And as for the prophet, the priest, or [any of] the people, whoever says, ‘The oracle of the Lord,’ [as if he knows God’s will], I will punish that man and his household.

But if you say, 'The burden of Yahweh,' {therefore} thus says Yahweh, 'because of your saying these words, "The burden of Yahweh," then I will send to you, {saying}, "You shall not say, 'The burden of Yahweh.'"

"Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles of Judah whom I have sent away from this place [to the] land of [the] Chaldeans.

"From [the] thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Amon, the king of Judah, even up to this day, these twenty-three years the word of Yahweh has come to me, and {I have spoken to you over and over again}, but you have not listened.

look, I [am] going to send and take all [the] clans of [the] north,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and [I will send] to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations all around, and I will destroy them, and I will make them a horror, and [an object of] hissing, and {everlasting ruins}.

I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, to the glad celebration of brides and grooms in these lands. I will put an end to the sound of people grinding meal. I will put an end to lamps shining in their houses.

And all this land will become a site of ruins, a desolation, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

These included:

Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah, its kings and its officials, to make them a desolate ruin, an object of scorn and cursing—as it is today;

I made all of these other people drink it: Pharaoh, king of Egypt; his attendants, his officials, his people,

And you yourself shall prophesy against them all these words, and you shall say to them: 'Yahweh will roar from [on] high, and from {his holy dwelling place} he will give his voice. He will roar mightily against his settlement, a jubilant shout like those who tread [grapes], he will answer against all the inhabitants of the earth.

And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the temple of Yahweh.

When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the house of the king [to] the temple of Yahweh, and they sat in the entrance of the New Gate of Yahweh's [temple].

Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the rulers and to all the people, these words, "This man is worthy to die, for he hath preached against this city, as ye yourselves have heard with your ears."

Only you must certainly know that if you put me to death, you will bring on yourselves innocent blood, and on this city and on its inhabitants, for {truly} Yahweh sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears."

And now I myself have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and also the animals of the field I have given to him to serve him.

And I spoke words like these to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, {saying}, "Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.

Then I spoke to the priests and all these people, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Do not listen to the words of your prophets. They are prophesying to you, claiming, “Look, very soon now the articles of the Lord’s temple will be brought back from Babylon.” They are prophesying a lie to you.

He has already spoken about these things that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon did not take away when he carried Jehoiakim's son King Jeconiah of Judah and the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem away as captives.

These are the words of the Lord of armies, the God of Israel: By me the yoke of the king of Babylon has been broken.

But listen to what I say to you and to all these people.

"Go, and tell Hananiah these words, 'Thus sayeth the LORD: Thou hast broken the chain of wood, but instead of wood thou shalt make chains of iron.

For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, to serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and they will serve him, and I have even given the animals of the open field to him." '"

The prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord did not send you, but you have led these people to trust in a lie.

And these [are] the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the exiles, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem [to] Babylon,

He sent it with Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah. King Zedekiah of Judah had sent these men to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The letter said:

this is what the Lord says: I am about to punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. There will not be even one of his descendants living among these people, nor will any ever see the good that I will bring to My people”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“for he has preached rebellion against the Lord.”

These are the words that the LORD showed unto Jeremiah, saying,

Now these [are] the words that Yahweh spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah.

Ask yourselves this and consider it carefully: Have you ever seen a man give birth to a baby? Why then do I see all these strong men grabbing their stomachs in pain like a woman giving birth? And why do their faces turn so deathly pale?

Why do you cry because of your wound? Your pain [is] incurable. Because of the greatness of your guilt--your sins are vast-- I have done these [things] to you.

"Set up for yourself road markers, make for yourself signposts, set your {mind} to the main road, [the] road [by which] you went. Return, O virgin of Israel, return to these your cities.

Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "They will again say these words in the land of Judah and in its towns at my restoring their fortunes, 'Yahweh bless you, settlement of righteousness, O hill of holiness.'

Then they will say, 'Under these conditions I can enjoy sweet sleep when I wake up and look around.'"

These are the words of the Lord, who has given the sun for a light by day, ordering the moon and stars for a light by night, who puts the sea in motion, causing the thunder of its waves; the Lord of armies is his name.

"If these rules would cease from {before me}," {declares} Yahweh, "also the offspring of Israel would cease from being a nation {before me} {forever}."

