The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah

The Book of Jeremiah presents the life and ministry of a prophet who suffered greatly for his faithful proclamation of God's word during a time of national collapse. Jeremiah is often called the weeping prophet because of his deep sorrow for the sins of his people and the impending destruction of Jerusalem. We see the inner struggle of a man who felt the word of the Lord like a fire burning in his bones. Jeremiah teaches us about the personal cost of holiness and the courage required to speak the truth.

The narrative includes the promise of a New Covenant that will be written on the hearts of the people rather than on tablets of stone. This prophecy finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Eucharist and the gift of the Holy Spirit in the Catholic Church. We learn that even in the midst of exile and suffering, the Lord has plans for our welfare and not for our woe. Jeremiah encourages us to remain faithful in difficult times and to trust in the promise of a future filled with hope.

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Chapters

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52

Chapter 1

¹The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. ? ²The word of the Lord, which came to him in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign, ? ³and which came to him in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, even until the completion of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, even until the transmigration of Jerusalem in the fifth month. ? ⁴And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ? ⁵�Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you went forth from the womb, I sanctified you. And I made you a prophet to the nations.� ? ⁶And I said: �Alas, alas, alas, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am a boy.� ? ⁷And the Lord said to me: �Do not choose to say, �I am a boy.� For you shall go forth to everyone to whom I will send you. And you shall speak all that I will command you. ? ⁸You should not be afraid before their face. For I am with you, so that I may deliver you,� says the Lord. ? ⁹And the Lord put forth his hand, and he touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me: �Behold, I have placed my words in your mouth. ? ¹⁰Behold, today I have appointed you over nations and over kingdoms, so that you may root up, and pull down, and destroy, and scatter, and so that you may build and plant.� ? ¹¹And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, �What do you see, Jeremiah?� And I said, �I see a staff, keeping watch.� ? ¹²And the Lord said to me: �You have seen well. For I will keep watch over my word, so that I may accomplish it.� ? ¹³And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, �What do you see?� And I said, �I see a cooking pot upon a fire, and its face is before the face of the north.� ? ¹⁴And the Lord said to me: �From the north, an evil will spread over all the inhabitants of the earth. ? ¹⁵For behold, I will call together all the close associates of the kingdoms of the north, says the Lord. And they will arrive, and each one of them will place his throne at the entrance to the gates of Jerusalem, and over all its surrounding walls, and over all the cities of Judah. ? ¹⁶And I will speak my judgments with them, concerning all the wickedness of those who have forsaken me, and who have offered libations to strange gods, and who have adored the work of their own hands. ? ¹⁷Therefore, you should gird your waist, and rise up, and speak to them everything that I instruct you. You should not have dread before their face. For I will cause you to be unafraid of their countenance. ? ¹⁸For certainly, this day, I have made you like a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and a brass wall, over all the land, to the kings of Judah, to its leaders, and to the priests, and to the people of the land. ? ¹⁹And they will make war against you, but they will not prevail. For I am with you, says the Lord, so that I may free you.� ?

Chapter 2

¹And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ? ²�Go, and cry out to the ears of Jerusalem, saying: Thus says the Lord: I have remembered you, taking pity on your youth and on the charity of your betrothal, when you followed me into the desert, into a land which is not sown. ? ³Israel is holy to the Lord, the first of his fruits. All those who devour him commit an offense. Evils will overwhelm them, says the Lord.� ? ⁴Listen to the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all you families of the house of Israel. ? ⁵Thus says the Lord: �What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they would draw far away from me, and would walk after emptiness, and would become empty? ? ⁶And they have not said: �Where is the Lord, who caused us to ascend from the land of Egypt; who led us through the desert, through an uninhabited and impassable land, through a land of drought and of the image of death, through a land in which no one walked and in which no man lived?� ? ⁷And I led you into the land of Carmel, so that you would eat from its fruit and from its excellence. And having entered it, you defiled my land, and you turned my inheritance into an abomination. ? ⁸The priests have not sad: �Where is the Lord?� And those who held the law did not know me. And the pastors betrayed me. And the prophets prophesied in Baal and followed idols. ? ⁹Because of this, I will still contend in judgment against you, says the Lord, and I will dispute with your sons. ? ¹⁰Cross over to the isles of Kittim, and gaze. And send to Kedar, and consider diligently. And see if anything like this has ever been done. ? ¹¹See if a nation has ever changed their gods, though certainly those are not gods. Yet truly, my people have exchanged their glory for an idol. ? ¹²Be astonished at this, O heavens, and be utterly desolate, O gates of heaven, says the Lord. ? ¹³For my people have done two evils. They have forsaken me, the Fountain of living water, and they have dug for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that are unable to hold water. ? ¹⁴Is Israel a servant, or one born into slavery? Then why has he become a prey? ? ¹⁵The lions have roared over him, and they have uttered their voice. They have set his land in solitude; his cities have been burned up, and there is no one who lives in them. ? ¹⁶Likewise, the sons of Memphis and of Tahpanhes have defiled you, even to the top of the head. ? ¹⁷Has this not been done to you because you abandoned the Lord your God, in that time when he was leading you by the way? ? ¹⁸And now what do you want from the way of Egypt, but to drink their turbid water? And what do you want from the way of the Assyrians, but to drink the water of their river? ? ¹⁹Your own malice will reprove you, and your own apostasy will rebuke you! But know and perceive this: it is an evil and bitter thing for you to forsake the Lord your God, and to be without my fear within you, says the Lord, the God of hosts. ? ²⁰From ancient times, you have broken my yoke; you have torn apart my bonds, and you have said, �I will not serve.� For on every high hill, and under every leafy tree, you have been debased, O harlot. ? ²¹Yet I planted you as an elect vineyard, with only true seed. Then how have you been turned away from me, toward that which is depraved, O strange vineyard? ? ²²Even if you wash yourself with soap, and increase your use of herbal soaps, you are still stained by your iniquity in my sight, says the Lord God. ? ²³How can you say: �I have not been polluted. I have not walked after Baal?� Consider your ways in the steep valley. Acknowledge what you have done, so that you may be like a swift runner, following his course. ? ²⁴A wild donkey accustomed to solitude, out of the desire in his soul, caught the scent of his lover. Now nothing will turn him away from her. All those who seek her will not cease. But they will find her in her menstruation. ? ²⁵You should keep your foot from being naked, and your throat from being thirsty. But you have said: �I have lost hope. I will not do it. For certainly, I have loved strangers, and I will walk after them.� ? ²⁶In the same way that a thief is confounded when he has been apprehended, so the house of Israel has been confounded, they and their kings, their leaders and priests and prophets. ? ²⁷For they say to a piece of wood, �You are my father,� and to a stone, �You have conceived me.� They have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their affliction, they will say: �Rise up and deliver us.� ? ²⁸Where are your gods that you made for yourselves? Let them rise up and deliver you in the time of your affliction. For certainly, your gods were like the number of your cities, O Judah. ? ²⁹Why do you want to contend against me in judgment? You have all forsaken me, says the Lord. ? ³⁰I have struck your children to no effect; they have not accepted discipline. Your own sword has devoured your prophets. Your generation is like a raging lion. ? ³¹Consider the word of the Lord. Have I become like a wilderness to Israel, or like a land late to bear fruit? Then why have my people said, �We are withdrawing; we will no longer approach you�? ? ³²Can a virgin forget her ornament, or a bride the covering across her breast? Yet truly, my people have forgotten me, for innumerable days. ? ³³Why are you striving to claim that your way is good, as if to seek my love, when all the while you are also displaying your malice by your own way, ? ³⁴and in your armpits there is found the blood of poor and innocent souls? I have found them, not in ditches, but everywhere that I mentioned previously. ? ³⁵And you have said: �I am innocent and without sin. And because of this, let your fury be turned away from me.� Behold, I will contend with you in judgment, because you have said: �I have not sinned.� ? ³⁶How exceedingly vile you have become, repeating your ways again and again! And so, you will be ashamed of Egypt, just as you were ashamed of Assur. ? ³⁷For you will also depart from that place, and your hand will be upon your head. For the Lord has crushed your confidence, and you will have nothing prosperous by it.� ?

Chapter 3

¹�It is commonly said: �If a man has divorced his wife, and she departs from him, she will marry another man.� So why would he return to her again? Is not that woman polluted and defiled? But you have fornicated yourself with many lovers. Even so, return to me, says the Lord, and I will accept you. ? ²Lift your eyes straight up, and see where you did not debase yourself. You were sitting in the roadways, waiting for them, like a robber in the wilderness. And you have polluted the land by your fornications and by your wickedness. ? ³For this reason, the rain showers were withheld, and there were no late season rains. You made your face like that of a promiscuous woman; you were not willing to blush. ? ⁴Therefore, at least from this moment on, call out to me: �You are my father, the guide of my virginity.� ? ⁵Why should you be angry unceasingly? And will you continue in this to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done evil, for you were able to do so.� ? ⁶And, in the days of king Josiah, the Lord said to me: �Have you not seen what the apostate Israel has done? She has brought herself up to every lofty mountain, and she has lain down under every leafy tree, and she has committed fornication there. ? ⁷And when she had done all these things, I said: �Return to me.� But she did not return. And her deceitful sister Judah saw this: ? ⁸that because the apostate Israel had committed adultery, I had dismissed her and had given her a bill of divorce. Yet her deceitful sister Judah was not afraid. But she, too, went and committed fornication herself. ? ⁹And by the act of her fornication, she defiled the land. For she committed adultery with that which is stone and wood. ? ¹⁰And after all these things, her deceitful sister Judah has not returned to me with her whole heart, but with lies, says the Lord.� ? ¹¹And the Lord said to me: �The apostate Israel has justified her own soul by comparing herself to the deceitful Judah. ? ¹²Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and you shall say: Return, O apostate Israel, says the Lord. For I will not avert my face from you. For I am holy, says the Lord, and I will not be angry forever. ? ¹³So then, truly acknowledge your iniquity, that you have betrayed the Lord your God, and that you have spread your ways to strangers, under every leafy tree, and that you have not listened to my voice, says the Lord. ? ¹⁴Convert, O rebellious sons, says the Lord. For I am your leader. And so, I will take you, one from a city, and two from a family, and I will lead you into Zion. ? ¹⁵And I will give you pastors according to my own heart. And they will feed you with knowledge and doctrine. ? ¹⁶And when you have been multiplied and increased in the land in those days, says the Lord, they will no longer say: �The Ark of the covenant of the Lord!� And it will not enter into the heart, and they will not call it to mind. It will neither be visited, nor made use of, any longer. ? ¹⁷In that time, Jerusalem will be called: �The Throne of the Lord.� And all the nations will be gathered to it, in the name of the Lord, in Jerusalem. And they will not walk after the depravity of their own most wicked heart. ? ¹⁸In those days, the house of Judah will go to the house of Israel, and they will come from the land of the north, at the same time, to the land that I gave to your fathers. ? ¹⁹But I said: How shall I place you among the sons, and distribute to you a desirable land, the preeminent inheritance of the host of the Gentiles? And I said: You will call me Father, and you will not cease to walk after me. ? ²⁰But, in the same way that a woman spurns her lover, so also has the house of Israel spurned me, says the Lord.� ? ²¹A voice has been heard in the highways, the weeping and wailing of the sons of Israel. For they have made their own ways sinful; they have forgotten the Lord their God. ? ²²�Convert, O rebellious sons! And I will heal your rebelliousness.� �Behold, we are returning to you. For you are the Lord our God! ? ²³Truly, the hills were liars, with the multitude of the mountains. Truly, the salvation of Israel is in the Lord our God. ? ²⁴Confusion has devoured the labor of our fathers, from our youth, with their flocks and their herds, with their sons and their daughters. ? ²⁵We will sleep in our confusion, and our disgrace will cover us. For we have sinned against the Lord our God: we and our fathers, from our youth, even to this day. And we have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God.� ?

Chapter 4

¹�O Israel, if you would return, says the Lord, then be converted to me. If you remove your offense from before my face, then you will not be shaken. ? ²And you will swear, �As the Lord lives,� in truth and in judgment and in justice.� And the Gentiles will bless him, and they will praise him. ? ³For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and of Jerusalem: �Break new ground, and do not choose to sow upon thorns. ? ⁴Be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskins from your hearts, O men of Judah, O inhabitants of Jerusalem. Otherwise my indignation may burst forth and flare up like a fire. And then there will be no one who can extinguish it, because of the wickedness of your thoughts. ? ⁵Declare it in Judah, and make it known in Jerusalem! Speak out and sound the trumpet in the land! Cry out strongly and say: �Gather yourselves! And let us go forth to fortified cities!� ? ⁶Lift up a standard in Zion. Be strengthened! Do not choose to stand still. For I am bringing an evil from the north, with great destruction. ? ⁷The lion has ascended from his den, and the pillager of the nations has lifted himself up. He has gone forth from his place, so that he may set your land in desolation. Your cities will be laid waste, remaining without an inhabitant. ? ⁸Concerning this, wrap yourselves in haircloth, mourn and wail: �For the wrath of the fury of the Lord has not been turned away from us.� ? ⁹And this shall be in that day, says the Lord: The heart of the king will perish, with the heart of the princes. And the priests will be stupefied, and the prophets will be in consternation.� ? ¹⁰And I said: �Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God! Could it be that you have deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: �Peace shall be yours,� while, behold, the sword reaches even to the soul?� ? ¹¹�In that time, it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: �A burning wind is in the ways that are in the desert, along the way of the daughter of my people, but not to winnow and not to cleanse.� ? ¹²A full spirit from these places will come to me. And now I will speak my judgments over them. ? ¹³Behold, he will ascend like a cloud, and his chariot will ascend like a tempest. His horses are swifter than eagles. �Woe to us! For we are being devastated!� ? ¹⁴Wash your heart from malice, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will harmful thoughts abide in you? ? ¹⁵For there is a voice, of someone announcing from Dan, and he is making known the idol from mount Ephraim. ? ¹⁶Say to the nations: �Behold, it has been heard in Jerusalem! Guardians are coming from a far away land, to utter their voice against the cities of Judah.� ? ¹⁷They have been stationed over her, like the guardians of fields, all around. For she has provoked me to wrath, says the Lord. ? ¹⁸Your ways and your thoughts have brought these things upon you. This is your own wickedness. And it is bitter, because it has touched your heart. ? ¹⁹I am afflicted in my heart, in my heart. The senses of my heart have been stirred up within me. I will not remain silent. For my soul has heard the voice of the trumpet, the clamor of the battle. ? ²⁰Destruction upon destruction has been called forth. And the entire earth has been devastated. My tabernacles have been destroyed suddenly, and my tents in an instant. ? ²¹How long shall I watch those who are fleeing, and listen to the voice of the trumpet? ? ²²For my foolish people have not known me. They are foolish and mad sons. They are clever in doing evil, but they do not know how to do good. ? ²³I gazed upon the earth, and behold, it was empty and brought to nothing. And I gazed upon the heavens, but there was no light in them. ? ²⁴I watched the mountains, and behold, they trembled, and all the hills were shaken. ? ²⁵I looked, and there was no man. And all the flying things of the air had gone away. ? ²⁶I gazed, and behold, Carmel was a desert, and all its cities were destroyed before the face of the Lord, and before the face of the wrath of his fury.� ? ²⁷For thus says the Lord: �All the earth will be desolate, but I will not yet bring about its consummation. ? ²⁸The earth will mourn, and the heavens will lament from above. For I have spoken, I have decided, and I have not regretted. Neither will I be turned away from it. ? ²⁹Before the voice of the horsemen and of those who send forth arrows, the entire city has fled. They have entered steep places, and they have ascended the cliffs. All of the cities have been abandoned, and no man lives within them. ? ³⁰So then, when you have been devastated, what will you do? Though you will clothe yourself with scarlet, though you will adorn yourself with a gold necklace and tint your eyes with cosmetics, you will be dressing yourself up in vain. Your lovers have spurned you; they will be seeking your life. ? ³¹For I have heard a voice, like that of a woman giving birth, during the difficulties of labor. It is the voice of the daughter of Zion, dying, extending her hands: �Woe to me! For my soul is failing because of those who have been slain!� � ?

