Jeremiah Chapters

1 | ¹These are the words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. ²The word of the Lord came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah. ³It came again during the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the eleventh year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah. In the fifth month of that year, the inhabitants of Jerusalem were taken into exile.

The Call of Jeremiah

•  ⁴A word of the Lord came to me, ⁵“Even before I formed you in the womb, I have known you; even before you were born, I had set you apart and appointed you a prophet to the nations!”

⁶I said, “Ah, Lord God! I do not know how to speak; I am still young!”

⁷But the Lord replied, “Do not say, ‘I am still young,’ for now, you will go, whatever be the mission I am entrusting to you, and you will speak of whatever I command you to say. ⁸Do not be afraid of them, for I will be with you to protect you—it is the Lord who speaks!”

⁹Then the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me,

“Now I have put my words in your mouth. ¹⁰See! Today I give you authority over nations and kingdoms

to uproot and to pull down,

to destroy and to overthrow,

to build and to plant.”

¹¹A word of the Lord came to me again, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” I said, “I see the branch of a watching tree.” ¹²And the Lord said to me, “You are right. I, too, am watching to fulfill my word.” ¹³The word of the Lord came to me again, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a boiling caldron coming from the north and tilted towards this direction.” Then the Lord said to me,

¹⁴“From the north, disaster will boil down on all the people of this land. ¹⁵I am calling all the kingdoms of the north—it is the Lord who speaks. Each of them will come and encamp at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem against all its surrounding walls and all the cities of Judah.

¹⁶I will pass judgment on my people because of their evil in forsaking me; they have burned incense to foreign gods and worshiped gods their hands have made.

¹⁷But you, get ready for action. Stand up and tell them that I command you. Do not be scared of them, or I will scare you in their presence!

¹⁸See, I will make you a fortified city, a pillar of iron with walls of bronze, against all the nations, against the kings and princes of Judah, against the priests and the people of the land. ¹⁹They will fight against you but shall not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue you—it is the Lord who speaks.”

The Infidelities of Israel

2 | •  ¹A word of the Lord came to me, ²“Go and shout this in the hearing of Jerusalem. This is the Lord’s word:

I remember your kindness as a youth,

the love of your bridal days,

when you followed me in the wilderness,

through a land not sown.

³Israel was holy to the Lord,

the firstfruits of his harvest.

All who ate of it had to pay

and misfortune fell on them—

 it is the Lord who speaks.

⁴Hear the word of the Lord, people of Jacob,

all you families of the nation of Israel.

⁵What wrong did your fathers find in me

that they strayed far from me?

Why did they pursue what is worthless

and become worthless themselves?

⁶And they did not say: ‘Where is the Lord

who brought us out of Egypt

and led us in the wilderness,

through a land of deserts and pits,

a land of drought and darkness,

a land still untrodden and without inhabitants?’

⁷I brought you to a fertile land

to eat of the choicest fruit.

As soon as you came, you defiled my land

and dishonored my heritage!

⁸The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’

The masters of my teaching did not know me;

the pastors of my people betrayed me;

the prophets followed worthless idols

and spoke in the name of Baal.

⁹Therefore, I contend with you—

it is the Lord who speaks—

and I will contend with your children’s children!

¹⁰Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see,

or send to Kedar and observe with care

if there has ever been such a thing!

¹¹Has a nation exchanged its gods,

false though they be?

But my people have exchanged their glory

for what is worthless!

¹²Be aghast at that, O heavens!

Shudder, be utterly appalled—

it is the Lord who speaks—

¹³for my people have done two evils:

they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water,

to dig for themselves leaking cisterns

that hold no water!

¹⁴Did I make Israel a slave

or was he born in bondage?

How then did you become the spoil of others?

¹⁵The lions have roared against you,

loudly indeed have they roared,

making your country a wasteland,

your cities charred ruins without inhabitants.

¹⁶Even the Egyptians of Memphis and Tahpanhes have humbled you!

¹⁷Didn’t you bring this on yourself

by forsaking the Lord, your God,

even as he led you in the way?

¹⁸Now, why call to Egypt?

Will the water of the Nile heal you?

And why go to Assyria?

What good will the water of the Euphrates do you?

¹⁹Your own wickedness chastises you

and your own unfaithfulness punishes you!

Know and see that it is bitter and evil

to forsake the Lord, your God

and no longer to fear me—

 it is the Lord, the God of Hosts, who speaks!

²⁰It was long ago that you broke your yoke

and burst your bonds,

saying: ‘I will not serve!’

On every high hill

and under every green tree

you played the harlot!

²¹I planted you a choice vine, a shoot of wholesome stock;

why have you become degenerate, a wild vine?

²²Even if you wash with soda

and use soap in abundance,

the stain of your sin is always before me—

 it is the Lord God who speaks.

²³How do you dare say: ‘I am not defiled,

I have not gone after the Baals?’

See your footprints in the valley,

admit what you have done,

O restless young she-camel, running here and there.

²⁴Wild ass of the desert,

sniffing the wind in her desire,

who can restrain her lust?

Those who pursue her need not tire themselves,

at mating time, they will find her.

²⁵Run if you wish until your feet are sore,

and your throat is dry!

But you say: ‘It’s no use,

I love foreign gods, it is them I follow.’

The Crimes of Jerusalem

²⁶As a thief is shamed when caught,

so is the house of Israel,

they, their kings, their princes,

their priests and their prophets!

²⁷To a tree, they say: ‘You are my father!’

and to a stone: ‘You gave me birth!’

For they have turned their back on me instead of their face!

On the day of misfortune,

they will call me: ‘Rise and save us!’

²⁸Where, then, are the gods of your own making?

Let them rise and save you if they can,

in the time of your distress.

For your gods, O Judah, are as many as your cities!

²⁹Why argue with me? You have all betrayed me—it is the Lord who speaks.

³⁰In vain did I strike your children.

They did not learn a lesson!

And your sword, like a destroying lion

devoured your prophets!

³¹All you of this generation, hear what the Lord says:

Have I been a desert for Israel,

a land of darkness?

Why do my people say:

‘We will depart from you

and no more return to you’?

³²Does a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her sash?

But my people have forgotten me

for days without number!

³³How well you direct your steps in your search for lovers,

even to walking along with crime!

³⁴Look at your garments

stained with the blood of the innocent poor, although you did not catch them breaking in!

³⁵I know you say: ‘I am innocent. Why does his anger not turn away from me?’

I will accuse you: Yes, you have sinned!

³⁶How lightly do you change your way!

You will be put to shame by Egypt as you were by Assyria.

³⁷You will also leave that place with your hands on your head,

for the Lord has rejected those you trust, and they will not help you!

Are You Really Returning To Me?

3 | •  ¹If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should he come back to her? Wouldn’t the land be totally polluted? But you, you are a harlot with many lovers, and you still have the nerve to return to me?—it is the Lord who speaks.

²Lift your eyes to the hills and see: Where have you not been violated? By the wayside, you sat waiting for your lovers like an Arab in the wilderness, and you have dishonored the land with your evil and your harlotry!

³The showers held back, and there was no spring rain for you, yet you have a harlot’s brow and refuse to be ashamed! ⁴Worse still, you called to me: ‘Father, guide of my youth! ⁵Will you always be angry? Will your wrath last forever?’ That is what you said and did evil as much as possible.”

Comparison of the Two Sisters

•  ⁶During the reign of King Josiah, the Lord said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the harlot! ⁷So I thought: After all this, she would return to me, but she did not.

Her perverse sister, Judah, saw ⁸that for all the adulteries of that unfaithful Israel, I sent her away with a certificate of divorce. Yet I saw that the disloyal Judah had no fear and that she, too, went and played the harlot! ⁹Because of her harlotry, she dishonored the land, sinning with stones and trees. ¹⁰And even after that, her sister, the unfaithful Judah, did not come to me wholeheartedly; it was only a pretense. It is the Lord who speaks.”

¹¹And the Lord continued, “Rebellious Israel has been less guilty than false Judah. ¹²Go and shout this message to the north:

Come back, unfaithful Israel—it is the Lord who speaks—I will not let my anger fall on you, for I am merciful, I will not be angry forever.

¹³Simply confess your guilt; you have rebelled against the Lord your God and have scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice—it is the word of the Lord.

The New Jerusalem

¹⁴Come back, faithless people—the Lord speaks—for I am your master. I will select one from a city and two from a family and bring you to Zion. ¹⁵Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and prudence. ¹⁶And when you have increased and multiplied in the land in those days—it is the Lord who speaks—people will no longer speak of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord; it will not be remembered or missed, nor shall it be made again!

¹⁷Then they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the Lord,’ and they will no longer follow the stubbornness of their wicked hearts.

¹⁸In those days, the people of Judah would unite with the people of Israel, and together, they would return from the north to the land that I gave to their ancestors as a heritage.

Continuation of the Poem for Conversion

¹⁹And I thought: How gladly would I have placed you among my children and given you as your inheritance a beautiful land, the most splendid among all the nations! And I thought you would call me ‘my father’ and not turn from following me!

²⁰But, like a woman unfaithful to her husband, you have been unfaithful to me, O people of Israel!—it is the Lord who speaks.”

²¹A cry is heard on the barren heights, the weeping and pleading of the children of Israel, because they have perverted their way and have forgotten the Lord their God!

²²“Come back, unfaithful people, I will heal you of your rebelliousness!”

‘Yes, we come to you, for you are the Lord our God!

²³Truly, the temples on the heights and the feasts on the hills are useless; only the Lord our God can save Israel.

²⁴The infamous god has devoured all the fruits of our ancestors’ labor since our youth, their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters. ²⁵Let us lie down in our shame and let our confusion cover us, for it is against the Lord our God that we have sinned from our youth until this day, we and our fathers, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God!’

Disaster Foretold

4 | ¹“If you return to me, O Israel—it is the Lord who speaks—if you convert to me and remove your dirty idols from my sight you need not hide from me; ²if you truthfully, justly, and honestly swear by the Lord’s life, then you will be a blessing for all nations, and you will be their glory.”

³For thus says the Lord to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, “Break up deeply your fallow land and do not sow among the thorns. ⁴O, men of Judah and Jerusalem, circumcise yourselves for the Lord and purify your hearts, lest my wrath spread like a fire that cannot be quenched because of your evil deeds!”

⁵Announce this in Judah,

proclaim it in Jerusalem.

Sound the trumpet through the land;

shout aloud and say:

“Assemble and go to the fortified cities!

⁶Raise a banner towards Zion!

Run for your lives, do not tarry,

for I will bring evil and great destruction from the north.

⁷The lion has come out of his den; the destroyer of nations has set out to devastate your country and make your cities ruins without inhabitants!

⁸Because of this, wrap yourselves in sackcloth, lament, and groan, for the fury of the Lord’s anger has not turned away from us.

⁹On that day—it is the Lord who speaks—the king and the leaders will be discouraged, the priests will be terrified, and the prophets will be astounded. ¹⁰People will say, “Ah! Lord God, you have truly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: ‘You will have peace’ even as the sword is at our throat.”

¹¹When the time comes, it will be said to the people of Jerusalem:

“Wearing wind from the desert heights is coming to the daughter of my people, neither to winnow nor to cleanse!

¹²A strong wind comes from there.

Now I will declare my judgments against them.”

¹³See! Someone comes like the clouds,

his chariots are like a whirlwind,

his horses swifter than eagles!

Woe to us for we are ruined!

¹⁴Cleanse your heart of every evil, Jerusalem, that you may be saved! How long will you harbor evil plans within you?

¹⁵A voice from Dan declares of a coming disaster from Mount Ephraim! “Warn the nations. ¹⁶Let everyone know in Jerusalem and Judah that enemies are coming from a distant land.” ¹⁷They encircle Jerusalem like watchers guarding a field because she has rebelled against me—it is the Lord who speaks.

“¹⁸Your own conduct and actions have brought this upon you. How bitter is your punishment, and how deeply it penetrates your heart because you have rebelled against me!”

Barren Soil

¹⁹I am in anguish! I tremble in the depths of my being; my heart beats wildly. I cannot remain silent, for I hear the sound of the trumpet and the clamor of war!

²⁰Disaster after disaster; all the land is laid waste; my tents are suddenly destroyed and, instantly, all that shelters me is wiped out. ²¹For how long must I see the banner raised and hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²“This happens because my people are foolish and do not know me. They are senseless and have no understanding—wise in doing evil but stupid in doing good!”

²³I looked at the earth and found it formless and void; I looked at the sky, but darkness engulfed it.

²⁴I looked at the mountains; they were quaking, and all the hills swayed to and fro.

²⁵I looked and saw there was no one at all; even the birds deserted the skies.

²⁶I looked and saw that the fruitful land was a desert and that all the cities were in ruins because of the Lord’s fierce anger.

²⁷The Lord says, “The whole land may be desolate, but I will not totally destroy it! ²⁸Because of this, the earth shall mourn, and the skies be darkened: I have declared my purpose and will not relent; I have made up my mind and will not change it.”

²⁹At the sound of the horsemen and

archers, every town takes to flight;

some go to the thickets

and climb among the rocks.

All the towns are deserted

and no one is left.

³⁰And you, desolate one,

what will you do?

Even if you are garbed in scarlet

and wear jewels of gold

and put makeup on your eyes,

in vain do you beautify yourself,

for your lovers despise you

and are ready to take your life.

³¹I hear a cry as of a woman in labor, anguish as of one giving birth the first time. It is the cry of the daughter of Zion, gasping for breath with hands outstretched: “Woe is me! I am fainting amidst a band of murderers!”

Not One Is Upright

5 | •  ¹“Go through the streets of Jerusalem; observe carefully and take note. Search the entire city squares and find, if you can, even one man who acts justly and seeks the truth, that I may forgive this city.” ²Even though they swear, “As surely as the Lord lives,” they do not mean what they say.

³O Lord, are you not looking for truth? You struck them, but they did not feel it; you crushed them, but they rejected correction. They set their faces harder than a rock and refused to repent.

⁴Then I thought: “Such are the poor; they act foolishly because they do not know the way of the Lord, the law of their God! ⁵So I will go to the well-to-do and speak to them for they know the way of the Lord and the law of their God.” But they, too, have broken their yoke and burst their bonds!

⁶That is why the lion from the forest will slay them, the wolf from the desert will destroy them, and the leopard lurks around their cities. Anyone who comes out is torn to pieces, for great is their sin, and many are their desertions!

⁷“Why should I pardon you? Your children have rejected me and sworn by false gods. I gave them all they needed, and yet they committed adultery and trooped to the harlot’s house. They are well-fed, ⁸lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.

⁹Shall I not call them to account—it is the Lord who speaks—shall I not take vengeance against a nation like this?

¹⁰Go up, nations, through her vineyards and ravage them, but do not entirely destroy my vine. Cut off her branches for they are not the Lord’s. ¹¹For the people of Israel and Judah have been utterly unfaithful to me—it is the Lord who speaks.

¹²They have spoken falsely of the Lord, saying, “He does not exist; no harm will happen to us; we shall see neither the sword nor famine! ¹³As for the prophets, they are but wind. God doesn’t speak to them.”

¹⁴Because of this, the Lord the God of Hosts has spoken, “This is what I am going to do to them: I will put words in your mouth. They will be like a fire, and this people will be the wood it devours.”

¹⁵People of Israel! I will bring against you a nation from far away to attack you. It will be a nation founded long ago and has lasted for a long time. It will be a nation whose language you will not know. Its people will speak words that you will not be able to understand.

¹⁶All of its soldiers are strong and mighty. Their arrows will send you to your grave.

¹⁷They will devour your harvest and your food,

devour your sons and daughters,

devour your flocks and herds,

devour your vines and your fig trees.

They will devastate with the sword

the fortified cities in which you trust.

¹⁸But even in those days—it is the Lord who speaks—I will not utterly destroy them. ¹⁹And when they ask, “Why has the Lord our God done all this to us?” you shall say to them, “Just as you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not your own.”

²⁰Declare this to the people of Jacob and make it known in Judah,

²¹listen, stupid and senseless people!

who have eyes and do not see,

who have ears and do not hear!

²²Do you not fear me?—

it is the Lord who speaks—

Will you not tremble before me?

I set the sand as a limit to the sea, an everlasting barrier it may never pass;

its waves toss but cannot prevail;

they roar but are unable to go beyond it.

²³But this people’s heart is rebellious and stubborn; they have turned aside and gone away! ²⁴They do not say in their hearts, “Let us fear the Lord our God who sends in season the rain and has in store for us the harvest.”

²⁵Your crimes have turned order into chaos, your sins have deprived you of these blessings, ²⁶for among my people are scoundrels; they set traps like fowler and catch human beings.

²⁷Their houses are filled with loot,

like a cage full of birds.

It has turned them rich and powerful;

²⁸they have become fat and sleek.

Great is their wickedness;

there is no justice in their judgment,

for they do not protect the orphan’s rights nor defend the needy’s cause!

²⁹Should I not severely punish them for such things?—it is the Lord who speaks—Should I not exact vengeance against a people like them?

³⁰A terrible and abominable thing has happened in the land. ³¹Prophets prophesy lies, and priests teach what pleases them, and my people like it to be so. But what will you do soon?

Jerusalem Is Besieged

6 | ¹People of Benjamin! Seek safety beyond Jerusalem.

Sound the trumpet in Tekoa,

raise a signal in Beth-haccherem,

for misfortune pours out from the north:

it will be a huge disaster.

²Shall I not compare you, daughter of Zion, to a beautiful pasture? ³Shepherds with their flocks are coming to her; they pitch their tents and feed their flocks all over her.

⁴Declare a holy war against her,

attack her at noontime.

Woe to us! For the day declines;

the evening shadows lengthen!

⁵Rise up! We shall attack by night

and destroy her palaces!

⁶For the Lord of Hosts has spoken: “Cut down trees and build a siege-ramp against Jerusalem. This city must be punished, for all in her is oppression. ⁷Evil springs from her as water from a well. Violence and oppression are heard in the city, and suffering and cruelty are always before me.

Jeremiah’s Threats

⁸Take warning, Jerusalem, lest I turn away from you and make you a desolation, a no-man’s land.”

⁹The Lord of Hosts further said, “You shall glean thoroughly as a vine what is left of Israel. You shall do what the grape-gatherer does when his hand goes over the branches again.”

¹⁰To whom shall I speak, whom shall I warn? Not one of them wants to listen, that they may understand. Their ears are stuffed and they pay no attention. They scorn what the Lord says and refuse to listen.

¹¹The anger of the Lord has filled me, and I can bear it no longer!

“Then pour it out on the children in the street and the gathering of young men; both husband and wife will be caught, both the elderly and those not of age. ¹²Their houses will be passed to others, with their fields and wives, when I stretch out my hand and strike the people of the land—it is the Lord who speaks.

¹³All of them—from the least to the greatest—are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike are deceitful. ¹⁴They treat lightly the disaster of my people saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.

¹⁵They should be ashamed of their abominable deeds. But they have no shame and don’t even know how to blush. Surely, they shall fall with those who will fall; when I ask them to account, they will stumble—it is the Lord who speaks.

¹⁶This is what the Lord says, “Stand in the roads and look. Ask for the ancient paths and know where the good way is. Walk on it and experience peace for yourselves.” But you said, “We will not take it.” ¹⁷Then the Lord set watchmen over you: “Pay attention to the sound of the horn!” But you said, “We will not listen.”

¹⁸Listen, nations; know what will befall them! ¹⁹Listen, earth! I am bringing disaster on this people! It is the fruit of their rebellion because they ignored my words and despised my law.

²⁰The incense from Sheba is useless to me, so don’t bring me the fragrant cane from a distant land. Your burnt offerings are not acceptable to me, nor do I find your sacrifices pleasing.”

²¹This is what the Lord says, “I will place stumbling blocks before this people to make them stumble, parents and children, neighbors and friends together.”

²²It is the Lord who speaks, “See, a people comes from the north, a powerful nation from the ends of the earth. ²³Armed with bow and spear, they are cruel and merciless. Their voice roars like the roaring sea. Mounted on horses, in battle formation, they come as a fire against you, daughter of Zion.”

²⁴When we heard this, our hands went limp, anguish seized us like the birth pangs of a woman. ²⁵“Let us not go to the fields or onto the roads, for the enemy’s sword brings terror on every side.”

