And [though] Yahweh has sent all his servants the prophets to you {over and over again} you have not listened, and you have not inclined your ear to hear,

and you must not go after other gods to serve them, and to bow in worship to them, and you must not provoke me to anger with the work of your hands, then I will not do something bad to you.'

'Yet you have not listened to me,' {declares} Yahweh, 'so that you have provoked me to anger with the work of your hands for your own harm.'

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh of hosts, 'Because you have not obeyed my words,

"And you shall say to them, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "Drink and become drunk, and vomit, and fall, and you must not rise because of the {presence} of the sword that I [am] sending among you." '

For look, on the city that is called {by} my name I [am] beginning to inflict harm, and you indeed, will you go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I [am] summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth," {declares} Yahweh of hosts.'

And the slain [ones] of Yahweh will be on that day from [one] end of the earth to the [other] end of the earth, and they will not be mourned, and they will not be gathered, and they will not be buried. They will become like dung on the {surface} of the ground.

"Thus says Yahweh: 'Stand in the courtyard of the house of Yahweh, and you must speak to all the cities of Judah that come to bow in worship [in] the house of Yahweh all the words that I command you to speak to them. You must not omit a word.

And you shall say to them, "Thus says Yahweh: 'If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set {before you},

to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I have sent to you, {over and over again}, though you have not listened,

Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, "{This man does not deserve} a sentence of death, for in the name of Yahweh our God, he has spoken to us."

[Did] Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and all Judah actually put him to death? [Was he] not in fear of Yahweh? And he entreated the face of Yahweh, and Yahweh relented of the disaster that he had spoken against them. But we [are] about to do great disaster to ourselves."

However, the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not given into the hand of the people to put him to death.

"But it will be [that] the nation or kingdom that will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, and with the famine, and with the plague," {declares} Yahweh, "until I have destroyed it with my hand.

And you, you must not listen to your prophets, and to your diviners, and to your dreamers, and to your interpreters of signs, and to your sorcerers who are {saying}, 'You will not serve the king of Babylon.'

Why should you die--you and your people--by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague, as Yahweh has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

And you must not listen to the words of the prophets who are speaking to you, {saying}, 'You must not serve the king of Babylon,' for they [are] prophesying a lie to you.

For I have not sent them," {declares} Yahweh, "but they [are] prophesying in my name {falsely}, so that I will drive them away. And you will perish--you and the prophets who are prophesying to you."

Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, {saying}, "Thus says Yahweh, 'You must not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you, {saying}, "Look, the vessels of the house of Yahweh [are] about to be quickly brought back from Babylon", for they [are] prophesying a lie to you.

And you must not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a site of ruins?

But if they [are] prophets, and if there is with them the word of Yahweh, let them please plead with Yahweh of hosts, that the vessels that are left over in the {temple} of Yahweh, and the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, must not go [to] Babylon.'

which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, did not take when he deported Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, from Jerusalem [to] Babylon, {along with} all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem.

Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, "Please listen, Hananiah, Yahweh has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie.

Take wives and father sons and daughters, and take for your sons wives, and give your daughters to men that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there, and you must not be few.

For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Do not let your prophets who [are] in your midst, and your diviners, deceive you, and you must not listen to your dreams that you [are] causing [them] to dream.

For they [are] prophesying {falsely} to you in my name; I have not sent them,' {declares} Yahweh.

For I know the plans that I [am] planning concerning you,' {declares} Yahweh, 'plans for prosperity and not for harm, to give to you a future and a hope.

for thus says Yahweh concerning the king who sits on the throne of David and concerning all the people who live in this city, your fellow kinsmen who did not go with you into the exile--

because they did not listen to my words,' {declares} Yahweh, 'when I sent to them my servants the prophets, {sending over and over again}, and they would not listen,' {declares} Yahweh.

because they have done a disgraceful thing in Israel, and they have committed adultery with the wives of their neighbors, and they have spoken words in my name, lies that I have not commanded them, and I [am] he who knows, and [I am] a witness,' {declares} Yahweh."

and so then why have you not rebuked Jeremiah the Anathothite who exhibits the behavior of a prophet for you?

"Send to all the exiles, {saying}, 'Thus says Yahweh concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: "Because Shemaiah prophesied to you, though I have not sent him, and he has made you trust in a lie,"

{therefore} thus says Yahweh, "Look, I [am] going to punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his offspring. There will not be for him a man who lives in the midst of this people, and he will not see the good that I [am] going to do to my people," {declares} Yahweh, "For he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh." '"

But you must not fear, my servant Jacob,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and you must not be dismayed, Israel, for look, I [am] going to save you from far, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. And Jacob will return, and he will be at rest, and he will be at ease, and there will be no [one who] makes [him] afraid.