Chapter 5

¹�Travel the streets of Jerusalem; and gaze, and consider, and seek, in its wide streets. If you can find a man exercising judgment and seeking faith, then I will be forgiving to them. ? ²For even though they say, �As the Lord lives,� in this, too, they swear falsely.� ? ³O Lord, your eyes look with favor upon faith. You have struck them, and they have not grieved. You have bruised them, and they have refused to accept discipline. They have hardened their faces more than rock, and they are not willing to return. ? ⁴But I said: Perhaps these are the poor and the senseless, who are ignorant of the way of the Lord, of the judgment of their God. ? ⁵Therefore, I will go to great men, and I will speak with them. For they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God. And behold, these ones have broken the yoke all the more; they have torn apart the bonds. ? ⁶For this reason, a lion from the forest has struck them down, a wolf toward evening has laid waste to them, a leopard lies in wait over their cities. All who go out from there will be taken. For their transgressions have been multiplied; their rebellions have been strengthened. ? ⁷�Over which things am I able to be merciful to you? Your sons have forsaken me, and they swear by those who are not gods. I gave them everything, and they committed adultery, and they indulged themselves in the house of the harlot. ? ⁸They have become like wild horses in heat; each one was neighing after his neighbor�s wife. ? ⁹Shall I not visit against these things, says the Lord? And shall my soul not take vengeance on a nation such as this? ? ¹⁰Scale its walls and tear them down. But do not be willing to bring about its very end. Take away its plantings, for they are not the Lord�s. ? ¹¹For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have greatly transgressed against me, says the Lord. ? ¹²They have denied the Lord, and they have said, �It is not him,� and, �Evil will not overwhelm us. We will not see famine and the sword.� ? ¹³The prophets have spoken into the wind, and there was no answer with them. Therefore, these things will happen to them.� ? ¹⁴Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts: �Since you have spoken this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth like fire and this people like wood, and it will devour them. ? ¹⁵Behold, O house of Israel, I will lead over you a far away nation, says the Lord, a robust nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you will not know, nor will you understand what they are saying. ? ¹⁶Their quiver is like an open sepulcher. They are all strong. ? ¹⁷And they will consume your grain fields and your bread. They will devour your sons and your daughters. They will consume your flocks and your herds. They will consume your vineyards and your figs. And with the sword, they will crush your fortified cities, in which you have placed your trust. ? ¹⁸Yet truly, in those days, says the Lord, I will not bring the consummation over you. ? ¹⁹And if they say, �Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?� You shall say to them: �Just as you have abandoned me and have served a strange god in your own land, so will you serve strangers in a land not your own.� ? ²⁰Announce this to the house of Jacob, and make it known in Judah, saying: ? ²¹Listen, O foolish people who have no heart! You have eyes, but you do not see, and ears, but you do not hear. ? ²²So then, will you not fear me, says the Lord. And will you not have sorrow before my face? I have placed the shore as a limit for the sea, as an everlasting precept that it will not transgress. And its waves will crash, but they will not prevail; and its waves will swell, but they will not go across. ? ²³But the heart of this people has become incredulous and provocative; they have turned away and departed. ? ²⁴And they have not said in their heart: �Let us dread the Lord our God, who gives us the timely and the late rains, in their proper time, who guards the full measure of the yearly harvest for us.� ? ²⁵Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have held back good things from you. ? ²⁶For the impious are found among my people; they lie in ambush like fowlers setting snares, for they set traps to catch men. ? ²⁷Just as a snare is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit. As a result, they have become exalted and enriched. ? ²⁸They have grown stout and fat. And they have transgressed my words most wickedly. They have not judged the case of the widow; they have not given guidance to the case of the orphan; and they have not judged a judgment for the poor. ? ²⁹Shall I not visit against these things, says the Lord? Or shall my soul not take vengeance on a nation of this kind? ? ³⁰Astonishing and wondrous things have been done upon the earth. ? ³¹The prophets have prophesied lies, and the priests have applauded with their hands, and my people have loved these things. So then, what shall be done at the very end?� ?

Chapter 6

¹�O sons of Benjamin, be strengthened in the midst of Jerusalem, and sound the trumpet in Tekoa, and lift up a banner over the house of Haccherem. For an evil has been seen from the north, with great destruction. ? ²I have compared the daughter of Zion to a beautiful and delicate woman. ? ³The pastors will come to her with their flocks. They have pitched their tents against her all around. Each one will feed those who are under his hand. ? ⁴�Sanctify a war against her! Rise up together, and let us ascend at midday.� �Woe to us! For the day has declined; for the shadows of the evening have grown longer.� ? ⁵�Rise up, and let us ascend in the night, and let us destroy her houses.� � ? ⁶For thus says the Lord of hosts: �Cut down her trees, and build a rampart around Jerusalem. This is the city of visitation! Every kind of false claim is in her midst. ? ⁷Just as a cistern makes its water cold, so has she made her wickedness cold. Iniquity and devastation will be heard in her; sickness and wounds will be ever before me. ? ⁸O Jerusalem, accept instruction, lest perhaps my soul may withdraw from you; lest perhaps I may set you in a desert, in an uninhabitable land.� ? ⁹Thus says the Lord of hosts: �They will gather the remnant of Israel, even as a single cluster of grapes is gathered from a vine. Direct your hand, as a grape-gatherer directs his hand to the basket. ? ¹⁰To whom should I speak, and to whom should I testify, so as to be heard? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and so they are unable to hear. Behold, for them, the word of the Lord has become a disgrace. And so they will not accept it. ? ¹¹For this reason, I have been filled with the fury of the Lord. I labor to bear it. Let it be poured out upon the child outside, or upon a group of young men meeting together. For a man will be taken captive with a woman, an elder will be taken captive with one who is full of days. ? ¹²And their houses will be given over to others, with both their lands and their wives. For I will extend my hand over the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord. ? ¹³Certainly, from the least of them even to the greatest, all of them practice greed. And from the prophet even to the priest, all of them act with deceit. ? ¹⁴And they healed the destruction of the daughter of my people with disgrace, by saying: �Peace, peace.� And there was no peace. ? ¹⁵They were confounded, because they committed an abomination. Or rather, they were not confounded with shame, because they did not know how to blush. For this reason, they will fall among those who are being destroyed. In the time of their visitation, they will fall, says the Lord.� ? ¹⁶Thus says the Lord: �Stand above the ways, and see and ask, about the ancient paths, as to which is the good way, and then walk in it. And you will find refreshment for your souls. But they said: �We will not walk.� ? ¹⁷And I appointed watchers over you, saying: �Listen for the sound of the trumpet.� And they said: �We will not listen.� ? ¹⁸For this reason, hear, O Gentiles, and know, O congregation, how much I will do to them. ? ¹⁹Hear, O earth! Behold, I will lead evils over this people, as the fruits of their own thoughts. For they have not listened to my words, and they have cast aside my law. ? ²⁰For what reason are you bringing me frankincense from Sheba, and sweet smelling reeds from a far away land? Your holocausts are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not pleasing to me.� ? ²¹Therefore, thus says the Lord: �Behold I will bring this people to utter ruin, and they will fall, with their fathers and sons; neighbor and relative will perish together.� ? ²²Thus says the Lord: �Behold, a people is coming from the land of the north, and a great nation will rise up from the ends of the earth. ? ²³They will take hold of arrow and shield. They are cruel, and they will not take pity. Their voice will roar like the ocean. And they will climb upon horses, for they have been prepared like men for battle, against you, O daughter of Zion. ? ²⁴�We have heard of their fame. Our hands have become weakened. Tribulation has overtaken us, like the pains of a woman giving birth.� ? ²⁵Do not choose to go out into the fields, and you should not walk along the roadway. For the sword and the terror of the enemy is on every side. ? ²⁶Wrap yourself in haircloth, O daughter of my people. And sprinkle yourself with ashes. Make a mourning for yourself, as for an only son, a bitter lamentation: �for the destroyer will overwhelm us suddenly.� ? ²⁷I have presented you as a strong tester among my people. And you will test and know their way. ? ²⁸All these leaders who are turning away and walking deceitfully, they are brass and iron; they have all been corrupted. ? ²⁹The bellows has failed; the lead has been consumed by fire; the molten metal was melted to no purpose. For their wickedness has not been consumed. ? ³⁰Call them: �Rejected silver.� For the Lord has cast them aside.� ?

Chapter 7

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ? ²�Stand at the gate to the house of the Lord, and preach this word there, and say: Listen to the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter through these gates to adore the Lord. ? ³Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Make your ways and your intentions good, and I will live with you in this place. ? ⁴Do not choose to trust in lying words, saying: �This is the temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord!� ? ⁵For if you direct your ways and your intentions well, if you exercise judgment between a man and his neighbor, ? ⁶if you do not act with deceit toward the new arrival, the orphan, and the widow, and if you do not pour out innocent blood in this place, and if you do not walk after strange gods, which is to your own harm, ? ⁷then I will live with you in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers from the beginning and even forever. ? ⁸Behold, you trust in false words, which will not benefit you, ? ⁹so as to steal, to murder, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to offer libations to Baal, and to go after strange gods, which you do not know. ? ¹⁰And you arrived and stood before me in this house, where my name is invoked, and you said: �We have been freed because we carried out all these abominations.� ? ¹¹So then, has this house, where my name has been invoked, become a den of robbers in your eyes? It is I, I am, I have seen, says the Lord. ? ¹²Go to my place in Shiloh, where my name has lived from the beginning, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. ? ¹³And now, because you have done all these works, says the Lord, and because I have spoken to you from your morning rising, and because I was speaking, but you were not listening, and because I have called you, but you have not responded: ? ¹⁴I will do to this house, in which my name is invoked, and in which you have confidence, even to this place which I gave to you and to your fathers, just as I have done to Shiloh. ? ¹⁵And I will cast you away from my face, just as I have cast away all your brothers, the entire offspring of Ephraim. ? ¹⁶Therefore, you should not pray for this people, nor take up praise and supplication on their behalf. And you should not stand in opposition to me. For then I will not heed you. ? ¹⁷Have you not seen what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ? ¹⁸The sons gather the wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the wives spread the grease, so as to make cakes to the queen of heaven and to offer libations to strange gods, and so as to provoke me to anger. ? ¹⁹But are they provoking me to anger, says the Lord? Are they not provoking themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?� ? ²⁰Therefore, thus says the Lord God: �Behold, my fury and my indignation is kindled against this place, over men and over beasts, and over the trees of the countryside and over the fruits of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.� ? ²¹Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: �Add your holocausts to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. ? ²²For concerning the matter of holocausts and sacrifices, I did not speak with your fathers, and I did not instruct them, in the day when I led them away from the land of Egypt. ? ²³But on this matter I did instruct them, saying: Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. And walk in the entire way that I have commanded you, so that it may be well with you. ? ²⁴But they did not listen, nor did they incline their ear. Instead, they walked by their own will and in the depravity of their own wicked heart. And so, they went backward, and not forward, ? ²⁵from the day when their fathers went forth from the land of Egypt, even to this day. And I have sent all my servants, the prophets, to you, throughout the day, rising at first light and sending them. ? ²⁶But they have not listened to me, nor have they inclined their ear. Instead, they have stiffened their neck, and they have behaved worse than their fathers did. ? ²⁷And so, you will speak to them all these words, but they will not listen to you. And you will call to them, but they will not respond to you. ? ²⁸And you will say to them: This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of the Lord their God, nor accepted discipline. Faith has perished and been taken away from their mouth. ? ²⁹Cut off your hair, and cast it away. And take up a lamentation on high. For the Lord has cast aside and abandoned this generation of his fury. ? ³⁰For the sons of Judah have done evil in my eyes, says the Lord. They have stationed their abominations in the house where my name is invoked, so that they may defile it. ? ³¹And they have built the exalted places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the son of Hinnom, so that they may burn their sons and their daughters with fire, something I neither instructed, nor thought in my heart. ? ³²For this reason, behold, the days will arrive, says the Lord, when it will no longer be called Topheth, nor the Valley of the son of Hinnom, but instead the Valley of Slaughter. Yet they will bury in Topheth, because there will be no other place. ? ³³And the corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air and for the wild beasts of the land, and there will be no one to drive them away. ? ³⁴And from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, I will cause the cessation of the voice of gladness and the voice of rejoicing, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride. For the land will be in utter desolation.� ?

Chapter 8

¹�In that time, says the Lord, they will cast out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its leaders, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of those who were living in Jerusalem, from their graves. ? ²And they will spread them out before the sun and the moon and the entire army of the heavens, which they have loved, and served, and followed, and which they have sought and adored. They will not be collected, and they will not be buried. They will be like manure upon the face of the earth. ? ³And they will greatly prefer death to life: all those who will have been left from this wicked kindred, in all the forsaken places to which I will cast them out, says the Lord of hosts. ? ⁴And you will say to them: Thus says the Lord: He who falls, will he not rise again? And he who has been turned away, will he not return? ? ⁵Then why have this people in Jerusalem turned away with a contentious loathing? They have taken hold of what is false, and they are not willing to return. ? ⁶I paid close attention and I listened carefully. No one is speaking what is good. There is no one who does penance for his sin, saying: �What have I done?� They have all turned to their own course, like a horse rushing with fury into battle. ? ⁷The hawk in the heavens has known her time. The turtledove, and the swallow, and the stork have kept the time of their arrival. But my people have not known the judgment of the Lord. ? ⁸How can you say: �We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us?� Truly, the lying pen of the scribes has wrought falsehood. ? ⁹The wise men have been confounded; they were terrified and captured. For they cast aside the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them. ? ¹⁰Because of this, I will give their wives to outsiders and their fields to others as an inheritance. For from the least, even to the greatest, they all pursue avarice; from the prophet, even to the priest, they all act with deceit. ? ¹¹And they healed the destruction of the daughter of my people with disgrace, by saying: �Peace, peace,� though there was no peace. ? ¹²They have been confounded because they committed abomination. Or rather, they have not been confounded with shame, for they do not know how to blush. For this reason, they will fall among the fallen. In the time of their visitation, they will fall, says the Lord. ? ¹³When gathering, I will gather them together, says the Lord. There are no grapes on the vine, and there are no figs on the fig tree. The leaves have fallen. And I have given them the things that have passed away.� ? ¹⁴�Why are we sitting still? Assemble, and let us enter the fortified city, and let us remain silent there. For the Lord our God has brought us to silence, and he has given us the water of gall as a drink. For we have sinned against the Lord. ? ¹⁵We expected peace, but there was nothing good. We expected a time of health, and behold, dread.� ? ¹⁶�From Dan, the snorting of his horses was heard; the entire land was shaken by the voice of the neighing of his fighters. And they arrived and devoured the land and its plenitude, the city and its inhabitants. ? ¹⁷For behold, I will send among you serpents, king snakes, against which there is no charm, and they will bite you, says the Lord. ? ¹⁸My sorrow is beyond sorrow; my heart mourns within me. ? ¹⁹Behold, the voice of the daughter of my people from a far away land. Is the Lord not with Zion, and is her king not within her? Then why have they provoked me to wrath by their graven images, and by their strange vanities? ? ²⁰The harvest has passed by, the summer is at an end, and we have not been saved. ? ²¹Over the destruction of the daughter of my people, I am contrite and saddened; astonishment has taken hold of me. ? ²²Is there no balm in Gilead? Or is there no physician there? Then why has the wound of the daughter of my people not been closed?� ?

Chapter 9

¹�Who will provide water for my head, and a fount of tears for my eyes? And then I will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. ? ²Who will provide me, in the wilderness, with a lodging place along the road? And then I will forsake my people, and withdraw from them. For they are all adulterers, a union of transgressors. ? ³And they have bent their tongue, like a bow, to send forth lies and not the truth. They have been strengthened upon the earth. And they have gone from one evil to another. But they have not known me, says the Lord. ? ⁴Let each one guard himself against his neighbor, and let him have no trust in any brother of his. For every brother will utterly overthrow, and every friend will advance deceitfully. ? ⁵And a man will deride his brother, and they will not speak the truth. For they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they have labored to commit iniquity. ? ⁶Your habitation is in the midst of deceit. In their deceitfulness, they have refused to know me, says the Lord.� ? ⁷Because of this, thus says the Lord of hosts: �Behold, I will refine them, and I will test them. For what else can I do before the face of the daughter of my people? ? ⁸Their tongue is a wounding arrow; it has spoken deceit. With his mouth, he speaks peace with his friend, and then he secretly lies in ambush for him. ? ⁹Shall I not visit upon them concerning these things, says the Lord? Or shall my soul not take vengeance on a nation of this kind? ? ¹⁰I will take up weeping and lamentation over the mountains, and mourning over the beautiful places in the desert. For they have been scorched because no man is passing through them. And they have not heard the voice of any occupant. From the birds of the air, even to the cattle, they have migrated and withdrawn. ? ¹¹And I will make Jerusalem into piles of sand and into a lair for serpents. And I will make the cities of Judah desolate, so much so that there will be no inhabitant. ? ¹²Who is the wise man who understands this, and to whom a word from the mouth of the Lord may be given, so that he may announce this: why the land has perished, and has been scorched like a desert, so much so that no one passes through it?� ? ¹³And the Lord said: �It is because they have abandoned my law, which I gave to them, and they have not listened to my voice, and they have not walked by it. ? ¹⁴And they have gone after the depravity of their own heart, and after Baal, which they learned from their fathers.� ? ¹⁵For this reason, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: �Behold, I will feed this people with absinthe, and I will give them the water of gall to drink. ? ¹⁶And I will disperse them among nations, which they and their fathers have not known. And I will send the sword after them, until they are consumed.� ? ¹⁷Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: �Consider and call upon the women mourners, and let them approach. And send to those women who are wise, and let them hurry. ? ¹⁸�Let them hasten to take up a lamentation over us. Let our eyes shed tears, and our eyelids run with water.� ? ¹⁹For a voice of lamentation has been heard from Zion: �How is it that we have been devastated and greatly confounded? Our tabernacles have been thrown down because we have forsaken the land.� � ? ²⁰�Therefore, listen, O women, to the word of the Lord! And let your ears take up the word of his mouth. And teach your daughters to lament. And let each one teach her neighbor to mourn: ? ²¹�For death has climbed through our windows. It has entered our houses to perish the little children from the outdoors, the youths from the streets.� � ? ²²�Speak: Thus says the Lord: And the corpses of men will fall like manure over the face of the countryside, and like hay behind the back of the reaper, and there will be no one to gather it.� ? ²³Thus says the Lord: �The wise man should not glory in his wisdom, and the strong man should not glory in his strength, and the rich man should not glory in his riches. ? ²⁴But he who glories should glory in this: to know me and to know me well. For I am the Lord, who accomplishes mercy and judgment and justice upon the earth. For these things are pleasing to me, says the Lord. ? ²⁵Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will visit upon all who are uncircumcised: ? ²⁶upon Egypt, and upon Judah, and upon Edom, and upon the sons of Ammon, and upon Moab, and upon all who have shaved off their hair, living in the desert. For all the nations are uncircumcised in body, but all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.� ?

