The prophet Jeremiah lived during the latter part of the seventh century and the first part of the sixth century B.C. During his long ministry he warned God's people of the catastrophe that was to fall upon the nation because of their idolatry and sin. He lived to see this prediction come true with the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, the destruction of the city and the Temple, and the exile to Babylonia of Judah's king and many of the people. He also foretold the eventual return of the people from exile and the restoration of the nation.

The book of Jeremiah may be divided into the following parts: 1) The call of Jeremiah. 2) Messages from God to the nation of Judah and its rulers during the reigns of Josiah, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. 3) Material from the memoirs of Baruch, Jeremiah's secretary, including various prophecies and important events from the life of Jeremiah. 4) Messages from the Lord about various foreign nations. 5) A historical appendix, giving an account of the fall of Jerusalem, and the exile to Babylon.

Jeremiah was a sensitive man who deeply loved his people, and who hated to have to pronounce judgment upon them. In many passages he spoke with deep emotion about the things he suffered because God had called him to be a prophet. The word of the Lord was like fire in his heart—he could not keep it back.

Some of the greatest words in the book point beyond Jeremiah's own troubled time to the day when there would be a new covenant, one that God's people would keep without a teacher to remind them, because it would be written on their hearts (31.31–34).

The call of Jeremiah 1.1–19 Prophecies during the reigns of Josiah, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah 2.1–25.38 Events in Jeremiah's life 26.1–45.5 Prophecies against the nations 46.1–51.64 The fall of Jerusalem 52.1–34

1   This book is the account of what was said by Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests of the town of Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.

2   The Lord spoke to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon was king of Judah, ^note

3   and he spoke to him again when Josiah's son Jehoiakim was king. After that, the Lord spoke to him many times, until the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah. In the fifth month of that year the people of Jerusalem were taken into exile. ^note

The Call of Jeremiah

4   The Lord said to me,

5   “I chose you before I gave you life, and before you were born I selected you to be a prophet to the nations.”

6   I answered, “Sovereign Lord, I don't know how to speak; I am too young.”

7   But the Lord said to me, “Do not say that you are too young, but go to the people I send you to, and tell them everything I command you to say.

8   Do not be afraid of them, for I will be with you to protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

9   Then the Lord reached out, touched my lips, and said to me, “Listen, I am giving you the words you must speak.

10   Today I give you authority over nations and kingdoms to uproot and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” Two Visions

11   The Lord asked me, “Jeremiah, what do you see?”

11   I answered, “A branch of an almond tree.”

12   “You are right,” the Lord said, “and I am watching ^note to see that my words come true.”

13   Then the Lord spoke to me again. “What else do you see?” he asked.

13   I answered, “I see a pot boiling in the north, and it is about to tip over this way.”

14   He said to me, “Destruction will boil over from the north on all who live in this land,

15   because I am calling all the nations in the north to come. Their kings will set up their thrones at the gates of Jerusalem and around its walls and also around the other cities of Judah.

16   I will punish my people because they have sinned; they have abandoned me, have offered sacrifices to other gods, and have made idols and worshiped them.

17   Get ready, Jeremiah; go and tell them everything I command you to say. Do not be afraid of them now, or I will make you even more afraid when you are with them.

18    19   Listen, Jeremiah! Everyone in this land—the kings of Judah, the officials, the priests, and the people —will be against you. But today I am giving you the strength to resist them; you will be like a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall. They will not defeat you, for I will be with you to protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken.” God's Care for Israel

1   The Lord told me

2   to proclaim this message to everyone in Jerusalem.

“I remember how faithful you were when you were young,
  how you loved me when we were first married;
you followed me through the desert,
  through a land that had not been planted.

3   
Israel, you belonged to me alone;

  you were my sacred possession.
I sent suffering and disaster on everyone who hurt you.
I, the Lord, have spoken.” The Sin of Israel's Ancestors

4   Listen to the Lord's message, you descendants of Jacob, you tribes of Israel.

5   The Lord says:

“What accusation did your ancestors bring against me?
  What made them turn away from me?
They worshiped worthless idols
  and became worthless themselves.

6   
They did not care about me,
  even though I rescued them from Egypt
  and led them through the wilderness:
  a land of deserts and sand pits,
  a dry and dangerous land
  where no one lives
  and no one will even travel.

7   
I brought them into a fertile land,
  to enjoy its harvests and its other good things.
But instead they ruined my land;
  they defiled the country I had given them.

8   
The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’
  My own priest did not know me.
The rulers rebelled against me;
  the prophets spoke in the name of Baal
  and worshiped useless idols. The Lord's Case against His People

9   
“And so I, the Lord, will state my case against my people again.
I will bring charges against their descendants.

10   
Go west to the island of Cyprus,
  and send someone eastward to the land of Kedar.
  You will see that nothing like this has ever happened before.

11   
No other nation has ever changed its gods,
  even though they were not real.
But my people have exchanged me,
  the God who has brought them honor,
  for gods that can do nothing for them.

12   
And so I command the sky to shake with horror,
  to be amazed and astonished,

13   
  for my people have committed two sins:
they have turned away from me,
  the spring of fresh water,
and they have dug cisterns,
  cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all.
The Results of Israel's Unfaithfulness

14   
“Israel is not a slave;
  he was not born into slavery.
  Why then do his enemies hunt him down?

15   
They have roared at him like lions;
  they have made his land a desert,
  and his towns lie in ruins, completely abandoned.

16   
Yes, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes
  have cracked his skull.

17   
Israel, you brought this on yourself!
  You deserted me, the Lord your God,
  while I was leading you along the way.

18   
What do you think you will gain by going to Egypt
  to drink water from the Nile?
What do you think you will gain by going to Assyria
  to drink water from the Euphrates?

19   
Your own evil will punish you,
  and your turning from me will condemn you.

You will learn how bitter and wrong it is
  to abandon me, the Lord your God,
  and no longer to remain loyal to me.
I, the Sovereign Lord Almighty, have spoken.”
Israel Refuses to Worship the Lord

20   
The Sovereign Lord says,
“Israel, long ago you rejected my authority;
  you refused to obey me and worship me.
On every high hill
  and under every green tree
  you worshiped fertility gods.

21   
I planted you like a choice vine
  from the very best seed.
But look what you have become!
  You are like a rotten, worthless vine.

22   
Even if you washed with the strongest soap,
  I would still see the stain of your guilt.

23   
How can you say you have not defiled yourself,
  that you have never worshiped Baal?
Look how you sinned in the valley;
  see what you have done.
You are like a wild camel in heat,
  running around loose,

24   
  rushing into the desert. ^note
When she is in heat, who can control her?
No male that wants her has to trouble himself;
  she is always available in mating season.

25   
Israel, don't wear your feet out,
  or let your throat become dry
  from chasing after other gods.
But you say, ‘No! I can't turn back.
  I have loved foreign gods
  and will go after them.’”
Israel Deserves to Be Punished

26   The Lord says, “Just as a thief is disgraced when caught, so all you people of Israel will be disgraced— your kings and officials, your priests and prophets.

27   You will all be disgraced— you that say that a tree is your father and that a rock is your mother. This will happen because you turned away from me instead of turning to me. But when you are in trouble, you ask me to come and save you.

28   “Where are the gods that you made for yourselves? When you are in trouble, let them save you—if they can! Judah, you have as many gods as you have cities.

29   What is your complaint? Why have you rebelled against me?

30   I punished you, but it did no good; you would not let me correct you. Like a raging lion, you have murdered your prophets.

31   People of Israel, listen to what I am saying. Have I been like a desert to you, like a dark and dangerous land? Why, then, do you say that you will do as you please, that you will never come back to me?

32   Does a young woman forget her jewelry, or a bride her wedding dress? But my people have forgotten me for more days than can be counted.

33   You certainly know how to chase after lovers. Even the worst of women can learn from you.

34   Your clothes are stained with the blood of the poor and innocent, not with the blood of burglars.

34   “But in spite of all this,

35   you say, ‘I am innocent; surely the Lord is no longer angry with me.’ But I, the Lord, will punish you because you deny that you have sinned.

36   You have cheapened yourself by turning to the gods of other nations. You will be disappointed by Egypt, just as you were by Assyria.

37   You will turn away from Egypt, hanging your head in shame. I, the Lord, have rejected those you trust; you will not gain anything from them.”

Unfaithful Israel

1   The Lord says, “If a man divorces his wife, and she leaves him and becomes another man's wife, he cannot take her back again. This would completely defile the land. But, Israel, you have had many lovers, and now you want to return to me!

2   Look up at the hilltops. Is there any place where you have not acted like a prostitute? You waited for lovers along the roadside, as an Arab waits for victims in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution.

3   That is why the rains were held back, and the spring showers did not come. You even look like a prostitute; you have no shame.

4   “And now you say to me, ‘You are my father, and you have loved me ever since I was a child.

5   You won't always be angry; you won't be mad at me forever.’ Israel, that is what you said, but you did all the evil you could.” Israel and Judah Must Repent

6   When Josiah was king, the Lord said to me, “Have you seen what Israel, that unfaithful woman, has done? She has turned away from me, and on every high hill and under every green tree she has acted like a prostitute. ^note

7   I thought that after she had done all this, she would surely return to me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it all.

8   Judah also saw that I divorced Israel and sent her away because she had turned from me and had become a prostitute. But Judah, Israel's unfaithful sister, was not afraid. She too became a prostitute

9   and was not at all ashamed. She defiled the land, and she committed adultery by worshiping stones and trees.

10   And after all this, Judah, Israel's unfaithful sister, only pretended to return to me; she was not sincere. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

11   Then the Lord told me that, even though Israel had turned away from him, she had proved to be better than unfaithful Judah.

12   He told me to go and say to Israel, “Unfaithful Israel, come back to me. I am merciful and will not be angry; I will not be angry with you forever.

13   Only admit that you are guilty and that you have rebelled against the Lord, your God. Confess that under every green tree you have given your love to foreign gods and that you have not obeyed my commands. I, the Lord, have spoken.

14   “Unfaithful people, come back; you belong to me. I will take one of you from each town and two from each clan, and I will bring you back to Mount Zion.

15   I will give you rulers who obey me, and they will rule you with wisdom and understanding.

16   Then when you have become numerous in that land, people will no longer talk about my Covenant Box. They will no longer think about it or remember it; they will not even need it, nor will they make another one.

17   When that time comes, Jerusalem will be called ‘The Throne of the Lord,’ and all nations will gather there to worship me. They will no longer do what their stubborn and evil hearts tell them.

18   Israel will join with Judah, and together they will come from exile in the country in the north and will return to the land that I gave your ancestors as a permanent possession.” The Idolatry of God's People

19   
The Lord says,
“Israel, I wanted to accept you as my son

  and give you a delightful land,
  the most beautiful land in all the world.
I wanted you to call me father
  and never again turn away from me.

20   
But like an unfaithful wife,
you have not been faithful to me.
I, the Lord, have spoken.”

21   
A noise is heard on the hilltops:
  it is the people of Israel crying and pleading
  because they have lived sinful lives
  and have forgotten the Lord their God.

22   
Return, all of you who have turned away from the Lord;
  he will heal you and make you faithful.

22   You say, “Yes, we are coming to the Lord because he is our God.

23   We were not helped at all by our pagan worship on the hilltops. Help for Israel comes only from the Lord our God.

24   But the worship of Baal, the god of shame, has made us lose flocks and herds, sons and daughters —everything that our ancestors have worked for since ancient times.

25   We should lie down in shame and let our disgrace cover us. We and our ancestors have always sinned against the Lord our God; we have never obeyed his commands.” A Call to Repentance

1   The Lord says, “People of Israel, if you want to turn, then turn back to me. If you remove the idols I hate and are faithful to me,

2   it will be right for you to swear by my name. Then ^note all the nations will ask me to bless them, and they will praise me.”

3   The Lord says to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, “Plow up your unplowed fields; do not plant your seeds among thorns. ^note

4   Keep your covenant with me, your Lord, and dedicate yourselves to me, you people of Judah and Jerusalem. If you don't, my anger will burn like fire because of the evil things you have done. It will burn, and there will be no one to put it out.” Judah Is Threatened with Invasion

5   
Blow the trumpet throughout the land!
  Shout loud and clear!
Tell the people of Judah and Jerusalem
  to run to the fortified cities.

6   
Point the way to Zion!
  Run for safety! Don't delay!
The Lord is bringing disaster
  and great destruction from the north.

7   
Like a lion coming from its hiding place,
  a destroyer of nations has set out.
He is coming to destroy Judah.
The cities of Judah will be left in ruins,
  and no one will live in them.

8   
So put on sackcloth, and weep and wail
  because the fierce anger of the Lord
  has not turned away from Judah.

9   The Lord said, “On that day kings and officials will lose their courage; priests will be shocked and prophets will be astonished.”

10   Then I said, “Sovereign Lord, you have completely deceived the people of Jerusalem! You have said

there would be peace, but a sword is at their throats.”

11   The time is coming when the people of Jerusalem will be told that a scorching wind is blowing in from the desert toward them. It will not be a gentle wind that only blows away the chaff—

12   the wind that comes at the Lord's command will be much stronger than that! It is the Lord himself who is pronouncing judgment on his people. Judah Is Surrounded by Enemies

13   Look, the enemy is coming like clouds. His war chariots are like a whirlwind, and his horses are faster than eagles. We are lost! We are doomed!

14   Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart, so that you may be saved. How long will you go on thinking sinful thoughts?

15   Messengers from the city of Dan and from the hills of Ephraim announce the bad news.

16   They have come to warn the nations and to tell Jerusalem that enemies are coming from a country far away. These enemies will shout against the cities of Judah

17   and will surround Jerusalem like men guarding a field, because her people have rebelled against the Lord. The Lord has spoken.

18   Judah, you have brought this on yourself by the way you have lived and by the things you have done. Your sin has caused this suffering; it has stabbed you through the heart. Jeremiah's Sorrow for His People

19   
The pain! I can't bear the pain!
My heart! My heart is beating wildly!
I can't keep quiet;
I hear the trumpets
  and the shouts of battle.

20   
One disaster follows another;
  the whole country is left in ruins.
Suddenly our tents are destroyed;
  their curtains are torn to pieces.

21   
How long must I see the battle raging
  and hear the blasts of trumpets?

22   
The Lord says, “My people are stupid;
  they don't know me.
They are like foolish children;
  they have no understanding.
They are experts at doing what is evil,
  but failures at doing what is good.”
Jeremiah's Vision of the Coming Destruction

23   
I looked at the earth—it was a barren waste;
  at the sky—there was no light.

24   
I looked at the mountains—they were shaking,
  and the hills were rocking back and forth.

25   
I saw that there were no people;
  even the birds had flown away.

26   
The fertile land had become a desert;
  its cities were in ruins
  because of the Lord's fierce anger.

27   (The Lord has said that the whole earth will become a wasteland, but that he will not completely destroy it.)

28   
The earth will mourn;
  the sky will grow dark.
The Lord has spoken

  and will not change his mind.
He has made his decision and will not turn back.

29   
At the noise of the horsemen and bowmen
  everyone will run away.
Some will run to the forest;
  others will climb up among the rocks.
Every town will be left empty,
  and no one will live in them again.

30   
Jerusalem, you are doomed!
  Why do you dress in scarlet?
  Why do you put on jewelry and paint your eyes?
You are making yourself beautiful for nothing!
  Your lovers have rejected you
  and want to kill you.

31   
I heard a cry, like a woman in labor,
  a scream like a woman bearing her first child.
It was the cry of Jerusalem gasping for breath,
  stretching out her hand and saying,
“I am doomed!
  They are coming to kill me!” The Sin of Jerusalem

1   
People of Jerusalem, run through your streets!
  Look around! See for yourselves!
  Search the marketplaces!
Can you find one person
  who does what is right
  and tries to be faithful to God?
If you can, the Lord will forgive Jerusalem.

2   
Even though you claim to worship the Lord,
  you do not mean what you say.

3   
Surely the Lord looks for faithfulness.
He struck you, but you paid no attention;
  he crushed you, but you refused to learn.
You were stubborn and would not turn from your sins.

4   
Then I thought, “These are only the poor and ignorant.
They behave foolishly;
  they don't know what their God requires,
  what the Lord wants them to do.

5   
I will go to the people in power
  and talk with them.
Surely they know what their God requires,
  what the Lord wants them to do.”
But all of them have rejected the Lord's authority
  and refuse to obey him.

6   
That is why lions from the forest will kill them;
  wolves from the desert will tear them to pieces,
  and leopards will prowl through their towns.
If those people go out, they will be torn apart
  because their sins are numerous
  and time after time they have turned from God.

7   
The Lord asked, “Why should I forgive the sins of my people?
They have abandoned me
  and have worshiped gods that are not real.
I fed my people until they were full,
  but they committed adultery
  and spent their time with prostitutes.

8   
They were like well-fed stallions wild with desire
  each lusting for his neighbor's wife.

9   
Shouldn't I punish them for these things
  and take revenge on a nation such as this?

10   
I will send enemies to cut down my people's vineyards,
  but not to destroy them completely.
I will tell them to strip away the branches,
  because those branches are not mine.

11   
The people of Israel and Judah
  have betrayed me completely.
I, the Lord, have spoken.”
The Lord Rejects Israel

12   The Lord's people have denied him and have said, “He won't really do anything. ^noteWe won't have hard times; we won't have war or famine.”

13    14   They have said that the prophets are nothing but windbags and that they have no message from the Lord. The Lord God Almighty said to me, “Jeremiah, because these people have said such things, I will make my words like a fire in your mouth. The people will be like wood, and the fire will burn them up.”

15   People of Israel, the Lord is bringing a nation from far away to attack you. It is a strong and ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know.

16   Their bowmen are mighty soldiers who kill without mercy.

17   They will devour your crops and your food; they will kill your sons and your daughters. They will slaughter your flocks and your herds and destroy your vines and fig trees. The fortified cities in which you trust will be destroyed by their army.

18   The Lord says, “Yet even in those days I will not completely destroy my people.

19   When they ask why I did all these things, tell them, Jeremiah, that just as they turned away from me and served foreign gods in their own land, so they will serve strangers in a land that is not theirs.” God Warns His People

20   The Lord says, “Tell the descendants of Jacob, tell the people of Judah:

21   Pay attention, you foolish and stupid people, who have eyes, but cannot see, and have ears, but cannot hear. ^note

22   I am the Lord; why don't you fear me? Why don't you tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary of the sea, a permanent boundary that it cannot cross. The sea may toss, but it cannot go beyond it; the waves may roar, but they cannot break through. ^note

23   But you people! You are stubborn and rebellious; you have turned aside and left me.

24   You never thought to honor me, even though I send the autumn rains and the spring rains and give you the harvest season each year.

25   Instead, your sins have kept these good things from you.

26   “Evil men live among my people; they lie in wait like men who lay nets to catch birds, ^note but they have set their traps to catch men.

27   Just as a hunter fills his cage with birds, they have filled their houses with loot. That is why they are powerful and rich,

28   why they are fat and well fed. There is no limit to their evil deeds. They do not give orphans their rights or show justice to the oppressed.

29   “But I, the Lord, will punish them for these things; I will take revenge on this nation.

30   A terrible and shocking thing has happened in the land:

31   prophets speak nothing but lies; priests rule as the prophets command, and my people offer no objections. But what will they do when it all comes to an end?” Jerusalem Is Surrounded by Enemies

1   People of Benjamin, run for safety! Escape from Jerusalem! Sound the trumpet in Tekoa and build a signal fire in Beth Hacherem. Disaster and destruction are about to come from the north.

2   The city of Zion is beautiful, but it will be destroyed;

3   kings will camp there with their armies. They will pitch their tents around the city, and each one will camp wherever he wants.

4   They will say, “Prepare to attack Jerusalem! Get ready! We'll attack at noon!” But then they will say, “It's too late, the day is almost over, and the evening shadows are growing long.

5   We'll attack by night; we'll destroy the city's fortresses.”

6   The Lord Almighty has ordered

these kings to cut down trees and build mounds in order to besiege Jerusalem. He has said, “I will punish this city because it is full of oppression.

7   As a well keeps its water fresh, so Jerusalem keeps its evil fresh. I hear violence and destruction in the city; sickness and wounds are all I see.

8   People of Jerusalem, let these troubles be a warning to you, or else I will abandon you; I will turn your city into a desert, a place where no one lives.” Rebellious Israel

9   The Lord Almighty said to me, “Israel will be stripped clean like a vineyard from which every grape has been picked. So you must rescue everyone you can while there is still time.”

10   I answered, “Who would listen to me if I spoke to them and warned them? They are stubborn and refuse to listen to your message; they laugh at what you tell me to say.

11   Your anger against them burns in me too, Lord, and I can't hold it in any longer.”

11   Then the Lord said to me, “Pour out my anger on the children in the streets and on the gatherings of the young men. Husbands and wives will be taken away, and even the very old will not be spared.

12   Their houses will be given to others, and so will their fields and their wives. I am going to punish the people of this land.

13   Everyone, great and small, tries to make money dishonestly; even prophets and priests cheat the people.

14   They act as if my people's wounds were only scratches. ‘All is well,’ they say, when all is not well. ^note

15   Were they ashamed because they did these disgusting things? No, they were not at all ashamed; they don't even know how to blush. And so they will fall as others have fallen; when I punish them, that will be the end of them. I, the Lord, have spoken.” ^note Israel Rejects God's Way

16   The Lord said to his people, “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths and where the best road is. Walk in it, and you will live in peace.”

