I saw that even though I had sent unfaithful Israel away for all her adulteries and had given her a divorce decree, her treacherous sister Judah didn't fear, and she, too, committed adultery.

I looked, and no people were there. All the birds of the sky had gone.

I looked, and the fruitful land had become a desert. All its towns were broken down because of the LORD, because of his burning anger.

Oh, that I had a lodging place for travelers in the desert, so that I could leave my people and go away from them. For all of them are adulterers, a band of traitors.

I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I didn't know that they had devised schemes against me. They told themselves, "Let's destroy the tree with its fruit. Let's eliminate him from the land of the living, so his name won't be remembered again."

So I went and hid it at the Euphrates, just as the LORD had commanded me.

I went to the Euphrates and dug it up. I got the belt from the place where I had hidden it. The belt was ruined! It was not good for anything.

Rather it will be said, "As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelis up from the land of the north and from all the lands to which the LORD had banished them.' I'll bring them back to their land, which I gave to their ancestors.

But if that nation about which I spoke turns from its evil way, I'll change my mind about the disaster that I had planned for it.

Then Jeremiah went from Topheth where the LORD had sent him to prophesy. He stood in the courtyard of the LORD's Temple, saying to all the people,

but they'll say, "As surely as the LORD lives who brought the descendants of the Israelis from the land of the north and from all the lands where I had driven them and brought them into the land.' Then they'll live in their own land."

If they had stood in my council and had delivered my words to my people, then they would have turned them back from their evil way, from their evil deeds."

"I've heard what the prophets who prophesy lies in my name have said: "I had a dream; I had a dream.'

After Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had taken Jehoiakim's son Jeconiah, king of Judah, along with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the smiths from Jerusalem into exile, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed right in front of the Temple of the LORD.

As soon as Jeremiah finished saying everything that the LORD had commanded him to say to all the people, the priests, the prophets, and all the people seized him, telling him as they did: "You must certainly die!

"Did Hezekiah king of Judah or anyone in Judah kill him? Didn't he fear the LORD and seek the LORD's favor, and so the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he had spoken to them about. We're bringing great disaster on ourselves.

This message from the LORD came to Jeremiah after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet:

Theseare the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon,

You will again plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria where planters had planted and defiled the fruit.

Then I awoke and looked around, and I had had a pleasant sleep.

where Zedekiah had confined him. Zedekiah had said, "Why did you prophesy and say these things? You said, "This is what the LORD says: "I'm about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.

"Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard just as the LORD had said, and he told me, "Please buy my field in Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin because you have the right to possess it, and the right to redeem it belongs to you. Buy it for yourself.' So I knew that this was a message from the LORD.

"After I had given the deed of purchase to Neriah's son Baruch, I prayed to the LORD:

And you gave them this land which you had promised their ancestors that you would give them a land flowing with milk and honey.

"Haven't you noticed what these people have been saying? "The LORD rejected the two families that he had chosen!' They have contempt for my people and no longer consider them a nation.

This is what the LORD says: "If I had not established my covenant for day and night and the laws that govern the heavens and earth,

This is this message from the LORD that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem proclaiming release for them.

All the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant agreed that each would set his male and female slaves free so that they would not enslave them any longer. They obeyed and they released them.

But afterward they turned around and took back the male and female slaves that they had set free, and they forced them to become male and female slaves.

But then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves whom you had set free according to their desire, and you forced them to become male and female slaves."'

Jeremiah summoned Neriah's son Baruch and at Jeremiah's dictation, Baruch wrote on the scroll all the words of the LORD that he had spoken to him.

Micaiah told them all the things that he had heard when Baruch read from the scroll to the people.

The king ordered his son Jerahmeel, Azriel's son Seraiah, and Abdeel's son Shelemiah to get Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the LORD had hidden them.

This message from the LORD came to Jeremiah after the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah's dictation:

Josiah's son King Zedekiah reigned in place of Jehoiakim's son Coniah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had made king of the land of Judah.

Now Jeremiah was still going in and out among the people since he had not yet been put in prison.

Pharaoh's army had come out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.

Indeed, even if you defeated the entire Chaldean army that is fighting against you, and they had only wounded men left in their tents, they would get up and burn this city with fire.'"'"

