Most Popular Bible Verses in Jeremiah
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Chapter
Jeremiah Rank:
For I know the plans that I [am] planning concerning you,' {declares} Yahweh, 'plans for prosperity and not for harm, to give to you a future and a hope.
The heart [is] deceitful more than anything else, and it [is] disastrous. Who can understand it?
Look, [the] days [are] coming," {declares} Yahweh, "and I will {make} a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
And the word of Yahweh came to me, {saying},
'Call to me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great [things] and inaccessible [things that] you have not known.'
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came out from [the] womb I consecrated you; I appointed you [as] a prophet to the nations."
Thus says Yahweh: "Stand at [the] roads and look, and ask for [the] ancient paths, where the way of the good [is], and walk in it, and find rest for your inner selves. But they said, 'We will not walk [in it].'
It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month.
{Do not be afraid of them}, for I [am] with you to deliver you," {declares} Yahweh.
Then I said, "Ah, Lord Yahweh! Look, I do not know [how] to speak, for I [am] a youth."
"Look, days [are] coming," {declares} Yahweh, "when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he will reign [as] king, and he will achieve success, and he will do justice and righteousness in the land.
When you search for me, then you will find [me], if you seek me with all your heart.
From afar Yahweh appeared to me, [saying], "I have loved you [with] an everlasting love. {Therefore} I have drawn you [with] loyal love.
Israel [was] holy to Yahweh, the first fruit of his produce. All [those who] ate it were held guilty; disaster came to them," {declares} Yahweh.'"
Thus says Yahweh, "Cursed [is] the person who trusts in humankind and makes flesh his {strength}, and turns aside his heart from Yahweh.
"But this [is] the covenant that I will {make} with the house of Israel after those days," {declares} Yahweh: "I will put my law in their inward parts and on their hearts I will write it, and I will be to them God, and they themselves will be to me people.
Your words were found and I ate them, and your words became to me as jubilation, even as the joy of my heart, for your name is called on me, Yahweh God of hosts.
And the word of Yahweh came to me, {saying}, "What [are] you seeing, Jeremiah?" And I said, "I [am] seeing a branch of an almond tree."
But Yahweh [is] the true God, he [is] the living God, and {an everlasting king}. Because of his wrath the earth quakes, and [the] nations cannot endure his anger.
Look, you [are] relying for yourselves on {deceitful words} without benefiting.
Blessed be the person who trusts in Yahweh, and Yahweh is his trust.
But Yahweh said to me, "You must not say, 'I [am] a youth,' for to {whomever} I send you, you will go, and {whatever} I command you, you will speak.
The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, {saying},
Then Yahweh stretched out his hand and he touched my mouth, and Yahweh said to me, "Look, I have put my words in your mouth.
Have you not just now called to me, 'My father, you [are] the close friend of my youth?
"{Thus} you shall say to them, 'Gods who did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under these heavens.
Thus says Yahweh, "[The] wise man must not boast in his wisdom, and the warrior must not boast in his might, [the] wealthy man must not boast in his wealth.
See, I appoint you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, and to destroy and to tear down, to build and to plant."
Let my persecutors be put to shame, {but as for me}, [do] not let me be put to shame. Let them be dismayed, {but as for me}, [do] not let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of disaster, and [with] double destruction, destroy them.
And the word of Yahweh came to me a second [time], {saying}, "What [are] you seeing?" And I said, "I [am] seeing a {boiling} pot, and its face [is] from [the] face of [the] north."
not like the covenant that I {made} with their ancestors on the day of my grasping [them] by their hand, bringing them out from the land of Egypt, my covenant that they themselves broke, though I myself was a master over them," {declares} Yahweh.
Therefore a lion from [the] forest will kill them, A wolf [from the] desert plains will devastate them. A leopard [is] watching their cities, everyone [who] goes out from there will be torn, because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are numerous.
Then Yahweh said to me, "You did well to see, for I [am] watching over my word to perform it."
I know, Yahweh, that to the human [is] not his [own] way, nor to a person [is the] walking and the directing of his [own] step.
Then Yahweh said to me, "From [the] north disaster will be unleashed on all the inhabitants of the land.
Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem and say, "Blow a horn through the land, {call with a loud voice} and say, 'Be gathered and let us go into the fortified cities.'
For the mountains I lift up weeping and wailing, and for [the] pastures of [the] desert a lament, because they are laid waste so that no man passes through. And [the] sounds of cattle are not heard, from [the] birds of heaven to [the] animals they have fled, they are gone.
Now look, I have made you {today} as a fortified city and as an iron pillar and a bronze wall against all the land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.
For, look, I [am] calling to all [the] clans of [the] kingdoms of [the] north," {declares} Yahweh, "and they will come and set each one his throne [at] the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its surrounding walls, and against all the cities of Judah.
Will you steal? Will you murder? And will you commit adultery? And will you swear {falsely}? And will you make a smoke offering to the Baal? And will you go after other gods whom you have not known?
As a water well keeps its water cool, so she keeps cool her wickedness. Violence and destruction are heard within her, sickness and wounds [are] continually {before me}.
And they will fight against you but they will not prevail against you, for I [am] with you," {declares} Yahweh, "to deliver you."
And I will pass my judgments on them because of all their wickedness [in] that they have forsaken me, and they made sacrifices to other gods, and they bowed in worship to the works of their hands.
But you, you must gird your loins, and stand, and speak to them all that I command you. {Do not be afraid of them}, or I will shatter you {before} them.
Will he be angry {forever}? Will he maintain [it] {always}'? Look, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could."
[The] wise will be put to shame, they will be dismayed, and they will get taken. Look, they have rejected the word of Yahweh, and what [is] wisdom to them?
Lift up a signal toward Zion, bring yourselves to safety; you must not remain standing, for I [am] bringing evil from [the] north, and a great destruction.
"I have heard what the prophets who prophesy lies have said in my name, {saying}, 'I have dreamed! I have dreamed!'
"{How} can I forgive you? Your children have forsaken me, and they have sworn by [those who are] not gods. But I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and flocked [to] the house of a prostitute.
{Everyone} is stupid, {without knowledge}, every goldsmith is ashamed by [his] divine image, for his cast image [is] an illusion, and [there is] no breath in them.
{Therefore} thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who prophecy in my name though I have not sent them, yet they [are] saying, "Sword and famine will not be in this land." "By the sword and by the famine those prophets will perish.
Thus said Yahweh to me, "Go, and you must stand in the {People's Gate} through which the kings of Judah enter, and through which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem.
They have sown wheat and they have reaped thorns. They are exhausted, they do not profit. And they will be ashamed of your produce, because of {the burning anger} of Yahweh."
And I will make Jerusalem as heaps [of ruins], a lair of jackals, and the towns of Judah I will make a desolation, {without inhabitants}.
Be warned, Jerusalem, lest I turn away from you in disgust, lest I make you a desolation, a land that is not inhabited."
Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods [to] whom they [are] making smoke offerings, but they will certainly not save them in the time of their trouble.
{When he utters his voice} [there is] a noise of water in the heavens, and he causes [the] mist to rise from [the] ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he causes [the] wind to go out from his storehouses.
"For go now to my place that [was] in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell in the beginning, and see what I did to it {because of} the wickedness of my people Israel.
and all the kings of the north, near and far, each one to his brother, and all the kingdoms of the world that [are] on the face of the earth; and the king of Sheshach, he will drink after them.
Thus says Yahweh: "What injustice did your ancestors find in me that they were far from me, and they went after the vanity, and they became vain?
Then Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah, the king, "Have you seen what apostate Israel has done? She has gone on every high hill and under every leafy tree and she has prostituted [herself] there.
For my eyes [are] on all their ways, they are not hidden {from before me}, and their iniquity is not concealed from before my eyes.
And then you come and you stand {before} me in this house, which is called {by my name}, and you say, 'we are safe {to go on doing} all of these detestable things.'
And I will smash them, each one against his brother, and the fathers and the sons together," {declares} Yahweh. "I will not have compassion, and I will not take pity, and I will not show compassion from destroying them." '"
A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has gone out from his place to make your land as a horror, your cities will go to ruin {without} inhabitant.
The portion of Jacob [is] not like these, for he [is] the creator of everything, and Israel [is] the tribe of his inheritance, Yahweh of hosts [is] his name.
Thus says Yahweh concerning all of the evil neighbors who touch the inheritance that I gave as an inheritance [to] my people Israel: "Look, I [am] about to drive them out from their land, and the house of Judah I will drive out from among them.
And they did not say, 'Where [is] Yahweh, the one who brought us up from the land of Egypt, the one who led us in the desert, in a land of desert plains and gorges, in a land of dryness and deep darkness, in a land {that no one passes through}, and no human lives there?'
Has this house, which is called {by my name}, become a cave of robbers in your eyes? Look, I, even I, have seen [it]," {declares} Yahweh.
And you must say to them, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter through these gates.
For thus says Yahweh, "Look, I [am] about to sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and I will bring distress to them, so that they may feel it."
I sat not in the assembly of jokers, [nor did] I exult. Because of the {presence} of your hand I sat alone, for you filled me [with] indignation.
"Send to all the exiles, {saying}, 'Thus says Yahweh concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: "Because Shemaiah prophesied to you, though I have not sent him, and he has made you trust in a lie,"
And I saw that {for this very reason, that} on account of apostate Israel committing adultery I divorced her and gave the letter of divorce to her. Yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid and she went and prostituted [herself] also.
And the people [to] whom they [are] prophesying will be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem {because of} the famine and the sword. And there will be no [one who] buries them, their wives, or their sons, or their daughters. And I will pour out on them their wickedness.
And I thought, 'After her doing all these [things] to me she will return,' but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw [it].
Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "They will thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine, turn back your hand over [the] branches like a grape-gatherer.
Inhabitants of Lebanon, nestled among the cedars, how you will groan when labor pains come to you, fear and pain as the [woman who] gives birth.
And I brought you to the land of the orchard, to eat its fruit, and its good things. But you entered and defiled my land, and my inheritance you made a detestable thing.
Go up through her vineyards and destroy, but you must not make complete destruction. Remove her branches, for they [are] not to Yahweh.
And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, {saying},
Therefore I will give their wives to others, their fields to conquerors, because from [the] smallest to [the] greatest, all of them make profit [for] unlawful gain, from prophet to priest, all of them practice deceit.
But if they do not listen, then {I will completely uproot and destroy that nation}." {declares} Yahweh.
And now, because of your doing all these things," {declares} Yahweh, "and {I have spoken to you over and over again}, and you have not listened, and I called you, and you have not answered,
Therefore you must not pray for this people, and you must not lift up for them a cry of entreaty, or a prayer, for I [will] not listen in the time of their calling to me, in the time of their trouble.
{And then}, if they diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, '{as Yahweh lives},' even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will live in the midst of my people.
And {I will first doubly repay} their iniquity and their sin because of their profaning my land with the dead bodies of their abhorrences, and [with] their abominations they have filled up my inheritance.'"
The priests did not say, 'Where [is] Yahweh?' and those who handle the law did not know me, and the shepherds have {rebelled against me}, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and they went after [things which] do not profit.
Because of this gird yourselves [with] sackcloth, lament and wail, for {the burning anger} of Yahweh has not turned back from us.
For the number of your towns are your gods, Judah, and the number of the streets of Jerusalem [are the] altars you have set up to the shameful things, to make smoke offerings to Baal.
My tent is devastated, and all my tent cords are torn. My children have gone out [from] me, and they are not. There is no [one who] pitches my tent again, or [one who] puts up my tent curtains.
Who [is] the wise man that can understand this? And to whom has the mouth of Yahweh spoken, so that he may declare it? Why is the land destroyed? It is laid waste like the desert so that no one passes through."
For go over [to] the coasts of Cyprus and look, and send [to] Kedar and consider very closely, and see if there has been [a thing] like this:
And it was because of the frivolity of her fornication that she defiled the land and committed adultery with the stone and with the tree.
{How long} [will] this be in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceitfulness of their hearts,
To whom shall I speak and admonish, that they may hear? Look, their ears [are] {closed}, and they are not able to listen attentively. Look, the word of Yahweh is to them an object of scorn, they do not delight in it.
Thus says Yahweh, "Be on your guard for the sake of yourselves, that you must not carry a burden on the day of the Sabbath, and you must [not] bring [it] through the gates of Jerusalem.
{Therefore} I again bring a lawsuit against you," {declares} Yahweh, "and with {your children} I bring a lawsuit.
For the shepherds have become stupid, they do not seek Yahweh. {Therefore} they do not have insight, and all of their flock are scattered.
Woe to me, because of my wound. My wound [is] incurable. But I said, "Surely this [is my] sickness, and I must bear it."
And they have treated the wound of the daughter of my people lightly, {saying}, 'Peace, peace,' but there is no peace.
Chastise me, Yahweh, but in moderation, not in your anger, lest you eradicate me.
And they will come from the towns of Judah, and from all around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the Shephelah, and from the hill country, and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and grain offerings, and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings [to] the house of Yahweh.
And Yahweh said to me, "The prophets [are] prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them, and I have not commanded them, and I have not spoken to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, and a divination, worthless, and the deceitfulness of their {minds}."
Be appalled, heavens, at this, and shudder; be utterly desolate," {declares} Yahweh.
Why is my pain endless, and my wound incurable? It refuses to become healed. Truly you are to me like a deceitful [brook], waters [that] are not trustworthy.
Because of these [things] shall I not punish?" {declares} Yahweh, "and on a nation who [is] like this, shall I not take revenge?
Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat [the] flesh.
Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, 'Return, apostate Israel,' {declares} Yahweh. 'I will not cause my {anger} to fall on you. For I [am] loyal,' {declares} Yahweh. 'I will not be angry {forever}.
who plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell each one to his neighbor, just as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal?
They [are] vanity, a work of mockery, at the time of their punishment, they will perish.
And Yahweh said, "Because of their forsaking my law that I set {before} them, and they have not obeyed my voice, and have not walked in it,
And they set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it.
Yet even in all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, {but only} in pretense," {declares} Yahweh.
And then on that day," {declares} Yahweh, "the heart of the king and the heart of the officials will be destroyed, and the priests will be appalled, and the prophets will be astonished."
Then I said, "Ah, Lord Yahweh, surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, 'It will be peace for you,' while the sword reaches up to the throat."
{And then} after my driving them out, I will once again have compassion on them, and I will bring them back, each one to his inheritance, and each one to his land.
But I am full with the wrath of Yahweh, I struggle to hold [it] in. Pour [it] out on [the] children in the street, and on the assemblies of young men at the same time. For even husband with wife will get trapped, [the] old with [him who is] full of days.
Should good be repaid in place of evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember my standing {before you} to speak good for them, to avert your wrath from them.
And the word of Yahweh came to me, {saying},
Has a nation exchanged gods? And they [are] not gods! But my people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit.
A {saying}: 'Look, [if] a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him {and she becomes another man's wife}, will he return to her again?' Will not that land be greatly defiled? And you have prostituted [yourself] [with] many lovers, [would] you now return to me?" {declares} Yahweh.
Then Yahweh said to me, "Apostate Israel has proved herself more upright than treacherous Judah.
but they went after the stubbornness of their heart, and after the Baals, which their ancestors taught them."
At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, "{A hot wind from the barren heights} in the desert, {in the direction of} the daughter of my people, not to winnow and not to cleanse,
Hear the word that Yahweh speaks to you, house of Israel.
For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt utterly treacherously with me," {declares} Yahweh.
"Return, apostate children," {declares} Yahweh. "For {I am your master}, and I will take you one from a city and two from a clan, and I will bring you [to] Zion.
therefore I will do to the house that is called {by my name}, in which you [are] trusting, and to the place that I gave to you and to your ancestors {what} I did to Shiloh.
