For doubtless I will save thee, so that thou shalt not perish with the sword: but thy life shall be saved, and that because thou hast put thy trust in me, sayeth the LORD.'"

Behold, I loose the binds from thy hands this day: if thou wilt now go with me unto Babylon, up then. For I will see to thee, and provide for thee: But if thou wilt not go with me to Babylon, then remain here. Behold, all the land is at thy will, look where thou thinkest convenient and good for thee to abide, there dwell.

If thou canst not be content to dwell alone, then remain with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan: whom the king of Babylon hath made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people, or remain wheresoever it pleaseth thee." So the chief Captain of the guard gave him his expenses with a reward, and let him go.

"Knowest thou not that Baalis king of the Ammonites hath sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, to slay thee?" But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam believed them not.

Then said Johanan the son of Kareah unto Gedaliah in Mizphah these words, secretly, "Let me go, I pray thee, and I will slay Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, so that nobody shall know it. Wherefore will he kill thee? That all the Jews which resort unto thee, might be scattered, and the remnant in Judah perish?"

whether it be good or evil. We will hearken unto the voice of our LORD God to whom we send thee that we may prosper, when we have followed the voice of the LORD our God."

For ye sent me unto the LORD your God and said, 'O pray thou the LORD our God for us: and look what answer the LORD our God giveth thee, that bring us again, and we shall do thereafter.'

Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah with all the proud persons, said unto Jeremiah, "Thou liest! The LORD our God hath not sent thee to speak unto us, that we should not go into Egypt, and dwell there:

But Baruch the son of Neriah provoketh thee against us, that he might bring us into the captivity of the Chaldeans: that they might slay us, and carry us away prisoners unto Babylon."

"Thus sayeth the LORD God of Israel unto thee, O Baruch:

And seekest thou yet promotion? Look not for it, and desire it not. For I will bring a miserable plague upon all flesh, sayeth the LORD. But thy life will I give thee for a prey, wheresoever thou goest."

"Preach throughout the land of Egypt, and cause it be proclaimed at Migdol, Memphis, and Tahpenes, and say: Stand still, make thee ready, for the sword shall consume thee round about.

But be not thou afraid, O my servant Jacob; fear not thou, O Israel. For lo, I will help thee from far, and thy seed from the land of thy captivity. Jacob also shall come again, and be in rest: he shall be rich, and no man shall do him harm.

Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, sayeth the LORD, for I am with thee: and will destroy all nations, among whom I have scattered thee. Nevertheless I will not consume thee, but chasten thee and correct thee: yea and that with discretion: neither will I spare thee as one that were faultless."

Moab can boast no more of Heshbon, for they have devised against it. 'Come,' shall they say, 'let us root them out, that they may be no more among the number of the Gentiles; yea, that they may no more be thought upon.' Thus the sword shall persecute thee:

And thou, daughter Dibon, come down from thy glory, and sit in poverty. For he that destroyeth Moab, shall come up to thee also, and break down thy strongholds.

And thou that dwellest in Aroer, get thee to the street, and look about thee: ask them that are fled and escaped, and say, 'What thing is happened?'

So will I mourn for thee also O Jazer, and for thee, O thou vineyard of Sibmah. Thy wine branches shall come over the sea, and the branches of Jazer but unto the sea. The destroyer shall break into thy harvest and grape gathering:

Fear, pit, and snare shall come upon thee, O Moab, sayeth the LORD.

Woe be unto thee, O Moab, for thou people of Chemosh shall perish. Yea, thy sons and daughters shall be led away captive.

Wherefore trustest thou in the water streams, that flow to and fro, O thou fierce daughter? And thinkest thou art so safe, by reason of thy treasure, that no man shall come to thee?

Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee, sayeth the LORD God of Hosts, from all those that be about thee: so that ye shall be scattered every man from another, and no man shall gather them together again that be fled.

If the grape gathers come upon thee, should they not leave some grapes? If the night robbers came upon thee, should they not take so much as they thought were enough?

Thou shalt leave thy fatherless children behind thee, and I will keep them, and thy widows shall take their comfort in me.

for lo: I will make thee but small among the Heathen, and little regarded among men.

Thy high stomach and the pride of thy heart have deceived thee; Because thou wilt dwell in the holes of stony rocks, and have the high mountains in possession. Nevertheless, though thy nest were as high as the Eagles, yet will I cast thee down, sayeth the LORD.

They shall ask the way to Zion; thither shall they turn their faces, and come and hang upon thee, in a covenant that never shall be broken.

"Go down, O thou avenger, into the enemies' land, and visit them that dwell therein: down with them, and smite them upon the backs, sayeth the LORD. Do according to all, that I have commanded thee.

I myself have laid wait for thee, and thou art taken. Unawares art thou trapped and snared. For why, thou hast provoked the LORD unto anger:

Behold, I speak unto thee, O thou proud, sayeth the LORD God of Hosts: for thy day shall come, even the time of thy visitation.

They bear bows and bucklers, cruel are they and unmerciful. Their voice roareth like the raging sea, they ride upon horses, and come weaponed to fight against thee, O Babylon.

