But -- Jehovah liveth, who brought up, And who brought in, the seed of the house of Israel, From the land of the north, And from all the lands whither I drove them, And they have dwelt on their own ground!

Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken in my midst. All my bones tremble. I have become like a drunken man, even like a man over whom wine has passed, because of Yahweh, and because of {his holy words}.

For the land is full of men who are untrue to their wives; because of the curse the land is full of grief; the green fields of the waste land have become dry; and they are quick to do evil, their strength is for what is not right.

"For both prophet as well as priest are godless, even in my temple I have found their wickedness," {declares} Yahweh.

For this cause their steps will be slipping on their way: they will be forced on into the dark and have a fall there: for I will send evil on them in the year of their punishment, says the Lord.

And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.

And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible. They commit adultery, and they walk in lies, and they make strong [the] hands of evildoers, [so] that they have not turned back each from his wickedness. All of them have become to me like Sodom, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.

Therefore, thus said Jehovah of Hosts, concerning the prophets: Lo, I am causing them to eat wormwood, And have caused them to drink water of gall, For, from prophets of Jerusalem Hath profanity gone forth to all the land.

They say continually unto them that despise me, Jehovah hath said, Ye shall have peace; and unto every one that walketh in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, No evil shall come upon you.

Yet which of them has ever stood in the Lord's inner circle so they could see and hear what he has to say? Which of them have ever paid attention or listened to what he has said?

The anger of Jehovah shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly.

I have not sent the prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied

But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words [to] my people, and they would have caused them to turn from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.

"I have heard what the prophets who prophesy lies have said in my name, {saying}, 'I have dreamed! I have dreamed!'

Who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.

The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares the Lord.

Look, I [am] against those who prophesy dreams of lies," {declares} Yahweh, "and tell them, and they caused my people to err through their lies, and in their recklessness, when I myself have not sent them nor commanded them, so they profit not this people at all," {declares} Yahweh.

And when this people, or the prophet, Or a priest, doth ask thee, saying, What is the burden of Jehovah? Then thou hast said unto them: Ye are the burden, and I have left you, An affirmation of Jehovah.

And the prophet, and the priest, and the people, That saith, The burden of Jehovah, I have seen after that man, and after his house.

And the burden of Jehovah shall ye mention no more: for every man's own word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of Jehovah of hosts our God.

But if ye say, The burden of Jehovah; therefore thus saith Jehovah: Because ye say this word, The burden of Jehovah, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of Jehovah;

Therefore, lo, I -- I have taken you utterly away, And I have sent you out, And the city that I gave to you, And to your fathers, from before My face,

And I have put on you reproach age-during, And shame age-during that is not forgotten!

"Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles of Judah whom I have sent away from this place [to the] land of [the] Chaldeans.

And I have set Mine eyes on them for good, And have brought them back to this land, And built them up, and I throw not down, And have planted them, and pluck not up.

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.

"I, the Lord, also solemnly assert: 'King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and the people who remain in Jerusalem or who have gone to live in Egypt are like those bad figs. I consider them to be just like those bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten.

I will make them an object of horror and disaster to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace, an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing, wherever I have banished them.

I will send the sword, famine, and plague against them until they have perished from the land I gave to them and their ancestors.”

"From [the] thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Amon, the king of Judah, even up to this day, these twenty-three years the word of Yahweh has come to me, and {I have spoken to you over and over again}, but you have not listened.

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,

'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,

Lo, I am sending, and have taken all the families of the north -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- even unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and have brought them in against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about, and have devoted them, and appointed them for an astonishment, and for a hissing, and for wastes age-during.

And I have destroyed from them the voice of rejoicing, and the voice of joy, voice of bridegroom and voice of bride, noise of millstones, and the light of lamps.

And all this land hath been for a waste, for an astonishment, and these nations have served the king of Babylon seventy years.

And it hath come to pass, at the fulness of seventy years, I charge against the king of Babylon, and against that nation -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- their iniquity, and against the land of the Chaldeans, and have appointed it for desolations age-during.

And I will bring upon that land all my words that I have spoken against it, everything that is written in this scroll which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations.

For laid service on them -- also them -- have many nations and great kings, and I have given recompence to them according to their doing, and according to the work of their hands.

And they have drunk, and shaken themselves and shewn themselves foolish, because of the sword that I am sending among them.

Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that have the corners of their hair cut off;

all the kings of Arabia,
and all the kings of the mixed peoples who have settled in the desert;

all the kings of the north, whether near or far from one another; and all the other kingdoms which are on the face of the earth. After all of them have drunk the wine of the Lord's wrath, the king of Babylon must drink it.

And the pierced of Jehovah have been in that day, From the end of the earth even unto the end of the earth, They are not lamented, nor gathered, nor buried, For dung on the face of the ground they are.

Wail, you shepherds, and cry out. And roll about in mourning [in the dust], O leaders of the flock. For your days of slaughter and your dispersions have arrived, and you will fall like a vessel of desire.