These words spake the LORD unto Jeremiah, in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar,

For King Zedekiah had confined Jeremiah there after he had reproved him for prophesying as he did. He had asked Jeremiah, "Why do you keep prophesying these things? Why do you keep saying that the Lord says, 'I will hand this city over to the king of Babylon? I will let him capture it.

In the presence of all these people I instructed Baruch,

'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase, the sealed one, and this opened deed, and you must put them in an {earthenware jar} so that they may be kept preserved many days."

Now when they came therein, and possessed it, they followed not thy voice, and walked not in thy law: but all that thou commandedst them to do, that have they not done. And therefore come all these plagues upon them.

because of all the evil that the Israelis and Judeans have done to provoke me. They, their kings, their officials, their priests, their prophets, the people of Judah, and those living in Jerusalem have done these things.

“For this is what the Lord says: Just as I have brought all this great disaster on these people, so am I about to bring on them all the good I am promising them.

These are the words of the Lord, who is doing it, the Lord who is forming it, to make it certain; the Lord is his name;

"I, the Lord, say: 'You and your people are saying about this place, "It lies in ruins. There are no people or animals in it." That is true. The towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem will soon be desolate, uninhabited either by people or by animals. But happy sounds will again be heard in these places.

"Have you not seen how these people speak, {saying}, 'The two clans whom Yahweh chose, he has also rejected them'? Thus they spurn my people from being a nation {before them} [any] longer.

These are the words which the LORD spake unto Jeremiah, what time as Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and all his Hosts, out of all the kingdoms that were under his power, and all his people, fought against Jerusalem, and all the cities thereof.

Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Zedekiah the king of Judah all these words in Jerusalem

when the army of the king of Babylon [was] fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left over--Lachish and Azekah, for these remained among the cities of Judah, the cities of fortification.

These are the words that the LORD spake unto Jeremiah the prophet, when Zedekiah was agreed with all the people at Jerusalem, that there should be proclaimed a liberty:

Even these I will give up into the hands of their haters and into the hands of those who have designs against their lives: and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth.

The words which the LORD spake unto Jeremiah, in the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, are these:

Do not build houses. Do not plant crops. Do not plant a vineyard or own one. Live in tents all your lives. If you do these things you will live a long time in the land that you wander about on.'

Yes, the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab carried out their ancestor’s command he gave them, but these people have not obeyed Me.

Perhaps then they will ask the Lord for mercy and will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. For the Lord has threatened to bring great anger and wrath against these people."

{And then}, the moment of their hearing all the words, {they turned to one another in alarm} and they said to Baruch, "We must certainly report all these words to the king!"

Then they asked Baruch, {saying}, "Tell us please, how did you write all these words, from his mouth?"

And Baruch said to them, "From his mouth. He dictated to me all these words and I [was] writing on the scroll with the ink."

And the king and any of his servants who heard all these words were not startled, and they did not tear their garments.

Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the son of Neriah, the secretary, and he wrote on it from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, had burned in the fire, and furthermore was added to them many words like these.

Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “How have I sinned against you or your servants or these people that you have put me in prison?

These are the words of the Lord: Whoever goes on living in this town will come to his death by the sword or through need of food or by disease: but whoever goes out to the Chaldaeans will keep his life out of the power of the attackers and be safe.

Then the officials said to the king, "Please, this man must be killed, {because} he [is] making slack the hands of {the soldiers} who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking to them words like these, for this man [is] not seeking for welfare to this people, {but only} for harm."

he went out of the king's house, and spake to the king, which then sat under the port of Benjamin, these words:

"My lord the king, these men have done evil [in] all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, [in] that they have thrown [him] into the pit, and he will die {there} {because of} starvation, for there is no longer any bread in the city."

Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite, {saying}, "Take {with you} these thirty men and pull Jeremiah the prophet up from the pit {before} he dies."

And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah, Put now these rags and worn-out garments under thine armholes under the cords. And Jeremiah did so.

So Zedekiah the king swore to Jeremiah in secret, {saying}, "{As Yahweh lives}, who has made for us this life, I will not kill you and I will not give you into the hand of these men who are seeking your life."

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, These are the words of the Lord, the God of armies, the God of Israel: If you go out to the king of Babylon's captains, then you will have life, and the town will not be burned with fire, and you and your family will be kept from death:

Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews [my former subjects] who have deserted to join the Chaldeans, for the enemy may put me into their hand and they will mock me and abuse me.”

