The words
of Jeremiah
the son
of Hilkiah,
of the priests
that were in Anathoth
in the land
of Benjamin:
To whom
the word
of the LORD
came in the days
of Josiah the son
of Amon king
of Judah,
in the thirteenth year
of his reign.
It came also
in the days
of Jehoiakim the son
of Josiah king
of Judah,
unto the end
of the eleventh year
of Zedekiah the son
of Josiah king
of Judah,
unto the carrying away
of Jerusalem captive
in the fifth month.
Then
the word
of the LORD
came unto me,
saying,
Before I
formed thee
in the belly
I knew thee;
and before thou
camest forth
out of the womb
I sanctified thee,
and
I ordained thee
a prophet
unto the nations.
Then said I,
Ah, Lord GOD!
behold,
I cannot speak:
for I
am a child.
But the LORD
said unto me,
Say not,
I am a child:
for thou
shalt go
to all
that I
shall send thee,
and whatsoever
I command thee
thou shalt speak.
Be not afraid
of their faces:
for I
am with thee
to deliver thee,
saith the LORD.
Then the LORD
put forth
his hand,
and touched
my mouth.
And the LORD
said unto me,
Behold,
I have put
my words in thy mouth.
See,
I have this day
set thee
over the nations
and over the kingdoms,
to root out,
and to pull down,
and to destroy,
and to throw down,
to build,
and to plant.
Moreover the word
of the LORD
came unto me,
saying,
Jeremiah,
what seest thou?
And I said,
I see
a rod
of an almond tree.
Then said
the LORD
unto me, Thou
hast well seen:
for I will hasten
my word to perform it.
And
the word
of the LORD
came unto me the second time,
saying,
What seest thou?
And I said,
I see
a seething pot;
and the face
thereof is toward
the north.
Then the LORD
said unto me,
Out of the north
an evil
shall break forth
upon all
the inhabitants
of the land.
For, lo,
I will call all
the families
of the kingdoms
of the north,
saith the LORD;
and
they shall come,
and
they shall set every one
his throne
at the entering
of the gates
of Jerusalem,
and
against all the walls thereof
round about,
and
against all
the cities
of Judah.
And I
will utter
my judgments
against them touching all
their wickedness,
who have forsaken me,
and have burned
incense
unto other gods,
and worshipped
the works
of their own hands.
Thou therefore gird
up thy loins,
and arise,
and speak
unto them all
that
I command thee:
be not dismayed
at their faces,
lest
I confound thee
before them.
For,
behold,
I have made thee
this day
a defenced city,
and an iron pillar,
and brasen walls
against the whole land,
against the kings
of Judah,
against the princes
thereof,
against the priests
thereof,
and
against the people
of the land.
And
they shall fight
against thee;
but
they shall not prevail
against thee;
for I
am with thee,
saith the LORD,
to deliver thee.
Moreover the word
of the LORD
came to me,
saying,
Go and cry
in the ears
of Jerusalem,
saying,
Thus saith the LORD;
I remember thee,
the kindness
of thy youth,
the love
of thine espousals,
when thou
wentest
after me
in the wilderness,
in a land
that was not sown.
Israel was holiness
unto the LORD,
and the firstfruits
of his increase:
all that
devour him
shall offend;
evil shall come upon them,
saith the LORD.
Hear
ye the word
of the LORD,
O house of Jacob,
and all
the families
of the house
of Israel:
Thus saith the LORD,
What iniquity
have
your fathers
found in me,
that they
are gone far
from me,
and have walked
after vanity,
and are become vain?
Neither said they,
Where
is
the LORD
that brought us up
out of the land
of Egypt,
that led us
through the wilderness,
through a land
of deserts
and of pits,
through a land
of drought,
and of the shadow
of death,
through a land that no man
passed through,
and
where no man dwelt?
And I
brought you
into a plentiful country,
to eat
the fruit
thereof and the goodness thereof;
but
when ye entered,
ye defiled
my land,
and made mine heritage
an abomination.
The priests
said not,
Where is the LORD?
and
they
that handle the law
knew me not:
the pastors
also transgressed against me,
and the prophets
prophesied
by Baal,
and walked
after things
that do not profit.
Wherefore
I will yet plead
with you,
saith the LORD,
and with your children's children
will I plead.
For pass
over the isles
of Chittim,
and see;
and send
unto Kedar,
and consider diligently,
and see
if there be
such a thing.
Hath
a nation
changed
their gods,
which are yet
no gods?
but my people
have changed their glory
for that which
doth not profit.
Be astonished,
O ye heavens,
at this,
and be horribly afraid,
be ye very desolate,
saith the LORD.
For my people
have committed
two evils;
they have forsaken me
the fountain
of living waters,
and hewed them
out cisterns,
broken cisterns,
that can hold
no water.
Is Israel
a servant?
is he
a homeborn slave?
why is
he spoiled?
The young lions
roared upon him,
and yelled,
and
they made
his land waste:
his cities
are burned
without inhabitant.
Also the children
of Noph and
Tahapanes
have broken the crown
of thy head.
Hast
thou not procured this
unto thyself,
in that thou
hast forsaken the LORD
thy God,
when he
led thee
by the way?
And now
what hast
thou
to do in the way
of Egypt,
to drink the waters
of Sihor?
or what
hast
thou
to do in the way
of Assyria,
to drink the waters
of the river?
Thine own wickedness
shall correct thee,
and thy backslidings
shall reprove thee:
know therefore
and see
that it
is
an evil thing
and bitter,
that thou
hast forsaken the LORD
thy God,
and that my fear
is not in thee,
saith the Lord GOD
of hosts.
For of old time
I have broken
thy yoke,
and burst
thy bands;
and thou saidst,
I will not transgress;
when upon every high hill
and under every green tree
thou wanderest,
playing the harlot.
Yet
I had planted thee
a noble vine,
wholly a right seed:
how then art
thou turned into
the degenerate plant
of a strange vine
unto me?
For though thou
wash thee
with nitre,
and take
thee much soap,
yet thine iniquity
is marked
before me,
saith the Lord GOD.
How canst
thou say,
I am not polluted,
I have not gone
after Baalim?
see thy way
in the valley,
know
what
thou hast done:
thou art a swift dromedary
traversing
her ways;
A wild ass
used to
the wilderness,
that snuffeth up the wind
at her pleasure;
in her occasion
who can turn
her away?
all they that
seek her
will not weary themselves;
in her month
they shall find her.
Withhold thy
foot
from being unshod,
and thy throat
from thirst:
but thou saidst,
There
is
no hope:
no;
for I
have loved strangers,
and
after them
will I go.
As the thief
is ashamed
when he
is found,
so is the house
of Israel ashamed;
they,
their kings,
their princes,
and their priests,
and their prophets.
Saying
to a stock,
Thou art my father;
and to a stone,
Thou
hast brought me forth:
for they
have turned their back
unto me,
and
not their face:
but in the time
of their trouble
they will say,
Arise,
and save us.
But
where are thy gods
that thou
hast made thee?
let them arise,
if they
can save
thee in the time
of thy trouble:
for according to
the number
of thy cities
are thy gods,
O Judah.
Wherefore will
ye plead
with me?
ye all have
transgressed against me,
saith the LORD.
In vain
have
I smitten
your children;
they received
no correction:
your own sword
hath devoured
your prophets,
like a destroying lion.
O generation,
see
ye the word
of the LORD.
Have
I been
a wilderness
unto Israel?
a land
of darkness?
wherefore say
my people,
We are lords;
we will come no more
unto thee?
Can a maid
forget her ornaments,
or a bride
her attire?
yet my people
have forgotten me days
without number.
Why trimmest
thou thy way
to seek love?
therefore hast
thou also taught
the wicked ones
thy ways.
Also in thy
skirts
is found the blood
of the souls
of the poor innocents:
I have not found it
by secret search,
but upon all these.
Yet thou sayest,
Because I
am innocent,
surely
his anger
shall turn from me.
Behold,
I will plead
with thee,
because
thou sayest,
I have not sinned.
Why gaddest
thou
about so much
to change
thy way?
thou also shalt be ashamed
of Egypt,
as thou
wast ashamed
of Assyria.
Yea,
thou
shalt go forth from him,
and thine
hands
upon thine head:
for the LORD
hath rejected
thy confidences,
and
thou
shalt not prosper in them.
They say,
If a man
put away
his wife,
and
she go from him,
and become
another man's,
shall
he return
unto her again?
shall not
that land
be greatly polluted?
but
thou hast played
the harlot
with many lovers;
yet return again to me,
saith the LORD.
Lift
up thine
eyes
unto the high places,
and see
where thou
hast not been lien with.
In the ways
hast
thou
sat for them,
as the Arabian
in the wilderness;
and
thou hast polluted
the land
with thy whoredoms
and with thy wickedness.
Therefore the showers
have been withholden,
and there hath been
no latter rain;
and
thou hadst a whore's forehead,
thou refusedst
to be ashamed.
Wilt
thou
not from this time cry
unto me, My father,
thou art
the guide
of my youth?
Will
he reserve
his anger
for ever?
will
he keep it
to the end?
Behold,
thou hast spoken
and done evil things
as thou couldest.
The LORD
said also unto me
in the days
of Josiah the king,
Hast
thou seen
that which backsliding Israel
hath done?
she is gone up
upon every high mountain
and under every green tree,
and there hath played
the harlot.
And I
said
after she
had done all
these things,
Turn thou unto me.
But
she returned not.
And her treacherous sister Judah
saw it.
And I saw,
when
for all
the causes
whereby backsliding
Israel
committed
adultery
I had put
her away,
and given
her a bill
of divorce;
yet her treacherous sister Judah
feared not,
but went
and
played
the harlot also.
And it
came
to pass
through the lightness
of her whoredom,
that she
defiled the land,
and committed adultery
with stones and
with stocks.
And
yet for all
this her treacherous sister Judah
hath not turned
unto me
with her whole heart,
but feignedly,
saith the LORD.
And the LORD
said unto me,
The backsliding Israel
hath justified herself more than
treacherous Judah.
Go and proclaim
these words
toward the north,
and say,
Return,
thou backsliding Israel,
saith the LORD;
and I
will not cause
mine
anger
to fall upon you:
for I
am merciful,
saith the LORD,
and
I will not keep
anger
for ever.
Only acknowledge
thine iniquity,
that thou
hast transgressed
against the LORD thy God,
and hast scattered
thy ways
to the strangers
under every green tree,
and
ye have not obeyed
my voice,
saith the LORD.
Turn,
O backsliding children,
saith the LORD;
for I
am married
unto you:
and I
will take
you one
of a city,
and two
of a family,
and
I will bring you
to Zion:
And I
will give
you pastors
according to mine heart,
which shall feed you
with knowledge
and understanding.
And it
shall come
to pass,
when
ye be multiplied
and increased
in the land,
in those days,
saith the LORD,
they shall say
no more,
The ark
of the covenant
of the LORD:
neither shall it come
to mind:
neither shall
they remember it;
neither shall
they visit it;
neither shall
that be done
any more.
At that time
they shall call
Jerusalem the throne
of the LORD;
and all
the nations
shall be gathered
unto it,
to the name
of the LORD,
to Jerusalem:
neither shall
they walk any more
after the imagination
of their evil heart.
In those days
the house
of Judah
shall walk with the house
of Israel,
and they
shall come together
out of the land
of the north
to the land
that
I have given
for an inheritance
unto your fathers.
But I said,
How shall
I put thee
among the children,
and give
thee a pleasant land,
a goodly heritage
of the hosts
of nations?
and I said,
Thou shalt call me,
My father;
and
shalt not turn away from me.
Surely as a wife
treacherously departeth
from her husband,
so have
ye dealt treacherously with me,
O house
of Israel,
saith the LORD.
A voice
was heard
upon the high places,
weeping and supplications
of the children
of Israel:
for they
have perverted
their way,
and
they have forgotten
the LORD their God.
Return,
ye backsliding children,
and
I will heal
your backslidings.
Behold,
we come
unto thee;
for thou art
the LORD our God.
Truly in vain
is salvation
hoped for
from the hills,
and
from the multitude
of mountains:
truly in the LORD
our God
is the salvation
of Israel.
For shame
hath devoured the labour
of our fathers
from our youth;
their flocks
and their herds,
their sons
and their daughters.
We lie down
in our shame,
and our confusion
covereth us:
for we have sinned
against the LORD
our God,
we and our fathers,
from our youth
even unto this day,
and have not obeyed
the voice
of the LORD our God.
If thou
wilt return,
O Israel,
saith the LORD,
return unto me:
and
if thou
wilt put away
thine abominations
out of my sight,
then shalt
thou not remove.
And
thou shalt swear,
The LORD liveth,
in truth,
in judgment,
and
in righteousness;
and the nations
shall bless themselves in him,
and in him shall
they glory.
For thus
saith the LORD
to the men
of Judah
and Jerusalem,
Break up
your fallow ground,
and sow not
among thorns.
Circumcise yourselves
to the LORD,
and take away
the foreskins
of your heart,
ye men
of Judah
and inhabitants
of Jerusalem:
lest my fury
come forth like fire,
and burn
that none
can quench it,
because
of the evil
of your doings.
Declare
ye in Judah,
and publish
in Jerusalem;
and say,
Blow
ye the trumpet
in the land:
cry,
gather together,
and say,
Assemble yourselves,
and let us
go into the defenced cities.
Set up the standard
toward Zion:
retire,
stay not:
for I
will bring evil
from the north,
and a great destruction.
The lion
is come up
from his thicket,
and
the destroyer
of the Gentiles
is on his way;
he is gone forth
from his place
to make
thy land desolate;
and thy cities
shall be laid waste,
without an inhabitant.
For this
gird you
with sackcloth,
lament and howl:
for the fierce anger
of the LORD
is not turned
back from us.
And it
shall come
to pass
at that day,
saith the LORD,
that the heart
of the king
shall perish,
and the heart
of the princes;
and the priests
shall be astonished,
and the prophets
shall wonder.
Then said I,
Ah, Lord GOD!
surely
thou hast greatly deceived
this people
and Jerusalem,
saying,
Ye shall have peace;
whereas the sword
reacheth unto the soul.
At that time
shall
it be said
to this people
and to Jerusalem,
A dry wind
of the high places
in the wilderness
toward the daughter
of my people,
not to fan,
nor to cleanse,
Even
a full wind
from those places
shall come unto me:
now also will
I give
sentence against them.
Behold,
he shall come up
as clouds,
and his chariots
shall be
as a whirlwind:
his horses
are swifter
than eagles.
Woe unto us!
for we
are spoiled.
O Jerusalem,
wash thine heart
from wickedness,
that thou
mayest be saved.
How long
shall
thy vain thoughts
lodge
within thee?
For a voice
declareth from Dan,
and publisheth affliction
from mount Ephraim.
Make
ye mention
to the nations;
behold,
publish
against Jerusalem,
that watchers
come
from a far country,
and give out
their voice
against the cities
of Judah.
As keepers
of a field,
are
they against her round about;
because
she hath been rebellious
against me,
saith the LORD.
Thy way
and thy doings
have procured these things
unto thee;
this is thy wickedness,
because
it is bitter,
because
it reacheth unto thine heart.
My bowels,
my bowels!
I am pained
at my very heart;
my heart
maketh a noise in me;
I cannot hold
my peace,
because
thou hast heard,
O my soul,
the sound
of the trumpet,
the alarm of war.
Destruction
upon destruction
is cried;
for the whole land
is spoiled:
suddenly are
my tents spoiled,
and my curtains
in a moment.
How long
shall
I see
the standard,
and hear
the sound
of the trumpet?
For my people
is foolish,
they have not known me;
they are sottish children,
and
they have
none understanding:
they are wise
to do evil,
but to do good
they have
no knowledge.
I beheld
the earth,
and,
lo,
it was without form,
and void;
and the heavens,
and they
had no light.
I beheld
the mountains,
and,
lo,
they trembled,
and all
the hills moved lightly.
I beheld,
and,
lo,
there was no man,
and all
the birds
of the heavens
were fled.
I beheld,
and,
lo,
the fruitful place
was a wilderness,
and all
the cities
thereof were broken down
at the presence
of the LORD,
and
by his fierce anger.
For thus
hath
the LORD said,
The whole land
shall be desolate;
yet will
I not make
a full end.
For this
shall
the earth mourn,
and the heavens above
be black;
because
I have spoken it,
I have purposed it,
and will not repent,
neither will
I turn
back from it.
The whole city
shall flee
for the noise
of the horsemen
and bowmen;
they shall go
into thickets,
and climb up
upon the rocks:
every city
shall be forsaken,
and not a man
dwell therein.
And
when
thou art spoiled,
what wilt
thou do?
Though thou
clothest thyself
with crimson,
though thou
deckest thee
with ornaments
of gold,
though thou
rentest
thy face
with painting,
in vain
shalt
thou make thyself fair;
thy lovers
will despise thee,
they will seek
thy life.
For I
have heard
a voice as
of a woman
in travail,
and the anguish
as of her
that
bringeth forth her first child,
the voice
of the daughter
of Zion,
that bewaileth herself,
that spreadeth her hands,
saying,
Woe is me now!
for my soul
is wearied
because
of murderers.
Run
ye to and fro
through the streets
of Jerusalem,
and see now,
and know,
and seek
in the broad places
thereof,
if ye
can find a man,
if there be
any that
executeth judgment,
that seeketh the truth;
and
I will pardon it.
And
though they say,
The LORD liveth;
surely
they swear falsely.
O LORD,
are not
thine eyes
upon the truth?
thou hast stricken them,
but
they have not grieved;
thou hast consumed them,
but
they have refused
to receive correction:
they have made
their faces harder
than a rock;
they have refused
to return.
Therefore I said,
Surely these
are poor;
they are foolish:
for they
know not the way
of the LORD,
nor the judgment
of their God.
I will get me
unto the great men,
and
will speak unto them;
for they
have known the way
of the LORD,
and the judgment
of their God:
but these
have altogether broken
the yoke,
and burst
the bonds.
Wherefore
a lion
out of the forest
shall slay them,
and a wolf
of the evenings
shall spoil them,
a leopard
shall watch over
their cities:
every one that
goeth
out thence shall be torn
in pieces:
because
their transgressions
are many,
and their backslidings
are increased.
How shall
I pardon thee
for this?
thy children
have forsaken me,
and sworn
by them that
are
no gods:
when
I had fed them
to the full,
they
then committed
adultery,
and assembled themselves
by troops
in the harlots' houses.
They were as fed horses
in the morning:
every one
neighed
after his neighbour's wife.
Shall
I not visit
for these things?
saith the LORD:
and shall not
my soul
be avenged
on such
a nation
as this?
Go ye up
upon her walls,
and destroy;
but make not
a full end:
take away
her battlements;
for they
are not
the LORD's.
For the house
of Israel
and the house
of Judah
have dealt very
treacherously against me,
saith the LORD.
They have belied
the LORD,
and said,
It is not he;
neither shall
evil come upon us;
neither shall
we see sword
nor famine:
And the prophets
shall become wind,
and the word
is not in them:
thus
shall
it be done unto them.
Wherefore thus
saith the LORD God
of hosts,
Because
ye speak
this word,
behold,
I will make
my words
in thy mouth fire,
and this people wood,
and it
shall devour them.
Lo,
I will bring a nation
upon you
from far,
O house
of Israel,
saith the LORD:
it is a mighty nation,
it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language
thou knowest not,
neither understandest
what they say.
Their quiver
is as an open sepulchre,
they are all mighty men.
And they
shall eat
up thine harvest,
and thy bread,
which thy sons
and thy daughters
should eat:
they
shall eat up thy
flocks
and thine herds:
they shall eat
up thy vines
and thy fig trees:
they
shall impoverish
thy fenced
cities,
wherein thou trustedst,
with the sword.
Nevertheless in
those days,
saith the LORD,
I will not make
a full end
with you.
And it
shall come
to pass,
when
ye shall say,
Wherefore
doeth
the LORD
our God all
these things
unto us?
then shalt
thou answer them,
Like as ye
have forsaken me,
and served strange gods
in your land,
so shall
ye serve strangers
in a land
that is not your's.
Declare this
in the house
of Jacob,
and publish it
in Judah,
saying,
Hear now this,
O foolish people,
and
without understanding;
which have eyes,
and see not;
which have ears,
and hear not:
Fear ye not me?
saith the LORD:
will
ye not tremble
at my presence,
which have placed
the sand
for the bound
of the sea
by a perpetual decree,
that it
cannot pass it:
and
though the waves
thereof toss themselves,
yet can
they not prevail;
though they roar,
yet can
they not pass
over it?
But this people
hath
a revolting
and a rebellious heart;
they are revolted
and gone.
Neither say
they
in their heart,
Let us
now fear
the LORD our God,
that giveth rain,
both the former
and the latter,
in his season:
he reserveth
unto us the appointed weeks
of the harvest.
Your iniquities
have turned away
these things,
and your sins
have withholden good things
from you.
For among my people
are found
wicked men:
they lay wait,
as he
that setteth snares;
they set a trap,
they catch men.
As a cage
is full of birds,
so are their houses
full of deceit:
therefore they
are become great,
and waxen rich.
They are waxen fat,
they shine:
yea,
they overpass
the deeds
of the wicked:
they judge not
the cause,
the cause
of the fatherless,
yet they prosper;
and the right
of the needy
do
they not judge.
Shall
I not visit
for these things?
saith the LORD:
shall not
my soul
be avenged
on such
a nation
as this?
A wonderful
and horrible thing
is committed
in the land;
The prophets
prophesy falsely,
and the priests bear rule
by their means;
and my people
love
to have it so:
and
what will
ye do
in the end thereof?
O ye children
of Benjamin,
gather yourselves
to flee
out of the midst
of Jerusalem,
and blow
the trumpet
in Tekoa,
and set up
a sign
of fire
in Bethhaccerem:
for evil
appeareth out of the north,
and great destruction.
I have likened
the daughter
of Zion
to a comely
and delicate woman.
The shepherds
with their flocks
shall come
unto her;
they shall pitch
their tents
against her round about;
they shall feed every one
in his place.
Prepare
ye war
against her;
arise,
and let us
go up at noon.
Woe unto us!
for the day
goeth away,
for the shadows
of the evening
are stretched out.
Arise,
and let us
go by night,
and let us
destroy her palaces.
For thus
hath the LORD
of hosts said,
Hew
ye down trees,
and cast
a mount
against Jerusalem:
this is the city
to be visited;
she is wholly oppression
in the midst
of her.
As a fountain
casteth out her waters,
so she
casteth out her wickedness:
violence
and spoil
is heard in her;
before me
continually is grief
and wounds.
Be thou instructed,
O Jerusalem,
lest my soul
depart from thee;
lest
I make thee desolate,
a land
not inhabited.
Thus saith
the LORD
of hosts,
They
shall throughly glean
the remnant
of Israel
as a vine:
turn back
thine hand
as a grapegatherer
into the baskets.
To whom
shall
I speak,
and give warning,
that they
may hear?
behold,
their ear
is uncircumcised,
and
they cannot hearken:
behold,
the word
of the LORD
is unto them a reproach;
they
have
no delight in it.
Therefore I
am full of
the fury
of the LORD;
I am
weary
with holding in:
I will pour it out
upon the children abroad,
and upon
the assembly of young men
together:
for even
the husband
with the wife
shall be taken,
the aged
with him that is full of days.
And their houses
shall be turned
unto others,
with their fields
and wives
together:
for I will stretch out
my hand
upon the inhabitants
of the land,
saith the LORD.
For from the least
of them
even unto the greatest
of them every one
is given
to covetousness;
and
from the prophet
even unto the priest every one
dealeth falsely.
They have healed also
the hurt
of the daughter
of my people slightly,
saying,
Peace,
peace;
when there is
no peace.
Were they ashamed
when
they had committed
abomination?
nay,
they were not
at all ashamed,
neither could
they blush:
therefore they
shall fall
among them that fall:
at the time
that
I visit them they shall be cast
down,
saith the LORD.
Thus saith the LORD,
Stand
ye in the ways,
and see,
and ask for
the old paths,
where is the good way,
and walk therein,
and
ye shall find
rest
for your souls.
But they said,
We will not walk
therein.
Also I set watchmen
over you,
saying,
Hearken
to the sound
of the trumpet.
But they said,
We will not hearken.
Therefore hear,
ye nations,
and know,
O congregation,
what
is among them.
Hear,
O earth:
behold,
I will bring evil
upon this people,
even the fruit
of their thoughts,
because
they have not hearkened
unto my words,
nor to my law,
but rejected it.
To what
purpose
cometh there
to me
incense
from Sheba,
and the sweet cane
from a far country?
your burnt offerings
are not acceptable,
nor your sacrifices sweet
unto me.
Therefore thus
saith the LORD, Behold,
I will lay stumblingblocks
before this people,
and the fathers
and the sons
together shall fall upon them;
the neighbour
and his friend
shall perish.
Thus saith the LORD, Behold,
a people
cometh from the north country,
and a great nation
shall be raised from the sides
of the earth.
They shall lay
hold on
bow and spear;
they are cruel,
and have
no mercy;
their voice
roareth like
the sea;
and they
ride
upon horses,
set in array
as men
for war
against thee,
O daughter
of Zion.
We have heard
the fame thereof:
our hands
wax feeble:
anguish hath taken
hold of us,
and pain,
as of a woman
in travail.
Go not forth
into the field,
nor walk
by the way;
for the sword
of the enemy
and fear
is on every side.
O daughter
of my people,
gird thee
with sackcloth,
and wallow thyself
in ashes:
make thee mourning,
as for an only son,
most bitter lamentation:
for the spoiler
shall suddenly come upon us.
I have set thee
for a tower
and a fortress
among my people,
that thou
mayest know
and try
their way.
They are all
grievous revolters,
walking
with slanders:
they are brass
and iron;
they are all corrupters.
The bellows
are burned,
the lead
is consumed
of the fire;
the founder
melteth in vain:
for the wicked
are not plucked away.
Reprobate silver
shall men
call them,
because
the LORD
hath rejected them.
The word that
came
to Jeremiah
from the LORD,
saying,
Stand in the gate
of the LORD's house,
and proclaim there
this word,
and say,
Hear the word
of the LORD,
all ye of Judah,
that enter in
at these gates
to worship the LORD.
Thus saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel,
Amend your ways
and your doings,
and I
will cause
you
to dwell
in this place.
Trust ye
not in lying words,
saying,
The temple
of the LORD,
The temple
of the LORD,
The temple
of the LORD,
are these.
For if
ye throughly amend
your ways
and your doings;
if ye
throughly execute judgment
between a man
and his neighbour;
If ye
oppress not
the stranger,
the fatherless,
and the widow,
and shed not
innocent blood
in this place,
neither walk
after other gods
to your hurt:
Then will
I cause
you
to dwell
in this place,
in the land
that I
gave to your fathers,
for ever
and ever.
Behold,
ye trust
in lying words,
that cannot profit.
Will
ye steal,
murder,
and commit
adultery,
and swear falsely,
and burn
incense
unto Baal,
and walk
after other gods whom
ye know not;
And come
and stand
before me
in this house,
which is called
by my name,
and say,
We are delivered
to do all
these abominations?
Is this house,
which is called
by my name,
become a den
of robbers
in your eyes?
Behold,
even
I have seen it,
saith the LORD.
But go
ye now unto my place
which was in Shiloh,
where I set
my name
at the first,
and see
what
I did to it
for the wickedness
of my people Israel.
And now,
because
ye have done all
these works,
saith the LORD,
and
I spake unto you,
rising up early
and speaking,
but ye
heard not;
and I
called you,
but
ye answered not;
Therefore will
I do
unto this house,
which is called
by my name,
wherein ye trust,
and
unto the place
which I
gave to you
and to your fathers,
as I
have done
to Shiloh.
