I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

I saw, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky had fled.

"How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes' houses.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I visit them, they shall be cast down," says the LORD.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No. They were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says the LORD.

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them. For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men."

"Take heed everyone of his neighbor, and do not trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders.

But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter; and I did not know that they had devised devices against me, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered."

"Take the belt that you have bought, which is on your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock."

So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.

It happened after many days, that the LORD said to me, "Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide there."

Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the belt from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the belt was marred, it was profitable for nothing.

What will you say, when he shall set over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? Shall not sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?

but, 'As the LORD lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them.' I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.

For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

Thus says the LORD, "Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;

to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.

Then they said, "Come, and let us make plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words."

"Give heed to me, LORD, and listen to the voice of those who contend with me.

Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you shall bring a troop suddenly on them; for they have dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.

Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD's house, and said to all the people:

For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah: "You are Gilead to me, the head of Lebanon. Yet surely I will make you a wilderness, cities which are not inhabited.

but, 'As the LORD lives, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries where he had driven them.' They shall dwell in their own land."'

Behold, the storm of the LORD, his wrath, has gone forth. Yes, a whirling storm. It shall burst on the head of the wicked.

But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him?' says the LORD. 'Do I not fill heaven and earth?' says the LORD.

The LORD showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs set before the LORD's temple, after that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the officials of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first-ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

Then took I the cup at the LORD's hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom the LORD had sent me:

It happened, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, "You shall surely die.

Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the LORD, and entreat the favor of the LORD, and the LORD relented of the disaster which he had pronounced against them? Thus should we commit great evil against our own souls.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the bar from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,

Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon,

(after that Jeconiah the king, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, had departed from Jerusalem),

Their prince shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from their midst; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach to me: for who is he who has had boldness to approach to me? says the LORD.

Behold, the storm of the LORD, his wrath, has gone forth, a sweeping storm: it shall burst on the head of the wicked.

They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and they shall be radient over the goodness of the LORD, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, "Why do you prophesy, and say, 'Thus says the LORD, "Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;

Now after I had delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD, saying,

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them;

And all the officials and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant, that everyone should let his male servant, and everyone his female servant, go free, that none should make bondservants of them any more; they obeyed, and let them go:

but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

You had now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and you had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:

but you turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom you had let go free at their pleasure, to return; and you brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids.

Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken to him, on a scroll.

When Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard from the scroll all the words of the LORD,

Then Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the scroll in the hearing of the people.

Now it happened, when they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one toward another, and said to Baruch, "We will surely tell the king of all these words."

Then the officials said to Baruch, "Go, hide, you and Jeremiah; and let no man know where you are."

They went in to the king into the court; but they had put the scroll in the room of Elishama the scribe; and they told all the words in the ears of the king.

It happened, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that the king cut it with a knife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.

Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the scroll; but he would not hear them.

The king commanded Jerahmeel the king's son, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but the LORD hid them.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the scroll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,

Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: "He shall have none to sit on the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.

Then Jeremiah took another scroll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and there were added besides to them many like words.

Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people; for they had not put him into prison.

Pharaoh's army had come forth out of Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them, they broke up from Jerusalem.

For though you had struck the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yes would they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire."'"

And the officials were angry with Jeremiah, and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison.

When Jeremiah had come into the dungeon house, and into the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days;

Now when Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, a eunuch, who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon (the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin),

Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet to him into the third entry that is in the house of the LORD: and the king said to Jeremiah, "I will ask you something. Hide nothing from me."

But if the officials hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you, and tell you, 'Declare to us now what you have said to the king; do not hide it from us, and we will not put you to death; also what the king said to you':

Then all the officials came to Jeremiah, and asked him; and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived.

But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he gave judgment on him.

But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, who had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah, who were carried away captive to Babylon.

Now while he had not yet gone back, "Go back then," he said, "to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wherever it seems right to you to go." So the captain of the guard gave him food and a present, and let him go.

Now when all the captains of the forces who were in the fields, even they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed to him men, and women, and children, and of the poorest of the land, of those who were not carried away captive to Babylon;

Likewise when all the Jews who were in Moab, and among the children of Ammon, and in Edom, and who were in all the countries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan;

Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men who were with him, and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword, and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.

It happened the second day after he had killed Gedaliah, and no man knew it,

Now the pit in which Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had killed, by the side of Gedaliah (the same was who which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel), Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with those who were killed.

Then Ishmael carried away captive all the residue of the people who were in Mizpah, even the king's daughters, and all the people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the children of Ammon.

But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done,

So all the people who Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned about and came back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah.

Then took Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after that he had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon:

because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor over the land.

It happened that, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking to all the people all the words of the LORD their God, with which the LORD their God had sent him to them, even all these words,

But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, who were returned from all the nations where they had been driven, to live in the land of Judah;

the men, and the women, and the children, and the king's daughters, and every person who Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan; and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah;

"Take great stones in your hand, and hide them in mortar in the brick work, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah;

However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, 'Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate.'

But we will certainly perform every word that is gone forth out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our leaders, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of food, and were well, and saw no evil.

Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men, and to the women, even to all the people who had given him an answer, saying,

For wasn't Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves? For as often as you speak of him, you shake your head.

For every head is bald, and every beard clipped: on all the hands are cuttings, and on the waist sackcloth.

'Those who fled stand without strength under the shadow of Heshbon; for a fire is gone forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and has devoured the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.

If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? If thieves by night, wouldn't they destroy until they had enough?

But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbors; and he is no more.

As for your terror, the pride of your heart has deceived you, O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill: though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there," says the LORD.

Though Babylon should mount up to the sky, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall destroyers come to her," says the LORD.

He did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

For through the anger of the LORD it happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

They took the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were under the sea, and the stands which king Solomon had made for the house of the LORD. The brass of all these vessels was without weight.

As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits encircled it; and its thickness was four fingers. It was hollow.

A capital of brass was on it; and the height of the one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital all around, all of brass: and the second pillar also had like these, and pomegranates.

It happened in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison;