Israel was consecrated to the LORD, she was the first fruits of his produce. All who devoured her became guilty and disaster came on them," declares the LORD.'"

How canst thou say, I have not defiled myself, After the Baalim, have I not gone? See thy way, in the valley, Own what thou hast done, - A nimble young she-camel, crossing her own ways;

A wild ass, taught of the desert, In the desire of her soul, she snuffeth the wind, In her occasion, who can turn her back? None who seek her, will weary themselves, In her month, they shall find her!

That is to say, “If a man divorces his wife
And she goes [away] from him
And becomes another man’s [wife],
Will he return to her again? [Of course not!]
Will not that land [where such a thing happened] be completely desecrated?
But you [rebelled against Me and you] are a prostitute with many lovers;
Yet you turn to Me.” says the Lord.

Moreover, the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king [of Judah], “Have you seen what that faithless Israel has done—how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there she was a prostitute?

I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous (faithless) sister Judah saw it.

And I saw [that even though Judah knew] that for all the acts of adultery (idolatry) of faithless Israel, I [the Lord] had sent her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid; but she went and was a prostitute also [following after idols].

Because of the thoughtlessness of Israel’s prostitution [her immorality mattered little to her], she desecrated the land and committed adultery with [idols of] stones and trees.

Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with her whole heart, but rather in [blatant] deception [she merely pretended obedience to King Josiah’s reforms],” declares the Lord.

‘Like watchmen of a field they are against her on all sides,
Because she has rebelled against Me,’ says the Lord.

For a voice as of a woman in pangs, have I heard Anguish as of her that is bearing her firstborn. The voice of the daughter of Zion! She gaspeth for breath, She spreadeth forth her palms, - Surely woe to me! For my soul fainteth before murderers.

Go quickly through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and get knowledge, and make a search in her wide places if there is a man, if there is one in her who is upright, who keeps faith; and she will have my forgiveness.

Though she is beautiful and delicate,
I will destroy Daughter Zion.

For thus hath Jehovah of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.

“As a fountain springs up and pours out its fresh waters,
So she [continually] pours out her fresh wickedness.
Violence and destruction are heard inside her [walls];
Sickness and wounds are always before Me.

And therefore I am so full of thine indignation, O LORD, that I may suffer no longer. "Shed out thy wrath upon the children that are without, and upon all young men. Yea the man must be taken prisoner with the wife, and the aged with the cripple.

if you do not oppress the transient and the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood [by oppression and by unjust judicial murders] in Jerusalem, nor follow after other gods to your own ruin,

“Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us,
That our eyes may shed tears
And our eyelids flow with water.

“What right has My beloved [to be] in My house
When she has done many vile things and acted treacherously [over and over again]?
Can vows and the meat of your sacrifices remove your wickedness from you and cancel the consequences of your sin,
So that you can [escape your judgment and] rejoice?”

Now when Yahweh, let me know and I did know, then, didst thou shew me their doings.

“My inheritance has become to Me
Like a lion in the forest;
She has raised her voice and roared against Me;
So I have come to [treat her as if I] hate her.

Setting her for a desolation, she mourned to me; all the land was set a desolation, for no man put upon his heart

The cities of the South, are shut And there is none to open, - Judah hath been carried away captive, She hath altogether been carried away captive in full number.

The Hind shall forsake the young fawn that she bringeth forth in the field because there shall be no grass.

The mother who had seven children will grow faint. All the breath will go out of her. Her pride and joy will be taken from her in the prime of their life. It will seem as if the sun had set while it was still day. She will suffer shame and humiliation. I will cause any of them who are still left alive to be killed in war by the onslaughts of their enemies," says the Lord.

And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?

and I will cast you forth out of this land, into a land that ye know not, ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night: because I will shew you no favour.

“Like the partridge that hatches eggs which she has not laid,
So is he who makes a fortune in ways that are unjust.
It will be lost to him before his days are over,
And in the end he will be [nothing but] a fool.”

Therefore, the Lord says, "Ask the people of other nations whether they have heard of anything like this. Israel should have been like a virgin. But she has done something utterly revolting!

As with an east wind will I scatter them before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

Because he did not put me to death before my birth took place: so my mother's body would have been my last resting-place, and she would have been with child for ever.

Thus says the Lord, “Execute justice and righteousness, and rescue the one who has been robbed from the hand of his oppressor. And do no wrong; do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.

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.

Ask ye now, and see if a male brought forth? wherefore did I see every man his hands upon his loins as she bringing forth, and all faces were turned to paleness?

“Behold, I am bringing them from the north country,
And I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth,
Among them [will be] the blind and the lame,
The woman with child and she who labors in childbirth, together;
A great company, they will return here [to Jerusalem].

Thus says the Lord,
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
Lamentation (songs of mourning) and bitter weeping.
Rachel (Israel) is weeping for her children;
She refuses to be comforted for her children,
Because they are gone.”

The Lord says to her, "Stop crying! Do not shed any more tears! For your heartfelt repentance will be rewarded. Your children will return from the land of the enemy. I, the Lord, affirm it!

{How long} will you waver, O unfaithful daughter? For Yahweh has created a new [thing] on the earth, a woman, she shelters a man."

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and I will shew thee great and hidden things, which thou knowest not.

So shall she become to me - A name of joy, A praise and An adorning, To all the nations of the earth, - Who will hear all the good which I am doing them, And will dread and be deeply moved over all the good and over all the prosperity which I am causing her.

In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely; and this is the name whereby she shall be called: Jehovah our righteousness.

that Jehovah thy God may shew us the way wherein we should walk, and the thing that we should do.

And I will shew mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.