Chapter 10

¹Listen to the word that the Lord has spoken concerning you, O house of Israel. ? ²Thus says the Lord: �Do not choose to learn according to the ways of the Gentiles. And do not be willing to dread the signs of heaven, which the Gentiles fear. ? ³For the laws of the people are empty. For the work of the hand of the craftsman has cut a tree from the forest with an axe. ? ⁴He has adorned it with silver and gold. He has put it together with nail and hammer, so that it will not fall apart. ? ⁵They have been fabricated in the likeness of a palm tree, and they will not speak. They must be carried to be moved, because they do not have the ability to walk. Therefore, do not be willing to fear them, for they can do neither evil nor good.� ? ⁶O Lord, there is nothing similar to you. You are great, and your name is great in strength. ? ⁷Who will not fear you, O King of the nations? For honor is yours. Among all the wise of the nations, and within all their kingdoms, there is nothing similar to you. ? ⁸Together, they will all be proven to be unwise and foolish. The doctrine of their vanity is made of wood. ? ⁹Rolled silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. It is the work of a craftsman, and of the hand of a coppersmith. Hyacinth and purple is their clothing. All these things are the work of artists. ? ¹⁰But the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. Before his indignation, the earth will shake. And the Gentiles will not be able to withstand his threats. ? ¹¹�And so, you shall speak to them in this way: The gods that have not made heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth and from among those places which are under heaven. ? ¹²He made the earth by his power, he prepared the world in his wisdom, and he stretched out the heavens with his understanding. ? ¹³At his voice, he grants a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he lifts up the clouds from the ends of the earth. He causes the lightning with the rain, and he leads forth the wind from his storehouses. ? ¹⁴Every man has become a fool concerning knowledge; every artist has been confounded by his graven image. For what he has formed is false, and there is no spirit in these things. ? ¹⁵These things are empty, and they are a work deserving of ridicule. In the time of their visitation, they will perish. ? ¹⁶Jacob�s portion is not like their portion. For his portion is from the One who formed all things. And Israel is the staff of his inheritance. The Lord of hosts is his name. ? ¹⁷Gather your shame from the earth, you who are living under siege.� ? ¹⁸For thus says the Lord: �Behold, in this turn, I will cast the inhabitants of the land far away. And I will afflict them no matter where they may be found.� ? ¹⁹Woe to me, concerning my destruction! My wound is very grievous. And yet I said: Clearly, this infirmity is mine, and I will carry it. ? ²⁰My tent has been destroyed. All my cords have been broken. My sons have gone away from me; they did not remain. There is no one to stretch out my tent any more, nor to set up my curtains. ? ²¹For the pastors have acted foolishly, and they have not sought the Lord. Because of this, they have not understood, and all their flock has been dispersed. ? ²²Behold, the sound of a voice approaches, a great commotion from the land of the north: so that he may make the cities of Judah into a wilderness and into a dwelling place for serpents. ? ²³I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not his own. Neither is it given to man to walk and to direct his own steps. ? ²⁴Correct me, O Lord, yet truly, do so with judgment, and not in your fury. Otherwise, you will reduce me to nothing. ? ²⁵Pour out your indignation upon the nations that have not known you, and upon the provinces that have not invoked your name. For they have fed upon Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and they have utterly destroyed his honor. ?

Chapter 11

¹The word that came from the Lord to Jeremiah, saying: ? ²�Listen to the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ? ³And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed is the man who will not listen to the words of this covenant, ? ⁴which I commanded to your fathers in the day when I led them away from the land of Egypt, away from the iron furnace, saying: Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you, and then you will be my people and I will be your God. ? ⁵So shall I uphold the oath which I swore to your fathers, that I would give them a land flowing with milk and honey, just as it is this day.� And I answered by saying: �Amen, O Lord.� ? ⁶And the Lord said to me: �Shout all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: Listen to the words of the covenant, and do them. ? ⁷For when testing, I tested your fathers in the day when I led them away from the land of Egypt, even until this day. Rising early, I tested them, and I said: Listen to my voice. ? ⁸But they did not listen, nor did they incline their ear. Instead, each one of them walked in the depravity of his own evil heart. And so, I brought over them all the words of this covenant, which I instructed them to do. But they would not do them.� ? ⁹And the Lord said to me: �A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ? ¹⁰They have returned to the former iniquities of their fathers, who refused to listen to my words. And likewise, they have gone after strange gods, so that they may serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have treated as void my covenant, which I made with their fathers. ? ¹¹For this reason, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will lead evils over them, from which they will not be able to escape. And they will cry out to me, and I will not heed them. ? ¹²And the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go forth, and they will cry out to the gods, to whom they offer libations, and they will not save them in the time of their affliction. ? ¹³For according to the number of your cities, so were your gods, O Judah. And according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem, so did you establish altars of confusion, altars to offer libations to Baal. ? ¹⁴Therefore, you should not choose to pray for this people, and you should not take up praise and petitioning on their behalf. For I will not heed them in the time of their outcry to me, in the time of their affliction. ? ¹⁵Why has my beloved wrought great wickedness in my house? How can the holy flesh take away from you your wickedness, in which you have gloried? ? ¹⁶The Lord has called your name: a beautiful, fruitful, splendid, and productive olive tree. At the voice of a word, a great fire was kindled in it, and its greenery was burned up. ? ¹⁷And the Lord of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced an evil against you, concerning the evils of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, which they have done to themselves so as to provoke me, by offering libations to Baal.� ? ¹⁸But you, O Lord, have revealed this to me, and I have understood. Then you displayed their efforts to me. ? ¹⁹And I was like a meek lamb, who is being carried to be a victim. And I did not realize that they had devised plans against me, saying: �Let us place wood upon his bread, and let us eradicate him from the land of the living, and let his name no longer be remembered.� ? ²⁰But you, O Lord of hosts, who judges justly, and who tests the temperament and the heart, let me see your vengeance against them. For I have revealed my case to you. ? ²¹�Because of this, thus says the Lord to the men of Anathoth, who are seeking your life, and who are saying: �You shall not prophesy in the name of the Lord, and you shall not die by our hands.� ? ²²Because of this, thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will visit upon them. Their young men will die by the sword. Their sons and their daughters will die by famine. ? ²³And there will be nothing left of them. For I will lead an evil over the men of Anathoth: the year of their visitation.� ?

Chapter 12

¹Certainly, O Lord, you are just. But if I may contend with you, while still speaking what is just to you: Why does the way of the impious prosper? Why is it well with all those who transgress and act unfairly? ? ²You planted them, and they took root. They are prospering and bearing fruit. You are near to their mouths, but far from their hearts. ? ³And you, O Lord, have known me well. You have seen me, and you have tested my heart with you. Gather them together like a flock for the sacrifice and sanctify them for the day of slaughter. ? ⁴How long shall the earth mourn? And how long shall the plants of every field whither because of the wickedness of the inhabitants within them? It has consumed the wild animals and the birds. For they said: �He will not see our very end.� ? ⁵�If you have struggled to run on foot, how will you be able to compete with horses? And if you have been secure in a land of peace, what will you do about the arrogance of the Jordan? ? ⁶For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even these have fought against you. And they have cried out after you with loud voice: �You should not believe them, when they speak good things to you.� � ? ⁷�I have abandoned my house. I have disowned my inheritance. I have given my beloved soul into the hand of its enemies. ? ⁸My inheritance has become for me like a lion in the forest. It has uttered a voice against me, therefore, I have hated it. ? ⁹Is my inheritance to me like a discolored bird? Is it like a bird that has entirely changed color? Approach and assemble, all beasts of the earth! Hurry, so that you may devour! ? ¹⁰Many pastors have demolished my vineyard. They have trampled my portion. They have made my desirable portion into a desert of solitude. ? ¹¹They have squandered it, and it has grieved concerning me. The entire earth has become utterly desolate, because there is no one who understands with the heart.� ? ¹²The devastators have arrived, over all the ways of the wilderness. For the sword of the Lord will devour, from one end of the earth even to its furthest limits. There is no peace for all that is flesh. ? ¹³They sowed wheat, but they reaped thorns. They received an inheritance, but it will not benefit them. You will be confounded by your own fruits, because of the wrath of the fury of the Lord. ? ¹⁴Thus says the Lord against all my wicked neighbors, who touch the inheritance that I have distributed to my people Israel: �Behold, I will root them out of their own land, and I will root the house of Judah out of their midst. ? ¹⁵And when I have rooted them out, I will turn back and take pity on them. And I will lead them back, one man to his inheritance, and another man to his land. ? ¹⁶And this shall be: if they are taught and they learn the ways of my people, so that they swear by my name, �As the Lord lives,� just as they had taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the midst of my people. ? ¹⁷But if they will not listen, I will uproot that nation unto utter destruction and perdition, says the Lord.� ?

Chapter 13

¹Thus says the Lord to me: �Go, and obtain for yourself a linen waistcloth. And you shall place it over your loins, and you shall not put it into water.� ? ²And so I obtained a waistcloth, according to the word of the Lord, and I placed it around my loins. ? ³And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying: ? ⁴�Take the waistcloth, which you obtained, which is around your loins, and, rising up, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in an opening of the rock.� ? ⁵And so I went, and I hid it by the Euphrates, just as the Lord had instructed me. ? ⁶And it happened that, after many days, the Lord said to me: �Rise up, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the waistcloth, which I instructed you to hide there.� ? ⁷And so I went to the Euphrates, and I dug up and took the waistcloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the waistcloth had rotted, so that it was not fit for any use. ? ⁸And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ? ⁹�Thus says the Lord: In the same way, I will cause the arrogance of Judah and the arrogance of Jerusalem to rot. ? ¹⁰This most wicked people, they are not willing to listen to my words, for they walk in the depravity of their own heart, and they have gone after strange gods, so as to serve them and to adore them. And so, they will become like this waistcloth, which is not fit for any use. ? ¹¹For just as the waistcloth clings to the loins of a man, so have I brought close to me the entire house of Israel and the entire house of Judah, says the Lord, so that they would be to me: a people, and a name,jer and a praise, and a glory. But they did not listen. ? ¹²Therefore, you shall speak to them this word: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: �Every bottle will be filled with wine.� And they will say to you: �Are we ignorant that every bottle will be filled with wine?� ? ¹³And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings from the stock of David who sit upon his throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, unto inebriation. ? ¹⁴And I will scatter them, a man from his brother, and fathers and sons similarly, says the Lord. I will not spare them, and I will not pardon them, and I will not take pity, so as not to destroy them.� ? ¹⁵Hear and pay close attention. Do not choose to lift yourself up, for the Lord has spoken. ? ¹⁶Give glory to the Lord your God, before darkness falls, and before your feet stumble on the darkened mountains. You will expect light, but he will turn it into the shadow of death and into utter darkness. ? ¹⁷But if you will not listen to this, then my soul will weep in secret before the face of your pride. It will weep bitterly, and my eyes will flow with tears, because the flock of the Lord has been taken captive. ? ¹⁸�Say to the king and to the female ruler: Humble yourselves, sit down. For the crown of your glory has gone down from your head. ? ¹⁹The cities of the south have been closed, and there is no one who may open them. All of Judah has been taken away into complete captivity. ? ²⁰Lift up your eyes and see, you who are arriving from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you, your famous cattle? ? ²¹What will you say when he visits upon you? For you have taught them against you, and you have instructed them with your own head. Will not pains take hold of you, as with a woman in labor? ? ²²But if you say in your heart, �Why have these things happened to me?� it is because of the greatness of your iniquity that your shame has been uncovered and the soles of your feet have been defiled. ? ²³If the Ethiopian is able to change his skin, or the leopard is able to change his spots, then you also may be able to do well, though you have learned evil. ? ²⁴And I will scatter them like chaff, which is carried away by the wind in the desert. ? ²⁵This is your lot, and this is the portion of your measure from me, says the Lord, because you have forgotten me, and you have had confidence in what is false. ? ²⁶Therefore, I have even bared your thighs before your face, and your shame has been seen. ? ²⁷For I have seen your adulteries, and your neighing for the wickedness of your fornication, and your abominations upon the hills in the field. Woe to you, Jerusalem! How much longer before you will be made clean after me?� ?

Chapter 14

¹The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the words of the drought. ? ²�Judea has mourned. And its gates have fallen and become hard to discern on the ground. And the outcry of Jerusalem has ascended. ? ³The greater ones have sent their lesser ones to the water. They went to draw water; they did not find water; they carried their vessels back empty. They were confounded and afflicted, and so they covered their heads. ? ⁴Because of the devastation of the earth, because rain did not fall upon the earth, the farmers were confounded; they covered their heads. ? ⁵For even the doe has given birth in the field, and then left it behind. For there was no grass. ? ⁶And the wild donkeys stood upon the rocks; like dragons, they drew in the wind, but their eyes failed. For there was no grass.� ? ⁷�O Lord, if our iniquities have responded against us, let it be for the sake of your name. For our rebellions are many; we have sinned against you. ? ⁸O Hope of Israel, its Savior in time of tribulation, why would you be like a sojourner in the land, and like a traveler turning aside for lodging? ? ⁹Why would you be like a wandering man, like a strong man who is unable to save? But you, O Lord, are with us, and your name is invoked over us, so do not abandon us!� ? ¹⁰Thus says the Lord to this people, who have loved to move their feet, and who have not rested, but who have not pleased the Lord: �Now he will remember their iniquities, and now he will visit against their sins.� ? ¹¹And the Lord said to me: �Do not choose to pray for this people for good. ? ¹²When they will fast, I will not heed their petitions. And if they offer holocausts and victims, I will not accept them. For I will consume them by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence.� ? ¹³And I said: �Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God! The prophets are saying to them: �You will not see the sword, and there will be no famine among you. Instead, he will give you true peace in this place.� � ? ¹⁴And the Lord said to me: �The prophets prophesy falsely in my name. I did not send them, and I did not instruct them, and I have not spoken to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision, and a divination, and a fraud, and a seduction from their own heart. ? ¹⁵For this reason, thus says the Lord about the prophets who prophesy in my name, whom I have not sent, who say: �Sword and famine will not be in this land.� By sword and famine those prophets will be consumed. ? ¹⁶And the people, to whom they prophesy, will be cast into the streets of Jerusalem, due to famine and the sword, and there will be no one who may bury them, they and their wives, their sons and daughters, and I will pour out their own evil upon them. ? ¹⁷And you shall speak this word to them: Let my eyes shed tears throughout the night and day, and let them not cease. For the virgin daughter of my people has been crushed by a great affliction, by a very grievous wound.� ? ¹⁸�If I go out into the fields: behold, those slain by the sword. And if I enter into the city: behold, those weakened by famine. Likewise, the prophet, too, and the priest, have gone into a land that they did not know. ? ¹⁹Could you have utterly cast out Judah? Or has your soul abhorred Zion? Then why have you struck us, so much so that there is no health for us? We have waited for peace, but there is nothing good, and for the time of healing, and behold, trouble. ? ²⁰O Lord, we acknowledge our impieties, the iniquities of our fathers, that we have sinned against you. ? ²¹For the sake of your name, do not give us over into disgrace. And do not dishonor in us the throne of your glory. Remember, do not make void, your covenant with us. ? ²²Could any of the graven images of the Gentiles send rain? Or are the heavens able to give showers? Have we not hoped in you, the Lord our God? For you have made all these things.� ?

Chapter 15

¹And the Lord said to me: �Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my soul would not be toward this people. Cast them away from my face, and let them depart! ? ²And if they say to you, �Where shall we go?� you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: Those who go to death, shall go to death. And those who go to the sword, shall go to the sword, and those go to famine, shall go to famine, and those who go to captivity, shall go to captivity. ? ³And I will visit against them in four ways, says the Lord: by the sword, to kill; and by dogs, to tear apart; and by the birds of the air and by the beasts of the earth, to devour and to scatter. ? ⁴And I will give them over to the fervor of all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, because of all that he did in Jerusalem. ? ⁵For who will take pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will feel sorrow for you? Or who will go to prayer for the sake of your peace? ? ⁶You have abandoned me, says the Lord. You have gone backwards. And so, I will extend my hand over you, and I will destroy you. I have labored to plead with you. ? ⁷And I will scatter them with a winnowing fan at the gates of the land. I have killed and dispersed my people, and yet they have not turned back from their ways. ? ⁸Their widows have been multiplied by me, more so than the sand of the sea. I have led them against the mother of a youth like an attacker at midday. I have sent a terror suddenly against the cities. ? ⁹She who gave birth to seven has become weak. Her life has faded away. Her sun has set while it was still daytime. She has been confounded and shamed. And the remainder of them I will give over to the sword in the sight of their enemies, says the Lord.� ? ¹⁰�O my mother, woe to me! Why did you conceive me, a man of strife, a man of discord to all the earth? I have not lent money at interest, nor has anyone lent money at interest to me. Yet everyone is cursing me.� ? ¹¹The Lord says: �Certainly, it will be well with your remnant. Certainly, I will run to meet you, in the time of affliction and in the time of tribulation, against the enemy. ? ¹²But how can iron be joined with the iron from the north or with brass? ? ¹³Your riches and your treasures I will give over to be freely despoiled, because of all your sins, even throughout all your borders. ? ¹⁴And I will lead in your enemies from a land that you do not know. For a fire has been kindled in my fury; it will burn upon you.� ? ¹⁵�You know me, O Lord. Remember me, and visit me, and watch over me, because of those who persecute me. In your patience, do not choose to let me endure. You know I have suffered reproach because of you. ? ¹⁶I discovered your words and I consumed them. And your word became to me as the gladness and joy of my heart. For your name has been invoked over me, O Lord, the God of hosts. ? ¹⁷I did not sit in the company of mockers, nor did I glorify myself before the presence of your hand. I sat alone, because you filled me with threats. ? ¹⁸Why has my sorrow become never-ending, and why has my wound become so dire that it refuses to be cured? It has become for me like the deception of untrustworthy waters.� ? ¹⁹Because of this, thus says the Lord: �If you will be converted, I will convert you. And you will stand before my face. And you will separate what is precious from what is vile. You will be my mouthpiece. They will be converted to you, but you will not be converted to them. ? ²⁰And I will present you to this people as a strong wall of brass. And they will fight against you, and they will not prevail. For I am with you, so as to save you and to rescue you, says the Lord. ? ²¹And I will free you from hand of those who are most wicked, and I will redeem you from the hand of the powerful.� ?

