Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.  Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.  For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.

 
 
 

Going to Jesus

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Jeremiah

Jeremiah 1

¶1. The words of Jeremiah ben-Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin,

2.to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah ben-Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

3. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim ben-Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah ben-Josiah, king of Judah, until the exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

¶4. And the word of the Lord came to me saying,

5. “Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you. I ordained you to be a prophet to the nations.”

6. Then I said, “Oh no, Lord Jehovah! Behold, I don’t know how to speak because I am a child.”

7. But Jehovah said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am a child’, for you will go to whomever I send you, and you will say whatever I command you.

8.Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.”

9. Then Jehovah stretched out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth!

10.See, I have this day set you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up, to pull down, to destroy, to overthrow, and to build and to plant.”

¶11. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “I see an almond branch.”

12. And Jehovah said to me, “You see rightly, for I am watching[1] over my word, to do it.”

¶13. And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, “What do you see now?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, and its face is toward the north.”

14. And Jehovah said to me, “From the north will evil be unleashed upon all the inhabitants of the land.

15.For, behold, I am calling all the families of the kingdoms northward, says the Lord, and they will come and will each place his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and on all her walls round about, and in all the cities of Judah.

16.Yea, I have spoken my judgments against them because of all their evil, they who have forsaken me, and burned incense to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

17.Now, you gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed by their faces, lest I make you dismayed before their faces!

18.And I, behold, I have made you this day like a fortified city, and like a pillar of iron, and like bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.

19.And they will make war against you, but they will not prevail against you because I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.”

Jeremiah 2

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¶1. And the word of the Lord came to me saying,

2. “Go, and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, thus says the Lord: ‘I remember you, the goodness in your youth, the love of your vows, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land that had not been sown.

3.Israel is holy to Jehovah, the firstfruits of His harvest. All who consume him become guilty; evil shall come upon them, says the Lord.

¶4. “Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel!

5. Thus says the Lord: What injustice did your fathers find in me, that they went far away from me, and followed after vanity, and became vain?

6. And they did not say, ‘Where is Jehovah, who brought us up out of the land of Egypt and led us in the wilderness, in a land of plains and pits, in a land of drought and the shadow of death, in a land through which no one has passed, and no man dwelt there?

7.But I brought you to this fruitful land, that you might eat of its fruit and its goodness. But you went in and defiled my land. Yea, you made my inheritance an abomination.

8.The priests did not say, ‘Where is Jehovah?’ And those who handle the law did not know me, and the shepherds rebelled against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and so, they went after things that do not profit.

9.Therefore, I will yet strive with you, says the Lord, and with your sons’ sons will I strive.

10.For cross over the coasts of Chittim and see, or send to Kedar and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing as this.

11.Has a nation ever changed gods? And they are no gods! But my people have changed their glory for that which will not profit.

12.Be appalled at this, O heavens! Yea, be horrified! Be utterly desolate, says the Lord!

13.For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, to hew out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns which cannot hold water.

14.Is Israel a slave or a home-born servant? Why then has he become plunder?

15.Lions roared at him; they gave forth their voice and made his land desolate; his cities are fallen into ruin, without inhabitant.

16.Even the children of Noph and Tahpanes have shaved the crown of your head.

17.Did you not bring this on yourself by forsaking Jehovah your God as He led you in the way?

18.So, now, what have you gained in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Shihor? And what have you gained in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?[2]

19.Your own wickedness is chastening you, and your apostasies are reproving you. But know and see that your forsaking Jehovah your God is evil and bitter, and fear of me is not in you, says the Lord God of Hosts.

20.For long ago, I broke your yoke. I tore off your bonds, but you say, ‘I am not transgressing,’ while on every high hill and under every luxuriant tree, you bend down, playing the harlot!

21.Yet, I planted you a choice vine, altogether a pure seed. So, how were you transformed into degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?

22.Even if you wash with natron and use much lye, the stain of your iniquity remains before me, says the Lord God.

23.How can you say, ‘I am not defiled. I am not following after Baals’? Look at your way in the valley! Acknowledge what you have done! You are a swift young camel criss-crossing her own ways.

24.A wild ass used to the wilderness, she snuffs up the wind in her nature-driven lust, in her heat. Who can restrain her? None who look for her will weary themselves; in her month, they will find her.

25.Let not your foot be unshod or your throat parched! But you said, ‘It is hopeless! No, for I love foreign gods, and after them will I go.’

26.Like a thief who is disgraced when he is found out, so will the house of Israel be put to shame – they, their kings, their princes, along with their priests and their prophets –

27.who say to a tree, ‘You are my father!’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth!’ But they turn the back to me and not the face. But in their time of trouble, they say to me, ‘Rise up and save us!’

28.But where are your gods you made for yourself? Let them rise up if they can save you in your time of trouble! For according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah!

29.Why do you strive against me? All of you have rebelled against me! says the Lord.

30.In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

31.You of this generation! Behold the word of the Lord! Have I been a desert to Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Why, then, do my people say, ‘We may go wherever; we will not come only to you’?

32.Does a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride, her attire? Yet, my people have forgotten me, days without number.

33.How lovely you have made your way to seek love! I could even teach wicked women your ways.

34.Also, on your skirts is found the blood of needy, innocent souls. You did not find them in the act of breaking in. Yet, in spite of all these things,

35.you say, ‘Since I am innocent, His anger is surely turned away from me.’ Behold, I will bring you into judgment for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’

36.How you cheapen yourself by changing your way! You will be disappointed in the Egyptians, just as you were disappointed in the Assyrians.

37.Moreover, because of this shall you go out with your hands over your head, for Jehovah has rejected those you trust, so that you will not prosper by them.

Jeremiah 3

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¶1. “It is said, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man’s, will he return to her again? Would not that land be greatly polluted?’ But you have played the whore with many lovers, and yet, you come back to me, says the Lord.

2.Lift up your eyes to the heights and see! Where have you not been lain with? By the roads have you waited for them like an Arab in the desert, and you have made the land polluted with your whoredoms and your evil doing.

3.That is why plentiful showers and the latter rain have not come. Yet, you have the forehead of a whorish woman! You refuse to be ashamed.

4.Will you not at that time cry out to me, ‘My Father! You have been a friend since my youth’?

5.Will He preserve you forever, or keep you forever? Behold, you say and do wicked things as you are able.”

¶6. And Jehovah said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She goes up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and plays the harlot there.

7.And after she did all these things, I said, ‘Return to me,’ but she would not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

8.And when for all the times that backsliding Israel committed adultery I put her away and gave her a bill of divorce, then I saw that her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid, and she also went and played the harlot.

9.And so it was that through the lightness of her whoredom, Israel had polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

10.And yet, for all this, her treacherous sister, Judah, did not return to me with her whole heart, but falsely, says the Lord.”

¶11. And Jehovah said to me, “Backsliding Israel justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

12.Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, O backslidden Israel, says the Lord! My face will no longer frown on you, for I am merciful, says the Lord. I will not stay angry forever.

13.Only acknowledge your sin, that you have rebelled against Jehovah your God and divided your ways among strange gods under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord.

14.Return, O wayward children, says the Lord, for I am married to you! And I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

15.And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, and they will feed you knowledge and understanding.

16.And it shall come to pass in those days, when you multiply and bear fruit in the land, says the Lord, that they will no longer say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord!” It will not come to mind, neither will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again.

17.At that time, men will call Jerusalem, “The Throne of Jehovah”, and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, to the name of the Lord, and they will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

18.In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land which I gave your fathers for an inheritance.

19.And so I said, “How should I put you in with the children and give you a desirable land, even the most beautiful inheritance of nations?” And I said, “You will call me, ‘My Father’, and you will not turn away from following me.”

20.Surely, as a wife treacherously leaves her husband, so have you have dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says the Lord.’”

¶21. A voice is heard on the barren heights, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel, because they have perverted their way. They have forgotten Jehovah their God.

22. “Repent, O backsliding children! I will heal your backslidings!” Behold, we are coming to you, for you are Jehovah our God.

23. Truly, deception comes from the hills, the multitude of the mountains. Truly, the salvation of Israel is in Jehovah our God.

24. But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their cattle, their sons and their daughters.

25. Let us lie down in our shame and let our disgrace cover us, for we have sinned, we and our fathers, against Jehovah our God from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God.

Jeremiah 4

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¶1. If you would repent, O Israel, says the Lord, return to me! And if you will put your abominations out of my sight, and not waver,

2.then you will take the oath, “as Jehovah lives”, truthfully, justly, and uprightly, and the nations will bless themselves in Him, and in Him will they glory.

¶3. For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your fallow ground, so that you do not sow among thorns.

4.Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah and remove the foreskins of your heart, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my wrath come forth and burn like fire, and there be no quenching it, because of the evil of your doings.

5.Proclaim it in Judah, and cause it to be heard in Jerusalem! And say, ‘Sound a shofar throughout the land!’ Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves, and let us go to fortified cities!

6.Lift up a banner! Flee toward Zion for safety! Do not stand still, for I am bringing an evil from the north, and great destruction.

7.A lion is come up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has gone forth from his place to make your land a desolation. Your cities will become ruins without inhabitant.

8.Because of this, gird yourselves in sackcloth! Wail and howl, for the fierce anger of Jehovah is not turned back from us!

9. And it will come to pass in that day, says the Lord, that the heart of the king and the heart of the princes will fail, and the priests will be appalled, and the prophets, astonished.’”

¶10. Then I said, “Ah, my Lord Jehovah! Surely, you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You shall have peace,’ when a sword has reached to the soul.”

11. At that time, it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A scorching wind from barren heights in the wilderness will come toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow and not to purify.

12.A wind too powerful for those things is coming from me! I will now pronounce judgments upon them!”

13. Behold! He will come up like clouds, and his chariots, like a violent wind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are devastated!

14. Wash your heart from evil, O Jerusalem, that you might be saved. How long will your vain thoughts lodge within you?

15. For a voice declares from Dan, and from the hill country of Ephraim it proclaims trouble.

16. Bring it to the Gentiles’ attention! Behold, declare it at Jerusalem! Besiegers are coming from a distant land and will raise their voice over the cities of Judah.

17. Like those guarding a field, they are all around her, for she has rebelled against me, says the Lord.

18. Your way and your deeds have procured these things for you. This wickedness of yours is very bitter. Yea, it has reached to your heart!

19. My bowels! My bowels! I am anguished! Oh, the walls of my heart! My heart is groaning within me! I cannot be silent, for I hear the sound of a shofar, the alarm of war!

20. Breach upon breach has been called for. Yea, all the land is to be laid waste! Suddenly, will my tents be laid waste; in a moment, my curtains.

21. How long shall I see a standard, and hear the sound of a shofar?

22. For my people are foolish. They do not know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good, they do not know how.

23. I looked at the land, and behold, it was formless and empty, and at the heavens, and they had no light.

24. I looked at the mountains, and behold, they were trembling, and all the hills shook.

25. I looked, and behold, there was no man, and every flying creature of the heavens had fled.

26. I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the Lord, before His burning anger.

¶27. “For thus says the Lord: the whole land will be a waste; yet, I will not make a complete end of it.

28.For this, the land will mourn and the heavens above will become black, for I have spoken. I have purposed it, and I will not be moved to pity, nor will I turn back from it.

29.The entire city will flee from the noise of the horseman and the bowman, and they will go into the thickets, and they will climb upon the rocks. Every city will be forsaken, and there will not be one inhabitant in them.

30.When you are utterly destroyed, what will you do? For you clothe yourself in scarlet; you deck yourself with ornaments of gold; you accentuate your eyes with stibium. You are beautifying yourself in vain. Your paramours despise you; they seek your soul.”

31. For I heard a voice like a woman travailing, anguish as one bearing her first child. It is the voice of the daughter of Zion, gasping for breath, spreading out her hands, crying, “Woe is me now! For my soul has fainted because of murderers.”

Jeremiah 5

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¶1. “You men go about the streets of Jerusalem and see now, and find out, and search in its open places, if you can find a man – if there is one! – who acts justly, seeking truth, and I will pardon it.

2.And though they say, ‘As Jehovah lives!’ they swear falsely in doing so.”

3. O Lord, are not your eyes upon the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock! They refuse to repent!

4. But then, I thought, “These are just the poor. They are foolish because they do not know the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God.

5.I will go to the great men and speak to them, for they know the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God.” But, they, as one, have broken the yoke; they have torn away the bonds.

6. Therefore, a lion of the forest will strike them down; a wolf of the steppes will ravage them; a leopard will be watching over their cities. Everyone who comes out from them will be torn to pieces because they multiply their transgressions. Their backslidings are many.

7. How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken me, and they swear by what is not God. When I made them full, they committed adultery. Yea, they gathered in troops at the house of fornication.

8. They are lusty,[3] virile[4] horses, each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

9. Shall I not punish them for these things, says the Lord? And against such a nation as this, shall not my soul be avenged?

10. Go up against her vineyards and destroy them, but do not bring about a complete end. Take away her branches, for they do not belong to Jehovah.

11. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously with me, says the Lord.

12. They have dealt falsely with Jehovah, and they say, “It is not He,” and “Evil will not befall us,” and “We shall see neither sword nor famine.”

13. But the prophets are just wind, for the Word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them.

14. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Hosts: “Because you have said this, behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire and this people wood, and it will consume them.

15.Behold, I am bringing upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, says the Lord. It is an enduring nation; it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, neither can you understand what they say.

16.Their quiver is like an open sepulcher; all of them are mighty men.

17.And they will eat your harvest and your food; they will eat your sons and your daughters; they will eat your flocks and your herds; they will eat your vines and your fig trees; they will beat down your fortified cities, in which you trust, with the sword.

18.Yet, even in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a complete end of you.

19.And it shall come to pass that you will say, ‘Why has Jehovah our God done all these things to us?’ Then you shall say to them, ‘Just as you have forsaken me and have served foreign gods in your own land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’

20.You men declare this in the house of Jacob, and cause it to be heard in Judah, saying,

21.‘Hear this, if you will, O foolish and senseless people! (They have eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but they cannot hear.)

22.Will you not fear me, says the Lord, nor tremble before me‽ I, who made sand a boundary for the sea by an eternal decree so that it cannot go beyond it! Though its waves rush back and forth, they cannot. Yea, they may roar, but they cannot go beyond it.’

23. But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they are turned aside and gone.

24.And they do not say in their hearts, ‘Let us now fear Jehovah our God, who gives the rain in its season, even the early and the latter rain, who preserves for us the appointed weeks of harvest.’

25.Your iniquities have deprived you of these things, and your sins have withheld from you what is good.

26.For there are found among my people wicked men. They watch like fowlers lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men.

27.Like a cage filled with birds, so their houses are filled with deceit. That is how they have become great and grown rich.

28.They have grown fat and sleek, and in judgment, they pass over the deeds of a wicked man. They do no justice for the orphan, that they may prosper, nor do they render justice to those in need.

29.Shall I not visit them for these things, says the Lord? Against such a nation as this, shall not my soul be avenged?

30.An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land:

31.the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their guidance, and my people love it that way! But what will you do at the end of it?

Jeremiah 6

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¶1. “Flee for safety, O children of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem! And in Tekoa, blow a shofar, and raise up a signal over Beth-Haccherem! For disaster from the north is looming, and a great breach.

2.The lovely and delicate, the daughter of Zion, will I bring to nothing.

3.Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her. They will pitch tents all around her. They will graze, each one in his place.

4.‘Prepare holy war against her! Arise, and let us go up at noon!’ ‘Woe to us, for the day has declined, for the shadows of evening are lengthening!’

5.‘Arise, and let us go up in the night, and we will destroy her citadels!’

6.For thus has the Lord of Hosts said: Cut down trees and make a mound against Jerusalem! She is the city to be punished; all is oppression in her midst.

7.As a well keeps its waters fresh, so she keeps her wickedness fresh. Violence and destruction are heard in her. Illness and wounds are continually before me.

8.Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest my soul become alienated from you, lest I make you desolate, a land uninhabited!

¶9. “Thus says the Lord of Hosts: They will thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel like a vine. Send your hand again, like a grape-gatherer, over the branches!

10.To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? For behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the Lord has become an embarrassment to them; they take no pleasure in it.

11.I am filled with the wrath of Jehovah; I am weary with holding it in. Pour it out on the children in the street and on the gathering of young men together. Yea, even the husband shall be taken with the wife, the elder with him who is full of days.

12.Their houses will be handed over to others, together with their fields and women, for I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord.

13.For from their least to their greatest, they all are greedy for unjust gain, and from prophet to priest, they all deal falsely.

14.And they treat the wound of my people superficially, saying, ‘Peace! Peace!’ when there is no peace.

15.They will be put to shame because they committed abomination; yet, they will not feel ashamed at all. Indeed, they do not know how to blush. Therefore, they will fall among those who fall when I visit them; they will be overthrown, says the Lord.[5]

16.Thus says the Lord: Stand in the ways and look, and ask for the old paths, where this, the good way is, and walk in it, and find rest for your souls! But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’

17.And I raised up watchmen over you. Listen to the sound of the shofar! But they said, ‘We will not listen!’

18.Therefore, hear, O Gentiles, and know, O congregation, what is among them!

19.Hear, O earth! Behold, I will bring evil on this people, the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not attended to my words, and they have rejected my law.

20.Why is this frankincense from Sheba brought to me, and this sweet calamus from a distant land? Your offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices do not please me.

21.Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am laying stumbling-blocks for this people, and they shall stumble at them, fathers and sons together; the neighbor and his friend shall perish.

¶22. “Thus says the Lord: Behold, a people is coming from a north country, even a great nation, stirred up from the farthest reaches of earth.

23.They grip bow and javelin; he is cruel, and they are merciless; their sound is like the raging sea; and they are mounted on horses, each man in battle formation against you, O daughter of Zion.[6]

24.We have heard the report of it; our hands hang down. Distress has gripped us, agony like a woman giving birth.

25.Don’t venture out into the field or walk on the road, for the sword of an enemy and terror is on every side!

26.O daughter of my people! Put on sackcloth and wallow in ashes. Make for yourself a most bitter lamentation, a mourning as for an only son, for the Destroyer will suddenly come upon us.

¶27. “I have made you an assayer and a fortress among my people, that you may know and put their way to the test.

28.All of them are stubborn rebels, going about as slanderers. All of them are bronze and iron. They are corrupters.

29.The bellows have blown; lead was exposed by their fire. But the refiner refined in vain, for the wicked were not drawn off.

30.They will call them ‘reprobate silver’, for Jehovah has rejected them.”

Jeremiah 7

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¶1. The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

2.“Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord and there, proclaim this message, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship Jehovah!

3.Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place!

4.Do not trust in lying words, saying, “The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord are these!”

5.But if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly execute justice between a man and his neighbor,

6.if you do not oppress the sojourner, orphan, and widow, and you do not shed innocent blood in this place, and do not go after other gods to your own hurt,

7.then I will settle you in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers, from ancient time unto forever.

8. Behold, you are entrusting yourselves to lying words that cannot benefit you.

9. Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know,

10.and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are saved so that we may do all these abominations”?

11.Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of thieves in your eyes‽ Behold, I myself have seen it, says the Lord!

12.But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I made my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.

13.And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, though I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you would not listen, and I called to you, but you would not answer,

14.I will also do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and your fathers just as I did to Shiloh.