16   But they said, “No, we will not!” ^note

17   Then the Lord appointed watchmen to listen for the trumpet's warning. But they said, “We will not listen.”

18   So the Lord said, “Listen, you nations, and learn what is going to happen to my people.

19   Listen, earth! As punishment for all their schemes I am bringing ruin on these people, because they have rejected my teaching and have not obeyed my words.

20   What do I care about the incense they bring me from Sheba, or the spices from a distant land? I will not accept their offerings or be pleased with their sacrifices.

21   And so I will make these people stumble and fall. Fathers and sons will die, and so will friends and neighbors.” Invasion from the North

22   The Lord says, “People are coming from a country in the north; a mighty nation far away is preparing for war.

23   They have taken up their bows and swords; they are cruel and merciless. They sound like the roaring sea, as they ride their horses. They are ready for battle against Jerusalem.”

24   “We have heard the news,” say the people of Jerusalem, “and our hands hang limp; we are seized by anguish and pain like a woman in labor.

25   We don't dare go to the countryside or walk on the roads, because our enemies are armed and terror is all around us.”

26   The Lord says to his people, “Put on sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter tears as you would for an only son, because the one who comes to destroy you will suddenly attack.

27   Jeremiah, test my people, as you would test metal, and find out what they are like.

28   They are all stubborn rebels, hard as bronze and iron. They are all corrupt, going around and spreading gossip.

29   The furnace burns fiercely, but the waste metals do not melt and run off. It is useless to go on refining my people, because those who are evil are not taken away.

30   They will be called worthless dross, because I, the Lord, have rejected them.” Jeremiah Preaches in the Temple

1    2    3   The Lord sent me to the gate of the Temple where the people of Judah went in to worship. He told me to stand there and announce what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had to say to them: “Change the way you are living and the things you are doing, and I will let you go on living here.

4   Stop believing those deceitful words, ‘We are safe! This is the Lord's Temple, this is the Lord's Temple, this is the Lord's Temple!’

5   “Change the way you are living and stop doing the things you are doing. Be fair in your treatment of one another.

6   Stop taking advantage of aliens, orphans, and widows. Stop killing innocent people in this land. Stop worshiping other gods, for that will destroy you.

7   If you change, I will let you go on living here in the land which I gave your ancestors as a permanent possession.

8   “Look, you put your trust in deceitful words.

9   You steal, murder, commit adultery, tell lies under oath, offer sacrifices to Baal, and worship gods that you had not known before.

10   You do these things I hate, and then you come and stand in my presence, in my own Temple, and say, ‘We are safe!’

11   Do you think that my Temple is a hiding place for robbers? I have seen what you are doing. ^note

12   Go to Shiloh, ^note the first place where I chose to be worshiped, and see what I did to it because of the sins of my people Israel.

13   You have committed all these sins, and even though I spoke to you over and over again, you refused to listen. You would not answer when I called you.

14   And so, what I did to Shiloh I will do to this Temple of mine, in which you trust. Here in this place that I gave to your ancestors and you, I will do the same thing that I did to Shiloh. ^note

15   I will drive you out of my sight as I drove out your relatives, the people of Israel. I, the Lord, have spoken.” The People's Disobedience

16   The Lord said, “Jeremiah, do not pray for these people. Do not cry or pray on their behalf; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.

17   Don't you see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

18   The children gather firewood, the men build fires, and the women mix dough to bake cakes for the goddess they call the Queen of Heaven. They also pour out offerings of wine to other gods, in order to hurt me. ^note

19   But am I really the one they are hurting? No, they are hurting themselves and bringing shame on themselves.

20   And so I, the Sovereign Lord, will pour out my fierce anger on this Temple. I will pour it out on people and animals alike, and even on the trees and the crops. My anger will be like a fire that no one can put out.

21   “My people, some sacrifices you burn completely on the altar, and some you are permitted to eat. But what I, the Lord, say is that you might as well eat them all.

22   I gave your ancestors no commands about

burnt offerings or any other kinds of sacrifices when I brought them out of Egypt.

23   But I did command them to obey me, so that I would be their God and they would be my people. And I told them to live the way I had commanded them, so that things would go well for them.

24   But they did not obey or pay any attention. Instead, they did whatever their stubborn and evil hearts told them to do, and they became worse instead of better.

25   From the day that your ancestors came out of Egypt until this very day I have kept on sending to you my servants, the prophets.

26   Yet no one listened or paid any attention. Instead, you became more stubborn and rebellious than your ancestors.

27   “So, Jeremiah, you will speak all these words to my people, but they will not listen to you; you will call them, but they will not answer.

28   You will tell them that their nation does not obey me, the Lord their God, or learn from their punishment. Faithfulness is dead. No longer is it even talked about. Sinful Deeds in Hinnom Valley

29   
“Mourn, people of Jerusalem;
  cut off your hair and throw it away.
Sing a funeral song on the hilltops,
  because I, the Lord, am angry
  and have rejected my people.

30   “The people of Judah have done an evil thing. They have placed their idols, which I hate, in my Temple and have defiled it.

31   In Hinnom Valley they have built an altar called Topheth, so that they can sacrifice their sons and daughters in the fire. I did not command them to do this— it did not even enter my mind. ^note

32   And so, the time will come when it will no longer be called Topheth or Hinnom Valley, but Slaughter Valley. They will bury people there because there will be nowhere else to bury them.

33   The corpses will be food for the birds and wild animals, and there will be no one to scare them off.

34   The land will become a desert. In the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the happy sounds of wedding feasts. ^note

1   “At that time the bones of the kings and of the officials of Judah, as well as the bones of the priests, of the prophets, and of the other people who lived in Jerusalem, will be taken out of their graves.

2   Instead of being gathered and buried, their bones will be like manure lying on the ground. They will be spread out before the sun, the moon, and the stars, which these people have loved and served, and which they have consulted and worshiped.

3   And the people of this evil nation who survive, who live in the places where I have scattered them, will prefer to die rather than to go on living. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken.” Sin and Punishment

4   The Lord told me to say to his people, “When someone falls down, doesn't he get back up? If someone misses the road, doesn't he turn back?

5   Why then, my people, do you turn away from me without ever turning back? You cling to your idols and refuse to return to me.

6   I listened carefully, but you did not speak the truth. Not one of you has been sorry for his wickedness; not one of you has asked, ‘What have I done wrong?’ Everyone keeps on going his own way, like a horse rushing into battle.

7   Even storks know when it is time to return; doves, swallows, and thrushes know when it is time to migrate. But, my people, you do not know the laws by which I rule you.

8   How can you say that you are wise and that you know my laws? Look, the laws have been changed by dishonest scribes.

9   Your wise men are put to shame; they are confused and trapped. They have rejected my words; what wisdom do

they have now?

10   So I will give their fields to new owners and their wives to other men. Everyone, great and small, tries to make money dishonestly. Even prophets and priests cheat the people.

11   They act as if my people's wounds were only scratches. ‘All is well,’ they say, when all is not well. ^note

12   My people, were you ashamed because you did these disgusting things? No, you were not ashamed at all; you don't even know how to blush! And so you will fall as others have fallen; when I punish you, that will be the end of you. I, the Lord, have spoken. ^note

13   “I wanted to gather my people, as a man gathers his harvest; but they are like a vine with no grapes, like a fig tree with no figs; even the leaves have withered. Therefore, I have allowed outsiders to take over the land.” ^note

14   “Why are we sitting still?” God's people ask. “Come on, we will run to the fortified cities and die there. The Lord our God has condemned us to die; he has given us poison to drink, because we have sinned against him.

15   We hoped for peace and a time of healing, but it was no use; terror came instead.

16   Our enemies are already in the city of Dan; we hear the snorting of their horses. The whole land trembles when their horses neigh. Our enemies have come to destroy our land and everything in it, our city and all its people.”

17   “Watch out!” the Lord says, “I am sending snakes among you, poisonous snakes that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you.” Jeremiah's Sorrow for His People

18   
My sorrow cannot be healed; ^note
  I am sick at heart.

19   
Listen! Throughout the land
  I hear my people crying out,
“Is the Lord no longer in Zion?
  Is Zion's king no longer there?”
The Lord, their king, replies,
“Why have you made me angry by worshiping your idols
  and by bowing down to your useless foreign gods?”

20   
The people cry out,
“The summer is gone, the harvest is over,
  but we have not been saved.”

21   
My heart has been crushed
  because my people are crushed;
  I mourn; I am completely dismayed.

22   
Is there no medicine in Gilead? ^note
  Are there no doctors there?
  Why, then, have my people not been healed?

1   
I wish my head were a well of water,
  and my eyes a fountain of tears,
so that I could cry day and night
  for my people who have been killed.

2   
I wish I had a place to stay in the desert
  where I could get away from my people.
They are all unfaithful, a mob of traitors.

3   
They are always ready to tell lies;
  dishonesty instead of truth rules the land.

3   
The Lord says,
“My people do one evil thing after another
  and do not acknowledge me as their God.”

4   
Everyone must be on guard against his friend,
  and no one can trust his brother;
for every brother is as deceitful as Jacob,
  and everyone slanders his friends.

5    6   
They all mislead their friends,
  and no one tells the truth;
they have taught their tongues to lie
  and will not give up their sinning.
They do one violent thing after another,
  and one deceitful act follows another.

5    6   
The Lord says that his people reject him.

7   
Because of this the Lord Almighty says,
“I will refine my people like metal
  and put them to the test.
My people have done evil—
  what else can I do with them?

8   
Their tongues are like deadly arrows;
  they always tell lies.
Everyone speaks friendly words to his neighbor,
  but is really setting a trap for him.

9   
Will I not punish them for these things?
  Will I not take revenge on a nation like this?
I, the Lord, have spoken.”

10   
I said, “I will mourn for the mountains
  and weep for the pastures,
because they have dried up,
  and no one travels through them.
The sound of livestock is no longer heard;
  birds and wild animals have fled and gone.”

11   
The Lord says, “I will make Jerusalem a pile of ruins,
  a place where jackals live;
the cities of Judah will become a desert,
  a place where no one lives.”

12   I asked, “Lord, why is the land devastated and dry as a desert, so that no one travels through it? Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom have you explained it so that he can tell others?”

13   The Lord answered, “This has happened because my people have abandoned the teaching that I gave them. They have not obeyed me or done what I told them.

14   Instead, they have been stubborn and have worshiped the idols of Baal as their fathers taught them to do.

15   So then, listen to what I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, will do: I will give my people bitter plants to eat and poison to drink.

16   I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have heard about, and I will send armies against them until I have completely destroyed them.” The People of Jerusalem Cry Out for Help

17   
The Lord Almighty said,
“Think about what is happening!

Call for the mourners to come,
  for the women who sing funeral songs.”

18   
The people said,
“Tell them to hurry and sing a funeral song for us,
  until our eyes fill with tears,
  and our eyelids are wet from crying.”

19   Listen to the sound of crying in Zion:

19   
“We are ruined!
  We are completely disgraced!
We must leave our land;
  our homes have been torn down.”

20   
I said,
“Listen to the Lord, you women,
  and pay attention to his words.
Teach your daughters how to mourn,
  and your friends how to sing a funeral song.

21   
Death has come in through our windows
  and entered our palaces;
it has cut down the children in the streets
  and the young men in the marketplaces.

22   
Dead bodies are scattered everywhere,
  like piles of manure on the fields,
  like grain cut and left behind by the reapers,
  grain that no one gathers.
This is what the Lord has told me to say.”

23   
The Lord says,
“Wise men should not boast of their wisdom,
  nor strong men of their strength,
  nor rich men of their wealth.

24   
If anyone wants to boast,
  he should boast that he knows and understands me,
because my love is constant,
  and I do what is just and right.
These are the things that please me.
I, the Lord, have spoken.” ^note

25    26   The Lord says, “The time is coming when I will punish the people of Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and the desert people, who have their hair cut short. ^noteAll these people are circumcised, but have not kept the covenant it symbolizes. None of these people and none of the people of Israel have kept my covenant.” Idolatry and True Worship

1   People of Israel, listen to the message that the Lord has for you.

2   He says,

“Do not follow the ways of other nations;
  do not be disturbed by unusual sights in the sky,
  even though other nations are terrified.

3   
The religion of these people is worthless.
A tree is cut down in the forest;
  it is carved by the tools of the woodworker

4   
  and decorated with silver and gold.
It is fastened down with nails to keep it from falling over.

5   
Such idols are like scarecrows in a field of melons;
  they cannot speak;
they have to be carried because they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them:
  they can cause you no harm,
  and they can do you no good.”

6   
Lord, there is no one like you;
  you are mighty,
  and your name is great and powerful.

7   
Who would not honor you, the king of all nations?
  You deserve to be honored.
There is no one like you
  among all the wise men of the nations
  or among any of their kings. ^note

8   
All of them are stupid and foolish.
  What can they learn from wooden idols? ^note

9   
Their idols are covered with silver from Spain
  and with gold from Uphaz,
  all the work of artists;
they are dressed in violet and purple cloth
  woven by skilled weavers.

10   
But you, Lord, are the true God,
  you are the living God
  and the eternal king.
When you are angry, the world trembles;
  the nations cannot endure your anger.

11   (You people must tell them that the gods who did not make the earth and the sky will be destroyed. They will no longer exist anywhere on earth.) A Hymn of Praise to God

12   
The Lord made the earth by his power;
  by his wisdom he created the world
  and stretched out the heavens.

13   
At his command the waters above the sky ^note roar;
  he brings clouds from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning flash in the rain
  and sends the wind from his storeroom.

14   
At the sight of this, men feel stupid and senseless;
  those who make idols are disillusioned,
  because the gods they make are false and lifeless.

15   
They are worthless and should be despised;
  they will be destroyed when the Lord comes to deal with them.

16   
The God of Jacob is not like them;
  he is the one who made everything,
  and he has chosen Israel to be his very own people.
  The Lord Almighty is his name.
The Coming Exile

17   People of Jerusalem, you are under siege! Gather up your belongings.

18   The Lord is going to throw you out of this land; he is going to crush you until not one of you is left. The Lord has spoken.

19   The people of Jerusalem cried out,

“How badly we are hurt!
  Our wounds will not heal.
And we thought this was something we could endure!

20   
Our tents are ruined;
  the ropes that held them have broken.
Our children have all gone away;
  there is no one left to put up our tents again;

  there is no one to hang their curtains.”

21   
I answered, “Our leaders are stupid;
  they do not ask the Lord for guidance.
This is why they have failed,
  and our people have been scattered.

22   
Listen! News has come!
  There is a great commotion in a nation to the north;
its army will turn the cities of Judah into a desert,
  a place where jackals live.”

23   
Lord, I know that no one is the master of his own destiny;
  no person has control over his own life.

24   
Correct your people, Lord,
  but do not be too hard on us
  or punish us when you are angry;
  that would be the end of us.

25   
Turn your anger on the nations that do not worship you
  and on the people who reject you.
They have killed your people;
  they have destroyed us completely
  and left our country in ruins.
Jeremiah and the Covenant

1   The Lord said to me,

2   “Listen to the terms of the covenant. Tell the people of Judah and of Jerusalem

3   that I, the Lord God of Israel, have placed a curse on everyone who does not obey the terms of this covenant.

4   It is the covenant I made with their ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, the land that was like a blazing furnace to them. I told them to obey me and to do everything that I had commanded. I told them that if they obeyed, they would be my people and I would be their God.

5   Then I would keep the promise I made to their ancestors that I would give them the rich and fertile land which they now have.”

5   I said, “Yes, Lord.”

6   Then the Lord said to me, “Go to the cities of Judah and to the streets of Jerusalem. Proclaim my message there and tell the people to listen to the terms of the covenant and to obey them.

7   When I brought their ancestors out of Egypt, I solemnly warned them to obey me, and I have kept on warning the people until this day.

8   But they did not listen or obey. Instead, everyone continued to be as stubborn and evil as ever. I had commanded them to keep the covenant, but they refused. So I brought on them all the punishments described in it.”

9   Then the Lord said to me, “The people of Judah and of Jerusalem are plotting against me.

10   They have gone back to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to do what I said; they have worshiped other gods. Both Israel and Judah have broken the covenant that I made with their ancestors.

11   So now I, the Lord, warn them that I am going to bring destruction on them, and they will not escape. And when they cry out to me for help, I will not listen to them.

12   Then the people of Judah and of Jerusalem will go to the gods to whom they offer sacrifices and will cry out to them for help. But those gods will not be able to save them when this destruction comes.

13   The people of Judah have as many gods as they have cities, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem have set up as many altars for sacrifices to that disgusting god Baal as there are streets in the city.

14   Jeremiah, don't pray to me or plead with me on behalf of these people. When they are in trouble and call to me for help, I will not listen to them.”

15   The Lord says, “The people I love are doing evil things. What right do they have to be in my Temple? Do they think they can prevent disaster by making promises ^note and by offering animal sacrifices? Will they then rejoice?

16   I once called them a leafy olive tree, full of beautiful fruit;

but now, with a roar like thunder I will set its leaves on fire and break its branches.

17   “I, the Lord Almighty, planted Israel and Judah; but now I threaten them with disaster. They have brought this on themselves because they have done wrong; they have made me angry by offering sacrifices to Baal.” A Plot against Jeremiah's Life

18   The Lord informed me of the plots that my enemies were making against me.

19   I was like a trusting lamb taken out to be killed, and I did not know that it was against me that they were planning evil things. They were saying, “Let's chop down the tree while it is still healthy; ^note let's kill him so that no one will remember him any more.”

20   Then I prayed, “Almighty Lord, you are a just judge; you test people's thoughts and feelings. I have placed my cause in your hands; so let me watch you take revenge on these people.” ^note

21   The men of Anathoth wanted me killed, and they told me that they would kill me if I kept on proclaiming the Lord's message.

22   So the Lord Almighty said, “I will punish them! Their young men will be killed in war; their children will die of starvation.

23   I have set a time for bringing disaster on the people of Anathoth, and when that time comes, none of them will survive.” Jeremiah Questions the Lord

1   
Lord, if I argued my case with you,
  you would prove to be right.
Yet I must question you about matters of justice.
Why are wicked men so prosperous?
  Why do dishonest men succeed?

2   
You plant them, and they take root;
  they grow and bear fruit.
They always speak well of you,
  yet they do not really care about you.

3   
But, Lord, you know me;
  you see what I do
  and how I love you.
Drag these evil men away like sheep to be butchered;
  guard them until it is time for them to be slaughtered.

4   
How long will our land be dry,
  and the grass in every field be withered?
Animals and birds are dying
  because of the wickedness of our people,
  people who say, ‘God doesn't see what we are doing.’” ^note

5   
The Lord said,
“Jeremiah, if you get tired racing against men,
  how can you race against horses?
If you can't even stand up in open country,
  how will you manage in the jungle by the Jordan?

6   
Even your brothers, members of your own family, have betrayed you;
  they join in the attacks against you.
Do not trust them, even though they speak friendly words.”

The Lord's Sorrow because of His People

7   
The Lord says,
“I have abandoned Israel;
  I have rejected my chosen nation.
I have given the people I love
  into the power of their enemies.

8   
My chosen people have turned against me;
  like a lion in the forest
  they have roared at me,
  and so I hate them.

9   
My chosen people are like a bird
  attacked from all sides by hawks.
Call the wild animals
  to come and join in the feast!

10   
Many foreign rulers have destroyed my vineyard;
  they have trampled down my fields;
  they have turned my lovely land into a desert.

11   
They have made it a wasteland;
  it lies desolate before me.
The whole land has become a desert,
  and no one cares.

12   
Across all the desert highlands
  men have come to plunder.
I have sent war to destroy the entire land;
  no one can live in peace.

13   
My people planted wheat, but gathered weeds;
  they have worked hard, but got nothing for it.
Because of my fierce anger
  their crops have failed.”
The Lord's Promise to Israel's Neighbors

14   The Lord says, “I have something to say about Israel's neighbors who have ruined the land I gave to my people Israel. I will take those wicked people away from their countries like an uprooted plant, and I will rescue Judah from them.

15   But after I have taken them away, I will have mercy on them; I will bring each nation back to its own land and to its own country.

16   If with all their hearts they will accept the religion of my people and will swear, ‘As the Lord lives’—as they once taught my people to swear by Baal—then they will also be a part of my people and will prosper.

17   But if any nation will not obey, then I will completely uproot it and destroy it. I, the Lord, have spoken.” The Linen Shorts

1   The Lord told me to go and buy myself some linen shorts and to put them on; but he told me not to put them in water.

2   So I bought them and put them on.

3   Then the Lord spoke to me again and said,

4   “Go to the Euphrates River and hide the shorts in a hole in the rocks.”

5   So I went and hid them near the Euphrates.

6   Some time later the Lord told me to go back to the Euphrates and get the shorts.

7   So I went back, and when I found the place where I had hidden them, I saw that they were ruined and were no longer any good.

8   Then the Lord spoke to me again. He said,

9   “This is how I will destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.

10   These evil people have refused to obey me. They have been as stubborn and wicked as ever, and have worshiped and served other gods. So then, they will become like these shorts that are no longer any good.

11   Just as shorts fit tightly around the waist, so I intended all the people of Israel and Judah to hold tightly to me. I did this so that they would be my people and would bring praise and honor to my name; but they would not obey me.” The Wine Jar

12   The Lord God said to me, “Jeremiah, tell the people of Israel that every wine jar should be filled with wine. They will answer that they know every wine jar should be filled with wine.