Chapter 16

¹And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ? ²�You shall not take a wife, and there shall be no sons or daughters for you in this place. ? ³For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are conceived in this place, and concerning their mothers who give birth to them, and concerning their fathers, from whose stock they have been born in this land: ? ⁴They will die from grievous mortal illnesses. They will not be mourned, and they will not be buried. They will be like manure on the face of the earth. And they will be consumed by sword and by famine. And their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the land.� ? ⁵For thus says the Lord: �You shall not enter the house of feasting, and you shall not go to mourn or to console them. For I have taken away from this people, says the Lord, my peace, my mercy, and my pity. ? ⁶Both the great and the small will die in this land. They will not be buried, and they will not be mourned. And no one will cut themselves or make themselves bald on their behalf. ? ⁷And they will not break bread among themselves for the sake of him who mourns, so as to console him over the dead. And they will not give them a chalice to drink, so as to console them over their father and mother. ? ⁸And so, you shall not enter the house of feasting, so as to sit with them, and to eat and drink.� ? ⁹For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: �Behold, I will take away from this place, in your sight and in your days, the voice of gladness and the voice of rejoicing, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride. ? ¹⁰And when you announce all these words to this people, they will say to you: �Why would the Lord pronounce all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity and what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?� ? ¹¹And you shall say to them: It is because your fathers abandoned me, says the Lord. And they went after strange gods, and they served them and adored them. And they abandoned me, and they did not keep my law. ? ¹²But you have acted even worse than your fathers. For behold, each one walks after the depravity of his own evil heart, so that he does not listen to me. ? ¹³And so, I will cast you out of this land, into a land that you do not know, and that your fathers did not know. And in that place, you will serve, day and night, strange gods who will not give you rest. ? ¹⁴Therefore, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when it will no longer be said, �As the Lord lives, who led the sons of Israel away from the land of Egypt,� ? ¹⁵but instead, �As the Lord lives, who led the sons of Israel away from the land of the north,� and from all the lands to which I have cast them out. And I will lead them back into their own land, which I gave to their fathers. ? ¹⁶Behold, I will send many fishermen, says the Lord, and they will fish for them. And after this, I will send many hunters to them, and they will hunt for them on every mountain, and on every hilltop, and in the caverns of the rocks. ? ¹⁷For my eyes are upon all their ways. They have not been hidden from my face, and their iniquity has not been concealed from my eyes. ? ¹⁸But first, I will repay their double iniquities and their sins. For they have defiled my land with the dead bodies of their idols, and they have filled my inheritance with their abominations.� ? ¹⁹�O Lord, my strength, and my health, and my refuge in the day of tribulation: the Gentiles will approach you from the ends of the earth, and they will say: �Truly, our fathers possessed a lie, an emptiness that has not benefited them.� ? ²⁰How can man make gods for himself, though these are not gods?� ? ²¹�Concerning this, behold: I will make it clear to them, in this turn. I will reveal to them my hand and my virtue. And they will know that the Lord is my name.� ?

Chapter 17

¹�The sin of Judah has been written with a pen of iron and a point of diamond. It has been engraved upon the breadth of their heart and upon the horns of their shrines. ? ²And their sons make a remembrance of their shrines, and their sacred groves, and their leafy trees on high mountains, ? ³by sacrificing in the field. And so, I will give over your strength and all your treasures to be despoiled, along with your exalted places of sin, within all your borders. ? ⁴And you will be left behind without your inheritance, which I gave to you. And I will cause you to serve your enemies in a land that you do not know. For you have kindled a fire in my fury; it shall burn, even unto eternity.� ? ⁵Thus says the Lord: �Cursed is a man who trusts in man, and who establishes what is flesh as his right arm, and whose heart withdraws from the Lord. ? ⁶For he will be like a saltcedar tree in the desert. And he will not perceive it, when what is good has arrived. Instead, he will live in dryness, in a desert, in a land of salt, which is uninhabitable. ? ⁷Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, for the Lord will be his confidence. ? ⁸And he will be like a tree planted beside waters, which sends out its roots to moist soil. And it will not fear when the heat arrives. And its leaves will be green. And in the time of drought, it will not be anxious, nor will it cease at any time to bear fruit. ? ⁹The heart is depraved above all things, and it is unsearchable, who can know it? ? ¹⁰I am the Lord, who examines the heart and tests the temperament, who gives to each one according to his way and according to the fruit of his own decisions. ? ¹¹A partridge has hatched eggs that she did not lay; a man has gathered riches, but without judgment. In the midst of his days, he will leave it all behind, and he will be foolish concerning his very end.� ? ¹²�A high and glorious throne is the place of our sanctification from the beginning. ? ¹³O Lord, Hope of Israel: all who forsake you will be confounded. Those who withdraw from you will be written into the earth. For they have abandoned the Lord, the Source of living waters. ? ¹⁴Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved. For you are my praise. ? ¹⁵Behold, they themselves are saying to me: �Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come.� ? ¹⁶But I am not troubled; I am following you as my shepherd. And I have not desired the day of man, as you know. That which has gone forth from my lips has been right in your sight. ? ¹⁷May you not be a dread to me. You are my hope in the day of affliction. ? ¹⁸May those who persecute me be confounded, but may I not be confounded. May they be fearful, and may I not be fearful. Lead over them the day of affliction, and crush them with a double destruction.� ? ¹⁹Thus says the Lord to me: �Go, and stand at the gate of the sons of the people, through which the kings of Judah enter and depart, and at all the gates of Jerusalem. ? ²⁰And you shall say to them: Listen to the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and all of Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter through these gates.� ? ²¹Thus says the Lord: �Guard your souls, and do not choose to carry heavy things on the day of the Sabbath, nor should you carry these things through the gates of Jerusalem. ? ²²And do not be willing to cast burdens out of your houses on the day of the Sabbath, nor should you do any work. Sanctify the day of the Sabbath, just as I instructed your fathers. ? ²³But they did not listen, nor did they incline their ear. Instead, they hardened their neck, lest they listen to me and receive discipline. ? ²⁴And this shall be: If you listen to me, says the Lord, so that you do not carry in burdens through the gates of this city on the day of the Sabbath, and if you sanctify the day of the Sabbath, so that you do not do work in it, ? ²⁵then there will enter through the gates of this city: kings and princes, sitting on the throne of David, and riding on chariots and horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city will be inhabited forever. ? ²⁶And they will arrive from the cities of Judah and from all around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plains, and from the mountainous regions, and from the south, carrying holocausts, and victims, and sacrifices, and frankincense. And they will carry an oblation into the house of the Lord. ? ²⁷But if you will not listen to me, to sanctify the day of the Sabbath, and not to carry burdens, and not to bring these things through the gates of Jerusalem on the day of the Sabbath, then I will kindle a fire at its gates, and it will devour the houses of Jerusalem, and it will not be extinguished.� ?

Chapter 18

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ? ²�Rise up and descend into the house of the potter, and there you will hear my words.� ? ³And I descended into the house of the potter, and behold, he was making a work on the wheel. ? ⁴And the vessel, which he was making with his hands out of clay, broke. And turning away, he made another vessel, for it had been pleasing in his eyes to make it. ? ⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ? ⁶�Am I not able to do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done, says the Lord? Behold, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. ? ⁷Suddenly, I will speak against a nation and against a kingdom, so that I may uproot, and destroy, and scatter it. ? ⁸If that nation, against which I have spoken, will repent from their evil, I too will repent from the evil that I have decided I would do to them. ? ⁹And soon, I will speak about a nation and about a kingdom, so that I may build and plant it. ? ¹⁰If it does evil in my sight, so as not to listen to my voice, I will repent of the good that I have said I would do to it. ? ¹¹Now, therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am forming an evil against you, and I am considering a plan against you. Let each one of you return from his evil way, and direct your ways and your intentions well.� ? ¹²And they said: �We have lost hope. And so we will follow our own thoughts, and each of us will act according to the depravity of his own evil heart.� ? ¹³For this reason, thus says the Lord: �Inquire among the Gentiles. Who has heard of such horrible things as the virgin of Israel has done to excess? ? ¹⁴Do the snows of Lebanon fail to fall on the rocks of the field? Or are the cold waters, which burst forth and flow down, able to be rooted out? ? ¹⁵Yet my people have forgotten me, offering useless libations, and stumbling in their ways, in the paths of the world, so that they walk by these on an unmarked route. ? ¹⁶And so their land has been given over to desolation and to perpetual hissing. Each one who passes by will be astonished and will shake his head. ? ¹⁷Like a burning wind, I will disperse them in the sight the enemy. I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their perdition.� ? ¹⁸And they said: �Come, and let us devise a plan against Jeremiah. For the law will not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor a sermon from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us pay no attention to any of his words.� ? ¹⁹Attend to me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my adversaries. ? ²⁰Should evil be rendered for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul! Remember that I have stood in your sight, so as to speak on their behalf for good, and to avert your indignation from them. ? ²¹Because of this, give their sons over to famine, and bring them to the hand of the sword. Let their wives be widows without children. And let their husbands be slain by death. Let their youths be stabbed with the sword in battle. ? ²²Let an outcry be heard from their houses. For you will lead the robber upon them suddenly. For they have dug a pit, so that they may seize me, and they have hidden snares for my feet. ? ²³But you, O Lord, know all their plans against me unto death. May you not forgive their iniquity, and do not allow their sin be taken away from your face. Let them be thrown down in your sight, in the time of your fury, so that you may destroy them. ?

Chapter 19

¹Thus says the Lord: �Go, and take a potter�s earthen bottle from the elders of the people and from the elders of the priests. ? ²And go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is near the entrance to the earthen gate, and there you shall proclaim the words that I will speak to you. ? ³And you shall say: Listen to the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will lead an affliction over this place, so much so that it will ring in the ears of all who hear about it. ? ⁴For they have abandoned me, and they have made this place foreign, and they have offered libations in it to foreign gods, whom neither they, nor their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known. And they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. ? ⁵And they have built the exalted places of Baal, in order to burn their children with fire as a holocaust to Baal, something that I did not instruct or speak of, nor did it enter into my heart. ? ⁶Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when this place will no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. ? ⁷And I will scatter the counsel of Judah and of Jerusalem in this place. And I will overthrow them with the sword, in the sight of their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their lives. And I will give their carcasses to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the land as food. ? ⁸And I will set this city amid stupor and hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be stupefied, and they will hiss over all its wounds. ? ⁹And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons and with the flesh of their daughters. And each one of them will eat the flesh of his friend during the blockade and the embargo by which their enemies, and those who seek their lives, will enclose them. ? ¹⁰And you shall crush the bottle in the sight of the men who will go with you. ? ¹¹And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: In the same way, I will crush this people and this city, just as the potter�s vessel was crushed and cannot be made whole again. And they will be buried at Topheth, because there will be no other place for burial. ? ¹²So will I do to this place and to its inhabitants, says the Lord. And I will make this city to be like Topheth. ? ¹³And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be unclean, just like the place of Topheth: all the houses on whose roofs they sacrificed to all the armies of heaven and poured out libations to strange gods.� ? ¹⁴Then Jeremiah arrived from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the atrium of the house of the Lord, and he said to all the people: ? ¹⁵�Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will lead over this community, and over all its cities, all the evils that I have spoken against it. For they have hardened their necks, so that they would not heed my words.� ?

Chapter 20

¹And Pashhur, the son of Immer, the priest who had been appointed leader in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these words. ? ²And Pashhur struck the prophet Jeremiah, and he sent him to the stocks, which were at the upper gate of Benjamin at the house of the Lord. ? ³And when it had become light on the next day, Pashhur led Jeremiah from the stocks. And Jeremiah said to him: �The Lord has not called your name: �Pashhur,� but instead: �Fear all around.� � ? ⁴For thus says the Lord: �Behold, I will give you over to fear, you and all your friends, and they will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes will see it. And I will give all of Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. And he will lead them away to Babylon, and he will strike them with the sword. ? ⁵And I will give away the entire substance of this city, and all its labor, and every precious thing. And I will give all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hands of their enemies. And they will plunder them, and take them away, and lead them into Babylon. ? ⁶But you, Pashhur, and all the inhabitants of your house, will go into captivity. And you will go to Babylon. And there you shall die. And there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied a lie.� ? ⁷�You have led me away, O Lord, and I have been led away. You have been stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a derision all day long; everyone mocks me. ? ⁸For I speak now as I have long spoken: crying out against iniquity and proclaiming devastation. And the word of the Lord has been made into a reproach against me and a derision, all day long. ? ⁹Then I said: I will not call him to mind, nor will I speak any longer in his name. And my heart became like a raging fire, enclosed within my bones. And I became weary of continuing to bear it. ? ¹⁰For I heard the insults of many, and terror all around: �Persecute him!� and, �Let us persecute him!� from all the men who had been at peace with me and who had kept watch by my side. �If only there were some way that he might be deceived, and we might prevail against him and obtain vengeance from him!� ? ¹¹But the Lord is with me, like a strong warrior. For this reason, those who persecute me will fall, and they will be ineffective. They will be greatly confounded. For they have not understood the everlasting disgrace that will never be wiped away. ? ¹²And you, O Lord of hosts, the Tester of the just, who sees the temperament and the heart: I beg you to let me see your vengeance upon them. For I have revealed my case to you. ? ¹³Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For he has freed the soul of the poor from the hand of the wicked. ? ¹⁴Cursed is the day on which I was born! The day on which my mother gave birth to me: let it not be blessed! ? ¹⁵Cursed is the man who announced it to my father, saying, �A male child has been born to you,� causing him to rejoice with gladness. ? ¹⁶Let that man be like the cities that the Lord has overthrown without regret. Let him hear an outcry in the morning, and wailing at the time of midday! ? ¹⁷So let him be, who did not put me to death from the womb, so that my mother would have been my sepulcher, and her womb would have been my eternal resting place! ? ¹⁸Why did I depart from the womb, so that I would see hardship and sorrow, and so that my days would be consumed by trouble?� ?

Chapter 21

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when king Zedekiah sent Pashhur, the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to him, saying: ? ²�Question the Lord on our behalf, for Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, is fighting against us. Perhaps it may be that the Lord will act toward us according to all his wonders, and he may withdraw from us.� ? ³And Jeremiah said to them: �This is what you shall say to Zedekiah: ? ⁴Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans, who besiege you at the surrounding walls. And I will gather these things together in the midst of this city. ? ⁵And I myself will make war against you: with an outstretched hand, and with a strong arm, and in fury, and in indignation, and in great wrath. ? ⁶And I will strike the inhabitants of this city; men and beasts will die from a great pestilence. ? ⁷And afterward, thus says the Lord: I will give Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his servants, and his people, and those who have been left behind in this city after pestilence and the sword and famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their lives. And he will strike them with the edge of the sword. And he will not waver, and he will not be lenient, and he will not take pity. ? ⁸And to this people, you shall say: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. ? ⁹Whoever lives in this city will die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence. But whoever will have departed and fled away to the Chaldeans, who besiege you, will live, and his life will be to him like a spoil. ? ¹⁰For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, says the Lord. It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire. ? ¹¹And to the house of the king of Judah, you shall say: Listen to the word of the Lord, ? ¹²O house of David! Thus says the Lord: Judge with judgment from early morning, and rescue anyone who is oppressed by violence from the hand of a false accuser. Otherwise, my indignation may go forth like a fire, and may flare up, and there will be no one who can extinguish it, because of the evil of your intentions. ? ¹³Behold, I am against you, O inhabitants of a valley with firm and level ground, says the Lord. And you say: �Who can strike us? And who can enter into our houses?� ? ¹⁴But I will visit against you according to the fruit of your intentions, says the Lord. And I will kindle a fire in its forest. And it shall devour everything around it.� ?

