The following is a record of what Jeremiah son of Hilkiah prophesied. He was one of the priests who lived at Anathoth in the territory of the tribe 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 formed thee in embryo I knew thee; and before thou wast born I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet to the nations.

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 to Yahweh, the first fruit of his produce. All [those who] ate it were held guilty; disaster came to them," {declares} Yahweh.'"

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.

Is Israel a slave?
Was he born into slavery?
Why else has he become a prey?

Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, at the time he was leading thee in the way?

Thy wickedness shall correct thee, and thy turnings back shall convict thee: and know thou and see that evil and bitter thy forsaking Jehovah thy God, and that my fear was not to thee, says the Lord Jehovah of armies.

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 if you wash with natron, and you {use much soap}, your guilt [is] sticking as a stain {before} me," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

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.

When Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, "Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done. You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods.

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.

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.

A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.

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 thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thine evil thoughts lodge within thee?

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, and behold, it was wasteland and emptiness, and to the heavens, and [they were] without their light.

I looked and behold, there was no person, and all of the birds of the sky had fled.

I looked and behold, the fruitful land [was] a desert, and all of its cities were ruined before Yahweh, before the face of {his burning 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.

"For go now to my place that [was] in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell in the beginning, 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 hoped for peace, but there was nothing good;
for a time of healing, but there was only terror.

The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell in it.

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.

And I [was] like a gentle ram-lamb that is brought to slaughter, and I did not know that they planned plans against me, [saying], "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from [the] land of [the] living, so that his name will no longer be remembered."

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 I dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it, and look, the loincloth was ruined; it was not good for anything.

But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride. And my eye shall weep sore and run down with tears, because Jehovah's flock was captured.

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, {your magnificent 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 of the ground, [which] is cracked because there was no rain on the ground. [The] farmers are ashamed, they cover their heads.

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

And the wild donkeys did stand in the high places, they sniffed at the wind like jackals; 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.

She that hath borne seven languisheth; she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she hath been put to shame and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith Jehovah.

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.

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

I never sat with the band of revelers,
and I did not celebrate with them.
Because Your hand was on me, I sat alone,
for You filled me with indignation.

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?