15.And I will drive you out from before me, just as I drove all your brothers out, all the seed of Ephraim.’

¶16. “And as for you, don’t you intercede for this people, and don’t you lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, nor make entreaty to me, for I will not hear you!

17.Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

18.The children gather sticks, and the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and they pour out drink offerings to other gods so as to provoke me.

19.Is it me that they provoke, says the Lord‽ Is it not themselves, to the confusion of their own faces‽

20.Therefore, thus says my Lord, Jehovah: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast, and on trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched.

21.Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings upon your sacrifices, and eat flesh!

22.But I did not tell your fathers, nor did I command them in the day I led them out of the land of Egypt, such things about burnt offering and sacrifice.

23.But this thing I certainly commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God and you will be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, so that it might go well with you.’

24.But they did not listen, nor incline their ear, and they walked in the counsels and stubbornness of their own evil heart, and they went backward and not forward.

25.For from the day your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent you all my servants, the prophets, daily, rising up early and sending them.

26.But they have not listened to me, nor inclined their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did more evil than their fathers!

27.You also shall speak to them all these words, but they will not listen to you, and you will call to them, but they will not answer.

28.And you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of Jehovah their God, nor receive correction.’ Truth has perished, and it is cut off from their mouth.

29.Cut off your hair, O daughter of Zion, and throw it away, and lift up a lamentation upon the bare heights, for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His fury.

30.For the children of Judah have done what is evil in my sight, says the Lord. They have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.

31.And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn up their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.

32.Therefore, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when it will no longer be called Tophet or Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but “The Valley of Slaughter”, and they will bury in Tophet until there is no room.

33.And the carcass of this people will be food for the bird of the air and the beast of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

34.And I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the sound of mirth and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land will have been laid waste.

Jeremiah 8

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¶1. “At that time, says the Lord, they will bring the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their burial places,

2.and they will spread them out before the sun, and before the moon, and before all the host of heaven which they loved and which they served, and which they went after, and which they sought, and which they worshipped. They shall not be gathered nor buried. They shall be like dung on the surface of the ground.

3.And death will be preferable to life for all the remnant who remain of this evil family, those who remain in all the places where I have banished them, says the Lord of Hosts.

4.And say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: When men fall down, do they not get up? If one goes away, does he not come back?’

5.Why has this people gone away? Jerusalem is always gone; they cling to deceitfulness. They refuse to come back!

6.I have paid attention, and I have listened. They do not speak rightly. Not one is repenting of his evildoing, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Every one turns away to his own course like a horse plunging into battle.

7.Even a stork in the sky knows her times, and the turtle-dove, and swallow, and crane[7] keep to the time of their migration. But my people do not know the way of the Lord.

8.How can you say, ‘We are wise men, and the law of the Lord is with us,’ when, in fact, the lying pen of scribes has wrought falsehood?

9.The ‘wise men’ will be put to shame. They will be dismayed and taken. Behold, they rejected the word of the Lord; so, what wisdom do they have?

10.Therefore, I will give their wives to other men and their fields to dispossessors because from the least to the greatest, they all are greedy for unjust gain; from the prophet even to the priest, they all deal falsely.

11.And they treat the wound of the daughter of my people superficially, saying, ‘Peace! Peace!’ when there is no peace.

12.They will be put to shame because they committed abomination; yet, they will not feel ashamed at all. Indeed, they do not know how to be ashamed. Therefore, they will fall among those who fall. In the time of their visitation, they will be overthrown, says the Lord.[8]

13.I will withdraw; I will make an end of them, says the Lord. There will be no grapes on the vine, and there will be no figs on the fig tree, and the leaf will wither, and what I have given them will pass away from them.

14.‘Why are we sitting still? Gather yourselves, and let’s go to fortified cities and be silent there, for Jehovah our God has put us to silence, and He has made us drink poisonous water because we sinned against Jehovah.

15.We hoped for peace, but no good came; for a time of healing, but, behold, terror!’

16.From Dan is heard the snorting of his horses. At the sound of the neighing of his stallions, the whole country trembles, for they are coming, and they will consume the land and everything in it, the city and its inhabitants.

17.For, behold, I will send serpents among you, adders which cannot be charmed, and they will bite you, says the Lord.

18.My cheerfulness has become grief; my heart is sick within me.

19.Behold, the sound of a cry for help from the daughter of my people throughout the land: (Is Jehovah not in Zion? Is her King not in her? Why have they provoked me with their idols, with worthless foreign things?)

20.‘Harvest is past; summer is ended; and we are not saved.’

21.For the brokenness of the daughter of my people am I broken. I am heavy; horror has taken hold of me.

22.Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

Jeremiah 9

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¶1. “Oh, that one would make my head waters and my eye a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

2.Oh, that one would give me a place for travelers in the wilderness, that I might leave my people and get away from them, for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous people!

3.Yea, they bend their tongue, their bow of falsehood, and they are mighty in the land, but not for truth. Yea, they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the Lord.

4.Let every man be on guard against his neighbor. Yea, you cannot trust any brother because every brother will take cruel advantage, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.

5.Yea, every man will deceive his neighbor, and they will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They wear themselves out committing iniquity.

6. You dwell in the midst of Deceit. In Deceit, they refuse to know me, says the Lord.

7.Therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts: Behold, I will refine them, and I will prove them. Oh! What can I do with the daughter of my people?

8.Their tongue is a deadly arrow. One speaks deceit with his mouth; he speaks peaceably with his neighbor, but in his heart, he is setting his ambush.

9.Shall I not visit them for these things? says the Lord. Shall not my soul be avenged on a nation such as this?

10.For the mountains will I lift up weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness, a lamentation, for they are burned up and no one will pass through. Nor will men hear the voice of cattle. Both the birds of the air and the beast will have fled. They will have gone away.

11.I will also make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of wolves, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

12.Who is the wise man who understands this, and to whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he might declare it? Why has the land perished, scorched like a desert that no one traverses?

13.Therefore, says the Lord, It is because they forsook my law which I set before them, and did not heed my voice and would not walk in it.

14.But they followed the stubbornness of their own heart, and Baals, which their fathers taught them.

15.Therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will make this people eat wormwood and make them drink poisonous water,

16.and I will scatter them among the nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them.”

¶17. “Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Consider, all of you, and call for the wailing women, that they may come, and send for the skilled women, that they may come!”

18. Oh, let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, so that our eyes run down with tears, and our eyelids flow with water!

19. Yea, a sound of wailing will be heard from Zion. How we are ruined! We are greatly ashamed, for we have forsaken the land because they have thrown down our dwellings.

20. Yea, hear, O women, the word of the Lord! And let your ears receive the word of His mouth: “Teach your daughters a lament, and each one her neighbor a dirge!”

21. For death has come up through our windows; it has entered into our palaces to cut off children from the street and young men from the squares.

¶22. “You speak! Thus says the Lord: Dead bodies shall also fall to the ground like dung on the open field and like sheaves after the reaper, and there will be no gatherer.”

¶23. “Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom; nor let the mighty man boast in his might; nor let the rich man boast in his riches;

24.but, let him who boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I, the Lord, exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.”

¶25. “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will punish all the circumcised with the uncircumcised:

26.Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all who have cut off the sides of their hair, who dwell in the wilderness, for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”

Jeremiah 10

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¶1. Hear the word which Jehovah has spoken concerning you, O house of Israel!

2. “Thus says the Lord: Do not learn the way of the Gentiles, and do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them.

3.For the customs of the peoples are vanity, for one cuts a tree from the forest, the workmanship of the hands of a worker with an ax.

4.He decorates it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers so it won’t totter.

5.They are like a scarecrow[9] in a field of cucumbers, and they cannot speak. They have to be carried because they cannot walk. Stop being afraid of them! For they can do no harm, nor is it in them to do good.”

6. There is no one like you, O Jehovah! You are great, and your name is great in might.

7. Who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For it is your due. For among all the wise men of the nations, and among all their kingdoms, there is none like you.

8. Yea, they are altogether brutish and foolish; a stock is a doctrine of vanities.

9. Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of a craftsman and the hands of a smelter; their clothes are blue and purple. They are all the work of skilled men.

10. But Jehovah is the true God; He is the living God and eternal King. At His anger, the earth quakes, and the nations are not able to endure His indignation.

¶11. This is what you shall say to them: “The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth, these shall pass away from the earth and from under the heavens!”

¶12. He made the earth by His power; He established the world in His wisdom; and by His understanding, He stretched out the heavens.

13. When He utters His voice, there is an abundance of water in the heavens. He also causes vapors to rise from the end of the earth. He makes lightnings for the rain, and sends the wind out from His storehouses.[10]

14. Every man is brutish in knowledge; every refiner is put to shame by the idol, for his molten image is a lie, and there is no spirit in them.

15. They are vanity, the workmanship of mockers. In the time of their visitation, they will perish.

16. The portion of Jacob is not like them, for He is the Shaper of everything, and Israel is the rod of His inheritance. The Lord of Hosts is His name.[11]

¶17. Gather up your sack from the ground, you who live under siege!

18. “For thus says the Lord: Behold! I am at this time slinging out the inhabitants of the land, and I will distress them, that they might learn.

19.Woe is me, for my hurt! My wound is incurable! Then I said, ‘Truly, this is mortality, and I must bear it.

20.My tabernacle is ruined, and all my cords are broken. My children have left me and are not. There is no one to pitch my tent any more and raise up my curtains,

21.for the shepherds became brutish and did not seek Jehovah. That is why they do not understand and all their flock is scattered.’”

¶22. A voice! A report! Behold, it is coming – a great shaking from the north country to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a habitation of wolves.

¶23. I know, O Jehovah, that a man’s way does not belong to himself; it does not belong to man who walks to direct his own steps.

24. Chasten me, O Jehovah, but only in measure, not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing!

25. Pour out your wrath on the nations who do not know you, and on the families of men who do not call on your name, for they have devoured Jacob; yea, they have devoured and consumed him, and they have made his dwelling place desolate.

Jeremiah 11

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¶1. The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

2.“Hear the words of this covenant and declare them to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

3.and say to them, Thus says the Lord, God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not obey the words of this covenant

4.which I commanded your fathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey my voice and do them, according to all that I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God,

5.so that I might fulfill the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day.’” Then I answered and said, “May it be so, O Jehovah!”

¶6. Then Jehovah said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Hear the words of this covenant, and do them!

7.For I solemnly warned your fathers in the day I led them up out of the land of Egypt, and even to this day have I risen early and given warning, saying, “Listen to my voice!”’

8.But they have not listened and have not inclined their ear, but they have walked, each one, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, though I brought upon them all the words of this covenant which I commanded them to do, and they did them not.”

¶9. Moreover, Jehovah said to me, “A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

10.They have returned to the iniquities of their forefathers who refused to listen to my words, and they went after other gods, to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah broke my covenant which I made with their fathers.

11.Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am bringing an evil upon them which they will not be able to escape. And they will cry out to me, but I will not hear them.

12.And the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem have gone and cried out to the gods to which they offer incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

13.According to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah! And according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you erected altars to that disgrace, altars for offerings to Baal!

14.As for you, pray no more for this people! Yea, lift up no cry or prayer for them! For I will not hear when they cry out to me because of their trouble.

15.What right does my beloved have in my house? She commits lewdness. The multitudes and the sacrifice of flesh will do you no good,[12] for you are just celebrating your wickedness.

¶16. “The Lord called your name, ‘A beautiful green olive tree with good fruit.’ With the sound of a great tumult will He set fire to her, for its branches are broken.

17.And the Lord of Hosts who planted you has pronounced evil against you because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done to themselves, in burning sacrifices to Baal to provoke me to anger.

18.And Jehovah gave me knowledge of it. Yea, I knew, when you showed me their deeds.

19.But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter, and I did not know they had made plans against me: ‘Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living so that his name is remembered no more!’

20.But the Lord of Hosts is a righteous Judge; He tries the mind and heart. I will see your vengeance upon them, for I have committed my cause to you.

21.Therefore, thus has the Lord spoken concerning the men of Anathoth who are seeking your life, saying, ‘Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, lest you die by our hand.’

22.Therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts: Behold, I will visit them. The young men shall die by the sword, and their sons and daughters shall die by famine.

23.And no remnant will remain to them, for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth in the year of their visitation.”

Jeremiah 12

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¶1. You are righteous, O Jehovah, though I complain to you. Nevertheless, let me speak with you about matters of justice. Why does the way of wicked men prosper? All those who deal treacherously are at ease.

2. You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit. You are near in their mouth, but far from their hearts.

3. But you, O Jehovah, you know me; you see me; and you have tried my heart toward you. Drag them away like sheep to the slaughter, and set them apart for the day of slaughter!

¶4. How long will the land mourn and the vegetation of every field wither because of the wickedness of its inhabitants? The beasts and the birds are swept away because they say, “He does not see our latter end.”

5. If you have run with footmen, and they have wearied you, then how will you contend with the horses? And if you are weary in the land of peace in which you trust, how will you do in the swelling of Jordan?

6. Yea, even your brothers and the house of your father, even they, have dealt treacherously with you. They also have cried after you loudly. Do not trust them when they speak pleasant words to you.

7. I have forsaken my house; I have abandoned my heritage. I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.

8. My heritage is to me like a lion in a thicket; she has let out a roar against me. Therefore, I hate her.

9. My heritage is to me a speckled bird of prey. The bird of prey is against her round about! Go! Gather every beast of the field! Bring them for food!

10. Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard; they have trampled down my heritage; they have turned my precious heritage into a desolate wilderness.

11. He has made it a desolation; it mourns because of me, devastated. The whole land has been made desolate because no one lays it to heart.

12. Violent spoilers are come upon all the bare heights in the wilderness because the sword of the Lord is devouring from one end of the land to the other. There is no safety for anyone.

13. They have sown wheat, but they have reaped thorns; they have made great effort without being benefitted. Yea, be ashamed of your harvests because of the burning anger of the Lord.

¶14. Thus says the Lord concerning all my evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I caused my people Israel to inherit: “Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and I will pluck the house of Judah out of their midst.

15.And it shall come to pass after I have plucked them up that I will turn and have compassion on them, and I will restore them, each to his heritage and each to his land.

16.And it shall come to pass that if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, ‘As Jehovah lives’, the way they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be established in the midst of my people.

17.But if they will not listen, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, says the Lord.”

Jeremiah 13

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¶1. Thus said the Lord to me: “Go and buy a linen loincloth for yourself and put it around your loins, and do not put it in water.”

2. So, I bought the loincloth, according to the word of the Lord, and I put it around my loins.

¶3. And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying,

4.“Take the loincloth which you bought, which is around your loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in the cleft of a rock.”

5. So, I went. And I hid it by the Euphrates, just as Jehovah had commanded me.

6. And it came to pass at the end of many days that Jehovah said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.”

7. So, I went to the Euphrates, and I dug, and I took the loincloth out of the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the loincloth was ruined; it was no good for anything.

¶8. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

9.“Thus says the Lord: Thus will I ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.

10.This is a wicked people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart. Yea, they go after other gods, to serve them and worship them. Therefore, they shall be like this loincloth which is good for nothing.

11.For as the loincloth clings to a man’s loins, so I caused all the house of Israel and all the house of Judah to cling to me, says the Lord, to be my people, and for a name and for praise and for glory! But they would not hear.

12.Therefore, you shall speak this word to them: ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Every jar shall be filled with wine!’ And they will say to you, ‘Don’t we certainly know that every jar shall be filled with wine?’

13.Then shall you say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, the kings who sit on David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness!

14.And I will dash them to pieces, one against another, the fathers and the sons together, says the Lord. I will not spare, nor pity, nor will I show mercy that I should not destroy them.’”

¶15. Hear, and give ear! Do not be proud, for Jehovah has spoken!

16. Give glory to Jehovah your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble upon the darkening mountains, and you wait for light, but He turns it into the shadow of death and makes it thick darkness.

17. But if you will not hear this, my soul will weep in secret places because of your pride. Yea, it will weep bitterly, and tears will fall from my eyes because the flock of Jehovah is taken captive.

¶18. “Say to the king and to the queen-mother, ‘Abase yourselves! Sit down, for your beautiful crown has come down off your heads.

19.The cities of the south are shut up, and there is no one to open. Judah is carried away into exile, all of it. It has altogether been carried into exile.

20.Lift up your eyes and see those who come from the north! Where is the flock that was given to you, your lovely flock?

21.What will you say when He visits you, and the allies you yourself taught are head over you? Shall not pangs seize you like a woman in labor?

22.And when you say in your heart, “Why have these things befallen me?” it is because of the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are uncovered and your heels suffer violence.

23.Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard, his spots? Then, you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.

24.So, I will disperse them like chaff carried away by a desert wind.

25.This is your lot, your appointed portion from me, says the Lord, because you have forgotten me and put your trust in a lie.

26.And I myself will strip your skirts off your body, and your shame will be seen.

27.Your adulteries and your neighings, your lewd whoredoms, are on the hills in the countryside. I see your abominations! Woe to you, Jerusalem! You will not be clean! When will it ever be?’”

Jeremiah 14

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¶1. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah because of the severe drought:

2.“Judah mourns, and its gates languish. They mourn for the land, and the cry of Jerusalem arises.

3.Their noblemen send their servants for the water. They go to cisterns; they find no water. They return, their vessels empty. They are ashamed and confounded; they cover their heads.

4.Because the ground is cracked, for no rain is in the land, the plowmen are ashamed; they have covered their heads.

5.Yea, even the doe in the field gives birth and forsakes it, for there is no grass.

6.The wild asses stand upon the barren heights, they pant for breath like wolves. Their eyes fail because there is no vegetation.”

¶7. Though our iniquities testify against us, O Jehovah, do something for your name’s sake. Yea, our apostasies are many; we have sinned against you.

8. The hope of Israel is His Messiah. In time of trouble, why are you like a stranger in the land, and like a traveler turned in for the night?

9. Why are you like a bewildered man, like a mighty man unable to save? Yet, you are in our midst, O Jehovah, and we are called by your name! Do not forsake us!

¶10. “Thus says the Lord concerning this people: Truly, they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet.” Therefore, Jehovah is not pleased with them. He will now remember their iniquity and deal with their sins.

¶11. Moreover, Jehovah said to me, “Do not pray for the good of this people!

12.For they fast without me listening to their cry, and they offer up burnt offering and meal offering without me accepting them. But with the sword, and with famine, and with the plague will I consume them.”

13. Then I said, “Ah, my Lord, Jehovah! Behold, the prophets are telling them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.’”

14. Then Jehovah said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I give them commandment, nor have I spoken to them. They are prophesying to you a vision of lies, and divination, and worthlessness, and deceitfulness out of their own hearts!

15.Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, although I did not send them, and yet they say, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land’: by sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed!

16.And the people to whom they prophesy shall be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, and they will have no one to bury them – them, their wives, or their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour out upon them their evildoing.

17.So, you speak this word to them: My eyes run down with tears night and day and do not cease because the virgin daughter of my people has suffered a great breach, an exceedingly grievous blow.

18.If I go out to the field, behold, those pierced by the sword! And if I go into the city, behold, the diseases of famine. For both prophet and priest go about the land, but they have no knowledge.”

