The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, "I will restore the people of Judah to their land and to their towns. When I do, they will again say of Jerusalem, 'May the Lord bless you, you holy mountain, the place where righteousness dwells.'

Then they will say, 'Under these conditions I can enjoy sweet sleep when I wake up and look around.'"

"Indeed, a time is coming," says the Lord, "when I will cause people and animals to sprout up in the lands of Israel and Judah.

"When that time comes, people will no longer say, 'The parents have eaten sour grapes, but the children's teeth have grown numb.'

"Indeed, a time is coming," says the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.

It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them," says the Lord.

Thus says the Lord,
Who gives the sun for light by day
And the fixed order of the moon and of the stars for light by night,
Who stirs up the sea’s roaring billows or stills the waves when they roar;
The Lord of hosts is His name:

"Indeed a time is coming," says the Lord, "when the city of Jerusalem will be rebuilt as my special city. It will be built from the Tower of Hananel westward to the Corner Gate.

and the whole valley of the dead carcasses, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron: and from thence unto the corner of the horse gate toward the East, whereas the Sanctuary of the LORD also shall be set. And when it is now builded, and set up of this fashion it shall never be broken, nor cast down anymore."

Now it happened just as the Lord had said! My cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guardhouse. He said to me, 'Buy my field which is at Anathoth in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. Buy it for yourself since you are entitled as my closest relative to take possession of it for yourself.' When this happened, I recognized that the Lord had indeed spoken to me.

So I took the evidence with the copy, when it was orderly sealed and read over,

“Now when I had delivered the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying,

But when they came in and took possession of it, they did not obey you or live as you had instructed them. They did not do anything that you commanded them to do. So you brought all this disaster on them.

For According to mine anger, and According to mine indignation, hath been to me this city, from the day when they built it even unto this day, - that I should pull it down from before my face:

When I stood up early, and taught them and instructed them, they turned their backs to me, and not their faces.

"'Moreover thus hath the LORD God of Israel spoken, concerning this city, which - as ye yourselves confess - shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, when it is won with the sword, with hunger and with pestilence.

And the word of Yahweh came unto Jeremiah, the second time, when he was yet imprisoned in the guard-court, saying:

when the Chaldeans come to besiege them: and they shall be filled with the dead carcasses of men, whom I will slay in my wrath and displeasure: when I turn my face from this city, because of all her wickedness.

From all misdeeds wherein they have offended against me, I will cleanse them: And all their blasphemies which they have done against me, when they regarded me not, I will forgive them.

"I, the Lord, affirm: 'The time will certainly come when I will fulfill my gracious promise concerning the nations of Israel and Judah.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army, with all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his sovereignty and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem and against all of its cities:

when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the remaining cities of Judah, against Lachish and Azekah, for these were the [only] fortified cities among the cities of Judah.

These are the words that the LORD spake unto Jeremiah the prophet, when Zedekiah was agreed with all the people at Jerusalem, that there should be proclaimed a liberty:

Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go.

That was when the Lord spoke to Jeremiah,

"The Lord God of Israel has a message for you. 'I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt where they had been slaves. It stipulated,

At the end of seven years ye shall let go every man his brother, a Hebrew, who hath sold himself unto thee; when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee. But your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear.

But then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves whom you had set free according to their desire, and you forced them to become male and female slaves."'

And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, that have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof;

The Lord spoke to Jeremiah when Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah.

But when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded the land we said, 'Let's get up and go to Jerusalem to get away from the Babylonian and Aramean armies.' That is why we are staying here in Jerusalem."

Performed have been the words of Jonadab son of Rechab, when he commanded his sons not to drink wine, and they have not drunk unto this day, for they have obeyed the command of their father; and I -- I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking, and ye have not hearkened unto Me.

Take a book and put down in it all the words I have said to you against Israel and against Judah and against all the nations, from the day when my word came to you in the days of Josiah till this day.

Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the disaster I intend to bring on them, they will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. If they do, I will forgive their sins and the wicked things they have done."

So you are to go, reading there from the book, which you have taken down from my mouth, the words of the Lord, in the hearing of the people in the Lord's house, on a day when they go without food, and in the hearing of all the men of Judah who have come out from their towns.

And this was done in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, when it was commanded that all the people of Jerusalem should fast before the LORD, and they also that were come from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem.

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

Then Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read from the scroll to all the people.

