Most Popular Bible Verses in Jeremiah
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Chapter
Jeremiah Rank:
For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:
Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Call to me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
Before I formed thee in embryo I knew thee; and before thou wast born I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet to the nations.
Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk in it, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it.
It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, to the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice upon the earth.
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
The LORD appeared of old to me, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.
Israel was holiness to the LORD, and the first-fruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD.
Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.
Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Jeremiah, What seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond-tree.
But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
But the LORD said to me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatever I command thee thou shalt speak.
The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
Wilt thou not from this time cry to me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?
Thus shall ye say to them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and its face is towards the north.
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, saith the LORD:
Wherefore a lion from the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
Then said the LORD to me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
Then the LORD said to me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, Gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.
For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast have fled; they are gone.
For behold, I have made thee this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against her princes, against her priests, and against the people of the land.
For lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls around, and against all the cities of Judah.
Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;
As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and devastation is heard in her; before me continually are grief and wounds.
And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.
And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.
Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.
Will he retain his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldst.
The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?
Set up the standard towards Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.
I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.
Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
Thus said the LORD to me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit; and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.
Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry to the gods to which they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.
When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
But go ye now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.
Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and have become vain?
The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she hath gone up upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.
For my eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from my eyes.
And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?
They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbor's wife.
And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.
The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.
The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.
Thus saith the LORD against all my evil neighbors, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them.
Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drouth, and of the shades of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?
Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.
And say to them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter by these gates:
For thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them that they may find it so.
I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.
Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus saith the LORD concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite; Because Shemaiah hath prophesied to you, and I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie:
And I saw, when for all the causes by which backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, because of the famine, and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.
And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou to me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn back thy hand as a grape-gatherer into the baskets.
O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!
And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit of it, and the goodness of it; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.
Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD'S.
Then came the word of the LORD to Jeremiah, saying,
Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even to the priest every one dealeth falsely.
But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the LORD.
And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spoke to you, rising early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;
Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time when they cry to me for their trouble.
And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD liveth; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my people.
And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled my inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.
The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.
For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.
For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.
My tabernacle is laid waste, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone from me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
Who is the wise man that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?
For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send to Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there is such a thing.
And it came to pass through the lightness of her lewdness, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yes, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;
To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.
Thus saith the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead.
For the pastors have become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.
For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thy anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.
And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and meat-offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, to the house of the LORD.
Then the LORD said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I have not sent them, neither have I commanded them, neither spoken to them: they prophesy to you a false vision and divination, and a thing of naught, and the deceit of their heart.
Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.
Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether to me as a liar, and as waters that fail?
Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt-offerings to your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
Go and proclaim these words towards the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause my anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.
Who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.
They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;
But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it.
And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned to me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.
And it shall come to pass at that day, saith the LORD, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.
Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth to the soul.
And it shall come to pass, after I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.
Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.
Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.
Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.
They say, If a man shall put away his wife, and she shall go from him, and become another man's, shall he return to her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.
And the LORD said to me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.
But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:
At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness towards the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,
Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh to you, O house of Israel:
For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD.
Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married to you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
Therefore will I do to this house, which is called by my name, in which ye trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.
What hath my beloved to do in my house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many; and the holy flesh is passed from thee? when thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest.
And the LORD hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou showedst me their doings.
Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? no, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou shalt return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou shalt separate the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return to thee; but return not thou to them.
Behold, the sound of the noise is come, and a great commotion from the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.
The LORD called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.
They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
And I will give you pastors according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.
At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem; neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.
As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;
The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
Thy own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given to them shall pass away from them.
For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.
If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yes, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.
For from the least of them even to the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest every one dealeth falsely.
And their houses shall be turned to others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD.
Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! for we are laid waste.
Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thy espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine to me?
But, O LORD of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for to thee have I revealed my cause.
Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is JEHOVAH.
They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
And it shall come to pass, when ye shall be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.
Hast thou not procured this to thyself in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?
For the LORD of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense to Baal.
Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me speak with thee of thy judgments: Why doth the way of the wicked prosper? why are they all happy that deal very treacherously?
And I will make thee to this people a fortified brazen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
Only acknowledge thy iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.
For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.
Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in my anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again to this place, and I will cause them to dwell in safety.