¶19. Have you utterly rejected Judah? Or does your soul loathe Zion? Why have you stricken us so that there is no cure for us? We long for peace, but no good comes, and for a time of healing, but behold, terror!

20. We acknowledge, O Jehovah, our wickedness, the iniquity of our fathers; yea, we have sinned against you.

21. For your name’s sake, do not despise us! Do not disgrace your glorious throne! Remember, oh, do not break your covenant with us!

22. Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles who bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not the One, O Jehovah our God? Yea, we put our hope in you, for you create all these things.

Jeremiah 15

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¶1. Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, my mind would not be inclined to this people. Cast them out of my presence! Yea, make them go!

2.And it shall be that when they say to you, ‘Where shall we go?’, then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: Whoso is appointed to death, to death let him go; and whoso to the sword, to the sword; and whoso to famine, to famine; and whoso to captivity, to captivity.’

3.And I will visit upon them four kinds of judgments, says the Lord: the sword to slay, and the dogs to drag away, and birds of the sky and beasts of the earth to consume and to destroy.

4.And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, on account of Manasseh ben-Hezekiah, king of Judah, because of what he did in Jerusalem.

5.Oh! Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will grieve for you? Or who will turn aside to ask of your welfare?

6.You rejected me, says the Lord. You walked away, and I have stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you. I am weary with repenting.

7.Yea, I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land. I have bereaved, I have slain my own people, for they would not turn from their ways.

8.Their widows are more numerous before me than the sand of the sea. I have brought upon them, upon the mother of young men, a destroyer at noonday. I have made anguish and terrors to suddenly fall upon her.

9.She who bore seven has grown feeble. Her soul has fainted. Her sun went down while it was yet day; she was ashamed and disgraced. I will give the remnant of them to the sword before their enemies, says the Lord.”

¶10. Woe is me, my mother, for you have given birth to me, a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole country. Though I have not lent on usury, nor have they lent to me on usury, they all curse me.

11. Jehovah said, “I will damn myself [13] if I do not set you free for good, if I do not cause the enemy to entreat you in the evil time and in the time of distress.

¶12. “Can one break iron, iron from the north, and bronze?

13.Your wealth and your treasures will I give for a spoil, at no cost. And because of all your sins within all your borders,

14.I will also make you serve your enemies in a land you do not know, for a fire is kindled in my anger. It is burning against you!”

15. You know, O Jehovah! Remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors! Do not defer your anger. Receive me! Acknowledge that for your sake, I have borne reproach!

16. Your words were found, and I consumed them. Yea, your words were my joy and my heart’s delight. Surely, I am called by your name, O Jehovah, God of Hosts!

17. I do not sit in the council of mockers and rejoice. I sit alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation.

18. Why is my pain unending and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You are like a liar to me, like waters that do not last.

19. Because of that, Jehovah said thus: “If you repent, then I will bring you back, that you might stand before me, and if you separate the precious from the worthless, you shall be as my mouthpiece. They may turn to you, but you may not return to them.

20.And I will make you a fortified bronze wall to this people. And they will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says the Lord.

21.And I will deliver you from the hand of wicked men, and I will redeem you from the hand of ruthless men.”

Jeremiah 16

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¶1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2.“You shall not take a wife for yourself, nor have sons or daughters in this place.

3.For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who begot them in this land:

4.They shall die of deadly diseases, unlamented and unburied. They will be like dung on the face of the ground, and perish by the sword and by famine, and their carcasses will be food for the birds of heaven and beasts of the earth.

5. Moreover, thus says the Lord: You shall not go into a house of mourning, nor go to lament or mourn for them, for I have taken away my peace, mercy, and compassion from this people, says the Lord.

6.Both great and small shall die in this land, and they will not be buried. Nor will men lament for them, nor will one cut himself or shave his head for them.

7.People will not break bread for them in mourning, to comfort anyone concerning a dead man, nor will they provide drink for them as a cup of consolation for one’s father or one’s mother.

8.Neither shall you go into a house of feasting to sit down with them to eat and drink.

9.For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the sound of mirth and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

10.And it shall come to pass that when you tell this people all these things, they will say to you, ‘Why has Jehovah pronounced against us all this great evil?’ or ‘What is our iniquity?’ or ‘What is our sin that we have committed against Jehovah our God?’

11.Then you say to them, ‘It is because your fathers forsook me, says the Lord, and followed after other gods, and served them, and bowed themselves down to them and forsook me, and would not keep my law.

12.And you have done more evil than your fathers! Yea, behold, each of you is walking in the stubbornness of his own evil heart instead of listening to me.

13.So, I will cast you out of this land, to a land you do not know, neither you nor your fathers, and there, you shall do service to other gods, day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

14.Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it will no longer be said, ‘As Jehovah lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’

15.but, ‘As Jehovah lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the countries into which He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their land which I gave to their fathers.”

¶16. “Behold, I am sending many fishermen, says the Lord, and they will fish for them. And after that will I send many hunters, and they will hunt them down, upon every mountain, and on every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks,

17.for my eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hidden from me. Yea, their iniquity is not hidden from my eyes!

18.But I will first recompense their iniquity and their sin double because they have polluted my land; they have filled my inheritance with carcasses for their detestable idols and their abominations.”

¶19. O Jehovah! My strength and my stronghold! And my refuge in the day of trouble! Nations will come to you from the farthest reaches of earth and say, “Our fathers inherited nothing but falsehood – vanity! – and nothing in them is worthwhile.”

20. “Can a man make gods for himself when they are not gods?

21.Therefore, behold, I am going to make them know – this time I will make them know! – my hand and my might, and they shall know that my name is Jehovah!

Jeremiah 17

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¶1. “ The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen; it is engraved with a diamond point upon the tablet of their heart and on the horns of your altars,

2.as their children think on their altars and their Asherim beside green trees on the high hills.

3.O, my mountain in the field! Your wealth – all your treasures – will I give as spoil. Your high places for sin are throughout your borders.

4.You, even you, shall relinquish your inheritance which I gave you. And I will cause you to serve your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled a fire in my wrath which shall burn forever.”

¶5. “Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, and his heart turns away from Jehovah.

6.Yea, he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and he will not see when good comes, and he shall dwell in dry places in the wilderness, a barren land and uninhabited.

7.Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah and whose confidence is Jehovah.

8.For he shall be like a tree planted by the water that extends its roots by the stream. He will not fear when heat comes, and his leaves will be green, and in a year of drought, he will not worry, nor cease yielding fruit.

9.The heart is more deceitful than anything, and it is incurable. Who knows it?

10.I, Jehovah, search the heart, testing the inner man and giving to each according to his ways, as the fruit of his deeds.”

¶11. As a partridge may brood and it not hatch, so he who amasses wealth but not justly, it shall abandon him in the midst of his days, and at his end, he shall be a fool.

¶12. A glorious throne, on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.

13. O Hope of Israel! O Jehovah! All who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn aside will be written in the earth, for they have forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living water.

¶14. Heal me, O Jehovah, and I will be healed! Save me, and I will be saved! Yea, you are my praise.

15. Behold, they are saying to me, “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come, we pray.”

16. But as for me, I have not run away from being a pastor who follows you, and I have not desired the woeful day. You know what came from my lips was from you.

17. Oh, do not be a terror to me! You are my refuge in the day of evil.

18. Let them be put to shame who persecute me, but let me not be put to shame! Let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed! Bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with a double destruction.

¶19. Thus did Jehovah say to me: “Go, and stand in the gate of the children of the people, through which the kings of Judah enter and through which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem,

20.and say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter through these gates!

21.Thus says the Lord: Watch out for your souls, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day, nor carry a burden into the gates of Jerusalem,

22.nor carry a burden forth from your houses on the Sabbath day, and do no work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers

23.(though they did not hear nor incline their ear, but stiffened their neck and would not listen or receive instruction),

24.then it shall be, if you carefully listen to me, says the Lord, and do not bring a burden into the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, doing no manner of work on it,

25.that kings and princes, sitting on the throne of David, shall enter through the gates of this city, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city shall be inhabited forever.

26.And men shall come from the cities of Judah, and from places around Jerusalem, and from the territory of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the mountain, and from the Negev, bringing a burnt offering, and a sacrifice, and a grain offering with frankincense, and bringing a thanksgiving offering to the house of the Lord.

27.But if you do not listen to me, to hallow the Sabbath day and bear no burden, but bring burdens through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire within her gates, and it will consume the palaces of Jerusalem, and it will not be quenched!”

Jeremiah 18

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¶1. The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

2.“Get up, and go down to the potter’s house, and there will I cause you to hear my words.”

3. So, I went down to the potter’s house and, behold, he was making something on the wheels.

4. But the vessel that he was making with the clay was marred in the potter’s hand, and so, he remade it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.

5. And then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

6. “Am I not able, like this potter, to fashion you, O house of Israel, says the Lord? Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, you are in my hand, O house of Israel.

7.At some point, I may speak concerning a nation, or concerning a kingdom, that I will pluck it up, or tear it down, or destroy it,

8.but if that nation repents of its evil concerning which I spoke, then I will repent of the evil which I intended to do to it.

9.Or at some point, I may speak concerning a nation, or concerning a kingdom, that I will build up or plant it,

10.but if it does what is evil in my sight, not heeding my voice, then I will repent of the good that I had thought to do to it.

11.And now, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold! I am shaping evil for you and devising a plan against you! Turn now, every one, from his evil way, and amend your ways and your works!’

12.But they will say, ‘It is hopeless. But we will live according to our own plans, and each one of us will do according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart.’

¶13. “Therefore, thus says the Lord: Ask, I pray you, among the nations who has heard of such things. The virgin Israel has done a very horrible thing.

14.Has the snow of Lebanon forsaken the rock of the field? Or have the cold waters flowing down from foreign places dried up?

15.But my people have forgotten me! They burn incense to idols,[14] but they make them to stumble in their ways, the eternal paths, to walk in bypaths, not the high way,

16.to make their land a desolation, an object of hissing, forever. Every one who passes through it will be appalled and shake his head.

17.I will scatter them like the east wind before the enemy; I will look upon their back and not their face in the day of their calamity.”

¶18. Then they said, “Come, and let’s make plans against Jeremiah! For the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise man, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him down with the tongue! And let us give no heed to any of his words.”

¶19. “Hear me, O Jehovah, and hear the voice of my adversaries!

20. Should evil be repaid for good? For they have dug a pit for my life. Remember that I have stood before you to say a good thing for them, to turn your wrath from them!

21.Therefore, give their children to famine and pour out their blood by the power of the sword, and let their wives be bereft of children and be widows, and let their men be put to death, their young men slain with the sword in battle!

22.Let a cry be heard from their houses because a marauding band has suddenly come in upon them, for they have dug a pit to take me and have concealed snares for my feet!

23.But you know, O Lord, all their murderous counsel against me. Do not cover over their iniquity nor blot out their sin before you. And let them be made to stumble before you! In the time of your anger, deal with them!”

Jeremiah 19

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¶1. Thus said the Lord: “Go with some of the elders of the people and elders of the priests and buy a potter’s earthen flask.

2.Then go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom that is at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I say to you.

3.And say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing an evil upon this place, such that the ears of all who hear of it shall tingle.

4.They have forsaken me, and have estranged this place from me. They have burned incense in it to other gods, whom neither they, nor their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and they have filled this place with the blood of innocents.

5.They have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command, and did not speak, nor did it come into my mind!

6.Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when this place will no longer be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but “the Valley of Slaughter”.

7.And I will nullify 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 hand of those who seek their life. And I will give their carcasses to be food for the bird of the sky and beast of the earth.

8.And I will make this city a desolation and an object of hissing. Every one who passes by it will be appalled and hiss at all its damage.

9.And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat, each one, the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life will afflict them.’

10.Then break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you,

11.and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Thus will I shatter this people and this city as one shatters a potter’s vessel so that it can no longer be repaired. And they will bury in Tophet until there is no room to bury.

12.Thus will I do to this place, says the Lord, and to its inhabitants, so as to make this city like Tophet.

13.And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be like the place of Tophet, defiled, even all the houses where they have offered incense upon their roofs to all the host of heaven, and have poured out libations to other gods.

14. And Jeremiah came from Tophet, where Jehovah had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the house of the Lord and said to all the people,

15.“Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing against this city, and upon all its towns, the evil that I have spoken against it because they have stiffened their neck so as not to heed my words.”

Jeremiah 20

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1. And Pashur ben-Immer the priest, who was also chief ruler over the Lord’s house, heard Jeremiah prophesy these things.

2. And Pashur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and he put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin which was by the house of the Lord.

3. And it came to pass the next day that Pashur released Jeremiah from the stocks. And Jeremiah said to him, “Jehovah has not named you Pashur, but rather, Magor-missabib.[15]

¶4. “For thus said Jehovah: ‘Behold, I make you a terror[16] to yourself and to all your loved ones! And they shall fall by the sword of their enemies even as your eyes watch. And I will give all of Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall lead them captive to Babylon, and strike them down with the sword.

5.And I shall deliver up all the wealth of this city, and all its products, and all its precious things, even all the treasures of the kings of Judah shall I hand over to their enemies, and they shall plunder them, and take them captive, and bring them to Babylon.

6.And you, Pashur, and all those who live in your house, shall go into captivity. And you shall go to Babylon, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried – you and all your loved ones to whom you have prophesied with lies.”

¶7. O Jehovah, you deceived me, and I was deceived! You are stronger than I, and you prevailed! I am in derision daily; everyone mocks me!

8. Whenever I speak, I cry out “Violence!”, and I cry “Destruction!” But the word of the Lord became for me a reproach and ridicule every day!

9. So, I said, “I will not mention Him or speak again in His name!” But it was like a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones. I wore myself out holding it in; I couldn’t do it.

10. For I heard the whispering of many, “There is terror on every side.[17] You tell it, and we’ll tell it.” All my acquaintances were watching for my stumbling, saying, “Perhaps he will be enticed,” and “Let’s prevail over him,” and “Let’s take our vengeance against him.”

11. But Jehovah is with me like a terrifying mighty man. Therefore, my pursuers shall stumble, and not prevail! They shall be greatly ashamed because they did not succeed – an eternal reproach that shall not be forgotten.

12. And the Lord of Hosts tries the righteous, seeing the kidneys and the heart. Let me see your vengeance against them, for I have pled my cause before you.

¶13. Sing to Jehovah! Give praise to Jehovah! For He has delivered the soul of the poor out of the hand of the wicked.

¶14. Cursed be the day in which I was born, the day in which my mother bore me! Let it not be blessed!

15. Cursed be the man who brought my father tidings, saying, “A male child is born to you!” making him rejoice greatly.

16. Let that man be like the cities that Jehovah overturned, and had no pity. Let him hear a cry in the morning, and an alarm at midday,

17.who did not kill me from the womb – or that my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever pregnant.

18. Why did I come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow, and my days be consumed with disgrace?

Jeremiah 21

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¶1. The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah when king Zedekiah sent Pashhur ben-Malchijah and Zephaniah ben-Maaseiah the priest to him, saying,

2.“If you will, inquire of Jehovah for us, for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon is waging war against us. It may be that Jehovah will act for us according to all His wonders so that he will withdraw from us.”

3. And Jeremiah said to them, “Thus shall you say to Zedekiah:

4.Thus says Jehovah, the God of Israel: Behold, I am turning back the instruments of war that are in your hand with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who have laid siege against you outside the walls, and I will gather them into the midst of this city.

5.Indeed, I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation,

6.and I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, and both man and beast will die of a great plague.

7.And afterward, says Jehovah, will I give Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, even those who are left in this city from the plague, the sword, and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life, and he will strike them down with the edge of the sword; he will not spare them, nor show pity or have compassion.

¶8. “And to this people say, Thus says Jehovah: Behold, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.

9.He who stays in this city will die by the sword, or by famine, or by the plague, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who have laid siege against you will live; his life will be his spoil.

10.For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, says the Lord; it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.

¶11. “And as for those of the house of the king of Judah, hear the word of the Lord!

12.O house of David! Thus says the Lord: Execute justice in the morning, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and it burn so that no one can quench it because of the evil of their doings.

13.Behold, I am against you, O inhabitress of the valley, the rock of the plateau, says the Lord, who say, ‘Who can come down against us?’ and, ‘Who can enter into our habitations?’

14.But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says the Lord. Yea, I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it will consume all that is around her.”

Jeremiah 22

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¶1. Thus said Jehovah: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak this word there,

2.and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter through these gates!

3.Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver him who has been robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, and do not mistreat or do violence to the foreigner, or orphan, or widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

4.For if you diligently obey this command, then through the gates of this house will enter kings sitting on David’s throne, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

5.But if you do not obey these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house will be a desolation!

6.For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are my Gilead, the height of Lebanon; yet will I damn myself if I do not make you a wilderness of uninhabited cities.

7.And I will consecrate destroyers for you, each with his weapons, and they will cut down your choice cedars and cast them into the fire.

8.And many nations will pass through this city, and each will say to his fellow, “Why has Jehovah dealt thus with this great city?”

9.And they will say, “Because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah their God and worshipped other gods, and served them.”’”

¶10. “You must not weep for the dead nor mourn for him, but weep bitterly for the one who is going away, for he shall return no more to see his native land.

11.For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum ben-Josiah the king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went forth from this place: He will not return here again.

12.But in the place where they have carried him into exile, there will he die, and he will not see this land again.”

¶13. “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his upper chambers by injustice, when he works his fellow for nothing and does not give him his wages,

14.who says, ‘I will build myself a large house with spacious upper rooms,’ and cuts out windows for it, and panels it with cedar, and paints it with vermillion.

15.Will you reign because you strive to excel in cedar? Your father, did he not eat and drink? But he did justice and righteousness, and then it went well with him.

16.He judged the cause of the afflicted and poor. Then, it went well. Is this not to know me? says the Lord.

17.But your eyes and your heart are on nothing except your unjust gain, and the shedding of innocent blood, and oppression, and to do violence.

18.Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim ben-Josiah, king of Judah: they shall not lament for him, ‘Woe, my brother!’ or ‘Woe, my sister!’ They shall not lament for him, ‘Woe, O lord!’ Or ‘Woe, O Majesty!’

19.He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, dragged away and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”

¶20. “Go up, O Lebanon, and cry out! Even in Bashan put forth your voice, and cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers are crushed!

21.I spoke to you in your great prosperity; you said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your way from your youth, that you have not obeyed my voice.

22.The wind will feed all your shepherds, and those who love you will go into captivity, and then you will be ashamed and confounded because of all your evil.

23.O inhabitress of Lebanon, nested among the cedars. How you will groan when the pains of travail come upon you, agony like a woman in labor!”

¶24. “As I live, says the Lord! Though Coniah ben-Jehoiakim, king of Judah, be the signet on my right hand, I will wrench you off!

25.And I will give you over into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whom you fear, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

26.And I will hurl you and your mother who bore you into another land where neither of you were born, and there shall you die.

27.Yea, to the land to which they long to return, they shall not return.

28.Is this man, Coniah, a despised, broken pot, or a vessel in which is no delight? Why are he and his seed cast out and hurled into a land they do not know?

29.O land! O land! O land! Hear the word of the Lord!

30.Thus said Jehovah: You write this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his seed will succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.”

Jeremiah 23

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¶1. “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord.

