Israel was holiness unto Jehovah, the first-fruits of his increase: all that devour him are guilty; evil shall come upon them, saith Jehovah.

Thus saith Jehovah: What injustice have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and become vain?

Hath a nation changed its gods? and they are no gods; but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.

The young lions roared against him, they gave forth their voice, and they made his land desolate: his cities are burned, without inhabitant.

Where then are thy gods that thou hast made for thyself? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for as the number of thy cities, are thy gods, O Judah.

And it shall come to pass, when ye are multiplied in the land and become fruitful, in those days, saith Jehovah, they shall say no more, Ark of the covenant of Jehovah! neither shall it come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it; neither shall it be done any more.

Behold, he cometh up as clouds, and his chariots are as a whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are destroyed.

As keepers of a field are they against her round about; for she hath been rebellious against me, saith Jehovah.

Destruction upon destruction is proclaimed; for the whole land is wasted: suddenly are my tents laid waste, my curtains, in a moment.

For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have no intelligence; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

Jehovah, are not thine eyes upon fidelity? Thou hast smitten them, but they are not sore; thou hast consumed them, they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

And I said, Surely these are the wretched ones, they are foolish; for they know not the way of Jehovah, the judgment of their God.

Therefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, a wolf of the evenings shall waste them; the leopard lurketh against their cities, every one that goeth out thence is torn in pieces: for their transgressions are multiplied, their backslidings are increased.

Wherefore should I pardon thee? Thy children have forsaken me, and swear by them that are not God. I have satiated them, and they have committed adultery, and they troop to the harlots' house.

Go up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end; take away her battlements, for they are not Jehovah's.

Their quiver is as an open sepulchre; they are all mighty men.

But this people hath a stubborn and a rebellious heart; they have turned aside and are gone.

For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as fowlers stoop down; they set a trap, they catch men.

As a cage full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and have enriched themselves.

They are become fat, they shine, yea, they surpass in deeds of wickedness; they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, and they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not adjudge.

Prepare war against her. Arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day hath declined, for the shadows of the evening are lengthening.

As a well poureth forth her waters, so she poureth forth her wickedness: violence and destruction are heard in her; before me continually are grief and wounds.

Are they ashamed that they have committed abomination? Nay, they are not at all ashamed, neither know they what it is to blush. Therefore they shall fall among them that fall; at the time that I visit them they shall stumble, saith Jehovah.

To what purpose should there come to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing unto me.

They 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 a man for the battle, against thee, daughter of Zion.

We have heard the report thereof: our hands are grown feeble; anguish hath taken hold of us, pain as of a woman that travaileth.

They are all the most rebellious of rebels, going about with slander: they are bronze and iron; they are all corrupters.

The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed by the fire; they have melted, and melted in vain; and the bad are not plucked away.

then ye come and stand before me, in this house which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered, in order to do all these abominations!

Therefore, behold, days are coming, saith Jehovah, when it shall no more be said, Topheth, and Valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter; for they shall bury in Topheth, till there be no place.

How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of Jehovah is with us? Behold, certainly the lying pen of the scribes hath made it falsehood.

The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: behold, they have rejected Jehovah's word; and what wisdom is in them?

Are they ashamed that they have committed abomination? Nay, they are not at all ashamed, and they know not how to blush. Therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall stumble, saith Jehovah.

I will utterly take them away, saith Jehovah: there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig-tree; and the leaf is faded: and I will give them up to those that shall pass over them.

The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

Oh that I had in the wilderness a traveller's lodging-place, that I might leave my people, and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

And they bend their tongue, their bow of falsehood, and not for fidelity are they valiant in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Jehovah.

For the mountains will I take up weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness, a lamentation; for they are burnt up, so that none passeth through them; and the voice of the cattle is not heard. Both the fowl of the heavens and the beasts are fled; they are gone.

For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled, sorely put to shame! For we have forsaken the land, for they have cast down our dwellings.

Behold, days are coming, saith Jehovah, when I will visit all them that are circumcised with the uncircumcised;

Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners of their beard cut off, that dwell in the wilderness: for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.

Thus saith Jehovah: Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of the heavens; for the nations are dismayed at them.

For the statutes of the peoples are vanity; for it is a tree cut out of the forest, worked with a chisel by the hands of the artizan;

They are as a palm-column of turned work, and they speak not; they are carried, for they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

But they are one and all senseless and foolish; the teaching of vanities is a stock.

Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artizan and of the hands of the founder; blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of skilful men.