And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?
Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that thou die not by our hand:
In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together from the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance to your fathers.
The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.
Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? no, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.
For though thou shalt wash thee with niter, and take thee much soap, yet thy iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD.
Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.
Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake; do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, my anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done to them.
But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.
Give glory to the LORD your God, before he shall cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while ye look for light, he shall turn it into the shades of death, and make it gross darkness.
Therefore thou shalt say this word to them; Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.
Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.
Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come to thee; for thou art the LORD our God.
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon;
Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.
My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD?
The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they have come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.
Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.
And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house.
I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.
But this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well to you.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for skillful women, that they may come:
How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;
Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.
O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?
O LORD, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things in which there is no profit.
If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, in which thou hast trusted, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?
And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine:
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its broad places, if ye can find a man, if there is any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.
We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold, trouble!
Therefore thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and vomit, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.
Therefore deliver their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, Behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
Even a full wind from those places shall come to me: now also will I give sentence against them.
A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.
Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
Forasmuch as there is none like to thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.
Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the hight of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come to her, saith the LORD.
A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.
As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed: they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets,
For I spoke not to your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices:
They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
For my people are foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have no understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of skillful men.
Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
But where are thy gods that thou hast made for thyself? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.
Is there no balm in Gilead: is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered.
If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.
Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?
If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return to me: and if thou wilt put away thy abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.
Lift up thy eyes to the high places, and see where thou hast not been lain with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy acts of lewdness, and with thy wickedness.
Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.
Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry to me, I will not hearken to them.
Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back to me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.
Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though its waves toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?
Thou hast planted them, yes, they have taken root: they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.
And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.
Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a distant country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?
Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; who have eyes, and see not; who have ears, and hear not:
How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He will not see our last end.
Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there hath been no latter rain? and thou hadst a harlot's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.
For behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.
But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD who exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.
They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it may not move.
But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction.
Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste; suddenly are my tents ruined, and my curtains in a moment.
Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like to thee.
And I will deliver thee from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee from the hand of the terrible.
Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
And the LORD said to me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation.
Thy way and thy doings have procured these things to thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth to thy heart.
I have forsaken my house, I have left my heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.
And they shall eat up thy harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig-trees: they shall impoverish with the sword thy fortified cities, in which thou hast trusted.
Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken?
They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.
And say thou to them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant,
The spoilers have come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
For shame hath devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not.
And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thy hand to drink, then shalt thou say to them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.
We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.
Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in its season: he reserveth to us the appointed weeks of harvest.
Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened to my words, nor to my law, but have rejected it.
But this people have a revolting and a rebellious heart; they have revolted and gone.
But thou, O LORD, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried my heart towards thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth from the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God:
Then the LORD said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them.
Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.
And they have turned to me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.
For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.
That I may perform the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.
Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.
For thus saith the LORD; As I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.
Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever.
Yes, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.
And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
As keepers of a field they are against her on all sides; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD.
And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.
My heritage is to me as a lion in the forest; it crieth out against me: therefore have I hated it.
They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth to me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.
For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have dealt treacherously with thee; yes, they have called a multitude after thee: believe them not, though they speak fair words to thee.
Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.
My heritage is to me as a speckled bird, the birds around are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.
Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you.
For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.
As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they have become great, and have grown rich.
For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
And when thou art laid waste, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rendest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair: thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.
And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Why doeth the LORD our God all these things to us? then shalt thou answer them, As ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath.
For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.
But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and my eye shall weep bitterly, and run down with tears, because the LORD'S flock is carried away captive.
Thus saith the LORD, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.
Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumbling-blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbor and his friend shall perish.
And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
They have become fat, they shine: yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
Moreover, thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?
I hearkened and heard, but they spoke not aright: no man repented of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth to the battle.
Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.
O LORD, are not thy eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.
And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken to me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;
Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.
Cut off thy hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshiped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thy anger.
The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we laid waste! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.
We have heard the fame of it: our hands become feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.
They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.
Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
And now therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, of which ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence;
At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:
Since the day that your fathers came forth from the land of Egypt to this day I have even sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them:
For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor;
Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.
Stand in the gate of the LORD'S house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.
For thus hath the LORD of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.
Yet they hearkened not to me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.