2.Because of that, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who feed my people: ‘You have scattered my flock and driven them away, and you have not visited them. Behold! I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, says the Lord.

3.But I will gather the remnant of my sheep out of all the countries to which I drove them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they will be fruitful and multiply.

4.I will raise up shepherds for them, and they will feed them, and they will no longer be afraid, nor be dismayed, nor will any be missing, says the Lord.’”

¶5. “Behold, the days are coming”, says Jehovah, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he will reign as King, and he will deal wisely and will execute justice and righteousness in the earth.

6.In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely, and this is his name which Jehovah will call him: Our Righteousness.”

¶7. “Therefore, behold! The days are coming, says the Lord, when they will no longer say, ‘As Jehovah lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’

8.but, ‘As Jehovah lives, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the countries into which I had driven them,’ and they will dwell in their own land.”

9. My heart within me is broken because of the prophets! All my bones are melted. I am like a drunken man and like a man overcome with wine before the Lord and before the words of His holy one.

10. The land is filled with adulterers because of a curse. The land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Yea, their course is evil, and their strength is not right.

11. “Yea, both prophet and priest are profane; even in my house have I found their wickedness, says the Lord.

12.Therefore, their way shall be slippery for them; they shall be driven into darkness and fall in it, for I will bring evil upon them in the time of their visitation, says the Lord.

13.In the prophets of Samaria, I have seen folly, who have prophesied by Baal and cause my people Israel to err.

14.In the prophets of Jerusalem also have I seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; yea, they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his evildoing. They are, all of them, become to me like Sodom, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.

15.Therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them wormwood and make them drink poisonous water, for from the prophets of Jerusalem profaneness has gone forth to all the land.”

¶16. “Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you! They are making you vain; they declare a vision from their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord.

17.They say continually to those who despise me, ‘Jehovah says, ‘You shall have peace.’ And they say to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, ‘Evil will not come upon you.’

18.But who has stood in the counsel of Jehovah, that he may see and hear His word? Who has waited for and heard my word?”

¶19. Behold, the storm of Jehovah! Wrath has gone forth, and a violent storm will burst upon the head of wicked men.

20. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has done it, and until He has accomplished the intents of His heart. In the latter days, you will understand it clearly.

¶21. “I did not send these prophets, but they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.

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

23.Am I a God in the midst, says the Lord, and not a God afar off?

24.Can a man hide in secret places so that I do not see him? says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.

25.I heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed! I have dreamed!’

26.How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy a lie? Yea, they are prophets of the deceitfulness of their heart,

27.who think to make my people forget my name with their dreams which they tell, each to his neighbor, just as their fathers forgot my name because of Baal!

28.The prophet who has a dream, let him tell the dream, and whoever has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? says the Lord.

29.Is not my word like a fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks rock into pieces?

30.Therefore, behold! I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal, each one, my words from his neighbor.

31.Behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their tongues and say, ‘He has spoken!’

32.Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams, says the Lord, and tell them, and who cause my people to err by their lies and by their bravado, but I did not send them or give them a commandment. And they do not benefit this people at all, says the Lord.

33.Moreover, when this people, or the prophet, or a priest asks you, saying, ‘What is the burden of the Lord?’ then you shall tell them, ‘What burden? Jehovah has said, I will abandon you!

34.And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people who say, “The burden of the Lord,” I will punish every single one, and his house.

35.Thus will you people say, everyone with his neighbor, and everyone to his brother: “What has Jehovah answered?” and “What has Jehovah said?”

36.But you will no longer remember the burden of the Lord, for each man’s burden shall be his own word because you have twisted the words of the living God, the Lord of Hosts, our God!’

37.Thus shall you say to the prophet: ‘What has Jehovah answered you?’ and ‘What has Jehovah said?

38.And if any of you say, ‘the burden of the Lord,’ then thus says the Lord: Because you say this thing, ‘the burden of the Lord,’ when I have sent to you saying, ‘Do not say, “the burden of the Lord”,

39.therefore, behold, I will deceive and forget you. Yea, I will cast you out from my presence, along with the city that I gave to you and your fathers.

40.And I will bring upon you everlasting disgrace and everlasting ignominy, which shall not be forgotten.’”

Jeremiah 24

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¶1. Jehovah showed me, and behold, there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon had taken Jeconiah ben-Jehoiakim the king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, and the craftsmen, and the smiths into exile from Jerusalem and brought them to Babylon.

2. The one basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, which were so bad they could not be eaten.

3. Then Jehovah said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs. The good figs are very good, and the bad are very bad, which are so bad they cannot be eaten.”

4. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

5.“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: As with these good figs, so do I regard as good the captives of Judah whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans,

6.and I will set my eyes upon them for good, and will bring them back to this land, and I will build them up and not tear them down; yea, I will plant them and not pluck them up.

7.And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah, and they will be my people, and I will be their God when they return to me with all their heart.

8.But as for the bad figs which were so bad they could not be eaten, thus says the Lord: So will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the remnant of Jerusalem, those who remain in this land and who dwell in the land of Egypt.

9.And I will make them a horror, an evil thing to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a laughingstock and a curse in all the places to which I will banish them.

10.And I will send the sword, and famine, and the plague against them until they are completely destroyed from the land which I gave to them and to their fathers.”

Jeremiah 25

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¶1. The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim ben-Josiah, king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon,

2.which Jeremiah the prophet spoke concerning all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,

3.“From the thirteenth year of Josiah ben-Amon, king of Judah, even to this day – these twenty-three years – the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking, but you have not listened.

4.Moreover, Jehovah has sent all His servants the prophets to you, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened or inclined your ear to hear,

5.saying, ‘Turn now, each one, from his own evil way and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land which Jehovah gave you and your fathers from of old and forever,

6.and do not go after other gods, to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm.’

7.But you have not listened to me, says the Lord, so that by the work of your hands, those things provoked me to anger to your hurt.

8.Therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts: Inasmuch as you have not listened to my words,

9.behold, I will send, and I will take all the families of the north, says the Lord, even to Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my slave, and I will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations, and I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, an object of hissing, and ruins forever.

10.Yea, I will cause to cease from them the sound of mirth and the sound of gladness, the sound of a bridegroom and the sound of a bride, the sound of millstones and the light of a lamp.

11.And this whole land will be a waste, a ruin, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

12.And it shall come to pass that when the seventy years are completed, I will visit upon the king of Babylon and upon that nation their iniquities, says the Lord, and I will make the land of the Chaldeans a perpetual waste.

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

14.For many nations and great kings shall make slaves of them, even them, for I will recompense them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.”

¶15. Thus said Jehovah, the God of Israel, to me: “Take this cup of wine of wrath from my hand and make all the nations to whom I send you drink of it.

16.And they will drink, and stagger about, and go mad because of the sword I am sending among them

17.(And I took the cup from the hand of the Lord to make all the nations to whom Jehovah sent me to drink):

18.Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and its kings, its rulers, to make them a desolation, a waste, an object of hissing, and a curse (as it is this day);

19.Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;

20.and all the mixed people; and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, even Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;

21.Edom; and Moab; and the children of Ammon;

22.and all the kings of Tyre; and all the kings of Zidon; and the kings of the coastland that is beyond the sea;

23.and Dedan; and Tema; and Buz; and every remote corner;

24.and all the kings of Arabia; and all the kings of the mixed people who live in the desert;

25.and all the kings of Zimri; and all the kings of Elam; and all the kings of Media;

26.and all the kings of the north, both near and far away, one after another; and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth. And the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.

27.And you say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Drink! And be drunk and vomit, and fall down so that you do not rise because of the sword that I am sending among you!’

28.And it shall come to pass that they will refuse to take the cup from your hand, to drink it. Then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord of Hosts: You shall surely drink!

29. For, behold, against the city that is called by my name have I begun to bring destruction, and shall you go altogether unpunished‽ You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord of Hosts.’

30.Now, you prophesy against them all these words! And you tell them, ‘Jehovah will roar from on high, His holy habitation. He will give forth His voice. He will roar loudly against His fold; He will let forth a shout, like those who march; He will cry out against all the inhabitants of earth!

31.A noise will go forth to the ends of the earth, for Jehovah has a case against the nations. He Himself will plead his case against all flesh. He will put those who are wicked to the sword, says the Lord.’”

¶32. “Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Behold! An evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great storm will be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.

33.And on that day, the slain of Jehovah shall be from one end of the earth to the other. They shall not be lamented, nor gathered, nor buried. They shall be dung on the surface of the ground.

34.Wail, you shepherds! Yea, cry out and roll in dust, O leaders of the flock, because the time for your slaughter and dispersions is fulfilled! Yea, you shall fall like a choice vessel.

35.And flight will be impossible for the shepherds, or escape for leaders of the flock.

36.Oh the sound of the shepherds’ cry and the howling of leaders of the flock! For Jehovah has laid waste their pasturage,

37.and the peaceful folds are devastated because of the fierce anger of the Lord.

38.Like a lion, He has left His covert. Yea, their land is desolate because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of His fierce anger.”

Jeremiah 26

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¶1. At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim ben-Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from Jehovah, saying,

2.“Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the Lord’s house and speak to all the cities of Judah who come to worship at the house of the Lord. Speak to them all the words which I command you! Do not leave out a word!

3.It may be that they will hear and repent, every one, from his evil way, so that I repent of the evil which I intend to do to them because of the evil of their doings.

4. And say to them, Thus says the Lord: If you do not listen to me, to live by my law which I have set before you,

5.that you may hear the words of my servants the prophets whom I have sent to you, both rising up early and sending them (but you have not listened),

6.then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.”

7. And the priests, and the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking those words in the house of the Lord.

8. And it came to pass when Jeremiah was finished speaking all that Jehovah had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests, and the prophets, and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall surely die!

9.Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘This house and this city shall be like Shiloh, desolate and without an inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.

10. When the rulers of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king’s house to the house of the Lord, and they sat at the entry of the new gate of the house of the Lord.

11. And the priests and prophets spoke to the rulers and all the people, saying, “This man deserves a sentence of death because he prophesied against this city, as you heard with your own ears!”

12. But Jeremiah spoke to all the rulers and to all the people, saying, “Jehovah sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you heard.

13.So then, amend your ways and your deeds now and heed the voice of Jehovah your God, so that Jehovah will repent of the evil that He has spoken concerning you.

14.As for me, behold, I am in your hands; do to me as is good and right in your eyes.

15.Only, know for certain that if you put me to death, you will be bringing innocent blood upon yourselves, and this city, and its inhabitants, for Jehovah truly sent me, for your sakes, to speak all these words in your ears.”

16. Then the rulers and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, “There is no cause for a death penalty for this man, for he has spoken to us in the name of Jehovah our God.”

17. Then men rose up, some elders of the land, and spoke to the whole assembly of the people, saying,

18.“Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah the king of Judah, and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall be a heap of ruins, and the temple mount, a forested height.’

19.Did Hezekiah the king of Judah and all of Judah dare put him to death? Did he not fear Jehovah and entreat the face of Jehovah, so that Jehovah repented of the evil which He had pronounced against them? But we are about to bring a great evil upon ourselves.”

¶20. But there was another man, Uriah ben-Shemaiah from Kirjath-jearim, who prophesied in the name of the Lord, and he prophesied against this city and against this country in line with all the words of the Lord.

21. And when King Jehoiakim and all his mighty men and all the rulers heard his words, the king sought to kill him. But Uriah heard of it, and was afraid and fled, and he went to Egypt.

22. Then King Jehoiakim sent Egyptian men with Elnathan ben-Achbor and the men with him into Egypt,

23.and they fetched Uriah from Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, who killed him with a sword and had his dead body dumped in the graves of the common people.

24. Nevertheless, the hand of Ahikam ben-Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that he should not be turned over into the hand of the people, to put him to death.

Jeremiah 27

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¶1. At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim ben-Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

2.“Thus Jehovah said to me: Make for yourself straps and yoke-bars, and put them on your neck.

3.Then send them to the king of Edom, and the king of Moab, and the king of the children of Ammon, and the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah, king of Judah.

4.And you shall give them a commandment for their masters, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel.’ Thus shall you tell your masters:

5.‘I, even I, by my great power and outstretched arm, made the earth and man and beast which are on the face of the earth, and I give it to whom it seems right to me.

6.And I, even I, have now given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my slave. And the beast of the field also have I given to him, to serve him.

7.And all nations shall serve him and his son, and his son’s son, until the time of his own land comes, even his. Yea, many nations and great kings shall serve him.

8.And it shall come to pass that the nation and kingdom that will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, nor put the yoke of the king of Babylon on their neck, I will punish that nation with the sword and with famine and with the plague, says Jehovah, until I have put an end to them by his hand.

9.Do not listen to your prophets, or your diviners, or your dreamers, or your soothsayers, or your sorcerers when they tell you, “You will not serve the king of Babylon.”

10.For they are prophesying a lie to you, so that I remove you far from your land and drive you out and you perish.

11.But the nation that brings its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serves him, I will cause them to rest in their own land, says Jehovah, and they shall work it and dwell there.’”

12. And I spoke according to all these words to Zedekiah the king of Judah, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live!

13.Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, and by famine, and by the plague, as Jehovah has said of the nation that does not serve the king of Babylon?

14.And do not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they are prophesying a lie to you!

15.For I have not sent them, says the Lord, and they prophesy falsely in my name, that I might drive you out and you die – you and the prophets who prophesy to you.”

16. And so I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, “Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, ‘Behold! The vessels of the house of the Lord shall now be soon returned from Babylon!’ For they are prophesying a lie to you!

17.Do not listen to them! Serve the king of Babylon, and you will live! For why should this city become a desolation?

18.And if they be prophets, or if the word of the Lord be with them, let them now make intercession to the Lord of Hosts, that the vessels which remain in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem not go into Babylon.

19.For thus says the Lord of Hosts concerning the pillars, and the sea, and the bases, and the rest of the vessels that remain in this city,

20.which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon did not take away when he took Jeconiah ben-Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem, into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

21.For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain of the house of the Lord, and the house of the king of Judah, and Jerusalem:

22.They shall be taken to Babylon, and they will be there until the day I visit them, says the Lord. Then, I will bring them up and return them to this place.”

Jeremiah 28

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¶1. And it came to pass that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah ben-Azzur, the prophet who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and all the people, saying,

2.“Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon!

3.Within two years, I will return to this place all the vessels of the house of the Lord which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon took from this place and carried to Babylon.

4.And I will return to this place Jeconiah ben-Jehoiakim the king of Judah with all the captives of Judah who went to Babylon, says the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon!”

5. Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the sight of the priests and in the sight of all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord,

6.and Jeremiah the prophet said, “Amen! Jehovah do so! And may Jehovah make your words to stand which you prophesied, and return the vessels of the house of the Lord, and the whole captivity from Babylon, to this place!

7.Only hear, I pray, this word which I will speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people.

8.There were prophets before me and before you in olden times, and they prophesied of war, and famine, and plague to many lands and concerning great kingdoms.

9.As for the prophet who prophesies peace, it will be known that Jehovah has truly sent that prophet when the word of the prophet comes to pass.”

10. Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, and broke it in pieces.

11. And Hananiah spoke in the sight of all the people, saying, “Thus says the Lord: Thus will I break off the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within two years!” And Jeremiah the prophet went his way.

¶12. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after Hananiah the prophet broke the yoke off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, saying,

13.“Go and speak to Hananiah, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: You have broken the yoke-bars of wood, but you have made in their place yoke-bars of iron.

14.For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: I will put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations that they might serve Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and they will serve him. Yea, even the beast of the field have I given him.’”

15. And so, Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, “Hear now, Hananiah! Jehovah did not send you, but you have made this people to trust in a lie.

16.Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. You will die this year because of apostasy. You have spoken against Jehovah.”

17. So, Hananiah the prophet died that same year, in the seventh month.

Jeremiah 29

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¶1. And these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remnant of the elders of the captivity, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon

2.(after king Jeconiah and the queen-mother had gone out of Jerusalem, along with the eunuchs, the rulers of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths),

3.by the hand of Elasah ben-Shaphan and Gemariah ben-Hilkiah (whom Zedekiah the king of Judah had sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon), saying:

4.“Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all the captivity whom I have sent into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon:

5.Build houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat their fruit.

6.Take wives and have sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they might bear sons and daughters and multiply there, and do not decrease.

7.And seek the welfare of the city where I have made you go into captivity, and pray to Jehovah for it, for in its peace, there will be peace for you.

8.For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, and give no heed to your dreams that you cause to be dreamed!

9.For they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them, says the Lord!

10.For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are fulfilled at Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill my good word concerning you, to return you to this place.

11.For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord: thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

12.And you will call upon me, and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.

13.And you will seek me and find me, when you seek me with your whole heart.

14.Yea, I will be found of you, says the Lord, and I will bring back your captivity; yea, I will gather you from all the nations, even from all the places to which I have driven you, says the Lord. Yea, I will return you to the place from which I caused you to go into captivity.

15.Because you have said, ‘Jehovah has raised up prophets in Babylon for us,’

16.therefore, thus says the Lord to the king who sits on the throne of David and to all the people who dwell in this city concerning your kinsmen who did not go with you into captivity,

17.thus says the Lord of Hosts: Behold, I am sending against them the sword, famine, and the plague, and I will make them like rotten figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten.

18.And I will pursue after them with the sword, and famine, and the plague, and I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of earth, an execration, and a detested thing, and an object of hissing, and a reproach among all the nations to which I drove them

19.because they gave no heed to my words, says the Lord, which I sent them by my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them. But you would not listen, says the Lord.

20.But hear now the word of the Lord, all you of the captivity whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon!

21.Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel concerning Ahab ben-Kolaiah and Zedekiah ben-Maaseiah who prophesy a lie to you in my name: Behold, I am giving them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and he will slay them before your eyes.

22.And because of them a curse shall be taken up by all the captivity of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, ‘May Jehovah make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire!’

23.For they have wrought folly in Israel; yea, they have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have spoken lying words in my name which I did not command them – and I am He who knows and am witness! says the Lord.

¶24. “And to Shemaiah the Nehelamite speak, saying,

25.Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Because you sent letters in your own name to all the people who are in Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah ben-Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying,

26.‘Jehovah has made you priest in the place of Jehoiada the priest, to be overseers of the house of the Lord, to deal with any man who acts crazy and makes himself out to be a prophet, to put him in stocks or in shackles.

27.Now, therefore, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah the Anathothite who makes himself out to be a prophet to you‽

28.For he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, “The captivity will be long. Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit.”’”

29. And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the hearing of Jeremiah the prophet.

¶30. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

31.“Send to all the captivity, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I did not send him, and has made you trust in a lie,

32.therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his seed. Not a man will he have dwelling in the midst of this people, nor will he see the good that I will do for my people, says the Lord, because he has spoken rebellion against Jehovah.’”

Jeremiah 30

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¶1. The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

2.“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you,

3.for, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will return the captivity of my people, Israel and Judah. Jehovah has spoken! And I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.”

¶4. And these are the words which Jehovah spoke concerning Israel and Judah:

5.“For thus the Lord has said: We have heard a voice of trembling, of terror! Yea, there is no peace.

6.Ask now, and see if a male gives birth. Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor, and every face turned pale?

7.Ah! For that day will be so dreadful that none will be like it. It is the time of Jacob’s distress. However, by it, he will be saved.