Chapter 22

¹Thus says the Lord: �Descend to the house of the king of Judah, and there you shall speak this word. ? ²And you shall say: Listen to the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits upon the throne of David: you and your servants, and your people, who enter through these gates. ? ³Thus says the Lord: Exercise judgment and justice, and free anyone who is oppressed by violence from the hand of a false accuser. And do not be willing to sadden the new arrival, or the orphan, or the widow, nor should you burden them unfairly. And you shall not shed innocent blood in this place. ? ⁴For if you will indeed accomplish this word, then there will enter through the gates of this house kings from the stock of David, sitting on his throne, and riding on chariots and on horses: they, and their servants, and their people. ? ⁵But if you will not listen to these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house will be in desolation. ? ⁶For thus says the Lord about the house of the king of Judah: You are to me like Gilead, the head of Lebanon. Certainly, I will make you desolate, with uninhabitable cities. ? ⁷And I will sanctify over you the destroying man and his weapons. And they will cut down your select cedars and throw them violently into the fire. ? ⁸And many nations will pass through this city. And each one will say to his neighbor: �Why has the Lord acted in this way toward this great city?� ? ⁹And they will answer: �It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord their God, and they adored strange gods and served them.� ? ¹⁰You should not choose to weep for the dead, nor should you mourn over them with tears. Lament for him who is departing, for he will return no more, nor will he see his native land again. ? ¹¹For thus says the Lord to Shallum, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who reigned in place of his father, who has departed from this place: He will not return here again. ? ¹²Instead, he will die in the place to which I have transferred him, and he will not see this land anymore. ? ¹³Woe to one who builds his house with injustice and his upper rooms without judgment, who oppresses his friend without cause and does not pay him his wages. ? ¹⁴And he says: �I will build a broad house for myself, with spacious upper rooms.� He makes windows for himself, and he builds the roof out of cedar, and he paints it with red ocher. ? ¹⁵Will you reign because you compare yourself to the cedar? Did your father not eat and drink, and act with judgment and justice, so that it would be well with him? ? ¹⁶He judged the case of the poor and the indigent for their good. Was this not because he knew me, says the Lord? ? ¹⁷Yet truly, your eyes and your heart are toward avarice and the shedding of innocent blood, and toward false accusations and the pursuit of evil deeds. ? ¹⁸Because of this, thus says the Lord toward Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah: They will not mourn for him by saying, �Alas,� to a brother, or, �Alas,� to a sister. They will not make a noise for him and say, �Alas,� to a master, or, �Alas,� to a nobleman. ? ¹⁹He will be buried with the burial of a donkey, having rotted and been thrown out of the gates of Jerusalem. ? ²⁰Ascend to Lebanon and cry out! And utter your voice in Bashan, and cry out to those passing by. For all your lovers have been crushed. ? ²¹I spoke to you in your abundance, and you said, �I will not listen.� This has been your way from your youth, for you have not listened to my voice. ? ²²The wind will feed all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity. And then you will be confounded, and you will be ashamed of all your wickedness. ? ²³You who sit in Lebanon, and who nest in the cedars, in what way did you mourn when suffering came to you, like the suffering of a woman giving birth? ? ²⁴As I live, says the Lord, if Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a ring on my right hand, I would remove him from there. ? ²⁵And I will deliver you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you dread, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. ? ²⁶And I will send you, and your mother who conceived you, into a foreign land, in which you were not born, and there you shall die. ? ²⁷And to the land about which they lift up their mind, thinking to return there, they shall not return. ? ²⁸Is this man, Jeconiah, a broken earthenware vessel? Is he a vessel which is entirely unpleasing? Why have they been cast out, he and his offspring, cast out even into a land that they have not known? ? ²⁹O earth, O earth, O earth! Listen to the word of the Lord! ? ³⁰Thus says the Lord: Write: this man is barren; he is a man who will not prosper in his days. For there will not be a man from among his offspring who will sit upon the throne of David, or have authority in Judah, anymore.� ?

Chapter 23

¹�Woe to the shepherds who scatter and tear apart the sheep of my pasture, says the Lord. ? ²Because of this, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to the shepherds who pasture my people: You have scattered my flock, and you have driven them away, and you have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you because of your evil pursuits, says the Lord. ? ³And I will gather together the remnant of my flock from the entire earth, from the places to which I had cast them out. And I will return them to their own fields. And they will increase and be multiplied. ? ⁴And I will raise up shepherds over them, and they will pasture them. They will no longer dread, and they will no longer fear. And no one among their number will be seeking more, says the Lord. ? ⁵Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous branch. And a king will reign, and he will be wise. And he will exercise judgment and justice upon the earth. ? ⁶In those days, Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in confidence. And this is the name that they will call him: �The Lord, our Just One.� ? ⁷Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when they will no longer say, �As the Lord lives, who led the sons of Israel away from the land of Egypt,� ? ⁸but instead, �As the Lord lives, who led away and brought back the offspring of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from the entire earth,� from the places to which I had cast them out. And they will live in their own land.� ? ⁹To the prophets: �My heart is crushed within me. All my bones are trembling. I have become like an inebriated man, and like a man maddened by wine, before the face of the Lord, and before the face of his holy words. ? ¹⁰For the earth is full of adulterers! And the earth has mourned before the face of evil talk. The plains of the desert have dried up, and their course has become hazardous, and their firmness has become uneven.� ? ¹¹�For both the prophet and the priest have become polluted, and I have found their wickedness within my own house, says the Lord. ? ¹²For this reason, their way will be like a slippery path in the dark. For they will be impelled forward, and they will fall in it. For I will bring evils over them, in the year of their visitation, says the Lord. ? ¹³And I have seen the foolishness of the prophets of Samaria. They have prophesied in Baal, and they have deceived my people Israel. ? ¹⁴And in the prophets of Jerusalem, I have seen the likeness of adulterers and the path of falsehood. And they have strengthened the hands of the wicked, so that each one would not convert from his malice. They have all become to me like Sodom, and its inhabitants have become like Gomorrah.� ? ¹⁵Because of this, thus says the Lord of hosts to the prophets: �Behold, I will feed them absinthe, and I will give them gall to drink. For from the prophets of Jerusalem corruption has gone forth over the entire earth.� ? ¹⁶Thus says the Lord of hosts: �Do not choose to listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you and deceive you. They speak a vision from their own heart, and not from the mouth of the Lord. ? ¹⁷To those who blaspheme me, they say: �The Lord has said: You shall have peace.� And to every one who walks in the depravity of his own heart, they have said: �No evil will overwhelm you.� � ? ¹⁸For who has been present in the counsel of the Lord, and who has seen and heard his word? Who has considered his word and heard it? ? ¹⁹Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord�s indignation will go forth, and a tempest will break out; it will overwhelm the head of the impious. ? ²⁰The fury of the Lord will not return until it succeeds, and until it completes the plan of his heart. In the last days, you will understand this counsel. ? ²¹�I did not send these prophets, yet they hurry forward. I was not speaking to them, yet they were prophesying. ? ²²If they had stood in my counsel, and if I had made my words known to my people, certainly I would have turned them away from their evil ways and from their most wicked plans. ? ²³Do you not realize that I am a God close by, says the Lord, and not a God far away? ? ²⁴If a man is hidden in concealed places, do I not see him, says the Lord? Do I not fill up heaven and earth, says the Lord? ? ²⁵I have heard what the prophets have said, prophesying falsehoods in my name, and also saying: �I have dreamed! I have dreamed!� ? ²⁶How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who predict what is false, and who prophesy deceptions from their own heart? ? ²⁷They want to cause my people to forget my name, by means of their dreams, which each of them describes to his neighbor, just as their fathers forgot my name for the sake of Baal. ? ²⁸The prophet who has had a dream, let him describe the dream. And he who receives my word, let him speak my word in truth. For what has the chaff to do with the wheat, says the Lord? ? ²⁹Are not my words like a fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer crushing rock? ? ³⁰Therefore, behold: I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words, each one from his neighbor. ? ³¹Behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who take up their tongues and say: �The Lord says it.� ? ³²Behold, I am against the prophets, who dream what is false, says the Lord; who explain and so seduce my people with their falsehoods and with their miracles, though I did not send them, nor did I command them. They have offer nothing beneficial to this people, says the Lord. ? ³³Therefore, if this people, or a prophet, or a priest questions you, saying, �What is the burden of the Lord?� you shall say to them, �You are the burden. And certainly I will cast you away, says the Lord.� ? ³⁴And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people who say, �The burden of the Lord!� I will visit upon that man and upon his house. ? ³⁵And then you will speak in this way, each one to his neighbor and to his brother: �What has the Lord answered? And what has the Lord said?� ? ³⁶And the burden of the Lord will be no longer be called to mind. For each one�s own word will be a burden. For you have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts, our God. ? ³⁷And then you will speak in this way to the prophet: �What has the Lord answered you? And what has the Lord spoken?� ? ³⁸But if you say, �The burden of the Lord!� then because of this, thus says the Lord: Since you have spoken this word, �The burden of the Lord!� though I sent to you telling you not to say: �The burden of the Lord,� ? ³⁹because of this, behold, I will take you away, like a burden, and I will forsake you, as well as the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, before my face. ? ⁴⁰And I will give you over to an everlasting reproach and an eternal disgrace, which shall never be wiped away into oblivion.� ?

Chapter 24

¹The Lord revealed to me, and behold, two baskets full of figs were set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, carried away Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and his leaders, and the craftsmen and engravers of Jerusalem, and led them into Babylon. ? ²One basket had exceedingly good figs, like the figs usually found early in the season, and the other basket had exceedingly bad figs, which could not be eaten because they were so bad. ? ³And the Lord said to me: �What do you see, Jeremiah?� And I said: �Figs: the good figs are very good, and the bad figs are very bad and cannot be eaten because they are so bad.� ? ⁴And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ? ⁵�Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Just like these good figs, so will I regard as good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent from this place into the land of the Chaldeans. ? ⁶And I will set my eyes upon them, so as to be pleased. And I will lead them back into this land. And I will build them up, and I will not tear them down. And I will plant them, and I will not uproot them. ? ⁷And I will give them a heart, so that they may know me, that I am the Lord. And they will be my people, and I will be their God. For they shall return to me with their whole heart. ? ⁸And just like the very bad figs, which cannot be eaten because they are so bad, thus says the Lord: so will I regard Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his leaders, and the rest of Jerusalem, those who have remained in this city, and those who are living in the land of Egypt. ? ⁹And I will give them over, with upheaval and affliction, to all the kingdoms of the earth: to be a disgrace, and a parable, and a proverb, and a curse in all the places to which I have cast them out. ? ¹⁰And I will send among them the sword, and famine, and pestilence: until they have been worn away from the land, which I gave to them and to their fathers.� ?

Chapter 25

¹The word that came to Jeremiah about all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah. The same is the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. ? ²And the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: ? ³�From the thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Amon, the king of Judah, even until this day, which is the twenty-third year, the word of the Lord has been given to me, and I have spoken to you, rising while it was still night, and speaking, and yet you have not listened. ? ⁴And the Lord has sent to you all his servants, the prophets, rising at first light, and sending, and yet you have not listened, and you have not inclined your ears, so that you would hear, ? ⁵when he said: Return, each one from his evil way, and from your wicked thoughts. And you shall dwell in the land, which the Lord has given to you and to your fathers, from ancient times and even forever. ? ⁶And do not choose to go after strange gods, so that you would serve them and adore them. And do not provoke me to wrath by the works of your hands. And then I will not afflict you. ? ⁷And yet you have not listened to me, says the Lord, and so you have provoked me to anger with the works of your hands, to your own harm.� ? ⁸Because of this, thus says the Lord of hosts: �Since you have not listened to my words, ? ⁹behold, I will send for and take all the associates of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will lead them over this land, and over its inhabitants, and over all the nations that are around it. And I will destroy them, and I will set them in the midst of stupor and hissing, and continual desolations. ? ¹⁰And I will perish from them the voice of gladness and the voice of rejoicing, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstone and the light of the lamp. ? ¹¹And this entire land will be in desolation and in stupor. And all these nations will serve the king of Babylon, for seventy years. ? ¹²And when the seventy years have been completed, I will visit their iniquity upon the king of Babylon, and upon that nation, and upon the land of the Chaldeans, says the Lord. And I will set it in continual desolations. ? ¹³And I will lead over that land all my words, which I have spoken against it, all that has been written in this book, everything whatsoever that Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. ? ¹⁴For they have served them, though these were populous nations and great kings. And I will repay them according to their works and according to the deeds of their hands.� ? ¹⁵For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: �Take the chalice of the wine of this fury from my hand. And you shall cause all the nations, to which I will send you, to drink from it. ? ¹⁶And they will drink, and be stirred up, and become maddened, before the face of the sword that I will send among them.� ? ¹⁷And I received the chalice from the hand of the Lord, and I caused all the nations, to which the Lord has sent me, to drink from it: ? ¹⁸Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and its kings, and its leaders, so that I gave them over to desolation, and stupor, and hissing, and a curse, just as it is this day. ? ¹⁹�But as for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and his servants, and his leaders, and all his people, ? ²⁰and the entire populace in general: all the kings of the land of the south, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, ? ²¹and Idumea, and Moab, and the sons of Ammon, ? ²²and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the land of the islands that are across the sea, ? ²³and Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all those who have shaved off their hair, ? ²⁴and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the west, who live in the desert, ? ²⁵and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media, ? ²⁶and likewise, all the kings of the north from near to far, each one facing his brother, and all the kingdoms upon the face of the earth, and the king of Sesac: all these shall drink after them. ? ²⁷And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, and be inebriated, and vomit, and fall down. And you shall not rise up before the face the sword that I will send among you. ? ²⁸And if they refuse to receive the cup from your hand and to drink, you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Certainly, you shall drink! ? ²⁹For behold, I am beginning to afflict the city in which my name has been invoked, and will you be innocent and immune? You will not be immune! For I will call the sword over all the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord of hosts. ? ³⁰And you shall prophesy to them all these words, and you shall say to them: The Lord will roar from on high, and he will utter his voice from his holy habitation. When roaring, he will roar over the place of his beauty. He will call out, like those who chant in rhythm as they trample the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. ? ³¹The sound of it will penetrate even to the ends of the earth. For the Lord is entering into judgment with the nations. He himself is entering into judgment with all flesh. I have delivered the impious to the sword, says the Lord.� ? ³²Thus says the Lord of hosts: �Behold, an affliction will go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind will go forth from the ends of the earth. ? ³³And the slain of the Lord will be, on that day, from one end of the earth, even to the other end. They will not be mourned, and they will not be gathered, and they will not be buried. They will lie upon the face of the earth like dung. ? ³⁴Wail, O shepherds, and cry out! And sprinkle yourselves with ashes, O nobles of the flock! For the days have been completed that lead to your slaughter and your destruction. And you will fall like precious vessels. ? ³⁵And escape will flee from the shepherds, and safety will flee from the nobility of the flock.� ? ³⁶There is a voice of outcry from the shepherds, and a wailing among the nobles among the flock! For the Lord has laid waste to their pastures. ? ³⁷And the fields of peace have been silenced before the face of the fury of the Lord. ? ³⁸He has abandoned those he sheltered like a lion. For the earth has become a desolation before the face of the anger of the dove, and before the face of the fury of the Lord. ?

Chapter 26

¹In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came from the Lord, saying: ? ²�Thus says the Lord: Stand in the atrium of the house of the Lord, and speak to all the cities of Judah, from which they come to adore in the house of the Lord, all the words that I have commanded you to speak to them. Do not choose to subtract any word. ? ³So may they hear and be converted, each one from his evil way. And then I may repent of the evil that I plan to do to them because of the wickedness of their pursuits. ? ⁴And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: If you will not listen to me, so that you walk in my law, which I have given to you, ? ⁵so that you listen to the words of my servants, the prophets, whom I have sent to you, who arise while it is still night, and though they give guidance, you do not listen, ? ⁶then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city into a curse for all the nations of the earth.� ? ⁷And the priests, and the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. ? ⁸And when Jeremiah had completed speaking all that the Lord had instructed him to speak to all the people, then the priests, and the prophets, and all the people apprehended him, saying: �You shall be put to death.� ? ⁹�Why has he prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying: �Like Shiloh, so shall this house be,� and, �This city shall be made desolate, even without an inhabitant?� � And all the people were gathered together against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. ? ¹⁰And the leaders of Judah heard these words. And they ascended from the house of the king to the house of the Lord, and they sat at the entrance by the new gate of the house of the Lord. ? ¹¹And the priests and the prophets spoke to the leaders and to all the people, saying: �A judgment of death is for this man. For he has prophesied against this city, just as you have heard with your own ears.� ? ¹²And Jeremiah spoke to all the leaders and to the entire people, saying: �The Lord has sent me to prophesy, about this house and about this city, all the words that you have heard. ? ¹³Now, therefore, make your ways and your intentions good, and heed the voice of the Lord your God. And then the Lord will repent of the evil that he has spoken against you. ? ¹⁴But as for me, behold, I am in your hands. Do to me what is good and right in your eyes. ? ¹⁵Yet truly, know and understand this: if you kill me, you will be bringing innocent blood against yourselves, and against this city and its inhabitants. For in truth, the Lord sent me to you, so as to speak all these words in your hearing.� ? ¹⁶And then the leaders and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets: �There is no judgment of death against this man. For he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.� ? ¹⁷Then some of the elders of the land rose up. And they spoke to the entire assembly of the people, saying: ? ¹⁸�Micah from Moresheth was a prophet in the days of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying: �Thus says the Lord of hosts: Zion will be ploughed like a field. And Jerusalem will be a pile of stones. And the mountain of the house will be like the forests of high places.� ? ¹⁹Did the king of Judah, Hezekiah, with all of Judah, condemn him to death? Did they not fear the Lord, and petition the face of the Lord? And so the Lord repented of the evil that he had spoken against them. Therefore, we are committing a great evil against our own souls. ? ²⁰Likewise, there was a man prophesying in the name of the Lord: Uriah, the son of Shemaiah, of Kiriath-jearim. And he prophesied against this city and against this land, in accord with all the words of Jeremiah. ? ²¹And king Jehoiakim, with all his warriors and leaders, heard these words. And so the king sought to put him to death. And Uriah heard, and was afraid, and fled, and he entered into Egypt. ? ²²And king Jehoiakim sent men into Egypt: Elnathan, the son of Achbor, and the men who went with him into Egypt. ? ²³And they led Uriah out of Egypt. And they brought him to king Jehoiakim, and he struck him down with the sword. And he cast his dead body among the graves of the common people.� ? ²⁴But the hand of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, was with Jeremiah, so that he would not be delivered into the hands of the people, and so that they would not put him to death. ?