And
I will cast you
out of my sight,
as I
have cast
out all your brethren,
even the whole seed
of Ephraim.
Therefore pray not
thou for this people,
neither lift
up cry nor prayer
for them,
neither make intercession to me:
for I
will not hear thee.
Seest thou not
what
they do
in the cities
of Judah
and in the streets
of Jerusalem?
The children
gather wood,
and the fathers
kindle the fire,
and the women
knead their dough,
to make cakes
to the queen
of heaven,
and to pour
out drink offerings
unto other gods,
that they
may provoke me
to anger.
Do they
provoke me
to anger?
saith the LORD:
do they
not provoke themselves
to the confusion
of their own faces?
Therefore thus
saith the Lord GOD;
Behold,
mine
anger
and my fury
shall be poured out
upon this place,
upon man,
and upon beast,
and
upon the trees
of the field,
and
upon the fruit
of the ground;
and it
shall burn,
and shall not be quenched.
Thus saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Put your burnt offerings
unto your sacrifices,
and eat flesh.
For I
spake not
unto your fathers,
nor commanded them
in the day
that
I brought them
out of the land
of Egypt,
concerning burnt offerings
or sacrifices:
But this thing
commanded
I them,
saying,
Obey my voice,
and
I will be
your God,
and
ye shall be
my people:
and walk
ye in all
the ways that
I have commanded you,
that it
may be well
unto you.
But
they hearkened not,
nor inclined
their ear,
but walked
in the counsels
and in the imagination
of their evil heart,
and went backward,
and not forward.
Since the day
that your fathers
came forth
out of the land
of Egypt
unto this day
I have even sent
unto you
all my servants the prophets,
daily rising
up early
and sending them:
Yet
they
hearkened not unto me,
nor inclined
their ear,
but hardened
their neck:
they did worse
than their fathers.
Therefore thou
shalt speak all these words
unto them;
but
they will not hearken
to thee:
thou
shalt also call unto them;
but
they will not answer thee.
But
thou
shalt say unto them,
This
is
a nation
that obeyeth not
the voice
of the LORD their God,
nor receiveth correction:
truth is perished,
and is cut off
from their mouth.
Cut off thine hair,
O Jerusalem,
and cast it away,
and take up
a lamentation
on high places;
for the LORD
hath rejected
and forsaken
the generation
of his wrath.
For the children
of Judah
have done evil
in my sight,
saith the LORD:
they have set
their abominations
in the house
which is called
by my name,
to pollute it.
And
they have built
the high places
of Tophet,
which is in the valley
of the son
of Hinnom,
to burn
their sons
and their daughters
in the fire;
which I
commanded them not,
neither came
it into my heart.
Therefore,
behold,
the days come,
saith the LORD,
that it
shall no more
be called Tophet,
nor the valley
of the son
of Hinnom,
but the valley
of slaughter:
for they
shall bury
in Tophet,
till there be
no place.
And the carcases
of this people
shall be meat
for the fowls
of the heaven,
and
for the beasts
of the earth;
and none
shall fray them away.
Then will
I cause
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 be desolate.
At that time,
saith the LORD,
they shall bring out the bones
of the kings
of Judah,
and the bones
of his princes,
and the bones
of the priests,
and the bones
of the prophets,
and the bones
of the inhabitants
of Jerusalem,
out of their graves:
And
they shall spread them
before the sun,
and the moon,
and all
the host
of heaven,
whom
they have loved,
and whom
they have served,
and
after whom
they have walked,
and whom
they have sought,
and whom
they have worshipped:
they shall not be gathered,
nor be buried;
they shall be for dung
upon the face
of the earth.
And death
shall be chosen rather than
life
by all the residue
of them that
remain of this evil family,
which remain
in all the places
whither
I have driven them,
saith the LORD
of hosts.
Moreover thou
shalt say unto them,
Thus saith the LORD;
Shall
they fall,
and not arise?
shall
he turn away,
and not return?
Why then
is
this
people
of Jerusalem slidden
back by a perpetual backsliding?
they hold
fast deceit,
they refuse
to return.
I hearkened
and heard,
but they
spake
not aright:
no man
repented him
of his wickedness,
saying,
What
have
I done?
every one
turned
to his course,
as the horse
rusheth into the battle.
Yea,
the stork
in the heaven
knoweth
her appointed times;
and the turtle
and the crane
and the swallow
observe
the time
of their coming;
but my people
know not the judgment
of the LORD.
How do
ye say,
We are wise,
and
the law
of the LORD
is with us?
Lo,
certainly in vain made
he it;
the pen
of the scribes
is in vain.
The wise men
are ashamed,
they are dismayed
and taken:
lo,
they have rejected
the word
of the LORD;
and
what wisdom
is in them?
Therefore will
I give
their wives
unto others,
and their fields
to them
that shall inherit them:
for every one
from the least
even unto the greatest
is given
to covetousness,
from the prophet
even unto the priest every one
dealeth falsely.
For they
have healed the hurt
of the daughter
of my people slightly,
saying,
Peace,
peace;
when there is
no peace.
Were they ashamed
when
they had committed
abomination?
nay,
they were not
at all ashamed,
neither could
they blush:
therefore shall
they fall
among them that fall:
in the time
of their visitation
they
shall be cast down,
saith the LORD.
I will surely consume them,
saith the LORD:
there shall be no grapes
on the vine,
nor figs
on the fig tree,
and the leaf
shall fade;
and
the things
that I have given them
shall pass
away
from them.
Why do
we sit still?
assemble yourselves,
and let us
enter
into the defenced cities,
and let us
be silent there:
for the LORD
our God
hath put us
to silence,
and given us
water
of gall to drink,
because
we have sinned
against the LORD.
We looked for peace,
but no good came;
and
for a time
of health,
and behold trouble!
The snorting
of his horses
was heard
from Dan:
the whole land
trembled
at the sound
of the neighing
of his strong ones;
for they are come,
and have devoured
the land,
and all that is in it;
the city,
and those that
dwell therein.
For,
behold,
I will send serpents,
cockatrices,
among you,
which will not be charmed,
and
they shall bite you,
saith the LORD.
When
I would comfort myself
against sorrow,
my heart
is faint in me.
Behold the voice
of the cry
of the daughter
of my people
because of them that
dwell
in a far country:
Is not
the LORD
in Zion?
is not her king
in her?
Why have
they provoked me
to anger
with their graven images,
and
with strange vanities?
The harvest
is past,
the summer
is ended,
and
we are not saved.
For the hurt
of the daughter
of my people
am
I hurt;
I am black;
astonishment
hath taken
hold on me.
Is there no balm
in Gilead;
is there
no physician there?
why then
is not the health
of the daughter
of my people recovered?
Oh that
my head
were waters,
and mine
eyes
a fountain
of tears,
that I
might weep day and night
for the slain
of the daughter
of my people!
Oh that
I had
in the wilderness
a lodging
place
of wayfaring men;
that I
might leave
my people,
and go
from them!
for they
be all adulterers,
an assembly of treacherous men.
And they
bend
their tongues like
their bow
for lies:
but
they are not valiant
for the truth
upon the earth;
for they proceed
from evil to evil,
and
they know not me,
saith the LORD.
Take
ye heed every one
of his neighbour,
and trust
ye not in any brother:
for every brother
will utterly supplant,
and every neighbour
will walk with slanders.
And
they will deceive every one
his neighbour,
and will not speak
the truth:
they
have taught
their tongue
to speak lies,
and weary themselves
to commit iniquity.
Thine habitation
is in the midst
of deceit;
through deceit
they refuse
to know me,
saith the LORD.
Therefore thus
saith the LORD
of hosts,
Behold,
I will melt them,
and try them;
for how shall
I do
for the daughter
of my people?
Their tongue
is as an arrow
shot out;
it speaketh deceit:
one speaketh peaceably
to his neighbour
with his mouth,
but in heart
he layeth his wait.
Shall
I not visit them
for these things?
saith the LORD:
shall not
my soul
be avenged
on such
a nation
as this?
For the mountains
will
I take up a
weeping and wailing,
and
for the habitations
of the wilderness a lamentation,
because
they
are burned up,
so that none
can pass through them;
neither can men
hear the voice
of the cattle;
both the fowl
of the heavens
and the beast
are fled;
they are gone.
And I
will make
Jerusalem heaps,
and a den
of dragons;
and I
will make
the cities
of Judah desolate,
without an inhabitant.
Who is the wise man,
that may understand this?
and who
is he
to whom the mouth
of the LORD
hath spoken,
that he
may declare it,
for what
the land
perisheth
and is burned
up like
a wilderness,
that none passeth
through?
And the LORD saith,
Because
they have forsaken
my law
which I set
before them,
and have not obeyed
my voice,
neither walked
therein;
But have walked
after the imagination
of their own heart,
and after Baalim,
which their fathers
taught them:
Therefore thus
saith the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Behold,
I will feed them,
even this people,
with wormwood,
and give them
water
of gall
to drink.
I will scatter them also
among the heathen,
whom neither
they nor
their fathers
have known:
and I
will send
a sword
after them,
till I
have consumed them.
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
Consider ye,
and call for
the mourning women,
that they
may come;
and send
for cunning women,
that they
may come:
And let them
make haste,
and take up
a wailing for us,
that our eyes
may run down
with tears,
and our eyelids
gush out
with waters.
For a voice
of wailing
is heard out of Zion,
How are
we spoiled!
we are greatly confounded,
because
we have forsaken
the land,
because
our dwellings
have cast us out.
Yet hear the word
of the LORD,
O ye women,
and let
your ear
receive the word
of his mouth,
and teach
your daughters wailing,
and every one
her neighbour lamentation.
For death
is come up
into our windows,
and is entered
into our palaces,
to cut off
the children
from without,
and the young men
from the streets.
Speak,
Thus saith the LORD,
Even the carcases
of men
shall fall
as dung
upon the open field,
and
as the handful
after the harvestman,
and none
shall gather them.
Thus saith the LORD,
Let
not the wise man
glory
in his wisdom,
neither let
the mighty man
glory in his might,
let not
the rich man
glory
in his riches:
But let him
that glorieth
glory in this,
that he
understandeth and knoweth me,
that I
am the LORD
which exercise
lovingkindness,
judgment,
and righteousness,
in the earth:
for in these things
I delight,
saith the LORD.
Behold,
the days come,
saith the LORD,
that I
will punish all them
which are circumcised
with the uncircumcised;
Egypt,
and Judah,
and Edom,
and the children
of Ammon,
and Moab,
and all
that are in the utmost corners,
that dwell
in the wilderness:
for all
these nations
are uncircumcised,
and all
the house
of Israel
are uncircumcised
in the heart.
Hear
ye the word
which the LORD
speaketh unto you,
O house
of Israel:
Thus saith the LORD,
Learn
not the way
of the heathen,
and be not dismayed
at the signs
of heaven;
for the heathen
are dismayed at them.
For the customs
of the people
are vain:
for one
cutteth
a tree
out of the forest,
the work
of the hands
of the workman,
with the axe.
They deck it
with silver
and with gold;
they fasten it
with nails
and with hammers,
that it
move not.
They are upright
as the palm tree,
but speak not:
they must needs be borne,
because
they cannot go.
Be not afraid
of them;
for they
cannot do evil,
neither also is it
in them to do good.
Forasmuch
as there is none like
unto thee,
O LORD;
thou art great,
and thy
name
is great
in might.
Who would not fear thee,
O King
of nations?
for to thee
doth
it appertain:
forasmuch
as among all
the wise men
of the nations,
and
in all their kingdoms,
there is none like
unto thee.
But
they are altogether
brutish
and foolish:
the stock
is a doctrine
of vanities.
Silver spread
into plates
is brought
from Tarshish,
and gold
from Uphaz,
the work
of the workman,
and of the hands
of the founder:
blue
and purple
is their clothing:
they are all the work
of cunning men.
But the LORD
is the true God,
he is the living God,
and an everlasting king:
at his wrath
the earth
shall tremble,
and the nations
shall not be able
to abide his indignation.
Thus
shall
ye say unto them,
The gods
that have not made
the heavens
and the earth,
even
they shall perish
from the earth,
and from
under these heavens.
He hath made
the earth
by his power,
he hath established
the world
by his wisdom,
and hath stretched out
the heavens
by his discretion.
When
he uttereth his voice,
there is a multitude
of waters
in the heavens,
and he
causeth
the vapours
to ascend
from the ends
of the earth;
he maketh lightnings
with rain,
and bringeth forth the wind
out of his treasures.
Every man
is brutish
in his knowledge:
every founder
is confounded
by the graven image:
for his molten image
is falsehood,
and there is no breath
in them.
They are vanity,
and the work
of errors:
in the time
of their visitation
they shall perish.
The portion
of Jacob
is not like them:
for he is
the former
of all things;
and Israel
is the rod
of his inheritance:
The LORD of hosts
is his name.
Gather
up thy wares
out of the land,
O inhabitant
of the fortress.
For thus
saith the LORD, Behold,
I will sling
out the inhabitants
of the land
at this once,
and will distress them,
that they
may find it so.
Woe is me
for my hurt!
my wound
is grievous;
but I said,
Truly this
is a grief,
and
I must bear it.
My tabernacle
is spoiled,
and all my cords
are broken:
my children
are gone forth of me,
and they
are not:
there is none
to stretch
forth my tent any more,
and to set up
my curtains.
For the pastors
are become brutish,
and have not sought
the LORD:
therefore they
shall not prosper,
and all
their flocks
shall be scattered.
Behold,
the noise
of the bruit
is come,
and a great commotion
out of the north country,
to make
the cities
of Judah desolate,
and a den
of dragons.
O LORD,
I know
that the way
of man
is not
in himself:
it is not
in man
that
walketh to direct
his steps.
O LORD,
correct me,
but with judgment;
not in thine anger,
lest thou
bring me
to nothing.
Pour out thy fury
upon the heathen
that know thee not,
and
upon the families that call
not on thy name:
for they
have eaten
up Jacob,
and devoured him,
and consumed him,
and have made
his habitation desolate.
The word that
came
to Jeremiah
from the LORD saying,
Hear
ye the words
of this covenant,
and speak
unto the men
of Judah,
and
to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem;
And say
thou unto them,
Thus
saith
the LORD God
of Israel;
Cursed
be
the man
that obeyeth not
the words
of this covenant,
Which I
commanded
your fathers
in the day
that
I brought
them forth
out of the land
of Egypt,
from the iron furnace,
saying,
Obey my voice,
and do them,
according to all
which I
command you:
so shall
ye be my people,
and
I will be
your God:
That I
may perform
the oath
which I
have sworn
unto your fathers,
to give them
a land
flowing
with milk
and honey,
as it is this day.
Then answered I,
and said,
So be it,
O LORD.
Then the LORD
said unto me,
Proclaim all these words
in the cities
of Judah,
and
in the streets
of Jerusalem,
saying,
Hear
ye the words
of this covenant,
and do them.
For I earnestly protested
unto your fathers
in the day
that
I brought them up
out of the land
of Egypt,
even unto
this day,
rising early
and protesting,
saying,
Obey my voice.
Yet
they obeyed not,
nor inclined
their ear,
but walked every one
in the imagination
of their evil heart:
therefore I
will bring
upon them all the words
of this covenant,
which I
commanded them to do:
but
they did them not.
And the LORD
said unto me,
A conspiracy
is found
among the men
of Judah,
and
among the inhabitants
of Jerusalem.
They are turned
back to the iniquities
of their forefathers,
which refused
to hear my words;
and
they went 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.
Therefore thus
saith the LORD, Behold,
I will bring evil
upon them,
which they
shall not be able
to escape;
and
though they
shall cry unto me,
I will not hearken unto them.
Then shall
the cities
of Judah
and
inhabitants
of Jerusalem go,
and cry
unto the gods
unto whom
they offer incense:
but
they shall not save them
at all in the time
of their trouble.
For according to
the number
of thy cities
were thy gods,
O Judah;
and
according to the number
of the streets
of Jerusalem
have
ye set up altars
to that shameful thing,
even
altars to burn
incense
unto Baal.
Therefore pray not
thou for this people,
neither lift
up a cry
or prayer
for them:
for I
will not hear them
in the time
that
they cry unto me
for their trouble.
What hath
my beloved
to do
in mine house,
seeing
she hath wrought lewdness
with many,
and the holy flesh
is passed
from thee?
when
thou doest evil,
then
thou rejoicest.
The LORD
called
thy name,
A green olive tree,
fair,
and
of goodly fruit:
with the noise
of a great tumult
he hath kindled
fire upon it,
and the branches of it
are broken.
For the LORD
of hosts,
that planted thee,
hath pronounced evil
against thee,
for the evil
of the house
of Israel
and of the house
of Judah,
which they
have done
against themselves
to provoke me
to anger
in offering
incense
unto Baal.
And the LORD
hath given me knowledge of it,
and I
know it:
then
thou shewedst me
their doings.
But
I was like
a lamb or an ox
that is brought
to the slaughter;
and
I knew not that
they had devised devices
against me,
saying,
Let us
destroy
the tree
with the fruit
thereof,
and let us
cut him off
from the land
of the living,
that his name
may be
no more remembered.
But,
O LORD of hosts,
that judgest righteously,
that triest
the reins
and the heart,
let me
see thy vengeance
on them:
for unto thee
have
I revealed
my cause.
Therefore thus
saith the LORD
of the men
of Anathoth,
that seek
thy life,
saying,
Prophesy
not in the name
of the LORD,
that thou
die not
by our hand:
Therefore thus
saith 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:
And there shall be
no remnant
of them:
for I
will bring evil
upon the men
of Anathoth,
even the year
of their visitation.
Righteous art thou,
O LORD,
when
I plead
with thee:
yet let me
talk with thee
of thy judgments:
Wherefore
doth
the way
of the wicked prosper?
wherefore are all
they happy that deal
very treacherously?
Thou hast planted them,
yea,
they have taken root:
they grow,
yea,
they bring forth fruit:
thou art near
in their mouth,
and far
from their reins.
But thou,
O LORD,
knowest me:
thou hast seen me,
and tried mine heart toward thee:
pull them
out like sheep
for the slaughter,
and prepare them
for the day
of slaughter.
How long
shall
the land mourn,
and
the herbs
of every field wither,
for the wickedness
of them that
dwell therein?
the beasts
are consumed,
and the birds;
because
they said,
He shall not see
our last end.
If thou
hast run
with the footmen,
and
they have wearied thee,
then
how canst thou
contend
with horses?
and
if in the land
of peace,
wherein thou trustedst,
they wearied thee,
then how wilt thou
do in the swelling
of Jordan?
For even thy brethren,
and the house
of thy father,
even
they have dealt treacherously
with thee;
yea,
they have called
a multitude
after thee:
believe them not,
though they
speak
fair
words unto thee.
I have forsaken mine house,
I have left mine heritage;
I have given
the dearly beloved
of my soul
into the hand
of her enemies.
Mine heritage
is unto me
as a lion
in the forest;
it crieth out against me:
therefore have
I hated it.
Mine heritage
is unto me
as a speckled bird,
the birds round
about are against her;
come ye,
assemble all the beasts
of the field,
come
to devour.
Many pastors
have destroyed
my vineyard,
they have trodden
my portion
under foot,
they have made
my pleasant portion
a desolate wilderness.
They
have made it desolate,
and being
desolate
it mourneth unto me;
the whole land
is made desolate,
because no man
layeth it
to heart.
The spoilers
are come upon all
high places
through the wilderness:
for the sword
of the LORD
shall devour
from the one end
of the land
even to the other end
of the land:
no flesh
shall have peace.
They have sown wheat,
but shall reap
thorns:
they have put themselves
to pain,
but shall not profit:
and
they shall be ashamed
of your revenues
because
of the fierce anger
of the LORD.
Thus
saith
the LORD
against all
mine evil neighbours,
that touch the inheritance
which I
have caused
my people Israel
to inherit;
Behold,
I will pluck them
out of their land,
and pluck
out the house
of Judah
from among them.
And it
shall come
to pass,
after that
I have plucked them out I
will return,
and have compassion
on them,
and will bring them again,
every man
to his heritage,
and every man
to his land.
And it
shall come
to pass,
if they
will diligently learn
the ways
of my people,
to swear
by my name,
The LORD liveth;
as they
taught my people
to swear by Baal;
then shall
they be built
in the midst
of my people.
But
if they
will not obey,
I will utterly pluck
up and destroy
that nation,
saith the LORD.
Thus
saith
the LORD
unto me, Go
and get
thee a linen girdle,
and put it
upon thy loins,
and put it
not in water.
So I
got
a girdle
according to
the word
of the LORD,
and put it
on my loins.
And
the word
of the LORD
came unto me the second time,
saying,
Take the girdle
that thou
hast got,
which is upon thy loins,
and arise,
go to Euphrates,
and hide it
there in a hole
of the rock.
So I went,
and hid it
by Euphrates,
as the LORD
commanded me.
And it
came to pass
after many days,
that the LORD
said unto me,
Arise,
go to Euphrates,
and take
the girdle
from thence,
which I
commanded
thee to hide there.
Then
I went to Euphrates,
and digged,
and took
the girdle
from the place
where I
had hid it:
and,
behold,
the girdle
was marred,
it was profitable
for nothing.
Then
the word
of the LORD
came unto me,
saying,
Thus saith the LORD,
After this manner
will
I mar
the pride
of Judah,
and the great pride
of Jerusalem.
This evil people,
which refuse
to hear my words,
which walk
in the imagination
of their heart,
and walk
after other gods,
to serve them,
and
to worship them,
shall even be
as this girdle,
which is good
for nothing.
For as the girdle
cleaveth to the loins
of a man,
so have
I caused
to cleave
unto me the whole house
of Israel
and the whole house
of Judah,
saith the LORD;
that they
might be
unto me
for a people,
and for a name,
and for a praise,
and for a glory:
but
they would not hear.
Therefore thou
shalt speak
unto them this word;
Thus
saith
the LORD God
of Israel,
Every
bottle
shall be filled
with wine:
and
they shall say
unto thee,
Do we
not certainly know
that every bottle
shall be filled
with wine?
Then shalt
thou
say unto them,
Thus saith the LORD, Behold,
I will fill
all the inhabitants
of this land,
even
the kings that
sit
upon David's throne,
and the priests,
and the prophets,
and all
the inhabitants
of Jerusalem,
with drunkenness.
And
I will dash them one
against another,
even the fathers
and the sons
together,
saith the LORD:
I will not pity,
nor spare,
nor have mercy,
but destroy them.
Hear ye,
and give ear;
be not proud:
for the LORD
hath spoken.
Give
glory
to the LORD your God,
before he
cause darkness,
and before your feet
stumble
upon the dark mountains,
and,
while ye
look for light,
he turn it
into the shadow
of death,
and make it gross darkness.
But
if ye
will not hear it,
my soul
shall weep
in secret places
for your pride;
and mine
eye
shall weep sore,
and run down
with tears,
because
the LORD's flock
is carried away captive.
Say unto the king
and to the queen,
Humble yourselves,
sit down:
for your principalities
shall come down,
even the crown
of your glory.
The cities
of the south
shall be shut up,
and none
shall open them:
Judah
shall be carried away
captive all of it,
it shall be wholly carried away
captive.
Lift
up your eyes,
and behold them that
come
from the north:
where is the flock
that was given thee,
thy beautiful flock?
What wilt thou
say
when
he shall punish thee?
for thou
hast taught them
to be captains,
and as chief over thee:
shall not
sorrows take thee,
as a woman
in travail?
And
if thou
say in thine heart,
Wherefore
come
these things
upon me?
For the greatness
of thine iniquity
are
thy skirts discovered,
and thy heels made bare.
Can the Ethiopian
change his skin,
or the leopard
his spots?
then may
ye also do good,
that are accustomed
to do evil.
Therefore will
I scatter them
as the stubble
that passeth
away by the wind
of the wilderness.
This is thy lot,
the portion
of thy
measures from me,
saith the LORD;
because
thou hast forgotten me,
and trusted
in falsehood.
Therefore will
I discover thy
skirts upon thy face,
that thy
shame
may appear.
I have seen
thine adulteries,
and thy neighings,
the lewdness
of thy whoredom,
and thine abominations
on the hills
in the fields.
Woe unto thee,
O Jerusalem!
wilt
thou not be made clean?
when shall
it once be?
The word
of the LORD
that came
to Jeremiah
concerning the dearth.
Judah mourneth,
and the gates
thereof languish;
they are black
unto the ground;
and
the cry
of Jerusalem
is gone up.
And their nobles
have sent their little
ones to the waters:
they came
to the pits,
and found
no water;
they returned
with their vessels empty;
they were
ashamed
and confounded,
and covered
their heads.
Because
the ground
is chapt,
for there was
no rain
in the earth,
the plowmen
were ashamed,
they covered
their heads.
Yea,
the hind also calved
in the field,
and forsook it,
because
there was no grass.
And the wild asses
did stand
in the high places,
they snuffed
up the wind like dragons;
their eyes
did fail,
because
there was no grass.
O LORD,
though our iniquities
testify against us,
do thou it
for thy name's sake:
for our backslidings
are many;
we have sinned
against thee.
O the hope
of Israel,
the saviour
thereof in time
of trouble,
why shouldest
thou be
as a stranger
in the land,
and as a
wayfaring man
that turneth aside
to tarry for a night?
Why shouldest
thou be
as a man astonied,
as a
mighty man
that cannot save?
yet thou,
O LORD,
art
in the midst of us,
and we
are called
by thy name;
leave us not.
Thus
saith
the LORD
unto this people,
Thus
have
they loved
to wander,
they have not refrained
their feet,
therefore the LORD
doth not accept them;
he will now remember
their iniquity,
and visit
their sins.
Then said
the LORD
unto me,
Pray not for this people
for their good.
When they fast,
I will not hear
their cry;
and
when they
offer
burnt
offering
and an oblation,
I will not accept them:
but
I will consume them
by the sword,
and
by the famine,
and
by the pestilence.
Then said I,
Ah, Lord GOD!
behold,
the prophets
say unto them,
Ye shall not see
the sword,
neither shall
ye have famine;
but I
will give
you assured peace
in this place.
Then the LORD
said unto me,
The prophets
prophesy
lies in my name:
I sent them not,
neither have
I commanded them,
neither spake unto them:
they prophesy
unto you
a false vision
and divination,
and a thing
of nought,
and the deceit
of their heart.
Therefore thus
saith
the LORD
concerning the prophets
that prophesy
in my name,
and
I sent them not,
yet they say,
Sword
and famine
shall not be
in this land;
By sword
and famine
shall
those prophets
be consumed.
And the people
to whom
they prophesy
shall be cast out
in the streets
of Jerusalem
because
of the famine
and the sword;
and
they shall have none
to bury them,
them,
their wives,
nor their sons,
nor their daughters:
for I
will pour
their wickedness
upon them.
Therefore thou
shalt say this word
unto them;
Let mine
eyes
run down
with tears
night and day,
and let them
not cease:
for the virgin daughter
of my people
is broken
with a great breach,
with a very grievous blow.
If I
go forth
into the field,
then behold
the slain
with the sword!
and
if I
enter into the city,
then behold them that
are sick
with famine!
yea,
both the prophet
and the priest
go about
into a land
that
they know not.
Hast
thou utterly rejected
Judah?
hath
thy soul
lothed Zion?
why hast
thou smitten us,
and there is
no
healing for us?
we looked for peace,
and there is
no good;
and for the time
of healing,
and behold trouble!
We acknowledge,
O LORD,
our wickedness,
and the iniquity
of our fathers:
for we have sinned
against thee.
Do not abhor us,
for thy name's sake,
do not disgrace the throne
of thy glory:
remember,
break
not thy covenant
with us.