²⁶O, my people! Wrap yourself in sackcloth and roll in ashes; mourn with bitter lament as for an only child, for the destroyer is coming against us.

²⁷“I have appointed you as an examiner among my people, that you may see and appreciate their ways.”

²⁸They are all rebels and slanderers. They are like bronze and iron, and they are all corrupt. ²⁹The bellows blow to burn away the lead with fire, but the smelter works in vain, for the evil elements remain. ³⁰They will be called “worthless silver,” for the Lord has rejected them.

I Can Destroy This Temple

7 | •  ¹These words were spoken by the Lord to Jeremiah, ²“Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and proclaim this in a loud voice: Listen to what the Lord says, all you people of Judah (who enter these gates to worship the Lord). ³The Lord the God of Israel says this:

Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will stay with you in this place. ⁴Rely not on empty words such as: ‘Look, the temple of the Lord! Temple of the Lord! This is the temple of the Lord!’

⁵It is far better for you to amend your ways and act justly with all. ⁶Do not abuse the stranger, orphan, or widow or shed innocent blood in this place or follow false gods to your own ruin. ⁷Then I will stay with you in this place, in the land I gave to your ancestors in times past and forever.

⁸But you trust in deceptive and useless words. ⁹You steal, kill, take the wife of your neighbor; you swear falsely, worship Baal, and follow foreign gods who are not yours. ¹⁰Then, after doing all these horrible things, you come and stand before me in this temple that bears my name and say, ‘Now we are safe.’

¹¹Is this house on which rests my name a den of thieves? I have seen this myself—it is the Lord who speaks. ¹²Go to the Sanctuary at Shiloh in Israel, where I first let my name rest and see what I did to that place because of the wickedness of my people Israel.

¹³You have done all this and have not listened when I repeatedly warned you; neither have you answered when I called you. ¹⁴What I did in Shiloh, I will likewise do to this temple on which rests my name, this sacred place in which you trust and which I have given to you and your ancestors.

¹⁵As for you, I will drive you out of my sight, just as I cast away all your kinsfolk in the north, the entire race of Ephraim.

¹⁶Do not plead for this people. Make no prayer or supplication for them; do not press me on their behalf because I will not listen to you.

¹⁷Don’t you see what they do in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸The children gather wood, and the fathers light the fire. The women knead dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven and pour out drink offerings for foreign gods. ¹⁹They do this to belittle me. But is it me they belittle? asks the Lord. No, they belittle themselves to their own confusion.

²⁰Because of this, the Lord has spoken, ‘The fury of my anger will be poured out on this place, both on man and beast, on the trees in the fields and the produce of the earth; it will burn and not be extinguished.’”

True Religion

•  ²¹This is what the Lord of Hosts says to you, “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the flesh. ²²When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I did not give them a mandate regarding sacrifices and burnt offerings. ²³One thing I did command them: Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Walk as I command you, and all will be well with you. ²⁴But they did not listen and paid no attention. They followed the bad habits of their stubborn heart and turned away from me.

²⁵From the time I brought their ancestors out of Egypt until this day, I have continually sent them my servants, the prophets; ²⁶ but these stiff-necked people did not listen. They paid no attention and were worse than their ancestors.

²⁷You may say all these things to them, but they will not listen. You will call them, but they will not answer. ²⁸This is a nation that did not obey the Lord and refused to be disciplined. Truth has perished and is no longer heard from their lips.

²⁹Cut off your hair and throw it away. Intone a lament on the bare heights, for the Lord has rejected and forsaken these people.” This is the Lord’s word.

³⁰The people of Judah have done what disgusts me. They have placed their idols in the Sanctuary that houses my name and defiled it. ³¹They have built the temple of Topheth in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, where they burn their sons and daughters, something I never commanded or even thought of.

³²Hence, the time will come when it will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-Hinnom but rather the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth because of the lack of space elsewhere. ³³And the corpses of these people will be eaten by birds and animals, and none will scare them away.

³⁴In the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, I will bring to an end all expressions of joy and happiness, the songs of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wilderness.

8 | •  ¹When that time comes—it is the Lord who speaks—they will bring from the tombs the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of their leaders, priests, prophets, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ²They will expose them to the sun and moon and all the gods of the skies, because they have loved and served them, and they have followed and worshiped them. These bones will not be gathered up to be replaced in tombs but will remain like dung on the ground.

³Death will be preferable to life for the survivors of this perverse race who remain in places to which I have driven them.

Sin and Punishment

⁴This is what the Lord told me, “You will say to them: Doesn’t the one who falls get up and the one who goes away return? ⁵Why, then, have these people turned away in stubborn rebellion? They make a habit of deceit and refuse to repent.

⁶I listened attentively; they did not speak truthfully or repent of their wickedness. No one says: ‘What have I done!’ They all follow their own course like horses plunging into battle. ⁷Even the stork in the sky knows her times; the dove, the swallow, and the crane know the time to return, but my people do not know the ordinances of the Lord.

⁸How dare you say: ‘We are wise and the law of the Lord is with us’ when the deceiving pen of the scribe has turned it into a lie? ⁹The wise will be put to shame; they shall be dismayed and trapped. Since they have despised the word of the Lord, what then is left as the basis of their wisdom?

¹⁰That is why I will give their wives to other men, their fields to conquerors, for all of them, the smallest to the greatest, are greedy for gain. All, from the prophet to the priest, practice deceit. ¹¹They treat lightly the wound of my people saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace.

¹²They should be ashamed of their abominable deeds. They have no shame and don’t even know how to blush. Surely, they shall fall along with those who will fall, for I will ask them to account, and they will stumble.

¹³I will make an end of them—it is the Lord who speaks—for the vine yields no grapes, the fig tree no figs, even the leaves are withered. I will hand them over to the passersby.”

¹⁴“Why do we sit still? Get up! We shall go to the fortified cities to perish there. See, the Lord our God wants us to die and gives us poisoned water because we have sinned against him.

¹⁵We hoped for good fortune, but nothing good has come. We hoped for a time of relief, but we experience terror instead. ¹⁶From Dan, we hear the snorting of his horses; at the sound of the neighing of his stallions, the whole earth trembles.”

– “They are coming to destroy the land and everything in it! They are coming to destroy the cities and everyone who lives in them! ¹⁷For I am letting loose against you snakes and adders that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you.”

¹⁸Sorrow takes hold of me, my heart fails me. ¹⁹I hear my dear people crying out throughout the length and breadth of the land. They are crying, ‘Is the Lord no longer in Zion? Is her divine King no longer there?’” The Lord answers, “Why then do they provoke me to anger with their images and worthless foreign idols?”

²⁰The harvest is over, the summer is past, and we have not been saved. ²¹I am brokenhearted because of my people’s misfortune.

I am crushed and dismayed. ²²Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no healer there? Why is no remedy given to my people?

²³I would that my head were a well of water and my eyes a fountain of tears to weep day and night for those of my dear people who have been killed.

9 | ¹Who will give me a lodging in the desert that I may leave my people

and go far from them?

For they are all adulterers,

a band of traitors.

²They bend their tongue like bows.

Deceit and not truth prevail in the land.

They commit one crime after another

and do not know me.

³Each one is suspicious of his friend

and no one trusts his brother,

brother deceives brother,

friend slanders friend.

⁴They deceive each other;

no one speaks the truth.

Their tongues are addicted to lying;

they are perverse and too hardened to repent.

⁵They live amidst deceitfulness

and deceitfulness prevents them from knowing me.

⁶Therefore, thus says the Lord: I will now refine and test them,

for what else can I do for my people?

⁷Their tongues are like deadly arrows,

uttering deceitful words.

With their friend, they speak of peace

but in their heart, they set a trap for him.

⁸Isn’t it reason enough for me to punish them?

Shall I not avenge myself on such a nation?

⁹Weeping and wailing will be heard on the mountains, and a dirge will be heard on the prairies of the wilderness because they have been burnt and deserted, and the sound of the flock will no longer be heard. The birds of the sky and the beasts have all fled and are gone.

¹⁰I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a den of jackals.

I will make the cities of Judah a wasteland without inhabitants.”

•  ¹¹Who is wise enough to understand these events? And who is the one the Lord has chosen to reveal them? Why has the land perished and been laid waste like a desert where no one passes?

¹²The Lord answered, “It is because they have forsaken the law that I gave them. They have not listened to me, ¹³but in the stubbornness of their heart, they have followed the Baals as they were instructed by their ancestors.”

¹⁴That is why the Lord, the God of Hosts and the God of Israel, says, “I will make this people eat bitter food, and I will give them poisoned water. ¹⁵I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors knew, and I will send the sword after them until I have finished with them.”

¹⁶Listen! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful!

¹⁷Let them hasten to intone a funeral song, and let us weep,

our eyes running with tears.

¹⁸The sound of wailing is heard in Zion.

A terrible disaster has befallen us!

How great our shame to leave the land,

to see our homes broken down!

¹⁹You women, take heed of what the Lord says and let your ears listen to his words.

Teach this lament to your daughters

and each of them to their friends:

²⁰“Death has come through our windows and invaded our palaces,

cutting down the children in the street

and young men in the squares!

²¹The corpses are scattered in the fields like dung;

like sheaves cut by the reaper

with no one to gather them!”

True Wisdom

•  ²²It is the Lord who speaks:

“Let not the wise boast of his wisdom,

nor the valiant of his valor

nor the wealthy of his wealth!

²³But if someone wants to boast,

let him boast of this:

of understanding and knowing me.

I am the Lord, the merciful;

I implement justice

and rule the world with righteousness.

For in these things I delight,”

this is the Lord’s word.

²⁴“The time is coming,” the Lord says, “when I will ask to account both those who are circumcised and those who are not: ²⁵Egypt, Judah, the Ammonites, and the Moabites with all the Arabs of the desert, for all these nations are not circumcised, and the people of Israel are not circumcised in their heart.”

Idols and the True God

10 | ¹Hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, people of Israel,

²“Do not follow the way of the foreign nations and do not fear signs in the sky as they do. The Awesome God of these nations is but nothing. ³It is only wood cut from a tree in the forest and shaped by a craftsman’s chisel. ^4a They adorned it with silver and gold—⁹silver from Tarshish and gold from Ophir—work of a carver and a goldsmith’s hand, all the work of artists; they are dressed in violet and purple cloth woven by skilled weavers. ^4b It is fastened down with nails to keep it from falling over. ⁵Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field; they cannot speak. They have to be carried because they cannot walk. Have no fear of them; they can do neither harm nor good.”

⁶No one equals you, Lord,

you are great.

Power is yours, and great is your name!

⁷Who would not fear you, King of nations?

You are to be feared,

for among the wise of the nations

and in all their kingdoms

no one equals you.

⁸They are all brutish and stupid;

their idols are proof of their foolishness.

¹⁰But the Lord is the true God,

the living God and eternal King.

His anger makes the earth quake;

the nations cannot endure his fury.

¹¹You will say this to them, “The gods

who did not make either the heavens or

the earth shall disappear from the earth

and from under the heavens.”

¹²By his power, he made the earth,

by his wisdom he established the world;

by his understanding, he extended the heavens.

¹³When he raises his voice

the waters pile up in the heavens.

He calls the clouds from the ends of the earth, sends lightning with the rain, and sends wind from his storehouse.

¹⁴At this, everyone feels stupid and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is ashamed of his idol, a fraud without breath. ¹⁵They are worthless, ridiculous objects; they shall perish when the time of retribution comes.

¹⁶He instead has formed the universe and Israel as well, the tribe of his inheritance,

for he is the portion of Jacob:

Lord of Hosts is his name.

¹⁷Gather up your belongings and leave the land, you who are the victims of siege,

¹⁸for thus says the Lord,

“I am hurling the inhabitants of this land far away, and I will let them be pursued and captured.”

¹⁹Woe is me! What suffering!

My wound is incurable!

But I shall say; “Mine is this illness,

I must bear it.”

²⁰My tent is destroyed,

all its cords are snapped.

My children have left me and are no more;

no one is left to pitch my tent

or to set my shelter up.

²¹For the pastors have become senseless and have not consulted the Lord;

they have not prospered

and all their flocks are scattered.

²²Heed the news! Pay attention!

A great commotion is heard from the north;

they are coming to make the cities of Judah a desolate land, a den of jackals.

Jeremiah’s Prayer

•  ²³I know, Lord, that man’s life is not within his own control and it is not for him to direct his steps! ²⁴Correct us, Lord, with prudence, not in anger, lest you destroy us completely.

²⁵Put out your anger on the nations that do not know you, on the people who do not call on your name. For they have devoured Jacob and consumed him thoroughly; his homeland is already laid waste.

Jeremiah Supports Josiah’s Reform

11 | •  ¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²Say to the people of Jerusalem: ³Cursed be anyone who does not heed the terms of this Covenant ⁴which I ordained for your ancestors the day I freed them from that cleansing furnace that Egypt is. I said to them: ‘If you obey my voice and do all that I command you, you will be my people, and I will be your God. ⁵Then I will fulfill the promise I swore to your ancestors, to give you a land flowing with milk and honey,’ (as it is today).”

I replied, “Amen, Lord.”

⁶The Lord told me, “Publish what I say in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, ‘Hear the terms of this Covenant and keep them. ⁷When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I solemnly warned them and have continued to tell them: ‘Obey me.’ ⁸But they did not listen to me or heed what I said; each one followed his stubborn heart. So I fulfilled against them all the words of this Covenant that I had commanded them, but which they did not follow.”

⁹The Lord said to me, “There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁰They have returned to the sins of their ancestors who refused to obey me; they have followed and served foreign gods. The nation of Israel and the nation of Judah have broken the Covenant I made with their ancestors.”

¹¹That is why the Lord says to you, “I will bring upon them a disaster from which there will be no escape. When they cry to me, I will not listen. ¹²Then the cities of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go crying to the gods they worship, but these will not help them in the time of misfortune. ¹³For you, Judah, have as many gods as there are cities; as numerous as the streets in Jerusalem are the altars you have raised to Baal.”

¹⁴For your part, do not intercede for this people, nor offer a plea or petition, because I will not listen when they cry to me in their distress.

¹⁵What is my beloved doing in my house?

She is plotting evil deeds.

Will your vows and the meat of your

victims cleanse you from your wickedness and allow you to rejoice?

The Lord had called you

¹⁶‘Beautiful Green Olive Tree—

fair and fruitful!’

But with the storm's roar,

its foliage took fire

and its branches were broken.

¹⁷And the Lord, God of Hosts, who planted you, has condemned you to shame. Indeed the nation of Israel and the nation of Jacob harmed themselves when they worshiped Baal and aroused my anger.

Plot Against Jeremiah

¹⁸The Lord made it known to me, and so I know! And you let me see their scheming: (^12:6) “Take care, even your kinsfolk and your own family are false with you, and behind your back they freely criticize you. Do not trust them when they approach you in a friendly way.”

¹⁹But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me that they were plotting, “Let us feed him with trials and remove him from the land of the living and let his name never be mentioned again.”

²⁰The Lord, God of Hosts, you who judge with justice and know everyone’s heart and intentions, let me see your vengeance on them, for I have entrusted my cause to you.

²¹This is what the Lord has to say against the people of Anathoth who threatened me with death and said, “Do not prophesy anymore in the name of the Lord, and we will spare your life.”

²²The Lord says to them, “This is how I will punish you: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and daughters shall die of hunger. ²³No one will survive when I bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.”

Why Do the Wicked Prosper?

12 | •  ¹The Lord, you are always right

when I complain to you;

nevertheless, where is your justice?

Why do the wicked prosper?

And why do traitors live in peace?

²You plant them, and they take root;

they grow and are fruitful;

they honor you with words

but their heart is far from you.

³But you, Lord, you know me and see me;

you search my heart—it is close to you.

Send them off like sheep to be butchered;

put them aside for the day of slaughter.

⁴How long will the land be in mourning

and the grass of the fields remains withered?

The birds and the beasts have perished

because of the wickedness of the inhabitants,

for they say: ‘God does not see what we do.’

⁵“If you tire when running with those on foot,

how can you compete with horses?

If you do not feel secure in a peaceful land,

what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?”

⁷I have abandoned my house,

I have given up my own people;

I have given over those I most cherished into the hands of their enemies.

⁸My own has been for me like a lion in the forest;

they have roared against me—now I hate them.

⁹My own have become for me like a bird of prey.

Let all the birds of prey attack them.

Come here, all you wild beasts, and devour them!

¹⁰Many shepherds have ravaged my vine;

they have trampled my beloved field

and made it a desolate wasteland,

¹¹parched and mournful in my sight.

But no one cares!

¹²To every height in the desert, destroyers have come,

for the Lord has a devouring sword.

It reaches from one end of the land to the other;

no one is safe!

¹³They have sown grain and reaped thorns;

they have toiled for nothing.

Your harvests humiliate you because of the Lord’s anger.

¹⁴The Lord declares, “Because all my wicked neighbors have laid hands on the land I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their own land, and I will uproot the people of Judah from among them. ¹⁵But after I have done this, I will have compassion on them and bring them back to their possession, each one to his land.

¹⁶If, then, they learn the ways I taught my people and call upon my name when taking an oath, they, who once taught my people to swear by Baal, may settle among my people. ¹⁷But if then, any nation does not obey me, I will uproot and destroy it—it is the Lord who speaks.”

The Linen Belt

13 | ¹This is what the Lord told me: “Go! Buy yourself a linen belt and put it around your waist; do not put it in water.” ²So I bought the belt as the Lord ordered and put it around my waist.

³The word of the Lord came to me a second time, ⁴“Take the belt you bought, the one you put around your waist, and go to the torrent Perah; hide it there in a hole in the rock.” ⁵I went and hid it as the Lord instructed me.

⁶After many days, the Lord said to me, “Go to the torrent, Perah, and get the belt I ordered you to hide there.” ⁷I went to the torrent and dug up the belt, but it was ruined and good for nothing; ⁸and the Lord said to me, ⁹“In this way, I will destroy the pride and great glory of Judah, ¹⁰this wicked people who refuse to heed what I say, these stubborn people who go after other gods to serve and worship them. And they shall become like this belt which is now good for nothing.

¹¹For just as a belt is to be bound around a man’s waist, so were the people of Israel and Judah bound to me—it is the Lord who speaks—to be my people, my glory, and my honor; but they would not listen.

The Broken Wine Jars

•  ¹²You will tell them this word of the Lord, the God of Israel, “Every pitcher should be filled with wine.” And they will say: “Don’t we know that a pitcher should be filled with wine?”

¹³You will reply, “You are the pitchers that the Lord will fill until you are drunk. I will fill all who live in this land with drunkenness—kings who succeeded David, priests, prophets, and all who live in Jerusalem. ¹⁴I will dash them one against another, parents and children together.

I will have neither compassion nor mercy: I will destroy them.”

A Vision of Exile

¹⁵Hear and pay attention; do not be proud, for the Lord has spoken!

¹⁶Give glory to the Lord your God before he brings darkness and your feet stumble on the darkening hills.

You were hoping for light, but he will turn it into the darkness of death and deep gloom!

¹⁷If you do not heed this warning, I will weep in secret because of your pride, and I will shed tears when the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.

¹⁸Say to the king and the queen’s mother,

“Humble yourselves,

for the crown of glory

has fallen from your head.

¹⁹The cities of the Negeb have been shut, and no one comes to open them,

all Judah is deported,

completely carried off.”

²⁰Look up Jerusalem and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock entrusted to you, and where are your beautiful sheep?

²¹What will you say when those you let take liberties with you come back to oppress you?

Won’t your pain be like that of a woman giving birth? ²²And if you ask yourself, “Why has all this disgrace fallen on me?” It is because of your great wickedness that they have torn away your clothes and dealt violently with you.

²³Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard his spots? And can you do good, you who are accustomed to doing evil?

²⁴I will scatter you like straw blown by the desert wind; ²⁵that is your reward—it is the Lord who speaks—because you have forgotten me and trusted in false gods.

²⁶I myself will pull your skirts over your face, and your shame shall be seen. ²⁷Your adultery, your neighing, your brazen prostitution, all this abomination I have seen on the hills and in the fields.

Woe to you, Jerusalem! When at last will you be cleansed?”

The Great Drought

14 | •  ¹The word of the Lord concerning drought came to Jeremiah:

²Judah mourns, the cities languish,

desolate, they sink to the ground.

From Jerusalem, a cry is heard.

³The rich sent the poor for water,

but they found none at the cisterns

and returned with empty vessels.