Chapter 27

¹In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ? ²�Thus says the Lord to me: Make bands and chains for yourself. And you shall place them on your neck. ? ³And you shall send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the sons of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who came to Jerusalem, to Zedekiah, the king of Judah. ? ⁴And you shall instruct them to say to their masters: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You shall say these things to your masters: ? ⁵I made the earth, and the men and beasts which are upon the face of the earth, by my great strength and by my outstretched arm. And I have given it to whomever it was pleasing in my eyes. ? ⁶And now, therefore, I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant. Moreover, I have given to him also the beasts of the field, so that they may serve him. ? ⁷And all the nations will serve him, and his son, and his son�s son. Many nations and great kings will serve him, until the time arrives for him and his land. ? ⁸But the nation or kingdom that will not serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and whoever will not bend his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will visit upon that nation with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, says the Lord, until I consume them by his hand. ? ⁹Therefore, you should not choose to listen to your own prophets, and diviners, and dreamers, and soothsayers, and sorcerers, who say to you: �You shall not serve the king of Babylon.� ? ¹⁰For they prophesy lies to you, so that they may cause you to be far from your own country, and may cast you out, and may cause you to perish. ? ¹¹Furthermore, the nation which will bend its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and which will serve him, I will permit them to remain in their own land, says the Lord. And they will cultivate it, and they will live in it.� ? ¹²And I spoke to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, according to all these words, saying: �Subject your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and you will live. ? ¹³Why should you suffer death, you and your people, by the sword, and famine, and pestilence, just as the Lord has spoken against any nation that refuses to serve the king of Babylon? ? ¹⁴Do not choose to listen to the words of the prophets, saying to you: �You will not serve the king of Babylon.� For they are speaking a lie to you. ? ¹⁵For I have not sent them, says the Lord. And they prophesy falsely in my name, so that they may cast you out, and so that you may perish, both you and the prophets who make predictions for you.� ? ¹⁶I spoke also to the priests and to this people, saying: �Thus says the Lord: Do not choose to listen to the words of your prophets, who prophesy to you, saying: �Behold, the vessels of the Lord will now quickly be returned from Babylon.� For they are prophesying to you a lie. ? ¹⁷Therefore, do not choose to listen to them, but instead, serve the king of Babylon, so that you may live. Why should this city be given over into desolation? ? ¹⁸But if they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is in them, then let them intercede before the Lord of hosts, so that the vessels that were left behind in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon. ? ¹⁹For thus says the Lord of hosts to the pillars, and to the sea of brass, and to the bases, and to the remainder of the vessels that have been left behind in this city, ? ²⁰which Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, did not take when he carried away Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, from Jerusalem into Babylon, with all the nobility of Judah and Jerusalem: ? ²¹For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to the vessels that were left behind in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and Jerusalem: ? ²²They shall be carried away to Babylon, and there they shall be, until the day of their visitation, says the Lord. And then I will cause them to be carried back, and to be restored to this place. ?

Chapter 28

¹And it happened in that year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah, the son of Azur, the prophet from Gibeon, spoke to me, in the house of the Lord, in the sight of the priests and all the people, saying: ? ²�Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. ? ³There are still two years of days, and then I will cause to be carried back to this place all the vessels of the house of the Lord that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, took from this place and carried away to Babylon. ? ⁴And I will return to this place: Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and all those taken captive from Judah, who were brought into Babylon, says the Lord. For I will crush the yoke of the king of Babylon.� ? ⁵And Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Hananiah the prophet, before the eyes of the priests and before the eyes of all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord. ? ⁶And Jeremiah the prophet said: �Amen, may the Lord accomplish this; may the Lord act upon your words, which you have prophesied, so that the vessels may be carried back to the house of the Lord, and so that all those taken captive may return from Babylon to this place. ? ⁷Yet truly, listen to this word, which I am speaking to your ears and to the ears of all the people. ? ⁸The prophets, who were before me and before you, from the beginning, have prophesied over many lands and over great kingdoms, about war, and about affliction, and about famine. ? ⁹The prophet who has predicted peace, if his word will occur, then the prophet will be known as one whom the Lord has sent in truth.� ? ¹⁰And Hananiah the prophet took the chain from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, and he broke it. ? ¹¹And Hananiah spoke in the sight of all the people, saying: �Thus says the Lord: So shall I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, after two years of days, from the neck of all the people.� ? ¹²And Jeremiah the prophet went his own way. And after Hananiah the prophet had broken the chain from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: ? ¹³�Go, and you shall say to Hananiah: Thus says the Lord: You have broken chains of wood, and so you will make for them chains of iron. ? ¹⁴For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have placed a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, so that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. And they shall serve him. Moreover, I have given to him even the beasts of the earth.� ? ¹⁵And Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet: �Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, and so you have caused this people to trust in a lie. ? ¹⁶For this reason, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will send you away from the face of the earth. This year, you shall die. For you have spoken against the Lord.� ? ¹⁷And Hananiah the prophet died in that year, in the seventh month. ?

Chapter 29

¹And these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah, the prophet, sent from Jerusalem to the remnant of the elders of the transmigration, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had led away from Jerusalem to Babylon, ? ²after king Jeconiah, with the queen, and the eunuchs, and the leaders of Judah and of Jerusalem, and the craftsmen and engravers, had departed from Jerusalem. ? ³It was sent by the hand of Elasah, the son of Shaphan, and by Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, the king of Judah, sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, saying: ? ⁴�Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who have been taken away, whom I have caused to be transferred from Jerusalem to Babylon: ? ⁵Build houses and live in them. And plant gardens, and eat from their fruit. ? ⁶Take wives, and conceive sons and daughters. And give wives to your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, and let them bear sons and daughters. And be multiplied there, and do not choose to be few in number. ? ⁷And seek the peace of the city, to which I have caused you to be taken away, and pray to the Lord on its behalf. For your peace will be in its peace. ? ⁸For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not allow your prophets and your diviners, who are in your midst, to seduce you. And you should pay no attention to your dreams, which you are dreaming. ? ⁹For they prophesy falsely to you in my name, and I have not sent them, says the Lord. ? ¹⁰For thus says the Lord: When the seventy years will begin to be completed in Babylon, I will visit you. And I will raise up over you my good word, so that I may lead you back to this place. ? ¹¹For I know the thoughts that I think over you, says the Lord: thoughts of peace and not of affliction, so that I may give you patience and an end. ? ¹²And you shall call upon me, and you shall go forth. And you shall pray to me, and I will heed you. ? ¹³You shall seek me. And you will find me, when you have sought me with your whole heart. ? ¹⁴And I will be found by you, says the Lord. And I will lead you back from your captivity. And I will gather you from all the nations and all the places, to which I have expelled you, says the Lord. And I will return you from the place to which I sent you into captivity. ? ¹⁵For you have said: �The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon.� ? ¹⁶For thus says the Lord, to the king who sits upon the throne of David, and to all the people who live in this city, to your brothers who have not departed with you in the transmigration: ? ¹⁷Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will send among them the sword, and famine, and pestilence. And I will make them like the bad figs, which cannot be eaten, because they are very bad. ? ¹⁸And I will pursue them with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence. And I will give them over to affliction, amid all the kingdoms of the earth: as a curse, and in stupor, and with hissing, and as a disgrace among all the nations to which I have driven them out. ? ¹⁹For they have not listened to my words, says the Lord, which I sent to them through my servants, the prophets, rising while it was still night, and sending. But you have not listened, says the Lord. ? ²⁰Therefore, listen to the word of the Lord, all you of the transmigration, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem into Babylon. ? ²¹Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to Ahab, the son of Kolaiah, and to Zedekiah, the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy falsely to you in my name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and he will strike them down before your eyes. ? ²²And a curse will be taken up about them, by all the captives of Judah that are in Babylon, saying: �May the Lord make you like Zedekiah, and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon fried in the fire!� ? ²³For they have acted foolishly in Israel, and they have committed adultery with the wives of their friends, and they have spoken lying words in my name, which I did not command them. I am the Judge and the Witness, says the Lord. ? ²⁴And to Shemaiah of Nehelam, you shall say: ? ²⁵Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Similarly, you have sent letters in your name to all the people that are in Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying: ? ²⁶�The Lord has made you priest in place of Jehoiada, the priest, so that you would be the ruler in the house of the Lord over every man who raves and prophesies, to send him to the stocks and to prison. ? ²⁷And now why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who prophesies to you? ? ²⁸For about this, he has sent to us in Babylon, saying: It is a long time. Build houses and live in them. And plant gardens, and eat from their fruits.� � ? ²⁹Thus, Zephaniah, the priest, read this letter, in the hearing of Jeremiah the prophet. ? ³⁰And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: ? ³¹�Send to all those of the transmigration, saying: Thus says the Lord to Shemaiah of Nehelam: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, though I did not send him, and because he has caused you to trust in a lie: ? ³²For this reason, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will visit upon Shemaiah of Nehelam, and upon his offspring. There will not be, for him, even one man sitting in the midst of this people. And he will not see the good that I will accomplish for my people, says the Lord. For he has spoken a betrayal against the Lord.� ?

Chapter 30

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ? ²�Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, saying: You shall write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. ? ³For behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will convert the turning away of my people, Israel and Judah, says the Lord. And I will return them to the land which I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it.� ? ⁴And these are the words which the Lord has spoken to Israel and to Judah: ? ⁵For thus says the Lord: �We have heard a voice of terror. There is dread, and there is no peace.� ? ⁶Inquire and see, does a male give birth? Then why have I seen every man with his hand on his lower back, like a woman bearing a child? And why have all of their faces turned pale? ? ⁷Woe! For that day is great, and there is nothing like it. For it is the time of tribulation for Jacob, but he will be saved from it. ? ⁸And this shall be in that day, says the Lord of hosts: I will crush his yoke from your neck, and I will break open his bands. And strangers will no longer rule over him. ? ⁹Instead, they will serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them. ? ¹⁰Therefore, O my servant Jacob, you should not be afraid, says the Lord, and you should not be frightened, O Israel. For behold, I will save you from a far away land, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. And Jacob will return and have rest, and he shall flow with every good thing. And there will be no one for him to dread. ? ¹¹For I am with you, says the Lord, so that I may save you. For I will bring about the consummation of all the nations, among which I have scattered you. But I will not bring about your consummation. Instead, I will chastise you in judgment, so that you will not seem innocent to yourself.� ? ¹²For thus says the Lord: �Your fracture is incurable; your wound is very serious. ? ¹³There is no one who may judge your judgment, so as to bandage it; there is no useful treatment for you. ? ¹⁴All your lovers have forgotten you, and they will not seek you. For I have wounded you with the strike of an enemy, with a cruel chastisement. Your sins have become hardened because of the multitude of your iniquities. ? ¹⁵Why do you cry out over your affliction? Your pain is incurable. I have done these things to you because of the multitude of your iniquity and because of your hardened sins. ? ¹⁶Because of this, all those who devour you, will be devoured. And all your enemies will be led into captivity. And those who devastate you, will be devastated. And all those who prey upon you, I will offer as a prey. ? ¹⁷For I will close up your scar, and I will heal you of your wounds, says the Lord. For they have called you an outcast, O Zion: �This is she who has no one asking for her.� � ? ¹⁸Thus says the Lord: �Behold, I will turn back the turning away of the tabernacles of Jacob, and I will take pity on his roofs. And the city will be built up in her heights, and the temple will be founded according to its order. ? ¹⁹And praise will go forth from them, with the voice of those who play. And I will multiply them, and they will not be lessened. And I will glorify them, and they will not be weakened. ? ²⁰And their sons will be as in the beginning. And their assembly will remain in my sight. And I will visit against all those who trouble them. ? ²¹And their ruler will one of their own. And their prince will be led forward from their midst. And I will draw him near, and he will cling to me. For who is the one who applies his heart, so that he may draw near to me, says the Lord? ? ²²And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.� ? ²³Behold the whirlwind of the Lord, his fury going forth, a destroying storm! It will rest upon the head of the impious. ? ²⁴The Lord will not turn back the wrath of his indignation, until he has accomplished and completed the plan of his heart. In the last days, you shall understand these things. ?

Chapter 31

¹�In that time, says the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.� ? ²Thus says the Lord: �The people who had remained after the sword, found grace in the desert. Israel will go to his rest.� ? ³The Lord appeared to me from a distance: �And I have loved you in perpetual charity. Therefore, showing pity, I have drawn you. ? ⁴And I will build you up again. And you shall be built up, O virgin of Israel. Still shall you be adorned with your timbrels, and still shall you go forth to the singing of those who play. ? ⁵Still shall you plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters will plant, and they will not gather the vintage until the time arrives. ? ⁶For there will be a day on which the guardians on mount Ephraim will cry out: �Arise! And let us ascend on Zion to the Lord our God!� � ? ⁷For thus says the Lord: �Exult in the joy of Jacob, and neigh before the head of the Gentiles. Shout, and sing, and say: �O Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel!� ? ⁸Behold, I will lead them from the land of the north, and I will gather them from the ends of the earth. Among them will be the blind and the lame, she who is with child, together with she who is giving birth: a great assembly returning to this place. ? ⁹They will approach with weeping. And I will lead them back with mercy. And I will lead them through the torrents of water, by an upright way, and they will not stumble in it. For I have become Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.� ? ¹⁰Listen to the word of the Lord, O Gentiles, and announce it amid the islands that are far away, and say: �Whoever has scattered Israel will gather him, and he will guard him as a shepherd guards his flock.� ? ¹¹For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and he has freed him from the hand of one more powerful. ? ¹²And they will arrive and give praise on Mount Zion. And they will flow together, to the good things of the Lord, over grain, and wine, and oil, and the offspring of cattle and herds. And their soul will be like an irrigated garden, and they will no longer be hungry. ? ¹³Then the virgin will rejoice with singing, the young and the old together, and I will turn their mourning into gladness, and I will console them and gladden them after their sorrow. ? ¹⁴And I will inebriate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people will be filled with my good things, says the Lord.� ? ¹⁵Thus says the Lord: �A voice has been heard on high: of lamentation, mourning, and weeping; of Rachel crying for her sons and refusing to be consoled over them, because they are not.� ? ¹⁶Thus says the Lord: �Let your voice cease from crying and your eyes from tears. For there is a reward for your work, says the Lord. And they will return from the land of the enemy. ? ¹⁷And there is hope for your very end, says the Lord. And the sons will return to their own borders. ? ¹⁸Listening, I heard Ephraim going into captivity: �You have chastised me, and I was instructed, like a young untamed bull. Convert me, and I shall be converted. For you are the Lord my God. ? ¹⁹For after you converted me, I did penance. And after you revealed to me, I struck my thigh. I am confounded and ashamed. For I have endured the disgrace of my youth.� ? ²⁰Certainly, Ephraim is an honorable son to me; surely, he is a tender child. For I will still remember him, as in the time when I first spoke about him. Because my heart is stirred up over him, surely I will take pity on him, says the Lord. ? ²¹Establish a watchtower for yourself. Place yourself in bitterness. Direct your heart into the upright way, in which you used to walk. Return, return, O virgin of Israel, to these your cities! ? ²²How long will you be absorbed in delights, O wandering daughter? For the Lord has created something new upon the earth: a woman will encompass a man.� ? ²³Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: �Still they will speak this word in the land of Judah, and in its cities, when I will convert their captivity: �May the Lord bless you, the beauty of justice, the holy mountain.� ? ²⁴And they will live in it: Judah together with all its cities, the farmer and those who drive the flocks. ? ²⁵For I have inebriated the weary soul, and I have satisfied every hungry soul. ? ²⁶Over this, I was awakened, as if from a deep sleep. And I saw, and my sleep became sweet to me. ? ²⁷Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the offspring of men and with the offspring of cattle. ? ²⁸And just as I have watched over them, so that I may root up, and tear down, and scatter, and destroy, and afflict, so will I watch over them, so that I may build and plant them, says the Lord. ? ²⁹In those days, they will no longer say: �The fathers ate a bitter grape, and the teeth of the sons have been affected.� ? ³⁰Instead, each one will die for his own iniquity. Each man who will have eaten a bitter grape, his own teeth will be affected. ? ³¹Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will form a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, ? ³²not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand, so as to lead them away from the land of Egypt, the covenant which they nullified, though I was the ruler over them, says the Lord. ? ³³But this will be the covenant that I will form with the house of Israel, after those days, says the Lord: I will give my law to their inner most being, and I will write it upon their heart. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ? ³⁴And they will no longer teach, a man his neighbor, and a man his brother, saying: �Know the Lord.� For all will know me, from the littlest of them even to the greatest, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will no longer remember their sin. ? ³⁵Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun as the light of the day, who puts the moon and the stars in order as the light of the night, who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar: the Lord of hosts is his name. ? ³⁶If these laws fail in my sight, says the Lord, then the offspring of Israel will also fail, so that they will not be a people in my sight for all time.� ? ³⁷Thus says the Lord: �If the heavens above are able to be measured, and if the foundations of the earth beneath can be examined, I also will cast aside all the offspring of Israel, because of all that they have done, says the Lord. ? ³⁸Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when a city will be built for the Lord from the tower of Hananel, even to the Gate of the Corner; ? ³⁹and the measuring line will go on even further in his sight, over the hill of Gareb, and it will encircle Goah ? ⁴⁰and the entire Valley of dead bodies and ashes, and the entire region of death, even to the torrent of Kedron, and to the corner of the Horse Gate to the east. All this will be the holy place of the Lord. It will not be rooted up, and it will not be torn down, anymore, forever.� ?