Are there
any
among the vanities
of the Gentiles
that can cause rain?
or can
the heavens
give showers?
art not thou he,
O LORD our God?
therefore we
will wait
upon thee:
for thou
hast made all
these things.
Then said
the LORD
unto me, Though Moses
and Samuel
stood
before me,
yet my mind
could not be toward
this people:
cast them
out of my sight,
and let them
go forth.
And it
shall come
to pass,
if they
say unto thee,
Whither
shall
we go forth?
then
thou shalt tell them,
Thus saith the LORD;
Such as
are for death,
to death;
and such as are
for the sword,
to the sword;
and such as are
for the famine,
to the famine;
and such as are
for the captivity,
to the captivity.
And
I will appoint
over them four kinds,
saith the LORD:
the sword
to slay,
and the dogs
to tear,
and the fowls
of the heaven,
and the beasts
of the earth,
to devour
and destroy.
And
I will cause them
to be removed
into all kingdoms
of the earth,
because
of Manasseh the son
of Hezekiah king
of Judah,
for that
which he
did in Jerusalem.
For who
shall have
pity upon thee,
O Jerusalem?
or who
shall bemoan thee?
or who
shall go aside
to ask how thou doest?
Thou hast forsaken me,
saith the LORD,
thou art
gone backward:
therefore will
I stretch out
my hand
against thee,
and destroy thee;
I am
weary
with repenting.
And
I will fan them
with a fan
in the gates
of the land;
I will bereave them
of children,
I will destroy
my people
since they
return not
from their ways.
Their widows
are increased
to me above
the sand
of the seas:
I have brought
upon them
against the mother
of the young men
a spoiler
at noonday:
I have caused him
to fall upon it
suddenly,
and terrors
upon the city.
She that
hath borne seven
languisheth:
she hath given up
the ghost;
her sun
is gone down
while it
was yet day:
she hath been
ashamed
and confounded:
and the residue
of them will
I deliver
to the sword
before their enemies,
saith the LORD.
Woe is me,
my mother,
that thou
hast borne me a man
of strife
and a man
of contention
to the whole earth!
I have neither lent
on usury,
nor men
have lent to me
on usury;
yet every one
of them doth curse me.
The LORD said,
Verily it
shall be well
with thy remnant;
verily
I will cause
the enemy
to entreat thee
well in the time
of evil
and in the time
of affliction.
Shall iron
break the northern iron
and the steel?
Thy substance and thy
treasures
will
I give
to the spoil
without price,
and
that for all
thy sins,
even in all thy borders.
And
I will make thee
to pass
with thine enemies
into a land which
thou knowest not:
for a fire
is kindled
in mine anger,
which shall burn
upon you.
O LORD,
thou knowest:
remember me,
and visit me,
and revenge me
of my persecutors;
take me not
away in thy longsuffering:
know that
for thy sake
I have suffered rebuke.
Thy words
were found,
and
I did eat them;
and thy
word
was unto me the joy
and rejoicing
of mine heart:
for I
am called
by thy name,
O LORD God
of hosts.
I sat not
in the assembly of the mockers,
nor rejoiced;
I sat alone
because of thy hand:
for thou
hast filled me
with indignation.
Why is my pain perpetual,
and my wound incurable,
which refuseth
to be healed?
wilt
thou be altogether
unto me
as a liar,
and as waters
that fail?
Therefore thus
saith the LORD,
If thou return,
then will
I bring thee again,
and
thou shalt stand
before me:
and
if thou
take
forth the precious
from the vile,
thou shalt be
as my mouth:
let them
return unto thee;
but return not
thou
unto them.
And
I will make thee
unto this people
a fenced
brasen wall:
and
they shall fight
against thee,
but
they shall not prevail
against thee:
for I
am with thee
to save thee
and
to deliver thee,
saith the LORD.
And
I will deliver thee
out of the hand
of the wicked,
and
I will redeem thee
out of the hand
of the terrible.
The word
of the LORD
came also unto me,
saying,
Thou shalt not take thee
a wife,
neither shalt
thou have sons
or daughters
in this place.
For thus
saith
the LORD
concerning the sons
and
concerning
the daughters
that are born
in this place,
and concerning their mothers
that bare them,
and concerning their fathers
that begat them
in this land;
They shall die
of grievous deaths;
they shall not be lamented;
neither shall
they be buried;
but
they shall be as dung
upon the face
of the earth:
and
they shall be consumed
by the sword,
and by famine;
and their carcases
shall be meat
for the fowls
of heaven,
and
for the beasts
of the earth.
For thus
saith the LORD,
Enter
not into the house
of mourning,
neither go
to lament nor
bemoan them:
for I
have taken away my peace
from this people,
saith the LORD,
even lovingkindness
and mercies.
Both the great
and the small
shall die
in this land:
they shall not be buried,
neither shall men
lament for them,
nor cut themselves,
nor make themselves bald
for them:
Neither shall men
tear themselves
for them
in mourning,
to comfort them
for the dead;
neither shall men
give them the cup
of consolation
to drink
for their father
or for their mother.
Thou shalt not also go
into the house
of feasting,
to sit
with them to eat
and to drink.
For thus
saith the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Behold,
I will cause
to cease
out of this place
in 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.
And it
shall come
to pass,
when
thou shalt shew
this people all these words,
and
they shall say
unto thee,
Wherefore
hath
the LORD
pronounced all
this great evil
against us?
or what
is our iniquity?
or what
is our sin
that we
have committed
against the LORD
our God?
Then shalt
thou
say unto them,
Because your fathers
have forsaken me,
saith the LORD,
and have walked
after other gods,
and have served them,
and have worshipped them,
and have forsaken me,
and have not kept
my law;
And
ye have done worse
than your fathers;
for,
behold,
ye walk every one
after the imagination
of his evil heart,
that they
may not hearken unto me:
Therefore will
I cast you
out of this land
into a land
that ye
know not,
neither ye
nor your fathers;
and there shall
ye serve other gods
day and night;
where I
will not shew
you favour.
Therefore,
behold,
the days come,
saith the LORD,
that it
shall no more
be said,
The LORD liveth,
that brought
up the children
of Israel
out of the land
of Egypt;
But,
The LORD liveth,
that brought
up the children
of Israel
from the land
of the north,
and
from all the lands
whither
he had driven them:
and
I will bring them again
into their land
that I
gave unto their fathers.
Behold,
I will send
for many fishers,
saith the LORD,
and
they shall fish them;
and
after will
I send
for many hunters,
and
they shall hunt them
from every mountain,
and
from every hill,
and out of the holes
of the rocks.
For mine
eyes
are upon all
their ways:
they are not
hid from my face,
neither is
their iniquity
hid from mine eyes.
And first
I will recompense
their iniquity
and their sin double;
because
they have defiled
my land,
they have filled
mine inheritance
with the carcases
of their detestable
and abominable things.
O LORD,
my strength,
and my fortress,
and my refuge
in the day
of affliction,
the Gentiles
shall come
unto thee
from the ends
of the earth,
and shall say,
Surely
our fathers have inherited lies,
vanity,
and things
wherein there is
no profit.
Shall a man
make gods
unto himself,
and they
are no gods?
Therefore,
behold,
I will
this once cause them
to know,
I will cause them
to know
mine hand
and my might;
and they
shall know
that my name
is The LORD.
The sin
of Judah
is written
with a pen
of iron,
and
with the point
of a diamond:
it is graven
upon the table
of their heart,
and
upon the horns
of your altars;
Whilst their children
remember
their altars
and their groves
by the green trees
upon the high hills.
O my mountain
in the field,
I will give
thy substance
and all thy
treasures
to the spoil,
and thy high places
for sin,
throughout all
thy borders.
And thou,
even thyself,
shalt discontinue
from thine heritage
that I
gave thee;
and I
will cause
thee to serve
thine enemies
in the land which
thou knowest not:
for ye
have kindled a fire
in mine anger,
which shall burn
for ever.
Thus saith the LORD;
Cursed
be the man
that trusteth in man,
and maketh flesh his arm,
and whose heart
departeth from the LORD.
For he
shall be like
the heath
in the desert,
and shall not see
when good cometh;
but shall inhabit
the parched
places
in the wilderness,
in a salt land
and not inhabited.
Blessed is the man
that trusteth in the LORD,
and whose hope
the LORD is.
For he
shall be as a tree planted
by the waters,
and that
spreadeth out her roots
by the river,
and shall not see
when heat cometh,
but her leaf
shall be green;
and shall not be careful
in the year
of drought,
neither shall cease
from yielding fruit.
The heart
is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked:
who can know it?
I the LORD
search
the heart,
I try the reins,
even
to give every man
according to his ways,
and
according to
the fruit
of his doings.
As the partridge
sitteth on eggs,
and hatcheth them not;
so he
that getteth riches,
and not by right,
shall leave them
in the midst
of his days,
and at his end
shall be
a fool.
A glorious high throne
from the beginning
is the place
of our sanctuary.
O LORD,
the hope
of Israel,
all that
forsake thee
shall be ashamed,
and
they that
depart
from me
shall be written
in the earth,
because
they have forsaken
the LORD,
the fountain
of living waters.
Heal me,
O LORD,
and
I shall be healed;
save me,
and
I shall be saved:
for thou art
my praise.
Behold,
they say unto me,
Where is the word
of the LORD?
let it come now.
As for me,
I have not hastened
from being
a pastor
to follow thee:
neither have
I desired
the woeful day;
thou knowest:
that which
came
out of my lips
was right before thee.
Be not a terror
unto me:
thou art
my hope
in the day
of evil.
Let them
be confounded
that persecute me,
but let not me
be confounded:
let them
be dismayed,
but let not me
be dismayed:
bring
upon them the day
of evil,
and destroy them
with double destruction.
Thus said the LORD
unto me;
Go and stand
in the gate
of the children
of the people,
whereby the kings
of Judah come in,
and by the which
they go out,
and
in all the gates
of Jerusalem;
And
say unto them,
Hear
ye the word
of the LORD,
ye kings
of Judah,
and all Judah,
and all
the inhabitants
of Jerusalem,
that enter in
by these gates:
Thus saith the LORD;
Take heed
to yourselves,
and bear no
burden
on the sabbath day,
nor bring it in
by the gates
of Jerusalem;
Neither carry
forth a burden
out of your houses
on the sabbath day,
neither do
ye any work,
but hallow
ye the sabbath day,
as I commanded
your fathers.
But
they obeyed not,
neither inclined
their ear,
but made
their neck stiff,
that they
might not hear,
nor receive
instruction.
And it
shall come
to pass,
if ye
diligently hearken unto me,
saith the LORD,
to bring in
no burden
through the gates
of this city
on the sabbath day,
but hallow
the sabbath day,
to do
no work therein;
Then shall there enter
into the gates
of this city kings
and princes
sitting
upon 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 remain
for ever.
And
they shall come
from the cities
of Judah,
and
from the places
about Jerusalem,
and from the land
of Benjamin,
and
from the plain,
and
from the mountains,
and
from the south,
bringing
burnt offerings,
and sacrifices,
and meat offerings,
and incense,
and bringing
sacrifices
of praise,
unto the house
of the LORD.
But
if ye
will not hearken
unto me to hallow the sabbath day,
and not
to bear a burden,
even entering in
at the gates
of Jerusalem
on the sabbath day;
then will
I kindle
a fire
in the gates
thereof,
and it
shall devour
the palaces
of Jerusalem,
and it
shall not be quenched.
The word which
came to Jeremiah
from the LORD,
saying,
Arise,
and go down
to the potter's house,
and there
I will cause thee
to hear my words.
Then I
went down
to the potter's house,
and,
behold,
he wrought a work
on the wheels.
And the vessel
that he
made
of clay
was marred
in the hand
of the potter:
so he
made it
again
another vessel,
as seemed good
to the potter
to make it.
Then
the word
of the LORD
came to me,
saying,
O house
of Israel,
cannot
I do with you
as this potter?
saith the LORD.
Behold,
as the clay
is in the potter's hand,
so are
ye in mine hand,
O house
of Israel.
At what instant
I shall speak concerning
a nation,
and concerning
a kingdom,
to pluck up,
and to pull down,
and to destroy it;
If that nation,
against whom
I have pronounced,
turn
from their evil,
I will repent
of the evil
that I
thought
to do unto them.
And at what instant
I shall speak concerning
a nation,
and concerning
a kingdom,
to build
and to plant it;
If it
do evil
in my sight,
that it
obey not
my voice,
then
I will repent
of the good,
wherewith
I said
I would benefit them.
Now therefore go to,
speak to the men
of Judah,
and
to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem,
saying,
Thus saith the LORD;
Behold,
I frame evil
against you,
and devise
a device
against you:
return
ye now every one
from his evil way,
and make
your ways
and your doings good.
And they said,
There
is
no hope:
but we
will walk
after our own devices,
and
we will every one
do the imagination
of his evil heart.
Therefore thus
saith the LORD;
Ask
ye now among the heathen,
who hath heard
such things:
the virgin
of Israel
hath done
a very horrible thing.
Will a man
leave the snow
of Lebanon
which cometh from the rock
of the field?
or shall
the cold flowing
waters that
come
from another place
be forsaken?
Because
my people
hath forgotten me,
they have burned
incense
to vanity,
and
they have caused them
to stumble
in their ways
from the ancient paths,
to walk in paths,
in a way not cast up;
To make
their land desolate,
and a perpetual hissing;
every one that passeth
thereby shall be astonished,
and wag
his head.
I will scatter
them as
with an east wind
before the enemy;
I will shew them
the back,
and not
the face,
in the day
of their calamity.
Then said they,
Come and let us
devise devices
against Jeremiah;
for the law
shall not perish
from the priest,
nor counsel
from the wise,
nor the word
from the prophet.
Come,
and let us
smite him
with the tongue,
and let us
not give
heed to any
of his words.
Give heed to me,
O LORD,
and hearken
to the voice
of them that
contend with me.
Shall
evil be recompensed
for good?
for they
have digged a pit
for my soul.
Remember that
I stood
before thee
to speak good
for them,
and
to turn away thy wrath
from them.
Therefore deliver
up their children
to the famine,
and pour
out their blood
by the force
of the sword;
and let
their wives
be bereaved
of their children,
and be widows;
and let
their men
be put to death;
let their young men
be slain
by the sword
in battle.
Let a cry
be heard
from their houses,
when
thou shalt bring
a troop
suddenly upon them:
for they
have digged a pit
to take me,
and hid
snares for my feet.
Yet,
LORD,
thou knowest all
their counsel
against me to slay me:
forgive not
their iniquity,
neither blot
out their sin
from thy sight,
but let them
be overthrown
before thee;
deal thus
with them
in the time
of thine anger.
Thus saith the LORD,
Go and get
a potter's earthen bottle,
and take
of the ancients
of the people,
and
of the ancients
of the priests;
And go forth
unto the valley
of the son
of Hinnom,
which is by the entry
of the east gate,
and proclaim there
the words
that I
shall tell thee,
And say,
Hear
ye the word
of the LORD,
O kings of Judah,
and inhabitants
of Jerusalem;
Thus saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Behold,
I will bring evil
upon this place,
the which whosoever heareth,
his ears
shall tingle.
Because
they have forsaken me,
and have estranged
this place,
and have burned
incense in it
unto other gods,
whom neither
they nor
their fathers
have known,
nor the kings
of Judah,
and have filled
this place
with the blood
of innocents;
They have built also
the high places
of Baal,
to burn their sons
with fire
for burnt offerings
unto Baal,
which I
commanded not,
nor spake it,
neither came
it into my mind:
Therefore,
behold,
the days come,
saith the LORD,
that this place
shall no more
be called Tophet,
nor The valley
of the son
of Hinnom,
but The valley
of slaughter.
And
I will make void
the counsel
of Judah
and Jerusalem
in this place;
and
I will cause them to fall
by the sword
before their enemies,
and
by the hands
of them that
seek their lives:
and their carcases
will
I give
to be meat
for the fowls
of the heaven,
and
for the beasts
of the earth.
And I
will make
this city desolate,
and an hissing;
every one that passeth
thereby shall be astonished
and hiss
because
of all the plagues
thereof.
And
I will cause them
to eat
the flesh
of their sons
and the flesh
of their daughters,
and
they shall eat every one
the flesh
of his friend
in the siege
and straitness,
wherewith their enemies,
and
they that
seek
their lives,
shall straiten them.
Then shalt thou
break the bottle
in the sight
of the men
that go
with thee,
And
shalt say unto them,
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts;
Even so
will
I break
this people and this city,
as one
breaketh a potter's vessel,
that cannot be made whole again:
and
they shall bury them
in Tophet,
till there be
no place
to bury.
Thus
will
I do
unto this place,
saith the LORD,
and
to the inhabitants
thereof,
and even make
this city
as Tophet:
And the houses
of Jerusalem,
and the houses
of the kings
of Judah,
shall be defiled
as the place
of Tophet,
because
of all the houses
upon whose roofs
they have burned
incense
unto all
the host
of heaven,
and have poured
out drink offerings
unto other gods.
Then came Jeremiah
from Tophet,
whither
the LORD
had sent him
to prophesy;
and he
stood
in the court
of the LORD's house;
and said
to all the people,
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Behold,
I will bring
upon this city
and
upon all
her towns all
the evil that
I have pronounced
against it,
because
they have hardened
their necks,
that they
might not hear
my words.
Now Pashur
the son
of Immer the priest,
who was also chief governor
in the house
of the LORD,
heard
that Jeremiah
prophesied
these things.
Then Pashur
smote Jeremiah
the prophet,
and put him
in the stocks
that were in the high gate
of Benjamin,
which was by the house
of the LORD.
And it
came
to pass
on the morrow,
that Pashur
brought forth Jeremiah
out of the stocks.
Then said
Jeremiah
unto him,
The LORD
hath not called thy
name Pashur,
but Magormissabib.
For thus
saith the LORD, Behold,
I will make thee
a terror
to thyself,
and
to all thy friends:
and
they shall fall
by the sword
of their enemies,
and thine
eyes
shall behold it:
and
I will give all Judah
into the hand
of the king
of Babylon,
and
he shall carry them captive
into Babylon,
and shall slay them
with the sword.
Moreover I
will deliver all
the strength
of this city,
and all
the labours
thereof,
and all
the precious things
thereof,
and all
the treasures
of the kings
of Judah
will
I give
into the hand
of their enemies,
which shall spoil them,
and take them,
and carry them
to Babylon.
And thou,
Pashur,
and all that
dwell
in thine
house
shall go
into captivity:
and
thou shalt come
to Babylon,
and there
thou shalt die,
and shalt be buried there,
thou,
and all thy friends,
to whom
thou hast prophesied lies.
O LORD,
thou hast deceived me,
and
I was deceived;
thou art stronger
than I,
and hast prevailed:
I am in derision daily,
every one
mocketh me.
For since
I spake,
I cried out,
I cried violence
and spoil;
because
the word
of the LORD
was made a reproach
unto me,
and a derision,
daily.
Then I said,
I will not make
mention of him,
nor speak any more
in his name.
But his word
was in mine heart
as a burning fire shut up
in my bones,
and
I was
weary
with forbearing,
and
I could not stay.
For I heard
the defaming
of many,
fear
on every side.
Report,
say they,
and
we will report it.
All my familiars watched
for my halting,
saying,
Peradventure
he will be enticed,
and
we shall prevail against him,
and we
shall take
our revenge
on him.
But the LORD
is with me
as a mighty terrible one:
therefore my persecutors
shall stumble,
and
they shall not prevail:
they shall be greatly ashamed;
for they shall not prosper:
their everlasting confusion
shall never be forgotten.
But,
O LORD of hosts,
that triest the righteous,
and seest
the reins
and the heart,
let me
see thy vengeance
on them:
for unto thee
have
I opened
my cause.
Sing
unto the LORD,
praise
ye the LORD:
for he
hath delivered the soul
of the poor
from the hand
of evildoers.
Cursed
be
the day
wherein I
was born:
let not the day
wherein my mother
bare me
be blessed.
Cursed
be
the man
who brought tidings
to my father,
saying,
A man child
is born
unto thee;
making him very glad.
And let
that man
be as the cities
which the LORD overthrew,
and repented not:
and let him
hear the cry
in the morning,
and the shouting
at noontide;
Because
he slew me not
from the womb;
or that
my mother
might have been
my grave,
and her womb
to be always great
with me.
Wherefore came
I forth
out of the womb
to see
labour
and sorrow,
that my days
should be consumed
with shame?
The word which
came
unto Jeremiah
from the LORD,
when
king Zedekiah
sent
unto him Pashur
the son
of Melchiah,
and Zephaniah
the son
of Maaseiah the priest,
saying,
Enquire,
I pray thee,
of the LORD
for us;
for Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon
maketh
war against us;
if so
be that
the LORD
will deal with us according to all
his wondrous works,
that he
may go up from us.
Then said
Jeremiah unto them, Thus
shall
ye say
to Zedekiah:
Thus
saith
the LORD God
of Israel;
Behold,
I will turn
back the weapons
of war
that are in your hands,
wherewith
ye fight
against the king
of Babylon,
and
against the Chaldeans,
which besiege you
without the walls,
and
I will assemble them
into the midst
of this city.
And I myself
will fight
against you
with an outstretched hand
and with a strong arm,
even in anger,
and in fury,
and
in great wrath.
And I
will smite
the inhabitants
of this city,
both man
and beast:
they shall die
of a great pestilence.
And afterward,
saith the LORD,
I will deliver Zedekiah king
of Judah,
and his servants,
and the people,
and such as are left
in this city
from the pestilence,
from the sword,
and
from the famine,
into the hand
of Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon,
and into the hand
of their enemies,
and
into the hand
of those
that seek
their life:
and
he shall smite them
with the edge
of the sword;
he shall not spare them,
neither have pity,
nor have mercy.
And unto this people
thou shalt say,
Thus saith the LORD;
Behold,
I set
before you
the way of life,
and the way
of death.
He that abideth
in this city
shall die
by the sword,
and
by the famine,
and
by the pestilence:
but
he that
goeth out,
and falleth to the Chaldeans
that besiege you,
he shall live,
and his life
shall be
unto him
for a prey.
For I
have set my face
against this city
for evil,
and not for good,
saith the LORD:
it shall be given
into the hand
of the king
of Babylon,
and
he shall burn it
with fire.
And touching
the house
of the king
of Judah,
say,
Hear
ye the word
of the LORD;
O house of David,
thus saith the LORD;
Execute judgment
in the morning,
and deliver him
that is spoiled
out of the hand
of the oppressor,
lest my fury
go out like fire,
and burn
that none
can quench it,
because
of the evil
of your doings.
Behold,
I am against thee,
O inhabitant
of the valley,
and rock
of the plain,
saith the LORD;
which say,
Who shall come down
against us?
or who
shall enter
into our habitations?
But
I will punish you
according to
the fruit
of your doings,
saith the LORD:
and I
will kindle
a fire
in the forest
thereof,
and it
shall devour all things round
about it.
Thus saith the LORD;
Go down
to the house
of the king
of Judah,
and speak there
this word,
And say,
Hear the word
of the LORD,
O king of Judah,
that sittest upon the throne
of David,
thou,
and thy servants,
and thy people that
enter in
by these gates:
Thus saith the LORD;
Execute
ye judgment
and righteousness,
and deliver
the spoiled
out of the hand
of the oppressor:
and do
no wrong,
do no violence
to the stranger,
the fatherless,
nor the widow,
neither shed
innocent blood
in this place.
For if ye
do
this thing indeed,
then shall there enter in
by the gates
of this house
kings
sitting
upon the throne
of David,
riding in chariots and on horses,
he,
and his servants,
and his people.
But
if ye
will not hear
these words,
I swear
by myself,
saith the LORD,
that this house
shall become
a desolation.
For thus
saith the LORD
unto the king's house
of Judah;
Thou art Gilead
unto me,
and the head
of Lebanon:
yet surely
I will make thee
a wilderness,
and cities which
are not inhabited.
And
I will prepare destroyers
against thee,
every one
with his weapons:
and
they shall cut down
thy choice cedars,
and cast them
into the fire.
And many nations
shall pass
by this city,
and
they shall say every man
to his neighbour,
Wherefore
hath
the LORD done thus
unto this great city?
Then
they shall answer,
Because
they have forsaken
the covenant
of the LORD their God,
and worshipped
other gods,
and served them.
Weep
ye not for the dead,
neither bemoan him:
but weep sore
for him that
goeth away:
for he
shall return
no more,
nor see
his native country.
For thus
saith the LORD
touching Shallum
the son
of Josiah king
of Judah,
which reigned instead
of Josiah his father,
which went forth
out of this place;
He shall not return
thither any more:
But he
shall die
in the place
whither
they have led him captive,
and shall see
this land no more.
Woe unto him that
buildeth
his house
by unrighteousness,
and his chambers
by wrong;
that useth
his neighbour's service
without wages,
and giveth him not
for his work;
That saith,
I will build me
a wide house
and large chambers,
and cutteth him
out windows;
and it
is cieled
with cedar,
and painted
with vermilion.
Shalt thou reign,
because
thou closest thyself
in cedar?
did not
thy father
eat and drink,
and do judgment
and justice,
and
then it
was well with him?
He judged the cause
of the poor
and needy;
then it
was well with him:
was not
this to know me?
saith the LORD.
But thine
eyes
and thine heart
are not
but for thy covetousness,
and for to shed innocent blood,
and
for oppression,
and for violence,
to do it.
Therefore thus
saith the LORD
concerning Jehoiakim the son
of Josiah 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 glory!
He shall be buried
with the burial
of an ass,
drawn
and cast forth
beyond the gates
of Jerusalem.
Go up to Lebanon,
and cry;
and lift up thy
voice in Bashan,
and cry
from the passages:
for all
thy lovers
are destroyed.
I spake unto thee
in thy prosperity;
but thou saidst,
I will not hear.
This hath been
thy manner
from thy youth,
that thou
obeyedst not
my voice.
The wind
shall eat
up all thy pastors,
and thy lovers
shall go
into captivity:
surely
then shalt
thou be
ashamed
and confounded
for all thy wickedness.
O inhabitant
of Lebanon,
that makest
thy nest
in the cedars,
how gracious
shalt thou
be when pangs come upon thee,
the pain as
of a woman
in travail!
As I live,
saith the LORD,
though Coniah
the son
of Jehoiakim king
of Judah
were the signet
upon my right hand,
yet would
I pluck thee
thence;
And I
will give
thee into the hand
of them that
seek
thy life,
and
into the hand
of them whose face
thou fearest,
even into the hand
of Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon,
and into the hand
of the Chaldeans.
And
I will cast thee out,
and thy
mother
that bare thee,
into another country,
where ye
were not born;
and there shall
ye die.
But to the land whereunto
they desire
to return,
thither
shall
they not return.
Is this man
Coniah a
despised
broken idol?
is he
a vessel
wherein is
no pleasure?
wherefore are
they cast out,
he and his seed,
and are cast
into a land
which they
know not?
O earth,
earth,
earth,
hear the word
of the LORD.
Thus saith the LORD,
Write
ye this man childless,
a man
that shall not prosper
in his days:
for no man
of his seed
shall prosper,
sitting upon the throne of David,
and ruling any more
in Judah.
Woe be
unto the pastors
that destroy
and scatter
the sheep
of my pasture!
saith the LORD.
Therefore thus
saith the LORD God
of Israel
against the pastors that feed
my people;
Ye have scattered
my flock,
and driven them away,
and have not visited them:
behold,
I will visit
upon you
the evil
of your doings,
saith the LORD.
And I
will gather
the remnant
of my flock
out of all countries
whither
I have driven them,
and will bring them again
to their folds;
and
they shall be fruitful
and increase.
