Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah - Do not let, any man, know of these words, and thou shalt not die.

Now unto Jeremiah, had come the word of Yahweh, while he was yet shut up in the guard-court, saying:

Now, therefore, lo! I have loosed thee today, from the fetters which were upon thy hand: If it be good in thine eyes to come with me into Babylon, come, and I will set urine eyes upon thee, but if evil in thine eyes to come with me into Babylon, forbear, - see! all the land, is before thee, whither it may be good and right in thine eyes to go, thither, go!

Now, when all the captains of the forces which were in the field - they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had set Gedaliah son of Ahikam in charge over the land, - and that he had committed to him men and women and children, and the poor of the land of those who had not been carried away captive to Babylon,

and said unto him - Dost thou at all know, that, Baalis, king of the sons of Ammon, hath sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah, to smite thee to death? But Gedaliah son of Ahikam, believed them not.

Then, Johanan son of Kareah, spake unto Gedaliah secretly, in Mizpah, saying, - Let me go I pray thee, and smite Ishmael son of Nethaniah, and not, a man, shall know it, - wherefore should he smite thee to death, and all Judah who have gathered themselves unto thee, be dispersed, and the remnant of Judah perish?

Now the pit whereinto Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had smitten, was a large pit which King Asa had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel, - the same, did Ishmael son of Nethaniah fill with the slain,

saying, - No! for, into the land of Egypt, will we go, where we shall not see war, nor the sound of a horn, shall we hear, - nor for bread, shall we be famished, - there, then will we dwell

Now, therefore, for this cause, hear ye the word of Yahweh, O remnant of Judah, - Thus! saith Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel, - If, ye do indeed set your faces to enter Egypt and do enter to sojourn there,

For - Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel, - Just as mine anger and mine indignation have been poured out upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall mine indignation be poured out upon you when ye enter into Egypt, - thus shall ye become a curse, and an astonishment and a contempt and a reproach, and ye shall no more see this place.

Yahweh hath spoken concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah, Do not enter into Egypt: Know certainly, that I have taken you to witness to-day.

Now, therefore, know ye certainly, that by sword, by famine, or by pestilence, shall ye die, - in the place whither ye have desired to go, to sojourn.

Now, therefore, Thus, saith Yahweh God of hosts God of Israel - Wherefore, are ye committing a great wickedness against your own lives, that ye should cut off from you man and woman child and suckling, out of the midst of Judah, - so that there should not be left you a remnant:

Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, and all the women standing by, a great convocation, - with all the people who were dwelling in the land of Egypt in Pathros, made answer unto Jeremiah, saying:

so that Yahweh could no longer forbear because of the wickedness of your doings, because of the abominations which ye committed, - and your land became a desolation, and an astonishment, and a contempt without inhabitant - as at this day?

Therefore, hear ye the word of Yahweh, all Judah, who are dwelling in the land of Egypt, - Behold me! I have sworn by my great Name, Saith Yahweh, That my Name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah saying - By the life of My Lord, Yahweh in all the land of Egypt.

Yet, the fugitives of the sword, shall certainly return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah men easily counted, - that all the remnant of Judah who are entering Egypt to sojourn there, may know, whose word, shall stand, mine or theirs!

And, this, to you, shall be the sign, Declareth Yahweh, that I am about to bring punishment upon you in this place, - that ye may know that my words shall, certainly stand against you, for calamity:

Wherefore have thy valiant ones been laid prostrate? He hath made no stand, because, Yahweh, hath driven him back:

Even her hirelings in her midst are like fatted calves, For, even they, have turned - have fled at once! have made no stand! For, their day of doom, hath come upon them, The time of their visitation.

Saith Yahweh of host God of Israel, - Behold me! bringing punishment - against Amon of No, and upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt, and upon her gods and upon her kings, - Even upon Pharaoh, and upon all that trust in him;

No more, is the praise of Moab, In Heshbon, have they devised against her, calamity, Come, and let us cut her off from being a nation, - Even thou, Madmen also, shalt be silenced, After thee, shall march the sword.

Give wing to Moab, For she must, fly away; And her cities To desolation, shall be turned, With no inhabitant therein.

Lament ye for him - All that are round about him, and All that know his name, - Say, How is broken - The staff of strength! The rod of beauty!

I know - Declareth Yahweh His passion - that -- tis Unjust! His boastings, that Untrue have they made them !

So shall be withdrawn gladness and exultation - From the fruitful field and From the land of Moab, - And wine from the vats, have I caused to fail, They shall not treed with shouting, The shouting shall be no shouting!

Upon all the housetops of Moab And in her broadways, it is all lamentation, - For I have broken Moab - Like a vessel wherein is no pleasure Declareth Yahweh.

Of the sons of Ammon-Thus saith Yahweh: Hath Israel no, sons? Hath he no, heir? Why hath, Malkam, taken possession of Gad, Or have, his people, in the cities thereof, made their dwelling?

Of Edom - Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts, Is there no longer wisdom in Teman? Hath counsel perished from the discerning? Is their wisdom corrupt?

Then will I bring in against Elam four winds from the four quarters of the heavens, And will scatter them to all these winds, - And there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam, shall not come;

Therefore shall the criers dwell with, the howlers, Yea ostriches, shall dwell therein, - So shall it be dwelt in no more for ever, Neither shall it be inhabited unto generation after generation.

Every son of earth had become too brutish to know, - Every goldsmith, hath been put to shame, by a graven image, - For a falsehood, is his molten image Seeing there is no breath in them:

Her cities have become, an astonishment, A land parched up, and a waste plain, - A land wherein shall no man dwell, Nor pass through them a son of the earth-born!

So will I bring punishment upon Bel in Babylon, And will bring forth what he hath swallowed out of his mouth, And the nations shall stream unto him no more, - Even the wall of Babylon hath fallen!

The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah into Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign, - now Seraiah, was travelling-marshal.

and thou shalt say - O Yahweh! thou, thyself, hast spoken against this place to cut it off, That there be in it no inhabitant Neither man nor beast, - But desolations age-abiding, shall it become!

In the fourth month on the ninth of the month, when the famine had become severe in the city, - and there had come to be no bread for the people of the land,

Now as for the pillars, eighteen cubits, was the height of each pillar, and, a line of twelve cubits, compassed it about, - and the thickness thereof was four fingers breadth - hollow;