Armenian Apostolic Church Library Online

Jeremiah
Chapter 1

1. The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in

Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:

2 to whom the word of Jehovah came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon,

king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah,

unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of

Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

4. Now the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest

forth out of the womb I sanctified thee; I have appointed thee a prophet

unto the nations.

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

am a child.

7 But Jehovah said unto me, Say not, I am a child; for to whomsoever I

shall send thee thou shalt go, and whatsoever I shall command thee thou

shalt speak.

8 Be not afraid because of them; for I am with thee to deliver thee,

saith Jehovah.

9 Then Jehovah put forth his hand, and touched my mouth; and Jehovah said

unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth:

10 see, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms,

to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and

to plant.

11. Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what

seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond-tree.

12 Then said Jehovah unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I watch over my

word to perform it.

13 And the word of Jehovah came unto me the second time, saying, What

seest thou? And I said, I see a boiling caldron; and the face thereof is

from the north.

14 Then Jehovah said unto me, Out of the north evil shall break forth

upon all the inhabitants of the land.

15 For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north,

saith Jehovah; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne

at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls

thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.

16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their

wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto

other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

17 Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all

that I command thee: be not dismayed at them, lest I dismay thee before

them.

18 For, behold, I have made thee this day a fortified city, and an iron

pillar, and brazen walls, against the whole land, against the kings of

Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and

against the people of the land.

19 And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against

thee: for I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to deliver thee.

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

2 Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, I

remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals;

how thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

3 Israel [was] holiness unto Jehovah, the first-fruits of his increase:

all that devour him shall be held guilty; evil shall come upon them, saith

Jehovah.

4 Hear ye the word of Jehovah, O house of Jacob, and all the families of

the house of Israel:

5 thus saith Jehovah, What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me,

that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are

become vain?

6 Neither said they, Where is Jehovah that brought us up out of the land

of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and

of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a

land that none passed through, and where no man dwelt?

7 And I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat the fruit thereof and

the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made my

heritage an abomination.

8 The priests said not, Where is Jehovah? and they that handle the law

knew me not: the rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets

prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

9. Wherefore I will yet contend with you, saith Jehovah, and with your

children's children will I contend.

10 For pass over to the isles of Kittim, and see; and send unto Kedar,

and consider diligently; and see if there hath been such a thing.

11 Hath a nation changed [its] gods, which yet are no gods? but my people

have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.

12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye

very desolate, saith Jehovah.

13 For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the

fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns,

that can hold no water.

14. Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born [slave]? why is he become a

prey?

15 The young lions have roared upon him, and yelled; and they have made

his land waste: his cities are burned up, without inhabitant.

16 The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of

thy head.

17 Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken

Jehovah thy God, when he led thee by the way?

18 And now what hast thou to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters

of the Shihor? or what hast thou to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the

waters of the River?

19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall

reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter,

that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, and that my fear is not in thee,

saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.

20. For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bonds; and thou

saidst, I will not serve; for upon every high hill and under every green

tree thou didst bow thyself, playing the harlot.

21 Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art

thou turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine unto me?

22 For though thou wash thee with lye, and take thee much soap, yet thine

iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord Jehovah.

23 How canst thou say, I am not defiled, I have not gone after the

Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: [thou art] a

swift dromedary traversing her ways;

24 a wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind in her

desire; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will

not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.

25 Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but

thou saidst, It is in vain; no, for I have loved strangers, and after them

will I go.

26 As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel

ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their

prophets;

27 who say to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast

brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their

face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.

28 But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if

they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number

of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.

29. Wherefore will ye contend with me? ye all have transgressed against

me, saith Jehovah.

30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction:

your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

31 O generation, see ye the word of Jehovah. Have I been a wilderness

unto Israel? or a land of thick darkness? wherefore say my people, We are

broken loose; we will come no more unto thee?

32 Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my

people have forgotten me days without number.

33 How trimmest thou thy way to seek love! therefore even the wicked

women hast thou taught thy ways.

34 Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent

poor: thou didst not find them breaking in; but it is because of all these

things.

35 Yet thou saidst, I am innocent; surely his anger is turned away from

me. Behold, I will enter into judgment with thee, because thou sayest, I

have not sinned.

36 Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou shalt be

ashamed of Egypt also, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.

37 From thence also shalt thou go forth, with thy hands upon thy head:

for Jehovah hath rejected those in whom thou trustest, and thou shalt not

prosper with them.

1. They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become

another man's, will he return unto her again? will not that land be greatly

polluted? But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return

again to me, saith Jehovah.

2 Lift up thine eyes unto the bare heights, and see; where hast thou not

been lain with? By the ways hast thou sat for them, as an Arabian in the

wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy

wickedness.

3 Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no

latter rain; yet thou hast a harlot's forehead, thou refusedst to be

ashamed.

4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide

of my youth?

5 Will he retain [his anger] for ever? will he keep it to the end?

Behold, thou hast spoken and hast done evil things, and hast had thy way.

6. Moreover Jehovah said unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou

seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every

high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

7 And I said after she had done all these things, She will return unto

me; but she returned not: and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

8 And I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had

committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorcement,

yet treacherous Judah her sister feared not; but she also went and played

the harlot.

9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that the

land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not returned

unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith Jehovah.

11 And Jehovah said unto me, Backsliding Israel hath showed herself more

righteous than treacherous Judah.

12. Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou

backsliding Israel, saith Jehovah; I will not look in anger upon you; for I

am merciful, saith Jehovah, I will not keep [anger] for ever.

13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against

Jehovah thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every

green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith Jehovah.

14 Return, O backsliding children, saith Jehovah; for I am a husband unto

you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will

bring you to Zion:

15 and I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed

you with knowledge and understanding.

16 And it shall come to pass, when ye are multiplied and increased in the

land, in those days, saith Jehovah, they shall say no more, The ark of the

covenant of Jehovah; neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they

remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more.

17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; and all

the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of Jehovah, to

Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their

evil heart.

18 In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel,

and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that

I gave for an inheritance unto your fathers.

19 But I said, How I will put thee among the children, and give thee a

pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of the nations! and I said,

Ye shall call me My Father, and shall not turn away from following me.

20. Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye

dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah.

21 A voice is heard upon the bare heights, the weeping [and] the

supplications of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their

way, they have forgotten Jehovah their God.

22 Return, ye backsliding children, I will heal your backslidings.

Behold, we are come unto thee; for thou art Jehovah our God.

23 Truly in vain is [the help that is looked for] from the hills, the

tumult on the mountains: truly in Jehovah our God is the salvation of

Israel.

24 But the shameful thing hath devoured the labor of our fathers from our

youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we

have sinned against Jehovah our God, we and our fathers, from our youth

even unto this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God.

1. If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith Jehovah, if thou wilt return unto

me, and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight; then

shalt thou not be removed;

2 and thou shalt swear, As Jehovah liveth, in truth, in justice, and in

righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him

shall they glory.

3. For thus saith Jehovah to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up

your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

4 Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of your

heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth

like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your

doings.

5. Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the

trumpet in the land: cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go

into the fortified cities.

6 Set up a standard toward Zion: flee for safety, stay not; for I will

bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

7 A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is

on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make thy land desolate,

that thy cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.

8 For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger

of Jehovah is not turned back from us.

9 And it shall come to pass at that day, saith Jehovah, that the heart of

the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall

be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.

10 Then said I, Ah, Lord Jehovah! surely thou hast greatly deceived this

people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword

reacheth unto the life.

11 At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A hot

wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my

people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse;

12 a full wind from these shall come for me: now will I also utter

judgments against them.

13 Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots [shall be] as the

whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are

ruined.

14 O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be

saved. How long shall thine evil thoughts lodge within thee?

15 For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth evil from the hills of

Ephraim:

16 make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem,

[that] watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against

the cities of Judah.

17 As keepers of a field are they against her round about, because she

hath been rebellious against me, saith Jehovah.

18 Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is

thy wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reacheth unto thy heart.

19. My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is

disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace; because thou hast heard, O my

soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

20 Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid

waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, [and] my curtains in a moment.

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

22 For my people are foolish, they know me not; they are sottish

children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to

do good they have no knowledge.

23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens,

and they had no light.

24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills

moved to and fro.

25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens

were fled.

26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all the

cities thereof were broken down at the presence of Jehovah, [and] before

his fierce anger.

27 For thus saith Jehovah, The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will

I not make a full end.

28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black;

because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not repented,

neither will I turn back from it.

29 Every city fleeth for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they go

into the thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city is forsaken, and

not a man dwelleth therein.

30 And thou, when thou art made desolate, what wilt thou do? Though thou

clothest thyself with scarlet, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of

gold, though thou enlargest thine eyes with paint, in vain dost thou make

thyself fair; [thy] lovers despise thee, they seek thy life.

31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of

her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion,

that gaspeth for breath, that spreadeth her hands, [saying], Woe is me now!

for my soul fainteth before the murderers.

1. Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and

know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there

be any that doeth justly, that seeketh truth; and I will pardon her.

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

3 O Jehovah, do not thine eyes look upon truth? thou hast stricken them,

but they were not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused

to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they

have refused to return.

4 Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they know not

the way of Jehovah, nor the law of their God:

5 I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they

know the way of Jehovah, and the law of their God. But these with one

accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

6 Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, a wolf of the

evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their cities;

every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces; because their

transgressions are many, [and] their backslidings are increased.

7 How can I pardon thee? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them

that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery,

and assembled themselves in troops at the harlots' houses.

8 They were as fed horses roaming at large; every one neighed after his

neighbor's wife.

9 Shall I not visit for these things? saith Jehovah; and shall not my

soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

10. Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take

away her branches; for they are not Jehovah's.

11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very

treacherously against me, saith Jehovah.

12 They have denied Jehovah, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil

come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

13 and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus

shall it be done unto them.

14 Wherefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, Because ye speak this

word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood,

and it shall devour them.

15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith

Jehovah: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient naion, a nation whose

language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.

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

17 And they shall eat up thy harvest, and thy bread, [which] thy sons and

thy daughters should eat; they shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds; they

shall eat up thy vines and thy fig-trees; they shall beat down thy

fortified cities, wherein thou trustest, with the sword.

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

you.

19 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore hath Jehovah

our God done all these things unto us? then shalt thou say unto them, Like

as ye have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so shall ye

serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

20. Declare ye this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah,

saying,

21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; that have

eyes, and see not; that have ears, and hear not:

22 Fear ye not me? saith Jehovah: will ye not tremble at my presence, who

have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that

it cannot pass it? and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can

they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it.

23 But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are

revolted and gone.

24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear Jehovah our God, that

giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; that preserveth

unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

25. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have

withholden good from you.

26 For among my people are found wicked men: they watch, as fowlers lie

in wait; they set a trap, they catch men.

27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit:

therefore they are become great, and waxed rich.

28 They are waxed fat, they shine: yea, they overpass in deeds of

wickedness; they plead not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that

they may prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

29 Shall I not visit for these things? saith Jehovah; shall not my soul

be avenged on such a nation as this?

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

31 the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their

means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end

thereof?

1. Flee for safety, ye children of Benjamin, out of the midst of

Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on

Beth-haccherem; for evil looketh forth from the north, and a great

destruction.

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

3 Shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their

tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.

4 Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto

us! for the day declineth, for the shadows of the evening are stretched

out.

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

6 For thus hath Jehovah of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast up a

mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly

oppression in the midst of her.

7 As a well casteth forth its waters, so she casteth forth her

wickedness: violence and destruction is heard in her; before me continually

is sickness and wounds.

8 Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from thee;

lest I make thee a desolation, a land not inhabited.

9. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of

Israel as a vine: turn again thy hand as a grape-gatherer into the baskets.

10 To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? behold, their

ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of Jehovah

is become unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

11 Therefore I am full of the wrath of Jehovah; I am weary with holding

in: pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the assembly of

young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the

aged with him that is full of days.

12 And their houses shall be turned unto others, their fields and their

wives together; for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the

land, saith Jehovah.

13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is

given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one

dealeth falsely.

14 They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly, saying, Peace,

peace; when there is no peace.

15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were

not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall

among them that fall; at the time that I visit them they shall be cast

down, saith Jehovah.

16 Thus saith Jehovah, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old

paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for

your souls: but they said, We will not walk [therein].

17 And I set watchmen over you, [saying], Hearken to the sound of the

trumpet; but they said, We will not hearken.

18. Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among

them.

19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the

fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words; and

as for my law, they have rejected it.

20 To what purpose cometh there to me frankincense from Sheba, and the

sweet cane from a far country? your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor

your sacrifices pleasing unto me.

21 Therefore thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will lay stumbling-blocks

before this people; and the fathers and the sons together shall stumble

against them; the neighbor and his friend shall perish.

22 Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, a people cometh from the north country;

and a great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the

earth.

23 They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy;

their voice roareth like the sea, and they ride upon horses, every one set

in array, as a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Zion.

24 We have heard the report thereof; our hands wax feeble: anguish hath

taken hold of us, [and] pangs as of a woman in travail.

25 Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the

enemy, [and] terror, are on every side.

26 O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself

in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation;

for the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.

27 I have made thee a trier [and] a fortress among my people; that thou

mayest know and try their way.

28 They are all grievous revolters, going about with slanders; they are

brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly.

29 The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain

do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away.

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

Jeremiah 7

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

2 Stand in the gate of Jehovah's house, and proclaim there this word, and

say, Hear the word of Jehovah, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these

gates to worship Jehovah.

3 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and

your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, the temple

of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, are these.

5 For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly

execute justice between a man and his neighbor;

6 if ye oppress not the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and

shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to

your own hurt:

7 then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave

to your fathers, from of old even for evermore.

8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.

9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn

incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods that ye have not known,

10 and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my

name, and say, We are delivered; that ye may do all these abominations?

11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in

your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, saith Jehovah.

12 But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my

name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of

my people Israel.

13 And now, because ye have done all these works, saith Jehovah, and I

spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I

called you, but ye answered not:

14 therefore will I do unto the house which is called by my name, wherein

ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I

did to Shiloh.

15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your

brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

16. Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor

prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear thee.

17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets

of Jerusalem?

18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the

women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour

out drink-offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith Jehovah; [do they] not [provoke]

themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?

20 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, mine anger and my wrath

shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the

trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn,

and shall not be quenched.

21. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your

burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat ye flesh.

22 For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that

I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or

sacrifices:

23 but this thing I commanded them, saying, Hearken unto my voice, and I

will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and walk ye in all the way

that I command you, that it may be well with you.

24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in [their

own] counsels [and] in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went

backward, and not forward.

25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt

unto this day, I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily

rising up early and sending them:

26 yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but made their

neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.

27 And thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not

hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer

thee.

28 And thou shalt say unto them, This is the nation that hath not

hearkened to the voice of Jehovah their God, nor received instruction:

truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

29. Cut off thy hair, [O Jerusalem], and cast it away, and take up a

lamentation on the bare heights; for Jehovah hath rejected and forsaken the

generation of his wrath.

30 For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight,

saith Jehovah: they have set their abominations in the house which is

called by my name, to defile it.

31 And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley

of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire;

which I commanded not, neither came it into my mind.

32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more

be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of

Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, till there be no place [to

bury].

33 And the dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the

heavens, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them

away.

34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the

streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the

voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall

become a waste.

1. At that time, saith Jehovah, they shall bring out the bones of the

kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests,

and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of

Jerusalem, out of their graves;

2 and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the

host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and

after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they

have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be

for dung upon the face of the earth.

3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that

remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places whither I have

driven them, saith Jehovah of hosts.

4. Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah: Shall men fall,

and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return?

5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual

backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

6 I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repenteth him

of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turneth to his

course, as a horse that rusheth headlong in the battle.

7 Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the

turtle-dove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming;

but my people know not the law of Jehovah.

8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of Jehovah is with us? But,

behold, the false pen of the scribes hath wrought falsely.

9 The wise men are put to shame, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they

have rejected the word of Jehovah; and what manner of wisdom is in them?

10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to

them that shall possess them: for every one from the least even unto the

greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even unto the priest

every one dealeth falsely.

11 And they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly,

saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were

not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall

among them that fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast

down, saith Jehovah.

13. I will utterly consume them, saith Jehovah: there shall be no grapes

on the vine, nor figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf shall fade; and [the

things that] I have given them shall pass away from them.

14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the

fortified cities, and let us be silent there; for Jehovah our God hath put

us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned

against Jehovah.

15 We looked for peace, but no good came; [and] for a time of healing,

and, behold, dismay!

16 The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the

neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembleth; for they are come,

and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those that

dwell therein.

17 For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not

be charmed; and they shall bite you, saith Jehovah.

18 Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! my heart is faint

within me.

19 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land

that is very far off: is not Jehovah in Zion? is not her King in her? Why

have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with foreign

vanities?

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

21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay

hath taken hold on me.

22 Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is

not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

1. Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I

might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men; that

I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an

assembly of treacherous men.

3 And they bend their tongue, [as it were] their bow, for falsehood; and

they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from

evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Jehovah.

4 Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any

brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will

go about with slanders.

5 And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the

truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves

to commit iniquity.

6 Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to

know me, saith Jehovah.

7 Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and

try them; for how [else] should I do, because of the daughter of my people?

8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh

peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he layeth wait

for him.

9 Shall I not visit them for these things? saith Jehovah; shall not my

soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the

pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so

that none passeth through; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle;

both the birds of the heavens and the beasts are fled, they are gone.

11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals; and I

will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

12. Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and [who is] he to whom

the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken, that he may declare it? wherefore is the

land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passeth

through?

13 And Jehovah saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set

before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein,

14 but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after

the Baalim, which their fathers taught them;

15 therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I

will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of

gall to drink.

16 I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor

their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, till I have

consumed them.

17 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning

women, that they may come; and send for the skilful women, that they may

come:

18 and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes

may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.

19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are

greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have

cast down our dwellings.

20 Yet hear the word of Jehovah, O ye women, and let your ear receive the

word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her

neighbor lamentation.

21 For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces;

to cut off the children from without, [and] the young men from the streets.

22 Speak, Thus saith Jehovah, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung

upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman; and none

shall gather [them].

23. Thus saith Jehovah, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither

let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his

riches;

24 but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he hath understanding,

and knoweth me, that I am Jehovah who exerciseth lovingkindness, justice,

and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith

Jehovah.

25 Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will punish all them that

are circumcised in [their] uncircumcision:

26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and

all that have the corners [of their hair] cut off, that dwell in the

wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of

Israel are uncircumcised in heart.

1. Hear ye the word which Jehovah speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

2 thus saith Jehovah, Learn not the way of the nations, and be not

dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them.

3 For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cutteth a tree out

of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe.

4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and

with hammers, that it move not.

5 They are like a palm-tree, of turned work, and speak not: they must

needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they

cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.

6 There is none like unto thee, O Jehovah; thou art great, and thy name

is great in might.

7 Who should not fear thee, O King of the nations? for to thee doth it

appertain; forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all

their royal estate, there is none like unto thee.

8 But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it

is but a stock.

9 There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and

gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the

goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of

skilful men.

10 But Jehovah is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting

King: at his wrath the earth trembleth, and the nations are not able to

abide his indignation.

11 Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens

and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the

heavens.

12 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by

his wisdom, and by his understanding hath he stretched out the heavens:

13 when he uttereth his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the

heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he

maketh lightnings for the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his

treasuries.

14 Every man is become brutish [and is] without knowledge; every

goldsmith is put to shame by his graven image; for his molten image is

falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

15 They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation

they shall perish.

16 The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all

things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his

name.

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

18 For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of

the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel [it].

19 Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly

this is [my] grief, and I must bear it.

20 My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are

gone forth from me, and they are not: there is none to spread my tent any

more, and to set up my curtains.

21 For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of

Jehovah: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are

scattered.

22 The voice of tidings, behold, it cometh, and a great commotion out of

the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a

dwelling-place of jackals.

23 O Jehovah, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in

man that walketh to direct his steps.

24 O Jehovah, correct me, but in measure: not in thine anger, lest thou

bring me to nothing.

25 Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the

families that call not on thy name: for they have devoured Jacob, yea, they

have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

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

2 Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah,

and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

3 and say thou unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Cursed

be the man that heareth not the words of this covenant,

4 which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out

of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and

do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people,

and I will be your God;

5 that I may establish the oath which I sware unto your fathers, to give

them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day. Then answered I,

and said, Amen, O Jehovah.

6 And Jehovah said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of

Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this

covenant, and do them.

7 For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought

them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and

protesting, saying, Obey my voice.

8 Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in

the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I brought upon them all the

words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them

not.

9 And Jehovah said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah,

and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

10 They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who

refused to hear my words; and they are gone after other gods to serve them:

the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I

made with their fathers.

11. Therefore thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will bring evil upon them,

which they shall not be able to escape; and they shall cry unto me, but I

will not hearken unto them.

12 Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem go and

cry unto the gods unto which they offer incense: but they will not save

them at all in the time of their trouble.

13 For according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah; and

according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars

to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal.

14 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor

prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me

because of their trouble.

15 What hath my beloved to do in my house, seeing she hath wrought

lewdness [with] many, and the holy flesh is passed from thee? when thou

doest evil, then thou rejoicest.

16 Jehovah called thy name, A green olive-tree, fair with goodly fruit:

with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the

branches of it are broken.

17 For Jehovah of hosts, who planted thee, hath pronounced evil against

thee, because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah,

which they have wrought for themselves in provoking me to anger by offering

incense unto Baal.

18. And Jehovah gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it: then thou showedst

me their doings.

19 But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter; and I knew

not that they had devised devices against me, [saying], Let us destroy the

tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the

living, that his name may be no more remembered.

20 But, O Jehovah of hosts, who judgest righteously, who triest the heart

and the mind, I shall see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I

revealed my cause.

21 Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the men of Anathoth, that seek

thy life, saying, Thou shalt not prophesy in the name of Jehovah, that thou

die not by our hand;

22 therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the

young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die

by famine;

23 and there shall be no remnant unto them: for I will bring evil upon

the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.

1. Righteous art thou, O Jehovah, when I contend with thee; yet would I

reason the cause with thee: wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper?

wherefore are all they at ease that deal very treacherously?

2 Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root; they grow, yea, they

bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their heart.

3 But thou, O Jehovah, knowest me; thou seest me, and triest my heart

toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them

for the day of slaughter.

4 How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country

wither? for the wickedness of them that dwell therein, the beasts are

consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our latter

end.

5 If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how

canst thou contend with horses? and though in a land of peace thou art

secure, yet how wilt thou do in the pride of the Jordan?

6 For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have

dealt treacherously with thee; even they have cried aloud after thee:

believe them not, though they speak fair words unto thee.

7. I have forsaken my house, I have cast off my heritage; I have given the

dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.

8 My heritage is become unto me as a lion in the forest: she hath uttered

her voice against me; therefore I have hated her.

9 Is my heritage unto me as a speckled bird of prey? are the birds of

prey against her round about? go ye, assemble all the beasts of the field,

bring them to devour.

10 Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my

portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate

wilderness.

11 They have made it a desolation; it mourneth unto me, being desolate;

the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.

12 Destroyers are come upon all the bare heights in the wilderness; for

the sword of Jehovah devoureth from the one end of the land even to the

other end of the land: no flesh hath peace.

13 They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns; they have put themselves

to pain, and profit nothing: and ye shall be ashamed of your fruits,

because of the fierce anger of Jehovah.

14. Thus saith Jehovah against all mine evil neighbors, that touch the

inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: behold, I will

pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah

from among them.

15 And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them up, I will

return and have compassion on them; and I will bring them again, every man

to his heritage, and every man to his land.

16 And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of

my people, to swear by my name, As Jehovah liveth; even as they taught my

people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built up in the midst of my

people.

17 But if they will not hear, then will I pluck up that nation, plucking

up and destroying it, saith Jehovah.

1. Thus saith Jehovah unto me, Go, and buy thee a linen girdle, and put it

upon thy loins, and put it not in water.

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

my loins.

3 And the word of Jehovah came unto me the second time, saying,

4 Take the girdle that thou hast bought, which is upon thy loins, and

arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.

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

6 And it came to pass after many days, that Jehovah said unto me, Arise,

go to the Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded

thee to hide there.

7 Then I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the

place where I had hid it; and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was

profitable for nothing.

8 Then the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

9 Thus saith Jehovah, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah,

and the great pride of Jerusalem.

10 This evil people, that refuse to hear my words, that walk in the

stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other gods to serve them,

and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is profitable for

nothing.

11 For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to

cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah,

saith Jehovah; that they may be unto me for a people, and for a name, and

for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.

12. Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word: Thus saith Jehovah,

the God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall

say unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled

with wine?

13 Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will fill

all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's

throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of

Jerusalem, with drunkenness.

14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the

sons together, saith Jehovah: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have

compassion, that I should not destroy them.

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

16 Give glory to Jehovah your God, before he cause darkness, and before

your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he

turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.

17 But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for [your]

pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because

Jehovah's flock is taken captive.

18 Say thou unto the king and to the queen-mother, Humble yourselves, sit

down; for your headtires are come down, even the crown of your glory.

19 The cities of the South are shut up, and there is none to open them:

Judah is carried away captive, all of it; it is wholly carried away

captive.

20 Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is

the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?

21 What wilt thou say, when he shall set over thee as head those whom

thou hast thyself taught to be friends to thee? shall not sorrows take hold

of thee, as of a woman in travail?

22. And if thou say in thy heart, Wherefore are these things come upon me?

for the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts uncovered, and thy heels

suffer violence.

23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may

ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

24 Therefore will I scatter them, as the stubble that passeth away, by

the wind of the wilderness.

25 This is thy lot, the portion measured unto thee from me, saith

Jehovah; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.

26 Therefore will I also uncover thy skirts upon thy face, and thy shame

shall appear.

27 I have seen thine abominations, even thine adulteries, and thy

neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, on the hills in the field. Woe

unto thee, O Jerusalem! thou wilt not be made clean; how long shall it yet

be?

1. The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.

2 Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish, they sit in black upon

the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.

3 And their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the

cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are

put to shame and confounded, and cover their heads.

4 Because of the ground which is cracked, for that no rain hath been in

the land, the plowmen are put to shame, they cover their heads.

5 Yea, the hind also in the field calveth, and forsaketh [her young],

because there is no grass.

6 And the wild asses stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like

jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no herbage.

7 Though our iniquities testify against us, work thou for thy name's

sake, O Jehovah; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against

thee.

8 O thou hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble, why

shouldest thou be as a sojourner in the land, and as a wayfaring man that

turneth aside to tarry for a night?

9 Why shouldest thou be as a man affrighted, as a mighty man that cannot

save? yet thou, O Jehovah, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy

name; leave us not.

10. Thus saith Jehovah unto this people, Even so have they loved to

wander; they have not refrained their feet: therefore Jehovah doth not

accept them; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.

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

12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer

burnt-offering and meal-offering, I will not accept them; but I will

consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

13 Then said I, Ah, Lord Jehovah! behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye

shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you

assured peace in this place.

14 Then Jehovah said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name; I

sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake I unto them:

they prophesy unto you a lying vision, and divination, and a thing of

nought, and the deceit of their own heart.

15 Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that prophesy in

my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be

in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.

16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets

of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none

to bury them-- them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for

I will pour their wickedness upon them.

17. And thou shalt say this word unto them, Let mine eyes run down with

tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my

people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound.

18 If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword!

and if I enter into the city, then, behold, they that are sick with famine!

for both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no

knowledge.

19 Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul loathed Zion? why hast

thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but

no good came; and for a time of healing, and, behold, dismay!

20 We acknowledge, O Jehovah, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our

fathers; for we have sinned against thee.

21 Do not abhor [us], for thy name's sake; do not disgrace the throne of

thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.

22 Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain?

or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O Jehovah our God?

therefore we will wait for thee; for thou hast made all these things.

1. Then said Jehovah unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet

my mind would not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let

them go forth.

2 And it shall come to pass, when they say unto thee, Whither shall we go

forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith Jehovah: Such as are for

death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as

are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to

captivity.

3 And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith Jehovah: the sword to

slay, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the heavens, and the beasts of

the earth, to devour and to destroy.

4 And I will cause them to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of

the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for

that which he did in Jerusalem.

5 For who will have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who will bemoan thee?

or who will turn aside to ask of thy welfare?

