Bible (American Standard)/Jeremiah

The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah
==Chapter 1==
 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the
priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: 
 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. 
 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. 
 Now the word of Jehovah came
unto me, saying, 
 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. 
 Then said I, Ah, Lord Jehovah! behold, I know not how to speak;
for I am a child. 
 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. 
 Be not
afraid because of them; for I am with thee to deliver thee,
saith Jehovah. 
 Then Jehovah put forth his hand, and
touched my mouth; and Jehovah said unto me, Behold, I have put
my words in thy mouth: 
 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. 
 Moreover, the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Jeremiah,
what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond-tree.
 Then said Jehovah unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I
watch over my word to perform it. 
 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. 
 Then Jehovah said unto me, Out of the north evil
shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not
prevail against thee: for I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to
deliver thee.
==Chapter 2==
 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, 
 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. 
 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.
 Hear ye the word of Jehovah, O house of Jacob, and all the
families of the house of Israel: 
 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? 
 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? 
 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. 
 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. 
 Wherefore I will yet contend with you, saith Jehovah, and with
your children's children will I contend. 
 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. 
 Hath
a nation changed [its] gods, which yet are no gods? but my
people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.
 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly
afraid, be ye very desolate, saith Jehovah. 
 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. 
 Is Israel a servant? is he a
home-born [slave]? why is he become a prey? 
 The young
lions have roared upon him, and yelled; and they have made his
land waste: his cities are burned up, without inhabitant. 
 The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown
of thy head. 
 Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in
that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, when he led thee by the
way? 
 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? 
 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. 
 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. 
 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? 
 For though thou wash
thee with lye, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is
marked before me, saith the Lord Jehovah. 
 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; 
 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. 
 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. 
 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; 
 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. 
 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. 
 Wherefore will ye contend with me? ye all
have transgressed against me, saith Jehovah. 
 In vain have
I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own
sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
 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? 
 Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her
attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
 How trimmest thou thy way to seek love! therefore even
the wicked women hast thou taught thy ways. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Why
gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou shalt be
ashamed of Egypt also, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria. 
 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.
==Chapter 3==
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 Wilt thou not from this time cry
unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth? 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah
hath not returned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly,
saith Jehovah. 
 And Jehovah said unto me, Backsliding
Israel hath showed herself more righteous than treacherous
Judah. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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: 
 and I will give
you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with
knowledge and understanding. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Surely
as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye
dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah.
 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.
 Return, ye backsliding children, I will heal your
backslidings. Behold, we are come unto thee; for thou art
Jehovah our God. 
 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. 
 But the
shameful thing hath devoured the labor of our fathers from our
youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their
daughters. 
 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.
==Chapter 4==
 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;
 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. 
 For thus
saith Jehovah to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up
your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Set up a standard toward Zion: flee
for safety, stay not; for I will bring evil from the north, and
a great destruction. 
 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. 
 For this gird you with
sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Jehovah is
not turned back from us. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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; 
 a full wind from these shall come
for me: now will I also utter judgments against them. 
 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. 
 O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from
wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thine evil
thoughts lodge within thee? 
 For a voice declareth from
Dan, and publisheth evil from the hills of Ephraim: 
 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. 
 As keepers of a field
are they against her round about, because she hath been
rebellious against me, saith Jehovah. 
 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.
 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. 
 Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole
land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, [and] my
curtains in a moment. 
 How long shall I see the standard,
and hear the sound of the trumpet? 
 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. 
 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it
was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all
the hills moved to and fro. 
 I beheld, and, lo, there was
no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. 
 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. 
 For thus saith Jehovah,
The whole land shall be a desolation; yet will I not make a full
end. 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
==Chapter 5==
 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. 
 And though they say, As
Jehovah liveth; surely they swear falsely. 
 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. 
 Then I said,
Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they know not the
way of Jehovah, nor the law of their God: 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 They were as fed horses roaming at large; every one neighed
after his neighbor's wife. 
 Shall I not visit for these
things? saith Jehovah; and shall not my soul be avenged on such
a nation as this? 
 Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy;
but make not a full end: take away her branches; for they are
not Jehovah's. 
 For the house of Israel and the house of
Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith Jehovah.
 They have denied Jehovah, and said, It is not he; neither
shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
 and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not
in them: thus shall it be done unto them. 
 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. 
 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 nation, a nation whose language
thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. 
 Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.
 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. 
 But even in those days,
saith Jehovah, I will not make a full end with you. 
 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. 
 Declare ye this in the house of Jacob, and publish
it in Judah, saying, 
 Hear now this, O foolish people, and
without understanding; that have eyes, and see not; that have
ears, and hear not: 
 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. 