Chapter 32

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah, the king of Judah. The same is the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. ? ²It was then that the army of the king of Babylon besieged Jerusalem. And Jeremiah, the prophet, was confined to the atrium of the prison, which was in the house of the king of Judah. ? ³For Zedekiah, the king of Judah, had confined him, saying: �Why do you make predictions, saying: �Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it? ? ⁴And Zedekiah, the king of Judah, will not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans. Instead, he will be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon. And he will speak to him, mouth to mouth, and he will see him, eye to eye. ? ⁵And he will lead Zedekiah to Babylon. And he will be there until I visit him, says the Lord. So then, if you contend against the Chaldeans, you will have no success.� � ? ⁶And Jeremiah said: �The word of the Lord came to me, saying: ? ⁷Behold, Hanamel, the son of Shallum, your cousin, will come to you, saying: �Buy for yourself my field, which is in Anathoth. For it is your right, as next of kin, to buy it.� ? ⁸And in accord with the word of the Lord, Hanamel, the son of my uncle, came to me, to the entrance of the prison, and he said to me: �Take possession of my field, which is in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. For the right of inheritance is yours, and as the next of kin you may possess it.� Then I understood that this was the word of the Lord. ? ⁹And I bought the field, which is in Anathoth, from Hanamel, the son of my uncle. And I weighed out the money to him, seven small coins and ten pieces of silver. ? ¹⁰And I wrote it in a book and signed it, and I summoned witnesses. And I weighed out the silver on a scale. ? ¹¹And I received the signed deed of possession, and the stipulations, and the ratifications, with the exterior seals. ? ¹²And I gave the deed of possession to Baruch, the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of Hanamel, the son of my uncle, in the sight of the witnesses who had been recorded in the book of the purchase, and in the sight of all the Jews who were sitting in the atrium of the prison. ? ¹³And I instructed Baruch, in their sight, saying: ? ¹⁴Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: �Take these writings, this sealed deed of purchase, and this deed which is open, and place them in an earthen vessel, so that they will be preserved for many days.� ? ¹⁵For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: �Houses, and fields, and vineyards will be possessed still, in this land.� ? ¹⁶And after I had delivered the deed of possession to Baruch, the son of Neri, I prayed to the Lord, saying: ? ¹⁷Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God! Behold, you have made heaven and earth, by your great strength and by your outstretched arm. No word is difficult for you. ? ¹⁸You act with mercy a thousand-fold, but you repay the iniquity of the fathers into the sinews of their sons after them. The Lord of hosts is your name: most strong, great, and powerful! ? ¹⁹You are great in counsel and incomprehensible in thought. Your eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of Adam, so that you may repay each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his intentions. ? ²⁰You caused signs and portents in the land of Egypt, and in Israel, and among men, even until this day. And you have made a name jerfor yourself, just as in this day. ? ²¹And you have led your people Israel away from the land of Egypt, with signs and portents, and with a robust hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror. ? ²²And you have given them this land, which you swore, to their fathers, that you would give to them, a land flowing with milk and honey. ? ²³And they entered it and possessed it. But they did not obey your voice, and they did not walk in your law. And they did not do all of the things that you commanded them to do. And so, all of these evils have happened to them. ? ²⁴Behold, fortifications were built against the city, so as to capture it. And the city was given into the hands of the Chaldeans, who fight against it, before the face of the sword, and of famine, and of pestilence. And what you have spoken has occurred, just as you yourself discern. ? ²⁵So why, O Lord God, are you saying to me: �Buy a field with money, and summon witnesses,� while the city is being given into the hands of the Chaldeans?� ? ²⁶And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: ? ²⁷�Behold, I am the Lord God; I am above all flesh. Can any word be difficult for me? ? ²⁸Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will deliver this city into the hands of the Chaldeans, and into the hands of the king of Babylon, and they will capture it. ? ²⁹And the Chaldeans fighting against this city will advance, and set fire to it, and burn it, along with the houses on whose roofs they were offering sacrifice to Baal and were pouring out libations to strange gods, so that they provoked me to wrath. ? ³⁰For the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah, from their youth, have continually done evil in my eyes. The sons of Israel, even until now, have been provoking me with the work of their hands, says the Lord. ? ³¹For this city has been a cause of fury and indignation to me, from the day when they built it, until this day, in which it will be taken away from my sight, ? ³²because of all the wickedness of the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah, which they have done, provoking me to wrath, they and their kings, their leaders and their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ? ³³And they have turned their backs to me, and not their faces. And though I taught them and instructed them, rising at first light, they were not willing to listen, so that they would receive discipline. ? ³⁴And they have placed their idols in the house where my name is invoked, so that they defiled it. ? ³⁵And they have built the exalted places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, so that they may initiate their sons and their daughters into Molech, though I did not command, nor did it enter into my heart, that they should do this abomination, and so lead Judah into sin. ? ³⁶And now, because of these things, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to this city, about which you say that it will be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence: ? ³⁷Behold, I will gather them together from all the lands to which I have cast them out in my fury, and in my wrath, and in my great indignation. And I will lead them back to this place, and I will cause them to live in confidence. ? ³⁸And they will be my people, and I will be their God. ? ³⁹And I will give to them one heart and one way, so that they may fear me all their days, and so that it may be well with them, and with their sons after them. ? ⁴⁰And I will form an everlasting covenant with them, and I will not cease to do good for them. And I will put my fear into their heart, so that they do not withdraw from me. ? ⁴¹And I will rejoice over them, while I do good for them. And I will plant them in this land, in truth, with my whole heart and with my whole soul. ? ⁴²For thus says the Lord: Just as I have led over this people all this great evil, so will I lead over them all the good that I am speaking to them now. ? ⁴³And fields will be possessed in this land, about which you say that it is desolate because there remains neither man nor beast, and because it has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans. ? ⁴⁴Fields will be bought for money, and deeds will be written and signed, and witnesses will be summoned, in the land of Benjamin and all around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, and in the cities on the mountains, and in the cities on the plains, and in the cities that are toward the south. For I will convert their captivity, says the Lord.� ?

Chapter 33

¹And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still confined to the atrium of the prison, saying: ? ²�Thus says the Lord, who will prepare, and form, and accomplish it; the Lord is his name. ? ³Cry out to me and I will heed you. And I will announce to you great things, things that are certain, though you do not know them. ? ⁴For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to the houses of this city, and to the houses of the king of Judah, which have been destroyed, and to the fortifications, and to the sword ? ⁵of those who have arrived, so that they may fight with the Chaldeans, and so that they may have their fill of the dead bodies of the men whom I have struck down in my fury and in my indignation, concealing my face from this city, because of all their wickedness: ? ⁶Behold, I will lead over them scars and health, and I will cure them. And I will reveal to them an invocation of peace and truth. ? ⁷And I will convert the turning away of Judah and the turning away of Jerusalem. And I will build them up, just as from the beginning. ? ⁸And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, by which they have sinned against me. And I will forgive all their iniquities, by which they have offended against me and have despised me. ? ⁹And this will be for me: a name,jer and a joy, and a praise, and an exultation, among all the nations of the earth who will hear about all the good things that I will accomplish for them. And they will be afraid and troubled over all these good things, and over all the peace, that I will accomplish for them. ? ¹⁰Thus says the Lord: Still shall there be heard in this place, (which you say is desolate, because there is neither man nor beast,) and in the cities of Judah and outside of Jerusalem, (which are desolate, without man, and without an inhabitant and without cattle,) ? ¹¹the voice of gladness and the voice of rejoicing, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: �Confess to the Lord of hosts! For the Lord is good! For his mercy is eternal!� and the voice of those fulfilling their vows in the house of the Lord. For I will lead back the turning away of the land, just as from the beginning, says the Lord.� ? ¹²Thus says the Lord of hosts: �Still shall there be in this place, (which is desolate without man and without beast,) and in all of its cities: a habitation for the shepherds giving rest to their flocks. ? ¹³For even in the cities on the mountains, and in the cities on the plains, and in the cities that are toward the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and all around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, still shall the flocks travel by the hand of him who numbers them, says the Lord. ? ¹⁴Behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the good word that I have spoken to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. ? ¹⁵In those days and at that time, I will cause the seedling of justice to spring up from David, and he will accomplish judgment and justice upon the earth. ? ¹⁶In those days, Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in confidence. And this is the name that they will call him: �The Lord, our Just One.� ? ¹⁷For thus says the Lord: There shall not cease to be a man from David sitting upon the throne of the house of Israel. ? ¹⁸And there shall not cease to be a man from the priests and from the Levites before my face, who offers holocausts, and burns sacrifices, and kills victims, for days without end.� ? ¹⁹And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: ? ²⁰�Thus says the Lord: If my covenant with the day is able to be nullified, or my covenant with the night, such that there would be no day and no night in their time, ? ²¹then, too, my covenant with David, my servant, may be nullified, such that he would not have a son who reigns upon his throne, with both the Levites and the priests as my ministers. ? ²²Just as the stars of heaven are not able to be numbered, and the sand of the sea is not able to be measured, so will I multiply the offspring of David, my servant, and the Levites, my ministers.� ? ²³And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: ? ²⁴�Have you not seen what this people has spoken? They say: �The two families which the Lord had chosen have been rejected.� And so they have despised my people, as if they were no longer a nation in their sight. ? ²⁵Thus says the Lord: If I have not established my covenant with the day and the night, and my laws over heaven and earth, ? ²⁶then truly I will also cast aside the offspring of Jacob, and of David, my servant, so that I do not take up any of his offspring to be leaders over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will lead back their turning way, and I will take pity on them.� ?

Chapter 34

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and his entire army, and all the kingdoms of the earth that were under the authority of his hand, and all the people were making war against Jerusalem and against all of its cities, saying: ? ²�Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Go, and speak to Zedekiah, the king of Judah. And you shall say to him: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will deliver this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire. ? ³And you will not escape from his hand. Instead, you will be overtaken and captured, and you will be delivered into his hand. And your eyes will see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and his mouth will speak with your mouth, and you will enter into Babylon. ? ⁴Even so, listen to the word of the Lord, Zedekiah, king of Judah: Thus says the Lord to you: You will not die by the sword. ? ⁵Instead, you will die in peace. And, in accord with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so will they burn you. And they will mourn you, saying: �Alas, lord!� For I have spoken the word, says the Lord.� ? ⁶And Jeremiah, the prophet, spoke all these words to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, in Jerusalem. ? ⁷And the army of the king of Babylon fought against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that remained, against Lachish and against Azekah. For only these remained out of the cities of Judah that were fortified cities. ? ⁸The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after king Zedekiah had struck a pact with all the people in Jerusalem, proclaiming ? ⁹that each one should release his man servant, and each one his woman servant, as a free Hebrew man and a free Hebrew woman, and that they should never be rulers over them, that is, over the Jews, their own brothers. ? ¹⁰Then all the leaders and all the people who entered into the pact, heard that each one should release his man servant, and each one his woman servant, to be free, and that they should no longer rule over them. Therefore, they listened, and they released them. ? ¹¹But later on, they turned back. And they took back again their man servants and their woman servants, whom they had released to be free. And they subjugated them as male and female servants. ? ¹²And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ? ¹³�Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I struck a pact with your fathers in the day when I led them away from the land of Egypt, from the house of servitude, saying: ? ¹⁴�When seven years have been completed, let each one release his brother, a Hebrew, who had been sold to him. And so he will serve you for six years, and then you shall release him to be free from you.� But your fathers did not listen to me, nor did they incline their ear. ? ¹⁵And today you converted, and you did what is right in my eyes, so that you proclaimed liberty, each one to his friend. And you entered into a pact in my sight, in the house in which and over which my name is invoked. ? ¹⁶But now you have turned back, and you have stained my name. For you have led back again, each one his man servant, and each one his woman servant, whom you had released so that they would be free and under their own authority. And you have subjugated them, so that they would be your servants and handmaids.� ? ¹⁷Because of this, thus says the Lord: �You have not heeded me, though you proclaimed liberty, each one to his brother and each one to his friend. Behold, I am proclaiming a liberty for you, says the Lord, to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine. And I will cause you to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth. ? ¹⁸And I will give over the men who have betrayed my covenant, and who have not observed the words of the covenant, to which they assented in my sight when they cut the calf into two parts and passed between its parts: ? ¹⁹the leaders of Judah, and the leaders of Jerusalem, the eunuchs and the priests, and all the people of the land, who have passed between the parts of the calf. ? ²⁰And I will give them into the hands of their enemies and into the hands of those who are seeking their life. And their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth. ? ²¹And Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his leaders, I will give over to the hands of their enemies, and to the hands of those who are seeking their lives, and to the hands of the armies of the king of Babylon, which had withdrawn from you. ? ²²Behold, I will command, says the Lord, and I will lead them back to this city, and they will fight against it, and seize it, and set it on fire. And I will make the cities of Judah into a desolation, for there shall be no inhabitant.� ?

Chapter 35

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, saying: ? ²�Go to the house of the Rechabites, and speak to them, and lead them into the house of the Lord, into one of the halls of the treasuries. And you shall give them wine to drink.� ? ³And so I took Jaazaniah, the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers, and all his sons, and the entire house of the Rechabites, ? ⁴and I led them into the house of the Lord, to the treasury of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was near the treasury of the princes, above the storehouse of Maaseiah, the son of Shallum, who was the guardian of the entrance. ? ⁵And I placed before the sons of the house of the Rechabites bowls filled with wine, and chalices. And I said to them, �Drink wine.� ? ⁶And they responded: �We will not drink wine. For Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our father, instructed us, saying: �You shall not drink wine, you and your sons, in perpetuity. ? ⁷And you shall not build houses, and you shall not sow any seeds, and you shall not plant or have vineyards. Instead, you shall live in tents all your days, so that you may live many days upon the face of the earth, in which you are sojourners.� ? ⁸Therefore, we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he has commanded us, so that we do not drink wine all our days, we and our wives, our sons and daughters. ? ⁹And we do not build houses in which to live. And we do not have vineyard, or field, or seed to sow. ? ¹⁰Instead, we live in tents, and we have been obedient in accord with all that Jonadab, our father, has instructed us. ? ¹¹But when Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had ascended to our land, we said: �Come and let us enter into Jerusalem, before the face of the army of the Chaldeans, and before the face of the army of Syria.� And we have remained in Jerusalem.� ? ¹²And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: ? ¹³�Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go, and say to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Will you not accept discipline, so that you obey my words, says the Lord? ? ¹⁴The words of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, in which he instructed his sons, so that they would not drink wine, have prevailed. And they have not drunk wine, even to this day. For they have obeyed the instruction of their father. But I have spoken to you, rising and speaking from early morning, and you did not obey me. ? ¹⁵And I have sent to you all my servants, the prophets, rising at first light, and sending, and saying: �Convert, each one from his wicked way, and make your intentions good. And do not choose to follow strange gods, nor shall you worship them. And then you shall live in the land which I gave to you and to your fathers.� And yet you have not inclined your ear, and you have not heeded me. ? ¹⁶So the sons of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, have remained firm in the commandment of their father, which he instructed to them, while this people has not been obedient to me. ? ¹⁷For this reason, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will lead over Judah and over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, every evil that I have declared against them. For I have spoken to them, and they have not listened. I have called to them, and they have not responded to me.� ? ¹⁸Then Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites: �Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab, your father, and have kept all his precepts, and have done all that he has instructed you, ? ¹⁹because of this, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: There will not be a man lacking from the stock of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, standing in my sight, for all days.� ?

Chapter 36

¹And it happened in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah: it happened that this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ? ²�Take the volume of a book, and you shall write in it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah, and against all the nations, from the day when I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day. ? ³Perhaps it may be that the house of Judah, upon hearing all the evils that I have decided to do to them, may return, each one from his wicked way, and then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.� ? ⁴Therefore, Jeremiah called Baruch, the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote, from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the words of the Lord, which he had spoken to him, in the volume of a book. ? ⁵And Jeremiah instructed Baruch, saying: �I am confined, and so I am unable to enter into the house of the Lord. ? ⁶Therefore, you shall enter and read from the volume, in which you have written from my mouth the words of the Lord, in the hearing of the people in the house of the Lord on the day of the fast. Moreover, you shall also read them in the hearing of all those of Judah who are arriving from their cities. ? ⁷Perhaps it may happen that they pray in the sight of the Lord, and each one may return from his wicked way. For great is the fury and indignation that the Lord has declared against this people.� ? ⁸And Baruch, the son of Neriah, acted in accord with all that Jeremiah, the prophet, had instructed him, reading from the volume the words of the Lord, in the house of the Lord. ? ⁹And it happened that, in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, in the ninth month, they proclaimed a fast, in the sight of the Lord, to all the people in Jerusalem, and to the entire multitude which had flowed together, from the cities of Judah, into Jerusalem. ? ¹⁰And Baruch read from the volume the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, at the treasury of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, the scribe, in the upper vestibule, at the entrance to the new gate of the house of the Lord, in the hearing of all the people. ? ¹¹And when Micaiah, the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard all the words of the Lord from the book, ? ¹²he descended to the house of the king, to the treasury of the scribe. And behold, all the leaders were sitting there: Elishama, the scribe, and Delaiah, the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan, the son of Achbor, and Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah, the son of Hananiah, and all the leaders. ? ¹³And Micaiah announced to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read from the volume to the ears of the people. ? ¹⁴And so, all the leaders sent Jehudi, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, �Take in your hand the volume, from which you have read in the hearing of the people, and come.� Therefore, Baruch, the son of Neriah, took the volume in his hand, and he went to them. ? ¹⁵And they said to him, �Sit and read these things in our hearing.� And Baruch read in their hearing. ? ¹⁶Therefore, when they had heard all the words, each one looked at his neighbor in astonishment, and they said to Baruch: �We ought to report all these words to the king.� ? ¹⁷And they questioned him, saying, �Describe to us how you wrote all these words from his mouth.� ? ¹⁸Then Baruch said to them: �He was speaking with his mouth, as if reading to me. And I wrote in a volume with ink.� ? ¹⁹And the leaders said to Baruch: �Go away and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.� ? ²⁰And they entered to the king, in the court. Furthermore, they stored the volume in the treasury of Elishama, the scribe. And they announced all the words in the hearing of the king. ? ²¹And the king sent Jehudi to take the volume. And bringing it from the treasury of Elishama, the scribe, he read it in the hearing of the king and of all the leaders who were standing around the king. ? ²²Now the king was sitting in the winter house, in the ninth month. And there was a hearth placed before him, filled with burning coals. ? ²³And when Jehudi had read three or four pages, he cut it with a small knife, and he threw it into the fire which was upon the hearth, until the entire volume was consumed by the fire which was upon the hearth. ? ²⁴And the king and all his servants, who had heard all these words, were not afraid, and they did not rend their garments. ? ²⁵Yet truly, Elnathan, and Delaiah, and Gemariah contradicted the king, so that he might not burn the book. But he did not listen to them. ? ²⁶And the king instructed Jerahmeel, the son of Amelech, and Seraiah, the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah, the son of Abdeel, so that they would apprehend Baruch, the scribe, and Jeremiah, the prophet. But the Lord concealed them. ? ²⁷And after the king had burned the volume and the words that Baruch had written from the mouth of Jeremiah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, the prophet, saying: ? ²⁸�Again, take another volume and write in it all the former words, which were in the first volume that Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, has burned. ? ²⁹And you shall say to Jehoiakim, the king of Judah: Thus says the Lord: You have burned that volume, saying: �Why have you written in it, announcing that the king of Babylon will advance quickly, and will devastate this land, and will cause both man and beast to cease from it?� ? ³⁰Because of this, thus says the Lord against Jehoiakim, the king of Judah: There will be, from him, no one who may sit upon the throne of David. And his dead body shall be cast out: to the heat by day, and to the frost by night. ? ³¹And I will visit against him, and against his offspring, and against his servants for their iniquities. And I will lead over them, and over the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and over the men of Judah, all the evil that I have declared against them, for they have not listened.� ? ³²Then Jeremiah took up another volume, and he gave it to Baruch, the son of Neriah, the scribe, who wrote in it, from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the words of the book that Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, had burned with fire. And moreover, there were many more words added than there had been before. ?

