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The Book of Jeremiah

Jeremiah 1

The Call of Jeremiah

1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: 2 To whom the Word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, to the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

4 Then the Word of the LORD came to me, saying,

5 Before I formed you in embryo I knew you; and before you were born I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations.

6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

7 But the LORD said to me, Say not, I am a child: for you will go to all that I will send you, and whatever I command you you will speak.

8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.

9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

11 Moreover the Word of the LORD came to me, saying, Jeremiah, What seest you? And I said, I see a rod of an almond-tree. 12 Then said the LORD to me, You have well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

13 And the Word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, What seest you? And I said, I see a seething pot; and its face is towards the north. 14 Then the LORD said to me, Out of the north an evil will break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. 15 For lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD; and they will come, and they will set everyone his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls around, and against all the cities of Judah. 16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands. 17 You therefore gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command you: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound you before them. 18 For behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against her princes, against her priests, and against the people of the land. 19 And they will fight against you; but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you.

 

Jeremiah 2

WBT

Israel Has Forsaken God

1 Moreover the Word of the LORD came to me, saying,

2 Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the LORD; I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals, when you wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

3 Israel was holiness to the LORD, and the first-fruits of his increase: all that devour him will offend; evil will come upon them, says the LORD.

4 Hear you the Word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:

5 Thus says the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and have become vain?

6 Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drouth, and of the shades of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?

7 And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit of it, and the goodness of it; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.

8 The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

9 Wherefore I will yet plead with you, says the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead.

10 For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send to Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there is such a thing.

11 Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.

12 Be astonished, O you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be you very desolate, says the LORD.

13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

The Consequence of Israel’s Sin

14 Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave? why is he laid waste?

15 The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.

16 Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of your head.

17 Have you not procured this to thyself in that you have forsaken the LORD your God, when he led you by the way?

18 And now what have you to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what have you to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?

19 Thy own wickedness will correct you, and your backslidings will reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and that my fear is not in you, says the Lord GOD of hosts.

20 For of old time I have broken your yoke, and burst your bands; and you saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree you wanderest, playing the harlot.

21 Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine to me?

22 For though you will wash you with niter, and take you much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, says the Lord GOD.

Israel’s Unfaithfulness
(Judges 2:10–15; Isaiah 43:22–28)

23 How canst you say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see your way in the valley, know what you have done: you are a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

24 A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they will find her.

25 Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst: but you saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.

26 As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed: they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets,

27 Saying to a stock, You are my father; and to a stone, You have brought me forth: for they have turned their back to me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.

28 But where are your gods that you have made for thyself? let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah.

29 Why will you plead with me? you all have transgressed against me, says the LORD.

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

31 O generation, see you the Word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? a land of darkness? why say my people, We are lords; we will come no more to you?

32 Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

33 Why trimmest you your way to seek love? therefore have you also taught the wicked ones your ways.

34 Also in your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.

35 Yet you sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger will turn from me. Behold, I will plead with you, because you sayest, I have not sinned.

36 Why dost you go about so much to change your way? you also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as you were ashamed of Assyria.

37 Yes, you will go forth from him, and your hands upon your head: for the LORD has rejected your confidences, and you are not to prosper in them.

 

Jeremiah 3

WBT

The Wages of the Harlot

1 They say, If a man will put away his wife, and she will go from him, and become another man’s, will he return to her again? will not that land be greatly polluted? but you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, says the LORD.

2 Lift up your eyes to the high places, and see where you have not been lain with. In the ways have you sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your acts of lewdness, and with your wickedness.

3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain? and you hadst a harlot’s forehead, you refusedst to be ashamed.

4 Wilt you not from this time cry to me, My father, you are the guide of my youth?

5 Will he retain his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done evil things as you couldst.

Judah Follows Israel’s Example

6 The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she has gone up upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot. 7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn you to me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 And I saw, when for all the causes by which backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. 9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her lewdness, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. 10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart, but feignedly, says the LORD.

A Call to Repentance
(Hosea 14:1–3; Zechariah 1:1–6)

11 And the LORD said to me, The backsliding Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

12 Go and proclaim these words towards the north, and say, Return, you backsliding Israel, says the LORD; and I will not cause my anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, says the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.

13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, says the LORD.

14 Turn, O backsliding children, says the LORD; for I am married to you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

15 And I will give you pastors according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16 And it will come to pass, when you will be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the LORD, they will say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither will it come to mind: neither will they remember it; neither will they visit it; neither will that be done any more. 17 At that time they will call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem; neither will they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart. 18 In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance to your fathers.

19 But I said, How will I put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, You shalt call me, My father; and are not to turn away from me.

20 Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says the LORD.

21 A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.

22 Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come to you; for you are the LORD our God.

23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.

24 For shame has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.

 

Jeremiah 4

WBT

A Plea to Return

1 If you wilt return, O Israel, says the LORD, return to me: and if you wilt put away your abominations out of my sight, then you will not remove.

2 And you will swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations will bless themselves in him, and in him will they glory.

3 For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

Disaster from the North

5 Declare you in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow you the trumpet in the land: cry, Gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.

6 Set up the standard towards Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

7 The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Nations is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make your land desolate; your cities will be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

8 For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.

9 And it will come to pass at that day, says the LORD, that the heart of the king will perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests will be astonished, and the prophets will wonder.

10 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You will have peace; whereas the sword reacheth to the soul.

11 At that time will it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness towards the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse, 12 Even a full wind from those places will come to me: now also will I give sentence against them.

13 Behold, he will come up as clouds, and his chariots will be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! for we are laid waste.

14 O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will your vain thoughts lodge within you?

15 For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.

16 Make you mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.

17 As keepers of a field they are against her on all sides; because she has been rebellious against me, says the LORD.

18 Thy way and your doings have procured these things to you; this is your wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth to your heart.

Lamentation for Judah

19 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

20 Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste; suddenly are my tents ruined, and my curtains in a moment.

21 How long will I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

22 For my people are foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have no understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

23 I beheld the earth, and lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

24 I beheld the mountains, and lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.

25 I beheld, and lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had fled.

26 I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.

27 For thus has the LORD said, The whole land will be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

28 For this will the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.

29 The whole city will flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they will go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city will be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.

30 And when you are laid waste, what wilt you do? Though you clothest thyself with crimson, though you deckest you with ornaments of gold, though you rendest your face with painting, in vain you will make thyself fair: your lovers will despise you, they will seek your life.

31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

 

Jeremiah 5

WBT

No One Is Just

1 Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its broad places, if you can find a man, if there is any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.

2 And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.

3 O LORD, are not your eyes upon the truth? you have stricken them, but they have not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

4 Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.

5 I will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

6 Wherefore a lion from the forest will slay them, and a wolf of the evenings will spoil them, a leopard will watch over their cities: everyone that goeth out thence will be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.

7 How will I pardon you for this? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.

8 They were as fed horses in the morning: everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife.

9 Shall I not visit for these things? says the LORD: and will not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

10 Go you up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD’S.

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

12 They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither will evil come upon us; neither will we see sword nor famine:

13 And the prophets will become wind, and the word is not in them: thus will it be done to them.

Judgment Proclaimed

14 Wherefore thus says the LORD God of hosts, Because you speak this word, Behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them.

15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, says the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you knowest not, neither understandest what they say.

16 Their quiver is as an open sepulcher, they are all mighty men.

17 And they will eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat: they will eat up your flocks and your herds: they will eat up your vines and your fig-trees: they will impoverish with the sword your fortified cities, in which you have trusted.

18 Nevertheless in those days, says the LORD, I will not make a full end with you. 19 And it will come to pass, when you will say, Why doeth the LORD our God all these things to us? then you will answer them, As you have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

20 Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,

21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; who have eyes, and see not; who have ears, and hear not:

22 Fear you not me? says the LORD: will you not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though its waves toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

23 But this people have a revolting and a rebellious heart; they have revolted and gone.

24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in its season: he reserveth to us the appointed weeks of harvest.

25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you.

26 For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they have become great, and have grown rich.

28 They have become fat, they shine: yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

29 Shall I not visit for these things? says the LORD: will not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;

31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end thereof?

 

Jeremiah 6

WBT

Jerusalem’s Final Warning

1 O you children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem: for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction.

2 I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman.

3 The shepherds with their flocks will come to her; they will pitch their tents against her on every side; they will feed everyone in his place.

4 Prepare you war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! for the day departeth, for the shadows of the evening are lengthened.

5 Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.

6 For thus has the LORD of Armies said, Hew you down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.

7 As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her wickedness: violence and devastation is heard in her; before me continually are grief and wounds.

8 Be you instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you; lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited.

9 Thus says the LORD of Armies, They will thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn back your hand as a grape-gatherer into the baskets.

10 To whom will I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot listen: behold, the Word of the LORD is to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife will be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.

12 And their houses will be turned to others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD.

13 For from the least of them even to the greatest of them everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest everyone dealeth falsely.

14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? no, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they will fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they will be cast down, says the LORD.

16 Thus says the LORD, Stand you in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it.

17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not listen.

18 Therefore hear, you nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.

19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words, nor to my law, but have rejected it.

20 To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a distant country? your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet to me.

21 Therefore thus says the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumbling-blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together will fall upon them; the neighbor and his friend will perish.

An Invasion from the North

22 Thus says the LORD, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation will be raised from the sides of the earth.

23 They will lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against you, O daughter of Zion.

24 We have heard the fame of it: our hands become feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

25 Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.

26 O daughter of my people, gird you with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make you mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler will suddenly come upon us.

27 I have set you for a tower and a fortress among my people, that you may know and try their way.

28 They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.

29 The bellows is burned, the lead is consumed by the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.

30 Reprobate silver will men call them, because the LORD has rejected them.

 

Jeremiah 7

WBT

Jeremiah’s Message at the Temple Gate

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Stand in the gate of the LORD’S house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the Word of the LORD, all you of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD. 3 Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Trust you not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these. 5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; 6 If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: 7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

8 Behold, you trust in lying words, that cannot profit. 9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you know not; 10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? 11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, says the LORD.

12 But go you now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these works, says the LORD, and I spoke to you, rising early and speaking, but you heard not; and I called you, but you answered not; 14 Therefore will I do to this house, which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

Judah’s Idolatry Persists

16 Therefore pray not you for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear you. 17 Seest you not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. 19 Do they provoke me to anger? says the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? 20 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, my anger and my fury will be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it will burn, and will not be quenched.

21 Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Put your burnt-offerings to your sacrifices, and eat flesh. 22 For I spoke not to your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices: 23 But this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people: and walk you in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well to you. 24 But they listened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came forth from the land of Egypt to this day I have even sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them: 26 Yet they listened not to me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.

