Jeremiah,
chapter 1
1: The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilki'ah, of the priests who
were in An'athoth in the land of Benjamin,
2: to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josi'ah the
son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
3: It came also in the days of Jehoi'akim the son of Josi'ah,
king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedeki'ah, the
son of Josi'ah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the
fifth month.
4: Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
5: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before
you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the
nations."
6: Then I said, "Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to
speak, for I am only a youth."
7: But the Lord said to me, "Do not say, `I am only a
youth'; for to all to whom I send you, - you shall go, and whatever I
command you; you shall speak.
8: Be not afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says
the Lord."
9: Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth; and the
Lord said to me, "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
10: See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and
to plant."
11: And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, "Jeremiah,
what do you see?" And I said, "I see a rod of almond."
12: Then the Lord said to me, "You have seen well, for I am
watching over My word to perform it."
13: The word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying,
"What do you see?" And I said, "I see a boiling pot,
facing away from the north."
14: Then the Lord said to me, "Out of the north evil shall
break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
15: For, lo, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the
north, says the Lord; and they shall come and every one shall set his
throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls
round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
16: And I will utter My judgments against them, for all their
wickedness in forsaking Me; they have burned incense to other gods, and
worshiped the works of their own hands.
17: But you, gird up your loins; arise, and say to them
everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay
you before them.
18: And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron
pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of
Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land.
19: They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail
against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you."
Jeremiah,
chapter 2
1: The word of the Lord came to me, saying,
2: "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says
the Lord, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride,
how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
3: Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest.
All who ate of it became guilty; evil came upon them, says the
Lord."
4: Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the
families of the house of Israel.
5: Thus says the Lord: "What wrong did your fathers find in
Me that they went far from Me, and went after worthlessness, and became
worthless?
6: They did not say, `Where is the Lord who brought us up from
the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts
and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none
passes through, where no man dwells?'
7: And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits
and its good things. But when you came in you defiled My land, and made
My heritage an abomination.
8: The priests did not say, `Where is the Lord?' Those who handle
the law did not know Me; the rulers transgressed against Me; the
prophets prophesied by ba'al, and went after things that do not profit.
9: "Therefore I still contend with you, says the Lord, and
with your children's children I will contend.
10: For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or send to Kedar
and examine with care; see if there has been such a thing.
11: Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods?
But My people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
12: Be appalled, O heavens, at this, be shocked, be utterly
desolate, says the Lord,
13: for My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken
Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for
themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
14: "Is Israel a slave? Is he a home born servant? Why then
has he become a prey?
15: The lions have roared against him, they have roared loudly.
They have made his land a waste; his cities are in ruins, without
inhabitant.
16: Moreover, the men of Memphis and Tah'panhes have broken the
crown of your head.
17: Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the Lord
your God, when he led you in the way?
18: And now what do you gain by going to Egypt, to drink the
waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria, to drink
the waters of the Euphra'tes?
19: Your wickedness will chasten you, and your apostasy will
reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake
the Lord your God; the fear of Me is not in you, says the Lord God of
hosts.
20: "For long ago you broke your yoke and burst your bonds;
and you said, `I will not serve.' Yea, upon every high hill and under
every green tree you bowed down as a harlot.
21: Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How
then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?
22: Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the
stain of your guilt is still before Me, says the Lord God.
23: How can you say, `I am not defiled, I have not gone after the
ba'als'? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done -- a
restive young camel interlacing her tracks,
24: a wild ass used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the
wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary
themselves; in her month they will find her.
25: Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst.
But you said, `It is hopeless, for I have loved strangers, and after
them I will go.'
26: "As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of
Israel shall be shamed: they, their kings, their princes, their priests,
and their prophets,
27: who say to a tree, `You are my father,' and to a stone, `You
gave Me birth.' For they have turned their back to Me, and not their
face. But in the time of their trouble they say, `Arise and save us!'
28: But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them
arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble; for as many as
your cities are your gods, O Judah.
29: "Why do you complain against Me? You have all rebelled
against Me, says the Lord.
30: In vain have I smitten your children, they took no
correction; your own sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.
31: And you, O generation, heed the word of the Lord. Have I been
a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Why then do My
people say, `We are free, we will come no more to Thee'?
32: Can a maiden forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet
My people have forgotten Me days without number.
33: "How well you direct your course to seek lovers! So that
even to wicked women you have taught your ways.
34: Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of guiltless poor;
you did not find them breaking in. Yet in spite of all these things
35: you say, `I am innocent; surely his anger has turned from
Me.' Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, `I have not
sinned.'
36: How lightly you gad about, changing your way! You shall be
put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria.
37: From it too you will come away with your hands upon your
head, for the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust, and you will
not prosper by them.
Jeremiah,
chapter 3
1: "If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and
becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land
be greatly polluted? You have played the harlot with many lovers; and
would you return to Me? says the Lord.
2: Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you
not been lain with? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers like an
Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile
harlotry.
3: Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain
has not come; yet you have a harlot's brow, you refuse to be ashamed.
4: Have you not just now called to Me, `My father, Thou art the
friend of my youth --
5: will He be angry for ever, will he be indignant to the end?'
Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you
could."
6: The Lord said to me in the days of King Josi'ah: "Have
you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on
every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the harlot?
7: And I thought, `After she has done all this she will return to
Me'; but she did not return, and her false sister Judah saw it.
8: She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one,
Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce; yet her false
sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the harlot.
9: Because harlotry was so light to her, she polluted the land,
committing adultery with stone and tree.
10: Yet for all this her false sister Judah did not return to Me
with her whole heart, but in pretense, says the Lord."
11: And the Lord said to me, "Faithless Israel has shown
herself less guilty than false Judah.
12: Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,
`Return, faithless Israel, says the Lord. I will not look on you in
anger, for I am merciful, says the Lord; I will not be angry for ever.
13: Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the
Lord your God and scattered your favors among strangers under every
green tree, and that you have not obeyed My voice, says the Lord.
14: Return, O faithless children, says the Lord; for I am your
master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I
will bring you to Zion.
15: "`And I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who
will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
16: And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in
those days, says the Lord, they shall no more say, "The ark of the
covenant of the Lord." It shall not come to mind, or be remembered,
or missed; it shall not be made again.
17: At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the
Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in
Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil
heart.
18: In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of
Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the
land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.
19:
"`I thought how I would set you among My sons, and give you a
pleasant land, a heritage most beauteous of all nations. And I thought
you would call Me, My Father, and would not turn from following Me.
20: Surely, as a faithless wife leaves her husband, so have you been
faithless to Me, O house of Israel, says the Lord.'"
21: A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of
Israel's sons, because they have perverted their way, they have
forgotten the Lord their God.
22: "Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your
faithlessness." "Behold, we come to Thee; for Thou art the
Lord our God.
23:
Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly
in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
24: "But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for
which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and
their daughters.
25: Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us; for we
have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth
even to this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our
God."
Jeremiah,
chapter 4
1: "If you return, O Israel, says the Lord, to Me you should
return. If you remove your abominations from My presence, and do not
waver,
2: and if you swear, `As the Lord lives,' in truth, in justice, and in
uprightness, then nations shall bless themselves in Him, and in Him
shall they glory."
3: For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem: "Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
4: Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, remove the foreskin of your
hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest My wrath go
forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of
your doings."
5: Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say, "Blow the
trumpet through the land; cry aloud and say, `Assemble, and let us go
into the fortified cities!'
6: Raise a standard toward Zion, flee for safety, stay not, for I
bring evil from the north, and great destruction.
7: A lion has gone up from his thicket, a destroyer of nations has set
out; he has gone forth from his place to make your land a waste; your
cities will be ruins without inhabitant.
8: For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce
anger of the Lord has not turned back from us."
9: "In that day, says the Lord, courage shall fail both king and
princes; the priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded."
10: Then I said, "Ah, Lord God, surely Thou hast utterly deceived
this people and Jerusalem, saying, `It shall be well with you'; whereas
the sword has reached their very life."
11: At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem,
"A hot wind from the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter
of My people, not to winnow or cleanse,
12: a wind too full for this comes for me. Now it is I who speak in
judgment upon them."
13: Behold, he comes up like clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind;
his horses are swifter than eagles -- woe to us, for we are ruined!
14: O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved.
How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?
15: For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims evil from Mount
E'phraim.
16: Warn the nations that he is coming; announce to Jerusalem,
"Besiegers come from a distant land; they shout against the cities
of Judah.
17: Like keepers of a field are they against her round about, because
she has rebelled against Me, says the Lord.
18: Your ways and your doings have brought this upon you. This is your
doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart."
19: My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the walls of my heart!
My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent; for I hear the sound
of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
20: Disaster follows hard on disaster, the whole land is laid waste.
Suddenly my tents are destroyed, my curtains in a moment.
21: How long must I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22: "For My people are foolish, they know Me not; they are stupid
children, they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil,
but how to do good they know not."
23: I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the
heavens, and they had no light.
24: I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the
hills moved to and fro.
25: I looked, and lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the air had
fled.
26: I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities
were laid in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger.
27: For thus says the Lord, "The whole land shall be a desolation;
yet I will not make a full end.
28: For this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above be black; for
I have spoken, I have purposed; I have not relented nor will I turn
back."
29: At the noise of horseman and archer every city takes to flight; they
enter thickets; they climb among rocks; all the cities are forsaken, and
no man dwells in them.
30: And you, O desolate one, what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,
that you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, that you enlarge your
eyes with paint? In vain you beautify yourself. Your lovers despise you;
they seek your life.
31: For I heard a cry as of a woman in travail, anguish as of one
bringing forth her first child, the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping
for breath, stretching out her hands, "Woe is me! I am fainting
before murderers."
Jeremiah,
chapter 5
1: Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note!
Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice
and seeks truth; that I may pardon her.
2: Though they say, "As the Lord lives," yet they swear
falsely.
3: O Lord, do not Thy eyes look for truth? Thou hast smitten
them, but they felt no anguish; Thou hast consumed them, but they
refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock;
they have refused to repent.
4: Then I said, "These are only the poor, they have no sense; for
they do not know the way of the Lord, the law of their God.
5: I will go to the great, and will speak to them; for they know the way
of the Lord, the law of their God." But they all alike had broken
the yoke, they had burst the bonds.
6: Therefore a lion from the forest shall slay them, a wolf from the
desert shall destroy them. A leopard is watching against their cities,
every one who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces; because their
transgressions are many, their apostasies are great.
7: "How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken Me, and have
sworn by those who are no gods. When I fed them to the full, they
committed adultery and trooped to the houses of harlots.
8: They were well-fed lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor's
wife.
9: Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord; and shall I
not avenge myself on a nation such as this?
10: "Go up through her vine-rows and destroy, but make not a full
end; strip away her branches, for they are not the Lord's.
11: For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly
faithless to Me, says the Lord.
12: They have spoken falsely of the Lord, and have said, `He will do
nothing; no evil will come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine.
13: The prophets will become wind; the word is not in them. Thus shall
it be done to them!'"
14: Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts: "Because they
have spoken this word, behold, I am making My words in your mouth a
fire, and this people wood, and the fire shall devour them.
15: Behold, I am bringing upon you a nation from afar, O house of
Israel, says the Lord. It is an enduring nation, it is an ancient
nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you understand
what they say.
16: Their quiver is like an open tomb, they are all mighty men.
17: They shall eat up your harvest and your food; they shall eat up your
sons and your daughters; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds;
they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; your fortified cities
in which you trust they shall destroy with the sword."
18: "But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a full
end of you.
19: And when your people say, `Why has the Lord our God done all these
things to us?' you shall say to them, `As you have forsaken Me and
served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve strangers in a land
that is not yours.'"
20: Declare this in the house of Jacob, proclaim it in Judah:
21: "Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but
see not, who have ears, but hear not.
22: Do you not fear Me? says the Lord; Do you not tremble before Me? I
placed the sand as the bound for the sea, a perpetual barrier which it
cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail, though they
roar, they cannot pass over it.
23: But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have
turned aside and gone away.
24: They do not say in their hearts, `Let us fear the Lord our God, who
gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and
keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.'
25: Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have kept good
from you.
26: For wicked men are found among My people; they lurk like fowlers
lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men.
27: Like a basket full of birds, their houses are full of treachery;
therefore they have become great and rich,
28: they have grown fat and sleek. They know no bounds in deeds of
wickedness; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to
make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
29: Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord, and shall I
not avenge myself on a nation such as this?"
30: An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land:
31: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their
direction; My people love to have it so, but what will you do when the
end comes?
Jeremiah,
chapter 6
1: Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin, from the midst of
Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Teko'a, and raise a signal on
Beth-hacche'rem; for evil looms out of the north, and great destruction.
2: The comely and delicately bred I will destroy, the daughter of Zion.
3: Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her; they shall pitch
their tents around her, they shall pasture, each in his place.
4: "Prepare war against her; up, and let us attack at noon!"
"Woe to us, for the day declines, for the shadows of evening
lengthen!"
5: "Up, and let us attack by night, and destroy her palaces!"
6: For thus says the Lord of hosts: "Hew down her trees; cast up a
siege mound against Jerusalem. This is the city which must be punished;
there is nothing but oppression within her.
7: As a well keeps its water fresh, so she keeps fresh her wickedness;
violence and destruction are heard within her; sickness and wounds are
ever before Me.
8: Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I be alienated from you; lest I make you
a desolation, an uninhabited land."
9: Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Glean thoroughly as a vine the
remnant of Israel; like a grape-gatherer pass your hand again over its
branches."
10: To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold,
their ears are closed, they cannot listen; behold, the word of the Lord
is to them an object of scorn, they take no pleasure in it.
11: Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord; I am weary of holding
it in. "Pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the
gatherings of young men, also; both husband and wife shall be taken, the
old folk and the very aged.
12: Their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields and wives
together; for I will stretch out My hand against the inhabitants of the
land," says the Lord.
13: "For from the least to the greatest of them, every one is
greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, every one deals
falsely.
14: They have healed the wound of My people lightly, saying, `Peace,
peace,' when there is no peace.
15: Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not
at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall
fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be
overthrown," says the Lord.
16: Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for
the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest
for your souls. But they said, `We will not walk in it.'
17: I set watchmen over you, saying, `Give heed to the sound of the
trumpet!' But they said, `We will not give heed.'
18: Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O congregation, what will
happen to them.
19: Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing evil upon this people, the
fruit of their devices, because they have not given heed to My words;
and as for My law, they have rejected it.
20: To what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba, or sweet
cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor
your sacrifices pleasing to Me.
21: Therefore thus says the Lord: `Behold, I will lay before this people
stumbling blocks against which they shall stumble; fathers and sons
together, neighbor and friend shall perish.'"
22: Thus says the Lord: "Behold, a people is coming from the north
country, a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the
earth.
23: They lay hold on bow and spear, they are cruel and have no mercy,
the sound of them is like the roaring sea; they ride upon horses, set in
array as a man for battle, against you, O daughter of Zion!"
24: We have heard the report of it, our hands fall helpless; anguish has
taken hold of us, pain as of a woman in travail.
25: Go not forth into the field, nor walk on the road; for the enemy has
a sword, terror is on every side.
26: O daughter of My people, gird on sackcloth, and roll in ashes; make
mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for suddenly the
destroyer will come upon us.
27: "I have made you an assayer and tester among My people, that
you may know and assay their ways.
28: They are all stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders; they
are bronze and iron, all of them act corruptly.
29: The bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain
the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed.
30: Refuse silver they are called, for the Lord has rejected them."
Jeremiah,
chapter 7
1: The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
2: "Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this
word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter
these gates to worship the Lord.
3: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and
your doings, and I will let you dwell in this place.
4: Do not trust in these deceptive words: `This is the temple of the
Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.'
5: "For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly
execute justice one with another,
6: if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow, or shed
innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to
your own hurt,
7: then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of
old to your fathers for ever.
8: "Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail.
9: Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense
to Ba'al, and go after other gods that you have not known,
10: and then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by
My name, and say, `We are delivered!' -- only to go on doing all these
abominations?
11: Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers
in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, says the Lord.
12: Go now to My place that was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at
first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel.
13: And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and
when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called
you, you did not answer,
14: therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, and in
which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your
fathers, as I did to Shiloh.
15: And I will cast you out of My sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen,
all the offspring of E'phraim.
16: "As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up cry or
prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me, for I do not hear you.
17: Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the
streets of Jerusalem?
18: The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women
knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out
drink offerings to other gods, to provoke Me to anger.
19: Is it I whom they provoke? says the Lord. Is it not themselves, to
their own confusion?
20: Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, My anger and My wrath will
be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the
field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be
quenched."
21: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Add your burnt
offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.
22: For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt,
I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt
offerings and sacrifices.
23: But this command I gave them, `Obey My voice, and I will be your
God, and you shall be My people; and walk in all the way that I command
you, that it may be well with you.'
24: But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own
counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward
and not forward.
25: From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this
day, I have persistently sent all My servants the prophets to them, day
after day;
26: yet they did not listen to Me, or incline their ear, but stiffened
their neck. They did worse than their fathers.
27: "So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not
listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer
you.
28: And you shall say to them, `This is the nation that did not obey the
voice of the Lord their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has
perished; it is cut off from their lips.
29: Cut off your hair and cast it away; raise a lamentation on the bare
heights, for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of his
wrath.'
30: "For the sons of Judah have done evil in My sight, says the
Lord; they have set their abominations in the house which is called by
My name, to defile it.