6 Thou hast rejected me, saith Jehovah, thou art gone backward: therefore

have I stretched out my hand against thee, and destroyed thee; I am weary

with repenting.

7 And I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land; I have

bereaved [them] of children, I have destroyed my people; they returned not

from their ways.

8 Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have

brought upon them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at

noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall upon her suddenly.

9 She that hath borne seven languisheth; she hath given up the ghost; her

sun is gone down while it was yet day; she hath been put to shame and

confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before

their enemies, saith Jehovah.

10. Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a

man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men

lent to me; [yet] every one of them doth curse me.

11 Jehovah said, Verily I will strengthen thee for good; verily I will

cause the enemy to make supplication unto thee in the time of evil and in

the time of affliction.

12 Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass?

13 Thy substance and thy treasures will I give for a spoil without price,

and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.

14 And I will make [them] to pass with thine enemies into a land which

thou knowest not; for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn

upon you.

15. O Jehovah, thou knowest; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of

my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy

sake I have suffered reproach.

16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy words were unto me a

joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by thy name, O Jehovah,

God of hosts.

17 I sat not in the assembly of them that make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat

alone because of thy hand; for thou hast filled me with indignation.

18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be

healed? wilt thou indeed be unto me as a deceitful [brook], as waters that

fail?

19 Therefore thus saith Jehovah, If thou return, then will I bring thee

again, that thou mayest stand before me; and if thou take forth the

precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: they shall return unto

thee, but thou shalt not return unto them.

20 And I will make thee unto this people a fortified brazen wall; and

they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee; for

I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith Jehovah.

21 And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will

redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.

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

2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or

daughters, in this place.

3 For thus saith Jehovah concerning the sons and concerning the daughters

that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them,

and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land:

4 They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented, neither

shall they be buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the ground;

and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their dead

bodies shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of

the earth.

5 For thus saith Jehovah, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither

go to lament, neither bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this

people, saith Jehovah, even lovingkindness and tender mercies.

6 Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried,

neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves

bald for them;

7 neither shall men break [bread] for them in mourning, to comfort them

for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink

for their father or for their mother.

8 And thou shalt not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to

eat and to drink.

9 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will

cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your days, the

voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and

the voice of the bride.

10. And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt show this people all these

words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath Jehovah pronounced all

this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin

that we have committed against Jehovah our God?

11 Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me,

saith Jehovah, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and

have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

12 and ye have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk

every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that ye hearken not

unto me:

13 therefore will I cast you forth out of this land into the land that ye

have not known, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other

gods day and night; for I will show you no favor.

14. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more

be said, As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of

the land of Egypt;

15 but, As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from

the land of the north, and from all the countries whither he had driven

them. And I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their

fathers.

16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith Jehovah, and they shall

fish them up; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall

hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts

of the rocks.

17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hid from my face,

neither is their iniquity concealed from mine eyes.

18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double,

because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable

things, and have filled mine inheritance with their abominations.

19 O Jehovah, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of

affliction, unto thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth,

and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nought but lies, [even] vanity

and things wherein there is no profit.

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

21 Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause

them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is

Jehovah.

1. The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, [and] with the point of

a diamond: it is graven upon the tablet of their heart, and upon the horns

of your altars;

2 whilst their children remember their altars and their Asherim by the

green trees upon the high hills.

3 O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy

treasures for a spoil, [and] thy high places, because of sin, throughout

all thy borders.

4 And thou, even of thyself, shalt discontinue from thy heritage that I

gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which

thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger which shall burn

for ever.

5. Thus saith Jehovah: Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh

flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from Jehovah.

6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when

good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt

land and not inhabited.

7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in Jehovah, and whose trust Jehovah

is.

8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreadeth out its

roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat cometh, but its leaf shall

be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall

cease from yielding fruit.

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt:

who can know it?

10 I, Jehovah, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man

according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

11 As the partridge that sitteth on [eggs] which she hath not laid, so is

he that getteth riches, and not by right; in the midst of his days they

shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a fool.

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

our sanctuary.

13 O Jehovah, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be put to

shame. They that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they

have forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living waters.

14 Heal me, O Jehovah, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be

saved: for thou art my praise.

15 Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of Jehovah? let it come

now.

16 As for me, I have not hastened from being a shepherd after thee;

neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of

my lips was before thy face.

17 Be not a terror unto me: thou art my refuge in the day of evil.

18 Let them be put to shame that persecute me, but let not me be put to

shame; let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed; bring upon them

the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

19. Thus said Jehovah unto me: Go, and stand in the gate of the children

of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go

out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;

20 and say unto them, Hear ye the word of Jehovah, ye kings of Judah, and

all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these

gates:

21 Thus saith Jehovah, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the

sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;

22 neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day,

neither do ye any work: but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your

fathers.

23 But they hearkened not, neither inclined their ear, but made their

neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction.

24 And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith

Jehovah, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the

sabbath day, but to hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;

25 then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes

sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they,

and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and

this city shall remain for ever.

26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places

round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland,

and from the hill-country, and from the South, bringing burnt-offerings,

and sacrifices, and meal-offerings, and frankincense, and bringing

[sacrifices of] thanksgiving, unto the house of Jehovah.

27 But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not

to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day;

then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the

palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

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

2 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee

to hear my words.

3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he was making a

work on the wheels.

4 And when the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of

the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter

to make it.

5 Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith Jehovah.

Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of

Israel.

7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a

kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it;

8 if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I

will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a

kingdom, to build and to plant it;

10 if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they obey not my

voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit

them.

11. Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of

Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I frame evil against you,

and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way,

and amend your ways and your doings.

12 But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices,

and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart.

13 Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Ask ye now among the nations, who hath

heard such things; the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.

14 Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? [or] shall

the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?

15 For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false

[gods]; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient

paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up;

16 to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one

that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.

17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show

them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

18. Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for

the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor

the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and

let us not give heed to any of his words.

19 Give heed to me, O Jehovah, and hearken to the voice of them that

contend with me.

20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my

soul. Remember how I stood before thee to speak good for them, to turn away

thy wrath from them.

21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over

to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and

widows; and let their men be slain of death, [and] their young men smitten

of the sword in battle.

22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop

suddenly upon them; for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares

for my feet.

23 Yet, Jehovah, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me;

forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight; but

let them be overthrown before thee; deal thou with them in the time of

thine anger.

1. Thus said Jehovah, Go, and buy a potter's earthen bottle, and [take] of

the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests;

2 and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the

entry of the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell

thee;

3 and say, Hear ye the word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants

of Jerusalem: thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I

will bring evil upon this place, which whosoever heareth, his ears shall

tingle.

4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have

burned incense in it unto other gods, that they knew not, they and their

fathers and the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with the blood

of innocents,

5 and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire

for burnt-offerings unto Baal; which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither

came it into my mind:

6 therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that this place shall

no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The

valley of Slaughter.

7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place;

and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the

hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies will I give to be

food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth.

8 And I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing; every one

that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the

plagues thereof.

9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of

their daughters; and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend, in

the siege and in the distress, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek

their life, shall distress them.

10. Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with

thee,

11 and shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Even so will I

break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that

cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, till there be

no place to bury.

12 Thus will I do unto this place, saith Jehovah, and to the inhabitants

thereof, even making this city as Topheth:

13 and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah,

which are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses

upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and

have poured out drink-offerings unto other gods.

14 Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, whither Jehovah had sent him to

prophesy; and he stood in the court of Jehovah's house, and said to all the

people:

15 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring

upon this city and upon all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced

against it; because they have made their neck stiff, that they may not hear

my words.

1. Now Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was chief officer in the

house of Jehovah, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

2 Then Pashhur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that

were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of Jehovah.

3 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah

out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, Jehovah hath not called thy

name Pashhur, but Magor-missabib.

4 For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself,

and to all thy friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies,

and thine eyes shall behold it; and I will give all Judah into the hand of

the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall

slay them with the sword.

5 Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all the gains

thereof, and all the precious things thereof, yea, all the treasures of the

kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies; and they shall

make them a prey, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.

6 And thou, Pashhur, and all that dwell in thy house shall go into

captivity; and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and

there shalt thou be buried, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast

prophesied falsely.

7. O Jehovah, thou hast persuaded me, and I was persuaded; thou art

stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am become a laughing-stock all the

day, every one mocketh me.

8 For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, Violence and destruction!

because the word of Jehovah is made a reproach unto me, and a derision, all

the day.

9 And if I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his

name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my

bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I cannot [contain].

10 For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side. Denounce,

and we will denounce him, [say] all my familiar friends, they that watch

for my fall; peradventure he will be persuaded, and we shall prevail

against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

11 But Jehovah is with me as a mighty one [and] a terrible: therefore my

persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail; they shall be

utterly put to shame, because they have not dealt wisely, even with an

everlasting dishonor which shall never be forgotten.

12 But, O Jehovah of hosts, that triest the righteous, that seest the

heart and the mind, let me see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I

revealed my cause.

13 Sing unto Jehovah, praise ye Jehovah; for he hath delivered the soul

of the needy from the hand of evil-doers.

14. Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my

mother bare me be blessed.

15 Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A

man-child is born unto thee; making him very glad.

16 And let that man be as the cities which Jehovah overthrew, and

repented not: and let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at

noontime;

17 because he slew me not from the womb; and so my mother would have been

my grave, and her womb always great.

18 Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that

my days should be consumed with shame?

1. The word which came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, when king Zedekiah sent

unto him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah,

the priest, saying,

2 Inquire, I pray thee, of Jehovah for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of

Babylon maketh war against us: peradventure Jehovah will deal with us

according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.

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

4 Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Behold, I will turn back the

weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king

of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans that besiege you, without the walls;

and I will gather them into the midst of this city.

5 And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with

a strong arm, even in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation.

6 And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they

shall die of a great pestilence.

7 And afterward, saith Jehovah, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah,

and his servants, and the people, even such as are left in this city from

the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of

Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and

into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with

the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have

mercy.

8. And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I set

before you the way of life and the way of death.

9 He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine,

and by the pestilence; but he that goeth out, and passeth over to the

Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him

for a prey.

10 For I have set my face upon this city for evil, and not for good,

saith Jehovah: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and

he shall burn it with fire.

11 And touching the house of the king of Judah, hear ye the word of

Jehovah:

12 O house of David, thus saith Jehovah, Execute justice in the morning,

and deliver him that is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my

wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of

the evil of your doings.

13 Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, [and] of the

rock of the plain, saith Jehovah; you that say, Who shall come down against

us? or who shall enter into our habitations?

14 And I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith

Jehovah; and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all

that is round about her.

1. Thus said Jehovah: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak

there this word,

2 And say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O king of Judah, that sittest upon

the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in

by these gates.

3 Thus saith Jehovah: Execute ye justice and righteousness, and deliver

him that is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no

violence, to the sojourner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed

innocent blood in this place.

4 For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates

of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots

and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

5 But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith Jehovah,

that this house shall become a desolation.

6 For thus saith Jehovah concerning the house of the king of Judah: Thou

art Gilead unto me, [and] the head of Lebanon; [yet] surely I will make

thee a wilderness, [and] cities which are not inhabited.

7 And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons;

and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

8 And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man

to his neighbor, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus unto this great city?

9 Then they shall answer, Because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah

their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

10. Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep sore for him

that goeth away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

11 For thus saith Jehovah touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king of

Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, [and] who went forth out

of this place: He shall not return thither any more.

12 But in the place whither they have led him captive, there shall he

die, and he shall see this land no more.

13 Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his

chambers by injustice; that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and

giveth him not his hire;

14 that saith, I will build me a wide house and spacious chambers, and

cutteth him out windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with

vermilion.

15 Shalt thou reign, because thou strivest to excel in cedar? Did not thy

father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? then it was well

with him.

16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not

this to know me? saith Jehovah.

17 But thine eyes and thy heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for

shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

18 Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah,

king of Judah: they shall not lament for him, [saying], Ah my brother! or,

Ah sister! They shall not lament for him, [saying] Ah lord! or, Ah his

glory!

19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth

beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

20. Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry

from Abarim; for all thy lovers are destroyed.

21 I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear.

This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice.

22 The wind shall feed all thy shepherds, and thy lovers shall go into

captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy

wickedness.

23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how

greatly to be pitied shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as

of a woman in travail!

24 As I live, saith Jehovah, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of

Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;

25 and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and

into the hand of them of whom thou art afraid, even into the hand of

Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

26 And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another

country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.

27 But to the land whereunto their soul longeth to return, thither shall

they not return.

28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? is he a vessel wherein

none delighteth? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast

into the land which they know not?

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

30 Thus saith Jehovah, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not

prosper in his days; for no more shall a man of his seed prosper, sitting

upon the throne of David, and ruling in Judah.

1. Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of my

pasture! saith Jehovah.

2 Therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, against the shepherds

that feed my people: Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and

have not visited them; behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your

doings, saith Jehovah.

3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries

whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and

they shall be fruitful and multiply.

4 And I will set up shepherds over them, who shall feed them; and they

shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, saith

Jehovah.

5 Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will raise unto David a

righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall

execute justice and righteousness in the land.

6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and

this is his name whereby he shall be called: Jehovah our righteousness.

7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that they shall no

more say, As Jehovah liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of

the land of Egypt;

8 but, As Jehovah liveth, who brought up and who led the seed of the

house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries

whither I had driven them. And they shall dwell in their own land.

9. Concerning the prophets. My heart within me is broken, all my bones

shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome,

because of Jehovah, and because of his holy words.

10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land

mourneth; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. And their course is

evil, and their might is not right;

11 for both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found

their wickedness, saith Jehovah.

12 Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery places in the

darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil

upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith Jehovah.

13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by

Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.

14 In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they

commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of

evil-doers, so that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of

them become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

15 Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold,

I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for

from the prophets of Jerusalem is ungodliness gone forth into all the land.

16 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the

prophets that prophesy unto you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision

of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Jehovah.

17 They say continually unto them that despise me, Jehovah hath said, Ye

shall have peace; and unto every one that walketh in the stubbornness of

his own heart they say, No evil shall come upon you.

18 For who hath stood in the council of Jehovah, that he should perceive

and hear his word? who hath marked my word, and heard it?