 But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they
are revolted and gone. 
 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. 
 Your iniquities have
turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good
from you. 
 For among my people are found wicked men: they
watch, as fowlers lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men.
 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of
deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxed rich. 
 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. 
 Shall I not visit for these things? saith
Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
 A wonderful and horrible thing is come to pass in the
land: 
 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?
==Chapter 6==
 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. 
 The comely and delicate
one, the daughter of Zion, will I cut off. 
 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.
 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. 
 Arise, and let us go up by
night, and let us destroy her palaces. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul
be alienated from thee; lest I make thee a desolation, a land
not inhabited. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly,
saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. 
 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. 
 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]. 
 And I set watchmen over you, [saying], Hearken to the sound of
the trumpet; but they said, We will not hearken. 
 Therefore, hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is
among them. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 We have heard the report thereof; our
hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, [and] pangs as
of a woman in travail. 
 Go not forth into the field, nor
walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy, [and] terror, are
on every side. 
 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. 
 I have made thee a trier
[and] a fortress among my people; that thou mayest know and try
their way. 
 They are all grievous revolters, going about
with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them deal
corruptly. 
 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. 
 Refuse silver shall men
them, because Jehovah hath rejected them.
==Chapter 7==
 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
 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. 
 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. 
 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, the
temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, are these. 
 For
if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye
thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; 
 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: 
 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. 
 Behold, ye trust in lying
words, that cannot profit. 
 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, 
 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? 
 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. 
 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.
 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: 
 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. 
 And I will cast you out
of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the
whole seed of Ephraim. 
 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. 
 Seest thou
not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of
Jerusalem? 
 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. 
 Do they provoke
me to anger? saith Jehovah; [do they] not [provoke] themselves,
to the confusion of their own faces? 
 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. 
 Thus saith Jehovah
of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt-offerings unto your
sacrifices, and eat ye flesh. 
 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:
 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. 
 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. 
 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: 
 yet
they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but made
their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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.
 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]. 
 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. 
 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.
==Chapter 8==
 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;
 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. 
 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. 
 Moreover, thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith
Jehovah: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn
away, and not return? 
 Why then is this people of Jerusalem
slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit,
they refuse to return. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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? 
 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.
 And they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my
people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 We looked for peace, but no good came; [and] for a time
of healing, and, behold, dismay! 
 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. 
 For, behold, I will send serpents,
adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall
bite you, saith Jehovah. 
 Oh that I could comfort myself
against sorrow! my heart is faint within me. 
 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? 
 The harvest is past, the summer is
ended, and we are not saved. 
 For the hurt of the daughter
of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay hath taken hold on me.
 Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there?
why then is not the health of the daughter of my people
recovered?
==Chapter 9==
 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! 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Thy
habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse
to know me, saith Jehovah. 
 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? 
 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. 
 Shall I not visit them for these
things? saith Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a
nation as this? 
 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.
 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place of
jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,
without inhabitant. 
 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? 
 And Jehovah saith, Because they have forsaken my
law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice,
neither walked therein, 
 but have walked after the
stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which
their fathers taught them; 
 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.
 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. 
 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: 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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]. 
 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; 
 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. 
 Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that
I will punish all them that are circumcised in [their]
uncircumcision: 
 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.
==Chapter 10==
 Hear ye the word which Jehovah speaketh unto you, O
house of Israel: 
 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. 
 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. 
 They
deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and
with hammers, that it move not. 
 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. 
 There
is none like unto thee, O Jehovah; thou art great, and thy name
is great in might. 
 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. 
 But they are together
brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a
stock. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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: 
 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. 
 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. 
 They are vanity, a work of delusion: in
the time of their visitation they shall perish. 
 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. 
 Gather up thy wares out of the land,
O thou that abidest in the siege. 
 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].
 Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but
I said, Truly this is [my] grief, and I must bear it. 
 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. 
 For the
shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Jehovah:
therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are
scattered. 
 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. 
 O
Jehovah, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not
in man that walketh to direct his steps. 
 O Jehovah,
correct me, but in measure: not in thine anger, lest thou bring
me to nothing. 
 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.
==Chapter 11==
 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
 Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the
men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 
 and
say thou unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel:
Cursed be the man that heareth not the words of this covenant,
 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;
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 And Jehovah said unto me, A conspiracy is found
among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 And
Jehovah gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it: then thou
showedst me their doings. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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; 
 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;
 and there shall be no remnant unto them: for I will
bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their
visitation.
==Chapter 12==
 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? 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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? 
 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. 
 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. 
 My
heritage is become unto me as a lion in the forest: she hath
uttered her voice against me; therefore I have hated her. 
 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. 
