O land of Judah, land of Judah, land of Judah! Listen to what the Lord has to say!

Write this man among the outlaws, for no prosperity shall this man have all his life long. Neither shall any of his seed be so happy as to sit upon the seat of David, and to bear rule in Judah."

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” This is the Lord’s declaration.

“Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds who shepherd My people: You have scattered My flock, banished them, and have not attended to them. I will attend to you because of your evil acts”—this is the Lord’s declaration.

I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them. They will no longer be afraid or dismayed, nor will any be missing.” This is the Lord’s declaration.

“The days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—
“when I will raise up a Righteous Branch of David.
He will reign wisely as king
and administer justice and righteousness in the land.

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

but they'll say, "As surely as the LORD lives who brought the descendants of the Israelis from the land of the north and from all the lands where I had driven them and brought them into the land.' Then they'll live in their own land."

For the land is full of adulterers (unfaithful to God);
The land mourns because of the curse [of God upon it].
The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.
The course of action [of the false prophets] is evil and they rush into wickedness;
And their power is not right.

because both prophet and priest are ungodly,
even in My house I have found their evil.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

Therefore, their way will be to them
like slippery paths in the gloom.
They will be driven away and fall down there,
for I will bring disaster on them,
the year of their punishment.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

"Now in the prophets of Samaria I saw a disgusting thing. They prophesied by Baal and they caused my people Israel to err.

In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evil-doers, so that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

So this is what the Lord of armies has said about the prophets: See, I will give them a bitter plant for their food, and bitter water for their drink: for from the prophets of Jerusalem unclean behaviour has gone out into all the land.

This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are making you worthless. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the Lord’s mouth.

They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.

For who hath stood in the council of Jehovah, so that he hath perceived and heard his word? who hath hearkened to his word and listened?

See, the storm-wind of the Lord, even the heat of his wrath, has gone out, a rolling storm, bursting on the heads of the evil-doers

The Lord’s anger will not turn back
until He has completely fulfilled the purposes of His heart.
In time to come you will understand it clearly.

I did not send these prophets, but they went running: I said nothing to them, but they gave out the prophet's word

“Am I a God who is only near”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and not a God who is far away?

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.

I have heard what the prophets say, who prophesy falsehood in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

The prophet who has only a dream should recount the dream, but the one who has My word should speak My word truthfully, for what is straw compared to grain?”—this is the Lord’s declaration.

"[Is] not my word like fire?" {declares} Yahweh, "and like a blacksmith's hammer [that] breaks a rock into pieces?

Therefore, take note! I am against the prophets”—the Lord’s declaration—“who steal My words from each other.

Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.

Look, I [am] against those who prophesy dreams of lies," {declares} Yahweh, "and tell them, and they caused my people to err through their lies, and in their recklessness, when I myself have not sent them nor commanded them, so they profit not this people at all," {declares} Yahweh.

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 unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, 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.

Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the LORD spoken?

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 shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken?

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 unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the LORD;

So I will carry you far off and throw you away. I will send both you and the city I gave to you and to your ancestors out of my sight.

The Lord gave me a vision, and I saw two baskets full of figs put in front of the Temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, had taken prisoner Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the chiefs of Judah, and the expert workmen and metal-workers from Jerusalem, and had taken them to Babylon.

One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

Then said the LORD unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.

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.

and will give them a heart to know, me, that, I, am Yahweh, So shall they become my people, And, I, will become their God; for they will return unto me with all their heart.

And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:

This message from the LORD came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah. (This was also the first year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.)

So the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the people who were living in Jerusalem.

"From the thirteenth year of the reign of Ammon's son Josiah, the king of Judah, until the present time, for 23 years this message from the LORD has come to me, and I've spoken to you again and again, but you haven't listened.

saying, - Return I pray you every one from his wicked way and from the wickedness of your doings, So shall ye remain on the soil which Yahweh hath given to you and to your fathers, - even from age to age;

But do not go away after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, - So shall ye not provoke me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will not bring calamity upon you;

And ye have not hearkened unto Me -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- so as to provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands for evil to you.

So this is what the Lord of armies has said: Because you have not given ear to my words,

I am going to send for all the families of the north’—this is the Lord’s declaration—‘and send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will bring them against this land, against its residents, and against all these surrounding nations, and I will completely destroy them and make them a desolation, a derision, and ruins forever.

So shall all this land become a desolation, an astonishment, And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon, seventy years.

When the 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation’—this is the Lord’s declaration—‘the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, and I will make it a ruin forever.

So will I bring upon that land, All my words which I have spoken against it, - Even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.

For many nations and great kings have used, even them, as slaves, So will I recompense to them - According to their deed and According to the work of their own hands.