⁴The soil is cracked

because there is no rain in the land;

the farmers are dismayed

and have covered their heads like mourners.

⁵Even the doe in the fields

abandons her newborn calf

because there is no pasture.

⁶The wild donkeys stand on the heights

sniffing the air like jackals

and languish as they find not even a thistle!

⁷Even if our faults accuse us,

you the Lord, work for the glory of your name.

In truth, many have been our rebellions

and great is our sin against you.

⁸O Lord! Hope of Israel,

you who save in the time of distress,

why should you be a stranger in this land,

like a traveler stopping only for a night?

⁹Why should you be as if bewildered,

like a warrior unable to save?

But you are in our midst, Lord,

and on us, your name has been invoked.

Do not abandon us!

Do Not Intercede for This People

¹⁰This is what the Lord says about these people: "They like to wander here and there, not stopping for a moment, so the Lord takes no pleasure in them; he remembers their wickedness and will punish their sins.”

¹¹And the Lord said, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people! ¹²If they fast, I will not listen to their cry; if they offer me burnt offerings and oblations, I will not accept them. Instead, I am going to make an end of them with sword, famine, and plague.”

¹³And I said, “Ah, Lord God! You know what the prophets are saying to them: ‘You will not see the sword nor suffer famine for I will give you true peace in this place.’”

¹⁴But the Lord said, “These prophets have proclaimed untruths in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. False visions, worthless divinations, and delusions of their own imagination—that is what they prophesy.”

¹⁵And the Lord added, “These prophets whom I did not send and who prophesy in my name, saying that the sword and famine will not touch this land—these same prophets will perish by the sword and famine.

¹⁶As for the people listening to them, their corpses will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or daughters, when they die of famine and by the sword. For I shall make their own malice fall upon them.

¹⁷This you will tell them: Let my eyes shed tears night and day without ceasing! For with a great wound has the virgin daughter of my people been wounded, a most grievous wound.

¹⁸If I enter the country, I see those slain by the sword. If I enter the city, I see the ravages of famine. For the prophet and the priest did not understand what was happening in the land.”

¹⁹Have you then rejected Judah forever? Do you abhor Zion? Why have you wounded us and left us with no hope of recovery?

We hoped for salvation but received nothing good; we waited for healing, but terror came!

²⁰Lord, we know our wickedness, that of our ancestors, and the times we have sinned against you.

²¹For your name’s sake, do not despise us; do not dishonor the throne of your glory. Remember us. Do not break your Covenant with us!

²²Among the worthless idols of the nations, are there any who can bring rain or make the skies send showers?

We hope only in you, Lord our God, for it is you who do all this.

15 | ¹The Lord answered me, “Even if Moses and Samuel came in person to plead for this people, my heart would have no pity. Send them away from my presence! Let them go! ²And if they say: ‘Where shall we go?’ tell them: The Lord says this: Those destined for the plague, to the plague; for the sword, to the sword; for starvation, to starvation; those for captivity, to captivity.

³For I shall send them four kinds of destroyers: the sword to slay, dogs to ravage, birds of the sky, and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. ⁴I shall make them an object of horror for all the world's kingdoms because of what Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

The Horrors of War

⁵Who will take pity on you, Jerusalem?

Who will feel sorry for you?

Who will turn to ask how you are?

 ⁶It was you who rejected me—word of the Lord—you turned your back on me, and because of that, I have stretched out my hand to destroy you.

I was weary of showing mercy!

⁷I winnowed them with a fork in the cities of the land,

I left my people without children;

I brought them to ruin,

but they did not change their ways.

⁸Their widows are more numerous than the sand of the seas. On the mothers of their young men, I have brought a destroyer who ravages in broad daylight. Suddenly terror and fear grip them.

⁹The mother, who had seven children, is confused and discouraged as if breathing her last. Although it is still day, her sun has set.

As for those who remain, I shall let them be slain by the sword in sight of their enemies—it is the Lord who speaks.

¹²Can you break iron that comes from the north or bronze?

¹³I will let your wealth and your treasures be handed over to plunderers,

not for a price but because of all your sins within your frontiers.

¹⁴You shall be slaves of your enemies

among a people you do not know,

for the fury of my anger is on fire and will burn you up.”

Lord, Remember Me!

•  ¹⁰Woe is me, Mother, why did you bring me to the light?

A man of dissension throughout the land!

I owe them nothing; neither do they owe me,

yet they all curse me!

¹¹Tell me, Lord, if I have not served you well!

Did I not plead with you for my enemies

during their shame and disgrace?

¹⁵You know I have, Lord!

Take care of me, defend me;

take vengeance on my persecutors.

Remember! For you, I have suffered great humiliations.

¹⁶I devoured your words when they came.

They were my happiness

and I felt full of joy

when you made your name rest on me.

¹⁷I never associate with worldly people,

amusing myself with scoffers!

When your hand was upon me, I stood apart

and you filled me with your anger.

¹⁸Why is there no end to my sorrow

or healing for my wound?

Why do you deceive me,

and why does my spring suddenly dry up?

¹⁹Then the Lord spoke to me,

“If you return, I will take you back

and you will serve me again.

Draw the gold from the dross

and you will be as my own mouth.

You must draw them to you and not go over to them.

²⁰I will make you a fortress

and a wall of bronze facing them;

if they fight against you,

they will not overcome you;

²¹I am with you to free you and save you.

I will redeem you from the wicked

and free you from the hands of tyrants.”

Do Not Take a Wife

16 | •  ¹The word of the Lord came to me in these terms: ²“Do not take a wife nor have sons and daughters in this place, ³for this is what the Lord says about sons and daughters born here, and about fathers and mothers who bring them to light in this country:

⁴All will die of fatal diseases, and no one will mourn for them or bury them; their corpses will be like dung on the ground. They will perish by the sword and by starvation, and their corpses will be devoured by birds of prey and wild animals.”

⁵The Lord further insisted, “Do not go into a house of mourning; neither weep nor loudly lament with the bereaved for I have already withdrawn my peace from these people—even my unwavering love and compassion. ⁶Both the great and the lowly in this country will perish, and no one will mourn for them or bury them. No one shall gash his skin or shave his head as an act of mourning. ⁷No funeral meal shall be shared to comfort the bereaved or console them on the death of their fathers and mothers.

⁸Do not go to a house of celebration to feast with them before foods and drinks, ⁹for the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, has this to say:

In this place and before your very eyes, I will muffle every sound of pleasure and joy, even the newlywed's song.

•  ¹⁰When you announce all these things to the people, they will ask you: ‘Why has the Lord decided to bring such terrible disasters on us? What wickedness or sin have we committed against the Lord our God?’

¹¹Then you shall tell them: ‘It is because your ancestors turned away from me and went after other gods to serve and worship them. They have forsaken me and refused to obey my law. ¹²But you are worse than your ancestors because each of you has gone his own evil ways following his stubborn heart in complete defiance of me. ¹³Therefore, I will kick you out of this land into a strange place to you and your ancestors. There, you will serve other gods day and night, and you will get no compassion from me.’”

¹⁴The Lord says, “The days are coming when people will no longer say, ‘The Lord is a living God for he brought the Israelites out of Egypt,’ ¹⁵Rather, they will say, ‘The Lord is a living God for he liberated the Israelites out of the northern land and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Yes, I will bring them back to their own country—the land that I bestowed to their ancestors.”

¹⁶But now the Lord says, “I am sending for many fishermen to catch them. Afterward, I will send for many hunters to hunt them down on every mountain, hill, and cave in the rocks. ¹⁷The things they do manifest before my eyes and the sins they commit are not hidden from me. ¹⁸I will make them pay double for their wickedness and sin; they have contaminated my land with their idols that are as dead as corpses and have filled it with their abominations.”

Will People Make Their Own Gods?

¹⁹Lord, my strength and my fortress,

my refuge in times of distress!

From the furthest limits of the earth

nations will come to you and say,

“Our ancestors possessed only falsehood,

worthless idols bereft of power.”

²⁰Will people make their own gods?

Then they are not gods!

²¹Hence the Lord says: “I will show

and let them know my power and my might.

And they will know that the Lord is my name.”

17 | ¹The sin of Judah is engraved with a steel tool with a point of a diamond. It is written on the tablets of their hearts as on the horns of their altars. ²Their altars and sacred poles witness it beside every green tree, ³on the high hills and in the open country! I will give away your wealth and your treasures as plunder because of your sin in the high places of your land.

⁴You will lose the land I gave you because of your fault. I will give you as slaves to your enemies in a land you have never known before, for you have kindled the fire of my anger, which will burn forever.

Words of wisdom

⁵This is what the Lord says,

“Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings and depends on a mortal for his life while his heart is drawn away from the Lord!

⁶He is like a bunch of thistles in dry land, in parched desert places, in salt land, where no one lives and who never finds happiness.

⁷Blessed is the man who trusts the Lord and has confidence in him! 8 He is like a tree planted by the water, sending its roots towards the stream.

He has no fear when the heat comes; his leaves are always green; the year of drought is no problem, and he can always bear fruit.

⁹The heart is most deceitful. What is there within man, who can understand him? ¹⁰I, the Lord, search the heart and penetrate the mind. I reward each one according to his ways and the fruit of his deeds.

¹¹Like a partridge hatching eggs it did not lay, is someone who hoards riches that he unjustly gained.

His wealth will abandon him at the noontime of his life; at the twilight of his breath, his folly will be confirmed.”

¹²What a glorious and exalted throne is our Sanctuary! ¹³Lord, hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame, and those who turn from you will be cast out from your land, for they have rejected the Lord, the fountain of living water.

¹⁴Heal me, Lord, and I shall be whole; save me, and I shall be safe, O you, my hope!

¹⁵People say to me, “Where are the Lord’s threats? Let them be carried out now!”

¹⁶But I did not urge you to bring devastation

nor a time of tragic death;

you well know my desire

and my pleading is in your ears.

¹⁷Do not terrorize my heart;

be my refuge in the day of disaster.

¹⁸Let my persecutors be humbled rather than me!

Let them be terrified but not me!

Let the day of misfortune fall on them!

Crush them twice over!

Observance of the Sabbath

•  ¹⁹The word of the Lord came to me in these terms,

“Go and stand at the gate they call the People Gate, where the kings of Judah enter and leave; ²⁰and tell the king and all the people of Judah that this is what the Lord says:

²¹For the sake of your lives, be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. ²²Carry no burden out of your adobes and refrain from work on the day of the Sabbath. Uphold its sacredness as I commanded your forefathers.

²³They did not obey me or pay attention to what I said. Stiff-necked as they were, they would not hear or accept my warnings.

²⁴But if you pay attention—it is the Lord who speaks—and keep the Sabbath holy, not working or carrying loads ²⁵through the gates of Jerusalem, then you will be witnesses to the entry of kings of David’s descent through these gates, riding in chariots and on horses. You shall see them and their princes along with the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city shall last forever.

²⁶People will come from the towns of Judah and the suburbs of Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin, from the Lowland and the hill country and the Negeb, bringing into the temple burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, as an act of thanksgiving to the Lord.

²⁷But if you do not listen and do not keep the Sabbath holy if you work and carry loads through the gates of Jerusalem, then I will set fire to those gates. It will burn the city and will not be quenched.”

At the Potter’s House

18 | •  ¹This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah: ²“Go down to the potter’s house and there you will hear what I have to say.”

³So I went to the potter’s house and found him working at the wheel. ⁴But the pot he was working on was spoiled in his hands, so he reworked it all over again into another pot that suited his desire.

⁵Meanwhile, the Lord sent me his word, ⁶“People of Israel, can I not do what this potter does with you? As clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hands.

⁷At times I warn a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot or destroy it. ⁸But if they change their ways, I will then relent and refrain from doing the harm I had intended to do.

⁹At other times, I declare that a nation or kingdom will be built up and planted ¹⁰ but then they do what displeases me and do not listen to me, so I decided to reverse the good deeds I intend to do.”

¹¹And the Lord added, “Now tell the people of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem: The Lord says to you, ‘Listen, I am planning to destroy you; I am hatching a devastating plot against you! Turn from your evil ways; rectify your conduct and your deeds.’ ¹²But you reply: ‘It’s no use! We shall follow our own plans’; and each one goes on obeying his stubborn heart.”

My People Have Forsaken Me

¹³Because of this, the Lord has to say:

Ask among the nations,

‘Has anyone heard the like of this?

The Virgin Israel has done a most abominable thing.

¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave the rocky heights of the field?

Do the fresh waters of great rivers ever dry up?

¹⁵Yet my people have forgotten me,

offering incense to empty idols

that made them stumble on their way

as they left the ancient paths.

Now they have taken the wrong way,

the crooked way that leads nowhere.

¹⁶Their land will be left desolate

and an object of lasting derision.

All who pass by will be astonished

and shake their heads.

¹⁷Like the wind that blows from the east, I will scatter them before their enemies;

I will turn my back to them, not my face, on the day of their disaster!

Do Not Forgive their Sin

¹⁸Then, they said, “Come, let us plot against Jeremiah, for even without him, there will be priests to interpret the teachings of the law; there will always be wise men to impart counsel and prophets to proclaim the word.

Come, let us accuse him and strike him down instead of listening to what he says.”

¹⁹Hear me, O Lord!

Listen to what my accusers say.

²⁰Is evil the reward for good?

Why do they dig a grave for me?

Remember how I stood before you

to speak well on their behalf

so that your anger might subside.

²¹Now let their children starve;

hand them over to the sword!

Let their wives become childless and widows!

Let their men be victims of the plague

and their young men be slain in battle!

²²Let cries be heard in their houses

when you suddenly bring bandits against them,

for they have dug a pit to trap me

and hidden snares to catch my feet.

²³O Lord, you know all of their plots to take my life!

Forgive not their crime; forget not their sin;

crush them on the day of your anger.

The Broken Jar

19 | ¹This was an order of the Lord to Jeremiah, “Go and buy a jar from the potter. Take with you some elders of the people and a few senior priests, ²and go out to the valley of Ben-Hinnom at the entrance to the Potsherd Gate. Proclaim there what I tell you.

³Say this: Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah, and citizens of Jerusalem! The Lord, the God of Hosts and the God of Israel, is the one who speaks. I am about to send a disaster upon this place that will make the ears of those who hear it tingle. ⁴Here they have forsaken me, offering incense to foreign gods that neither they, their ancestors, nor the kings of Judah have known. They have profaned this place by filling it with the blood of the innocent. ⁵They have put up high places for Baal to burn their children in the fire as a sacrifice. This is something that I have never commanded them to do, much less conceived in my mind.

⁶‘Hence, I, the Lord, tell you now that the days will surely come when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Massacre.

⁷In this place, I will frustrate the plans of Judah and Jerusalem and let them be slain by their enemies—the very people who have doggedly sought their lives. Then, I will commit their corpses to the birds and the beasts as food. ⁸I will transform this city into a horrible wasteland—an object of scorn and a panorama of horror that will shock passersby and make them hiss upon witnessing the terrible catastrophe! ⁹The city will be surrounded by the enemies who have vowed to massacre the people. No one will be able to flee from this tight siege, and the people in the city will be forced to eat the flesh of one another, even that of their very own children.

¹⁰Then, you shall break the jar before the people who have accompanied you ¹¹and tell them that I, the Lord, the God of Hosts, will smash the people of this city like the shattered jar of the potter which is beyond repair. People will bury the dead even in Topheth, for there is no more space in the land to bury them. ¹²This is precisely what I will do to Jerusalem and its citizens, making this city like Topheth. ¹³The houses of Jerusalem and the palaces of the kings of Judah will be defiled like Topheth because the roofs of these houses have been used to burn incense for the stars of the skies and to pour wine offerings for strange gods.’”

Confrontation in the Temple        

•  ¹⁴Then Jeremiah left Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and stood on the porch of the house of the Lord. There he told all the people, ¹⁵“Listen to the word of the Lord, God of Israel: I am about to bring on this city and the towns surrounding the disaster that I have already foretold because they are a stiff-necked people and will not listen to me.”

20 | ¹When the priest Pashur, son of Immer, who was the chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying like this, ²he ordered his people to beat Jeremiah and put him in chains at the Gate of Benjamin, the upper gate at the house of the Lord. ³The next day, after Pashur ordered the release of Jeremiah, Jeremiah told Pashur, “The Lord has already changed your name. It is not Pashur anymore but ‘Terror on every side.’ ⁴For the Lord says: I am going to hand you over to terror, you and your friends. They will fall under the sword of their enemies while you look on.

I will deliver the people of Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, who will deport them to Babylon or slay them by the sword. ⁵I will likewise allow the enemies to plunder this city's wealth. All the possessions and treasures of the kings of Judah will be seized and carried off to Babylonia. ⁶As for you, Pashur, you and your entire family will be taken as captives to Babylon, where you will die and be buried—you and all your friends whom you deceived with lies.”

You Have Seduced Me

•  ⁷The Lord, you have seduced me

and I let myself be seduced.

You have taken me by force and prevailed.

I have become a laughingstock all day long;

they all make fun of me,

⁸for every time I speak

I have to shout, “Violence! Devastation!”

The Lord’s word has brought me

insult and derision all day long.

⁹So I decided to forget about him

and speak no more in his name.

But his word in my heart becomes like a fire

burning deep within my bones.

I try so hard to hold it in,

but I cannot do it.

¹⁰I hear many people whispering,

“Terror is all around!

Denounce him! Yes, denounce him!”

All my friends watch me to see if I will slip:

“Perhaps he can be deceived,” they say;

“then we can get the better of him

and have our revenge.”

¹¹But the Lord, a mighty warrior, is with me.

My persecutors will stumble and not prevail;

that failure will be their shame

and their disgrace will never be forgotten.

¹²The Lord, God of Hosts, you test the just

and probe the heart and mind.

Let me see your revenge on them,

for to you I have entrusted my cause.

¹³Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord and say:

he has rescued the poor from the clutches of the wicked!

¹⁴Cursed be the day I was born!

Bless not the day my mother brought me to light!

¹⁵Cursed be the man who broke the news to my father: ‘It’s a boy!’

and it made him joyful!

¹⁶Let him be like the towns that the Lord destroyed without mercy.

Let him hear a warning shout in the morning

and a battle cry at noon!

¹⁷For he did not kill me in the womb,

that my mother would have been my grave,

and have carried me forever.

¹⁸Why did I ever leave the womb

to live in trouble and sorrow,

and spend my days in shame?

An Answer for Zedekiah

21 | ¹These words of the Lord came to Jeremiah when King Zedekiah sent Pashur, son of Malchiah, and the priest Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah, to say to him: ²“Consult the Lord on our behalf, for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has started a war with us. Perhaps the Lord will work a few miracles and make the enemy withdraw.”

³Jeremiah replied, “This is what the Lord the God of Israel says to Zedekiah: ⁴I am about to bring back to you the weapons with which you are fighting outside the wall, the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you; and I will pile up these weapons in the center of the city.

⁵Then I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and mighty arm, with anger and fury and great wrath, ⁶I will strike all in the city, both humans and animals, and they will perish in a terrible plague.

⁷After this—it is the Lord who speaks—I will hand over Zedekiah, king of Judah, his servants, and the citizens who survive the plague, the sword, and famine to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I will hand them over to their enemies, to those who have been hounding their blood. They shall be slain without mercy or compassion.”

⁸Then the Lord instructed me to say this to the people: “Take heed! I, the Lord, am presenting you a choice between the way that leads to life and the way that leads to death. ⁹Those who remain in the confines of the city will meet their deaths by the sword, famine or plague; those who go out and surrender to the Chaldeans besieging the city will live and will be the only ones to be saved.

¹⁰For I am turning to this city for its ruin, not for its good—word of the Lord—it will be given over to the king of Babylon who will destroy it by fire.”

Address To the Royal Family      

¹¹You will give this message to the king’s officials. To the royal family of Judah, say this: ¹²Officials of David’s palace, hear the word of the Lord:

“Give judgment each morning

and deliver the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor,

lest my fury break loose like a fire

with no one to quench it.”

¹³This is the Lord’s word, “See, I am coming to you

who live in the hills overlooking the valley,

you who say, ‘Who will come against us and enter this secure place?’

¹⁴I will punish you according to your deeds,

and in your forests, I will kindle a fire

that will devour all that surrounds it.”