31: And they have built the high place of Topheth, which is in the
valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in
the fire; which I did not command, nor did it come into My mind.
32: Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it will
no more be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the
valley of slaughter: for they will be buried in Topheth, because there
is no room elsewhere.
33: And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the
air, and for the beasts of the earth; and none will frighten them away.
34: And I will make to cease from the cities of Judah and from the
streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the
voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall
become a waste.
Jeremiah,
chapter 8
1: "At that time, says the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah,
the bones of its princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the
prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought
out of their tombs;
2: and they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host
of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after,
and which they have sought and worshiped; and they shall not be gathered
or buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground.
3: Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of
this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, says the
Lord of hosts.
4: "You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: When men fall, do
they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return?
5: Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They
hold fast to deceit, they refuse to return.
6: I have given heed and listened, but they have not spoken aright; no
man repents of his wickedness, saying, `What have I done?' Every one
turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
7: Even the stork in the heavens knows her times; and the turtledove,
swallow, and crane keep the time of their coming; but My people know not
the ordinance of the Lord.
8: "How can you say, `We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with
us'? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.
9: The wise men shall be put to shame, they shall be dismayed and taken;
lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them?
10: Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to
conquerors, because from the least to the greatest every one is greedy
for unjust gain; from prophet to priest every one deals falsely.
11: They have healed the wound of My people lightly, saying, `Peace,
peace,' when there is no peace.
12: Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not
at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall
fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.
13: When I would gather them, says the Lord, there are no grapes on the
vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I
gave them has passed away from them."
14: Why do we sit still? Gather together, let us go into the fortified
cities and perish there; for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish,
and has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against
the Lord.
15: We looked for peace, but no good came, for a time of healing, but
behold, terror.
16: "The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan; at the sound
of the neighing of their stallions the whole land quakes. They come and
devour the land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in
it.
17: For behold, I am sending among you serpents, adders which cannot be
charmed, and they shall bite you," says the Lord.
18: My grief is beyond healing, my heart is sick within me.
19: Hark, the cry of the daughter of My people from the length and
breadth of the land: "Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in
her?" "Why have they provoked Me to anger with their graven
images, and with their foreign idols?"
20: "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not
saved."
21: For the wound of the daughter of My people is my heart wounded, I
mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
22: Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then
has the health of the daughter of My people not been restored?
Jeremiah,
chapter 9
1: O that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I
might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
2: O that I had in the desert a wayfarers' lodging place, that I might
leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a
company of treacherous men.
3: They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown
strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not
know Me, says the Lord.
4: Let every one beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any
brother; for every brother is a supplanted, and every neighbor goes
about as a slanderer.
5: Every one deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they
have taught their tongue to speak lies; they commit iniquity and are too
weary to repent.
6: Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they
refuse to know Me, says the Lord.
7: Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: "Behold, I will refine
them and test them, for what else can I do, because of My people?
8: Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully; with his mouth
each speaks peaceably to his neighbor, but in his heart he plans an
ambush for him.
9: Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord; and shall I
not avenge myself on a nation such as this?
10: "Take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and a
lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are laid
waste so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not
heard; both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled and are gone.
11: I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals; and I will
make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant."
12: Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the
mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined
and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?
13: And the Lord says: "Because they have forsaken My law which I
set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, or walked in accord with
it,
14: but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after
the Ba'als, as their fathers taught them.
15: Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I
will feed this people with wormwood, and give them poisonous water to
drink.
16: I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their
fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have
consumed them."
17: Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Consider, and call for the
mourning women to come; send for the skilful women to come;
18: let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes may
run down with tears, and our eyelids gush with water.
19: For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: `How we are ruined! We
are utterly shamed, because we have left the land, because they have
cast down our dwellings.'"
20: Hear, O women, the word of the Lord, and let your ear receive the
word of his mouth; teach to your daughters a lament, and each to her
neighbor a dirge.
21: For death has come up into our windows, it has entered our palaces,
cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the
squares.
22: Speak, "Thus says the Lord: `The dead bodies of men shall fall
like dung upon the open field, like sheaves after the reaper, and none
shall gather them.'"
23: Thus says the Lord: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in
his riches;
24: but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows
Me, that I am the Lord who practice steadfast love, justice, and
righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the
Lord."
25: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will
punish all those who are circumcised but yet uncircumcised --
26: Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in
the desert that cut the corners of their hair; for all these nations are
uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in
heart."
Jeremiah,
chapter 10
1: Hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel.
2: Thus says the Lord: "Learn not the way of the nations, nor be
dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at
them,
3: for the customs of the peoples are false. A tree from the forest is
cut down, and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.
4: Men deck it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and
nails so that it cannot move.
5: Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot
speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Be not afraid of
them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good."
6: There is none like Thee, O Lord; Thou art great, and Thy name is
great in might.
7: Who would not fear Thee O King of the nations? For this is Thy due;
for among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms
there is none like Thee.
8: They are both stupid and foolish; the instruction of idols is but
wood!
9: Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. They are
the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; their
clothing is violet and purple; they are all the work of skilled men.
10: But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God and the
everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot
endure his indignation.
11: Thus shall you say to them: "The gods who did not make the
heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the
heavens."
12: It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world
by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
13: When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes
lightning's for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his
storehouses.
14: Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to
shame by his idols; for his images are false, and there is no breath in
them.
15: They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their
punishment they shall perish.
16: Not like these is He who is the portion of Jacob, for He is the one
who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; the
Lord of hosts is His name.
17: Gather up your bundle from the ground, O you who dwell under siege!
18: For thus says the Lord: "Behold, I am slinging out the
inhabitants of the land at this time, and I will bring distress on them,
that they may feel it."
19: Woe is me because of my hurt! My wound is grievous. But I said,
"Truly this is an affliction, and I must bear it."
20: My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken; my children have
gone from Me, and they are not; there is no one to spread my tent again,
and to set up my curtains.
21: For the shepherds are stupid, and do not inquire of the Lord;
therefore they have not prospered, and all their flock is scattered.
22: Hark, a rumor! Behold, it comes! -- a great commotion out of
the north country to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a lair of
jackals.
23: I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is
not in man who walks to direct his steps.
24: Correct me, O Lord, but in just measure; not in Thy anger, lest Thou
bring me to nothing.
25: Pour out Thy wrath upon the nations that know Thee not, and upon the
peoples that call not on Thy name; for they have devoured Jacob; they
have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.
Jeremiah,
chapter 11
1: The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
2: "Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
3: You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed
be the man who does not heed the words of this covenant
4: which I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of
Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to My voice, and do all
that I command you. So shall you be My people, and I will be your God,
5: that I may perform the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give
them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day." Then I
answered, "So be it, Lord."
6: And the Lord said to me, "Proclaim all these words in the cities
of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this
covenant and do them.
7: For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the
land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey
My voice.
8: Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but every one walked in
the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all
the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did
not."
9: Again the Lord said to me, "There is revolt among the men of
Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
10: They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who
refused to hear My words; they have gone after other gods to serve them;
the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which
I made with their fathers.
11: Therefore, thus says the Lord, Behold, I am bringing evil upon them
which they cannot escape; though they cry to Me, I will not listen to
them.
12: Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go
and cry to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they cannot save them
in the time of their trouble.
13: For your gods have become as many as your cities, O Judah; and as
many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to
shame, altars to burn incense to Ba'al.
14: "Therefore do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry
or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to Me in
the time of their trouble.
15: What right has My beloved in My house, when she has done vile deeds?
Can vows and sacrificial flesh avert your doom? Can you then exult?
16: The Lord once called you a green olive tree, fair with goodly fruit,
but with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its
branches will be consumed.
17: The Lord of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you,
because of the evil which the house of Israel and the house of Judah
have done, provoking Me to anger by burning incense to Ba'al."
18: The Lord made it known to me and I knew; then Thou did show me their
evil deeds.
19: But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it
was against me they devised schemes, saying, "Let us destroy the
tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living,
that his name be remembered no more."
20: But, O Lord of hosts, who judges righteously, who tries the heart
and the mind, let me see Thy vengeance upon them, for to Thee have I
committed my cause.
21: Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the men of An'athoth, who
seek your life, and say, "Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord,
or you will die by our hand" --
22: therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: "Behold, I will punish
them; the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their
daughters shall die by famine;
23: and none of them shall be left. For I will bring evil upon the men
of An'athoth, in the year of their punishment."
Jeremiah,
chapter 12
1: Righteous art Thou, O Lord, when I complain to Thee; yet I would
plead my case before Thee. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why
do all who are treacherous thrive?
2: Thou planted them, and they take root; they grow and bring forth
fruit; Thou art near in their mouth and far from their heart.
3: But Thou, O Lord, knows me; Thou sees me, and tries my mind toward
Thee. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and set them apart for
the day of slaughter.
4: How long will the land mourn, and the grass of every field wither?
For the wickedness of those who dwell in it the beasts and the birds are
swept away, because men said, "He will not see our latter
end."
5: "If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you,
how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you fall down,
how will you do in the jungle of the Jordan?
6: For even your brothers and the house of your father, even they have
dealt treacherously with you; they are in full cry after you; believe
them not, though they speak fair words to you."
7: "I have forsaken My house, I have abandoned My heritage; I have
given the beloved of My soul into the hands of her enemies.
8: My heritage has become to me like a lion in the forest, she has
lifted up her voice against Me; therefore I hate her.
9: Is My heritage to Me like a speckled bird of prey? Are the birds of
prey against her round about? Go, assemble all the wild beasts; bring
them to devour.
10: Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard, they have trampled down
My portion, they have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
11: They have made it a desolation; desolate, it mourns to Me. The whole
land is made desolate, but no man lays it to heart.
12: Upon all the bare heights in the desert destroyers have come; for
the sword of the Lord devours from one end of the land to the other; no
flesh has peace.
13: They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns, they have tired
themselves out but profit nothing. They shall be ashamed of their
harvests because of the fierce anger of the Lord."
14: Thus says the Lord concerning all My evil neighbors who touch the
heritage which I have given My people Israel to inherit: "Behold, I
will pluck them up from their land, and I will pluck up the house of
Judah from among them.
15: And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on
them, and I will bring them again each to his heritage and each to his
land.
16: And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of
My people, to swear by My name, `As the Lord lives,' even as they taught
My people to swear by Ba'al, then they shall be built up in the midst of
My people.
17: But if any nation will not listen, then I will utterly pluck it up
and destroy it, says the Lord."
Jeremiah,
chapter 13
1: Thus said the Lord to me, "Go and buy a linen waistcloth, and
put it on your loins, and do not dip it in water."
2: So I bought a waistcloth according to the word of the Lord, and put
it on my loins.
3: And the word of the Lord came to me a second time,
4: "Take the waistcloth which you have bought, which is upon your
loins, and arise, go to the Euphra'tes, and hide it there in a cleft of
the rock."
5: So I went, and hid it by the Euphra'tes, as the Lord commanded me.
6: And after many days the Lord said to me, "Arise, go to the
Euphra'tes, and take from there the waistcloth which I commanded you to
hide there."
7: Then I went to the Euphra'tes, and dug, and I took the waistcloth
from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the waistcloth was
spoiled; it was good for nothing.
8: Then the word of the Lord came to me:
9: "Thus says the Lord: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and
the great pride of Jerusalem.
10: This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who stubbornly follow
their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship
them, shall be like this waistcloth, which is good for nothing.
11: For as the waistcloth clings to the loins of a man, so I made the
whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to Me, says the
Lord, that they might be for Me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory,
but they would not listen.
12: "You shall speak to them this word: `Thus says the Lord, the
God of Israel, "Every jar shall be filled with wine."' And
they will say to you, `Do we not indeed know that every jar will be
filled with wine?'
13: Then you shall say to them, `Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will fill
with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land: the kings who sit on
David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of
Jerusalem.
14: And I will dash them one against another, fathers and sons together,
says the Lord. I will not pity or spare or have compassion, that I
should not destroy them.'"
15: Hear and give ear; be not proud, for the Lord has spoken.
16: Give glory to the Lord your God before he brings darkness, before
your feet stumble on the twilight mountains, and while you look for
light he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness.
17: But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your
pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the
Lord's flock has been taken captive.
18: Say to the king and the queen mother: "Take a lowly seat, for
your beautiful crown has come down from your head."
19: The cities of the Negeb are shut up, with none to open them; all
Judah is taken into exile, wholly taken into exile.
20: "Lift up your eyes and see those who come from the north. Where
is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?
21: What will you say when they set as head over you those whom you
yourself have taught to be friends to you? Will not pangs take hold of
you, like those of a woman in travail?
22: And if you say in your heart, `Why have these things come upon me?'
it is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up,
and you suffer violence.
23: Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then
also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.
24: I will scatter you like chaff driven by the wind from the desert.
25: This is your lot, the portion I have measured out to you, says the
Lord, because you have forgotten Me and trusted in lies.
26: I myself will lift up your skirts over your face, and your shame
will be seen.
27: I have seen your abominations, your adulteries and neighing, your
lewd harlotries, on the hills in the field. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How
long will it be before you are made clean?"
Jeremiah,
chapter 14
1: The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
2: "Judah mourns and her gates languish; her people lament on the
ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
3: Her nobles send their servants for water; they come to the cisterns,
they find no water, they return with their vessels empty; they are
ashamed and confounded and cover their heads.
4: Because of the ground which is dismayed, since there is no rain on
the land, the farmers are ashamed, they cover their heads.
5: Even the hind in the field forsakes her newborn calf because there is
no grass.
6: The wild asses stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like
jackals; their eyes fail because there is no herbage.
7: "Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for Thy
name's sake; for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against Thee.
8: O Thou hope of Israel, its savior in time of trouble, why should Thou
be like a stranger in the land, like a wayfarer who turns aside to tarry
for a night?
9: Why should Thou be like a man confused, like a mighty man who cannot
save? Yet Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by Thy
name; leave us not."
10: Thus says the Lord concerning this people: "They have loved to
wander thus, they have not restrained their feet; therefore the Lord
does not accept them, now He will remember their iniquity and punish
their sins."
11: The Lord said to me: "Do not pray for the welfare of this
people.
12: Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer
burnt offering and cereal offering, I will not accept them; but I will
consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence."
13: Then I said: "Ah, Lord God, behold, the prophets say to them,
`You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give
you assured peace in this place.'"
14: And the Lord said to me: "The prophets are prophesying lies in
My name; I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them.
They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and
the deceit of their own minds.
15: Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in
My name although I did not send them, and who say, `Sword and famine
shall not come on this land': By sword and famine those prophets shall
be consumed.
16: And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the
streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword, with none to bury
them -- them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. For I will
pour out their wickedness upon them.
17: "You shall say to them this word: `Let my eyes run down with
tears night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter of
My people is smitten with a great wound, with a very grievous blow.
18: If I go out into the field, behold, those slain by the sword! And if
I enter the city, behold, the diseases of famine! For both prophet and
priest ply their trade through the land, and have no knowledge.'"
19: Hast Thou utterly rejected Judah? Does Thy soul loathe Zion? Why
hast Thou smitten us so that there is no healing for us? We looked for
peace, but no good came; for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
20: We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord, and the iniquity of our
fathers, for we have sinned against Thee.
21: Do not spurn us, for Thy name's sake; do not dishonor Thy glorious
throne; remember and do not break Thy covenant with us.
22: Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring
rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Art Thou not He, O Lord our God?
We set our hope on Thee, for Thou doest all these things.
Jeremiah,
chapter 15
1: Then the Lord said to me, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before
Me, yet My heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of My
sight, and let them go!
2: And when they ask you, `Where shall we go?' you shall say to them,
`Thus says the Lord: "Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence,
and those who are for the sword, to the sword; those who are for famine,
to famine, and those who are for captivity, to captivity."'
3: "I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, says the
Lord: the sword to slay, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and
the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
4: And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth
because of what Manas'seh the son of Hezeki'ah, king of Judah, did in
Jerusalem.
5: "Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem, or who will bemoan you?
Who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?
6: You have rejected Me, says the Lord, you keep going backward; so I
have stretched out My hand against you and destroyed you; -- I am weary
of relenting.
7: I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land;
I have bereaved them, I have destroyed My people; they did not turn from
their ways.
8: I have made their widows more in number than the sand of the seas; I
have brought against the mothers of young men a destroyer at noonday; I
have made anguish and terror fall upon them suddenly.
9: She who bore seven has languished; she has swooned away; her sun went
down while it was yet day; she has been shamed and disgraced. And the
rest of them I will give to the sword before their enemies, says the
Lord."
10: Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and
contention to the whole land! I have not lend, nor have I borrowed, yet
all of them curse me.
11: So let it be, O Lord, if I have not entreated Thee for their good,
if I have not pleaded with Thee on behalf of the enemy in the time of
trouble and in the time of distress!
12: Can one break iron, iron from the north, and bronze?
13: "Your wealth and your treasures I will give as spoil, without
price, for all your sins, throughout all your territory.
14: I will make you serve your enemies in a land which you do not know,
for in My anger a fire is kindled which shall burn for ever."
15: O Lord, Thou knows; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for
me on my persecutors. In Thy forbearance take me not away; know that for
Thy sake I bear reproach.
16: Thy words were found, and I ate them, and Thy words became to me a
joy and the delight of my heart; for I am called by Thy name, O Lord,
God of hosts.
17: I did not sit in the company of merrymakers, nor did I rejoice; I
sat alone, because Thy hand was upon me, for Thou has filled me with
indignation.