13   Then tell them that I, the Lord, am going to fill the people in this land with wine until they are

drunk: the kings, who are David's descendants, the priests, the prophets, and all the people of Jerusalem.

14   Then I will smash them like jars against one another, old and young alike. No pity, compassion, or mercy will stop me from killing them.” Jeremiah Warns against Pride

15   
People of Israel, the Lord has spoken!
Be humble and listen to him.

16   
Honor the Lord, your God,
  before he brings darkness,
  and you stumble on the mountains;
before he turns into deep darkness
  the light you hoped for.

17   
If you will not listen,
  I will cry in secret because of your pride;
I will cry bitterly, and my tears will flow
  because the Lord's people have been taken away as captives.

18   The Lord said to me, “Tell the king and his mother to come down from their thrones, because their beautiful crowns have fallen from their heads. ^note

19   The towns of southern Judah are under siege; no one can get through to them. All the people of Judah have been taken away into exile.”

20   Jerusalem, look! Your enemies are coming down from the north! Where are the people entrusted to your care, your people you were so proud of?

21   What will you say when people you thought were your friends conquer you and rule over you? ^noteYou will be in pain like a woman giving birth.

22   If you ask why all this has happened to you— why your clothes have been torn off and you have been raped—it is because your sin is so terrible.

23   Can a black man change the color of his skin, or a leopard remove its spots? If they could, then you that do nothing but evil could learn to do what is right.

24   The Lord will scatter you like straw that is blown away by the desert wind.

25   He has said that this will be your fate. This is what he has decided to do with you, because you have forgotten him and have trusted in false gods.

26   The Lord himself will strip off your clothes and expose you to shame.

27   He has seen you do the things he hates. He has seen you go after pagan gods on the hills and in the fields, like a man lusting after his neighbor's wife or like a stallion after a mare. People of Jerusalem, you are doomed! When will you ever be pure? The Terrible Drought

1   
The Lord said to me concerning the drought,

2   
“Judah is in mourning;
  its cities are dying,
its people lie on the ground in sorrow,
  and Jerusalem cries out for help.

3   
The rich people send their servants for water;
  they go to the cisterns,
  but find no water;
  they come back with their jars empty.
Discouraged and confused,
  they hide their faces.

4   
Because there is no rain
  and the ground is dried up,

the farmers are sick at heart;
  they hide their faces.

5   
In the field the mother deer
  abandons her newborn fawn
  because there is no grass.

6   
The wild donkeys stand on the hilltops
  and pant for breath like jackals;
their eyesight fails them
  because they have no food.

7   
My people cry out to me,
  ‘Even though our sins accuse us,
  help us, Lord, as you have promised.
We have turned away from you many times;
  we have sinned against you.

8   
You are Israel's only hope;
  you are the one who saves us from disaster.
Why are you like a stranger in our land,
  like a traveler who stays for only one night?

9   
Why are you like a man taken by surprise,
  like a soldier powerless to help?
Surely, Lord, you are with us!
  We are your people;
  do not abandon us.’”

10   The Lord says about these people, “They love to run away from me, and they will not control themselves. So I am not pleased with them. I will remember the wrongs they have done and punish them because of their sins.”

11   The Lord said to me, “Do not ask me to help these people.

12   Even if they fast, I will not listen to their cry for help; and even if they offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not be pleased with them. Instead, I will kill them in war and by starvation and disease.”

13   Then I said, “Sovereign Lord, you know that the prophets are telling the people that there will be no war or starvation, because you have promised, they say, that there will be only peace in our land.”

14   But the Lord replied, “The prophets are telling lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I give them any orders or speak one word to them. The visions they talk about have not come from me; their predictions are worthless things that they have imagined.

15   I, the Lord, tell you what I am going to do to those prophets whom I did not send but who speak in my name and say war and starvation will not strike this land—I will kill them in war and by starvation.

16   The people to whom they have said these things will be killed in the same way. Their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, and there will be no one to bury them. This will happen to all of them—including their wives, their sons, and their daughters. I will make them pay for their wickedness.”

17   The Lord commanded me to tell the people about my sorrow and to say:

“May my eyes flow with tears day and night,
  may I never stop weeping,
for my people are deeply wounded
  and are badly hurt.

18   
When I go out in the fields,
  I see the bodies of men killed in war;
when I go into the towns,
  I see people starving to death.
Prophets and priests carry on their work,
  but they don't know what they are doing.” ^note The People Plead with the Lord

19   
Lord, have you completely rejected Judah?
  Do you hate the people of Zion?
Why have you hurt us so badly
  that we cannot be healed?
We looked for peace, but nothing good happened;
  we hoped for healing, but terror came instead.

20   
We have sinned against you, Lord;
  we confess our own sins
  and the sins of our ancestors.

21   
Remember your promises and do not despise us;
  do not bring disgrace on Jerusalem,
  the place of your glorious throne.
Do not break the covenant you made with us.

22   
None of the idols of the nations can send rain;
  the sky by itself cannot make showers fall.
We have put our hope in you, O Lord our God,
  because you are the one who does these things.
Doom for the People of Judah

1   Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were standing here pleading with me, I would not show these people any mercy. Make them go away; make them get out of my sight. ^note

2   When they ask you where they should go, tell them that I have said:

Some are doomed to die by disease—
  that's where they will go!
Others are doomed to die in war—
  that's where they will go!
Some are doomed to die of starvation—
  that's where they will go!
Others are doomed to be taken away as prisoners—
  that's where they will go! ^note

3   I, the Lord, have decided that four terrible things will happen to them: they will be killed in war; their bodies will be dragged off by dogs; birds will eat them, and wild animals will devour what is left over.

4   I will make all the people of the world horrified at them because of what Hezekiah's son Manasseh did in Jerusalem when he was king of Judah.” ^note

5   
The Lord says,
“Who will pity you, people of Jerusalem,
  and who will grieve over you?
Who will stop long enough
  to ask how you are?

6   
You people have rejected me;
  you have turned your backs on me.
So I reached out and crushed you
  because I was tired of controlling my anger. ^note

7   
In every town in the land
  I threw you to the wind like straw.
I destroyed you, my people,
  I killed your children
  because you did not stop your evil ways.

8   
There are more widows in your land
  than grains of sand by the sea.
I killed your young men in their prime
  and made their mothers suffer.
I suddenly struck them
  with anguish and terror.

9   
The mother who lost her seven children has fainted,
  gasping for breath.
Her daylight has turned to darkness;
  she is disgraced and sick at heart.
I will let your enemies kill
  those of you who are still alive.
I, the Lord, have spoken.”
Jeremiah Complains to the Lord

10   What an unhappy man I am! Why did my mother bring me into the world? I have to quarrel and argue with everyone in the land. I have not lent any money or borrowed any; yet everyone curses me.

11   Lord, may all their curses come true if I have not served ^note you well, if I have not pleaded with you on behalf

of my enemies when they were in trouble and distress.

12   (No one can break iron, especially the iron from the north that is mixed with bronze.)

13   The Lord said to me, “I will send enemies to carry away the wealth and treasures of my people, in order to punish them for the sins they have committed throughout the land.

14   I will make them serve their enemies in a land they know nothing about, because my anger is like fire, and it will burn forever.”

15   Then I said, “Lord, you understand. Remember me and help me. Let me have revenge on those who persecute me. Do not be so patient with them that they succeed in killing me. Remember that it is for your sake that I am insulted.

16   You spoke to me, and I listened to every word. I belong to you, Lord God Almighty, and so your words filled my heart with joy and happiness.

17   I did not spend my time with other people, laughing and having a good time. In obedience to your orders I stayed by myself and was filled with anger.

18   Why do I keep on suffering? Why are my wounds incurable? Why won't they heal? Do you intend to disappoint me like a stream that goes dry in the summer?”

19   To this the Lord replied, “If you return, I will take you back, and you will be my servant again. If instead of talking nonsense you proclaim a worthwhile message, you will be my prophet again. The people will come back to you, and you will not need to go to them.

20   I will make you like a solid bronze wall as far as they are concerned. They will fight against you, but they will not defeat you. I will be with you to protect you and keep you safe.

21   I will rescue you from the power of wicked and violent men. I, the Lord, have spoken.” The Lord's Will for Jeremiah's Life

1   Again the Lord spoke to me and said,

2   “Do not marry or have children in a place like this.

3   I will tell you what is going to happen to the children who are born here and to their parents.

4   They will die of terrible diseases, and no one will mourn for them or bury them. Their bodies will lie like piles of manure on the ground. They will be killed in war or die of starvation, and their bodies will be food for the birds and the wild animals.

5   “You must not enter a house where there is mourning. Do not grieve for anyone. I will no longer bless my people with peace or show them love and mercy.

6   The rich and the poor will die in this land, but no one will bury them or mourn for them. No one will gash himself or shave his head to show his grief.

7   No one will eat or drink with anyone to comfort him when a loved one dies. No one will show sympathy, not even for someone who has lost his father or mother.

8   “Do not enter a house where people are feasting. Do not sit down with them to eat and drink.

9   Listen to what I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, have to say. I will silence the sounds of joy and gladness and the happy sounds of wedding feasts. The people here will live to see this happen. ^note

10   “When you tell them all this, they will ask you why I have decided to punish them so harshly. They will ask what crime they are guilty of and what sin they have committed against the Lord their God.

11   Then tell them that the Lord has said, ‘Your ancestors turned away from me and worshiped and served other gods. They abandoned me and did not obey my teachings.

12   But you have done even worse than your ancestors. All of you are stubborn and evil, and you do not obey me.

13   So then, I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. And there you will serve other gods day and night, and I will show you no mercy.’” The Return from Exile

14   The Lord says, “The time is coming when people will no longer

swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

15   Instead, they will swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of a northern land and out of all the other countries where I had scattered them. I will bring them back to their own country, to the land that I gave their ancestors. I, the Lord, have spoken.” The Coming Punishment

16   The Lord says, “I am sending for many fishermen to come and catch these people. Then I will send for many hunters to hunt them down on every mountain and hill and in the caves among the rocks.

17   I see everything they do. Nothing is hidden from me; their sins do not escape my sight.

18   I will make them pay double for their sin and wickedness, because they have defiled my land with idols that are as lifeless as corpses, and have filled it with their false gods.” Jeremiah's Prayer of Confidence in the Lord

19   Lord, you are the one who protects me and gives me strength; you help me in times of trouble. Nations will come to you from the ends of the earth and say, “Our ancestors had nothing but false gods, nothing but useless idols.

20   Can a man make his own gods? No, if he did, they would not really be gods.”

21   “So then,” says the Lord, “once and for all I will make the nations know my power and my might; they will know that I am the Lord.” The Sin and Punishment of Judah

1   The Lord says, “People of Judah, your sin is written with an iron pen; it is engraved on your hearts with a diamond point and carved on the corners of your altars.

2   Your people worship at the altars and the symbols that have been set up for the goddess Asherah by every green tree and on the hilltops

3   and on the mountains in the open country. I will have your enemies take away your wealth and your treasures because of all the sins you have committed ^note throughout your land.

4   You will have to give up ^note the land I gave you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land you know nothing about, because my anger is like a fire, and it will burn forever.” Various Sayings

5   
The Lord says,
“I will condemn the person
  who turns away from me
and puts his trust in man,
  in the strength of mortal man.

6   
He is like a bush in the desert,
  which grows in the dry wasteland,
  on salty ground where nothing else grows.
Nothing good ever happens to him.

7   
“But I will bless the person
  who puts his trust in me.

8   
He is like a tree growing near a stream
  and sending out roots to the water.
It is not afraid when hot weather comes,
  because its leaves stay green;
it has no worries when there is no rain;
  it keeps on bearing fruit. ^note

9   
“Who can understand the human heart?
  There is nothing else so deceitful;
  it is too sick to be healed.

10   
I, the Lord, search the minds
  and test the hearts of men.
I treat each one according to the way he lives,
  according to what he does.” ^note

11   
The person who gets money dishonestly
  is like a bird that hatches eggs it didn't lay.
In the prime of life he will lose his riches,
  and in the end he is nothing but a fool.

12   
Our Temple is like a glorious throne,
  standing on a high mountain from the beginning.

13   
Lord, you are Israel's hope;
  all who abandon you will be put to shame.
They will disappear like names written in the dust, ^note
  because they have abandoned you, the Lord,
  the spring of fresh water.
Jeremiah Asks the Lord for Help

14   Lord, heal me and I will be completely well; rescue me and I will be perfectly safe. You are the one I praise!

15   The people say to me, “Where are those threats the Lord made against us? Let him carry them out now!”

16   But, Lord, I never urged you to bring disaster on them; ^note I did not wish a time of trouble for them. Lord, you know this; you know what I have said.

17   Do not be a terror to me; you are my place of safety when trouble comes.

18   Bring disgrace on those who persecute me, but spare me, Lord. Fill them with terror, but do not terrify me. Bring disaster on them and break them to pieces. On Observing the Sabbath

19   The Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, go and announce my message at the People's Gate, through which the kings of Judah enter and leave the city; then go to all the other gates of Jerusalem.

20   Tell the kings and all the people of Judah and everyone who lives in Jerusalem and enters these gates, to listen to what I say.

21   Tell them that if they love their lives, they must not carry any load on the Sabbath; they must not carry anything in through the gates of Jerusalem ^note

22   or carry anything out of their houses on the Sabbath. They must not work on the Sabbath; they must observe it as a sacred day, as I commanded their ancestors. ^note

23   Their ancestors did not listen to me or pay any attention. Instead, they became stubborn; they would not obey me or learn from me.

24   “Tell these people that they must obey all my commands. They must not carry any load in through the gates of this city on the Sabbath. They must observe the Sabbath as a sacred day and must not do any work at all.

25   Then their kings and princes will enter the gates of Jerusalem and have the same royal power that David had. Together with the people of Judah and of Jerusalem, they will ride in chariots and on horses, and the city of Jerusalem will always be filled with people.

26   People will come from the

towns of Judah and from the villages around Jerusalem; they will come from the territory of Benjamin, from the foothills, from the mountains, and from southern Judah. They will bring to my Temple burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, as well as thank offerings.

27   But they must obey me and observe the Sabbath as a sacred day. They must not carry any load through the gates of Jerusalem on that day, for if they do, I will set the gates of Jerusalem on fire. Fire will burn down the palaces of Jerusalem, and no one will be able to put it out.” Jeremiah at the Potter's House

1   The Lord said to me,

2   “Go down to the potter's house, where I will give you my message.”

3   So I went there and saw the potter working at his wheel.

4   Whenever a piece of pottery turned out imperfect, he would take the clay and make it into something else.

5   Then the Lord said to me,

6   “Don't I have the right to do with you people of Israel what the potter did with the clay? You are in my hands just like clay in the potter's hands.

7   If at any time I say that I am going to uproot, break down, or destroy any nation or kingdom,

8   but then that nation turns from its evil, I will not do what I said I would.

9   On the other hand, if I say that I am going to plant or build up any nation or kingdom,

10   but then that nation disobeys me and does evil, I will not do what I said I would.

11   Now then, tell the people of Judah and of Jerusalem that I am making plans against them and getting ready to punish them. Tell them to stop living sinful lives—to change their ways and the things they are doing.

12   They will answer, ‘No, why should we? We will all be just as stubborn and evil as we want to be.’” The People Reject the Lord

13   
The Lord says,
“Ask every nation if such a thing
  has ever happened before.
  The people of Israel have done a terrible thing!

14   
Are Lebanon's rocky heights ever without snow?
  Do its cool mountain streams ever run dry?

15   
Yet my people have forgotten me;
  they burn incense to idols.
They have stumbled in the way they should go;
  they no longer follow the old ways;
  they walk on unmarked paths.

16   
They have made this land a thing of horror,
  to be despised forever.
All who pass by will be shocked at what they see;
  they will shake their heads in amazement.

17   
I will scatter my people before their enemies,
  like dust blown by the east wind.
I will turn my back on them;
  I will not help them when the disaster comes.”
A Plot against Jeremiah

18   Then the people said, “Let's do something about Jeremiah! There will always be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us counsel, and prophets to proclaim God's message.

Let's bring charges against him and stop listening to what he says.”

19   So I prayed, “Lord, hear what I am saying and listen to what my enemies are saying about me.

20   Is evil the payment for good? Yet they have dug a pit for me to fall in. Remember how I came to you and spoke on their behalf, so that you would not deal with them in anger.

21   But now, Lord, let their children starve to death; let them be killed in war. Let the women lose their husbands and children; let the men die of disease and the young men be killed in battle.

22   Send a mob to plunder their homes without warning; make them cry out in terror. They have dug a pit for me to fall in and have set traps to catch me.

23   But, Lord, you know all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their evil or pardon their sin. Throw them down in defeat and deal with them while you are angry.” The Broken Jar

1   The Lord told me to go and buy a clay jar. He also told me to take some of the elders of the people and some of the older priests,

2   and to go through Potsherd Gate out to Hinnom Valley. There I was to proclaim the message that he would give me. ^note

3   The Lord told me to say, “Kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem, listen to what I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, have to say. I am going to bring such a disaster on this place that everyone who hears about it will be stunned.

4   I am going to do this because the people have abandoned me and defiled this place by offering sacrifices here to other gods—gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah have known anything about. They have filled this place with the blood of innocent people,

5   and they have built altars for Baal in order to burn their children in the fire as sacrifices. I never commanded them to do this; it never even entered my mind. ^note

6   So then, the time will come when this place will no longer be called Topheth or Hinnom Valley. Instead, it will be known as Slaughter Valley.

7   In this place I will frustrate all the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will let their enemies triumph over them and kill them in battle. I will give their corpses to the birds and the wild animals as food.

8   I will bring such terrible destruction on this city that everyone who passes by will be shocked and amazed.

9   The enemy will surround the city and try to kill its people. The siege will be so terrible that the people inside the city will eat one another and even their own children.”

10   Then the Lord told me to break the jar in front of the men who had gone with me

11   and to tell them that the Lord Almighty had said, “I will break this people and this city, and it will be like this broken clay jar that cannot be put together again. People will bury their dead even in Topheth because there will be nowhere else to bury them.

12   I promise that I will make this city and its inhabitants like Topheth.

13   The houses of Jerusalem, the houses of the kings of Judah, and indeed all the houses on whose roofs incense has been burned to the stars and where wine has been poured out as an offering to other gods—they will all be as unclean as Topheth.”

14   Then I left Topheth, where the Lord had sent me to proclaim his

message. I went and stood in the court of the Temple and told all the people

15   that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had said, “I am going to bring on this city and on every nearby town all the punishment that I said I would, because you are stubborn and will not listen to what I say.” Jeremiah's Conflict with Pashhur the Priest

1   When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was the chief officer of the Temple, heard me proclaim these things,

2   he had me beaten and placed in chains near the upper Benjamin Gate in the Temple.

3   The next morning, after Pashhur had released me from the chains, I said to him, “The Lord did not name you Pashhur. The name he has given you is ‘Terror Everywhere.’

4   The Lord himself has said, ‘I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to your friends, and you will see them all killed by the swords of their enemies. I am going to put all the people of Judah under the power of the king of Babylonia; he will take some away as prisoners to his country and put others to death.

5   I will also let their enemies plunder all the wealth of this city and seize all its possessions and property, even the treasures of the kings of Judah, and carry everything off to Babylonia.

6   As for you, Pashhur, you and all your family will also be captured and taken off to Babylonia. There you will die and be buried, along with all your friends to whom you have told so many lies.’” Jeremiah Complains to the Lord

7   
Lord, you have deceived me,
  and I was deceived.
You are stronger than I am,
  and you have overpowered me.
Everyone makes fun of me;
  they laugh at me all day long.

8   
Whenever I speak, I have to cry out
  and shout, “Violence! Destruction!”
Lord, I am ridiculed and scorned all the time
  because I proclaim your message.

9   
But when I say, “I will forget the Lord
  and no longer speak in his name,”
then your message is like a fire
  burning deep within me.
I try my best to hold it in,
  but can no longer keep it back.

10   
I hear everybody whispering,
  “Terror is everywhere!
  So let's report him to the authorities!”
Even my close friends wait for my downfall.
“Perhaps he can be tricked,” they say;
  “then we can catch him and get revenge.”

11   
But you, Lord, are on my side, strong and mighty,
  and those who persecute me will fail.
They will be disgraced forever,
  because they cannot succeed.
Their disgrace will never be forgotten.

12   
But, Almighty Lord, you test men justly;
  you know what is in their hearts and minds.
So let me see you take revenge on my enemies,
  for I have placed my cause in your hands.

13   
Sing to the Lord!
  Praise the Lord!
He rescues the oppressed from the power of evil men.

14   
Curse the day I was born!
Forget the day my mother gave me birth!

15   
Curse the man who made my father glad
  when he brought him the news,

  “It's a boy! You have a son!”

16   
May he be like those cities
  that the Lord destroyed without mercy.
May he hear cries of pain in the morning
  and the battle alarm at noon,

17   
  because he didn't kill me before I was born.
Then my mother's womb would have been my grave.

18   
Why was I born?
  Was it only to have trouble and sorrow,
  to end my life in disgrace? ^note
Jerusalem's Defeat Is Predicted

1   King Zedekiah of Judah sent to me Pashhur son of Malchiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah with this request:

2   “Please speak to the Lord for us, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army are besieging the city. Maybe the Lord will perform one of his miracles for us and force Nebuchadnezzar to retreat.” ^note

3   Then the Lord spoke to me, and I told the men who had been sent to me

4   to tell Zedekiah that the Lord, the God of Israel, had said, “Zedekiah, I am going to defeat your army that is fighting against the king of Babylonia and his army. I will pile up your soldiers' weapons in the center of the city.

