Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,

"Please ask the Lord to come and help us, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is attacking us. Maybe the Lord will perform one of his miracles as in times past and make him stop attacking us and leave."

And after that, says the Lord, I will give up Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his servants and his people, even those in the town who have not come to their end from the disease and the sword and from need of food, into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of their haters, and into the hands of those desiring their death: he will put them to the sword; he will not let anyone get away, he will have no pity or mercy.

He who keeps in this town will come to his death by the sword and through need of food and through disease; but he who goes out and gives himself up to the Chaldaeans who are shutting you in, will go on living, and will keep his life safe.

O house of David! Thus, saith Yahweh, Administer justice betimes, And deliver the robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, - Lest mine indignation come forth like fire And burn and there be none to quench it, Because of the wickedness of your doings:

Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the LORD; which say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?

And say, Give ear to the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, seated on the seat of David, you and your servants and your people who come in by these doors.

For, if ye certainly do this thing, Then come in by the gates of this house Have kings sitting for David on his throne, Riding on chariot, and on horses, He, and his servants, and his people.

The answer will come back, "It is because they broke their covenant with the Lord their God and worshiped and served other gods."

Let there be no weeping for the dead, and make no songs of grief for him: but make bitter weeping for him who has gone away, for he will never come back or see again the country of his birth.

For this is what the Lord has said about Shallum, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in place of Josiah his father, who went out from this place: He will never come back there again:

But death will come to him in the place where they have taken him away prisoner, and he will never see this land again.

Yea when he helped the oppressed and poor to their right, then prospered he well. From whence came this? But only because he had me before his eyes, sayeth the LORD.

Go up to Lebanon and give a cry; let your voice be loud in Bashan, crying out from Abarim; for all your lovers have come to destruction

My word came to you in the time of your well-being; but you said, I will not give ear. This has been your way from your earliest years, you did not give attention to my voice.

O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!

I will send you out, and your mother who gave you birth, into another country not the land of your birth; and there death will come to you.

But to the land on which their soul's desire is fixed, they will never come back.

And I will get the rest of my flock together from all the countries where I have sent them, and will make them come back again to their resting-place; and they will have offspring and be increased.

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

But, By the living Lord, who took up the seed of Israel, and made them come out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had sent them; and they will be living in the land which is theirs.

Therefore thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts concerning the prophets, "Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall. For from the prophets of Jerusalem is the sickness of hypocrisy come into all the land."

This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Don't listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you; they're giving you false hopes. They declare visions from their own minds they don't come from the LORD!

They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.

Lo! the tempest of Yahweh! Indignation, hath come forth, Even a tempest whirling along: On the head of the lawless, shall it hurl itself down.

The Lord’s anger will not turn back
until He has completely fulfilled the purposes of His heart.
In time to come you will understand it clearly.

Whose purpose is, with the dreams that everyone tell, to make my people forget my name, as their forefathers did when Baal came up.

One basket had very good figs, like the figs which first come to growth: and the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they were of no use for food.

Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

And I will give them a heart to have knowledge of me, that I am the Lord: and they will be my people, and I will be their God: for they will come back to me with all their heart.

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon;

From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the LORD hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened.

saying, ‘Turn now everyone from his evil way and the evil of your actions [that you may not forfeit the right to] live in the land that the Lord has given to you and your forefathers forever and ever;

See, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, my servant, and make them come against this land, and against its people, and against all these nations on every side; and I will give them up to complete destruction, and make them a cause of fear and surprise and a waste place for ever.

And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.

But first the city of Jerusalem, and all the cities of Judah, their kings and princes: to make them desolate, waste, despised and cursed according as it is come to pass this day.

And you are to say to them, This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Take of this cup and be overcome, and let it come out again from your lips, and from your fall you will never be lifted up again, because of the sword which I will send among you.

And it hath come to pass, When they refuse to receive the cup out of thy hand to drink, That thou hast said unto them: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, Ye do certainly drink.

A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.

This is what the Lord of armies has said: See, evil is going out from nation to nation, and a great storm will come up from the inmost parts of the earth.

Wail, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow in ashes , ye principal of the flock; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are fully come, and ye shall fall like a goodly vessel.

The lion has come out of his secret place, for the land has become a waste because of the cruel sword, and because of the heat of his wrath.

In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word from the LORD, saying,

Thus saith the LORD; Stand in the court of the LORD'S house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD'S house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word:

Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die.

Why have you said in the name of the Lord, This house will be like Shiloh, and this land a waste with no one living in it? And all the people had come together to Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.

When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king's house unto the house of the LORD, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the LORD'S house.