And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.

And the peaceable habitations have been cut down, Because of the fierceness of the anger of Jehovah.

“This is what the Lord says: Stand in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple and speak all the words I have commanded you to speak to all Judah’s cities that are coming to worship there. Do not hold back a word.

If so be they hearken, and turn back each from his evil way, then I have repented concerning the evil that I am thinking of doing to them, because of the evil of their doings.

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 I have given up this house as Shiloh, and this city I give up for a reviling to all nations of the earth.'

Why have you prophesied in the name of Yahweh, {saying}, 'This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be in ruins, {without} inhabitant'?" And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the temple of Yahweh.

Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, {saying}, "{This man deserves the death sentence}, because he has prophesied against this city as that [which] you have heard with your ears."

Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and to all the people, {saying}, "Yahweh sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.

But correct the way you have been living and do what is right. Obey the Lord your God. If you do, the Lord will forgo destroying you as he threatened he would.

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 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 Tyre, and to the king of Sidon in [the] hand of [the] envoys who have come [to] Jerusalem, to Zedekiah, the king of Judah.

"I have made the earth with humankind and animals that [are] on the face of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and I give it to whomever is right in my eyes.

And now I myself have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and also the animals of the field I have given to him to serve him.

And served him have all the nations, and his son, and his son's son, till the coming in of the time of his land, also it; and done service for him have many nations and great kings.

"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.

For falsehood they are prophesying to you, so as to remove you far from off your ground, and I have driven you out, and ye have perished.

And the nation that causeth its neck to enter into the yoke of the king of Babylon, and hath served him -- I have left it on its ground -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- and it hath tilled it, and dwelt in it.'

And unto Zedekiah king of Judah I have spoken according to all these words, saying, 'Cause your necks to enter into the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.

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."

And unto the priests, and unto all this people, I have spoken, saying, 'Thus said Jehovah, Ye do not hearken unto the words of your prophets, who are prophesying to you, saying, Lo, the vessels of the house of Jehovah are brought back from Babylon now in haste, for falsehood they are prophesying to you.

And, if they be prophets, and if a word of Jehovah be with them, let them intercede, I pray you, with Jehovah of Hosts, so that the vessels that are left in the house of Jehovah, and in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, have not gone into Babylon.

To Babylon they are brought, and there they are till the day of My inspecting them -- an affirmation of Jehovah; then I have brought them up, and have brought them back unto this place.'

"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, {saying}, 'I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

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.

and Jeremiah the prophet said, "Amen! May Yahweh do so; may Yahweh fulfill your words that you have prophesied, to bring back the vessels of the house of Yahweh and all the exiles from Babylon to this place.

The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.

"Go, and you must say to Hananiah, {saying}, 'Thus says Yahweh, "You have broken yoke bars of wood, but you have made in place of them yoke bars of iron."

For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, "I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, to serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and they will serve him, and I have even given the animals of the open field to him." '"

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.

{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, 'Look, I [am] going to send you from the face of the earth. This year you [will] die because you have spoken rebellion against Yahweh.'"

"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have deported from Jerusalem [to] Babylon,

Take wives and have sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may have sons and daughters; and be increased in number there and do not become less.

And seek the prosperity of the city where I have deported you, and pray on behalf of it to Yahweh, for in its prosperity you will have prosperity.'

For this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: Do not let yourselves be tricked by the prophets who are among you, and the readers of signs, and give no attention to their dreams which they may have;

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

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.

For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

'And ye have called Me, and have gone, and have prayed unto Me, and I have hearkened unto you,

And you will be searching for me and I will be there, when you have gone after me with all your heart.

And I will let myself be found by you,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and I will restore your fortunes, and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places to which I have driven you,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and I will bring you back to the place from which I deported you.'

Because you have said, 'Yahweh has raised up prophets for us [in] Babylon'--

For this is what the Lord has said about the king who is seated on the seat of David's kingdom, and about all the people living in this town, your countrymen who have not gone out with you as prisoners;

Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, Lo, I am sending among them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and I have given them up as figs that are vile, that are not eaten for badness.

And I will pursue them with the sword, with the famine, and with the plague, and I will make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse, and a horror, and [an object of] hissing, and a disgrace among all the nations to which I have driven them,

because they have not hearkened to my words, saith Jehovah, wherewith I sent unto them my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith Jehovah.

Hear ye therefore the word of Jehovah, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying lies to you in My Name, ‘Behold, I will hand them over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will slaughter them before your eyes [yes, all the false prophets in Babylon whom you follow shall die]!

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."

Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because you have sent letters in your name unto all the people that are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Mahseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying,

“The Lord has made you [Zephaniah] priest instead of Jehoiada the [deputy] priest, to be the overseer in the house of the Lord over every madman who prophesies, to put him in the stocks and in the iron collar,

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 saith Jehovah, Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed; he shall not have a man to dwell among this people, neither shall he behold the good that I will do unto my people, saith Jehovah, because he hath spoken rebellion against Jehovah.