5   I will fight against you with all my might, my anger, my wrath, and my fury.

6   I will kill everyone living in this city; people and animals alike will die of a terrible disease.

7   But as for you, your officials, and the people who survive the war, the famine, and the disease—I will let all of you be captured by King Nebuchadnezzar and by your enemies, who want to kill you. Nebuchadnezzar will put you to death. He will not spare any of you or show mercy or pity to any of you. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

8   Then the Lord told me to say to the people, “Listen! I, the Lord, am giving you a choice between the way that leads to life and the way that leads to death.

9   Anyone who stays in the city will be killed in war or by starvation or disease. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians, who are now attacking the city, will not be killed; he will at least escape with his life.

10   I have made up my mind not to spare this city, but to destroy it. It will be given over to the king of Babylonia, and he will burn it to the ground. I, the Lord, have spoken.” Judgment on the Royal House of Judah

11    12   The Lord told me to give this message to the royal house of Judah, the descendants of David: “Listen to what I, the Lord, am saying. See that justice is done every day. Protect the person who is being cheated from the one who is cheating him. If you don't, the evil you are doing will make my anger burn like a fire that cannot be put out.

13   You, Jerusalem, are sitting ^note high above the valleys, like a rock rising above the plain. But I will fight against you. You say that no one can attack you or break through your defenses.

14   But I will punish you for what you have done. I will set your palace on fire, and the fire will burn down everything around it. I, the Lord, have spoken.” Jeremiah's Message to the Royal House of Judah

1    2   The Lord told me to go to the palace of the king of Judah, the descendant of David, and there tell the king, his officials, and the people of Jerusalem to listen to what the Lord had said:

3   “I, the Lord, command you to do what is just and right. Protect the person who is being cheated from the one who is cheating him. Do not mistreat or oppress aliens, orphans, or widows; and do not kill innocent people in this holy place.

4   If you really do as I have commanded, then David's

descendants will continue to be kings. And they, together with their officials and their people, will continue to pass through the gates of this palace in chariots and on horses.

5   But if you do not obey my commands, then I swear to you that this palace will fall into ruins. I, the Lord, have spoken. ^note

6   “To me, Judah's royal palace is as beautiful as the land of Gilead and as the Lebanon Mountains; but I will make it a desolate place where no one lives.

7   I am sending men to destroy it. They will all bring their axes, cut down its beautiful cedar pillars, and throw them into the fire.

8   “Afterward many foreigners will pass by and ask one another why I, the Lord, have done such a thing to this great city.

9   Then they will answer that it is because you have abandoned your covenant with me, your God, and have worshiped and served other gods.” Jeremiah's Message concerning Joahaz

10   
People of Judah, do not weep for King Josiah;
  do not mourn his death.
But weep bitterly for Joahaz, his son;
  they are taking him away, never to return,
  never again to see the land where he was born.

11   The Lord says concerning Josiah's son Joahaz, who succeeded his father as king of Judah, “He has gone away from here, never to return. ^note

12   He will die in the country where they have taken him, and he will never again see this land.” Jeremiah's Message concerning Jehoiakim

13   
Doomed is the man who builds his house by injustice
  and enlarges it by dishonesty;
who makes his countrymen work for nothing
  and does not pay their wages.

14   
Doomed is the man who says,
  “I will build myself a mansion
  with spacious rooms upstairs.”
So he puts windows in his house,
  panels it with cedar,
  and paints it red.

15   
Does it make you a better king
  if you build houses of cedar,
  finer than those of others?
Your father enjoyed a full life.
  He was always just and fair,
  and he prospered in everything he did.

16   
He gave the poor a fair trial,
  and all went well with him.
That is what it means to know the Lord.

17   
But you can only see your selfish interests;
  you kill the innocent
  and violently oppress your people.
The Lord has spoken.

18   So then, the Lord says about Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah,

“No one will mourn his death or say,
  ‘How terrible, my friend, how terrible!’
No one will weep for him or cry,
  ‘My lord! My king!’ ^note

19   
With the funeral honors of a donkey,
  he will be dragged away
  and thrown outside Jerusalem's gates.” Jeremiah's Message about the Fate of Jerusalem

20   
People of Jerusalem, go to Lebanon and shout,
  go to the land of Bashan and cry;
call out from the mountains of Moab,
  because all your allies have been defeated.

21   
The Lord spoke to you when you were prosperous,
  but you refused to listen.

That is what you've done all your life;
  you never would obey the Lord.

22   
Your leaders will be blown away by the wind,
  your allies taken as prisoners of war,
  your city disgraced and put to shame
  because of all the evil you have done.

23   
You rest secure among the cedars brought from Lebanon;
  but how pitiful you'll be when pains strike you,
  pains like those of a woman in labor.
God's Judgment on Jehoiachin

24   The Lord said to King Jehoiachin, son of King Jehoiakim of Judah, “As surely as I am the living God, even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off ^note

25   and give you to people you are afraid of, people who want to kill you. I will give you to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his soldiers.

26   I am going to force you and your mother into exile. You will go to a country where neither of you was born, and both of you will die there.

27   You will long to see this country again, but you will never return.”

28   I said, “Has King Jehoiachin become like a broken jar that is thrown away and that no one wants? Is that why he and his children have been taken into exile to a land they know nothing about?”

29   
O land, land, land!
  Listen to what the Lord has said:

30   
“This man is condemned to lose his children,
  to be a man who will never succeed.
He will have no descendants
  who will rule in Judah
  as David's successors.
I, the Lord, have spoken.” Hope for the Future

1   How terrible will be the Lord's judgment on those rulers who destroy and scatter his people!

2   This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says about the rulers who were supposed to take care of his people: “You have not taken care of my people; you have scattered them and driven them away. Now I am going to punish you for the evil you have done.

3   I will gather the rest of my people from the countries where I have scattered them, and I will bring them back to their homeland. They will have many children and increase in number.

4   I will appoint rulers to take care of them. My people will no longer be afraid or terrified, and I will not punish them again. ^noteI, the Lord, have spoken.”

5   The Lord says, “The time is coming when I will choose as king a righteous descendant of David. That king will rule wisely and do what is right and just throughout the land.

6   When he is king, the people of Judah will be safe, and the people of Israel will live in peace. He will be called ‘The Lord Our Salvation.’ ^note

7   “The time is coming,” says the Lord, “when people will no longer swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

8   Instead, they will swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of a northern land and out of all the other countries where I had scattered them. Then they will live in their own land.” Jeremiah's Message about the Prophets

9   
My heart is crushed,
  and I am trembling.
Because of the Lord,
  because of his holy words,
  I am like a man who is drunk,
  a man who has had too much wine.

10   
The land is full of people unfaithful to the Lord;

  they live wicked lives and misuse their power.
Because of the Lord's curse the land mourns
  and the pastures are dry.

11   
The Lord says,
“The prophets and the priests are godless;
  I have caught them doing evil in the Temple itself.

12   
The paths they follow will be slippery and dark;
  I will make them stumble and fall.
I am going to bring disaster on them;
  the time of their punishment is coming.
I, the Lord, have spoken.

13   
I have seen the sin of Samaria's prophets:
  they have spoken in the name of Baal
  and have led my people astray.

14   
But I have seen the prophets in Jerusalem do even worse:
  they commit adultery and tell lies;
  they help people to do wrong,
  so that no one stops doing what is evil.
To me they are all as bad
  as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. ^note

15   So then, this is what I, the Lord Almighty, say about the prophets of Jerusalem:

I will give them bitter plants to eat
  and poison to drink,
because they have spread ungodliness throughout the land.”

16   The Lord Almighty said to the people of Jerusalem, “Do not listen to what the prophets say; they are filling you with false hopes. They tell you what they have imagined and not what I have said.

17   To the people who refuse to listen to what I have said, they keep saying that all will go well with them. And they tell everyone who is stubborn that disaster will never touch him.”

18   I said, “None of these prophets has ever known the Lord's secret thoughts. None of them has ever heard or understood his message, or ever listened or paid attention to what he said.

19   His anger is a storm, a furious wind that will rage over the heads of the wicked,

20   and it will not end until he has done everything he intends to do. In days to come his people will understand this clearly.”

21   The Lord said, “I did not send these prophets, but even so they went. I did not give them any message, but still they spoke in my name.

22   If they had known my secret thoughts, then they could have proclaimed my message to my people and could have made them give up the evil lives they live and the wicked things they do.

23   “I am a God who is everywhere and not in one place only.

24   No one can hide where I cannot see him. Do you not know that I am everywhere in heaven and on earth? ^note

25   I know what those prophets have said who speak lies in my name and claim that I have given them my messages in their dreams.

26   How much longer will those prophets mislead my people with the lies they have invented?

27   They think that the dreams they tell will make my people forget me, just as their fathers forgot me and turned to Baal.

28   The prophet who has had a dream should say it is only a dream, but the prophet who has heard my message should proclaim that message faithfully. What good is straw compared with wheat?

29   My message is like a fire and like a hammer that breaks rocks in pieces.

30   I am against those prophets who take each other's words and proclaim them as my message.

31   I am also against those prophets who speak their own words and claim they came from me.

32   Listen to what I, the Lord, say! I am against the prophets who tell their dreams that are full of lies. They tell these dreams and lead my people astray

with their lies and their boasting. I did not send them or order them to go, and they are of no help at all to the people. I, the Lord, have spoken.” The Lord's Burden

33   The Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, when one of my people or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the Lord's message?’ you are to tell him, ‘You are a burden ^note to the Lord, and he is going to get rid of you.’

34   If one of my people or a prophet or a priest even uses the words ‘the Lord's burden,’ I will punish him and his family.

35   Instead, each one should ask his friends and his relatives, ‘What answer has the Lord given? What has the Lord said?’

36   So they must no longer use the words ‘the Lord's burden,’ because if anyone does, I will make my message a real burden to him. The people have perverted the words of their God, the living God, the Lord Almighty.

37   Jeremiah, ask the prophets, ‘What answer did the Lord give you? What did the Lord say?’

38   And if they disobey my command and use the words ‘the Lord's burden,’ then tell them that

39   I will certainly pick them up ^note and throw them far away from me, both them and the city that I gave to them and their ancestors.

40   I will bring on them everlasting shame and disgrace that will never be forgotten.” Two Baskets of Figs

1   The Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the Temple. (This was after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia had taken away Jehoiakim's son, King Jehoiachin of Judah, as a prisoner from Jerusalem to Babylonia, together with the leaders of Judah, the craftsmen, and the skilled workers.) ^note

2   The first basket contained good figs, those that ripen early; the other one contained bad figs, too bad to eat.

3   Then the Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, what do you see?”

3   I answered, “Figs. The good ones are very good, and the bad ones are very bad, too bad to eat.”

4   So the Lord said to me,

5   “I, the Lord, the God of Israel, consider that the people who were taken away to Babylonia are like these good figs, and I will treat them with kindness.

6   I will watch over them and bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not pull them up.

7   I will give them the desire to know that I am the Lord. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God, because they will return to me with all their heart.

8   “As for King Zedekiah of Judah, the politicians around him, and the rest of the people of Jerusalem who have stayed in this land or moved to Egypt—I, the Lord, will treat them all like these figs that are too bad to be eaten.

9   I will bring such a disaster on them that all the nations of the world will be terrified. People will make fun of them, make jokes about them, ridicule them, and use their name as a curse everywhere I scatter them.

10   I will bring war, starvation, and disease on them until there is not one of them left in the land that I gave to them and their ancestors.” The Enemy from the North

1   In the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah, I received a message from the Lord concerning all the people of Judah. (This was the first year that Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylonia.) ^note

2   I said to all the people of Judah and of Jerusalem,

3   “For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon was king of Judah until this very day, the Lord has spoken to me, and I have never failed to tell you what he said. But you have paid no attention.

4   You would not listen or pay attention, even though the Lord has continued to send you his servants

the prophets.

5   They told you to turn from your wicked way of life and from the evil things you are doing, so that you could go on living in the land that the Lord gave you and your ancestors as a permanent possession.

6   They told you not to worship and serve other gods and not to make the Lord angry by worshiping the idols you had made. If you had obeyed the Lord, then he would not have punished you.

7   But the Lord himself says that you refused to listen to him. Instead, you made him angry with your idols and have brought his punishment on yourselves.

8   “So then, because you would not listen to him, the Lord Almighty says,

9   ‘I am going to send for all the peoples from the north and for my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. I am going to bring them to fight against Judah and its inhabitants and against all the neighboring nations. I am going to destroy this nation and its neighbors and leave them in ruins forever, a terrible and shocking sight. I, the Lord, have spoken.

10   I will silence their shouts of joy and gladness and the happy sounds of wedding feasts. They will have no oil for their lamps, and there will be no more grain. ^note

11   This whole land will be left in ruins and will be a shocking sight, and the neighboring nations will serve the king of Babylonia for seventy years. ^note

12   After that I will punish Babylonia and its king for their sin. I will destroy that country and leave it in ruins forever.

13   I will punish Babylonia with all the disasters that I threatened to bring on the nations when I spoke through Jeremiah—all the disasters recorded in this book.

14   I will pay the Babylonians back for what they have done, and many nations and great kings will make slaves of them.’” God's Judgment on the Nations

15   The Lord, the God of Israel, said to me, “Here is a wine cup filled with my anger. Take it to all the nations to whom I send you, and make them drink from it.

16   When they drink from it, they will stagger and go out of their minds because of the war I am sending against them.”

17   So I took the cup from the Lord's hand, gave it to all the nations to whom the Lord had sent me, and made them drink from it.

18   Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah, together with its kings and leaders, were made to drink from it, so that they would become a desert, a terrible and shocking sight, and so that people would use their name as a curse—as they still do.

19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26   Here is the list of all the others who had to drink from the cup:

19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26   the king of Egypt, his officials and leaders;

19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26   all the Egyptians and all the foreigners in Egypt;

19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26   all the kings of the land of Uz;

19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26   all the kings of the Philistine cities of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what remains of Ashdod;

19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26   all the people of Edom, Moab, and Ammon;

19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26   all the kings of Tyre and Sidon;

19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26   all the kings of the Mediterranean lands;

19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26   the cities of Dedan, Tema, and Buz;

19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26   all the people who cut their hair short;

19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26   all the kings of Arabia;

19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26   all the kings of the desert tribes;

19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26   all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media;

19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26   all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another.

19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26   Every nation on the face of the earth had to drink from it. Last of all, the king of Babylonia will drink from it.

27   Then the Lord said to me, “Tell the people that I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, am commanding them to drink until they are drunk and vomit, until they fall down and cannot get up, because of

the war that I am sending against them.

28   And if they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink from it, then tell them that the Lord Almighty has said that they will still have to drink from it.

29   I will begin my work of destruction in my own city. Do they think they will go unpunished? No, they will be punished, for I am going to send war on all the people on earth. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken.

30   “You, Jeremiah, must proclaim everything I have said. You must tell these people,

‘The Lord will roar from heaven
  and thunder from the heights of heaven.
He will roar against his people;
  he will shout like a man treading grapes.
Everyone on earth will hear him,

31   
  and the sound will echo to the ends of the earth.
The Lord has a case against the nations.
He will bring all people to trial and put the wicked to death.
The Lord has spoken.’”

32   The Lord Almighty says that disaster is coming on one nation after another, and a great storm is gathering at the far ends of the earth.

33   On that day the bodies of those whom the Lord has killed will lie scattered from one end of the earth to the other. No one will mourn for them, and they will not be taken away and buried. They will lie on the ground like piles of manure.

34   Cry, you leaders, you shepherds of my people, cry out loud! Mourn and roll in the dust. The time has come for you to be slaughtered, ^note and you will be butchered like rams. ^note

35   There will be no way for you to escape.

36    37   You moan and cry out in distress because the Lord in his anger has destroyed your nation and left your peaceful country in ruins.

38   The Lord has abandoned his people ^note like a lion that leaves its cave. The horrors of war and the Lord's fierce anger have turned the country into a desert. Jeremiah Is Brought to Trial

1   Soon after Jehoiakim son of Josiah became king of Judah, ^note

2   the Lord said to me, “Stand in the court of the Temple and proclaim all I have commanded you to say to the people who come from the towns of Judah to worship there. Do not leave out anything.

3   Perhaps the people will listen and give up their evil ways. If they do, then I will change my mind about the destruction I plan to bring on them for all their wicked deeds.”

4   The Lord told me to say to the people, “I, the Lord, have said that you must obey me by following the teaching that I gave you,

5   and by paying attention to the words of my servants, the prophets, whom I have kept on sending to you. You have never obeyed what they said.

6   If you continue to disobey, then I will do to this Temple what I did to Shiloh, ^note and all the nations of the world will use the name of this city as a curse.” ^note

7   The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard me saying these things in the Temple,

8   and as soon as I had finished all that the Lord had commanded me to speak, they grabbed me and shouted, “You ought to be killed for this!

9   Why have you said in the Lord's name that this Temple will become like Shiloh and that this city will be destroyed and no one will live in it?” Then the people crowded around me.

10   When the leaders of Judah heard what had happened, they hurried from the royal palace to the Temple and took their places at the New Gate.

11   Then the priests and the prophets said to the leaders and to the people, “This man deserves to

be sentenced to death because he has spoken against our city. You heard him with your own ears.”

12   Then I said, “The Lord sent me to proclaim everything that you heard me say against this Temple and against this city.

13   You must change the way you are living and the things you are doing, and must obey the Lord your God. If you do, he will change his mind about the destruction that he said he would bring on you.

14   As for me, I am in your power! Do with me whatever you think is fair and right.

15   But be sure of this: if you kill me, you and the people of this city will be guilty of killing an innocent man, because it is the Lord who sent me to give you this warning.”

16   Then the leaders and the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man spoke to us in the name of the Lord our God; he should not be put to death.”

17   After that, some of the elders stood up and said to the people who had gathered,

18   “When Hezekiah was king of Judah, the prophet Micah of Moresheth told all the people that the Lord Almighty had said,

‘Zion will be plowed like a field;
  Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins,
  and the Temple hill will become a forest.’ ^note

19   King Hezekiah and the people of Judah did not put Micah to death. Instead, Hezekiah had reverence for the Lord and tried to win his favor. And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he said he would bring on them. Now we are about to bring a terrible disaster on ourselves.”

20   There was another man, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim, who spoke in the name of the Lord against this city and nation just as Jeremiah did.

21   When King Jehoiakim and his soldiers and officials heard what Uriah had said, the king tried to have him killed. But Uriah heard about it; so he fled in terror and escaped to Egypt.

22   King Jehoiakim, however, sent Elnathan son of Achbor and some other men to Egypt to get Uriah.

23   They brought him back to King Jehoiakim, who had him killed and his body thrown into the public burial ground.)

24   But because I had the support of Ahikam son of Shaphan, I was not handed over to the people and killed. Jeremiah Wears an Ox Yoke

1   Soon after Josiah's son Zedekiah became king of Judah, the Lord told me ^note

2   to make myself a yoke out of leather straps and wooden crossbars and to put it on my neck.

3   Then the Lord told me to send a message ^note to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through their ambassadors who had come to Jerusalem to see King Zedekiah.

4   The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, told me to command them to tell their kings that the Lord had said:

5   “By my great power and strength I created the world, mankind, and all the animals that live on the earth; and I give it to anyone I choose.

6   I am the one who has placed all these nations under the power of my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, and I have made even the wild animals serve him. ^note

7   All nations will serve him, and they will serve his son and his grandson until the time comes for his own nation to fall. Then his nation will serve powerful nations and great kings.

8   “But if any nation or kingdom will not submit to his rule, then I will punish that nation by war, starvation, and disease until I have let Nebuchadnezzar destroy it completely.

9   Do not listen to your prophets or to anyone who claims he can predict the future, either by dreams or by calling up the spirits of the dead or by magic. They all tell you not to submit to the king of Babylonia.

10   They are deceiving you and will cause you to be taken far away

from your country. I will drive you out, and you will be destroyed.

11   But if any nation submits to the king of Babylonia and serves him, then I will let it stay on in its own land, to farm it and live there. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

12   I said the same thing to King Zedekiah of Judah, “Submit to the king of Babylonia. Serve him and his people, and you will live.

13   Why should you and your people die in war or of starvation or disease? That is what the Lord has said will happen to any nation that does not submit to the king of Babylonia.

14   Do not listen to the prophets who tell you not to surrender to him. They are deceiving you.

15   The Lord himself has said that he did not send them and that they are lying to you in his name. And so he will drive you out, and you will be killed, you and the prophets who are telling you these lies.”

16   Then I told the priests and the people that the Lord had said: “Do not listen to the prophets who say that the Temple treasures will soon be brought back from Babylonia. They are lying to you.

17   Don't listen to them! Submit to the king of Babylonia and you will live! Why should this city become a pile of ruins?

18   If they are really prophets and if they have my message, let them ask me, the Lord Almighty, not to allow the treasures that remain in the Temple and in the royal palace to be taken to Babylonia.”

19    20   (When King Nebuchadnezzar took away to Babylonia the king of Judah, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, and the leading men of Judah and Jerusalem, he left the columns, the bronze tank, the carts, and some of the other Temple treasures.)

21   “Listen to what I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, say about the treasures that are left in the Temple and in the royal palace in Jerusalem:

22   They will be taken to Babylonia and will remain there until I turn my attention to them. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place. I, the Lord, have spoken.” Jeremiah and the Prophet Hananiah

1   That same year, ^note in the fifth month of the fourth year that Zedekiah was king, Hananiah son of Azzur, a prophet from the town of Gibeon, spoke to me in the Temple. In the presence of the priests and of the people he told me ^note

2   that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had said: “I have broken the power of the king of Babylonia.

3   Within two years I will bring back to this place all the Temple treasures that King Nebuchadnezzar took to Babylonia.

4   I will also bring back the king of Judah, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, along with all of the people of Judah who went into exile in Babylonia. Yes, I will break the power of the king of Babylonia. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

5   Then in the presence of the priests and of all the people who were standing in the Temple, I said to Hananiah,

6   “Wonderful! I hope the Lord will do this! I certainly hope he will make your prophecy come true and will bring back from Babylonia all the Temple treasures and all the people who were taken away as prisoners.

7   But listen to what I say to you and to the people.

8   The prophets who spoke long ago, before my time and yours, predicted that war, starvation, and disease would come to many nations and powerful kingdoms.

9   But a prophet who predicts peace can only be recognized as a prophet whom the Lord has truly sent when that prophet's predictions come true.”

10   Then Hananiah took the yoke off my neck, broke it in pieces,

11   and said in the presence of all the people, “The Lord has said that this is how he will break the yoke that King Nebuchadnezzar has put on the neck of all the nations; and he will do this within two years.” Then I left.

12   Some time after this the Lord told me

13   to go and tell Hananiah: “The Lord has said that you may be able to break a wooden yoke, but he ^note will replace it with an iron yoke.

14   The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, has said that he will put an iron yoke on all these nations and that they will serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. The Lord has said that he will make even the wild animals serve Nebuchadnezzar.”

15   Then I told Hananiah this, and added, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord did not send you, and you are making these people believe a lie.

16   And so the Lord himself says that he is going to get rid of you. Before this year is over you will die because you have told the people to rebel against the Lord.”

17   And Hananiah died in the seventh month of that same year. Jeremiah's Letter to the Jews in Babylon

1   I wrote a letter to the priests, the prophets, the leaders of the people, and to all the others whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken away as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylonia.

2   I wrote it after King Jehoiachin, his mother, the palace officials, the leaders of Judah and of Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the skilled workmen had been taken into exile. ^note

3   I gave the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah was sending to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. It said:

4   “The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those people whom he allowed Nebuchadnezzar to take away as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylonia:

5   ‘Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what you grow in them.

6   Marry and have children. Then let your children get married, so that they also may have children. You must increase in numbers and not decrease.

7   Work for the good of the cities where I have made you go as prisoners. Pray to me on their behalf, because if they are prosperous, you will be prosperous too.

8   I, the Lord, the God of Israel, warn you not to let yourselves be deceived by the prophets who live among you or by any others who claim they can predict the future. Do not pay any attention to their ^note dreams.

9   They are telling you lies in my name. I did not send them. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken.’

10   “The Lord says, ‘When Babylonia's seventy years are over, I will show my concern for you and keep my promise to bring you back home. ^note

11   I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for. ^note

12   Then you will call to me. You will come and pray to me, and I will answer you.

13   You will seek me, and you will find me because you will seek me with all your heart. ^note

14   Yes, I say, you will find me, and I will restore you to your land. I will gather you from every country and from every place to which I have scattered you, and I will bring you back to the land from which I had sent you away into exile. I, the Lord, have spoken.’

15   “You say that the Lord has given you prophets in Babylonia.

16   Listen to what the Lord says about the king who rules the kingdom that David ruled and about the people of this city, that is, your relatives who were not taken away as prisoners with you.

17   The Lord Almighty says, ‘I am bringing war, starvation, and disease on them, and I will make them like figs that are too rotten to be eaten.

18   I will pursue them with war, starvation, and disease, and all the nations of the world will be horrified at what they see. Everywhere I scatter them, people will be shocked and terrified at what has happened to them. People will make fun of them and use their name as a curse.

19   This will happen to them because

they did not obey the message that I kept on sending to them through my servants the prophets. They refused to listen.

20   All of you whom I sent into exile in Babylonia, listen to what I, the Lord, say.’

21   “The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, has spoken about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are telling you lies in his name. He has said that he will hand them over to the power of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, who will put them to death before your eyes.

22   When the people who were taken away as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylonia want to bring a curse on someone, they will say, ‘May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylonia roasted alive!’

23   This will be their fate because they are guilty of terrible sins—they have committed adultery and have told lies in the Lord's name. This was against the Lord's will; he knows what they have done, and he is a witness against them. ^noteThe Lord has spoken.” The Letter of Shemaiah

24    25   The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, gave me a message for Shemaiah of Nehelam, who had sent a letter in his own name to all the people of Jerusalem and to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah and to all the other priests. In this letter Shemaiah wrote to Zephaniah:

26   “The Lord made you a priest in place of Jehoiada, and you are now the chief officer ^note in the Temple. It is your duty to see that every madman who pretends to be a prophet is placed in chains with an iron collar around his neck.

27   Why haven't you done this to Jeremiah of Anathoth, who has been speaking as a prophet to the people?

28   He must be stopped because he told the people in Babylonia that they would be prisoners there a long time and should build houses, settle down, plant gardens, and eat what they grow.”

29   Zephaniah read the letter to me,

30   and then the Lord told me

31    32   to send to all the prisoners in Babylon this message about Shemaiah: “I, the Lord, will punish Shemaiah and all of his descendants. I did not send him, but he spoke to you as if he were a prophet, and he made you believe lies. He will have no descendants among you. He will not live to see the good things that I am going to do for my people, because he told them to rebel against me. I, the Lord, have spoken.” The Lord's Promises to His People

1   The Lord, the God of Israel,

2   said to me, “Write down in a book everything that I have told you,

3   because the time is coming when I will restore my people, Israel and Judah. I will bring them back to the land that I gave their ancestors, and they will take possession of it again. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

4   The Lord says to the people of Israel and Judah,

5   
“I heard a cry of terror,
  a cry of fear and not of peace.

6   
Now stop and think!
  Can a man give birth to a child?
Why then do I see every man with his hands on his stomach
  like a woman in labor?
  Why is everyone so pale?

7   
A terrible day is coming;
  no other day can compare with it—
  a time of distress for my people,
  but they will survive.”

8   The Lord Almighty says, “When that day comes, I will break the yoke that is around their neck and remove their chains, and they will no longer be the slaves of foreigners.

9   Instead, they will serve me, the Lord their God, and a descendant of David, whom I will enthrone as king.

10   
“My people, do not be afraid;

  people of Israel, do not be terrified.
I will rescue you from that faraway land,
  from the land where you are prisoners.
You will come back home and live in peace;
  you will be secure, and no one will make you afraid.

11   
I will come to you and save you.
I will destroy all the nations
  where I have scattered you,
  but I will not destroy you.
I will not let you go unpunished;
  but when I punish you, I will be fair.
I, the Lord, have spoken.” ^note

12   
The Lord says to his people,
“Your wounds are incurable,
  your injuries cannot be healed.

13   
There is no one to take care of you,
  no remedy for your sores,
  no hope of healing for you.

14   
All your lovers have forgotten you;
  they no longer care about you.
I have attacked you like an enemy;
  your punishment has been harsh
  because your sins are many
  and your wickedness is great.

15   
Complain no more about your injuries;
  there is no cure for you.
I punished you like this
  because your sins are many
  and your wickedness is great.

16   
But now, all who devour you will be devoured,
  and all your enemies will be taken away as prisoners.
All who oppress you will be oppressed,
  and all who plunder you will be plundered.

17   
I will make you well again;
  I will heal your wounds,
  though your enemies say,
‘Zion is an outcast;
  no one cares about her.’
I, the Lord, have spoken.”

18   
The Lord says,
“I will restore my people to their land
  and have mercy on every family;
Jerusalem will be rebuilt,
  and its palace restored.

19   
The people who live there will sing praise;
  they will shout for joy.
By my blessing they will increase in numbers;
  my blessing will bring them honor.

20   
I will restore the nation's ancient power
  and establish it firmly again;
  I will punish all who oppress them.

21    22   
Their ruler will come from their own nation,
  their prince from their own people.
He will approach me when I invite him,
  for who would dare come uninvited?
They will be my people,
  and I will be their God.
I, the Lord, have spoken.”

23    24   The Lord's anger is a storm, a furious wind that will rage over the heads of the wicked. It will not end until he has done all that he intends to do. In days to come his people will understand this clearly. Israel's Return Home

1   The Lord says, “The time is coming when I will be the God of all the tribes of Israel, and they will be my people.

2   In the desert I showed mercy to those people who had escaped death. When the people of Israel longed for rest,

3   I appeared to them ^note from far away. People of Israel, I have always loved

you, so I continue to show you my constant love.

4   Once again I will rebuild you. Once again you will take up your tambourines and dance joyfully.

5   Once again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria, and those who plant them will eat what the vineyards produce.

6   Yes, the time is coming when watchmen will call out on the hills of Ephraim, ‘Let's go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.’”

7   
The Lord says,
“Sing with joy for Israel,
  the greatest of the nations.
Sing your song of praise,
  ‘The Lord has saved his ^note people;
  he has rescued all who are left.’

8   
I will bring them from the north
  and gather them from the ends of the earth.
The blind and the lame will come with them,
  pregnant women and those about to give birth.
They will come back a great nation.

9   
My people will return weeping,
  praying as I lead them back.
I will guide them to streams of water,
  on a smooth road where they will not stumble.
I am like a father to Israel,
  and Ephraim is my oldest son.”

10   
The Lord says,
“Nations, listen to me
  and proclaim my words on the far-off shores.
I scattered my people, but I will gather them
  and guard them as a shepherd guards his flock.

11   
I have set Israel's people free
  and have saved them from a mighty nation.

12   
They will come and sing for joy on Mount Zion
  and be delighted with my gifts—
  gifts of grain and wine and olive oil,
  gifts of sheep and cattle.
They will be like a well-watered garden;
  they will have everything they need.

13   
Then the girls will dance and be happy,

  and men, young and old, will rejoice.
I will comfort them and turn their mourning into joy,
  their sorrow into gladness.

14   
I will fill the priests with the richest food
  and satisfy all the needs of my people.
I, the Lord, have spoken.”
The Lord's Mercy on Israel

15   
The Lord says,
“A sound is heard in Ramah, the sound of bitter weeping.
  Rachel is crying for her children;
  they are gone,
  and she refuses to be comforted. ^note

16   
Stop your crying
  and wipe away your tears.
All that you have done for your children
  will not go unrewarded;
  they will return from the enemy's land.

17   
There is hope for your future;
  your children will come back home.
  I, the Lord, have spoken.

18   
“I hear the people of Israel say in grief,
‘Lord, we were like an untamed animal,
  but you taught us to obey.
Bring us back;
  we are ready to return to you,
  the Lord our God.

19   
We turned away from you,
  but soon we wanted to return.
After you had punished us,
  we hung our heads in grief.
We were ashamed and disgraced
  because we sinned when we were young.’

20   
“Israel, you are my dearest son,
  the child I love best.
Whenever I mention your name,
  I think ^note of you with love.
My heart goes out to you;
  I will be merciful.

21   
Set up signs and mark the road;
  find again the way by which you left.
Come back, people of Israel,
  come home to the towns you left.

22   
How long will you hesitate, faithless people?
I have created something new and different,
  as different as a woman protecting a man.” ^note
The Future Prosperity of God's People

23   The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says, “When I restore the people to their land, they will once again say in the land of Judah and in its towns,

‘May the Lord bless the sacred hill ^note of Jerusalem,
  the holy place where he lives.’

24   People will live in Judah and in all its towns, and there will be farmers, and shepherds with their flocks.

25   I will refresh those who are weary and will satisfy with food everyone who is weak from hunger.

26   So then, people will say, ‘I went to sleep and woke up refreshed.’

27   “I, the Lord, say that the time is coming when I fill the land of Israel and Judah with people and animals.

28   And just as I took care to uproot, to pull down, to overthrow, to destroy, and to demolish them, so I will take care to plant them and to build them up.

29   When that time comes, people will no longer say,

‘The parents ate the sour grapes,
But the children got the sour taste.’ ^note

30   Instead, whoever eats sour grapes

will have his own teeth set on edge; and everyone will die because of his own sin.”

31   The Lord says, “The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. ^note

32   It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Although I was like a husband to them, they did not keep that covenant.

33   The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ^note

34   None of them will have to teach his fellow countryman to know the Lord, because all will know me, from the least to the greatest. I will forgive their sins and I will no longer remember their wrongs. I, the Lord, have spoken.” ^{note note}

35   
The Lord provides the sun for light by day,
  the moon and the stars to shine at night.
He stirs up the sea and makes it roar;
  his name is the Lord Almighty.

36   
He promises that as long as the natural order lasts,
  so long will Israel be a nation.

37   
If one day the sky could be measured
  and the foundations of the earth explored,
  only then would he reject the people of Israel
  because of all they have done.
The Lord has spoken.

38   “The time is coming,” says the Lord, “when all of Jerusalem will be rebuilt as my city, from Hananel Tower west to the Corner Gate.

39   And the boundary line will continue from there on the west to the hill of Gareb and then around to Goah.

40   The entire valley, where the dead are buried and garbage is dumped, and all the fields above Kidron Brook as far as the Horse Gate to the east, will be sacred to me. The city will never again be torn down or destroyed.” Jeremiah Buys a Field

1   The Lord spoke to me in the tenth year that Zedekiah was king of Judah, which was also the eighteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. ^note

2   At that time the army of the king of Babylonia was attacking Jerusalem, and I was locked up in the courtyard of the royal palace.

3   King Zedekiah had imprisoned me there and had accused me of announcing that the Lord had said, “I am going to let the king of Babylonia capture this city,

4   and King Zedekiah will not escape. He will be handed over to the king of Babylonia; he will see him face-to-face and will speak to him in person.

5   Zedekiah will be taken to Babylonia, and he will remain there until I deal with him. Even if he fights the Babylonians, he will not be successful. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

6   The Lord told me

7   that Hanamel, my uncle Shallum's son, would come to me with the request to buy his field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin, because I was his nearest relative and had the right to buy it for myself.

8   Then, just as the Lord had said, Hanamel came to me there in the courtyard and asked me to buy the field. So I knew that the Lord had really spoken to me.

9   I bought the field from Hanamel and weighed out the money to him; the price came to seventeen pieces of silver.

10   I signed and sealed the deed, had it witnessed, and weighed out the money on scales.

11   Then I took both copies of the deed of purchase —the sealed copy containing the contract and its conditions, and the open copy—

12   and gave them to Baruch, the son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah. I gave them to him in the presence of Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed

the deed of purchase and of the men who were sitting in the courtyard.

13   Before them all I said to Baruch,

14   “The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, has ordered you to take these deeds, both the sealed deed of purchase and the open copy, and to place them in a clay jar, so that they may be preserved for years to come.

15   The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, has said that houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.” Jeremiah's Prayer

16   After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch, I prayed,

17   “Sovereign Lord, you made the earth and the sky by your great power and might; nothing is too difficult for you.

18   You have shown constant love to thousands, but you also punish people for the sins of their parents. You are a great and powerful God; you are the Lord Almighty.

19   You make wise plans and do mighty things; you see everything that people do, and you reward them according to their actions.

20   Long ago you performed miracles and wonders in Egypt, and you have continued to perform them to this day, both in Israel and among all the other nations, so that you are now known everywhere.

21   By means of miracles and wonders that terrified our enemies, you used your power and might to bring your people Israel out of Egypt.

22   You gave them this rich and fertile land, as you had promised their ancestors.

23   But when they came into this land and took possession of it, they did not obey your commands or live according to your teaching; they did nothing that you had ordered them to do. And so you brought all this destruction on them.

24   “The Babylonians have built siege mounds around the city to capture it, and they are attacking. War, starvation, and disease will make the city fall into their hands. You can see that all you have said has come true.

25   Yet, Sovereign Lord you are the one who ordered me to buy the field in the presence of witnesses, even though the city is about to be captured by the Babylonians.”

26   Then the Lord said to me,

27   “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Nothing is too difficult for me.

28   I am going to give this city over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army; they will capture it ^note

29   and set it on fire. They will burn it down, together with the houses where people have made me angry by burning incense to Baal on the rooftops and by pouring out wine offerings to other gods.

30   From the very beginning of their history the people of Israel and the people of Judah have displeased me and made me angry by what they have done.

31   The people of this city have made me angry and furious from the day it was built. I have decided to destroy it

32   because of all the evil that has been done by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, together with their kings and leaders, their priests and prophets.

33   They turned their backs on me; and though I kept on teaching them, they would not listen and learn.

34   They even placed their disgusting idols in the Temple built for my worship, and they have defiled it. ^note

35   They have built altars to Baal in Hinnom Valley, to sacrifice their sons and daughters to the god Molech. I did not command them to do this, and it did not even enter my mind that they would do such a thing and make the people of Judah sin.” ^note A Promise of Hope

36   The Lord, the God of Israel, said to me, “Jeremiah, the people are saying that war, starvation, and disease will make this city fall into the hands of the king of Babylonia. Now listen to what else I have to say.

37   I am going to gather the people from all the countries where I have scattered them in my anger and fury, and I am going to bring them back to

this place and let them live here in safety.

38   Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.

39   I will give them a single purpose in life: to honor me for all time, for their own good and the good of their descendants.

40   I will make an eternal covenant with them. I will never stop doing good things for them, and I will make them fear me with all their heart, so that they will never turn away from me.

41   I will take pleasure in doing good things for them, and I will establish them permanently in this land.

42   “Just as I have brought this disaster on these people, so I am going to give them all the good things that I have promised.

43   The people are saying that this land will be like a desert where neither people nor animals live, and that it will be given over to the Babylonians. But fields will once again be bought in this land.

44   People will buy them, and the deeds will be signed, sealed, and witnessed. This will take place in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah, and in the towns in the hill country, in the foothills, and in southern Judah. I will restore the people to their land. I, the Lord, have spoken.” Another Promise of Hope

1   While I was still in prison in the courtyard, the Lord's message came to me again.

2   The Lord, who made the earth, who formed it and set it in place, spoke to me. He whose name is the Lord said,

3   “Call to me, and I will answer you; I will tell you wonderful and marvelous things that you know nothing about.

4   I, the Lord, the God of Israel, say that the houses of Jerusalem and the royal palace of Judah will be torn down as a result of the siege and the attack.

5   Some will fight against the Babylonians, who will fill the houses ^note with the corpses of those whom I am going to strike down in my anger and fury. I have turned away from this city because of the evil things that its people have done.

6   But I will heal this city and its people and restore them to health. I will show them abundant peace and security.

7   I will make Judah and Israel prosperous, and I will rebuild them as they were before.

8   I will purify them from the sins that they have committed against me, and I will forgive their sins and their rebellion.

9   Jerusalem will be a source of joy, honor, and pride to me; and every nation in the world will fear and tremble when they hear about the good things that I do for the people of Jerusalem and about the prosperity that I bring to the city.”

10   The Lord said, “People are saying that this place is like a desert, that it has no people or animals living in it. And they are right; the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem are empty; no people or animals live there. But in these places you will hear again

11   the shouts of gladness and joy and the happy sounds of wedding feasts. You will hear people sing as they bring thank offerings to my Temple; they will say,

‘Give thanks to the Lord Almighty,
  because he is good
  and his love is eternal.’

I will make this land as prosperous as it was before. I, the Lord, have spoken.” ^note

12   The Lord Almighty said, “In this land that is like a desert and where no people or animals live, there will once again be pastures where shepherds can take their sheep.

13   In the towns in the hill country, in the foothills, and in southern Judah, in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem, and in the towns of Judah, shepherds will once again count their sheep. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

14   The Lord said, “The time is coming when I will fulfill the promise that I made to the people of Israel and Judah.

15   At that time I will choose as king a righteous descendant of David. That king will do what is right and just throughout the land.

16   The people of Judah and of Jerusalem will be rescued and will live in safety. The city will be called ‘The Lord Our Salvation.’ ^note

17   I, the Lord, promise that there will always be a descendant of David to be king of Israel ^note

18   and that there will always be priests from the tribe of Levi to serve me and to offer burnt offerings, grain offerings, and sacrifices.” ^note

19   The Lord said to me,

20   “I have made a covenant with the day and with the night, so that they always come at their proper times; and that covenant can never be broken.

21   In the same way I have made a covenant with my servant David that he would always have a descendant to be king, and I have made a covenant with the priests from the tribe of Levi that they would always serve me; and those covenants can never be broken.

22   I will increase the number of descendants of my servant David and the number of priests from the tribe of Levi, so that it will be as impossible to count them as it is to count the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore.”

23   The Lord said to me,

24   “Have you noticed how people are saying that I have rejected Israel and Judah, the two families that I chose? And so they look with contempt on my people and no longer consider them a nation.

25   But I, the Lord, have a covenant with day and night, and I have made the laws that control earth and sky.

26   And just as surely as I have done this, so I will maintain my covenant with Jacob's descendants and with my servant David. I will choose one of David's descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will be merciful to my people and make them prosperous again.” A Message for Zedekiah

1   The Lord spoke to me when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army, supported by troops from all the nations and races that were subject to him, were attacking Jerusalem and its nearby towns. ^note

2   The Lord, the God of Israel, told me to go and say to King Zedekiah of Judah, “I, the Lord, will hand this city over to the king of Babylonia, and he will burn it down.