18: Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
Wilt Thou be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?
19: Therefore thus says the Lord: "If you return, I will restore
you, and you shall stand before Me. If you utter what is precious, and
not what is worthless, you shall be as My mouth. They shall turn to you,
but you shall not turn to them.
20: And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they
will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am
with you to save you and deliver you, says the Lord.
21: I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you
from the grasp of the ruthless."
Jeremiah,
chapter 16
1: The word of the Lord came to me:
2: "You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters
in this place.
3: For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born
in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers
who begot them in this land:
4: They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor
shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the
ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead
bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the
earth.
5: "For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of mourning, or
go to lament, or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this
people, My steadfast love and mercy, says the Lord.
6: Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be
buried, and no one shall lament for them or cut himself or make himself
bald for them.
7: No one shall break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the
dead; nor shall any one give him the cup of consolation to drink for his
father or his mother.
8: You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat
and drink.
9: For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will
make to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the
voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom
and the voice of the bride.
10: "And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to
you, `Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What
is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord
our God?'
11: then you shall say to them: `Because your fathers have forsaken Me,
says the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and
worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and have not kept My law,
12: and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every
one of you follows his stubborn evil will, refusing to listen to Me;
13: therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land which neither
you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods
day and night, for I will show you no favor.'
14: "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it
shall no longer be said, `As the Lord lives who brought up the people of
Israel out of the land of Egypt,'
15: but `As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of
the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven
them.' For I will bring them back to their own land which I gave to
their fathers.
16: "Behold, I am sending for many fishers, says the Lord, and they
shall catch them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they
shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the
clefts of the rocks.
17: For My eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hid from Me, nor
is their iniquity concealed from My eyes.
18: And I will doubly recompense their iniquity and their sin, because
they have polluted My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols,
and have filled My inheritance with their abominations."
19: O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of
trouble, to Thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and
say: "Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things
in which there is no profit.
20: Can man make for himself gods? Such are no gods!"
21: "Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will
make them know My power and My might, and they shall know that My name
is the Lord."
Jeremiah,
chapter 17
1: "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of
diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of
their altars,
2: while their children remember their altars and their ashe'rim, beside
every green tree, and on the high hills,
3: on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your
treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your sin throughout all
your territory.
4: You shall loosen your hand from your heritage which I gave to you,
and I will make you serve your enemies in a land which you do not know,
for in My anger a fire is kindled which shall burn for ever."
5: Thus says the Lord: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and
makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6: He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He
shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited
salt land.
7: "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the
Lord.
8: He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the
stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear
fruit."
9: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who
can understand it?
10: "I the Lord search the mind and try the heart, to give to every
man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings."
11: Like the partridge that gathers a brood which she did not hatch, so
is he who gets riches but not by right; in the midst of his days they
will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool.
12: A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our
sanctuary.
13: O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake Thee shall be put to
shame; those who turn away from Thee shall be written in the earth, for
they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.
14: Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be
saved; for Thou art my praise.
15: Behold, they say to Me, "Where is the word of the Lord? Let it
come!"
16: I have not pressed Thee to send evil, nor have I desired the day of
disaster, Thou knows; that which came out of my lips was before Thy
face.
17: Be not a terror to me; Thou art my refuge in the day of evil.
18: Let those be put to shame who persecute me, but let me not be put to
shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed; bring upon them
the day of evil; destroy them with double destruction!
19: Thus said the Lord to me: "Go and stand in the Benjamin Gate,
by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all
the gates of Jerusalem,
20: and say: `Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all
Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates.
21: Thus says the Lord: Take heed for the sake of your lives, and do not
bear a burden on the sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of
Jerusalem.
22: And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the sabbath or do
any work, but keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.
23: Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their
neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction.
24: "`But if you listen to Me, says the Lord, and bring in no
burden by the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but keep the
sabbath day holy and do no work on it,
25: then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings who sit on
the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their
princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this
city shall be inhabited for ever.
26: And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places round
about Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephe'lah, from
the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and
sacrifices, cereal offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank
offerings to the house of the Lord.
27: But if you do not listen to Me, to keep the sabbath day holy, and
not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath
day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the
palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.'"
Jeremiah,
chapter 18
1: The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
2: "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let
you hear My words."
3: So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his
wheel.
4: And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's
hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the
potter to do.
5: Then the word of the Lord came to me:
6: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has
done? says the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are
you in My hand, O house of Israel.
7: If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I
will pluck up and break down and destroy it,
8: and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its
evil, I will repent of the evil that I intended to do to it.
9: And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I
will build and plant it,
10: and if it does evil in My sight, not listening to My voice, then I
will repent of the good which I had intended to do to it.
11: Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem: `Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping evil against you
and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way,
and amend your ways and your doings.'
12: "But they say, `That is in vain! We will follow our own plans,
and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.'
13: "Therefore thus says the Lord: Ask among the nations, who has
heard the like of this? The virgin Israel has done a very horrible
thing.
14: Does the snow of Lebanon leave the crags of Si'rion? Do the mountain
waters run dry, the cold flowing streams?
15: But My people have forgotten Me, they burn incense to false gods;
they have stumbled in their ways, in the ancient roads, and have gone
into bypaths, not the highway,
16: making their land a horror, a thing to be hissed at for ever. Every
one who passes by it is horrified and shakes his head.
17: Like the east wind I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show
them My back, not My face, in the day of their calamity."
18: Then they said, "Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for
the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor
the word from the prophet. Come, let us smite him with the tongue, and
let us not heed any of his words."
19: Give heed to me, O Lord, and hearken to my plea.
20: Is evil a recompense for good? Yet they have dug a pit for my life.
Remember how I stood before Thee to speak good for them, to turn away
Thy wrath from them.
21: Therefore deliver up their children to famine; give them over to the
power of the sword, let their wives become childless and widowed. May
their men meet death by pestilence, their youths be slain by the sword
in battle.
22: May a cry be heard from their houses, when Thou brings the marauder
suddenly upon them! For they have dug a pit to take me, and laid snares
for my feet.
23: Yet, Thou, O Lord, knows all their plotting to slay me. Forgive not
their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from Thy sight. Let them be
overthrown before Thee; deal with them in the time of Thine anger.
Jeremiah,
chapter 19
1: Thus said the Lord, "Go, buy a potter's earthen flask, and take
some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests,
2: and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom at the entry of the
Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you.
3: You shall say, `Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and
inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of
Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon this place that the ears of
every one who hears of it will tingle.
4: Because the people have forsaken Me, and have profaned this place by
burning incense in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers
nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this
place with the blood of innocents,
5: and have built the high places of ba'al to burn their sons in the
fire as burnt offerings to ba'al, which I did not command or decree, nor
did it come into my mind;
6: therefore, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when this place
shall no more be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but
the valley of slaughter.
7: And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem,
and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies,
and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead
bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth.
8: And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at; every
one who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its
disasters.
9: And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters,
and every one shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in
the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life
afflict them.'
10: "Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go
with you,
11: and shall say to them, `Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break
this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, so that it
can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no
place else to bury.
12: Thus will I do to this place, says the Lord, and to its inhabitants,
making this city like Topheth.
13: The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah -- all
the houses upon whose roofs incense has been burned to all the host of
heaven, and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods -- shall
be defiled like the place of Topheth.'"
14: Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to
prophesy, and he stood in the court of the Lord's house, and said to all
the people:
15: "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I am
bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the evil that I have
pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing
to hear my words.
Jeremiah,
chapter 20
1: Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in
the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.
2: Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks
that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord.
3: On the morrow, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks,
Jeremiah said to him, "The Lord does not call your name Pashhur,
but Terror on every side.
4: For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself
and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies
while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king
of Babylon; he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall slay them
with the sword.
5: Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all
its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into
the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them, and seize them, and
carry them to Babylon.
6: And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into
captivity; to Babylon you shall go; and there you shall die, and there
you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have
prophesied falsely."
7: O Lord, Thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; Thou art stronger
than I, and Thou hast prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the
day; every one mocks me.
8: For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, "Violence and
destruction!" For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach
and derision all day long.
9: If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his
name," there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my
bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
10: For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! "Denounce
him! Let us denounce him!" say all my familiar friends, watching
for my fall. "Perhaps he will be deceived, then we can overcome
him, and take our revenge on him."
11: But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors
will stumble, they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be
forgotten.
12: O Lord of hosts, who tries the righteous, who sees the heart and the
mind, let me see Thy vengeance upon them, for to Thee have I committed
my cause.
13: Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For He has delivered the life of
the needy from the hand of evildoers.
14: Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore
me, let it not be blessed!
15: Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, "A son is
born to you," making him very glad.
16: Let that man be like the cities which the Lord overthrew without
pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon,
17: because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been
my grave, and her womb for ever great.
18: Why did I come forth from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend
my days in shame?
Jeremiah,
chapter 21
1: This is the word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King
Zedeki'ah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchi'ah and Zephani'ah the
priest, the son of Ma-asei'ah, saying,
2: "Inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon
is making war against us; perhaps the Lord will deal with us according
to all his wonderful deeds, and will make him withdraw from us."
3: Then Jeremiah said to them:
4: "Thus you shall say to Zedeki'ah, `Thus says the Lord, the God
of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war which are in your
hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and
against the Chalde'ans who are besieging you outside the walls; and I
will bring them together into the midst of this city.
5: I Myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong
arm, in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.
6: And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast;
they shall die of a great pestilence.
7: Afterward, says the Lord, I will give Zedeki'ah king of Judah, and
his servants, and the people in this city who survive the pestilence,
sword, and famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon and
into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their
lives. He shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not pity
them, or spare them, or have compassion.'
8: "And to this people you shall say: `Thus says the Lord: Behold,
I set before you the way of life and the way of death.
9: He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by
pestilence; but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chalde'ans who are
besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war.
10: For I have set My face against this city for evil and not for good,
says the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon,
and he shall burn it with fire.'
11: "And to the house of the king of Judah say, `Hear the word of
the Lord,
12: O house of David! Thus says the Lord: "`Execute justice in the
morning, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been
robbed, lest My wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench
it, because of your evil doings.'"
13: "Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, O rock
of the plain, says the Lord; you who say, `Who shall come down against
us, or who shall enter our habitations?'
14: I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says the
Lord; I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that
is round about her."
Jeremiah,
chapter 22
1: Thus says the Lord: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah,
and speak there this word,
2: and say, `Hear the word of the Lord, O King of Judah, who sit on the
throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these
gates.
3: Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from
the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or
violence to the alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent
blood in this place.
4: For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the
gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in
chariots and on horses, they, and their servants, and their people.
5: But if you will not heed these words, I swear by Myself, says the
Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.
6: For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah:
"`You are as Gilead to Me, as the summit of Lebanon, yet surely I
will make you a desert, an uninhabited city.
7: I will prepare destroyers against you, each with his weapons; and
they shall cut down your choicest cedars, and cast them into the fire.
8: "`And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will
say to his neighbor, "Why has the Lord dealt thus with this great
city?"
9: And they will answer, "Because they forsook the covenant of the
Lord their God, and worshiped other gods and served them."'"
10: Weep not for him who is dead, nor bemoan him; but weep bitterly for
him who goes away, for he shall return no more to see his native land.
11: For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum the son of Josi'ah, king
of Judah, who reigned instead of Josi'ah his father, and who went away
from this place: "He shall return here no more,
12: but in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he
die, and he shall never see this land again."
13: "Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his
upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing,
and does not give him his wages;
14: who says, `I will build myself a great house with spacious upper
rooms,' and cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar, and
painting it with vermilion.
15: Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not
your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was
well with him.
16: He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not
this to know Me? says the Lord.
17: But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for
shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and
violence."
18: Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoi'akim the son of
Josi'ah, king of Judah: "They shall not lament for him, saying, `Ah
my brother!' or `Ah sister!' They shall not lament for him, saying, `Ah
lord!' or `Ah his majesty!'
19: With the burial of an ass he shall be buried, dragged and cast forth
beyond the gates of Jerusalem."
20: "Go up to Lebanon, and cry out, and lift up your voice in
Bashan; cry from Ab'arim, for all your lovers are destroyed.
21: I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, `I will not
listen.' This has been your way from your youth, that you have not
obeyed My voice.
22: The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go
into captivity; then you will be ashamed and confounded because of all
your wickedness.
23: O inhabitant of Lebanon, nested among the cedars, how you will groan
when pangs come upon you, pain as of a woman in travail!"
24: "As I live, says the Lord, though Coni'ah the son of
Jehoi'akim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on My right hand, yet I
would tear you off
25: and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the
hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of
Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chalde'ans.
26: I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country,
where you were not born, and there you shall die.
27: But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall
not return."
28: Is this man Coni'ah a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares
for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land which they
do not know?
29: O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord!
30: Thus says the Lord: "Write this man down as childless, a man
who shall not succeed in his days; for none of his offspring shall
succeed in sitting on the throne of David, and ruling again in
Judah."
Jeremiah,
chapter 23
1: "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My
pasture!" says the Lord.
2: Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the
shepherds who care for My people: "You have scattered My flock, and
have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will
attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord.
3: Then I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries
where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and
they shall be fruitful and multiply.
4: I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall
fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, says the
Lord.
5: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise
up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal
wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
6: In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And
this is the name by which he will be called: `The Lord is our
righteousness.'
7: "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when men
shall no longer say, `As the Lord lives who brought up the people of
Israel out of the land of Egypt,'
8: but `As the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the
house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries
where he had driven them.' Then they shall dwell in their own
land."
9: Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me, all my bones
shake; I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of
the Lord and because of His holy words.
10: For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land
mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is
evil, and their might is not right.
11: "Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in My house I have
found their wickedness, says the Lord.
12: Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the
darkness, into which they shall be driven and fall; for I will bring
evil upon them in the year of their punishment, says the Lord.
13: In the prophets of Sama'ria I saw an unsavory thing: they prophesied
by ba'al and led My people Israel astray.
14: But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: they
commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of
evildoers, so that no one turns from his wickedness; all of them have
become like Sodom to Me, and its inhabitants like Gomor'rah."
15: Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:
"Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and give them poisoned
water to drink; for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone
forth into all the land."
16: Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Do not listen to the words of the
prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes; they speak
visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.
17: They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, `It
shall be well with you'; and to every one who stubbornly follows his own
heart, they say, `No evil shall come upon you.'"
18: For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord to perceive
and to hear his word, or who has given heed to his word and listened?
19: Behold, the storm of the Lord! Wrath has gone forth, a whirling
tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
20: The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has executed and
accomplished the intents of His mind. In the latter days you will
understand it clearly.
21: "I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to
them, yet they prophesied.
22: But if they had stood in My council, then they would have proclaimed
My words to My people, and they would have turned them from their evil
way, and from the evil of their doings.
23: "Am I a God at hand, says the Lord, and not a God afar off?
24: Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?
says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.
25: I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My
name, saying, `I have dreamed, I have dreamed!'
26: How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who
prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart,
27: who think to make My people forget My name by their dreams which
they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot My name for ba'al?
28: Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has
My word speak My word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat?
says the Lord.
29: Is not My word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer which
breaks the rock in pieces?
30: Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who
steal My words from one another.
31: Behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their
tongues and say, `Says the Lord.'
32: Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord,
and who tell them and lead My people astray by their lies and their
recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them; so they do not
profit this people at all, says the Lord.
33: "When one of this people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you,
`What is the burden of the Lord?' you shall say to them, `You are the
burden, and I will cast you off, says the Lord.'
34: And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, `The
burden of the Lord,' I will punish that man and his household.
35: Thus shall you say, every one to his neighbor and every one to his
brother, `What has the Lord answered?' or `What has the Lord spoken?'
36: But `the burden of the Lord' you shall mention no more, for the
burden is every man's own word, and you pervert the words of the living
God, the Lord of hosts, our God.
37: Thus you shall say to the prophet, `What has the Lord answered you?'
or `What has the Lord spoken?'
38: But if you say, `The burden of the Lord,' thus says the Lord,
`Because you have said these words, "The burden of the Lord,"
when I sent to you, saying, "You shall not say, `The burden of the
Lord,'"
39: therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up and cast you away from
My presence, you and the city which I gave to you and your fathers.
40: And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and perpetual shame,
which shall not be forgotten.'"
Jeremiah,
chapter 24
1: After Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon had taken into exile from
Jerusalem Jeconi'ah the son of Jehoi'akim, king of Judah, together with
the princes of Judah, the craftsmen, and the smiths, and had brought
them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision: Behold, two baskets of
figs placed before the temple of the Lord.
2: One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other
basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten.
3: And the Lord said to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" I
said, "Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so
bad that they cannot be eaten."
4: Then the word of the Lord came to me:
5: "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so
I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from
this place to the land of the Chalde'ans.
6: I will set My eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them back to
this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant
them, and not uproot them.
7: I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord; and they shall
be My people and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with
their whole heart.
8: "But thus says the Lord: Like the bad figs which are so bad they
cannot be eaten, so will I treat Zedeki'ah the king of Judah, his
princes, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who
dwell in the land of Egypt.
9: I will make them a
horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to
be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I
shall drive them.
10: And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them,
until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land which I gave to them
and their fathers."
Jeremiah,
chapter 25
1: The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of
Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoi'akim the son of Josi'ah, king of
Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon),
2: which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem:
3: "For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of
Josi'ah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the
Lord has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have
not listened.