I will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.
Why then hath this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
But thou shalt say to them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth hath perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! for the day departeth, for the shadows of the evening are lengthened.
If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed: he shall not have a man to dwell among this people; neither shall he behold the good that I will do for my people, saith the LORD; because he hath taught rebellion against the LORD.
And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.
The shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch their tents against her on every side; they shall feed every one in his place.
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
For death hath come up into our windows, and hath entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.
Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.
The bellows is burned, the lead is consumed by the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel to the gate of the corner.
Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and out-stretched arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:
But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.
Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.
Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.
Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray to me, and I will hearken to you.
Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcasses of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvest-man, and none shall gather them.
Therefore thou shalt speak all these words to them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call to them; but they will not answer thee.
And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
Say to the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them who are circumcised with the uncircumcised;
And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook of Kidron, to the corner of the horse-gate towards the east, shall be holy to the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.
Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.
For both prophet and priest are profane; even in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.
Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of way-faring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders.
But if ye will not hearken to me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? thou shalt then say to them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the LORD.
Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
For I will restore health to thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.
And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bore thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.
To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a distant country? your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet to me.
Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.
Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say to them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.
In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell in safety: and this is his name by which he shall be called, JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.
The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.
Woe be to the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised from the borders of the earth.
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?
For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years shall be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word towards you, in causing you to return to this place.
The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them; Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive.
Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul loathed Zion? Why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!
But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent to you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the LORD;
We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against thee.
And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, Rab-saris, Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon.
Is not my word like a fire? saith the LORD? and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders who were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon;
A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after that Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, who were carried away captive to Babylon.
Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.
They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born.
Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?
Thus saith the LORD, who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divideth the sea when its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
At the same time, saith the LORD, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
Therefore behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbor.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not to the words of the prophets that prophesy to you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not from the mouth of the LORD.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.
And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?
And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.
Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel in which is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evil-doers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them to me as Sodom, and the inhabitants of it as Gomorrah.
And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray to the LORD for it: for in the peace of it ye shall have peace.
How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain he hath made it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
And king Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah.
I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel; thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.
The LORD showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.
Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.
And I will gather the remnant of my flock from all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
Behold, the days come saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
Thus saith the LORD to me, Go and get for thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.
Thus saith the LORD, The people who were left by the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.
At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
Then said the LORD to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be towards this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.
Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and afterwards will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
Woe to him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
And thou, even thyself, shall discontinue from thy heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thy enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in my anger, which shall burn for ever.
Therefore behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
Thus saith the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;
Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver him that is laid waste out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.
Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word from the LORD, saying,
The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent to him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,
And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, who was of Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests, and of all the people, saying,
For thus saith the LORD God of Israel to me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.
Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.
Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste: cry, ye daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth; lament, and run to and fro by the hedges; for their king shall go into captivity, and his priests and his princes together.
And if thou shalt say in thy heart, Why come these things upon me? For the greatness of thy iniquity are thy skirts uncovered, and thy heels made bare.
And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:
Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
My heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness.
And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon;
As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister to me.
For lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.
Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.
In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.
Therefore they shall come and sing in the hight of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.
O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.
In those days, and at that time, will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up to David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel.
Set thee up way-marks, make thee high heaps: set thy heart towards the highway, even the way which thou wentest; turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.
Flee from the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; he will render to her a recompense.
I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God.
Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans.
And Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Concerning Edom, thus saith the LORD of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? hath counsel perished from the prudent? hath their wisdom vanished?
O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee.
Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem,
Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be anxious in the year of drouth, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.
For lo, the days come, saith the LORD; that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.
But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.
Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.
And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
Concerning the Ammonites, thus saith the LORD; Hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? why then doth their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities?
They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt-offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind:
Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt, who dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying,
Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise against me, a destroying wind;
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them;
And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.
In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety: and this is the name by which she shall be called, JEHOVAH our righteousness.
For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.
How long wilt thou wander about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.
I have seen thy adulteries, and thy neighings, the enormity of thy lewdness, and thy abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe to thee O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?
O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy long-suffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.
In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, came this word to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor have men lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.
Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.
And it came to pass, that when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army,
Therefore hearken ye not to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:
Therefore thou shalt speak to them this word; Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say to thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?