3   You will not escape; you will be captured and handed over to him. You will see him face-to-face and talk to him in person; then you will go to Babylonia.

4   Zedekiah, listen to what I say about you. You will not be killed in battle.

5   You will die in peace, and as people burned incense when they buried your ancestors, who were kings before you, in the same way they will burn incense for you. They will mourn over you and say, ‘Our king is dead!’ I, the Lord, have spoken.”

6   Then I gave this message to King Zedekiah in Jerusalem

7   while the army of the king of Babylonia was attacking the city. The army was also attacking Lachish and Azekah, the only other fortified cities left in Judah. Deceitful Treatment of Slaves

8   King Zedekiah and the people of Jerusalem had made an agreement

to set free

9   their Hebrew slaves, both male and female, so that no one would have a fellow Israelite as a slave.

10   All the people and their leaders agreed to free their slaves and never to enslave them again. They did set them free,

11   but later they changed their minds, took them back, and forced them to become slaves again.

12   Then the Lord,

13   the God of Israel, told me to say to the people: ‘I made a covenant with your ancestors when I rescued them from Egypt and set them free from slavery. I told them that

14   every seven years they were to set free any Hebrew slave who had served them for six years. But your ancestors would not pay any attention to me or listen to what I said. ^note

15   Just a few days ago you changed your minds and did what pleased me. All of you agreed to set your fellow Israelites free, and you made a covenant in my presence, in the Temple where I am worshiped.

16   But then you changed your minds again and dishonored me. All of you took back the slaves whom you had set free as they desired, and you forced them into slavery again.

17   So now, I, the Lord, say that you have disobeyed me; you have not given your fellow Israelites their freedom. Very well, then, I will give you freedom: the freedom to die by war, disease, and starvation. I will make every nation in the world horrified at what I do to you.

18    19   The officials of Judah and of Jerusalem, together with the palace officials, the priests, and all the leaders, made a covenant with me by walking between the two halves of a bull that they had cut in two. But they broke the covenant and did not keep its terms. So I will do to these people what they did to the bull.

20   I will hand them over to their enemies, who want to kill them, and their corpses will be eaten by birds and wild animals.

21   I will also hand over King Zedekiah of Judah and his officials to those who want to kill them. I will hand them over to the Babylonian army, which has stopped its attack against you.

22   I will give the order, and they will return to this city. They will attack it, capture it, and burn it down. I will make the towns of Judah like a desert where no one lives. I, the Lord, have spoken.” Jeremiah and the Rechabites

1   When Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, ^note

2   “Go to the members of the Rechabite clan and talk to them. Then bring them into one of the rooms in the Temple and offer them some wine.”

3   So I took the entire Rechabite clan—Jaazaniah (the son of another Jeremiah, who was Habazziniah's son) and all his brothers and sons—

4   and brought them to the Temple. I took them into the room of the disciples of the prophet Hanan son of Igdaliah. This room was above the room of Maaseiah son of Shallum, an important official in the Temple, and near the rooms of the other officials.

5   Then I placed cups and bowls full of wine before the Rechabites, and I said to them, “Have some wine.”

6   But they answered, “We do not drink wine. Our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab told us that neither we nor our descendants were ever to drink any wine.

7   He also told us not to build houses or farm the land and not to plant vineyards or buy them. He commanded us always to live in tents, so that we might remain in this land where we live like strangers.

8   We have obeyed all the instructions that Jonadab gave us. We ourselves never drink wine, and neither do our wives, our sons, or our daughters.

9    10   We do not build houses for homes—we live in tents—and we own no vineyards, fields, or grain. We have fully obeyed everything that our ancestor Jonadab commanded us.

11   But when King Nebuchadnezzar invaded the country, we decided to come to Jerusalem to get away from the Babylonian and Syrian armies. That is why we are living in Jerusalem.”

12    13   Then the Lord Almighty, the

God of Israel, told me to go and say to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, “I, the Lord, ask you why you refuse to listen to me and to obey my instructions.

14   Jonadab's descendants have obeyed his command not to drink wine, and to this very day none of them drink any. But I have kept on speaking to you, and you have not obeyed me.

15   I have continued to send you all my servants the prophets, and they have told you to give up your evil ways and to do what is right. They warned you not to worship and serve other gods, so that you could go on living in the land that I gave you and your ancestors. But you would not listen to me or pay any attention to me.

16   Jonadab's descendants have obeyed the command that their ancestor gave them, but you people have not obeyed me.

17   So now, I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, will bring on you people of Judah and of Jerusalem all the destruction that I promised. I will do this because you would not listen when I spoke to you, and you would not answer when I called you.”

18   Then I told the Rechabite clan that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had said, “You have obeyed the command that your ancestor Jonadab gave you; you have followed all his instructions, and you have done everything he commanded you.

19   So I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, promise that Jonadab son of Rechab will always have a male descendant to serve me.” Baruch Reads the Scroll in the Temple

1   In the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, ^note

2   “Get a scroll and write on it everything that I have told you about Israel and Judah and all the nations. Write everything that I have told you from the time I first spoke to you, when Josiah was king, up to the present.

3   Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the destruction that I intend to bring on them, they will turn from their evil ways. Then I will forgive their wickedness and their sins.”

4   So I called Baruch son of Neriah and dictated to him everything that the Lord had said to me. And Baruch wrote it all down on a scroll.

5   Then I gave Baruch the following instructions: “I am no longer allowed to go into the Temple.

6   But I want you to go there the next time the people are fasting. You are to read the scroll aloud, so that they will hear everything that the Lord has said to me and that I have dictated to you. Do this where everyone can hear you, including the people of Judah who have come in from their towns.

7   Perhaps they will pray to the Lord and turn from their evil ways, because the Lord has threatened this people with his terrible anger and fury.”

8   So Baruch read the Lord's words in the Temple exactly as I had told him to do.

9   In the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim was king of Judah, the people fasted to gain the Lord's favor. The fast was kept by all who lived in Jerusalem and by all who came there from the towns of Judah.

10   Then, while all the people were listening, Baruch read from the scroll everything that I had said. He did this in the Temple, from the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan, the court secretary. His room was in the upper court near the entrance of the New Gate of the Temple. The Scroll Is Read to the Officials

11   Micaiah, the son of Gemariah and grandson of Shaphan, heard Baruch read from the scroll what the Lord had said.

12   Then he went to the royal palace, to the room of the court secretary, where all the officials were in session. Elishama, the court secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor,

Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials were there.

13   Micaiah told them everything that he had heard Baruch read to the people.

14   Then the officials sent Jehudi (the son of Nethaniah, grandson of Shelemiah, and great-grandson of Cushi) to tell Baruch to bring the scroll that he had read to the people. Baruch brought them the scroll.

15   “Sit down,” they said, “and read the scroll to us.” So Baruch did.

16   After he had read it, they turned to one another in alarm and said to Baruch, “We must report this to the king.”

17   Then they asked him, “Tell us, now, how did you come to write all this? Did Jeremiah dictate it to you?”

18   Baruch answered, “Jeremiah dictated every word of it to me, and I wrote it down in ink on this scroll.”

19   Then they told him, “You and Jeremiah must go and hide. Don't let anyone know where you are.” The King Burns the Scroll

20   The officials put the scroll in the room of Elishama, the court secretary, and went to the king's court, where they reported everything to the king.

21   Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. He took it from the room of Elishama and read it to the king and all the officials who were standing around him.

22   It was winter and the king was sitting in his winter palace in front of the fire.

23   As soon as Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king cut them off with a small knife and threw them into the fire. He kept doing this until the entire scroll was burned up.

24   But neither the king nor any of his officials who heard all this was afraid or showed any sign of sorrow.

25   Although Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah begged the king not to burn the scroll, he paid no attention to them.

26   Then he ordered Prince Jerahmeel, together with Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah

son of Abdeel, to arrest me and my secretary Baruch. But the Lord had hidden us. Jeremiah Writes Another Scroll

27   After King Jehoiakim had burned the scroll that I had dictated to Baruch, the Lord told me

28   to take another scroll and write on it everything that had been on the first one.

29   The Lord told me to say to the king, “You have burned the scroll, and you have asked Jeremiah why he wrote that the king of Babylonia would come and destroy this land and kill its people and its animals.

30   So now, I, the Lord, say to you, King Jehoiakim, that no descendant of yours will ever rule over David's kingdom. Your corpse will be thrown out where it will be exposed to the sun during the day and to the frost at night.

31   I will punish you, your descendants, and your officials because of the sins all of you commit. Neither you nor the people of Jerusalem and of Judah have paid any attention to my warnings, and so I will bring on all of you the disaster that I have threatened.”

32   Then I took another scroll and gave it to my secretary Baruch, and he wrote down everything that I dictated. He wrote everything that had been on the first scroll and similar messages that I dictated to him. Zedekiah's Request to Jeremiah

1   King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia made Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah in the place of Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim. ^note

2   But neither Zedekiah nor his officials nor the people obeyed the message which the Lord had given me.

3   King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to ask me to pray to the Lord our God on behalf of our nation.

4   I had not yet been put in prison and was still moving about freely among the people.

5   The Babylonian army had been besieging Jerusalem, but when they heard that the Egyptian army had crossed the Egyptian border, they retreated.

6   Then the Lord, the God of Israel, told me

7   to say to Zedekiah, “The Egyptian army is on its way to help you, but it will return home.

8   Then the Babylonians will come back, attack the city, capture it, and burn it down.

9   I, the Lord, warn you not to deceive yourselves into thinking that the Babylonians will not come back, because they will.

10   Even if you defeat the whole Babylonian army, so that only wounded men are left, lying in their tents, those men would still get up and burn this city to the ground.” Jeremiah Is Arrested and Imprisoned

11   The Babylonian army retreated from Jerusalem because the Egyptian army was approaching.

12   So I started to leave Jerusalem and go to the territory of Benjamin to take possession of my share of the family property.

13   But when I reached the Benjamin Gate, the officer in charge of the soldiers on duty there, a man by the name of Irijah, the son of Shelemiah and grandson of Hananiah, stopped me and said, “You are deserting to the Babylonians!”

14   I answered, “That's not so! I'm not deserting.” But Irijah would not listen to me. Instead, he arrested me and took me to the officials.

15   They were furious with me and had me beaten and locked up in the house of Jonathan, the court secretary, whose house had been made into a prison.

16   I was put in an underground cell and kept there a long time.

17   Later on King Zedekiah sent for me, and there in the palace he asked me privately, “Is there any message from the Lord?”

17   “There is,” I answered, and added, “You will be handed over to the king of Babylonia.”

18   Then I asked, “What crime have I committed against you or your officials or this people, to make you put me in

prison?

19   What happened to your prophets who told you that the king of Babylonia would not attack you or the country?

20   And now, Your Majesty, I beg you to listen to me and do what I ask. Please do not send me back to the prison in Jonathan's house. If you do, I will surely die there.”

21   So King Zedekiah ordered me to be locked up in the palace courtyard. I stayed there, and each day I was given a loaf of bread from the bakeries until all the bread in the city was gone. Jeremiah in a Dry Well

1   Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchiah heard that I was telling the people that

2   the Lord had said, “Whoever stays on in the city will die in war or of starvation or disease. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians will not be killed; he will at least escape with his life.”

3   I was also telling them that the Lord had said, “I am going to give the city to the Babylonian army, and they will capture it.”

4   Then the officials went to the king and said, “This man must be put to death. By talking like this he is making the soldiers in the city lose their courage, and he is doing the same thing to everyone else left in the city. He is not trying to help the people; he only wants to hurt them.”

5   King Zedekiah answered, “Very well, then, do what you want to with him; I can't stop you.”

6   So they took me and let me down by ropes into Prince Malchiah's well, which was in the palace courtyard. There was no water in the well, only mud, and I sank down in it.

7   However, Ebedmelech the Sudanese, a eunuch who worked in the royal palace, heard that they had put me in the well. At that time the king was holding court at the Benjamin Gate.

8   So Ebedmelech went there and said to the king,

9   “Your Majesty, what these men have done is wrong. They have put Jeremiah in the well, where he is sure to die of starvation, since there is no more food in the city.”

10   Then the king ordered Ebedmelech to take with him three men and to pull me out of the well before I died.

11   So Ebedmelech went with the men to the palace storeroom and got some worn-out clothing which he let down to me by ropes.

12   He told me to put the rags under my arms, so that the ropes wouldn't hurt me. I did this,

13   and they pulled me up out of the well. After that I was kept in the courtyard. Zedekiah Asks Jeremiah's Advice

14   On another occasion King Zedekiah had me brought to him at the third entrance to the Temple, and he said, “I am going to ask you a question, and I want you to tell me the whole truth.”

15   I answered, “If I tell you the truth, you will put me to death, and if I give you advice, you won't pay any attention.”

16   So King Zedekiah promised me in secret, “I swear by the living God, the God who gave us life, that I will not put you to death or hand you over to the men who want to kill you.”

17   Then I told Zedekiah that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had said, “If you surrender to the king of Babylonia's officers, your life will be spared, and this city will not be burned down. Both you and your family will be spared.

18   But if you do not surrender, then this city will be handed over to the Babylonians, who will burn it down, and you will not escape from them.”

19   But the king answered, “I am afraid of our countrymen who have deserted to the Babylonians. I may be handed over to them and tortured.”

20   I said, “You will not be handed over to them. I beg you to obey the Lord's message; then all will go well with you, and your life will be spared.

21   But the Lord has shown me in a vision what will happen if you refuse to surrender.

22   In it I saw all the women left in Judah's royal palace being led out to the king of Babylonia's officers. Listen to what they were saying as they went:

‘The king's best friends misled him,
  they overruled him.
And now that his feet have sunk in the mud,
  his friends have left him.’”

23   Then I added, “All your women and children will be taken out to the Babylonians, and you yourself will not escape from them. You will be taken prisoner by the king of Babylonia, and this city will be burned to the ground.”

24   Zedekiah replied, “Don't let anyone know about this conversation, and your life will not be in danger.

25   If the officials hear that I have talked with you, they will come and ask you what we said. They will promise not to put you to death if you tell them everything.

26   Just tell them you were begging me not to send you back to prison to die there.”

27   Then all the officials came and questioned me, and I told them exactly what the king had told me to say. There was nothing else they could do, because no one had overheard the conversation.

28   And I was kept in the palace courtyard until the day Jerusalem was captured. ^note The Fall of Jerusalem

1   In the tenth month of the ninth year that Zedekiah was king of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia came with his whole army and attacked Jerusalem.

2   On the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh year as king, the city walls were broken through.

3   (When Jerusalem was captured, ^note all the high officials of the king of Babylonia came and took their places at the Middle Gate, including Nergal Sarezer, Samgar Nebo, Sarsechim, and another Nergal Sarezer. ^note)

4   When King Zedekiah and all his soldiers saw what was happening, they tried to escape from the city during the night. They left by way of the royal garden, went through the gateway connecting the two walls, and escaped in the direction of the Jordan Valley.

5   But the Babylonian army pursued them and captured Zedekiah in the plains near Jericho. Then they took him to King Nebuchadnezzar, who was in the city of Riblah in the territory of Hamath, and there Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him.

6   At Riblah he put Zedekiah's sons to death while Zedekiah was looking on, and he also had the officials of Judah executed.

7   After that, he had Zedekiah's eyes put out and had him placed in chains to be taken to Babylonia.

8   Meanwhile, the Babylonians burned down the royal palace and the houses of the people and tore down the walls of Jerusalem.

9   Finally Nebuzaradan, the commanding officer, took away as prisoners to Babylonia the people who were left in the city, together with those who had deserted to him.

10   He left in the land of Judah some of the poorest

people, who owned no property, and he gave them vineyards and fields. Jeremiah's Release

11   But King Nebuchadnezzar commanded Nebuzaradan, the commanding officer, to give the following order:

12   “Go and find Jeremiah and take good care of him. Do not harm him, but do for him whatever he wants.”

13   So Nebuzaradan, together with the high officials Nebushazban and Nergal Sarezer and all the other officers of the king of Babylonia,

14   had me brought from the palace courtyard. They put me under the care of Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, who was to see that I got home safely. And so I stayed there among the people. Hope for Ebedmelech

15   While I was still imprisoned in the palace courtyard, the Lord told me

16   to tell Ebedmelech the Sudanese that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had said, “Just as I said I would, I am going to bring upon this city destruction and not prosperity. And when this happens, you will be there to see it.

17   But I, the Lord, will protect you, and you will not be handed over to the men you are afraid of.

18   I will keep you safe, and you will not be put to death. You will escape with your life because you have put your trust in me. I, the Lord, have spoken.” Jeremiah Stays with Gedaliah

1   The Lord spoke to me after Nebuzaradan, the commanding officer, had set me free at Ramah. I had been taken there in chains, along with all the other people from Jerusalem and Judah who were being taken away as prisoners to Babylonia.

2   The commanding officer took me aside and said, “The Lord your God threatened this land with destruction,

3   and now he has done what he said he would. All this happened because your people sinned against the Lord and disobeyed him.

4   Now, I am taking the chains off your wrists and setting you free. If you want to go to Babylonia with me, you may do so, and I will take care of you. But if you don't want to go, you don't have to. You have the whole country to choose from, and you may go wherever you wish.”

5   When I did not answer, ^note Nebuzaradan said, “Go back to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylonia has made governor of the towns of Judah. You may stay with him and live among the people, or you may go anywhere you think you should.” Then he gave me a present and some food to take with me, and let me go on my way.

6   I went to stay with Gedaliah in Mizpah and lived among the people who were left in the land. Gedaliah, Governor of Judah (2 Kings 25.22–24)

7   Some of the Judean officers and soldiers had not surrendered. They heard that the king of Babylonia had made Gedaliah governor of the land and had placed him in charge of all those who had not been taken away to Babylonia—the poorest people in the land.

8   So Ishmael son of Nathaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai from Netophah, and Jezaniah from Maacah went with their men to Gedaliah at Mizpah.

9   Gedaliah said to them, “I give you my word that there is no need for you to be afraid to surrender to the Babylonians. Settle in this land, serve the king of Babylonia, and all will go well with you. ^note

10   I myself will stay in Mizpah and be your representative when the Babylonians come here. But you can gather and store up wine, fruit, and olive oil, and live in the villages you occupy.”

11   Meanwhile, all the Israelites who were in Moab, Ammon,

Edom, and other countries, heard that the king of Babylonia had allowed some Israelites to stay on in Judah and that he had made Gedaliah their governor.

12   So they left the places where they had been scattered, and returned to Judah. They came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and there they gathered in large amounts of wine and fruit. Gedaliah Is Murdered (2 Kings 25.25–26)

13   After this, Johanan and the leaders of the soldiers who had not surrendered came to Gedaliah at Mizpah

14   and said to him, “Don't you know that King Baalis of Ammon has sent Ishmael to murder you?” But Gedaliah did not believe it.

15   Then Johanan said privately to him, “Let me go and kill Ishmael, and no one will know who did it. Why should he be allowed to murder you? That would cause all the Jews who have gathered around you to be scattered, and it would bring disaster on all the people who are left in Judah.”

16   But Gedaliah answered, “Don't do it! What you are saying about Ishmael is not true!”

1   In the seventh month of that year, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama, a member of the royal family and one of the king's chief officers, went to Mizpah with ten men to see Governor Gedaliah. While they were all eating a meal together,

2   Ishmael and the ten men with him pulled out their swords and killed Gedaliah.

3   Ishmael also killed all the Israelites who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah and the Babylonian soldiers who happened to be there. ^note

4   The next day, before anyone knew about Gedaliah's murder,

5   eighty men arrived from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria. They had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes, and gashed themselves. They were taking grain and incense to offer in the Temple.

6   So Ishmael went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When he came to them, he said, “Please come in to see Gedaliah.”

7   As soon as they were inside the city, Ishmael and his men killed them and threw their bodies in a well.

8   But there were ten men in the group who said to Ishmael, “Please don't kill us! We have wheat, barley, olive oil, and honey hidden in the fields.” So he spared them.

9   The well into which Ishmael threw the bodies of the men he had killed was the large one ^note that King Asa had dug when he was being attacked by King Baasha of Israel. Ishmael filled the well with the bodies.

10   Then he made prisoners of the king's daughters and all the rest of the people in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the commanding officer had placed under the care of Gedaliah. Ishmael took them prisoner and started off in the direction of the territory of Ammon.

11   Johanan and all the army leaders with him heard of the crime that Ishmael had committed.

12   So they went after him with their men and overtook him near the large pool at Gibeon.

13   When Ishmael's prisoners saw Johanan and the leaders of the forces with him, they were glad,

14   and turned and ran to them.

15   But Ishmael and eight of his men got away from Johanan and escaped to the land of Ammon.

16   Then Johanan and the leaders of the forces with him took charge of the people whom Ishmael had taken away as prisoners from Mizpah after murdering Gedaliah—soldiers, women, children, and eunuchs.

17    18   They were afraid of the Babylonians because Ishmael had murdered Gedaliah, whom the king of Babylonia had made governor of the land. So they set out for Egypt, in order to get away from the Babylonians. On the way they stopped at Chimham near Bethlehem.

The People Ask Jeremiah to Pray for Them

1   Then all the army leaders, including Johanan son of Kareah and Azariah ^note son of Hoshaiah, came with people of every class

2   and said to me, “Please do what we ask you! Pray to the Lord our God for us. Pray for all of us who have survived. Once there were many of us; but now only a few of us are left, as you can see.