 Many shepherds have
destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot,
they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 But if they will not hear, then will I pluck up that nation,
plucking up and destroying it, saith Jehovah.
==Chapter 13==
 Thus saith Jehovah unto me, Go, and buy thee a linen
girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.
 So I bought a girdle according to the word of Jehovah,
and put it upon my loins. 
 And the word of Jehovah came
unto me the second time, saying, 
 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. 
 So I
went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as Jehovah commanded me.
 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. 
 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. 
 Then the word of Jehovah came
unto me, saying, 
 Thus saith Jehovah, After this manner
will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.
 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. 
 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. 
 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?
 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. 
 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. 
 Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud; for
Jehovah hath spoken. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 Lift up your eyes, and
behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that
was given thee, thy beautiful flock? 
 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? 
 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. 
 Can the Ethiopian change his
skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that
are accustomed to do evil. 
 Therefore, will I scatter
them, as the stubble that passeth away, by the wind of the
wilderness. 
 This is thy lot, the portion measured unto
thee from me, saith Jehovah; because thou hast forgotten me, and
trusted in falsehood. 
 Therefore, will I also uncover thy
skirts upon thy face, and thy shame shall appear. 
 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?
==Chapter 14==
 The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah concerning
the drought. 
 Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof
languish, they sit in black upon the ground; and the cry of
Jerusalem is gone up. 
 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. 
 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.
 Yea, the hind also in the field calveth, and forsaketh
[her young], because there is no grass. 
 And the wild
asses stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like jackals;
their eyes fail, because there is no herbage. 
 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. 
 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? 
 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.
 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. 
 And Jehovah said unto
me, Pray not for this people for [their] good. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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! 
 We acknowledge, O
Jehovah, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we
have sinned against thee. 
 Do not abhor [us], for thy
name's sake; do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember,
break not thy covenant with us. 
 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.
==Chapter 15==
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 For who will have
pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who will bemoan thee? or who
will turn aside to ask of thy welfare? 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Can one break iron, even iron from the
north, and brass? 
 Thy substance and thy treasures will I
give for a spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even
in all thy borders. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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? 
 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. 
 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. 
 And I will
deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem
thee out of the hand of the terrible.
==Chapter 16==
 The word of Jehovah came also unto me, saying, 
 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or
daughters, in this place. 
 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: 
 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. 
 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. 
 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; 
 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.
 And thou shalt not go into the house of feasting to sit
with them, to eat and to drink. 
 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. 
 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? 
 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; 
 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: 
 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. 
 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; 
 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. 
 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. 
 For mine eyes are upon all their ways;
they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity
concealed from mine eyes. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Shall a man make unto himself gods, which yet
are no gods? 
 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.
==Chapter 17==
 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; 
 whilst
their children remember their altars and their Asherim by the
green trees upon the high hills. 
 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. 
 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.
 Thus saith Jehovah: Cursed is the man that trusteth in
man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from
Jehovah. 
 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.
 Blessed is the man that trusteth in Jehovah, and whose
trust Jehovah is. 
 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. 
 The heart is deceitful above all
things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it? 
 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.
 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. 
 A glorious throne, [set] on high from the
beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. 
 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.
 Heal me, O Jehovah, and I shall be healed; save me, and
I shall be saved: for thou art my praise. 
 Behold, they
say unto me, Where is the word of Jehovah? let it come now.
 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. 
 Be
not a terror unto me: thou art my refuge in the day of evil.
 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. 
 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; 
 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: 
 Thus saith Jehovah, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden
on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
 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. 
 But they hearkened
not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that
they might not hear, and might not receive instruction. 
 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; 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
==Chapter 18==
 The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I
will cause thee to hear my words. 
 Then I went down to the
potter's house, and, behold, he was making a work on the wheels.
 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. 
 Then the word of
Jehovah came to me, saying, 
 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.
 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and
concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to
destroy it; 
 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. 
 And at what instant I shall
speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build
and to plant it; 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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? 
 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; 
 to make their land an
astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth
thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head. 
 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.
 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. 
 Give heed to me, O Jehovah, and
hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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.
==Chapter 19==
 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; 
 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; 
 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. 
 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, 
 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: 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Then shalt thou break the
bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, 
 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. 
 Thus will I do
unto this place, saith Jehovah, and to the inhabitants thereof,
even making this city as Topheth: 
 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.
 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: 
 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.
==Chapter 20==
 Now Pashhur, the son of Immer the priest, who was
chief officer in the house of Jehovah, heard Jeremiah
prophesying these things. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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]. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Sing unto Jehovah,
praise ye Jehovah; for he hath delivered the soul of the needy
from the hand of evil-doers. 