Egypt rises like the Nile,
Even like the rivers whose waters surge about.
And He has said, “I will rise, I will cover that land;
I will certainly destroy the city and its inhabitants.”

She makes a sound like the hiss of a snake when they come on with strength; they go against her with axes, like wood-cutters.

Poor dear Egypt will be put to shame. She will be handed over to the people from the north."

And I gave them into the hand of those seeking their souls, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, and into the hand of his servants: and after this she shall be inhabited as the days of old, says Jehovah.

“Give a gravestone to Moab,
For she will fall into ruins;
Her cities (pastures, farms) will be desolate,
Without anyone to live in them.

Moab hath ever been rich and careless from her youth up, she hath sitten and taken her ease with her treasure. She was never yet put out of one vessel into another, that is, she never went away into captivity, therefore her taste remaineth, and her savour is not yet changed.

And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, like as Israel was ashamed of Bethel, wherein she put her trust.

Moab was laid waste, and she went up from her cities, and the choice of his young men went down to the slaughter, says the King, Jehovah of armies, his name.

“Moab is shamed, for she has been broken down and shattered.
Wail and cry out!
Tell by [the banks of] the Arnon
That Moab has been destroyed.

Make her drunken, for she magnified herself above the LORD, that men may clap their hands at her vomit, and that she also may be laughed into scorn.

Those inhabiting Moab, forsook the cities and dwelt in the rock, and they were as the dove, she will nest in the regions beyond the mouth of the pit

As for Moab's pride, we have heard of it, she is very high-minded. I know her stoutness, her boasting, her arrogance, and the pride of her stomach, sayeth the LORD.

Moreover, I will make Moab cease, sayeth the LORD, from the offerings and censing that she hath made unto her gods in high places.

Oh, how shattered Moab will be! Oh, how her people will wail! Oh, how she will turn away in shame! Moab will become an object of ridicule, a terrifying sight to all the nations that surround her."

Moab will be destroyed and no longer be a nation, because she has vaunted herself against the Lord.

Therefore, lo! days are coming, Declareth Yahweh When I will cause to be heard against Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, an alarm of war, So shall she become a mound of desolation, And, her villages, with fire, shall blaze, - Then shall Israel, inherit them who inherited him, Saith Yahweh.

Why shouldst thou glory in the vales, The flowing of thy vale O apostate daughter? She who is trusting in her treasures, saying, Who shall invade, me?

“Damascus has become helpless;
She has turned away to flee,
Terror (panic) has seized her;
Anguish and distress have gripped her
Like a woman in childbirth.

Alas! is she not forsaken - The city so praised! The citadel I rejoiced in!

“For behold, I will stir up and bring up against Babylon
An assembly of great nations from the north country.
They will equip themselves and set up the battle lines against her;
From there she will be taken captive.
Their arrows will be like an expert warrior
Who will not return empty-handed.

Your mother [Babylon] shall be greatly shamed;
She who gave you birth will be ashamed.
Behold, she will be the least of the nations,
A wilderness, a parched land and a desert.

“Because of the wrath of the Lord she will not be inhabited
But she will be completely desolate;
Everyone who goes by Babylon will be appalled
And will hiss (mock) at all her wounds and plagues.

"Take up your battle positions all around Babylon, all you soldiers who are armed with bows. Shoot all your arrows at her! Do not hold any back! For she has sinned against the Lord.

Shout the battle cry from all around the city. She will throw up her hands in surrender. Her towers will fall. Her walls will be torn down. Because I, the Lord, am wreaking revenge, take out your vengeance on her! Do to her as she has done!

Come from far away and attack Babylonia! Open up the places where she stores her grain! Pile her up in ruins! Destroy her completely! Do not leave anyone alive!

"Call for archers to come against Babylon! Summon against her all who draw the bow! Set up camp all around the city! Do not allow anyone to escape! Pay her back for what she has done. Do to her what she has done to others. For she has proudly defied me, the Holy One of Israel.

For this the inhabitans of the deserts shall dwell with the islands, and the daughters of the ostrich shall dwell in her: and it shall be no more inhabited forever; and she shall not be dwelt in even to generation and generation.

They lay hold of bow and spear; they are cruel, and will not shew mercy; their voice roareth like the sea, and they ride upon horses set in array like a man for the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon.

Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people. Flee to save your lives. Do not let yourselves be killed because of her sins. For it is time for the Lord to wreak his revenge. He will pay Babylonia back for what she has done.

Babylonia had been a gold cup in the Lord's hand. She had made the whole world drunk. The nations had drunk from the wine of her wrath. So they have all gone mad.

But suddenly Babylonia will fall and be destroyed. Cry out in mourning over it! Get medicine for her wounds! Perhaps she can be healed!

Foreigners living there will say, 'We tried to heal her, but she could not be healed. Let's leave Babylonia and each go back to his own country. For judgment on her will be vast in its proportions. It will be like it is piled up to heaven, stacked up into the clouds.'

One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end,

My violence and my remainder upon Babel, shall she dwelling in Zion say; and my blood to the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.

The sea has swept over Babylon. She has been covered by a multitude of its waves.

The towns of Babylonia have become heaps of ruins. She has become a dry and barren desert. No one lives in those towns any more. No one even passes through them.

"Babylon must fall because of the Israelites she has killed, just as the earth's mortally wounded fell because of Babylon.

“Though Babylon should ascend to the heavens,
And though she should fortify her lofty stronghold,
Yet destroyers will come on her from Me,” says the Lord.

and say, 'Even thus shall Babylon sink, and be thrust down with the burden of trouble that I will bring upon her: so that she shall never come up again.'" Thus far are the preachings of Jeremiah.

Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king and reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.