When they had heard it all, they expressed their alarm to one another. Then they said to Baruch, "We must certainly give the king a report about everything you have read!"

And after Jehudi had read three or four columns [of the scroll], King Jehoiakim would cut off that portion with a scribe’s knife and throw it into the fire that was in the brazier, until the [entire] scroll was consumed by the fire.

Neither he nor any of his attendants showed any alarm when they heard all that had been read. Nor did they tear their clothes to show any grief or sorrow.

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

At that time the Babylonian forces had temporarily given up their siege against Jerusalem. They had had it under siege, but withdrew when they heard that the army of Pharaoh had set out from Egypt.)

Now it happened when the army of the Chaldeans departed from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s [approaching] army,

When he was at the Gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah the son of Hananiah was there; and he seized and arrested Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are deserting to join the Chaldeans [of Babylon]!”

When Jeremiah had come into the vaulted cell in the dungeon and had remained there many days,

And, when Shephatiah son of Mattan and Gedaliah son of Pashhur and Jucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchiah, heard the words which Jeremiah was speaking unto all the people saying:

Then said the princes unto the king, "Sir, we beseech you let this man be put to death; For thus he discourageth the hands of the soldiers that be in this city, and the hands of all the people, when he speaketh such words unto them. This man verily laboureth not for peace of the people, but mischief."

So the officials took Jeremiah and put him in the cistern of Malkijah, one of the royal princes, that was in the courtyard of the guardhouse. There was no water in the cistern, only mud. So when they lowered Jeremiah into the cistern with ropes he sank in the mud.

Now Ebed-melech the Ethiopian (Cushite), one of the eunuchs who was in the king’s palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the cistern, and while the king was sitting in the Gate of Benjamin,

Some time later Zedekiah sent and had Jeremiah brought to him at the third entrance of the Lord's temple. The king said to Jeremiah, "I would like to ask you a question. Do not hide anything from me when you answer."

Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, When I tell thee, wilt thou not, surely put me to death? And when I counsel thee, thou wilt not hearken unto me.

‘Then behold, all the women who are left in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officers of the king of Babylon and those women will say [to you, King Zedekiah],

“Your close friends
Have prevailed against your better judgment and have overpowered and deceived you;
While your feet were sunk in the mire [of trouble],
They turned back.”

But, when the princes hear that I have spoken with thee and they come in unto thee and say unto thee - Do tell us we pray thee what thou didst speak unto the king, do not hide it from us so will we not put thee to death, - and what spake the king unto, thee?

When all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, he replied to them exactly as the king had ordered him. So they stopped speaking with him because the conversation had not been overheard.

So Jeremiah remained confinedThe following events occurred when Jerusalem was captured.

And it came about, that when Jerusalem was taken, (in the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, with all his army, came against Jerusalem, shutting it in on every side;

Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came in and sat in the Middle Gate [establishing both military control of the city and their authority to judge the captives]: Nergal-sar-ezer, Samgar-nebu, Sar-sekim the Rab-saris (chief of the eunuchs), and Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag (chief of the magicians), with all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.

When King Zedekiah of Judah and all his soldiers saw them, they tried to escape. They departed from the city during the night. They took a path through the king's garden and passed out through the gate between the two walls. Then they headed for the Jordan Valley.

But the Chaldean (Babylonian) army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. When they had seized him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the [Aramean] land of Hamath, where he passed sentence on him.

Now the word of the Lord had come to Jeremiah when he was confined in the guard’s courtyard:

"Go and tell Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, 'The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, "I will carry out against this city what I promised. It will mean disaster and not good fortune for it. When that disaster happens, you will be there to see it.

But I will rescue you when it happens. I, the Lord, affirm it! You will not be handed over to those whom you fear.

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord after Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had released him from Ramah, when he had taken him bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being taken as exiles to Babylon.

When he still did not respond, Nebuzaradan said, "Return to Ahikam's son Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and remain with him among the people or go wherever it seems right for you to go." Then the captain of the guard gave him an allowance of food and a gift and sent him off.

Now when all the commanders of the forces that were [scattered] in the open country [of Judah] and their men heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land [of Judah] and had put him in charge of the men, women, and children, those of the poorest of the land who had not been exiled to Babylon,

Likewise, when all the Jews who were in Moab and among the people of Ammon and in Edom and who were in all the [other] countries heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant [of the people] in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan over them [as governor],

Now on the second day after he had put Gedaliah to death, when no one had knowledge of it,

Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them. He was pretending to cry as he walked along. When he met them, he said to them, "Come with me to meet Gedaliah son of Ahikam."