 Cursed be the day wherein I
was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
 Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father,
saying, A man-child is born unto thee; making him very glad.
 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; 
 because he slew me
not from the womb; and so my mother would have been my grave,
and her womb always great. 
 Wherefore came I forth out of
the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be
consumed with shame?
==Chapter 21==
 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, 
 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. 
 Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus shall ye say
to Zedekiah: 
 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. 
 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. 
 And I will smite the inhabitants of this
city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.
 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. 
 And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus
saith Jehovah: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the
way of death. 
 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.
 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. 
 And
touching the house of the king of Judah, hear ye the word of
Jehovah: 
 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. 
 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? 
 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.
==Chapter 22==
 Thus said Jehovah: Go down to the house of the king of
Judah, and speak there this word, 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 But if ye will not hear
these words, I swear by myself, saith Jehovah, that this house
shall become a desolation. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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? 
 Then they
shall answer, Because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah their
God, and worshipped other gods, and served them. 
 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. 
 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. 
 But in the place whither they
have led him captive, there shall he die, and he shall see this
land no more. 
 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;
 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. 
 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. 
 He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
then it was well. Was not this to know me? saith Jehovah.
 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. 
 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! 
 He shall be buried with the burial of
an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
 Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in
Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all thy lovers are destroyed.
 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. 
 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.
 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! 
 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; 
 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. 
 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. 
 But to the
land whereunto their soul longeth to return, thither shall they
not return. 
 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? 
 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Jehovah.
 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.
==Chapter 23==
 Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter the
sheep of my pasture! saith Jehovah. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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;
 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. 
 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. 
 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; 
 for both prophet and
priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their
wickedness, saith Jehovah. 
 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. 
 And I
have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by
Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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? 
 Behold, the tempest of Jehovah, [even his] wrath, is
gone forth, yea, a whirling tempest: it shall burst upon the
head of the wicked. 
 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. 
 I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I
spake not unto them, yet they prophesied. 
 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. 
 Am I a God at hand, saith Jehovah,
and not a God afar off? 
 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. 
 I have heard what the
prophets have said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I
have dreamed, I have dreamed. 
 How long shall this be in
the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, even the prophets
of the deceit of their own heart? 
 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.
 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. 
 Is not my word
like fire? saith Jehovah; and like a hammer that breaketh the
rock in pieces? 
 Therefore, behold, I am against the
prophets, saith Jehovah, that steal my words every one from his
neighbor. 
 Behold, I am against the prophets, saith
Jehovah, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Thus shall ye say
every one to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, What
hath Jehovah answered? and, What hath Jehovah spoken? 
 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. 
 Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath Jehovah answered
thee? and, What hath Jehovah spoken? 
 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; 
 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: 
 and I will bring an everlasting
reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be
forgotten.
==Chapter 24==
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 And the word of Jehovah came unto
me, saying, 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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,
 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. 
 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.
==Chapter 25==
 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,) 
 which Jeremiah the
prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: 
 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. 
 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,) 
 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; 
 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. 
 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. 
 Therefore, thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Because ye
have not heard my words, 
 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. 
 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. 
 And this whole
land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these
nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 And they shall drink, and reel to and fro, and be mad,
because of the sword that I will send among them. 
 Then
took I the cup at Jehovah's hand, and made all the nations to
drink, unto whom Jehovah had sent me: 
 [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; 
 Pharaoh king
of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;
 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;
 Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon; 
 and
all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings
of the isle which is beyond the sea; 
 Dedan, and Tema,
and Buz, and all that have the corners [of their hair] cut off;
 and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the
mingled people that dwell in the wilderness; 
 and all the
kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of
the Medes; 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 And the shepherds shall
have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.
 A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the wailing of
the principal of the flock! for Jehovah layeth waste their
pasture. 
 And the peaceable folds are brought to silence
because of the fierce anger of Jehovah. 
 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.
==Chapter 26==
 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of
Josiah, king of Judah, came this word from Jehovah, saying,
 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. 
 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. 
 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, 
 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; 
 then
will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a
curse to all the nations of the earth. 
 And the priests
and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking
these words in the house of Jehovah. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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]. 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 But as for me,
behold, I am in your hand: do with me as is good and right in
your eyes. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all
the assembly of the people, saying, 
 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. 
 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. 
 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: 
 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: 
 and Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt,
[namely], Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him,
into Egypt; 
 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. 
 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.
==Chapter 27==
 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of
Josiah, king of Judah, came this word unto Jeremiah from
Jehovah, saying, 
 Thus saith Jehovah to me: Make thee
bonds and bars, and put them upon thy neck; 
 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; 
 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: 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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: 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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? 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live:
wherefore should this city become a desolation? 
 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. 
 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, 
 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;
 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: 
 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.