4: You have neither listened nor inclined your ears to hear,
although the Lord persistently sent to you all His servants the
prophets,
5: saying, `Turn now, every one of you, from his evil way and
wrong doings, and dwell upon the land which the Lord has given to you
and your fathers from of old and for ever;
6: do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, or
provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no
harm.'
7: Yet you have not listened to Me, says the Lord, that you might
provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.
8: "Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have
not obeyed My words,
9: behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, says the
Lord, and for Nebuchadnez'zar the king of Babylon, My servant, and I
will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all
these nations round about; I will utterly destroy them, and make them a
horror, a hissing, and an everlasting reproach.
10: Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the
voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the
bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp.
11: This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these
nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
12: Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the
king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chalde'ans, for their
iniquity, says the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.
13: I will bring upon that land all the words which I have
uttered against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah
prophesied against all the nations.
14: For many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of
them; and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work
of their hands."
15: Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: "Take from
My hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom
I send you drink it.
16: They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the
sword which I am sending among them."
17: So I took the cup from the Lord's hand, and made all the
nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it:
18: Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and princes, to
make them a desolation and a waste, a hissing and a curse, as at this
day;
19: Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes, all his
people,
20: and all the foreign folk among them; all the kings of the
land of Uz and all the kings of the land of the Philistines (Ash'kelon,
Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod);
21: Edom, Moab, and the sons of Ammon;
22: all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings
of the coastland across the sea;
23: Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair;
24: all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mixed tribes
that dwell in the desert;
25: all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the
kings of Media;
26: all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another,
and all the kingdoms of the world which are on the face of the earth.
And after them the king of Babylon shall drink.
27: "Then you shall say to them, `Thus says the Lord of
hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, be drunk and vomit, fall and rise no
more, because of the sword which I am sending among you.'
28: "And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to
drink, then you shall say to them, `Thus says the Lord of hosts: You
must drink!
29: For behold, I begin to work evil at the city which is called
by My name, and shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished,
for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth,
says the Lord of hosts.'
30: "You, therefore, shall prophesy against them all these
words, and say to them: `The Lord will roar from on high, and from his
holy habitation utter his voice; he will roar mightily against his fold,
and shout, like those who tread grapes, against all the inhabitants of
the earth.
31: The clamor will resound to the ends of the earth, for the
Lord has an indictment against the nations; he is entering into judgment
with all flesh, and the wicked he will put to the sword, says the Lord.'
32: "Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, evil is going
forth from nation to nation, and a great tempest is stirring from the
farthest parts of the earth!
33: "And those slain by the Lord on that day shall extend
from one end of the earth to the other. They shall not be lamented, or
gathered, or buried; they shall be dung on the surface of the ground.
34: "Wail, you shepherds, and cry, and roll in ashes, you
lords of the flock, for the days of your slaughter and dispersion have
come, and you shall fall like choice rams.
35: No refuge will remain for the shepherds, nor escape for the
lords of the flock.
36: Hark, the cry of the shepherds, and the wail of the lords of
the flock! For the Lord is despoiling their pasture,
37: and the peaceful folds are devastated, because of the fierce
anger of the Lord.
38: Like a lion he has left his covert, for their land has become
a waste because of the sword of the oppressor, and because of his fierce
anger."
Jeremiah,
chapter 26
1: In the beginning of the reign of Jehoi'akim the son of Josi'ah,
king of Judah, this word came from the Lord,
2: "Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the Lord's
house, and speak to all the cities of Judah which come to worship in the
house of the Lord all the words that I command you to speak to them; do
not hold back a word.
3: It may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil
way, that I may repent of the evil which I intend to do to them because
of their evil doings.
4: You shall say to them, `Thus says the Lord: If you will not
listen to Me, to walk in My law which I have set before you,
5: and to heed the words of My servants the prophets whom I send
to you urgently, though you have not heeded,
6: then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this
city a curse for all the nations of the earth.'"
7: The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah
speaking these words in the house of the Lord.
8: And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had
commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the
prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, "You shall
die!
9: Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, `This
house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without
inhabitant'?" And all the people gathered about Jeremiah in the
house of the Lord.
10: When the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up
from the king's house to the house of the Lord and took their seat in
the entry of the New Gate of the house of the Lord.
11: Then the priests and the prophets said to the princes and to
all the people, "This man deserves the sentence of death, because
he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own
ears."
12: Then Jeremiah spoke to all the princes and all the people,
saying, "The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and this
city all the words you have heard.
13: Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the
voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will repent of the evil which
he has pronounced against you.
14: But as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do with me as
seems good and right to you.
15: Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will
bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and its
inhabitants, for in truth the Lord sent me to you to speak all these
words in your ears."
16: Then the princes and all the people said to the priests and
the prophets, "This man does not deserve the sentence of death, for
he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God."
17: And certain of the elders of the land arose and spoke to all
the assembled people, saying,
18: "Micah of Mo'resheth prophesied in the days of Hezeki'ah
king of Judah, and said to all the people of Judah: `Thus says the Lord
of hosts, Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap
of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.'
19: Did Hezeki'ah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death?
Did he not fear the Lord and entreat the favor of the Lord, and did not
the Lord repent of the evil which he had pronounced against them? But we
are about to bring great evil upon ourselves."
20: There was another man who prophesied in the name of the Lord,
Uri'ah the son of Shemai'ah from Kir'iath-je'arim. He prophesied against
this city and against this land in words like those of Jeremiah.
21: And when King Jehoi'akim, with all his warriors and all the
princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when
Uri'ah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt.
22: Then King Jehoi'akim sent to Egypt certain men, Elna'than the
son of Achbor and others with him,
23: and they fetched Uri'ah from Egypt and brought him to King
Jehoi'akim, who slew him with the sword and cast his dead body into the
burial place of the common people.
24: But the hand of Ahi'kam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah
so that he was not given over to the people to be put to death.
Jeremiah,
chapter 27
1: In the beginning of the reign of Zedeki'ah the son of Josi'ah,
king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord.
2: Thus the Lord said to me: "Make yourself thongs and
yoke-bars, and put them on your neck.
3: Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of
the sons of Ammon, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon by the hand
of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedeki'ah king of Judah.
4: Give them this charge for their masters: `Thus says the Lord
of hosts, the God of Israel: This is what you shall say to your masters:
5: "It is I who by My great power and My outstretched arm
have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and
I give it to whomever it seems right to me.
6: Now I have given all these lands into the hand of
Nebuchadnez'zar, the king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him
also the beasts of the field to serve him.
7: All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson,
until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings
shall make him their slave.
8: "`"But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this
Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the
king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine,
and with pestilence, says the Lord, until I have consumed it by his
hand.
9: So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your
dreamers, your soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you,
`You shall not serve the king of Babylon.'
10: For it is a lie which they are prophesying to you, with the
result that you will be removed far from your land, and I will drive you
out, and you will perish.
11: But any nation which will bring its neck under the yoke of
the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own land, to till
it and dwell there, says the Lord."'"
12: To Zedeki'ah king of Judah I spoke in like manner:
"Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve
him and his people, and live.
13: Why will you and your people die by the sword, by famine, and
by pestilence, as the Lord has spoken concerning any nation which will
not serve the king of Babylon?
14: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are saying to
you, `You shall not serve the king of Babylon,' for it is a lie which
they are prophesying to you.
15: I have not sent them, says the Lord, but they are prophesying
falsely in My name, with the result that I will drive you out and you
will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying to you."
16: Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying,
"Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of your prophets
who are prophesying to you, saying, `Behold, the vessels of the Lord's
house will now shortly be brought back from Babylon,' for it is a lie
which they are prophesying to you.
17: Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live.
Why should this city become a desolation?
18: If they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is with
them, then let them intercede with the Lord of hosts, that the vessels
which are left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of
Judah, and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon.
19: For thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the pillars, the
sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels which are left in this
city,
20: which Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon did not take away, when
he took into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon Jeconi'ah the son of
Jehoi'akim, king of Judah, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem --
21: thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning
the vessels which are left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the
king of Judah, and in Jerusalem:
22: They shall be carried to Babylon and remain there until the
day when I give attention to them, says the Lord. Then I will bring them
back and restore them to this place."
Jeremiah,
chapter 28
1: In that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedeki'ah
king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, Hanani'ah the son
of Azzur, the prophet from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the Lord,
in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying,
2: "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have
broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
3: Within two years I will bring back to this place all the
vessels of the Lord's house, which Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon took
away from this place and carried to Babylon.
4: I will also bring back to this place Jeconi'ah the son of
Jehoi'akim, king of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to
Babylon, says the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of
Babylon."
5: Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Hanani'ah the prophet in
the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the
house of the Lord;
6: and the prophet Jeremiah said, "Amen! May the Lord do so;
may the Lord make the words which you have prophesied come true, and
bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the
Lord, and all the exiles.
7: Yet hear now this word which I speak in your hearing and in
the hearing of all the people.
8: The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times
prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great
kingdoms.
9: As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that
prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly
sent the prophet."
10: Then the prophet Hanani'ah took the yoke-bars from the neck
of Jeremiah the prophet, and broke them.
11: And Hanani'ah spoke in the presence of all the people,
saying, "Thus says the Lord: Even so will I break the yoke of
Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within
two years." But Jeremiah the prophet went his way.
12: Sometime after the prophet Hanani'ah had broken the yoke-bars
from off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah:
13: "Go, tell Hanani'ah, `Thus says the Lord: You have
broken wooden bars, but I will make in their place bars of iron.
14: For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have
put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke of servitude to
Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him, for I have
given to him even the beasts of the field.'"
15: And Jeremiah the prophet said to the prophet Hanani'ah,
"Listen, Hanani'ah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have made
this people trust in a lie.
16: Therefore thus says the Lord: `Behold, I will remove you from
the face of the earth. This very year you shall die, because you have
uttered rebellion against the Lord.'"
17: In that same year, in the seventh month, the prophet
Hanani'ah died.
Jeremiah,
chapter 29
1: These are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet
sent from Jerusalem to the elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the
prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnez'zar had taken into exile
from Jerusalem to Babylon.
2: This was after King Jeconi'ah, and the queen mother, the
eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the
smiths had departed from Jerusalem.
3: The letter was sent by the hand of Ela'sah the son of Shaphan
and Gemari'ah the son of Hilki'ah, whom Zedeki'ah king of Judah sent to
Babylon to Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon. It said:
4: "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all
the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their
produce.
6:
Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and
give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters;
multiply there, and do not decrease.
7: But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into
exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will
find your welfare.
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8: For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let
your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do
not listen to the dreams which they dream,
9: for it is a lie which they are prophesying to you in My name;
I did not send them, says the Lord.
10: "For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are
completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you My
promise and bring you back to this place.
11: For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for
welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
12: Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I
will hear you.
13: You will seek Me and find Me; when you seek Me with all your
heart,
14: I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will restore
your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places
where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the
place from which I sent you into exile.
15: "Because you have said, `The Lord has raised up prophets
for us in Babylon.
16: Thus says the Lord concerning the king who sits on the throne
of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your
kinsmen who did not go out with you into exile:
17: `Thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold, I am sending on them
sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like vile figs which
are so bad they cannot be eaten.
18: I will pursue them with sword, famine, and pestilence, and
will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse,
a terror, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have
driven them,
19: because they did not heed My words, says the Lord, which I
persistently sent to you by My servants the prophets, but you would not
listen, says the Lord.' --
20: Hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles whom I sent away
from Jerusalem to Babylon:
21: `Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning
Ahab the son of Kola'iah and Zedeki'ah the son of Ma-asei'ah, who are
prophesying a lie to you in My name: Behold, I will deliver them into
the hand of Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon, and he shall slay them
before your eyes.
22: Because of them this curse shall be used by all the exiles
from Judah in Babylon: "The Lord make you like Zedeki'ah and Ahab,
whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,"
23: because they have committed folly in Israel, they have
committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and they have spoken in
My name lying words which I did not command them. I am the one who
knows, and I am witness, says the Lord.'"
24: To Shemai'ah of Nehel'am you shall say:
25: "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You
have sent letters in your name to all the people who are in Jerusalem,
and to Zephani'ah the son of Ma-asei'ah the priest, and to all the
priests, saying,
26: `The Lord has made you priest instead of Jehoi'ada the
priest, to have charge in the house of the Lord over every madman who
prophesies, to put him in the stocks and collar.
27: Now why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of An'athoth who is
prophesying to you?
28: For he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, "Your exile
will be long; build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat
their produce."'"
29: Zephani'ah the priest read this letter in the hearing of
Jeremiah the prophet.
30: Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:
31: "Send to all the exiles, saying, `Thus says the Lord
concerning Shemai'ah of Nehel'am: Because Shemai'ah has prophesied to
you when I did not send him, and has made you trust in a lie,
32: therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will punish Shemai'ah
of Nehel'am and his descendants; he shall not have any one living among
this people to see the good that I will do to My people, says the Lord,
for he has talked rebellion against the Lord.'"
Jeremiah,
chapter 30
1: The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
2: "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Write in a book
all the words that I have spoken to you.
3: For behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will
restore the fortunes of My people, Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and
I will bring them back to the land which I gave to their fathers, and
they shall take possession of it."
4: These are the words which the Lord spoke concerning Israel and
Judah:
5: "Thus says the Lord: We have heard a cry of panic, of
terror, and no peace.
6: Ask now, and see, can a man bear a child? Why then do I see
every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor? Why has
every face turned pale?
7: Alas! that day is so great there is none like it; it is a time
of distress for Jacob; yet he shall be saved out of it.
8: "And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord of
hosts, that I will break the yoke from off their neck, and I will burst
their bonds, and strangers shall no more make servants of them.
9: But they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king,
whom I will raise up for them.
10: "Then fear not, O Jacob My servant, says the Lord, nor
be dismayed, O Israel; for lo, I will save you from afar, and your
offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return and have
quiet and ease, and none shall make him afraid.
11: For I am with you to save you, says the Lord; I will make a
full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you, but of you I
will not make a full end. I will chasten you in just measure, and I will
by no means leave you unpunished.
12: "For thus says the Lord: Your hurt is incurable, and
your wound is grievous.
13: There is none to uphold your cause, no medicine for your
wound, no healing for you.
14: All your lovers have forgotten you; they care nothing for
you; for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy, the punishment of a
merciless foe, because your guilt is great, because your sins are
flagrant.
15: Why do you cry out over your hurt? Your pain is incurable.
Because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant, I have done
these things to you.
16: Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured, and all your
foes, every one of them, shall go into captivity; those who despoil you
shall become a spoil, and all who prey on you I will make a prey.
17: For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will
heal, says the Lord, because they have called you an outcast: `It is
Zion, for whom no one cares!'
18: "Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will restore the fortunes
of the tents of Jacob, and have compassion on his dwellings; the city
shall be rebuilt upon its mound, and the palace shall stand where it
used to be.
19: Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving, and the voices
of those who make merry. I will multiply them, and they shall not be
few; I will make them honored, and they shall not be small.
20: Their children shall be as they were of old, and their
congregation shall be established before Me; and I will punish all who
oppress them.
21: Their prince shall be one of themselves, their ruler shall
come forth from their midst; I will make him draw near, and he shall
approach Me, for who would dare of himself to approach Me? says the
Lord.
22: And you shall be My people, and I will be your God."
23: Behold the storm of the Lord! Wrath has gone forth, a
whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
24: The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has
executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. In the latter days
you will understand this.
Jeremiah,
chapter 31
1: "At that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all
the families of Israel, and they shall be My people."
2: Thus says the Lord: "The people who survived the sword
found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest,
3: the Lord appeared to him from afar. I have loved you with an
everlasting love; therefore I have continued My faithfulness to you.
4: Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin
Israel! Again you shall adorn yourself with timbrels, and shall go forth
in the dance of the merrymakers.
5: Again you shall plant vineyards upon the mountains of
Sama'ria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy the fruit.
6: For there shall be a day when watchmen will call in the hill
country of E'phraim: `Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our
God.'"
7: For thus says the Lord: "Sing aloud with gladness for
Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give
praise, and say, `The Lord has saved his people, the remnant of Israel.'
8: Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather
them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the
lame, the woman with child and her who is in travail, together; a great
company, they shall return here.
9: With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will
lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight
path in which they shall not stumble; for I am a Father to Israel, and
E'phraim is My first-born.
10: "Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in
the coastlands afar off; say, `He who scattered Israel will gather him,
and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.'
11: For the Lord has ransomed Jacob, and has redeemed him from
hands too strong for him.
12: They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and
they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the
wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their
life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more.
13: Then shall the maidens rejoice in the dance, and the young
men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I
will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
14: I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance, and My
people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the Lord."
15: Thus says the Lord: "A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she
refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are not."
16: Thus says the Lord: "Keep your voice from weeping, and
your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord,
and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
17: There is hope for your future, says the Lord, and your
children shall come back to their own country.
18: I have heard E'phraim bemoaning, `Thou hast chastened me, and
I was chastened, like an untrained calf; bring me back that I may be
restored, for Thou art the Lord my God.
19: For after I had turned away I repented; and after I was
instructed, I smote upon my thigh; I was ashamed, and I was confounded,
because I bore the disgrace of my youth.'
20: Is E'phraim My dear son? Is he My darling child? For as often
as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore My heart
yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord.
21: "Set up way marks for yourself, make yourself
guideposts; consider well the highway, the road by which you went.
