The words of Hilkiah's son Jeremiah, who was one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.

When the word of Jehovah was to him in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year to his reigning.

And it came again in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, up to the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah; till Jerusalem was taken away in the fifth month.

"Before I fashioned thee in thy mother's womb, I did know thee: And before thou wast born, I sanctified thee and ordained thee, to be a Prophet unto the people."

Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals; how thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

“Israel was holy [something set apart from ordinary purposes, consecrated] to the Lord,
The first fruits of His harvest [in which no outsider was allowed to share].
All who ate of it [injuring Israel] became guilty;
Evil came on them,” says the Lord.’”

And they never said, Where is the Lord, who took us up out of the land of Egypt; who was our guide through the waste of sand, through an unplanted land full of deep holes, through a dry land of deep shade, which no one went through and where no man was living?

For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send to Kedar, and consider greatly, and see whether there was like this.

Was Israel a servant? Born in the house, was he? Wherefore hath he become a prey?

Has not this come on you because you have given up the Lord your God, who was your guide by the way?

Your own wickedness will bring about your punishment. Your unfaithful acts will bring down discipline on you. Know, then, and realize how utterly harmful it was for you to reject me, the Lord your God, to show no respect for me," says the Lord God who rules over all.

For in the past, your yoke was broken by your hands and your cords parted; and you said, I will not be your servant; for on every high hill and under every branching tree, your behaviour was like that of a loose woman

“For though you wash yourself with lye
And use much soap,
The stain of your guilt is [still] before Me [and you are soiled and dirty],” says the Lord God.

How wilt thou say, I was not defiled? I went not after the Baalims? See thy way in the valley, know what thou didst; a young she camel entangling her ways;

As the shame of the thief when he shall be found, so was the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their chiefs, and their priests, and their prophets,

O generation, see ye the word of Jehovah. Was I the desert to Israel? If a land of thick darkness? wherefore said my people, We had dominion, we will come no more to thee?

And thou wilt say, Because I was innocent his anger turned back from me. Behold me judging thee for thy saying, I sinned not

Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt also, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.

Saying, If a man shall send away his wife, and she went from him and she was to another man, shall he yet turn back to her? Being defiled, shall not that land be defiled? and thou committedst fornication with many shepherds; and turn back to me, says Jehovah.

And the showers will be withheld, and the latter rain was not; and the forehead of a woman a harlot was to thee, and thou refusedst to be ashamed.

Even now you say to me, 'You are my father! You have been my faithful companion ever since I was young.

Then the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there.

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].

And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

Turn back, ye sons having turned away, says Jehovah; for I was lord over you: and I took you one from a city and two from a family, and I brought you to Zion.

And it was that ye shall be multiplied and be fruitful in the land in those days, says Jehovah; they shall no more say, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah: and it shall not come up upon the heart, and they shall not remember upon it, and they shall not review and it shall be clone no more.

And therefore the voice of the children of Israel was heard on every side, weeping and wailing: for they have defiled their way, and forgotten God their LORD.

And it was in that day, says Jehovah, the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the chiefs; and the priests were astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.

O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness,
That you may be saved.
How long will your wicked and immoral thoughts
Lodge within you?

Thy way and thy doings did these things to thee; this thine evil, for it was bitter because it reached even to thy heart.

Breaking upon breaking was called; for all the land was laid waste: suddenly were my tents laid waste, my curtains in a moment

I looked at the earth [in my vision], and behold, it was [as at the time of creation] formless and void;
And to the heavens, and they had no light.

I looked, and behold, there was no man,
And all the birds of the air had fled.

I looked, and behold, the fertile land was a wilderness,
And all its cities were pulled down
Before the [presence of the] Lord, before His fierce anger.

From the voice of the horseman and the throwing of the bowman all the city fled; they went into thickets, and they went up upon rocks: every city was forsaken, and not a man dwelling in them.

The Lord says, "Listen, nation of Israel! I am about to bring a nation from far away to attack you. It will be a nation that was founded long ago and has lasted for a long time. It will be a nation whose language you will not know. Its people will speak words that you will not be able to understand.

And it was when ye shalt say, For what did Jehovah our God all these things to us? and thou saidst to them, As ye forsook me, and ye will serve a strange god in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land not to you.

And to this people was a heart turning aside and perverse, and they turned aside and departed.

Astonishment and horror was in the land.

To whom shall I speak and testify, and they will hear? behold, their ear being uncircumcised, and they shall not be able to hearken: behold, the word of Jehovah was to them for a reproach; they will not delight in it

I was filled with the wrath of Jehovah; I was weary holding up; to pour out upon the child in the street and upon the assembly of the young men together; for also the man with the woman shall be taken, the old man with the full of days.

And so they have healed the grievous wound of my people, slightly, Saying, Peace, peace, when there was no peace,

Were they ashamed because they did what was repugnant to God? They were not ashamed at all they don't even know how to blush! Therefore they'll fall with those who fall. When I punish them, they'll be brought down," says the LORD.

The word that was to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

And ye came and stood before me in this house which my name was called upon it, and ye said, We were delivered to do all these abominations.

Was this house which my name was called upon it a cave of those breaking down in your eyes? also I, behold, I saw, says Jehovah.

“But go now to My place which was in Shiloh [in Ephraim], where I first set My Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

And I did to the house which my name was called upon it, which ye are trusting in it, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

For this, thus said the Lord Jehovah; Behold my anger and my wrath was poured out to this place, upon man, and upon cattle, and upon the tree of the field, and upon the fruit of the land; and it burnt and it shall not be quenched.