Look, I [am] against those who prophesy dreams of lies," {declares} Yahweh, "and tell them, and they caused my people to err through their lies, and in their recklessness, when I myself have not sent them nor commanded them, so they profit not this people at all," {declares} Yahweh.
{What rights has my beloved in my house} [when] she has done many wicked things? Can the flesh of holiness pass over you? For {you engage in your wickedness}, then you exult.
Moreover, Yahweh let [it be] made known to me, and I knew. Then you showed me their deeds.
Were they ashamed, for they had committed a detestable thing? What's worse, they were not ashamed at all, and they did not know to feel humiliated. {Therefore} they will fall among [those who] fall; at the time of their punishment they will stumble," says Yahweh.
Therefore thus says Yahweh, "If you turn back, then I will take you back. You will stand {before me}. And if you utter [what is] precious and not [what is] worthless, you will be as my mouth. They will turn back to you, and you will not turn back to them.
Listen, news: Look, [it is] coming, a great roar from [the] land of [the] north, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a lair of jackals.
Yahweh called your name, 'A leafy olive tree, {beautiful with fine fruit}.' With the sound of a great storm he will set fire to it, and its branches will be good for nothing.
And they have treated the wound of my people lightly, {saying}, 'Peace, peace,' but there is no peace.
Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart and they will feed you knowledge and insight.
Thus says Yahweh, "If [the] heavens above can be measured, and [the] foundations of [the] earth below can be explored, also I will reject all the offspring of Israel because of all that they have done," {declares} Yahweh.
At that time they will call Jerusalem 'The Throne of Yahweh,' and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem, and they will no longer go after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
"As I live," {declares} Yahweh, "surely if Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were [the] seal on my right hand, surely from there I would wrench you off.
Moreover, people of Memphis and Tahpanhes will {shave} your skull.
The children [are] gathering wood, and the fathers [are] kindling the fire, and the women [are] kneading dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out libations to other gods for the sake of provoking me to anger.
Your wickedness will chastise you, and your apostasies will reprove you. Therefore know and see that [it is] evil and bitter, your forsaking of Yahweh, your God, and fear of me [is] not in you," {declares} the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.
And I will cast you {out of my sight} just as I cast out all of your blood relatives, all of the offspring of Ephraim." '
"{I will take away their harvest}," {declares} Yahweh. "There are no grapes on the vine, and there are no figs on the fig tree, and the leaves wither, and [what] I gave to them passed over them." '"
"For from long ago you have broken your yoke, you tore to pieces your bonds. And you said, 'I will not serve!' But on every high hill and under every leafy tree you [were] lying down [as] a prostitute.
If I go out [into] the field, then look, those slain by [the] sword. And if I enter the city, then look, the sickness of [the] famine. For both prophet and priest wander around through the land, {they do not know what is going on}.'"
"For from the smallest of them to the greatest of them, {everyone} makes profit for unlawful gain. And from the prophet to the priest, {everyone} practices deceit.
And their houses will be turned over to others, [their] fields and [their] wives together. For I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land," {declares} Yahweh.
Look, he comes up like the clouds, and his chariots [are] like the whirlwind, his horses are swifter than eagles, woe to us, for we are devastated.
"Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, {saying}, 'Thus says Yahweh, "I remember [concerning] you the loyal love of your childhood, the love of your betrothal-time, your going after me in the desert, in [the] land not sown.
Yet I planted you [as] a choice vine, all of it a seed of trustworthiness. How then have you altered before me [into something that is] degenerate, the foreign vine?
But Yahweh of hosts, who judges [in] righteousness, who tests [the] {inmost being}, and [the] {mind}, let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have revealed my legal case.
"{Therefore} look, I [am] about to let them know, this time I am going to let them know my {power} and my might, and they will know that my name [is] Yahweh."
"They have denied Yahweh, and have said, 'Not he, {for} evil will not come on us, we will see neither sword nor famine.
And it will be when you have multiplied and become fruitful in the land in those days," {declares} Yahweh, "they will no longer say, 'The ark of the covenant of Yahweh.' And {it will not come to mind}, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss [it], nor will it be made again.
Did you not do this to yourself, [by] forsaking Yahweh, your God, at the time of your leading in the way?
And Yahweh of hosts, the [one who] planted you, has spoken evil against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, that they have done to themselves, to provoke me to anger by making smoke offerings to Baal."
You [will be] in the right, Yahweh, when I complain to you. Even so, let me speak [my] claims with you. Why does [the] way of [the] wicked succeed? All those who deal treacherously with treachery are at ease.
And I will make you to this people a wall of fortified bronze, and they will fight against you, but they will not prevail over you, for I [am] with you, to save you, and to deliver you," {declares} Yahweh.
Only acknowledge your guilt, that against Yahweh your God you have rebelled, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every leafy tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,' {declares} Yahweh."
For the statutes of the peoples [are] vanity, for it [is] a tree cut down from [the] forest, [the] work of [the] hands of a craftsman with the tool.
Look, I [am] going to gather them from all the lands [to] which I driven them in my anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath, and I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell {in safety}.
And now {why do you go} the way of Egypt to drink the waters of the Shihor? And {why do you go} the way of Assyria to drink the waters of the {Euphrates}?
"And you, you must not pray for this people, and you must not lift up for them a cry of entreaty or a prayer, and you must not plead with me, for I [will] not hear you.
"My comfort [is gone] from me, sorrow [is] on me, my heart [is] sick.
{Therefore} thus says Yahweh concerning the people of Anathoth who seek your life, {saying}, "You shall not prophesy in the name of Yahweh {or} you will die by our hand."
In those days the house of Judah will walk along with the house of Israel and they will come together from [the] land of [the] north to the land that I gave as an inheritance [to] your ancestors.
[The] young lions have roared against him, they have {raised} their voices. And they have made his land as horror; his cities are destroyed, {without} an inhabitant.
Have they acted ashamed, for they have committed a detestable thing? Not at all, nor were they ashamed; they did not know to feel humiliated. {Therefore} they will fall among [those who] fall at the time I punish them, they will stumble," says Yahweh.
Are there [any] among the idols of the nation [who] cause rain to pour? Or can the heavens give showers? [Is] it not you, Yahweh our God? Therefore, we hope in you, for you do all these [things].
For if you wash with natron, and you {use much soap}, your guilt [is] sticking as a stain {before} me," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.
Look, I [am] about to bring on you a nation from afar, house of Israel," {declares} Yahweh. "It [is] an enduring nation, it [is] {an ancient nation}. A nation whose language you do not know, and you cannot understand what they speak.
You must not spurn [us] for the sake of your name, you must not dishonor {your glorious throne}. Remember [us]! You must not break your covenant with us.
{Therefore} thus says the Lord Yahweh, "Look, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on the humankind, and on the animal, and on the tree of the field, and on the fruit of the ground, and it will not be extinguished."
And I [was] like a gentle ram-lamb that is brought to slaughter, and I did not know that they planned plans against me, [saying], "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from [the] land of [the] living, so that his name will no longer be remembered."
Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Look, I [am] feeding this people wormwood, and providing drink for them, water of poison,
And the prophets are like wind, and the word [is] not in them.' Thus it will be done to them."
Then I thought, 'How I would set you among the children, and I would give you a land of desire, an inheritance of [the] glory of [the] hosts of nations.' And I thought, 'You would call me, "My father," and you would not turn back from {behind} me.'
Give glory to Yahweh your God {before} he brings darkness, and {before} your feet stumble on the mountains at twilight. And you will hope for light, but he makes it as gloom, he makes [it] as thick darkness.
"And you shall say to them this word, 'Let my eyes melt [with] tears night and day, and let them not cease, for [with] a great wound the virgin daughter of my people is broken, [with] a very incurable wound.
Restrain your foot from [being] barefoot, and your throat from thirst. But you said, '[It is] hopeless. No! For I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.'
[Do] you not see what they [are] doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
Return, apostate children, I will heal your backsliding. 'Look, we come to you, for you are Yahweh our God.
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, that [was] the first year of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon,
Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you, and on [the] peoples that do not call on your name, for they have devoured Jacob, they have devoured and consumed him, and they have caused his settlement to be desolate.
My bowels, my bowels! I writhe! The walls of my heart! My heart is restless within me, I cannot keep silent, for I hear [in] my inner self the sound of a horn, [the] alarm of war.
The prophet who [has] with him a dream, let him tell [the] dream. But [the prophet] who [has] my word with him, let him speak my word faithfully. {What is straw compared to wheat}?" {declares} Yahweh.
"From Dan is heard the snorting of their horses, from the sound of the neighing of their stallions all the land quakes, for they come and devour the land, and that which fills [the] city, and [those who] live in it.
However, as a wife departs treacherously from her lover, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel," {declares} Yahweh.
"And the prophet, and the priest, and the people who say, 'The burden of Yahweh,' I will punish that man and his house.
and I will scatter them among the nations that they have not known, they and their ancestors, and I will send the sword after them until I bring them to an end."
But I only commanded them this word, {saying}, 'Obey my voice, and I will be to you God, and you will be to me people, and you must walk in all of the way that I command you, so that it goes well with you.'
Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Consider closely, and call for the wailing women, so that they come, and for the skillful women, so that they come.
"How can you say, 'I have not defiled myself, I have not gone after the Baals?' Look at your way in the valley, know what you have done. [You are] a young she-camel, interweaving her ways.
Why [are] we sitting? Gather, and let us go into the fortified cities, and let us perish there, for Yahweh our God has caused us to perish, and has provided drink for us, water of poison, because we have sinned against Yahweh.
And they built the high place of Topheth, which [is] in [the] Valley of Ben Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I have not commanded, and it did not come into my mind.
Cleanse your heart from wickedness, Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. {How long} will your thoughts of mischief dwell in your inner part?
Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in [the] day of distress, to you [the] nations will come from the ends of [the] earth, and they will say, "Our ancestors have inherited only lies, vanity, and there is no profit in them.
"If you run with foot soldiers and they have made you weary, then how will you compete with horses? If you have fallen in {a peaceful land}, then how will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?
And a remnant will not be [left] for them, for I will bring disaster to the people of Anathoth, the year of their punishment."
{Therefore} thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Look, I [am about to] punish them. The young men will die by the sword. Their sons and their daughters will die by the famine.
Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my wrath goes forth like the fire and burns, and there is no [one who] extinguishes [it], because of the evil of your deeds."
[The] harvest has passed, [the] summer has come to an end, and we have not received help.
"Roam about through the streets of Jerusalem, and look please, and take note, and search at its public squares, if you can find a person [who] does justice, [who] seeks honesty, so that I may forgive it.
[We] hope for peace, but there is no good, for a time of healing, but there is terror.
"And you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Drink and become drunk, and vomit, and fall, and you must not rise because of the {presence} of the sword that I [am] sending among you." '
{Therefore} give their children to the famine, and hand them over to [the] {power} of [the] sword, and let their wives be bereaved and widows, and let their men be killed by death, their young men struck dead [by the] sword in the battle.
{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, "Because you have spoken this word, look, I [am] making my words in your mouth like a fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them.
{a wind too strong for} these will come for me, now also I speak judgments against them."
"A voice [is] heard on [the] barren heights, the weeping of the pleas for mercy of the children of Israel, because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God.
And you must not carry a burden from your houses on the day of the Sabbath, and you must not do any work. But you must declare holy the day of Sabbath, just as I commanded your ancestors.
There is none like you, Yahweh, you [are] great and your name [is] great in might.
Though Babylon goes up [to] the heavens, and though she fortifies the high place of her strength, from me destroyers will come to her," {declares} Yahweh.
A wild ass accustomed to [the] desert, in the desire of her soul. She gasps [for] wind [in] her rutting time. Who can quell her [lust]? All [those who] seek her will not grow weary, in her month they will find her.
As [the] shame of a thief when he is caught in the act, so the house of Israel will be ashamed. They, their kings, their officials, and their priests, and their prophets.
For I did not speak with your ancestors, nor did I command them in the day of bringing them out from the land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt offering and sacrifice.
They [are] like scarecrows in a cucumber field, they cannot speak. Indeed, they must be carried, for they cannot march. You must not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil; furthermore, to do good [is] not in them."
"For my people [are] foolish, they have not known me. They [are] foolish children, and they do not have insight. They [are] skillful at doing evil, and they do not know [how] to do good."
Silver beaten from Tarshish is brought, and gold from Uphaz, the work of [the] craftsman and [the] hands of the goldsmith. Blue and purple [are] their clothing, all of them [are] the work of skillful people.
"{Therefore} look, days [are] coming," {declares} Yahweh, "and I will punish her images, and [the] fatally wounded will sigh through all her land.
But where [are] your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble. For [according to] the number of your towns are your gods, Judah.
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no healer there? Why, then, has the healing of the daughter of my people not been restored?
"If these rules would cease from {before me}," {declares} Yahweh, "also the offspring of Israel would cease from being a nation {before me} {forever}."
[Are] they provoking me to anger? " {declares} Yahweh, "[Is it] not themselves [they hurt], for the sake of the shame of their faces?"
If you return, Israel," {declares} Yahweh, "you return to me. And if you remove your abominations from my {presence}, and you do not wander,
"Lift up your eyes at [the] barren heights, and see where you have not been ravished. Beside the roads you sat for them like an Arab in the desert, and you have defiled [the] land with your fornication and with your wickedness.
Surely, an illusion [comes] from [the] hills, [the] turmoil [on] the mountains. Surely, in Yahweh our God [is] the salvation of Israel.
{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, "I [am] about to bring on them disaster from which they will not be able to escape. Though they cry out to me, yet I will not listen to them.
[Those who] say to the tree, 'You [are] my father,' and to the stone, 'You gave birth [to] me.' For they have turned [their] {backs} to me, and not [their] faces. But in the time of their trouble they say, 'Arise and save us.'
Do you not revere me?" {declares} Yahweh, "Do you not tremble {before me}? For I have placed [the] sand [as] a boundary for the sea, {as an everlasting limit}, and it cannot pass over it, and they rise and fall loudly, but they cannot prevail, and its waves roar, but they cannot pass over it.
Not only do you plant them, they take root. They grow, but also they produce fruit. You [are] near in their mouths, but far from their {inmost beings}.
And flight will perish from the shepherds, and escape from the leaders of the flock.
Look, the sound of the cry for help of the daughter of my people from a distant land, 'Is Yahweh not in Zion? Is her king not in her?' Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with idols of a foreign land?"
Hear this please, foolish and {senseless} people, {who have eyes} but do not see, {who have ears} but do not hear.'
{How long} will the land mourn, and the vegetation of every field dry up, because of the wickedness of those who live in it? [The] animals and [the] birds are swept away, because they have said, "He does not see our future."
Therefore rain showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come. Yet {you have} [the] forehead of a woman prostitute, you refuse to be ashamed.
For look, I [am] letting loose among you snakes, adders for which there is no incantation, and they will bite you," {declares} Yahweh.
{But only} in this must the one who boasts boast, [that] he has insight, and [that] he knows me, that I [am] Yahweh, showing loyal love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for in these [things] I delight," {declares} Yahweh.
He decorates it with silver and gold, they strengthen it with nails and hammers, so that it does not stagger.
{At the same time} they are stupid and foolish, [in the] instruction of idols, it [is] wood.
Flee for safety, children of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem. And in Tekoa blow a horn, and on Beth-haccherem lift up a signal, for evil looks down from [the] north, and a great destruction.
Destruction on destruction is proclaimed, for all of the land is devastated. Suddenly my tents are devastated, my tent curtains in a moment.
Who would not revere you, O king of the nations? For you it is fitting. For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you.
"And I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from [the] hand of [the] tyrant."
Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trampled down my plot of land. They have made {my pleasant field} like the desert of desolation.
and I will bring upon you {an everlasting disgrace} and {an everlasting shame} that will not be forgotten."
Yet they did not obey, and they did not incline their ear, but they walked in [their own] plans, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and {they became worse instead of better}.
And Yahweh said to me, "A conspiracy is found among the {people} of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
For hear, women, the word of Yahweh, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters a lamentation, and each woman her neighbor a lament.
"You obtained this for yourself [because of] your way and your deeds. This [is] your doom, for [it is] bitter, yes, it has reached up to your heart."
I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance. I have given the beloved one of my {heart} into the hand of her enemies.
And they will eat your harvest and your food, they will eat your sons and your daughters, they will eat your flock and your herd, they will eat your vine and your fig tree, they will smash with the sword {your fortified cities}, in which you trust.
Thus you shall say to that prophet, 'What has Yahweh answered you?' or, 'What has Yahweh spoken?'
They have turned back to the iniquities of their former ancestors, who refused to obey my words, and they have gone after other gods, to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I {made} with their ancestors."
and say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: "The man is cursed who does not obey the words of this covenant,
Upon all [the] barren heights in the desert destroyers have come, for [the] sword of Yahweh devours, from [one] end of [the] land to the [other] end of the land, there is no peace for all flesh.
The prophets prophesy {falsely}, and the priests rule {by their own authority}, and my people love [it] so much. But what will you do {when the end comes}?
But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our ancestors from our youth, their flocks, and their cattle, their sons and their daughters.
But they did not obey and they did not incline their ear. Instead each one walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore, I brought on them all the words of this covenant which I commanded [them] to do, and they did not [do it].'"
And it will happen, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, "You must certainly drink!
Let us lie down in our shame, and let our disgrace cover us. For against Yahweh our God we have sinned, we and our ancestors, from our youth and until this day. and we have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God.'
And they do not say in their hearts, 'Let us fear please Yahweh our God, the [one who] gives [the] autumn rain and [the] spring rain in its season, {the set times of the harvest} he keeps for us.'
Hear, O earth, look, I [am] about to bring disaster to this people, the fruit of their plans, because they have not listened attentively to my words, and my teaching, they have rejected it also.
But for this people is a stubborn and rebellious heart, they have turned aside and have gone [away].
For a voice [is] declaring from Dan, and [is] proclaiming disaster from the mountain of Ephraim.
But you, Yahweh, you know me, you see me, and you test [that] my heart [is] with you. Tear them apart like sheep for [the] slaughtering, and set them apart for [the] day of slaughter.
which I commanded your ancestors in the day of my bringing them from the land of Egypt, from the furnace of iron, {saying}, 'Listen to my voice and do according to all that I command you, {so will you be my people, and I will be your God}.'
And Yahweh said to me, "Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, {saying}, 'Hear the words of this covenant and do them,
{Therefore} hear, O nations, and know, community, {what will happen to them}.
And they have turned to me [their] backs and not [their] faces, though {I have taught them over and over again}, but they [were] not listening to accept discipline.
for I solemnly admonished your ancestors in the day of my leading them out from the land of Egypt and up to this day, {admonishing persistently}, {saying}, "Obey my voice."
in order to keep the oath that I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as [it is] this day." '" Then I answered and said, "{Let it be so}, O Yahweh."
"Report to the nations, 'Here they are!' Proclaim against Jerusalem, 'Besiegers [are] coming {from a distant land}, and they raise their voice against the cities of Judah.'
"For thus says Yahweh, 'Just as I have brought to this people all this great disaster, so I [will] bring upon them all the good that I promise to them.
"Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the {people} of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
then kings and officials who sit on the throne of David will enter through the gates of this city riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their officials, the people of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited {forever}.
Even [the] stork in heaven knows its appointed time, and [the] turtledove, and [the] swallow, and [the] song bird, they observe the time of their coming. But my people do not know the ordinance of Yahweh.
And let them hasten, and let them lift up wailing over us, so that our eyes may melt [with] tears, and our eyelids may flow [with] water.
Like watchers of a field they were against her from all around, because she has rebelled against me," {declares} Yahweh.
And they built the high places of Baal that [are] in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to present as offerings their sons and their daughters to Molech, which I had not commanded them, and it had not come to my {mind} to do this detestable thing in order to cause Judah to sin."
For wicked people are found among my people, they lie in wait like the hiding of fowlers, they set up a trap, they catch humans.
My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She has lifted up against me her voice; {therefore} I hate her.
They have made it a desolation. Desolate, it mourns to me. All the land is made desolate, but there is no person taking [it] to heart.
"But even in those days," {declares} Yahweh, "I will not make you a complete destruction.
For even your relatives, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you, even they call {loudly} after you. You must not trust in them, though they speak kindly to you.
And you must say, 'Yahweh, you yourself spoke against this place, to destroy it, so that [there will] not be in it [anything] living, from humankind to animals, for it will be {an everlasting desolation}.'
Why do you complain to me? All of you have {rebelled against me}," {declares} Yahweh.
The lair of [the] hyena [is] my inheritance to me, the birds of prey [are] all around her. Go, gather all of the animals of the field, bring [them] {to come and devour}.
Your iniquities have disturbed these, and your sins have kept away the good from you.
Because of this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above will become dark. Because I have spoken, I have planned, and I have not relented, and I will not turn back from it."
"I have made you an assayer among my people, a fortification, so that you may know and put to the test their ways.
Like a cage full of birds, so their houses [are] full of fraud. {Therefore} they have become great, and they have become rich.
"Because of the wound of the daughter of my people I am broken down, I mourn, horror has seized me.
Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Make your ways and your deeds good and let me dwell with you in this place.
And you, devastated one, what [do] you do, that you put on crimson, that you adorn yourself [with] ornaments of gold, that you make your eyes look bigger with the eye make-up? In vain you beautify yourself. [Your] lovers reject you; they seek your life.
{And then}, when you [people] say, 'Why has Yahweh our God done all of these [things] to us?' Then you will say to them, 'As you have forsaken me and have served gods of a foreign land in your land, so will you serve strangers in {a land that does not belong to you}.'
And {the measuring line} will still go out immediately in front [of] it to the hill of Gareb, and it will turn [to] Goah.
For thus says Yahweh to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, "Break up for yourselves prepared virgin soil, and you must not sow among thornbushes.
And I raised up watchmen over you: 'Listen attentively to [the] sound of a horn.' But they said, 'We will not listen attentively.'
But if you will not listen to it, my inner self will weep in secret places, because of {the presence of} [your] pride. And my eyes will weep bitterly, and they will melt [in] tears, because the flock of Yahweh has been taken captive.
Thus says Yahweh: "Look, a people [is] coming from [the] land of [the] north, a great nation is woken up from [the] farthest part of [the] earth.
{Therefore} thus says Yahweh: "Look, I [am] about to put before this people stumbling blocks, and they will stumble against them, fathers and children together, neighbor and his friend will perish."
and you swear, '{As Yahweh lives},' in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then nations will be blessed by him, and in him they will boast."
They have grown fat, they have grown sleek, also, {their evil deeds have no limit}. They do not judge [with] justice, [the] legal cause of [the] orphan, or allow it to succeed, and [the] legal case of [the] poor, they do not defend.
"And you shall say to them, 'Thus asks Yahweh: "Do men fall and not stand up? If one turns away does he not return?
I have listened attentively, and I have listened. They do not speak honestly, there is no man [who] regrets his wickedness, saying, 'What have I done?' All of them [are] turning to their ways of running, like a horse plunging into battle.
Do not trust in {the deceitful words}, {saying}, 'The temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, they [are] the temple of Yahweh.'
Yahweh, do not your eyes [look] for honesty? You have struck them, but they felt no pain, you have destroyed them, they refused to take discipline. They have hardened their faces more than rock, they have refused to turn back.
O daughter of my people, gird yourself [with] sackcloth, and roll about in the ashes in mourning, a mourning ceremony [as for] an only child. Make for yourself wailing of bitterness, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
"And it will happen, if you carefully listen to me," {declares} Yahweh, "to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the day of the Sabbath, but to declare holy the day of Sabbath, not to do on it any work,
{Oh that my head were waters}, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night, [for] the slain of the daughter of my people.
For the people of Judah have done evil in my eyes," {declares} Yahweh, "They have set their abominations in the house that is called {by my name}, to defile it.
Arise, and let us attack by night, and let us destroy her citadel fortresses."
Shear your hair and throw [it] away, and lift up a lament on the barren heights, for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.'
And they shall spread them out before the sun, and before the moon, and before all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and which they have gone after, and which they have inquired about, and to which they have bowed in worship. They shall not be gathered, and they shall not be buried; they will be like dung on the surface of the ground.
But you, Yahweh, you know {all their plans of assassination against me}. You must not make atonement for their iniquity, and you must not cause their sin to be blotted out from {before you}. But let them be overthrown {before you}. Deal with them in the time of your anger.
From the sound of a horseman and {an archer} every town flees, they enter in the thickets and among the rocks they climb. Every town [is] forsaken, and there is no person [who] lives in them.
For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion, 'How we are devastated! We are very ashamed because we have left the land, because they have overthrown our dwelling places.'
We have heard news of it, our hands grow slack, anxiety has grasped us, pain as a [woman who] gives birth.
I looked at the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, and all of the hills were jolted to and fro.
[The] bow and [the] short sword they grasp [are] cruel, and they show no mercy. Their sound roars like the sea, and on horses they ride, drawn up like a man for battle against you, O daughter of Zion."
Let a cry for help be heard from their houses when you suddenly bring upon them [the] raiding band, for they have dug a pit to catch me, and they have fixed secretly a trap for my feet.
"So now {therefore}, thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning this city, [of] which you [are] saying, 'It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the plague':
"At that time," {declares} Yahweh, "they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its officials, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Judah from their graves.
From the day that your ancestors came out from the land of Egypt until this day I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, day after day, {sending again and again}.
For if you truly make your ways and your deeds good, if you truly do justice between a man and his neighbor,
Because of these [things] shall I not punish?" {declares} Yahweh, "and on a nation who [is] like this, shall I not take revenge?
For thus says Yahweh, "All of the land will be a desolation, yet I will not make a complete desolation.
I looked and behold, the fruitful land [was] a desert, and all of its cities were ruined before Yahweh, before the face of {his burning anger}.
Egypt, Judah, and Edom, and the {Ammonites}, and Moab, and all those who are trimmed to [the] side, those who live in the desert, for all the nations [are] uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel [are] uncircumcised of heart."
"Stand in the gate of the house of Yahweh and proclaim there this word, and say, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, all of Judah, [those who] enter through these gates to bow in worship to Yahweh.
For thus says Yahweh of hosts, "Cut down trees and heap up a siege ramp against Jerusalem. This [is] the city that must be punished, its oppression [is] in its midst.
Yet they have not listened to me and they have not inclined their ear, but they have hardened their neck, they did more evil than their ancestors.
And death will be preferred to life by all the remaining of this evil clan in all the remaining places where I have driven them away," {declares} Yahweh.
Let me go to the great, and let me speak with them, for they know the way of Yahweh, the law of their God." However, they together have broken [the] yoke, they have torn to pieces [the] bonds.
You must not go out [into] the field, and you must not walk on the road, for {the enemy has a sword}, terror [is] all around.
I looked and behold, there was no person, and all of the birds of the sky had fled.
Why has this people, Jerusalem, turned away [in] enduring apostasy? They have kept hold of deceit, they have refused to return.
Thus says Yahweh, "A voice [is] heard in Ramah, lamentation, [the] weeping of bitterness. Rachel [is] weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted because of her children, for they are no [more]."
"And you shall say to them, 'This [is] the nation that has not obeyed the voice of Yahweh their God, and they have not accepted discipline. The truth has perished, and it is cut off from their mouths.
{Sanctify} war against her. Arise, and let us attack at noon. Woe to us, for the day turns, for [the] shadows of evening are lengthened.
you do not oppress [the] alien, [the] orphan, and [the] widow, you do not shed innocent blood in this place, and you do not go after other gods {to your harm},
{They are called} rejected silver, For Yahweh has rejected them."
{therefore} thus says Yahweh, "Look, I [am] going to punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his offspring. There will not be for him a man who lives in the midst of this people, and he will not see the good that I [am] going to do to my people," {declares} Yahweh, "For he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh." '"
And they bend their tongue [like] their bow, [for] falsehood and not truth is superior in the land, for they go forth from evil to evil, and they do not know me," {declares} Yahweh.
Shepherds and their flocks will come against her, they will pitch [their] tents against her all around, they will pasture, each his {portion}.
"For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, [the] source of living water, to hew out for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.
For death has come into our windows, it has entered into our fortresses, to cut off [the] children from [the] streets, [the] young men from [the] public squares.
then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your ancestors {forever and ever}.
And they will no longer teach each one his neighbor, or each one his brother, {saying}, 'Know Yahweh,' for all of them will know me, from their {smallest} and up to their {greatest}," {declares} Yahweh, "for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will no longer remember."
All of them [are] stubborn rebels, going about [talking] slander. [They are] bronze and iron, they [are] all behaving corruptly.
[The] bellows are burned up, lead is consumed by fire. {In vain} {he keeps on refining}, but [the] wicked are not torn apart.
"Look, days [are] coming," {declares} Yahweh, "and the city will be rebuilt for Yahweh, from the Tower of Hananel [to] the Corner Gate.
'Ah Lord Yahweh! Look, you made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. {Nothing} is too difficult for you,
Yet they did not listen, and they did not incline their ear, and they hardened their neck [so as] to not hear, nor to receive discipline.
Alas! For that day [is] great, {there is none like it}. And it [is] a time of distress for Jacob, yet from it he will be delivered.
Then I said, "[They are] just simple people, they are foolish, for they know not the way of Yahweh, the law of their God.
Then [when] you call me, and you come and pray to me, then I will listen to you.
Speak, 'thus {declares} Yahweh: "The dead body of the human will fall like dung upon the surface of the field, and like cut grain behind the reaper, and there is no [one who] gathers." '"
So you shall speak to them all these words, but they will not listen to you, and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you.
And I would give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those from whom you [are] frightened by their presence, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
"Say to the king and to the queen mother, '{Take a lower seat}, for {your beautiful crown} has come down from your head.'
"Look, days [are] coming," {declares} Yahweh, "and I will call into account all those who are circumcised in [the] foreskin:
And the whole of the valley [of] the corpses, and the ashes, and all the cultivated fields up to the wadi of Kidron, up to the corner of the Gate of the Horses [toward the] east [will be] holy to Yahweh. It will not be uprooted, and it will not be overthrown again {forever}."
"Look, I [am] Yahweh, [the] God of all flesh; is {anything} too difficult for me?"
Look, I [am] against the prophets," {declares} Yahweh, "who take their tongues and declare as prophets, '[Yahweh] {declares}.'
"For both prophet as well as priest are godless, even in my temple I have found their wickedness," {declares} Yahweh.
{Oh that I had} in the desert a place of overnight lodging for travelers, that I may leave my people and go from them, for all of them [are] adulterers, a band of traitors.
"Let everyone be on your guard against his neighbor, and you must not trust in any brother, for everyone surely betrays, and every neighbor goes about [with] slander.
But if you do not listen to me, to declare holy the day of the Sabbath, and to not carry a burden and enter through the gates of Jerusalem on the day of the Sabbath, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it will not be quenched." '"
"Now when this people, or a prophet, or a priest, ask you, {saying}, 'What [is] the burden of Yahweh?' then you shall say to them, '{You are the burden}, and I will forsake you,'" {declares} Yahweh.
Thus says Yahweh: "You must not learn the way of the nations, and you must not be dismayed by the signs of the heavens, for the nations are dismayed by them.