8.And it shall come to pass on that day, says the Lord of Hosts, that I will break his yoke off your neck, and I will tear apart your fetters. And foreigners will no longer enslave him.

9.And they will serve Jehovah their God and David their King, whom I will raise up for them.

¶10. “But as for you, do not be afraid, O Jacob my servant, says the Lord, nor be dismayed, O Israel! For behold, I will deliver you out of the distant place, and your seed from the land of their captivity. And Jacob will return and have quiet, and be at ease, and no one will make him afraid.

11.For I am with you, says the Lord, to save you. I will surely make a complete end of all the nations where I scattered you, howbeit, I will not make a complete end of you, but will chastise you in measure, and by no means leave you unpunished.

¶12. “For thus says the Lord: Your injury is incurable; your wound is grievous.

13.There is no one to plead your case for your wounding; there are no healing medicines for you.

14.All your lovers have forgotten you; they do not seek after you. For I wounded you with the wound of an enemy, chastisement by a cruel foe, because of the greatness of your iniquity. Your sins are many!

15.Why do you cry out over your affliction? Your pain is incurable because of the multitude of your iniquity. Your sins have multiplied, and I have done these things to you.

16.Therefore, all who devour you shall be devoured, and all of your enemies – all of them – shall go into captivity, and they who spoil you shall be a spoil, and all who prey on you will I make a prey.

17.For I will bring you health, and I will heal you of your wounds, says the Lord, because they have called you, ‘Outcast, this Zion whom no one wants.’

¶18. “Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will undo the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and I will have mercy on his dwelling places, and the city will be rebuilt over its ruins, and the fortress will stand in its proper place.

19.And out of them will come thanksgiving and the sound of those who make merry, and I will multiply them, and they will not be few. I will cause them to be honored, and they will not be disdained.

20.And his children will be as of old, and his congregation will be established before me, and I will punish all his oppressors.

21.His Prince will come from himself, and his Ruler will come out of his own loins, and I will cause him to come near and approach me. Who, pray tell, is he, this man who gave up his will to approach me? says the Lord.

22.And you will be my people, and I will be your God.

¶23. Behold, the storm of Jehovah! Wrath has gone forth! A dreadful storm will burst upon the head of wicked men.

24.Jehovah’s burning anger will not turn away until he has done it, until he has accomplished the purposes of His heart! In the latter days, you will fully understand it.

Jeremiah 31

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¶1. “At that time, says the Lord, I will be God to all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.

2.Thus says the Lord: The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness. He will come to give Israel rest.”

¶3. From afar, Jehovah appeared to me, saying, “Yea, with an everlasting love, I have loved you; therefore, in lovingkindness have I drawn you.

4.I will again build you, and you will be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel. You will yet adorn yourself with your timbrels and go forth in a dance of merrymakers.

5.You will yet plant vineyards in the mountains of Samaria; planters will plant and enjoy the fruit.

6.For there shall be a day when the watchmen will cry out in the hill-country of Ephraim, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to Jehovah our God!’”

¶7. “For thus says the Lord: Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the foremost of nations! Proclaim it and give praise, and say, ‘O Lord! Save your people, the remnant of Israel!’

8.Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and I will gather them from the far reaches of the earth, among them the blind and lame, the woman with child, and she that travails with child, together; a great company will return here.

9.With weeping and with supplications will they come. I will bear them along, and I will bring them to streams of water along a smooth path wherein they will not stumble, for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.”

¶10. “Hear the word of the Lord, O Gentiles! Proclaim it in the distant isles and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and He will watch over him as a shepherd does his flock.’

11.For Jehovah has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.

12.And they will come forth and shout for joy on the height of Zion, and they will flow to the goodness of Jehovah, for the grain, and new wine, and fresh oil, and the young of flocks and herds. And their soul will be like a watered garden, and they will never languish again.

13.Then the virgin, together with young and old men, will rejoice in the dance, for I will have turned their mourning into joy, and I will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow.

14.And I will satisfy the soul of the priests with abundance, and my people will be sated with my goodness, says the Lord.”

¶15. “Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard in Ramah, wailing and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are not.”

¶16. “Thus says the Lord: Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your labor, says the Lord, and they shall return from the land of the enemy!

17.Yea, there is hope for your latter end, says the Lord, and your children shall return to their own territory.”

¶18. “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself, saying, ‘You disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf. Oh, bring me back and let me be restored! For you are Jehovah my God.

19.Yea, after I turned away, I repented, and after I was instructed, I slapped the thigh. Yea, I was also ashamed and confounded, for I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

20.Isn’t Ephraim my precious son? Isn’t he a delightful child? Whenever I do speak against him, I earnestly remember him still. Therefore, my bowels groan for him. I will surely show him compassion, says the Lord.”

¶21. “Erect signposts for yourself; establish guideposts for yourself. Set your heart on the highway, the road I walk. Return, O virgin of Israel! Return to these, your cities!

22.How long will you vacillate, O apostate daughter? For Jehovah has created a new thing in the earth: a woman will circumvent a man!”

¶23. “Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: They will again say this thing in the land of Judah and in his cities when I return their captivity: ‘The Lord bless you, O habitation of righteousness, O mountain of holiness!’

24.And Judah and all his cities will dwell in it together, ploughmen and those who move about with their flocks.

25.For I will give the weary soul drink, and every languishing soul will I fill.”

26. Upon this I awoke, and I saw, and my sleep was pleasant to me.

¶27. “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast.

28.And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to root out, and to tear down, and to overthrow, and to kill, and to bring evil, so will I watch over them to build up and to plant, says the Lord.

29.In those days, they will no longer say, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

30.But each will die in his own iniquity; every man who eats sour grapes, his own teeth will be set on edge.”

¶31. “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,

32.not the kind of covenant that I made with their fathers in the day I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, even though I was their Husband, says the Lord.

33.For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their heart. And I will be their God, and they will be my people.

34.And they will no longer teach, each his fellow and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord!’ For they will all know me, from the least of them even to the greatest, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.”

¶35. “Thus says the Lord, who gives ordinances, the sun for light by day and the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar – the Lord of Hosts is His name:

36.If these ordinances depart from me, says the Lord, the seed of Israel will also cease forever to be a nation before me!”

¶37. “Thus says the Lord: If the heaven above be measured and the foundations of earth below be searched out, then will I reject all the seed of Israel because of all that they have done, says the Lord.”

¶38. “Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt unto the Lord, from the tower of Hananeel to the Corner Gate.

39.And the measuring line shall go out further, over the hill of Gareb and around to Goah.

40.And the whole valley of corpses and ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron to the corner of the Horse Gate, eastward, shall be holy to Jehovah. It shall never again be plucked up or thrown down.”

Jeremiah 32

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¶1. The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.

2. Now, at that time, the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the court of the guard that is at the house of the king of Judah,

3.where Zedekiah the king of Judah had confined him, saying, “Why have you prophesied, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am delivering this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.

4.And Zedekiah the king of Judah will not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, for he will most assuredly be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall look into his eyes,

5.and he will take Zedekiah to Babylon. And there he will be until I visit him, says the Lord. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not win’?”

¶6. And Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

7.Behold, Hanameel ben-Shallum your uncle is coming to you to say, ‘Buy my field which is at Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption to buy it.’

8.And then Hanameel the son of my uncle came to me, according to the word of the Lord, to the court of the guard, and he said to me, ‘Buy, I pray you, my field which is at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin, for the right of possession is yours, and the redemption is yours. Buy it for yourself.’ And I knew it was the word of the Lord.

9.And so, from Hanameel the son of my uncle, I bought the field which was at Anathoth, and I weighed out the money for him, seventeen shekels of silver.

10.Then I signed the deed, and I affixed the seal, and I had witnesses to witness it, and I weighed out the money in balances.

11.And I took the sealed deed of purchase, in accordance with the custom and statutes, with the open copy,

12.and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch ben-Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanameel the son of my uncle, and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, before all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard.

13.And I gave a command to Baruch in their sight, saying,

14.‘Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, “Take these deeds, this deed of purchase, even the sealed copy, and this open deed, and put them in an earthen vessel so that they may last many days.

15.For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards will again be purchased in this land.”’”

¶16. And I prayed to Jehovah after I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch ben-Neriah, saying,

17.“Oh, my Lord, Jehovah! Behold, you made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you,

18.who shows mercy to thousands, and requites the iniquity of fathers into the bosom of their sons after them! The Great and Mighty God, the Lord of Hosts is His name,

19.who is great in counsel and mighty in deed! Your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of man, to give to each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds,

20.who produced signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day both in Israel and among other men, that you might make a name for yourself, as at this day.

21.Moreover, you brought forth your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, and with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror.

22.And you gave them this land, which you swore to give to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey,

23.and they came in and took possession of it. But they would not heed your voice or walk in your law. They did not do all that you commanded them to do, and so, you caused all this evil to come upon them.

24.Behold, the siege mounds! They have come against this city to take it. And by the edge of the sword, and famine, and the plague, the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, which you said would happen. Yea, behold, you are seeing it.

25.Yet, you said to me, my Lord Jehovah, ‘Purchase the field with the silver, and get witnesses.’ But the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans!”

¶26. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

27.“Behold, I am Jehovah, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?

28.Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, and he will take it!

29.And the Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will come in and set this city afire, and they will burn it up, with the houses upon whose roofs they made sacrifice to Baal and poured out libations to other gods, to provoke me to anger.

30.That is the way the children of Israel and the children of Judah have been from their youth, doing only what is evil in my sight. Yea, the children of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to wrath with the work of their hands, says the Lord.

31.For this city has provoked my anger and my wrath from the day they built it even to this day, that I might remove it from before my face

32.because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their rulers, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

33.Yea, they have turned their back to me and not their face, though I taught them. I have risen up early and taught them, but none of them would listen to receive instruction.

34.And they have placed their detestable things in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.

35.And they have built high places for Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire for Molech, which I did not command them; neither did it enter into my heart that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

36.And now, therefore, thus says the Lord, God of Israel, concerning this city, which you say is given into the hand of the king of Babylon, by the sword, and by famine, and by the plague:

37.Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I banished them in my anger, and in my wrath, and in great indignation, and I will bring them back to this place and cause them to dwell safely,

38.and they will be my people, and I will be their God.

39.And I will give them one heart and one way, that they might fear me always, for their good and for the good of their children after them.

40.And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them and cease to do them good, and I will put my fear in their heart so that they do not turn away from me.

41.And I will rejoice over them, to do them good, and in faithfulness will I plant them in this land with all my heart and with all my soul.

42.For thus says the Lord: Just as I have brought upon this people all this great evil, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have spoken concerning them.

43.Fields will be purchased again in this land, concerning which you say, ‘It is desolate, without man or beast. It is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’

44.They shall purchase fields with silver, and sign the deed, and seal it, and get witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in areas around Jerusalem, and in cities of Judah, and in cities of the hill country, and in cities of the Shephelah, and in cities of the Negev, for I will return their captivity, says the Lord.”

Jeremiah 33

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¶1. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time while he was still confined in the court of the guard, saying,

2.“Thus says the Lord, who created the earth, Jehovah who formed it and established it (Jehovah is His name!):

3.Call upon me, and I will answer you, and I will show you great, inaccessible things that you do not know.

4.For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah that were pulled down to defend against the siege mounds and the sword:

5.Men are coming to fight with the Chaldeans and to satisfy them with human corpses whom I will have killed in my anger and in my wrath, yea, because I have hidden my face from this city because of all their evil.

6.Behold, I will bring it restoration and healing, and I will heal them and reveal to them an abundance of peace and truth.

7.And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and I will build them up as at the beginning.

8.And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity whereby they sinned against me, and I will pardon all of their iniquities whereby they have sinned against me and whereby they have transgressed against me.

9.And the city will give me a reputation for joy, for praise, and for glory before all the nations of the earth who hear of all the good that I will do for them, and they will fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity that I will provide for it.

10.Thus says the Lord: There shall be heard again in this place, about which you yourselves say, ‘It is desolate, without man and without beast,’ even in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, which are desolate without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast,

11.the voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness, the voice of a bridegroom and the voice of a bride, the voice of those saying, ‘Give thanks to the Lord of Hosts, for the Lord is good, for His mercy endures forever,’ as they bring a thanksgiving offering to the house of the Lord! For I will cause the captivity of the land to return as in the beginning, says the Lord.

12.Thus says the Lord of Hosts: In this place that is desolate, with neither man nor beast, and in all its cities, there will again be a habitation of shepherds giving rest to flocks.

13.In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negev and in the territory of Benjamin, and in the areas around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, flocks will again pass under the hands of one who counts them, says the Lord.

¶14. “Behold, the days are coming, says Jehovah, when I will bring to pass the good word which I have declared concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah.

15.And in those days, and at that time, I will cause David’s righteous Branch to come up, and he will execute justice and righteousness on earth.

16.In those days, Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely, and this is what Jehovah will call her: Our Righteousness.

17.For thus says the Lord, ‘David will not lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel,

18.and the priests, the Levites, will not lack a man to offer a burnt offering before me, or burn a grain offering, or make sacrifice, forever.’”

¶19. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying,

20.“Thus says the Lord: If you can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night, so that there is no day and night in their appointed time,

21.then my covenant with David my servant, that he will have a son to reign on his throne, may also be broken, as well as my covenant with the Levites, the priests, my ministers.

22.As the host of the heavens cannot be numbered and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, thus will I multiply the seed of David my servant and of the Levites who minister to me.”

¶23. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

24.“Have you not considered what this people have spoken, saying, ‘The two families that the Lord chose, He has rejected,’ and they so despise my people that in their eyes, they are no longer a nation?

25.Thus says the Lord: If I have not established my ordinance of day and night, or laws for heaven and earth,

26.then I will reject the seed of Jacob, and of David my servant, that I should take of his descendants rulers for the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will bring their captives back and show them compassion!”

Jeremiah 34

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¶1. The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah when Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of earth under his dominion, and all the nations were fighting against Jerusalem and all her cities, saying,

2.“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Go and speak to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it up with fire,

3.and you will not escape his hand, but will assuredly be captured and given into his hand. Moreover, your eyes will look into the eyes of the king of Babylon, and his mouth will speak with your mouth, and then you will go to Babylon.

4.Nevertheless, hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah, king of Judah! Thus says the Lord concerning you: You will not die by the sword;

5.you will die peacefully, and as were the burnings for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they shall make a burning for you. And they will lament for you, “Alas, O lord!” For I myself have spoken this word, says the Lord.’”

6. Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah the king of Judah in Jerusalem

7.when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that remained, against Lachish and Azekah, for they alone were left of the cities of Judah as fortified cities.

¶8. The word which came from Jehovah to Jeremiah after king Zedekiah made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim for them a liberty,

9.that each would let his manservant and his maidservant who was a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman go free, that he would not hold them, his kinsman, a Jew, as a slave.

10. And all the princes and all the people who entered into the covenant obeyed; each let his male servant and his female servant go free. They did not enslave them any longer, but they obeyed and released them.

11. But afterward, they turned and made the male servants and female servants return whom they had sent away free, and they brought them back into bondage as male servants and female servants.

¶12. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

13.“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves, saying,

14.‘In the seventh year, each of you shall let his Hebrew brother go who has sold himself to you. When he has served you six years, then you shall send him away from you, free.’ But your fathers did not give heed or incline their ear to me.

15.But you had now repented and done what was right in my eyes, each to proclaim liberty to his fellow, and you made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name!

16.But then, you turned and profaned my name, and each made his manservant and female servant return, whom you had let go free as they desired, and you brought them into bondage to be your male servants and female servants!

17.Therefore, thus says the Lord: You have not obeyed me to proclaim liberty, each for his kinsman and each for his neighbor. Behold, I am proclaiming a liberty for you, says the Lord, to the sword, to the plague, and to famine! And I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

18.And I will make the men who transgressed my covenant, who did not abide by the terms of the covenant which they made before me, like the calf which they cut in two and passed between its parts,

19.the princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs and the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf.

20.And I will deliver them into the hand of their enemies and the hand of those who seek their life, and their carcasses will be food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth.

21.And Zedekiah the king of Judah and his princes will I deliver into the hand of their enemies and the hand of those who seek their life, even into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon which has gone away from you.

22.Behold, I will command, says the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city, and they will fight against it, and take it, and burn it up with fire! And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant!”

Jeremiah 35

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¶1. The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah in the days of Jehoiakim ben-Josiah, the king of Judah, saying,

2.“Go to the house of the Rechabites, and speak to them, and bring them to the house of the Lord, to one of the chambers, and have them drink wine.”

3. And so, I took Jaazaniah ben-Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites,

4.and I brought them to the house of the Lord, to the chamber of the sons of Hanan ben-Igdaliah, the man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes which was above the chamber of Maaseiah ben-Shallum the doorkeeper.

5. Then I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites bowls filled with wine, and cups. And I said to them, “Drink wine!”

6. But they said, “We do not drink wine. For Jonadab ben-Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You are never to drink wine, you or your children.

7.Nor shall you build a house, or sow seed, or plant a vineyard. Nor shall you own anything. But you shall live in tents all your days, and so shall you continue many days on the face of the land in which you sojourn.’

8.And we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab ben-Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, and our daughters.

9.Nor have we built houses for us to dwell in, nor have we vineyard, or field, or seed.

10.But we have lived in tents, and obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.

11.And it came to pass when Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, came up against the land, that we said, ‘Come, and let us go into Jerusalem, away from the army of the Chaldeans and the army of Syria, and we will live in Jerusalem.’”

¶12. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

13.“Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, ‘Will you not receive instruction, and hear my words? says the Lord.

14.The words of Jonadab ben-Rechab which he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are obeyed, and to this day, they have drunk none, for they have obeyed their father’s commandment. But I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not obeyed me!

15.And I sent you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, “Repent, I beseech you, every one of his evil way, and make your deeds good, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and dwell in the land that I gave to you and your fathers.” But you would not incline your ear, nor would you listen to me!

16.Because the sons of Jonadab ben-Rechab have obeyed the commandment of their father which he commanded them, but this people have not obeyed me,

17.therefore, thus says Jehovah, the God of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them, for I have spoken to them but they would not hear, and I called to them, but they would not answer.’”

18. Then to the house of the Rechabites, Jeremiah said, “Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Inasmuch as you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father, and kept all his commands, and done according to all that he commanded you,

19.thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: there shall not fail a man of Jonadab ben-Rechab to stand before me forever!”

Jeremiah 36

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¶1. And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim ben-Josiah, king of Judah, that this message came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,

2.“Take a roll of a book and write upon it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I began to speak to you, from the days of Josiah even until this day.

3.It may be that the house of Judah will hear of all the evil that I intend to do to them and turn, every man, from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

4. So, Jeremiah called Baruch ben-Neriah, and Baruch wrote in the roll of a book, from Jeremiah’s mouth, all the words of Jehovah that He had spoken to him.

5. And Jeremiah gave a commandment to Baruch, saying, “I am restrained; I cannot go to the house of the Lord.

6.But you go on a day of fasting and read the scroll which you have written from my mouth, the words of the Lord, in the ears of the people at the house of the Lord, and read them also in the ears of all Judah who come in from their cities.

7.It may be that their plea will come before Jehovah, and that every man will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and wrath which Jehovah has pronounced against this people.”