And
I will set up shepherds
over them which
shall feed them:
and
they shall fear
no more,
nor be dismayed,
neither shall
they be lacking,
saith the LORD.
Behold,
the days come,
saith the LORD,
that I
will raise
unto David
a righteous Branch,
and a King
shall reign and
prosper,
and shall execute judgment
and justice
in the earth.
In his days Judah
shall be saved,
and Israel
shall dwell safely:
and this
is
his name
whereby
he shall be called,
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Therefore,
behold,
the days come,
saith the LORD,
that they
shall no more
say,
The LORD liveth,
which brought
up the children
of Israel
out of the land
of Egypt;
But,
The LORD liveth,
which brought
up and which led
the seed
of the house
of Israel
out of the north country,
and
from all countries
whither
I had driven them;
and
they shall dwell
in their own land.
Mine heart
within me is broken
because
of the prophets;
all my bones shake;
I am like
a drunken man,
and like a man
whom wine
hath overcome,
because
of the LORD,
and
because
of the words
of his holiness.
For the land
is full of adulterers;
for because
of swearing
the land mourneth;
the pleasant places
of the wilderness
are dried up,
and their course
is evil,
and their force
is not right.
For both prophet
and priest
are profane;
yea,
in my house
have
I found
their wickedness,
saith the LORD.
Wherefore
their way
shall be
unto them
as slippery ways
in the darkness:
they shall be driven on,
and fall therein:
for I
will bring evil
upon them,
even the year
of their visitation,
saith the LORD.
And
I have seen folly
in the prophets
of Samaria;
they prophesied
in Baal,
and caused
my people Israel
to err.
I have seen also
in the prophets
of Jerusalem
an horrible thing:
they commit
adultery,
and walk in lies:
they strengthen also
the hands
of evildoers,
that none
doth return
from his wickedness;
they are
all of them
unto me
as Sodom,
and the inhabitants
thereof as Gomorrah.
Therefore thus
saith
the LORD of hosts
concerning
the prophets;
Behold,
I will feed them
with wormwood,
and make them
drink the water
of gall:
for from the prophets
of Jerusalem
is
profaneness
gone forth
into all the land.
Thus saith
the LORD
of hosts,
Hearken
not unto the words
of the prophets
that prophesy
unto you:
they make
you vain:
they speak
a vision
of their own heart,
and
not out of the mouth
of the LORD.
They say still
unto them that
despise me,
The LORD
hath said,
Ye shall have peace;
and
they say
unto every one
that walketh after the imagination
of his own heart,
No evil
shall come upon you.
For who hath stood
in the counsel
of the LORD,
and hath perceived
and heard
his word?
who hath marked
his word,
and heard it?
Behold,
a whirlwind
of the LORD
is gone forth
in fury,
even a grievous whirlwind:
it shall fall grievously
upon the head
of the wicked.
The anger
of the LORD
shall not return,
until he
have executed,
and
till he
have performed the thoughts
of his heart:
in the latter days
ye shall consider it perfectly.
I have not sent
these prophets,
yet they ran:
I have not spoken
to them,
yet
they prophesied.
But
if they
had stood
in my counsel,
and had caused
my people
to hear my words,
then
they should have turned them
from their evil way,
and from the evil
of their doings.
Am I
a God at hand,
saith the LORD,
and not
a God
afar off?
Can any
hide himself
in secret
places
that I
shall not see him?
saith the LORD.
Do not
I fill heaven
and earth?
saith the LORD.
I have heard
what the prophets said,
that prophesy
lies in my name,
saying,
I have dreamed,
I have dreamed.
How long
shall this
be in the heart
of the prophets
that prophesy lies?
yea,
they are prophets
of the deceit
of their own heart;
Which think
to cause
my people
to forget my name
by their dreams
which they
tell every man
to his neighbour,
as their fathers
have forgotten my name
for Baal.
The prophet that
hath a dream,
let him
tell a dream;
and he that
hath my word,
let him
speak
my word faithfully.
What is the chaff
to the wheat?
saith the LORD.
Is not
my word like
as a fire?
saith the LORD;
and like
a hammer
that breaketh
the rock
in pieces?
Therefore,
behold,
I am against the prophets,
saith the LORD,
that steal my words
every one
from his neighbour.
Behold,
I am against the prophets,
saith the LORD,
that use their tongues,
and say,
He saith.
Behold,
I am against them that prophesy false dreams,
saith the LORD,
and do tell them,
and cause
my people
to err
by their lies,
and
by their lightness;
yet
I sent them not,
nor commanded them:
therefore they
shall not profit
this people
at all,
saith the LORD.
And
when this people,
or the prophet,
or a priest,
shall ask thee,
saying,
What is the burden
of the LORD?
thou shalt
then
say unto them,
What burden?
I will even forsake you,
saith the LORD.
And
as for the prophet,
and the priest,
and the people,
that shall say,
The burden
of the LORD,
I will even punish
that man
and his house.
Thus
shall
ye say every one
to his neighbour,
and every one
to his brother,
What
hath
the LORD answered?
and,
What hath
the LORD spoken?
And
the burden
of the LORD
shall
ye mention no more:
for every man's word
shall be
his burden;
for ye
have perverted the words
of the living God,
of the LORD
of hosts our God.
Thus shalt thou
say
to the prophet,
What
hath
the LORD answered thee?
and,
What hath
the LORD spoken?
But since
ye say,
The burden
of the LORD;
therefore thus
saith the LORD;
Because
ye say this word,
The burden
of the LORD,
and
I have sent
unto you,
saying,
Ye shall not say,
The burden
of the LORD;
Therefore,
behold,
I,
even I,
will utterly forget you,
and
I will forsake you,
and the city that
I gave you
and your fathers,
and cast you
out of my presence:
And I
will bring
an everlasting reproach
upon you,
and a perpetual shame,
which shall not be forgotten.
The LORD
shewed me,
and,
behold,
two baskets
of figs
were set before the temple
of the LORD,
after that Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon
had carried away
captive Jeconiah the son
of Jehoiakim king
of Judah,
and the princes
of Judah,
with the carpenters
and smiths,
from Jerusalem,
and had brought them
to Babylon.
One basket
had very good figs,
even like
the figs
that are first ripe:
and the other basket
had very naughty figs,
which could not be eaten,
they were so bad.
Then said
the LORD
unto me, What
seest thou,
Jeremiah?
And I said,
Figs;
the good figs,
very good;
and the evil,
very evil,
that cannot be eaten,
they are so evil.
Again
the word
of the LORD
came unto me,
saying,
Thus saith the LORD,
the God
of Israel;
Like these good figs,
so will
I acknowledge them that
are carried away captive
of Judah,
whom
I have sent
out of this place
into the land
of the Chaldeans
for their good.
For I
will set
mine
eyes
upon them
for good,
and
I will bring them again
to this land:
and
I will build them,
and
not pull them down;
and
I will plant them,
and
not pluck them up.
And
I will give them
an heart
to know me,
that I
am the LORD:
and
they shall be
my people,
and
I will be
their God:
for they
shall return
unto me
with their whole heart.
And
as the evil figs,
which cannot be eaten,
they are so evil;
surely thus
saith the LORD,
So will
I give Zedekiah
the king
of Judah,
and his princes,
and the residue
of Jerusalem,
that remain
in this land,
and them that
dwell
in the land
of Egypt:
And
I will deliver them
to be removed
into all
the kingdoms
of the earth
for their hurt,
to be a reproach
and a proverb,
a taunt
and a curse,
in all places whither
I shall drive them.
And
I will send
the sword,
the famine,
and the pestilence,
among them,
till they
be consumed from
off the land
that
I gave unto them
and
to their fathers.
The word that
came
to Jeremiah
concerning all the people
of Judah
in the fourth year
of Jehoiakim the son
of Josiah king
of Judah,
that was
the first year
of Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon;
The which Jeremiah
the prophet
spake unto all
the people
of Judah,
and
to all the inhabitants
of Jerusalem,
saying,
From the thirteenth year
of Josiah the son
of Amon king
of Judah,
even unto
this day,
that is
the three
and twentieth year,
the word
of the LORD
hath come unto me,
and
I have spoken
unto you,
rising early
and speaking;
but
ye have not hearkened.
And the LORD
hath sent
unto you all
his servants the prophets,
rising early
and sending them;
but
ye have not hearkened,
nor inclined
your ear
to hear.
They said,
Turn
ye again now
every one
from his evil way,
and from the evil
of your doings,
and dwell
in the land
that the LORD
hath given
unto you
and to your fathers
for ever
and ever:
And go not
after other gods
to serve them,
and
to worship them,
and provoke me not
to anger
with the works
of your hands;
and I
will do
you no hurt.
Yet
ye have not hearkened unto me,
saith the LORD;
that ye
might provoke me
to anger
with the works
of your hands
to your own hurt.
Therefore thus
saith the LORD
of hosts;
Because
ye have not heard
my words,
Behold,
I will send
and take all
the families
of the north,
saith the LORD,
and Nebuchadrezzar
the king
of Babylon,
my servant,
and will bring them
against this land,
and
against the inhabitants
thereof,
and
against all
these nations round about,
and will utterly destroy them,
and make them
an astonishment,
and an hissing,
and perpetual desolations.
Moreover I
will take
from them the voice
of mirth,
and the voice
of gladness,
the voice
of the bridegroom,
and the voice
of the bride,
the sound
of the millstones,
and the light
of the candle.
And this whole land
shall be
a desolation,
and an astonishment;
and these nations
shall serve
the king
of Babylon seventy years.
And it
shall come
to pass,
when seventy years
are accomplished,
that I
will punish
the king
of Babylon,
and that nation,
saith the LORD,
for their iniquity,
and the land
of the Chaldeans,
and will make
it perpetual desolations.
And I
will bring
upon that land all
my words
which I
have pronounced
against it,
even all that is written
in this book,
which Jeremiah
hath prophesied
against all the nations.
For many nations
and great kings
shall serve themselves
of them also:
and
I will recompense them according to
their deeds,
and
according to the works
of their own hands.
For thus
saith the LORD God
of Israel
unto me;
Take the wine cup
of this fury
at my hand,
and cause all
the nations,
to whom
I send thee,
to drink it.
And
they shall drink,
and be moved,
and be mad,
because
of the sword
that I
will send among them.
Then took
I the cup
at the LORD's hand,
and made all
the nations
to drink,
unto whom
the LORD
had sent me:
To wit,
Jerusalem,
and the cities
of Judah,
and the kings
thereof,
and the princes
thereof,
to make them a desolation,
an astonishment,
an hissing,
and a curse;
as it is this day;
Pharaoh king
of Egypt,
and his servants,
and his princes,
and all
his people;
And all
the mingled people,
and all
the kings
of the land of Uz,
and all
the kings
of the land
of the Philistines,
and Ashkelon,
and Azzah,
and Ekron,
and the remnant
of Ashdod,
Edom,
and Moab,
and the children
of Ammon,
And all
the kings
of Tyrus,
and all
the kings
of Zidon,
and the kings
of the isles
which are beyond the sea,
Dedan,
and Tema,
and Buz,
and all
that are in the utmost corners,
And all
the kings
of Arabia,
and all
the kings
of the mingled people
that dwell
in the desert,
And all
the kings
of Zimri,
and all
the kings
of Elam,
and all
the kings
of the Medes,
And all
the kings
of the north,
far and near,
one with another,
and all
the kingdoms
of the world,
which are upon the face
of the earth:
and
the king
of Sheshach
shall drink
after them.
Therefore thou
shalt say unto them,
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Drink ye,
and be drunken,
and spue,
and fall,
and rise no more,
because
of the sword
which I
will send
among you.
And it
shall be,
if they
refuse
to take the cup
at thine hand
to drink,
then shalt
thou
say unto them,
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts;
Ye shall certainly drink.
For, lo,
I begin to bring
evil on the city
which is called
by my name,
and should
ye be utterly unpunished?
Ye shall not be unpunished:
for I will call for
a sword
upon all
the inhabitants
of the earth,
saith the LORD
of hosts.
Therefore prophesy
thou against them all these words,
and
say unto them,
The LORD
shall roar from
on high,
and utter
his voice
from his holy habitation;
he shall mightily roar
upon his habitation;
he shall give
a shout,
as they that tread
the grapes,
against all
the inhabitants
of the earth.
A noise
shall come even
to the ends
of the earth;
for the LORD
hath a controversy
with the nations,
he will plead
with all flesh;
he will give them
that are wicked
to the sword,
saith the LORD.
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
Behold,
evil shall go forth
from nation to nation,
and a great whirlwind
shall be raised up
from the coasts
of the earth.
And the slain
of the LORD
shall be
at that day
from one end
of the earth
even unto the other end
of the earth:
they shall not be lamented,
neither gathered,
nor buried;
they shall be dung
upon the ground.
Howl,
ye shepherds,
and cry;
and wallow yourselves
in the ashes,
ye principal
of the flock:
for the days
of your slaughter
and of your dispersions
are accomplished;
and
ye shall fall like
a pleasant vessel.
And the shepherds
shall have no way
to flee,
nor the principal
of the flock
to escape.
A voice
of the cry
of the shepherds,
and an howling
of the principal
of the flock,
shall be heard:
for the LORD
hath spoiled
their pasture.
And the peaceable habitations
are cut down
because
of the fierce anger
of the LORD.
He hath forsaken
his covert,
as the lion:
for their land
is desolate
because
of the fierceness
of the oppressor,
and
because
of his fierce anger.
In the beginning
of the reign
of Jehoiakim the son
of Josiah king
of Judah
came
this word
from the LORD,
saying,
Thus saith the LORD;
Stand
in the court
of the LORD's house,
and speak
unto all
the cities
of Judah,
which come
to worship
in the LORD's house,
all the words that
I command thee
to speak unto them;
diminish not
a word:
If so
be they
will hearken,
and turn every man
from his evil way,
that I
may repent me
of the evil,
which I
purpose to do
unto them
because
of the evil
of their doings.
And
thou
shalt say unto them,
Thus saith the LORD;
If ye
will not hearken to me,
to walk
in my law,
which I
have set
before you,
To hearken to the words
of my servants the prophets,
whom
I sent unto you,
both rising
up early,
and sending them,
but
ye have not hearkened;
Then will
I make
this house like Shiloh,
and will make
this city a curse
to all the nations
of the earth.
So the priests
and the prophets
and all
the people
heard Jeremiah
speaking these words
in the house
of the LORD.
Now it
came
to pass,
when Jeremiah
had made
an end
of speaking all
that the LORD
had commanded him
to speak
unto all
the people,
that the priests
and the prophets
and all
the people
took him,
saying,
Thou shalt surely die.
Why hast
thou prophesied
in the name
of the LORD,
saying,
This house
shall be like Shiloh,
and this city
shall be
desolate
without an inhabitant?
And all
the people
were gathered
against Jeremiah
in the house
of the LORD.
When the princes
of Judah
heard these things,
then
they came up
from the king's house
unto the house
of the LORD,
and sat down
in the entry
of the new gate
of the LORD's house.
Then spake
the priests
and the prophets
unto the princes
and to all the people,
saying,
This man
is worthy to die;
for he
hath prophesied
against this city,
as ye
have heard
with your ears.
Then spake Jeremiah
unto all the princes
and
to all the people,
saying,
The LORD
sent me
to prophesy
against this house
and against this
city all
the words that
ye have heard.
Therefore now amend your ways
and your doings,
and obey
the voice
of the LORD your God;
and the LORD
will repent him
of the evil
that
he hath pronounced
against you.
As for me,
behold,
I am in your hand:
do with me
as seemeth good
and meet
unto you.
But know
ye for certain,
that if
ye put me
to death,
ye shall surely bring
innocent blood
upon yourselves,
and upon this city,
and
upon the inhabitants
thereof:
for of a truth
the LORD
hath sent me
unto you
to speak all these words
in your ears.
Then said
the princes
and all
the people
unto the priests
and to the prophets;
This man
is not worthy
to die:
for he
hath spoken to us
in the name
of the LORD our God.
Then rose
up certain
of the elders
of the land,
and spake to all
the assembly of the people,
saying,
Micah the Morasthite
prophesied
in the days
of Hezekiah king
of Judah,
and spake to all
the people
of Judah,
saying,
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts;
Zion shall be plowed like
a field,
and Jerusalem
shall become heaps,
and the mountain
of the house
as the high places
of a forest.
Did Hezekiah king
of Judah
and all Judah put him at
all to death?
did
he not fear
the LORD,
and besought
the LORD,
and the LORD
repented him
of the evil
which he
had pronounced against them?
Thus
might
we procure great evil
against our souls.
And there was also
a man
that prophesied
in the name
of the LORD,
Urijah the son
of Shemaiah
of Kirjathjearim,
who prophesied
against this city
and
against this land
according to all
the words
of Jeremiah.
And
when Jehoiakim
the king,
with all
his mighty men,
and all
the princes,
heard his words,
the king
sought to
put him to death:
but
when Urijah
heard it,
he was afraid,
and fled,
and went into Egypt;
And Jehoiakim
the king
sent men
into Egypt,
namely,
Elnathan the son
of Achbor,
and certain men
with him
into Egypt.
And they
fetched
forth Urijah
out of Egypt,
and brought him
unto Jehoiakim the king;
who slew him
with the sword,
and cast
his dead body
into the graves
of the common people.
Nevertheless
the hand
of Ahikam
the son
of Shaphan
was with Jeremiah,
that they
should not give him
into the hand
of the people to
put him
to death.
In the beginning
of the reign
of Jehoiakim the son
of Josiah king
of Judah
came
this word
unto Jeremiah
from the LORD,
saying,
Thus
saith
the LORD to me;
Make thee bonds
and yokes,
and put them
upon thy neck,
And send them
to the king
of Edom,
and to the king
of Moab,
and to the king
of the Ammonites,
and to the king
of Tyrus,
and to the king
of Zidon,
by the hand
of the messengers
which come
to Jerusalem
unto Zedekiah king
of Judah;
And command them
to say
unto their masters,
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Thus
shall
ye say
unto your masters;
I have made
the earth,
the man
and the beast that
are upon the ground,
by my great power
and by my outstretched arm,
and have given
it unto whom
it seemed
meet unto me.
And now have
I given all
these lands
into the hand
of Nebuchadnezzar
the king
of Babylon,
my servant;
and
the beasts
of the field
have
I given him also
to serve him.
And all nations
shall serve him,
and his son,
and his son's son,
until the very
time
of his land come:
and
then
many nations
and great kings
shall serve themselves of him.
And it
shall come
to pass,
that the nation
and kingdom which
will not serve
the same Nebuchadnezzar
the king
of Babylon,
and that
will not put
their neck
under the yoke
of the king
of Babylon,
that nation
will
I punish,
saith the LORD,
with the sword,
and
with the famine,
and
with the pestilence,
until I
have consumed them
by his hand.
Therefore hearken not
ye to your prophets,
nor
to your diviners,
nor
to your dreamers,
nor
to your enchanters,
nor
to your sorcerers,
which speak
unto you,
saying,
Ye shall not serve
the king
of Babylon:
For they
prophesy a lie
unto you,
to remove you far
from your land;
and that
I should drive
you out,
and
ye should perish.
But the nations that
bring
their neck
under the yoke
of the king
of Babylon,
and serve him,
those will
I let
remain still
in their own land,
saith the LORD;
and
they shall till it,
and dwell
therein.
I spake also
to Zedekiah king
of Judah
according to all
these words,
saying,
Bring your necks
under the yoke
of the king
of Babylon,
and serve him
and his people,
and live.
Why will
ye die,
thou
and thy people,
by the sword,
by the famine,
and
by the pestilence,
as the LORD
hath spoken
against the nation
that will not serve
the king
of Babylon?
Therefore hearken not
unto the words
of the prophets
that speak
unto you,
saying,
Ye shall not serve
the king
of Babylon:
for they
prophesy a lie
unto you.
For I
have not sent them,
saith the LORD,
yet they
prophesy
a lie
in my name;
that I
might drive
you out,
and
that ye
might perish,
ye,
and the prophets
that prophesy
unto you.
Also I
spake to the priests
and to all
this people,
saying,
Thus saith the LORD;
Hearken
not to the words
of your prophets
that prophesy
unto you,
saying,
Behold,
the vessels
of the LORD's house
shall now shortly be brought again
from Babylon:
for they
prophesy a lie
unto you.
Hearken not unto them;
serve the king
of Babylon,
and live:
wherefore should
this city
be laid waste?
But
if they
be prophets,
and
if the word
of the LORD
be with them,
let them now
make intercession
to the LORD
of hosts,
that the vessels
which are left in the house
of the LORD,
and in the house
of the king
of Judah,
and at Jerusalem,
go not
to Babylon.
For thus
saith
the LORD of hosts
concerning
the pillars,
and concerning
the sea,
and concerning the bases,
and
concerning the residue
of the vessels
that remain
in this city.
Which Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon
took not,
when
he carried away
captive Jeconiah the son
of Jehoiakim king
of Judah
from Jerusalem
to Babylon,
and all
the nobles
of Judah
and Jerusalem;
Yea,
thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel,
concerning
the vessels that
remain
in the house
of the LORD,
and in the house
of the king
of Judah
and of Jerusalem;
They shall be carried
to Babylon,
and there shall
they be until
the day that
I visit them,
saith the LORD;
then will
I bring them up,
and restore them
to this place.
And it
came
to pass
the same year,
in the beginning
of the reign
of Zedekiah king
of Judah,
in the fourth year,
and
in the fifth month,
that Hananiah the son
of Azur the prophet,
which was of Gibeon,
spake unto me
in the house
of the LORD,
in the presence
of the priests
and of all the people,
saying,
Thus
speaketh
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel,
saying,
I have broken
the yoke
of the king
of Babylon.
Within two full years
will
I bring again
into this place
all the vessels
of the LORD's house,
that Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon
took away
from this place,
and carried them
to Babylon:
And
I will bring again
to this place Jeconiah
the son
of Jehoiakim king
of Judah,
with all
the captives
of Judah,
that went into Babylon,
saith the LORD:
for I will break
the yoke
of the king
of Babylon.
Then the prophet Jeremiah
said
unto the prophet Hananiah
in the presence
of the priests,
and
in the presence
of all the people
that stood
in the house
of the LORD,
Even
the prophet Jeremiah said,
Amen:
the LORD
do so:
the LORD
perform thy
words which
thou hast prophesied,
to bring again the vessels
of the LORD's house,
and all that is carried away
captive,
from Babylon
into this place.
Nevertheless hear
thou
now this word that
I speak
in thine ears,
and in the ears
of all the people;
The prophets that
have been
before me and
before thee
of old prophesied both
against many countries,
and
against great kingdoms,
of war,
and of evil,
and
of pestilence.
The prophet which
prophesieth of peace,
when
the word
of the prophet
shall come
to pass,
then shall
the prophet
be known,
that the LORD
hath truly sent him.
Then
Hananiah the prophet
took
the yoke from
off the prophet Jeremiah's neck,
and brake it.
And Hananiah
spake in the presence
of all
the people,
saying,
Thus saith the LORD;
Even so
will
I break
the yoke
of Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon
from the neck
of all nations
within the space
of two full years.
And the prophet Jeremiah
went his way.
Then
the word
of the LORD
came
unto Jeremiah the prophet,
after that Hananiah
the prophet
had broken
the yoke
from off the neck
of the prophet Jeremiah,
saying,
Go and tell Hananiah,
saying,
Thus saith the LORD;
Thou
hast broken
the yokes
of wood;
but
thou shalt make
for them yokes
of iron.
For thus
saith the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
I have put
a yoke
of iron
upon the neck
of all these nations,
that they
may serve
Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon;
and
they shall serve him:
and I
have given him
the beasts
of the field also.
Then said
the prophet Jeremiah
unto Hananiah the prophet,
Hear now,
Hananiah;
The LORD
hath not sent thee;
but
thou makest
this people
to trust
in a lie.
Therefore thus
saith the LORD;
Behold,
I will cast thee
from off the face
of the earth:
this year
thou shalt die,
because
thou hast taught rebellion
against the LORD.
So Hananiah
the prophet
died
the same year
in the seventh month.
Now these
are the words
of the letter
that Jeremiah the prophet
sent
from Jerusalem
unto the residue
of the elders
which were carried away
captives,
and
to the priests,
and
to the prophets,
and
to all the people
whom Nebuchadnezzar
had carried away captive
from Jerusalem
to Babylon;
(After that Jeconiah the king,
and the queen,
and the eunuchs,
the princes
of Judah
and Jerusalem,
and the carpenters,
and the smiths,
were departed
from Jerusalem;)
By the hand
of Elasah
the son
of Shaphan,
and Gemariah
the son
of Hilkiah,
(whom
Zedekiah king
of Judah
sent unto Babylon
to Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon)
saying,
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel,
unto all
that are carried away
captives,
whom
I have caused
to be carried away
from Jerusalem
unto Babylon;
Build
ye houses,
and
dwell in them;
and plant gardens,
and eat
the fruit
of them;
Take ye wives,
and beget sons
and daughters;
and take wives
for your sons,
and give
your daughters
to husbands,
that they
may bear sons
and daughters;
that ye
may be increased there,
and not diminished.
And seek
the peace
of the city
whither
I have caused you
to be carried away captives,
and pray
unto the LORD
for it:
for in the peace
thereof shall
ye have peace.
For thus
saith the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Let
not your prophets
and your diviners,
that be
in the midst
of you,
deceive you,
neither hearken
to your dreams
which ye
cause
to be dreamed.
For they
prophesy falsely
unto you
in my name:
I have not sent them,
saith the LORD.
For thus
saith the LORD,
That after seventy years
be accomplished
at Babylon I
will visit you,
and perform
my good
word toward you,
in causing
you
to return
to this place.
For I
know the thoughts that
I think toward you,
saith the LORD,
thoughts
of peace,
and not of evil,
to give you
an expected end.
Then shall
ye call upon me,
and ye
shall go
and pray unto me,
and
I will hearken
unto you.
And
ye shall seek me,
and find me,
when ye
shall search
for me with all your heart.
And
I will be found
of you,
saith the LORD:
and
I will turn away
your captivity,
and
I will gather you
from all the nations,
and
from all the places
whither
I have driven you,
saith the LORD;
and
I will bring you
again into the place
whence I
caused you
to be carried away captive.
Because
ye have said,
The LORD
hath raised us
up prophets
in Babylon;
Know that thus
saith the LORD
of the king
that sitteth upon the throne
of David,
and of all
the people
that dwelleth in this city,
and
of your brethren
that are not gone forth
with you
into captivity;
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts;
Behold,
I will send
upon them the sword,
the famine,
and the pestilence,
and will make them
like vile figs,
that cannot be eaten,
they are so evil.
And
I will persecute them
with the sword,
with the famine,
and
with the pestilence,
and will deliver them
to be removed
to all the kingdoms
of the earth,
to be a curse,
and an astonishment,
and an hissing,
and a reproach,
among all the nations
whither
I have driven them:
Because
they have not hearkened
to my words,
saith the LORD,
which I
sent
unto them by my servants
the prophets,
rising up early
and sending them;
but
ye would not hear,
saith the LORD.
Hear ye
therefore the word
of the LORD,
all
ye of the captivity,
whom
I have sent
from Jerusalem
to Babylon:
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel,
of Ahab
the son
of Kolaiah,
and
of Zedekiah
the son
of Maaseiah,
which prophesy a lie
unto you
in my name;
Behold,
I will deliver them
into the hand
of Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon;
and
he shall slay them
before your eyes;
And
of them shall be taken up
a curse by all
the captivity
of Judah
which are in Babylon,
saying,
The LORD
make thee like Zedekiah
and like Ahab,
whom
the king
of Babylon
roasted
in the fire;
Because
they have committed villany
in Israel,
and have committed adultery
with their neighbours' wives,
and have spoken
lying
words in my name,
which I
have not commanded them;
even
I know,
and am a witness,
saith the LORD.