For I am with you,' {declares} Yahweh, 'to save you. For I will make a complete destruction of all the nations to which I scattered you, but you I will not make a complete destruction. And I will chastise you to the measure, and I will not leave you entirely unpunished.'

All your lovers have forgotten you, they do not care for you. I have struck you [with the] blow of an enemy, [the] punishment of [the] cruel, because of the greatness of your guilt, your sins are numerous.

And thanksgiving and [the] sound of merrymakers will come out from them, and I will make them numerous, and they will not be few. And I will make them honored, and they will not be lowly.

{The burning anger of Yahweh} will not turn back until his doing, and until his accomplishing the plans of his {mind}. In the last of the days you will understand it.

With weeping they will come, and with pleas for mercy I will bring them; I will let them walk by streams of water in a straight path. They will not stumble in it, for I have become to Israel a father, and Ephraim, he [is] my firstborn."

Indeed I heard Ephraim pitying themselves, 'You disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like a calf that is not trained. Bring me back and let me return, for you [are] Yahweh my God.

not like the covenant that I {made} with their ancestors on the day of my grasping [them] by their hand, bringing them out from the land of Egypt, my covenant that they themselves broke, though I myself was a master over them," {declares} Yahweh.

Thus says Yahweh, who gives [the] sun for light by day, the regulations of [the] moon and [the] stars for light [by] night, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar--Yahweh of hosts [is] his name.

And the whole of the valley [of] the corpses, and the ashes, and all the cultivated fields up to the wadi of Kidron, up to the corner of the Gate of the Horses [toward the] east [will be] holy to Yahweh. It will not be uprooted, and it will not be overthrown again {forever}."

and Zedekiah, the king of Judah, will not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but surely he will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and {he will speak face to face with him} and {he will see him eye to eye},

and [to] Babylon he will bring Zedekiah, and there he will be until my attending to him," {declares} Yahweh. "If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not be successful" '?"

And they entered and took possession of it, but they did not listen to your voice, and they did not follow your law. They did nothing of all that you commanded to them to do, and you caused to happen [to] them all this disaster.

And they have turned to me [their] backs and not [their] faces, though {I have taught them over and over again}, but they [were] not listening to accept discipline.

And they built the high places of Baal that [are] in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to present as offerings their sons and their daughters to Molech, which I had not commanded them, and it had not come to my {mind} to do this detestable thing in order to cause Judah to sin."

And I will {make} with them {an everlasting covenant} that I will not turn away from them, my doing good [to] them, and my reverence I will put in their hearts so that [they will] not turn aside from me.

'Call to me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great [things] and inaccessible [things that] you have not known.'

For thus says Yahweh: 'A man who sits on the throne of the house of Israel will not be cut off for David.

And for the priests, a man from the Levites [who] offers burnt offerings and [who] burns grain offerings and [who] brings sacrifices will not be cut off {before me} {forever}.'"

"Thus says Yahweh: 'If you could break my covenant [with] the day, and my covenant [with] the night, so that day and night [would] not come at their time,

"Have you not seen how these people speak, {saying}, 'The two clans whom Yahweh chose, he has also rejected them'? Thus they spurn my people from being a nation {before them} [any] longer.

Thus says Yahweh: 'If my covenant [with] day and [with] night, [the] regulations of heaven and earth, I had not established,

And you will not escape from his hand, but surely you will be captured, and into his hand you will be given, and {you will see the king of Babylon eye to eye}, and {you will speak face to face with him}, and [to] Babylon you will go.'

However, hear the word of Yahweh, Zedekiah, the king of Judah. Thus says Yahweh concerning you: 'You will not die by the sword.

And all the officials and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant to let go each one his [male] slave and each one his female slave, not enslaving them again, and they obeyed and they let [them] go.

"At [the] end of seven years you must let go each one his fellow countryman, the Hebrew who has been sold to you and who has served you six years, and you must let him go free from you." But your ancestors did not listen to me, and they did not incline their ears.

"{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, 'You have not listened to me to proclaim release each one to his fellow countryman and each one to his neighbor. Look, I [am] going to proclaim to you a release,' {declares} Yahweh, 'to the sword, to the plague, and to the famine, and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

And I will make the men who transgressed my covenant, who have not kept the words of the covenant that they {made} {before me}, [like] the calf which they cut in two and they passed between its parts--

But they answered, "We will not drink wine, for Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our ancestor, commanded us, {saying}, 'You shall not drink wine, you or your children, {forever}.

And you shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed, and you shall not plant a vineyard, and it shall not be for you, but in tents you shall live all your days, so that you may live many days on the surface of the land where you [are] dwelling as aliens.'