I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
Then Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken to all the people, saying,
Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet confined in the court of the prison, saying,
And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king.
And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel;
Thus saith the LORD; Stand in the court of the LORD'S house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD'S house, all the words that I command thee to speak to them; diminish not a word:
For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that are in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.
Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.
Therefore behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave to you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence:
Thou art my battle-ax and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD.
Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write for thee all the words that I have spoken to thee in a book.
But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up to them.
Nevertheless Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll: but he would not hear them.
Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the LORD spoken?
Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
Judah mourneth, and her gates languish; they are black to the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
Thus saith the LORD the maker of this, the LORD that formed it, to establish it; the LORD is his name;
This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the LORD; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.
O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? a land of darkness? why say my people, We are lords; we will come no more to thee?
Thus saith the LORD to me; Make for thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,
Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel.
Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars.
Because of the day that cometh to lay waste all the Philistines, and to cut off from Tyre and Zidon every helper that remaineth: for the LORD will lay waste the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor.
Then they took Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.
I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my out-stretched arm, and have given it to whom it seemed meet to me.
Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are faint-hearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.
Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, and the princes of the king, even ten men with him, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they ate bread together in Mizpah.
Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say to them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.
Thou showest loving-kindness to thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, JEHOVAH of hosts, is his name,
And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and distress with which their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall distress them.
Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh-necho king of Egypt, who was by the river Euphrates in Carshemish, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah.
Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.
Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and quiet, and none shall make him afraid.
Then said the princes and all the people to the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.
And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.
And the peaceable habitations are cut down, because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
Then Pashur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.
Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.
Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spoke against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.
Against Moab thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Woe to Nebo! for it is laid waste: Kiriathaim is confounded and taken: Misgab is confounded and dismayed.
Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thy eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting-place.
For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.
Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite, saying, Take from hence thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he dieth.
The prophet who prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him.
But we will certainly do whatever thing proceedeth from our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then we had plenty of provisions, and were well, and saw no evil.
And it shall come to pass, if they say to thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.
When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt-offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
He hath forsaken his covert, as the lion: for their land is desolate because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger.
And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him out of prison,
Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken to him, upon a roll of a book.
Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,
And I will set shepherds over them who shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.
And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the LORD, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjath-jearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah:
Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near.
And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.
And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now to the LORD our God for us.
Now when Ebed-melech the Cushite, one of the eunuchs who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon; the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin;
Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the borders of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.
Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thy heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the hight of the hill: though thou shouldst make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.
In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping; they shall go, and seek the LORD their God.
For thus saith the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went forth from this place; He shall not return thither any more:
Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very poor figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.
Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD'S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drank of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
And go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,
Now therefore come, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.
Therefore the princes said to the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words to them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt.
And the carcasses of this people shall be food for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.
And I gave the evidence of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel my uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.
(After Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, had departed from Jerusalem;)
The word that the LORD spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words,
A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:
Thou hast forsaken me, saith the LORD, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.
Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep bitterly for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD.
For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiated and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.
For then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah's house.
O the hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble, why shouldst thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a way-faring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?
Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thy uncle shall come to thee, saying, Buy for thee my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is thine to buy it.
And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the king, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in her cities, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, mountain of holiness.
Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith the LORD. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.
The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion, and all the people fought against Jerusalem, and against all its cities, saying,
For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion to the LORD our God.
And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there shall be no place.
This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.
But the Chaldeans' army pursued them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him.
But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling places; and the city shall be built upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after its manner.
And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed: and the nations shall not flow together any more to him: even the wall of Babylon shall fall.
Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger will turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned.
But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever:
Inquire, I pray thee, of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; it may be that the LORD will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.
Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south: for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the LORD.
For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Perhaps he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.
And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink-offerings to other gods.
The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,
Thus saith the LORD to this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not restrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, so that there should not be day and night in their season;
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 Zidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah;
And I will be found by you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD: and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
Surely after I was turned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, and even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.
Cursed be the day in which I was born: let not the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.
Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.
Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.
And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.
Take thee a roll of a book, and write in it all the words that I have spoken to thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to thee, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.
But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie to you in my name; Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he shall slay them before your eyes;
Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;
Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out.