The officials were angry with Jeremiah and beat him. They put him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe because they had made it into a prison.

Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch in the king's house, heard that Jeremiah had been put in the cistern. The king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate,

King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to him at the third entrance to the LORD's Temple. The king told Jeremiah, "I'm going to ask you something, and don't hide anything from me."

When all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, he replied to them exactly as the king had ordered him. So they stopped speaking with him because the conversation had not been overheard.

Nebuzaradan, the captain of the Babylonian guard, took into exile in Babylon the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to Nebuchadnezzar, and the rest of the people who remained.

This is the message that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had released him from Ramah, when he was bound in chains, along with all the exiles from Jerusalem and Judah who were being taken into exile in Babylon.

All the leaders of the forces who were in the field along with their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Ahikam's son Gedaliah over the men, women, children, and the poor of the land who had not been taken into exile in Babylon.

All the Judeans who were in Moab, those with the people in Ammon, those in Edom, and those in all the other countries also heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant for Judah and that he had appointed Ahikam's son Gedaliah, the grandson of Shaphan, over them.

So all the Judeans returned from all the countries where they had been scattered. They came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and they gathered wine and summer fruit in great abundance.

Nethaniah's son Ishmael and the ten men with him got up and killed Ahikam's son Gedaliah, the grandson of Shaphan, with swords and killed the man whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

eighty men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria came with their beards shaved, their clothes torn, and their bodies slashed. They had grain offerings and incense with them to present at the LORD's Temple.

Ishmael threw the bodies of the men he killed on account of Gedaliah into the cistern that King Asa had made for protection against King Baasha of Israel. That is the same one Nethaniah's son Ishmael filled with those he killed.

Then Ishmael took captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah, including the king's daughters and all the rest of the people in Mizpah over whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had appointed Ahikam's son Gedaliah. Nethaniah's son Ishmael took them captive and then set out to cross over to the Ammonites.

Kareah's son Jonathan and all the military leaders who were with him heard about all the terrible things that Nethaniah's son Ishmael had done.

All the people whom Ishmael had taken captive from Mizpah turned around and went back to Kareah's son Jonathan.

Kareah's son Jonathan and all the military leaders who were with him took all the rest of the people from Mizpah whom he had rescued from Nethaniah's son Ishmael after he had killed Ahikam's son Gedaliah, including the young men, the soldiers, women, children, and eunuchs whom he had rescued from Gibeon.

because of the Chaldeans. They were afraid of the Chaldeans because Nethaniah's son Ishmael had killed Ahikam's son Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

When Jeremiah had finished telling all the people all the words that the LORD their God had sent him to tell them that is, all these words

Kareah's son Johanan and all the military leaders took the entire remnant of Judah that had returned from all the nations where they had been scattered to settle in the land of Judah

the young men, the women, the children, the daughters of the king, and everyone whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Ahikam's son Gedaliah, the grandson of Shaphan, along with Jeremiah the prophet and Neriah's son Baruch.

because of the wickedness that they did, provoking me to anger by continuing to offer sacrifices and worship other gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors had known.

Rather, we will keep doing everything that we said we would by offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and by pouring out liquid offerings to her just as we, our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders did in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had plenty of bread, things went well for us, and we didn't experience disaster.

This is the message that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Neriah's son Baruch, when in the fourth year of the reign of Josiah's son King Jehoiakim of Judah had, at Jeremiah's dictation, written these words in a scroll:

If the grape harvesters came to you, would they not leave gleanings? If thieves came at night, they would destroy only until they had enough.

Zedekiah had done evil in the LORD's sight, just as Jehoiakim had done.

Because Jerusalem and Judah had angered the Lord, he cast them out of his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon,

Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest of the people, the rest of the people left in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.

There was too much bronze to weigh in the two pillars, the one sea, the twelve bronze oxen that were under the sea, and the stands which King Solomon had made for the LORD's Temple.

From the city he arrested one of the officers who had been in charge of the troops, seven men from the king's personal advisors who were found in the city, the secretary of the commander of the army who mustered the people of the land, and 60 men of the people of the land who were found inside the city.