Return, O virgin Israel, return to these your cities.
22: How long will you waver, O faithless daughter? For the Lord
has created a new thing on the earth: a woman protects a man."
23: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Once
more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities,
when I restore their fortunes: `The Lord bless you, O habitation of
righteousness, O holy hill!'
24: And Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and
the farmers and those who wander with their flocks.
25: For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul
I will replenish."
26: Thereupon I awoke and looked, and My sleep was pleasant to
me.
27: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will
sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and
the seed of beast.
28: And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to
pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I
will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord.
29: In those days they shall no longer say: `The fathers have
eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'
30: But every one shall die for his own sin; each man who eats
sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.
31: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will
make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
32: not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I
took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My
covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord.
33: But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law within them,
and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they
shall be My people.
34: And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his
brother, saying, `Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the
least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
35: Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and
the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs
up the sea so that its waves roar -- the Lord of hosts is his name:
36: "If this fixed order departs from before Me, says the
Lord, then shall the descendants of Israel cease from being a nation
before Me for ever."
37: Thus says the Lord: "If the heavens above can be
measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I
will cast off all the descendants of Israel for all that they have done,
says the Lord."
38: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when the
city shall be rebuilt for the Lord from the tower of Han'anel to the
Corner Gate.
39: And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the
hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Go'ah.
40: The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all
the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate
toward the east, shall be sacred to the Lord. It shall not be uprooted
or overthrown any more for ever."
Jeremiah,
chapter 32
1: The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year
of Zedeki'ah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnez'zar.
2: At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging
Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the
guard which was in the palace of the king of Judah.
3: For Zedeki'ah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying,
"Why do you prophesy and say, `Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am
giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take
it;
4: Zedeki'ah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of
the Chalde'ans, but shall surely be given into the hand of the king of
Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye;
5: and he shall take Zedeki'ah to Babylon, and there he shall
remain until I visit him, says the Lord; though you fight against the
Chalde'ans, you shall not succeed'?"
6: Jeremiah said, "The word of the Lord came to me:
7: Behold, Han'amel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to
you and say, `Buy my field which is at An'athoth, for the right of
redemption by purchase is yours.'
8: Then Han'amel my cousin came to me in the court of the guard,
in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, `Buy my field
which is at An'athoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of
possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.' Then I knew
that this was the word of the Lord.
9: "And I bought the field at An'athoth from Han'amel my
cousin, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver.
10: I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the
money on scales.
11: Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms
and conditions, and the open copy;
12: and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neri'ah
son of Mahsei'ah, in the presence of Han'amel my cousin, in the presence
of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of
all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the guard.
13: I charged Baruch in their presence, saying,
14: `Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these
deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put
them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time.
15: For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses
and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.'
16: "After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch the
son of Neri'ah, I prayed to the Lord, saying:
17: `Ah Lord God! It is Thou who hast made the heavens and the
earth by Thy great power and by Thy outstretched arm! Nothing is too
hard for Thee,
18: who shows steadfast love to thousands, but dost requite the
guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and mighty God
whose name is the Lord of hosts,
19: great in counsel and mighty in deed; whose eyes are open to
all the ways of men, rewarding every man according to his ways and
according to the fruit of his doings;
20: who hast shown signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to
this day in Israel and among all mankind, and hast made Thee a name, as
at this day.
21: Thou did bring Thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt
with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and outstretched arm, and
with great terror;
22: and Thou gave them this land, which Thou did swear to their
fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;
23: and they entered and took possession of it. But they did not
obey Thy voice or walk in Thy law; they did nothing of all Thou did
command them to do. Therefore Thou hast made all this evil come upon
them.
24: Behold, the siege mounds have come up to the city to take it,
and because of sword and famine and pestilence the city is given into
the hands of the Chalde'ans who are fighting against it. What Thou did
speak has come to pass, and behold, Thou sees it.
25: Yet Thou, O Lord God, hast said to me, "Buy the field
for money and get witnesses" -- though the city is given into the
hands of the Chalde'ans.'"
26: The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:
27: "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is
anything too hard for Me?
28: Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city
into the hands of the Chalde'ans and into the hand of Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon, and he shall take it.
29: The Chalde'ans who are fighting against this city shall come
and set this city on fire, and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs
incense has been offered to ba'al and drink offerings have been poured
out to other gods, to provoke Me to anger.
30: For the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have done
nothing but evil in My sight from their youth; the sons of Israel have
done nothing but provoke Me to anger by the work of their hands, says
the Lord.
31: This city has aroused My anger and wrath, from the day it was
built to this day, so that I will remove it from My sight
32: because of all the evil of the sons of Israel and the sons of
Judah which they did to provoke Me to anger -- their kings and their
princes, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem.
33: They have turned to Me their back and not their face; and
though I have taught them persistently they have not listened to receive
instruction.
34: They set up their abominations in the house which is called
by My name, to defile it.
35: They built the high places of ba'al in the valley of the son
of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did
not command them, nor did it enter into My mind, that they should do
this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
36: "Now therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel,
concerning this city of which you say, `It is given into the hand of the
king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence':
37: Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I
drove them in My anger and My wrath and in great indignation; I will
bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety.
38: And they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
39: I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me
for ever, for their own good and the good of their children after them.
40: I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will
not turn away from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of Me in
their hearts, that they may not turn from Me.
41: I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in
this land in faithfulness, with all My heart and all My soul.
42: "For thus says the Lord: Just as I have brought all this
great evil upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that
I promise them.
43: Fields shall be bought in this land of which you are saying,
It is a desolation, without man or beast; it is given into the hands of
the Chalde'ans.
44: Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be signed
and sealed and witnessed, in the land of Benjamin, in the places about
Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill
country, in the cities of the Shephe'lah, and in the cities of the
Negeb; for I will restore their fortunes, says the Lord."
Jeremiah,
chapter 33
1: The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he
was still shut up in the court of the guard:
2: "Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who
formed it to establish it -- the Lord is his name:
3: Call to Me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and
hidden things which you have not known.
4: For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the
houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah which were torn
down to make a defense against the siege mounds and before the sword:
5: The Chalde'ans are coming in to fight and to fill them with
the dead bodies of men whom I shall smite in My anger and My wrath, for
I have hidden My face from this city because of all their wickedness.
6: Behold, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal
them and reveal to them abundance of prosperity and security.
7: I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of
Israel, and rebuild them as they were at first.
8: I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against
Me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against
Me.
9: And this city shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise and a
glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good
that I do for them; they shall fear and tremble because of all the good
and all the prosperity I provide for it.
10: "Thus says the Lord: In this place of which you say, `It
is a waste without man or beast,' in the cities of Judah and the streets
of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man or inhabitant or beast,
there shall be heard again
11: the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of
the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing,
as they bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord: `Give thanks to
the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his steadfast love endures
for ever!' For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says
the Lord.
12: "Thus says the Lord of hosts: In this place which is
waste, without man or beast, and in all of its cities, there shall again
be habitations of shepherds resting their flocks.
13: In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the
Shephe'lah, and in the cities of the Negeb, in the land of Benjamin, the
places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, flocks shall again
pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the Lord.
14: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill
the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
15: In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous
Branch to spring forth for David; and he shall execute justice and
righteousness in the land.
16: In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell
securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: `The Lord is
our righteousness.'
17: "For thus says the Lord: David shall never lack a man to
sit on the throne of the house of Israel,
18: and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in My
presence to offer burnt offerings, to burn cereal offerings, and to make
sacrifices for ever."
19: The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:
20: "Thus says the Lord: If you can break My covenant with
the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night will not
come at their appointed time,
21: then also My covenant with David My servant may be broken, so
that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and My covenant
with the Levitical priests My ministers.
22: As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the
sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of David My
servant, and the Levitical priests who minister to Me."
23: The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:
24: "Have you not observed what these people are saying,
`The Lord has rejected the two families which he chose'? Thus they have
despised My people so that they are no longer a nation in their sight.
25: Thus says the Lord: If I have not established My covenant
with day and night and the ordinances of heaven and earth,
26: then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David My
servant and will not choose one of his descendants to rule over the seed
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes, and
will have mercy upon them."
Jeremiah,
chapter 34
1: The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms of
the earth under his dominion and all the peoples were fighting against
Jerusalem and all of its cities:
2: "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Go and speak to
Zedeki'ah king of Judah and say to him, `Thus says the Lord: Behold, I
am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall
burn it with fire.
3: You shall not escape from his hand, but shall surely be
captured and delivered into his hand; you shall see the king of Babylon
eye to eye and speak with him face to face; and you shall go to
Babylon.'
4: Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Zedeki'ah king of Judah! Thus
says the Lord concerning you: `You shall not die by the sword.
5: You shall die in peace. And as spices were burned for your
fathers, the former kings who were before you, so men shall burn spices
for you and lament for you, saying, "Alas, Lord!"' For I have
spoken the word, says the Lord."
6: Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedeki'ah
king of Judah, in Jerusalem,
7: when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against
Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, Lachish
and Aze'kah; for these were the only fortified cities of Judah that
remained.
8: The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King
Zedeki'ah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a
proclamation of liberty to them,
9: that every one should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and
female, so that no one should enslave a Jew, his brother.
10: And they obeyed, all the princes and all the people who had
entered into the covenant that every one would set free his slave, male
or female, so that they would not be enslaved again; they obeyed and set
them free.
11: But afterward they turned around and took back the male and
female slaves they had set free, and brought them into subjection as
slaves.
12: The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
13: "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I made a
covenant with your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage, saying,
14: `At the end of six years each of you must set free the fellow
Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; you must
set him free from your service.' But your fathers did not listen to Me
or incline their ears to Me.
15: You recently repented and did what was right in My eyes by
proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and you made a covenant
before Me in the house which is called by My name;
16: 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 brought them into subjection to be
your slaves.
17: Therefore, thus says the Lord: You have not obeyed Me by
proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor;
behold, I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and to
famine, says the Lord. I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of
the earth.
18: And the men who transgressed My covenant and did not keep the
terms of the covenant which they made before Me, I will make like the
calf which they cut in two and passed between its parts --
19: the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs,
the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts
of the calf;
20: and I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into
the hand of those who seek their lives. Their dead bodies shall be food
for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.
21: And Zedeki'ah king of Judah, and his princes I will give into
the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their
lives, into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon which has
withdrawn from you.
22: Behold, I will command, says the Lord, and will bring them
back to this city; and they will fight against it, and take it, and burn
it with fire. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without
inhabitant."
Jeremiah,
chapter 35
1: The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of
Jehoi'akim the son of Josi'ah, king of Judah:
2: "Go to the house of the Re'chabites, and speak with them,
and bring them to the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers; then
offer them wine to drink."
3: So I took Ja-azani'ah the son of Jeremiah, son of
Habazzini'ah, and his brothers, and all his sons, and the whole house of
the Re'chabites.
4: I brought them to the house of the Lord into the chamber of
the sons of Hanan the son of Igdali'ah, the man of God, which was near
the chamber of the princes, above the chamber of Ma-asei'ah the son of
Shallum, keeper of the threshold.
5: Then I set before the Re'chabites pitchers full of wine, and
cups; and I said to them, "Drink wine."
6: But they answered, "We will drink no wine, for Jon'adab
the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, `You shall not drink wine,
neither you nor your sons for ever;
7: you shall not build a house; you shall not sow seed; you shall
not plant or have a vineyard; but you shall live in tents all your days,
that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.'
8: We have obeyed the voice of Jon'adab the son of Rechab, our
father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days,
ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters,
9: and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or
field or seed;
10: but we have lived in tents, and have obeyed and done all that
Jon'adab our father commanded us.
11: But when Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon came up against the
land, we said, `Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of
the Chalde'ans and the army of the Syrians.' So we are living in
Jerusalem."
12: Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:
13: "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and
say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not
receive instruction and listen to My words? says the Lord.
14: The command which Jon'adab the son of Rechab gave to his
sons, to drink no wine, has been kept; and they drink none to this day,
for they have obeyed their father's command. I have spoken to you
persistently, but you have not listened to Me.
15: I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, sending them
persistently, saying, `Turn now every one of you from his evil way, and
amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and
then you shall dwell in the land which I gave to you and your fathers.'
But you did not incline your ear or listen to Me.
16: The sons of Jon'adab the son of Rechab have kept the command
which their father gave them, but this people has not obeyed Me.
17: Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of
Israel: Behold, I am bringing on Judah and all the inhabitants of
Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them; because I
have spoken to them and they have not listened, I have called to them
and they have not answered."
18: But to the house of the Re'chabites Jeremiah said, "Thus
says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the
command of Jon'adab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done all
that he commanded you,
19: therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
Jon'adab the son of Rechab shall never lack a man to stand before
Me."
Jeremiah,
chapter 36
1: In the fourth year of Jehoi'akim the son of Josi'ah, king of
Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
2: "Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have
spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day
I spoke to you, from the days of Josi'ah until today.
3: It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which
I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way,
and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin."
4: Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neri'ah, and Baruch
wrote upon a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the
Lord which he had spoken to him.
5: And Jeremiah ordered Baruch, saying, "I am debarred from
going to the house of the Lord;
6: so you are to go, and on a fast day in the hearing of all the
people in the Lord's house you shall read the words of the Lord from the
scroll which you have written at my dictation. You shall read them also
in the hearing of all the men of Judah who come out of their cities.
7: It may be that their supplication will come before the Lord,
and that every one will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger
and wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people."
8: And Baruch the son of Neri'ah did all that Jeremiah the
prophet ordered him about reading from the scroll the words of the Lord
in the Lord's house.
9: In the fifth year of Jehoi'akim the son of Josi'ah, king of
Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the
people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast
before the Lord.
10: Then, in the hearing of all the people, Baruch read the words
of Jeremiah from the scroll, in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of
Gemari'ah the son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in the upper
court, at the entry of the New Gate of the Lord's house.
11: When Micai'ah the son of Gemari'ah, son of Shaphan, heard all
the words of the Lord from the scroll,
12: he went down to the king's house, into the secretary's
chamber; and all the princes were sitting there: Eli'shama the
secretary, Delai'ah the son of Shemai'ah, Elna'than the son of Achbor,
Gemari'ah the son of Shaphan, Zedeki'ah the son of Hanani'ah, and all
the princes.
13: And Micai'ah told them all the words that he had heard, when
Baruch read the scroll in the hearing of the people.
14: Then all the princes sent Jehu'di the son of Nethani'ah, son
of Shelemi'ah, son of Cushi, to say to Baruch, "Take in your hand
the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people, and come."
So Baruch the son of Neri'ah took the scroll in his hand and came to
them.
15: And they said to him, "Sit down and read it." So
Baruch read it to them.
16: When they heard all the words, they turned one to another in
fear; and they said to Baruch, "We must report all these words to
the king."
17: Then they asked Baruch, "Tell us, how did you write all
these words? Was it at his dictation?"
18: Baruch answered them, "He dictated all these words to
Me, while I wrote them with ink on the scroll."
19: Then the princes said to Baruch, "Go and hide, you and
Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are."
20: So they went into the court to the king, having put the
scroll in the chamber of Eli'shama the secretary; and they reported all
the words to the king.
21: Then the king sent Jehu'di to get the scroll, and he took it
from the chamber of Eli'shama the secretary; and Jehu'di read it to the
king and all the princes who stood beside the king.
22: It was the ninth month, and the king was sitting in the
winter house and there was a fire burning in the brazier before him.
23: As Jehu'di read three or four columns, the king would cut
them off with a penknife and throw them into the fire in the brazier,
until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the
brazier.
24: Yet neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all
these words, was afraid, nor did they rend their garments.
25: Even when Elna'than and Delai'ah and Gemari'ah urged the king
not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.
26: And the king commanded Jerah'meel the king's son and Serai'ah
the son of Az'ri-el and Shelemi'ah the son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the
secretary and Jeremiah the prophet, but the Lord hid them.
27: Now, after the king had burned the scroll with the words
which Baruch wrote at Jeremiah's dictation, the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah:
28: "Take another scroll and write on it all the former
words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoi'akim the king of Judah
has burned.
29: And concerning Jehoi'akim king of Judah you shall say, `Thus
says the Lord, You have burned this scroll, saying, "Why have you
written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy
this land, and will cut off from it man and beast?"
30: Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoi'akim king of
Judah, He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David, and his dead
body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night.
31: And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for
their iniquity; I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have
pronounced against them, but they would not hear.'"
32: Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the
scribe, the son of Neri'ah, who wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah
all the words of the scroll which Jehoi'akim king of Judah had burned in
the fire; and many similar words were added to them.
Jeremiah,
chapter 37
1: Zedeki'ah the son of Josi'ah, whom Nebuchadnez'zar king of
Babylon made king in the land of Judah, reigned instead of Coni'ah the
son of Jehoi'akim.
2: But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land
listened to the words of the Lord which He spoke through Jeremiah the
prophet.
3: King Zedeki'ah sent Jehu'cal the son of Shelemi'ah, and
Zephani'ah the priest, the son of Ma-asei'ah, to Jeremiah the prophet,
saying, "Pray for us to the Lord our God."
4: Now Jeremiah was still going in and out among the people, for
he had not yet been put in prison.
5: The army of Pharaoh had come out of Egypt; and when the
Chalde'ans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them, they
withdrew from Jerusalem.
6: Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet:
7: "Thus says the Lord, God of Israel: Thus shall you say to
the king of Judah who sent you to Me to inquire of Me, `Behold,
Pharaoh's army which came to help you is about to return to Egypt, to
its own land.