==Chapter 28==
 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, 
 Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I
have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 
 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: 
 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.
 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, 
 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. 
 Nevertheless, hear thou now this word
that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people:
 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. 
 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. 
 Then Hananiah the prophet
took the bar from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, and brake it.
 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. 
 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, 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 So Hananiah the prophet died the same
year in the seventh month.
==Chapter 29==
 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, 
 (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,) 
 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, 
 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: 
 Build ye houses, and
dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 For they prophesy falsely unto
you in my name: I have not sent them, saith Jehovah. 
 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. 
 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.
 And ye shall call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto
me, and I will hearken unto you. 
 And ye shall seek me,
and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
 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. 
 Because ye have
said, Jehovah hath raised us up prophets in Babylon; 
 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; 
 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. 
 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; 
 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.
 Hear ye therefore the word of Jehovah, all ye of the
captivity, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.
 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; 
 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; 
 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. 
 And concerning
Shemaiah the Nehelamite thou shalt speak, saying, 
 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, 
 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. 
 Now therefore, why hast
thou not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who maketh himself a
prophet to you, 
 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?
 And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of
Jeremiah the prophet. 
 Then came the word of Jehovah unto
Jeremiah, saying, 
 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; 
 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.
==Chapter 30==
 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
 Thus speaketh Jehovah, the God of Israel, saying, Write
thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.
 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. 
 And these
are the words that Jehovah spake concerning Israel and
concerning Judah. 
 For thus saith Jehovah: We have heard a
voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. 
 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? 
 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. 
 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;
 but they shall serve Jehovah their God, and David their
king, whom I will raise up unto them. 
 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.
 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.
 For thus saith Jehovah, Thy hurt is incurable, and thy
wound grievous. 
 There is none to plead thy cause, that
thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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.
 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.
 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. 
 Their children also shall be as aforetime, and
their congregation shall be established before me; and I will
punish all that oppress them. 
 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. 
 And ye shall be my people, and I will
be your God. 
 Behold, the tempest of Jehovah, [even his]
wrath, is gone forth, a sweeping tempest: it shall burst upon
the head of the wicked. 
 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.
==Chapter 31==
 At that time, saith Jehovah, will I be the God of all
the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. 
 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. 
 Jehovah appeared of old unto me, [saying], Yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with
lovingkindness have I drawn thee. 
 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. 
 Again shalt thou plant
vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall
plant, and shall enjoy [the fruit thereof]. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 For Jehovah hath ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him
from the hand of him that was stronger than he. 
 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. 
 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. 
 And I will satiate the
soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be
satisfied with my goodness, saith Jehovah. 
 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. 
 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. 
 And
there is hope for thy latter end, saith Jehovah; and [thy]
children shall come again to their own border. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 And
Judah and all the cities thereof shall dwell therein together,
the husbandmen, and they that go about with flocks. 
 For
I have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I
replenished. 
 Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my
sleep was sweet unto me. 
 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. 
 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. 
 In those days they shall say no more, The
fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set
on edge. 
 But every one shall die for his own iniquity:
every man that eateth the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on
edge. 
 Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will
make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house
of Judah: 
 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. 
 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: 
 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.
 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: 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 And the measuring
line shall go out further straight onward unto the hill Gareb,
and shall turn about unto Goah. 
 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.
==Chapter 32==
 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah in the
tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth
year of Nebuchadrezzar. 
 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. 
 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; 
 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; 
 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? 
 And
Jeremiah said, The word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 And I subscribed the deed,
and sealed it, and called witnesses, and weighed him the money
in the balances. 
 So I took the deed of the purchase,
both that which was sealed, [according to] the law and custom,
and that which was open: 
 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. 
 And I charged Baruch before them, saying, 
 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. 
 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of
Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be
bought in this land. 
 Now after I had delivered the deed
of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed unto
Jehovah, saying, 
 Ah Lord Jehovah! behold, thou hast made
the heavens and the earth by thy great power and by thine
outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for thee, 
 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;
 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:
 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; 
 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; 
 and gavest them this land,
which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land
flowing with milk and honey; 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Then came the word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah,
saying, 
 Behold, I am Jehovah, the God of all flesh: is
there anything too hard for me? 
 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: 
 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. 
 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. 
 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,
 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. 
 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. 
 But they set their abominations in the
house which is called by my name, to defile it. 
 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. 
 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: 
 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: 
 and they shall be my
people, and I will be their God: 
 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: 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
==Chapter 33==
 Moreover, the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah the
second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the guard,
saying, 
 Thus saith Jehovah that doeth it, Jehovah that
formeth it to establish it; Jehovah is his name: 
 Call
unto me, and I will answer thee, and will show thee great
things, and difficult, which thou knowest not. 