For I will present healing to you, and I will heal you of your wounds,' {declares} Yahweh. 'Because they have called you an outcast, [saying], "It is Zion, there is no [one who] cares for her." '
And I will throw you and your mother who gave birth to you to another country where you were not born, and there you will die.
What [is] this to me? Frankincense comes from Sheba, and the precious spice reed from a distant land. Your burnt offerings [are] not {acceptable}, your sacrifices are not pleasing to me."
But [if] I say, "I will not mention him and I will no longer speak in his name," then it becomes in my heart like a fire burning, locked up in my bones, and I struggle to contain [it], and I am not able.
And everyone deceives his neighbor, and they do not speak [the] truth, they have taught their tongues to speak lies, they are tired [from] going astray.
Their tongue [is] a murderous arrow, it speaks deceit. With his mouth he speaks peace with his neighbor, but in his inner parts he sets up his ambush.
And you yourself shall prophesy against them all these words, and you shall say to them: 'Yahweh will roar from [on] high, and from {his holy dwelling place} he will give his voice. He will roar mightily against his settlement, a jubilant shout like those who tread [grapes], he will answer against all the inhabitants of the earth.
In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell {in safety}, and this [is] his name [by] which he will be called: 'Yahweh [is] our righteousness.'
Your dwelling [is] in the midst of deceit, upon deceit they refuse to know me," {declares} Yahweh.
The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, among the priests who [were] in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin,
Can a Cushite change his skin, or a leopard his spots? [Then] you also will be able to do good, [who] are accustomed to doing evil.
Because of these [things] shall I not punish them?" {declares} Yahweh, "On a nation that [is] like this shall I not take revenge?
You have persuaded me, Yahweh, and I was persuaded. You have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day [long]. {Everyone} [is] mocking me.
"Woe [to the] shepherds who destroy and scatter the flock of my pasture," {declares} Yahweh.
Thus says Yahweh of hosts, "Look, disaster [is] going out from nation to nation, and a great tempest is stirred up from the farthest parts of [the] earth.
Therefore, thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Look, I [am] about to refine them, and I will test them, for what else can I do, because of the {presence} of the daughter of my people?
For thus says Yahweh, '{As soon as the time has passed}, seventy years for Babylon, I will attend to you, and I will fulfill my good word to you, to bring you back to this place.
The towns of the Negev are shut up, and there is no [one who] opens [them]. All of Judah is deported; it is deported [in] completeness.
Have you completely rejected Judah? Or has your soul loathed Zion? Why have you struck us so that there is no healing for us? We hope for peace, but there is no good, and for a time of healing, but look, there is terror.
But if you say, 'The burden of Yahweh,' {therefore} thus says Yahweh, 'because of your saying these words, "The burden of Yahweh," then I will send to you, {saying}, "You shall not say, 'The burden of Yahweh.'"
We know, Yahweh, our wickedness, the iniquity of our ancestors, for we have sinned against you.
And all the officials of the king of Babylon came and sat in the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim [the] chief officer, Nergal-sharezer [the] high official, with all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.
"[Is] not my word like fire?" {declares} Yahweh, "and like a blacksmith's hammer [that] breaks a rock into pieces?
And these [are] the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the exiles, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem [to] Babylon,
[The] rage of battle will resound to the end of the earth, for [there is] a lawsuit of Yahweh against the nations. He [is] entering into judgment with all wicked flesh, he will give them to the sword,' {declares} Yahweh."
'Look, days [are] coming,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and I will fulfill the good promise that I promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh after Nebuzaradan, [the] captain of [the] guard, had let him go from Ramah, {where he had been taken} bound in chains in the midst of all the exiles of Jerusalem and Judah who were being deported [to] Babylon.
Or can a person hide himself in secret places and I cannot see him?" {declares} Yahweh. "[Do] I not fill up the heaven and the earth?" {declares} Yahweh.
With weeping they will come, and with pleas for mercy I will bring them; I will let them walk by streams of water in a straight path. They will not stumble in it, for I have become to Israel a father, and Ephraim, he [is] my firstborn."
Hear the word of Yahweh, nations, and declare in the coastlands from afar, and say, "The scatterer of Israel will gather him, and he will keep him as a shepherd his flock.
Lift up your eyes and see those coming from [the] north. Where [is] the flock that was given to you, {your magnificent flock}?
Thus says Yahweh, who gives [the] sun for light by day, the regulations of [the] moon and [the] stars for light [by] night, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar--Yahweh of hosts [is] his name.
"The sin of Judah [is] written with an iron stylus, with a point of diamond [it is] engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars.
[That] which came [as] the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah concerning the matter of the severe drought.
Heal me, Yahweh, and I will be healed, save me, and I will be saved, for you [are] my praise.
"At that time," {declares} Yahweh, "I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they will be to me a people."
"{Therefore} look, I [am] against the prophets," {declares} Yahweh, "who steal my words each one from his neighbor.
Thus says Yahweh of hosts, "You must not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They [are] deluding you [with] visions of their {mind}, They do not speak from the mouth of Yahweh.
The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the tenth year of Zedekiah the king of Judah, that [was] the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.
And all this land will become a site of ruins, a desolation, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
What will you say when he sets over you-- and you have taught them--allies as head over you? Will not labor pains take hold of you, like a woman giving birth?
And I will give to them a heart to know me, that I [am] Yahweh, and {they will be my people}, and {I will be their God}, for they will return to me with the whole of their heart.
I, Yahweh, examine [the] {mind}, test [the] {heart}, and give to each one according to his way, according to the fruit of his deeds.
[to] whom the word of Yahweh came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, the king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
For thus says Yahweh, "Sing for joy for Jacob [with] gladness, and shout out for the head of the nations. Proclaim, praise, and say, 'Save, Yahweh, your people, the remnant of Israel.'
[Is] this man Coniah a despised, shattered vessel? Or a vessel [in which] there is no delight? Why are he and his offspring thrown far, and cast away to the land that they do not know?"
And I will {make} with them {an everlasting covenant} that I will not turn away from them, my doing good [to] them, and my reverence I will put in their hearts so that [they will] not turn aside from me.
And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible. They commit adultery, and they walk in lies, and they make strong [the] hands of evildoers, [so] that they have not turned back each from his wickedness. All of them have become to me like Sodom, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.
And seek the prosperity of the city where I have deported you, and pray on behalf of it to Yahweh, for in its prosperity you will have prosperity.'
How can you say, 'We [are] wise and the law of Yahweh [is] with us'? Look, surely {the lying stylus of the scribes} has made it a lie.
[He is] the maker of [the] earth by his power, [who] created the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding he stretched out heaven.
And king Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had made king, reigned as king in the land of Judah in place of Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim.
I looked at the earth, and behold, it was wasteland and emptiness, and to the heavens, and [they were] without their light.
I will again build you, and you will be built, O virgin Israel. You will again adorn yourself [with] your tambourines, and you will go forth in [the] dancing in a ring of [the] merrymakers.
Yahweh showed me, and look, there were two baskets of figs placed {before} the temple of Yahweh--after Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had deported Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, with the officials of Judah, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, from Jerusalem and had brought them [to] Babylon.
Thus says Yahweh: "Record this man [as] childless, a man [who] will not succeed in his days, for no man from his offspring will succeed [him], sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah."
"Then I myself will gather together the remnant of my flock from all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their grazing place, and they will be fruitful, and they will become numerous.
"Look, [the] days [are] coming," {declares} Yahweh, "and I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah [with the] seed of humankind, and [with the] seed of animals.
Thus Yahweh said to me: "Go and buy for yourself a loincloth of linen and put it on your loins, but you must not {place} it in water."
Thus says Yahweh: "[The] people of [the] survivors of the sword found grace in the desert; Israel going to find their rest."
"In those days they will say no longer, '{Parents} have eaten unripe fruit, and [the] teeth of [the] children {are set on edge}.'
One moment I speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, to uproot, and to tear down, and to destroy [it].
Then Yahweh said to me, "[Even] if Moses and Samuel stood {before me}, my heart [would] not [be] to this people. Send [them] away from my {sight}, and let them go out.
The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, {saying},
And the slain [ones] of Yahweh will be on that day from [one] end of the earth to the [other] end of the earth, and they will not be mourned, and they will not be gathered, and they will not be buried. They will become like dung on the {surface} of the ground.
Look, I [am] sending for many fishermen,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and they will fish them out, and {afterward} I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and from the clefts of the cliffs.
Woe [to the one who] builds his house without righteousness, and his upper rooms without justice. His fellow countryman, he works for nothing, and he does not give to him his wages.
And {you will let go your hand from your inheritance} that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in the land that you do not know, for you kindled a fire in my anger, until eternity it will be kindled."
{Therefore} look, days [are] coming,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and it will no longer be said, "{As Yahweh lives}, who led up the {Israelites} from the land of Egypt,"
[Like] a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay [is] one who amasses wealth without justice. In the middle of his days it will leave him, and at his end he will [prove to] be a fool."
Thus said Yahweh, "Go and buy a potter's earthenware jar, and [take] some of the elders of the people, and some of the leaders of the priests,
Thus says Yahweh, "Act [with] justice and righteousness, and deliver [the] one who has been seized from the hand of [the] oppressor. And you must not oppress [the] immigrant, [the] orphan, and [the] widow. And you must not shed innocent blood in this place.
And I will rejoice over them to do good [to] them, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness with all my heart, and with all my inner self."
At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came from Yahweh, {saying},
The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur, the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah, the priest, {saying},
And it was in that [same] year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah, the son of Azzur, the prophet who [was] from Gibeon, said to me in the house of Yahweh before the eyes of the priests and all the people, {saying},
For thus said Yahweh, the God of Israel, to me, "Take this cup of the wine [of] wrath from my hand, and you must give it [to] all the nations to whom I [am] sending you to drink.
Now Pashhur, the son of Immer, the priest [who was] officer in charge in the temple of Yahweh, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.
"Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is devastated. Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah, put on sackcloth. Lament and run back and forth among the walls. For Milcom will go into exile, his priests and his officials together.
And if you say in your heart, 'Why have these [things] happened to me?' Because of the greatness of your iniquity your skirts are uncovered; your heels have endured violence.
And I will give to them one heart and one way, to revere me {forever}, for good to them, and to their children after them.
Can a young woman forget her ornaments? [Or] a bride her sashes? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken in my midst. All my bones tremble. I have become like a drunken man, even like a man over whom wine has passed, because of Yahweh, and because of {his holy words}.
But you shall not mention the burden of Yahweh, for the burden is to each one his word, and so you twist the words of [the] living God, Yahweh of hosts, our God
"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have deported from Jerusalem [to] Babylon,
As the host of heaven cannot be counted, and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will make numerous the offspring of David my servant and the Levites [who] minister [to] me.'"
For look, on the city that is called {by} my name I [am] beginning to inflict harm, and you indeed, will you go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I [am] summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth," {declares} Yahweh of hosts.'
As the remembering of their children, [so is the remembering of] their altars and their poles of Asherah worship beside [the] leafy trees on [the] high hills.
In the ninth year of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and laid siege to it.
And they will come, and they will sing for joy on the height of Zion, and they will be radiant over the goodness of Yahweh, over [the] grain, and over [the] wine, and over [the] olive oil, and over [the] young ones of [the] flock, and over [the] cattle. And their life will become like a well-watered garden, and they will never languish again."
"Declare among the nations and proclaim, and lift up a banner. Proclaim, you must not conceal [it]. Say, 'Babylon is captured, Bel is ashamed, Merodach is filled with terror, her idols are ashamed, her idols are filled with terror.
Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all [those who] forsake you will be put to shame, and [those who] turn aside from you in the earth will be recorded, for they have forsaken the fountain of living water, Yahweh.
In those days and in that time I will make a branch of righteousness sprout for David, and he will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
"Like this potter, am I not able to do to you, O house of Israel?" {declares} Yahweh. "Look, like the clay in the hand of the potter, so [are] you in my hand, O house of Israel.
"Set up for yourself road markers, make for yourself signposts, set your {mind} to the main road, [the] road [by which] you went. Return, O virgin of Israel, return to these your cities.
Flee from the midst of Babylon and save each one his life. You must not perish because of her guilt. For this [is the] time of vengeance for Yahweh, he [will] repay her what is deserved.
Indeed I heard Ephraim pitying themselves, 'You disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like a calf that is not trained. Bring me back and let me return, for you [are] Yahweh my God.
"Then [the] young woman will rejoice in [the] dancing in a ring, and [the] young men and [the] old men together. And I will turn their mourning to jubilation, and I will comfort them, and I will gladden them from their sorrow.
{And when} he [was] at the Gate of Benjamin, there [was] {a sentry on duty} whose name [was] Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, and he seized Jeremiah the prophet, {saying}, "You [are] deserting to the Chaldeans!"
And Jeremiah said, "The word of Yahweh came to me, {saying},
Concerning Edom, thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Is there no longer wisdom in Teman? Has counsel become lost from [those who] understand? Is their wisdom rotting?
Although our iniquities testify against us, Yahweh, act for the sake of your name. Yes, our apostasies are many; we have sinned against you.
Now in the fifth month, on the tenth [day] of the month, which [was the] nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan [the] captain of [the] guard, who stood {before} the king of Babylon, entered into Jerusalem.
look, I [am] going to send and take all [the] clans of [the] north,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and [I will send] to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations all around, and I will destroy them, and I will make them a horror, and [an object of] hissing, and {everlasting ruins}.
For he will be like a tree planted by water, and to [the] stream it sends its roots, and it will not fear when heat comes, and its leaves will be luxuriant, and in [the] year of drought it will not be anxious, and it will not cease from the bearing of fruit.
For I heard a voice like an ill woman, anxiety like [a woman who] bears her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion. She is gasping for breath, she is spreading out her hands: "Woe is me, for I am becoming tired before killers."
For look, days [are] coming,' {declares} Yahweh, 'when I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel and Judah,' says Yahweh, 'and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their ancestors and they will take possession of it.'"
{But} each will die because of his iniquity, {everyone} who eats the unripe fruit, their teeth will {be set on edge}.
[The one who] does the work of Yahweh [with] slackness [is] cursed, and [the one who] keeps away blood from his sword [is] cursed.
{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people, "You yourselves have scattered my flock, and you have driven them away, and you do not attend to them. Look, I [will] punish you [for] the evil of your deeds," {declares} Yahweh.
And the [next] moment I speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom, to build, and to plant [it].
Concerning the {Ammonites}: Thus says Yahweh, "Are there no sons for Israel? Or is there no heir for him? Why has Milcom taken possession of Gad, and his people dwelled in its towns?
and they have built the high places of Baal, to burn their children in the fire, burnt offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, and I ordered not, and it did not come to my {mind}.
land, land, land, hear the word of Yahweh.
"Stand up and go down [to] the house of the potter, and there I will let you hear my words."
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Judeans who were living in the land of Egypt, who were living at Migdol, and Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in the land of Pathros, {saying},
Thus says Yahweh: "Look, I [am] going to stir up against Babylon and against the inhabitants of Leb-qamai a destructive wind.
The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh after king Zedekiah {made} a covenant with all the people who [were] in Jerusalem to proclaim release to them,
{And then} when [the] seventy years [are] fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,' {declares} Yahweh, 'for their iniquity, and [the] land of [the] Chaldeans, and I will make it {an everlasting waste}.
In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell {safely}, and this [is] what they shall call it: "Yahweh [is] our righteousness." '
For I am with you,' {declares} Yahweh, 'to save you. For I will make a complete destruction of all the nations to which I scattered you, but you I will not make a complete destruction. And I will chastise you to the measure, and I will not leave you entirely unpunished.'
{How long} will you waver, O unfaithful daughter? For Yahweh has created a new [thing] on the earth, a woman, she shelters a man."