Thus
shalt
thou also speak
to Shemaiah the Nehelamite,
saying,
Thus
speaketh
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel,
saying,
Because
thou hast sent
letters in thy
name
unto all
the people
that are at Jerusalem,
and
to Zephaniah the son
of Maaseiah the priest,
and
to all the priests,
saying,
The LORD
hath made thee priest
in the stead
of Jehoiada the priest,
that ye
should be officers
in the house
of the LORD,
for every man
that is mad,
and maketh himself
a prophet,
that thou
shouldest put him
in prison,
and
in the stocks.
Now therefore
why hast
thou not reproved Jeremiah
of Anathoth,
which maketh himself
a prophet
to you?
For therefore
he sent unto us
in Babylon,
saying,
This captivity
is long:
build
ye houses,
and
dwell in them;
and plant gardens,
and eat
the fruit
of them.
And Zephaniah
the priest
read
this letter
in the ears
of Jeremiah
the prophet.
Then came
the word
of the LORD
unto Jeremiah,
saying,
Send
to all them
of the captivity,
saying,
Thus
saith
the LORD
concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite;
Because that Shemaiah
hath prophesied
unto you,
and
I sent him not,
and he
caused
you
to trust
in a lie:
Therefore thus
saith the LORD;
Behold,
I will punish Shemaiah
the Nehelamite,
and his seed:
he shall not have
a man
to dwell
among this people;
neither shall
he behold
the good
that I
will do
for my people,
saith the LORD;
because
he hath taught rebellion
against the LORD.
The word that
came
to Jeremiah
from the LORD,
saying,
Thus
speaketh
the LORD God
of Israel,
saying,
Write thee all
the words that
I have spoken
unto thee
in a book.
For, lo,
the days come,
saith the LORD,
that I
will bring again
the captivity
of my people Israel
and Judah,
saith the LORD:
and
I will cause them
to return
to the land
that I
gave to their fathers,
and
they shall possess it.
And these
are the words
that the LORD
spake concerning Israel
and concerning Judah.
For thus
saith the LORD;
We have heard
a voice
of trembling,
of fear,
and
not of peace.
Ask ye now,
and see
whether a man
doth travail
with child?
wherefore do
I see every man
with his hands
on his loins,
as a woman
in travail,
and all faces
are turned into
paleness?
Alas!
for that day
is great,
so that none
is like it:
it is even
the time
of Jacob's trouble,
but
he shall be saved
out of it.
For it
shall come
to pass
in that day,
saith the LORD
of hosts,
that I
will break
his yoke
from off thy neck,
and will burst
thy bonds,
and strangers
shall
no more
serve themselves of him:
But
they shall serve
the LORD their God,
and David
their king,
whom
I will raise up unto them.
Therefore fear
thou not,
O my servant Jacob,
saith the LORD;
neither be dismayed,
O Israel:
for, lo,
I will save thee
from afar,
and thy
seed
from the land
of their captivity;
and Jacob
shall return,
and shall be
in rest,
and be quiet,
and none
shall make him afraid.
For I
am with thee,
saith the LORD,
to save thee:
though I
make
a full end
of all nations
whither
I have scattered thee,
yet
I will not make
a full end
of thee:
but
I will correct thee
in measure,
and will not leave
thee altogether unpunished.
For thus
saith the LORD,
Thy bruise
is incurable,
and thy
wound is grievous.
There is none
to plead
thy cause,
that thou
mayest be bound up:
thou hast no healing medicines.
All thy lovers
have forgotten thee;
they seek thee not;
for I
have wounded thee
with the wound
of an enemy,
with the chastisement
of a cruel one,
for the multitude
of thine iniquity;
because
thy sins
were increased.
Why criest
thou for thine affliction?
thy sorrow
is incurable
for the multitude
of thine iniquity:
because
thy sins
were increased,
I have done
these things
unto thee.
Therefore all
they that
devour thee
shall be devoured;
and all thine adversaries,
every one
of them,
shall go
into captivity;
and they that
spoil thee
shall be
a spoil,
and all that prey
upon thee
will
I give
for a prey.
For I
will restore health
unto thee,
and
I will heal thee
of thy wounds,
saith the LORD;
because
they called
thee an Outcast,
saying,
This is Zion,
whom
no man
seeketh after.
Thus saith the LORD;
Behold,
I will bring again the captivity
of Jacob's tents,
and have mercy
on his dwellingplaces;
and the city
shall be builded
upon her own heap,
and the palace
shall remain
after the manner
thereof.
And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving
and the voice
of them that make merry:
and
I will multiply them,
and
they shall not be few;
I will also glorify them,
and
they shall not be small.
Their children
also shall be
as aforetime,
and their congregation
shall be established
before me,
and I
will punish all
that oppress them.
And their nobles
shall be
of themselves,
and their governor
shall proceed
from the midst
of them;
and
I will cause him
to draw near,
and
he shall approach unto me:
for who
is this
that engaged
his heart
to approach
unto me?
saith the LORD.
And
ye shall be
my people,
and
I will be
your God.
Behold,
the whirlwind
of the LORD
goeth forth
with fury,
a continuing whirlwind:
it shall fall
with pain
upon the head
of the wicked.
The fierce anger
of the LORD
shall not return,
until he
hath done it,
and
until he
have performed the intents
of his heart:
in the latter days
ye shall consider it.
At the same time,
saith the LORD,
will
I be
the God
of all
the families
of Israel,
and
they shall be
my people.
Thus saith the LORD,
The people
which were left
of the sword
found
grace
in the wilderness;
even Israel,
when
I went
to cause him
to rest.
The LORD
hath appeared
of old unto me,
saying,
Yea,
I have loved thee
with an everlasting love:
therefore with lovingkindness
have
I drawn thee.
Again
I will build thee,
and
thou shalt be built,
O virgin
of Israel:
thou shalt again be adorned
with thy tabrets,
and shalt go forth
in the dances
of them that make merry.
Thou shalt yet plant vines
upon the mountains
of Samaria:
the planters
shall plant,
and shall eat them
as common things.
For there shall be a day,
that the watchmen
upon the mount Ephraim
shall cry,
Arise ye,
and let us
go up to Zion
unto the LORD our God.
For thus
saith the LORD;
Sing
with gladness
for Jacob,
and shout
among the chief
of the nations:
publish ye,
praise ye,
and say,
O LORD,
save thy people,
the remnant
of Israel.
Behold,
I will bring them
from the north country,
and gather them
from the coasts
of the earth,
and
with them the blind
and the lame,
the woman
with child
and her
that travaileth
with child
together:
a great company
shall return thither.
They shall come
with weeping,
and
with supplications
will
I lead them:
I will cause them
to walk
by the rivers
of waters
in a straight way,
wherein they
shall not stumble:
for I am
a father
to Israel,
and Ephraim
is my firstborn.
Hear the word
of the LORD,
O ye nations,
and declare it
in the isles
afar off,
and say,
He that
scattered
Israel will gather him,
and keep him,
as a shepherd
doth his flock.
For the LORD
hath redeemed Jacob,
and ransomed him
from the hand
of him that
was stronger
than he.
Therefore they
shall come
and sing
in the height
of Zion,
and shall flow together
to the goodness
of the LORD,
for wheat,
and for wine,
and for oil,
and for the young
of the flock
and of the herd:
and their soul
shall be
as a watered garden;
and
they shall not sorrow any more
at all.
Then shall
the virgin
rejoice
in the dance,
both young men
and old
together:
for I will turn
their mourning
into joy,
and will comfort them,
and make them
rejoice
from their sorrow.
And
I will satiate
the soul
of the priests
with fatness,
and my people
shall be satisfied
with my goodness,
saith the LORD.
Thus saith the LORD;
A voice
was heard
in Ramah,
lamentation,
and bitter weeping;
Rahel
weeping
for her children
refused
to be comforted
for her children,
because they were not.
Thus saith the LORD;
Refrain thy
voice
from weeping,
and thine
eyes
from tears:
for thy
work
shall be rewarded,
saith the LORD;
and
they shall come again
from the land
of the enemy.
And there is
hope in thine end,
saith the LORD,
that thy children
shall come again
to their own border.
I have surely heard Ephraim
bemoaning himself thus;
Thou hast chastised me,
and
I was chastised,
as a bullock unaccustomed
to the yoke:
turn thou me,
and
I shall be turned;
for thou art
the LORD my God.
Surely after that
I was turned,
I repented;
and after that
I was instructed,
I smote upon my thigh:
I was ashamed,
yea,
even confounded,
because
I did bear
the reproach
of my youth.
Is Ephraim
my dear son?
is he
a pleasant child?
for since
I spake against him,
I do earnestly remember him still:
therefore my bowels
are troubled for him;
I will surely have mercy
upon him,
saith the LORD.
Set thee
up waymarks,
make thee high heaps:
set thine heart
toward the highway,
even the way which
thou wentest:
turn again,
O virgin
of Israel,
turn
again to these
thy cities.
How long
wilt
thou go about,
O thou backsliding daughter?
for the LORD
hath created
a new thing
in the earth,
A woman
shall compass
a man.
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
As yet
they shall use
this speech
in the land
of Judah
and in the cities
thereof,
when
I shall bring again
their captivity;
The LORD
bless thee,
O habitation
of justice,
and mountain
of holiness.
And there shall dwell
in Judah itself,
and
in all the cities
thereof together, husbandmen,
and
they that
go forth
with flocks.
For I
have satiated
the weary soul,
and
I have replenished
every sorrowful soul.
Upon this
I awaked,
and beheld;
and my sleep
was sweet
unto me.
Behold,
the days come,
saith the LORD,
that I
will sow
the house
of Israel
and the house
of Judah
with the seed
of man,
and with the seed
of beast.
And it
shall come
to pass,
that like as I
have watched over them,
to pluck up,
and to break down,
and to throw down,
and to destroy,
and to afflict;
so will
I watch over them,
to build,
and to plant,
saith the LORD.
In those days
they shall say
no more,
The fathers
have eaten
a sour grape,
and the children's teeth
are set
on edge.
But every one
shall die
for his own iniquity:
every man that
eateth the sour grape,
his teeth
shall be set
on edge.
Behold,
the days come,
saith the LORD,
that I
will make
a new covenant
with the house
of Israel,
and
with the house
of Judah:
Not according to
the covenant
that I
made
with their fathers
in the day that
I took them
by the hand
to bring them
out of the land
of Egypt;
which my covenant
they brake,
although I
was an husband
unto them,
saith the LORD:
But this
shall be
the covenant
that I
will make with the house
of Israel;
After those days,
saith the LORD,
I will put my law
in their inward parts,
and write it
in their hearts;
and will be
their God,
and
they shall be
my people.
And
they shall teach
no more every man his neighbour,
and every man
his brother,
saying,
Know the LORD:
for they
shall all know me,
from the least
of them
unto the greatest
of them,
saith the LORD:
for I
will forgive
their iniquity,
and
I will remember
their sin no more.
Thus saith the LORD,
which giveth
the sun
for a light
by day,
and the ordinances
of the moon
and of the stars
for a light
by night,
which divideth
the sea
when the waves
thereof roar;
The LORD of hosts
is his name:
If those ordinances
depart from
before me,
saith the LORD,
then
the seed
of Israel
also shall cease
from being
a nation
before me
for ever.
Thus saith the LORD;
If heaven above
can be measured,
and
the foundations
of the earth
searched out beneath,
I will also cast
off all
the seed
of Israel for all
that
they have done,
saith the LORD.
Behold,
the days come,
saith the LORD,
that the city
shall be built
to the LORD
from the tower
of Hananeel
unto the gate
of the corner.
And the measuring line
shall yet go forth over
against it
upon the hill Gareb,
and shall compass about
to Goath.
And the whole valley
of the dead bodies,
and of the ashes,
and all
the fields
unto the brook
of Kidron,
unto the corner
of the horse
gate toward
the east,
shall be holy
unto the LORD;
it shall not be plucked up,
nor thrown
down any more
for ever.
The word that
came
to Jeremiah
from the LORD
in the tenth year
of Zedekiah king
of Judah,
which was
the eighteenth year
of Nebuchadrezzar.
For then the king
of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem:
and Jeremiah
the prophet
was shut up
in the court
of the prison,
which was in the king
of Judah's house.
For Zedekiah king
of Judah
had shut him up,
saying,
Wherefore
dost
thou prophesy,
and say,
Thus saith the LORD, Behold,
I will give
this city
into the hand
of the king
of Babylon,
and
he shall take it;
And
Zedekiah king
of Judah
shall not escape
out of the hand
of the Chaldeans,
but shall surely be delivered
into the hand
of the king
of Babylon,
and shall speak
with him mouth to mouth,
and his eyes
shall behold
his eyes;
And
he shall lead Zedekiah
to Babylon,
and there shall
he be until
I visit him,
saith the LORD:
though ye
fight
with the Chaldeans,
ye shall not prosper.
And Jeremiah said,
The word
of the LORD
came unto me,
saying,
Behold,
Hanameel the son
of Shallum
thine uncle
shall come
unto thee saying,
Buy thee my field
that is
in Anathoth:
for the right
of redemption
is thine
to buy it.
So Hanameel
mine uncle's son
came to me
in the court
of the prison
according to
the word
of the LORD,
and said unto me,
Buy my field,
I pray thee,
that is
in Anathoth,
which is in the country
of Benjamin:
for the right
of inheritance
is thine,
and the redemption
is thine;
buy it
for thyself.
Then
I knew
that this
was the word
of the LORD.
And I
bought
the field
of Hanameel
my uncle's son,
that was in Anathoth,
and weighed him
the money,
even seventeen shekels
of silver.
And
I subscribed
the evidence,
and sealed it,
and took witnesses,
and weighed him
the money
in the balances.
So I
took
the evidence
of the purchase,
both that which
was sealed according to the law
and custom,
and that which
was open:
And I
gave
the evidence
of the purchase
unto Baruch
the son
of Neriah,
the son
of Maaseiah,
in the sight
of Hanameel mine uncle's son,
and
in the presence
of the witnesses
that subscribed
the book
of the purchase,
before all
the Jews
that sat
in the court
of the prison.
And
I charged Baruch
before them,
saying,
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Take these evidences,
this evidence
of the purchase,
both which
is sealed,
and this evidence which
is open;
and put them
in an earthen vessel,
that they
may continue
many days.
For thus
saith the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Houses
and fields
and vineyards
shall be possessed again
in this land.
Now
when
I had delivered
the evidence
of the purchase
unto Baruch
the son
of Neriah,
I prayed
unto the LORD,
saying,
Ah Lord GOD!
behold,
thou hast made
the heaven
and the earth
by thy great power
and stretched out arm,
and there is nothing too hard
for thee:
Thou shewest lovingkindness
unto thousands,
and recompensest
the iniquity
of the fathers
into the bosom
of their children
after them:
the Great,
the Mighty God,
the LORD
of hosts,
is his name,
Great in counsel,
and mighty
in work:
for thine
eyes
are open
upon all the ways
of the sons
of men:
to give every one
according to his ways,
and
according to
the fruit
of his doings:
Which hast set
signs and
wonders in the land
of Egypt,
even unto
this day,
and in Israel,
and
among other men;
and hast made
thee a name,
as at this day;
And hast brought forth
thy people Israel
out of the land
of Egypt
with signs,
and with wonders,
and
with a strong hand,
and with a stretched out arm,
and
with great terror;
And hast given them
this land,
which thou
didst swear
to their fathers
to give them,
a land
flowing with milk
and honey;
And they came in,
and possessed it;
but they
obeyed not
thy voice,
neither walked
in thy law;
they have done nothing
of all
that thou
commandedst them to do:
therefore thou
hast caused all this evil
to come upon them:
Behold the mounts,
they are come
unto the city
to take it;
and the city
is given into the hand
of the Chaldeans,
that fight
against it,
because
of the sword,
and
of the famine,
and
of the pestilence:
and
what
thou hast spoken
is come to pass;
and,
behold,
thou seest it.
And
thou
hast said unto me,
O Lord GOD,
Buy thee the field
for money,
and take witnesses;
for the city
is given
into the hand
of the Chaldeans.
Then came
the word
of the LORD
unto Jeremiah,
saying,
Behold,
I am the LORD,
the God
of all flesh:
is there any thing too hard
for me?
Therefore thus
saith the LORD;
Behold,
I will give
this city
into the hand
of the Chaldeans,
and into the hand
of Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon,
and
he shall take it:
And the Chaldeans,
that fight
against this city,
shall come
and set
fire
on this city,
and burn it
with the houses,
upon whose roofs
they have offered
incense
unto Baal,
and poured
out drink offerings
unto other gods,
to provoke me
to anger.
For the children
of Israel
and the children
of Judah
have only done evil
before me
from their youth:
for the children
of Israel
have only provoked me
to anger
with the work
of their hands,
saith the LORD.
For this city
hath been to me
as a provocation
of mine
anger and
of my fury
from the day
that
they built it even
unto this day;
that I
should remove it from
before my face,
Because
of all the evil
of the children
of Israel
and of the children
of Judah,
which they
have done
to provoke me
to anger,
they,
their kings,
their princes,
their priests,
and their prophets,
and the men
of Judah,
and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem.
And
they have turned
unto me the back,
and not
the face:
though I
taught them,
rising up early
and teaching them,
yet
they have not hearkened
to receive instruction.
But they set
their abominations
in the house,
which is called
by my name,
to defile it.
And they
built
the high places
of Baal,
which are in the valley
of the son
of Hinnom,
to cause
their sons
and their daughters
to pass
through the fire
unto Molech;
which I
commanded them not,
neither came
it into my mind,
that they
should do
this abomination,
to cause Judah to sin.
And
now therefore thus
saith the LORD,
the God
of Israel,
concerning this city,
whereof
ye say,
It shall be delivered
into the hand
of the king
of Babylon
by the sword,
and
by the famine,
and
by the pestilence;
Behold,
I will gather them
out of all countries,
whither
I have driven them
in mine anger,
and in my fury,
and
in great wrath;
and
I will bring them again
unto this place,
and
I will cause them
to dwell safely:
And
they shall be
my people,
and
I will be
their God:
And
I will give them
one heart,
and one way,
that they
may fear me
for ever,
for the good
of them,
and of their children
after them:
And I
will make
an everlasting covenant
with them,
that I
will not turn away from them,
to do them good;
but I
will put
my fear
in their hearts,
that they
shall not depart from me.
Yea,
I will rejoice
over them to do them good,
and
I will plant them
in this land
assuredly with my whole heart
and with my whole soul.
For thus
saith the LORD;
Like as I
have brought all
this great evil
upon this people,
so will
I bring
upon them all
the good that
I have promised them.
And fields
shall be bought
in this land,
whereof
ye say,
It is
desolate
without man
or beast;
it is given
into the hand
of the Chaldeans.
Men shall buy
fields for money,
and subscribe
evidences,
and seal them,
and take
witnesses
in the land
of Benjamin,
and in the places
about Jerusalem,
and in the cities
of Judah,
and in the cities
of the mountains,
and in the cities
of the valley,
and in the cities
of the south:
for I will cause
their captivity
to return,
saith the LORD.
Moreover the word
of the LORD
came
unto Jeremiah
the second time,
while he
was yet shut up
in the court
of the prison,
saying,
Thus
saith
the LORD the maker
thereof,
the LORD that
formed it,
to establish it;
the LORD
is his name;
Call unto me,
and
I will answer thee,
and shew
thee great
and mighty things,
which thou
knowest not.
For thus
saith the LORD,
the God
of Israel,
concerning the houses
of this city,
and concerning the houses
of the kings
of Judah,
which are thrown down
by the mounts,
and
by the sword;
They come
to fight
with the Chaldeans,
but it
is to fill them
with the dead bodies
of men,
whom
I have slain
in mine
anger
and
in my fury,
and for all
whose wickedness
I have
hid
my face
from this city.
Behold,
I will bring it health
and cure,
and
I will cure them,
and will reveal
unto them the abundance
of peace and truth.
And I
will cause
the captivity
of Judah
and the captivity
of Israel
to return,
and will build them,
as at the first.
And
I will cleanse them
from all
their iniquity,
whereby
they
have sinned against me;
and
I will pardon all
their iniquities,
whereby
they have sinned,
and whereby
they
have transgressed against me.
And it
shall be
to me a name
of joy,
a praise
and an honour
before all
the nations
of the earth,
which shall hear all
the good
that I
do unto them:
and
they shall fear
and tremble
for all the goodness
and
for all
the prosperity that
I procure
unto it.
Thus saith the LORD;
Again
there shall be heard
in this place,
which ye
say
shall be
desolate
without man
and without beast,
even in the cities
of Judah,
and
in the streets
of Jerusalem,
that are desolate,
without man,
and without inhabitant,
and
without beast,
The voice of joy,
and the voice
of gladness,
the voice
of the bridegroom,
and the voice
of the bride,
the voice
of them that
shall say,
Praise the LORD
of hosts:
for the LORD
is good;
for his mercy
endureth for ever:
and of them that
shall bring the sacrifice
of praise
into the house
of the LORD.
For I
will cause
to return the captivity
of the land,
as at the first,
saith the LORD.
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts;
Again
in this place,
which is
desolate
without man
and without beast,
and
in all the cities
thereof,
shall be
an habitation
of shepherds
causing
their flocks
to lie down.
In the cities
of the mountains,
in the cities
of the vale,
and in the cities
of the south,
and in the land
of Benjamin,
and in the places
about Jerusalem,
and in the cities
of Judah,
shall
the flocks
pass
again
under the hands
of him that
telleth them,
saith the LORD.
Behold,
the days come,
saith the LORD,
that I
will perform
that good thing
which I
have promised
unto the house
of Israel
and to the house
of Judah.
In those days,
and at that time,
will
I cause
the Branch
of righteousness
to grow up
unto David;
and
he shall execute judgment
and righteousness
in the land.
In those days
shall
Judah be saved,
and Jerusalem
shall dwell safely:
and this
is the name
wherewith
she shall be called,
The LORD
our righteousness.
For thus
saith the LORD;
David shall never want
a man to sit
upon the throne
of the house
of Israel;
Neither shall
the priests the Levites
want a man
before me
to offer
burnt offerings,
and to kindle meat offerings,
and
to do sacrifice continually.
And
the word
of the LORD
came
unto Jeremiah,
saying,
Thus saith the LORD;
If ye
can break
my covenant
of the day,
and my covenant
of the night,
and that
there should not be day and night
in their season;
Then may also
my covenant
be broken
with David my servant,
that he
should not have
a son
to reign
upon his throne;
and
with the Levites the priests,
my ministers.
As the host
of heaven
cannot be numbered,
neither the sand
of the sea measured:
so will
I multiply
the seed
of David my servant,
and the Levites
that minister
unto me.
Moreover the word
of the LORD
came
to Jeremiah,
saying,
Considerest
thou not
what this people
have spoken,
saying,
The two families
which the LORD
hath chosen,
he hath even cast them off?
thus
they have despised
my people,
that they
should be
no more a nation
before them.
Thus saith the LORD;
If my covenant
be not
with day and night,
and
if I
have not appointed
the ordinances
of heaven
and earth;
Then will
I cast away
the seed
of Jacob
and David
my servant,
so that
I will not take any
of his seed
to be rulers
over the seed
of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob:
for I will cause
their captivity
to return,
and have mercy
on them.
The word which
came unto Jeremiah
from the LORD,
when Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon,
and all
his army,
and all
the kingdoms
of the earth
of his dominion,
and all
the people,
fought
against Jerusalem,
and
against all the cities
thereof,
saying,
Thus saith the LORD,
the God
of Israel;
Go and speak
to Zedekiah king
of Judah,
and tell him,
Thus saith the LORD;
Behold,
I will give
this city
into the hand
of the king
of Babylon,
and
he shall burn it
with fire:
And
thou shalt not escape
out of his hand,
but shalt surely be taken,
and delivered
into his hand;
and thine
eyes
shall behold the eyes
of the king
of Babylon,
and
he shall speak
with thee mouth to mouth,
and
thou shalt go
to Babylon.
Yet hear the word
of the LORD,
O Zedekiah king
of Judah;
Thus saith
the LORD
of thee,
Thou shalt not die
by the sword:
But
thou shalt die
in peace:
and
with the burnings
of thy fathers,
the former kings which
were before thee,
so shall
they burn odours
for thee;
and
they will lament thee,
saying,
Ah lord!
for I
have pronounced
the word,
saith the LORD.
Then
Jeremiah the prophet
spake all
these words
unto Zedekiah king
of Judah
in Jerusalem,
When
the king
of Babylon's army
fought
against Jerusalem,
and
against all the cities
of Judah
that were left,
against Lachish,
and
against Azekah:
for these
defenced
cities
remained
of the cities
of Judah.
This is the word
that came
unto Jeremiah
from the LORD,
after that
the king Zedekiah
had made
a covenant
with all
the people
which were at Jerusalem,
to proclaim liberty
unto them;
That every man
should let
his manservant,
and every man
his maidservant,
being an Hebrew
or an Hebrewess,
go free;
that none
should serve himself of them,
to wit,
of a Jew his brother.
Now
when all
the princes,
and all
the people,
which had entered
into the covenant,
heard
that every one
should let
his manservant,
and every one
his maidservant,
go free,
that none
should serve themselves
of them any more,
then they obeyed,
and let them go.
But afterward
they turned,
and caused
the servants
and the handmaids,
whom
they had let go free,
to return,
and brought them
into subjection
for servants
and for handmaids.
Therefore the word
of the LORD
came to Jeremiah
from the LORD,
saying,
Thus saith the LORD,
the God
of Israel;
I made a covenant
with your fathers
in the day
that
I brought
them forth
out of the land
of Egypt,
out of the house
of bondmen,
saying,
At the end
of seven years
let
ye go every man
his brother an Hebrew,
which hath been sold
unto thee;
and
when
he hath served
thee six years,
thou shalt let him
go free
from thee:
but your fathers
hearkened not unto me,
neither inclined
their ear.
And
ye were now turned,
and had done
right
in my sight,
in proclaiming liberty
every man
to his neighbour;
and ye
had made
a covenant
before me
in the house
which is called
by my name:
But ye
turned
and polluted my name,
and caused every man
his servant,
and every man
his handmaid,
whom
he had set
at liberty
at their pleasure,
to return,
and brought them
into subjection,
to be unto you
for servants
and for handmaids.
Therefore thus
saith the LORD;
Ye have not hearkened unto me,
in proclaiming liberty,
every one
to his brother,
and every man
to his neighbour:
behold,
I proclaim
a liberty
for you,
saith the LORD,
to the sword,
to the pestilence,
and
to the famine;
and
I will make you
to be removed
into all
the kingdoms
of the earth.
And
I will give
the men that
have transgressed my covenant,
which have not performed
the words
of the covenant which
they had made
before me,
when they cut
the calf
in twain,
and passed
between the parts
thereof,
The princes
of Judah,
and the princes
of Jerusalem,
the eunuchs,
and the priests,
and all
the people
of the land,
which passed
between the parts
of the calf;
I will even give them
into the hand
of their enemies,
and
into the hand
of them that
seek their life:
and their dead bodies
shall be for meat
unto the fowls
of the heaven,
and to the beasts
of the earth.
And Zedekiah king
of Judah
and his princes
will
I give
into the hand
of their enemies,
and
into the hand
of them that
seek their life,
and into the hand
of the king
of Babylon's army,
which are gone up
from you.
Behold,
I will command,
saith the LORD,
and cause them
to return
to this city;
and
they shall fight
against it,
and take it,
and burn it
with fire:
and I
will make
the cities
of Judah
a desolation
without an inhabitant.