 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; 
 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: 
 Behold, I will bring it
health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal unto
them abundance of peace and truth. 
 And I will cause the
captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and
will build them, as at the first. 
 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.
 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. 
 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, 
 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.
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 For thus saith Jehovah: David shall never want a man to sit upon
the throne of the house of Israel; 
 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. 
 And the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah,
saying, 
 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; 
 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. 
 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. 
 And the word of Jehovah came to
Jeremiah, saying, 
 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. 
 Thus saith
Jehovah: If my covenant of day and night [stand] not, if I have
not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; 
 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.
==Chapter 34==
 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: 
 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: 
 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. 
 Yet hear
the word of Jehovah, O Zedekiah king of Judah: thus saith
Jehovah concerning thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword; 
 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. 
 Then Jeremiah
the prophet spake all these words unto Zedekiah king of Judah in
Jerusalem, 
 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. 
 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; 
 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. 
 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: 
 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. 
 Therefore, the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah from Jehovah,
saying, 
 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,
 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. 
 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: 
 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. 
 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. 
 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;
 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; 
 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.
 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. 
 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.
==Chapter 35==
 The word which came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah in the
days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,
 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. 
 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; 
 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. 
 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. 
 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: 
 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. 
 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;
 nor to build houses for us to dwell in; neither have we
vineyard, nor field, nor seed: 
 but we have dwelt in
tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab
our father commanded us. 
 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. 
 Then came the word of Jehovah unto
Jeremiah, saying, 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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; 
 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. 
 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; 
 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.
==Chapter 36==
 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, 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 And Jeremiah commanded
Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of
Jehovah: 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 And when Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of
Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of Jehovah,
 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. 
 Then
Micaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, when
Baruch read the book in the ears of the people. 
 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. 
 And they said unto him,
Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in
their ears. 
 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. 
 And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How didst thou write
all these words at his mouth? 
 Then Baruch answered them,
He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I
wrote them with ink in the book. 
 Then said the princes
unto Baruch, Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah; and let no man
know where ye are. 
 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.
 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. 
 Now the king was sitting in the
winter-house in the ninth month: and [there was a fire in] the
brazier burning before him. 
 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. 
 And they were not afraid, nor rent their
garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard
all these words. 
 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. 
 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 Jeremiah the prophet; but Jehovah hid them. 
 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, 
 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. 
 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? 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
==Chapter 37==
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people; for
they had not put him into prison. 
 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. 
 Then came the word of Jehovah unto the prophet
Jeremiah, saying, 
 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. 
 And
the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city; and
they shall take it, and burn it with fire. 
 Thus saith
Jehovah, Deceive not yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans shall
surely depart from us; for they shall not depart. 
 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. 
 And it came to pass that, when the army of
the Chaldeans was broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's
army, 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 When Jeremiah was come
into the dungeon-house, and into the cells, and Jeremiah had
remained there many days; 
 Then Zedekiah the king sent,
and fetched him: and the king asked him secretly in his house,
and said, Is there any word from Jehovah? And Jeremiah said,
There is. He said also, Thou shalt be delivered into the hand of
the king of Babylon. 
 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?
 Where now are your prophets that prophesied unto you,
saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor
against this land? 
 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. 
 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.
==Chapter 38==
 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, 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 And
Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand; for the king
is not he that can do anything against you. 
 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. 
 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,) 
 Ebed-melech went
forth out of the king's house, and spake to the king, saying,
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 But
if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that Jehovah hath
showed me: 
 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.
 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. 
 Then said
Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and thou
shalt not die. 
 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: 
 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. 
 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. 
 So Jeremiah abode in the court of the
guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken.
==Chapter 39==
 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; 
 in the eleventh year of
Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a
breach was made in the city,) 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Moreover, he put out Zedekiah's eyes, and bound him in fetters,
to carry him to Babylon. 
 And the Chaldeans burned the
king's house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake
down the walls of Jerusalem. 
 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.
 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. 
 Now
Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah
to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying, 
 Take
him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him
even as he shall say unto thee. 
 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; 
 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. 
 Now the word of Jehovah came
unto Jeremiah, while he was shut up in the court of the guard,
saying, 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
==Chapter 40==
 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. 
 And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah,
and said unto him, Jehovah thy God pronounced this evil upon
this place; 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Then went Jeremiah unto Gedaliah the son of
Ahikam to Mizpah, and dwelt with him among the people that were
left in the land. 
 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; 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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; 
 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. 
 Moreover, Johanan the son of Kareah,
and all the captains of the forces that were in the fields, came
to Gedaliah to Mizpah, 
 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. 
 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? 
 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.