Then Jeremiah said to all the rulers and to all the people, The Lord has sent me as his prophet to say against this house and against this town all the words which have come to your ears.

And when his words came to the ears of Jehoiakim the king and all his men of war and his captains, the king would have put him to death; but Uriah, hearing of it, was full of fear and went in flight into Egypt:

And they took Uriah out of Egypt and came back with him to Jehoiakim the king; who put him to death with the sword, and had his dead body put into the resting-place of the bodies of the common people.

But Ahikam the son of Shaphan helped Jeremiah, that he came not into the hands of the people to be slain.

In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;

And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.

And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

For they say false words to you, so that you may be sent away far from your land, and so that you may be forced out by me and come to destruction.

For I have not sent them, says the Lord, but they are saying what is false in my name, so that I might send you out by force, causing destruction to come on you and on your prophets.

And I said to the priests and to all the people, This is what the Lord has said: Give no attention to the words of your prophets who say to you, See, in a very little time now the vessels of the Lord's house will come back again from Babylon: for what they say to you is false.

But, if prophets, they are, and if the word of Yahweh is with them, let them intercede, I pray you, with Yahweh of hosts, that the vessels which are left remaining in the house of Yahweh and the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem, come not into Babylon.

And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,

And I will let Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, come back to this place, with all the prisoners of Judah who went to Babylon, says the Lord: for I will have the yoke of the king of Babylon broken.

Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, before the priests and all the people who had come into the house of the Lord,

The prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the Lord do so. May the Lord make the words you have prophesied come true and may He restore the articles of the Lord’s temple and all the exiles from Babylon to this place!

The prophets who came before us from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and plague against many lands and great kingdoms.

The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him.

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

So death came to Hananiah the prophet the same year, in the seventh month.

The letter came by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah the king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying,

For this is what the Lord has said: When seventy years are ended for Babylon, I will have pity on you and give effect to my good purpose for you, causing you to come back to this place.

Then you will call on Me and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear [your voice] and I will listen to you.

Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying,

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.

This is what the Lord has said: A voice of shaking fear has come to our ears, of fear and not of peace.

For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:

So have no fear, O Jacob, my servant, says the Lord; and do not be troubled, O Israel: for see, I will make you come back from far away, and your seed from the land where they are prisoners; and Jacob will come back, and will be quiet and at peace, and no one will give him cause for fear.

None judging thy judgment for binding up: no healing will come up to thee.

For this cause, all those who take you for their food will themselves become your food; and all your attackers, every one of them, will be taken prisoners; and those who send destruction on you will come to destruction; and all those who take away your goods by force will undergo the same themselves.

‘From them (city, palace) will come [songs of] thanksgiving
And the voices of those who dance and celebrate.
And I will multiply them and they will not be diminished [in number];
I will also honor them and they will not be insignificant.

And, his sons, shall come to be as aforetime, And, his assembly, before me, shall continue, - And I will bring punishment on all his oppressors;

‘Their prince will be one of them,
And their ruler will come forward from among them.
I will bring him near and he shall approach Me,
For who is he who would have the boldness and would dare [on his own initiative] to risk his life to approach Me?’ says the Lord.

Lo! the tempest of Yahweh! Indignation, hath come forth, A tempest rolling itself upward, - Upon the head of the lawless ones, shall it hurl itself down!

The Lord’s burning anger will not turn back
until He has completely fulfilled the purposes of His heart.
In time to come you will understand it.

The Lord has said, Grace came in the waste land to a people kept safe from the sword, even to Israel on the way to his resting-place.

From far away he saw the Lord: my love for you is an eternal love: so with mercy I have made you come with me.

Yes, a time is coming when watchmen will call out on the mountains of Ephraim, "Come! Let us go to Zion to worship the Lord our God!"'"

See, I will take them from the north country, and get them from the inmost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the feeble-footed, the woman with child and her who is in birth-pains together: a very great army, they will come back here.

They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for 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.

Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.

And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.

Certainly Ephraim's words of grief have come to my ears, You have given me training and I have undergone it like a young cow unused to the yoke: let me be turned and come back, for you are the Lord my God.

Surely after my return, I was filled with regret, And after I came to know myself, I smote upon the thigh, - I turned pale and was even confounded For I had borne the reproach of my youthful days.

For thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts the God of Israel: It will come thereto, that when I have brought Judah out of captivity, these words shall be heard in the land and in his cities, 'The LORD, which is the fair bridegroom of righteousness, make thee fruitful O thou holy hill!'

When I heard this, I came again to myself, and mused, like as I had been waked out of a sweet sleep.

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.

And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD.

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: