not pluck up; for I have desisted concerning the calamities that I have done to you. 11 Do not be frightened by the face of the king of Babylon, by whose face you were frightened. Do not be frightened,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I am with you to deliver you and to save you from their hand. 12 And I will grant you mercy and show mercy to you, and I will return you to your land. 13 And if you say, ‘We shall not settle in this land, so as not to listen to the voice of the Lord, 14 for we will enter into the land of Egypt and shall not see battle and shall not hear the sound of the war trumpet, and not be hungry for bread, and we will live there’; 15 therefore hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord said: ‘If you put your face to Egypt and go to dwell there, 16 then this will happen: the sword, by whose face you are frightened, will find you in the land of Egypt, and the famine, from whose face you have a word, will seize you, after you, in Egypt; and you will die there. 17 And this will happen: all the people and all the foreigners who have set their faces toward the land of Egypt to live there will come to an end by the sword and by famine. And there will be none of them who escape from the calamities that I am bringing upon them. 18 Because this is what the Lord said: ‘Just as my anger dripped upon those who settled in Jerusalem, so my anger will drip upon you when of you entering Egypt. And you will become untraveled, and under a hand, and a vow and a reproach, and you shall not see this place any longer. 19 The Lord has spoken these things against you who remain in Judah. Do not enter into Egypt! 20 that you have acted wickedly in your souls when sending me away, saying, ‘Pray to the Lord for us, and we will act according to all these things that the Lord will speak to you. 21 And you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord by which he has sent me to you. 22 And now you will come to an end by the sword and famine in the place where you wish to go to dwell.”

50And this happened when Jeremiah stopped speaking all words of the Lord to the people, which the Lord had sent to him for them—all these words: 2 Azariah, son of Maaseiah, and Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the men who had spoken to Jeremiah spoke up, saying: “Lies! The Lord has not sent you to us, saying, ‘Do not go into Egypt to live there,’ 3 but rather Baruch, son of Neriah, is provoking you against us so that you might hand us over into the hands of the Chaldeans to put us to death and exile us to Babylon.” 4 And Johanan and all the leaders of the force and all the people did not obey the voice of the Lord to settle in the land of Judah. 5 And Johanan and all the leaders of the force took all those of Judah who were left, who had returned to settle in the land, 6 the mighty men and the women, and the other things, and the daughters of the king, and the souls whom Nebuzaradan had left behind with Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch, son of Neriah. 7 And they went to Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the Lord. And they went to Tahpanhes. 8 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying: 9 “Take for yourself great stones and hide them at the entrances, at the gate of the house of Pharaoh in Tahpanhes, before the eyes of the men of Judah. 10 And you shall say: ‘This is what the Lord said: “Look, I am sending for and will bring Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will set his throne over these stones that you have hidden, and he will lift up weapons against them. 11 And he will enter and strike the land of Egypt, those who are destined for death, to death, and those who are destined for exile, to exile, and those who are destined for the sword, to the sword. 12 And he will kindle a fire in the houses of their gods and burn them and exile them. And he will delouse the land of Egypt, as a shepherd delouses his garment, and he will go out in peace. 13 And he will smash the pillars of Heliopolis that are in On, and he will burn their houses with fire.”’”