They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

My tent is despoiled, and all my cords are broken; my children are gone forth from me, and they are not; there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not sought Jehovah; therefore have they not acted wisely, and all their flock is scattered.

They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words; and they have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.

For as the number of thy cities, are thy gods, O Judah; and as the number of the streets of Jerusalem, have ye set up altars to the Shame, altars to burn incense unto Baal.

Jehovah had called thy name, A green olive-tree, fair, of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and its branches are broken.

Righteous art thou, Jehovah, when I plead with thee; yet will I speak with thee of thy judgments. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they at ease that deal very treacherously?

My heritage is unto me as a speckled bird of prey; the birds of prey round about are against her. Go, assemble all the beasts of the field, bring them to devour.

Spoilers are come upon all heights in the wilderness; for the sword of Jehovah devoureth from one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh hath peace.

The cities of the south are shut up, and there is none to open them; all Judah is carried away captive: it is wholly carried away captive.

And if thou say in thy heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts uncovered, and thy heels have suffered violence.

Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish, they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem goeth up.

And their nobles send their little ones for water: they come to the pits, they find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are ashamed, they are confounded, and have covered their heads.

Because the ground is chapt, for there hath been no rain on the earth, the ploughmen are ashamed, they cover their heads.

Jehovah, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou act for thy name's sake; for our backslidings are many we have sinned against thee.

Why wilt thou be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name: leave us not.

Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou HE, Jehovah, our God? And we wait upon thee; for thou hast made all these things.

And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith Jehovah: 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 captivity, to captivity.

Their widows are increased to me more than the sand of the seas; I have brought upon them, against the mother of the young men, a spoiler at noonday; I have caused anguish and terror to fall upon her suddenly.

For thus saith Jehovah concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bear them, and concerning their fathers that beget them in this land:

and you, ye have done still worse than your fathers; and there ye are walking every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, not to hearken unto me:

Therefore, behold, days are coming, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, As Jehovah liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

For mine eyes are upon all their ways; they are not concealed from my face, neither is their iniquity hidden from before mine eyes.

Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no-gods?

House of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith Jehovah. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, house of Israel.

For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side: Report, and we will report it. All my familiars are watching for my stumbling: Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him; and we shall take our revenge on him.

Thus saith Jehovah the 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, outside the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.

And afterwards, saith Jehovah, I will give 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 Nebuchadrezzar the 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.

But thine eyes and thy heart are only on thine extortion, and on the blood of the innocent, to shed it, and on oppression and on violence, to do it.

Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and give forth thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the heights of Abarim: for all thy lovers are destroyed.

Is this man Coniah a despised broken vase? a vessel wherein is no delight? Wherefore are they thrown out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?

Therefore behold, days are coming, saith Jehovah, that they shall no more say, As Jehovah liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

For the land is full of adulterers; for because of execration the land mourneth. The pastures of the wilderness are dried up; for their course is evil, and their force is not right.

For both prophet and priest are profane: even in my house have I found their wickedness, saith Jehovah.

And in the prophets of Jerusalem have I seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in falsehood, and strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none doth return from his wickedness. They are all become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, and who are prophets of the deceit of their own heart?

Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so will I regard for good them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans;

And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will visit on the king of Babylon and on that nation, saith Jehovah, their iniquity, and on the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it perpetual desolations.

and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles that are beyond the sea;

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.

Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the dust, noble ones of the flock: for the days of your slaughter are accomplished, and I will disperse you; and ye shall fall like a precious vessel.

I have made the earth, man and beast that are upon the face of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give them unto whom it seemeth right in mine eyes.

But if they be prophets, and if the word of Jehovah be with them, let them now make intercession to Jehovah of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of Jehovah, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon.

For thus saith Jehovah of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the rest of the vessels that are left in this city,

yea, thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that are left in the house of Jehovah, and in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem:

And these are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon

For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Let not your prophets that are in your midst, nor your diviners deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams, which ye like to dream.

yea, thus saith Jehovah concerning the king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and concerning all the people that dwell in this city, your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity;

And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah that are in Babylon, saying, Jehovah make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;

Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because thou hast sent letters in thy name unto all the people that are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying,

And these are the words that Jehovah hath spoken concerning Israel and concerning Judah;

Ask ye now, and see, whether a male doth travail with child? Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail; and all faces are turned into paleness?

All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not. For I have smitten thee with the stroke of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the greatness of thine iniquity: thy sins are manifold.