19 Behold, the tempest of Jehovah, [even his] wrath, is gone forth, yea,

a whirling tempest: it shall burst upon the head of the wicked.

20 The anger of Jehovah shall not return, until he have executed, and

till he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye

shall understand it perfectly.

21 I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I spake not unto them, yet

they prophesied.

22 But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to

hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil

of their doings.

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

24 Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him?

saith Jehovah. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith Jehovah.

25 I have heard what the prophets have said, that prophesy lies in my

name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy

lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart?

27 that think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which

they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgat my name for

Baal.

28 The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath

my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat?

saith Jehovah.

29 Is not my word like fire? saith Jehovah; and like a hammer that

breaketh the rock in pieces?

30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith Jehovah, that

steal my words every one from his neighbor.

31 Behold, I am against the prophets, saith Jehovah, that use their

tongues, and say, He saith.

32 Behold, I am against them that prophesy lying dreams, saith Jehovah,

and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their

vain boasting: yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; neither do they

profit this people at all, saith Jehovah.

33. And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee,

saying, What is the burden of Jehovah? then shalt thou say unto them, What

burden! I will cast you off, saith Jehovah.

34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall

say, The burden of Jehovah, I will even punish that man and his house.

35 Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbor, and every one to his

brother, What hath Jehovah answered? and, What hath Jehovah spoken?

36 And the burden of Jehovah shall ye mention no more: for every man's

own word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living

God, of Jehovah of hosts our God.

37 Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath Jehovah answered thee?

and, What hath Jehovah spoken?

38 But if ye say, The burden of Jehovah; therefore thus saith Jehovah:

Because ye say this word, The burden of Jehovah, and I have sent unto you,

saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of Jehovah;

39 therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off,

and the city that I gave unto you and to your fathers, away from my

presence:

40 and I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual

shame, which shall not be forgotten.

1. Jehovah showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs set before the

temple of Jehovah, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried

away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes

of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought

them to Babylon.

2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first-ripe; and

the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so

bad.

3 Then said Jehovah unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs;

the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, that cannot be eaten, they

are so bad.

4 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

5 Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so will I

regard the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the

land of the Chaldeans, for good.

6 For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them

again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I

will plant them, and not pluck them up.

7 And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah: and they

shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return unto me

with their whole heart.

8 And as the bad figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad, surely

thus saith Jehovah, So will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his

princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them

that dwell in the land of Egypt:

9 I will even give them up to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms

of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse,

in all places whither I shall drive them.

10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them,

till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their

fathers.

1. The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in

the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (the same was

the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon,)

2 which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to

all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:

3 From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even

unto this day, these three and twenty years, the word of Jehovah hath come

unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising up early and speaking; but ye

have not hearkened.

4 And Jehovah hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising up

early and sending them, (but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear

to hear,)

5 saying, Return ye now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of

your doings, and dwell in the land that Jehovah hath given unto you and to

your fathers, from of old and even for evermore:

6 and go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and

provoke me not to anger with the work of your hands; and I will do you no

hurt.

7 Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith Jehovah; that ye may provoke

me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt.

8. Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Because ye have not heard my

words,

9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith

Jehovah, and [I will send] unto Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my

servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants

thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly

destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual

desolations.

10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of

gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound

of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.

11 And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and

these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

12 And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I

will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith Jehovah, for their

iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it desolate for

ever.

13 And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced

against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath

prophesied against all the nations.

14 For many nations and great kings shall make bondmen of them, even of

them; and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to

the work of their hands.

15. For thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, unto me: take this cup of

the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send

thee, to drink it.

16 And they shall drink, and reel to and fro, and be mad, because of the

sword that I will send among them.

17 Then took I the cup at Jehovah's hand, and made all the nations to

drink, unto whom Jehovah had sent me:

18 [to wit], Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof,

and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a

hissing, and a curse, as it is this day;

19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his

people;

20 and all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of the Uz,

and all the kings of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron,

and the remnant of Ashdod;

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

22 and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings

of the isle which is beyond the sea;

23 Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that have the corners [of their

hair] cut off;

24 and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people

that dwell in the wilderness;

25 and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the

kings of the Medes;

26 and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and

all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and

the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.

27 And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of

Israel: Drink ye, and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more,

because of the sword which I will send among you.

28 And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thy hand to drink,

then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Ye shall surely

drink.

29 For, lo, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name;

and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished; for I will

call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith Jehovah of

hosts.

30. Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto

them, Jehovah will roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy

habitation; he will mightily roar against his fold; he will give a shout,

as they that tread [the grapes], against all the inhabitants of the earth.

31 A noise shall come even to the end of the earth; for Jehovah hath a

controversy with the nations; he will enter into judgment with all flesh:

as for the wicked, he will give them to the sword, saith Jehovah.

32 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation

to nation, and a great tempest shall be raised up from the uttermost parts

of the earth.

33 And the slain of Jehovah shall be at that day from one end of the

earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented,

neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the face of the

ground.

34 Wail, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow [in ashes], ye principal of

the flock; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are fully

come, and ye shall fall like a goodly vessel.

35 And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the

flock to escape.

36 A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the wailing of the principal

of the flock! for Jehovah layeth waste their pasture.

37 And the peaceable folds are brought to silence because of the fierce

anger of Jehovah.

38 He hath left his covert, as the lion; for their land is become an

astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppressing [sword], and

because of his fierce anger.

1. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of

Judah, came this word from Jehovah, saying,

2 Thus saith Jehovah: Stand in the court of Jehovah's house, and speak

unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in Jehovah's house, all

the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word.

3 It may be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way; that

I may repent me of the evil which I purpose to do unto them because of the

evil of their doings.

4 And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah: If ye will not

hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you,

5 to hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send unto

you, even rising up early and sending them, but ye have not hearkened;

6 then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a

curse to all the nations of the earth.

7. And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah

speaking these words in the house of Jehovah.

8 And it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that

Jehovah had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests

and the prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, Thou shalt

surely die.

9 Why hast thou prophesied in the name of Jehovah, saying, This house

shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant?

And all the people were gathered unto Jeremiah in the house of Jehovah.

10 And when the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from

the king's house unto the house of Jehovah; and they sat in the entry of

the new gate of Jehovah's [house].

11 Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all

the people, saying, This man is worthy of death; for he hath prophesied

against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.

12 Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people,

saying, Jehovah sent me to prophesy against this house and against this

city all the words that ye have heard.

13 Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of

Jehovah your God; and Jehovah will repent him of the evil that he hath

pronounced against you.

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

right in your eyes.

15 Only know ye for certain that, if ye put me to death, ye will bring

innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the

inhabitants thereof; for of a truth Jehovah hath sent me unto you to speak

all these words in your ears.

16. Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the

prophets: This man is not worthy of death; for he hath spoken to us in the

name of Jehovah our God.

17 Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the

assembly of the people, saying,

18 Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah;

and he spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of

hosts: Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps,

and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? did he not

fear Jehovah, and entreat the favor of Jehovah, and Jehovah repented him of

the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus should we commit great

evil against our own souls.

20 And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of Jehovah, Uriah

the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim; and he prophesied against this city

and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah:

21 and when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty-men, and all the

princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when

Uriah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt:

22 and Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, [namely], Elnathan the son

of Achbor, and certain men with him, into Egypt;

23 and they fetched forth Uriah out of Egypt, and brought him unto

Jehoiakim the king, who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body

into the graves of the common people.

24 But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they

should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

1. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of

Judah, came this word unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

2 Thus saith Jehovah to me: Make thee bonds and bars, and put them upon

thy neck;

3 and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the

king of the children of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of

Sidon, by the hand of the messengers that come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah

king of Judah;

4 and give them a charge unto their masters, saying, Thus saith Jehovah

of hosts, the God of Israel, Thus shall ye say unto your masters:

5 I have made the earth, the men and the beasts that are upon the face of

the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give it unto

whom it seemeth right unto me.

6 And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar

the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field also have I

given him to serve him.

7 And all the nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son,

until the time of his own land come: and then many nations and great kings

shall make him their bondman.

8 And it shall come to pass, that the nation and the kingdom which will

not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put

their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I

punish, saith Jehovah, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the

pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

9 But as for you, hearken ye not to your prophets, nor to your diviners,

nor to your dreams, nor to your soothsayers, nor to your sorcerers, that

speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:

10 for they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land,

and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.

11 But the nation that shall bring their neck under the yoke of the king

of Babylon, and serve him, that [nation] will I let remain in their own

land, saith Jehovah; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.

12. And I spake to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words,

saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve

him and his people, and live.

13 Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and

by the pestilence, as Jehovah hath spoken concerning the nation that will

not serve the king of Babylon?

14 And hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you,

saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon; for they prophesy a lie

unto you.

15 For I have not sent them, saith Jehovah, but they prophesy falsely in

my name; that I may drive you out, and that ye may perish, ye, and the

prophets that prophesy unto you.

16 Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith

Jehovah: Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you,

saying, Behold, the vessels of Jehovah's house shall now shortly be brought

again from Babylon; for they prophesy a lie unto you.

17 Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore

should this city become a desolation?

18 But if they be prophets, and if the word of Jehovah be with them, let

them now make intercession to Jehovah of hosts, that the vessels which are

left in the house of Jehovah, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at

Jerusalem, go not to Babylon.

19 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning

the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the

vessels that are left in this city,

20 which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away

captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to

Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;

21 yea, thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the

vessels that are left in the house of Jehovah, and in the house of the king

of Judah, and at Jerusalem:

22 They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be, until the

day that I visit them, saith Jehovah; then will I bring them up, and

restore them to this place.

1. And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of

Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that

Hananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was of Gibeon, spake unto me in

the house of Jehovah, in the presence of the priests and of all the people,

saying,

2 Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have

broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

3 Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the

vessels of Jehovah's house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away

from this place, and carried to Babylon:

4 and I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim,

king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went to Babylon, saith

Jehovah; for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

5 Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the

presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood

in the house of Jehovah,

6 even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: Jehovah do so; Jehovah perform

thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of

Jehovah's house, and all them of the captivity, from Babylon unto this

place.

7 Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in

the ears of all the people:

8 The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied

against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil,

and of pestilence.

9 The prophet that prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet

shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that Jehovah hath

truly sent him.

10. Then Hananiah the prophet took the bar from off the prophet Jeremiah's

neck, and brake it.

11 And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus

saith Jehovah: Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of

Babylon within two full years from off the neck of all the nations. And the

prophet Jeremiah went his way.

12 Then the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah, after that Hananiah the

prophet had broken the bar from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah,

saying,

13 Go, and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Thou hast broken

the bars of wood; but thou hast made in their stead bars of iron.

14 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke

of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may served

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given

him the beasts of the field also.

15 Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now,

Hananiah: Jehovah hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust

in a lie.

16 Therefore thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will send thee away from off

the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast spoken

rebellion against Jehovah.

17 So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

1. Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent

from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to the

priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar

had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon,

2 (after that Jeconiah the king, and the queen-mother, and the eunuchs,

[and] the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the craftsmen, and the

smiths, were departed from Jerusalem,)

3 by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of

Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar

king of Babylon,) saying,

4 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all the captivity,

whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem unto Babylon:

5 Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the

fruit of them.

6 Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your

sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and

daughters; and multiply ye there, and be not diminished.

7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried

away captive, and pray unto Jehovah for it; for in the peace thereof shall

ye have peace.

8. For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Let not your

prophets that are in the midst of you, and your diviners, deceive you;

neither hearken ye to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.

9 For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them,

saith Jehovah.

10 For thus saith Jehovah, After seventy years are accomplished for

Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing

you to return to this place.

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah,

thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end.

12 And ye shall call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I

will hearken unto you.

13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with

all your heart.

14 And I will be found of you, saith Jehovah, and I will turn again your

captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the

places wither I have driven you, saith Jehovah; and I will bring you again

unto the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

15. Because ye have said, Jehovah hath raised us up prophets in Babylon;

16 thus saith Jehovah concerning the king that sitteth upon the throne of

David, and concerning all the people that dwell in this city, your brethren

that are not gone forth with you into captivity;

17 thus saith Jehovah of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword,

the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that

cannot be eaten, they are so bad.

18 And I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with

the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed to and fro among all the

kingdoms of the earth, to be an execration, and an astonishment, and a

hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them;

19 because they have not hearkened to my words, saith Jehovah, wherewith

I sent unto them my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending

them; but ye would not hear, saith Jehovah.

20 Hear ye therefore the word of Jehovah, all ye of the captivity, whom I

have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.

21 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the

son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a

lie unto you in my name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of

Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall slay them before your eyes;

22 and of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captives of Judah

that are in Babylon, saying, Jehovah make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab,

whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;

23 because they have wrought folly in Israel, and have committed adultery

with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely,

which I commanded them not; and I am he that knoweth, and am witness, saith

Jehovah.

24. And concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite thou shalt speak, saying,

25 Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because

thou hast sent letters in thine own name unto all the people that are at

Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the

priests, saying,

26 Jehovah hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest,

that there may be officers in the house of Jehovah, for every man that is

mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldest put him in the

stocks and in shackles.

27 Now therefore, why hast thou not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who

maketh himself a prophet to you,

28 forasmuch as he hath sent unto us in Babylon, saying, [The captivity]

is long: build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the

fruit of them?

29 And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the

prophet.

30 Then came the word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah, saying,

31 Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus saith Jehovah

concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because that Shemaiah hath prophesied

unto you, and I sent him not, and he hath caused you to trust in a lie;

32 therefore thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the

Nehelamite, and his seed; he shall not have a man to dwell among this

people, neither shall he behold the good that I will do unto my people,

saith Jehovah, because he hath spoken rebellion against Jehovah.

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

2 Thus speaketh Jehovah, the God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the

words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.

3 For, lo, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will turn again the

captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith Jehovah; and I will cause

them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall

possess it.

4 And these are the words that Jehovah spake concerning Israel and

concerning Judah.

5 For thus saith Jehovah: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear,

and not of peace.

6 Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child: wherefore do

I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all

faces are turned into paleness?

7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the

time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.

8 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, that I

will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds; and

strangers shall no more make him their bondman;

9 but they shall serve Jehovah their God, and David their king, whom I

will raise up unto them.

10. Therefore fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith Jehovah; neither be

dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from

the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and

at ease, and none shall make him afraid.

