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 can you say, 'I have not defiled myself, I have not gone after the Baals?' Look at your way in the valley, know what you have done. [You are] a young she-camel, interweaving her ways.

A wild ass accustomed to [the] desert, in the desire of her soul. She gasps [for] wind [in] her rutting time. Who can quell her [lust]? All [those who] seek her will not grow weary, in her month they will find her.

A {saying}: 'Look, [if] a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him {and she becomes another man's wife}, will he return to her again?' Will not that land be greatly defiled? And you have prostituted [yourself] [with] many lovers, [would] you now return to me?" {declares} Yahweh.

Then Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah, the king, "Have you seen what apostate Israel has done? She has gone on every high hill and under every leafy tree and she has prostituted [herself] there.

And I thought, 'After her doing all these [things] to me she will return,' but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw [it].

And I saw that {for this very reason, that} on account of apostate Israel committing adultery I divorced her and gave the letter of divorce to her. Yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid and she went and prostituted [herself] also.

And it was because of the frivolity of her fornication that she defiled the land and committed adultery with the stone and with the tree.

In spite of all this, Israel's sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so," says the Lord.

Like watchers of a field they were against her from all around, because she has rebelled against me," {declares} Yahweh.

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."

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 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}.

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.

you do not oppress [the] alien, [the] orphan, and [the] widow, you do not shed innocent blood in this place, and you do not go after other gods {to your harm},

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

{What rights has my beloved in my house} [when] she has done many wicked things? Can the flesh of holiness pass over you? For {you engage in your wickedness}, then you exult.

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 lifted up against me her voice; {therefore} 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 have been shut up, And there is none opening, Judah hath been removed -- all of her, She hath been removed completely --

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

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.

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.

As the partridge that sitteth on eggs which she hath not laid, so is he that getteth riches, and not by right; in the midst of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be 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 Yahweh, "Act [with] justice and righteousness, and deliver [the] one who has been seized from the hand of [the] oppressor. And you must not oppress [the] immigrant, [the] orphan, and [the] widow. And you must not 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 the blind and the lame,
The woman with child and she who is in labor with child, together;
A great company, they will return here.

Thus says Yahweh, "A voice [is] heard in Ramah, lamentation, [the] weeping of bitterness. Rachel [is] weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted because of her children, for they are no [more]."

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.

Put to shame is the daughter of Egypt, - She hath been delivered into the hand of the people of 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 wing to Moab, For she must, fly away; And her cities To desolation, shall be turned, With no inhabitant therein.

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 has been put to shame, she is broken: make loud sounds of grief, crying out for help; give the news in Arnon, that Moab has been made waste.

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?

Enfeebled is Damascus She hath turned to flee But terror, hath seized her, - Anguish and pangs, have seized her as a woman in childbirth.

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

For lo! I am rousing and bringing up against Babylon a gathered host of great nations, out of the land of the North, And they shall array themselves against her, From thence, shall she be captured, - His arrows, are as of a hero making childless, None shall return empty.

Your mother, hath turned very pale, She that bare you, hath turned red, - Lo! the last of nations, is - A desert, A parched land, and A waste plain,

Because of the vexation of Yahweh, she shall not be inhabited, But Shall become a complete desolation, - Every one passing by Babylon, shall be astonished and hiss, over all her plagues.

Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about All ye who tread the bow, Shoot at her, do not spare so much as an arrow, - For against Yahweh, hath she sinned.

Raise a shout against her round about She hath stretched forth her hand, Fallen are her buttresses, Torn down are her walls, - Because, the avenging of Yahweh it is, Take ye vengeance upon her, As she hath done, do ye, unto her.

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!

Publish against Babylon ye chiefs of all who tread the bow - Encamp against her round about Let there be none to escape, Recompense to her according to her work, According to all which she did, do ye to her, - For Against Yahweh, hath she acted presumptuously, Against the Holy One of Israel.

{Therefore} desert creatures will live [there] with jackals, and daughters of ostriches will inhabit her. And she will not be inhabited again {forever}, and she will not be dwelt in {for all generations}.

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.

Leave Babylon;
save your lives, each of you!
Don’t perish because of her guilt.
For this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance—
He will pay her what she deserves.

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.

Suddenly, hath Babylon fallen and been broken, - Howl ye over her Fetch balsam for her pain, Peradventure she shall be healed!

We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed, Leave her and let us go every one to his own land, - For her judgment, reacheth unto the heavens, And mounteth as far as the skies.

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, hath gone up over Babylon, - With the multitude of its rolling waves, is she covered.

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 mount the heavens, And though she should fortify her strong high-place, From me, should come spoilers unto her Declareth Yahweh.

And you must say, 'Babylon will sink, and she will not rise, {because of} the face of the disasters that I [am] bringing on her, and they will grow weary.'" {Thus far} the words 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.