Concerning Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon shall smite, thus saith the LORD; Arise ye, go up to Kedar, and lay waste the men of the east.
Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
In vain have I smitten your children; they have received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
If that nation against which I have pronounced, shall turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.
And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.
Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.
The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book from the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,
They shall die by grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcasses shall be food for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.
And concerning them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, The LORD make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;
The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles;
Now when all the captains of the forces who were in the fields, even they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed to him men, and women, and children, and of the poor of the land, of them that were not carried away captive to Babylon;
By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) saying,
And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in two, and passed between the parts of it,
Why dost thou go about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.
The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before Pharaoh smote Gaza.
Then he went down into the king's house, into the scribe's chamber: and lo, all the princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.
He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding.
And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, which whoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.
From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even to this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the LORD hath come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened.
For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave to me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the LORD; that they might be to me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.
Then they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men.
But, the LORD liveth, who brought and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I have driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.
Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain on the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.
And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.
And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
Then Baruch read in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD'S house, in the ears of all the people.
When the king of Babylon's army fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish, and against Azekah: for these fortified cities remained of the cities of Judah.
A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a howling of the principal of the flock, shall be heard: for the LORD hath laid waste their pasture.
And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,
And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter by these gates:
Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, it may be she may be healed.
And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt show this people all these words, and they shall say to thee, Why hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?
For I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and utterly destroy after them, saith the LORD, and do according to all that I have commanded thee.
The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt.
And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, by which they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, by which they have sinned, and by which they have transgressed against me.
Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?
The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince.
The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he shall have executed, and till he shall have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.
And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD: but thy life will I give to thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.
So I procured a girdle according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins.
Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, who besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.
And all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea,
Then shalt thou say to them, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
Why shouldst thou be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O LORD, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.
And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the scribe's pen-knife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.
Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?
For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because thou hast sent letters in thy name to all the people that are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying,
And thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the LORD, If ye will not hearken to me to walk in my law, which I have set before you,
But thy eyes and thy heart are only for thy covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
Then Pharaoh's army had come from Egypt: and when the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem.
Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?
For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?
Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard, saying,
And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant.
Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.
For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more bring him into subjection:
And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon.
That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it, and built forts against it on every side.
O house of David, thus saith the LORD; Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is made desolate out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
Then said the prophet Jeremiah to Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie.
But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done.
And to this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.
For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which was uttered by my lips was right before thee.
Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.
For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.
That there came men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even eighty men, having their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand, to bring them to the house of the LORD.
And it came to pass, when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.
This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand Jews and three and twenty:
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah to him, The LORD hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magor-missabib.
For since I spoke, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach to me, and a derision, daily.
O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity: for Noph shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant.
Therefore behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways.
And the LORD hath sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear.
Therefore behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Israel be heir to them that were his heirs, saith the LORD.
Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give Pharaoh-hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life.
But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet: but the LORD hid them.
Even men, and women, and children, and the king's daughters, and every person that Nebuzar-adan 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 ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?
Then spoke Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying to Jeremiah, Thou speakest falsely: the LORD our God hath not sent thee to say, Go not into Egypt to sojourn there:
Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompenses shall surely requite.
And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcasses will I give to be food for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.
Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, that were in the fields, came to Gedaliah to Mizpah,
Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
And the wild asses stood in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes failed, because there was no grass.
For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.
For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even loving-kindness and mercies.
Then Jeremiah took another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were besides added to them many like words.
And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.
And these are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah.
The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with thy remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to treat thee well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
And I subscribed the contract, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances.
Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth: the Cushites and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and the Lydians that handle and bend the bow.
To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and wag his head.
And their nobles shall be from themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach time: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach to me? saith the LORD.
Now while he had not yet gone back, he said, Go back also to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people: or go wherever it seemeth convenient to thee to go. So the captain of the guard gave him provisions and a reward, and let him go.
Now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD, saying,
Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD'S house; and said to all the people,
And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him into Egypt.
Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
If it shall do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them.
Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.
Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.
Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.
And it came to pass, that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking to all the people all the words of the LORD their God, for which the LORD their God had sent him to them, even all these words.
Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD,
Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?
Thus saith the LORD; Again there shall be heard in this place, which ye say shall be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast,
And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem.