27 Therefore you will speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you will also call to them; but they will not answer you. 28 But you will say to them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth has perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

29 Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

The Valley of Slaughter

30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it. 31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.

32 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it will no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they will bury in Tophet, until there will be no place. 33 And the carcasses of this people will be food for the birds of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none will frighten them away. 34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land will be desolate.

 

Jeremiah 8

WBT

Judah’s Sin and Punishment

1 At that time, says the LORD, they will bring the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: 2 And they will spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshiped: they will not be gathered, nor be buried; they will be for dung upon the face of the earth. 3 And death will be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places whither I have driven them, says the LORD of Armies.

4 Moreover, you will say to them, Thus says the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? will he turn away, and not return?

5 Why then has this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

6 I listened and heard, but they spoke not aright: no man repented of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? everyone turned to his course, as the horse rusheth to the battle.

7 Yes, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.

8 How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain he has made it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.

9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the Word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?

10 Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to them that will inherit them: for everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even to the priest everyone dealeth falsely.

11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? no, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore will they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they will be cast down, says the LORD.

13 I will surely consume them, says the LORD: there will be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf will fade; and the things that I have given to them will pass away from them.

The People Respond

14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold, trouble!

16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they have come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.

17 For behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they will bite you, says the LORD.

Jeremiah Weeps for His People

18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a distant country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?

20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment has taken hold on me.

22 Is there no balm in Gilead: is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered.

 

Jeremiah 9

WBT

A Lament over Zion

1 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of way-faring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, says the LORD.

4 Take you heed everyone of his neighbor, and trust you not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders.

5 And they will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.

6 Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says the LORD.

7 Therefore thus says the LORD of Armies, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how will I do for the daughter of my people?

8 Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.

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

10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the heavens and the beast have fled; they are gone.

11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.

12 Who is the wise man that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through? 13 And the LORD says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein; 14 But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them: 15 Therefore thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. 16 I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, until I have consumed them.

17 Thus says the LORD of Armies, Consider you, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for skillful women, that they may come:

18 And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.

19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we laid waste! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.

20 Yet hear the Word of the LORD, O you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbor lamentation.

21 For death has come up into our windows, and has entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.

22 Speak, Thus says the LORD, Even the carcasses of men will fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvest-man, and none will gather them.

23 Thus says the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: 24 But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD who exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the LORD.

25 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will punish all them who are circumcised with the uncircumcised; 26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

 

Jeremiah 10

WBT

The Sovereignty of God

1 Hear you the word which the LORD speaketh to you, O house of Israel:

2 Thus says the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.

4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it may not move.

5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

6 Forasmuch as there is none like to you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might.

7 Who would not fear you, O King of nations? for to you doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like to you.

8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.

9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of skillful men.

10 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth will tremble, and the nations will not be able to abide his indignation.

11 Thus will you say to them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they will perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.

12 He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by his discretion.

13 When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

15 They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they will perish.

16 The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of Armies is his name.

The Coming Captivity of Judah

17 Gather up your wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.

18 For thus says the LORD; Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them that they may find it so.

19 Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.

20 My tabernacle is laid waste, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone from me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

21 For the pastors have become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they will not prosper, and all their flocks will be scattered.

22 Behold, the sound of the noise is come, and a great commotion from the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.

23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

24 O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

25 Pour out your fury upon the heathen that know you not, and upon the families that call not on your name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

 

Jeremiah 11

WBT

The Broken Covenant

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Hear you the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 3 And say you to them, Thus says the LORD God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant, 4 Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth from the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so will you be my people, and I will be your God: 5 That I may perform the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.

6 Then the LORD said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear you the words of this covenant, and do them. 7 For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice. 8 Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked everyone in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not.

9 And the LORD said to me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers. 11 Therefore thus says the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them which they will not be able to escape; and though they will cry to me, I will not listen to them. 12 Then will the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry to the gods to which they offer incense: but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble. 13 For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.

14 Therefore pray not you for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time when they cry to me for their trouble.

15 What has my beloved to do in my house, seeing she has wrought lewdness with many; and the holy flesh is passed from you? when you doest evil, then you rejoicest.

16 The LORD called your name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.

17 For the LORD of Armies, that planted you, has pronounced evil against you, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense to Baal.

A Plot against Jeremiah
(Jeremiah 18:18–23)

18 And the LORD has given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then you showedst me their doings.

19 But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.

20 But, O LORD of Armies, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for to you have I revealed my cause.

21 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth, that seek your life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that you die not by our hand: 22 Therefore thus says the LORD of Armies, Behold, I will punish them: the young men will die by the sword; their sons and their daughters will die by famine: 23 And there will be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.

 

Jeremiah 12

WBT

The Prosperity of the Wicked

1 Righteous are you, O LORD, when I plead with you: yet let me speak with you of your judgments: Why doth the way of the wicked prosper? why are they all happy that deal very treacherously?

2 You have planted them, yes, they have taken root: they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their reins.

3 But you, O LORD, knowest me: you have seen me, and tried my heart towards you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

4 How long will the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He will not see our last end.

God’s Answer to Jeremiah

5 If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how canst you contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, in which you have trusted, they wearied you, then how wilt you do in the swelling of Jordan?

6 For even your brethren, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; yes, they have called a multitude after you: believe them not, though they speak fair words to you.

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

8 My heritage is to me as a lion in the forest; it cries out against me: therefore have I hated it.

9 My heritage is to me as a speckled bird, the birds around are against her; come you, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.

10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

11 They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth to me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.

12 The spoilers have come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD will devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh will have peace.

13 They have sown wheat, but will reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but will not profit; and they will be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

A Message for Israel’s Neighbors
(Amos 1:1–15)

14 Thus says the LORD against all my evil neighbors, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. 15 And it will come to pass, after I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land. 16 And it will come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD liveth; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then will they be built in the midst of my people. 17 But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, says the LORD.

 

Jeremiah 13

WBT

The Linen Loincloth

1 Thus says the LORD to me, Go and get for you a linen girdle, and put it upon your loins, and put it not in water. 2 So I procured a girdle according to the Word of the LORD, and put it on my loins. 3 And the Word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, 4 Take the girdle that you have procured, which is upon your loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock. 5 So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me. 6 And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said to me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded you to hide there. 7 Then I went to Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable for nothing.

8 Then the Word of the LORD came to me, saying, 9 Thus says the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, will even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing. 11 For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave to me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, says the LORD; that they might be to me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.

The Wineskins

12 Therefore you will speak to them this word; Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Every bottle will be filled with wine: and they will say to you, Do we not certainly know that every bottle will be filled with wine? 13 Then you will say to them, Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. 14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, says the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.

Captivity Threatened

15 Hear you, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD has spoken.

16 Give glory to the LORD your God, before he will cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and while you look for light, he will turn it into the shades of death, and make it gross darkness.

17 But if you will not hear it, my soul will weep in secret places for your pride; and my eye will weep bitterly, and run down with tears, because the LORD’S flock is carried away captive.

18 Say to the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities will come down, even the crown of your glory.

19 The cities of the south will be shut up, and none will open them; Judah will be carried away captive all of it, it will be wholly carried away captive.

20 Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?

21 What wilt you say when he will punish you? for you have taught them to be captains, and as chief over you: will not sorrows take you, as a woman in travail?

22 And if you will say in your heart, Why come these things upon me? For the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered, and your heels made bare.

23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

24 Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.

25 This is your lot, the portion of your measures from me, says the LORD; because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.

26 Therefore will I uncover your skirts upon your face, that your shame may appear.

27 I have seen your adulteries, and your neighings, the enormity of your lewdness, and your abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe to you O Jerusalem! wilt you not be made clean? when will it once be?

 

Jeremiah 14

WBT

Drought, Famine, Sword, and Plague

1 the Word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.

2 Judah mourneth, and her gates languish; they are black to the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.

3 And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.

4 Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain on the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.

5 Yes, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.

6 And the wild asses stood in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes failed, because there was no grass.

7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do you it for your name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.

8 O the hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble, why shouldst you be as a stranger in the land, and as a way-faring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?

9 Why shouldst you be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; leave us not.

10 Thus says the LORD to this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not restrained their feet, therefore the LORD doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. 11 Then said the LORD to me, Pray not for this people for their good. 12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt-offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

13 Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say to them, You are not to see the sword, neither will you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place. 14 Then the LORD said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I have not sent them, neither have I commanded them, neither spoken to them: they prophesy to you a false vision and divination, and a thing of naught, and the deceit of their heart. 15 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine will not be in this land; By sword and famine will those prophets be consumed. 16 And the people to whom they prophesy will be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, because of the famine, and the sword; and they will have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.

17 Therefore you will say this word to them; Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.

18 If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yes, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.

A Prayer for Mercy
(Isaiah 63:15–19)

19 Have you utterly rejected Judah? has your soul loathed Zion? Why have you smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!

20 We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you.

21 Do not abhor us, for your name’s sake; do not disgrace the throne of your glory: remember, break not your covenant with us.

22 Are there any among the vanities of the Nations that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? are not you he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon you: for you have made all these things.

 

Jeremiah 15

WBT

Judgment to Continue

1 Then said the LORD to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be towards this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

2 And it will come to pass, if they say to you, Whither will we go forth? then you will tell them, Thus says the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.

3 And I will appoint over them four kinds, says the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy. 4 And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

5 For who will have pity upon you, O Jerusalem? or who will bemoan you? or who will go aside to ask concerning your welfare?

6 You have forsaken me, says the LORD, you are gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against you, and destroy you; I am weary with repenting.

7 And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways.

8 Their widows are multiplied to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noon-day: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.

9 She that has borne seven languisheth: she has resigned her breath; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she has been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says the LORD.

Jeremiah’s Woe

10 Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor have men lent to me on usury; yet everyone of them doth curse me.

11 The LORD said, Verily it will be well with your remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to treat you well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

12 Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?

13 Thy substance and your treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.

14 And I will make you to pass with your enemies into a land which you knowest not: for a fire is kindled in my anger, which will burn upon you.

15 O LORD, you knowest: remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in your long-suffering: know that for your sake I have suffered rebuke.

16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name, O LORD God of hosts.

17 I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand: for you have filled me with indignation.

18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt you be altogether to me as a liar, and as waters that fail?

The LORD’s Promise

19 Therefore thus says the LORD, If you will return, then will I bring you again, and you will stand before me: and if you will separate the precious from the vile, you will be as my mouth: let them return to you; but return not you to them.