Your adulteries, and your neighings, the shameful behavior of your fornications on [the] hills in the countryside, I have seen your abominations. Woe to you, Jerusalem! {How long will you continue to be unclean}?"
You who know, Yahweh, remember me, and attend to me, and take revenge for me against my persecutors {in your forbearance}. You must take me away. Know [that] I [am] carrying disgrace because of you.
In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, {saying}--
Woe to me, my mother, that you gave birth to me, a man of contention and quarreling {to the whole land}. I have not lent out and {I have not borrowed}. All of them [are] cursing me.
{And then}, at the withdrawing of the army of the Chaldeans from Jerusalem {before} the army of Pharaoh,
And you, you must not listen to your prophets, and to your diviners, and to your dreamers, and to your interpreters of signs, and to your sorcerers who are {saying}, 'You will not serve the king of Babylon.'
"Therefore, you shall say to them this word, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: "Every jar must be filled with wine." ' And they will say to you, 'Do we not certainly know that every jar should be filled with wine?'
I have not sent the prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied
Now Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah [was] saying to all the people, {saying},
And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah second [time] while he [was] still held back in the courtyard of the guard, {saying},
And they went to the king, [to the] courtyard, and they {put} the scroll for safe-keeping in the chamber of Elishama the secretary, and they reported all the words in the hearing of the king.
{And then} in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, {saying},
For thus says Yahweh: 'A man who sits on the throne of the house of Israel will not be cut off for David.
"Thus says Yahweh: 'Stand in the courtyard of the house of Yahweh, and you must speak to all the cities of Judah that come to bow in worship [in] the house of Yahweh all the words that I command you to speak to them. You must not omit a word.
For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Do not let your prophets who [are] in your midst, and your diviners, deceive you, and you must not listen to your dreams that you [are] causing [them] to dream.
Look, I [am] going to bring healing and health to it, and I will heal them, and I will reveal to them abundance of peace and reliability.
{Therefore} look, here I am, and I will surely lift you up and forsake you and the city that I gave to you and to your ancestors from {my presence},
[He says], "You [are] a war club for me, a weapon of battle, and I smash nations with you, and I destroy kingdoms with you.
He judged [the] legal cause of [the] needy and [the] poor, [and] then it was well. {Is that not what it means to know me}?" {declares} Yahweh.
"Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, {saying}, 'Write for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you in a scroll.
But they will serve Yahweh their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
And even [when] Elnathan, and Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.
Thus you shall say, each one to his neighbor and each one to his brother: 'What has Yahweh answered?' or, 'What has Yahweh spoken?'
Then they said, "Come and let us plan plans against Jeremiah, for instruction will not be lost from [the] priest, nor advice from [the] wise man, nor [the] word from [the] prophet. Come and {let us bring charges against him}, and let us not listen attentively to any of his words."
"Judah mourns, and her gates languish, they are in mourning on the ground, and the cry of lament of Jerusalem goes up.
"Thus says Yahweh who made [the earth], Yahweh who formed it to establish it, Yahweh [is] his name:
This [is] your lot, the portion of your measure from me," {declares} Yahweh, "because you have forgotten me, and you have trusted in the lie.
O generation, you see the word of Yahweh. Have I been a desert to Israel? Or a land of great darkness? Why do my people say, 'We roam about freely, we will not come again to you'?
thus said Yahweh to me--"Make for yourself fetters and yokes and put them on your neck,
Wail, you shepherds, and cry out. And roll about in mourning [in the dust], O leaders of the flock. For your days of slaughter and your dispersions have arrived, and you will fall like a vessel of desire.
"Micah the Morashtite was prophesying in the days of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and he said to all the people of Judah, {saying}: 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, "Zion will be plowed, and Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the {temple} as high places of wood." '
Raise a banner in the land; blow a horn among the nations; prepare for holy war against her; summon [the] nations against her, the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; summon against her an official; bring up horses like bristling creeping locusts.
Because of the day that is coming to destroy all [the] Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and from Sidon every survivor [who could] help, for Yahweh [is] destroying [the] Philistines, the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.
So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the pit [of] Malchiah, the son of the king, which [was] in the courtyard of the guard. And they let Jeremiah down by ropes. Now in the pit there was no water, {but only} mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.
"I have made the earth with humankind and animals that [are] on the face of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and I give it to whomever is right in my eyes.
Concerning Damascus: "Hamath and Arpad are ashamed, for they have heard bad news; they melt. [There is] concern in the sea. It is not able to keep quiet.
Thus says Yahweh: "Go down [to] the house of the king of Judah and you must speak this word there.
{And then} in the seventh month Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, from the offspring of the kingship, and [one of] the chief officers of the king, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam [at] Mizpah, {along with} ten men. And they ate bread together there at Mizpah.
Then I said, "Ah, Lord Yahweh, look, the prophets [are] saying to them, 'You will not see [the] sword, and famine will not be yours, but reliable peace I will give to you in this place.'"
showing loyal love to the thousands, and repaying the guilt of {parents} into the laps of their children after them. Powerful, great, mighty, his name [is] Yahweh of hosts,
And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, and each one will eat the flesh of his neighbor in [the] siege and in [the] distress which their enemies and those who seek their life inflict on them." '
Concerning Egypt: Concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, which was by the Euphrates River at Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah.
So in turn I will bare your skirts over your face, and your shame will become visible.
Also on your skirts is found [the] blood of [the] life of [the] innocent, [the] poor. You did not find them in the act of breaking into a house. But in spite of all these [things],
But you must not fear, my servant Jacob,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and you must not be dismayed, Israel, for look, I [am] going to save you from far, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. And Jacob will return, and he will be at rest, and he will be at ease, and there will be no [one who] makes [him] afraid.
Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, "{This man does not deserve} a sentence of death, for in the name of Yahweh our God, he has spoken to us."
And I will saturate the appetite of the priests [with] fatness, and my people will be satisfied with my goodness," {declares} Yahweh.
And the {peaceful settlements} are devastated because of {the burning anger of Yahweh}.
{Therefore} thus says Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah: "They will not lament for him, 'Alas, my brother,' or 'Alas, sister.' They will not lament for him, 'Alas, lord,' or 'alas, his majesty.'
Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that [were] in the upper Gate of Benjamin, which [was] by the temple of Yahweh.
How well you do [on] your way to seek love! {Therefore} even [to] the wicked [woman] you can teach your ways.
[Is] Ephraim my dear son, or [the] child of [my] delight? For {as often as} I have earnestly spoken against him, I still remember him. {Therefore} my bowels are turbulent for him, surely I will have compassion on him," {declares} Yahweh.
Concerning Moab, thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: "Woe to Nebo, for it is devastated. It is ashamed, Kiriathaim is captured. Misgab is ashamed, and it is filled with terror.
Thus says Yahweh: "Restrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work," {declares} Yahweh, "and they will return from [the] land of [the] enemy.
My people have become lost sheep, their shepherds have caused them to go astray. They led them away [to the] mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone, they have forgotten their resting place.
For the land is full [of] adulterers; for the land mourns because of a curse. [The] pastures of [the] desert are dry, and their evil has been their way of running, and their power [is] not right.
Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite, {saying}, "Take {with you} these thirty men and pull Jeremiah the prophet up from the pit {before} he dies."
The prophet who prophesies peace, at the coming of the word of the prophet, will become known [as] the prophet that Yahweh has {truly} sent."
But certainly we will do {everything} that went out from our mouths, to make smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and to pour out to her libations just as we did, we, and our ancestors, our kings, and our officials, in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, [for] then {we had enough to eat}, and we were well-off, and we did not see disaster.
{And then} if they say to you, 'Where shall we go?' Then you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh, "[Those] who [are destined] for the plague, to the plague, and [those] who [are destined] for the sword, to the sword, and [those] who [are destined] for the famine, to the famine, and [those] who [are destined] for the captivity, to the captivity." '
Although they fast, I [am] not listening to their cry of entreaty. And although they present burnt offering and grain offering, I [am] not favorable to them. But by the sword, and by the famine, and by the plague, I [am] about to destroy them."
Zedekiah [was] {twenty-one years old} at his beginning to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother [was] Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
Both the great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried, and they will not mourn for them, and no one will cut himself with a blade, and no one will shave himself for them.
He has left his den like a lion, for their land has become a horror, because of the anger of the oppressors, and because of {his burning anger}."
{And then} in [the] thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, in [the] twelfth month, on [the] twenty-fifth [day] of the month, Evil-merodach, the king of Babylon, in the [first] year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, and brought him out from {prison}.
Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of Yahweh that he had spoken to him on {a scroll}.
Then all the men who knew that their wives [were] making smoke offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood [by], a great assembly, and all the people who lived in the land of Egypt in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, {saying},
And I will raise up over them shepherds, and they will shepherd them, and they will no longer fear, and they will not be dismayed, and they will not be missing," {declares} Yahweh.
Indeed, there also was a man prophesying in the name of Yahweh, Uriah, the son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath-Jearim, and he prophesied against this city and against this land like all the words of Jeremiah.
For I will saturate [the] thirst of [the] weary, and every person [who] languishes I will replenish."
Then all the commanders of the armies, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from [the] smallest to [the] greatest, approached
And the vessel that he [was] making with the clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter, so {he made again} another vessel, as it was right in the eyes of the potter to make.
And king Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, {saying}, "Please pray for us to Yahweh our God."
When Ebed-melech the Cushite, {a eunuch} who [was] in the house of the king, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the pit--now the king [was] sitting at the Gate of Benjamin--
Look, I [am] going to bring them from [the] land of [the] north, and I will gather them from [the] remotest part of [the] earth. Among them [the] blind, and [the] lame, [those who are] pregnant, and [those who] give birth, together, a great assembly, they will return here.
Your terror has deceived you, the pride of your heart, [O you who] dwell in the clefts of the rock, [you who] seize [the] height of [the] hill. Though you make your nest high like the eagle, from there I will bring you down," {declares} Yahweh.
In those days and in that time,'" {declares} Yahweh, "the people of Israel will come, they and the people of Judah together. {Weeping as they go}, they will go, and Yahweh their God they will seek.
For thus says Yahweh concerning Shallum, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who reigned as king in place of Josiah his father, who went out from this place: "He will not return here again.
So I went down [to] the house of the potter and look, there he was doing work at the potter's wheels.
Because they have forsaken me, and they have defaced this place, and they have made smoke offerings in it to other gods whom they have not known, they, nor their ancestors, nor the kings of Judah, and they have filled up this place [with the] blood of [the] innocent,
The one basket [had] very good figs, like {early figs}, and the other basket [had] very bad figs that could not be eaten because of [their] bad quality.
Babylon [was] a cup of gold in the hand of Yahweh, making drunk all the earth. [The] nations drank of her wine. {Therefore} [the] nations acted like madmen.
But my people have forgotten me. They make smoke offerings to the idols, and they caused them to stumble in their ways, [the] ancient ways, to go [into] {bypaths}, not [one that] is built up.
and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, which [is at] the entrance of the Gate of the Potsherd, and proclaim there the words that I speak to you.
"So now then, say, please, to the {people} of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, {saying}, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Look, I [am] preparing evil against you, and [I am] planning a plan against you. Please turn back, each one from his evil way, and walk rightly [in] your ways and your deeds." '
my mountain in the open country, I will give your wealth, all your treasures, for spoil, your high places, because of [your] sin, throughout all your territories.
Then the officials said to the king, "Please, this man must be killed, {because} he [is] making slack the hands of {the soldiers} who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking to them words like these, for this man [is] not seeking for welfare to this people, {but only} for harm."
And the dead bodies of this people [will be] as food for the birds of the heavens, and for the animals of the earth, without anyone to scare [them] away.
And I gave the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, {in the presence of} Hanamel, [the son of] my uncle, and {in the presence of} the witnesses who signed the deed of the purchase, {in the presence of} the Judeans who were sitting in the courtyard of the guard.
after the going out of Jeconiah the king, and the queen mother, and the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, and the artisans, and the smiths from Jerusalem,
The word that Yahweh spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of [the] Chaldeans, by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet:
{Therefore} thus says Yahweh of hosts, 'Because you have not obeyed my words,
[The] sound of a cry for help from Babylon, and a great collapse from the land of [the] Chaldeans.
You have forsaken me," {declares} Yahweh. "You go backward, so I have stretched my hand against you, and I have destroyed you. I am tired of becoming remorseful.
You must not weep for [the] dead person, and you must not show sympathy for him. Weep bitterly for the one who goes away, for he will not return, or see the land of his birth again.
[the] voice of jubilation, and [the] voice of joy, [the] voice of [the] bridegroom, and [the] voice of [the] bride, [the] voices of [those who] say, "Praise Yahweh of hosts, for Yahweh [is] good, for his loyal love [is] {forever}," [the voices of those who] bring thank offerings [to] the house of Yahweh, for I will restore the fortunes of the land as in the beginning,' says Yahweh.
For that day [is] to the Lord Yahweh of hosts a day of retribution, to take revenge on his foes. And [the] sword will devour and be satisfied, and it will drink its fill of their blood, for a sacrifice [is] for the Lord Yahweh of hosts in the land of [the] north by the Euphrates River.
Now at that time the army of the king of Babylon [was] laying siege to Jerusalem and Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the courtyard of the guard that [was in] the palace of the king of Judah,
[You are] the hope of Israel, its savior in time of distress. Why should you be like an alien in the land, or like a traveler who spreads out [his tent] to spend the night?
'Look, Hanamel, the son of Shallum, your uncle, [is] going to come to you, {saying}, "Buy for yourself my field that [is] at Anathoth, for {you have} the right of redemption to buy [it]." '
"And I will make drunk her officials, and her wise men, her governors, and her officials, and her warriors, and they will sleep {an everlasting sleep}, and they will not wake up," {declares} the King, Yahweh of hosts [is] his name.
Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "They will again say these words in the land of Judah and in its towns at my restoring their fortunes, 'Yahweh bless you, settlement of righteousness, O hill of holiness.'
Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the last of the days," {declares} Yahweh. {Thus far} [is] the judgment of Moab.
The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, when Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and all his army, with all [the] kingdoms of [the] earth [under] the dominion of his hand, and all the peoples [were] fighting against Jerusalem and against all its cities, {saying},
For there will be a day [when] watchmen will call in the hill country of Ephraim, 'Stand up, and let us go up [to] Zion, to Yahweh our God.'"
And now I myself have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and also the animals of the field I have given to him to serve him.
Therefore look, days [are] about to come," {declares} Yahweh, "and it will no longer be called Topheth or [the] Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of the Slaughter, and they will bury in Topheth {until there is no more place}.
This evil people, who refuse to listen to my words, who go in the stubbornness of their hearts, and have gone after other gods, to serve them, and to bow in worship to them, let them be like this loincloth which is not good for anything.
But the army of [the] Chaldeans pursued after them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And they took him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon [at] Riblah in the land of Hamath. And he pronounced {sentence} on him.
But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words [to] my people, and they would have caused them to turn from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.
Thus says Yahweh: 'Look, I [will] restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob, and I will have compassion on his dwellings, and [the] city will be rebuilt upon its mound, and [the] citadel fortress will stand on its rightful site.
And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will wrench out from his mouth {what he has swallowed}. And [the] nations will not stream towards him [any] longer {what's worse}, the wall of Babylon has fallen.
yet you say, 'But I am innocent, surely his anger has turned away from me.' Look, I [am] entering into judgment with you because of your saying, 'I have not sinned.'
But they answered, "We will not drink wine, for Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our ancestor, commanded us, {saying}, 'You shall not drink wine, you or your children, {forever}.
"Please inquire [of] Yahweh on behalf of us, for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon [is] fighting against us. Perhaps Yahweh will do with us according to all his miraculous acts, so that he may go up from against us."