Yet when they came into the city, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the men who were with him slaughtered them and threw them into the cistern (underground water reservoir).

But when Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were with him heard of the murderous behavior of Ishmael the son of Nethaniah,

When all the people that Ishmael had taken captive saw Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers with him, they were glad.

So all the people that Ishmael had carried away from Mizphah, were brought again. And when they returned, they came to Johanan the son of Kareah.

Then Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the Host that were with him, took the remnant of the people, whom Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had led away when he had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom they also had rescued from him: fighting men, women and children, and gelded men: Whom they brought again from Gibeon.

Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to and honor the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the Lord our God.”

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “As My anger and My wrath have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My wrath will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. You will become detested, an object of horror, a curse and a people scorned; and you will no longer see this place.”

For ye deceived yourselves in your own souls, when ye sent me unto Jehovah your God, saying, Pray for us unto Jehovah our God; and according to all that Jehovah our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.

Now it happened when Jeremiah, whom the Lord their God had sent, had finished telling all the people all the words of the Lord their God—that is, all these words—

And when he entereth, then will he smite the land of Egypt and deliver Him who is for death to death and Him who is for captivity to captivity, and Him who is for the sword to the sword.

And [through him] I will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt, and he will burn them and take them (Egyptian idols) captive. He will wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself with his garment, and he will go away from there safely.

because ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your own hands: when ye offer unto strange gods in the land of Egypt whereas ye be gone to dwell: That ye might utterly perish, and that ye might be reviled and shamefully intreated of all nations.

and there shall be neither escape nor survival, unto the remnant of Judah who have been entering, to sojourn there into the land of Egypt, - that they should return to the land of Judah even when they are lifting up their soul to return to dwell there, for none shall return, saving fugitives.

But from the time when we gave up burning perfumes to the queen of heaven and draining out drink offerings to her, we have been in need of all things, and have been wasted by the sword and by need of food.

And said the wives, “When we were burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and were pouring out drink offerings to her, was it without [the knowledge and approval of] our husbands that we made cakes [in the shape of a star] to represent her and pour out drink offerings to her?”

The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the dictation of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

Insomuch as thou thoughtest thus, when thou wast writing, 'Woe is me, the LORD hath given me pain for my travail: I have wearied myself with sighing, and shall I find no rest?'

These words following preached he to the Egyptians concerning the Host of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt, when he was in Carchemish beside the water of Euphrates: what time as Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon slew him; In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah.

Who is it that is like the Nile when it riseth, Like rivers when his waters are tossed?

Egypt was like the Nile when it riseth, And like rivers, when the waters are tossed: So he said - I will rise, I will cover the earth, I will destroy the city, and the dwellers therein.

But that day belongs to the Lord God who rules over all. It is the day when he will pay back his enemies. His sword will devour them until its appetite is satisfied! It will drink their blood until it is full! For the Lord God who rules over all will offer them up as a sacrifice in the land of the north by the Euphrates River.

Even her mercenaries will prove to be like pampered, well-fed calves. For they too will turn and run away. They will not stand their ground when the time for them to be destroyed comes, the time for them to be punished.

She makes a sound like the hiss of a snake when they come on with strength; they go against her with axes, like wood-cutters.

The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded when she shall be delivered into the hands of the people of the north.

at the same time when he shall be there to destroy the whole land of the Philistines. He shall make waste both Tyre and Sidon and all others that are sworn unto them. For the LORD will destroy all Philistia, and the other Isles that be divided from the country.

Come hath baldness unto Gaza, Cut off hath been Ashkelon, O remnant of their valley, Till when dost thou cut thyself?

Ho, sword of Jehovah, till when art thou not quiet? Be removed unto thy sheath, rest and cease.

But how can it rest when I, the Lord, have given it orders? I have ordered it to attack the people of Ashkelon and the seacoast.

But the time is coming when I will send men against Moab who will empty it out. They will empty the towns of their people, then will lay those towns in ruins. I, the Lord, affirm it!

The people of Moab will be disappointed by their god Chemosh. They will be as disappointed as the people of Israel were when they put their trust in the calf god at Bethel.

O Israel, shalt thou not laugh him to scorn, when he is taken among thieves? Yea, because of thy words that thou hast spoken against him, thou shalt be driven away.