For I have heard the whispering and defaming words of many,
“Terror on every side!
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
All my familiar and trusted friends,
[Those who are] watching for my fall, say,
“Perhaps he will be persuaded and deceived; then we will overcome him,
And take our revenge on him.”

But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.

A curse on the day of my birth: let there be no blessing on the day when my mother had me.

Accursed, be the man who carried tidings to my father saying, There is born to thee a man-child!

And I will send a great disease on the people living in this town, on man and on beast, causing their death.

And afterward, saith the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have 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.

House of David, thus saith Jehovah: Judge with justice in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go forth like fire and burn, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,

and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people who enter in through these gates.

This is what the LORD says: "Uphold justice and righteousness. Deliver from their oppressor those who have been robbed. Don't mistreat or do violence to the alien, the orphan, or the widow, or shed the blood of innocent people in this place.

For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

I will appoint destroyers against you,
each with his weapons.
They will cut down the choicest of your cedars
and throw them into the fire.

And many nations passed through this city, and they said a man to his neighbor, For what did Jehovah thus to this great city?

Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

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 thus says Yahweh touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, [and] who went forth out of this place: He shall not return there any more.

But in the place whither they have led him captive, there shall he die, and he shall see this land no more.

Woe for the one who builds his palace
through unrighteousness,
his upper rooms through injustice,
who makes his fellow man serve without pay
and will not give him his wages,

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.

"But there is nothing [in] your eyes and your heart {except} your unlawful gain, and on shedding the blood of the innocent, and on committing oppression and extortion."

"As I live," {declares} Yahweh, "surely if Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were [the] seal on my right hand, surely from there I would wrench you off.

And I would give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those from whom you [are] frightened by their presence, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.

But to the land whereunto their soul longeth to return, thither shall they not return.

A grief -- a despised broken thing -- is this man Coniah? A vessel in which there is no pleasure? Wherefore have they been cast up and down, He and his seed, Yea, they were cast on to a land that they knew not?

Thus, saith Yahweh, - Register ye this man, childless, A man who shall not prosper in his days, - For there shall prosper of his seed No man sitting upon the throne of David, Or ruling any more over Judah.

The Lord says, "The leaders of my people are sure to be judged. They were supposed to watch over my people like shepherds watch over their sheep. But they are causing my people to be destroyed and scattered.

And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.

And I will put over them keepers who will take care of them: never again will they be overcome with fear or be troubled, and there will not be the loss of one of them, says the Lord

"So I, the Lord, say: 'A new time will certainly come. People now affirm their oaths with "I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt."

But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.

For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.

For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.

Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.

And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a shocking thing; they are untrue to their wives, walking in deceit, and they make strong the hands of evil-doers, so that a man may not be turned back from his evil-doing: they have all become like Sodom to me, and its people like Gomorrah

So this is what the Lord of armies has said about the prophets: See, I will give them a bitter plant for their food, and bitter water for their drink: for from the prophets of Jerusalem unclean behaviour has gone out into all the land.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.

They keep on saying to them who despise me, Yahweh, hath spoken, saying, Prosperity, shall ye have! And to every one who is going on in the stubbornness of his own heart, have they said, There shall come on you, no calamity

I did not send those prophets. Yet they were in a hurry to give their message. I did not tell them anything. Yet they prophesied anyway.

But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

In what secret place may a man take cover without my seeing him? says the Lord. Is there any place in heaven or earth where I am not? says the Lord.

How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;

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

Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.

Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.

“Now when these people or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ you will respond to them: What is the burden? I will throw you away”—this is the Lord’s declaration.

For you will no longer remember the oracle of the Lord, because every man’s own word will become the oracle, [for as they mockingly call all prophecies oracles, whether good or bad, so will it prove to be to them; God will take them at their own word]; and you have perverted the words [not of a lifeless idol, but] of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God.

I will surely forget you and throw away from My presence both you and the city that I gave you and your fathers.

Yahweh showed me, and look, there were two baskets of figs placed {before} the temple of Yahweh--after Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had deported Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, with the officials of Judah, and the craftsmen, and the smiths, from Jerusalem and had brought them [to] Babylon.