8: And the Chalde'ans shall come back and fight against this
city; they shall take it and burn it with fire.
9: Thus says the Lord, Do not deceive yourselves, saying,
"The Chalde'ans will surely stay away from us," for they will
not stay away.
10: For even if you should defeat the whole army of Chalde'ans
who are fighting against you, and there remained of them only wounded
men, every man in his tent, they would rise up and burn this city with
fire.'"
11: Now when the Chalde'an army had withdrawn from Jerusalem at
the approach of Pharaoh's army,
12: Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin
to receive his portion there among the people.
13: When he was at the Benjamin Gate, a sentry there named
Iri'jah the son of Shelemi'ah, son of Hanani'ah, seized Jeremiah the
prophet, saying, "You are deserting to the Chalde'ans."
14: And Jeremiah said, "It is false; I am not deserting to
the Chalde'ans." But Iri'jah would not listen to him, and seized
Jeremiah and brought him to the princes.
15: And the princes were enraged at Jeremiah, and they beat him
and imprisoned him in the house of Jonathan the secretary, for it had
been made a prison.
16: When Jeremiah had come to the dungeon cells, and remained
there many days,
17: King Zedeki'ah sent for him, and received him. The king
questioned him secretly in his house, and said, "Is there any word
from the Lord?" Jeremiah said, "There is." Then he said,
"You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon."
18: Jeremiah also said to King Zedeki'ah, "What wrong have I
done to you or your servants or this people, that you have put me in
prison?
19: Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, `The
king of Babylon will not come against you and against this land'?
20: Now hear, I pray you, O my lord the king: let my humble plea
come before you, and do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the
secretary, lest I die there."
21: So King Zedeki'ah gave orders, and they committed Jeremiah to
the court of the guard; and a loaf of bread was given him daily from the
bakers' street, until all the bread of the city was gone. So Jeremiah
remained in the court of the guard.
Jeremiah,
chapter 38
1: Now Shephati'ah the son of Mattan, Gedali'ah the son of
Pashhur, Jucal the son of Shelemi'ah, and Pashhur the son of Malchi'ah
heard the words that Jeremiah was saying to all the people,
2: "Thus says the Lord, He who stays in this city shall die
by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out to the
Chalde'ans shall live; he shall have his life as a prize of war, and
live.
3: Thus says the Lord, This city shall surely be given into the
hand of the army of the king of Babylon and be taken."
4: Then the princes said to the king, "Let this man be put
to death, for he is weakening the hands of the soldiers who are left in
this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking such words to
them. For this man is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their
harm."
5: King Zedeki'ah said, "Behold, he is in your hands; for
the king can do nothing against you."
6: So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of
Malchi'ah, the king's son, which was in the court of the guard, letting
Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only
mire, and Jeremiah sank in the mire.
7: When E'bed-mel'ech the Ethiopian, a eunuch, who was in the
king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern -- the
king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate --
8: E'bed-mel'ech went from the king's house and said to the king,
9: "My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that
they did to Jeremiah the prophet by casting him into the cistern; and he
will die there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city."
10: Then the king commanded E'bed-mel'ech, the Ethiopian,
"Take three men with you from here, and lift Jeremiah the prophet
out of the cistern before he dies."
11: So E'bed-mel'ech took the men with him and went to the house
of the king, to a wardrobe of the storehouse, and took from there old
rags and worn-out clothes, which he let down to Jeremiah in the cistern
by ropes.
12: Then E'bed-mel'ech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, "Put
the rags and clothes between your armpits and the ropes." Jeremiah
did so.
13: Then they drew Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of
the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.
14: King Zedeki'ah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and received him
at the third entrance of the temple of the Lord. The king said to
Jeremiah, "I will ask you a question; hide nothing from me."
15: Jeremiah said to Zedeki'ah, "If I tell you, will you not
be sure to put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will not
listen to me."
16: Then King Zedeki'ah swore secretly to Jeremiah, "As the
Lord lives, who made our souls, I will not put you to death or deliver
you into the hand of these men who seek your life."
17: Then Jeremiah said to Zedeki'ah, "Thus says the Lord,
the God of hosts, the God of Israel, If you will surrender to the
princes of the king of Babylon, then your life shall be spared, and this
city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live.
18: But if you do not surrender to the princes of the king of
Babylon, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chalde'ans,
and they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their
hand."
19: King Zedeki'ah said to Jeremiah, "I am afraid of the
Jews who have deserted to the Chalde'ans, lest I be handed over to them
and they abuse me."
20: Jeremiah said, "You shall not be given to them. Obey now
the voice of the Lord in what I say to you, and it shall be well with
you, and your life shall be spared.
21: But if you refuse to surrender, this is the vision which the
Lord has shown to me:
22: Behold, all the women left in the house of the king of Judah
were being led out to the princes of the king of Babylon and were
saying, `Your trusted friends have deceived you and prevailed against
you; now that your feet are sunk in the mire, they turn away from you.'
23: All your wives and your sons shall be led out to the
Chalde'ans, and you yourself shall not escape from their hand, but shall
be seized by the king of Babylon; and this city shall be burned with
fire."
24: Then Zedeki'ah said to Jeremiah, "Let no one know of
these words and you shall not die.
25: If the princes hear that I have spoken with you and come to
you and say to you, `Tell us what you said to the king and what the king
said to you; hide nothing from us and we will not put you to death,'
26: then you shall say to them, `I made a humble plea to the king
that he would not send me back to the house of Jonathan to die
there.'"
27: Then all the princes came to Jeremiah and asked him, and he
answered them as the king had instructed him. So they left off speaking
with him, for the conversation had not been overheard.
28: And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard until the day
that Jerusalem was taken.
Jeremiah,
chapter 39
1: In the ninth year of Zedeki'ah king of Judah, in the tenth
month, Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon and all his army came against
Jerusalem and besieged it;
2: in the eleventh year of Zedeki'ah, in the fourth month, on the
ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city.
3: When Jerusalem was taken, all the princes of the king of
Babylon came and sat in the middle gate: Ner'gal-share'zer,
Sam'gar-ne'bo, Sar'sechim the Rab'saris, Ner'gal-share'zer the Rabmag,
with all the rest of the officers of the king of Babylon.
4: When Zedeki'ah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them,
they fled, going out of the city at night by way of the king's garden
through the gate between the two walls; and they went toward the Arabah.
5: But the army of the Chalde'ans pursued them, and overtook
Zedeki'ah in the plains of Jericho; and when they had taken him, they
brought him up to Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon, at Riblah, in the
land of Hamath; and he passed sentence upon him.
6: The king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedeki'ah at Riblah
before his eyes; and the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.
7: He put out the eyes of Zedeki'ah, and bound him in fetters to
take him to Babylon.
8: The Chalde'ans burned the king's house and the house of the
people, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
9: Then Nebu'zarad'an, the captain of the guard, carried into
exile to Babylon the rest of the people who were left in the city, those
who had deserted to him, and the people who remained.
10: Nebu'zarad'an, the captain of the guard, left in the land of
Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing, and gave them vineyards
and fields at the same time.
11: Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon gave command concerning
Jeremiah through Nebu'zarad'an, the captain of the guard, saying,
12: "Take him, look after him well and do him no harm, but
deal with him as he tells you."
13: So Nebu'zarad'an the captain of the guard, Nebushaz'ban the
Rab'saris, Ner'gal-share'zer the Rabmag, and all the chief officers of
the king of Babylon
14: sent and took Jeremiah from the court of the guard. They
entrusted him to Gedali'ah the son of Ahi'kam, son of Shaphan, that he
should take him home. So he dwelt among the people.
15: The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah while he was shut up in
the court of the guard:
16: "Go, and say to E'bed-mel'ech the Ethiopian, `Thus says
the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will fulfill My words
against this city for evil and not for good, and they shall be
accomplished before you on that day.
17: But I will deliver you on that day, says the Lord, and you
shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.
18: For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the
sword; but you shall have your life as a prize of war, because you have
put your trust in Me, says the Lord.'"
Jeremiah,
chapter 40
1: The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after
Nebu'zarad'an the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when
he took him bound in chains along with all the captives of Jerusalem and
Judah who were being exiled to Babylon.
2: The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him,
"The Lord your God pronounced this evil against this place;
3: the Lord has brought it about, and has done as He said.
Because you sinned against the Lord, and did not obey His voice, this
thing has come upon you.
4: Now, behold, I release you today from the chains on your
hands. If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I
will look after you well; but if it seems wrong to you to come with me
to Babylon, do not come. See, the whole land is before you; go wherever
you think it good and right to go.
5: If you remain, then return to Gedali'ah the son of Ahi'kam,
son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon appointed governor of the
cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wherever you
think it right to go." So the captain of the guard gave him an
allowance of food and a present, and let him go.
6: Then Jeremiah went to Gedali'ah the son of Ahi'kam, at Mizpah,
and dwelt with him among the people who were left in the land.
7: When all the captains of the forces in the open country and
their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedali'ah the son
of Ahi'kam governor in the land, and had committed to him men, women,
and children, those of the poorest of the land who had not been taken
into exile to Babylon,
8: they went to Gedali'ah at Mizpah -- Ish'mael the son of
Nethani'ah, Joha'nan the son of Kare'ah, Serai'ah the son of Tanhu'meth,
the sons of Ephai the Netoph'athite, Jezani'ah the son of the
Ma-ac'athite, they and their men.
9: Gedali'ah the son of Ahi'kam, son of Shaphan, swore to them
and their men, saying, "Do not be afraid to serve the Chalde'ans.
Dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well
with you.
10: As for me, I will dwell at Mizpah, to stand for you before
the Chalde'ans who will come to us; but as for you, gather wine and
summer fruits and oil, and store them in your vessels, and dwell in your
cities that you have taken."
11: Likewise, when all the Jews who were in Moab and among the
Ammonites and in Edom and in other lands heard that the king of Babylon
had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedali'ah the son of
Ahi'kam, son of Shaphan, as governor over them,
12: then all the Jews returned from all the places to which they
had been driven and came to the land of Judah, to Gedali'ah at Mizpah;
and they gathered wine and summer fruits in great abundance.
13: Now Joha'nan the son of Kare'ah and all the leaders of the
forces in the open country came to Gedali'ah at Mizpah
14: and said to him, "Do you know that ba'alis the king of
the Ammonites has sent Ish'mael the son of Nethani'ah to take your
life?" But Gedali'ah the son of Ahi'kam would not believe them.
15: Then Joha'nan the son of Kare'ah spoke secretly to Gedali'ah
at Mizpah, "Let me go and slay Ish'mael the son of Nethani'ah, and
no one will know it. Why should he take your life, so that all the Jews
who are gathered about you would be scattered, and the remnant of Judah
would perish?"
16: But Gedali'ah the son of Ahi'kam said to Joha'nan the son of
Kare'ah, "You shall not do this thing, for you are speaking falsely
of Ish'mael."
Jeremiah,
chapter 41
1: In the seventh month, Ish'mael the son of Nethani'ah, son of
Eli'shama, of the royal family, one of the chief officers of the king,
came with ten men to Gedali'ah the son of Ahi'kam, at Mizpah. As they
ate bread together there at Mizpah,
2: Ish'mael the son of Nethani'ah and the ten men with him rose
up and struck down Gedali'ah the son of Ahi'kam, son of Shaphan, with
the sword, and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had appointed
governor in the land.
3: Ish'mael also slew all the Jews who were with Gedali'ah at
Mizpah, and the Chalde'an soldiers who happened to be there.
4: On the day after the murder of Gedali'ah, before any one knew
of it,
5: eighty men arrived from Shechem and Shiloh and Sama'ria, with
their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and their bodies gashed,
bringing cereal offerings and incense to present at the temple of the
Lord.
6: And Ish'mael the son of Nethani'ah came out from Mizpah to
meet them, weeping as he came. As he met them, he said to them,
"Come in to Gedali'ah the son of Ahi'kam."
7: When they came into the city, Ish'mael the son of Nethani'ah
and the men with him slew them, and cast them into a cistern.
8: But there were ten men among them who said to Ish'mael,
"Do not kill us, for we have stores of wheat, barley, oil, and
honey hidden in the fields." So he refrained and did not kill them
with their companions.
9: Now the cistern into which Ish'mael cast all the bodies of the
men whom he had slain was the large cistern which King Asa had made for
defense against Ba'asha king of Israel; Ish'mael the son of Nethani'ah
filled it with the slain.
10: Then Ish'mael took captive all the rest of the people who
were in Mizpah, the king's daughters and all the people who were left at
Mizpah, whom Nebu'zarad'an, the captain of the guard, had committed to
Gedali'ah the son of Ahi'kam. Ish'mael the son of Nethani'ah took them
captive and set out to cross over to the Ammonites.
11: But when Joha'nan the son of Kare'ah and all the leaders of
the forces with him heard of all the evil which Ish'mael the son of
Nethani'ah had done,
12: they took all their men and went to fight against Ish'mael
the son of Nethani'ah. They came upon him at the great pool which is in
Gibeon.
13: And when all the people who were with Ish'mael saw Joha'nan
the son of Kare'ah and all the leaders of the forces with him, they
rejoiced.
14: So all the people whom Ish'mael had carried away captive from
Mizpah turned about and came back, and went to Joha'nan the son of
Kare'ah.
15: But Ish'mael the son of Nethani'ah escaped from Joha'nan with
eight men, and went to the Ammonites.
16: Then Joha'nan the son of Kare'ah and all the leaders of the
forces with him took all the rest of the people whom Ish'mael the son of
Nethani'ah had carried away captive from Mizpah after he had slain
Gedali'ah the son of Ahi'kam -- soldiers, women, children, and eunuchs,
whom Joha'nan brought back from Gibeon.
17: And they went and stayed at Geruth Chimham near Bethlehem,
intending to go to Egypt
18: because of the Chalde'ans; for they were afraid of them,
because Ish'mael the son of Nethani'ah had slain Gedali'ah the son of
Ahi'kam, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.
Jeremiah,
chapter 42
1: Then all the commanders of the forces, and Joha'nan the son of
Kare'ah and Azari'ah the son of Hoshai'ah, and all the people from the
least to the greatest, came near
2: and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Let our supplication
come before you, and pray to the Lord your God for us, for all this
remnant (for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes see us),
3: that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go, and
the thing that we should do."
4: Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard you;
behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your request, and
whatever the Lord answers you I will tell you; I will keep nothing back
from you."
5: Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the Lord be a true and
faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word
with which the Lord your God sends you to us.
6: Whether it is good or evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord
our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we
obey the voice of the Lord our God."
7: At the end of ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
8: Then he summoned Joha'nan the son of Kare'ah and all the
commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the
least to the greatest,
9: and said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel,
to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him:
10: If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and
not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I repent
of the evil which I did to you.
11: Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do
not fear him, says the Lord, for I am with you, to save you and to
deliver you from his hand.
12: I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let
you remain in your own land.
13: But if you say, `We will not remain in this land,' disobeying
the voice of the Lord your God
14: and saying, `No, we will go to the land of Egypt, where we
shall not see war, or hear the sound of the trumpet, or be hungry for
bread, and we will dwell there,'
15: then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says
the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces to enter
Egypt and go to live there,
16: then the sword which you fear shall overtake you there in the
land of Egypt; and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow hard
after you to Egypt; and there you shall die.
17: All the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there
shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; they shall have no
remnant or survivor from the evil which I will bring upon them.
18: "For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: As
My anger and My wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
so My wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You shall
become an execration, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. You shall see this
place no more.
19: The Lord has said to you, O remnant of Judah, `Do not go to
Egypt.' Know for a certainty that I have warned you this day
20: that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives. For you
sent me to the Lord your God, saying, `Pray for us to the Lord our God,
and whatever the Lord our God says declare to us and we will do it.'
21: And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not
obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything that he sent me to
tell you.
22: Now therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the
sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go
to live."
Jeremiah,
chapter 43
1: When Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all these
words of the Lord their God, with which the Lord their God had sent him
to them,
2: Azari'ah the son of Hoshai'ah and Joha'nan the son of Kare'ah
and all the insolent men said to Jeremiah, "You are telling a lie.
The Lord our God did not send you to say, `Do not go to Egypt to live
there';
3: but Baruch the son of Neri'ah has set you against us, to
deliver us into the hand of the Chalde'ans, that they may kill us or
take us into exile in Babylon."
4: So Joha'nan the son of Kare'ah and all the commanders of the
forces and all the people did not obey the voice of the Lord, to remain
in the land of Judah.
5: But Joha'nan the son of Kare'ah and all the commanders of the
forces took all the remnant of Judah who had returned to live in the
land of Judah from all the nations to which they had been driven --
6: the men, the women, the children, the princesses, and every
person whom Nebu'zarad'an the captain of the guard had left with
Gedali'ah the son of Ahi'kam, son of Shaphan; also Jeremiah the prophet
and Baruch the son of Neri'ah.
7: And they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey
the voice of the Lord. And they arrived at Tah'panhes.
8: Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in Tah'panhes:
9: "Take in your hands large stones, and hide them in the
mortar in the pavement which is at the entrance to Pharaoh's palace in
Tah'panhes, in the sight of the men of Judah,
10: and say to them, `Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of
Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnez'zar the king of
Babylon, My servant, and he will set his throne above these stones which
I have hid, and he will spread his royal canopy over them.