The LORD of Hosts hath sworn by himself that he will overwhelm thee with men, like grasshoppers in number, which with courage shall cry 'Alarum, Alarum' against thee.

Thou breakest my weapons of war, and yet through thee I have scattered the nations and kingdoms;

through thee have I scattered horse and horseman; yea, the chariots, and such as sat upon them;

through thee I have scattered man and woman, old and young, bachelor and maiden.

Through thee I have scattered the shepherd and his flock, the husbandman and his cattle, the princes and the rulers.

"Behold, I come upon thee, thou noisesome hill, sayeth the LORD; thou that destroyest all lands. I will stretch out my hand over thee, and cast thee down from the stony rocks; and will make thee a burnt hill,

so that neither cornerstones, nor pinnacles, nor foundation stones shall be taken any more out of thee, but waste and desolate shalt thou lie for evermore, sayeth the LORD.

Therefore thus sayeth the LORD: Behold, I will defend thy cause, and avenge thee: I will drink up her sea, and dry up her water springs.

{Tav} From thee shall come all their adversity: thou shalt pluck them away, even as thou hast plucked me, because of all my wickedness. For my sorrow is very great, and my heart is heavy.

{Mem} What shall I say of thee, O thou daughter Jerusalem? To whom shall I liken thee? To whom shall I compare thee, O thou daughter Zion, to comfort thee withal? Thy hurt is like a main sea: who may heal thee?

{Nun} Thy prophets have looked out vain and foolish things for thee: they have not showed thee of thy wickedness, to keep thee from captivity; but have overladen thee, and through falsity scattered thee abroad.

{Samekh} All they that go by thee clap their hands at thee - hissing and wagging their heads upon the daughter Jerusalem - and say, "Is this the city that men call so fair, wherein the whole land rejoiceth?"

{Ayin} All thine enemies gape upon thee, whispering and biting their teeth, saying, "Let us devour, for the time that we looked for is come: we have found and seen it."

{Pe} The LORD hath fulfilled the thing that he was purposed to do; and performed that he had devised long ago. He hath destroyed; and not spared. He hath caused thine adversary to triumph over thee; and set up the horn of thine enemy.

Thou hast inclined thyself unto me, when I called upon thee, and haste said, "Fear not."

O LORD, thou hast seen my blasphemers; take thou my cause upon thee.

{Shin} And thou, O daughter Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz, be glad and rejoice: for the cup shall come unto thee also, which when thou suppest of thou shalt be drunk.

{Tav} Thy sin is well punished, O thou daughter Zion: he shall not suffer thee to be carried away anymore. But thy wickedness, O daughter Edom, shall he visit, and for thy sins' sake, he shall lead thee into captivity.

O LORD, turn thou us unto thee: and so shall we be turned. Renew our days as in old time,

And then said he unto me, "Stand up upon thy feet, O thou son of man, and I will talk with thee."

And he said, "Behold, thou son of man: I will send thee to the children of Israel, to those renegades and obstinate people - for they have taken part against me, and are run away from me: both they and their forefathers unto this day.

Yea, I will send thee unto a people that have rough visages and stiff stomachs: unto whom thou shalt say on this manner, 'This the LORD God himself hath spoken,'

"Therefore, thou son of man, fear them not; neither be afraid of their words: for they shall rebel against thee, and despise thee. Yea, thou shalt dwell among scorpions. But fear not their words, be not abashed at their looks: for it is a froward household.

Therefore, thou son of man, obey thou all things, that I say unto thee, and be not thou stiffnecked, like as they are a stiffnecked household. Open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee."

and said unto me, "Thou son of man, thy belly shall eat, and thy bowels shall be filled with the book, that I give thee." Then did I eat the book and it was, in my mouth, sweeter than honey.

And he said unto me, "Thou son of man, get thee soon unto the house of Israel, and show them the words that I command thee.

For I send thee not to a people that hath a strange, unknown, or hard speech, but unto the house of Israel;

Not to many nations which have divers speeches and hard languages, whose words thou understandest not. Nevertheless, if I sent thee to those people, they would follow thee:

But the house of Israel will not follow thee, for they will not follow me. Yea, all the house of Israel have stiff foreheads, and hard hearts.

He said moreover unto me, "Thou son of man, take diligent heed with thine ears, to the words that I speak unto thee, fasten them in thine heart:

"Thou son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore take good heed to the words, and give them warning at my commandment.

If I say unto thee, concerning the ungodly man, that without doubt he must die: and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest unto him, that he may turn from his evil way, and so to live - Then shall the same ungodly man die in his own unrighteousness, but his blood will I require of thine hand.

And there came the hand of the LORD upon me, and he said unto me, "Stand up and go into the field, that I may there talk with thee."

Behold, O thou son of man, there shall chains be brought for thee, to bind thee withal, so that thou shalt not escape out of them.

But when I speak unto thee, then open thy mouth, and say, 'Thus sayeth the LORD God: whoso heareth, let him hear; who so will not, let him leave.' For it is an obstinate household."