For lo, I will raise and cause to come against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.
For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thy eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.
Thus saith the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.
Take the girdle that thou hast procured, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.
The LORD hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that ye should be officers in the house of the LORD, for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks.
Now the king sat in the winter-house in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him.
It may be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent of the evil, which I purpose to do to them because of the evil of their doings.
Yes, thou shalt go forth from him, and thy hands upon thy head: for the LORD hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them.
Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth from the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now the Chaldeans were by the city on all sides:) and they went by the way of the plain.
Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die.
Moreover, Jeremiah said to all the people, and to all the women, Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt:
Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.
And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:
He shall break also the images of Beth-shemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.
For I have sworn by myself, saith the LORD, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all her cities shall be perpetual wastes.
Because they have committed villainy in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbor's wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, saith the LORD.
The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.
And shalt say to them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
Then said Jeremiah to Zedekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth to the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thy house:
Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons nor daughters in this place.
And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.
For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter, by the gates of this house, kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.
But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, that had returned from all nations, whither they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah;
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
Also the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon.
They say still to them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say to every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.
But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.
Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the isles, shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!
The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,
Sing to the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evil-doers.
Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.
And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them:
She that hath borne seven languisheth: she hath resigned her breath; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD.
They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces towards it, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.
There shall be no more praise of Moab: in Heshbon they have devised evil against it; come, and let us cut it off from being a nation. Also thou shalt be cut down, O Madmen; the sword shall pursue thee.
But, The LORD liveth, that brought the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.
And said to him, Dost thou certainly know that Baalis the king of the Ammonites hath sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to slay thee? But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam believed them not.
Which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,
They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given to you and to your fathers for ever and ever:
O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thy end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.
A drouth is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.
Thus shalt thou also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying,
And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken to me:
Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD hath both devised and done that which he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
Yes, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.
Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
Go to the house of the Rechabites, and speak to them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.
As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring cities, saith the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.
Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thy adversaries, every one of them shall go into captivity; and they that plunder thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.
And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.
Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.
And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
I spoke also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.
Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth from the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats before the flocks.
From the cry of Heshbon even to Elealeh, and even to Jahaz, have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim, as a heifer of three years old: for the waters also of Nimrim shall be desolate.
Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.
And I myself will fight against you with an out-stretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.
Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thee; for the sword shall devour around thee.
Then came the word of the LORD to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying,
Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire:
And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thy house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.
And there is hope in thy end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.
For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou also shalt be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together.
And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live.
And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do to them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure to it.
Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for thy eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:
Call together the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, encamp against it on every side; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do to her: for she hath been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.
Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be to him for a prey.
We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth to heaven, and is lifted even to the skies.
O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer: thy plants have gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of Jazer: the spoiler hath fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage.
And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes;
Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet to him into the third entry that is in the house of the LORD: and the king said to Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me.
And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD; for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Then shalt thou say to them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them towards all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.
And I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD.
The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel saith: Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him:
Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the LORD; who say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?
Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.
Then Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to him, with the rest of the people that remained.
Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;
For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.
Then said Jeremiah to them, Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah:
Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and beat him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison.
And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.
For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.
And afterward, saith the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life; and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.
Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.
And Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons, and a desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.
Why was I brought into the world to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?
If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent of the evil that I have done to you.
Therefore my heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, and my heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kirheres: because the riches that he hath gotten have perished.
Then I took the cup at the LORD'S hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom the LORD had sent me:
Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things.
I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD.
And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, Drink ye wine.
As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring cities, saith the LORD; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.
Likewise when all the Jews that were in Moab, and among the Ammonites, and in Edom, and that were in all the countries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan;
When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the LORD,
The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwelling-places; her bars are broken.
Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan to the habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?
How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!
If grape-gatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.
Then Ishmael carried away captive all the residue of the people that were in Mizpah, even the king's daughters, and all the people that remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam: and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the Ammonites.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and the people in the fire, and they shall be weary.
Because he slew me not at my birth; or that my mother might have been my grave, and she had not been delivered.
As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken to thee.
And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, swore to them and to their men, saying, Fear not to serve the Chaldeans: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.
Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.
And they brought forth Urijah from Egypt, and brought him to Jehoiakim the king; who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.