3   Pray that the Lord our God will show us the way we should go and what we should do.”

4   I answered, “Very well, then. I will pray to the Lord our God, just as you have asked, and whatever he says, I will tell you. I will not keep back anything from you.”

5   Then they said to me, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not obey all the commands that the Lord our God gives you for us.

6   Whether it pleases us or not, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are asking you to pray. All will go well with us if we obey him.” The Lord's Answer to Jeremiah's Prayer

7   Ten days later the Lord spoke to me;

8   so I called together Johanan, all the army leaders who were with him, and all the other people.

9   I said to them, “The Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me with your request has said,

10   ‘If you are willing to go on living in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not pull you up. The destruction I brought on you has caused me great sorrow.

11   Stop being afraid of the king of Babylonia. I am with you, and I will rescue you from his power.

12   Because I am merciful, I will make him have mercy on you and let you go back home. I, the Lord, have spoken.’

13    14    15   “But you people who are left in Judah must not disobey the Lord your God and refuse to live in this land. You must not say, ‘No, we will go and live in Egypt, where we won't face war any more or hear the call to battle or go hungry.’ If you say this, then the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says, ‘If you are determined to go and live in Egypt,

16   then the war that you fear will overtake you, and the hunger you dread will follow you, and you will die there in Egypt.

17   All the people who are determined to go and live in Egypt will die either in war or of starvation or disease. Not one of them will survive, not one will escape the disaster that I am going to bring on them.’

18   “The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Just as my anger and fury were poured out on the people of Jerusalem, so my fury will be poured out on you if you go to Egypt. You will be a horrifying sight; people will make fun of you and use your name as a curse. You will never see this place again.’”

19   Then I continued, “The Lord has told you people who are left in Judah not to go to Egypt. And so I warn you now

20   that you are making a fatal mistake. You asked me to pray to the Lord our God for you, and you promised that you would do everything that he commands.

21   And now I have told you, but you are disobeying everything that the Lord our God sent me to tell you.

22   So then, remember this: you will die in war or of starvation or disease in the land where you want to go and live.” Jeremiah Is Taken to Egypt

1   I finished telling the people everything that the Lord their God had sent me to tell them.

2   Then Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the other arrogant men said to me, “You are lying. The Lord our God did not send you to tell us not to go and live in Egypt.

3   Baruch son of Neriah has stirred you up against us, so that the Babylonians will gain power over us and can either kill us or take us away to Babylonia.”

4   So neither Johanan nor any of the army officers nor any of the people would obey

the Lord's command to remain in the land of Judah.

5   Then Johanan and all the army officers took everybody left in Judah away to Egypt, together with all the people who had returned from the nations where they had been scattered:

6   the men, the women, the children, and the king's daughters. They took everyone whom Nebuzaradan the commanding officer had left under the care of Gedaliah, including Baruch and me.

7   They disobeyed the Lord's command and went into Egypt as far as the city of Tahpanhes. ^note

8   There the Lord said to me,

9   “Get some large stones and bury them in the mortar of the pavement ^note in front of the entrance to the government building here in the city, and let some of the Israelites see you do it.

10   Then tell them that I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, am going to bring my servant King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia to this place, and he ^note will put his throne over these stones that you ^note buried, and will spread the royal tent over them.

11   Nebuchadnezzar will come and defeat Egypt. Those people who are doomed to die of disease will die of disease, those doomed to be taken away as prisoners will be taken away as prisoners, and those doomed to be killed in war will be killed in war.

12   I will set fire to the temples of Egypt's gods, and the king of Babylonia will either burn their gods or carry them off. As a shepherd picks his clothes clean of lice, so the king of Babylonia will pick the land of Egypt clean and then leave victorious.

13   He will destroy the sacred stone monuments at Heliopolis in Egypt and will burn down the temples of the Egyptian gods.” The Lord's Message to the Israelites in Egypt

1   The Lord spoke to me concerning all the Israelites living in Egypt, in the cities of Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in the southern part of the country.

2   The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, said, “You yourselves have seen the destruction I brought on Jerusalem and all the other cities of Judah. Even now they are still in ruins, and no one lives in them

3   because their people had done evil and had made me angry. They offered sacrifices to other gods and served gods that neither they nor you nor your ancestors ever worshiped.

4   I kept sending you my servants the prophets, who told you not to do this terrible thing that I hate.

5   But you would not listen or pay any attention. You would not give up your evil practice of sacrificing to other gods.

6   So I poured out my anger and fury on the towns of Judah and on the streets of Jerusalem, and I set them on fire. They were left in ruins and became a horrifying sight, as they are today.

7   “And so I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, now ask why you are doing such an evil thing to yourselves. Do you want to bring destruction on men and women, children and babies, so that none of your people will be left?

8   Why do you make me angry by worshiping idols and by sacrificing to other gods here in Egypt, where you have come to live? Are you doing this just to destroy yourselves, so that every nation on earth will make fun of you and use your name as a curse?

9   Have you forgotten all the wicked things that have been done in the towns of Judah and in the streets of

Jerusalem by your ancestors, by the kings of Judah and their wives, and by you and your wives?

10   But to this day you have not humbled yourselves. You have not honored me or lived according to all the laws that I gave you and your ancestors.

11   “So then, I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, will turn against you and destroy all Judah.

12   As for the people of Judah who are left and are determined to go and live in Egypt, I will see to it that all of them are destroyed. All of them, great and small, will die in Egypt, either in war or of starvation. They will be a horrifying sight; people will make fun of them and use their name as a curse.

13   I will punish those who live in Egypt, just as I punished Jerusalem —with war, starvation, and disease.

14   None of the people of Judah who are left and have come to Egypt to live will escape or survive. Not one of them will return to Judah, where they long to live once again. No one will return except a few refugees.”

15   Then all the men who knew that their wives offered sacrifices to other gods, and all the women who were standing there, including the Israelites who lived in southern Egypt—a large crowd in all—said to me,

16   “We refuse to listen to what you have told us in the name of the Lord.

17   We will do everything that we said we would. We will offer sacrifices to our goddess, the Queen of Heaven, and we will pour out wine offerings to her, just as we and our ancestors, our king and our leaders, used to do in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had plenty of food, we were prosperous, and had no troubles.

18   But ever since we stopped sacrificing to the Queen of Heaven and stopped pouring out wine offerings to her, we have had nothing, and our people have died in war and of starvation.”

19   And the women added, “When we baked cakes shaped like the Queen of Heaven, offered sacrifices to her, and poured out wine offerings to her, our husbands approved of what we were doing.”

20   Then I said to all the men and the women who had answered me in this way,

21   “As for the sacrifices which you and your ancestors, your kings and your leaders, and the people of the land offered in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem —do you think that the Lord did not know about them or that he forgot them?

22   This very day your land lies in ruins and no one lives in it. It has become a horrifying sight, and people use its name as a curse because the Lord could no longer endure your wicked and evil practices.

23   This present disaster has come on you because you offered sacrifices to other gods and sinned against the Lord by not obeying all his commands.”

24    25   I told all the people, especially the women, what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, was saying to the people of Judah living in Egypt: “Both you and your wives have made solemn promises to the Queen of Heaven. You promised that you would offer sacrifices to her and pour out wine offerings to her, and you have kept your promises. Very well, then! Keep your promises! Carry out your vows!

26   But now listen to the vow that I, the Lord, have made in my mighty name to all you Israelites in Egypt: Never again will I let any of you use my name to make a vow by saying, ‘I swear by the living Sovereign Lord!’

27   I will see to it that you will not prosper, but will be destroyed. All of you will die, either in war or of disease, until not one of you is left.

28   But a few of you will escape death and return from Egypt to Judah. Then the survivors will know whose words have come true, mine or theirs.

29   I, the Lord, will give you proof that I will punish you in this place and that my promise to bring destruction on you will come true.

30   I will hand over King Hophra of Egypt to his enemies who want to kill him, just as I handed over King

Zedekiah of Judah to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, who was his enemy and wanted to kill him.” ^note God's Promise to Baruch

1   In the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah, Baruch wrote down what I had dictated to him. Then I told him ^note

2   that the Lord, the God of Israel, had said, “Baruch,

3   you are saying, ‘I give up! The Lord has added sorrow to my troubles. I am worn out from groaning, and I can't find any rest!’

4   “But I, the Lord, am tearing down what I have built and pulling up what I have planted. I will do this to the entire earth.

5   Are you looking for special treatment for yourself? Don't do it. I am bringing disaster on all mankind, but you will at least escape with your life, wherever you go. I, the Lord, have spoken.” Egypt's Defeat at Carchemish

1   The Lord spoke to me about the nations,

2   beginning with Egypt. This is what he said about the army of King Neco of Egypt, which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia defeated at Carchemish near the Euphrates River in the fourth year that Jehoiakim was king of Judah:

3   
“The Egyptian officers shout,
‘Get your shields ready
  and march into battle!

4   
Harness your horses and mount them!
Fall in line and put on your helmets!
  Sharpen your spears!
  Put on your armor!’

5   
“But what do I see?” asks the Lord.
“They are turning back in terror.
Their soldiers are beaten back;
  overcome with fear, they run as fast as they can
  and do not look back.

6   
Those who run fast cannot get away;
  the soldiers cannot escape.
In the north, by the Euphrates,
  they stumble and fall.

7   
Who is this that rises like the Nile,
  like a river flooding its banks?

8   
It is Egypt, rising like the Nile,
  like a river flooding its banks.
Egypt said, ‘I will rise and cover the world;
  I will destroy cities and the people who live there.

9   
Command the horses to go
  and the chariots to roll!
Send out the soldiers:
  men from Sudan and Libya, carrying shields,
  and skilled bowmen from Lydia.’”

10   
This is the day of the Sovereign Lord Almighty:
  today he will take revenge;
  today he will punish his enemies.
His sword will eat them until it is full,
  and drink their blood until it is satisfied.
Today the Almighty sacrifices his victims
  in the north, by the Euphrates.

11   
People of Egypt, go to Gilead ^note
  and look for medicine!
All your medicine has proved useless;
  nothing can heal you.

12   
Nations have heard of your shame;
  everyone has heard you cry.
One soldier trips over another,
  and both of them fall to the ground.
The Coming of Nebuchadnezzar

13   When King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia came to attack Egypt, the Lord spoke to me. He said, ^note

14   
“Proclaim it in the towns of Egypt,
  in Migdol, Memphis, and Tahpanhes:
‘Get ready to defend yourselves;
  all you have will be destroyed in war!

15   
Why has your mighty god Apis fallen?
  The Lord has struck him down!’

16   
Your soldiers have stumbled and fallen; ^note
  each one says to the other,
‘Hurry! Let's go home to our people
  and escape the enemy's sword!’

17   
“Give the king of Egypt a new name—
  ‘Noisy Braggart Who Missed His Chance.’

18   
I, the Lord Almighty, am king.
  I am the living God.
As Mount Tabor towers above the mountains
  and Mount Carmel stands high above the sea,
so will be the strength of the one who attacks you.

19   
Get ready to be taken prisoner,
  you people of Egypt!
Memphis will be made a desert,
  a ruin where no one lives.

20   
Egypt is like a splendid cow,
  attacked by a stinging fly from the north.

21   
Even her hired soldiers
  are helpless as calves.
They did not stand and fight;
  all of them turned and ran.
The day of their doom had arrived,
  the time of their destruction.

22   
Egypt runs away, hissing like a snake,
  as the enemy's army approaches.
They attack her with axes,
  like men cutting down trees

23   
  and destroying a thick forest.
Their men are too many to count;
  their soldiers outnumber the locusts.

24   
The people of Egypt are put to shame;
  they are conquered by the people of the north.
I, the Lord, have spoken.”

25   The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says, “I am going to punish Amon, the god of Thebes, together with Egypt and its gods and kings. I am going to take the king of Egypt and all who put their trust in him,

26   and hand them over to those who want to kill them, to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army. But later on, people will live in Egypt again, as they did in times past. I, the Lord, have spoken. ^note The Lord Will Save His People

27   
“My people, do not be afraid,
  people of Israel, do not be terrified.
I will rescue you from that faraway land,
  from the land where you are prisoners.
You will come back home and live in peace;
  you will be secure, and no one will make you afraid.

28   
I will come to you and save you.
I will destroy all the nations
  where I have scattered you,
  but I will not destroy you.

I will not let you go unpunished;
  but when I punish you, I will be fair.
I, the Lord, have spoken.” ^note
The Lord's Message about Philistia

1   Before the king of Egypt attacked Gaza, the Lord spoke to me about Philistia.

2   He said:

“Look! Waters are rising in the north
  and will rush like a river in flood.
They will cover the land and everything on it,
  cities and the people who live there.
People will call out for help;
  everyone on earth will cry bitterly.

3   
They will hear the hoofbeats of horses,
  the clatter of chariots,
  the rumble of wheels.
Fathers will not turn back for their children;
  their hands will hang limp at their sides.

4   
The time has come to destroy Philistia,
  to cut off from Tyre and Sidon
  all the help that remains.
I, the Lord, will destroy the Philistines,
  all who came from the shores of Crete.

5   
Great sorrow has come to the people of Gaza,
  and Ashkelon's people are silent.
  How long will the rest of Philistia mourn?

6   
You cry out, ‘Sword of the Lord!
  How long will you go on slashing?
Go back to your scabbard,
  stay there and rest!’

7   
But how can it rest,
  when I have given it work to do?
I have commanded it to attack Ashkelon
  and the people who live on the coast.” ^note The Destruction of Moab

1   This is what the Lord Almighty said about Moab:

“Pity the people of Nebo—
  their town is destroyed!
Kiriathaim is captured,
  its mighty fortress torn down,
  and its people put to shame;

2   
  the splendor of Moab is gone.
The enemy have captured Heshbon
  and plot to destroy the nation of Moab.
The town of Madmen will be silenced;
  armies will march against it.

3   
The people of Horonaim cry out,
  ‘Violence! Destruction!’

4   
“Moab has been destroyed;
  listen to the children crying.

5   
Hear the sound of their sobs
  along the road up to Luhith,
  the cries of distress
  on the way down to Horonaim.

6   
‘Quick, run for your lives!’ they say.
  ‘Run like a wild desert donkey!’

7   
“Moab, you trusted in your strength and your wealth,
  but now even you will be conquered;
your god Chemosh will go into exile,
  along with his princes and priests.

8   
Not a town will escape the destruction;
  both valley and plain will be ruined.
I, the Lord, have spoken.

9   
Set up a tombstone for Moab;
  it will soon be destroyed.

Its towns will be left in ruins,
  and no one will live there again.”

10   (Curse the man who does not do the Lord's work with all his heart! Curse the man who does not slash and kill!) The Cities of Moab Are Destroyed

11   The Lord said, “Moab has always lived secure and has never been taken into exile. Moab is like wine left to settle undisturbed and never poured from jar to jar. Its flavor has never been ruined, and it tastes as good as ever.

12   “So now, the time is coming when I will send people to pour Moab out like wine. They will empty its wine jars and break them in pieces.

13   Then the Moabites will be disillusioned with their god Chemosh, just as the Israelites were disillusioned with Bethel, a god in whom they trusted.

14   
“Men of Moab, why do you claim to be heroes,
  brave soldiers tested in war?

15   
Moab and its cities are destroyed;
  its finest young men have been slaughtered.
I am the king, the Lord Almighty,
  and I have spoken.

16   
Moab's doom approaches;
  its ruin is coming soon.

17   
“Mourn for that nation, you that live nearby,
  all of you that know its fame.
Say, ‘Its powerful rule has been broken;
  its glory and might are no more.’

18   
You that live in Dibon,
  come down from your place of honor
  and sit on the ground in the dust;
Moab's destroyer is here
  and has left its forts in ruins.

19   
You that live in Aroer,
  stand by the road and wait;
  ask those who are running away,
  find out from them what has happened.

20   
‘Moab has fallen,’ they will answer,
  ‘weep for it; it is disgraced.
Announce along the Arnon River
  that Moab is destroyed!’

21   “Judgment has come on the cities of the plateau: on Holon, Jahzah, Mephath,

22   Dibon, Nebo, Beth Diblathaim,

23   Kiriathaim, Bethgamul, Bethmeon,

24   Kerioth, and Bozrah. Judgment has come on all the cities of Moab, far and near.

25   Moab's might has been crushed; its power has been destroyed. I, the Lord, have spoken.” Moab Will Be Humbled

26   The Lord said, “Make Moab drunk, because it has rebelled against me. Moab will roll in its own vomit, and people will laugh.

27   Moab, remember how you made fun of the people of Israel? You treated them as though they had been caught with a gang of robbers.

28   “You people who live in Moab, leave your towns! Go and live on the cliffs! Be like the dove that makes its nest in the sides of a ravine.

29   Moab is very proud! I have heard how proud, arrogant, and conceited the people are, how much they think of themselves.

30   I, the Lord, know of their arrogance. Their boasts amount to nothing, and the things they do will not last.

31   And so I will weep for everyone in Moab and for the people of Kir Heres.

32   I will cry for the people of Sibmah, even more than for the people of Jazer. City of Sibmah, you are like a vine whose branches reach across the Dead Sea and go as far as Jazer. But now your summer fruits and your grapes have been destroyed.

33   Happiness and joy have been taken away from the fertile land of Moab. I have made the wine stop flowing from the winepresses; there is no one to make the wine and shout for joy.

34   “The people of Heshbon and

Elealeh cry out, ^note and their cry can be heard as far as Jahaz; it can be heard by the people in Zoar, and it is heard as far as Horonaim and Eglath Shelishiyah. Even Nimrim Brook has dried up.

35   I will stop the people of Moab from making burnt offerings at their places of worship and from offering sacrifices to their gods. I, the Lord, have spoken.

36   “So my heart mourns for Moab and for the people of Kir Heres, like someone playing a funeral song on a flute, because everything they owned is gone.

37   All of them have shaved their heads and cut off their beards. They have all made gashes on their hands, and everyone is wearing sackcloth.

38   On all the housetops of Moab and in all its public squares there is nothing but mourning, because I have broken Moab like a jar that no one wants.

39   Moab has been shattered! Cry out! Moab has been disgraced. It is in ruins, and all the surrounding nations make fun of it. I, the Lord, have spoken.” No Escape for Moab

40   The Lord has promised that a nation will swoop down on Moab like an eagle with its outspread wings,

41   and the towns and fortresses will be captured. On that day Moab's soldiers will be as frightened as a woman in labor.

42   Moab will be destroyed and will no longer be a nation, because it rebelled against me.

43   Terror, pits, and traps are waiting for the people of Moab. The Lord has spoken.

44   Whoever tries to escape the terror will fall into the pits, and whoever climbs out of the pits will be caught in the traps, because the Lord has set the time for Moab's destruction.

45   Helpless refugees try to find protection in Heshbon, the city that King Sihon once ruled, but it is in flames. ^noteFire has burned up the frontiers and the mountain heights of the war-loving people of Moab.

46   Pity the people of Moab! The people who worshiped Chemosh have been destroyed, and their sons and daughters have been taken away as prisoners.

47   But in days to come the Lord will make Moab prosperous again. All of this is what the Lord has said will happen to Moab. ^note The Lord's Judgment on Ammon

1   This is what the Lord said about Ammon: “Where are the men of Israel? Is there no one to defend their land? Why have they let the people who worship Molech take the territory of the tribe of Gad and settle there?

2   But the time is coming when I will make the people of the capital city of Rabbah hear the noise of battle, and it will be left in ruins and its villages burned to the ground. Then Israel will take its land back from those who took it from them.

3   People of Heshbon, cry out! Ai is destroyed! Women of Rabbah, go into mourning! Put on sackcloth and mourn. Run about in confusion. Your god Molech will be taken into exile, together with his priests and princes.

4   Why do you unfaithful people boast? Your strength is failing. Why do you trust in your power and say that no one would dare attack you?

5   I will bring terror on you from every side. You will all run away. Each one will run for his life, and there will be no one to bring your troops together again.

6   “But later on I will make Ammon prosperous again. I, the Lord, have spoken.” ^note The Lord's Judgment on Edom

7   This is what the Lord Almighty said about Edom: “Have the people of Edom lost their good judgment? Can their advisers no longer tell them what to do? Has all their wisdom disappeared? ^note

8   People of Dedan, turn and run! Hide! I am going to destroy

Esau's descendants because the time has come for me to punish them.

9   When men pick grapes, they leave a few on the vines, and when robbers come at night, they take only what they want.

10   But I ^note have stripped Esau's descendants completely and uncovered their hiding places, so that they can no longer hide. All the people of Edom are destroyed. Not one of them is left.

11   Leave your orphans with me, and I will take care of them. Your widows can depend on me.

12   “If even those who did not deserve to be punished had to drink from the cup of punishment, do you think that you will go unpunished? No, you must drink from the cup!

13   I myself have sworn that the city of Bozrah will become a horrifying sight and a desert; people will make fun of it and use its name as a curse. All the nearby villages will be in ruins forever. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

14   I said, “Edom, I have received a message from the Lord. He has sent a messenger to tell the nations to assemble their armies and to get ready to attack you.

15   The Lord is going to make you weak, and no one will respect you.

16   Your pride has deceived you. No one fears you as much as you think they do. You live on the rocky cliffs, high on top of the mountain; but even though you live as high up as an eagle, the Lord will bring you down. The Lord has spoken.”

17   The Lord said, “The destruction that will come on Edom will be so terrible that everyone who passes by will be shocked and terrified.