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

21 And I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the hand of the terrible.

 

Jeremiah 16

WBT

Disaster Predicted

1 the Word of the LORD came also to me, saying, 2 You are not to take you a wife, neither you will have sons nor daughters in this place. 3 For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bore them, and concerning their fathers that fathered them in this land; 4 They will die by grievous deaths; they will not be lamented; neither will they be buried; but they will be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they will be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcasses will be food for the birds of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

5 For thus says the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the LORD, even loving-kindness and mercies. 6 Both the great and the small will die in this land: they will not be buried, neither will men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them: 7 Neither will men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither will men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother. 8 Also you are not to go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink. 9 For thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

10 And it will come to pass, when you will show this people all these words, and they will say to you, Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God? 11 Then you will say to them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; 12 And you have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, you walk everyone after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not listen to me: 13 Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that you know not, neither you nor your fathers; and there will you serve other gods day and night; where I will not show you favor.

God Will Restore Israel

14 Therefore behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it will no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 15 But, The LORD liveth, that brought the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.

16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, says the LORD, and they will fish them; and afterwards will I send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. 17 For my eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from my eyes. 18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled my inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.

19 O LORD, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Nations will come to you from the ends of the earth, and will say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things in which there is no profit.

20 Shall a man make gods to himself, and they are no gods?

21 Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know my hand and my might; and they will know that my name is JEHOVAH.

 

Jeremiah 17

WBT

The Sin and Punishment of Judah

1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;

2 Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.

3 O my mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures to the spoil, and your high places for sin, throughout all your borders.

4 And you, even thyself, will discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you knowest not: for you have kindled a fire in my anger, which will burn for ever.

5 Thus says the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

6 For he will be like the heath in the desert, and will not see when good cometh; but will inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

8 For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and will not see when heat cometh, but her leaf will be green; and will not be anxious in the year of drouth, neither will cease from yielding fruit.

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

11 As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, will leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end will be a fool.

Jeremiah’s Prayer for Deliverance

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

13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake you will be ashamed, and they that depart from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.

14 Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved: for you are my praise.

15 Behold, they say to me, Where is the Word of the LORD? let it come now.

16 As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow you: neither have I desired the woeful day; you knowest: that which was uttered by my lips was right before you.

17 Be not a terror to me: you are my hope in the day of evil.

18 Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

Restoring the Sabbath
(Nehemiah 13:15–22)

19 Thus said the LORD to me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; 20 And say to them, Hear you the Word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter by these gates: 21 Thus says the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; 22 Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do you any work, but hallow you the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. 23 But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.

24 And it will come to pass, if you diligently listen to me, says the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein; 25 Then will there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city will remain for ever. 26 And they will come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and meat-offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, to the house of the LORD. 27 But if you will not listen to me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in its gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it will not be quenched.

 

Jeremiah 18

WBT

The Potter and the Clay

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear my words. 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. 4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.

5 Then the Word of the LORD came to me, saying, 6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? says the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 At what instant I will speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; 8 If that nation against which I have pronounced, will turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them. 9 And at what instant I will speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; 10 If it will do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them. 11 Now therefore come, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now everyone from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. 12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will everyone do the imagination of his evil heart.

13 Therefore thus says the LORD; Ask you now among the heathen, who has heard such things: the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.

14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or will the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?

15 Because my people has forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;

16 To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; everyone that passeth by it will be astonished, and wag his head.

17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

Another Plot against Jeremiah
(Jeremiah 11:18–23)

18 Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law will not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

19 Give heed to me, O LORD, and listen to the voice of them that contend with me.

20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before you to speak good for them, and to turn away your wrath from them.

21 Therefore deliver their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.

22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you will bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.

23 Yet, LORD, you knowest all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight, but let them be overthrown before you; deal thus with them in the time of your anger.

 

Jeremiah 19

WBT

The Broken Jar

1 Thus says the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests; 2 And go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I will tell you, 3 And say, Hear you the Word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, which whoever heareth, his ears will tingle. 4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; 5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt-offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind: 6 Therefore behold, the days come, says the LORD, that this place will no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. 7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcasses will I give to be food for the birds of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. 8 And I will make this city desolate, and a hissing; everyone that passeth by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. 9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat everyone the flesh of his friend in the siege and distress with which their enemies, and they that seek their lives, will distress them.

10 Then you will break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with you, 11 And shalt say to them, Thus says the LORD of Armies; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they will bury them in Tophet, until there be no place to bury. 12 Thus will I do to this place, says the LORD, and to its inhabitants, and even make this city as Tophet: 13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, will be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink-offerings to other gods.

14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’S house; and said to all the people, 15 Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

 

Jeremiah 20

WBT

Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah

1 Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. 2 Then Pashur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD. 3 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah to him, The LORD has not called your name Pashur, but Magor-missabib. 4 For thus says the LORD, Behold, I will make you a terror to thyself, and to all your friends: and they will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them captive into Babylon, and will slay them with the sword. 5 Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all its labors, and all its precious things, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, who will pillage them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashur, and all that dwell in your house will go into captivity: and you will come to Babylon, and there you will die, and shalt be buried there, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies.

Jeremiah’s Complaint

7 O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived: you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am in derision daily, everyone mocketh me.

8 For since I spoke, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the Word of the LORD was made a reproach to me, and a derision, daily.

9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

10 For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Perhaps he will be enticed, and we will prevail against him, and we will take our revenge on him.

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

12 But, O LORD of Armies, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for to you have I opened my cause.

13 Sing to the LORD, praise you the LORD: for he has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evil-doers.

14 Cursed be the day in which I was born: let not the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.

15 Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A male child is born to you; making him very glad.

16 And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noon;

17 Because he slew me not at my birth; or that my mother might have been my grave, and she had not been delivered.

18 Why was I brought into the world to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

 

Jeremiah 21

WBT

Jerusalem Will Fall to Babylon

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent to him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying, 2 Inquire, I pray you, of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; it may be that the LORD will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.

3 Then said Jeremiah to them, Thus will you say to Zedekiah: 4 Thus says the LORD God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, who besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city. 5 And I myself will fight against you with an out-stretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath. 6 And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they will die by a great pestilence. 7 And afterward, says the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life; and he will smite them with the edge of the sword; he will not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.

8 And to this people you will say, Thus says the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. 9 He that abideth in this city will die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he will live, and his life will be to him for a prey. 10 For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, says the LORD: it will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.

A Message to the House of David

11 And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear you the Word of the LORD;

12 O house of David, thus says the LORD; Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is made desolate out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

13 Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, says the LORD; who say, Who will come down against us? or who will enter into our habitations?

14 But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says the LORD: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it will devour all things around it.

 

Jeremiah 22

WBT

A Warning to Judah’s Kings

1 Thus says the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, 2 And say, Hear the Word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people that enter by these gates: 3 Thus says the LORD; Execute you judgment and righteousness, and deliver him that is laid waste out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you do this thing Truly, then will there enter, by the gates of this house, kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people. 5 But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says the LORD, that this house will become a desolation.

A Warning about the Palace

6 For thus says the LORD to the king’s house of Judah; You are Gilead to me, and the head of Lebanon; yet surely I will make you a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.

7 And I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons: and they will cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

8 And many nations will pass by this city, and they will say every man to his neighbor, Why has the LORD done thus to this great city? 9 Then they will answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshiped other gods, and served them.

A Warning about Shallum

10 Weep you not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep bitterly for him that goeth away: for he will return no more, nor see his native country.

11 For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went forth from this place; He will not return thither any more: 12 But he will die in the place whither they have led him captive, and will see this land no more.

A Warning about Jehoiakim

13 Woe to him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbor’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;

14 That says, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

15 Shalt you reign, because you closest thyself in cedar? did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?

16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? says the LORD.

17 But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

18 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They will not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they will not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!

19 He will be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

20 Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all your lovers are destroyed.

21 I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you saidest, I will not hear. This has been your manner from your youth, that you have not obeyed my voice.

22 The wind will eat up all your pastors, and your lovers will go into captivity: surely then you will be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness.

23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest your nest in the cedars, how cheerful you will be when pangs come upon you, the pain as of a woman in travail!

A Warning to Coniah

24 As I live, says the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck you thence; 25 And I will give you into the hand of them that seek your life, and into the hand of them whose face you fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 And I will cast you out, and your mother that bore you, into another country, where you were not born; and there will you die. 27 But to the land to which they desire to return, thither will they not return.

28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel in which is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?

29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the Word of the LORD.

30 Thus says the LORD, Write you this man childless, a man that will not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed will prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

 

Jeremiah 23

WBT

David’s Righteous Branch

1 Woe be to the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD. 2 Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, says the LORD. 3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock from all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they will be fruitful and increase. 4 And I will set shepherds over them who will feed them: and they will fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither will they be lacking, says the LORD.

5 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and a King will reign and prosper, and will execute judgment and justice upon the earth.

6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell in safety: and this is his name by which he will be called, JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

7 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that they will no more say, The LORD liveth, who brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 8 But, the LORD liveth, who brought and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I have driven them; and they will dwell in their own land.

Lying Prophets

9 My heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness.

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

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

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

13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.

14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evil-doers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them to me as Sodom, and the inhabitants of it as Gomorrah.

15 Therefore thus says the LORD of Armies concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.

16 Thus says the LORD of Armies, Hearken not to the words of the prophets that prophesy to you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not from the mouth of the LORD.

17 They say still to them that despise me, The LORD has said, You will have peace; and they say to everyone that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil will come upon you.

18 For who has stood in the counsel of the LORD, and has perceived and heard his word? who has marked his word, and heard it?

19 Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it will fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.

20 The anger of the LORD will not return, until he will have executed, and until he will have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days you will consider it perfectly.

21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

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

23 Am I a God at hand, says the LORD, and not a God afar off.

24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I will not see him? says the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the LORD.

25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. 26 How long will this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yes, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart; 27 Who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. 28 The prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? says the LORD? 29 Is not my word like a fire? says the LORD? and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? 30 Therefore behold, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, that steal my words everyone from his neighbor. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He says. 32 Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, says the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they will not profit this people at all, says the LORD.

False Prophecies

33 And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, will ask you, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? you will then say to them, What burden? I will even forsake you, says the LORD. 34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people that will say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house. 35 Thus will you say everyone to his neighbor, and everyone to his brother, What has the LORD answered? and, What has the LORD spoken? 36 And the burden of the LORD will you mention no more: for every man’s word will be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of Armies our God. 37 Thus you will say to the prophet, What has the LORD answered you? and, What has the LORD spoken? 38 But since you say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus says the LORD; Because you say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent to you, saying, You are not to say, The burden of the LORD; 39 Therefore behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave to you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence: 40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which will not be forgotten.

 

Jeremiah 24

WBT

The Good and Bad Figs

1 The LORD showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very poor figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. 3 Then said the LORD to me, What seest you, Jeremiah? and I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.