Against Evil Kings

22 | • ¹The Lord said to me, “Go to the palace of the king of Judah and give him this message: ²Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah who sits on the throne of David. To you, your servants, and all who enter by these gates, ³the Lord says:

Practice justice and do good.

Free the oppressed from their oppressor.

Harm not the foreigners, the orphans and the widows; do them no violence, and let no innocent blood be spilled in this place.

⁴If you do this, kings succeeding King David will enter these gates, riding on their chariots and horses with their servants and their people.

⁵But if you do not listen to these words, then I swear by myself, the Lord declares, this place will become a ruin.”

⁶For this is what the Lord says of the royal house of Judah:

For me, you are like Gilead, like a peak of Lebanon! And yet I will transform you into a desert, a city where no one lives. ⁷I will prepare destroyers to attack you, each with an ax in his hand. They will cut down your choice cedars and throw them into the fire.

⁸Pagans without a number will pass by this city and say to one another, “Why has the Lord dealt with this great city in such a way?” ⁹And they will answer, “Because they broke their Covenant with the Lord, their God, and worshiped and served other gods!”

¹⁰Weep not for the one who is dead!

grieve not for him.

Mourn rather for him who is in exile, for he will never return to see his homeland again!

¹¹For this is what the Lord has said of King Josiah’s son, Shallum, who succeeded his father as king of Judah:

¹²“He will never return, for he will die in the place to which he has been deported and will never see this land again.

Against Jehoiakim

¹³Damned is the one who builds his house with stolen goods and extends it upwards through injustice;

he who makes his fellowman work for nothing and refuses to give him his wages!

¹⁴So you build for yourself a fine palace with spacious upper rooms!

So you have large windows put in, and you have them paneled with cedar wood and painted vermillion.

¹⁵Does amassing cedar make you more of a king?

Was not your father a just man? He ate and drank to his life’s content, but he acted justly, and everything went well for him. ¹⁶He defended the cause of the poor and needy: this is the meaning of knowing the Lord.

¹⁷But your eyes and heart are set on selfish gain, on the shedding of innocent blood, and oppressive violence.

¹⁸Therefore, this is what the Lord says concerning Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:

No one shall lament for him saying: Alas, my brother! Alas, O sister! No one shall lament for him saying: Alas, my lord! Alas, your majesty! ¹⁹He will be given the burial of a donkey, dragged away, and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰Go up to Lebanon and cry out;

weep from the heights of Bashan

cry out from Abarim,

for all your lovers have been crushed.

²¹I spoke to you in more fortunate days,

but you said: ‘I will not listen.’

You have been like that since your youth,

paying no attention to my words.

²²All your shepherds will be scattered by the wind and your lovers will be taken captive; then you will be covered with shame because of your evil deeds.

²³You who call your house: ‘Lebanon’

and made your nest of cedar wood,

how you will groan when sorrow comes like the birth pangs of a woman in labor!

²⁴By my life—says the Lord—even if Jeconiah, Jehoiakim’s son, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull him off!

²⁵I will hand you to those who seek your life, to the Chaldeans you fear. ²⁶Then I will hurl you, and the mother who bore you, into a foreign land where you were not born. There you shall die, ²⁷for to the land for which you long, you will never return!”

²⁸Is this Jeconiah a broken and useless crock that no one wants? Why have he and his family been expelled to a land they do not know?

²⁹Land, land, land! Hear what the Lord says. ³⁰These are his words, “List this man as childless!” None of his race will succeed; not one will be fortunate to sit on David’s throne and rule again over Judah.

The Good Shepherd

23 | •  ¹“Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the sheep of my pasture!”

²This is the message of the Lord, God of Israel, to the shepherds in charge of my people, “You have scattered my sheep and driven them away instead of caring for them. Now I will deal with you because of your evil deeds.

³I will gather the remnant of my sheep from every land to which I have driven them and bring them back to the grasslands. They will be fruitful and increase in number. ⁴I will appoint shepherds who will take care of them. No longer will they fear or be terrified. No one will be lost.”

⁵The Lord further says, “The day is coming when I will raise up a king who is David’s righteous successor. He will rule wisely and govern with justice and righteousness. ⁶That will be a grandiose era when Judah will enjoy peace, and Israel will live safely. He will be called the Lord-our-justice!”

⁷“The days are coming,” says the Lord, “when people shall no longer swear by the Lord as the living God who freed the people of Israel from the land of Egypt. ⁸Rather, they will swear by the Lord as the living God who restored the descendants of Israel from the northern empire and from all the lands where he had driven them, to live again in their own land!”

Lying Prophets

•  ⁹About the prophets:

My heart breaks within me,

and all my bones tremble,

I am like a drunken man,

like a man overcome by wine

because of the Lord and his holy words.

¹⁰The land is full of adulterers. Because of this, I cursed the country; it is in mourning, and the desert grasslands have withered. They follow an evil path and readily act unjustly. ¹¹Even the prophet and the priest are corrupt; I have found out about their wickedness in my house—word of the Lord.

¹²That is why their path will become slippery in the dark, making them stumble and fall when I bring evil upon them in the year of their punishment.

¹³I well know how stupid the prophets of Samaria were; they prophesied in the name of Baal and led my people Israel astray. ¹⁴But among the prophets of Jerusalem, I have likewise seen horrors: for they are adulterers and liars!

They encourage the evildoers so that none of them turns away from wickedness. For me all of them are like Sodom; and the common people like Gomorrah.

¹⁵That is why the Lord, the God of Hosts speaks against the prophets: I will give them bitter food to eat and poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem evil has spread all over the land.

¹⁶Thus, the Lord warns, “Do not listen to what the prophets say. They give you false hope and tell you their illusions, not what comes from the mouth of the Lord. ¹⁷They dare say to those who despise me: ‘The Lord has spoken, be at peace’; and those who follow their stubborn hearts say: ‘No misfortune will come upon you!’

¹⁸Who then has been present in the council of the Lord? Who has heard and understood his word? Who has paid attention to his word and can pass it on?

¹⁹The storm of the Lord’s wrath breaks forth, and a whirling hurricane bursts upon the head of the wicked! ²⁰The Lord’s wrath will not relent before fully accomplishing his plans. The time will come when you will understand what it is.

²¹I did not send these prophets, yet they went running. I did not speak, yet they prophesied! ²²Were they present in my council? Then let them proclaim my word to my people and have them turn away from their evil ways and their wicked deeds.

²³Am I a God only when I am near—it is the Lord who speaks—and not when I am far off? ²⁴If someone hides in secret places, do I not see him? Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?

²⁵I have heard the lies the prophets have proclaimed in my name. All said: ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ ²⁶How long will there be prophets of lies who proclaim their own illusions? ²⁷They would like to make people forget my name because of the dreams they relate to one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name when they followed Baal. ²⁸The prophet with a dream prophesies a dream, whereas the one who receives my word proclaims the word of truth.

What have straw and wheat in common? ²⁹Isn’t my word like fire, like the hammer that shatters a rock?

³⁰That is why I oppose the prophets who steal words that are supposedly mine from one another. ³¹I am against the prophets who have only to move their tongues to utter oracles. ³²I am against those whose prophecies are based on lying dreams, who lead my people astray with their trickery and pretensions. I did not commission or charge them to transmit my orders, so they are of no benefit to my people—the word of the Lord.

³³And when these people, or a prophet or a priest, jestingly ask you, ' What is the ‘Burden’ of the Lord? ' You will answer, ‘You are the burden—and I am going to get rid of you.’ This is the Lord’s word. 34 And the prophets, priests, or common people who say, ‘Burden’ of the Lord, will be punished, and their household as well.

³⁵This is what you should say to one another, “What is the Lord’s answer?” or “What has the Lord said?” ³⁶But there must be no mention of “Burden” of the Lord for it shall be burdensome for the one who says it. ³⁷And if you want to know, ³⁸this is what the Lord says:

³⁹Since you use this expression despite my prohibition, I will cast you off and thrust you out of my sight, you, and the city I gave to you and your ancestors. ⁴⁰I will bring upon you everlasting shame and dishonor that will be yours forever.

The Two Baskets of Figs

24 | • ¹The Lord showed me two baskets of figs in front of the temple. It was after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had deported Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the princes of Judah, the blacksmiths, and metalworkers and had taken them to Babylon.

²One of the baskets had choice figs that ripen early; the other had bad ones, so bad that they couldn’t be eaten. ³The Lord asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I replied, “Figs. The good figs are excellent, but the bad figs are so rotten they cannot be eaten!”

⁴So the word of the Lord came to me: ⁵“Just as these figs are good, so do I consider good those who have been deported from Judah to the land of the Chaldeans. ⁶I will look kindly on them and bring them back to this land. I will restore and not destroy them; I will plant and not uproot them. ⁷I will dispose of their heart to know me as the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.

⁸“But as far as King Zedekiah of Judah is concerned, I will deal with him as one deal with rotten figs—so rotten they cannot be eaten. I will likewise deal with his princes and the remnants of Jerusalem—those who have stayed in the country and those who have migrated to Egypt.

⁹I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, an object of ridicule, a curse in all the countries to which I will drive them. ¹⁰I will also bring a sword, famine, and plague upon them until they are utterly erased from the land I gave to them and to their ancestors.

Seventy Years of Captivity

25 | •  ¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. ²And this word was transmitted by the prophet Jeremiah to all the people of Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem:

³“For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon until today, the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have continuously spoken to you, ⁴but you would not listen. Besides, the Lord has repeatedly sent his servants, the prophets, to you, but you neither listened nor paid attention. ⁵They said, ‘Turn from your evil ways and repent of your wicked deeds that you may live in the land that the Lord gave to you and your ancestors forever and ever. ⁶Do not turn after other gods to serve and worship them. Do not provoke my anger with these things your own hands have made, and I will do you no harm.’ ⁷But you refused to listen—it is the Lord who speaks—and provoked my anger with these gods you yourselves have made to your own detriment.

⁸That is why the Lord, God of Hosts, says to you: Since you have not listened to what I said, ⁹I will summon all the clans of the north—it is the Lord who speaks—and my steward Nebuchadnezzar will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy these people, making them desolate, an object of ridicule, an everlasting ruins. ¹⁰I will banish from them every sound of joy and happiness, the song of the bride and bridegroom, the noise of the mill, and the light of the lamp.

¹¹All the land will be a ruin and desolation, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.

¹²(But after seventy years, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation for their guilt—it is the Lord who speaks—and I will make it forever desolate!)

¹³On this land, I will bring all that I foretold, all that is written in this book. ¹⁴They will be subject to great nations and kings! I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”

The Cup of God’s Wrath

¹⁵The Lord, the God of Israel, instructed me, “Take this cup of wine from my hand and let all the nations to whom I send you drink from it. ¹⁶They will drink, stagger, and lose control of their minds before the sword I am sending among them.”

¹⁷So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand and made all the nations to whom he sent me drink from it: ¹⁸Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings, and officials, to make them a desolation and waste, an object of ridicule and curse, as they are today. ¹⁹Then I gave it to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to his ministers, his princes, and all his people, to all the countries of the west, ²⁰to all the kings of Uz, to all the kings of the Philistines in Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and those left at Ashdod; ²¹to all the people of Edom, Moab, and Ammon; ²²all the kings of Tyre and Sidon: the kings of the coastlands across the sea; ²³Dedan, Tema, Buz and ²⁴all the kings of Arabia and the kings of the west and the kings of those who live in the desert; ²⁵all the kings of Zimri, Elam and Medes and ²⁶all the kings of the north, far and near, one after the other; all the kings that are found on the face of the earth! And after them, the king of Babylon shall drink it!

²⁷You will say to them, “This is the message of the Lord, the God of Hosts and the God of Israel: ‘Drink, get drunk, vomit, fall without rising again in front of the sword I am sending against you.’

²⁸But if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, tell them, ‘The Lord, the God of Hosts, has spoken: You also must drink. ²⁹For take note, I am already beginning to bring disaster to the city that I call my own. So how can you possibly avoid being punished? You will not go unpunished! For I am proclaiming war against all who live on the earth—it is the Lord God of Hosts who speaks.’

³⁰You will communicate all these words to them and say, “The Lord roars on high, and from his holy dwelling threatens all the inhabitants of the world. His mighty roar echoes to the farthest ends of the earth. ³¹For the Lord judges all the nations and passes sentence against all humankind, and he abandons the wicked to the sword—word of the Lord.”

³²The Lord, God of Hosts, says, “See, disaster spreads from nation to nation. A storm arises from the ends of the earth. ³³On that day, the Lord’s victims will be spread from one end of the earth to the other. No one will mourn for them; no one will gather them up or bury them—they will be like dung on the soil!

³⁴Wail, you shepherds, and cry out!

Roll in the dust, you leaders of flocks, for the day of slaughter and dispersal has come for you, and you will fall like fattened rams.

³⁵The shepherds will find no refuge, and the leaders of the flocks will not be able to escape.

³⁶The shepherds cry out, and the leaders of flocks wail, ³⁷for the Lord lays waste the grasslands, and the pastures are silent because of the fury of the Lord’s anger.

³⁸Like a lion, he leaves his lair; because of his fierce wrath, the land is stricken by the sword and has become a wasteland.

Jeremiah Is Arrested and Judged

26 | • ¹At the beginning of the reign of Judah’s King Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ²The Lord says this, “Stand in the courtyard of the Lord’s house and say to all who come from the towns of Judah to worship in the Lord’s house—all that I command you to say; do not omit anything! ³Perhaps they will listen to you. Perhaps each one will turn from his wicked ways. Then I will change my mind and forget the destruction that I have planned to inflict on them because of their wicked deeds.

⁴Tell them: This is what the Lord says:

“You have not obeyed me and failed to walk according to my law, which I have set before you. ⁵You have not heeded my servants, the prophets I have persistently sent to you. If you stubbornly close your ears to them, ⁶I will treat this house of mine as I treated the Sanctuary of Shiloh and let all the nations see that Jerusalem is a cursed city.”

⁷The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard what Jeremiah said in the Lord’s house. ⁸When Jeremiah finished saying all that the Lord had commanded, he was besieged by the priests and prophets saying, “You are bound to die! ⁹How dare you speak in the Lord’s Name telling us that this house will be treated like Shiloh and this city is to become a deserted ruin.” And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.

¹⁰Upon hearing this, the leaders of Judah came up from the king’s palace to the house of the Lord and took their place at the entrance of the New Gate. ¹¹Then the priests and the prophets said to the leaders of the people: “This man must die for he has spoken against the city as you have heard with your own ears!”

¹²Jeremiah replied, “I have been sent by the Lord to prophesy against this house and this city all that you have heard. ¹³Hence, reform your ways and deeds and obey the Lord your God that he may change his mind and not bring upon you the destruction he intended.

¹⁴As for me, I am in your hands; do whatever you consider just and right with me. ¹⁵But know that I am innocent, and if you take my life, you commit a crime that is a curse on yourselves, on the city, and the people. In truth, the Lord sent me to say all that I said in your hearing.”

¹⁶Then the leaders, backed by the people, said to the priests and the prophets, “This man does not deserve death; he spoke to us in the Name of the Lord.”

¹⁷Some of the elders of the land addressed the people’s assembly saying, ¹⁸“Micah of Moresheth prophesied publicly in the time of Hezekiah, king of Judah:

‘Zion will become like a field, Jerusalem a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a hill of overgrown thickets.’

¹⁹Did King Hezekiah of Judah and the people of Judah kill him? They instead feared the Lord and implored his pardon until they succeeded in their plea to make him change his mind, and the Lord did not inflict the harm with which he had threatened them. How can we commit such a crime?”

²⁰There was another man named Uriah, son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim, who also prophesied in the Name of the Lord. He spoke against this city and this country in words similar to Jeremiah's. ²¹When King Jehoiakim and his officials heard his words, he decided to do away with him. When Uriah learned about it, he was scared and fled to Egypt. ²²But King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan, son of Achbor, with some people, into Egypt. ²³They brought Uriah out of Egypt and took him to King Jehoiakim, who had him slain and his body thrown into the common people’s burial place.

²⁴As for Jeremiah, he was befriended by Ahikam, son of Shaphan, and was not handed over to those who wanted him put to death.

The Yoke of Nebuchadnezzar

27 | ¹At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in this way ²“Make for yourself ropes and a yoke and put them on your neck. ³Then send word to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through their ambassadors, who have come to Jerusalem to see Zedekiah king of Judah. ⁴Give them these instructions for their masters:

The Lord God of Hosts tells you what you ought to say to your masters: ⁵ Through my great power and mighty deeds I made the earth, as well as the people and animals that inhabit it, and I give them to whomever I wish. ⁶Now I have given all these lands into the hands of my steward Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will even make the beasts of the field subject to him. ⁷All nations will serve him, his son, and his grandson until the time for his land comes; then, he will be overpowered by powerful nations and great kings.

⁸As for the nation or kingdom that refuses to serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, I will punish it with the sword, famine, and plague—word of the Lord—until I completely wipe it out.

⁹Hence, you must no longer pay attention to your prophets, diviners, interpreters of dreams, astrologists, or sorcerers who say that you must not submit yourselves to the king of Babylon. ¹⁰For they are prophets of lies which will cause you to be finally driven from your land. I myself will drive you out, and you will perish. ¹¹But the nation that submits to the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, that nation I will leave in its own land—word of the Lord—to till it and live there.”

¹²Then I gave the same message to King Zedekiah of Judah, “Place your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon. Serve him and his people, and you will live. ¹³Why should you and your people die by the sword, famine, and plague as the Lord has threatened any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? ¹⁴Do not listen to the prophets when they say, ‘You will not have to serve the king of Babylon.’ For they are deceiving you with their prophesies. ¹⁵I did not send them, says the Lord, and they falsely use my name in their prophesying. Let it not be that I drive you out of your land, and you perish and the prophets who have spoken to you.”

¹⁶Then I spoke to the priests and the people, “The Lord tells you not to listen to your prophets who say: ‘Very soon now the articles from the Lord’s house will be brought back from Babylon.’ They prophesy lies. ¹⁷Do not listen to them; instead, serve the king of Babylon and survive. Why should this city become a ruin? ¹⁸If they were prophets and had the Lord’s word in their hearts, they would now be praying to the Lord God of Hosts not to allow the objects still remaining in the house of the Lord and the royal palace and Jerusalem to be carried off to Babylon.

¹⁹For, the Lord says something about the pillars, the Sea, the movable stands, and the other objects still in this city ²⁰which Nebuchadnezzar did not carry off when he deported Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, together with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem. ²¹Yes, this is what the Lord, the God of Hosts, says about the objects remaining in the house of the Lord and the royal palace in Jerusalem: ²²“They will be taken to Babylon, and there they will remain until the day I deal with them. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.”

Jeremiah and Hananiah

28 | •  ¹The prophet Hananiah spoke to me Early in the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year. Hananiah, son of Azzur from Gibeon, proclaimed in the Lord’s house in the presence of the priests and the people, ²“This is what the Lord the God of Hosts and the God of Israel says: I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. ³Within two years, I will return to this place all the objects King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took away from the Lord’s house and carried to Babylon. ⁴I will likewise bring back Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all who were taken from Judah and deported to Babylon. For I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon—word of the Lord.”

⁵Then Jeremiah replied to Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people, ⁶“So be it! May the Lord fulfill the words you have spoken and bring back from Babylon to this place the objects taken from the house of the Lord and all the exiles. ⁷Yet hear now what I say in your hearing and the hearing of all the people.

⁸The prophets who came before you and me continually prophesied war, disaster, and plague to many nations and great kingdoms. ⁹So the prophet who prophesies peace will not be recognized as truly sent by the Lord until his predictions are fulfilled.”

¹⁰Then, Hananiah broke the yoke from Jeremiah's neck. ¹¹ Hananiah proclaimed in the presence of all the people, “The Lord says this: In the same manner, within two years, will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar from the neck of all the nations.” Then Jeremiah, the prophet, went on his way.

¹²Some time later, a word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, ¹³“Go and tell this to Hananiah: This is what the Lord says: You have broken a wooden yoke but, in its place, you will get an iron yoke.

¹⁴For this is what the Lord, the God of Hosts and the God of Israel, says: I am placing a yoke of iron on the neck of all the nations to make them serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they will serve him. I will even give him control over the wild animals.”

¹⁵Then Jeremiah said to Hananiah, “Listen! Hananiah, you have not been sent by the Lord and yet deceived these people, giving them false hope with your lies. ¹⁶That is why the Lord says concerning you: I am removing you from the face of the earth. You will die this very year because you have counseled rebellion against the Lord.”