Thou son of man, take a tile stone, and lay it before thee, and describe upon it the city of Jerusalem;

Moreover, take an iron pan, and set it betwixt thee and the city instead of an iron wall. Then set thy face toward it, besiege it, and lay ordinance against it, to win it. This shall be a token unto the house of Israel.

But thou shalt sleep upon thy left side, and lay the sin of the house of Israel upon thee. Certain days appointed, thou shalt sleep upon that side, and bear their sins.

Nevertheless, I will appoint thee a time to put out their sins and the number of the days: Three hundred and ninety days must thou bear the wickedness of the house of Israel.

When thou hast fulfilled these days, lie down again, and sleep upon thy right side forty days, and bear the sins of the house of Judah. A day for a year; a day, I say, for a year will I ever lay upon thee.

Behold, I will lay chains upon thee, that thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another, till thou hast ended the days of thy siege.

"Wherefore, take unto thee wheat, barley, beans, growell seed, Millium and fitches: and put these together in a vessel, and make thee loaves of bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou must lie upon thy side: that thou mayest have bread to eat, for three hundred and ninety days.

Whereunto he answered me, and said, "Well then, I will grant thee to take cow's dung, for the dung of a man, and to strike the bread over withal, before them."

O Thou son of man, take thee then a sharp knife, namely a razor. Take that, and shave the hair of thy head and beard: Then take the scales and weight, and divide the hair asunder.

Therefore thus sayeth the LORD God: I will also come upon thee, for in the midst of thee will I sit in judgment, in the sight of the Heathen,

and will handle thee of such a fashion as I never did before, and as I never will do from that time forth, and that because of all thine abominations.

For in thee the fathers shall be fain to eat their own sons, and the sons their own fathers. Such a court will I keep in thee, and the whole remnant will I scatter into all the winds.

Wherefore as truly as I live, sayeth the LORD God, seeing thou hast defiled my Sanctuary with all manner of abominations and with all thy shameful offenses: For this cause will I also destroy thee. Mine eye shall not oversee thee, neither will I spare thee.

One third part within thee shall die of the pestilence and of hunger: Another third part shall be slain down round about thee with the sword: The other third part, that remaineth, will I scatter abroad toward all the winds, and draw out the sword after them.

Moreover, I will make thee waste and abhorred before all the Heathen that dwell about thee, and in the sight of all them that go by thee:

so that when I punish thee in my wrath, in mine anger, and with the plague of my hot displeasure, thou shalt be a very abomination, shame, a gasping and wondering stock among the Heathen that lie about thee. Even I, the LORD, have spoken it: and it shall come to pass.

"Thee I call, O thou son of man. Thus sayeth the LORD God unto the land of Israel: The end cometh: yea, verily the end cometh upon all the four corners of the land.

But now shall the end come upon thee: For I will send my wrath upon thee, and will punish thee according to thy ways; and reward thee after all thy abominations.

Mine eye shall not oversee thee, neither will I spare thee: but reward thee according to thy ways, and declare thy abominations. Then shall ye know that I am the LORD.

The end is here: The end, I say, that waiteth for thee is come already.

The hour is come against thee that dwellest in the land. The time is at hand; the day of sedition is hard by: and no glad tidings upon the mountains.

Therefore, I will shortly pour out my sore displeasure over thee, and fulfill my wrath upon thee. I will judge thee after thy ways, and recompense thee all thy abominations.

Mine eye shall not oversee thee, neither will I spare thee; but reward thee after thy ways, and show thy abominations, to learn you for to know how that I am the LORD that smiteth.

And he said furthermore unto me, "Thou son of man, seest thou what these do? Seest thou the great abominations that the house of Israel commit in this place? Which ought not to be done in my sanctuary: But turn thee about, and thou shalt see yet greater abominations."

And he said unto me, "Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see the great abominations that they do."

As for thyself, thou shalt go forth in the dark. Hide thy face that thou see not the earth, for I have made thee a show-token unto the house of Israel."

"Thou son of man, if Israel, that froward household, ask thee and say, 'What doest thou there?'

In the day of thy birth when thou wast born, the string of thy navel was not cut off; thou wast not bathed in water to make thee clean; thou wast neither rubbed with salt, nor swaddled in clouts;

No man regarded that so much, as to do any of these things for thee, or to show thee such favour, but thou wast utterly cast out upon the field: yea, despised wast thou in the day of thy birth.

"'Then came I by thee, and saw thee trodden down in thine own blood, and said unto thee, 'Thou shalt be purged from thine own blood; from thine own blood, I say, shalt thou be cleansed.'

So I planted thee, as the blossom of the field. Thou art grown up, and waxen great: thou hast gotten a marvelous pleasant beauty, thy breasts are come up, thy hair is goodly grown; whereas thou wast naked and bare afore.

Now when I went by thee, and looked upon thee: behold, thy time was come; yea, even the time to vow thee. Then spread I my clothes over thee, to cover thy dishonesty: Yea, I made an oath unto thee, and married myself with thee, sayeth the LORD God; and so thou becamest mine own.

Then washed I thee with water, and purged thy blood from thee; I anointed thee with oil,

I gave thee change of raiments; I made thee shoes of Taxus leather; I girded thee about with white silk; I clothed thee with kerchiefs;