But this was the order I gave them, saying, Give ear to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people: go in all the way ordered by me, so that all may be well for you.

And say to them, This a nation that heard not to the voice of Jehovah its God, and they received not instruction: faithfulness perished, and was eat off from their mouth.

Cut thou off thy crown of hair O Jerusalem , and cast it away, And lift thou up on the bare heights, a dirge, - For Yahweh hath rejected and cast out the generation with which he was wroth.

For the sons of Judah, have done, that which was wicked in mine eyes, Declareth Yahweh, - They have set their abominations in the house whereon my Name hath been called to defile it;

And they have put up the high place of Topheth in the valley of the son of Hinnom, burning their sons and their daughters there in the fire; a thing which was not ordered by me and never came into my mind.

And the carcass of this people was for food to the birds of the heavens and for the cattle of the earth; and none terrifying.

And death was chosen above life to all the remnant of those being left from this evil family, in all the places being left where I cast them out there, says Jehovah of armies.

And so they have healed the grievous wound of the daughter of my people, slightly, - Saying, Peace! peace! when there was no peace!

We waited for peace, but no good has come, for a time of healing, but instead there was terror.

From Dan, was heard the snorting of his horses At the sound of the neighing of his chargers, the whole land trembled, - Yea they came in and did sat up The land and the fulness thereof, The city, and them who were dwelling therein.

Because I afflicted not sorrow upon myself, my heart was sick upon me.

The harvest passed by, the summer was completed, and we were not saved.

For the breaking of the daughter of my people was I broken; I was darkened; astonishment took hold of me.

If only my head was a stream of waters and my eyes fountains of weeping, so that I might go on weeping day and night for the dead of the daughter of my people!

Who the wise man and he will understand this? and which the mouth of Jehovah spake to him, and he will announce it, for what the land perished it was burnt as the desert, from not being passed through.

For a voice of lamentation was heard from Zion: How were we laid waste! we were greatly ashamed, for we forsook the land, and cast away our dwellings

At the voice that he uttered, there was a tumult of waters in the heavens, And he caused vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth, - The lightnings for rain, he made, And brought forth wind out of his treasuries.

Every man was brutish from knowledge: every founder was ashamed from his carved image; for his molten image a falsehood, and no spirit in them.

Wo to me for my breaking! my blow was sickly; and I said, Surely this a sickness, and I will bear it.

My tent was laid waste, and all my cords were broken: my sons went forth from me, and they are not: none stretched forth my tent any more, and the place of my curtains.

For the shepherds were brutish, and they sought not Jehovah: for this they considered not, and all their flock was scattered.

The word which was to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors to keep when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace. I said at that time, "Obey me and carry out the terms of the agreement exactly as I commanded you. If you do, you will be my people and I will be your God.

And Jehovah will say to me, A conspiracy was found in the men of Judah, and in the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

But I was like a gentle and tame lamb brought to the slaughter;
And I did not know that they had devised plots and schemes against me, saying,
“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit;
Let us cut him off from the land of the living,
That his name be remembered no longer.”

My inheritance was to me as a lion in the forest; she gave upon me with her voice: for this I hated her.

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

Though good grain was planted, they have got in thorns: they have given themselves pain without profit: they will be shamed on account of their produce, because of the burning wrath of the Lord.

And it was after my tearing them up I will turn back and compassionate them, and cause them to dwell a man to his inheritance, and a man to his land.

And it was if learning, they shall learn the ways of my people to swear in my name, Jehovah lives; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; and they were built up in the midst of my people.

Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the waistband from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the waistband was decayed and ruined; it was completely worthless.

And if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in hiding places from the face of pride, and mine eye weeping shall weep and bring down tears, because the flock of Jehovah was taken captive.

Say to the king and to the mistress, Humble yourselves, sit down: for the crown of your glory was brought down from your heads.

The cities of the south were shut up and none opened: Judah was carried away captive, it was all carried away captive, the whole of them.

“Lift up your eyes and see
Those coming from the north.
Where is the flock that was given to you [to shepherd],
Your beautiful flock?

And also I uncovered thy skirts upon thy face and thy dishonor was seen.

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah when there was no water.

Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.

Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.

And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.

Wherefore shalt thou be as a man struck dumb? as a strong one he shall not be able to save? and thou in the midst of us, O Jehovah, and thy name was called upon us; thou wilt not leave us.

Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them—yet they keep saying, ‘There will be no sword or famine in this land’—by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end!

And say to them this word: Mine eyes shall bring down tears night and day, and they shall not rest: for the virgin daughter of my people was broken with a great breaking, a very sickly wound.

Have you completely given up Judah? is your soul turned in disgust from Zion? why have you given us blows from which there is no one to make us well? we were looking for peace, but no good came; and for a time of well-being, but there was only a great fear.

And it was if they shall say to thee, Whither shall we go forth? And say to them, Thus said Jehovah, Whom for death to death; and whom for the sword to the sword; and whom for famine to famine; and whom for captivity to captivity.

Thou didst reject me, says Jehovah; thou wilt go backward; and I will stretch forth my hand against thee, and I will destroy thee; I was weary of lamenting.

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 I caused to pass with thine enemies into a land thou knewest not: for a fire was kindled in my wrath; it shall burn upon you.

Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.

I did not spend my time in the company of other people, laughing and having a good time. I stayed to myself because I felt obligated to you and because I was filled with anger at what they had done.

Wherefore was my pain everlasting and my blow incurable, refusing to be healed? Being, wilt thou be to me as falsehood, the waters were not faithful?