See, all the rest of the women in the house of the king of Judah will be taken out to the king of Babylon's captains, and these women will say, Your nearest friends have been false to you and have got the better of you: they have made your feet go deep into the wet earth, and they are turned away back from you.

And Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "No man must know about these words so that you will not die.

And all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, and he informed them like all these words that the king commanded. So they fell silent, for the {conversation} was not heard.

So all these officers and their troops came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. The officers who came were Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah son of the Maacathite.

So all these Judeans returned to the land of Judah from the places where they had been scattered. They came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. Thus they harvested a large amount of wine and dates and figs.

Then said Johanan the son of Kareah unto Gedaliah in Mizphah these words, secretly, "Let me go, I pray thee, and I will slay Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, so that nobody shall know it. Wherefore will he kill thee? That all the Jews which resort unto thee, might be scattered, and the remnant in Judah perish?"

Among these eighty men there were ten, that said unto Ishmael, "Oh slay us not, for we have yet a great treasure in the field, of wheat, barley, oil and honey." So he spared them, and slew them not with their brethren.

Then Ishmael took captive all the people who were still left alive in Mizpah. This included the royal princesses and all the rest of the people in Mizpah that Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, had put under the authority of Gedaliah son of Ahikam. Ishmael son of Nethaniah took all these people captive and set out to cross over to the Ammonites.

They told Jeremiah the prophet, "Please listen to what we have to ask of you. Pray to the LORD your God for us and for all these survivors. Indeed, only a few of us remain out of many, as you can see.

And said to them, These are the words of the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to put your request before him:

And it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking unto all the people all the words of Yahweh their God, with which Yahweh their God had sent him unto them, - even all these words,

Then shalt thou say unto them - Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel - Behold me! sending and fetching Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, my servant, and I will set his throne over these stones which I have hid, - and he shall spread his canopy over them.

The word which Jeremiah the prophet spake, unto Baruch son of Neriah, - when he had written these words upon a book, from the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah saying -

These words following preached he to the Egyptians concerning the Host of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt, when he was in Carchemish beside the water of Euphrates: what time as Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon slew him; In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah.

These are the words that the LORD spake to the prophet Jeremiah, concerning the host of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, which was sent to destroy the land of Egypt.

Yea, I will deliver them into the hands of those that seek after their lives: Namely, into the power of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and into the power of his servants. And after all these things, it shall be inhabited as afore time, sayeth the LORD.

These are the words that the LORD spake unto Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote the city of Gaza.

About the children of Ammon. These are the words of the Lord: Has Israel no sons? has he no one to take the heritage? why then has Milcom taken Gad for himself, putting his people in its towns?

But after these things, I will let the fate of the children of Ammon be changed, says the Lord.

Their camels shall be stolen, and the droves of their cattle driven away. Moreover, these that be shaven will I scatter toward all the winds, and bring them to destruction: yea and that through their own familiars, sayeth the LORD.

These are the words, that the LORD spake to the prophet Jeremiah concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah.

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;

"For lo, I will make up a host of people from the northern land, and bring them upon Babylon: these shall lay siege to it, and win it. Their arrows shall not miss, like as a cunning archer shooteth not wrong.

These things shall come upon her at the last: they shall break into her privy chambers, they shall leave her as bare as stones that be laid together upon heaps. They shall so destroy her that nothing shall be left.

Not like these, is the portion of Jacob, For the fashioner of all things, is he! And the portion of his inheritance, - Yahweh of hosts, is his name.

"Raise up battle flags throughout the lands. Sound the trumpets calling the nations to do battle. Prepare the nations to do battle against Babylonia. Call for these kingdoms to attack her: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander to lead the attack. Send horses against her like a swarm of locusts.

For these are the words of the Lord of armies, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a grain-floor when it is stamped down; before long, the time of her grain-cutting will come.

So Jeremiah wrote all the calamity which was to come unto Babylon in one scroll; even all these words which have been written against Babylon.

Then said Jeremiah unto Seraiah, - When thou comest into Babylon, then shalt thou look out and read all these words;

And you are to say, So Babylon will go down, never to be lifted up again, because of the evil which I will send on her: and weariness will overcome them. So far, these are the words of Jeremiah.

So all the soldiers brake away, and fled out of the city by night through the way of the port between the two walls by the king's garden. Now the Chaldeans had compassed the city round about; yet went these men their way toward the wilderness.