11 For I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to save thee: for I will make a

full end of all the nations whither I have scattered thee, but I will not

make a full end of thee; but I will correct thee in measure, and will in no

wise leave thee unpunished.

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

13 There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou

hast no healing medicines.

14 All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not: for I have

wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel

one, for the greatness of thine iniquity, because thy sins were increased.

15 Why criest thou for thy hurt? thy pain is incurable: for the greatness

of thine iniquity, because thy sins were increased, I have done these

things unto thee.

16 Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine

adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that

despoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for

a prey.

17 For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy

wounds, saith Jehovah; because they have called thee an outcast, [saying],

It is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

18. Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will turn again the captivity of Jacob's

tents, and have compassion on his dwelling-places; and the city shall be

builded upon its own hill, and the palace shall be inhabited after its own

manner.

19 And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that

make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will

also glorify them, and they shall not be small.

20 Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation

shall be established before me; and I will punish all that oppress them.

21 And their prince shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed

from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall

approach unto me: for who is he that hath had boldness to approach unto me?

saith Jehovah.

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

23 Behold, the tempest of Jehovah, [even his] wrath, is gone forth, a

sweeping tempest: it shall burst upon the head of the wicked.

24 The fierce anger of Jehovah shall not return, until he have executed,

and till he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye

shall understand it.

1. At that time, saith Jehovah, will I be the God of all the families of

Israel, and they shall be my people.

2 Thus saith Jehovah, The people that were left of the sword found favor

in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.

3 Jehovah appeared of old unto me, [saying], Yea, I have loved thee with

an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

4 Again will I build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel:

again shalt thou be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the

dances of them that make merry.

5 Again shalt thou plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria; the

planters shall plant, and shall enjoy [the fruit thereof].

6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the hills of Ephraim

shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto Jehovah our God.

7 For thus saith Jehovah, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the

chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Jehovah, save thy

people, the remnant of Israel.

8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from

the uttermost parts of the earth, [and] with them the blind and the lame,

the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great

company shall they return hither.

9 They shall come with weeping; and with supplications will I lead them:

I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way wherein

they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my

first-born.

10. Hear the word of Jehovah, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles

afar off; and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him,

as shepherd doth his flock.

11 For Jehovah hath ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him

that was stronger than he.

12 And they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow

unto the goodness of Jehovah, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the

oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be

as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the

old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort

them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

14 And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people

shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith Jehovah.

15 Thus saith Jehovah: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter

weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuseth to be comforted for

her children, because they are not.

16 Thus saith Jehovah: Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes

from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith Jehovah; and they shall

come again from the land of the enemy.

17 And there is hope for thy latter end, saith Jehovah; and [thy]

children shall come again to their own border.

18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus], Thou hast

chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed [to the yoke]:

turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art Jehovah my God.

19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was

instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded,

because I did bear the reproach of my youth.

20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a darling child? for as often as I speak

against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearneth

for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith Jehovah.

21 Set thee up waymarks, make thee guide-posts; set thy heart toward the

highway, even the way by which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of

Israel, turn again to these thy cities.

22 How long wilt thou go hither and thither, O thou backsliding daughter?

for Jehovah hath created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass

a man.

23 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Yet again shall they

use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I

shall bring again their captivity: Jehovah bless thee, O habitation of

righteousness, O mountain of holiness.

24 And Judah and all the cities thereof shall dwell therein together, the

husbandmen, and they that go about with flocks.

25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I

replenished.

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

27. Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will sow the house of

Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of

beast.

28 And it shall come to pass that, like as I have watched over them to

pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict,

so will I watch over them to build and to plant, saith Jehovah.

29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour

grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.

30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth

the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

31 Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant

with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the

day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt;

which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith

Jehovah.

33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts,

and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall

be my people:

34 and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his

brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least

of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will forgive their

iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.

35. Thus saith Jehovah, who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the

ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirreth

up the sea, so that the waves thereof roar; Jehovah of hosts is his name:

36 If these ordinances depart from before me, saith Jehovah, then the

seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.

37 Thus saith Jehovah: If heaven above can be measured, and the

foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off

all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith Jehovah.

38 Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that the city shall be built to

Jehovah from the tower of Hananel unto the gate of the corner.

39 And the measuring line shall go out further straight onward unto the

hill Gareb, and shall turn about unto Goah.

40 And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the

fields unto the brook Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the

east, shall be holy unto Jehovah; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown

down any more for ever.

1. The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah in the tenth year of

Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.

2 Now at that time the king of Babylon's army was besieging Jerusalem;

and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was

in the king of Judah's house.

3 For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou

prophesy, and say, Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will give this city into

the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;

4 and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the

Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of

Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold

his eyes;

5 and he shall bring Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I

visit him, saith Jehovah: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not

prosper?

6 And Jeremiah said, The word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

7 Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee,

saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth; for the right of redemption

is thine to buy it.

8 So Hanamel mine uncle's son came to me in the court of the guard

according to the word of Jehovah, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray

thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for the right

of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself.

Then I knew that this was the word of Jehovah.

9 And I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel mine uncle's

son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.

10 And I subscribed the deed, and sealed it, and called witnesses, and

weighed him the money in the balances.

11 So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed,

[according to] the law and custom, and that which was open:

12 and I delivered the deed of the purchase unto Baruch the son of

Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel mine uncle's [son],

and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the deed of the

purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the guard.

13 And I charged Baruch before them, saying,

14 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, this

deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put

them in an earthen vessel; that they may continue many days.

15 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields

and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land.

16. Now after I had delivered the deed of the purchase unto Baruch the son

of Neriah, I prayed unto Jehovah, saying,

17 Ah Lord Jehovah! behold, thou hast made the heavens and the earth by

thy great power and by thine outstrethed arm; there is nothing too hard for

thee,

18 who showest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the

iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them; the

great, the mighty God, Jehovah of hosts is his name;

19 great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open upon all the

ways of the sons of men, to give every one according to his ways, and

according to the fruit of his doings:

20 who didst set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this

day, both in Israel and among [other] men; and madest thee a name, as at

this day;

21 and didst bring forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with

signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with an outstretched

arm, and with great terror;

22 and gavest them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to

give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;

23 and they came in, and possessed it, but they obeyed not thy voice,

neither walked in thy law; they have done nothing of all that thou

commandedst them to do: therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come

upon them.

24 Behold, the mounds, they are come unto the city to take it; and the

city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans that fight against it, because

of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence; and what thou hast

spoken is come to pass; and, behold, thou seest it.

25 And thou hast said unto me, O Lord Jehovah, Buy thee the field for

money, and call witnesses; whereas the city is given into the hand of the

Chaldeans.

26. Then came the word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah, saying,

27 Behold, I am Jehovah, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard

for me?

28 Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will give this city into the

hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon,

and he shall take it:

29 and the Chaldeans, that fight against this city, shall come and set

this city on fire, and burn it, with the houses, upon whose roofs they have

offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink-offerings unto other gods,

to provoke me to anger.

30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only

that which was evil in my sight from their youth; for the children of

Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith

Jehovah.

31 For this city hath been to me a provocation of mine anger and of my

wrath from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should

remove it from before my face,

32 because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children

of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings,

their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and

the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

33 And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: and though I

taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened

to receive instruction.

34 But they set their abominations in the house which is called by my

name, to defile it.

35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the

son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through [the

fire] unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my

mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

36 And now therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, concerning

this city, whereof ye say, It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon

by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence:

37 Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries, whither I have

driven them in mine anger, and in my wrath, and in great indignation; and I

will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell

safely:

38 and they shall be my people, and I will be their God:

39 and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for

ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:

40 and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not

turn away from following them, to do them good; and I will put my fear in

their hearts, that they may not depart from me.

41 Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them

in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.

42 For thus saith Jehovah: Like as I have brought all this great evil

upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have

promised them.

43 And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof ye say, It is

desolate, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

44 Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe the deeds, and seal

them, and call witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about

Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the

hill-country, and in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the

South: for I will cause their captivity to return, saith Jehovah.

1. Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah the second time, while

he was yet shut up in the court of the guard, saying,

2 Thus saith Jehovah that doeth it, Jehovah that formeth it to establish

it; Jehovah is his name:

3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and will show thee great things,

and difficult, which thou knowest not.

4 For thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of

this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are

broken down [to make a defence] against the mounds and against the sword;

5 while [men] come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the

dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my wrath, and

for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city:

6 Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I

will reveal unto them abundance of peace and truth.

7 And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to

return, and will build them, as at the first.

8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have

sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they

have sinned against me, and whereby they have transgressed against me.

9 And [this city] shall be to me for a name of joy, for a praise and for

a glory, before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good

that I do unto them, and shall fear and tremble for all the good and for

all the peace that I procure unto it.

10. Thus saith Jehovah: Yet again there shall be heard in this place,

whereof ye say, It is waste, without man and without beast, even in the

cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate,

without man and without inhabitant and without beast,

11 the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the

bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that say, Give

thanks to Jehovah of hosts, for Jehovah is good, for his lovingkindness

[endureth] for ever; [and of them] that bring [sacrifices of] thanksgiving

into the house of Jehovah. For I will cause the captivity of the land to

return as at the first, saith Jehovah.

12 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Yet again shall there be in this place,

which is waste, without man and without beast, and in all the cities

thereof, a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.

13 In the cities of the hill-country, in the cities of the lowland, and

in the cities of the South, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places

about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks again pass

under the hands of him that numbereth them, saith Jehovah.

14 Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will perform that good

word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and concerning the

house of Judah.

15 In those days, and at that time, will I cause a Branch of

righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute justice and

righteousness in the land.

16 In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely;

and this is [the name] whereby she shall be called: Jehovah our

righteousness.

17. For thus saith Jehovah: David shall never want a man to sit upon the

throne of the house of Israel;

18 neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer

burnt-offerings, and to burn meal-offerings, and to do sacrifice

continually.

19 And the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah, saying,

20 Thus saith Jehovah: If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my

covenant of the night, so that there shall not be day and night in their

season;

21 then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he

shall not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the

priests, my ministers.

22 As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea

measured; so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites

that minister unto me.

23 And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,

24 Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two

families which Jehovah did choose, he hath cast them off? thus do they

despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.

25 Thus saith Jehovah: If my covenant of day and night [stand] not, if I

have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;

26 then will I also cast away the seed of Jacob, and of David my servant,

so that I will not take of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham,

Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and will have

mercy on them.

1. The word which came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, when Nebuchadnezzar

king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth that

were under his dominion, and all the peoples, were fighting against

Jerusalem, and against all the cities thereof, saying:

2 Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Go, and speak to Zedekiah king

of Judah, and tell him, Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will give this city

into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire:

3 and thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken,

and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the

king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou

shalt go to Babylon.

4 Yet hear the word of Jehovah, O Zedekiah king of Judah: thus saith

Jehovah concerning thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword;

5 thou shalt die in peace; and with the burnings of thy fathers, the

former kings that were before thee, so shall they make a burning for thee;

and they shall lament thee, [saying], Ah Lord! for I have spoken the word,

saith Jehovah.

6 Then Jeremiah the prophet spake all these words unto Zedekiah king of

Judah in Jerusalem,

7 when the king of Babylon's army was fighting against Jerusalem, and

against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against

Azekah; for these [alone] remained of the cities of Judah [as] fortified

cities.

8. The word that came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, after that the king

Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people that were at Jerusalem, to

proclaim liberty unto them;

9 that every man should let his man-servant, and every man his

maid-servant, that is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free; that none should

make bondmen of them, [to wit], of a Jew his brother.

10 And all the princes and all the people obeyed, that had entered into

the covenant, that every one should let his man-servant, and every one his

maid-servant, go free, that none should make bondmen of them any more; they

obeyed, and let them go:

11 but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids,

whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for

servants and for handmaids.

12 Therefore the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

13 Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your

fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out

of the house of bondage, saying,

14 At the end of seven years ye shall let go every man his brother that

is a Hebrew, that hath been sold unto thee, and hath served thee six years,

thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto

me, neither inclined their ear.

15 And ye were now turned, and had done that which is right in mine eyes,

in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and ye had made a

covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:

16 but ye turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant,

and every man his handmaid, whom ye had let go free at their pleasure, to

return; and ye brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants

and for handmaids.

17 Therefore thus saith Jehovah: ye have not hearkened unto me, to

proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor:

behold, I proclaim unto you a liberty, saith Jehovah, to the sword, to the

pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be tossed to and fro

among all the kingdoms of the earth.

18 And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, that have

not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, when

they cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof;

19 the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and

the priests, and all the people of the land, that passed between the parts

of the calf;

20 I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the

hand of them that seek their life; and their dead bodies shall be for food

unto the birds of the heavens, and to the beasts of the earth.

21 And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hand

of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and into

the hand of the king of Babylon's army, that are gone away from you.

22 Behold, I will command, saith Jehovah, and cause them to return to

this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with

fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

1. The word which came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah in the days of Jehoiakim

the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

2 Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring

them into the house of Jehovah, into one of the chambers, and give them

wine to drink.

3 Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and

his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites;

4 and I brought them into the house of Jehovah, into the chamber of the

sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was by the chamber

of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum,

the keeper of the threshold:

5 and I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites bowls full of

wine, and cups; and I said unto them, Drink ye wine.

6 But they said, We will drink no wine; for Jonadab the son of Rechab,

our father, commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor

your sons, for ever:

7 neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor

have any; but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many

days in the land wherein ye sojourn.

8 And we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father,

in all that he charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives,

our sons, or our daughters;

9 nor to build houses for us to dwell in; neither have we vineyard, nor

field, nor seed:

10 but we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all

that Jonadab our father commanded us.

11 But it came to pass, when Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up into

the land, that we said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the

army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians; so we dwell

at Jerusalem.

12. Then came the word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah, saying,

13 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Go, and say to the men

of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction

to hearken to my words? saith Jehovah.

14 The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons,

not to drink wine, are performed; and unto this day they drink none, for

they obey their father's commandment: but I have spoken unto you, rising up

early and speaking; and ye have not hearkened unto me.

15 I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up

early and sending them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way,

and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye

shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but

ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me.