A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed.
And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD.
And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and Gilead.
Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men that were with him, and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan with the sword, and slew him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.
And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build and to plant, saith the LORD.
It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do to them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
For thus saith the LORD to the king's house of Judah; Thou art Gilead to me, and the head of Lebanon; yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.
And joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to fail from the wine-presses: none shall tread with shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting.
In the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred.
And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the LORD: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper.
So they came into the land of Egypt: for they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: thus they came even to Tahpanhes.
But Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, who had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.
For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
Therefore go thou and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD'S house upon the day of fasting: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.
Then Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, took all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpeh, after that he had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, even mighty men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought again from Gibeon.
Then they took the king, and carried him to the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave judgment upon him.
Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and dwelt with him among the people that were left in the land.
And I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, who was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door:
Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of my heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ye have not hearkened to me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, Take in thy hand the roll in which thou hast read in the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his hand, and came to them.
To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you, both rising early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened;
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.
And I will make thee to pass with thy enemies into a land which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn upon you.
Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.
And the Chaldeans, that fight against this city, shall come and set fire on this city, and burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal, and poured out drink-offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.
But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the LORD: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things around it.
And said to Jeremiah the prophet, We beseech thee, let our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us to the LORD thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thy eyes do behold us:)
Their widows are multiplied to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noon-day: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.
And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah.
Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words.
And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land shall come: and then many nations and great kings shall bring him into subjection.
We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD'S house.
Yet I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.
And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, and broke it.
They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.
Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshiped other gods, and served them.
Then came the word of the LORD to Jeremiah, saying,
Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? did he not fear the LORD, and beseech the LORD, and the LORD repented of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.
Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his coat of mail: and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host.
They that fled stood under the shade of Heshbon because of the force: but a fire shall come out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and shall devour the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.
So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.
And say to them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them.
So Hanameel my uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison, according to the word of the LORD, and said to me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.
Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt-offerings, and to kindle meat-offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.
For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.
Then Jeremiah spoke to all the princes, and to all the people, saying, The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard.
Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing.
Why gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come to me?
I have sent also to you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened to me.
We have heard the pride of Moab, (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his arrogance, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart.
But Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee on against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death, and carry us away captives into Babylon.
Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took him out: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from the LORD? And Jeremiah said, There is: for, said he, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.
Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.
And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear ye the word of the LORD;
The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for to this day they drink none, but obey their father's commandment: notwithstanding I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking; but ye hearkened not to me.
For out of the north there cometh a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell in it, they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
Your mother shall be greatly confounded; she that bore you shall be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and her kings, and her princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;
Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A male child is born to thee; making him very glad.
And fields shall be bought in this land, of which ye say, It is desolate without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.
All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.
And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they are consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.
Then arose certain of the elders of the land, and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying,
But Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the land for vine-dressers and for husbandmen.
Because the LORD hath laid waste Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered:
The LORD hath opened his armory, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.
Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the baker's street, until all the bread in the city should be consumed. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.
And upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.
Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds.
So Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard sent, and Nebushasban, Rab-saris, and Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, and all the king of Babylon's princes;
And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the LORD in the LORD'S house.
He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
For many nations and great kings shall reduce them to subjection also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.
For Zedekiah king of Judah had confined him, saying, Why dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;
As I live, saith the king, whose name is the LORD of hosts, Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.
And the Chaldeans burned the king's house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
My people, depart from the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.
But ye turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth in them.
Kerioth is taken, and the strong holds are surprised, and the mighty men's hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
Then also may my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.
All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisements of a cruel one, for the multitude of thy iniquity; because thy sins were increased.
Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not show you favor.
For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask concerning thy welfare?
And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates:
For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, till he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Wherefore their way shall be to them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.
Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them.
And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink-offerings to her, did we make for her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink-offerings to her, without our men?
And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine: they shall die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.
So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, obeyed not the voice of the LORD, to dwell in the land of Judah.
I spoke to thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidest, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou hast not obeyed my voice.
And they departed, and dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is by Beth-lehem, to go to enter into Egypt,
And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all her cities together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks.
Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands:
And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captives: and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment; and he shall go forth from thence in peace.
And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.
Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron.
But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for to thee have I opened my cause.