"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came out from [the] womb I consecrated you; I appointed you [as] a prophet to the nations."

But you, you must gird your loins, and stand, and speak to them all that I command you. {Do not be afraid of them}, or I will shatter you {before} them.

Yet I planted you [as] a choice vine, all of it a seed of trustworthiness. How then have you altered before me [into something that is] degenerate, the foreign vine?

For if you wash with natron, and you {use much soap}, your guilt [is] sticking as a stain {before} me," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

I looked and behold, the fruitful land [was] a desert, and all of its cities were ruined before Yahweh, before the face of {his burning anger}.

For I heard a voice like an ill woman, anxiety like [a woman who] bears her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion. She is gasping for breath, she is spreading out her hands: "Woe is me, for I am becoming tired before killers."

Do you not revere me?" {declares} Yahweh, "Do you not tremble {before me}? For I have placed [the] sand [as] a boundary for the sea, {as an everlasting limit}, and it cannot pass over it, and they rise and fall loudly, but they cannot prevail, and its waves roar, but they cannot pass over it.

As a water well keeps its water cool, so she keeps cool her wickedness. Violence and destruction are heard within her, sickness and wounds [are] continually {before me}.

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh: "Look, I [am] about to put before this people stumbling blocks, and they will stumble against them, fathers and children together, neighbor and his friend will perish."

And then you come and you stand {before} me in this house, which is called {by my name}, and you say, 'we are safe {to go on doing} all of these detestable things.'

And they shall spread them out before the sun, and before the moon, and before all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and which they have gone after, and which they have inquired about, and to which they have bowed in worship. They shall not be gathered, and they shall not be buried; they will be like dung on the surface of the ground.

And Yahweh said, "Because of their forsaking my law that I set {before} them, and they have not obeyed my voice, and have not walked in it,

Give glory to Yahweh your God {before} he brings darkness, and {before} your feet stumble on the mountains at twilight. And you will hope for light, but he makes it as gloom, he makes [it] as thick darkness.

Then Yahweh said to me, "[Even] if Moses and Samuel stood {before me}, my heart [would] not [be] to this people. Send [them] away from my {sight}, and let them go out.

Their widows will be more numerous before me than [the] sand of [the] seas. I have brought to them, against [the] mothers of young men, a destroyer at noon. I will suddenly drop on her anguish and horror.

She who gave birth to seven has withered away. She gasps her breath. Her sun {set} while still day. She has been put to shame and disgraced. And the remainder of them I will give to the sword {before} their enemies," {declares} Yahweh.

Therefore thus says Yahweh, "If you turn back, then I will take you back. You will stand {before me}. And if you utter [what is] precious and not [what is] worthless, you will be as my mouth. They will turn back to you, and you will not turn back to them.

For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Look, I [am] about to cause to disappear from this place, before your eyes and in your days, [the] voice of jubilation, and [the] voice of joy, and [the] voice of [the] bridegroom, and [the] voice of [the] bride.

For my eyes [are] on all their ways, they are not hidden {from before me}, and their iniquity is not concealed from before my eyes.

But I, I have not run away from being a shepherd {who follows you}, and I have not desired the disastrous day. You, you know the pronouncement of my lips, it was before your face.

Like the wind from the east I will scatter them {before} [the] enemy. I will show them [my] back and not [my] face in the day of their disaster.'"

Should good be repaid in place of evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember my standing {before you} to speak good for them, to avert your wrath from them.

But you, Yahweh, you know {all their plans of assassination against me}. You must not make atonement for their iniquity, and you must not cause their sin to be blotted out from {before you}. But let them be overthrown {before you}. Deal with them in the time of your anger.

And I will lay waste the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will bring them to ruin by the sword {before} their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life, and I will give their dead bodies as food to the birds of heaven and to the animals of the earth.

"Then you shall break the jar before the eyes of the men who go with you.

"And to this people you shall say, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Look, I [am] setting {before you} the way of life and the way of death.

Yahweh showed me, and look, there were two baskets of figs placed {before} the temple of Yahweh--after Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had deported Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, with the officials of Judah, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, from Jerusalem and had brought them [to] Babylon.

And you shall say to them, "Thus says Yahweh: 'If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set {before you},

And it was in that [same] year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah, the son of Azzur, the prophet who [was] from Gibeon, said to me in the house of Yahweh before the eyes of the priests and all the people, {saying},

Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet before the eyes of the priests and before the eyes of all the people who were standing in the house of Yahweh,

The prophets who were {before} me and {before} you from ancient [times] prophesied against many countries and against great kingdoms of war, and of disaster, and of plague.

Then Hananiah said before the eyes of all the people, {saying}, "Thus says Yahweh, 'This is how I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, {within two years}, from the neck of all the nations.'" And Jeremiah the prophet went on his way.

Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab, the son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you in my name a lie, 'Look, I [am] going to give them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and he will strike them before your eyes.

And their children will be as of old, and their community will be established {before me}. And I will punish all their oppressors.