The word which
came unto Jeremiah
from the LORD
in the days
of Jehoiakim
the son
of Josiah king
of Judah,
saying,
Go unto the house
of the Rechabites,
and
speak unto them,
and bring them
into the house
of the LORD,
into one
of the chambers,
and give them wine
to drink.
Then
I took Jaazaniah
the son
of Jeremiah,
the son
of Habaziniah,
and his brethren,
and all
his sons,
and the whole house
of the Rechabites;
And
I brought them
into the house
of the LORD,
into the chamber
of the sons
of Hanan,
the son
of Igdaliah,
a man of God,
which was by the chamber
of the princes,
which was above
the chamber
of Maaseiah
the son
of Shallum,
the keeper
of the door:
And I set
before the sons
of the house
of the Rechabites
pots full of wine,
and cups,
and
I said unto them,
Drink ye wine.
But they said,
We will drink no wine:
for Jonadab the son
of Rechab
our father
commanded us,
saying,
Ye shall drink
no wine,
neither ye,
nor your sons
for ever:
Neither shall
ye build house,
nor sow seed,
nor plant
vineyard,
nor have any:
but all
your days
ye shall dwell
in tents;
that ye
may live many days
in the land
where ye
be strangers.
Thus
have
we obeyed
the voice
of Jonadab the son
of Rechab our father
in all
that
he hath charged us,
to drink
no wine all
our days,
we,
our wives,
our sons,
nor our daughters;
Nor
to build houses
for us
to dwell in:
neither have
we vineyard,
nor field,
nor seed:
But
we have
dwelt in tents,
and have obeyed,
and done according to all
that Jonadab our father
commanded us.
But it
came
to pass,
when
Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon
came up
into the land,
that we said,
Come,
and let us
go to Jerusalem
for fear
of the army
of the Chaldeans,
and for fear
of the army
of the Syrians:
so we
dwell
at Jerusalem.
Then came
the word
of the LORD
unto Jeremiah,
saying,
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Go and tell
the men
of Judah
and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem,
Will
ye not receive instruction
to hearken
to my words?
saith the LORD.
The words
of Jonadab
the son
of Rechab,
that he
commanded
his sons
not
to drink wine,
are performed;
for unto this day
they drink none,
but obey
their father's commandment:
notwithstanding
I have spoken
unto you,
rising early
and speaking;
but
ye hearkened not unto me.
I have sent also
unto you
all my servants
the prophets,
rising up early
and sending them,
saying,
Return
ye now every man
from his evil way,
and amend
your doings,
and go not
after other gods
to serve them,
and
ye shall dwell
in the land
which I
have given
to you
and to your fathers:
but
ye have not inclined
your ear,
nor
hearkened unto me.
Because the sons
of Jonadab the son
of Rechab
have performed the commandment
of their father,
which he
commanded them;
but this people
hath not hearkened unto me:
Therefore thus
saith the LORD God
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Behold,
I will bring
upon Judah
and upon all
the inhabitants
of Jerusalem all
the evil
that I
have pronounced against them:
because
I have spoken unto them,
but
they have not heard;
and
I have called unto them,
but
they have not answered.
And Jeremiah
said
unto the house
of the Rechabites,
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Because
ye have obeyed
the commandment
of Jonadab your father,
and kept all
his precepts,
and done
according
unto all
that
he hath commanded you:
Therefore thus
saith the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Jonadab
the son
of Rechab
shall not want a man
to stand
before me
for ever.
And it
came
to pass
in the fourth year
of Jehoiakim
the son
of Josiah king
of Judah,
that this word
came
unto Jeremiah
from the LORD,
saying,
Take thee a roll
of a book,
and write therein all
the words that
I have spoken
unto thee
against Israel,
and
against Judah,
and
against all the nations,
from the day
I spake unto thee,
from the days
of Josiah,
even unto this day.
It may be
that
the house
of Judah
will hear all the evil
which I
purpose
to do unto them;
that they
may return every man
from his evil way;
that I
may forgive
their iniquity
and their sin.
Then Jeremiah
called Baruch
the son
of Neriah:
and Baruch
wrote from the mouth
of Jeremiah all
the words
of the LORD,
which he
had spoken unto him,
upon a roll
of a book.
And Jeremiah
commanded Baruch,
saying,
I am shut up;
I cannot go into the house
of the LORD:
Therefore go thou,
and read
in the roll,
which thou
hast written
from my mouth,
the words
of the LORD
in the ears
of the people
in the LORD's house
upon the fasting day:
and also
thou shalt read them
in the ears
of all
Judah that
come
out of their cities.
It may be
they will present
their supplication
before the LORD,
and will return
every one
from his evil way:
for great
is the anger
and the fury
that the LORD
hath pronounced
against this people.
And Baruch
the son
of Neriah
did according to all
that Jeremiah the prophet
commanded him,
reading in the book
the words
of the LORD
in the LORD's house.
And it
came
to pass
in the fifth year
of Jehoiakim
the son
of Josiah king
of Judah,
in the ninth month,
that they
proclaimed
a fast
before the LORD
to all
the people
in Jerusalem,
and
to all the people
that came
from the cities
of Judah
unto Jerusalem.
Then read Baruch
in the book the words
of Jeremiah
in the house
of the LORD,
in the chamber
of Gemariah the son
of Shaphan the scribe,
in the higher court,
at the entry
of the new gate
of the LORD's house,
in the ears
of all the people.
When Michaiah
the son
of Gemariah,
the son
of Shaphan,
had heard
out of the book all
the words
of the LORD,
Then he
went down
into the king's house,
into the scribe's chamber:
and,
lo,
all the princes
sat there,
even Elishama
the scribe,
and Delaiah
the son
of Shemaiah,
and Elnathan
the son
of Achbor,
and Gemariah
the son
of Shaphan,
and Zedekiah
the son
of Hananiah,
and all
the princes.
Then Michaiah
declared
unto them all
the words that
he had heard,
when Baruch read
the book
in the ears
of the people.
Therefore all
the princes
sent Jehudi
the son
of Nethaniah,
the son
of Shelemiah,
the son of Cushi,
unto Baruch,
saying,
Take in thine hand
the roll
wherein thou
hast read
in the ears
of the people,
and come.
So Baruch
the son
of Neriah
took the roll
in his hand,
and
came unto them.
And
they
said unto him,
Sit down now,
and read it
in our ears.
So Baruch read it
in their ears.
Now it
came
to pass,
when
they had heard all
the words,
they were
afraid both one
and other,
and said
unto Baruch,
We will surely tell
the king
of all these words.
And
they asked
Baruch,
saying,
Tell us now,
How didst thou
write all these words
at his mouth?
Then Baruch
answered them,
He pronounced all
these words
unto me
with his mouth,
and I
wrote them
with ink
in the book.
Then said
the princes
unto Baruch, Go,
hide thee,
thou
and Jeremiah;
and let no man
know
where ye be.
And
they went in
to the king
into the court,
but they
laid up
the roll
in the chamber
of Elishama the scribe,
and told all
the words
in the ears
of the king.
So the king
sent Jehudi
to fetch the roll:
and he
took it
out of Elishama
the scribe's chamber.
And Jehudi read it
in the ears
of the king,
and in the ears
of all the princes
which stood beside
the king.
Now the king
sat
in the winterhouse
in the ninth month:
and there was
a fire
on the hearth
burning
before him.
And it
came
to pass,
that when Jehudi
had read three
or four leaves,
he cut it
with the penknife,
and cast it
into the fire
that was on the hearth,
until all
the roll
was consumed
in the fire
that was on the hearth.
Yet
they were not afraid,
nor rent
their garments,
neither the king,
nor any
of his servants
that heard all
these words.
Nevertheless Elnathan
and Delaiah
and Gemariah
had made intercession
to the king
that he
would not burn
the roll:
but
he would not hear them.
But the king
commanded
Jerahmeel the son
of Hammelech,
and Seraiah
the son
of Azriel,
and Shelemiah
the son
of Abdeel,
to take Baruch
the scribe
and Jeremiah
the prophet:
but the LORD
hid them.
Then
the word
of the LORD
came to Jeremiah,
after that
the king
had burned
the roll,
and the words which Baruch
wrote at the mouth
of Jeremiah,
saying,
Take thee
again another roll,
and write
in it all
the former
words that
were in the first roll,
which Jehoiakim the king
of Judah
hath burned.
And
thou shalt say
to Jehoiakim king
of Judah,
Thus saith the LORD;
Thou
hast burned
this roll,
saying,
Why hast
thou written
therein,
saying,
The king
of Babylon
shall certainly come
and destroy
this land,
and shall cause
to cease
from thence man
and beast?
Therefore thus
saith the LORD
of Jehoiakim king
of Judah;
He shall have none to sit
upon the throne
of David:
and his dead body
shall be cast out
in the day
to the heat,
and in the night
to the frost.
And
I will punish him
and his seed
and his servants
for their iniquity;
and
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 hearkened not.
Then took Jeremiah another roll,
and gave it
to Baruch the scribe,
the son
of Neriah;
who wrote therein
from the mouth
of Jeremiah all
the words
of the book
which Jehoiakim king
of Judah
had burned
in the fire:
and there were added besides
unto them many like words.
And king Zedekiah
the son
of Josiah
reigned instead
of Coniah
the son
of Jehoiakim,
whom Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon made king
in the land
of Judah.
But neither he,
nor his servants,
nor the people
of the land,
did hearken
unto the words
of the LORD,
which he
spake by the prophet Jeremiah.
And Zedekiah
the king
sent Jehucal
the son
of Shelemiah
and Zephaniah
the son
of Maaseiah the priest
to the prophet Jeremiah,
saying,
Pray
now unto the LORD our God
for us.
Now Jeremiah
came
in and went out
among the people:
for they
had not put him
into prison.
Then Pharaoh's army
was come forth out of Egypt:
and
when
the Chaldeans
that besieged Jerusalem
heard tidings
of them,
they departed
from Jerusalem.
Then came
the word
of the LORD
unto the prophet Jeremiah saying,
Thus saith the LORD,
the God
of Israel;
Thus
shall
ye say
to the king
of Judah,
that sent you
unto me
to enquire of me;
Behold,
Pharaoh's army,
which is come forth
to help you,
shall return
to Egypt
into their own land.
And the Chaldeans
shall come again,
and fight
against this city,
and take it,
and burn it
with fire.
Thus saith the LORD;
Deceive
not yourselves,
saying,
The Chaldeans
shall surely depart from us:
for they
shall not depart.
For though
ye had smitten
the whole army
of the Chaldeans
that fight
against you,
and there remained
but wounded men
among them,
yet should
they rise
up every man
in his tent,
and burn
this city
with fire.
And it
came
to pass,
that when
the army
of the Chaldeans
was broken up
from Jerusalem
for fear
of Pharaoh's army,
Then Jeremiah
went forth out of Jerusalem
to go into the land
of Benjamin,
to separate himself thence
in the midst
of the people.
And
when
he was in the gate
of Benjamin,
a captain
of the ward
was there,
whose name
was Irijah,
the son
of Shelemiah,
the son
of Hananiah;
and
he took Jeremiah
the prophet,
saying,
Thou
fallest away
to the Chaldeans.
Then said
Jeremiah,
It is false;
I fall not
away to the Chaldeans.
But
he hearkened not
to him:
so Irijah
took Jeremiah,
and brought him
to the princes.
Wherefore
the princes
were wroth
with Jeremiah,
and smote him,
and put him
in prison
in the house
of Jonathan the scribe:
for they
had made
that the prison.
When Jeremiah
was entered
into the dungeon,
and
into the cabins,
and Jeremiah
had remained there
many days;
Then
Zedekiah the king sent,
and took him out:
and the king
asked him
secretly in his house,
and said,
Is there
any word
from the LORD?
And Jeremiah said,
There is:
for,
said he,
thou shalt be delivered
into the hand
of the king
of Babylon.
Moreover Jeremiah
said
unto king Zedekiah,
What
have
I offended
against thee,
or against thy servants,
or against this people,
that ye
have put me
in prison?
Where are now your prophets
which prophesied
unto you,
saying,
The king
of Babylon
shall not come
against you,
nor
against this land?
Therefore hear now,
I pray thee,
O my lord
the king:
let my supplication,
I pray thee,
be accepted
before thee;
that thou
cause me not
to return
to the house
of Jonathan the scribe,
lest
I die there.
Then Zedekiah
the king
commanded that
they should commit Jeremiah
into the court
of the prison,
and
that they
should give him daily
a piece
of bread
out of the bakers' street,
until all the bread
in the city
were spent.
Thus Jeremiah
remained
in the court
of the prison.
Then Shephatiah
the son
of Mattan,
and Gedaliah
the son
of Pashur,
and Jucal
the son
of Shelemiah,
and Pashur
the son
of Malchiah,
heard the words
that Jeremiah
had spoken
unto all
the people,
saying,
Thus saith the LORD,
He that
remaineth in this city
shall die
by the sword,
by the famine,
and
by the pestilence:
but he
that
goeth forth
to the Chaldeans
shall live;
for he shall have
his life
for a prey,
and shall live.
Thus saith the LORD,
This city
shall surely be given
into the hand
of the king
of Babylon's army,
which shall take it.
Therefore the princes
said
unto the king,
We beseech thee,
let this man
be put to death:
for thus
he weakeneth
the hands
of the men
of war
that remain
in this city,
and the hands
of all the people,
in speaking such words
unto them:
for this man
seeketh not
the welfare
of this people,
but the hurt.
Then
Zedekiah the king said,
Behold,
he is in your hand:
for the king
is not
he that
can do any thing
against you.
Then took
they Jeremiah,
and cast him
into the dungeon
of Malchiah
the son
of Hammelech,
that was in the court
of the prison:
and
they let down Jeremiah
with cords.
And
in the dungeon
there was
no water,
but mire:
so Jeremiah
sunk
in the mire.
Now
when Ebedmelech
the Ethiopian,
one
of the eunuchs
which was in the king's house,
heard that
they had put Jeremiah
in the dungeon;
the king
then sitting
in the gate
of Benjamin;
Ebedmelech
went forth
out of the king's house,
and spake to the king saying,
My lord the king,
these men
have done evil
in all
that they
have done
to Jeremiah the prophet,
whom
they have cast
into the dungeon;
and he
is like
to die for hunger
in the place
where he is:
for there is
no more bread
in the city.
Then the king
commanded Ebedmelech
the Ethiopian,
saying,
Take from hence
thirty men
with thee,
and take up Jeremiah
the prophet
out of the dungeon,
before he die.
So Ebedmelech
took
the men
with him,
and went into the house
of the king
under the treasury,
and took thence
old cast clouts
and old rotten rags,
and let them down
by cords
into the dungeon
to Jeremiah.
And Ebedmelech
the Ethiopian
said
unto Jeremiah,
Put
now these
old cast clouts
and rotten rags
under thine armholes
under the cords.
And Jeremiah
did so.
So they
drew up Jeremiah
with cords,
and took him up
out of the dungeon:
and Jeremiah
remained
in the court
of the prison.
Then
Zedekiah the king sent,
and took Jeremiah
the prophet
unto him
into the third entry
that is
in the house
of the LORD:
and the king
said
unto Jeremiah,
I will ask thee
a thing;
hide nothing
from me.
Then Jeremiah
said
unto Zedekiah,
If I
declare it
unto thee,
wilt thou
not surely put me
to death?
and
if I
give thee counsel,
wilt
thou
not hearken unto me?
So Zedekiah
the king
sware secretly
unto Jeremiah,
saying,
As the LORD liveth,
that made us
this soul,
I will not put thee
to death,
neither will
I give thee
into the hand
of these men
that seek
thy life.
Then said Jeremiah
unto Zedekiah,
Thus saith the LORD,
the God of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
If thou
wilt assuredly go forth
unto the king
of Babylon's princes,
then thy soul
shall live,
and this city
shall not be burned
with fire;
and
thou shalt live,
and thine house:
But
if thou
wilt not go forth
to the king
of Babylon's princes,
then shall this city
be given
into the hand
of the Chaldeans,
and
they shall burn it
with fire,
and
thou shalt not escape
out of their hand.
And Zedekiah
the king
said
unto Jeremiah,
I am afraid
of the Jews
that are fallen
to the Chaldeans,
lest
they deliver me
into their hand,
and they mock me.
But Jeremiah said,
They shall not deliver thee.
Obey,
I beseech thee,
the voice
of the LORD,
which I
speak unto thee:
so it
shall be well
unto thee,
and thy soul
shall live.
But
if thou
refuse
to go forth,
this is
the word
that the LORD
hath shewed me:
And,
behold,
all the women that
are left
in the king
of Judah's
house
shall be brought forth
to the king
of Babylon's princes,
and those women
shall say,
Thy friends
have set thee on,
and have prevailed
against thee:
thy feet
are sunk
in the mire,
and
they are turned
away back.
So they
shall bring
out all
thy wives and thy children
to the Chaldeans:
and
thou shalt not escape
out of their hand,
but shalt be taken
by the hand
of the king
of Babylon:
and
thou shalt cause
this city
to be burned
with fire.
Then said Zedekiah
unto Jeremiah,
Let no man
know
of these words,
and
thou shalt not die.
But
if the princes
hear that
I have talked
with thee,
and they come
unto thee,
and say
unto thee,
Declare unto us now
what thou
hast said
unto the king,
hide it
not from us,
and
we will not put thee
to death;
also what
the king
said
unto thee:
Then
thou
shalt say unto them,
I presented my supplication
before the king,
that he
would not cause me
to return
to Jonathan's house,
to die there.
Then came all
the princes
unto Jeremiah,
and asked him:
and
he told them according to all
these words
that the king
had commanded.
So they
left off
speaking with him;
for the matter
was not perceived.
So Jeremiah abode
in the court
of the prison
until the day
that Jerusalem
was taken:
and he
was there
when Jerusalem
was taken.
In the ninth year
of Zedekiah king
of Judah,
in the tenth month,
came Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon
and all
his army
against Jerusalem,
and
they besieged it.
And
in the eleventh year
of Zedekiah,
in the fourth month,
the ninth day
of the month,
the city
was broken up.
And all
the princes
of the king
of Babylon
came in,
and sat
in the middle gate,
even Nergalsharezer,
Samgarnebo, Sarsechim,
Rabsaris,
Nergalsharezer,
Rabmag,
with all the residue
of the princes
of the king
of Babylon.
And it
came
to pass,
that when Zedekiah
the king
of Judah
saw them,
and all
the men
of war,
then they fled,
and went forth
out of the city
by night,
by the way
of the king's garden,
by the gate
betwixt the two walls:
and he
went out
the way
of the plain.
But the Chaldeans' army
pursued
after them,
and overtook Zedekiah
in the plains
of Jericho:
and
when
they had taken him,
they brought him
up to Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon
to Riblah
in the land
of Hamath,
where he
gave judgment
upon him.
Then
the king
of Babylon
slew the sons
of Zedekiah
in Riblah
before his eyes:
also the king
of Babylon
slew all
the nobles
of Judah.
Moreover he put out
Zedekiah's eyes,
and bound him
with chains,
to carry him
to Babylon.
And the Chaldeans
burned the king's house,
and the houses
of the people,
with fire,
and brake
down the walls
of Jerusalem.
Then Nebuzaradan
the captain
of the guard carried away captive
into Babylon
the remnant
of the people
that remained
in the city,
and those
that fell away,
that fell to him,
with the rest
of the people
that remained.
But Nebuzaradan
the captain
of the guard left
of the poor
of the people,
which had
nothing,
in the land
of Judah,
and gave them vineyards
and fields
at the same time.
Now
Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon
gave charge concerning Jeremiah
to Nebuzaradan
the captain
of the guard,
saying,
Take him,
and look well
to him,
and do him
no harm;
but do unto him
even as
he shall say
unto thee.
So Nebuzaradan
the captain
of the guard sent,
and Nebushasban, Rabsaris,
and Nergalsharezer,
Rabmag,
and all
the king
of Babylon's princes;
Even
they sent,
and took Jeremiah
out of the court
of the prison,
and committed him
unto Gedaliah the son
of Ahikam
the son
of Shaphan,
that he
should carry him home:
so he
dwelt
among the people.
Now
the word
of the LORD
came
unto Jeremiah,
while he
was shut up in the court
of the prison,
saying,
Go and speak
to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian,
saying,
Thus saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Behold,
I will bring
my words
upon this city
for evil,
and not for good;
and
they shall be accomplished
in that day
before thee.
But
I will deliver thee
in that day,
saith the LORD:
and
thou shalt not be given
into the hand
of the men
of whom
thou art afraid.
For I
will surely deliver thee,
and
thou shalt not fall
by the sword,
but thy life
shall be
for a prey
unto thee:
because
thou hast put
thy trust in me,
saith the LORD.
The word that
came
to Jeremiah
from the LORD,
after that Nebuzaradan the captain
of the guard
had let him
go from Ramah,
when
he had taken him
being bound
in chains
among all
that were carried away captive
of Jerusalem
and Judah,
which were carried away captive
unto Babylon.
And
the captain
of the guard
took Jeremiah,
and
said unto him,
The LORD thy God
hath pronounced this evil
upon this place.
Now the LORD
hath brought it,
and done
according as he
hath said:
because
ye have sinned
against the LORD,
and have not obeyed
his voice,
therefore this thing
is come upon you.
And now,
behold,
I loose thee
this day
from the chains
which were upon thine hand.
If it
seem good
unto thee to come
with me
into Babylon,
come;
and
I will look well
unto thee:
but
if it
seem ill
unto thee to come
with me
into Babylon,
forbear:
behold,
all the land
is before thee:
whither
it seemeth
good
and convenient
for thee to go,
thither go.
Now
while he
was not yet gone back,
he said,
Go back
also to Gedaliah the son
of Ahikam
the son
of Shaphan,
whom the king
of Babylon
hath made governor
over the cities
of Judah,
and dwell
with him
among the people:
or go wheresoever it
seemeth convenient
unto thee to go.
So the captain
of the guard
gave him victuals
and a reward,
and let him go.
Then went Jeremiah
unto Gedaliah the son
of Ahikam
to Mizpah;
and dwelt
with him among the people
that were left
in the land.
Now
when all
the captains
of the forces
which were in the fields,
even
they and their men,
heard
that the king
of Babylon
had made Gedaliah
the son
of Ahikam governor
in the land,
and had committed
unto him men,
and women,
and children,
and of the poor
of the land,
of them that
were not carried away captive
to Babylon;
Then
they came
to Gedaliah
to Mizpah,
even Ishmael
the son
of Nethaniah,
and Johanan
and Jonathan
the sons
of Kareah,
and Seraiah
the son
of Tanhumeth,
and the sons
of Ephai
the Netophathite,
and Jezaniah
the son
of a Maachathite,
they and their men.
And Gedaliah
the son
of Ahikam
the son
of Shaphan
sware unto them
and
to their men,
saying,
Fear not
to serve the Chaldeans:
dwell
in the land,
and serve
the king
of Babylon,
and it
shall be well
with you.
As for me,
behold,
I will dwell
at Mizpah,
to serve the Chaldeans,
which will come unto us:
but ye,
gather ye wine,
and summer
fruits,
and oil,
and put them
in your vessels,
and dwell
in your cities
that ye have taken.
Likewise
when all
the Jews
that were in Moab,
and
among the Ammonites,
and in Edom,
and that
were in all
the countries,
heard
that the king
of Babylon
had left
a remnant
of Judah,
and
that he
had set
over them Gedaliah
the son
of Ahikam
the son
of Shaphan;
Even all
the Jews
returned
out of all places
whither
they were driven,
and came
to the land
of Judah,
to Gedaliah,
unto Mizpah,
and gathered wine
and summer fruits very much.
Moreover Johanan
the son
of Kareah,
and all
the captains
of the forces
that were in the fields,
came to Gedaliah
to Mizpah,
And
said unto him,
Dost
thou certainly know
that Baalis the king
of the Ammonites
hath sent Ishmael
the son
of Nethaniah
to slay thee?
But Gedaliah
the son
of Ahikam
believed them not.
Then Johanan
the son
of Kareah
spake to Gedaliah
in Mizpah
secretly saying,
Let me go,
I pray thee,
and I
will slay
Ishmael the son
of Nethaniah,
and no man
shall know it:
wherefore should
he slay thee,
that all the Jews
which are gathered
unto thee
should be scattered,
and the remnant
in Judah perish?
But Gedaliah
the son
of Ahikam
said unto Johanan
the son
of Kareah,
Thou
shalt not do
this thing:
for thou
speakest falsely
of Ishmael.
Now it
came
to pass
in the seventh month,
that Ishmael the son
of Nethaniah
the son
of Elishama,
of the seed royal,
and the princes
of the king,
even ten men
with him,
came
unto Gedaliah the son
of Ahikam
to Mizpah;
and there
they did eat bread
together
in Mizpah.
Then arose
Ishmael the son
of Nethaniah,
and the ten men that
were with him,
and smote Gedaliah
the son
of Ahikam the son
of Shaphan
with the sword,
and slew him,
whom the king
of Babylon
had made governor
over the land.
Ishmael
also slew all
the Jews
that were with him,
even with Gedaliah,
at Mizpah,
and the Chaldeans
that were found there,
and the men
of war.
And it
came to pass
the second day
after he
had slain Gedaliah,
and no man
knew it,
That there came certain
from Shechem,
from Shiloh,
and from Samaria,
even fourscore men,
having their beards shaven,
and their clothes rent,
and having cut themselves,
with offerings
and incense
in their hand,
to bring them
to the house
of the LORD.
And Ishmael
the son
of Nethaniah
went forth
from Mizpah
to meet them,
weeping all along
as he went:
and it
came
to pass,
as he
met them,
he said unto them,
Come
to Gedaliah
the son
of Ahikam.
And it
was so,
when they
came
into the midst
of the city,
that Ishmael
the son
of Nethaniah
slew them,
and cast them
into the midst
of the pit,
he,
and the men that
were with him.
But ten men
were found
among them
that said
unto Ishmael,
Slay us not:
for we
have
treasures
in the field,
of wheat,
and of barley,
and of oil,
and of honey.
So he forbare,
and slew them not
among their brethren.
Now the pit
wherein Ishmael
had cast all
the dead bodies
of the men,
whom
he had slain
because
of Gedaliah,
was it
which Asa the king
had made
for fear
of Baasha king
of Israel:
and Ishmael
the son
of Nethaniah
filled
it with them that
were slain.
Then Ishmael
carried away
captive all
the residue
of the people
that were in Mizpah,
even the king's daughters,
and all
the people
that remained
in Mizpah,
whom Nebuzaradan
the captain
of the guard
had committed
to Gedaliah
the son
of Ahikam:
and Ishmael
the son
of Nethaniah
carried them away captive,
and departed
to go over
to the Ammonites.
But
when Johanan
the son
of Kareah,
and all
the captains
of the forces
that were with him,
heard
of all
the evil that Ishmael
the son
of Nethaniah
had done,
Then
they took all
the men,
and went to fight
with Ishmael
the son
of Nethaniah,
and found him
by the great
waters that
are in Gibeon.
Now it
came
to pass,
that when all
the people
which were with Ishmael
saw Johanan
the son
of Kareah,
and all
the captains
of the forces
that were with him,
then
they were glad.
So all
the people that Ishmael
had carried away captive
from Mizpah
cast
about and returned,
and went unto Johanan
the son
of Kareah.
But Ishmael
the son
of Nethaniah
escaped
from Johanan
with eight men,
and went to the Ammonites.