¹⁷And in the seventh month of that year, Hananiah died.

Prophecies of Blessing

The Letter To the Exiles

29 | •  ¹This is the text of the letter the prophet Jeremiah sent to the rest of the elders, to the priests, the prophets, and to all the people that Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon. ²This was after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the officials, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the smiths and metalworkers had left Jerusalem.

³The letter was hand-carried by Elasah, son of Shaphan, and Gemariah, son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It said:

⁴This is what the Lord God of Hosts and God of Israel says to all those deported from Jerusalem to Babylon:

⁵“Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat what they produce, ⁶marry and have children, seek wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too will have children. While there, an increase in number does not decrease. ⁷Pull yourselves together for the welfare of the land to which I have sent you and intercede on its behalf as you pray to the Lord; for its welfare will be your welfare.”

¹⁰The Lord says, “When the seventy years allowed to Babylon have been completed, I will come to you and fulfill my promise of restoring you back to this place. ¹¹For I know what my plans for you are, plans to save you and not harm you, plans to give you a future and hope.”

¹²The Lord says, “When you call on me, I will listen. ¹³You will seek and find me when you search for me with all your heart.” ¹⁴For the Lord says, “I will let myself be found by you, and I will gather you from among all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you; and bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

¹⁵You trust prophets allegedly raised for you by the Lord in Babylon. ¹⁶But this is the word of the Lord: ⁸Do not be deceived by the prophets and seers who are among you. Do not believe in their dreams or be confident in their illusions. ⁹For I did not send them; they took advantage of my name to foretell lies. As for the king who sits on the throne of David and all the people who live in this city (your kinsfolk who did not go into exile with you); ¹⁷thus says the Lord God of Hosts, “I am sending sword, famine, and plague against them. I will make them like rotten figs, so rotten they cannot be eaten. ¹⁸I will pursue them with sword, famine, and plague. They will be a horror for all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse, an abomination, a sign of desolation, mockery, and ridicule among all the nations where I scatter them. ¹⁹For they repeatedly did not heed my words when I sent them my servants, the prophets. They refused to pay attention.

²⁰As for you, exiles, whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon, hear the word of the Lord. ²¹This is what the Lord, the God of Hosts and the God of Israel, says concerning Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah who prophesy lies in my name, “I will hand them over to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will slay them before your eyes. ²²This will give rise to a curse widely used by the captives from Judah in Babylon: ‘May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, who were roasted in the fire by the king of Babylon!’ ²³for they have acted outrageously: they have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have used my name to proclaim lies, which I did not command them. I know it and have witnessed it,” declares the Lord.

²⁴After that, Shemaiah of Nehelam ²⁵sent letters in his own name to all the people in Jerusalem and to Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests saying, ²⁶“The Lord has made you priest in place of Jehoiada to be in charge in the house of the Lord to arrest every mad prophet and put him in chains with an iron collar around his neck. ²⁷So why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, a would-be prophet in your midst? ²⁸In this role, he sent a message to us in Babylon: You will be there for a long time! Build and live in houses; plant gardens and eat their produce.”

²⁹When Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the hearing of the prophet Jeremiah, ³⁰the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, ³¹“Send this message to all the exiles: This is what the Lord says concerning Shemaiah of Nehelam: Shemaiah prophesied although I did not send him, and he made you trust in lies. ³²Because of that, I will punish Shemaiah and his descendants; none of them will live to witness the blessings I will bestow on my people, for he incited my people to rebel against the Lord.”

The Restoration of the Northern Kingdom

30 | •  ¹This is another word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:

²The Lord, God of Israel says, “Write in a book all that I have communicated to you, ³for the days are coming when I shall bring my captive people Israel and Judah back to the land I gave to their ancestors as their inheritance.”

⁴These are words spoken by the Lord to Israel:

⁵We have heard cries of fear,

terror and not peace!

⁶Ask and see:

Does a man bear children?

Then why do I see every strong man

with his hands on his hips like a woman in labor,

every face turned a ghastly color?

⁷How terrible that day!

there is none to equal it!

It is a time of distress for Jacob,

but he will be saved.

⁸On that day—declares the Lord of Hosts—I will break the yoke around his neck and burst his bonds, that strangers may no longer enslave them. ⁹They will instead serve the Lord their God and David their king whom I will raise up for them.

¹⁰The Lord says, “Fear not, Jacob my servant. Be not dismayed, Israel, for I will rescue you and your descendants from that far-off land where you are captive. Jacob shall return and know peace, molested by no one.

¹¹I am with you to save you. I will utterly destroy the nations where you are scattered. You alone shall not be destroyed, but I will discipline you justly and not let you go unpunished.”

¹²The Lord says,

“Your wound is incurable,

your injury is grievous.

¹³There is no one to plead your cause.

There is a remedy for an ulcer

but no healing for you!

¹⁴All your lovers have forgotten you;

they care nothing for you.

For I struck you as an enemy does,

with cruel punishment,

because of your great guilt

and the wickedness of your sin.

¹⁵Why cry out now that you are hurt?

Is there no cure for your pain?

I have done this to you because of your great crime and grievous sin.

¹⁶Yet all who devour you will be devoured. Your oppressors will be taken captive; your plunderers will be plundered, and those who despise you will be despised. ¹⁷Because you were called ‘outcast—Zion for whom no one cares,’ I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,” says the Lord.

¹⁸The Lord says, “I will restore my people into Jacob’s tents and have pity on his dwellings. The city will be rebuilt over its ruins, and the palace will be restored to its proper place. ¹⁹From them will come songs of praise and the sound of merrymaking.

I will multiply them, and they shall not be few. I will bestow honor on them, and they shall not be despised. ²⁰Their children will be as before, and their community will be established before me. I will ask their oppressors to account.

²¹Their leader will be one of themselves; their ruler shall emerge from their midst. I will bring him close for who would dare to approach me? ²²You shall be my people, and I shall be your God.”

²³See the storm of the Lord bursting forth in fury; like the turmoil of a hurricane, it sweeps down on the head of the wicked. ²⁴The fierce wrath of the Lord will not turn away until he has done and accomplished the purpose of his heart.

In the latter days, you will understand this.

31 | ¹The Lord declares that when that time comes, he will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be his people.

²Thus says the Lord: The people who survived the sword have found grace in the desert. As Israel was seeking his rest, ³the Lord appeared from afar saying, I have loved you with love everlasting, so I have kept for you my mercy. ⁴I will restore you again, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin Israel!

You will take up your tambourines and go out dancing joyfully. ⁵You will plant vineyards again on the hills of Samaria, and the farmers who plant them will enjoy their fruit.

⁶There shall be a day when watchmen will call out on the hills of Ephraim, “Come, let us go to Zion, to the Lord our God!”

⁷For the Lord says this, “Shout with joy for Jacob;

rejoice for the greatest of nations.

Proclaim your praise and say:

‘The Lord has saved his people,

the remnant of Israel!’

⁸Look, I will bring them back from the land of the north, gather them from the ends of the earth, the lame and the blind, mothers and women in labor—a great throng will return.

⁹They went away weeping,

they will return in joy.

I will lead them by the streams of water on a level path so that no one will stumble,

for I am Israel’s father

and Ephraim is my firstborn.”

He Who Scattered Israel Now Gathers Them!

¹⁰Hear the word of the Lord, O nations,

proclaim it in distant coastlands:

He who scattered Israel will gather them

and guard them as a shepherd guards his flock.

¹¹For the Lord has ransomed Jacob

and redeemed him from the hand of his conqueror.

¹²They shall come shouting for joy while ascending Zion;

they will come streaming to the Lord’s blessings—

the grain, the new wine, and the oil,

the young of the flocks and herds.

They will be like a well-watered garden;

no more will they be afflicted.

¹³Maidens will make merry and dance,

young men and old as well.

I will turn their mourning into gladness,

I will give them comfort and joy for sorrow.

¹⁴I will fill the priests with abundance,

and satisfy my people with my bounty

—this is the Lord’s word.

¹⁵Thus speaks the Lord:

“In Ramah, a voice

of mourning and great weeping is heard,

Rachel wailing for her children

and refusing to be consoled,

for her children are no more.”

¹⁶The Lord says this to her:

“Weep no more and wipe the tears of your eyes;

your sorrow will have redress.

They will come back from the enemy’s land.

¹⁷There is hope for your descendants;

your children will return to their own borders.

¹⁸I heard Ephraim saying in grief:

‘You disciplined me like an untamed calf,

and I have been disciplined.

Bring me back, and I will return,

for you are the Lord, my God!

¹⁹Yes, I strayed, but I have repented.

Now I understand, and I beat my breast;

I bear the disgrace of my youth,

and I blush with shame and humiliation.’

²⁰Is not Ephraim my favored son,

the child in whom I delight?

Often have I threatened him,

but I still remember him,

 and my heart yearns for him.

I must show him mercy,” declares the Lord.

²¹Set up road signs,

put up guideposts;

focus your attention on the highway,

the road by which you went.

Return, O virgin Israel,

return to these cities of yours.

²²How long will you remain wandering,

O, unfaithful daughter?

For the Lord is creating something new on earth;

the woman finds her husband again.”

Restoration of Judah

²³These are words of the Lord, God of Hosts and God of Israel, “When I bring back the captives to the land of Judah and its towns, the people will once more use the expression: ‘The Lord bless you, O dwelling of righteousness, holy mountain!’

²⁴All Judah and its towns, the farmer and those who move about with their herds will live there in peace. ²⁵I will refresh the weary and lift up the downhearted.”

²⁶Then I awoke and looked around; my sleep had been peaceful.

²⁷“The days are coming—this is the word of the Lord—when I shall sow the people of Israel and the people of Judah with the seed of man and beasts. ²⁸It will happen that just as I watched over them to uproot and overthrow, to destroy and bring disaster, so shall I likewise build and plant—word of the Lord.

²⁹It will no longer be said, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

³⁰Instead, everyone will die because of their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes will have his teeth set on edge!

The New Covenant

•  ³¹The time is coming—it is the Lord who speaks—when I will forge a new Covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. ³²It will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. For they broke my Covenant although I was their Master, the Lord declares.

³³This is the Covenant I shall make with Israel after that time: I will inscribe my law in their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people.

³⁴And they will not have to teach each other, neighbor or brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the greatest to the loneliest, for I will forgive their wrongdoing and no longer remember their sin.

³⁵This is the word of the Lord,

he who gives the sun light during the day and orders the moon and the stars to give light at night,

he who stirs the sea and makes the waves roar, and who is called the Lord, God of Hosts:

³⁶“Only if these laws vanish from my sight—says the Lord—will the descendants of Israel cease to be a nation before me.

³⁷Only when the skies above are measured and the foundations of the earth are found below will I reject the descendants of Israel because of what they have done—word of the Lord.

³⁸Behold, the days are coming when the city will be rebuilt for the Lord from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate ³⁹and the measuring tape will stretch from there to the hill of Gareb and then turn to Goah. ⁴⁰The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown and all the fields as far as the brook of Kidron and the corner of the Horse Gate on the east will be holy to the Lord. Never again will the city be uprooted, never again destroyed.”

Jeremiah Buys a Field

32 | •  ¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah’s reign as king of Judah, the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. ²At that time, the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem and the prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned in the guard’s courtyard of the royal palace of Judah.

³Zedekiah, king of Judah, had him shut up after saying, “Why do you prophesy in the Name of the Lord as you do? Yes, you said: ‘I am going to hand this city to the king of Babylon who will take it. ⁴And King Zedekiah will not escape from the Chaldeans; he will be delivered into the power of the king of Babylon, speak face to face to him and see him with his own eyes. ⁵Zedekiah will be brought to Babylon where he will remain until I deal with him. In any case, your fight against the Chaldeans is hopeless’.”

⁶So at that time, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ⁷‘Hanamel, son of your uncle Shallum, is going to visit you and ask you to buy his field at Anathoth as it is your right to do so.’ ⁸Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guards and said, ‘Purchase my field at Anathoth since you have the right of possession and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’

⁹I then understood this was the word of the Lord, and I bought the field from Hanamel, and I weighed out the silver for it, seventeen shekels of silver. ¹⁰Then I signed and sealed the deed, had it witnessed, and the silver was weighed on the scales. ¹¹Then I took the deed of purchase (the sealed copy containing the terms and conditions and the open copy). ¹²I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch, son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel, my uncle, and the witnesses who signed the deed, and before all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the guard. ¹³Then in their presence, I commanded Baruch:

¹⁴This is what the Lord, the God of Hosts and the God of Israel, says: Take these documents, both the sealed and the unsealed copies of the deed of purchase. Place them in an earthenware jar so that they may last a long time ¹⁵for the Lord God of Hosts and God of Israel says this: houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”

Prayer of Jeremiah

¹⁶When I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch, son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord: ¹⁷“Ah, Lord God, you have made the heavens and the earth with your great power and mighty deeds. Nothing is impossible for you! ¹⁸You show mercy to thousands but bring the punishment for the parents’ sins on their children. Great and Mighty, the Lord God of Hosts is your name! ¹⁹You are great in planning and mighty in deeds, your eyes follow the ways of all the humans, and you give to each one according to his conduct and the fruit of their actions.

²⁰You have continually worked signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, in Israel, and among all humankind. Hence you have become famous, as we see today. ²¹You brought your people from the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with your great power and your mighty deeds.

²²You gave your people this land, which you had promised with an oath to their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey. ²³But as soon as they entered and conquered it, they did not listen to you or walk according to your law. They refused to do what you commanded, and you brought great misfortune to them. ²⁴You see, O Lord, the mounds built up to take the city are reaching it. And the city exhausted by the sword, famine, and plague will be given over to the Chaldeans. What you foretold has happened as you can now see! ²⁵And yet you told me, O Lord God, to buy a field with silver and have the purchase witnessed in the very days the city is falling to the Chaldeans!”

God’s Answer

²⁶The word of the Lord then came to Jeremiah: ²⁷“I am the Lord, the God of all humankind. Is there anything impossible for me? ²⁸Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I am about to hand the city over to the Chaldeans and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who will take it. ²⁹The Chaldeans who are attacking the city will come in and set it on fire. They will burn the houses where the people aroused my anger by burning incense to Baal and pouring drink offerings to foreign gods. ³⁰For the people of Israel and Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth. ³¹All they did was to arouse my anger with the work of their hands—it is the Lord who speaks—for this city has so aroused my anger and fury from the time it was built to this day, ³²that I must remove it from my sight. It is on account of all the evil the people of Israel and Judah have done to anger me—they, their kings and princes, their priests and prophets, the people of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

³³They turned their backs to me and not their faces. Although I taught them repeatedly, they did not listen, nor have they learned the lesson. ³⁴They even put their idols in the Sanctuary that houses my name to defile it. ³⁵They built high places for Baal in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, where they worshiped Baal and sacrificed their sons and daughters to Moloch. I never commanded this; nor did I ever think they could do such a detestable thing and make Judah so sinful.

I Will Bring Them Back

³⁶As you say, this city exhausted by the sword, famine, and plague will be handed over to the king of Babylon. But now, listen to what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ³⁷“See, I am going to gather them from all the countries where I scattered them in my anger, fury and great wrath.

I will bring them back to this place and have them live safely. ³⁸They will be my people, and I shall be their God.

³⁹I will have them think and act differently so that they may always fear me, for their own good and the good of their children.

⁴⁰I will forge an eternal Covenant with them, by which I shall never cease to do them good, and I shall place my fear in their hearts so that they may never turn away from me.

⁴¹I shall rejoice in doing them good and plant them securely in this land with all my heart and soul.”

⁴²And the Lord says, “Just as I brought great disaster on this people, so shall I bring them all the happiness I promised them. ⁴³Then, fields will be bought in this land, which you say is a wasteland without people or animals, and given over to the Chaldeans.

⁴⁴Fields will be bought for silver, and deeds will be written, sealed, and witnessed in the territory of Benjamin and the region around Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah, in the towns of the hill country, in the towns of Shephelah, and those of the south.

Yes, I will bring back their captives”—word of the Lord.

Another Promise of Restoration

33 | ¹When Jeremiah was still detained in the guard’s court, the word of the Lord came to him a second time:

²He who made the earth, fashioned and established it, and whose Name is Lord speaks to you, ³“Call me, and I shall answer. I will reveal great and mysterious things you have not known.” ⁴For this is what the Lord God of Israel says, “You have seen how the houses of Jerusalem and the royal palace of Judah were demolished and used as a defense against the siege mounds in the ⁵fighting against the Chaldeans. But they have been filled with dead bodies, for I slew these people in the fury of my anger when I no longer looked to this city because of their wickedness.

⁶However, I will apply a remedy for its healing. I will cure them and make them enjoy peace and truth. ⁷I will bring back the captives of Judah and Israel and rebuild them as before. ⁸I will cleanse them from the guilt of their sin against me and their infidelity. ⁹This city will be for me a cause of joy, praise, and glory in the sight of all the nations of the earth when they hear of all the good I do for them. They will fear and tremble when they see all the good and all the peace I provide them.”

¹⁰Thus says the Lord, “You say of this city that it is a wasteland without humans or animals. But in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, which are ruins without people or animals, ¹¹there will be heard again the sound of merriment and happiness, the song of the newlywed and the voice of those who pray: ‘Praise to the Lord God of Hosts, for the Lord is good and his love endures forever!’ When I restore the fortune of the land as it was before,” says the Lord, “the voice of those who sing praise in the house of the Lord will be heard.”

¹²Thus says the Lord God of Hosts, “In this place, which is a wasteland without people or animals and in all its towns, there will once again be pastures where the shepherds will tend their flocks. ¹³In the towns of the hill country, Shephelah, and the south, in the territory of Benjamin, and the villages around Jerusalem, and in the towns of Judah, flocks will pass under the hand of the one who counts them,”—word of the Lord.

Promises To David’s Descendants

¹⁴“The days are coming when I shall fulfill the promise that I made in favor of Israel and Judah.

¹⁵In those days and at that time, I will cause to sprout the shoot of righteousness from David’s line; he will practice justice and righteousness in the land. ¹⁶In those days, Judah experienced salvation, and Jerusalem lived safely. He will be called the Lord-Our-Righteousness.”

¹⁷For the Lord says, “David will never be without a descendant seated on the throne of Israel, ¹⁸nor will the priests and Levites be left without descendants to stand before me and present burnt offerings, grain offerings, and sacrifices.”

¹⁹The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah as follows, ²⁰“If you can break my Covenant with the day or my Covenant with the night so that night and day would not follow at their appointed times, ²¹only then that my Covenant with my servant David might be broken. Only then would there be no descendant to reign on his throne and no priests or Levites to minister before me. ²²Just as the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore cannot be counted, to the same extent shall I multiply the descendants of David and the Levites who minister before me.”

²³Again, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, ²⁴ “Have you not noticed what these people say: ‘The Lord has rejected the two kingdoms he chose.’ So they despise my people and no longer consider them a nation. ²⁵But the Lord says: If I have not established my Covenant with day and night if I have not fixed the laws of the heavens and the earth, ²⁶then I can reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant and not take from among them rulers for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortune and show compassion on them.”

A Promise To Zedekiah

34 | •  ¹This was the word of the Lord addressed to Jeremiah when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his army, as well as all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his dominion, and all the peoples were fighting against Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah.

²This is the word of the Lord, God of Israel, “Go and say this to Zedekiah king of Judah: ‘See, I am giving this city to the king of Babylon, and he will set it on fire. ³You will not escape from his hands but will surely be captured and given over to him. You will see him face to face and speak directly to him, and you will go to Babylon.’ ⁴Just listen, Zedekiah, king of Judah, to the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says about you, “You will not be slain by the sword; ⁵no, you will die in peace. As they made funeral pyres in honor of your ancestors, former kings, so will they make a fire in your honor and lament, ‘Alas, my master!’—word of the Lord.”

⁶Then Jeremiah the prophet gave this message to Zedekiah, king of Judah in Jerusalem. ⁷He did this while the army of the king of Babylon was attacking Jerusalem and the cities of Lachish and Azekah. He was attacking these cities because they were the only fortified cities of Judah still holding out.

About the Liberated Slaves

⁸The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah had made a treaty with all the people of Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. ⁹Everyone was to free his Hebrew slaves, male and female so that no fellow Jew would be kept in bondage.