4 Again the Word of the LORD came to me, saying, 5 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. 6 For I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they will be my people, and I will be their God: for they will return to me with their whole heart.

8 And as the bad figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad; surely thus says the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt: 9 And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I will drive them. 10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, until they are consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.

 

Jeremiah 25

WBT

Seventy Years of Captivity

1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; 2 Which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, 3 From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even to this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the Word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking; but you have not listened. 4 And the LORD has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but you have not listened, nor inclined your ear to hear. 5 They said, Turn you again now everyone from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and to your fathers for ever and ever: 6 And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. 7 Yet you have not listened to me, says the LORD; that you might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.

8 Therefore thus says the LORD of Armies; Because you have not heard my words, 9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. 11 And this whole land will be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

12 And it will come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, says the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. 13 And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. 14 For many nations and great kings will reduce them to subjection also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.

The Cup of God’s Wrath

15 For thus says the LORD God of Israel to me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. 16 And they will drink, and be moved, and enraged, because of the sword that I will send among them.

17 Then I took the cup at the LORD’S hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom the LORD had sent me: 18 To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and her kings, and her princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse; as it is this day; 19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people; 20 And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, 21 Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon, 22 And all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea, 23 Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners, 24 And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert, 25 And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes, 26 And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach will drink after them.

27 Therefore you will say to them, Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Drink you, and be drunken, and vomit, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. 28 And it will be, if they refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink, then you will say to them, Thus says the LORD of Armies; You will certainly drink. 29 For lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should you be utterly unpunished? You are not to be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, says the LORD of Armies.

30 Therefore prophesy you against them all these words, and say to them, The LORD will roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he will mightily roar upon his habitation; he will give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.

31 A noise will come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, says the LORD.

32 Thus says the LORD of Armies, Behold, evil will go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind will be raised from the borders of the earth.

33 And the slain of the LORD will be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth: they will not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they will be dung upon the ground.

The Cry of the Shepherds

34 Howl, you shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, you principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and you will fall like a pleasant vessel.

35 And the shepherds will have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.

36 A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a howling of the principal of the flock, will be heard: for the LORD has laid waste their pasture.

37 And the peaceable habitations are cut down, because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

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

 

Jeremiah 26

WBT

A Warning to the Cities of Judah

1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word from the LORD, saying, 2 Thus says the LORD; Stand in the court of the LORD’S house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD’S house, all the words that I command you to speak to them; diminish not a word: 3 It may be they will listen, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent of the evil, which I purpose to do to them because of the evil of their doings. 4 And you will say to them, Thus says the LORD, If you will not listen to me to walk in my law, which I have set before you, 5 To listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you, both rising early, and sending them, but you have not listened; 6 Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.

Jeremiah Threatened with Death

7 So the priests and the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. 8 Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, You shalt surely die. 9 Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah, in the house of the LORD.

10 When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king’s house to the house of the LORD, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the LORD’S house. 11 Then the priests and the prophets spoke to the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.

12 Then Jeremiah spoke to all the princes, and to all the people, saying, The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard. 13 Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent of the evil that he has pronounced against you. 14 As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as it seemeth good and meet to you. 15 But know you for certain, that if you put me to death, you will surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, upon this city, and upon its inhabitants: for of a truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.

Jeremiah Spared from Death

16 Then said the princes and all the people to the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God. 17 Then arose certain of the elders of the land, and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying,

18 Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus says the LORD of Armies; Zion will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? did he not fear the LORD, and beseech the LORD, and the LORD repented of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls.

The Prophet Uriah

20 And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the LORD, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjath-jearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah: 21 And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death: but when Urijah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt; 22 And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him into Egypt. 23 And they brought forth Urijah from Egypt, and brought him to Jehoiakim the king; who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.

24 Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

 

Jeremiah 27

WBT

The Yoke of Nebuchadnezzar

1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, came this word to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Thus says the LORD to me; Make for you bonds and yokes, and put them upon your neck, 3 And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah; 4 And command them to say to their masters, Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Thus will you say to your masters; 5 I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my out-stretched arm, and have given it to whom it seemed meet to me. 6 And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. 7 And all nations will serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land will come: and then many nations and great kings will bring him into subjection.

8 And it will come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, says the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. 9 Therefore listen you not to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, You are not to serve the king of Babylon: 10 For they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and you should perish. 11 But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, says the LORD; and they will until it, and dwell in it.

12 I spoke also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. 13 Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD has spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? 14 Therefore listen not to the words of the prophets that speak to you, saying, You are not to serve the king of Babylon; for they prophesy a lie to you. 15 For I have not sent them, says the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that you might perish, you, and the prophets that prophesy to you.

16 Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus says the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy to you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’S house will now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie to you. 17 Hearken not to them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: why should this city be laid waste? 18 But if they are prophets, and if the Word of the LORD is with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of Armies, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon. 19 For thus says the LORD of Armies concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city, 20 Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem; 21 Yes, thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem; 22 They will be carried to Babylon, and there will they be until the day that I visit them, says the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.

 

Jeremiah 28

WBT

Hananiah’s False Prophecy

1 And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, who was of Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests, and of all the people, saying, 2 Thus speaketh the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD’S house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon: 4 And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, says the LORD; for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

5 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD, 6 Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD’S house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place. 7 Nevertheless, now hear you this word that I speak in your ears, and in the ears of all the people: 8 The prophets that have been before me and before you of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence. 9 The prophet who prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet will come to pass, then will the prophet be known, that the LORD has truly sent him.

10 Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, and broke it. 11 And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus says the LORD; Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years. And the prophet Jeremiah went his way.

12 Then the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying, 13 Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus says the LORD; You have broken the yokes of wood; but you will make for them yokes of iron. 14 For thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they will serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also. 15 Then said the prophet Jeremiah to Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD has not sent you; but you makest this people to trust in a lie. 16 Therefore thus says the LORD; Behold, I will cast you from off the face of the earth: this year you will die, because you have taught rebellion against the LORD.

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

 

Jeremiah 29

WBT

Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles

1 Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders who were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon; 2 (After Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, had departed from Jerusalem;) 3 By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) saying, 4 Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, to all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon; 5 Build you houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; 6 Take you wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that you may be increased there, and not diminished. 7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray to the LORD for it: for in the peace of it you will have peace. 8 For thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that are in the midst of you, deceive you, neither listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. 9 For they prophesy falsely to you in my name: I have not sent them, says the LORD.

10 For thus says the LORD, That after seventy years will be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word towards you, in causing you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 12 Then will you call upon me, and you will go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek me, and find me, when you will search for me with all your heart. 14 And I will be found by you, says the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, says the LORD: and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

15 Because you have said, The LORD has raised up for us prophets in Babylon; 16 Know that thus says the LORD concerning the king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and concerning all the people that dwelleth in this city, and concerning your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity; 17 Thus says the LORD of Armies; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad. 18 And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them: 19 Because they have not listened to my words, says the LORD, which I sent to them by my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but you would not hear, says the LORD. 20 Hear you therefore the Word of the LORD, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon:

21 Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie to you in my name; Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; and he will slay them before your eyes; 22 And concerning them will be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, The LORD make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire; 23 Because they have committed villainy in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbor’s wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, says the LORD.

The Message to Shemaiah

24 Thus you will also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying, 25 Thus speaketh the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, saying, Because you have sent letters in your name to all the people that are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying, 26 The LORD has made you priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that you should be officers in the house of the LORD, for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that you should put him in prison, and in the stocks. 27 Now therefore why have you not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, who maketh himself a prophet to you? 28 For therefore he sent to us in Babylon, saying, This captivity is long: build you houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

29 And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet. 30 Then came the Word of the LORD to Jeremiah, saying, 31 Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus says the LORD concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite; Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie: 32 Therefore thus says the LORD; Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and his seed: he will not have a man to dwell among this people; neither will he behold the good that I will do for my people, says the LORD; because he has taught rebellion against the LORD.

 

Jeremiah 30

WBT

The Restoration of Israel and Judah
(Ezekiel 28:25–26)

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write for you all the words that I have spoken to you in a book. 3 For lo, the days come, says the LORD; that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, says the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it.

4 And these are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah.

5 For thus says the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.

6 Ask you now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?

7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he will be saved out of it.

8 For it will come to pass in that day, says the LORD of Armies, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and will burst your bonds, and strangers will no more bring him into subjection: 9 But they will serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up to them.

10 Therefore fear you not, O my servant Jacob, says the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for lo, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob will return, and will be in rest, and quiet, and none will make him afraid.

11 For I am with you, says the LORD, to save you: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered you, yet will I not make a full end of you: but I will correct you in measure, and will not leave you altogether unpunished.

12 For thus says the LORD, Thy bruise is incurable, and your wound is grievous.

13 There is none to plead your cause, that you may be bound up: you have no healing medicines.

14 All your lovers have forgotten you; they seek you not; for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisements of a cruel one, for the multitude of your iniquity; because your sins were increased.

15 Why criest you for your affliction? your sorrow is incurable for the multitude of your iniquity: because your sins were increased, I have done these things to you.

16 Therefore all they that devour you will be devoured; and all your adversaries, everyone of them will go into captivity; and they that plunder you will be a spoil, and all that prey upon you will I give for a prey.

17 For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds, says the LORD; because they called you an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

18 Thus says the LORD; Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have mercy on his dwelling places; and the city will be built upon her own heap, and the palace will remain after its manner.

19 And out of them will proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they will not be few; I will also glorify them, and they will not be small.

20 Their children also will be as in former time, and their congregation will be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them.

21 And their nobles will be from themselves, and their governor will proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he will approach time: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach to me? says the LORD.

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

23 Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it will fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.

24 The fierce anger of the LORD will not return, until he has done it, and until he has performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you will consider it.

 

Jeremiah 31

WBT

Mourning Turned to Joy
(Matthew 2:16–18)

1 At the same time, says the LORD, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.

2 Thus says the LORD, The people who were left by the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.

3 The LORD appeared of old to me, saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you.

4 Again I will build you, and you will be built, O virgin of Israel; you will again be adorned with your tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.

5 You shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters will plant, and will eat them as common things.

6 For there will be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim will cry, Arise you, and let us go up to Zion to the LORD our God.

7 For thus says the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish you, praise you, and say, O LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel.

8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the borders of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company will return thither.

9 They will come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they will not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born.

10 Hear the Word of the LORD, O you nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.

11 For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.

12 Therefore they will come and sing in the hight of Zion, and will flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul will be as a watered garden; and they will not sorrow any more at all.

13 Then will the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

14 And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people will be satisfied with my goodness, says the LORD.

15 Thus says the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.

16 Thus says the LORD; Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears: for your work will be rewarded, says the LORD; and they will come again from the land of the enemy.