They will buy fields with money, and they will sign the deeds, and they will seal [them], and they will call witnesses as witness in the land of Benjamin, and in the surroundings of Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the hill country, and in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negev, for I will restore their fortunes,' {declares} Yahweh."
For I hear the rumor of many, "Terror [is] from all around, denounce [him], yes, let us denounce him!" {All my close friends} [are] watchers of my stumbling, [saying], "perhaps he can be persuaded, and we can prevail over him, and we can take our revenge on him."
And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be unclean like the place of Topheth, all the houses where they made smoke offerings upon their roofs to all the host of heaven, and [where] they poured out libations to other gods." '"
The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, {saying},
Thus says Yahweh concerning this people: "They have loved so much to wander, they have not spared their feet. Therefore Yahweh is not favorable to them, now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins."
"Thus says Yahweh: 'If you could break my covenant [with] the day, and my covenant [with] the night, so that day and night [would] not come at their time,
and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the {Ammonites}, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon in [the] hand of [the] envoys who have come [to] Jerusalem, to Zedekiah, the king of Judah.
And I will let myself be found by you,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and I will restore your fortunes, and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places to which I have driven you,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and I will bring you back to the place from which I deported you.'
And I will exterminate from them the sound of jubilation, and the sound of joy, [the] voice of [the] bridegroom, and [the] voice of [the] bride, [the] sound of [the] millstones, and [the] light of [the] lamp.
For after my turning back I repented, and after coming to understand I struck [my] thigh. I was ashamed and also humiliated, because I bore the disgrace of my youth.'
Cursed be [the] day [on] which I was born, let not the day [on] which my mother gave birth to me be blessed.
Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers! Yahweh has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. Because his plan concerning Babylon [is] to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of Yahweh, the vengeance for his temple.
{Therefore} thus says Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, "There will not be for him [one who] sits on the throne of David. And his dead body will be thrown out to the heat in the day and to the frost in the night.
"Now in the prophets of Samaria I saw a disgusting thing. They prophesied by Baal and they caused my people Israel to err.
"Take for yourself {a scroll} and you must write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from [the] day [that] I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, and until this day.
But Yahweh [is] with me like a powerful warrior. {Therefore} my persecutors will stumble and will not prevail. They will be very ashamed, for they will not achieve success. [Their] {everlasting insult} will not be forgotten.
Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab, the son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you in my name a lie, 'Look, I [am] going to give them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and he will strike them before your eyes.
Thus says Yahweh: 'If my covenant [with] day and [with] night, [the] regulations of heaven and earth, I had not established,
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me [and] sucked me dry; he has made me an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like the sea monster; he has filled his belly with my delicacies; he has rinsed me.
So Yahweh said to me, "You must not pray for this people, for [their] happiness.
Concerning Kedar and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor that Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon defeated. Thus says Yahweh: "Rise up, go up against Kedar and destroy [the] people of [the] east.
"Look, I [am] against you, O mountain of the destruction," {declares} Yahweh, "the [one] that destroys the whole earth. And I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will roll you down from the cliffs, and I will make you as a mountain burned away.
"{Therefore} look, days [are] coming," {declares} Yahweh, "when they will no longer say, '{As Yahweh lives}, who led up the {Israelites} from the land of Egypt,'
"For {in vain} I have struck your children. They accepted no discipline. Your sword devoured your prophets, like a ravening lion.
But [if] that nation turns back from its evil that I have threatened against it, then I will relent concerning the disaster that I planned to do to it.
And I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and I will rebuild them as in the beginning.
And I will cause to disappear from the towns of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem [the] sound of jubilation, and [the] sound of joy, [the] voice of [the] bridegroom, and [the] voice of [the] bride, for the land will become a site of ruins.
The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch, the son of Neriah, at his writing these words on a scroll from the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, {saying},
"They will die by diseases, they will not be mourned, and they will not be buried. They will be as dung on the face of the earth. And they will perish by the sword and they will perish by the famine. And their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air, and for the wild animals of the earth."
{Therefore} thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets, "Look, I [am] going to let them eat wormwood and I will give them water of poison to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem went out ungodliness to all the land."
And a curse will be taken [up] because of them by all the exiles of Judah who [are] in Babylon, {saying}, "May Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,"
The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations.
When all the commanders of the armies who [were] in the open country and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam [in an official position] in the land, and that {he had put him in charge of} men, and women, and little children, and of the poor of the land, of [all those] who had not been deported [to] Babylon,
by the hand of Elasah, the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, the king of Judah, sent to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, [to] Babylon, {saying},
And I will make the men who transgressed my covenant, who have not kept the words of the covenant that they {made} {before me}, [like] the calf which they cut in two and they passed between its parts--
How you go about so much changing your way! Also by Egypt you will be put to shame, just as you were put to shame by Assyria.
The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning [the] Philistines {before} Pharaoh attacked Gaza.
he went down [to] the house of the king, to the chamber of the secretary, and look, all the officials [were] sitting there: Elishama the secretary, 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 [other] officials.
[He is the one who] made [the] earth by his power, [the one who] created [the] world by his wisdom, and by his understanding he stretched out [the] heavens.
And you shall say, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: "Look, I [am] about to bring disaster upon this place so that {everyone who hears it}, his ears will ring.
"From [the] thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Amon, the king of Judah, even up to this day, these twenty-three years the word of Yahweh has come to me, and {I have spoken to you over and over again}, but you have not listened.
For as the loincloth clings to [the] loins of a person, so I caused to cling to me all the house of Israel and all the house of Judah,' {declares} Yahweh, 'to be for me a people, and a name, and a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.'
then they went to Gedaliah [at] Mizpah--Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan, and Jehonathan the son 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.
but '{As Yahweh lives}, who led up, and who brought the offspring of the house of Israel from [the] land [of the] north and from all the lands where he had driven them.' Then they will live in their land."
Because of the ground, [which] is cracked because there was no rain on the ground. [The] farmers are ashamed, they cover their heads.
And I bought the field from Hanamel, the son of my uncle, that [was] at Anathoth. And I weighed out to him the money, seventeen silver shekels.
But they will say, '[It is] hopeless, for we will go after our [own] plans, and each one of us will act [according to] the stubbornness of his evil heart.'
Then Baruch read aloud from the scroll the words of Jeremiah [in] the temple of Yahweh, in the chamber of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, the secretary, in the upper courtyard [at] the entrance of the New Gate of the temple of Yahweh in the hearing of all the people.
when the army of the king of Babylon [was] fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left over--Lachish and Azekah, for these remained among the cities of Judah, the cities of fortification.
A sound, the cry of distress of the shepherds and the wailing of the leaders of the flock, for Yahweh [is] despoiling their pasture.
and all the other people; and all the kings of the land of Uz; and all the kings of the land of [the] Philistines--Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;
And you must say, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter through these gates.
You must not become to me a terror, you [are] my refuge in [the] day of disaster.
Suddenly Babylon has fallen and she is shattered. Wail over her! Take balm for her wounds, perhaps she may be healed.
{And then} when you tell this people all these words and they ask you, '{Why} has Yahweh pronounced against us all this great evil, and what [is] our iniquity, and what [is] our sin that we have sinned against Yahweh our God?'
For I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. And I will build them and not annihilate [them], and I will plant them and not uproot [them].
To the land of Merathaim, go up against her, and against the inhabitants of Pekod, massacre and destroy them," {declares} Yahweh, "and do according to all that I have commanded you.
The word that Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon to attack the land of Egypt:
And I will cleanse them from all their guilt that they sinned against me, and I will forgive all their iniquities that they sinned against me, and that they rebelled against me.
Do you reign as king because you [are] competing in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and he did justice and righteousness, then it was well with him?
The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah, the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, at his going with Zedekiah, the king of Judah, [to] Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah [was the] {quartermaster}.
The {anger} of Yahweh will not turn back until his doing and until his keeping the plans of his {mind}. {In latter days} you will look closely at it [with] understanding.
And you, [do] you seek great [things] for yourself? [Do] not seek [great things], for look, I [am] about to bring disaster upon all flesh," {declares} Yahweh, "but to you I will give your life as booty in all the places where you may go." '"
So I bought the loincloth according to the word of Yahweh and I put [it] on my loins.
'Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: "Look, I [am] about to turn back the weapons of war that [are] in your hands, [with] which you [are] fighting against them, the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are laying siege to you from outside the wall, and I will gather them into the center of this city.
and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastland that [is] across the sea;
Then you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh: "Look, I [am] about to fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings who sit on David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem [with] drunkenness.
Why should you be like a confused man, like a warrior [who] is not able to help? Yet you [are] in our midst, Yahweh, and your name is called upon us. You must not leave us!
{And then}, as Jehudi read three or four columns, he would cut it up in pieces with the knife of the scribe, and he would throw [it] into the fire that [was] in the fire-pot until the whole of the scroll [was] consumed in the fire that was in the fire-pot.
Look, like a lion he comes up from the thickets of the Jordan to {a pastureland by a constantly flowing stream}. So {I will chase him away hurriedly} from it. And whoever [is] chosen I will appoint over it. For who [is] like me, and who can summon me? And who [is] this, [the] shepherd who can stand {before me}?"
And he will be like a juniper in the wilderness, and he will not see when good comes, and he will dwell [in the] parched places in the desert, [in] a land of salt flats, where no one lives.
"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, {saying}, 'Because you yourself sent letter in your name to all the people who [are] in Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, {saying},
And you shall say to them, "Thus says Yahweh: 'If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set {before you},
"But there is nothing [in] your eyes and your heart {except} your unlawful gain, and on shedding the blood of the innocent, and on committing oppression and extortion."
And the army of Pharaoh had come out from Egypt, and the Chaldeans, who were laying siege to Jerusalem, heard their report and they withdrew from Jerusalem.
Does the snow of Lebanon leave from [the] crags of Sirion? Or are [the] cold waters flowing from distant mountains dried up?
For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he has seen and heard his word? Who has listened attentively [to] his word and heard [it]?
And Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon commanded concerning Jeremiah {through} Nebuzaradan, [the] captain of [the] guard, {saying},
And Babylon will become as a heap of stones, a lair of jackals, [an object of] horror, and [an object of] hissing, {without} inhabitants.
Take wives and father sons and daughters, and take for your sons wives, and give your daughters to men that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there, and you must not be few.
And it will happen on that day,' {declares} Yahweh of hosts, 'I will break his yoke from your neck and your bonds I will tear to pieces. And strangers will no longer let him work as a slave.
And I will make them a terror to all of the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, because of what he did in Jerusalem.
And Jeremiah wrote all the disasters that would come on Babylon in one scroll, all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
Who says 'I will build for myself a spacious house with large upper rooms,' and he cuts windows for it, and [it is] paneled with cedar, and he paints [it] with vermilion.
{And then} in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth [day] of the month, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon came against Jerusalem, he and all his army. And they laid siege to it, and built siege works against it all around.
O house of David, thus says Yahweh, "Execute judgment in the morning, justice, and deliver [the] one who has been seized from [the] hand of [the] oppressor, lest my wrath goes forth like the fire and it burns, and there is no [one who] quenches [it] because of the evil of your deeds.
Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, "Please listen, Hananiah, Yahweh has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie.
When Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies who [were] with him, heard all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done,
"And to this people you shall say, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Look, I [am] setting {before you} the way of life and the way of death.
For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and he has redeemed him from [the] hand of [the] person {stronger} than he.
But I, I have not run away from being a shepherd {who follows you}, and I have not desired the disastrous day. You, you know the pronouncement of my lips, it was before your face.
"Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles of Judah whom I have sent away from this place [to the] land of [the] Chaldeans.
For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Look, I [am] about to cause to disappear from this place, before your eyes and in your days, [the] voice of jubilation, and [the] voice of joy, and [the] voice of [the] bridegroom, and [the] voice of [the] bride.
then men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, eighty men [with] shaven beards and torn garments, [who had] cut themselves with blades, {having} grain offerings and frankincense in their hands to bring [to] the {temple} of Yahweh.
{And then} {when} Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all {the soldiers} [with him], they fled and went out [at] night from the city [by] the way of the garden of the king through [the] gate between the walls. And they went out toward the Jordan Valley.
This [is the number of] the people whom Nebuchadnezzar deported: in [the] seventh year, three thousand twenty-three Judeans;
{And then} on the next day, when Pashhur brought Jeremiah out from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "Yahweh will not call your name Pashhur, {but} Terror From All Around.
For {as often as} I speak, I must cry out violence and destruction. I must shout, for the word of Yahweh has become for me a disgrace and derision all day [long].
Pack [your] baggage for exile, O inhabitants of the daughter of Egypt, for Memphis will become as a horror, and it will be destroyed, {without} inhabitant.
"{Therefore} look, days [are] about to come," {declares} Yahweh, "when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, {but} the Valley of the Slaughter.
And I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land. I am bereaved. I have destroyed my people. They did not turn back from their ways.
And [though] Yahweh has sent all his servants the prophets to you {over and over again} you have not listened, and you have not inclined your ear to hear,
{Therefore} look, days [are] coming," {declares} Yahweh, "and I will sound against Rabbah, the {Ammonites}, [the] alarm of [the] war, and it will become as a mound of desolation, and its daughters will burn in the fire. Then Israel will dispossess his dispossessors," says Yahweh.
Thus says Yahweh: 'Look, I [am] going to give Pharaoh Hophra, the king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of those who seek his life, just as I gave Zedekiah the king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, his enemy and the one who sought his life.'"
And the king commanded Jerahmeel, the son of the king, and Seraiah, the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah, the son of Abdeel, to arrest Baruch the secretary and Jeremiah the prophet, but Yahweh hid them.
the men, and the women, and the little children, and the daughters of the king, and {everyone} whom 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--
Ask please and see whether a male can bear a child. Why [do] I see every strong man [with] his hands on his loins like a woman giving birth? And [why] are all [their] faces changed to paleness?
Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the insolent men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, "You [are] telling a lie! Yahweh our God did not send you, {saying}, 'You must not go [to] Egypt to dwell as aliens there.'
For a destroyer [is] coming against her, against Babylon, and her warriors are captured. Their bows are broken; for Yahweh [is] a God of recompense, certainly he will repay.
And I will lay waste the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will bring them to ruin by the sword {before} their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life, and I will give their dead bodies as food to the birds of heaven and to the animals of the earth.
And their nobles send their servants for water. They come to [the] pits, they find no water. They return [with] their vessels {empty}. They are ashamed, and they are confounded, and they cover their heads.
And Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies who [were] in the open country came to Gedaliah [at] Mizpah
"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, {saying}, 'I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
And wild asses stand on [the] barren heights, they gasp [for] breath like the jackals. Their eyes fail because there is no vegetation."
"For thus says Yahweh: 'We have heard a sound of trembling, terror, and there is no peace.
For thus says Yahweh, "You must not enter [the] house of [the] funeral meal, and you must not go to lament, and you must not show sympathy for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people," {declares} Yahweh, "the loyal love and the compassion.
Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the son of Neriah, the secretary, and he wrote on it from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, had burned in the fire, and furthermore was added to them many words like these.
And I will make them as a terror, an evil to all the kingdoms of the earth, as a disgrace and a proverb, as a taunt and a curse, in all the places where I will drive them.
Now these [are] the words that Yahweh spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah.
Yahweh said, "{Surely} I will set you free {to be good} for you, {surely} I will cause the enemy to intercede with you in a time of trouble, and in a time of distress.
And I signed on the letter and sealed [it], and I called witnesses as witness, and I weighed out the money on a set of scales.
Go up, O horses, and drive madly, O chariots, and let the warriors go forth; Cush and Put, who wield [the] small shield, and Lud, who wield [and] bend [the] bow.
To make their land a horror, [an object of] whistling for eternity. All [who] pass by it will be appalled, and he will shake his head.