¹⁰The princes and all the citizens agreed to this. They made a treaty and so set them free. ¹¹Yet they changed their minds afterward and brought back the slaves they had freed and used them as slaves again.

¹²Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, ¹³“The Lord the God of Israel says this: I made a Covenant with your ancestors the day I brought them out of Egypt from the house of slavery and I said: ¹⁴At the end of every seven years you will free any Hebrews who have been sold to you and have served you for six years; you are to send them free from your services. But your ancestors did not listen and paid no attention. ¹⁵Recently you repented and did what was right in my sight when each proclaimed liberty to one another, and you made a Covenant with me in the house where my name rests. ¹⁶But now you have returned to your word and profaned my name. You have brought back your slaves, male and female, to whom you had given complete freedom, and you have again reduced them to slavery.

¹⁷That is why the Lord says: Since you have not obeyed me in proclaiming freedom for your friends and neighbors, I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you, freedom to fall by the sword, plague, and famine. I will make you detestable to every kingdom on earth. ¹⁸Those who have sinned against my Covenant, who have not observed the terms of the alliance they made before me, I will liken them to the calf they cut in two and then walked between its halves. ¹⁹The princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf, ²⁰I will hand them over to their enemies. Their corpses will serve as food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

²¹Zedekiah and his officials I will give over to the hands of their enemies. You saw the army of the king of Babylon withdrawing from you. ²²But now I am issuing an order to bring them back to this city. They will attack and capture the city and set it on fire. As for the towns of Judah, I will reduce them to a wasteland without inhabitants.”

The Example Given By the Rechabites

35 | ¹A message from the Lord came to Jeremiah in the days of Josiah’s son Jehoiakim, king of Judah: ²“Go to the Rechabite family; speak to them and bring them to a room in the house of the Lord; then give them wine to drink.”

³So I went to get Jaazaniah, son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, his brothers and sons and all the household of the Rechabites. ⁴I brought them to the house of the Lord, into the room of the sons of Hanan, son of Igdaliah, the man of God. It was close to the room of the leaders, which is above the room of the doorkeeper Maaseiah, son of Shallum. ⁵I then placed pitchers of wine and cups before the Rechabites and told them, “Drink wine!”

⁶But they answered, “We don’t drink wine because our father Jonadab, son of Rechab, commanded us: ‘Never drink wine, you, as well as your children; ⁷don’t build a house and don’t sow seeds. You shall not plant or own a vineyard; do nothing like that, but live in tents all your days so that you may live for a long time in the land where you dwell!’

⁸We have observed all the commands of our father Jonadab, son of Rechab, not drinking wine as long as we live—neither we nor our wives nor our sons nor our daughters. ⁹We haven’t built houses to live in, and we have no vineyards, fields, or seeds. ¹⁰We live in tents and obey and practice all that our father Jonadab ordered.      ¹¹ Still when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked the land, we said: “Come, we shall go to Jerusalem to escape from the army of the Chaldeans and the army of the Arameans. This is why we are staying in Jerusalem now.”

¹²The Lord spoke again to Jeremiah, ¹³“The Lord the God of Hosts and the God of Israel bids you go and tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem: Will you reject a correction and refuse what I say?—word of the Lord. ¹⁴Jonadab, son of Rechab, commanded his children not to drink wine, and his words have been observed; to this day, they have obeyed their father by not taking wine. As for you, I have spoken to you time and time again and you have not listened to me! ¹⁵I have repeatedly sent you my servants, the prophets, saying: ‘Turn away from your wickedness, reform your way of life, and do not follow other gods to serve them. Then you will live in the land that I gave you and your ancestors.’ But you neither heeded nor listened to me. ¹⁶The descendants of Jonadab, son of Rechab, have carried out their father’s order, but this nation has not obeyed me.”

¹⁷Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Hosts and the God of Israel, says, “I am going to bring all the disaster I foretold to Judah and to everyone living in Jerusalem because I spoke and they would not listen; I called, and they would not respond.”

¹⁸Then Jeremiah said to the Rechabites, “This is what the Lord God of Hosts and God of Israel says: ‘Because you have been obedient to your father Jonadab and observed all his instructions because you have acted according to his commands, ¹⁹because of that—word of the Lord—Jonadab shall always have a descendant to stand before me.”

The Sufferings of Jeremiah

The Scroll Is Burned

36 | •  ¹This word from the Lord came to Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah.

²“Get a scroll and write on it all that I have spoken to you concerning Jerusalem, Judah, and all the nations, from the first day I spoke to you in the time of Josiah until this day. ³Perhaps when the people of Judah hear of all the afflictions I intend to send them, to make each of them turn away, they would decide to turn from their wicked ways. Hence I may forgive their wickedness and sin.”

⁴Jeremiah then called Baruch, son of Neriah, who, at his dictation, wrote down all the words the Lord had spoken to him on the scroll.

⁵Then Jeremiah commanded Baruch, “I am in jail and cannot go to the Lord’s house. ⁶So you go to the Lord’s house on a day of fasting and read publicly all that you wrote as I dictated. Read it to all the people of Judah who come in from their towns. ⁷Perhaps they will entreat the Lord, and each one will turn from his wickedness, for great is the wrath of the Lord and the punishment with which he has threatened this people.”

⁸So Baruch, Neriah’s son, did all that the prophet Jeremiah had commanded about this reading in the house of the Lord.

⁹In the ninth month of the fifth year of Josiah’s son Jehoiakim, king of Judah, a fast before the Lord was proclaimed to all the people in Jerusalem and those who came from the towns of Judah.

Then, in the house of the Lord, Baruch read publicly the words of Jeremiah written in the scroll. ¹⁰This he did in the room of the secretary Gemariah, Shapan’s son, in the upper court, at the entry of the New Gate of the house of the Lord.

¹¹When Micaiah son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan heard all of the Lord’s words written on the scroll ¹²he went to the secretary’s room in the king’s house, where all the officials were sitting—Elishama, the secretary; Delaiah, son of Shemaiah; Elnathan, son of Achbor; Gemariah, son of Shaphan; Zedekiah, son of Hananiah, and the rest of the officials.

¹³Micaiah told them all that he had heard when Baruch read the scroll's contents to the people. ¹⁴Then all the officials sent Jehudi, son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to say to Baruch, “Bring the scroll from which you read to all the people and come!” So Baruch went with the scroll in his hand. ¹⁵They told him to sit down and read it to them, and Baruch read it to them.

¹⁶When they heard all that, they gazed at one another in fear and said, “We ought to tell this to the king.”

¹⁷They then asked Baruch, “May we know how you wrote that.” He said, ¹⁸“As he dictated these words, I wrote them in ink on the scroll.” ¹⁹Then the officials instructed Baruch, “Jeremiah and you have to hide and let no one know where you are.”

²⁰They kept the scroll in the room of Elishama, the secretary, and went to the king in the courtyard to report everything to him.

²¹The king then sent Jehudi to bring him the scroll. Jehudi brought it from Elishama’s room and read it to the king and all the officials around him. ²²Now it was the ninth month, and the king was sitting in the winter palace while a fire was burning in the firepot before him. ²³Whenever Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king would cut them off into pieces with the secretary’s knife and cast them in the fire until the whole scroll was burned.

²⁴Neither the king nor his officials were afraid when they heard all these words, and they did not tear their garments. ²⁵And yet Elnathan, Deliah, and Gemariah had urged the king not to burn the scroll, but he did not listen.

²⁶Instead, the king ordered the king’s son Jerahmeel, and Seraiah, son of Azriel, and Shelemiah, son of Abdeel, to arrest Baruch, the secretary, and Jeremiah, the prophet. But the Lord had hidden them.

²⁷A word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after the king burned the scroll with the words Baruch had written as Jeremiah dictated, ²⁸“Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first one which Jehoiakim burned. ²⁹And tell Jehoiakim this message of the Lord: You have burned the scroll and you said: This man dared to write that the king of Babylon will certainly destroy this land and wipe away from it men and animals! ³⁰That is why the Lord has spoken against Jehoiakim, king of Judah: Not one of his descendants will sit on the throne of David. His dead body will be exposed to the heat of day and the chill of night. ³¹I will ask him to account, as well as his children and his attendants, for their wickedness. I will pour out on them all the disasters, and it will be the same for the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem I have foretold against them because they have paid no attention.”

³²Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch, son of Neriah, the secretary. He wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim, king of Judah, burned in the fire and added many more similar words.

Zedekiah Consults Jeremiah

37 | • ¹Josiah’s Zedekiah was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to be king of Judah in the place of Coniah, son of Jehoiakim. ²But neither he, nor his attendants, nor the people of the land paid attention to the words of the Lord spoken through Jeremiah the prophet.

³King Zedekiah sent Jehucal, son of Shelemiah, with the priest Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah, to Jeremiah to say, “Intercede for us with the Lord our God!” ⁴At that time, Jeremiah had not yet been imprisoned, and he was still going about among the people. ⁵Pharaoh’s army had come out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans heard of this, they withdrew from Jerusalem.

⁶Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: ⁷“The Lord the God of Israel has spoken. Say this to the king of Judah who sent you to consult me: Pharaoh’s army, which was on its way to help you, is about to return to its own land, ⁸and the Chaldeans will come back and attack this city. They will capture it and set it on fire.

⁹Do not deceive yourselves by saying that the Chaldeans are not to come back because they surely will. ¹⁰Even if you had defeated the whole Chaldean army and they were left with only wounded men, they would all come out of their tents and set fire to this city.”

Jeremiah In the Well

¹¹While the Chaldean army was withdrawing from Jerusalem because of the advance of Pharaoh’s troops, ¹²Jeremiah left Jerusalem to go to the territory of Benjamin to receive an inheritance there. ¹³But upon reaching the Benjamin Gate he was stopped by a sentry named Irijah, son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah who said, “You are deserting to the Babylonians!”

¹⁴Jeremiah answered, “There’s no truth to that!” But Irijah did not listen. He nabbed Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. ¹⁵They were so angry with Jeremiah, they beat him and locked him in the house of Jonathan the secretary, which had been transformed into a prison.

¹⁶Jeremiah was put in the dungeon cells and kept there for several days. ¹⁷Then King Zedekiah sent for him and secretly questioned him in his house: “Is there any word from the Lord?” Jeremiah replied, “Yes, there is!” and added, “You will be handed over to the king of Babylon!”

¹⁸Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “What wrong have I done to you, to your servants or to the people that you should have me imprisoned? ¹⁹Where are your prophets ²⁰who said to you: ‘The king of Babylon will never come to attack you and destroy this land?’ Now listen to me, my lord king! Take heed of my plea and do not send me back to the house of Jonathan, the secretary, for there I am doomed to die!”

²¹So King Zedekiah ordered that Jeremiah be transferred to the guard’s court and that every day he be supplied with a loaf of bread from the bakers’ street until there was no more bread. So Jeremiah remained in the guard’s court.

38 | ¹Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal, son of Shelemiah, and Pahhur, son of Malchiah, heard what Jeremiah said publicly ²in the Name of the Lord: “Anyone who stays in the city will perish by the sword, famine, and plague, but whoever surrenders to the Chaldeans will survive although he may lose everything. ³For the Lord has spoken: I have handed over this city to the king of Babylon and he will take it.”

⁴Then the officials told the king, “This man should be put to death because he is weakening the will of the fighting men and the people left in the city. In fact, he is not out to save the people but to do harm.” ⁵King Zedekiah said, “His life is in your hands, for the king has no power against you.”

⁶So they took Jeremiah and pushed him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, in the guard’s court. They lowered him by ropes. There was no water in the cistern, only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.

⁷Ebed-Melech, an Ethiopian official of the king’s house, heard that they had lowered Jeremiah into the cistern. While the king was sitting at the Benjamin Gate, ⁸ Ebed-Melech went and spoke to him: ⁹ “My lord king! These men have acted wickedly in all they did to Jeremiah the prophet. They threw him into the cistern, where he will die.”

¹⁰So the king ordered Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian, to: “Take three men with you from here and draw Jeremiah the prophet out from the cistern before he dies.”

¹¹Ebed-Melech took the men with him and entered the king’s house beneath the treasury. There, he got pieces of rags and old clothes, which he lowered by means of ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. ¹² Ebed-Melech said to Jeremiah, “Put the pieces of rags and old clothes under your armpits, over the ropes.” This Jeremiah did. ¹³ Then Jeremiah was pulled up from the cistern by means of the ropes and brought to the guard’s court to stay there.

¹⁴King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and received him at the third entrance of the Lord’s house and there said to him, “I am going to ask you a question; hide nothing from me!” Jeremiah told Zedekiah, ¹⁵“If I tell you something, won’t you put me to death? And if I advise you, will you listen to me?” ¹⁶King Zedekiah swore secretly to Jeremiah: “As the Lord lives who gave us a soul, I will not have you die, and I will not hand you over to those who want to kill you.”

¹⁷Jeremiah told King Zedekiah, “This is what the Lord God of Hosts and God of Israel says: If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, you will survive, and the city will not be burned. You and your household will live. ¹⁸ But if you do not surrender to the king of Babylon, this very city will be handed over to the Chaldeans, and they will set it on fire. For your part, you will not escape.”

¹⁹King Zedekiah told Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the people of Judah who have surrendered to the Chaldeans. I fear the Chaldeans will give me over to them, and they will ill-treat me.” ²⁰Jeremiah said, “They will not hand you over. Listen to what the Lord says to you through me; it will be well with you, and you will live. ²¹But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the Lord has let me see:

²²All the women left in your palace will be handed over to the officers of the king of Babylon and will sing this song: ‘Your friends have deceived and overcome you. When your feet have sunk into the mud, they turn away from you!’ ²³All your wives and children shall be led out to the Chaldeans, and you will not escape from them. You will be nabbed by the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned down!”

²⁴Then King Zedekiah told Jeremiah, “Let no one know about this conversation lest you die. ²⁵If the officials hear that I have spoken with you, and if they come to you and ask you what I spoke of to you, even though they threaten you, ²⁶you will say to them: I only made a petition to the king not to send me back to the house of Jonathan to die.”

²⁷All the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him. He replied just as the king had instructed him, and they said no more since no one had overheard the conversation.

²⁸But Jeremiah remained in the guard’s court until the day Jerusalem was taken.

The Fall of Jerusalem and the Fate of Jeremiah

39 | ¹In the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with his entire army and they besieged Jerusalem. ²On the ninth day of the fourth month in Zedekiah’s eleventh year a breach was made in the city wall. ³All the officials of the king of Babylon entered and took their seats at the Middle Gate: Nergal-Sherezer of Simmagir, a chief officer, Nebushazban, a high official and all the officials of the king of Babylon.

⁴Upon seeing this, King Zedekiah of Judah and all the military fled from the city by night, going out by way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls, in the direction of the Arabah. ⁵Still, the Chaldean army chased them and caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They took him and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath. There, Nebuchadnezzar passed a sentence on him. ⁶The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah in his presence and all the nobles of Judah. ⁷He gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with a double bronze chain to take him to Babylon.

⁸The Chaldeans burned the king’s palace along with the peoples’ abodes and then broke down the walls of Jerusalem. ⁹Nebuzaradan, commander of the guards, deported to Babylon the remainder of the people who stayed in the city, as well as those who had deserted to his side, and those craftsmen who were still there. ¹⁰As for the poorest people who owned nothing, Nebuzaradan left them, at that time, in the land of Judah, giving them vineyards and fields.

¹¹Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had given orders about Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan, chief of the guards: ¹²“Take him and look after him; do him no harm but deal with him just as he tells you.” ¹³Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guards, Nebushazban, who was a chief officer, Nergal-sharazer, who was a high official and all the other officers of the king of Babylon ¹⁴sent and had Jeremiah brought from the courtyard of the guardhouse. They turned him over to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and the grandson of Shaphan to take him home with him. But Jeremiah stayed among the people.

Reward for Ebed-Melech

•  ¹⁵Now the word of the Lord had come to Jeremiah while he was imprisoned in the guard’s court: ¹⁶“Go and talk to Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian: Tell him this word of the Lord, the God of Hosts and the God of Israel: You see, on that day that I am about to carry out what I have foretold in the past; disaster and not prosperity for this city; ¹⁷I will save you on that day—word of the Lord—and you will not be handed over to those whom you fear. For I will certainly save you, and you will not perish by the sword. ¹⁸You can escape and live because you have trusted me—it is the Lord who speaks.”

Jeremiah Is Freed

40 | ¹The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after Nebuzaradan, commander of the guards, had released him at Ramah when he had taken him, bound in chains, with those to be deported from Jerusalem and Judah to Babylon. ²The commander of the guards took Jeremiah and said to him, “The Lord your God foretold this calamity for this place. ³Now he has implemented what he said he would do because you have sinned against him and have not listened to him. ⁴ But I have removed the fetters off your hands today and released you to be free… You may wish to go with me to Babylon, and I will take care of you. However, I am not obliging you. If you decide not to go, you can go wherever you like in this land.” ⁵Nebuzaradan added, “Why don’t you return to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan? He has been appointed governor over the towns of Judah by the king of Babylon. You could stay with him among your people. Yet go wherever it seems right for you to go.” The guards' commander gave him provisions and a gift and set him on his way. ⁶And so Jeremiah went to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, who was residing at Mizpah. He stayed with him among the people who were left in the land.

Gedaliah, the Governor

•  ⁷Now all the army chiefs in the open country with their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, to be governor over the land and put him in charge of the men, women, and children and the lowliest of the people who had not been deported to Babylon. ⁸These men came to Gedaliah at Mizpah: Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, Johanan, and Jonathan, the sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth; the sons of Ephai. The Netophathite and Jezaniah, son of the Maacathite, and their men.

⁹Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, swore to them and their men: “Don’t be afraid to serve the Chaldeans; remain in the country, serve the king of Babylon, and all will be well with you. ¹⁰As for me, I am based here in Mizpah and your representative with the Chaldeans who settle there. For your part, gather wine, fruit, and oil; store it in your vessels and stay in the towns you have occupied.”

¹¹The Jews who were in Moab, Ammon, Edom, and the other lands also learned that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of the population and that he had placed Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, over them. ¹² All of these Jews returned from the places where they had been dispersed and came to Gedaliah at Mizpah in the land of Judah. There, they gathered wine and fruit in great quantities.

Gedaliah Murdered

¹³Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the chiefs of guerrilla warfare came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. ¹⁴They said, “Don’t you know that Baalis, king of the Ammonites, has commissioned Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, to assassinate you?” ¹⁵But Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, did not believe him.

Then Johanan spoke secretly to Gedaliah at Mizpah, “Let me go and kill Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, without anyone knowing. Don’t allow him to kill you, lest all the Jews assembled with you be dispersed and the rest of Judah perish.” ¹⁶But Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, said to Johanan, son of Kareah, “Don’t do that because what you have said about Ishmael is a lie.”

41 | ¹It was the seventh month when Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, a member of the royal family who had been the chief officer of the king, came with ten men to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan at Mizpah. While they were eating together ²Ishmael and the men with him stood up and slew Gedaliah with the sword, thus killing the man whom the king of Babylon had appointed the governor of the land.

³Ishmael also killed the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah as well as the Chaldean soldiers who were there.

⁴Two days after the assassination of Gedaliah and before anyone had heard of it, ⁵eighty men from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria arrived with beards shaved, torn clothes, and their bodies slashed, carrying offerings and incense to the house of the Lord.

⁶Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, left Mizpah to meet them weeping as they went. He told them, ⁷“Come along to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam.” But as soon as he came to the center of the town, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, and the men with him, killed them and threw their bodies into a cistern. ⁸Ten of these men told Ishmael, “Don’t kill us, for we have provisions hidden in the country, grain, oil, barley, and honey.” These Ishmael did not kill with the others.

⁹The cistern where Ishmael had thrown the corpses of the people, he had killed was the large cistern built by King Asa when he had to defend himself against Baasha, king of Israel. Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, filled it with the slain.

¹⁰Ishmael took captive the small population of Mizpah, the royal princesses whom Nebuzaradan, commander of the bodyguard, had left in the care of Gedaliah. Ishmael obliged them to follow him and set out for the land of the Ammonites.

¹¹When Johanan, son of Kareah, and the army officers with him heard of Ishmael's crimes, they assembled their men and set off to fight him. ¹²They caught up with him at the great pool of Gibeon.