==Chapter 41==
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 And it came to pass the
second day after he had slain Gedaliah, and no man knew it,
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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, 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 But Ishmael the son of
Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the
children of Ammon. 
 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:
 and they departed, and dwelt in Geruth Chimham, which is
by Beth-lehem, to go to enter into Egypt, 
 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.
==Chapter 42==
 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, 
 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: 
 that Jehovah
thy God may show us the way wherein we should walk, and the
thing that we should do. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 And it came to pass after ten
days, that the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah. 
 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, 
 and said unto them, Thus saith
Jehovah, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your
supplication before him: 
 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. 
 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. 
 And I will grant you mercy, that he may have
mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.
 But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land; so that
ye obey not the voice of Jehovah your God, 
 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: 
 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; 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Jehovah hath spoken
concerning you, O remnant of Judah, Go ye not into Egypt: know
certainly that I have testified unto you this day. 
 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: 
 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. 
 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.
==Chapter 43==
 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, 
 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; 
 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.
 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. 
 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; 
 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; 
 and
they came into the land of Egypt; for they obeyed not the voice
of Jehovah: and they came unto Tahpanhes. 
 Then came the
word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, 
 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; 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
==Chapter 44==
 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, 
 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, 
 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. 
 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. 
 But they hearkened
not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to
burn no incense unto other gods. 
 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. 
 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; 
 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? 
 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?
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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;
 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. 
 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, 
 As for the
word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of Jehovah, we
will not hearken unto thee. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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?
 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, 
 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? 
 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. 
 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.
 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: 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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: 
 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.
==Chapter 45==
 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, 
 Thus saith Jehovah, the
God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch: 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
==Chapter 46==
 The word of Jehovah which came to Jeremiah the prophet
concerning the nations. 
 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.
 Prepare ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to
battle. 
 Harness the horses, and get up, ye horsemen, and
stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, put on the
coats of mail. 
 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. 
 Let not the swift flee away,
nor the mighty man escape; in the north by the river Euphrates
have they stumbled and fallen. 
 Who is this that riseth up
like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers?
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 The word that
Jehovah spake to Jeremiah the prophet, how that Nebuchadrezzar
king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt. 
 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. 
 Why are
thy strong ones swept away? they stood not, because Jehovah did
drive them. 
 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. 
 They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a
noise; he hath let the appointed time pass by. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Egypt is a very fair heifer; [but] destruction out of the north
is come, it is come. 
 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.
 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. 
 They shall cut down her forest, saith
Jehovah, though it cannot be searched; because they are more
than the locusts, and are innumerable. 
 The daughter of
Egypt shall be put to shame; she shall be delivered into the
hand of the people of the north. 
 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: 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
==Chapter 47==
 The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah the prophet
concerning the Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.
 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. 
 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; 
 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. 
 Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is brought
to nought, the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut
thyself? 
 O thou sword of Jehovah, how long will it be ere
thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard; rest, and be
still. 
 How canst thou be quiet, seeing Jehovah hath given
thee a charge? Against Ashkelon, and against the sea-shore,
there hath he appointed it.
==Chapter 48==
 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.
 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. 
 The sound of a cry
from Horonaim, desolation and great destruction! 
 Moab is
destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard. 
 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. 
 Flee, save your lives, and be
like the heath in the wilderness. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Give wings unto Moab, that she may fly and get
her away: and her cities shall become a desolation, without any
to dwell therein. 
 Cursed be he that doeth the work of
Jehovah negligently; and cursed be he that keepeth back his
sword from blood. 
 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.
 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. 
 And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the
house of Israel was ashamed of Beth-el their confidence. 
 How say ye, We are mighty men, and valiant men for the war?
 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. 
 The
calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hasteth
fast. 
 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! 
 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. 
 O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way,
and watch: ask him that fleeth, and her that escapeth; say, What
hath been done? 
 Moab is put to shame; for it is broken
down: wail and cry; tell ye it by the Arnon, that Moab is laid
waste. 
 And judgment is come upon the plain country, upon
Holon, and upon Jahzah, and upon Mephaath, 
 and upon
Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon Beth-diblathaim, 
 and upon
Kiriathaim, and upon Beth-gamul, and upon Beth-meon, 
 and
upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the
land of Moab, far or near. 
 The horn of Moab is cut off,
and his arm is broken, saith Jehovah. 
 Make ye him
drunken; for he magnified himself against Jehovah: and Moab
shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 I know his wrath, saith Jehovah, that it is nought; his
boastings have wrought nothing. 
 Therefore, will I wail
for Moab; yea, I will cry out for all Moab: for the men of
Kir-heres shall they mourn. 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 For every head is bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the
hands are cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth. 
 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. 