The one basket [had] very good figs, like {early figs}, and the other basket [had] very bad figs that could not be eaten because of [their] bad quality.

And Yahweh asked me, "What [are] you seeing, Jeremiah?" And I said, "Figs--the good figs, very good, and the bad [figs], very bad, that cannot be eaten because of [their] bad quality."

And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying:

Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.

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 an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.

But like the bad figs that cannot be eaten because of [their] bad quality--for thus says Yahweh--so I will treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who live in the land of Egypt.

And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.

And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.

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.

He said through them, 'Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and stop doing the evil things you are doing. If you do, I will allow you to continue to live here in the land that I gave to you and your ancestors as a lasting possession.

Do not go after other gods to be their servants and to give them worship, and do not make me angry with the work of your hands, causing evil to yourselves.

I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, to the glad celebration of brides and grooms in these lands. I will put an end to the sound of people grinding meal. I will put an end to lamps shining in their houses.

and this whole land shall become a wilderness, and they shall serve the said people and the king of Babylon, three score years and ten.

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.

For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.

They will drink, stagger, and go out of their minds because of the sword I am sending among them.”

Jerusalem and the cities of Judah [being most guilty because their privileges were greatest], its kings and princes, to make them a horror, a ruin, a hissing and a curse, as it is to this day;

and all the foreign (mixed) population, all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines (and [their cities of] Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod);

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

Then the Lord said to me, "Tell them that the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, 'Drink this cup until you get drunk and vomit. Drink until you fall down and can't get up. For I will send wars sweeping through you.'

[The] rage of battle will resound to the end of the earth, for [there is] a lawsuit of Yahweh against the nations. He [is] entering into judgment with all wicked flesh, he will give them to the sword,' {declares} Yahweh."

“And those slain by the Lord on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. They will not be lamented (mourned over with expressions of grief) or gathered or buried; they will be like dung on the ground.

There will be no way of flight for the keepers of sheep, no road for the chiefs of the flock to get away safely.

A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and an howling of the principal of the flock, shall be heard: for the LORD hath spoiled their pasture.

And there is no sound in the fields of peace, because of the burning wrath of the Lord.

He hath forsaken his covert, as the lion: for their land is desolate because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger.

“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 will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings.

then I will make this house [the temple] like Shiloh, and I will make this city [subject to] the curse of all nations of the earth [because it will be so vile in their sight].”’”

And the rulers of Judah, hearing of these things, came up from the king's house to the house of the Lord, and took their seats by the new door of the Lord's house.

Then the priests and the prophets made their charges before the officials and all the people. They said, "This man should be condemned to die because he prophesied against this city. You have heard him do so with your own ears."

And the heads and all the people say unto the priests and unto the prophets, 'There is not for this man a judgment of death, for in the name of Jehovah our God he hath spoken unto us.'

And there rose up certain of the elders of the land and spoke to all the congregation of the people, saying,

Did Hezekiah king of Judah and the people of Judah put him to death for this? No verily, but rather feared the LORD, and made their prayer unto him. For the which cause also the LORD repented of the plague, that he had devised against them. Should we then do such a shameful deed against our souls?"

And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the LORD, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjathjearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah:

And they brought out Uriah from Egypt and they brought him to King Jehoiakim, and he struck him down with the sword, and he threw his dead body into the burial sites of the sons of the people.

Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon through messengers who are coming to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem.

And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;

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

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.

Do not listen to them, because their prophecies are lies. Listening to them will only cause you to be taken far away from your native land. I will drive you out of your country and you will die in exile.

But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the LORD; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.

There is no reason why you and your people should die in war or from starvation or disease! That's what the Lord says will happen to any nation that will not be subject to the king of Babylon.

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.'

For thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the [bronze] pillars, the [bronze] Sea, the [bronze] bases [of the ten basins in Solomon’s temple used for washing sacrificial animals], and the rest of the articles that are left in this city (Jerusalem),

They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.

And there is a word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah after the breaking, by Hananiah the prophet, of the yoke from off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, saying,

Go, and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Thou hast broken the bars of wood; but thou hast made in their stead bars of iron.

Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, Give ear, now, Hananiah; the Lord has not sent you; but you are making this people put their faith in what is false.