And their noble will be from them, and their ruler will come out from their midst. And I will bring him near and he will approach me. For who [is] he that would pledge his heart to approach me?' {declares} Yahweh.
While he still had not turned back, [Nebuzaradan] added, "Return to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed [in an official position] over the towns of Judah, and stay with him in the midst of the people. Or to [wherever it is] right in your eyes to go, [then] go [there]." Then [the] captain of [the] guard gave him an allowance of provisions and a present, and let him go.
And I prayed to Yahweh--after giving my deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah--{saying},
Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the courtyard of the house of Yahweh and said to all the people,
Then King Jehoiakim sent men [to] Egypt. Elnathan, the son of Achbor, and men with him [went] to Egypt.
And the word of Yahweh came to me, {saying},
But [if] it does evil in my sight, to not listen to my voice, then I will relent concerning the good that I said I would do [to] it.
Look, the storm of Yahweh has gone forth [in] wrath, even a whirling tempest. It will whirl upon [the] head of [the] wicked
Look, the storm of Yahweh! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling tempest. It will whirl upon [the] head of [the] wicked.
Israel [is] a sheep scattered, lions drove [them] away. [The] first who devoured it [was] the king of Assyria, and now [at] the end Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, gnawed its bones."
{And then}, when Jeremiah had finished speaking to all the people all the words of Yahweh their God, for which Yahweh their God had sent him to them with all these words,
Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet before the eyes of the priests and before the eyes of all the people who were standing in the house of Yahweh,
Baldness has come upon Gaza, Ashkelon is destroyed. O remnant of their valley, {how long} will you cut yourself with a blade?
"Thus says Yahweh: 'Again will be heard in this place, [of] which you [are] saying, "It [is] a waste, {without} people and {without} animals," in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, {without} people and {without} inhabitants and {without} animals,
{And then} in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the towns of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast {before} Yahweh.
Look, they [are] saying to me, "Where [is] the word of Yahweh? Please let it come."
For look, I [am] going to stir up, and I [am] going to bring against Babylon a contingent of great nations from [the] land of [the] north. And they will draw up a battle formation against her, from there she will be captured. Their arrows [are] like a warrior [who has] achieved success, he does not return without success.
For thus says Yahweh, 'Look, I [am] making you a terror to yourself and to all your friends, and they will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes [will be] seeing [it]. And all Judah I will give into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will deport them [to] Babylon, and he will strike them with the sword.
"Thus says Yahweh: 'So I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.
"Take the loincloth that you bought, that [is] on your loins, and stand up, go [to the] Euphrates and hide it there in the cleft of the rock."
"Yahweh made you priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, so that there are overseers [in] the house of Yahweh over any mad man [who] exhibits the behavior of a prophet, and you must put him into the stocks and into the neck iron,
Now the king [was] sitting [in] the quarters of the winter in the ninth month, and a fire-pot [was] burning {before} him.
Perhaps they will listen and turn back each from his evil way, and I will relent of the disaster that I [am] planning to do to them because of their evil deeds.
Also from there you will come out with your hands on your head, for Yahweh has rejected {those in whom you trust}, and you will not prosper through them.
Then the city was breached, and all {the soldiers} fled and went out from the city [by] night [by the] way of [the] gate between the two walls that [are] at the garden of the king, though [the] Chaldeans [were] all around the city. And they went [in] the direction of the Jordan Valley.
{And then} as Jeremiah finished speaking all that Yahweh had commanded [him] to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, {saying}, "You will die!
Then Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, "Hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah who [are] in the land of Egypt.
And they will not break bread for [the] mourning ceremony for them, to comfort him because of [the] dead. And they will not give drink to them, [the] cup of desolation, for their fathers, or for their mothers.
In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on [the] ninth [day] of the month, the city was taken by assault.
Then [the] captain of [the] guard took Seraiah {the chief priest}, and Zephaniah {the second priest}, and three keepers of the threshold.
And he will break the stone pillars of Heliopolis, which [is] in the land of Egypt. And he will burn the {temples} of the gods of Egypt with fire." '"
For I have sworn by myself," {declares} Yahweh, "that Bozrah will become as a horror, as a disgrace, as a waste, and as a curse. And all her towns will be {everlasting sites of ruins}."
because they have done a disgraceful thing in Israel, and they have committed adultery with the wives of their neighbors, and they have spoken words in my name, lies that I have not commanded them, and I [am] he who knows, and [I am] a witness,' {declares} Yahweh."
All your shepherds will shepherd [the] wind, and your lovers will go into captivity. Yes, then you will be ashamed and humiliated because of all your wickedness.
And you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "So I will break this people and this city as one breaks the vessel of the potter, [so] that it is not able to be repaired again. And in Topheth they will bury {until there is no room to bury}.
Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, 'If only you will go surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then {you} will live, and this city will not be burned with fire, and you will live, you and your house.
"You shall not take for yourself a wife, there shall not be for you sons and daughters in this place."
"And I will summon over them four types of calamity," {declares} Yahweh, "the sword to kill, and the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and the wild animals of the earth to devour and to destroy.
For thus says Yahweh, 'Your injury [is] incurable, your wound [is] overcome by sickness.
And if you indeed obey this word, then kings who sit for David on his throne will enter through the gates of this house, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.
But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies took all the remnant of Judah who had returned from all the nations [to] which they had been scattered to dwell as aliens in the land of Judah--
"Therefore thus says Yahweh, 'Please ask among the nations, "Who has heard {the like of this}?" The virgin of Israel has done something very horrible.
And [the] Chaldeans broke the pillars of bronze that [were] in the {temple} of Yahweh, and the kettle stands and the sea of bronze that [were] in the {temple} of Yahweh, and they carried all their bronze [to] Babylon.
[They are] continually saying to those who disregard the word of Yahweh, 'Peace it will be to you,' and [to] {each one} who walks in the stubbornness of his heart they say, 'Calamity will not come upon you.'
But if you do not obey these words, I swear by myself," {declares} Yahweh, "that this house will become a site of ruins." '"
{Therefore} desert creatures will live [there] with jackals, and daughters of ostriches will inhabit her. And she will not be inhabited again {forever}, and she will not be dwelt in {for all generations}.
How Sheshach is captured, and the glory of all the earth is seized! How Babylon has become as an [object of] horror among the nations!
The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the king of Judah, {saying},
Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh, for he has delivered [the] life of [the] poor from [the] hand of evildoers.
You must not be afraid, my servant Jacob," {declares} Yahweh, "for I [am] with you. For I will make a complete destruction in all the nations where I scattered you, but you I will not make a complete destruction, though I will chastise you to the measure, and I will certainly not leave you unpunished."
And I will pursue them with the sword, with the famine, and with the plague, and I will make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse, and a horror, and [an object of] hissing, and a disgrace among all the nations to which I have driven them,
She who gave birth to seven has withered away. She gasps her breath. Her sun {set} while still day. She has been put to shame and disgraced. And the remainder of them I will give to the sword {before} their enemies," {declares} Yahweh.
They will ask [the] way [to] Zion, [turning] their faces there. They will come and join themselves to Yahweh [by] {an everlasting covenant} [that] will not be forgotten.
The glory of Moab is no longer. In Heshbon they planned evil against her. Come and let us cut her off from [being] a nation. Also, Madmen, you will be silent. After you will go [the] sword.
{but only} "{As Yahweh lives}, who led up the {Israelites} from [the] land of [the] north, and from all the lands where he had driven them," for I will bring them back to their ground that I gave to their ancestors.
and said to him, "{Are you at all aware} that Baalis, the king of the {Ammonites}, has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, to kill you?" But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam would not believe them.
which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, {saying},
{saying}, 'Turn back please, each one from his evil way, and from the evil of your deeds, and live on the land that Yahweh has given to you and to your ancestors from a long time back and until forever,
[O you who] live by mighty waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, {the measure of your life}.
A drought [will come] against her waters, and they will dry up, for it [is] a land of images, and because of the frightful [objects], they act like madmen.
And to Shemaiah the Nehelamite you shall say, {saying},
And {you have behaved badly} more than your ancestors, and look, you [are] going each one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, without listening to me.
Against the walls of Babylon raise a banner; {post a strong watch}, post watchmen, prepare the ambushes, for Yahweh has both planned as well as performed what he has spoken concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
For even [the] doe in the field gives birth and forsakes [her young], because there is no green growth.
Go up [to] Lebanon and cry out, and in Bashan lift up your voice, and cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers are shattered.
Their redeemer [is] strong, his name [is] Yahweh of hosts. Surely he will plead their case, in order to make peace [for] the earth, but to cause unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.
"Go to the house of the Rechabites, and speak with them, and bring them [to] the house of Yahweh into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink."
As the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors," says Yahweh, "{no one} will live there, and the son of humankind will not dwell as an alien in it.
{Therefore} all [those who] devour you will be devoured, and all your foes, all of them will go into captivity, and [those who] plunder you will be as plunder, and all [those who] plunder you I will make as plunder.
And thanksgiving and [the] sound of merrymakers will come out from them, and I will make them numerous, and they will not be few. And I will make them honored, and they will not be lowly.
Now {therefore} amend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of Yahweh your God, and Yahweh will relent of the disaster that he has spoken over you.
"But it will be [that] the nation or kingdom that will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, and with the famine, and with the plague," {declares} Yahweh, "until I have destroyed it with my hand.
And I spoke words like these to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, {saying}, "Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
In those days and at that time," {declares} Yahweh, "the guilt of Israel will be sought, but there [is] none, and the sins of Judah, but they will not be found, for I will forgive those I left behind.
Flee from the midst of Babylon, and from the land of [the] Chaldeans. Go out and be like he-goats {before} [the] flock.
From the cry for help of Heshbon, up to Elealeh, up to Jahaz, they give their voice, from Zoar up to Horonaim, [up to] Eglath-shelishiyah, for even the waters of Nimrim have become as a desolation.
Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has been quiet on his dregs, and he has not been poured out from vessel to vessel, and he has not gone into exile. {Therefore} his taste has remained unchanged, and his fragrance has not changed.
And I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand, and with strong arm, and in {anger}, and in fury, and in great wrath.
"Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol, and proclaim in Memphis and in Tahpanhes, say, 'Take your stand and be prepared, for [the] sword will devour [those] all around you.'
And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, {saying},
"Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: 'Go and say to Zedekiah the king of Judah, now you must say to him, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Look, I [am] going to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.
And you, Pashhur, and all [those who] live [in] your house will go into captivity, and you will go [to] Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried, you, and all your friends to whom you have prophesied {falsely}.'"
And there is hope for your future," {declares} Yahweh, "and [your] children will return to their territory.
For because of your trusting in your works and in your treasures, even you yourselves will be taken, and Chemosh will go out into the exile, his priests and his officials together.
And I will consecrate against you destroyers, everyone with his weapons, and they will cut down {your choicest cedars}, and cast [them] on the fire.
"Thus says Yahweh, 'The [one who] stays in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague. But the [one who] goes out to the Chaldeans will live. And his life will be for him as booty, and he will live.'
And it will be to me a name of jubilation, a praise, and a glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear all the good that I [will] do [for] them, and they will fear, and they will tremble because of all the good, and because of all the prosperity that I [will] provide for it.'
great in counsel and great [in] deed, whose eyes [are] opened to all the ways of the children of humankind, to give to each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds,
Summon archers against Babylon, all those who bend [the] bow. Encamp all around her, there must not be for her an escape. Take revenge on her according to her deeds. According to all that she has done, [so] do to her. For against Yahweh she has behaved insolently, against the Holy One of Israel.
Look, like an eagle he will go up and he will swoop down, and he will spread out his wings against Bozrah. And the heart of the warriors of Edom will be in that day like [the] heart of a woman [who] is in labor.
He who stays in this city will die by the sword, or by the famine, or by the plague. And he who goes out and goes over to the Chaldeans who are laying siege to you will live, and his life will be to him as booty.
We tried to heal Babylon, and she was not healed. Forsake her and let us go each one to his country, for her judgment has reached to the heavens, and it has been lifted up to [the] skies.
More than the weeping of Jazer I weep for you, O vine Sibmah. Your branches cross over [the] sea, up to the sea of Jazer they reach. Upon your summer fruit and upon your vintage [the] destroyer has fallen.
and Zedekiah, the king of Judah, will not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but surely he will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and {he will speak face to face with him} and {he will see him eye to eye},
And Zedekiah the king sent and made someone bring Jeremiah the prophet to him, to [the] third entrance that [was] at the {temple} of Yahweh. And the king said to Jeremiah, "I [am] asking you {something}, you must not hide {anything} from me."
And Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went [to] Babylon, I [will] bring back to this place,' {declares} Yahweh, 'For I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.'"
Then you shall say to them, '{Because} your ancestors have forsaken me,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and they have gone after other gods, and they have served them, and they have bowed down in worship to them, and they have forsaken me, and they have not kept my laws.
And I will bring to Elam four winds, from the four corners of heaven, and I will scatter them to all these winds, and there will not be a nation where the scattered people of Elam will not go.
And I will repay Babylon, and all the inhabitants of Chaldea, all their wickedness that they have done in Zion before your eyes," {declares} Yahweh.
Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, said, "Look, I [am] going to punish Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, and her gods, and her kings, even Pharaoh and those who trust in him.
Look, I [am] against you, O inhabitants of the valley, O rock of the plain," {declares} Yahweh; "you who say, 'Who can descend against us, or who can enter into our hiding place?'
However, the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not given into the hand of the people to put him to death.
Then the rest of the people who were left in the city, and those deserting who had deserted to him, and the rest of the people who remained, Nebuzaradan, [the] captain of [the] guard, deported [to] Babylon.
which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, did not take when he deported Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, from Jerusalem [to] Babylon, {along with} all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem.
For I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good," {declares} Yahweh. It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire." '
Then Jeremiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to Zedekiah:
And the officials were angry at Jeremiah and they struck him. And they put him [in] {prison}, [in] the house of Jonathan the secretary, for they had converted it to the {prison}.
And I will bring upon that land all my words that I have spoken against it, everything that is written in this scroll which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations.
For [on] every head [is] baldness, and every beard is trimmed. On all [the] hands, slashes, and on [the] loins, sackcloth.
And {afterward}," {declares} Yahweh, "I will give Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and those who remain in this city from the plague, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their lives, and he will strike them with [the] {edge} of [the] sword. He will not take pity on them, and he will not have compassion, nor will he show compassion." '
Leave your orphans. I will let [them] live. And your widows, let them trust in me."
"And Hazor will become as a lair of jackals, a waste forever; no one will live there, and no son of humankind will dwell as an alien in it."
{Why} did I come out from [the] womb, to see toil, and sorrow, and [to] {end my days in shame}?
'If only you will stay in this land, then I will build you and I will not tear [you] down, and I will plant you and I will not pluck [you] up, for I relent of the disaster that I have brought to you.
{Therefore} my heart moans for Moab like the flute. It moans for the people of Kir-heres like the flute. {Therefore} [the] wealth they gained has perished.
So I took the cup from the hand of Yahweh and I gave [it] [to] all the nations to whom Yahweh sent me to drink:
You will again plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. [The] planters will plant, and they will enjoy [it].
Like the wind from the east I will scatter them {before} [the] enemy. I will show them [my] back and not [my] face in the day of their disaster.'"
At their becoming hot I will set their banquets, and I will make them drunk, so that they will fall into a swoon, and they will sleep {an everlasting sleep}, and they will not wake up," {declares} Yahweh.
Then I {set} {before} the house of the Rechabites bowls full of wine and cups, and I said to them, "Drink wine."
As [when] God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors," {declares} Yahweh, "no one will live there, and [the] son of humankind will not dwell as an alien in her.
And also all the Judeans who [were] in Moab, and among the {Ammonites}, and in Edom, and who [were] in all the lands, [when] they heard that the king of Babylon had given a remnant to Judah and that he had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, [in an official position] over them,
When Micaiah, the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of Yahweh from the scroll,
The warriors of Babylon have ceased to fight, they remain in the strongholds, their power has dried up, they have become as women. Her dwelling places are set on fire, her bars are broken.
Look, like a lion he comes up from the thickets of the Jordan against {a pastureland by a constantly flowing stream}, so {I will chase them away quickly} from her, and I will appoint whoever [is] chosen over her. For who [is] like me, and who can summon me, and who [is] this shepherd who can stand {before me}?
How the blacksmith's hammer of all the earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become as a horror among the nations!
If grape-gatherers come to you, would they not leave gleanings? If thieves in the night, they destroy [only] {enough for them}.
Then Ishmael took captive all the rest of the people who [were] in Mizpah, the daughters of the king and all the people who were left at Mizpah, [over] whom Nebuzaradan, [the] captain of [the] guard, had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. And Ishmael took them captive and set out to cross over to the {Ammonites}.
Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "The broad walls of Babylon will be utterly demolished, and her high gates will burn with fire, and [the] peoples will labor {for nothing}, and [the] nations {for fire}, and they will grow weary."
Because he did not kill me in [the] womb, so that my mother would have been for me my grave, and [her] womb [would be] pregnant forever.
"[Concerning] the word that you have spoken to us in the name of Yahweh, we [are] not going to listen to you!
And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore to them and to their men, {saying}, "You must not be afraid of serving the Chaldeans. Stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.
"Have you not seen how these people speak, {saying}, 'The two clans whom Yahweh chose, he has also rejected them'? Thus they spurn my people from being a nation {before them} [any] longer.
And they brought out Uriah from Egypt and they brought him to King Jehoiakim, and he struck him down with the sword, and he threw his dead body into the burial sites of the sons of the people.
A sword against his horses, and against his chariots, and against all the foreign troops who [are] in the midst of her, so that they may become as women. A sword against her treasures, so that they may be plundered.
They will not take from you a stone for a corner, and a stone for a foundation, for you will be {an everlasting desolation}," {declares} Yahweh.
And I will restore Israel to its pasture, and it will feed [on] Carmel, and [in] Bashan, and on the hills of Ephraim, and [in] Gilead its hunger will be satisfied.
And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah got up, {along with} the ten men who were with him, and they struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword and killed him whom the king of Babylon had appointed [in an official position] over the land.
{And then} as I have watched over them to pull up, and to tear down, and to annihilate, and to destroy, and to do evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant," {declares} Yahweh.
Perhaps [when] the house of Judah hears all the disasters that I [am] planning to do to them, then they may turn back each one from his evil way, and I will forgive their guilt and their sin."
because of all the evil of the people of Israel and the people of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger--they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah, "You [are like] Gilead to me, [like] the head of the Lebanon. {Surely} I will make you a desert, [like] cities [that] are not inhabited.
And joy and rejoicing have been taken away from [the] fruitful land, even from the land of Moab. And [the] wine from [the] wine presses I have caused to disappear. He will not tread [with] exuberant shouts. Exuberant shouts [will] not [be] exuberant shouts.
in [the] twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, [the] captain of [the] guard, deported seven hundred and forty-five Judean persons; [there were] four thousand six hundred persons in all.
and [to] Babylon he will bring Zedekiah, and there he will be until my attending to him," {declares} Yahweh. "If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not be successful" '?"
and they came [into] the land of Egypt, for they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh. And they came up to Tahpanhes.
And some of the poor people, {who had nothing}, Nebuzaradan, [the] captain of [the] guard, left in the land of Judah. And he gave them vineyards and fields on that day.
For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "The daughter of Babylon [is] like a threshing floor [at the] time it [is] trodden down, {just a little while} and the time of the harvest will come for her."
So you must go and you shall read aloud from the scroll that you have written from my mouth the words of Yahweh in the hearing of the people [in] the temple of Yahweh on a day of fast, and also you shall read aloud in the hearing of all those of Judah who came from their towns.
Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies who [were] with him took from Mizpah all the rest of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, after he had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, strong men, {soldiers}, and women, and little children, and eunuchs whom he brought back from Gibeon.
Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon [at] Riblah in the land of Hamath, and {he passed sentence on him}.
So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, [at] Mizpah and stayed with him in the midst of the people who were left in the land.
and I brought them [to] the house of Yahweh, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which [was] beside the chamber of the officials, which [was] above the chamber of Maaseiah, the son of Shallum, the keeper of the threshold.
"Though you rejoice, though you exult, O plunderers of my inheritance, though you frisk about like a heifer on the grass, and you neigh like the powerful stallions,
"{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, 'You have not listened to me to proclaim release each one to his fellow countryman and each one to his neighbor. Look, I [am] going to proclaim to you a release,' {declares} Yahweh, 'to the sword, to the plague, and to the famine, and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
Then all the officials sent Jehudi, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, {saying}, "The scroll that you read aloud from in the hearing of the people, take it in your hand and come." And Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and he came to them.
to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I have sent to you, {over and over again}, though you have not listened,
thus says Yahweh of hosts, 'Look, I [am] going to send among them the sword, the famine, and the plague, and I will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten because of [their] bad quality.
And I will make you serve your enemies in a land [that] you [do] not know, for a fire will kindle in my anger. Upon you it will be kindled."
And the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes. The king of Babylon also slaughtered all the nobles of Judah.
And the Chaldeans, who are fighting against this city, will come and set this city on fire, and they will burn it, and the houses where they have made smoke offerings on their roofs to Baal, and [where] they have devoted libations to other gods, in order to provoke me to anger.
And I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds," {declares} Yahweh, "And I will kindle a fire in its forest, and it will devour all its surroundings." '"
and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "May our plea please fall {before you}, and pray for us to Yahweh your God, for all this remnant, for we are left [but] a few of many, as your eyes [are] seeing us.
Their widows will be more numerous before me than [the] sand of [the] seas. I have brought to them, against [the] mothers of young men, a destroyer at noon. I will suddenly drop on her anguish and horror.
And the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah.
And the king and any of his servants who heard all these words were not startled, and they did not tear their garments.
And all the nations will serve him, and his son, and {his grandson}, until the coming of the time of {his own} land. Then many nations and great kings will let him work.
We are ashamed, for we have heard taunts, disgrace covers our faces, for strangers have come to the holy places of the house of Yahweh.
And I sent to you all my servants the prophets, {sending over and over again}, {saying}, "Please, you must not do this detestable thing that I hate."
Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it.
'They will be brought [to] Babylon, and there they will stay until the day of my attending to them,' {declares} Yahweh. 'Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.'"
Then they will answer, 'Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God, and bowed down in worship to other gods, and served them.'"
And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, {saying},
[Did] Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and all Judah actually put him to death? [Was he] not in fear of Yahweh? And he entreated the face of Yahweh, and Yahweh relented of the disaster that he had spoken against them. But we [are] about to do great disaster to ourselves."
"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Look, I [am] about to bring to this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their neck to not hear my words.'"
Let not him who bends the bow shoot his bow, and let him not rise high in his body armor. And you must not spare her young men; destroy her whole army.
"In the shadow of Heshbon fugitives stand without strength, for a fire has gone out from Heshbon, and a flame from Sihon. And it has eaten the forehead of Moab, and the skulls of the people of tumult.
So I went and hid it by [the] Euphrates just as Yahweh had commanded me.
and say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: "Look, I [am] going to send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will set his throne above these stones that I have hidden. And he will spread out his canopy over them.
Then Hanamel, the son of my uncle, came to me, to the courtyard of the guard {according to} the word of Yahweh, and he said to me, 'Please buy my field that [is] at Anathoth, that [is] in the land of Benjamin, for to you [is] the claim of possession, and to you the redemption; buy [it] for yourself.' Then I knew that this [was] the word of Yahweh.
And for the priests, a man from the Levites [who] offers burnt offerings and [who] burns grain offerings and [who] brings sacrifices will not be cut off {before me} {forever}.'"
For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: "Houses and fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land." '
Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and to all the people, {saying}, "Yahweh sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.
Then I went [to the] Euphrates and I dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it, and look, the loincloth was ruined; it was not good for anything.
Why do you boast in [your] valleys? Your valleys [are] ebbing. O unfaithful daughter, who trusted in her treasures, [who said], 'Who will come against me?'
And I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, {I have sent them over and over again}, {saying}, 'Turn back please each one from his evil way, and amend your deeds, and you must not go after other gods to serve them, {so that you may live} on the land that I gave to you and to your ancestors.' But you did not incline your ear and you did not listen to me.
We have heard [of] the pride of Moab --[he is] very proud-- his height, and his pride, and his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his heart.
But Baruch the son of Neriah [is] inciting you against us in order to give us into the hand of the Chaldeans, to kill us and to deport us [to] Babylon."
Then King Zedekiah sent and fetched him. And the king questioned him in secrecy in his house, and he said, "Is there a word from Yahweh?" And Jeremiah said, "There is." And he said, "You will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon."
then I will make this house like Shiloh, and this city I will make a curse for all the nations of the earth.'" '"
"And to the house of the king of Judah, 'Hear the word of Yahweh,
"The words of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, that he commanded his descendants to not drink, have been carried out, and they have not drunk until this day, for they have obeyed the command of their ancestor. But {I have spoken to you over and over again}, and you have not listened to me.
For a nation will come up against her from [the] north. It will make her land as a horror, and an inhabitant will not be in her. From humans to animals they [all] will wander [off]. They will go [away].
Yahweh has brought forth our vindication. Come and let us make known in Zion the work of Yahweh our God.
your mother will be very ashamed. [She who] gave birth [to] you will be humiliated. Look, [she will be the] least of [the] nations, a desert, dry land, and wilderness.
Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, and its kings, [and] its officials, to make them a site of ruins, a horror, an [object of] hissing, and a curse, as [it is] this day;
Cursed be the man who brought the news [to] my father, {saying}, "A child is born to you, a son!" and he made him very glad.
And the fields will be bought in this land [of] which you [are] saying, "It [is] a desolation, {without humankind or animals}. It has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans."
All [those who] found them have devoured them. And their foes have said, 'We are not guilty, {because} they have sinned against Yahweh, the {true pasture}, even Yahweh, the hope of their ancestors.'
And I will send among them the sword, the famine, and the plague, until they perish from the land that I gave to them and their ancestors.'"
Then men from the elders of the land arose and said to all the assembly of the people, {saying},
But Nebuzaradan [the] captain of [the] guard left [some] of the poor of the land [to serve] as vinedressers and farmers.
For Yahweh [is] devastating Babylon, and he obliterates [her] loud noise from her. Their waves roar like mighty waters, the roar of their voices resounds.
Yahweh has opened his armory, and he has brought out the weapons of his wrath, for it [is] a word for my Lord Yahweh of hosts in the land of [the] Chaldeans.
So King Zedekiah commanded, and they handed Jeremiah over in the courtyard of the guard, and they gave to him a round loaf of bread from the street of the bakers {every day} until the finishing of all the bread from the city. And Jeremiah stayed in the courtyard of the guard.
and on Kerioth, and on Bozrah, and on all the towns of the land of Moab, the far and the near.
Come down from glory and sit on the parched ground, O inhabitant, daughter of Dibon, for the destroyer of Moab has come up against you, he has destroyed your fortifications.
So Nebuzaradan, [the] captain of [the] guard, sent [word], {along with} Nebushazban [the] chief officer, and Nergal-sharezer [the] high official, and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon.
And Baruch the son of Neriah did all that Jeremiah the prophet instructed him, to read aloud from the scroll the words of Yahweh [in] the temple of Yahweh.
He will be buried [with] the burial of a donkey. [He will be] dragged away and thrown {outside} the gates of Jerusalem.
For many nations and great kings will let them work, even them, and I will repay them according to their deeds, and according to the work of their hands.'"
where Zedekiah, the king of Judah, had confined him, {saying}, "Why [are] you prophesying, {saying}, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Look, I [am] going to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it,
{As I live}," {declares} the king, Yahweh of hosts [is] his name, "one will come like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea.
And the Chaldeans burned the palace of the king and the houses of the people with fire and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
Come out from her midst, my people, and save each one his life from {the burning anger of} Yahweh.
But you turned back and you profaned my name when you brought back each one his [male] slave and each one his female slave, whom you had let go free according to their desire, and you subdued them to be to you as [male] slaves and as female slaves.'
"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen all the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the towns of Judah. And look, they [are] a site of ruins this day, and there is not in them an inhabitant,
Kerioth will be taken, and the strongholds will be conquered, and the hearts of the warriors of Moab will be on that day like [the] heart of a woman [who] is in labor.
then my covenant could be broken with David my servant, from {having} a son who could rule on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, my ministers.
All your lovers have forgotten you, they do not care for you. I have struck you [with the] blow of an enemy, [the] punishment of [the] cruel, because of the greatness of your guilt, your sins are numerous.
So I will throw you from this land to the land that you have not known, you or your ancestors, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will not show you favor.
"For who will have compassion on you, Jerusalem, or who will show sympathy to you, or who will turn aside {to ask about your welfare}?
{And then} when you finish reading aloud this scroll, you must tie a stone on it, and you must throw it into the middle of [the] Euphrates.
For because of the {anger} of Yahweh this happened in Jerusalem and Judah until his casting them from his {presence}. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
"{Therefore} their way will be to them like the slippery places, they will be pushed in the darkness, and they will fall into it, for I will bring disaster on them [in] the year of their punishment," {declares} Yahweh.
{Therefore} hear the plan of Yahweh that he has planned against Edom, and his plans that he has planned against the inhabitants of Teman. {Surely} they will drag them away, the little [ones] of the flock. {Surely} he will cause to be desolated over them their grazing place.
And indeed, [when] we [were] making smoke offerings to the queen of heaven and {pouring out} to her libations, [was it not] {with the consent of} our husbands [that] we made for her sacrificial cakes {marked with her image}, and we poured out to her libations?"
And I will take [away] the remnant of Judah {who are determined} to come [to] the land of Egypt to dwell as aliens there, and everyone will perish. They will fall in the land of Egypt by the sword; they will perish by the famine, from [the] smallest to [the] greatest. By the sword and by the famine they will die and become as a curse, as a horror, and as a curse, and as a disgrace.
So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies, and all the people did not listen to the voice of Yahweh to stay in the land of Judah.
I spoke to you {in the times you were secure}, [and] you said, 'I will not listen!' This [was] your way from your youth, for you have not obeyed my voice.
And they set out and stayed at the lodging place of Chimham that [is] near Bethlehem, {intending} to go [to] Egypt
And Judah and all of its towns together will live in it, farmers and those who travel with the flocks.
All humankind turns out to be stupid, without knowledge. Every goldsmith is put to shame by [the] divine image. For his cast image [is] a lie, and [there is] no breath in them.
from the sound of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions, from the clattering of his chariots, the noise of their wheels. Fathers do not turn to [their] children because of [the] slackness of [their] hands.
Then he will kindle a fire in the {temples} of the gods of Egypt, and he will burn them and take them captive. And he will wrap up the land of Egypt just as the shepherd wraps up his cloak. And he will go forth from there in peace.
and you must not go after other gods to serve them, and to bow in worship to them, and you must not provoke me to anger with the work of your hands, then I will not do something bad to you.'
"Go, and you must say to Hananiah, {saying}, 'Thus says Yahweh, "You have broken yoke bars of wood, but you have made in place of them yoke bars of iron."
Yet, Yahweh of hosts, who tests [the] righteous, who sees [the] {heart} and [the] {mind}, let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have revealed my legal case.