So the Lord, the God of Israel, spoke to me in a vision. "Take this cup from my hand. It is filled with the wine of my wrath. Take it and make the nations to whom I send you drink it.

Then took I the cup at the LORD'S hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:

I made Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and its officials drink it. I did it so Judah would become a ruin. I did it so Judah, its kings, and its officials would become an object of horror and of hissing scorn, an example used in curses. Such is already becoming the case!

and all kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the Philistine's land - Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod -

And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea,

all the kings of the north, whether near or far from one another; and all the other kingdoms which are on the face of the earth. After all of them have drunk the wine of the Lord's wrath, the king of Babylon must drink it.

Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.

And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.

For I am already bringing disaster on the city that bears My name, so how could you possibly go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.

Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto 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.

The tumult reaches to the ends of the earth
because the Lord brings a case against the nations.
He enters into judgment with all flesh.
As for the wicked, He hands them over to the sword—
this is the Lord’s declaration.

This is what the Lord of armies has said: See, evil is going out from nation to nation, and a great storm will come up from the inmost parts of the earth.

A sound it's the cry of the shepherds and the scream of the leaders of the flock because the LORD is destroying their pastures.

Peaceful grazing land will become lifeless
because of the Lord’s burning anger.

“He has left His lair like the lion;
For their land has become a horror
Because of the fierceness of the oppressor
And because of the Lord’s fierce anger.”

In the beginning of the reign of Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah, this message came from the LORD:

Thus saith the LORD; Stand in the court of the LORD'S house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD'S house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word:

If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings.

And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you,

and to hear the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, rising up timely, and still sending: If ye will not follow them, I say,

then I will make this house [the temple] like Shiloh, and I will make this city [subject to] the curse of all nations of the earth [because it will be so vile in their sight].”’”

So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD.

And it cometh to pass, at the completion of Jeremiah's speaking all that Jehovah hath commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests, and the prophets, and all the people catch him, saying, Thou dost surely die,

How dare you prophesy in the name of Yahweh, ‘This temple will become like Shiloh and this city will become an uninhabited ruin’!” Then all the people assembled against Jeremiah at the Lord’s temple.

When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king's house unto the house of the LORD, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the LORD'S house.

Then the priests and the prophets made their charges before the officials and all the people. They said, "This man should be condemned to die because he prophesied against this city. You have heard him do so with your own ears."

Then Jeremiah said to all the rulers and to all the people, The Lord has sent me as his prophet to say against this house and against this town all the words which have come to your ears.

So now, correct your ways and deeds and obey the voice of the Lord your God so that He might relent concerning the disaster that He warned about.

Look, I'm in your hands, so do with me what you think is good and right.

Only be certain that, if you put me to death, you will make yourselves and your town and its people responsible for the blood of one who has done no wrong: for truly, the Lord has sent me to you to say all these words in your ears.

And the heads and all the people say unto the priests and unto the prophets, 'There is not for this man a judgment of death, for in the name of Jehovah our God he hath spoken unto us.'

And men will rise up from the old men of the land, and they will say to all the convocation of the people, saying,

"Micah the Morasthite, which was a prophet under Hezekiah king of Judah, spake to all the people of Judah, 'Thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts: Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall be a heap of stones, and the hill of the LORD's house shall be turned to a high wood.'

Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all the people of Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and plead for the Lord’s favor, and did not the Lord relent concerning the disaster He had pronounced against them? We are about to bring great harm on ourselves!”

There was also a man named Uriah, Shemaiah's son from Kiriath-jearim, who prophesied in the LORD's name. He prophesied about this city and this land in words similar to those of Jeremiah.

King Jehoiakim, all his troops, and all the officials heard his words, and the king sought to kill him. Uriah heard about this and was afraid, so he fled and went to Egypt.

King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt. He sent Achbor's son Elnathan, along with a contingent of men into Egypt.

And they brought Uriah [God’s spokesman] from Egypt and led him to King Jehoiakim, who executed him with a sword and threw his dead body among the graves of the common people.

Only, the hand of Ahikam son of Shaphan hath been with Jeremiah so as not to give him up into the hand of the people to put him to death.

At the beginning of the reign of Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah, this message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

So says Jehovah to me, Make bonds and yokes for yourself, and put them on your neck.

And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;

Thus do ye say unto your lords, I -- I have made the earth with man, and the cattle that are on the face of the earth, by My great power, and by My stretched-out arm, and I have given it to whom it hath been right in Mine eyes.

So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I have even given him the wild animals to serve him.

And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.

“But any nation or kingdom that will not serve this same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish,” says the Lord, “with the sword, with famine and with pestilence (virulent disease), until I have destroyed it by Nebuchadnezzar’s hand.

And as for you, do not listen to your [counterfeit] prophets, your diviners, your dreams and dreamers, your soothsayers or your sorcerers, who say to you, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’