8. And Baruch ben-Neriah did all that Jeremiah the prophet had commanded him, reading from the scroll the words of the Lord at the Lord’s house,

9.for it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim ben-Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came to Jerusalem from the cities of Judah proclaimed a fast before Jehovah.

10. And in the ears of all the people, Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll at the house of the Lord at the chamber of Gemariah ben-Shaphan, the scribe, in the upper court at the entry of the new gate of the house of the Lord.

11. When Micaiah ben-Gemariah the son of Shaphan heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll,

12.he went down to the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber, and behold, all the princes were sitting there: Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah ben-Shemaiah, and Elnathan ben-Achbor, and Gemariah ben-Shaphan, and Zedekiah ben-Hananiah, and all the princes.

13. And Micaiah reported to them all the words that he heard when Baruch read the scroll in the ears of the people.

14. Then all the princes sent Jehudi ben-Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi to Baruch, saying, “Take in your hand the roll that you read in the ears of the people, and come!” So, Baruch ben-Neriah took the roll in his hand and came to them.

15. And they said to him, “Sit down, we pray, and read it in our ears.” So, Baruch began reading in their ears.

16. And it came to pass when they had heard all the words that they turned in fear to one another, and they said to Baruch, “We must certainly report all these things to the king!”

17. And they asked Baruch, saying, “Tell us, we pray, how did you write all these things from his mouth?”

18. And Baruch said to them, “With his mouth, he spoke all these words to me, and I wrote them in the scroll with ink.”

19. Then the princes said to Baruch, “You go hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no man know where you are.”

20. And they went to the king in the courtyard, but they put the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, then they reported in the hearing of the king all these things.

21. And the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king, and in the hearing of all the princes who were standing by the king.

22. Now, the king was sitting in the winter-house in the ninth month, with a brazier burning before him,

23.and it came to pass when Jehudi had read three or four columns, he cut it up with a penknife and threw it into the fire that was on the brazier until the entire roll was consumed in the fire that was on the brazier.

24. And neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words were afraid; nor did they rend their garments.

25. Now, Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah had urged the king not to burn up the roll, but he would not listen to them.

26. Then the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, and Seraiah ben-Azriel, and Shelemiah ben-Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But Jehovah kept them hidden.

¶27. And after the king burned up the roll and the words that Baruch had written from the mouth of Jeremiah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying,

28.“Take yet another roll and write on it all the previous words which were on the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned up.

29.And concerning Jehoiakim the king of Judah, you shall say, ‘Thus says the Lord: You burned up that roll, saying, “Why have you written on it, saying, ‘The king of Babylon shall surely come and destroy this land, and cause man and beast to cease from it’?”

30.Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the king of Judah: He shall have no one sitting on the throne of David! And his dead body shall be thrown out to the heat by day and the frost by night.

31.And I will visit upon him, and upon his seed, and upon his servants their iniquity, and I will bring upon them, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the men of Judah all the evil that I have spoken to them, but they would not listen.’”

32. And so, Jeremiah took another roll and gave it to Baruch ben-Neriah the scribe, and he wrote on it, from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the words of the scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah had burned up in the fire. And to them were many more words like them added.

Jeremiah 37

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¶1. Now, king Zedekiah ben-Josiah reigned instead of Coniah ben-Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, had made king in the land of Judah.

2. But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land would listen to the words of the Lord which He spoke by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet.

3. And king Zedekiah sent Jehucal ben-Shelemiah and Zephaniah ben-Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Make intercession for us, I pray you, to Jehovah our God.”

4. Now, Jeremiah was coming in and going out among the people, for they had not put him in the prison house.

5. And the army of Pharaoh had come forth from Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard their report, they got themselves up from Jerusalem.

6. Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying,

7.“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Thus shall you men say to the king of Judah who sent you to me, to inquire of me: ‘Behold, the army of Pharaoh who came forth to help you is going back to Egypt, his land.

8.And the Chaldeans will return and fight against this city, and they will take it and burn it up with fire.

9.Thus says the Lord: Do not deceive yourselves, thinking, ‘The Chaldeans will surely go away from us, for they will not go away.

10.Yea, even if you should strike down the whole army of the Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and there only remain of them men pierced through, each in his tent, they would rise up and burn this city with fire!’”

¶11. And it came to pass when the army of the Chaldeans had gone up from Jerusalem because of the army of Pharaoh,

12.that Jeremiah left Jerusalem to go to the territory of Benjamin, to receive a portion there among his people.

13. But when he came to the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard was there named Irijah ben-Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, and he laid hold on Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are falling away to the Chaldeans!”

14. And Jeremiah said, “It is not true! I am not deserting to the Chaldeans.” But he would not listen to him, and so, Irijah laid hold on Jeremiah and took him to the princes.

15. And the princes were furious against Jeremiah, and they beat him and put him in the prison house, the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made it a prison.

16. So, Jeremiah went into the dungeon, even to the cells, and Jeremiah remained there many days.

¶17. Then king Zedekiah, sent and fetched him, and the king questioned him secretly in his house. And he said, “Is there a word from the Lord?” And Jeremiah said, “There is.” Then he said, “You will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon.”

18. Jeremiah also said to king Zedekiah, “What is my sin against you, or your servants, or this people, that you men have put me in prison?

19.And where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land’?

20.But now, if you will, hear, my lord the king, and let my plea come before you, I pray, and do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.”

21. And so, king Zedekiah, commanded, and they committed Jeremiah to the court of the guard, and a loaf of bread was given to him daily from the street of bakers until all the bread was gone from the city. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

Jeremiah 38

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¶1. And Shephatiah ben-Mattan, and Gedaliah ben-Pashhur, and Jucal ben-Shelemiah, and Pashhur ben-Malchiah heard the words which Jeremiah was speaking to all the people, saying,

2.“Thus says the Lord: He who stays in this city will die by the sword, by famine, or by the plague, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live, and his life will be his spoil, and he will live.

3.Thus says the Lord: This city will surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will take it!”

4. Then the princes said to the king, “Now, this man should be put to death for this. He is weakening the hands of the men of war who remain in this city, as well as the hands of all the people, telling them such things as these. This man certainly is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their harm.”

5. And king Zedekiah said, “Behold, he is in your hands, for the king can do nothing against you.”

6. And so, they took Jeremiah and cast him into the pit of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, lowering Jeremiah with ropes. And there was no water in the pit, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

7. And Ebed-melech,[18] the Cushite, a eunuch who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the pit. And the king was sitting in the gate of Benjamin.

8. So, Ebed-melech went out from the king’s house and spoke to the king, saying,

9.“My lord, the king, these men have done evil in all they did to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the pit. He may well die of hunger down there, for there is no more bread in the city.”

10. Then the king gave a command to Ebed-melech the Cushite, saying, “Take charge of thirty men from here and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the pit before he dies.”

11. So, Ebed-melech took charge of the men and went in to the house of the king, beneath the treasury, and he took from there worn-out clothes and old rags, and he lowered them with ropes to Jeremiah in the pit.

12. And Ebed-melech the Cushite said to Jeremiah, “Put now the worn-out clothes and rags under your armpits, underneath the ropes.” And Jeremiah did so.

13. And they drew Jeremiah up with the ropes and brought him up from the pit. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

¶14. And king Zedekiah sent and brought Jeremiah the prophet to him at the third entrance that is in the house of the Lord, and the king said to Jeremiah, “I am going to ask you something; do not hide anything from me.”

15. And Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I tell you, will you not certainly put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.”

16. Then king Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah secretly, saying, “By the life of Jehovah who created this life for us, may He damn me if I put you to death or deliver you into the hands of those men who seek your life!”

17. Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Hosts, the God of Israel: If only you will go out to the captains of the king of Babylon, your soul will live and this city will not be burned up with fire, and you and your house will live.

18.But if you do not go out to the captains of the king of Babylon, then this city will be delivered into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they will burn it up with fire. And you shall not escape from their hand.”

19. And king Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Judeans who have fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand and they abuse me.”

20. But Jeremiah said, “They will not turn you over. Listen, I beseech you, to the voice of the Lord –– to what I am saying to you! –– and it will go well for you, and your soul will live!

21.But if you refuse to go out, this is the thing that Jehovah has shown me:

22.Behold, all the women who remain in the house of the king of Judah were being brought out to the princes of the king of Babylon, and behold, they were saying to you, ‘Your companions incited you to rebel and prevailed against you! Your feet are sunk down in the mire, and they have slunk away.’

23.And they will bring all your wives and all your children out to the Chaldeans. And you shall not escape from their hand, but you will be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon. And you will burn up this city with fire.”

24. And Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no one know of these words, and you shall not die.

25. For when the princes hear that I have spoken with you, they will come to you and say to you, ‘Tell us now what you told the king. Do not hide it from us, and we will not put you to death. And what did the king tell you?’

26.But you say to them, ‘I was making supplication before the king that he would not return me to the house of Jonathan, to die there.’”

27. And all the princes did come to Jeremiah, and they questioned him. And he answered them according to all those words which the king had commanded. So, they spoke with him no more (for the conversation had not been overheard).

28. And Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken. And he was there when Jerusalem was taken.

Jeremiah 39

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¶1. In the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.

2. In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the city was breached.

3. And all the princes of the king of Babylon entered and sat in the middle gate: Nergal-sarezer, Samgar-nebo, Sar-sechim, chief eunuch, Nergal-sarezer, chief soothsayer, and all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon.

4. And it came to pass that when Zedekiah, king of Judah, and all the men of war, saw them, that they fled, and the men of war went out of the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls that are by the king’s garden, but the king went out the way of the plain.

5. And the army of the Chaldeans pursued them, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And they captured him and brought him up to Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, to Riblah in the territory of Hamath, and he pronounced judgments upon him.

6. And the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s children before his eyes in Riblah, and the king of Babylon slaughtered all the nobles of Judah.

7.Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and he bound him with bronze shackles to bring him to Babylon.

8. And the house of the king and the houses of the people, the Chaldeans burned up with fire, and they tore down the walls of Jerusalem.

9. And Nebuzaradan, chief of the guards, carried away captive to Babylon the rest of the people who were left in the city, and those who had fallen away, who fell away to him, along with the rest of the people who were left.

10. But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left the poor of the people, those who had nothing, in the land of Judah, and he gave them vineyards and fields that same day.

11. And Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, gave command concerning Jeremiah by the hand of Nebuzaradan, chief of the guards, saying,

12.“Take him and keep your eyes on him, and do him no harm at all, but do with him just as he tells you.”

13. And he sent Nebuzaradan, chief of the guards, and Nebushazban, chief eunuch, and Nergal-sarezer, chief soothsayer, and all the princes of the king of Babylon,

14.and they sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the guard, and gave him to Gedaliah ben-Ahikam, son of Shaphan, to take him to his house. So, he lived among the people.

¶15. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah while he was detained in the court of the guard, saying,

16.“Go and speak to Ebed-melech the Cushite, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing against this city my words for evil and not for good, and they will be before you on that day.

17.But I will deliver you on that day, says the Lord, and you will not be given into the hand of those men, of whom you are afraid,

18.for I will certainly rescue you, and you will not fall by the sword. And your life will be your spoil because you trusted in me, says the Lord.’”

Jeremiah 40

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¶1. The thing from Jehovah that happened to Jeremiah after Nebuzaradan, chief of the guards, released him from Ramah where he had taken him when he was bound with chains in the midst of all the captives from Jerusalem and Judah which were carried away to Babylon.

2. And the chief of the guards took Jeremiah and said to him, “Jehovah your God pronounced this evil against this place,

3.and Jehovah has brought it about and done just as He said. Because you sinned against Jehovah and would not listen to His voice, this thing has come upon you.

4.But behold, I have now freed you today from the chains that were on your hands. If it is pleasing in your eyes to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will keep watch over you, but if it is bad in your eyes to come with me to Babylon, refrain. Behold, the whole land is before you. Wherever seems good and right in your eyes to go, go there!”

5. Now, while he had still not returned, he said, “Return to Gedaliah ben-Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and return with him among the people, or go wherever is right in your eyes to go.” Then the chief of the guards gave him a meal allowance and a gift, and he sent him away.

6. Then Jeremiah came to Gedaliah ben-Ahikam at Mizpah, and he dwelt with him among the people who were left in the land.

7. And when all the captains of the armies who were in the countryside, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah ben-Ahikam over the land, and that he had put him in charge of the men, and women, and children, even the poor of the land, those who were not carried captive into Babylon,

8.they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, even Ishmael ben-Nethaniah, and Johanan and Jonathan, the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah ben-Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ophai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah, son of the Maachathite, they and their men.

9. And Gedaliah ben-Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore to them and to their men, saying, “Do not be afraid of serving the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.

10.And as for me, behold, I will stay at Mizpah to present myself before the Chaldeans who will come to us. But as for you, gather wine, and summer fruit, and oil, and put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities which you have seized.”

11. Likewise, when all the Jews who were in Moab, and with the children of Ammon, and in Edom, and who were in all the countries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah and that he had appointed over them Gedaliah ben-Ahikam, the son of Shaphan,

12.then all the Jews returned out of all the places into which they had been driven, and they came to the land of Judah unto Gedaliah at Mizpah, and they gathered a great abundance of wine and summer fruit.

13. Then Johanan ben-Kareah and all the captains of the armies who were in the countryside came to Gedaliah at Mizpah,

14.and they said to him, “Did you know that Baalis, king of the children of Ammon, has sent Ishmael ben-Nethaniah to kill you?” But Gedaliah ben-Ahikam did not believe them.

15. Then Johanan ben-Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in private in Mizpah, saying, “I ask of you, let me go, and let me kill Ishmael ben-Nethaniah, and no one will find out. Why should someone kill you and all the Jews who are gathered to you be scattered, and the remnant of Judah perish‽

16. But Gedaliah ben-Ahikam said to Johanan ben-Kareah, “You shall not do this thing, for you are telling a lie about Ishmael!”

Jeremiah 41

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¶1. And it came to pass in the seventh month, Ishmael ben-Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal seed, and ten men with him, as well as captains of the king, came to Gedaliah ben-Ahikam at Mizpah, and they ate bread together there at Mizpah.

2. And Ishmael ben-Nethaniah rose up with the ten men who were with him and slew Gedaliah ben-Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword. Thus he killed the one whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

3. Ishmael also slew all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war.

4. And it came to pass on the second day after he had killed Gedaliah, when no one knew,

5.that men were coming in from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, eighty men with shaved beards and torn clothes and cuts. And an offering and incense was in their hands to bring to the house of the Lord.

6. And Ishmael ben-Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, going all along weeping. And it came to pass when he met them that he told them, “Come to Gedaliah ben-Ahikam.”

7. But it came to pass when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael ben-Nethaniah slew them, throwing them into the midst of the pit, he and the men who were with him.

8. But ten men were found among them who said to Ishmael, “Do not kill us, for we have goods hidden in the field: wheat, and barley, and oil, and honey.” So, he stopped and did not kill them among their brothers.

9. Now, the pit into which Ishmael threw all the corpses of the men whom he had slain because of Gedaliah was the same pit which King Asa made because of Baasha, king of Israel. Ishmael ben-Nethaniah filled it with the slain.

10. Then Ishmael took captive all the remnant of the people who were in Mizpah, the daughters of the king and all the people who were left in Mizpah, over which Nebuzaradan, chief of the guards, had appointed Gedaliah ben-Ahikam. And Ishmael ben-Nethaniah took them captive and went to pass over to the children of Ammon.

11. But when Johanan ben-Kareah and all the captains of the armies who were with him heard of all the evil that Ishmael ben-Nethaniah had done,

12.they took all their men and they went to do battle with Ishmael ben-Nethaniah, and they found him by the great waters which are by Gibeon.

13. And it came to pass when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan ben-Kareah and all the captains of the armies who were with him, they rejoiced.

14. And all the people whom Ishmael took captive from Mizpah turned around and went back, and they came to Johanan ben-Kareah.

15. But Ishmael ben-Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and he went to the children of Ammon.

16. Then, Johanan ben-Kareah and all the captains of the armies who were with him took all the remnant of the people from Mizpah whom he had recovered from Ishmael ben-Nethaniah after he had slain Gedaliah ben-Ahikam, mighty men of war, and women, and children, and eunuchs, those who he recovered at Gibeon.

17. And they went and stayed at the khan of Chimham, which was near Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt,

18.to flee from the Chaldeans, for they were afraid of them because Ishmael ben-Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah ben-Ahikam whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

Jeremiah 42

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¶1. And all the captains of the armies, and Johanan ben-Kareah, and Jezaniah ben-Hoshaiah came near, with all the people, from small to great,

2.and they said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Let our supplication, we pray, be acceptable to you, and pray for us to Jehovah your God, for all this remnant that is left of us, a few out of what once was many, as your eyes see that we are,

3.that Jehovah your God will show us the way which we should take, and that is the thing we will do.”

4. And Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to Jehovah your God according to your words, and it will be that whatever Jehovah answers you, I will tell you. I will withhold nothing from you.”

5. And they said to Jeremiah, “Jehovah be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not do according to every word that Jehovah your God sends you for us!

6.Whether good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, so that it might go well with us, inasmuch as we will have obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

7. And it came to pass at the end of ten days that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

8. And he called Johanan ben-Kareah and all the captains of the armies that were with him, and all the people, from small to great,

9.and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present before Him your petition:

10.If you will only dwell in this land, I will build you up, and not tear you down. Yea, I will plant you, and not pluck you up. For I am moved with pity because of the evil that I have done to you.

11.Fear no more the king of Babylon, whom you fear. Stop fearing him, says the Lord! For I am with you, to save you and to deliver you from his hand.

12.Yea, I will show you mercy, and he will have mercy on you and let you return to your property.

13.But if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ not heeding the voice of the Lord your God,

14.saying, ‘No, but we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will see no war, nor hear the sound of the shofar, nor hunger for food, and we will live there,’

15.then, hear now the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah! Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: If you stubbornly set your faces to go into Egypt, and you go to sojourn there,

16.then it shall come to pass that the sword which you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the hunger that you dread will follow close after you there in Egypt, and there will you die.

17.And all the men who set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there will die by the sword, by hunger, and by the plague, and there will be no one left of them; yea, there will be no escapee from the evil that I will bring upon them.

18.For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Just as my wrath and my fury has been poured out upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my fury be poured out upon you when you go into Egypt, and you shall become an execration, and a horror, and a curse, and a reproach, and you will see this place no more!’”

¶19. “Jehovah has spoken concerning you, O remnant of Judah. Do not go into Egypt! Know for certain that I am testifying against you today,

20.that you did wrong in your souls when you sent me to the Lord your God, saying ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God, and according to all that the Lord our God says, tell us so, and we will do it.’

21.And I have declared it to you today, but you have not given heed to the voice of Jehovah your God in anything which He sent me to tell you.

22.Therefore, know now for certain that you will die by the sword, by hunger, and by the plague in the place where you desire to go to sojourn!”

Jeremiah 43

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¶1. And it came to pass when Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all the words of the Lord their God, all these words with which the Lord their God had sent him to them,

2.then Azariah ben-Hoshaiah, and Johanan ben-Kareah, and all the men who were proud began saying to Jeremiah, “You’re lying! Jehovah our God did not send you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to sojourn there,’

3.but Baruch ben-Neriah incited you against us, to give us into the hand of the Chaldeans, for them to kill us and carry us captive to Babylon!”

