Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?

They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They do not plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and they do not judge the right of the needy.

They take hold of bow and spear. They are cruel, and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Zion.'"

I listened and heard, but they did not speak what is right: no man repents him of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done?" Everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.

You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.

As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right; in the midst of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a fool."

As I live," says the LORD, "though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand, yet would I pluck you there;

Thus says the LORD, "Write this man childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for no more shall a man of his seed prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling in Judah.

For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. "Their course is evil, and their might is not right;

But as for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as is good and right in your eyes.

"I have made the earth, the men and the animals that are on the surface of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give it to whom it seems right to me.

Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet.

"Thus speaks the LORD, the God of Israel, saying, 'Write all the words that I have spoken to you in a book.

"Set up road signs, make guideposts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went: turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.

"But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days," says the LORD: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:

'Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle shall come to you, saying, "Buy my field that is in Anathoth; for the right of redemption is yours to buy it."'

So Hanamel my uncle's son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of the LORD, and said to me, "Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.' Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

You had now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and you had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:

"Take a scroll, and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.

Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken to him, on a scroll.

therefore you go, and read from the scroll, which you have written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD's house on the fast day; and also you shall read them in the ears of all Judah who come out of their cities.

Then Baruch read from the scroll the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the room of Gemariah the son of Shaphan, the scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD's house, in the ears of all the people.

Then Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the scroll in the hearing of the people.

Therefore all the officials sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, "Take in your hand the scroll in which you have read in the ears of the people, and come." So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand, and came to them.

They said to him, "Sit down now, and read it in our ears." So Baruch read it in their ears.

They asked Baruch, saying, "Tell us now, How did you write all these words at his mouth?"

Then Baruch answered them, "He pronounced all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink on the scroll."

So the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll; and he took it out of the room of Elishama the scribe. Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the officials who stood beside the king.

It happened, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that the king cut it with a knife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the scroll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,

"Take again another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned.

Then Jeremiah took another scroll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and there were added besides to them many like words.

Now, behold, I release you this day from the chains which are on your hand. If it seems good to you to come with me into Babylon, come, and I will take care of you; but if it seems bad to you to come with me into Babylon, do not: behold, all the land is before you; where it seems good and right to you to go, there go."

Now while he had not yet gone back, "Go back then," he said, "to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wherever it seems right to you to go." So the captain of the guard gave him food and a present, and let him go.

The message that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

All you who are around him, bemoan him, and all you who know his name; say, "How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod."

Behold, I will bring a fear on you,' says the Lord, the LORD of hosts, 'from all who are around you; and you shall be driven out every man right forth, and there shall be none to gather together the fugitives.

They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Babylon.

Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words,