Then took Johanan
the son
of Kareah,
and all
the captains
of the forces
that were with him,
all the remnant
of the people whom
he had recovered
from Ishmael
the son
of Nethaniah,
from Mizpah,
after that
he had slain
Gedaliah the son
of Ahikam,
even mighty men
of war,
and the women,
and the children,
and the eunuchs,
whom
he had brought again
from Gibeon:
And
they departed,
and dwelt
in the habitation
of Chimham,
which is by Bethlehem,
to go
to enter
into Egypt,
Because
of the Chaldeans:
for they
were afraid
of them,
because
Ishmael the son
of Nethaniah
had slain
Gedaliah the son
of Ahikam,
whom the king
of Babylon
made governor
in the land.
Then all
the captains
of the forces,
and Johanan
the son
of Kareah,
and Jezaniah
the son
of Hoshaiah,
and all
the people
from the least
even unto the greatest,
came near,
And said
unto Jeremiah the prophet,
Let,
we beseech thee,
our supplication
be accepted
before thee,
and pray
for us unto the LORD
thy God,
even for all
this remnant;
(for we
are left
but a few
of many,
as thine
eyes
do behold us:)
That the LORD
thy God
may shew us
the way
wherein we
may walk,
and the thing that
we may do.
Then
Jeremiah the prophet
said unto them,
I have heard you;
behold,
I will pray
unto the LORD
your God
according to your words;
and it
shall come
to pass,
that whatsoever
thing the LORD
shall answer you,
I will declare it
unto you;
I will keep
nothing
back
from you.
Then they
said
to Jeremiah,
The LORD
be a true
and faithful witness
between us,
if we
do not even according to all things
for the which the LORD
thy God
shall send thee to us.
Whether it
be good,
or whether
it be evil,
we will obey the voice
of the LORD our God,
to whom
we send thee;
that it
may be well with us,
when we
obey
the voice
of the LORD our God.
And it
came
to pass
after ten days,
that the word
of the LORD
came
unto Jeremiah.
Then called
he Johanan
the son
of Kareah,
and all
the captains
of the forces
which were with him,
and all
the people
from the least
even to the greatest,
And
said unto them,
Thus saith the LORD,
the God
of Israel,
unto whom
ye sent me
to present
your supplication
before him;
If ye
will still abide in
this land,
then will
I build you,
and not pull
you down,
and
I will plant you,
and not pluck
you up:
for I
repent me
of the evil
that
I have done
unto you.
Be not afraid
of the king
of Babylon,
of whom
ye are afraid;
be not afraid
of him,
saith the LORD:
for I
am with you
to save you,
and
to deliver you
from his hand.
And
I will shew mercies
unto you,
that he
may have mercy
upon you,
and cause
you
to return
to your own land.
But if ye say,
We will not dwell
in this land,
neither obey
the voice
of the LORD your God,
Saying,
No;
but
we will go
into the land
of Egypt,
where we
shall see
no war,
nor hear
the sound
of the trumpet,
nor have
hunger of bread;
and there will
we dwell:
And now therefore hear
the word
of the LORD,
ye remnant
of Judah;
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
If ye wholly set
your faces
to enter
into Egypt,
and go
to sojourn there;
Then it
shall come
to pass,
that the sword,
which ye feared,
shall overtake you
there in the land
of Egypt,
and the famine,
whereof
ye were afraid,
shall follow
close after you
there in Egypt;
and
there ye shall die.
So shall
it be
with all the men
that set
their faces to go
into Egypt
to sojourn there;
they shall die
by the sword,
by the famine,
and
by the pestilence:
and none of them
shall remain
or escape
from the evil
that I
will bring upon them.
For thus
saith the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
As mine
anger
and my fury
hath been poured forth
upon the inhabitants
of Jerusalem;
so shall
my fury
be poured forth
upon you,
when
ye shall enter
into Egypt:
and
ye shall be
an execration,
and an astonishment,
and a curse,
and a reproach;
and
ye shall see
this place no more.
The LORD
hath said concerning you,
O ye remnant
of Judah;
Go ye
not into Egypt:
know certainly that
I have admonished
you this day.
For ye dissembled
in your hearts,
when ye
sent me
unto the LORD your God,
saying,
Pray for us unto the LORD
our God;
and according
unto all
that the LORD
our God
shall say,
so declare unto us,
and
we will do it.
And now
I have
this day
declared
it to you;
but
ye have not obeyed
the voice
of the LORD your God,
nor any thing
for the which
he hath sent me
unto you.
Now therefore know certainly
that ye
shall die
by the sword,
by the famine,
and
by the pestilence,
in the place
whither
ye desire to go
and
to sojourn.
And it
came
to pass,
that when Jeremiah
had made
an end
of speaking
unto all
the people all the words
of the LORD their God,
for which
the LORD their God
had sent him
to them,
even all
these words,
Then spake Azariah
the son
of Hoshaiah,
and Johanan
the son
of Kareah,
and all
the proud men,
saying
unto Jeremiah,
Thou speakest falsely:
the LORD our God
hath not sent thee
to say,
Go not into Egypt
to sojourn there:
But Baruch
the son
of Neriah
setteth thee
on against us,
for to deliver us
into the hand
of the Chaldeans,
that they
might put us
to death,
and carry us away captives
into Babylon.
So Johanan
the son
of Kareah,
and all
the captains
of the forces,
and all
the people,
obeyed not
the voice
of the LORD,
to dwell
in the land
of Judah.
But Johanan
the son
of Kareah,
and all
the captains
of the forces,
took all
the remnant
of Judah,
that were returned
from all nations,
whither
they had been driven,
to dwell
in the land
of Judah;
Even men,
and women,
and children,
and the king's daughters,
and every person
that Nebuzaradan the captain
of the guard
had left
with Gedaliah
the son
of Ahikam
the son
of Shaphan,
and Jeremiah
the prophet,
and Baruch
the son
of Neriah.
So they
came
into the land
of Egypt:
for they obeyed not
the voice
of the LORD:
thus
came
they
even to Tahpanhes.
Then came
the word
of the LORD
unto Jeremiah
in Tahpanhes,
saying,
Take great stones
in thine hand,
and hide them
in the clay
in the brickkiln,
which is at the entry
of Pharaoh's
house
in Tahpanhes,
in the sight
of the men
of Judah;
And
say unto them,
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Behold,
I will send
and take Nebuchadrezzar
the king
of Babylon,
my servant,
and will set
his throne
upon these
stones that
I have hid;
and
he shall spread
his royal pavilion
over them.
And
when he cometh,
he shall smite the land
of Egypt,
and deliver
such as are
for death to death;
and such as are
for captivity to captivity;
and such as are
for the sword
to the sword.
And I
will kindle
a fire
in the houses
of the gods
of Egypt;
and
he shall burn them,
and carry them away
captives:
and
he shall array himself
with the land
of Egypt,
as a shepherd
putteth on his garment;
and
he shall go forth from
thence in peace.
He shall break
also the images
of Bethshemesh,
that is
in the land
of Egypt;
and the houses
of the gods
of the Egyptians
shall
he burn
with fire.
The word that
came
to Jeremiah
concerning all the Jews which
dwell in the land
of Egypt,
which dwell
at Migdol,
and at Tahpanhes,
and at Noph,
and
in the country
of Pathros,
saying,
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Ye have seen all
the evil that
I have brought
upon Jerusalem,
and
upon all
the cities
of Judah;
and,
behold,
this day
they are a desolation,
and no man
dwelleth therein,
Because
of their wickedness
which they
have committed
to provoke me
to anger,
in that they
went to burn
incense,
and to serve other gods,
whom
they knew not,
neither they,
ye,
nor your fathers.
Howbeit
I sent unto you
all my servants the prophets,
rising early
and sending them,
saying,
Oh,
do not
this abominable thing that
I hate.
But
they hearkened not,
nor inclined
their ear
to turn
from their wickedness,
to burn
no incense
unto other gods.
Wherefore my fury
and mine
anger
was poured forth,
and was kindled
in the cities
of Judah
and in the streets
of Jerusalem;
and
they are wasted
and desolate,
as at this day.
Therefore now thus
saith the LORD,
the God of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Wherefore
commit
ye this great evil
against your souls,
to cut off
from you man
and woman,
child
and suckling,
out of Judah,
to leave you none
to remain;
In that
ye provoke me
unto wrath
with the works
of your hands,
burning incense
unto other gods
in the land
of Egypt,
whither
ye be gone
to dwell,
that ye
might cut yourselves off,
and
that ye
might be
a curse
and a reproach
among all
the nations
of the earth?
Have
ye forgotten
the wickedness
of your fathers,
and the wickedness
of the kings
of Judah,
and the wickedness
of their wives,
and your own wickedness,
and the wickedness
of your wives,
which they
have committed
in the land
of Judah,
and
in the streets
of Jerusalem?
They are not humbled even
unto this day,
neither have
they feared,
nor walked
in my law,
nor
in my statutes,
that I set
before you
and before your fathers.
Therefore thus
saith the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Behold,
I will set my face
against you
for evil,
and to cut off all Judah.
And I
will take
the remnant
of Judah,
that have set
their faces to go
into the land
of Egypt
to sojourn there,
and
they shall all be consumed,
and fall
in the land
of Egypt;
they shall even be consumed
by the sword
and by the famine:
they shall die,
from the least
even unto the greatest,
by the sword
and by the famine:
and
they shall be
an execration,
and an astonishment,
and a curse,
and a reproach.
For I
will punish them
that
dwell in the land
of Egypt,
as I
have punished
Jerusalem,
by the sword,
by the famine,
and
by the pestilence:
So that
none of the remnant
of Judah,
which are gone into the land
of Egypt
to sojourn there,
shall escape
or remain,
that they
should return into the land
of Judah,
to the which
they have
a desire
to return
to dwell there:
for none
shall return
but such as shall escape.
Then all
the men
which knew
that their wives
had burned
incense
unto other gods,
and all
the women
that stood by,
a great multitude,
even all
the people
that dwelt
in the land
of Egypt,
in Pathros,
answered Jeremiah,
saying,
As for the word
that thou
hast spoken
unto us
in the name
of the LORD,
we will not hearken
unto thee.
But we
will certainly do whatsoever
thing
goeth forth
out of our own mouth,
to burn
incense
unto the queen
of heaven,
and to pour
out drink offerings
unto her,
as we
have done,
we,
and our fathers,
our kings,
and our princes,
in the cities
of Judah,
and
in the streets
of Jerusalem:
for then
had
we plenty
of victuals,
and were well,
and saw
no evil.
But
since we
left off
to burn
incense
to the queen
of heaven,
and to pour
out drink offerings
unto her,
we have wanted
all things,
and have been consumed
by the sword
and by the famine.
And
when we
burned
incense
to the queen
of heaven,
and poured
out drink offerings
unto her,
did we
make
her cakes
to worship her,
and pour
out drink offerings
unto her,
without our men?
Then Jeremiah
said
unto all the people,
to the men,
and to the women,
and
to all the people
which had given him
that answer,
saying,
The incense
that ye
burned
in the cities
of Judah,
and
in the streets
of Jerusalem,
ye,
and your fathers,
your kings,
and your princes,
and the people
of the land,
did not
the LORD
remember them,
and came
it not into his mind?
So that
the LORD
could no longer bear,
because
of the evil
of your doings,
and
because
of the abominations
which ye
have committed;
therefore is your land
a desolation,
and an astonishment,
and a curse,
without an inhabitant,
as at this day.
Because
ye have burned incense,
and
because
ye have sinned
against the LORD,
and have not obeyed
the voice
of the LORD,
nor walked
in his law,
nor
in his statutes,
nor
in his testimonies;
therefore this evil
is happened
unto you,
as at this day.
Moreover Jeremiah
said
unto all the people,
and
to all the women,
Hear the word
of the LORD,
all Judah
that are in the land
of Egypt:
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel,
saying;
Ye and your wives
have both spoken
with your mouths,
and fulfilled
with your hand,
saying,
We will surely perform
our vows that
we have vowed,
to burn
incense
to the queen
of heaven,
and to pour
out drink offerings
unto her:
ye will surely accomplish
your vows,
and surely perform
your vows.
Therefore hear
ye the word
of the LORD,
all Judah that
dwell
in the land
of Egypt;
Behold,
I have sworn
by my great name,
saith the LORD,
that my name
shall no more
be named
in the mouth
of any man
of Judah
in all the land
of Egypt,
saying,
The Lord GOD liveth.
Behold,
I will watch over them
for evil,
and not for good:
and all
the men
of Judah
that are in the land
of Egypt
shall be consumed
by the sword
and by the famine,
until there be an end
of them.
Yet a
small number that escape the sword
shall return
out of the land
of Egypt
into the land
of Judah,
and all
the remnant
of Judah,
that are gone
into the land
of Egypt
to sojourn there,
shall know
whose words
shall stand,
mine,
or their's.
And this
shall be a sign
unto you,
saith the LORD,
that I
will punish you
in this place,
that ye
may know
that my words
shall surely stand
against you
for evil:
Thus saith the LORD;
Behold,
I will give
Pharaohhophra king
of Egypt
into the hand
of his enemies,
and
into the hand
of them that
seek his life;
as I
gave Zedekiah king
of Judah
into the hand
of Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon,
his enemy,
and that
sought his life.
The word
that Jeremiah the prophet
spake unto Baruch
the son
of Neriah,
when
he had written
these words
in a book
at the mouth
of Jeremiah,
in the fourth year
of Jehoiakim the son
of Josiah king
of Judah,
saying,
Thus saith the LORD,
the God
of Israel,
unto thee,
O Baruch:
Thou didst say,
Woe is me now!
for the LORD
hath added grief
to my sorrow;
I fainted
in my sighing,
and I
find no rest.
Thus
shalt
thou
say unto him,
The LORD
saith thus;
Behold,
that which
I have built
will
I break down,
and
that which
I have planted
I will pluck up,
even this whole land.
And seekest
thou great things
for thyself?
seek them not:
for,
behold,
I will bring evil
upon all flesh,
saith the LORD:
but thy life
will
I give unto thee
for a prey
in all places whither
thou goest.
The word
of the LORD
which came
to Jeremiah
the prophet
against the Gentiles;
Against Egypt,
against the army
of Pharaohnecho king
of Egypt,
which was by the river
Euphrates in Carchemish,
which Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon
smote in the fourth year
of Jehoiakim the son
of Josiah king
of Judah.
Order
ye the buckler
and shield,
and draw near
to battle.
Harness the horses;
and get up,
ye horsemen,
and stand forth
with your helmets;
furbish the spears,
and put on
the brigandines.
Wherefore have
I seen them
dismayed
and turned
away back?
and their mighty
ones are beaten down,
and are fled apace,
and look
not back:
for fear
was round about,
saith the LORD.
Let not
the swift
flee away,
nor the mighty man escape;
they shall stumble,
and fall toward
the north
by the river Euphrates.
Who is this
that cometh up
as a flood,
whose waters
are moved
as the rivers?
Egypt riseth up like
a flood,
and his waters
are moved like
the rivers;
and he saith,
I will go up,
and will cover
the earth;
I will destroy
the city
and the inhabitants
thereof.
Come up,
ye horses;
and rage,
ye chariots;
and let
the mighty men
come forth;
the Ethiopians
and the Libyans,
that handle the shield;
and the Lydians,
that handle
and bend
the bow.
For this
is the day
of the Lord GOD
of hosts,
a day
of vengeance,
that he
may avenge him
of his adversaries:
and the sword
shall devour,
and it
shall be
satiate
and made
drunk with their blood:
for the Lord GOD
of hosts
hath
a sacrifice
in the north country
by the river Euphrates.
Go up
into Gilead,
and take balm,
O virgin,
the daughter
of Egypt:
in vain
shalt thou
use many medicines;
for thou
shalt not be cured.
The nations
have heard
of thy shame,
and thy
cry
hath filled
the land:
for the mighty man
hath stumbled
against the mighty,
and
they are fallen both
together.
The word
that the LORD
spake to Jeremiah
the prophet,
how Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon
should come
and smite
the land
of Egypt.
Declare
ye in Egypt,
and publish
in Migdol,
and publish
in Noph
and in Tahpanhes:
say ye,
Stand fast,
and prepare thee;
for the sword
shall devour round
about thee.
Why are
thy valiant men
swept away?
they stood not,
because
the LORD
did drive them.
He made many
to fall,
yea,
one fell
upon another:
and they said,
Arise,
and let us
go again
to our own people,
and to the land
of our nativity,
from the oppressing sword.
They did cry there,
Pharaoh king
of Egypt
is
but a noise;
he hath passed
the time appointed.
As I live,
saith the King,
whose name
is the LORD
of hosts,
Surely
as Tabor
is among the mountains,
and as Carmel
by the sea,
so shall
he come.
O thou daughter
dwelling
in Egypt,
furnish thyself
to go
into captivity:
for Noph
shall be
waste
and desolate
without an inhabitant.
Egypt is like
a very
fair heifer,
but destruction cometh;
it cometh out of the north.
Also her
hired men
are in the midst
of her like fatted bullocks;
for they
also are turned back,
and
are fled away together:
they did not stand,
because the day
of their calamity
was come upon them,
and the time
of their visitation.
The voice
thereof shall go like
a serpent;
for they
shall march
with an army,
and come
against her
with axes,
as hewers
of wood.
They shall cut down
her forest,
saith the LORD,
though it
cannot be searched;
because
they are more than
the grasshoppers,
and are innumerable.
The daughter
of Egypt
shall be confounded;
she shall be delivered
into the hand
of the people
of the north.
The LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel,
saith;
Behold,
I will punish
the multitude of No,
and Pharaoh,
and Egypt,
with their gods,
and their kings;
even Pharaoh,
and all
them that trust
in him:
And
I will deliver them
into the hand
of those
that seek
their lives,
and into the hand
of Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon,
and into the hand
of his servants:
and afterward
it shall be inhabited,
as in the days of old,
saith the LORD.
But fear not thou,
O my servant Jacob,
and be not dismayed,
O Israel:
for,
behold,
I will save thee
from afar off,
and thy
seed
from the land
of their captivity;
and Jacob
shall return,
and be in rest
and at ease,
and none
shall make him afraid.
Fear thou not,
O Jacob my servant,
saith the LORD:
for I
am with thee;
for I will make
a full end
of all
the nations
whither
I have driven thee:
but
I will not make
a full end
of thee,
but correct thee
in measure;
yet will
I not leave
thee wholly unpunished.
The word
of the LORD
that came
to Jeremiah
the prophet
against the Philistines,
before that Pharaoh
smote Gaza.
Thus saith the LORD;
Behold,
waters
rise up
out of the north,
and shall be
an overflowing flood,
and shall overflow
the land,
and all that is
therein;
the city,
and them that
dwell therein:
then the men
shall cry,
and all
the inhabitants
of the land
shall howl.
At the noise
of the stamping
of the hoofs
of his strong horses,
at the rushing
of his chariots,
and at the rumbling
of his wheels,
the fathers
shall not look
back to their children
for feebleness
of hands;
Because
of the day
that
cometh to spoil all
the Philistines,
and to cut off
from Tyrus
and Zidon every helper
that remaineth:
for the LORD
will spoil
the Philistines,
the remnant
of the country
of Caphtor.
Baldness is come upon Gaza;
Ashkelon is cut off
with the remnant
of their valley:
how long
wilt
thou cut
thyself?
O thou sword
of the LORD,
how long
will
it be ere
thou be quiet?
put up thyself
into thy scabbard,
rest,
and be still.
How can
it be quiet,
seeing
the LORD
hath given it
a charge
against Ashkelon,
and
against the sea shore?
there hath
he appointed it.
Against Moab thus
saith the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Woe unto Nebo!
for it
is spoiled:
Kiriathaim
is confounded
and taken:
Misgab
is confounded
and dismayed.
There shall be
no more praise
of Moab:
in Heshbon
they have devised evil
against it;
come,
and let us
cut it off
from being a nation.
Also thou
shalt be cut down,
O Madmen;
the sword
shall pursue thee.
A voice
of crying
shall be
from Horonaim,
spoiling
and great destruction.
Moab is destroyed;
her little
ones have caused a cry
to be heard.
For in the going up
of Luhith
continual weeping
shall go up;
for in the going down
of Horonaim
the enemies
have heard a cry
of destruction.
Flee,
save your lives,
and be like
the heath
in the wilderness.
For because thou
hast trusted
in thy
works
and
in thy treasures,
thou shalt also be taken:
and Chemosh
shall go forth
into captivity
with his priests
and his princes
together.
And the spoiler
shall come upon every city,
and no city
shall escape:
the valley
also shall perish,
and the plain
shall be destroyed,
as the LORD
hath spoken.
Give wings
unto Moab,
that it
may flee
and get away:
for the cities
thereof shall be desolate,
without any
to dwell therein.
Cursed
be
he that
doeth
the work
of the LORD deceitfully,
and cursed
be
he that
keepeth
back his sword
from blood.
Moab
hath been
at ease
from his youth,
and
he hath settled
on his lees,
and hath not been emptied
from vessel to vessel,
neither hath
he gone
into captivity:
therefore his taste
remained in him,
and his scent
is not changed.
Therefore,
behold,
the days come,
saith the LORD,
that I
will send
unto him wanderers,
that shall cause him
to wander,
and shall empty
his vessels,
and break
their bottles.
And Moab
shall be ashamed
of Chemosh,
as the house
of Israel
was ashamed
of Bethel
their confidence.
How say ye,
We are
mighty
and strong men
for the war?
Moab is spoiled,
and gone up
out of her cities,
and his chosen young men
are gone down
to the slaughter,
saith the King,
whose name
is the LORD
of hosts.
The calamity
of Moab
is near to come,
and his affliction
hasteth fast.
All
ye that
are about him,
bemoan him;
and all
ye that
know
his name,
say,
How is
the strong staff broken,
and the beautiful rod!
Thou daughter
that dost inhabit Dibon,
come down
from thy glory,
and sit
in thirst;
for the spoiler
of Moab
shall come upon thee,
and
he shall destroy
thy strong holds.
O inhabitant
of Aroer,
stand by the way,
and espy;
ask him
that fleeth,
and her
that escapeth,
and say,
What is done?
Moab is confounded;
for it
is broken down:
howl and cry;
tell
ye it in Arnon,
that Moab
is spoiled,
And judgment
is come upon
the plain country;
upon Holon,
and upon Jahazah,
and
upon Mephaath,
And upon Dibon,
and upon Nebo,
and
upon Bethdiblathaim,
And
upon Kiriathaim,
and
upon Bethgamul,
and
upon Bethmeon,
And upon Kerioth,
and upon Bozrah,
and
upon all the cities
of the land
of Moab,
far or near.
The horn
of Moab
is cut off,
and his arm
is broken,
saith the LORD.
Make
ye him drunken:
for he
magnified himself
against the LORD:
Moab
also shall wallow
in his vomit,
and
he also shall be
in derision.
For was not
Israel a derision
unto thee?
was he
found
among thieves?
for since
thou
spakest of him,
thou skippedst
for joy.
O ye that
dwell
in Moab,
leave the cities,
and dwell
in the rock,
and be like
the dove
that maketh
her nest
in the sides
of the hole's mouth.
We have heard
the pride
of Moab,
(he is exceeding proud)
his loftiness,
and his arrogancy,
and his pride,
and the haughtiness
of his heart.
I know his wrath,
saith the LORD;
but it
shall not be so;
his lies
shall not so
effect it.
Therefore will
I howl for Moab,
and
I will cry out for all
Moab;
mine heart
shall mourn
for the men
of Kirheres.
O vine of Sibmah,
I will weep
for thee
with the weeping
of Jazer:
thy plants
are gone over
the sea,
they reach even
to the sea
of Jazer:
the spoiler
is fallen
upon thy
summer fruits
and
upon thy vintage.
And joy
and gladness
is taken
from the plentiful field,
and from the land
of Moab,
and
I have caused wine
to fail
from the winepresses:
none shall tread
with shouting;
their shouting
shall be no shouting.
From the cry
of Heshbon
even unto Elealeh,
and
even unto Jahaz,
have
they uttered
their voice,
from Zoar
even unto Horonaim,
as an heifer
of three years old:
for the waters
also of Nimrim
shall be desolate.
Moreover I
will cause
to cease in Moab,
saith the LORD,
him that
offereth in the high places,
and him that
burneth
incense
to his gods.
Therefore mine heart
shall sound
for Moab like pipes,
and mine heart
shall sound like
pipes for the men
of Kirheres:
because
the riches that
he hath gotten
are perished.
For every head
shall be bald,
and every beard clipped:
upon all
the hands
shall be cuttings,
and
upon the loins sackcloth.
There shall be lamentation
generally upon all
the housetops
of Moab,
and
in the streets
thereof:
for I
have broken Moab like
a vessel
wherein is
no pleasure,
saith the LORD.
They shall howl,
saying,
How is
it broken down!
how hath
Moab
turned
the back
with shame!
so shall
Moab
be
a derision and a
dismaying
to all them
about him.
For thus
saith the LORD;
Behold,
he shall fly
as an eagle,
and shall spread
his wings
over Moab.
Kerioth is taken,
and the strong holds
are surprised,
and the mighty men's hearts
in Moab
at that day
shall be
as the heart
of a woman
in her pangs.
And Moab
shall be destroyed
from being
a people,
because
he hath magnified himself
against the LORD.
Fear,
and the pit,
and the snare,
shall be
upon thee,
O inhabitant
of Moab,
saith the LORD.
He that
fleeth from the fear
shall fall
into the pit;
and
he that
getteth up
out of the pit
shall be taken
in the snare:
for I
will bring
upon it,
even upon Moab,
the year
of their visitation,
saith the LORD.
They that
fled
stood
under the shadow
of Heshbon
because
of the force:
but a fire
shall come forth out of Heshbon,
and a flame
from the midst
of Sihon,
and shall devour
the corner
of Moab,
and the crown
of the head
of the tumultuous ones.
Woe be unto thee,
O Moab!
the people
of Chemosh perisheth:
for thy sons
are taken captives,
and thy daughters captives.
Yet will
I bring again
the captivity
of Moab
in the latter days,
saith the LORD.
Thus far
is the judgment
of Moab.
Concerning the Ammonites,
thus saith the LORD;
Hath Israel no sons?
hath
he no heir?
why then
doth
their king
inherit Gad,
and his people
dwell
in his cities?
Therefore,
behold,
the days come,
saith the LORD,
that I
will cause
an alarm
of war
to be heard
in Rabbah
of the Ammonites;
and it
shall be
a desolate heap,
and her daughters
shall be burned
with fire:
then shall
Israel
be
heir unto them that
were his heirs,
saith the LORD.
Howl,
O Heshbon,
for Ai
is spoiled:
cry,
ye daughters
of Rabbah,
gird you
with sackcloth;
lament,
and run
to and fro
by the hedges;
for their king
shall go
into captivity,
and his priests
and his princes
together.
Wherefore gloriest
thou
in the valleys,
thy flowing valley,
O backsliding daughter?
that trusted
in her treasures,
saying,
Who
shall come unto me?
Behold,
I will bring a fear
upon thee,
saith the Lord GOD
of hosts,
from all
those that
be about thee;
and
ye shall be driven
out every man
right forth;
and none
shall gather
up him that
wandereth.
And afterward
I will bring again
the captivity
of the children
of Ammon,
saith the LORD.
Concerning Edom,
thus saith
the LORD
of hosts;
Is wisdom no more
in Teman?
is counsel
perished
from the prudent?
is their wisdom vanished?
Flee ye,
turn back,
dwell deep,
O inhabitants
of Dedan;
for I will bring
the calamity
of Esau
upon him,
the time that
I will visit him.
If grapegatherers come
to thee,
would
they not leave
some gleaning grapes?
if thieves
by night,
they will destroy
till they
have enough.
But I
have made Esau bare,
I have uncovered
his secret places,
and
he shall not be able
to hide himself:
his seed
is spoiled,
and his brethren,
and his neighbours,
and he
is not.