51The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Judeans who were dwelling in the land of Egypt and who were settled at Migdol and at Tahpanhes and in the land of Pathros, saying: 2 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel said: ‘You have seen all the evils that I have brought upon Jerusalem and upon the cities of Judah. And look, they are desolate of inhabitants 3 from the face of their wickedness that they have done to provoke me, by having gone to burn incense to other gods whom you did not know. 4 And I sent you my servants, the prophets, at daybreak, and I sent them, saying: “Do not do this deed of defilement that I hated!” 5 And they did not listen, and they did not incline their ears to turn away from their evils so as not to burn incense to other gods. 6 And my wrath and my anger dripped, and it burned against the gates of Judah and outside Jerusalem, and it became a ruin and untraveled as it is this day. 7 And now this is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘For what purpose are you doing great evil upon your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, from the middle of Judah, so as not to leave any of you behind, 8 to provoke me by the works of your hands, to burn incense to other gods in the land of Egypt into which you came to dwell, that you might be cut off and that you become a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? 9 Have you forgotten the evils of your fathers and the evils of the kings of Judah and the evils of your rulers and the evils of your women, which they did in the land of Judah and outside Jerusalem? 10 And they have not stopped to this day, and they have not cleaved to my ordinances that I gave before the face of their fathers. 11 Therefore, this is what the Lord said: ‘Look, I am setting my face 12 to destroy all of those who are left in Egypt, and they will come to an end by the sword and by famine, and they will fall, from the small to the great, and they will become a reproach and a ruin and a curse. 13 And I will pay a visit to those who are settled in the land of Egypt, as I paid a visit to Jerusalem, by the sword and by famine. 14 And there will be none to escape, none of Judah who are left, who dwell in the land of Egypt, to return to the land of Judah, upon which they were hoping with their souls, to return there. They shall not return except as escapees.’” 15 And all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense, and all the women, a great gathering, and all the people who were settled in the land of Egypt in Pathros, replied to Jeremiah, saying, 16 “As for the word that you spoke to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you. 17 Because in doing we will do all the words that come out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her, just as we and our fathers and our kings and our rulers did in the cities of Judah and outside Jerusalem. And we were well filled with bread and we were well, and we did not see calamities. 18 And as we ceased to burn incense to the queen of heaven, everything was reduced, and we came to an end by the sword and by famine. 19 And because we were offering to the queen of heaven and were pouring out drink offerings to her, it was not without our husbands that we made cakes for her and poured out drink offerings to her.” 20 And Jeremiah said to all the people, to the mighty men and to the women and to all the people who answered words to him, saying: 21 “Did not the Lord remember the incense that you and your fathers and your kings and your rulers and the people of the land burned in the cities of Judah and outside Jerusalem, and did it not go up on his heart? 22 And the Lord was no longer able to bear it, from the face of your wicked deeds and the abominations that you have done, and your land has become a ruin and untraveled and a curse, as it is on this day, 23 from the face of which you kept burning incense and because of which you kept sinning against the Lord. And you did not listen to the voice of the Lord, and you did not go in his commands and in his laws and in his testimonies, and these calamities seized you.” 24 And Jeremiah said to the people and to the women, “Hear the word of the Lord! 25 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel said: ‘You women have spoken with your mouth and performed with your hands, saying, “In making we will make our confessions that we have confessed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out to her drink offerings.” In standing you will stand by your confessions, and in doing you will do them. 26 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all Judah who is settled in the land of Egypt: ‘Look, I have sworn by my great name,’ said the Lord, ‘if my name will any longer be in the mouth of all of Judah so as to say, “As the Lord lives!” in all the land of Egypt, 27 for I have awakened concerning them to mistreat them and not to do good. And all Judah who dwells in the land of Egypt will come to an end by the sword and may they come to an end by famine. 28 And those who escape from the sword will return to the land of Judah, few in number, and those of Judah who are left, those who settled in the land of Egypt to dwell there, will know whose word will abide! 29 And this is the sign to you that I will pay you a visit for evil. 30 This is what the Lord said: ‘Look, I am giving Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hands of his enemy and into the hands of those who seek his life, just as I gave Zedekiah, king of Judah, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, his enemy and the one who sought his life.’” 31 aThe word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch, son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in the document from the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year, to Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah. 32 This is what the Lord said concerning you, Baruch: 33 “Because you said, ‘Woe is me! woe is me! For the Lord has added suffering upon my toil. I fell asleep with groaning; I did not find rest. 34 Say to him, ‘This is what the Lord said: “Look, I am taking down those I have built up, and I am plucking up those I have planted. 35 And will you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them, because look, I am bringing calamities upon all flesh,” says the Lord, “and I will give your soul as a windfall in every place wherever you go there.”’”

52It was the twenty-first year of Zedekiah when he began to reign. And he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother was Hamutal, a daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. 4 And this happened in the ninth year of his reign, in the ninth month, and the tenth day of the month: Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his force came upon Jerusalem, and they surrounded it with armaments and built around its four sides. 5 And the city came under siege until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 6 On the ninth of the month also the famine grew severe in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. 7 And the city was breached, and all the men, the warriors, went out by night according to the way to the gate between the city wall and the outer wall, which was by the garden of the king; and the Chaldeans were against the city, all around. And they came by the way to Arabah, 8 and the force of the Chaldeans pursued the king and seized him on the other side of Jericho. And all his children were scattered from him. 9 And they captured the king and carried him to the king of Babylon, at Riblah, and he spoke to him with judgment. 10 And the king of Babylon slayed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he slayed all the rulers of Judah at Riblah. 11 And the king of Babylon blinded the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him with fetters and brought him to Babylon. And he put him into the millhouse until the day that he died. 12 And in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, Nebuzaradan, the chief who stood at the face of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 13 And he set on fire the house of the Lord and the house of the king, and all the houses of the city and every great building he set on fire with fire. 14 And the force of the Chaldeans that was with the chief took down every wall around Jerusalem. 16 And the chief left those of the people who were left as vinedressers and as husbandmen. 17 And the Chaldeans crushed the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the bronze sea that was in the house of the Lord. And they took their bronze, and they carried it off to Babylon. 18 And the chief took the rim and the bowls and the fleshhooks and all the bronze vessels with which they ministered, 19 and the basins and the snuffers and the pitchers and the lampstands and the censers and the cups that were golden golden and that were silver silver. 20 And as for the two pillars and the one sea, and the twelve bronze calves under the sea, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord, their bronze could not be weighed. 21 And as for the pillars, the height of one was thirty five cubits, and a cord of twelve cubits encompassed it, and its thickness was four fingers around. 22 And as for a cornice, it was bronze, and the length and height of the one cornice was five cubits, and the lattice and pomegranates all around on the cornice were all of bronze. And this was the pattern of the second pillar: eight pomegranates to a cubit for the twelve cubits. 23 And there were ninety-six pomegranates in one part, and all the pomegranates upon the lattice all around were one hundred. 24 And the chief took the first priest and the second priest and the three who guarded the way, 25 and one eunuch who was the overseer of men, of the warriors, and seven men of renown who were at the face of the king, who were found in the city, and the scribe of the armies, who was recording the people of the land, and sixty people from the people of the land, who were found in the middle of the city. 26 And Nebuzaradan the chief took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27 And the king of Babylon struck them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. 31 And this happened in the thirty-seventh year in which Jehoiakim king of Judah was exiled, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fourth day of the month: Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, in the year in which he began to reign, took the head of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and shaved him and brought him out from the house where he was kept. 32 And he spoke well to him and gave him the seat above the kings of those with him in Babylon. 33 And they changed his prison clothing, and he ate bread always at his face all the days that he lived. 34 And the portion was given to him always from the king of Babylon, from day to day until the day that he died.