11: He shall come and smite the land of Egypt, giving to the
pestilence those who are doomed to the pestilence, to captivity those
who are doomed to captivity, and to the sword those who are doomed to
the sword.
12: He shall kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt;
and he shall burn them and carry them away captive; and he shall clean
the land of Egypt, as a shepherd cleans his cloak of vermin; and he
shall go away from there in peace.
13: He shall break the obelisks of Heliop'olis which is in the
land of Egypt; and the temples of the gods of Egypt he shall burn with
fire.'"
Jeremiah,
chapter 44
1: The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews that
dwelt in the land of Egypt, at Migdol, at Tah'panhes, at Memphis, and in
the land of Pathros,
2: "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have
seen all the evil that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities
of Judah. Behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in
them,
3: because of the wickedness which they committed, provoking Me
to anger, in that they went to burn incense and serve other gods that
they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers.
4: Yet I persistently sent to you all My servants the prophets,
saying, 'Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate!'
5: But they did not listen or incline their ear, to turn from
their wickedness and burn no incense to other gods.
6: Therefore My wrath and My anger were poured forth and kindled
in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they became
a waste and a desolation, as at this day.
7: And now thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel:
Why do you commit this great evil against yourselves, to cut off from
you man and woman, infant and child, from the midst of Judah, leaving
you no remnant?
8: Why do you provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands,
burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come
to live, that you may be cut off and become a curse and a taunt among
all the nations of the earth?
9: Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the
wickedness of the kings of Judah, the wickedness of their wives, your
own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they committed
in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
10: They have not humbled themselves even to this day, nor have
they feared, nor walked in My law and My statutes which I set before you
and before your fathers.
11: "Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of
Israel: Behold, I will set My face against you for evil, to cut off all
Judah.
12: I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to
come to the land of Egypt to live, and they shall all be consumed; in
the land of Egypt they shall fall; by the sword and by famine they shall
be consumed; from the least to the greatest, they shall die by the sword
and by famine; and they shall become an execration, a horror, a curse,
and a taunt.
13: I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have
punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence,
14: so that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to live in
the land of Egypt shall escape or survive or return to the land of
Judah, to which they desire to return to dwell there; for they shall not
return, except some fugitives."
15: Then all the men who knew that their wives had offered
incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly,
all the people who dwelt in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered
Jeremiah:
16: "As for the word which you have spoken to us in the name
of the Lord, we will not listen to you.
17: But we will do everything that we have vowed, burn incense to
the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, as we did, both we
and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and
in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had plenty of food, and
prospered, and saw no evil.
18: But since we left off burning incense to the queen of heaven
and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything and have
been consumed by the sword and by famine."
19: And the women said, "When we burned incense to the queen
of heaven and poured out libations to her, was it without our husbands'
approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out
libations to her?"
20: Then Jeremiah said to all the people, men and women, all the
people who had given him this answer:
21: "As for the incense that you burned in the cities of
Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings
and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember
it? Did it not come into his mind?
22: The Lord could no longer bear your evil doings and the
abominations which you committed; therefore your land has become a
desolation and a waste and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this
day.
23: It is because you burned incense, and because you sinned
against the Lord and did not obey the voice of the Lord or walk in his
law and in his statutes and in his testimonies, that this evil has
befallen you, as at this day."
24: Jeremiah said to all the people and all the women, "Hear
the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt,
25: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You and your
wives have declared with your mouths, and have fulfilled it with your
hands, saying, `We will surely perform our vows that we have made, to
burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out libations to her.'
Then confirm your vows and perform your vows!
26: Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who
dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by My great name, says
the Lord, that My name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of any man
of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, `As the Lord God lives.'
27: Behold, I am watching over them for evil and not for good;
all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by
the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them.
28: And those who escape the sword shall return from the land of
Egypt to the land of Judah, few in number; and all the remnant of Judah,
who came to the land of Egypt to live, shall know whose word will stand,
mine or theirs.
29: This shall be the sign to you, says the Lord, that I will
punish you in this place, in order that you may know that My words will
surely stand against you for evil:
30: Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king
of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who
seek his life, as I gave Zedeki'ah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnez'zar
king of Babylon, who was his enemy and sought his
life."
Jeremiah,
chapter 45
1: The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of
Neri'ah, when he wrote these words in a book at the dictation of
Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoi'akim the son of Josi'ah, king of
Judah:
2: "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch:
3: You said, `Woe is me! for the Lord has added sorrow to my
pain; I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.'
4: Thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord: Behold, what I
have built I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up
-- that is, the whole land.
5: And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not; for,
behold, I am bringing evil upon all flesh, says the Lord; but I will
give you your life as a prize of war in all places to which you may
go."
Jeremiah,
chapter 46
1: The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet
concerning the nations.
2: About Egypt. Concerning the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of
Egypt, which was by the river Euphra'tes at Car'chemish and which Nebuchadnez'zar
king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of
Jehoi'akim the son of Josi'ah, king of Judah:
3: "Prepare buckler and shield, and advance for battle!
4: Harness the horses; mount, O horsemen! Take your stations with
your helmets, polish your spears, put on your coats of mail!
5: Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and have turned
backward. Their warriors are beaten down, and have fled in haste; they
look not back -- terror on every side! says the Lord.
6: The swift cannot flee away, nor the warrior escape; in the
north by the river Euphra'tes they have stumbled and fallen.
7: "Who is this, rising like the Nile, like rivers whose
waters surge?
8: Egypt rises like the Nile, like rivers whose waters surge. He
said, I will rise, I will cover the earth, I will destroy cities and
their inhabitants.
9: Advance, O horses, and rage, O chariots! Let the warriors go
forth: men of Ethiopia and Put who handle the shield, men of Lud,
skilled in handling the bow.
10: That day is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of
vengeance, to avenge himself on his foes. The sword shall devour and be
sated, and drink its fill of their blood. For the Lord God of hosts
holds a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphra'tes.
11: Go up to Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt!
In vain you have used many medicines; there is no healing for you.
12: The nations have heard of your shame, and the earth is full
of your cry; for warrior has stumbled against warrior; they have both
fallen together."
13: The word which the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about
the coming of Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon to smite the land of
Egypt:
14: "Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol; proclaim in
Memphis and Tah'panhes; Say, `Stand ready and be prepared, for the sword
shall devour round about you.'
15: Why has Apis fled? Why did not your bull stand? Because the
Lord thrust him down.
16: Your multitude stumbled and fell, and they said one to
another, `Arise, and let us go back to our own people and to the land of
our birth, because of the sword of the oppressor.'
17: Call the name of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, `Noisy one who lets
the hour go by.'
18: "As I live, says the King, whose name is the Lord of
hosts, like Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea, shall
one come.
19: Prepare yourselves baggage for exile, O inhabitants of Egypt!
For Memphis shall become a waste, a ruin, without inhabitant.
20: "A beautiful heifer is Egypt, but a gadfly from the
north has come upon her.
21: Even her hired soldiers in her midst are like fatted calves;
yea, they have turned and fled together, they did not stand; for the day
of their calamity has come upon them, the time of their punishment.
22: "She makes a sound like a serpent gliding away; for her
enemies march in force, and come against her with axes, like those who
fell trees.
23: They shall cut down her forest, says the Lord, though it is
impenetrable, because they are more numerous than locusts; they are
without number.
24: The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame, she shall be
delivered into the hand of a people from the north."
25: The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, said: "Behold, I
am bringing punishment upon Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt and
her gods and her kings, upon Pharaoh and those who trust in him.
26: I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their
life, into the hand of Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon and his officers.
Afterward Egypt shall be inhabited as in the days of old, says the Lord.
27: "But fear not, O Jacob My servant, nor be dismayed, O
Israel; for lo, I will save you from afar, and your offspring from the
land of their captivity. Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and
none shall make him afraid.
28: Fear not, O Jacob My servant, says the Lord, for I am with
you. I will make a full end of all the nations to which I have driven
you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will chasten you in just
measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished."
Jeremiah,
chapter 47
1: The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet
concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh smote Gaza.
2: "Thus says the Lord: Behold, waters are rising out of the
north, and shall become an overflowing torrent; they shall overflow the
land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in it. Men
shall cry out, and every inhabitant of the land shall wail.
3: At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions, at
the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels, the
fathers look not back to their children, so feeble are their hands,
4: because of the day that is coming to destroy all the
Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper that remains.
For the Lord is destroying the Philistines, the remnant of the coastland
of Caphtor.
5: Baldness has come upon Gaza, Ash'kelon has perished. O remnant
of the Anakim, how long will you gash yourselves?
6: Ah, sword of the Lord! How long till you are quiet? Put
yourself into your scabbard, rest and be still!
7: How can it be quiet, when the Lord has given it a charge?
Against Ash'kelon and against the seashore he has appointed it."
Jeremiah,
chapter 48
1: Concerning Moab. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of
Israel: "Woe to Nebo, for it is laid waste! Kiriatha'im is put to
shame, it is taken; the fortress is put to shame and broken down;
2: the renown of Moab is no more. In Heshbon they planned evil
against her: `Come, let us cut her off from being a nation!' You also, O
Madmen, shall be brought to silence; the sword shall pursue you.
3: "Hark! a cry from Horona'im, `Desolation and great
destruction!'
4: Moab is destroyed; a cry is heard as far as Zo'ar.
5: For at the ascent of Luhith they go up weeping; for at the
descent of Horona'im they have heard the cry of destruction.
6: Flee! Save yourselves! Be like a wild ass in the desert!
7: For, because you trusted in your strongholds and your
treasures, you also shall be taken; and Chemosh shall go forth into
exile, with his priests and his princes.
8: The destroyer shall come upon every city, and no city shall
escape; the valley shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as
the Lord has spoken.
9: "Give wings to Moab, for she would fly away; her cities
shall become a desolation, with no inhabitant in them.
10: "Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord with
slackness; and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from bloodshed.
11: "Moab has been at ease from his youth and has settled on
his lees; he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone
into exile; so his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed.
12: "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord,
when I shall send to him tilters who will tilt him, and empty his
vessels, and break his jars in pieces.
13: Then Moab shall be ashamed of chemosh, as the house of Israel
was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.
14: "How do you say, `We are heroes and mighty men of war'?
15: The destroyer of Moab and his cities has come up, and the
choicest of his young men have gone down to slaughter, says the King,
whose name is the Lord of hosts.
16: The calamity of Moab is near at hand and his affliction
hastens apace.
17: Bemoan him, all you who are round about him, and all who know
his name; say, `How the mighty scepter is broken, the glorious staff.'
18: "Come down from your glory, and sit on the parched
ground, O inhabitant of Dibon! For the destroyer of Moab has come up
against you; he has destroyed your strongholds.
19: Stand by the way and watch, O inhabitant of Aro'er! Ask him
who flees and her who escapes; say, `What has happened?'
20: Moab is put to shame, for it is broken; wail and cry! Tell it
by the Arnon, that Moab is laid waste.
21: "Judgment has come upon the tableland, upon Holon, and
Jahzah, and Meph'a-ath,
22: and Dibon, and Nebo, and Beth-diblatha'im,
23: and Kiriatha'im, and Beth-ga'mul, and Beth-me'on,
24: and Ker'i-oth, and Bozrah, and all the cities of the land of
Moab, far and near.
25: The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says the
Lord.
26: "Make him drunk, because he magnified himself against
the Lord; so that Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he too shall be
held in derision.
27: Was not Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves,
that whenever you spoke of him you wagged your head?
28: "Leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, O inhabitants
of Moab! Be like the dove that nests in the sides of the mouth of a
gorge.
29: We have heard of the pride of Moab -- he is very proud -- of
his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his
heart.
30: I know his insolence, says the Lord; his boasts are false,
his deeds are false.
31: Therefore I wail for Moab; I cry out for all Moab; for the
men of Kir-he'res I mourn.
32: More than for Jazer I weep for you, O vine of Sibmah! Your
branches passed over the sea, reached as far as Jazer; upon your summer
fruits and your vintage the destroyer has fallen.
33: Gladness and joy have been taken away from the fruitful land
of Moab; I have made the wine cease from the wine presses; no one treads
them with shouts of joy; the shouting is not the shout of joy.
34: "Heshbon and Ele-a'leh cry out; as far as Jahaz they
utter their voice, from Zo'ar to Horona'im and Eg'lath-shelish'iyah. For
the waters of Nimrim also have become desolate.
35: And I will bring to an end in Moab, says the Lord, him who
offers sacrifice in the high place and burns incense to his god.
36: Therefore my heart moans for Moab like a flute, and my heart
moans like a flute for the men of Kir-he'res; therefore the riches they
gained have perished.
37: "For every head is shaved and every beard cut off; upon
all the hands are gashes, and on the loins is sackcloth.
38: On all the housetops of Moab and in the squares there is
nothing but lamentation; for I have broken Moab like a vessel for which
no one cares, says the Lord.
39: How it is broken! How they wail! How Moab has turned his back
in shame! So Moab has become a derision and a horror to all that are
round about him."
40: For thus says the Lord: "Behold, one shall fly swiftly
like an eagle, and spread his wings against Moab;
41: the cities shall be taken and the strongholds seized. The
heart of the warriors of Moab shall be in that day like the heart of a
woman in her pangs;
42: Moab shall be destroyed and be no longer a people, because he
magnified himself against the Lord.
43: Terror, pit, and snare are before you, O inhabitant of Moab!
says the Lord.
44: He who flees from the terror shall fall into the pit, and he
who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare. For I will bring
these things upon Moab in the year of their punishment, says the Lord.
45: "In the shadow of Heshbon fugitives stop without
strength; for a fire has gone forth from Heshbon, a flame from the house
of Sihon; it has destroyed the forehead of Moab, the crown of the sons
of tumult.
46: Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh is undone; for your
sons have been taken captive, and your daughters into captivity.
47: Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days,
says the Lord." Thus far is the judgment on Moab.
Jeremiah,
chapter 49
1: Concerning the Ammonites. Thus says the Lord: "Has Israel
no sons? Has he no heir? Why then has milcom dispossessed Gad, and his
people settled in its cities?
2: Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I
will cause the battle cry to be heard against Rabbah of the Ammonites;
it shall become a desolate mound, and its villages shall be burned with
fire; then Israel shall dispossess those who dispossessed him, says the
Lord.
3: "Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste! Cry, O daughters
of Rabbah! Gird yourselves with sackcloth, lament, and run to and fro
among the hedges! For milcom shall go into exile, with his priests and
his princes.
4: Why do you boast of your valleys, O faithless daughter, who
trusted in her treasures, saying, `Who will come against me?'
5: Behold, I will bring terror upon you, says the Lord God of
hosts, from all who are round about you, and you shall be driven out,
every man straight before him, with none to gather the fugitives.
6: But afterward I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites,
says the Lord."
7: Concerning Edom. Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Is wisdom
no more in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their
wisdom vanished?
8: Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Dedan!
For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time when I punish
him.
9: If grape-gatherers came to you, would they not leave
gleanings? If thieves came by night, would they not destroy only enough
for themselves?
10: But I have stripped Esau bare, I have uncovered his hiding
places, and he is not able to conceal himself. His children are
destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbors; and he is no more.
11: Leave your fatherless children, I will keep them alive; and
let your widows trust in Me."
12: For thus says the Lord: "If those who did not deserve to
drink the cup must drink it, will you go unpunished? You shall not go
unpunished, but you must drink.
13: For I have sworn by myself, says the Lord, that Bozrah shall
become a horror, a taunt, a waste, and a curse; and all her cities shall
be perpetual wastes."
14: I have heard tidings from the Lord, and a messenger has been
sent among the nations: "Gather yourselves together and come
against her, and rise up for battle!"
15: For behold, I will make you small among the nations, despised
among men.
16: The horror you inspire has deceived you, and the pride of
your heart, you who live in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height
of the hill. Though you make your nest as high as the eagle's, I will
bring you down from there, says the Lord.
17: "Edom shall become a horror; every one who passes by it
will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters.
18: As when Sodom and Gomor'rah and their neighbor cities were
overthrown, says the Lord, no man shall dwell there, no man shall
sojourn in her.
19: Behold, like a lion coming up from the jungle of the Jordan
against a strong sheepfold, I will suddenly make them run away from her;
and I will appoint over her whomever I choose. For who is like Me? Who
will summon Me? What shepherd can stand before Me?
20: Therefore hear the plan which the Lord has made against Edom
and the purposes which he has formed against the inhabitants of Teman:
Even the little ones of the flock shall be dragged away; surely their
fold shall be appalled at their fate.
21: At the sound of their fall the earth shall tremble; the sound
of their cry shall be heard at the Red Sea.
22: Behold, one shall mount up and fly swiftly like an eagle, and
spread his wings against Bozrah, and the heart of the warriors of Edom
shall be in that day like the heart of a woman in her pangs."
23: Concerning Damascus. "Hamath and Arpad are confounded,
for they have heard evil tidings; they melt in fear, they are troubled
like the sea which cannot be quiet.
24: Damascus has become feeble, she turned to flee, and panic
seized her; anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in
travail.
25: How the famous city is forsaken, the joyful city!
26: Therefore her young men shall fall in her squares, and all
her soldiers shall be destroyed in that day, says the Lord of hosts.
27: And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it
shall devour the strongholds of Ben-ha'dad."
28: Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor which Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon smote. Thus says the Lord: "Rise
up, advance against Kedar! Destroy the people of the east!
