Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray you, unto your servants in the Aramiac language; for we understand it; and speak not to us in the Jews' language, in the ears of the people that are on the wall.

But Rabshakeh said, Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? has he not sent me to the men that sit upon the wall, that they may eat and drink their own waste with you?

Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said, Hear you the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.

And they said unto him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children have come to birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.

And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall you say unto your master, Thus says the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.

By your servants have you reproached the Lord, and have said, By the multitude of my chariots have I come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down its tall cedars, and its choice fir trees: and I will enter into its farthest height, and the forest of its Carmel.

In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus says the LORD, Set your house in order: for you shall die, and not live.

And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave: I am deprived of the rest of my years.

I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world.

For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover.

Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?

Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from where came they unto you? And Hezekiah said, They have come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon.

Then said he, What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in my house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.

Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts:

Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which you have spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days.

The voice said, } Cry. { And he said, What shall I cry? {} All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is as the flower of the field:

They helped everyone his neighbor; and everyone said to his brother, Be of good courage.

You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called you from its chief men, and said unto you, you are my servant; I have chosen you, and not cast you away.

I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the descendants of Jacob, Seek me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

And you said, I shall be a lady forever: so that you did not lay these things to your heart, neither did remember the latter end of them.

For you have trusted in your wickedness: you have said, None sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you; and you have said in your heart, I am, and there is none else besides me.

And said unto me, You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.

Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing, and in vain: yet surely my due justice is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God.

And he said, It is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation unto the ends of the earth.

But Zion said, The LORD has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.

But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict you; who have said to your soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and you have laid your body like the ground, and as the street, for them that pass over.

You are wearied in the length of your way; yet you said not, There is no hope: you have found the life of your own hand; therefore you were not grieved.

And it shall be said, Heap it up, heap it up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people.

For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Savior.

I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.

Hear the word of the LORD, } you that tremble at his word; { Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.

Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for you shall go to all that I shall send you, and whatsoever I command you you shall speak.

Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what see you? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.

Then said the LORD unto me, You have well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What see you? And I said, I see a boiling pot; and it is facing away from the north.

Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?

The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

For from of old I have broken your yoke, and burst your bands; and you said, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree you wander, playing the harlot.

Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst: but you said, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.

The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she has gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot.

And I said after she had done all these things, Turn you unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

But I said, How shall I put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a beautiful heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, You shall call me, My father; and shall not turn away from me.

Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You shall have peace; when the sword reaches unto the soul.

At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places blows in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,

For thus has the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the law of their God.

They have lied about the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

For thus has the LORD of hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be punished; she is full of oppression in the midst of her.

Thus says the LORD, Stand you in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it.

Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.

That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.

Then the LORD said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear you the words of this covenant, and do them.

And the LORD said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell in it? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our latter end.

And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide there.

Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.

Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say unto them, You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.

Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.

Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not turn toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with your remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to treat you well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;

If it does evil in my sight, that it obeys not my voice, then I will change from the good, with which I said I would benefit them.

And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own plans, and we will everyone do the imagination of his evil heart.

Then said they, Come, and let us devise plots 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 attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

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,

And it came to pass the next day, that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD has not called your name Pashhur, but Magor-missabib.

Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary from holding it back, and I could not.

Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus shall you say to Zedekiah:

I spoke unto you in your prosperity; but you said, I will not hear. This has been your manner from your youth, that you obeyed not my voice.

They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD has said, You shall have peace; and they say unto everyone that walks after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.

I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

Then said the LORD unto me, What see you, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.

They said, Turn you again now everyone from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given unto you and to your fathers forever and ever:

Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.

Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD,

Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD's house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.

Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD has not sent you; but you make this people to trust in a lie.

Because you have said, The LORD has raised us up prophets in Babylon;

And Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

So Hanamel my uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray you, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

And you have said unto me, O Lord GOD, Buy the field for money, and take witnesses; for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them, Drink wine.

But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, You shall drink no wine, neither you, nor your sons forever:

But it came to pass, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians: so we dwell at Jerusalem.

And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according to all that he has commanded you:

And they said unto him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears.

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

Then said the princes unto Baruch, Go hide, you and Jeremiah; and let no man know where you are.

Then said Jeremiah, It is false; I desert not to the Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him: so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes.

Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took him out: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from the LORD? And Jeremiah said, There is: for, he said, you shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.

Moreover Jeremiah said unto king Zedekiah, How have I offended against you, or against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison?

Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech you, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakens the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them: for this man seeks not the welfare of this people, but the harm.

Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand: for the king is not able to do anything against you.