¹³As soon as the people Ishmael had taken by force from Mizpah saw Johanan, son of Kareah, and the army officers with him, they rejoiced ¹⁴and returned to join Johanan. ¹⁵In the meantime, Ishmael could flee from Johanan with eight men and went to the Ammonites.

¹⁶Then Johanan and the army officers with him took the people he had rescued from Ishmael, son of Nethaniah. They were those men, women, children, and court officials that Ishmael carried off by force from Mizpah after slaying Gedaliah. Johanan brought them from Gibeon, ¹⁷and they stayed at Geruth Chimham near Bethlehem. They planned to go on later towards Egypt ¹⁸for fear of the Chaldeans because Ishmael had slain Gedaliah, who was appointed governor of the land by the king of Babylon.

The Flight To Egypt

42 | ¹Then the army officers, especially Johanan, son of Kareah, and Azariah, son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the smallest to the greatest came to speak to Jeremiah: ²“Listen to our plea and pray to the Lord our God for us, this remnant of people, because, really, we are few, from many, as you can see. ³May the Lord your God show us how and what we should do.”

⁴Jeremiah, the prophet, answered them, “I have heard you. Yes, I am going to speak to the Lord as you have requested. And whatever the word of the Lord is, I shall let you know it without hiding anything.”

⁵They said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and worthy witness against us if we do not act according to every word that the Lord your God will say to us through you! ⁶Whether it be good or bad for us, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you; so it will be well with us for having obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

⁷Ten days later the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. ⁸He then called Johanan, son of Kareah and the army officers with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest; ⁹and said to them, “This is the word of the Lord, God of Israel, to whom you sent me with your petition: ¹⁰If you wish to live peacefully in this land, I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I will relent of the harm I did you. ¹¹You are afraid of the king of Babylon, but do not fear him—word of the Lord—for I am with you to save you and rescue you from his hand. ¹²I will put mercy in his heart so that he may have mercy on you and let you live in your own land. ¹³But if you say: ‘No, we will no longer live in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the Lord your God, ¹⁴and if you say: ‘No, we shall go to Egypt where we shall no more have wars or hear the trumpet call, where we shall not be hungry for bread!’ ¹⁵Then hear the word of the Lord, remnant of Judah! The Lord God of Hosts and God of Israel speaks: “If you turn towards Egypt, to go there, and stay there, ¹⁶the sword you fear will strike you, there, in the land of Egypt; and famine, which you dread, will be yours there, in Egypt; and you will die. ¹⁷All those who turn towards Egypt, to enter and live there, will die; by the sword, famine, and pestilence. No one will escape or flee from the misfortune I will bring them.”

¹⁸This is what the Lord God of Hosts and God of Israel says: “Just as my burning anger was poured out on the people of Jerusalem, so will my fury be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You will become a curse and a reproach and never again see this place.” ¹⁹That is what the Lord has foretold, O remnant of Judah. Do not go to Egypt; be sure I have warned you today. ²⁰You risked your lives when you sent me to the Lord your God, saying: ‘Pray for us to the Lord our God and tell us all that the Lord says; and we shall do it.’ ²¹I have told you today, though you still do not obey the Lord your God in all that he told you, through me. ²²Be sure of this; it will be by the sword, famine, and pestilence that you will die in the place where you want to go and live.”

43 | ¹Jeremiah had hardly finished giving the message of the Lord to the people—all that the Lord had sent him to say—²when Azariah son of Hoshiah, and Johanan son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men, said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The Lord our God did not send you to tell us not to go and settle in Egypt. ³No, Baruch, son of Neriah, is prompting you to hand us over to the Chaldeans, either to be killed or deported to Babylon!”

⁴So neither Johanan son of Kareah, nor the army officers, nor the people heeded the Lord’s command to stay in the land of Judah. ⁵Instead, Johanan and the army officers led away the remnant of the Jews, who had returned to the land of Judah, from the nations where they had been driven. ⁶They also led away the men, women, children, and the royal princesses—all those that Nebuzaradan, commander of the bodyguard, had left, in the care of Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, with Jeremiah, the prophet, and Baruch, son of Neriah. ⁷So, in defiance of the Lord’s order, they entered Egypt and arrived at Tahpanhes.

Jeremiah Foretells

the Invasion of Egypt

⁸There, at Tahpanhes, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “While the Jews are watching you, ⁹take some large stones and bury them in clay in the brick terrace at the entrance to Pharaoh’s house at Tahpanhes ¹⁰and then say to them: This is what the Lord God of Hosts and God of Israel says: I am sending for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will set his throne over these stones that I have hidden here, and spread a royal canopy. ¹¹He shall come and strike the land of Egypt, bringing death to those destined to die; captivity, for those destined to be taken captive; sword, for those destined for the sword. ¹²He will set fire to the temples of the Egyptian gods; these gods will be burned or carried away. As a shepherd wraps himself in a cloak, so will the king of Babylon wrap the land of Egypt about himself and depart safely. ¹³He will break the sacred pillars at Heliopolis and burn the temples of the gods in Egypt.”

Jeremiah’s Last Warnings

44 | ¹A word of the Lord came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in Egypt, especially in the cities of Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, as well as in the territory of Upper Egypt: ²“You have seen all the disaster that I brought on Jerusalem and the towns of Judah. ³These are no more than ruins without inhabitants because of the evil they have done. They have provoked my anger by offering incense to foreign gods that neither they nor their fathers knew.

⁴I sent them my servants, the prophets time and time again to tell them: ‘Do not do this abominable thing that I detest!’ ⁵But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn away from their evil ways or give up worshiping strange gods. ⁶Then the fury of my anger was loosed and blazed in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, making them the desolate ruins they are today.

⁷And now the Lord, the God of Hosts and the God of Israel, asks you: Why do you bring such great harm on yourselves? Because of your deeds, every man, woman, child, and infant will be taken from Judah; and you will be left without a remnant. ⁸Why do you provoke my anger with the work of your hands? Why do you worship foreign gods in Egypt, where you came to live? Surely you will decrease in number and be a curse and an object of reproach among all the nations? ⁹Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers and the misdeeds of the kings of Judah and its princes; and the evil behavior of your wives in the land of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem?

¹⁰So far, they have had no contrition and have not followed my law and the decrees I set before you and your ancestors.”

¹¹Because of this, the Lord God of Hosts and God of Israel warns you, “I am turning my face away from you, to bring disaster on you; and to completely destroy Judah. ¹²The remnant of Judah, who chose to enter Egypt and live there, will all perish. They will be destroyed by the sword and famine; and become an object of horror and cursing, of condemnation and reproach. ¹³I will punish those in Egypt as I punished Jerusalem, with the sword, famine, and pestilence. ¹⁴None of the remnant of Judah that came to Egypt will escape or flee, and return to Judah where you long to go and live.”

¹⁵Then all the men who knew their wives were offering incense to foreign gods and all the women, a great assembly, replied to Jeremiah in a louder voice. ¹⁶“As for what you say in the name of the Lord we will not listen; ¹⁷we want to do all that we said we wanted to do: burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out wine to her, as we did; we, and our fathers, our kings and princes, in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Then, we had our fill of bread and were prosperous and free from misfortune. ¹⁸But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven, we have been in need of everything and have perished by the sword and famine.” ¹⁹And the women added, “When we offered incense and poured libations to the queen of heaven, didn’t our husbands know that we made sacrificial cakes decorated with her image?”

²⁰Jeremiah then answered all the people, men and women, who had told him this: ²¹“Is it not better that the Lord remembered the incense you burned in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you, your fathers, your kings, princes, and all the people?

Do you think it slipped his memory? ²²The Lord could no longer bear the sight of your evil and abominable deeds. That is why your land has become the desolate waste that it is today!

²³All the misfortune you are suffering today has happened because you burned incense and sinned against the Lord by not obeying him or following his law, instructions, and commands.”

²⁴Jeremiah then addressed all the people, especially the women, “Listen to the Lord’s message: ²⁵This is what the Lord the God of Hosts and the God of Israel says: You and your wives think that what you say with your lips becomes an obligation you must fulfill. You say: ‘We are bound to keep our vows to burn incense and pour out wine to the queen of heaven.’ Go ahead! Fulfill your vows and do what you promised! ²⁶Nevertheless listen, all you Jews living in Egypt, listen to what the Lord says to you: By my own great name I swear—word of the Lord—that throughout Egypt no one from Judah will invoke my name; no one will be left to say: ‘As the Lord God lives.’ ²⁷I am watching over them, but not for their good. All the people of Judah in Egypt will perish, by the sword and famine, until they are wiped out. ²⁸Only a few will escape the sword and return from Egypt to Judah, and the remnant who came to settle in Egypt will understand whose word comes true, theirs or mine! ²⁹And this is the sign that I will punish you in this place, says the Lord, that you may know that my threatening words to you will be fulfilled: ³⁰I will hand over the Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, to his enemies who want to slay him, just as I let Zedekiah, king of Judah, be taken by his adversary, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was determined to kill him.

45 | ¹These are the words of Jeremiah the prophet, to Baruch, son of Neriah, who wrote on a scroll what Jeremiah dictated. It was in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josias, king of Judah when he said: ²“There is a word of the Lord for you, Baruch. Why do you complain: ³‘Alas for me! I am weary of sighing, and I find no rest!’ ⁴The Lord says: ‘When I am knocking down what I have built and pulled up what I planted, ⁵why do you want great things for yourself? Don’t look for them! Yet, though I am about to send disaster on everyone—word of the Lord—you will be safe wherever you go.”

Prophecies against foreign nations

Against Egypt

46 | •  ¹These are the Lord’s words addressed to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the nations.

²Concerning Egypt, this is the message against the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:

³“Prepare shield and buckler,

and march to battle!

⁴Harness the horses.

Into your saddles, horsemen!

To your ranks, with your helmets on!

Polish your spears!

Put on your breastplates!

⁵But what do I see?

With broken ranks, they fall back; their warriors are routed.

They flee headlong without looking back,

as terrors explode on every side.

⁶The swift cannot flee,

nor the hero escape.

In the north by the Euphrates,

they stumble and fall.

⁷Who is this surging forward like the Nile,

like rivers of billowing waters?

⁸Egypt surges like the Nile,

like rivers of billowing waters.

She says, ‘I will rise and flood the earth;

I will sweep cities and their people away.’

⁹Charge, horses!

Drive madly, charioteers!

March on, warriors—

men of Cush and Put, with your shields,

men of Lydia, with your bows.

¹⁰This is the day of the Lord God of Hosts, a day of vengeance on his foes.

The sword devours, drunk with blood;

for the Lord God Sabaoth holds a sacrifice

in the north country by the Euphrates.

¹¹Go up to Gilead in search of balm,

virgin daughter of Egypt.

You have taken medicines in vain,

but for you there is no healing.

¹²The nations have heard of your shame,

the earth is filled with your cries;

warrior has stumbled against warrior,

and both have fallen together.”

Invasion of Egypt

¹³This is the message the Lord gave to the prophet Jeremiah about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who was to attack Egypt:

¹⁴“Announce this in Egypt, and proclaim it in Migdol, Memphis, and Tahpanhes. Say to them:

Take your posts; prepare for the worst!

The sword has devoured your neighbors.

¹⁵Why has Apis fled?

Your black bull god did not make a stand!

Why? Because the Lord thrust him down ¹⁶and caused him to stumble and fall.

Then they said to each other:

‘Get up, let us go back to our people,

to the land of our birth,

away from the devouring sword.’

¹⁷Pharaoh, king of Egypt, will be called ‘The noisy one who lets his chance slip by.’

¹⁸As surely as I live—says the King

whose name is the Lord Sabaoth—

one will come who is like Tabor,

like Carmel above the sea.

¹⁹Pack your belongings ready for exile,

you who live in Egypt,

for Memphis will be laid waste,

without inhabitants and desolate.

²⁰Egypt is a beautiful heifer,

but a gadfly from the north has come upon her.

²¹The mercenaries in her ranks

are like fattened calves;

but they too have fled

failing to stand their ground,

for the day of their calamity has come,

the time of their punishment.

²²She makes a sound like a fleeing serpent

as her enemies advance in force,

coming against her with axes,

like loggers cutting down trees.

²³Dense though her forest be,

they will raze it—says the Lord.

They are beyond number,

more numerous than locusts.

²⁴The daughter of Egypt will be abased,

handed over to the people of the north.”

²⁵The Lord Sabaoth, the God of Israel, has said: “I will punish Amon of Thebes, and Egypt with her gods and kings, Pharaoh and those who trust in him. ²⁶I will hand them over to those who seek their lives, to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his ministers. Later, however, Egypt will be inhabited again as in times past—it is the Lord who says so.

²⁷But fear not, my servant Jacob; be not dismayed, O Israel. I will deliver you from a distant land, your descendants from their place of exile. Jacob will again find rest, and no one will make him afraid.

²⁸Fear not, Jacob my servant, for I am with you—the Lord speaks—I will make an end of the nations among which I scattered you, but I will spare you. I will discipline you with justice; I will not let you go unpunished.

Against the Philistines

47 | ¹This is the Lord’s word that came to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza. ²Thus says the Lord:

“Look, waters rise from the north;

soon they will become a raging flood

overflowing the land and all it contains,

the towns and their inhabitants.

All dwellers in the land will wail

³at the sound of the hooves of stamping steeds,

the rattle of chariots, the rumbling of wheels.

Parents forget their children,

as their hands fall limp.

⁴The day of ruin has come upon the Philistines;

Tyre and Sidon, the last of their allies, are cut off from them.

The Lord is set to destroy the Philistines,

the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor.

⁵Gaza is shaved bald,

Ashkelon has perished.

O remnant in the valley,

how long will you gash yourselves?

⁶O sword of the Lord,

how long before you rest?

Return to your scabbard;

stop and keep still!

⁷But how can it rest,

when it is the Lord who commanded it

to attack Ashkelon and the seacoast?”

Against Moab

48 | ¹Concerning Moab, the Lord, the God of Israel, says this:

“Woe to Nebo, for it is laid waste.

Kiriathaim is captured and disgraced;

the fortress is shattered and abased.

²No more will Moab be praised;

men in Heshbon are plotting her downfall:

‘Let us put an end to that nation!’

You, too, Madmen, will be subdued;

behind you stalks the sword.

³Listen, a cry from Horonaim—

a cry of ruin and destruction!

⁴Moab is destroyed;

her cry is heard as far as Zoar.

⁵Her little ones go up the way to Luhith, weeping bitterly as they make the ascent.

On the descent to Horonaim

the cry of destruction is still heard.

⁶Flee, run for your lives,

like the wild asses in the desert.

⁷Since you trusted in your deeds and riches,

you also will be captured.

Chemosh will go into exile,

together with her priests and officials.

⁸Upon every city the destroyer comes,

and not a single city escapes.

The valley is despoiled,

the plain plundered,

as the Lord has declared.

⁹Bury Moab for she has perished!

Her cities will become desolate,

with no inhabitant left.

¹⁰A curse be on him who is lax in performing the work of the Lord! A curse be on him who holds back his sword from shedding blood!

¹¹From his youth Moab has lived at ease, resting complacently upon lees,

never having gone into exile,

never having been decanted;

so she kept her own flavor as wine,

her aroma remained the same.

¹²And so the day will come—the Lord says—when I will send decanters to her. They will empty her flasks and break her jars. ¹³Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as Israel has been ashamed of Bethel, in which they put their trust.

¹⁴How can you say, ‘We are heroes and valiant men of war?’ ¹⁵Moab will be destroyed, her towns shattered, and her finest young men slaughtered—it is the King who speaks, whose name is the Lord Sabaoth.

¹⁶Moab’s ruin is near at hand;

her downfall comes at top speed.

¹⁷All you, her neighbors, mourn for her,

all you who knew her well;

say, “How the mighty scepter is broken, the glorious rod!”

¹⁸Come down from glory,

sit on the parched ground,

all you who dwell in Dibon;

Moab’s destroyer has come against you,

he has destroyed your stronghold.

¹⁹Stand by the way and watch closely,

you who dwell in Aroer;

ask the men who flee, the women who escape,

ask them what has happened.

²⁰Moab is shamed, oh, yes, destroyed;

howl and cry out for her.

Announce it by the Arnon

that Moab is ruined.

²¹Judgment has come on the tableland: on Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath, ²²on Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim, ²³on Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon, ²⁴on Kerioth and Bozrah, on all the cities of Moab, far and near. ²⁵The horn of Moab is cut off and her arm broken—it is the Lord who speaks.

²⁶Make her drunk! Because she magnified herself against the Lord, Moab will wallow in her vomit and become a laughingstock in turn. ²⁷Was not Israel a laughingstock to you? Was she found among thieves that you wag your head whenever you speak of her?

²⁸Leave the cities and dwell in the rocky cliffs,

O inhabitants of Moab.

Learn from the dove that makes its nest out of reach on the edge of a cliff.

²⁹We have heard of Moab's pride,

her loftiness and arrogance,

and the haughtiness of her heart.

³⁰The Lord says: I know her insolence;

her words are false,

her deeds are vain.

³¹And so I wail for Moab;

for the whole of Moab I moan;

for the people of Kir-heres, I mourn.

³²O vineyard of Sibmah,

I weep for you more than for Jazer.

Your branches spread as far as the sea,

all the way to the sea of Jazer.

The destroyer has fallen

on your harvest and your vintage.

³³Jubilation is at an end

in the fruit gardens of Moab;

the vintage shout of joy is not heard,

for I have drained the wine from the wine vats.

³⁴The cry of Heshbon and Elealeh is heard as far as Jahaz. From Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah, their lament is heard, for even the waters of Nimrim have become desolate.

³⁵The Lord says: I will bring to an end any one in Moab who offers sacrifice on the high place and burns incense to his gods.

³⁶And that is why my heart, like a flute, sobs for Moab, moans for the people of Kir-Heres whose accumulated riches have all perished. ³⁷Every head is shorn, every beard cut off; gashes are on their hands, and sackcloth covers their loins. ³⁸There is nothing but lamentation on all the housetops and in the public squares of Moab, for I have shattered her like a vessel that no one wants—says the Lord.

³⁹What terror has seized Moab, what wailing! Oh, how she has turned back in shame! Moab has become a laughingstock and a horror to her neighbors.

⁴⁰For thus says the Lord: Look, an eagle is swooping down, spreading its wings over Moab.

⁴¹The towns will be captured, the strongholds seized.

The heart of Moab’s warriors on that day will be like the heart of a woman in travail.

⁴²Moab will be destroyed as a nation for setting itself up against the Lord. 

⁴³Terror, pit, and snare be upon you, O people of Moab—says the Lord.

⁴⁴He who flees from terror will fall into the pit; he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare; for I will let this happen to Moab in the year of her punishment—says the Lord.

⁴⁵Fugitives stop in the shadow of Heshbon, for a fire has gone from the house of Sihon, burning Moab’s skull and her boasters’ crown.

⁴⁶Woe to you, Moab,

people of Chemosh who suffer calamity!

Your sons are taken into exile,

your daughters into captivity.

⁴⁷But in the days to come I will restore the fortunes of Moab—the Lord declares.”

The judgment on Moab ends here.

Against Ammon

49 | ¹Concerning the Ammonites, the Lord says this:

“Has Israel no sons?

Has she no heir?

Why then has Milcom disinherited Gad,

why have his people settled in its cities?

²But the days are coming

—says the Lord—

when I will sound the battle alarm

against Rabbah of the Ammonites.

It will become a heap of ruins,

its villages destroyed by fire.

Then Israel will dispossess

those who had dispossessed her

—the Lord says.

³Wail, Heshbon, for the destroyer marches!

Howl, inhabitants of Rabbah!

Put on sackcloth, lament,

run to and fro, gashing yourselves;

for Milcom goes into exile,

along with his priests and officials.

⁴Why boast of your valleys,

your valleys flowing with fruit,

O faithless daughter,

trusting in your riches and saying,

‘Who will dare attack me?’

⁵Look, I will bring terror upon you;

you will be driven away,

everyone making his own way,

with no one to gather the fugitives.

⁶Yet I will restore the fortunes

of the Ammonites later on.

It is the Lord Sabaoth who speaks.”

Against Edom

⁷Concerning Edom, this is what the Lord says:

“Is there no more wisdom left in Teman?

Has counsel perished from the prudent?

Has their understanding decayed?

⁸Flee or hide in dark caves,

you inhabitants of Dedan,

for I will bring destruction upon Esau

when I come to punish him.