29: Their tents and their flocks shall be taken, their curtains
and all their goods; their camels shall be borne away from them, and men
shall cry to them: `Terror on every side!'
30: Flee, wander far away, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of
Hazor! says the Lord. For Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon has made a
plan against you, and formed a purpose against you.
31: "Rise up, advance against a nation at ease, that dwells
securely, says the Lord, that has no gates or bars, that dwells alone.
32: Their camels shall become booty, their herds of cattle a
spoil. I will scatter to every wind those who cut the corners of their
hair, and I will bring their calamity from every side of them, says the
Lord.
33: Hazor shall become a haunt of jackals, an everlasting waste;
no man shall dwell there, no man shall sojourn in her."
34: The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet
concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedeki'ah king of
Judah.
35: Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Behold, I will break the
bow of Elam, the mainstay of their might;
36: and I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four
quarters of heaven; and I will scatter them to all those winds, and
there shall be no nation to which those driven out of Elam shall not
come.
37: I will terrify Elam before their enemies, and before those
who seek their life; I will bring evil upon them, My fierce anger, says
the Lord. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them;
38: and I will set My throne in Elam, and destroy their king and
princes, says the Lord.
39: "But in the latter days I will restore the fortunes of
Elam, says the Lord."
Jeremiah,
chapter 50
1: The word which the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, concerning
the land of the Chalde'ans, by Jeremiah the prophet:
2: "Declare among the nations and proclaim, set up a banner
and proclaim, conceal it not, and say: `Babylon is taken, bel is put to
shame, mer'odach is dismayed. Her images are put to shame, her idols are
dismayed.'
3: "For out of the north a nation has come up against her,
which shall make her land a desolation, and none shall dwell in it; both
man and beast shall flee away.
4: "In those days and in that time, says the Lord, the
people of Israel and the people of Judah shall come together, weeping as
they come; and they shall seek the Lord their God.
5: They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it,
saying, `Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting
covenant which will never be forgotten.'
6: "My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led
them astray, turning them away on the mountains; from mountain to hill
they have gone, they have forgotten their fold.
7: All who found them have devoured them, and their enemies have
said, `We are not guilty, for they have sinned against the Lord, their
true habitation, the Lord, the hope of their fathers.'
8: "Flee from the midst of Babylon, and go out of the land
of the Chalde'ans, and be as he-goats before the flock.
9: For behold, I am stirring up and bringing against Babylon a
company of great nations, from the north country; and they shall array
themselves against her; from there she shall be taken. Their arrows are
like a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed.
10: Chalde'a shall be plundered; all who plunder her shall be
sated, says the Lord.
11: "Though you rejoice, though you exult, O plunderers of
My heritage, though you are wanton as a heifer at grass, and neigh like
stallions,
12: your mother shall be utterly shamed, and she who bore you
shall be disgraced. Lo, she shall be the last of the nations, a
wilderness dry and desert.
13: Because of the wrath of the Lord she shall not be inhabited,
but shall be an utter desolation; every one who passes by Babylon shall
be appalled, and hiss because of all her wounds.
14: Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all you
that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she has sinned
against the Lord.
15: Raise a shout against her round about, she has surrendered;
her bulwarks have fallen, her walls are thrown down. For this is the
vengeance of the Lord: take vengeance on her, do to her as she has done.
16: Cut off from Babylon the sower, and the one who handles the
sickle in time of harvest; because of the sword of the oppressor, every
one shall turn to his own people, and every one shall flee to his own
land.
17: "Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First
the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnez'zar king
of Babylon has gnawed his bones.
18: Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
Behold, I am bringing punishment on the king of Babylon and his land, as
I punished the king of Assyria.
19: I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he shall feed on
Carmel and in Bashan, and his desire shall be satisfied on the hills of
E'phraim and in Gilead.
20: In those days and in that time, says the Lord, iniquity shall
be sought in Israel, and there shall be none; and sin in Judah, and none
shall be found; for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.
21: "Go up against the land of Meratha'im, and against the
inhabitants of Pekod. Slay, and utterly destroy after them, says the
Lord, and do all that I have commanded you.
22: The noise of battle is in the land, and great destruction!
23: How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and broken! How
Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
24: I set a snare for you and you were taken, O Babylon, and you
did not know it; you were found and caught, because you strove against
the Lord.
25: The Lord has opened his armory, and brought out the weapons
of his wrath, for the Lord God of hosts has a work to do in the land of
the Chalde'ans.
26: Come against her from every quarter; open her granaries; pile
her up like heaps of grain, and destroy her utterly; let nothing be left
of her.
27: Slay all her bulls, let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to
them, for their day has come, the time of their punishment.
28: "Hark! they flee and escape from the land of Babylon, to
declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, vengeance for his
temple.
29: "Summon archers against Babylon, all those who bend the
bow. Encamp round about her; let no one escape. Requite her according to
her deeds, do to her according to all that she has done; for she has
proudly defied the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
30: Therefore her young men shall fall in her squares, and all
her soldiers shall be destroyed on that day, says the Lord.
31: "Behold, I am against you, O proud one, says the Lord
God of hosts; for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.
32: The proud one shall stumble and fall, with none to raise him
up, and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all that
is round about him.
33: "Thus says the Lord of hosts: The people of Israel are
oppressed, and the people of Judah with them; all who took them captive
have held them fast, they refuse to let them go.
34: Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name. He
will surely plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, but
unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.
35: "A sword upon the Chalde'ans, says the Lord, and upon
the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes and her wise men!
36: A sword upon the diviners, that they may become fools! A
sword upon her warriors, that they may be destroyed!
37: A sword upon her horses and upon her chariots, and upon all
the foreign troops in her midst, that they may become women! A sword
upon all her treasures, that they may be plundered!
38: A drought upon her waters, that they may be dried up! For it
is a land of images, and they are mad over idols.
39: "Therefore wild beasts shall dwell with hyenas in
Babylon, and ostriches shall dwell in her; she shall be peopled no more
for ever, nor inhabited for all generations.
40: As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomor'rah and their neighbor
cities, says the Lord, so no man shall dwell there, and no son of man
shall sojourn in her.
41: "Behold, a people comes from the north; a mighty nation
and many kings are stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.
42: They lay hold of bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no
mercy. The sound of them is like the roaring of the sea; they ride upon
horses, arrayed as a man for battle against you, O daughter of Babylon!
43: "The king of Babylon heard the report of them, and his
hands fell helpless; anguish seized him, pain as of a woman in travail.
44: "Behold, like a lion coming up from the jungle of the
Jordan against a strong sheepfold, I will suddenly make them run away
from her; and I will appoint over her whomever I choose. For who is like
Me? Who will summon Me? What shepherd can stand before Me?
45: Therefore hear the plan which the Lord has made against
Babylon, and the purposes which he has formed against the land of the
Chalde'ans: Surely the little ones of their flock shall be dragged away;
surely their fold shall be appalled at their fate.
46: At the sound of the capture of Babylon the earth shall
tremble, and her cry shall be heard among the nations."
Jeremiah,
chapter 51
1: Thus says the Lord: "Behold, I will stir up the spirit of
a destroyer against Babylon, against the inhabitants of Chalde'a;
2: and I will send to Babylon winnowers, and they shall winnow
her, and they shall empty her land, when they come against her from
every side on the day of trouble.
3: Let not the archer bend his bow, and let him not stand up in
his coat of mail. Spare not her young men; utterly destroy all her host.
4: They shall fall down slain in the land of the Chalde'ans, and
wounded in her streets.
5: For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the
Lord of hosts; but the land of the Chalde'ans is full of guilt against
the Holy One of Israel.
6: "Flee from the midst of Babylon, let every man save his
life! Be not cut off in her punishment, for this is the time of the
Lord's vengeance, the requital he is rendering her.
7: Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand, making all the
earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine, therefore the nations went
mad.
8: Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; wail for her!
Take balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed.
9: We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed. Forsake
her, and let us go each to his own country; for her judgment has reached
up to heaven and has been lifted up even to the skies.
10: The Lord has brought forth our vindication; come, let us
declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.
11: "Sharpen the arrows! Take up the shields! The Lord has
stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose
concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the
Lord, the vengeance for his temple.
12: Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon; make the
watch strong; set up watchmen; prepare the ambushes; for the Lord has
both planned and done what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of
Babylon.
13: O you who dwell by many waters, rich in treasures, your end
has come, the thread of your life is cut.
14: The Lord of hosts has sworn by himself: Surely I will fill
you with men, as many as locusts, and they shall raise the shout of
victory over you.
15: "It is he who made the earth by his power, who
established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched
out the heavens.
16: When he utters his voice there is a tumult of waters in the
heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes
lightning's for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his
storehouses.
17: Every man is stupid and without knowledge; every goldsmith is
put to shame by his idols; for his images are false, and there is no
breath in them.
18: They are worthless, a work of delusion; at the time of their
punishment they shall perish.
19: Not like these is he who is the portion of Jacob, for he is
the one who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of his
inheritance; the Lord of hosts is his name.
20: "You are My hammer and weapon of war: with you I break
nations in pieces; with you I destroy kingdoms;
21: with you I break in pieces the horse and his rider; with you
I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer;
22: with you I break in pieces man and woman; with you I break in
pieces the old man and the youth; with you I break in pieces the young
man and the maiden;
23: with you I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; with
you I break in pieces the farmer and his team; with you I break in
pieces governors and commanders.
24: "I will requite Babylon and all the inhabitants of
Chalde'a before your very eyes for all the evil that they have done in
Zion, says the Lord.
25: "Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says
the Lord, which destroys the whole earth; I will stretch out My hand
against you, and roll you down from the crags, and make you a burnt
mountain.
26: No stone shall be taken from you for a corner and no stone
for a foundation, but you shall be a perpetual waste, says the Lord.
27: "Set up a standard on the earth, blow the trumpet among
the nations; prepare the nations for war against her, summon against her
the kingdoms, Ar'arat, Minni, and Ash'kenaz; appoint a marshal against
her, bring up horses like bristling locusts.
28: Prepare the nations for war against her, the kings of the
Medes, with their governors and deputies, and every land under their
dominion.
29: The land trembles and writhes in pain, for the Lord's
purposes against Babylon stand, to make the land of Babylon a
desolation, without inhabitant.
30: The warriors of Babylon have ceased fighting, they remain in
their strongholds; their strength has failed, they have become women;
her dwellings are on fire, her bars are broken.
31: One runner runs to meet another, and one messenger to meet
another, to tell the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every
side;
32: the fords have been seized, the bulwarks are burned with
fire, and the soldiers are in panic.
33: For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: The
daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is
trodden; yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come."
34: "Nebuchadnez'zar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he
has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me like
a monster; he has filled his belly with My delicacies, he has rinsed me
out.
35: The violence done to me and to My kinsmen be upon
Babylon," let the inhabitant of Zion say. "My blood be upon
the inhabitants of Chalde'a," let Jerusalem say.
36: Therefore thus says the Lord: "Behold, I will plead your
cause and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea and make her
fountain dry;
37: and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, the haunt of
jackals, a horror and a hissing, without inhabitant.
38: "They shall roar together like lions; they shall growl
like lions' whelps.
39: While they are inflamed I will prepare them a feast and make
them drunk, till they swoon away and sleep a perpetual sleep and not
wake, says the Lord.
40: I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams
and he-goats.
41: "How Babylon is taken, the praise of the whole earth
seized! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
42: The sea has come up on Babylon; she is covered with its
tumultuous waves.
43: Her cities have become a horror, a land of drought and a
desert, a land in which no one dwells, and through which no son of man
passes.
44: And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and take out of his mouth
what he has swallowed. The nations shall no longer flow to him; the wall
of Babylon has fallen.
45: "Go out of the midst of her, My people! Let every man
save his life from the fierce anger of the Lord!
46: Let not your heart faint, and be not fearful at the report
heard in the land, when a report comes in one year and afterward a
report in another year, and violence is in the land, and ruler is
against ruler.
47: "Therefore, behold, the days are coming when I will
punish the images of Babylon; her whole land shall be put to shame, and
all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
48: Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them,
shall sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come against
them out of the north, says the Lord.
49: Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, as for Babylon
have fallen the slain of all the earth.
50: "You that have escaped from the sword, go, stand not
still! Remember the Lord from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your
mind:
51: `We are put to shame, for we have heard reproach; dishonor
has covered our face, for aliens have come into the holy places of the
Lord's house.'
52: "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will execute judgment upon her images, and through all her land
the wounded shall groan.
53: Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she
should fortify her strong height, yet destroyers would come from me upon
her, says the Lord.
54: "Hark! a cry from Babylon! The noise of great
destruction from the land of the Chalde'ans!
55: For the Lord is laying Babylon waste, and stilling her mighty
voice. Their waves roar like many waters, the noise of their voice is
raised;
56: for a destroyer has come upon her, upon Babylon; her warriors
are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for the Lord is a God of
recompense, he will surely requite.
57: I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her
governors, her commanders, and her warriors; they shall sleep a
perpetual sleep and not wake, says the King, whose name is the Lord of
hosts.
58: "Thus says the Lord of hosts: The broad wall of Babylon
shall be leveled to the ground and her high gates shall be burned with
fire. The peoples labor for naught, and the nations weary themselves
only for fire."
59: The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Serai'ah the
son of Neri'ah, son of Mahsei'ah, when he went with Zedeki'ah king of
Judah to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign. Serai'ah was the
quartermaster.
60: Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon
Babylon, all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
61: And Jeremiah said to Serai'ah: "When you come to
Babylon, see that you read all these words,
62: and say, `O Lord, Thou hast said concerning this place that
Thou wilt cut it off, so that nothing shall dwell in it, neither man nor
beast, and it shall be desolate for ever.'
63: When you finish reading this book, bind a stone to it, and
cast it into the midst of the Euphra'tes,
64: and say, `Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because
of the evil that I am bringing upon her.'" Thus far are the words
of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah,
chapter 52
1: Zedeki'ah was twenty-one years old when he became king; and he
reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamu'tal the
daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
2: And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according
to all that Jehoi'akim had done.
3: Surely because of the anger of the Lord things came to such a
pass in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence. And
Zedeki'ah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4: And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the
tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnez'zar king of Babylon came with all
his army against Jerusalem, and they laid siege to it and built
siegeworks against it round about.
5: So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King
Zedeki'ah.
6: On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe
in the city, that there was no food for the people of the land.
7: Then a breach was made in the city; and all the men of war
fled and went out from the city by night by the way of a gate between
the two walls, by the king's garden, while the Chalde'ans were round
about the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah.
8: But the army of the Chalde'ans pursued the king, and overtook
Zedeki'ah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from
him.
9: Then they captured the king, and brought him up to the king of
Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence upon
him.
10: The king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedeki'ah before his
eyes, and also slew all the princes of Judah at Riblah.
11: He put out the eyes of Zedeki'ah, and bound him in fetters,
and the king of Babylon took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till
the day of his death.
12: In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month -- which
was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnez'zar, king of Babylon --
Nebu'zarad'an the captain of the bodyguard who served the king of
Babylon, entered Jerusalem.
13: And he burned the house of the Lord, and the king's house and
all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.
14: And all the army of the Chalde'ans, who were with the captain
of the guard, broke down all the walls round about Jerusalem.
15: And Nebu'zarad'an the captain of the guard carried away
captive some of the poorest of the people and the rest of the people who
were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of
Babylon, together with the rest of the artisans.
16: But Nebu'zarad'an the captain of the guard left some of the
poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.
17: And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the Lord,
and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord,
the Chalde'ans broke in pieces, and carried all the bronze to Babylon.
18: And they took away the pots, and the shovels, and the
snuffers, and the basins, and the dishes for incense, and all the
vessels of bronze used in the temple service;
19: also the small bowls, and the fire pans, and the basins, and
the pots, and the lamp stands, and the dishes for incense, and the bowls
for libation. What was of gold the captain of the guard took away as
gold, and what was of silver, as silver.
20: As for the two pillars, the one sea, the twelve bronze bulls
which were under the sea, and the stands, which Solomon the king had
made for the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these things was
beyond weight.
21: As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen
cubits, its circumference was twelve cubits, and its thickness was four
fingers, and it was hollow.
22: Upon it was a capital of bronze; the height of the one
capital was five cubits; a network and pomegranates, all of bronze, were
upon the capital round about. And the second pillar had the like, with
pomegranates.
23: There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the
pomegranates were a hundred upon the network round about.
24: And the captain of the guard took Serai'ah the chief priest,
and Zephani'ah the second priest, and the three keepers of the
threshold;
25: and from the city he took an officer who had been in command
of the men of war, and seven men of the king's council, who were found
in the city; and the secretary of the commander of the army who mustered
the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who
were found in the midst of the city.
26: And Nebu'zarad'an the captain of the guard took them, and
brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
27: And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death at
Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried captive out of its
land.
28: This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnez'zar carried
away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews;
29: in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnez'zar he carried away
captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons;
30: in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnez'zar, Nebu'zarad'an
the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred
and forty-five persons; all the persons were four thousand and six
hundred.
31: And in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of
Jehoi'achin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day
of the month, E'vil-mer'odach king of Babylon, in the year that he
became king, lifted up the head of Jehoi'achin king of Judah and brought
him out of prison;
32: and he spoke kindly to him, and gave him a seat above the
seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon.
33: So Jehoi'achin put off his prison garments. And every day of
his life he dined regularly at the king's table;
34: as for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by
the king according to his daily need, until the day of his death as long
as he lived.
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