17 And there is hope in your end, says the LORD, that your children will come again to their own border.

18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn you me, and I will be turned; for you are the LORD my God.

19 Surely after I was turned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, and even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.

20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spoke against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, says the LORD.

21 Set you up way-marks, make you high heaps: set your heart towards the highway, even the way which you wentest; turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.

22 How long wilt you wander about, O you backsliding daughter? for the LORD has created a new thing in the earth, A woman will compass a man.

23 Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; As yet they will use this speech in the land of Judah and in her cities, when I will bring again their captivity; The LORD bless you, O habitation of justice, mountain of holiness.

24 And there will dwell in Judah itself, and in all her cities together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks. 25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.

The New Covenant
(Hebrews 8:6–13)

26 Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet to me.

27 Behold, the days come says the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast. 28 And it will come to pass, that as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build and to plant, says the LORD.

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

30 But everyone will die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth will be set on edge.

31 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says the LORD: 33 But this will be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 And they will teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

35 Thus says the LORD, who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divideth the sea when its waves roar; The LORD of Armies is his name:

36 If those ordinances depart from before me, says the LORD, then the seed of Israel also will cease from being a nation before me for ever.

37 Thus says the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says the LORD.

38 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that the city will be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel to the gate of the corner. 39 And the measuring line will yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and will compass about to Goath. 40 And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook of Kidron, to the corner of the horse-gate towards the east, will be holy to the LORD; it will not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.

 

Jeremiah 32

WBT

Jeremiah Buys Hanamel’s Field

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. 2 For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house. 3 For Zedekiah king of Judah had confined him, saying, Why dost you prophesy, and say, Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take it; 4 And Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but will surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes will behold his eyes; 5 And he will lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there will he be until I visit him, says the LORD: though you fight with the Chaldeans, you will not prosper.

6 And Jeremiah said, the Word of the LORD came to me, saying, 7 Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, Buy for you my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is thine to buy it. 8 So Hanameel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison, according to the Word of the LORD, and said to me, Buy my field, I pray you, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the Word of the LORD.

9 And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle’s son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. 10 And I subscribed the contract, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances. 11 So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open: 12 And I gave the evidence of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison. 13 And I charged Baruch before them, saying, 14 Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both that which is sealed, and this evidence which is open; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days. 15 For thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards will be possessed again in this land.

Jeremiah Prays for Understanding

16 Now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD, saying, 17 Ah Lord GOD! behold, you have made the heaven and the earth by your great power and out-stretched arm, and there is nothing too hard for you: 18 You showest loving-kindness to thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, JEHOVAH of hosts, is his name, 19 Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for your eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings: 20 Who have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even to this day, and in Israel, and among other men; and have made you a name, as at this day; 21 And have brought forth your people Israel from the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with an out-stretched arm, and with great terror; 22 And have given them this land, which you didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey; 23 And they came in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not your voice, neither walked in your law; they have done nothing of all that you commandedst them to do: therefore you have caused all this evil to come upon them: 24 Behold the mounts, they are come to the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what you have spoken is come to pass; and behold, you seest it. 25 And you have said to me, O Lord GOD, Buy you the field for money, and take witnesses; for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.

The LORD Answers Jeremiah

26 Then came the Word of the LORD to Jeremiah, saying, 27 Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me? 28 Therefore thus says the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he will take it: 29 And the Chaldeans, that fight against this city, will come and set fire on this city, and burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal, and poured out drink-offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. 30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done evil only before me from their youth: for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, says the LORD. 31 For this city has been to me as a provocation of my anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even to this day; that I should remove it from before my face, 32 Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33 And they have turned to me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction. 34 But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it. 35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

A Promise of Restoration
(Ezekiel 11:13–21)

36 And now therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, of which you say, It will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; 37 Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in my anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again to this place, and I will cause them to dwell in safety. 38 And they will be my people, and I will be their God: 39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: 40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they will not depart from me. 41 Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. 42 For thus says the LORD; As I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. 43 And fields will be bought in this land, of which you say, It is desolate without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. 44 Men will buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south: for I will cause their captivity to return, says the LORD.

 

Jeremiah 33

WBT

The Excellence of the Restored Nation

1 Moreover the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet confined in the court of the prison, saying, 2 Thus says the LORD the maker of this, the LORD that formed it, to establish it; the LORD is his name; 3 Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you knowest not. 4 For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts, and by the sword; 5 They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in my anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city. 6 Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth. 7 And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first. 8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, by which they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, by which they have sinned, and by which they have transgressed against me. 9 And it will be to me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all the nations of the earth, which will hear all the good that I do to them: and they will fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure to it.

10 Thus says the LORD; Again there will be heard in this place, which you say will be desolate without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast,

11 The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that will say, Praise the LORD of Armies: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, says the LORD.

12 Thus says the LORD of Armies; Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all its cities, will be a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. 13 In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the vale, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, will the flocks pass again under the hands of him that counteth them, says the LORD.

The Covenant with David

14 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. 15 In those days, and at that time, will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up to David; and he will execute judgment and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days will Judah be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell in safety: and this is the name by which she will be called, JEHOVAH our righteousness. 17 For thus says the LORD; David will never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; 18 Neither will the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt-offerings, and to kindle meat-offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.

19 And the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 20 Thus says the LORD; If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, so that there should not be day and night in their season; 21 Then also may my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. 22 As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister to me.

23 Moreover the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 24 Considerest you not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD has chosen, he has even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. 25 Thus says the LORD; If my covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; 26 Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.

 

Jeremiah 34

WBT

A Prophecy against Zedekiah

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion, and all the people fought against Jerusalem, and against all its cities, saying, 2 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel; Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus says the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire: 3 And you are not to escape from his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and your eyes will behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with you mouth to mouth, and you will go to Babylon. 4 Yet hear the Word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah; Thus says the LORD concerning you, You are not to die by the sword: 5 But you will die in peace: and with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so will they burn odors for you; and they will lament you, saying, Ah lord! for I have pronounced the word, says the LORD.

6 Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, 7 When the king of Babylon’s army fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish, and against Azekah: for these fortified cities remained of the cities of Judah.

Freedom for Hebrew Slaves

8 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them; 9 That every man should liberate his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant, being a Hebrew or a Hebrewess; that none should retain them in service, to wit, a Jew his brother. 10 Now when all the princes, and all the people who had entered into the covenant, heard that everyone should liberate his man-servant, and everyone his maid-servant, that none should retain them in service any more, then they obeyed, and let them go. 11 But afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had liberated, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

12 Therefore the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 13 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth from the land of Egypt, out of the house of bond-men, saying, 14 At the end of seven years dismiss you every man his brother a Hebrew, who has been sold to you; and when he has served you six years, you will let him go free from you: but your fathers listened not to me, neither inclined their ear. 15 And you had now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and you had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name: 16 But you turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids.

17 Therefore thus says the LORD; You have not listened to me, in proclaiming liberty, everyone to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, says the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. 18 And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in two, and passed between the parts of it, 19 The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf; 20 I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies will be for food to the birds of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth. 21 And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes I will give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which are gone up from you. 22 Behold, I will command, says the LORD, and cause them to return to this city; and they will fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabitant.

 

Jeremiah 35

WBT

The Obedience of the Rechabites

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying, 2 Go to the house of the Rechabites, and speak to them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink. 3 Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites; 4 And I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, who was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door: 5 And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, Drink you wine. 6 But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, You will drink no wine, neither you, nor your sons for ever: 7 Neither will you build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days you will dwell in tents; that you may live many days in the land where you are strangers. 8 Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he has charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters; 9 Nor to build houses for us to dwell in: neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed: 10 But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. 11 But it came to pass, when Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians: so we dwell at Jerusalem.

Judah Rebuked

12 Then came the Word of the LORD to Jeremiah, saying, 13 Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction to listen to my words? says the LORD. 14 The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for to this day they drink none, but obey their father’s commandment: notwithstanding I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking; but you listened not to me. 15 I have sent also to you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Return you now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and you will dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but you have not inclined your ear, nor listened to me. 16 Because the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them; but this people has not listened to me: 17 Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken to them, but they have not heard; and I have called to them, but they have not answered.

18 And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according to all that he has commanded you: 19 Therefore thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Jonadab the son of Rechab will not want a man to stand before me for ever.

 

Jeremiah 36

WBT

Jeremiah’s Scroll Read in the Temple

1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 Take you a roll of a book, and write in it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day. 3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do to them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.

4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken to him, upon a roll of a book. 5 And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am confined, I cannot go into the house of the LORD: 6 Therefore go you and read in the roll, which you have written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD’S house upon the day of fasting: and also you will read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities. 7 It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return everyone from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD has pronounced against this people. 8 And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the LORD in the LORD’S house.

9 And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem. 10 Then Baruch read in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD’S house, in the ears of all the people.

Jeremiah’s Scroll Read in the Palace

11 When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the LORD, 12 Then he went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber: and lo, all the princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes. 13 Then Michaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people. 14 Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, Take in your hand the roll in which you have read in the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his hand, and came to them. 15 And they said to him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears. 16 Now it came to pass when they had heard all the words, they were afraid both one and another, and said to Baruch, We will surely tell the king of all these words. 17 And they asked Baruch, saying, Tell us now, How didst you write all these words at his mouth? 18 Then Baruch answered them, He pronounced all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book. 19 Then said the princes to Baruch, Go, hide thyself, you and Jeremiah; and let no man know where you are.

Jehoiakim Burns the Scroll

20 And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king. 21 So the king sent Jehudi to bring the roll: and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama, the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes who stood beside the king. 22 Now the king sat in the winter-house in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. 23 And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the scribe’s pen-knife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. 24 Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words. 25 Nevertheless Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll: but he would not hear them. 26 But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet: but the LORD hid them.

Jeremiah Rewrites the Scroll

27 Then the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, 28 Take you again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah has burned. 29 And you will say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus says the LORD; You have burned this roll, saying, Why have you written therein, saying, The king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cause to cease from thence man and beast? 30 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah; He will have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body will be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. 31 And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they listened not.

32 Then Jeremiah took another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were besides added to them many like words.

 

Jeremiah 37

WBT

Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah

1 And king Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. 2 But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, listened to the words of the LORD, which he spoke by the prophet Jeremiah.

3 And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now to the LORD our God for us. 4 Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people: for they had not put him into prison. 5 Then Pharaoh’s army had come from Egypt: and when the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem.

6 Then came the Word of the LORD to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, 7 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel; Thus will you say to the king of Judah, that sent you to me to inquire of me; Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has come forth to help you, will return to Egypt into their own land. 8 And the Chaldeans will come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire. 9 Thus says the LORD; Deceive not yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans will surely depart from us: for they will not depart. 10 For though you had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet would they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.