 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. 
 For thus saith Jehovah: Behold, he
shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread out his wings against
Moab. 
 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. 
 And Moab shall be
destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself
against Jehovah. 
 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are
upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith Jehovah. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Woe unto thee, O Moab! the people of
Chemosh is undone; for thy sons are taken away captive, and thy
daughters into captivity. 
 Yet will I bring back the
captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith Jehovah. Thus far is
the judgment of Moab.
==Chapter 49==
 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? 
 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. 
 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. 
 Wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, thy
flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her
treasures, [saying], Who shall come unto me? 
 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. 
 But afterward I will bring back
the captivity of the children of Ammon, saith Jehovah. 
 Of
Edom. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Is wisdom no more in Teman?
is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?
 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. 
 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? 
 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. 
 Leave thy
fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy
widows trust in me. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 For, behold, I have made
thee small among the nations, and despised among men. 
 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.
 And Edom shall become an astonishment: every one that
passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the
plagues thereof. 
 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.
 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? 
 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. 
 The earth trembleth at
the noise of their fall; there is a cry, the noise whereof is
heard in the Red Sea. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 How is the city
of praise not forsaken, the city of my joy? 
 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.
 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it
shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad. 
 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. 
 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! 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 The word of Jehovah that came to Jeremiah the prophet
concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king
of Judah, saying, 
 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Behold, I
will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might. 
 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. 
 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; 
 and I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence
king and princes, saith Jehovah. 
 But it shall come to
pass in the latter days, that I will bring back the captivity of
Elam, saith Jehovah.
==Chapter 50==
 The word that Jehovah spake concerning Babylon,
concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 And Chaldea shall be a prey: all that prey upon her
shall be satisfied, saith Jehovah. 
 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; 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 A sound
of battle is in the land, and of great destruction. 
 How
is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is
Babylon become a desolation among the nations! 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Slay
all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto
them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith Jehovah,
and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and
upon her wise men. 
 A sword is upon the boasters, and
they shall become fools; a sword is upon her mighty men, and
they shall be dismayed. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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? 
 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. 
 At the noise of the taking of
Babylon the earth trembleth, and the cry is heard among the
nations.
==Chapter 51==
 Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up against
Babylon, and against them that dwell in Leb-kamai, a destroying
wind. 
 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. 
 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. 
 And they
shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust
through in her streets. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for
her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. 
 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. 
 Jehovah hath brought forth our righteousness:
come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God.
 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. 
 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. 
 O thou that dwellest upon many
waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, the measure of
thy covetousness. 
 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.
 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: 
 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. 
 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.
 They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of
their visitation they shall perish. 
 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. 
 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; 
 and with thee will I break in pieces
the horse and his rider; 
 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; 
 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.
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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.
 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: 
 and the passages are seized, and the
reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are
affrighted. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 And Babylon shall become heaps, a
dwelling-place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing,
without inhabitant. 
 They shall roar together like young
lions; they shall growl as lions' whelps. 
 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. 
 I will bring them down like lambs
to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats. 
 How is
Sheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth seized! how is
Babylon become a desolation among the nations! 
 The sea
is come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of
the waves thereof. 
 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. 
 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.
 My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and save
yourselves every man from the fierce anger of Jehovah. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 As Babylon hath
caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the
slain of all the land. 
 Ye that have escaped the sword,
go ye, stand not still; remember Jehovah from afar, and let
Jerusalem come into your mind. 
 We are confounded,
because we have heard reproach; confusion hath covered our
faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah's
house. 
 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. 
 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. 
 The sound of a cry from Babylon, and
of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans! 
 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: 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 And Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil
that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are
written concerning Babylon. 
 And Jeremiah said to
Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, then see that thou read
all these words, 
 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. 
 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: 
 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.
==Chapter 52==
 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.
 And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah,
according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 
 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. 
 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. 
 So the city
was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 And the king of Babylon slew the sons of
Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah
in Riblah. 
 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.
 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: 
 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. 
 And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with
the captain of the guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem
round about. 
 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. 
 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard
left of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and
husbandmen. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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. 
 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.
 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. 
 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. 
 And there were
ninety and six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates
were a hundred upon the network round about. 
 And the
captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and
Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the
threshold: 
 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. 
 And Nebuzaradan the captain of the
guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to
Riblah. 
 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. 
 This is the people whom
Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three
thousand Jews and three and twenty; 
 in the eighteenth
year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem
eight hundred thirty and two persons; 
 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. 
 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; 
 and he spake kindly to him, and set
his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in
Babylon, 
 and changed his prison garments. And
[Jehoiachin] did eat bread before him continually all the days
of his life: 
 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.