⁹If grape pickers worked in your vineyard,

would they not leave gleanings behind?

If thieves came to you at night,

would they not steal only as much as they want?

¹⁰But I will strip Esau bare;

his hiding places I will uncover.

His relatives, children and neighbors

will perish, and he will be no more.

¹¹Leave your widows and orphans behind,

and rest assured, I will keep them alive.”

¹²For thus says the Lord: “Even those not sentenced to drink the cup must drink it. Why, then, should you go unpunished? You, too, shall drink! ¹³By my own self have I sworn, says the Lord: Bozrah shall become an object of horror and disgrace, desolation and a curse. All her towns and cities shall be ruins forever.”

¹⁴I have received a message from the Lord; a herald has been sent among the nations:

“Assemble! Prepare for battle!

March against these people!

¹⁵Look, I will reduce you among the nations, make you despised among humankind.

¹⁶The terror that you inspire

and your pride has deceived you,

you who live in the crags,

on the rocky heights of the hill.

Though you build your nest as high as the eagle’s,

I will bring you down from there—it is the Lord who speaks.

¹⁷Edom will become a horror, shocking every passerby who will catch his breath at the sight of her wounds. ¹⁸As when Sodom, Gomorrah, and their neighboring towns were overthrown, no one shall dwell or visit there—thus the Lord proclaims.

¹⁹As when a lion comes from the thicket of Jordan to a rich feeding ground, so I, in an instant, will drive Edom from its land. Whom will I choose for this task? Who is like me and can call me to account? What shepherd can stand against me?

²⁰Therefore, hear the Lord’s plan against Edom, against those who live in Teman. They will be dragged away, even the smallest sheep; their pasture will be destroyed because of them.

²¹The earth will tremble at the sound of their fall, and their cry will resound to the Sea of Reeds.

²²Look! An eagle will soar and spread its wings over Bozrah. On that day, the heart of Edom’s warriors will pound like the heart of a woman in labor.”

About the Syrian Cities

²³Message concerning Damascus:

“Hamath and Arpad are confused,

having heard bad news.

Their hearts are faint with fear

like the waters of a troubled sea.

²⁴Damascus has become feeble

and turns to flee in panic,

gripped by anguish and pain,

like a woman in travail.

²⁵How the renowned city is forsaken,

the city of delight!

²⁶Her young men will fall in the streets,

her soldiers will be silenced on that day.

the Lord declares:

²⁷I will set fire to the walls of Damascus; it will consume Ben-Hadad’s fortresses.”

Against the Arabic Tribes

²⁸A message concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, attacked. This is what the Lord says:

“Arise and attack Kedar,

destroy the people of the East!

²⁹Their tents and flocks will be taken away,

their goods and camels carried off

as men shout, ‘Terror on every side!’

³⁰Flee, dwell in deep caves,

you who live in Hazor—says the Lord.

For Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has devised a plot against you.

³¹Arise and attack a nation at ease,

which lives in confidence,

a nation that has neither bars nor gates,

a people that dwell alone complacently.

³²Their camels will become plunder, their large herds will be spoils;

I will scatter to the winds

those who are in far-off places;

I will bring disaster

on them from every side.

³³Hazor will be a jackal’s haunt,

forever a wasteland

uninhabited by humans,

unvisited by anyone.”

Against Elam

³⁴This is the word of the Lord against Elam, which came to the prophet Jeremiah at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah. ³⁵The Lord Sabaoth says this:

“See, I will break the bow of Elam, the mainstay of their might. ³⁶I will bring the four winds against her from the four quarters of the heavens, and there will be no nation on earth to which Elam’s exiles will not be dispersed.

³⁷I will shatter Elam before their foes, before those who seek their lives. I will bring disaster upon them, even my fierce anger. I will pursue them with the sword until I have ended them.

³⁸I will set my throne in Elam and destroy her king and officials. ³⁹Yet I will restore the fortunes of Elam in the days to come—says the Lord.”

Against Babylon

50 | •  ¹This is the word the Lord spoke against Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans through the prophet Jeremiah:

²“Do not hide this, but announce among the nations that Babylon is taken, Bel confounded, Marduk dismayed; her images are put to shame, her idols destroyed.

³A people from the north marches against her, set to turn her into a wasteland abandoned by both people and beast.

⁴In those days—declares the Lord—the people of Israel and Judah will come in tears to seek the Lord their God.

⁵With their faces turned toward Zion, they will ask how to get there. They will come and say, ‘Let us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting Covenant never to be forgotten.’

⁶My people were lost sheep misled by their shepherds and left to roam on the mountains. They wandered from hill to hill and lost the way to their fold.

⁷They were devoured by enemies who chanced upon them and said, ‘We have no guilt. This is their due, for they sinned against the Lord, their true shepherd and hope of their ancestors.’

⁸Flee from Babylon, leave the land of the Chaldeans, be like the rams that lead the flock!

⁹For I will stir up nations from the north to march against Babylon. Their arrows are like those of skilled warriors who never return empty-handed, and Babylon will be captured.

¹⁰Chaldea will be plundered, and the plunderers will be filled.

¹¹Rejoice as long as you can,

you plunderers of my inheritance!

Frolic like heifers threshing grain

and neigh like stallions!

¹²But your mother will be disgraced;

she will be the least of the nations,

laid waste and a desert.

¹³The Lord’s fury will leave her desolate,

an empty solitude, uninhabited.

Every passerby will be horrified

at the sight of the wounds of Babylon.

¹⁴Take your posts around the city,

all you who bend the bow.

Shoot at her, spare no arrows,

for great is her iniquity.

¹⁵Raise the war cry!

Now she surrenders!

Her walls are torn down, her towers fallen.

Since this is the Lord’s vengeance,

take revenge on her;

do to her as she has done to others.

¹⁶Cut off the sower from Babylon

and the reaper with his sickle at harvest time.

Escape from the oppressor’s sword;

let everyone return to his own people

and flee to his own land.

¹⁷Israel was a straying sheep that lions pursued. The first to devour her was the Assyrian, and the last to crush her bones was Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

¹⁸Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as once I punished the king of Assyria.

¹⁹But I will return Israel to her fold, to feed on Bashan and Carmel and on Mount Ephraim and Gilead until she has had her fill.

²⁰In those days, the Lord says, a search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but none will be found, and for the sins of Judah, and none will be found; for I will forgive the remnant whose lives I have spared.

²¹Attack the land of Merathaim and those who live in Pekod; pursue and kill them, says the Lord; do all as I have commanded. ²²Battle alarm is in the land, the alarm of great destruction. ²³How broken and shattered is the hammer of the whole earth! How horrifying has Babylon become among the nations!

²⁴You ensnared yourself, O Babylon, and were caught before you knew it; you were found out and seized because you challenged the Lord. ²⁵The Lord has opened his armory, brought out the arms of his fury, for the Lord Sabaoth has work to do in the land of Chaldea.

²⁶Come against her from every side; break open her granaries; pile her up like heaps of grain, destroy her, leaving no remnant. ²⁷Slay all her oxen, down to the slaughterhouse with them! Woe to them! Their day has come, the time for their chastisement.

²⁸Listen! Fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon have come to announce in Zion the Lord’s vengeance for his temple. ²⁹Surround Babylon with archers, and leave her no way of escape. Repay her as her deeds deserve; do to her as she has done to others. Give her the due for her defiance of the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

³⁰That day, her warriors and young men will also fall and lie in silence. ³¹I am against you, arrogant one! It is the Lord Sabaoth who speaks—the time to punish you has come.

³²The arrogant one will stumble; no one will help her up. In her towns, I will kindle a fire that will consume everything around.

³³Thus says the Lord Sabaoth: The people of Israel and Judah are oppressed, for their captors hold them fast and refuse to let them go. ³⁴ But strong is their avenger, the Lord Sabaoth, his name. He will fight for their cause and succeed; he will give them rest in their land but unrest to those who live in Babylon.

³⁵A sword upon the Chaldeans, upon the people of Babylon, her princes and sages! ³⁶A sword upon her false prophets: may they lose their wits! A sword upon her warriors: may they tremble in terror! ³⁷A sword upon her mercenaries: may they become women!

A sword upon her treasures: may they be plundered! ³⁸A sword upon her waters: may they dry up! For hers is a land of idols that go mad with terrors.

³⁹So, desert beasts will live there; the owl and ostrich will dwell there. From generation to generation, the land will never be inhabited again. ⁴⁰As when God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah with their neighbors, nobody will live there anymore, and no one will make his home there again.

⁴¹A strong people is coming from the north, a mighty nation. Stirred up from the far ends of the earth ⁴²are men armed with bows and spears who are cruel and without mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride on galloping steeds. They come in battle formation against you, daughter of Babylon.

⁴³Your king has heard news of them, and his hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped him, and his pain is like that of a woman in travail.

⁴⁴As a lion comes from the thicket of Jordan to a rich feeding ground, so I, in an instant, will drive them off, and whom I choose, I will establish there. For who is like me? And who can call me to account? What shepherd can stand against me?

⁴⁵Therefore, hear the Lord’s plans against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans: they will be dragged away, even the smallest sheep; their pasture will be destroyed because of them.

⁴⁶The earth quakes at the cry, ‘Babylon is captured!’ Among the nations, the outcry is heard.”

The Lord Against Babylon

51 | ¹This is what the Lord says:

“I will stir up a devastating wind against Babylon and the Chaldeans.

²I will send foreigners to Babylon

to winnow her and lay waste her land.

On the day of her affliction

they will besiege her from all sides.

³Let not her archers bend their bows,

let them not stand up in their armor.

Spare not her young men;

destroy the host of her warriors.

⁴They will fall fatally wounded

in the streets of Babylon.

⁵For Israel and Judah have not been forgotten by their God, the Lord Sabaoth,

though their land is guilt-ridden

before the Holy One of Israel.

⁶Save your lives, flee from Babylon!

Partake not of her punishment;

this is a time of the Lord’s vengeance,

a time of his recompense to her.

⁷Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand,

a cup that made the whole earth drunk.

The nations drank her wine,

and they have become mad.

⁸Babylon’s fall is sudden.

Wail for her, wail!

Bring balm for her wounds

if she cannot yet be healed.

⁹‘We have tried to heal Babylon,

but she is beyond healing.

Let us go back, each to his own land,

and leave her to her judgment

which rises up to heaven.’

¹⁰The Lord has defended our rights,

come, let us declare in Zion

what the Lord, our God, has done.

¹¹Sharpen the arrows,

take up the shields!

The Lord has aroused Media’s kings

in his resolve to destroy Babylon.

This is the Lord’s vengeance,

vengeance for his temple.

¹²Raise a flag on the walls of Babylon,

and make the watch strong.

Post guards, prepare an ambush!

The Lord will carry out his purpose, his words against the people of Babylon.

¹³You who dwell by mighty waters,

you who are rich in treasures,

this is your end; the time

for you to be cut off has come.

¹⁴The Lord Sabaoth has sworn:

Surely I will fill you with troops,

thick as a swarm of locusts;

they will exult over you and raise the vintage shout.

Hymn

¹⁵He made the earth by his power,

founded the world by his wisdom,

spread out the sky by his discernment.

¹⁶When he thunders, the heaven roars;

from the earth, he makes clouds rise;

he sends lightning with the rain,

and from his vaults brings out the wind.

¹⁷Everyone stands stupefied at this;

artisans blush, for the idols they made

have no life and are a fraud.

¹⁸They are worthless, ridiculous;

when judgment comes, they will perish.

¹⁹The portion of Jacob is not like them,

for he is the creator of all;

the Lord Sabaoth is his name,

and his heritage is Israel.

The Hammer of the Lord

•  ²⁰You were my hammer, my weapon of war. With you, I wrecked nations; with you, I demolished kingdoms.

²¹With you, I wrecked horse and rider, chariot and charioteer. ²²With you, I wrecked man and woman, youth and aged, young man and maiden.

²³With you, I wrecked shepherd and flock, farmer and draft animal, rulers and officials.

²⁴But now, I will repay Babylon and those who dwell in Chaldea for the wrong they did to Zion. ²⁵I am against you, ravaging mountain, ravager of the whole earth! It is the Lord who speaks.

I will lay my hands on you, roll you down over the crags, and make you a parched, eroded mountain. ²⁶No cornerstone or foundation stone will be taken from you; forever shall you be in ruins, the Lord says.

²⁷Raise a signal on the earth; among the nations blow the trumpet. Prepare the nations for war; summon the kingdoms to battle Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Marshal a great force against her; bring up the cavalry, swarming and bristling.

²⁸Prepare the nations to battle her, the Medes with their kings, governors, and officials, and all the countries they rule.

²⁹The earth trembles and writhes as the Lord carries out his process of turning the land of Babylon into a desert where no one lives. ³⁰Her warriors have ceased to fight; they cower in their strongholds. Their strength is dried up, their homes are burned, and their gates are broken.

³¹Couriers run to the king one after another, bringing news that his entire city is fallen: ³²The fords have been seized, the fortresses set afire, and all the warriors terrified. ³³The Lord Sabaoth, God of Israel, says that Babylon is like a threshing floor when it is trodden. A little while and the time of the harvest grain will come for her.”

³⁴The people of Zion said: ‘Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has consumed and routed me. He has left me as an empty vessel. Like a dragon, he has swallowed me and filled his belly; he cast me out of my Eden.

³⁵May the violence done to my flesh be upon Babylon, says the city of Zion. May my blood be upon the Chaldeans,’ says Jerusalem.

³⁶The Lord says to his people: “See now, I defend your cause and avenge you. I will dry up her sea and drain her springs. ³⁷Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and derision, a place where no one lives.

³⁸Her people will roar like lions and growl like lion cubs. ³⁹But while they are feverish, I will prepare a drink for them and make them drunk till they grow drowsy and fall into eternal sleep, never to wake up again.

⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like goats and rams.

⁴¹How has Babylon been seized, the world's glory taken captive! How has Babylon become a horror among nations!

⁴²The sea has risen over Babylon, covering her with its roaring waves. ⁴³Her cities have become desolate, a land of drought and a desert, a land where no one dwells, a land through which no one travels.

⁴⁴I will punish Bel in Babylon and make him belch out what he devoured. No longer will nations stream to him. The wall of Babylon has fallen.

⁴⁵My people, come out of her! Run for your lives! Run from the Lord’s fierce anger. ⁴⁶Do not lose heart or be afraid when rumors are heard, when rumors come year after year, when there are rumors of violence and disaster, and when there are intrigues of ruler against ruler.

⁴⁷The time will surely come when I will punish the idols of Babylon; her land will be put to shame when all around her lie slain. ⁴⁸Then heaven and earth and all therein will rejoice over Babylon, for out of the north the destroyers will come to attack her—it is the Lord who speaks.

⁴⁹Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, just as the slain of all the earth has fallen because of Babylon.

⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword, leave and do not linger. Remember the Lord from this far country and think of Jerusalem:

⁵¹‘We have been put to shame, dishonor has covered our faces; because aliens have entered the holy places of the Lord’s house.’

⁵²But days will come, the Lord declares, when I will punish her idols, and the wounded will groan all over her land. ⁵³ Though Babylon mounts skyward, though she fortifies her heights, the mere threat of the destroyers I send is enough to make her terrified.

⁵⁴Listen! Loud cries from Babylon, the sound of terrible destruction from the land of the Chaldeans! ⁵⁵That is the Lord laying waste the city, silencing her monstrous din. Well, may her waves roar and their clamor be heard afar! ⁵⁶Upon Babylon, the destroyer has come; her warriors are captured, and their bows are broken.

For the Lord is a God who rewards, who repays her enemies in full. ⁵⁷I will make her rulers and sages drunk, her governors, her officers, and warriors; they will sleep the sleep of death and never awake, says the King whose name is the Lord Sabaoth.

⁵⁸The Lord Sabaoth says this: The wide ramparts of Babylon will be razed to the ground, her high gates burned down. The people’s labor will go to naught; the nation’s toil will end in fire.”

The Written Oracle Thrown Into the River

⁵⁹This is Jeremiah's message to Seraiah, son of Neriah, who is Mahseiah’s son when he went to Babylon at the command of Zedekiah, who was then in the fourth year of his reign as king of Judah.

⁶⁰Jeremiah had written on a scroll the entire disaster that was to befall Babylon—all these words recorded here.

⁶¹Jeremiah then said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. ⁶²Then say: ‘Lord, you, yourself, have proclaimed that this place will be destroyed, that neither people nor beast will ever live here again, for it will remain desolate forever.’

⁶³When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates. ⁶⁴Then say: “So will Babylon sink and rise no more because of the disaster I will bring upon her.”

Thus far the words of Jeremiah.

The Fall of Jerusalem

52 | ¹Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother, Hamutal by name, was the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah.

²He did evil in the sight of the Lord just as Jehoiakim had done. ³All that happened in Jerusalem and Judah came about because of the Lord’s anger until the day when he drove them out of his sight.

Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon; ⁴so in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched with his entire army and laid siege to Jerusalem. They camped outside the city and built siege works all around it. ⁵The city was under siege up to the eleventh year of Zedekiah.

 ⁶On the ninth day of the fourth month, famine became a serious problem in the city, and throughout the land, there was no bread for the people. ⁷When the city was opened by a breach in the wall, the Judean army fled. They left the city by night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. While the Chaldeans were still surrounding the city they fled towards the Arabah. ⁸The Chaldeans followed in hot pursuit of King Zedekiah. They caught up with him in the plains of Jericho. All his army deserted and scattered.

⁹The Chaldeans seized the king and led him away to Riblah in the territory of Hamath, and there, the king of Babylon passed sentence on him. There, at Riblah, the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah in his presence; and also killed all the officials of Judah. ¹⁰He then put out the eyes of Zedekiah, bound him with a double bronze chain, and took him to Babylon. ¹¹He was imprisoned there in the house of the guards until the day of his death.

¹²On the tenth day of the fifth month in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, commander of the bodyguard and servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem and set fire to the house of the Lord and the royal palace, as well as to all the houses in Jerusalem. ¹³He also burned every important building. ¹⁴The Chaldean army, under the commander of the bodyguard, completely demolished all the walls around Jerusalem.

¹⁵Nebuzaradan, commander of the bodyguard, carried off into exile some of the poorest among the people, the remnant of Jews left in the city, and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the remainder of the artisans. ¹⁶But Nebuzaradan left behind those among the very poor who could work in vineyards and cultivate the soil.

¹⁷The Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars, stands, and the bronze Sea in the house of the Lord and carried all this bronze to Babylon.

¹⁸They also took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, spoons, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. ¹⁹The bodyguard commander took the basins, censers, sprinkling bowls, pots, lampstands, ladles, and bowls—all gold or silver.

²⁰The two pillars, the Sea and the twelve bronze bulls underneath it, the movable stands which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord—all this bronze was of immeasurable weight.

²¹The pillars were each eighteen cubits high with a circumference of twelve cubits. Each had a thickness of four fingers and was hollow. ²²On the top of each pillar was a bronze capital five cubits high, and above this, and around the capital, was filigree work with pomegranates in bronze. ²³Ninety-six pomegranates hung down, and in all the filigree decoration, there was a total of a hundred pomegranates.

²⁴The commander of the bodyguard took captive Seraiah, the chief priest, and Zephaniah, the next priest in rank, as well as three doorkeepers.

²⁵He also took from those in the city a eunuch in command of the fighting men, seven personal advisers to the king, who were discovered in the city, ²⁶the commander’s secretary, responsible for military conscription, and sixty of his men, who were found in the city. Nebuzaradan took all these away to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²⁷There at Riblah, in the territory of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them put to death. So Judah was taken captive and taken away from its own land.

²⁸This is the number of the population deported by Nebuchadnezzar: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews; ²⁹ in the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar, 832 people from Jerusalem; 30 in the twenty-third year, 745 Jews deported by Nebuzaradan, commander of the bodyguard—in all 4,600 people.

³¹On the 25th day of the 12th month, in the 37th year of the exile of Jehoiakin, king of Judah, Evil-Merodach, king of Babylon, in the year he came to the throne, pardoned Jehoiakin king of Judah, and released him from prison. ³²He spoke kindly to him and treated him more honorably than the other kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³Jehoiakin put aside his prisoner’s garment and ate at the king's table for the rest of his life.

³⁴Day by day, for as long as he lived, he was maintained by the king of Babylon.