Jeremiah Imprisoned

11 And it came to pass, that when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army, 12 Then Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to separate himself thence in the midst of the people. 13 And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, You fallest away to the Chaldeans. 14 Then said Jeremiah, It is false; I fall not away to the Chaldeans. But he listened not to him: so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes. 15 Wherefore the princes were angry with Jeremiah, and beat him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe: for they had made that the prison. 16 When Jeremiah had entered into the dungeon, and into the cabins, and Jeremiah had remained there many days;

17 Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took him out: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from the LORD? And Jeremiah said, There is: for, said he, you will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon. 18 Moreover Jeremiah said to king Zedekiah, In what have I offended against you, or against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison? 19 Where are now your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, The king of Babylon will not come against you, nor against this land? 20 Therefore hear now, I pray you, O my lord the king: let my supplication, I pray you, be accepted before you; that you cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there. 21 Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the baker’s street, until all the bread in the city should be consumed. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.

 

Jeremiah 38

WBT

Jeremiah Cast into the Cistern

1 Then Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken to all the people, saying, 2 Thus says the LORD, He that remaineth in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans will live; for he will have his life for a prey, and will live. 3 Thus says the LORD, This city will surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which will take it. 4 Therefore the princes said to the king, We beseech you, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words to them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt. 5 Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand: for the king is not he that can do any thing against you. 6 Then they took Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.

7 Now when Ebed-melech the Cushite, one of the eunuchs who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon; the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin; 8 Ebed-melech went out of the king’s house, and spoke to the king, saying, 9 My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is like to die by hunger in the place where he is: for there is no more bread in the city. 10 Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite, saying, Take from hence thirty men with you, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he dieth. 11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took thence old cast clouts and old decayed rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah. 12 And Ebed-melech the Cushite said to Jeremiah, Put now these old cast clouts and decayed rags under your arm-holes under the cords. And Jeremiah did so. 13 So they drew up Jeremiah with cords, and took him out of the dungeon: and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.

14 Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet to him into the third entry that is in the house of the LORD: and the king said to Jeremiah, I will ask you a thing; hide nothing from me. 15 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, If I declare it to you, wilt you not surely put me to death? and if I give you counsel, wilt you not listen to me? 16 So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying, As the LORD liveth, that made us this soul, I will not put you to death, neither will I give you into the hand of these men that seek your life.

17 Then said Jeremiah to Zedekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If you wilt assuredly go forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, then your soul will live, and this city will not be burned with fire; and you will live, and your house: 18 But if you wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, then will this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they will burn it with fire, and you are not to escape from their hand. 19 And Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews that have fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me. 20 But Jeremiah said, They will not deliver you. Obey, I beseech you, the voice of the LORD, which I speak to you: so it will be well to you, and your soul will live. 21 But if you will refuse to go forth, this is the word that the LORD has shown me:

22 And behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah’s house will be brought forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, and those women will say, Thy friends have set you on, and have prevailed against you: your feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back.

23 So they will bring out all your wives and your children to the Chaldeans: and you are not to escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon: and you will cause this city to be burned with fire.

24 Then said Zedekiah to Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and you are not to die. 25 But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you, and say to you, Declare to us now what you have said to the king, hide it not from us, and we will not put you to death; also what the king said to you: 26 Then you will say to them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan’s house, to die there. 27 Then came all the princes to Jeremiah, and asked him: and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived. 28 So Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and he was there when Jerusalem was taken.

 

Jeremiah 39

WBT

The Fall of Jerusalem
(2 Kings 25:1–12; 2 Chronicles 36:15–21)

1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it. 2 And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up. 3 And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, Rab-saris, Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon. 4 And it came to pass, when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went out of the city by night, by the way of the king’s garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain. 5 But the Chaldeans’ army pursued them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him. 6 Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah. 7 Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon. 8 And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. 9 Then Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to him, with the rest of the people that remained. 10 But Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, who had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

Jeremiah Delivered

11 Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard, saying, 12 Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do to him even as he will say to you. 13 So Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard sent, and Nebushasban, Rab-saris, and Nergal-sharezer, Rab-mag, and all the king of Babylon’s princes; 14 Even they sent, and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, and committed him to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home: so he dwelt among the people.

15 Now the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, while he was confined in the court of the prison, saying, 16 Go and speak to Ebed-melech the Cushite, saying, Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they will be accomplished in that day before you. 17 But I will deliver you in that day, says the LORD: and you are not to be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. 18 For I will surely deliver you, and you are not to fall by the sword, but your life will be for a prey to you: because you have put your trust in me, says the LORD.

 

Jeremiah 40

WBT

Jeremiah Remains in Judah

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after that Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, who were carried away captive to Babylon. 2 And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah, and said to him, The LORD your God has pronounced this evil upon this place. 3 Now the LORD has brought it, and done according as he has said: because you have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come upon you. 4 And now, behold, I loose you this day from the chains which were upon your hand. If it seemeth good to you to come with me into Babylon, come; and I will look well to you: but if it seemeth ill to you to come with me into Babylon, forbear: behold, all the land is before you: whither it seemeth good and convenient for you to go, thither go. 5 Now while he had not yet gone back, he said, Go back also to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people: or go wherever it seemeth convenient to you to go. So the captain of the guard gave him provisions and a reward, and let him go. 6 Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and dwelt with him among the people that were left in the land.

Gedaliah Governs in Judah
(2 Kings 25:22–24)

7 Now when all the captains of the forces who were in the fields, even they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed to him men, and women, and children, and of the poor of the land, of them that were not carried away captive to Babylon; 8 Then they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men. 9 And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, swore to them and to their men, saying, Fear not to serve the Chaldeans: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you. 10 As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah, to serve the Chaldeans, who will come to us: but you, gather you wine, and summer fruits, and oil, and put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that you have taken. 11 Likewise when all the Jews that were in Moab, and among the Ammonites, and in Edom, and that were in all the countries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan; 12 Even all the Jews returned out of all places whither they were driven, and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah, to Mizpah, and gathered wine and summer fruits in abundance.

The Plot against Gedaliah

13 Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, that were in the fields, came to Gedaliah to Mizpah, 14 And said to him, Dost you certainly know that Baalis the king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to slay you? But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam believed them not. 15 Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, Let me go, I pray you, and I will slay Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man will know it: why should he slay you, that all the Jews who are gathered to you should be scattered, and the remnant of Judah perish? 16 But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah, You are not to do this thing: for you speakest falsely of Ishmael.

 

Jeremiah 41

WBT

The Murder of Gedaliah
(2 Kings 25:25–26)

1 Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, and the princes of the king, even ten men with him, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they ate bread together in Mizpah. 2 Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men that were with him, and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan with the sword, and slew him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. 3 Ishmael also slew all the Jews that were with him, even with Gedaliah, at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans that were found there, and the men of war.

4 And it came to pass the second day after he had slain Gedaliah, and no man knew it, 5 That there came men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even eighty men, having their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand, to bring them to the house of the LORD. 6 And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went forth from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went: and it came to pass, as he met them, he said to them, Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. 7 And it was so, when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah slew them, and cast them into the midst of the pit, he, and the men that were with him. 8 But ten men were found among them that said to Ishmael, Slay us not: for we have treasures in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he forbore, and slew them not among their brethren.

9 Now the pit into which Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men, whom he had slain because of Gedaliah, was that which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel: and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with them that were slain. 10 Then Ishmael carried away captive all the residue of the people that were in Mizpah, even the king’s daughters, and all the people that remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam: and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the Ammonites.

Johanan Rescues the Captives

11 But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done. 12 Then they took all the men, and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon. 13 Now it came to pass, that when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, then they were glad. 14 So all the people that Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah cast about and returned, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah. 15 But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the Ammonites. 16 Then Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, took all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpeh, after that he had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, even mighty men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought again from Gibeon. 17 And they departed, and dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is by Beth-lehem, to go to enter into Egypt, 18 Because of the Chaldeans: for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor in the land.

 

Jeremiah 42

WBT

A Warning against Going to Egypt

1 Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near. 2 And said to Jeremiah the prophet, We beseech you, let our supplication be accepted before you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes do behold us:) 3 That the LORD your God may show us the way in which we may walk, and the thing that we may do. 4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your words; and it will come to pass, that whatever thing the LORD will answer you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you. 5 Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for which the LORD your God will send you to us. 6 Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send you; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.

7 And it came to pass after ten days, that the Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah. 8 Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, 9 And said to them, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him; 10 If you will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent of the evil that I have done to you. 11 Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; be not afraid of him, says the LORD; for I am with you, to save you, and to deliver you from his hand. 12 And I will show mercies to you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land. 13 But if you say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the LORD your God, 14 Saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we will see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor hunger for bread; and there will we dwell: 15 And now therefore hear the Word of the LORD, you remnant of Judah; Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; If you wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there; 16 Then it will come to pass, that the sword, which you feared, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you were afraid, will follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you will die. 17 So will it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them will remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.

18 For thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; As my anger and my fury has been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem: so will my fury be poured forth upon you, when you will enter into Egypt: and you will be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and you will see this place no more. 19 The LORD has said concerning you, O you remnant of Judah; Go you not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day. 20 For you dissembled in your hearts, when you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us to the LORD our God; and according to all that the LORD our God will say, so declare to us, and we will do it. 21 And now I have this day declared it to you; but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for which he has sent me to you. 22 Now therefore know certainly that you will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither you desire to go and to sojourn.

 

Jeremiah 43

WBT

Jeremiah Taken to Egypt

1 And it came to pass, that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking to all the people all the words of the LORD their God, for which the LORD their God had sent him to them, even all these words. 2 Then spoke Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying to Jeremiah, You speakest falsely: the LORD our God has not sent you to say, Go not into Egypt to sojourn there: 3 But Baruch the son of Neriah setteth you on against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death, and carry us away captives into Babylon. 4 So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, obeyed not the voice of the LORD, to dwell in the land of Judah. 5 But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, that had returned from all nations, whither they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah; 6 Even men, and women, and children, and the king’s daughters, and every person that Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah. 7 So they came into the land of Egypt: for they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: thus they came even to Tahpanhes.

8 Then came the Word of the LORD to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, 9 Take great stones in your hand, and hide them in the clay in the brick-kiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; 10 And say to them, Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he will spread his royal pavilion over them. 11 And when he cometh, he will smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death; and such as are for captivity to captivity; and such as are for the sword to the sword. 12 And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he will burn them, and carry them away captives: and he will array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment; and he will go forth from thence in peace. 13 He will break also the images of Beth-shemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians will he burn with fire.