16 Forasmuch as the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the

commandment of their father which he commanded them, but this people hath

not hearkened unto me;

17 therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, the God of Israel:

Behold, I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem

all the evil that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken

unto them, but they have not heard; and I have called unto them, but they

have not answered.

18 And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus saith Jehovah

of hosts, the God of Israel: Because ye have obeyed the commandment of

Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all

that he commanded you;

19 therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the

son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever.

1. And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah,

king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

2 Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have

spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the

nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto

this day.

3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I

purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way;

that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.

4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote from

the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of Jehovah, which he had spoken unto

him, upon a roll of a book.

5 And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into

the house of Jehovah:

6 therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from

my mouth, the words of Jehovah in the ears of the people in Jehovah's house

upon the fast-day; and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah

that come out of their cities.

7 It may be they will present their supplication before Jehovah, and will

return every one from his evil way; for great is the anger and the wrath

that Jehovah hath pronounced against this people.

8 And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the

prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of Jehovah in

Jehovah's house.

9. Now it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah,

king of Judah, in the ninth month, that all the people in Jerusalem, and

all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem,

proclaimed a fast before Jehovah.

10 Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of

Jehovah, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan, the scribe, in the

upper court, at the entry of the new gate of Jehovah's house, in the ears

of all the people.

11 And when Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard

out of the book all the words of Jehovah,

12 he went down into the king's house, into the scribe's chamber: and,

lo, all the princes were sitting there, [to wit], Elishama the scribe, and

Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah

the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.

13 Then Micaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, when

Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.

14 Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of

Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Baruch, saying, Take in thy hand the roll

wherein thou hast read in the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the

son of Neriah took the roll in his hand, and came unto them.

15 And they said unto him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So

Baruch read it in their ears.

16 Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they turned in

fear one toward another, and said unto Baruch, We will surely tell the king

of all these words.

17 And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How didst thou write all

these words at his mouth?

18 Then Baruch answered them, He pronounced all these words unto me with

his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.

19 Then said the princes unto Baruch, Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah;

and let no man know where ye are.

20. And they went in to the king into the court; but they had laid up the

roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe; and they told all the words in

the ears of the king.

21 So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll; and he took it out of the

chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king,

and in the ears of all the princes that stood beside the king.

22 Now the king was sitting in the winter-house in the ninth month: and

[there was a fire in] the brazier burning before him.

23 And it came to pass, when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, that

[the king] cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in

the brazier, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was in the

brazier.

24 And they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king,

nor any of his servants that heard all these words.

25 Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to

the king that he would not burn the roll; but he would not hear them.

26 And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king's son, and Seraiah the son

of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and

27 Then the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, after that the king had

burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah,

saying,

28 Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words

that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned.

29 And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah thou shalt say, Thus saith

Jehovah: Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein,

saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and

shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?

30 Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He

shall have none to sit upon the throne of David; and his dead body shall be

cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.

31 And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their

iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of

Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced

against them, but they hearkened not.

32 Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the

son of Neriah, who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words

of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and there

were added besides unto them many like words.

1. And Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned as king, instead of Coniah the

son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land

of Judah.

2 But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did

hearken unto the words of Jehovah, which he spake by the prophet Jeremiah.

3 And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah

the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now

unto Jehovah our God for us.

4 Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people; for they had not

put him into prison.

5 And Pharaoh's army was come forth out of Egypt; and when the Chaldeans

that were besieging Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they brake up from

Jerusalem.

6 Then came the word of Jehovah unto the prophet Jeremiah, saying,

7 Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Thus shall ye say to the king of

Judah, that sent you unto me to inquire of me: Behold, Pharaoh's army,

which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.

8 And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city; and

they shall take it, and burn it with fire.

9 Thus saith Jehovah, Deceive not yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans shall

surely depart from us; for they shall not depart.

10 For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight

against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yea would they

rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.

11. And it came to pass that, when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up

from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army,

12 then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of

Benjamin, to receive his portion there, in the midst of the people.

13 And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was

there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah;

and he laid hold on Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou art falling away to

the Chaldeans.

14 Then said Jeremiah, It is false; I am not falling away to the

Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him; so Irijah laid hold on Jeremiah,

and brought him to the princes.

15 And the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him, and put him

in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the

prison.

16 When Jeremiah was come into the dungeon-house, and into the cells, and

17 Then Zedekiah the king sent, and fetched him: and the king asked him

secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from Jehovah? And

hand of the king of Babylon.

18 Moreover Jeremiah said unto king Zedekiah, Wherein have I sinned

against thee, or against thy servants, or against this people, that ye have

put me in prison?

19 Where now are your prophets that prophesied unto you, saying, The king

of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land?

20 And now hear, I pray thee, O my lord the king: let my supplication, I

pray thee, be presented before thee, that thou cause me not to return to

the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.

21 Then Zedekiah the king commanded, and they committed Jeremiah into the

court of the guard; and they gave him daily a loaf of bread out of the

bakers' street, until all the bread in the city was spent. Thus Jeremiah

remained in the court of the guard.

1. And Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and

Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchijah, heard the

words that Jeremiah spake unto all the people, saying,

2 Thus saith Jehovah, He that abideth in this city shall die by the

sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that goeth forth to the

Chaldeans shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey, and he

shall live.

3 Thus saith Jehovah, This city shall surely be given into the hand of

the army of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.

4 Then the princes said unto the king, Let this man, we pray thee, be put

to death; forasmuch as he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain

in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto

them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt.

5 And Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand; for the king is

not he that can do anything against you.

6 Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchijah the

king's son, that was in the court of the guard: and they let down Jeremiah

with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah

sank in the mire.

7 Now when Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch, who was in the king's

house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon (the king then

sitting in the gate of Benjamin,)

8 Ebed-melech went forth out of the king's house, and spake to the king,

saying,

9 My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done

to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is

like to die in the place where he is, because of the famine; for there is

no more bread in the city.

10 Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Take from

hence thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the

dungeon, before he die.

11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him, and went into the house of the

king under the treasury, and took thence rags and worn-out garments, and

let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah.

12 And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah, Put now these rags

and worn-out garments under thine armholes under the cords. And Jeremiah

did so.

13 So they drew up Jeremiah with the cords, and took him up out of the

dungeon: and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

14. Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him

into the third entry that is in the house of Jehovah: and the king said

unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me.

15 Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou

not surely put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, thou wilt not

hearken unto me.

16 So Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As Jehovah

liveth, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will

I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life.

17 Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of

hosts, the God of Israel: If thou wilt go forth unto the king of Babylon's

princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with

fire; and thou shalt live, and thy house:

18 But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then

shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall

burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.

19 And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that

are fallen away to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and

they mock me.

20 But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee,

the voice of Jehovah, in that which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well

with thee, and thy soul shall live.

21 But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that Jehovah hath

showed me:

22 behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house shall

be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and those women shall

say, Thy familiar friends have set thee on, and have prevailed over thee:

[now that] thy feet are sunk in the mire, they are turned away back.

23 And they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the

Chaldeans; and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken

by the hand of the king of Babylon: and thou shalt cause this city to be

burned with fire.

24 Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and

thou shalt not die.

25 But if the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they come

unto thee, and say unto thee, Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto

the king; hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to death; also what

the king said unto thee:

26 then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplication before the

king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house, to die

there.

27 Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, and asked him; and he told

them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left

off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived.

28 So Jeremiah abode in the court of the guard until the day that

Jerusalem was taken.

1. And it came to pass when Jerusalem was taken, (in the ninth year of

Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of

Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and besieged it;

2 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of

the month, a breach was made in the city,)

3 that all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the

middle gate, [to wit], Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, Rab-saris,

Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, with all the rest of the princes of the king of

Babylon.

4 And it came to pass that, when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the

men of war saw them, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by

night, by the way of the king's garden, through the gate betwixt the two

walls; and he went out toward the Arabah.

5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah

in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up

to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he

gave judgment upon him.

6 Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his

eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.

7 Moreover he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him in fetters, to carry

him to Babylon.

8 And the Chaldeans burned the king's house, and the houses of the

people, with fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem.

9 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive into

Babylon the residue of the people that remained in the city, the deserters

also that fell away to him, and the residue of the people that remained.

10 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the

people, that had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and

fields at the same time.

11. Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to

Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying,

12 Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him

even as he shall say unto thee.

13 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent, and Nebushazban,

Rab-saris, and Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, and all the chief officers of the

king of Babylon;

14 they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the guard, and

committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, that he

should carry him home: so he dwelt among the people.

15 Now the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah, while he was shut up in

the court of the guard, saying,

16 Go, and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith Jehovah

of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring my words upon this city

for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished before thee in

that day.

17 But I will deliver thee in that day, saith Jehovah; and thou shalt not

be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid.

18 For I will surely save thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but

thy life shall be for a prey unto thee; because thou hast put thy trust in

me, saith Jehovah.

1. The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, after that Nebuzaradan

the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him

being bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah, that

were carried away captive unto Babylon.

2 And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah, and said unto him, Jehovah

thy God pronounced this evil upon this place;

3 and Jehovah hath brought it, and done according as he spake: because ye

have sinned against Jehovah, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this

thing is come upon you.

4 And now, behold, I loose thee this day from the chains which are upon

thy hand. If it seem good unto thee to come with me into Babylon, come, and

I will look well unto thee; but if it seem ill unto thee to come with me

into Babylon, forbear: behold, all the land is before thee; whither it

seemeth good and right unto thee to go, thither go.

5 Now while he was not yet gone back, Go back then, [said he], to

Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon

hath made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the

people; or go wheresoever it seemeth right unto thee to go. So the captain

of the guard gave him victuals and a present, and let him go.

6 Then went Jeremiah unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah, and dwelt

with him among the people that were left in the land.

7. Now when all the captains of the forces that were in the fields, even

they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the

son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed unto him men, and

women, and children, and of the poorest of the land, of them that were not

carried away captive to Babylon;

8 then they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, [to wit], Ishmael the son of

Nethaniah, and Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son

of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son

of the Maacathite, they and their men.

9 And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan sware unto them and

to their men, saying, Fear not to serve the Chaldeans: dwell in the land,

and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.

10 As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah, to stand before the

Chaldeans that shall come unto us: but ye, gather ye wine and summer fruits

and oil, and put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that ye

have taken.

11 Likewise when all the Jews that were in Moab, and among the children

of Ammon, and in Edom, and that were in all the countries, heard that the

king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set over them

Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan;

12 then all the Jews returned out of all places whither they were driven,

and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah, unto Mizpah, and gathered wine

and summer fruits very much.

13 Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces

that were in the fields, came to Gedaliah to Mizpah,

14 and said unto him, Dost thou know that Baalis the king of the children

of Ammon hath sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take thy life? But

Gedaliah the son of Ahikam believed them not.

15 Then Johanan the son of Kareah spake to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly,

saying, Let me go, I pray thee, and I will slay Ishmael the son of

Nethaniah, and no man shall know it: wherefore should he take thy life,

that all the Jews that are gathered unto thee should be scattered, and the

remnant of Judah perish?

16 But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said unto Johanan the son of Kareah,

Thou shalt not do this thing; for thou speakest falsely of Ishmael.

1. Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of

Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal and [one of] the chief

officers of the king, and ten men with him, came unto Gedaliah the son of

Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they did eat bread together in Mizpah.

2 Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men that were with

him, and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the

sword, and slew him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the

land.

3 Ishmael also slew all the Jews that were with him, [to wit], with

Gedaliah, at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans that were found there, the men of

war.

4 And it came to pass the second day after he had slain Gedaliah, and no

man knew it,

5 that there came men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even

fourscore men, having their beards shaven and their clothes rent, and

having cut themselves, with meal-offerings and frankincense in their hand,

to bring them to the house of Jehovah.

6 And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went forth from Mizpah to meet them,

weeping all along as he went: and it came to pass, as he met them, he said

unto them, Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.

7 And it was so, when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael

the son of Nethaniah slew them, [and cast them] into the midst of the pit,

he, and the men that were with him.

8 But ten men were found among them that said unto Ishmael, Slay us not;

for we have stores hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of

oil, and of honey. So he forbare, and slew them not among their brethren.

9 Now the pit wherein Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he

had slain, by the side of Gedaliah (the same was that which Asa the king

had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel,) Ishmael the son of Nethaniah

filled it with them that were slain.

10 Then Ishmael carried away captive all the residue of the people that

were in Mizpah, even the king's daughters, and all the people that remained

in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to

Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away

captive, and departed to go over to the children of Ammon.

11. But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces

that were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah

had done,

12 then they took all the men, and went to fight with Ishmael the son of

Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon.

13 Now it came to pass that, when all the people that were with Ishmael

saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were

with him, then they were glad.

14 So all the people that Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah

turned about and came back, and went unto Johanan the son of Kareah.

15 But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men,

and went to the children of Ammon.

16 Then took Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the

forces that were with him, all the remnant of the people whom he had

recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after that he had

slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, [to wit], the men of war, and the women,

and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon:

17 and they departed, and dwelt in Geruth Chimham, which is by

Beth-lehem, to go to enter into Egypt,

18 because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because

Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the

king of Babylon made governor over the land.

1. Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and

Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto

the greatest, came near,

2 and said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we pray thee, our supplication

be presented before thee, and pray for us unto Jehovah thy God, even for

all this remnant; for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do

behold us:

3 that Jehovah thy God may show us the way wherein we should walk, and

the thing that we should do.

4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I

will pray unto Jehovah your God according to your words; and it shall come

to pass that whatsoever thing Jehovah shall answer you, I will declare it

unto you; I will keep nothing back from you.

5 Then they said to Jeremiah, Jehovah be a true and faithful witness

amongst us, if we do not according to all the word wherewith Jehovah thy

God shall send thee to us.

6 Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of

Jehovah our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we

obey the voice of Jehovah our God.

7. And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of Jehovah came unto

8 Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the

forces that were with him, and all the people from the least even to the

greatest,

9 and said unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, unto whom ye

sent me to present your supplication before him:

10 If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not

pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I repent me

of the evil that I have done unto you.

11 Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not

afraid of him, saith Jehovah: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver

you from his hand.

12 And I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause

you to return to your own land.

13 But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land; so that ye obey not the

voice of Jehovah your God,

14 saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see

no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and

there will we dwell:

15 now therefore hear ye the word of Jehovah, O remnant of Judah: Thus

saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, If ye indeed set your faces to

enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;

16 then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye fear, shall

overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, whereof ye are

afraid, shall follow hard after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die.