4. So, Johanan ben-Kareah, and all the captains of the armies, and all the people did not heed the voice of the Lord, to dwell in the land of Judah.

5. And Johanan ben-Kareah and all the captains of the armies took all the remnant of Judah who had returned from all the nations to which they had been driven to dwell in the land of Judah –

6.men, women, and children, and the daughters of the king, and all the souls that Nebuzaradan, chief of the guard, had left with Gedaliah ben-Ahikam, son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch ben-Neriah.

7. And they went into the land of Egypt, for they would not heed the voice of the Lord. And they went as far as Tahpanhes.

¶8. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying,

9.“Take large stones in your hand and hide them in the clay of the quadrangle[19] that is at the entrance of the house of Pharaoh in Tahpanhes in the sight of the men of Judah.

10.And you say to them, thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, my slave, and I will set his throne upon these stones which I have hidden, and he will spread out his pavilion[20] over them,

11.and he will enter it. And he will strike the land of Egypt, whoso is for death, to death, and whoso is for captivity, to captivity, and whoso is for the sword, to the sword.

12.And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt, and he will burn them up and take them captive. And he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt the way a shepherd wraps himself with his garment. And then he will go forth from there in peace.

13.Yea, he will break down the pillars of the House of the Sun[21] that is in the land of Egypt, and he will burn up the houses of the gods of Egypt with fire.”

Jeremiah 44

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¶1. The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt, who dwell in Midgol, and in Tahpanhes, and in Noph, and in the land of Pathros, saying,

2.“Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the evil which I have brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. And behold, they are a wasteland this day, and no one dwells in them

3.because of their wickedness which they have done to provoke me to anger, traveling to make sacrifices to serve other gods whom they did not know, you nor your fathers.

4.Though I sent all my servants, the prophets, to you, rising early and sending them, saying, ‘Oh, do not do this abominable thing which I hate,’

5.yet, they would not listen nor incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods.

6.Therefore, my fury and my anger were poured out, and it was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they are come to ruin, to devastation, as it is this day.

7.And now the Lord, the God of Hosts, God of Israel, says thus: Why do you do great evil against yourselves, to cut off from you, man and woman, child and infant, from the midst of Judah, leaving none of you to remain,

8.provoking me to wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to sojourn in order to cut yourselves off and become a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?

9.Have you forgotten the evils of your fathers, and the evils of the kings of Judah and the evils of their wives, and your own evils and the evils of your wives which they did in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

10.To this day they have not been humbled, nor have they feared, nor have they walked in my law or my statues which I set before you and before your fathers.

11.Therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I have set my face against you for evil and to cut off all of Judah.

12.And I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go to the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they will all be consumed in the land of Egypt. They will fall by the sword and by famine. They will be consumed, from the least to the greatest; by the sword and by famine shall they die. And they shall be an execration, an object of horror, and a curse, and a reproach.

13.For I will visit those dwelling in the land of Egypt as I visited Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with the plague.

14.And there will be no escapee or survivor of the remnant of Judah who have gone to sojourn in the land of Egypt to return to the land of Judah when they want to return there to dwell. Yea, none shall return except those who escape.’”

15. Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, even all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,

16.“As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you!

17.But we will only do whatever proceeds from our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our rulers, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For we were filled with food and were well-off, and we saw no evil.

18.But from the time we ceased burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything, and we are consumed by the sword and by famine.”

19. And the women said, “When we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands that we made cakes for her in her image, and poured out drink offerings to her?”

20. And Jeremiah spoke to all the people, to the men and to the women, even to all the people who answered him, saying,

21.“As for the incense which you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your rulers, and the people of the land, did not Jehovah remember them and it come into His mind?

22.So Jehovah could no longer bear it, in the face of your evil deeds and in the face of the abominations which you did. That is why your land came to ruin, to waste, and to desolation, without inhabitant, as it is this day.

23.Because you burned incense, and you sinned against Jehovah, and you did not obey the voice of the Lord, nor walk in His law, nor His statues, nor His admonitions, therefore this evil has befallen you, as it is this day.”

24. And Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, “Hear the word of the Lord, all of Judah who are in the land of Egypt.

25.Thus has the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, spoken, saying, ‘You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled it with your hands, saying “We will certainly keep our vows that we vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” You certainly will keep your vows, and you certainly will perform your vows.

26.So hear the word of the Lord, all of Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the Lord, that I will damn myself if my name shall ever again be proclaimed in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, “As the Lord God lives.”

27.Behold, I am watching over them for evil and not for good, and every man of Judah who is in the land of Egypt will be consumed by sword and by famine until they are destroyed.

28.Yet a small number who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah. And all the remnant of Judah who went into the land of Egypt to sojourn there will know whose word stands – mine or theirs.

29.And this shall be the sign to you, says the Lord, that I am punishing you in this place, that you may know that my words are certainly established against you for evil.

30.Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah, king of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, his enemy and who sought his life.’”

Jeremiah 45

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1. The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch ben-Neriah, as he wrote these words from the mouth of Jeremiah on the scroll, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim ben-Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

2.“Thus Jehovah, the God of Israel, has said concerning you, Baruch:

3. You have said, ‘Ah, woe is me! For Jehovah has added grief onto my sorrow. I grow weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.’

4.Thus shall you say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, that which I have built up, I will tear down, and that which I have planted, I will uproot, even this whole land.

5.Now, you are seeking great things for yourself. Stop seeking those things, for behold, I am bringing evil upon all flesh, says the Lord, but I will give your life to you as spoil in all the places where you go.’”

Jeremiah 46

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¶1. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Gentiles,

2.concerning Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh Necho the king of Egypt which was by the river Euphrates at Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim ben-Josiah, king of Judah:

3. “Make ready your buckler and shield, and advance to the battle!

4.Harness the horses! Yea, mount the steeds and present yourselves with helmets! Polish the spears! Put on your armor!

5.Why do I see them dismayed, driven back, and their mighty men crushed? They flee for refuge and do not turn around. Terror is all around, says the Lord.

6.Let not the swift man flee, nor the mighty man escape. Northward, by the river Euphrates, they have stumbled and fallen.

7.Who is this who rises like the Nile, whose waters surge like the rivers?

8.Egypt rises like the Nile, and his waters surge like the rivers. Yea, he says, ‘I will arise! I will cover the earth. I will certainly destroy city, and inhabitants with it.’

9.Mount your horses, and drive your chariot furiously! Yea, the mighty men will come forth! Cush and Put, shield bearers, and Ludim, who wield and bend the bow.

10.Yea, this is the day of the Lord God of Hosts, a day of vengeance for Him to avenge Himself of His enemies, and the sword will consume, and be satiated, and be filled up with their blood. Truly, it is a sacrifice for the Lord God of Hosts in the land to the north at the river Euphrates.

11.Come up to Gilead and get balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt! You will multiply remedies in vain. There is no cure for you.

12.Nations have heard of your shame, and your cry has filled the land, for mighty man with mighty man, together, stumble; both of them fall.”

¶13.The word that Jehovah spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, concerning Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon coming to attack the land of Egypt:

14. “You must declare it in Egypt, and tell it in Migdol, and tell it in Noph and Tahpanhes! Say, ‘Take a stand and prepare yourself, for a sword has devoured all around you.

15.Why are your mighty men face down?’ He did not stand still, for Jehovah drove him on.

16.He caused many to stumble. Yea, each one fell upon another and said, ‘Get up and let’s return to our own people and our native land away from the oppressing sword!’

17.There they named Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, ‘Loudmouth! He let the right time pass by.’

18.As I live, says the King (the Lord of Hosts is His name), just as Tabor is in the mountains and Carmel is by the sea, he will come.

19.Prepare your stuff for captivity, O inhabitress, O daughter of Egypt, for Noph will become a wasteland and desolate; there will be no inhabitant.

20.Egypt is a very beautiful heifer, but a gadfly is coming from the north. He is coming.

21.Also, her hirelings in her midst are like fattened calves, but even they have turned away. They flee together. They do not stand firm, for the day of their calamity has come upon them, the time of their visitation.

22.Her voice is like the serpent that slithers. Truly, they are coming with an army, and with axes, they come against her like woodcutters.

23.They will cut down her forest, says the Lord, though it be impenetrable, for they are more numerous than a swarm of locusts. Yea, they are without number.

24.The daughter of Egypt will be put to shame; she is given into the hand of the people of the north.”

¶25. The Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I will punish Amon of No and Pharaoh, even Egypt and her gods and her kings, yea, Pharaoh and those who trust in him.

26.And I will give them into the hand of those who seek their life, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon and the hand of his servants. But afterwards, she will abide as in days of old, says the Lord.”

¶27. And as for you, do not be afraid, O Jacob my servant, nor be dismayed, O Israel. Behold, I will rescue you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity. And Jacob will return and have quiet and be at ease, and no one will make him afraid.

¶28. Do not be afraid, O Jacob my servant, says the Lord, for I am with you! I will surely make a complete end of all the nations to which I have driven you, but I will not make a complete end of you, but will chastise you in measure, and by no means leave you unpunished.

Jeremiah 47

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¶1. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh struck Gaza:

2. “Thus says the Lord, behold, waters are rising from the north, and they are like a flooding river. Yea, they will flood the land and her fullness, the city and its inhabitants. Then the people will cry out; yea, every inhabitant in the land will howl

3.at the sound of the stamping hooves of his mighty ones, at the rattling of his chariots, the roar of his wheels. Fathers will not turn back for their children because of their enfeebled hands

4.on the day that He comes to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every remaining ally. Truly, Jehovah will destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the land of Caphtor.

5.Baldness has come to Gaza; Ashkelon is destroyed. O remnant of their valley, how long will you band together?

6.Alas, O sword of Jehovah, how long will you not be quieted? Sheathe yourself in your scabbard! Be at rest; yea, be still.

7.How will you be quieted? Yea, Jehovah has commanded it against Ashkelon. Yea, there against the seashore has He appointed it.”

Jeremiah 48

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¶1. “Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel concerning Moab: Woe to Nebo, for it is destroyed! It is put to shame. Kiriathaim is taken. The stronghold is put to shame and dismayed.

2.There is no more praise for Moab; in Heshbon, they devise evil for her, saying, ‘Come! Let’s put an end to her being a nation!’ You will be silent, too, O Madmen. A sword is coming after you.

3.The sound of a cry from Horonaim, ‘Devastation and great destruction!

4.Moab is shattered! Her young have caused a cry to be heard.

5.For at the Ascent of Luhith a great weeping is going up; yea, at the descent of Horonaim, the enemies heard the cry of destruction.

6.Flee! Save yourselves, and be like a shrub in the wilderness.

7.For because you trusted in your works and in your treasures, you also will be taken. Chemosh, too, will go into exile, his priests and his princes together.

8.Yea, the destroyer will come to every city, and no city will escape. Even the valley will be brought to ruin and the plain destroyed, just as Jehovah has said.

9.Give wings[22] to Moab, that she might fly away, for her cities will be desolate, with no inhabitant in them.

¶10. “Cursed be he who is slack in doing the work of the Lord, and cursed is he who withholds his sword from blood!

11.Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he is settled on his lees. He has not been emptied out from vessel to vessel, that is, gone into exile. Therefore, his taste remains in him and his smell has not changed.

12.Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will send him pourers and they will pour him out, and they will empty his vessels and shatter his jars.

13.Then will Moab be ashamed of Chemosh, just as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.

14.How is it that you say, ‘We are warriors and mighty men of war!’?

15.Moab and her cities are devastated; he went up, but his choice young men went down for the slaughter, says the King. The Lord of Hosts is His name.

16.Moab’s calamity is near to come; his misery is swiftly hastening.

17.Grieve for him, all who are around him! And let all who know his name say, ‘How the mighty scepter is broken, the glorious rod!’

18.O inhabitress, O daughter of Dibon! Come down from glory, you who dwell with thirst, for the destroyer of Moab has come up against you! He has destroyed your strongholds.

19.Stand by the way and watch, O inhabitress of Aroer! Ask him who is fleeing and her who is escaped! Say, ‘What has happened?’

20.Moab is humiliated. Yea, she is dismayed. Wail and cry aloud! Declare at the Arnon that Moab is devastated.

21.Yea, judgment has come upon the tableland, to Holon and Jahazah, and upon Mophaath,

22.and Dibon, and Nebo, and Beth-Diblathaim,

23.and Kiriathaim, and Beth-Gamul, and Beth-Meon,

24.and Kerioth, and Bozrah, and all the cities of the land of Moab, those far and near.

25.The horn of Moab is hewn off, and his arm is broken, says the Lord.

26.Make him drunk, for he magnified himself against the Lord. Yea, Moab will flail in his vomit. Yea, he, too, will become a derision.

27.But was not Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves, that whenever you spouted your words against him, you wagged your head?

28.Leave the cities and dwell in a cliff, O inhabitants of Moab, and be like a dove, nesting on the sides of the mouth of a pit.

29.We have heard of the pride of Moab – extreme pride – of his loftiness, and his pride, and his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his heart.

30.I know his excessive rage, says the Lord, that it will not be so; his boastings will accomplish nothing.

31.Therefore I will wail for Moab, yea, for all Moab! I will cry aloud for the men of Kir-Heres. He will moan!

32.With more than the weeping for Jazer will I weep for you, O vine of Sibmah! Your tendrils have crossed over the sea; they have reached even to the sea of Jazer; the destroyer has descended upon your summer fruit and your vintage.

33.And so, gladness and joy have been taken from the fruitful field, even from the land of Moab, and I have caused wine to cease from winepresses. No one treads with a shout of joy. Instead of a shout, there is no shout.

34.From the cry of Heshbon, to Elealeh, to Jahaz, they uttered their voice; from Zoar to Horonaim, Eglath-Shelishiyah; yea, the waters of Nimrim are also desolate.

35.In Moab, says the Lord, I have put an end to ascending a high place to burn an offering to his god.

36.Therefore, my heart makes a noise like flutes for Moab, yea, my heart makes a noise like flutes for the men of Kir-Heres, forasmuch as the riches he had gained have perished.

37.For every head is bald, and every beard is clipped. Cuts are upon all hands, and sackcloth is upon loins.

38.On all the housetops of Moab and in all its public squares is lamentation, for I have broken Moab like a vessel in which is no delight, says the Lord.

39.How it is broken! They howl! How Moab has turned the back! He is put to shame, and Moab has become a derision and a terror to all who are around him.

40.For thus says the Lord: Behold! He will fly swiftly like an eagle and spread his wings against Moab.

41.Kerioth will be taken and Mezadoth[23] seized, and in that day, the heart of Moab’s valiant men will be like the heart of a woman in travail.

42.And Moab shall be destroyed from being a people because he exalted himself against Jehovah.

43.Terror, and the pit, and a snare be to you, O inhabitant of Moab, says the Lord!

44.He who flees from the terror will fall into the pit, and he who climbs out of the pit will be taken in the snare, for I will bring upon her, upon Moab, the year of their visitation, says the Lord!

45.Fugitives without strength stand still in the shadow of Heshbon, for fire came out from Heshbon, and a flame from within Sihon, and it consumed the side of Moab and the scalp of the raging men.

46.Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh have perished, for your sons are taken in the captivity, and your daughters, in the captivity.

47.Yet, I will surely return the captivity of Moab in the latter days, says the Lord.” This is the extent of the judgment of Moab.

Jeremiah 49

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¶1. “Thus says the Lord concerning the children of Ammon: Has Israel no children? Or has he no heir? Why does their king[24] possess Gad and his people dwell in its cities?

2.Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will cause a battlecry to be heard at Rabbah, which belongs to the children of Ammon, and it will be a desolate heap and its villages will be burned with fire. Then Israel will dispossess his dispossessors, says the Lord.

3.Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is despoiled! Cry aloud, O daughters of Rabbah! Gird on sackcloth! Mourn, and run to and fro among the hedges, for Milcom[25] has gone into captivity, together with his priests and his princes.

4.Why do you glory in the valleys, your flowing valley, O apostate daughter who trusts in her treasures, thinking, ‘Who shall come against me?’

5.Behold, I will bring terror upon you, says my Lord, the Lord of Hosts, from all around you, and each of you will be driven away headlong, with no one to gather the fugitive.

6.Yet, afterwards, I will restore the captivity of the children of Ammon, says the Lord.”

¶7. “Thus says the Lord of Hosts concerning Edom: Is there no more wisdom in Teman? Is council perished from men of understanding, their wisdom gone?

8.Flee! Turn back! Dig deep to make a dwelling place, O inhabitants of Dedan, because of the calamity of Esau which I will bring upon him when I visit him!

9.If gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings? Or thieves in the night, they would steal only what was enough for them.

10.But I have completely stripped Esau; I have exposed his secret parts, and he is not able to hide himself. His seed is destroyed, and his kinsmen and his neighbors, and he is no more.

11.Leave your orphans; I will keep them alive. And let your widows trust in me.

12.For thus says the Lord: Behold! Those whose judgment was not to drink the cup have certainly drunk it, and will you altogether escape punishment? You shall not go unpunished, but you will certainly drink.

13.But by myself have I sworn, says the Lord, that Bozrah shall be a horror, a taunting, a desolation, and a curse, and all her cities shall be waste places forever.

14.I have heard a report from Jehovah, that an envoy has been sent among the nations, saying, “Gather yourselves together and come against her! Yea, rise up for the battle!”

15.For, behold, I have made you small among the nations, despised among men.

16.As for your terror, the insolence of your heart has beguiled you, O dweller in clefts of the cliff, who holds the height of the hill. Though you make your nest on high like the eagle, thence will I bring you down, says the Lord.

17.And Edom will be an astonishment; all who pass through her will be appalled and will hiss at all her wounds.

18.As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and her neighbors, says the Lord, there will not be a single inhabitant there, nor will any man sojourn in her.

19.Behold, one will come up like a lion from the covert of Jordan into a perennial pasture, for I will drive him away from her in a moment. And who is the chosen one whom I will appoint for it? Yea, who is like me? And who will determine the time for me? Yea, who is this, the Shepherd who is standing before me?

20.So then, hear the counsel of the Lord which He has taken against Edom, and to His plans which He has made against the inhabitants of Teman! I will damn myself if men do not drag off the little ones of the flock! I will damn myself if their fold is not appalled at them![26]

21.At the sound of their fall, the land will tremble. A cry! Its sound will be heard at the Red Sea.

22.Behold! Like an eagle shall he mount up, and fly swiftly, and spread his wings over Bozrah, and in that day, the heart of Edom’s valiant men will be like the heart of a woman in travail.”

¶23. “Concerning Damascus. Hamath and Arpad are confounded because they heard an evil report; they are melted away. As the troubled sea, he cannot be calm.

24.Damascus is disheartened; she turned to flee and panic seized her; anguish and pains seized her, as of a woman in travail.

25.How is the famous city not forsaken, a city that gave me joy?

26.Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets, and all the men of war will be put to silence in that day, says the Lord of Hosts.

27.And I will kindle a fire on the wall of Damascus, and it will consume the strongholds of Ben-Hadad.”

¶28. Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor that Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon struck. “Thus says the Lord: Arise! Go up against Kedar and destroy the children of the east!

29.They will carry off their tents and their flocks, their curtains, and all their vessels, and they will carry away their camels for themselves. And they will cry out concerning them, ‘Terror is on every side!’