Leave thy fatherless children,
I will preserve them alive;
and let
thy widows
trust in me.
For thus
saith the LORD;
Behold,
they whose judgment
was not
to drink
of the cup
have assuredly
drunken;
and art
thou
he that
shall altogether go
unpunished?
thou shalt not go unpunished,
but
thou shalt surely drink of it.
For I
have sworn
by myself,
saith the LORD,
that Bozrah
shall become
a desolation,
a reproach,
a waste,
and a curse;
and all
the cities
thereof shall be perpetual
wastes.
I have heard
a rumour
from the LORD,
and an ambassador
is sent
unto the heathen,
saying,
Gather
ye together,
and come
against her,
and rise
up to the battle.
For, lo,
I will make thee small
among the heathen,
and despised
among men.
Thy terribleness
hath deceived thee,
and the pride
of thine heart,
O thou
that dwellest in the clefts
of the rock,
that holdest the height
of the hill:
though thou
shouldest make
thy nest as high
as the eagle,
I will bring thee down
from thence,
saith the LORD.
Also Edom
shall be
a desolation:
every one that
goeth by it
shall be astonished,
and shall hiss
at all the plagues
thereof.
As in the overthrow
of Sodom
and Gomorrah
and the neighbour cities
thereof,
saith the LORD,
no man
shall abide there,
neither shall
a son of man
dwell in it.
Behold,
he shall come
up like
a lion
from the swelling
of Jordan
against the habitation
of the strong:
but
I will suddenly make him
run away
from her:
and who
is a
chosen man,
that I
may appoint
over her?
for who
is like me?
and
who will appoint me
the time?
and
who is that shepherd
that will stand
before me?
Therefore hear the counsel
of the LORD,
that he
hath taken
against Edom;
and his purposes,
that he
hath purposed
against the inhabitants
of Teman:
Surely the least
of the flock
shall draw them out:
surely
he shall make
their habitations
desolate with them.
The earth
is moved
at the noise
of their fall,
at the cry
the noise
thereof was heard
in the Red sea.
Behold,
he shall come
up and fly
as the eagle,
and spread
his wings
over Bozrah:
and at that day
shall
the heart
of the mighty men
of Edom
be
as the heart
of a woman
in her pangs.
Concerning Damascus.
Hamath is confounded,
and Arpad:
for they
have heard
evil tidings:
they are fainthearted;
there is
sorrow
on the sea;
it cannot be quiet.
Damascus is waxed feeble,
and turneth herself
to flee,
and fear
hath seized
on her:
anguish
and sorrows
have taken her,
as a woman
in travail.
How is the city
of praise not left,
the city
of my joy!
Therefore her young men
shall fall
in her streets,
and all
the men
of war
shall be cut off
in that day,
saith the LORD
of hosts.
And I
will kindle
a fire
in the wall
of Damascus,
and it
shall consume
the palaces
of Benhadad.
Concerning Kedar,
and concerning
the kingdoms
of Hazor,
which Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon
shall smite,
thus saith the LORD;
Arise ye,
go up to Kedar,
and spoil
the men
of the east.
Their tents
and their flocks
shall
they take away:
they
shall take
to themselves their curtains,
and all
their vessels,
and their camels;
and
they
shall cry unto them,
Fear is on every side.
Flee,
get you far off,
dwell deep,
O ye inhabitants
of Hazor,
saith the LORD;
for Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon
hath taken
counsel
against you,
and hath conceived
a purpose
against you.
Arise,
get you up
unto the wealthy nation,
that dwelleth without care,
saith the LORD,
which have neither gates
nor bars,
which dwell alone.
And their camels
shall be a booty,
and the multitude
of their cattle
a spoil:
and
I will scatter
into all winds them
that are in the utmost corners;
and I
will bring
their calamity
from all sides
thereof,
saith the LORD.
And Hazor
shall be
a
dwelling
for dragons,
and a desolation
for ever:
there shall no man
abide there,
nor any son
of man dwell in it.
The word
of the LORD
that came
to Jeremiah the prophet
against Elam
in the beginning
of the reign
of Zedekiah king
of Judah,
saying,
Thus saith
the LORD
of hosts;
Behold,
I will break the bow
of Elam,
the chief
of their might.
And upon Elam
will
I bring
the four
winds
from the four
quarters
of heaven,
and will scatter them toward all
those winds;
and there shall be
no nation
whither the outcasts
of Elam
shall not come.
For I
will cause
Elam
to be dismayed
before their enemies,
and
before them
that seek
their life:
and I
will bring
evil upon them,
even my fierce anger,
saith the LORD;
and I
will send
the sword
after them,
till I
have consumed them:
And I
will set
my throne
in Elam,
and will destroy
from thence
the king
and the princes,
saith the LORD.
But it
shall come
to pass
in the latter days,
that I
will bring again
the captivity
of Elam,
saith the LORD.
The word
that the LORD
spake against Babylon
and against the land
of the Chaldeans
by Jeremiah the prophet.
Declare
ye
among the nations,
and publish,
and set up
a standard;
publish,
and conceal not:
say,
Babylon is taken,
Bel is confounded,
Merodach is broken in pieces;
her idols
are confounded,
her images
are broken in pieces.
For out of the north
there cometh
up a nation
against her,
which shall make
her land desolate,
and none
shall dwell
therein:
they shall remove,
they shall depart,
both man
and beast.
In those days,
and in that time,
saith the LORD,
the children
of Israel
shall come,
they and the children
of Judah
together,
going and weeping:
they shall go,
and seek
the LORD their God.
They shall ask
the way
to Zion
with their faces thitherward,
saying,
Come,
and let us
join ourselves
to the LORD
in a perpetual covenant
that shall not be forgotten.
My people
hath been lost sheep:
their shepherds
have caused them
to go astray,
they have turned them away
on the mountains:
they have gone
from mountain
to hill,
they have forgotten
their restingplace.
All that
found them
have devoured them:
and their adversaries said,
We offend not,
because
they have sinned
against the LORD,
the habitation
of justice,
even the LORD,
the hope
of their fathers.
Remove
out of the midst
of Babylon,
and go forth
out of the land
of the Chaldeans,
and be
as the he goats
before the flocks.
For, lo,
I will raise
and cause to
come up
against Babylon
an assembly of great nations
from the north country:
and
they shall set themselves
in array
against her;
from thence
she shall be taken:
their arrows
shall be as
of a mighty expert man;
none shall return
in vain.
And Chaldea
shall be
a spoil:
all that
spoil her
shall be satisfied,
saith the LORD.
Because
ye were glad,
because
ye rejoiced,
O ye destroyers
of mine heritage,
because
ye are grown fat
as the heifer
at grass,
and bellow
as bulls;
Your mother
shall be sore confounded;
she that bare you
shall be ashamed:
behold,
the hindermost
of the nations
shall be
a wilderness,
a dry land,
and a desert.
Because
of the wrath
of the LORD
it shall not be inhabited,
but it
shall be wholly desolate:
every one that
goeth by Babylon
shall be astonished,
and hiss
at all her plagues.
Put yourselves
in array
against Babylon round about:
all
ye that bend
the bow,
shoot at her,
spare no arrows:
for she hath sinned
against the LORD.
Shout
against her round about:
she hath given
her hand:
her foundations
are fallen,
her walls
are thrown down:
for it
is the vengeance
of the LORD:
take vengeance
upon her;
as she
hath done,
do unto her.
Cut off
the sower
from Babylon,
and him
that handleth
the sickle
in the time
of harvest:
for fear
of the oppressing sword
they shall turn every one
to his people,
and
they shall flee every one
to his own land.
Israel
is
a scattered sheep;
the lions
have driven him away:
first the king
of Assyria
hath devoured him;
and last
this Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon
hath broken
his bones.
Therefore thus
saith the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
Behold,
I will punish
the king
of Babylon
and his land,
as I
have punished the king
of Assyria.
And
I will bring Israel
again to his habitation,
and he
shall feed
on Carmel
and Bashan,
and his soul
shall be satisfied
upon mount Ephraim
and Gilead.
In those days,
and in that time,
saith the LORD,
the iniquity
of Israel
shall be sought for,
and there shall be none;
and the sins
of Judah,
and
they shall not be found:
for I
will pardon them whom
I reserve.
Go up
against the land
of Merathaim,
even against it,
and
against the inhabitants
of Pekod:
waste
and utterly destroy
after them,
saith the LORD,
and do according to all
that
I have commanded thee.
A sound of battle
is in the land,
and
of great destruction.
How is
the hammer
of the whole earth cut asunder
and broken!
how is
Babylon become
a desolation
among the nations!
I have laid
a snare
for thee,
and
thou art
also taken,
O Babylon,
and
thou wast not aware:
thou art found,
and also caught,
because
thou hast striven
against the LORD.
The LORD
hath opened
his armoury,
and hath brought forth
the weapons
of his indignation:
for this
is the work
of the Lord GOD
of hosts
in the land
of the Chaldeans.
Come against her
from the utmost border,
open her storehouses:
cast her up
as heaps,
and destroy
her utterly:
let nothing
of her
be left.
Slay all
her bullocks;
let them
go down
to the slaughter:
woe unto them!
for their day
is come,
the time
of their visitation.
The voice
of them that
flee
and escape
out of the land
of Babylon,
to declare
in Zion the vengeance
of the LORD our God,
the vengeance
of his temple.
Call
together the archers
against Babylon:
all
ye that bend
the bow,
camp
against it round about;
let none
thereof escape:
recompense her
according to her work;
according to all
that
she hath done,
do unto her:
for she
hath been proud
against the LORD,
against the Holy One
of Israel.
Therefore shall
her young men fall
in the streets,
and all her men
of war
shall be cut off
in that day,
saith the LORD.
Behold,
I am against thee,
O thou most proud,
saith the Lord GOD
of hosts:
for thy day
is come,
the time
that I
will visit thee.
And the most proud
shall stumble
and fall,
and none
shall raise him up:
and I
will kindle
a fire
in his cities,
and it
shall devour all round
about him.
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts;
The children
of Israel
and the children
of Judah
were oppressed together:
and all
that
took them
captives held them fast;
they refused
to let them go.
Their Redeemer
is strong;
the LORD of hosts
is his name:
he shall throughly plead
their cause,
that he
may give
rest to the land,
and disquiet
the inhabitants
of Babylon.
A sword
is upon the Chaldeans,
saith the LORD,
and
upon the inhabitants
of Babylon,
and
upon her princes,
and upon her wise men.
A sword
is upon the liars;
and
they shall dote:
a sword
is upon her mighty men;
and
they shall be dismayed.
A sword
is upon their horses,
and
upon their chariots,
and upon all
the mingled people
that are in the midst
of her;
and
they shall become
as women:
a sword
is upon her treasures;
and
they shall be robbed.
A drought
is upon her waters;
and
they
shall be dried up:
for it
is the land
of graven images,
and they
are mad
upon their idols.
Therefore the wild beasts
of the desert
with the wild beasts
of the islands
shall dwell there,
and the owls
shall dwell
therein:
and it
shall be
no more inhabited
for ever;
neither shall
it be
dwelt in
from generation to generation.
As God
overthrew Sodom
and Gomorrah
and the neighbour cities
thereof,
saith the LORD;
so shall no man
abide there,
neither shall
any son of man
dwell therein.
Behold,
a people
shall come
from the north,
and a great nation,
and many kings
shall be raised up
from the coasts
of the earth.
They shall hold
the bow
and the lance:
they are cruel,
and will not shew mercy:
their voice
shall roar like
the sea,
and
they shall ride
upon horses,
every one put in array,
like a man
to the battle,
against thee,
O daughter
of Babylon.
The king
of Babylon
hath heard
the report
of them,
and his hands
waxed feeble:
anguish took
hold of him,
and pangs
as of a woman
in travail.
Behold,
he shall come
up like
a lion
from the swelling
of Jordan
unto the habitation
of the strong:
but
I will make them
suddenly run away
from her:
and who
is a
chosen man,
that I
may appoint
over her?
for who
is like me?
and
who will appoint me
the time?
and
who is that shepherd
that will stand
before me?
Therefore hear
ye the counsel
of the LORD,
that he
hath taken
against Babylon;
and his purposes,
that he
hath purposed
against the land
of the Chaldeans:
Surely the least
of the flock
shall draw them out:
surely
he shall make
their habitation
desolate with them.
At the noise
of the taking
of Babylon
the earth
is moved,
and the cry
is heard
among the nations.
Thus saith the LORD;
Behold,
I will raise up
against Babylon,
and against them that
dwell
in the midst
of them that rise up
against me,
a destroying wind;
And will send
unto Babylon fanners,
that shall fan her,
and shall empty
her land:
for in the day of trouble
they shall be
against her round about.
Against him that
bendeth let
the archer bend his bow,
and against him that
lifteth himself up
in his brigandine:
and spare
ye not
her young men;
destroy
ye utterly all
her host.
Thus
the slain
shall fall
in the land
of the Chaldeans,
and they
that are
thrust through
in her streets.
For Israel
hath not been forsaken,
nor Judah
of his God,
of the LORD
of hosts;
though their land
was filled
with sin
against the Holy One
of Israel.
Flee
out of the midst
of Babylon,
and deliver every man
his soul:
be not cut off
in her iniquity;
for this
is the time
of the LORD's vengeance;
he will render
unto her
a recompence.
Babylon
hath been
a golden cup
in the LORD's hand,
that made all
the earth drunken:
the nations
have drunken
of her wine;
therefore the nations
are mad.
Babylon
is suddenly fallen
and destroyed:
howl for her;
take balm
for her pain,
if so
be
she may be healed.
We would have healed
Babylon,
but
she is not healed:
forsake her,
and let us
go every one
into his own country:
for her judgment
reacheth unto heaven,
and is lifted up
even to the skies.
The LORD
hath brought forth
our righteousness:
come,
and let us
declare
in Zion the work
of the LORD our God.
Make bright
the arrows;
gather the shields:
the LORD
hath raised
up the spirit
of the kings
of the Medes:
for his device
is against Babylon,
to destroy it;
because
it is the vengeance
of the LORD,
the vengeance
of his temple.
Set up the standard
upon the walls
of Babylon,
make the watch strong,
set up the watchmen,
prepare the ambushes:
for the LORD
hath both devised
and done that
which he
spake against the inhabitants
of Babylon.
O thou
that dwellest upon many waters,
abundant in treasures,
thine end
is come,
and the measure
of thy covetousness.
The LORD of hosts
hath sworn
by himself,
saying,
Surely I
will fill thee
with men,
as with caterpillers;
and
they shall lift
up a shout
against thee.
He hath made
the earth
by his power,
he hath established
the world
by his wisdom,
and hath stretched out
the heaven
by his understanding.
When
he uttereth his voice,
there is a multitude
of waters
in the heavens;
and he
causeth
the vapours
to ascend
from the ends
of the earth:
he maketh lightnings
with rain,
and bringeth forth the wind
out of his treasures.
Every man
is brutish
by his knowledge;
every founder
is confounded
by the graven image:
for his molten image
is falsehood,
and there is no breath
in them.
They are vanity,
the work
of errors:
in the time
of their visitation
they shall perish.
The portion
of Jacob
is not like them;
for he is
the former
of all things:
and Israel
is the rod
of his inheritance:
the LORD of hosts
is his name.
Thou art
my battle axe
and weapons
of war:
for with thee
will
I break
in pieces the nations,
and with thee
will
I destroy kingdoms;
And with thee
will
I break
in pieces
the horse
and his rider;
and with thee
will
I break
in pieces
the chariot
and his rider;
With thee
also will
I break
in pieces man
and woman;
and with thee
will
I break
in pieces old
and young;
and with thee
will
I break
in pieces
the young man
and the maid;
I will also break
in pieces
with thee
the shepherd
and his flock;
and with thee
will
I break
in pieces
the husbandman
and his yoke
of oxen;
and with thee
will
I break
in pieces captains
and rulers.
And I
will render
unto Babylon
and to all the inhabitants
of Chaldea all
their evil that
they have done
in Zion
in your sight,
saith the LORD.
Behold,
I am against thee,
O destroying mountain,
saith the LORD,
which destroyest all
the earth:
and
I will stretch out mine hand
upon thee,
and roll thee down
from the rocks,
and will make
thee a
burnt mountain.
And
they shall not take
of thee
a stone
for a corner,
nor a stone
for foundations;
but
thou shalt be
desolate
for ever,
saith the LORD.
Set
ye up a standard
in the land,
blow the trumpet
among the nations,
prepare the nations
against her,
call together
against her
the kingdoms
of Ararat, Minni,
and Ashchenaz;
appoint a captain
against her;
cause the horses to
come up
as the rough caterpillers.
Prepare
against her the nations
with the kings
of the Medes,
the captains
thereof,
and all
the rulers thereof,
and all
the land
of his dominion.
And the land
shall tremble
and sorrow:
for every purpose
of the LORD
shall be performed
against Babylon,
to make the land
of Babylon
a desolation
without an inhabitant.
The mighty men
of Babylon
have forborn
to fight,
they have remained
in their holds:
their might hath failed;
they became
as women:
they have burned
her dwellingplaces;
her bars
are broken.
One post
shall run to meet
another,
and one messenger
to meet another,
to shew the king
of Babylon
that his city
is taken
at one end,
And
that the passages
are stopped,
and the reeds
they have burned
with fire,
and the men
of war
are affrighted.
For thus
saith the LORD
of hosts,
the God
of Israel;
The daughter
of Babylon
is like
a threshingfloor,
it is
time to thresh her:
yet a little while,
and
the time
of her harvest
shall come.
Nebuchadrezzar the king
of Babylon
hath devoured me,
he hath crushed me,
he hath made me
an empty vessel,
he hath swallowed me
up like
a dragon,
he hath filled
his belly
with my delicates,
he hath cast me out.
The violence
done to me and
to my flesh
be upon Babylon,
shall
the inhabitant
of Zion say;
and my blood
upon the inhabitants
of Chaldea,
shall Jerusalem say.
Therefore thus
saith the LORD;
Behold,
I will plead
thy cause,
and take vengeance
for thee;
and
I will dry
up her sea,
and make
her springs dry.
And Babylon
shall become heaps,
a dwellingplace
for dragons,
an astonishment,
and an hissing,
without an inhabitant.
They shall roar
together like lions:
they shall yell
as lions' whelps.
In their heat
I will make
their feasts,
and
I will make them
drunken,
that they
may rejoice,
and sleep
a perpetual sleep,
and not wake,
saith the LORD.
I will bring them
down like lambs
to the slaughter,
like rams
with he goats.
How is
Sheshach taken!
and how is
the praise
of the whole earth surprised!
how is
Babylon
become
an astonishment
among the nations!
The sea
is come up
upon Babylon:
she is covered
with the multitude
of the waves
thereof.
Her cities
are a desolation,
a dry land,
and a wilderness,
a land
wherein no man dwelleth,
neither doth
any son of man
pass thereby.
And
I will punish Bel
in Babylon,
and
I will bring forth
out of his
mouth that
which he
hath swallowed up:
and the nations
shall not flow
together any more
unto him:
yea,
the wall
of Babylon
shall fall.
My people,
go ye
out of the midst
of her,
and deliver
ye every man
his soul
from the fierce anger
of the LORD.
And lest
your heart faint,
and ye
fear
for the rumour
that shall be heard
in the land;
a rumour
shall
both come one year,
and
after that
in another
year
shall come
a rumour,
and violence
in the land,
ruler
against ruler.
Therefore,
behold,
the days come,
that I
will do
judgment
upon the graven
images
of Babylon:
and her whole land
shall be confounded,
and all her
slain
shall fall
in the midst
of her.
Then the heaven
and the earth,
and all that is
therein,
shall sing
for Babylon:
for the spoilers
shall come
unto her
from the north,
saith the LORD.
As Babylon
hath caused the slain
of Israel
to fall,
so at Babylon
shall fall the slain
of all the earth.
Ye that
have escaped
the sword,
go away,
stand not still:
remember the LORD
afar off,
and let Jerusalem
come into your mind.
We are confounded,
because
we have heard reproach:
shame hath covered
our faces:
for strangers
are come
into the sanctuaries
of the LORD's house.
Wherefore,
behold,
the days come,
saith the LORD,
that I
will do
judgment
upon her graven images:
and
through all
her land the wounded
shall groan.
Though Babylon
should mount
up to heaven,
and
though she
should fortify
the height
of her strength,
yet from me shall spoilers
come unto her,
saith the LORD.
A sound
of a cry
cometh from Babylon,
and great destruction
from the land
of the Chaldeans:
Because
the LORD
hath spoiled
Babylon,
and destroyed
out of her the great voice;
when her waves
do roar like great waters,
a noise
of their voice
is uttered:
Because
the spoiler
is come upon her,
even upon Babylon,
and her mighty men
are taken,
every one
of their bows
is broken:
for the LORD God
of recompences
shall surely
requite.
And
I will make
drunk
her princes,
and her wise men,
her captains,
and her rulers,
and her mighty men:
and
they shall sleep
a perpetual sleep,
and not wake,
saith the King,
whose name
is the LORD
of hosts.
Thus
saith
the LORD
of hosts;
The broad walls
of Babylon
shall be utterly broken,
and her high gates
shall be burned
with fire;
and the people
shall labour
in vain,
and the folk
in the fire,
and
they shall be weary.
The word which Jeremiah
the prophet
commanded
Seraiah the son
of Neriah,
the son
of Maaseiah,
when he
went with Zedekiah
the king
of Judah
into Babylon
in the fourth year
of his reign.
And this Seraiah
was a quiet prince.
So Jeremiah
wrote in a book
all the evil
that should come upon
Babylon,
even all
these words
that are written
against Babylon.
And Jeremiah
said
to Seraiah,
When thou
comest to Babylon,
and shalt see,
and shalt read all
these words;
Then shalt
thou say,
O LORD,
thou hast spoken
against this place,
to cut it off,
that none
shall remain in it,
neither man
nor beast,
but
that it
shall be
desolate
for ever.
And it
shall be,
when
thou hast made
an end
of reading
this book,
that thou
shalt bind
a stone to it,
and cast it
into the midst
of Euphrates:
And
thou shalt say,
Thus
shall
Babylon sink,
and shall not rise
from the evil
that I
will bring
upon her:
and
they shall be weary.
Thus far
are the words
of Jeremiah.
Zedekiah was one
and twenty years old
when
he began
to reign,
and
he reigned eleven years
in Jerusalem.
And his mother's name
was Hamutal
the daughter
of Jeremiah
of Libnah.
And he
did that which
was evil
in the eyes
of the LORD,
according to all
that Jehoiakim
had done.
For through the anger
of the LORD
it came to pass
in Jerusalem
and Judah,
till he
had cast
them out
from his presence,
that Zedekiah
rebelled
against the king
of Babylon.
And it
came
to pass
in the ninth year
of his reign,
in the tenth month,
in the tenth day
of the month,
that Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon came,
he and all
his army,
against Jerusalem,
and pitched
against it,
and built forts
against it round about.
So the city
was besieged
unto the eleventh year
of king Zedekiah.
And
in the fourth month,
in the ninth day
of the month,
the famine
was sore
in the city,
so that
there was no bread
for the people
of the land.
Then the city
was broken up,
and all
the men
of war fled,
and went forth
out of the city
by night
by the way
of the gate
between the two walls,
which was by the king's garden;
(now the Chaldeans
were by the city round about:)
and they
went by
the way
of the plain.
But
the army
of the Chaldeans
pursued
after the king,
and overtook Zedekiah
in the plains
of Jericho;
and all
his army
was scattered from him.
Then
they took the king,
and carried
him up
unto the king
of Babylon
to Riblah
in the land
of Hamath;
where he
gave judgment
upon him.
And
the king
of Babylon
slew the sons
of Zedekiah
before his eyes:
he slew also all the princes
of Judah
in Riblah.
Then he put out
the eyes
of Zedekiah;
and the king
of Babylon
bound him
in chains,
and carried him
to Babylon,
and put him
in prison
till the day
of his death.
Now in the fifth month,
in the tenth day
of the month,
which was
the nineteenth year
of Nebuchadrezzar king
of Babylon,
came Nebuzaradan,
captain
of the guard,
which served
the king
of Babylon,
into Jerusalem,
And burned
the house
of the LORD,
and the king's house;
and all
the houses
of Jerusalem,
and all
the houses
of the great men,
burned
he with fire:
And all
the army
of the Chaldeans,
that were with the captain
of the guard,
brake
down all the walls
of Jerusalem round about.
Then Nebuzaradan
the captain
of the guard carried away
captive certain
of the poor
of the people,
and the residue
of the people
that remained
in the city,
and those
that fell away,
that fell
to the king
of Babylon,
and the rest
of the multitude.
But Nebuzaradan
the captain
of the guard left certain
of the poor
of the land
for vinedressers
and for husbandmen.
Also the pillars
of brass
that were in the house
of the LORD,
and the bases,
and the brasen sea
that was in the house
of the LORD,
the Chaldeans brake,
and carried all
the brass
of them
to Babylon.
The caldrons also,
and the shovels,
and the snuffers,
and the bowls,
and the spoons,
and all
the vessels
of brass
wherewith
they ministered,
took they away.
And the basons,
and the firepans,
and the bowls,
and the caldrons,
and the candlesticks,
and the spoons,
and the cups;
that which
was of gold in gold,
and
that which
was of silver in silver,
took
the captain
of the guard away.
The two pillars,
one sea,
and twelve brasen bulls
that were under the bases,
which king Solomon
had made
in the house
of the LORD:
the brass
of all these vessels
was without weight.
And concerning
the pillars,
the height
of one pillar
was eighteen cubits;
and
a fillet
of twelve cubits
did compass it;
and the thickness
thereof was
four fingers:
it was hollow.
And
a chapiter
of brass
was upon it;
and
the height
of one chapiter
was five cubits,
with network
and pomegranates
upon the chapiters round
about,
all of brass.
The second pillar
also and the pomegranates
were like
unto these.
And there were ninety
and six pomegranates
on a side;
and all
the pomegranates
upon the network
were an hundred round about.
And
the captain
of the guard
took Seraiah
the chief priest,
and Zephaniah
the second priest,
and the three keepers
of the door:
He took also
out of the city
an eunuch,
which had
the charge
of the men
of war;
and seven men
of them that
were near the king's person,
which were found
in the city;
and the principal scribe
of the host,
who mustered the people
of the land;
and threescore men
of the people
of the land,
that were found
in the midst
of the city.
So Nebuzaradan
the captain
of the guard
took them,
and brought them
to the king
of Babylon
to Riblah.
And
the king
of Babylon
smote them,
and put them
to death
in Riblah
in the land
of Hamath.
Thus Judah
was carried away
captive out of his own land.
This is the people
whom Nebuchadrezzar
carried away captive:
in the seventh year
three thousand Jews
and three
and twenty:
In the eighteenth year
of Nebuchadrezzar
he carried away captive
from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty
and two persons:
In the three
and twentieth year
of Nebuchadrezzar
Nebuzaradan the captain
of the guard carried away captive
of the Jews seven hundred forty
and five persons:
all the persons
were four thousand
and six hundred.
And it
came
to pass
in the seven
and thirtieth year
of the captivity
of Jehoiachin king
of Judah,
in the twelfth month,
in the five
and twentieth day
of the month,
that Evilmerodach king
of Babylon
in the first year
of his reign lifted
up the head
of Jehoiachin king
of Judah,
and brought
him forth
out of prison.
And
spake kindly unto him,
and set
his throne above the throne
of the kings
that were with him
in Babylon,
And changed
his prison garments:
and
he did continually eat bread
before him
all the days
of his life.
And for his diet,
there was
a continual diet
given him
of the king
of Babylon,
every day a portion
until the day
of his death,
all the days
of his life.