17 So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt

to sojourn there: they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the

pestilence; and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I

will bring upon them.

18 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: As mine anger and

my wrath hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall

my wrath be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt; and ye

shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach;

and ye shall see this place no more.

19 Jehovah hath spoken concerning you, O remnant of Judah, Go ye not into

Egypt: know certainly that I have testified unto you this day.

20 For ye have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for ye sent me

unto Jehovah your God, saying, Pray for us unto Jehovah our God; and

according unto all that Jehovah our God shall say, so declare unto us, and

we will do it:

21 and I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the

voice of Jehovah your God in anything for which he hath sent me unto you.

22 Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the

famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go to

sojourn there.

1. And it came to pass that, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking

unto all the people all the words of Jehovah their God, wherewith Jehovah

their God had sent him to them, even all these words,

2 then spake Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah,

and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely: Jehovah

our God hath not sent thee to say, Ye shall not go into Egypt to sojourn

there;

3 but Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee on against us, to deliver us

into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death, and carry us

away captive to Babylon.

4 So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and

all the people, obeyed not the voice of Jehovah, to dwell in the land of

Judah.

5 But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took

all the remnant of Judah, that were returned from all the nations whither

they had been driven, to sojourn in the land of Judah;

6 the men, and the women, and the children, and the king's daughters, and

every person that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with

Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan; and Jeremiah the prophet,

and Baruch the son of Neriah;

7 and they came into the land of Egypt; for they obeyed not the voice of

Jehovah: and they came unto Tahpanhes.

8. Then came the word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying,

9 Take great stones in thy hand, and hide them in mortar in the

brickwork, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the

sight of the men of Judah;

10 and say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel:

Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my

servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he

shall spread his royal pavilion over them.

11 And he shall come, and shall smite the land of Egypt; such as are for

death [shall be given] to death, and such as are for captivity to

captivity, and such as are for the sword to the sword.

12 And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he

shall burn them, and carry them away captive: and he shall array himself

with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment; and he shall

go forth from thence in peace.

13 He shall also break the pillars of Beth-shemesh, that is in the land

of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of Egypt shall he burn with fire.

1. The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews that dwelt in

the land of Egypt, that dwelt at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Memphis,

and in the country of Pathros, saying,

2 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Ye have seen all the

evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah;

and, behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth therein,

3 because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to

anger, in that they went to burn incense, [and] to serve other gods, that

they knew not, neither they, nor ye, nor your fathers.

4 Howbeit I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early

and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.

5 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their

wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods.

6 Wherefore my wrath and mine anger was poured forth, and was kindled in

the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted

and desolate, as it is this day.

7 Therefore now thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, the God of Israel:

Wherefore commit ye [this] great evil against your own souls, to cut off

from you man and woman, infant and suckling, out of the midst of Judah, to

leave you none remaining;

8 in that ye provoke me unto anger with the works of your hands, burning

incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, whither ye are gone to

sojourn; that ye may be cut off, and that ye may be a curse and a reproach

among all the nations of the earth?

9 Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of

the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own

wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives which they committed in the

land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?

10 They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor

walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your

fathers.

11 Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I

will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.

12 And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go

into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed; in

the land of Egypt shall they fall; they shall be consumed by the sword and

by the famine; they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by

the sword and by the famine; and they shall be an execration, [and] an

astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.

13 For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have

punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence;

14 so that none of the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of

Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or be left, to return into the land of

Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall

return save such as shall escape.

15. Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense unto other

gods, and all the women that stood by, a great assembly, even all the

people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah,

saying,

16 As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of Jehovah,

we will not hearken unto thee.

17 But we will certainly perform every word that is gone forth out of our

mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out

drink-offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings

and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem;

for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.

18 But since we left off burning incense to the queen of heaven, and

pouring out drink-offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have

been consumed by the sword and by the famine.

19 And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out

drink-offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour

out drink-offerings unto her, without our husbands?

20. Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, and to the women,

even to all the people that had given him that answer, saying,

21 The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets

of Jerusalem, ye and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the

people of the land, did not Jehovah remember them, and came it not into his

mind?

22 so that Jehovah could not longer bear, because of the evil of your

doings, and because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore

is your land become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without

inhabitant, as it is this day.

23 Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against

Jehovah, and have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah, nor walked in his law,

nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil is

happened unto you, as it is this day.

24 Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to all the women, Hear

the word of Jehovah, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt:

25 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Ye and your

wives have both spoken with your mouths, and with your hands have fulfilled

it, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn

incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her:

establish then your vows, and perform your vows.

26 Therefore hear ye the word of Jehovah, all Judah that dwell in the

land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, saith Jehovah, that

my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the

land of Egypt, saying, As the Lord Jehovah liveth.

27 Behold, I watch over them for evil, and not for good; and all the men

of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and

by the famine, until there be an end of them.

28 And they that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt

into the land of Judah, few in number; and all the remnant of Judah, that

are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose word

shall stand, mine, or theirs.

29 And this shall be the sign unto you, saith Jehovah, that I will punish

you in this place, that ye may know that my words shall surely stand

against you for evil:

30 Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt

into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life;

as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of

Babylon, who was his enemy, and sought his life.

1. The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch the son of Neriah,

when he wrote these word in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth

year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

2 Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch:

3 Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for Jehovah hath added sorrow to my

pain; I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.

4 Thus shalt thou say unto him, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, that which I

have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck

up; and this in the whole land.

5 And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not; for, behold,

I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith Jehovah; but thy life will I give

unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.

1. The word of Jehovah which came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the

nations.

2 Of Egypt: concerning the army of Pharaoh-neco king of Egypt, which was

by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon

smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah.

3 Prepare ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.

4 Harness the horses, and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth with your

helmets; furbish the spears, put on the coats of mail.

5 Wherefore have I seen it? they are dismayed and are turned backward;

and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not

back: terror is on every side, saith Jehovah.

6 Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; in the north by

the river Euphrates have they stumbled and fallen.

7 Who is this that riseth up like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves

like the rivers?

8 Egypt riseth up like the Nile, and his waters toss themselves like the

rivers: and he saith, I will rise up, I will cover the earth; I will

destroy cities and the inhabitants thereof.

9 Go up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men go

forth: Cush and Put, that handle the shield; and the Ludim, that handle and

bend the bow.

10 For that day is [a day] of the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, a day of

vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall

devour and be satiate, and shall drink its fill of their blood; for the

Lord, Jehovah of hosts, hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river

Euphrates.

11 Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain

dost thou use many medicines; there is no healing for thee.

12. The nations have heard of thy shame, and the earth is full of thy cry;

for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty, they are fallen both

of them together.

13 The word that Jehovah spake to Jeremiah the prophet, how that

Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt.

14 Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Memphis and

in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand forth, and prepare thee; for the sword hath

devoured round about thee.

15 Why are thy strong ones swept away? they stood not, because Jehovah

did drive them.

16 He made many to stumble, yea, they fell one upon another: and they

said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our

nativity, from the oppressing sword.

17 They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he hath let

the appointed time pass by.

18 As I live, saith the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts, surely like

Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.

19 O thou daughter that dwellest in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into

captivity; for Memphis shall become a desolation, and shall be burnt up,

without inhabitant.

20 Egypt is a very fair heifer; [but] destruction out of the north is

come, it is come.

21 Also her hired men in the midst of her are like calves of the stall;

for they also are turned back, they are fled away together, they did not

stand: for the day of their calamity is come upon them, the time of their

visitation.

22 The sound thereof shall go like the serpent; for they shall march with

an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.

23 They shall cut down her forest, saith Jehovah, though it cannot be

searched; because they are more than the locusts, and are innumerable.

24 The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame; she shall be delivered

into the hand of the people of the north.

25 Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saith: Behold, I will punish Amon

of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with her gods, and her kings; even Pharaoh,

and them that trust in him:

26 and I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives,

and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of

his servants; and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old,

saith Jehovah.

27 But fear not thou, O Jacob my servant, neither be dismayed, O Israel:

for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their

captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none

shall make him afraid.

28 Fear not thou, O Jacob my servant, saith Jehovah; for I am with thee:

for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee;

but I will not make a full end of thee, but I will correct thee in measure,

and will in no wise leave thee unpunished.

1. The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the

Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.

2 Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall

become an overflowing stream, and shall overflow the land and all that is

therein, the city and them that dwell therein; and the men shall cry, and

all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.

3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, at the

rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers look

not back to their children for feebleness of hands;

4 because of the day that cometh to destroy all the Philistines, to cut

off from Tyre and Sidon every helper that remaineth: for Jehovah will

destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the isle of Caphtor.

5 Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is brought to nought, the remnant

of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?

6 O thou sword of Jehovah, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up

thyself into thy scabbard; rest, and be still.

7 How canst thou be quiet, seeing Jehovah hath given thee a charge?

Against Ashkelon, and against the sea-shore, there hath he appointed it.

1. Of Moab. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe unto Nebo!

for it is laid waste; Kiriathaim is put to shame, it is taken; Misgab is

put to shame and broken down.

2 The praise of Moab is no more; in Heshbon they have devised evil

against her: Come, and let us cut her off from being a nation. Thou also, O

Madmen, shalt be brought to silence: the sword shall pursue thee.

3 The sound of a cry from Horonaim, desolation and great destruction!

4 Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.

5 For by the ascent of Luhith with continual weeping shall they go up;

for at the descent of Horonaim they have heard the distress of the cry of

destruction.

6 Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.

7 For, because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou

also shalt be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity, his priests

and his princes together.

8 And the destroyer shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape;

the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed; as Jehovah

hath spoken.

9 Give wings unto Moab, that she may fly and get her away: and her cities

shall become a desolation, without any to dwell therein.

10 Cursed be he that doeth the work of Jehovah negligently; and cursed be

he that keepeth back his sword from blood.

11 Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his

lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone

into captivity: therefore his taste remaineth in him, and his scent is not

changed.

12 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will send unto

him them that pour off, and they shall pour him off; and they shall empty

his vessels, and break their bottles in pieces.

13 And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was

ashamed of Beth-el their confidence.

14. How say ye, We are mighty men, and valiant men for the war?

15 Moab is laid waste, and they are gone up into his cities, and his

chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, saith the King, whose name

is Jehovah of hosts.

16 The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hasteth fast.

17 All ye that are round about him, bemoan him, and all ye that know his

name; say, How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod!

18 O thou daughter that dwellest in Dibon, come down from thy glory, and

sit in thirst; for the destroyer of Moab is come up against thee, he hath

destroyed thy strongholds.

19 O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and watch: ask him that

fleeth, and her that escapeth; say, What hath been done?

20 Moab is put to shame; for it is broken down: wail and cry; tell ye it

by the Arnon, that Moab is laid waste.

21 And judgment is come upon the plain country, upon Holon, and upon

Jahzah, and upon Mephaath,

22 and upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon Beth-diblathaim,

23 and upon Kiriathaim, and upon Beth-gamul, and upon Beth-meon,

24 and upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land

of Moab, far or near.

25 The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, saith Jehovah.

26 Make ye him drunken; for he magnified himself against Jehovah: and

Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.

27 For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves?

for as often as thou speakest of him, thou waggest the head.

28 O ye inhabitants of Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock; and

be like the dove that maketh her nest over the mouth of the abyss.

29 We have heard of the pride of Moab, [that] he is very proud; his

loftiness, and his pride, and his arrogancy, and the haughtiness of his

heart.

30 I know his wrath, saith Jehovah, that it is nought; his boastings have

wrought nothing.

31 Therefore will I wail for Moab; yea, I will cry out for all Moab: for

the men of Kir-heres shall they mourn.

32 With more than the weeping of Jazer will I weep for thee, O vine of

Sibmah: thy branches passed over the sea, they reached even to the sea of

Jazer: upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage the destroyer is fallen.

33 And gladness and joy is taken away from the fruitful field and from

the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to cease from the winepresses:

none shall tread with shouting; the shouting shall be no shouting.

34 From the cry of Heshbon even unto Elealeh, even unto Jahaz have they

uttered their voice, from Zoar even unto Horonaim, to Eglath-shelishiyah:

for the waters of Nimrim also shall become desolate.

35 Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab, saith Jehovah, him that

offereth in the high place, and him that burneth incense to his gods.

36 Therefore my heart soundeth for Moab like pipes, and my heart soundeth

like pipes for the men of Kir-heres: therefore the abundance that he hath

gotten is perished.

37 For every head is bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands

are cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.

38 On all the housetops of Moab and in the streets thereof there is

lamentation every where; for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein none

delighteth, saith Jehovah.

39 How is it broken down! [how] do they wail! how hath Moab turned the

back with shame! so shall Moab become a derision and a terror to all that

are round about him.

40 For thus saith Jehovah: Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall

spread out his wings against Moab.

41 Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds are seized, and the heart of the

mighty men of Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her

pangs.

42 And Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath

magnified himself against Jehovah.

43 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab,

saith Jehovah.

44 He that fleeth from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that

getteth up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring

upon him, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation, saith Jehovah.

45 They that fled stand without strength under the shadow of Heshbon; for

a fire is gone forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon,

and hath devoured the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the

tumultuous ones.

46 Woe unto thee, O Moab! the people of Chemosh is undone; for thy sons

are taken away captive, and thy daughters into captivity.

47 Yet will I bring back the captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith

Jehovah. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

1. Of the children of Ammon. Thus saith Jehovah: Hath Israel no sons? hath

he no heir? why then doth Malcam possess Gad, and his people well in the

cities thereof?

2 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will cause an

alarm of war to be heard against Rabbah of the children of Ammon; and it

shall become a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire:

then shall Israel possess them that did possess him, saith Jehovah.

3 Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste; cry, ye daughters of Rabbah,

gird you with sackcloth: lament, and run to and fro among the fences; for

Malcam shall go into captivity, his priests and his princes together.

4 Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, O

backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, [saying], Who shall

come unto me?

5 Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord, Jehovah of

hosts, from all that are round about thee; and ye shall be driven out every

man right forth, and there shall be none to gather together the fugitives.

6 But afterward I will bring back the captivity of the children of Ammon,

saith Jehovah.

7. Of Edom. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Is wisdom no more in Teman? is

counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?

8 Flee ye, turn back, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I

will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I shall visit him.