30.Flee! Turn back! Dig deep to make a dwelling place, O inhabitants of Hazor, says the Lord! for Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has taken counsel against you! Oh, the plan he has made against them!

31.Arise! Go up against a nation at ease, dwelling securely, says the Lord, without gates and without bars, that dwells alone!

32.And their camels will be plunder and their large herds for a spoil, and I will scatter to every wind those who shave the sides of their head. Yea, I will bring calamity from every direction, says the Lord.

33.And Hazor will be a lair for wolves, an everlasting waste. No man will live there, nor will any son of man sojourn in it.”

¶34. This is the word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the king of Judah, saying,

35.“Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Behold! I will break the bow of Elam, the mainstay of their might!

36.On Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them to all those winds. Yea, there will be no nation to which the outcasts of Elam do not go.

37.I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies and before those who seek their life, and I will bring an evil upon them, my burning anger, says the Lord. Moreover, I will send the sword after them until I have exterminated them!

38.And I will set my throne in Elam, and I will destroy king and princes from there, says the Lord.

39.But it will come to pass in the latter days that I will restore the captivity of Elam, says the Lord.”

Jeremiah 50

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¶1. The word which Jehovah spoke against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans, by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet:

2.“Let them declare among the nations and make it heard, and lift up a standard! Make it heard! Do not conceal it! Let them say, ‘Babylon is taken! Bel is put to shame; Merodach is dismayed. Her carved images are put to shame; her idols are dismayed.’

3.For out of the north, a nation has come upon her; it will make her land a desolation, and there will not be an inhabitant in her; both man and beast will go away, grieving.

4.In those days and at that time, says the Lord, the children of Israel will come; they and the children of Judah will go together, weeping as they go, and they will seek Jehovah their God.

5.They will ask the way to Zion, their faces turned toward it, saying, ‘Come! We will join ourselves to Jehovah in an eternal covenant that will not be forgotten.’

¶6. “My people are a lost flock; their shepherds have caused them to err on mountains of apostasy. From mountain to hill they go. They have forgotten their resting place.

7.All who found them ate them up, and their enemies said, ‘We have committed no offense, inasmuch as they sinned against Jehovah, a pasture of righteousness, even Jehovah, the hope of their fathers.’

¶8. “Flee from the midst of Babylon, and from the land of the Chaldeans come out, and be like he-goats before a flock!

9.For, behold, I am going to stir up and bring up from the land of the north an assembly of great nations against Babylon, and they will set the battle in order against her; from there, she will be taken. Their arrows are like those of an expert man of war who does not return empty-handed.

10.And Chaldea will become plunder; all who plunder her will be satisfied, says the Lord.

11.Though you rejoice, though you exult, O plunderers of my heritage, though you skip about like a threshing heifer, or neigh like stallions,

12.your mother will be very ashamed, and she who bore you, disgraced. Behold, she will be the least[27] of nations, a wilderness, a dry land, even a desert.

13.Because of the wrath of the Lord, she will not be inhabited, but will be an utter desolation. All who pass by Babylon will be appalled and hiss at all her plagues.

14.Take your positions all around Babylon! Shoot at her, all who bend the bow! Spare no arrow, for she has sinned against Jehovah.

15.Raise a shout against her on every side. She has given her hand. Her foundations have fallen; her walls have been torn down. Yea, it is the vengeance of the Lord upon her. Avenge yourselves upon her! Just as she has done, do to her!

16.Cut off the sower from Babylon, and he who wields the sickle in the time of harvest! Because of the oppressing sword, they will turn, each one, to his own people; yea, they will flee, each one, to his own land.

¶17. “Israel is a hunted sheep, chased off by lions. First, the king of Assyria devoured him, and now, this Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, has gnawed his bones.

18.Therefore, thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold! I will punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.

19.But I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he will graze in Carmel and Bashan, and his soul will be satisfied in the hill country of Ephraim and Gilead.

20.In those days and at that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel will be sought, but it will not be there, and the sins of Judah will not be found, for I will forgive those whom I spare.

21.Go up against the land of Merathaim,[28] against her and the inhabitants of Pekod.[29] Kill, and devote their posterity to destruction, says the Lord. And do all that I have commanded you!

22.The sound of battle and great clashing is in the land!

23.How is the hammer of the whole earth cut down and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!

24.O Babylon! I set a trap for you, and you have also been taken, though you do not realize it. You were discovered and then caught because you strove against Jehovah.

25.Jehovah opened His storehouse and brought forth His weapons of indignation, for the Lord God of Hosts has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.

26.Come against her from the farthest place! Open her granaries! Cast her up like heaps of rubbish and devote her to destruction! Let nothing be left of her!

27.Put all her bulls to the sword! Let them go down to the slaughter! Woe be to them, for their day has come, the time of their visitation!

¶28. “The voice of those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon to tell in Zion about the vengeance of Jehovah our God, the vengeance of His temple.

29.Summon archers to Babylon, all who bend the bow. Encamp about her! Let there be no escape! Repay her according to her deeds! According to all she has done, do to her, for she has acted presumptuously against Jehovah, against the Holy One of Israel.

30.Therefore, her young men will fall in her streets, and all her men of war. They will be silenced in that day, says the Lord.

¶31. “Behold, O insolent one, I am against you, says the Lord God of Hosts. For your day has come, the time when I will visit you.

32.Yea, the insolent one has stumbled and fallen, and there is no one to raise him up. And I have kindled a fire in his cities, and it will consume everything around him.

33.Thus says the Lord of Hosts: The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together, and all who took them captive held them fast; they refused to let them go.

34.Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of Hosts is His name. He will mightily plead their cause, that he might give quiet to the land and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

35.A sword upon the Chaldeans, says the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men!

36.A sword upon the praters, and they shall become fools! A sword upon her warriors, and they shall be dismayed!

37.A sword upon their horses and their chariots, and upon all the mixed company which is in her midst, and they shall be like women! A sword upon her treasures, and they shall be plundered!

38.A drought upon her waters, and they will dry up, for it is a land of graven images, and they glory in their idols!

39. Therefore, desert creatures will dwell there with the hyena, and ostriches will dwell in her. And she will never again be peopled nor inhabited, generation after generation.

40.As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, says the Lord, no man shall live there, and no son of man will sojourn in her.

41.Behold, a people will come from the north, even a great nation, and many kings will be aroused from remote parts of earth.

42.They grip bow and javelin; they are cruel and merciless; their sound is like the raging sea, and they are mounted on horses, each man in battle formation against you, O daughter of Babylon.[30]

43.The king of Babylon heard their report, and his hands fell limp. Distress took hold of him, agony like a woman in travail.

44.Behold, one will come up like a lion from the covert of Jordan into a perennial pasture, for I will drive him away from it in a moment. And who is the chosen one whom I will appoint for it? Yea, who is like me? And who will determine the time for me? Yea, who is this, the Shepherd who is standing before me?

45.So then, hear the counsel of the Lord which He has taken against Babylon, and to His plans which He has made against the land of Chaldea! I will damn myself if men do not drag off the little ones of the flock! I will damn myself if their fold is not appalled at them![31]

46.At the sound, ‘Babylon is taken!’ the earth will be shaken, and a cry of distress will be heard among the nations.

Jeremiah 51

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¶1. “Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am stirring up a destroying spirit against Babylon and against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai.[32]

2.And I will send foreigners against Babylon, and they will winnow her and empty out her land, for they are upon her from every side in the day of evil.

3.Do not allow him who bends his bow ever to bend it, nor him who arrays himself in his armor, neither will you spare her young men! Devote all her army to destruction!

4.And the slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and the wounded in her streets.

5.For Israel has not been forsaken, nor Judah, by his God, the Lord of Hosts, though their land has been full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel.

6.Flee from the midst of Babylon, and each of you deliver his soul! Do not be destroyed in her iniquity! For this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; He is giving her what is due.

7.Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, making all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore, the nations act like madmen.

8.Babylon has suddenly fallen and is broken. Wail for her! Take balm for her pain! Perchance she will be healed.

9.We would have healed Babylon, but she would not be healed. Leave her, and let each of us go to his land, for her judgment has reached to heaven. Yea, it has risen to the clouds.

10.Jehovah has put away our forms of righteousness. Come! And let us declare in Zion the work of Jehovah our God!

11.Polish the arrows! Fill the shields![33] Jehovah has stirred up the spirit of the kings of Media because His plan concerning Babylon is to destroy her, for that is the Lord’s vengeance, vengeance for His temple.

12.Against the walls of Babylon lift up a standard! Make the watch strong! Station watchmen! Prepare the ambushes! For Jehovah has both purposed and done that which He spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.

13.O woman who dwells upon many waters, abundant in treasures! Your end has come, the due for your unjust gain.

14.The Lord of Hosts has sworn by His own life, ‘I will surely fill you with men like locusts, and they will lift up a song and shout of victory against you.’

¶15. “He made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom; and by His understanding, He stretched out heaven.

16.When He utters His voice, there is an abundance of water in the heavens. He also causes vapors to rise from the end of the earth. He makes lightnings for the rain and sends forth wind from His storehouses.[34]

17.Every man is brutish in knowledge; every refiner is put to shame by the idol, for his molten image is a lie. Yea, there is no spirit in them.

18.They are vanity, the workmanship of mockers. In the time of their visitation, they will perish.

19.The Reward of Jacob is not like them, for he is the shaper of everything and the rod of His inheritance. The Lord of Hosts is His name.[35]

20.You are my hammer, my weapons of war. And with you will I break in pieces nations; and with you will I destroy kingdoms;

21.and with you will I break in pieces horse and his rider; and with you will I break in pieces chariot and its driver;

22.and with you will I break in pieces man and woman; and with you will I break in pieces old man and youth; and with you will I break in pieces young man and virgin;

23.and with you will I break in pieces shepherd and his flock; and with you will I break in pieces plowman and his team; and with you will I break in pieces governors and officials.

24.And I will recompense Babylon and all who dwell in Chaldea for all their evil which they have done in Zion before your eyes, says the Lord.

¶25. Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain that destroys all the earth, says the Lord. Yea, I will stretch out my hand against you, and roll you down from the rocks, and make you a burnt mountain.

26.They will not take from you a stone for a corner or a stone for a foundation, for you shall be a waste forever, says the Lord.

27.Lift up a standard on the earth! Blow a shofar among the nations! Consecrate the nations for war against her! Summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz! Appoint against her a marshal! Bring horses like bristling locusts!

28.Consecrate the nations for war against her, the kings of Media with its governors and all its officials, and every country under its dominion.

29.And the land will tremble and writhe in pain, for the purpose of the Lord against Babylon will come to pass, to make the land of Babylon a wasteland without inhabitant.

30.The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting; they stay within the strongholds. Their strength has failed; they have become women. Its dwellings are burned up; the bars of its gates are broken.

31.A runner runs to meet a runner, and messenger calls to messenger, to report to the king of Babylon, that his city is taken from end to end.

32.The fords are also seized, and the marshes have been burned up with fire, and the men of war are terrified.

33.For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon will be like a threshing-floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of her harvest will come.”

¶34. “Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has consumed us; he has vexed us; he has made us an empty vessel; he has swallowed us like a dragon; he has filled his stomach with my delicacies; he has rinsed us out.

35.‘The violence done to me and my kinsmen be upon Babylon,’ will the inhabitant of Zion say. And Jerusalem will say, ‘My blood be upon those who dwell in Chaldea!’”

¶36. “For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will plead your cause, and I will fully avenge you. And I will dry up her sea and dry up her fountain.

37.And Babylon will be heaps of ruin, a lair for wolves, a horror and a hissing, without inhabitant.

38.They will roar together like young lions; they will growl like lion cubs.

39.When they are inflamed, I will make them a feast and make them drunk so that they make merry. But they will sleep an everlasting sleep and not wake up, says the Lord.

40.I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and he-goats.

41.How Sheshach is taken, the praise of the whole earth captured! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!

42.The sea has come up over Babylon with its roaring billows; she is overwhelmed.

43.Her cities have become a horror, a dry land, even a desert land. No man lives in them, and no son of man passes through them.

44.And I will punish Bel in Babylon and bring out of his mouth that which he swallowed up, and the nations will no longer flow to him; yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall!

45.Come out of her, my people, and let each one save his soul from the fierce anger of Jehovah,

46.and lest your heart faint and you grow fearful when the report is heard in the land. And the report will come within the year, and the year after that, a report. And violence will be in the land, with ruler against ruler.

47.Therefore, behold, the days are coming when I will visit the idols of Babylon, and all her land will be ashamed, and all her slain will fall in her midst.

48.Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout with joy over Babylon because the destroyers are coming against her from the north, says the Lord.

49.As at Babylon the slain of Israel fell, so at Babylon will the slain of all the earth fall.

50.You who have escaped the sword, go! Do not stand still! Remember the Lord from afar, and let Jerusalem arise in your heart!”

¶51. We are ashamed because we have heard reproach. Dishonor has covered our faces because foreigners have entered into the holy places of the house of the Lord.

¶52. “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will visit her idols, and throughout the land the wounded man shall groan.

53.Though Babylon ascend to the heavens, and though she fortify her lofty stronghold, destroyers from me will enter in to her, says the Lord.”

¶54. The sound of a cry from Babylon and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!

55. For Jehovah is laying Babylon waste and silencing her mighty voice. Yet, their waves roar like great waters. Their voice gives out a roar.

56. For a destroyer will come upon her, upon Babylon, and her mighty men taken, their bows broken in pieces because Jehovah is a God of recompenses. He will surely repay.

¶57. “I will make her princes and her wise men drunk, with her governors, her officials, and her mighty men. Then they will sleep an everlasting sleep and not wake up, says the King. The Lord of Hosts is His name.”

¶58. “Thus says the Lord of Hosts: The broad walls of Babylon will be completely demolished and her high gates burned with fire. Yea, the nations are laboring for emptiness, and the peoples, only for fire. Yea, they are exhausting themselves.”

¶59. The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah ben-Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekaiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now, Seraiah was quartermaster.

60. Now, Jeremiah had written on a single scroll all the evil which would come upon Babylon, all these things which are written concerning Babylon.

61. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you are come to Babylon, see to it that you read all these words,

62.and say, ‘O Jehovah! You have said that you will cut off this place, so that no one lives in it, neither man or beast. Yea, it shall be a waste forever.’

63.And then, when you have finished reading this scroll, bind a stone to it and throw it into the midst of the Euphrates,

64.and say, ‘Thus shall Babylon sink and not rise up, because of the evil which I am bringing upon her.’” And here, the words of Jeremiah are ended.

Jeremiah 52

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¶1. Zedekiah was twenty-one 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.[36]

2. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that Jehoiakim had done,

3.for on account of the anger of the Lord was it so in Jerusalem and in Judah until He cast them out from His presence. So, Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

4. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and they encamped against it. Then they built a siege-wall against it all around,

5.and the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

6. In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, when the famine had become so severe in the city that the people of the land had no food,

7.then the city was breached, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls that are by the king’s garden. But the Chaldeans were against the city round about, and so, they left by the Arabah Road.

8. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him.

9. And they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon, to Riblah in the territory of Hamath. And he pronounced judgments upon him.

10. And the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s children before his eyes, and he also slaughtered in Riblah all the princes of Judah.

11. Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and he bound him with bronze shackles, and the king of Babylon took him to Babylon and put him in a prison house until the day of his death.

12. And in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, in the nineteenth year of the reign of King Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard who stood before the king of Babylon, entered into Jerusalem.

13. And he burned up the house of the Lord. He also burned up with fire the house of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem, including every great house.

14. And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem round about.

15. Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took into exile some of the poorest of the people, and the remnant of the people who were left in the city, and those who had fallen away, who had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the remaining master-workmen.

16. But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.

17. And the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars that belonged to the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the bronze sea which were at the house of the Lord, and they carried away all their bronze to Babylon.

18. And they took the pans, the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the spoons, and all the bronze accoutrements with which they ministered.

19. Moreover, the captain of the guard took the cups, and the snuffdishes, and the basins, and the pans, and the menorahs, and the spoons, and the bowls of pure gold and fine silver,

20.the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were underneath the bases, which King Solomon made for the house of the Lord. There was no weighing the bronze of all these things.

21. And as for the pillars, the height of each pillar was eighteen cubits, and a cord of twelve cubits measured its circumference, and its thickness was four fingers, being hollow.

22. And the chapiter on top of it was bronze, and the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, with a network and pomegranates on the chapiter all around, all of bronze. The second pillar was like this, with pomegranates.

23. And there were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides. All the pomegranates on the network round about were one hundred.

24. And the captain of the guard took away Seraiah the head priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and three keepers of the threshold.

25. And from the city, he took away one eunuch who was an overseer of men of war, and seven men of those who had beheld the kings’s face, who were found in the city, and a scribe of the captain of the army, who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city.

26. And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to Riblah, to the king of Babylon.

27. And the king of Babylon struck them down, and he put them to death at Riblah in the territory of Hamath. And so, Judah went into exile from his own land.

28. This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar took into exile in the seventh year: three thousand and twenty-three Jews.

29. In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar: eight hundred and thirty-two souls from Jerusalem.

30. In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took into exile seven hundred and forty-five Jewish people. All the souls were four thousand and six hundred.

¶31. And it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin the king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that Evil-Merodach, the king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin the king of Judah and brought him forth, out of the prison house.

32. And he spoke kindly to him and put his seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon,

33.and changed his prison clothes. And he regularly ate bread in his presence all the days of his life.

34. As for his allowance, an allowance was continually given to him from the king of Babylon, a daily portion for him until the day of his death, all the days of his life.


Footnotes

[1] This is a play on words. The Hebrew words for “almond” (v. 11) and “watching” are similar.

[2] “The river” often refers to the Euphrates.

[3] Hebrew uncertain.

[4] Hebrew uncertain.

[5] Vv. 12–15, cp. 8:10–12.

[6] Cp. 50:42.

[7] Hebrew uncertain.

[8] Vv. 10–12, cp. 6:12–15.

[9] Literally, “a post”.

[10] Also, Jer. 51:16; Ps.135:7.

[11] Vv. 12–16; cf. Jer. 51:15–19.

[12] Hebrew uncertain.

[13] Literally, “– if I do not make…” The curse intended with this oath is so unthinkable – God’s death and damnation – that it is not even uttered.

[14] Hebrew, nothingness.

[15] Terror on every side.

[16] Magor in Hebrew.

[17] Magor-missabib in Hebrew. See 20:3.

[18] This name means “servant of the king”.

[19] Hebrew uncertain.

[20] Hebrew uncertain.

[21] Hebrew: Beth-shemesh.

[22] Hebrew uncertain.

[23] Or, “the strongholds”.

[24] Or, “Milcom”, the god of the Ammonites.

[25] Or, “their king”.

[26] Compare vv. 19–20 with 50:44–45.

[27] Literally, “the last”.

[28] Literally, “double rebellion”.

[29] Literally, “punishment”.

[30] Vv. 41–42, cf. 6:22–23.

[31] Compare vv. 44–45 with 49:19–20.

[32] Hebrew uncertain.

[33] Hebrew uncertain.

[34] Also 10:13.

[35] Vv. 15–19, cp. 10:12–16.

[36] Vv. 1–27, see also 2Kings 24:18–25:21.

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