And we obeyed the voice of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our ancestor, in all that he commanded us, not to drink wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters,

and not to build houses [for] our living, and there is not vineyard, or field, or seed for us.

"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Go and say to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, "Can you not learn a lesson to listen to my words?" {declares} Yahweh.

"The words of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, that he commanded his descendants to not drink, have been carried out, and they have not drunk until this day, for they have obeyed the command of their ancestor. But {I have spoken to you over and over again}, and you have not listened to me.

And I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, {I have sent them over and over again}, {saying}, 'Turn back please each one from his evil way, and amend your deeds, and you must not go after other gods to serve them, {so that you may live} on the land that I gave to you and to your ancestors.' But you did not incline your ear and you did not listen to me.

For the descendants of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, have carried out the command of their ancestor that he commanded them, but this people did not listen to me."

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, "Look, I [am] going to bring to Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem every disaster that I have spoken against them, because I have spoken to them and they have not listened, and I have called to them and they have not answered." '"

{therefore} thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: 'A man will not be cut off for Jonadab, the son of Rechab, to stand {before me} {always}.'"

And Jeremiah instructed Baruch, {saying}, "I [am] held back, I am not able to enter the temple of Yahweh.

Then the officials said to Baruch, "Go, hide yourself, you and Jeremiah, and let not a man know where you [are]."

And the king and any of his servants who heard all these words were not startled, and they did not tear their garments.

And even [when] Elnathan, and Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, "There will not be for him [one who] sits on the throne of David. And his dead body will be thrown out to the heat in the day and to the frost in the night.

And I will punish him, and his offspring, and his servants for their guilt, and I will bring on them, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the people of Judah all the disaster with which I have threatened them, but they would not listen." '"

But he and his servants and the people of the land did not listen to the words of Yahweh that he spoke by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet.

Now Jeremiah [was] coming and going out in the midst of the people and they had not put him [in] the house of imprisonment.

Thus says Yahweh: 'You must not deceive yourselves, {saying}, "Surely the Chaldeans will go from us," for they will not go.

And Jeremiah said, "[That is] a lie! I [am] not deserting to the Chaldeans." But he would not listen to him. So Irijah seized Jeremiah and brought him to the officials.

And where [are] your prophets who prophesied to you, {saying}, 'The king of Babylon will not come against you and against this land'?

Now then, my lord the king, please let my plea fall {before you}. You must not send me back [to] the house of Jonathan the secretary, so that I will not die there."

Then the officials said to the king, "Please, this man must be killed, {because} he [is] making slack the hands of {the soldiers} who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking to them words like these, for this man [is] not seeking for welfare to this people, {but only} for harm."

And Zedekiah the king said, "Look, he [is] in your hand, for the king is not able [to do] a thing against you."

And Zedekiah the king sent and made someone bring Jeremiah the prophet to him, to [the] third entrance that [was] at the {temple} of Yahweh. And the king said to Jeremiah, "I [am] asking you {something}, you must not hide {anything} from me."

And Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "If I tell you, will you not surely kill me? {Besides}, if I advise you, you will not listen to me.

So Zedekiah the king swore to Jeremiah in secret, {saying}, "{As Yahweh lives}, who has made for us this life, I will not kill you and I will not give you into the hand of these men who are seeking your life."

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, 'If only you will go surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then {you} will live, and this city will not be burned with fire, and you will live, you and your house.

But if you [do] not go surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they will burn it with fire, and you will not escape from their hand.'"

And Jeremiah said, "They will not give [you over]. Please obey the voice of Yahweh with regard to what I [am] saying to you, and it will go well with you, and {you} will live.

And all your wives and your children [will be] led out to the Chaldeans, and you will not escape from their hand, but by the hand of the king of Babylon you will be seized, and this city will burn with fire."

And Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "No man must know about these words so that you will not die.

And if the officials hear that I have spoken with you, and they come to you and say to you, 'Please tell us what you said to the king. You must not conceal [it] from us so that we will not kill you. And what did the king say to you?'

Then you shall say to them, 'I [was] presenting my plea {before} the king, to not cause me to return [to] the house of Jonathan to die there.'"

And all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, and he informed them like all these words that the king commanded. So they fell silent, for the {conversation} was not heard.

{And then} {when} Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all {the soldiers} [with him], they fled and went out [at] night from the city [by] the way of the garden of the king through [the] gate between the walls. And they went out toward the Jordan Valley.

"Take him and set your eyes on him. And you must not do something bad to him, {but only} that which he speaks to you, so do with him."

"Go and say to Ebed-melech the Cushite, {saying}, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: "Look, I [am] about to bring my words to pass against this city for evil and not for good. And they will be {before you} on that day.

But I will rescue you on that day," {declares} Yahweh, "and you will not be given into the hand of the men {of whom you are frightened}.