9 If grape-gatherers came to thee, would they not leave some gleaning

grapes? if thieves by night, would they not destroy till they had enough?

10 But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he

shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is destroyed, and his brethren,

and his neighbors; and he is not.

11 Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy

widows trust in me.

12 For thus saith Jehovah: Behold, they to whom it pertained not to drink

of the cup shall assuredly drink; and art thou he that shall altogether go

unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink.

13 For I have sworn by myself, saith Jehovah, that Bozrah shall become an

astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof

shall be perpetual wastes.

14 I have heard tidings from Jehovah, and an ambassador is sent among the

nations, [saying], Gather yourselves together, and come against her, and

rise up to the battle.

15 For, behold, I have made thee small among the nations, and despised

among men.

16 As for thy terribleness, the pride of thy heart hath deceived thee, O

thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of

the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will

bring thee down from thence, saith Jehovah.

17 And Edom shall become an astonishment: every one that passeth by it

shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.

18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities

thereof, saith Jehovah, no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of

man sojourn therein.

19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan

against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from

it; and whoso is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me?

and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd that will stand

before me?

20 Therefore hear ye the counsel of Jehovah, that he hath taken against

Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of

Teman: Surely they shall drag them away, [even] the little ones of the

flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.

21 The earth trembleth at the noise of their fall; there is a cry, the

noise whereof is heard in the Red Sea.

22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his

wings against Bozrah: and the heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day

shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

23. Of Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad; for they have heard evil

tidings, they are melted away: there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be

quiet.

24 Damascus is waxed feeble, she turneth herself to flee, and trembling

hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a

woman in travail.

25 How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of my joy?

26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of

war shall be brought to silence in that day, saith Jehovah of hosts.

27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour

the palaces of Ben-hadad.

28. Of Kedar, and of the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of

Babylon smote. Thus saith Jehovah: Arise ye, go up to Kedar, and destroy

the children of the east.

29 Their tents and their flocks shall they take; they shall carry away

for themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and

they shall cry unto them, Terror on every side!

30 Flee ye, wander far off, dwell in the depths, O ye inhabitants of

Hazor, saith Jehovah; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath taken counsel

against you, and hath conceived a purpose against you.

31 Arise, get you up unto a nation that is at ease, that dwelleth without

care, saith Jehovah; that have neither gates nor bars, that dwell alone.

32 And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a

spoil: and I will scatter unto all winds them that have the corners [of

their hair] cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every side of

them, saith Jehovah.

33 And Hazor shall be a dwelling-place of jackals, a desolation for ever:

no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.

34. The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam,

in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,

35 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the

chief of their might.

36 And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of

heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no

nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.

37 And I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before

them that seek their life; and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce

anger, saith Jehovah; and I will send the sword after them, till I have

consumed them;

38 and I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence king

and princes, saith Jehovah.

39 But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring back

the captivity of Elam, saith Jehovah.

1. The word that Jehovah spake concerning Babylon, concerning the land of

the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.

2 Declare ye among the nations and publish, and set up a standard;

publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame,

Merodach is dismayed; her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed.

3 For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall

make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they are fled, they

are gone, both man and beast.

4 In those days, and in that time, saith Jehovah, the children of Israel

shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their

way weeping, and shall seek Jehovah their God.

5 They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces thitherward,

[saying], Come ye, and join yourselves to Jehovah in an everlasting

covenant that shall not be forgotten.

6 My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go

astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from

mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting-place.

7 All that found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, We

are not guilty, because they have sinned against Jehovah, the habitation of

righteousness, even Jehovah, the hope of their fathers.

8 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the

Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats before the flocks.

9. For, lo, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company

of great nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves in

array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as

of an expert mighty man; none shall return in vain.

10 And Chaldea shall be a prey: all that prey upon her shall be

satisfied, saith Jehovah.

11 Because ye are glad, because ye rejoice, O ye that plunder my

heritage, because ye are wanton as a heifer that treadeth out [the grain],

and neigh as strong horses;

12 your mother shall be utterly put to shame; she that bare you shall be

confounded: behold, she shall be the hindermost of the nations, a

wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

13 Because of the wrath of Jehovah she shall not be inhabited, but she

shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be

astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

14 Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all ye that bend

the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against

Jehovah.

15 Shout against her round about: she hath submitted herself; her

bulwarks are fallen, her walls are thrown down; for it is the vengeance of

Jehovah: take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her.

16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in

the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every

one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land.

17 Israel is a hunted sheep; the lions have driven him away: first, the

king of Assyria devoured him; and now at last Nebuchadrezzar king of

Babylon hath broken his bones.

18 Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I

will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king

of Assyria.

19 And I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he shall feed on

Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon the hills of

Ephraim and in Gilead.

20 In those days, and in that time, saith Jehovah, the iniquity of Israel

shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and

they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant.

21. Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the

inhabitants of Pekod: slay and utterly destroy after them, saith Jehovah,

and do according to all that I have commanded thee.

22 A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.

23 How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is

Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and

thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast

striven against Jehovah.

25 Jehovah hath opened his armory, and hath brought forth the weapons of

his indignation; for the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, hath a work [to do] in the

land of the Chaldeans.

26 Come against her from the utmost border; open her store-houses; cast

her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left.

27 Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto

them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.

28 The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to

declare in Zion the vengeance of Jehovah our God, the vengeance of his

temple.

29 Call together the archers against Babylon, all them that bend the bow;

encamp against her round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her

according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her;

for she hath been proud against Jehovah, against the Holy One of Israel.

30 Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets, and all her men of

war shall be brought to silence in that day, saith Jehovah.

31 Behold, I am against thee, O thou proud one, saith the Lord, Jehovah

of hosts; for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee.

32 And the proud one shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up;

and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all that are

round about him.

33. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: The children of Israel and the children

of Judah are oppressed together; and all that took them captive hold them

fast; they refuse to let them go.

34 Their Redeemer is strong; Jehovah of hosts is his name: he will

thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and

disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

35 A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith Jehovah, and upon the inhabitants

of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.

36 A sword is upon the boasters, and they shall become fools; a sword is

upon her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed.

37 A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all

the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as

women: a sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed.

38 A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a

land of graven images, and they are mad over idols.

39 Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wolves shall dwell

there, and the ostriches shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more

inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to

generation.

40 As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities

thereof, saith Jehovah, so shall no man dwell there, neither shall any son

of man sojourn therein.

41 Behold, a people cometh from the north; and a great nation and many

kings shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

42 They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy;

their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, every one set

in array, as a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon.

43 The king of Babylon hath heard the tidings of them, and his hands wax

feeble: anguish hath taken hold of him, [and] pangs as of a woman in

travail.

44 Behold, [the enemy] shall come up like a lion from the pride of the

Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run

away from it; and whoso is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is

like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd that can

stand before me?

45 Therefore hear ye the counsel of Jehovah, that he hath taken against

Babylon; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the land of the

Chaldeans: Surely they shall drag them away, [even] the little ones of the

flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.

46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth trembleth, and the cry

is heard among the nations.

1. Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and

against them that dwell in Leb-kamai, a destroying wind.

2 And I will send unto Babylon strangers, that shall winnow her; and they

shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her

round about.

3 Against [him that] bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against

[him that] lifteth himself up in his coat of mail: and spare ye not her

young men; destroy ye utterly all her host.

4 And they shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust

through in her streets.

5 For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, of his God, of Jehovah of hosts;

though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.

6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; be not

cut off in her iniquity: for it is the time of Jehovah's vengeance; he will

render unto her a recompense.

7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in Jehovah's hand, that made all the

earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations

are mad.

8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for

her pain, if so be she may be healed.

9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and

let us go every one into his own country; for her judgment reacheth unto

heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

10 Jehovah hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare

in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.

11 Make sharp the arrows; hold firm the shields: Jehovah hath stirred up

the spirit of the kings of the Medes; because his purpose is against

Babylon, to destroy it: for it is the vengeance of Jehovah, the vengeance

of his temple.

12 Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong,

set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Jehovah hath both purposed and

done that which he spake concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine

end is come, the measure of thy covetousness.

14 Jehovah of hosts hath sworn by himself, [saying], Surely I will fill

thee with men, as with the canker-worm; and they shall lift up a shout

against thee.

15 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by

his wisdom, and by his understanding hath he stretched out the heavens:

16 when he uttereth his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the

heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he

maketh lightnings for the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his

treasuries.

17 Every man is become brutish [and is] without knowledge; every

goldsmith is put to shame by his image; for his molten image is falsehood,

and there is no breath in them.

18 They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation

they shall perish.

19 The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all

things; and [Israel] is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is

his name.

20 Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war: and with thee will I break

in pieces the nations; and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;

21 and with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider;

22 and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and him that rideth

therein; and with thee will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee

will I break in pieces the old man and the youth; and with thee will I

break in pieces the young man and the virgin;

23 and with thee will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and

with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke [of oxen]; and

with thee will I break in pieces governors and deputies.

24 And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea

all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith Jehovah.

25 Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith Jehovah, which

destroyest all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and

roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.

26 And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for

foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith Jehovah.

27 Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations,

prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of

Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz: appoint a marshal against her; cause the

horses to come up as the rough canker-worm.

28 Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, the governors

thereof, and all the deputies thereof, and all the land of their dominion.

29 And the land trembleth and is in pain; for the purposes of Jehovah

against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without

inhabitant.

30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they remain in their

strongholds; their might hath failed; they are become as women: her

dwelling-places are set on fire; her bars are broken.

31 One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to met another,

to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter:

32 and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire,

and the men of war are affrighted.

33 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of

Babylon is like a threshing-floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a

little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her.

34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed

me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath, like a monster, swallowed me

up, he hath filled his maw with my delicacies; he hath cast me out.

35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the

inhabitant of Zion say; and, My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,

shall Jerusalem say.

36 Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take

vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.

37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for jackals, an

astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.

38 They shall roar together like young lions; they shall growl as lions'

whelps.

39 When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them

drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake,

saith Jehovah.

40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with

he-goats.

41 How is Sheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth seized! how

is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

42 The sea is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of

the waves thereof.

43 Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land

wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby.

44 And I will execute judgment upon Bel in Babylon, and I will bring

forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up; and the nations

shall not flow any more unto him: yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

45 My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and save yourselves every

man from the fierce anger of Jehovah.

46 And let not your heart faint, neither fear ye for the tidings that

shall be heard in the land; for tidings shall come one year, and after that

in another year [shall come] tidings, and violence in the land, ruler

against ruler.

47 Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will execute judgment upon

the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be confounded; and

all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

48 Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing

for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come unto her from the

north, saith Jehovah.

49 As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon

shall fall the slain of all the land.

50 Ye that have escaped the sword, go ye, stand not still; remember

Jehovah from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; confusion hath

covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah's

house.

52 Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will execute

judgment upon her graven images; and through all her land the wounded shall

groan.

53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should

fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall destroyers come unto

her, saith Jehovah.

54 The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the

land of the Chaldeans!

55 For Jehovah layeth Babylon waste, and destroyeth out of her the great

voice; and their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is

uttered:

56 for the destroyer is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty

men are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for Jehovah is a God of

recompenses, he will surely requite.

57 And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and

her deputies, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep,

and not wake, saith the King, whose name is Jehovah of hosts.

58 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be

utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the

peoples shall labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they

shall be weary.

59. The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of

Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah

to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was chief

chamberlain.

60 And Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon

Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, then see

that thou read all these words,

62 and say, O Jehovah, thou hast spoken concerning this place, to cut it

off, that none shall dwell therein, neither man nor beast, but that it

shall be desolate for ever.

63 And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that

thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates:

64 and thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again

because of the evil that I will bring upon her; and they shall be weary.

Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

1. Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign; and he

reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hamutal the

daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to

all that Jehoiakim had done.

3 For through the anger of Jehovah did it come to pass in Jerusalem and

Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled

against the king of Babylon.

4 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month,

in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he

and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they

built forts against it round about.

5 So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.

6 In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore

in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.

7 Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and

went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two

walls, which was by the king's garden; (now the Chaldeans were against the

city round about;) and they went toward the Arabah.

8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook

Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.

9 Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to

Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he gave judgment upon him.

10 And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he

slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah.

11 And he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him

in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day

of his death.

12. Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the

nineteenth year of king Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan

the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, into

Jerusalem:

13 and he burned the house of Jehovah, and the king's house; and all the

houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burned he with fire.

14 And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the

guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about.

15 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the

poorest of the people, and the residue of the people that were left in the

city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the

residue of the multitude.

16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the

land to be vinedressers and husbandmen.

17 And the pillars of brass that were in the house of Jehovah, and the

bases and the brazen sea that were in the house of Jehovah, did the

Chaldeans break in pieces, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon.

18 The pots also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the basins, and

the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took

they away.

19 And the cups, and the firepans, and the basins, and the pots, and the

candlesticks, and the spoons, and the bowls-- that which was of gold, in

gold, and that which was of silver, in silver,-- the captain of the guard

took away.

20 The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve brazen bulls that were

under the bases, which king Solomon had made for the house of Jehovah--the

brass of all these vessels was without weight.

21 And as for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen

cubits; and a line of twelve cubits did compass it; and the thickness

thereof was four fingers: it was hollow.

22 And a capital of brass was upon it; and the height of the one capital

was five cubits, with network and pomegranates upon the capital round

about, all of brass: and the second pillar also had like unto these, and

pomegranates.

23 And there were ninety and six pomegranates on the sides; all the

pomegranates were a hundred upon the network round about.

24. And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and

Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold:

25 and out of the city he took an officer that was set over the men of

war; and seven men of them that saw the king's face, that were found in the

city; and the scribe of the captain of the host, who mustered the people of

the land; and threescore men of the people of the land, that were found in

the midst of the city.

26 And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them

to the king of Babylon to Riblah.

27 And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death at Riblah in

the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land.

28 This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the

seventh year three thousand Jews and three and twenty;

29 in the eighteeenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from

Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons;

30 in the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar Nebuzaradan the

captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty

and five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred.

31. And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity

of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and

twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the

[first] year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah,

and brought him forth out of prison;

32 And he spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the

kings that were with him in Babylon,

33 and changed his prison garments. And [Jehoiachin] did eat bread before

him continually all the days of his life:

34 and for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by

the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all

the days of his life.