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

And it will be to me a name of jubilation, a praise, and a glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear all the good that I [will] do [for] them, and they will fear, and they will tremble because of all the good, and because of all the prosperity that I [will] provide for it.'

And for the priests, a man from the Levites [who] offers burnt offerings and [who] burns grain offerings and [who] brings sacrifices will not be cut off {before me} {forever}.'"

"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.

In peace you will die, and as [there was] burning for your ancestors, the former kings who were {before you}, so they will burn for you, and they will lament for you, "Alas, lord!" For [the] word I have spoken,' {declares} Yahweh." '"

And you turned back {recently} and you did right in my eyes, to proclaim release each one to his neighbor, and you {made} a covenant {before me} in the house that is called {by} my name.

And I will make the men who transgressed my covenant, who have not kept the words of the covenant that they {made} {before me}, [like] the calf which they cut in two and they passed between its parts--

Then I {set} {before} the house of the Rechabites bowls full of wine and cups, and I said to them, "Drink wine."

{But then} at the coming up against the land of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, then we said, 'Come and let us go [to] Jerusalem {before} the army of the Chaldeans, and {before} the army of the Arameans.' That is why we are living in Jerusalem."

{therefore} thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: 'A man will not be cut off for Jonadab, the son of Rechab, to stand {before me} {always}.'"

Perhaps their plea will fall {before} Yahweh and each one will turn away from his evil way, for great [is] the anger and wrath that Yahweh pronounced against this people."

{And then} in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the towns of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast {before} Yahweh.

Now the king [was] sitting [in] the quarters of the winter in the ninth month, and a fire-pot [was] burning {before} him.

{And then}, at the withdrawing of the army of the Chaldeans from Jerusalem {before} the army of Pharaoh,

Now then, my lord the king, please let my plea fall {before you}. You must not send me back [to] the house of Jonathan the secretary, so that I will not die there."

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."

Then you shall say to them, 'I [was] presenting my plea {before} the king, to not cause me to return [to] the house of Jonathan to die there.'"

And the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes. The king of Babylon also slaughtered all the nobles of Judah.

"Go and say to Ebed-melech the Cushite, {saying}, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: "Look, I [am] about to bring my words to pass against this city for evil and not for good. And they will be {before you} on that day.

And so then look, I have released you {today} from the chains that [were] on your hands. If it is good in your eyes to come with me [to] Babylon, [then] come, and {I will take care of you}. But if it is bad in your eyes to come with me [to] Babylon, [then] refrain. Look, the whole land [is] {before you}. To [wherever it is] good and right in your eyes to go, [then] go there."

{As for me}, look, I [am] staying at Mizpah to represent [you] {before} the Chaldeans who come to us. But you, gather wine and summer fruit and oil, and put [them] in your vessels, and live in your towns that you have seized."

and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "May our plea please fall {before you}, and pray for us to Yahweh your God, for all this remnant, for we are left [but] a few of many, as your eyes [are] seeing us.

and said to them, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to cause your plea to fall {before him}:

"Take in your hands large stones and bury them in the mortar in the clay floor that [is] at the entrance of the palace of Pharaoh in Tahpanhes before the eyes of [the] people of [the] Judeans,

They have not shown contrition up to this day, and they have not shown reverence, and they have not walked in my law and in my statutes that I set {before you} and {before} your ancestors.'

The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning [the] Philistines {before} Pharaoh attacked Gaza.

"He [who] flees {before} the dread will fall into the pit, and the [one who] climbs up from the pit will be caught in the trapping net, for I will bring on Moab the year of their punishment," {declares} Yahweh.

Look, I [am] going to bring dread on you," {declares} Lord Yahweh of hosts, "from all your surrounding [neighbors]. And you will be scattered, each one {before it}, and there is no [one who] gathers the fugitives.

Look, like a lion he comes up from the thickets of the Jordan to {a pastureland by a constantly flowing stream}. So {I will chase him away hurriedly} from it. And whoever [is] chosen I will appoint over it. For who [is] like me, and who can summon me? And who [is] this, [the] shepherd who can stand {before me}?"

So I will shatter Elam {before} their enemies, and {before} the seekers of their life. And I will bring disaster upon them, {my burning anger},' {declares} Yahweh. 'And I will send after them the sword until I have destroyed them.

Flee from the midst of Babylon, and from the land of [the] Chaldeans. Go out and be like he-goats {before} [the] flock.

Look, like a lion he comes up from the thickets of the Jordan against {a pastureland by a constantly flowing stream}, so {I will chase them away quickly} from her, and I will appoint whoever [is] chosen over her. For who [is] like me, and who can summon me, and who [is] this shepherd who can stand {before me}?

And I will repay Babylon, and all the inhabitants of Chaldea, all their wickedness that they have done in Zion before your eyes," {declares} Yahweh.

And the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah.

Now in the fifth month, on the tenth [day] of the month, which [was the] nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan [the] captain of [the] guard, who stood {before} the king of Babylon, entered into Jerusalem.

So he changed the garments of his imprisonment and he ate food {before him} continually all the days of his life.