 

Jeremiah 44

WBT

Judgment on the Jews in Egypt

1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt, who dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying, 2 Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; You have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth in them. 3 Because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods, whom they knew not, neither they, you, nor your fathers. 4 Yet I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate. 5 But they listened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods. 6 Wherefore my fury and my anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day. 7 Therefore now thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; Why do you commit this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, to leave you none to remain; 8 In that you provoke me to wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, whither you are gone to dwell, that you may cut yourselves off, and that you may be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? 9 Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they have committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 They are not humbled even to this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.

11 Therefore thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah. 12 And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they will all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; they will even be consumed by the sword and by the famine: they will die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they will be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach. 13 For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: 14 So that none of the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt, to sojourn there, will escape or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none will return but such as will escape.

The Stubbornness of the People

15 Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, 16 As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you. 17 But we will certainly do whatever thing proceedeth from our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then we had plenty of provisions, and were well, and saw no evil. 18 But since we ceased to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. 19 And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink-offerings to her, did we make for her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink-offerings to her, without our men?

Calamity for the Jews

20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men, and to the women, and to all the people who had given him that answer, saying, 21 The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and came it not into his mind? 22 So that the LORD could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have committed; therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day. 23 Because you have burned incense, and because you have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil has happened to you, as at this day.

24 Moreover, Jeremiah said to all the people, and to all the women, Hear the Word of the LORD, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt: 25 Thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, saying; You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hand, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to her: you will surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows. 26 Therefore hear you the Word of the LORD, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt; Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the LORD, that my name will no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, The Lord GOD liveth. 27 Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt will be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there will be an end of them. 28 Yet a small number that escape the sword will return from the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah, that have gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, will know whose words will stand, mine, or theirs. 29 And this will be a sign to you, says the LORD, that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that my words will surely stand against you for evil: 30 Thus says the LORD; Behold, I will give Pharaoh-hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life.

 

Jeremiah 45

WBT

Jeremiah’s Message to Baruch

1 The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book from the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying, 2 Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch; 3 You didst say, Woe is me now! for the LORD has added grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest. 4 Thus you will say to him, The LORD says thus; Behold, that which I have built I will break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up, even this whole land. 5 And seekest you great things for thyself? seek them not: for behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, says the LORD: but your life will I give to you for a prey in all places whither you goest.

 

Jeremiah 46

WBT

Judgment on Egypt

1 the Word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Nations;

2 Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh-necho king of Egypt, who was by the river Euphrates in Carshemish, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah.

3 Order you the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.

4 Harness the horses; and mount, you horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, and put on the coats of mail.

5 Why have I seen them dismayed and turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and have fled apace, and look not back: for fear was on all sides, says the LORD.

6 Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape! they will stumble, and fall towards the north by the river Euphrates.

7 Who is this that cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?

8 Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers; and he says, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and its inhabitants.

9 Come up, you horses; and rage, you chariots; and let the mighty men come forth: the Cushites and the Libyans, that handle the shield; and the Lydians that handle and bend the bow.

10 For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword will devour, and it will be satiated and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

11 Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain you will use many medicines; for you are not to be cured.

12 The nations have heard of your shame, and your cry has filled the land: for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, and they have fallen both together.

13 The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt.

14 Declare you in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes: say you, Stand fast, and prepare you; for the sword will devour around you.

15 Why are your valiant men swept away? they stood not, because the LORD did drive them.

16 He made many to fall, yes, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.

17 They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he has passed the time appointed.

18 As I live, says the king, whose name is the LORD of Armies, Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so will he come.

19 O you daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity: for Noph will be waste and desolate without an inhabitant.

20 Egypt is like a very fair heifer, but destruction cometh; it cometh out of the north.

21 Also her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks; for they also have turned back, and have fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity had come upon them, and the time of their visitation.

22 The voice thereof will go like a serpent; for they will march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.

23 They will cut down her forest, says the LORD, though it cannot be searched; because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.

24 The daughter of Egypt will be confounded; she will be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.

25 The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says: Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him: 26 And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterward it will be inhabited, as in the days of old, says the LORD.

27 But fear not you, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob will return, and be in rest and at ease, and none will make him afraid.

28 Fear you not, O Jacob my servant, says the LORD: for I am with you; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven you: but I will not make a full end of you, but correct you in measure; yet will I not leave you wholly unpunished.

 

Jeremiah 47

WBT

Judgment on the Philistines
(Zephaniah 2:4–7)

1 the Word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before Pharaoh smote Gaza.

2 Thus says the LORD; Behold, waters rise out of the north, and will be an overflowing flood, and will overflow the land, and all that is in it; the city, and them that dwell therein: then the men will cry, and all the inhabitants of the land will howl.

3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers will not look back to their children for feebleness of hands:

4 Because of the day that cometh to lay waste all the Philistines, and to cut off from Tyre and Zidon every helper that remaineth: for the LORD will lay waste the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor.

5 Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley: how long wilt you cut thyself?

6 O you sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere you be quiet? put up thyself into your scabbard, rest, and be still.

7 How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD has given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? there has he appointed it.

 

Jeremiah 48

WBT

Judgment on Moab
(Isaiah 15:1–9)

1 Against Moab thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Woe to Nebo! for it is laid waste: Kiriathaim is confounded and taken: Misgab is confounded and dismayed.

2 There will be no more praise of Moab: in Heshbon they have devised evil against it; come, and let us cut it off from being a nation. Also you will be cut down, O Madmen; the sword will pursue you.

3 A voice of crying will be from Horonaim, devastation and great destruction.

4 Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.

5 For in the ascent of Luhith continual weeping will go up; for in the descent of Horonaim the enemies have heard a cry of destruction.

6 Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.

7 For because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures, you also shalt be taken: and Chemosh will go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together.

8 And the spoiler will come upon every city, and no city will escape: the valley also will perish, and the plain will be destroyed, as the LORD has spoken.

9 Give wings to Moab, that it may flee and get away: for its cities will be desolate, without any to dwell in them.

10 Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.

11 Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.

12 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will send to him wanderers that will cause him to wander, and will empty his vessels, and break their bottles. 13 And Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Beth-el their confidence.

14 How say you, We are mighty and strong men for the war?

15 Moab is laid waste, and gone up out of her cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, says the king, whose name is the LORD of Armies.

16 The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hasteth fast.

17 All you that are about him bemoan him; and all you that know his name, say, How is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod!

18 You daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from your glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab will come upon you, and he will destroy your strong holds.

19 O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and espy; ask him that fleeth, and her that escapeth, and say, What is done?

20 Moab is confounded; for it is broken down: howl and cry; tell you it in Arnon, that Moab is laid waste.

21 And judgment is come upon the plain country; upon Holon, and upon Jahazah, and upon Mephaath, 22 And upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon Beth-diblathaim, 23 And upon Kiriathaim, and upon Beth-gamul, and upon Beth-meon, 24 And upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near. 25 The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says the LORD. 26 Make you him drunken; for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab also will wallow in his vomit, and he also will be in derision. 27 For was not Israel a derision to you? was he found among thieves? for since you have spoken of him, you have leaped for joy.

28 O you that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole’s mouth.

29 We have heard the pride of Moab, (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his arrogance, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart.

30 I know his wrath, says the LORD; but it will not be so; his lies will not so effect it.

31 Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab; my heart will mourn for the men of Kirheres.

32 O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for you with the weeping of Jazer: your plants have gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of Jazer: the spoiler has fallen upon your summer fruits and upon your vintage.

33 And joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to fail from the wine-presses: none will tread with shouting; their shouting will be no shouting.

34 From the cry of Heshbon even to Elealeh, and even to Jahaz, have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim, as a heifer of three years old: for the waters also of Nimrim will be desolate. 35 Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab, says the LORD, him that offereth in the high places, and him that burneth incense to his gods.

36 Therefore my heart will sound for Moab like pipes, and my heart will sound like pipes for the men of Kirheres: because the riches that he has gotten have perished. 37 For every head will be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands will be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth. 38 There will be lamentation generally upon all the house-tops of Moab, and in its streets: for I have broken Moab like a vessel in which is no pleasure, says the LORD. 39 They will howl, saying, How is it broken down! how has Moab turned the back with shame! so will Moab be a derision and a dismaying to all them about him.

40 For thus says the LORD; Behold, he will fly as an eagle, and will spread his wings over Moab.

41 Kerioth is taken, and the strong holds are surprised, and the mighty men’s hearts in Moab at that day will be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

42 And Moab will be destroyed from being a people, because he has magnified himself against the LORD.

43 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, will be upon you, O inhabitant of Moab, says the LORD.

44 He that fleeth from the fear, will fall into the pit; and he that getteth out of the pit, will be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation, says the LORD.

45 They that fled stood under the shade of Heshbon because of the force: but a fire will come out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and will devour the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.

46 Woe be to you, O Moab! the people of Chemosh perisheth: for your sons are taken captives, and your daughters captives.

47 Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days, says the LORD. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

 

Jeremiah 49

WBT

Judgment on the Ammonites

1 Concerning the Ammonites, thus says the LORD; Hath Israel no sons? has he no heir? why then doth their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities?

2 Therefore behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it will be a desolate heap, and her daughters will be burned with fire: then will Israel be heir to them that were his heirs, says the LORD.

3 Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste: cry, you daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth; lament, and run to and fro by the hedges; for their king will go into captivity, and his priests and his princes together.

4 Why gloriest you in the valleys, your flowing valley, O backsliding daughter? that trusted in her treasures, saying, Who will come to me?

5 Behold, I will bring a fear upon you, says the Lord GOD of hosts, from all those that are about you; and you will be driven out every man right forth; and none will gather up him that wandereth.

6 And afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon, says the LORD.

Judgment on Edom
(Obadiah 1:1–14)

7 Concerning Edom, thus says the LORD of Armies; Is wisdom no more in Teman? has counsel perished from the prudent? has their wisdom vanished?

8 Flee you, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, the time that I will visit him.

9 If grape-gatherers come to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy until they have enough.

10 But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he will not be able to hide himself: his seed is laid waste, and his brethren, and his neighbors, and he is not.

11 Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let your widows trust in me.

12 For thus says the LORD; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drank; and are you he that will altogether go unpunished? you are not to go unpunished, but you will surely drink of it. 13 For I have sworn by myself, says the LORD, that Bozrah will become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all her cities will be perpetual wastes.

14 I have heard a rumor from the LORD, and an embassador is sent to the heathen, saying, Assemble, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.

15 For lo, I will make you small among the heathen, and despised among men.

16 Thy terribleness has deceived you, and the pride of your heart, O you that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the hight of the hill: though you shouldst make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from thence, says the LORD.