18   The same thing will happen to Edom that happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, when they and the nearby towns were destroyed. No one will ever live there again. I, the Lord, have spoken. ^note

19   Like a lion coming out of the thick woods along the Jordan River up to the green pasture land, I will come and make the Edomites run away suddenly from their country. Then the leader I choose will rule the nation. Who can be compared to me? Who would dare challenge me? What ruler could oppose me? ^note

20   So listen to the plan that I have made against the people of Edom, and to what I intend to do to the people of the city of Teman. Even their children will be dragged off, and everyone will be horrified.

21   When Edom falls, there will be such a noise that the entire earth will shake, and the cries of alarm will be heard as far away as the Gulf

of Aqaba.

22   The enemy will attack Bozrah like an eagle swooping down with outspread wings. On that day Edom's soldiers will be as frightened as a woman in labor.” ^note The Lord's Judgment on Damascus

23   This is what the Lord said about Damascus: “The people in the cities of Hamath and Arpad are worried and troubled because they have heard bad news. Anxiety rolls over them like a sea, and they cannot rest.

24   The people of Damascus are weak and have fled in terror. They are in pain and misery like a woman in labor.

25   The famous city that used to be happy ^note is completely deserted.

26   On that day her young men will be killed in the city streets, and all her soldiers destroyed.

27   I will set the walls of Damascus on fire and will burn down King Benhadad's palaces. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken.” ^note Judgment on the Tribe of Kedar and the City of Hazor

28   This is what the Lord said about the tribe of Kedar and the districts controlled by Hazor, which were conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia: “Attack the people of Kedar and destroy that tribe of eastern people!

29   Seize their tents and their flocks, their tent curtains and everything in their tents. Take their camels and tell the people, ‘Terror is all around you!’

30   “People of Hazor, I, the Lord, warn you to run far away and hide. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia has plotted against you, and this is what he says,

31   ‘Come on! We'll attack those people that feel safe and secure! Their city has no gates or locks and is completely unprotected.’

32   “Take their camels and all their livestock! I will scatter in every direction those people who cut their hair short, and I will bring disaster on them from every side.

33   Hazor will be made a desert forever, a place where only jackals live. No one will ever live there again. I, the Lord, have spoken.” The Lord's Judgment on Elam

34   Soon after Zedekiah became king of Judah, the Lord Almighty spoke to me about the country of Elam.

35   He said, “I will kill all the bowmen who have made Elam so powerful.

36   I will make winds blow against Elam from all directions, and I will scatter her people everywhere, until there is no country where her refugees have not gone.

37   I will make the people of Elam afraid of their enemies, who want to kill them. In my great anger I will destroy the people of Elam and send armies against them until I have wiped them out.

38   I will destroy their kings and leaders, and set up my throne there.

39   But later on I will make the people of Elam prosperous again. I, the Lord, have spoken.” Babylon's Capture

1   This is the message that the Lord gave me about the city of Babylon and its people:

2   
“Tell the news to the nations! Proclaim it!
  Give the signal and announce the news!
  Do not keep it a secret!
Babylon has fallen!
  Her god Marduk has been shattered!
Babylon's idols are put to shame;
  her disgusting images are crushed!

3   “A nation from the north has come to attack Babylonia and will make it a desert. Men and animals will run away, and no one will live there.” Israel's Return

4   The Lord says, “When that time comes, the people of both Israel and Judah will come weeping, looking

for me, their God.

5   They will ask the way to Zion and then go in that direction. They will make an eternal covenant with me and never break it.

6   “My people are like sheep whose shepherds have let them get lost in the mountains. They have wandered like sheep from one mountain to another, and they have forgotten where their home is.

7   They are attacked by all who find them. Their enemies say, ‘They sinned against the Lord, and so what we have done is not wrong. Their ancestors trusted in the Lord, and they themselves should have remained faithful to him.’

8   “People of Israel, run away from Babylonia! Leave the country! Be the first to leave! ^note

9   I am going to stir up a group of strong nations in the north and make them attack Babylonia. They will line up in battle against the country and conquer it. They are skillful hunters, shooting arrows that never miss the mark.

10   Babylonia will be looted, and those who loot it will take everything they want. I, the Lord, have spoken.” Babylon's Fall

11   The Lord says, “People of Babylonia, you plundered my nation. You are happy and glad, going about like a cow threshing grain or like a neighing horse,

12   but your own great city will be humiliated and disgraced. Babylonia will be the least important nation of all; it will become a dry and waterless desert.

13   Because of my anger no one will live in Babylon; it will be left in ruins, and all who pass by will be shocked and amazed.

14   “Bowmen, line up for battle against Babylon and surround it. Shoot all your arrows at Babylon, because it has sinned against me, the Lord.

15   Raise the war cry all around the city! Now Babylon has surrendered. Its walls have been broken through and torn down. ^noteI am taking my revenge on the Babylonians. So take your revenge on them, and treat them as they have treated others.

16   Do not let seeds be planted in that country nor let a harvest be gathered. Every foreigner living there will be afraid of the attacking army and will go back home.” Israel's Return

17   The Lord says, “The people of Israel are like sheep, chased and scattered by lions. First, they were attacked by the emperor of Assyria, and then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia gnawed on their bones.

18   Because of this, I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, will punish King Nebuchadnezzar and his country, just as I punished the emperor of Assyria.

19   I will restore the people of Israel to their land. They will eat the food that grows on Mount Carmel and in the region of Bashan, and they will eat all they want of the crops that grow in the territories of Ephraim and Gilead.

20   When that time comes, no sin will be found in Israel and no wickedness in Judah, because I will forgive those people whose lives I have spared. I, the Lord, have spoken.” God's Judgment on Babylonia

21   The Lord says, “Attack the people of Merathaim and of Pekod. Kill and destroy them. ^noteDo everything I command you. I, the Lord, have spoken.

22   The noise of battle is heard in the land, and there is great

destruction.

23   Babylonia hammered the whole world to pieces, and now that hammer is shattered! All the nations are shocked at what has happened to that country.

24   Babylonia, you fought against me, and you have been caught in the trap I set for you, even though you did not know it.

25   I have opened the place where my weapons are stored, and in my anger I have taken them out, because I, the Sovereign Lord Almighty, have work to do in Babylonia.

26   Attack it from every side and break open the places where its grain is stored! Pile up the loot like piles of grain! Destroy the country! Leave nothing at all!

27   Kill all their soldiers! Slaughter them! The people of Babylonia are doomed! The time has come for them to be punished!”

28   (Refugees escape from Babylonia and come to Jerusalem, and they tell how the Lord our God took revenge for what the Babylonians had done to his Temple.)

29   “Tell the bowmen to attack Babylon. Send out everyone who knows how to use the bow and arrow. Surround the city and don't let anyone escape. Pay it back for all it has done, and treat it as it has treated others, because it acted with pride against me, the Holy One of Israel. ^note

30   So its young men will be killed in the city streets, and all its soldiers will be destroyed on that day. I, the Lord, have spoken.

31   “Babylonia, you are filled with pride, so I, the Sovereign Lord Almighty, am against you! The time has come for me to punish you.

32   Your proud nation will stumble and fall, and no one will help you up. I will set your cities on fire, and everything around will be destroyed.”

33   The Lord Almighty says, “The people of Israel and of Judah are oppressed. All who captured them are guarding them closely and will not let them go.

34   But the one who will rescue them is strong—his name is the Lord Almighty. He himself will take up their cause and will bring peace to the earth, but trouble to the people of Babylonia.”

35   
The Lord says,
“Death to Babylonia!
  Death to its people,
  to its rulers, to its men of wisdom.

36   
Death to its lying prophets—
  what fools they are!
Death to its soldiers—
  how terrified they are!

37   
Destroy its horses and chariots!
Death to its hired soldiers—
  how weak they are!
Destroy its treasures;
  plunder and loot.

38   
Bring a drought on its land
  and dry up its rivers.
Babylonia is a land of terrifying idols
  that have made fools of the people.

39   “And so Babylon will be haunted by demons and evil spirits, ^note and by unclean birds. Never again will people live there, not for all time to come. ^note

40   The same thing will happen to Babylon that happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, when I destroyed them and the nearby towns. No one will ever live there again. I, the Lord, have spoken. ^note

41   
“People are coming from a country in the north,
  a mighty nation far away;
  many kings are preparing for war.

42   
They have taken their bows and swords;
  they are cruel and merciless.
They sound like the roaring sea,
  as they ride their horses.
They are ready for battle against Babylonia.

43   
The king of Babylonia hears the news,
  and his hands hang limp.
  He is seized by anguish,
  by pain like a woman in labor.

44   “Like a lion coming out of the thick woods along the Jordan up to

the green pasture land, I, the Lord, will come and make the Babylonians run away suddenly from their city. Then the leader I choose will rule the nation. Who can be compared to me? Who would dare challenge me? What ruler could oppose me?

45   So listen to the plan that I have made against the city of Babylon and to what I intend to do to its people. Even their children will be dragged off, and everyone will be horrified.

46   When Babylon falls, there will be such a noise that the entire earth will shake, and the cries of alarm will be heard by the other nations.” Further Judgment on Babylonia

1   The Lord says, “I am bringing a destructive wind ^note against Babylonia and its people.

2   I will send foreigners to destroy Babylonia like a wind that blows straw away. When that day of destruction comes, they will attack from every side and leave the land bare.

3   Don't give its soldiers time to shoot their arrows or to put on their armor. Do not spare the young men! Destroy the whole army!

4   They will be wounded and die in the streets of their cities.

5   I, the Lord God Almighty, have not abandoned Israel and Judah, even though they have sinned against me, the Holy One of Israel.

6   Run away from Babylonia! Run for your lives! Do not be killed because of Babylonia's sin. I am now taking my revenge and punishing it as it deserves.

7   Babylonia was like a gold cup in my hand, making the whole world drunk. The nations drank its wine and went out of their minds. ^note

8   Babylonia has suddenly fallen and is destroyed! Mourn over it! Get medicine for its wounds, and maybe it can be healed.

9   Foreigners living there said, ‘We tried to help Babylonia, but it was too late. Let's leave now and go back home. God has punished Babylonia with all his might and has destroyed it completely.’” ^note

10   The Lord says, “My people shout, ‘The Lord has shown that we are in the right. Let's go and tell the people in Jerusalem what the Lord our God has done.’”

11   The Lord has stirred up the kings of Media, because he intends to destroy Babylonia. That is how he will take revenge for the destruction of his Temple.

11   The attacking officers command, “Sharpen your arrows! Get your shields ready!

12   Give the signal to attack Babylon's walls. Strengthen

the guard! Post the sentries! Place men in ambush!”

12   The Lord has done what he said he would do to the people of Babylonia.

13   That country has many rivers and rich treasures, but its time is up, and its thread of life is cut. ^note

14   The Lord Almighty has sworn by his own life that he will bring many men to attack Babylonia like a swarm of locusts, and they will shout with victory. A Hymn of Praise to God

15   
The Lord made the earth by his power;
  by his wisdom he created the world
  and stretched out the heavens.

16   
At his command the waters above the sky ^note roar;
  he brings clouds from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning flash in the rain
  and sends the wind from his storeroom.

17   
At the sight of this, men feel stupid and senseless;
  those who make idols are disillusioned
  because the gods they make are false and lifeless.

18   
They are worthless and should be despised;
  they will be destroyed when the Lord comes to deal with them.

19   
The God of Jacob is not like them;
  he is the one who made everything,
  and he has chosen Israel to be his very own people.
  The Lord Almighty is his name.
The Lord's Hammer

20   The Lord says,

“Babylonia, you are my hammer, my weapon of war.
I used you to crush nations and kingdoms,

21   
  to shatter horses and riders,
  to shatter chariots and their drivers,

22   
  to kill men and women,
  to slay old and young,
  to kill boys and girls,

23   
  to slaughter shepherds and their flocks,
  to slaughter farmers and their plow horses,
  to crush rulers and high officials.” Babylonia's Punishment

24   The Lord says, “You will see me repay Babylonia and its people for all the evil they did to Jerusalem.

25   Babylonia, you are like a mountain that destroys the whole world, but I, the Lord, am your enemy. I will take hold of you, level you to the ground, and leave you in ashes.

26   None of the stones from your ruins will ever be used again for building. You will be like a desert forever. I, the Lord, have spoken.

27   “Give the signal to attack! Blow the trumpet so that the nations can hear! Prepare the nations for war against Babylonia! Tell the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz to attack. Appoint an officer to lead the attack. Bring up the horses like a swarm of locusts.

28   Prepare the nations for war against Babylonia. Send for the kings of Media, their leaders and officials, and the armies of all the countries they control.

29   The earth trembles and shakes because the Lord is carrying out his plan to make Babylonia a desert, where no one lives.

30   The Babylonian soldiers have stopped fighting and remain in their forts. They have lost their courage and have become like women. The city gates are broken down, and the houses are on fire.

31   Messenger after messenger runs to tell the king of Babylonia that his city has been broken into from every side.

32   The enemy

have captured the river crossing and have set the fortresses on fire. The Babylonian soldiers have panicked.

33   Soon the enemy will cut them down and trample them like grain on a threshing place. I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, have spoken.”

34   
The king of Babylonia cut Jerusalem up
  and ate it.
He emptied the city like a jar;
  like a monster he swallowed it.
He took what he wanted
  and threw the rest away.

35   
Let the people of Zion say,
  “May Babylonia be held responsible
  for the violence done to us!”
Let the people of Jerusalem say,
  “May Babylonia be held responsible
  for what we have suffered!” The Lord Will Help Israel

36   And so the Lord said to the people of Jerusalem, “I will take up your cause and will make your enemies pay for what they did to you. I will dry up the source of Babylonia's water and make its rivers go dry.

37   That country will become a pile of ruins where wild animals live. It will be a horrible sight; no one will live there, and all who see it will be terrified.

38   The Babylonians all roar like lions and growl like lion cubs.

39   Are they greedy? I will prepare them a feast and make them drunk and happy. They will go to sleep and never wake up.

40   I will take them to be slaughtered, like lambs, goats, and rams. I, the Lord, have spoken.” Babylon's Fate

41   The Lord says about Babylon: “The city that the whole world praised has been captured! What a horrifying sight Babylon has become to the nations!

42   The sea has rolled over Babylon and covered it with roaring waves.

43   The towns have become a horrifying sight and are like a waterless desert, where no one lives or even travels.

44   I will punish Bel, the god of Babylonia, and make him give up his stolen goods; the nations will not worship him any more.

44   “Babylon's walls have fallen.

45   People of Israel, run away from there! Run for your life from my fierce anger.

46   Do not lose courage or be afraid because of the rumors you hear. Every year a different rumor spreads—rumors of violence in the land and of one king fighting another.

47   And so the time is coming when I will deal with Babylonia's idols. The whole country will be put to shame, and all its people will be killed.

48   Everything on earth and in the sky will shout for joy when Babylonia falls to the people who come from the north to destroy it. ^note

49   Babylonia caused the death of people all over the world, and now

Babylonia will fall because it caused the death of so many Israelites. I, the Lord, have spoken.” ^note God's Message to the Israelites in Babylonia

50   The Lord says to his people in Babylonia: “You have escaped death! Now go! Don't wait! Though you are far from home, think about me, your Lord, and remember Jerusalem.

51   You say, ‘We've been disgraced and made ashamed; we feel completely helpless because foreigners have taken over the holy places in the Temple.’

52   So then, I say that the time is coming when I will deal with Babylon's idols, and the wounded will groan throughout the country.

53   Even if Babylon could climb to the sky and build a strong fortress there, I would still send people to destroy it. I, the Lord, have spoken.” Further Destruction on Babylon

54   The Lord says,

“Listen to the sound of crying in Babylon,
  of mourning for the destruction in the land.

55   
I am destroying Babylon
  and putting it to silence.
The armies rush in like roaring waves
  and attack with noisy shouts.

56   
They have come to destroy Babylon;
  its soldiers are captured,
  and their bows are broken.
I am a God who punishes evil,
  and I will treat Babylon as it deserves.

57   
I will make its rulers drunk—
  men of wisdom, leaders, and soldiers.
They will go to sleep and never wake up.
  I, the king, have spoken;
  I am the Lord Almighty.

58   
The walls of mighty Babylon will be thrown to the ground,
  and its towering gates burned down.
The work of the nations is all for nothing;
  their efforts go up in flames.
I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken.” Jeremiah's Message Is Sent to Babylonia

59   King Zedekiah's personal attendant was Seraiah, the son of Neriah and grandson of Mahseiah. In the fourth year that Zedekiah was king of Judah, Seraiah was going to Babylonia with him, and I gave him some instructions.

60   I wrote in a book an account of all the destruction that would come on Babylonia, as well as all these other things about Babylonia.

61   I told Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, be sure to read aloud to the people everything that is written here.

62   Then pray, ‘Lord, you have said that you would destroy this place, so that there would be no living creature in it, neither man nor animal, and it would be like a desert forever.’

63   Seraiah, when you finish reading this book to the people, then tie it to a rock and throw it into the Euphrates River

64   and say, ‘This is what will happen to Babylonia—it will sink and never rise again because of the destruction that the Lord is going to bring on it.’” ^note

64   The words of Jeremiah end here. ^{note note} The Fall of Jerusalem (2 Kings 24.18—25.7)

1   Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of the Jeremiah who lived in the city of Libnah.

2   King Zedekiah sinned against the Lord, just as King Jehoiakim had done.

3   The Lord became so angry with the people of Jerusalem and Judah that he banished them from his sight.

3   Zedekiah rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia,

4   and so Nebuchadnezzar came with all his army and attacked Jerusalem on the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign. They set up camp outside the city, built siege walls around it, ^note

5   and kept it under siege until Zedekiah's eleventh year.

6   On the ninth day of the fourth month of that same year, when the famine was so bad that the people had nothing left to eat,

7   the city walls were broken through. Although the Babylonians were surrounding the city, all the soldiers escaped during the night. They left by way of the royal garden, went through the gateway connecting the two walls, and fled in the direction of the Jordan Valley. ^note

8   But the Babylonian army pursued King Zedekiah, captured him in the plains near Jericho, and all his soldiers deserted him.

9   Zedekiah was taken to King Nebuchadnezzar, who was in the city of Riblah in the territory of Hamath, and there Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him.

10   At Riblah he put Zedekiah's sons to death while Zedekiah was looking on and he also had the officials of Judah executed.

11   After that, he had Zedekiah's eyes put out and had him placed in chains and taken to Babylon. Zedekiah remained in prison in Babylon until the day he died. ^note The Destruction of the Temple (2 Kings 25.8–17)

12   On the tenth day of the fifth month of the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, Nebuzaradan, adviser to the king and commander of his army, entered Jerusalem.

13   He burned down the Temple, the palace, and the houses of all the important people in Jerusalem; ^note

14   and his soldiers tore down the city walls.

15   Then Nebuzaradan took away to Babylonia ^note the people who were left in the city, the remaining skilled workmen, and those who had deserted to the Babylonians.

16   But he left in Judah some of the poorest people, who owned no property, and he put them to work in the vineyards and fields.

17   The Babylonians broke in pieces the bronze columns and the carts that were in the Temple, together with the large bronze tank, and they took all the bronze to Babylon.

18   They also took away the shovels and the ash containers used in cleaning the altar, the tools used in tending the lamps, the bowls used for catching the blood from the sacrifices, the bowls used for burning incense, and all the other bronze articles used in the Temple service.

19   They took away everything that was made of gold or silver: the small bowls, the pans used for carrying live coals, the bowls for holding the blood from the sacrifices, the ash containers, the lampstands, the bowls used for incense, and the bowls used for pouring out wine offerings.

20   The bronze objects that King Solomon had made for the Temple—the two columns, the

carts, the large tank, and the twelve bulls that supported it—were too heavy to weigh.

21    22   The two columns were identical: each one was 27 feet high and 18 feet around. They were hollow, and the metal was 3 inches thick. On top of each column was a bronze capital 7 1/2 feet high, and all around it was a grillwork decorated with pomegranates, all of which was also made of bronze. ^note

23   On the grillwork of each column there were a hundred pomegranates in all, and ninety-six of these were visible from the ground. The People of Judah Are Taken to Babylonia (2 Kings 25.18–21, 27–30)

24   In addition, Nebuzaradan, the commanding officer, took away as prisoners Seraiah the High Priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three other important Temple officials.

25   From the city he took the officer who had been in command of the troops, seven of the king's personal advisers who were still in the city, the commander's assistant, who was in charge of military records, and sixty other important men.

26   Nebuzaradan took them to the king of Babylonia, who was in the city of Riblah

27   in the territory of Hamath. There the king had them beaten and put to death.

27   So the people of Judah were carried away from their land into exile.

28   This is the record of the people that Nebuchadnezzar took away as prisoners: in his seventh year as king he carried away 3,023;

29   in his eighteenth year, 832 from Jerusalem;

30   and in his twenty-third year, 745— taken away by Nebuzaradan. In all, 4,600 people were taken away.

31   In the year that Evilmerodach became king of Babylonia, he showed kindness to King Jehoiachin of Judah by releasing him from prison. This happened on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin had been taken away as a prisoner.

32   Evilmerodach treated him kindly and gave him a position of greater honor than he gave the other kings who were exiles with him in Babylonia.

33   So Jehoiachin was permitted to change from his prison clothes and to dine at the king's table for the rest of his life.

34   Each day for as long as he lived, he was given a regular allowance for his needs.

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