17 Also Edom will be a desolation: everyone that goeth by it will be astonished, and will hiss at all her plagues. 18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring cities, says the LORD, no man will abide there, neither will a son of man dwell in it. 19 Behold, he will come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the habitation of the strong: but I will suddenly make him run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?

20 Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he has taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: surely the least of the flock will draw them out: surely he will make their habitations desolate with them. 21 The earth is moved at the noise of their fall, at the cry the noise of it was heard in the Red sea. 22 Behold, he will come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah: and at that day will the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.

Judgment on Damascus
(Isaiah 17:1–14)

23 Concerning Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are faint-hearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet.

24 Damascus has become feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear has seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.

25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!

26 Therefore her young men will fall in her streets, and all the men of war will be cut off in that day, says the LORD of Armies.

27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it will consume the palaces of Ben-hadad.

Judgment on Kedar and Hazor

28 Concerning Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon will smite, thus says the LORD; Arise you, go up to Kedar, and lay waste the men of the east.

29 Their tents and their flocks will they take away: they will take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they will cry to them, Fear is on every side.

30 Flee, get you far off, dwell deep, O you inhabitants of Hazor, says the LORD; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a purpose against you.

31 Arise, go up to the wealthy nation, that dwelleth without care, says the LORD, which have neither gates nor bars, which dwell alone.

32 And their camels will be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter into all winds them that are in the utmost corners; and I will bring their calamity from all sides of it, says the LORD.

33 And Hazor will be a dwelling for dragons, and a desolation for ever: there will no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.

Judgment on Elam

34 the Word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,

35 Thus says the LORD of Armies; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might.

36 And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them towards all those winds; and there will be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam will not come.

37 For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, says the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them:

38 And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, says the LORD.

39 But it will come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, says the LORD.

 

Jeremiah 50

WBT

A Prophecy against Babylon

1 The word that the LORD spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.

2 Declare you among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.

3 For out of the north there cometh a nation against her, which will make her land desolate, and none will dwell in it, they will remove, they will depart, both man and beast.

Hope for Israel and Judah

4 In those days, and in that time, says the LORD, the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping; they will go, and seek the LORD their God. 5 They will ask the way to Zion with their faces towards it, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that will not be forgotten.

6 My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting-place.

7 All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.

8 Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth from the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats before the flocks.

9 For lo, I will raise and cause to come against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they will set themselves in array against her; from thence she will be taken: their arrows will be as of a mighty expert man; none will return in vain.

10 And Chaldea will be a spoil: all that spoil her will be satisfied, says the LORD.

Babylon’s Fall Is Certain

11 Because you were glad, because you rejoiced, O you destroyers of my heritage, because you are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;

12 Your mother will be greatly confounded; she that bore you will be ashamed: behold, the hindermost of the nations will be a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

13 Because of the wrath of the LORD it will not be inhabited, but it will be wholly desolate: everyone that goeth by Babylon will be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.

14 Put yourselves in array against Babylon on every side: all you that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against the LORD.

15 Shout against her on every side; she has given her hand: her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do to her.

16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they will turn everyone to his people, and they will flee everyone to his own land.

Redemption for God’s People

17 Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria has devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones. 18 Therefore thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria. 19 And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul will be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and Gilead. 20 In those days, and in that time, says the LORD, the iniquity of Israel will be sought for, and there will be none; and the sins of Judah, and they will not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.

The Destruction of Babylon

21 Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: waste and utterly destroy after them, says the LORD, and do according to all that I have commanded you.

22 A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.

23 How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

24 I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, O Babylon, and you were not aware: you are found, and also caught, because you have striven against the LORD.

25 The LORD has opened his armory, and has brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.

26 Come against her from the utmost border, open her store-houses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left.

27 Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.

28 The voice of them that flee and escape from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple.

29 Call together the archers against Babylon: all you that bend the bow, encamp against it on every side; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do to her: for she has been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.

30 Therefore her young men will fall in the streets, and all her men of war will be cut off in that day, says the LORD.

31 Behold, I am against you, O you most proud, says the Lord GOD of hosts: for your day is come, the time that I will visit you.

32 And the most proud will stumble and fall, and none will raise him up: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour all around him.

33 Thus says the LORD of Armies; The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go.

34 Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of Armies is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

35 A sword is upon the Chaldeans, says the LORD, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.

36 A sword is upon the liars; and they will be sottish: a sword is upon her mighty men; and they will be dismayed.

37 A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they will become as women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they will be robbed.

38 A drouth is upon her waters; and they will be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.

39 Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the isles, will dwell there, and the owls will dwell therein: and it will be no more inhabited for ever; neither will it be dwelt in from generation to generation.

40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring cities, says the LORD; so will no man abide there, neither will any son of man dwell therein.

41 Behold, a people will come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings will be raised up from the borders of the earth.

42 They will hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not show mercy: their voice will roar like the sea, and they will ride upon horses, everyone put in array, like a man to the battle, against you, O daughter of Babylon.

43 The king of Babylon has heard the report of them, and his hands became feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail.

44 Behold, he will come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan to the habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly run away from her: and who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me? 45 Therefore hear you the counsel of the LORD, that he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flock will draw them out: surely he will make their habitation desolate with them. 46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.

 

Jeremiah 51

WBT

Judgment on Babylon

1 Thus says the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise against me, a destroying wind;

2 And will send to Babylon fanners, that will fan her, and will empty her land: for in the day of trouble they will be against her on all sides.

3 Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his coat of mail: and spare you not her young men; destroy you utterly all her host.

4 Thus the slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets.

5 For Israel has not been forsaken, nor Judah by his God, by the LORD of Armies; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.

6 Flee from the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will render to her a recompense.

7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drank of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, it may be she may be healed.

9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country: for her judgment reacheth to heaven, and is lifted even to the skies.

10 The LORD has brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.

11 Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.

12 Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD has both devised and done that which he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.

13 O you that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, your end is come, and the measure of your covetousness.

14 The LORD of Armies has sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men, as with caterpillars; and they will raise a shout against you.

Praise to the God of Jacob
(Isaiah 25:1–12)

15 He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heaven by his understanding.

16 When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

17 Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

18 They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they will perish.

19 The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of Armies is his name.

Babylon’s Punishment

20 You are my battle-ax and weapons of war: for with you will I break in pieces the nations, and with you will I destroy kingdoms;

21 And with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with you will I break in pieces the chariot and its rider;

22 With you also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with you will I break in pieces old and young; and with you will I break in pieces the young man and the maid;

23 I will also break in pieces with you the shepherd and his flock; and with you will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with you will I break in pieces captains and rulers.

24 And I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, says the LORD.

25 Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, says the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out my hand upon you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain.

26 And they will not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you will be desolate for ever, says the LORD.

27 Set you up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars.

28 Prepare against her the nations with the kings of Media, her captains, and all her rulers, and all the land of his dominion.

29 And the land will tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD will be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.

30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might has failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwelling-places; her bars are broken.

31 One post will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end,

32 And that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.

33 For thus says the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest will come.

34 Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a dragon, he has filled his belly with my delicates, he has cast me out.

35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, will the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, will Jerusalem say.

36 Therefore thus says the LORD; Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.

37 And Babylon will become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant.

38 They will roar together like lions: they will yell as lions’ whelps.

39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the LORD.

40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats.

41 How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!

42 The sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of its waves.

43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land in which no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass by it.

44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed: and the nations will not flow together any more to him: even the wall of Babylon will fall.

45 My people, depart from the midst of her, and deliver you every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.

46 And lest your heart should faint, and you should fear for the rumor that will be heard in the land; a rumor will both come one year, and after that in another year will come a rumor, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

47 Therefore behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land will be confounded, and all her slain will fall in the midst of her.

48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is in them, will sing for Babylon: for the spoilers will come to her from the north, says the LORD.

49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon will fall the slain of all the earth.

50 You that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach: shame has covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD’S house.

52 Wherefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and through all her land the wounded will groan.

53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the hight of her strength, yet from me will spoilers come to her, says the LORD.

54 A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:

55 Because the LORD has laid waste Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice; when her waves roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered:

56 Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, everyone of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompenses will surely requite.

57 And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they will sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, says the king, whose name is the LORD of Armies.

58 Thus says the LORD of Armies; The broad walls of Babylon will be utterly broken, and her high gates will be burned with fire; and the people will labor in vain, and the people in the fire, and they will be weary.

Jeremiah’s Message to Seraiah

59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince. 60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon. 61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you will come to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words; 62 Then you will say, O LORD, you have spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none will remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it will be desolate for ever. 63 And it will be, when you have made an end of reading this book, that you will bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates: 64 And you will say, Thus will Babylon sink, and will not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they will be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

 

Jeremiah 52

WBT

The Fall of Jerusalem Recounted
(Psalm 74:1–23; Psalm 79:1–13; 2 Kings 24:18–20; 2 Chronicles 36:11–14)

1 Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2 And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. 3 For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it, and built forts against it on every side. 5 So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 6 And in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. 7 Then the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth from the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden; (now the Chaldeans were by the city on all sides:) and they went by the way of the plain. 8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. 9 Then they took the king, and carried him to the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave judgment upon him. 10 And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. 11 Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death.

The Temple Destroyed
(2 Kings 25:8–17)

12 Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem, 13 And burned the house of the LORD, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men he burned with fire: 14 And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem on every side. 15 Then Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carried away captive certain of the poor of the people, and the residue of the people that remained in the city, and those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. 16 But Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the land for vine-dressers and for husbandmen.

17 Also the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon. 18 The caldrons also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass with which they ministered, they took away. 19 And the basins, and the fire-pans, and the bowls, and the caldrons, and the candlesticks, and the spoons, and the cups; that which was of gold in gold, and that which was of silver in silver, the captain of the guard took away. 20 The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brazen bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the LORD: the brass of all these vessels was without weight. 21 And concerning the pillars, the hight of one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a fillet of twelve cubits encompassed it; and the thickness of it was four fingers: it was hollow. 22 And a capital of brass was upon it; and the hight of one capital was five cubits, with net-work and pomegranates upon the capitals around, all of brass. The second pillar also and the pomegranates were like to these. 23 And there were ninety and six pomegranates on a side; and all the pomegranates upon the net-work were a hundred on all sides.

Captives Carried to Babylon
(2 Kings 25:18–21)

24 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door: 25 He took also out of the city a eunuch, who had the charge of the men of war; and seven men of them that were near the king’s person, who were found in the city; and the principal scribe of the host, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, that were found in the midst of the city. 26 So Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah. 27 And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death in Riblah, in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land.

28 This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand Jews and three and twenty: 29 In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons: 30 In the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison
(2 Kings 25:27–30)

31 And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him out of prison, 32 And spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon, 33 And changed his prison garments: and he continually ate bread before him all the days of his life. 34 And for his food there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.