Chapter 37

¹And then king Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, reigned in place of Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim. For Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, appointed him as king in the land of Judah. ? ²And neither he himself, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, obeyed the words of the Lord, which he spoke by the hand of Jeremiah, the prophet. ? ³And king Zedekiah sent Jehucal, the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying: �Pray to the Lord our God for us.� ? ⁴Now Jeremiah was walking freely in the midst of the people. For they had not yet sent him into the custody of the prison. And then the army of Pharaoh went forth from Egypt. And hearing this, the Chaldeans, who were besieging Jerusalem, withdrew from Jerusalem. ? ⁵And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying: ? ⁶�Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: So shall you say to the king of Judah, who sent you to question me: Behold, the army of Pharaoh, which has gone forth in assistance to you, will return to their own land, into Egypt. ? ⁷And the Chaldeans will return and will make war against this city. And they will seize it and burn it with fire. ? ⁸Thus says the Lord: Do not be willing to deceive your own souls, saying: �The Chaldeans will certainly withdraw and go away from us.� For they will not go away. ? ⁹But even if you were to strike down the entire army of the Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and if there were left behind from among them only a few wounded men, they would rise up, each one from his tent, and they would burn this city with fire.� ? ¹⁰Therefore, when the army of the Chaldeans had withdrawn from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh�s army, ? ¹¹Jeremiah went forth from Jerusalem, to go into the land of Benjamin, and to distribute a possession there, in the sight of the citizens. ? ¹²And when he had arrived at the gate of Benjamin, the keeper of the gate, whose turn it was to be there, was named Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah. And he apprehended Jeremiah the prophet, saying, �You are fleeing to the Chaldeans.� ? ¹³And Jeremiah responded: �That is false. I am not fleeing to the Chaldeans.� But he did not listen to him. And so Irijah took Jeremiah, and he brought him to the leaders. ? ¹⁴Therefore, the leaders were angry with Jeremiah, and so they beat him and sent him to the prison that was in the house of Jonathan, the scribe. For he was the chief over the prison. ? ¹⁵And so Jeremiah went into the house of the prison and into a dungeon. And Jeremiah sat there for many days. ? ¹⁶Then Zedekiah the king, sending, took him out and questioned him secretly in his house, and he said: �Do you think that there is any word from the Lord?� And Jeremiah said: �There is.� And he said: �You will be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon.� ? ¹⁷And Jeremiah said to king Zedekiah: �How have I sinned against you, or your servants, or your people, such that you would cast me into a house of imprisonment? ? ¹⁸Where are your prophets, who were prophesying to you, and who were saying: �The king of Babylon will not overwhelm you and this land?� ? ¹⁹Now therefore, listen, I beg you, my lord the king. Let my petition prevail in your sight. And do not send me back into the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.� ? ²⁰Then king Zedekiah instructed that Jeremiah be confined to the vestibule of the prison, and that they should give him a twist of bread daily, along with stew, until all the bread in the city had been consumed. And Jeremiah remained at the entrance of the prison. ?

Chapter 38

¹Then Shephatiah, the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah, the son of Pashhur, and Jehucal, the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur, the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah was speaking to all the people, saying: ? ²�Thus says the Lord: Whoever will remain in this city will die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence. But whoever will flee away from the Chaldeans, will live, and his soul will dwell in safety. ? ³Thus says the Lord: This city will certainly be delivered into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.� ? ⁴And the leaders said to the king: �We petition you to put this man to death. For he is deliberately weakening the hands of the men of war, who have remained in this city, and the hands of the people, by speaking to them with these words. For this man is certainly not seeking peace for this people, but evil.� ? ⁵And king Zedekiah said: �Behold, he is in your hands. For it is not fitting for the king to deny you anything.� ? ⁶Therefore, they took Jeremiah and cast him into the pit of Malchiah, the son of Amelech, which was at the entrance to the prison. And they lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the pit, in which there was no water, but only mud. And so Jeremiah descended into the mire. ? ⁷Now Ebedmelech, an Ethiopian man, a eunuch who was in the king�s house, heard that they had sent Jeremiah into the pit, and also that the king was sitting at the gate of Benjamin. ? ⁸And so Ebedmelech departed from the king�s house, and he spoke to the king, saying: ? ⁹�My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have perpetrated against Jeremiah the prophet, casting him into the pit so that he would die there from famine. For there is no more bread in the city.� ? ¹⁰And so the king instructed Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian, saying: �Take with you thirty men from here, and lift Jeremiah the prophet from the pit, before he dies.� ? ¹¹Therefore, Ebedmelech, taking the men with him, entered into the king�s house to a place below the storehouse. And he took from there old garments, no longer in use, and he sent them down by rope to Jeremiah in the pit. ? ¹²And Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian, said to Jeremiah: �Place these old garments, and these cut and decaying cloths, under your arms and over the ropes.� And Jeremiah did so. ? ¹³And they pulled up Jeremiah with the ropes, and they led him away from the pit. And Jeremiah remained in the vestibule of the prison. ? ¹⁴And king Zedekiah sent and took Jeremiah the prophet to him at the third gate, which was at the house of the Lord. And the king said to Jeremiah: �I will question you about a matter. You shall conceal nothing from me.� ? ¹⁵Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah: �If I announce to you, will you not put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.� ? ¹⁶Then king Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah, secretly, saying: �As the Lord lives, who made this soul for us, I will not kill you, nor will I deliver you into the hands of those men who are seeking your life.� ? ¹⁷And Jeremiah said to Zedekiah: �Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If, having set out, you go to the rulers of the king of Babylon, your soul will live, and this city will not be burned with fire. And you and your house will be safe. ? ¹⁸But if you will not go to the rulers of the king of Babylon, this city will be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans, and they will burn it with fire. And you will not escape from their hand.� ? ¹⁹And king Zedekiah said to Jeremiah: �I am anxious, because of the Jews who have crossed over to the Chaldeans, lest perhaps I may be delivered into their hands, and they may abuse me.� ? ²⁰But Jeremiah responded: �They will not deliver you. Listen, I ask you, to the voice of the Lord, which I am speaking to you, and it will be well with you, and your soul will live. ? ²¹But if you refuse to depart, this is the word that the Lord has revealed to me: ? ²²Behold, all the women who remain in the house of the king of Judah will be led away to the rulers of the king of Babylon. And the women will say: �Your men of peacefulness have led you astray, and they have prevailed against you. They have immersed your feet in mud and have set them in a slippery place. And they have withdrawn from you.� ? ²³And all your wives and your sons will be led away to the Chaldeans, and you will not escape from their hands. Instead, you will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon. And he will burn this city with fire.� ? ²⁴Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah: �Let no one know of these words, and you will not die. ? ²⁵But if the leaders hear that I have spoken with you, and if they come to you, and say to you: �Tell us what you said to the king. Do not conceal it from us, and we will not put you to death. And tell us what the king said to you,� ? ²⁶then you shall say to them: �I presented my supplication before the king, so that he would not order me to be led back to the house of Jonathan, to die there.� � ? ²⁷Then all the leaders came to Jeremiah, and they questioned him. And he spoke to them in accord with all the words that the king had commanded him. And they withdrew from him, for they had learned nothing. ? ²⁸Yet truly, Jeremiah remained at the entrance of the prison, until the day when Jerusalem was seized. And it happened that Jerusalem was captured. ?

Chapter 39

¹In the ninth year of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem, with his entire army, and they besieged it. ? ²Then, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the fifth of the month, the city was opened. ? ³And all the rulers of the king of Babylon entered and were seated at the middle gate: Nergal-Sharezer, the priest of Nebo, Sarsechim, the chief eunuch, Nergal-Sharezer, the chief magi, and all the other rulers of the king of Babylon. ? ⁴And when Zedekiah, the king of Judah, with all the men of war, had seen them, they fled. And they departed from the city at night, by way of the king�s garden, and through the gate which was between the two walls. And they departed along the way of the desert. ? ⁵But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them. And they overtook Zedekiah in the plain of the desert of Jericho. And having captured him, they led him to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, at Riblah, which is in the land of Hamath. And he declared a judgment against him ? ⁶And the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah, at Riblah, before his eyes. And the king of Babylon killed all the nobles of Judah. ? ⁷Also, he plucked out the eyes of Zedekiah. And he bound him with fetters, to be led away to Babylon. ? ⁸Also, the Chaldeans burned the house of the king and the house of the people with fire, and they overturned the wall of Jerusalem. ? ⁹And Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people who had remained in the city, and the fugitives who had fled to him, and all the rest of the people who had remained. ? ¹⁰And Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, released some of the poor people, those who had almost nothing, into the land of Judah. And he gave them vineyards and cisterns in that day. ? ¹¹Now Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had instructed Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, about Jeremiah, saying: ? ¹²�Take him, and set your eyes on him, and you shall do no harm to him at all. But as he is willing, so shall you do with him.� ? ¹³Therefore, Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, sent, and Nebushazban, the chief eunuch, and Nergal-Sharezer, the chief magi, and all the nobles of the king of Babylon sent, ? ¹⁴and they took Jeremiah from the vestibule of the prison, and they delivered him to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, so that he could enter a house and live among the people. ? ¹⁵But the word of the Lord had come to Jeremiah, when he had been confined to the vestibule of the prison, saying: �Go, and speak to Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian, saying: ? ¹⁶Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring my words over this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be in your sight in that day. ? ¹⁷And I will free you in that day, says the Lord. And you will not be delivered into the hands of the men whom you dread. ? ¹⁸But when delivering, I will free you. And you will not fall by the sword. Instead, your life will be saved for you, because you had faith in me, says the Lord.� ?

Chapter 40

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, had released him from Ramah, where he had taken him, bound in chains, along with all those who were being carried away from Jerusalem and from Judah, and were being led to Babylon. ? ²Therefore, the leader of the military, taking Jeremiah, said to him: �The Lord your God has declared this evil over this place, ? ³and he has brought it. And the Lord has done just as he has spoken. For you have sinned against the Lord, and you have not heeded his voice, and so this word has happened to you. ? ⁴Now therefore, behold, I have released you this day from the chains which were on your hands. If it pleases you to come with me into Babylon, then come. And I will set my eyes upon you. But if it displeases you to come with me into Babylon, then remain. Behold, all the land is in your sight. Whatever you will choose, and wherever it will please you to go, so shall you go, proceeding to that place. ? ⁵And you may decline to come with me. For you may live with Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah. Therefore, you may live with him in the midst of the people. And you may go wherever it will please you to go.� And the leader of the military also gave him foods and gifts, and he released him. ? ⁶Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, at Mizpah. And he lived with him in the midst of the people, those who had been left behind in the land. ? ⁷And when all the leaders of the army, who had been dispersed throughout the regions, they and their associates, had heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, governor of the land, and that he had committed to him the men, and women, and children, and the poor of the land, who had not been carried away to Babylon, ? ⁸they went to Gedaliah at Mizpah, with Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan and Jonathan, the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah, the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai, who were of Netophathi, and Jezaniah, the son of Maacathi, they and their men. ? ⁹And Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore to them and to their companions, saying: �Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Live in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be well with you. ? ¹⁰Behold, I live at Mizpah, so that I may follow the instruction of the Chaldeans who are sent to us. But as for you, gather the vintage, and the harvest, and the oil, and store it up in your vessels, and dwell in your cities, which you hold.� ? ¹¹So then, all the Jews, who were in Moab, and among the sons of Ammon, and in Idumea, and in all the regions, when they had heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judea, and that he had made Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, governor over them, ? ¹²all the Jews, I say, returned from all the places to which they had fled, and they came into the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah. And they gathered wine and an exceedingly great harvest. ? ¹³Then Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the army, who had been dispersed in the regions, came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. ? ¹⁴And they said to him: �Know that Baalis, the king of the sons of Ammon, has sent Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, to strike down your life.� And Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, did not believe them. ? ¹⁵But Johanan, the son of Kareah, spoke to Gedaliah, separately, at Mizpah, saying: �I will go, and I will strike down Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, without anyone knowing; otherwise he may kill you, and all the Jews will be scattered who have been gathered to you, and the remnant of Judah will perish.� ? ¹⁶And Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, said to Johanan, the son of Kareah: �Do not do this word. For what you have said about Ishmael is false.� ?

Chapter 41

¹And it happened that, in the seventh month, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama of royal descent, with the nobles of the king, and accompanied by ten men, went to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, at Mizpah. And they ate bread together there, in Mizpah. ? ²Then Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, rose up, and the ten men who were with him, and they struck down Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, and they killed him whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. ? ³Likewise, Ishmael struck down all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, with the Chaldeans who were found there, and the men of war. ? ⁴Then, on the second day after he had killed Gedaliah, while no one yet knew of it, ? ⁵men arrived from Shechem, and from Shiloh, and from Samaria, eighty men, with their beards shaved, and their garments rent, and unbathed. And they had gifts and frankincense in hand, so that they might make an offering in the house of the Lord. ? ⁶Therefore, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, departing from Mizpah to meet them, went forth weeping as he was walking. And when he had met them, he said to them, �Come to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam.� ? ⁷And when they had arrived at the center of the city, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, put them to death around the public cistern, he and the men who were with him. ? ⁸But ten men were found among them, who said to Ishmael: �Do not kill us! For in the field we have storehouses of grain and barley and oil and honey.� And so he ceased, and he did not put them to death with their brothers. ? ⁹Now the cistern, into which Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had struck down because of Gedaliah, is the same one that king Asa made out of fear of Baasha, the king of Israel. This same cistern Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, filled with those who were slain. ? ¹⁰Then Ishmael led away captive all the remnant of the people who were at Mizpah, the king�s daughters as well as all the people who remained at Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, had committed to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam. And Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, seized them and went away, so that he might go over to the sons of Ammon. ? ¹¹But Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the fighters who were with him, heard about all the evil that Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had done. ? ¹²And taking all the men, they set out to make war against Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah. And they found him at the great waters that are in Gibeon. ? ¹³And when all the people who were with Ishmael had seen Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the fighters who were with him, they rejoiced. ? ¹⁴And all the people whom Ishmael had seized turned back to Mizpah. And they returned and went over to Johanan, the son of Kareah. ? ¹⁵But Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, fled with eight men from the face of Johanan, and they went over to the sons of Ammon. ? ¹⁶Therefore, Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the fighters who were with him, took from Mizpah the entire remnant of the common people, whom they had led away from Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, after he had struck down Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam. These were strong men of battle, and women, and children, and eunuchs: those whom he had led away from Gibeon. ? ¹⁷And they went away and settled as sojourners at Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, so that they might continue on and enter into Egypt, ? ¹⁸away from the face of the Chaldeans. For they were afraid of them, because Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had struck down Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made governor in the land of Judah. ?

Chapter 42

¹And all the leaders of the warriors, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and Azariah, the son of Hoshaiah, and the rest of the common people, from the least even to the greatest, drew near. ? ²And they said to Jeremiah the prophet: �Let our supplication fall before your sight. And pray for us to the Lord your God, on behalf of this entire remnant. For few out of many have been left behind, just as your eyes behold us. ? ³And so, may the Lord your God announce to us the way that we must travel, and the word that we must accomplish.� ? ⁴Then Jeremiah, the prophet, said to them: �I have listened. Behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your words. And whatever word he will respond to me, I will declare to you. And I will conceal nothing from you.� ? ⁵And they said to Jeremiah: �May the Lord be the witness between us of truth and fidelity, if we do not act according to whatever word the Lord your God will send by you to us. ? ⁶Whether it is for good or for harm, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you. So may it be well with us, when we heed the voice of the Lord our God.� ? ⁷Then, when ten days had been completed, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. ? ⁸And he called Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of warriors who were with him, and all the people, from the least even to the greatest. ? ⁹And he said to them: �Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you have sent me, so that I may present your petitions in his sight: ? ¹⁰If you dwell quietly in this land, I will build you up, and I will not tear you down. I will plant you, and I will not uproot you. For now I have been appeased by the harm that I have done to you. ? ¹¹Do not be afraid before the face of the king of Babylon, whom you have dreaded with great fear. Do not dread him, says the Lord. For I am with you, so that I may accomplish your salvation, and so that I may rescue you from his hand. ? ¹²And I will give you mercies, and I will take pity on you, and I will cause you to live in your own land. ? ¹³But if you say: �We will not live in this land, nor will we heed the voice of the Lord our God,� ? ¹⁴saying: �Never! Instead, we will travel to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war, and we will not hear the blast of the trumpet, and we will not endure famine. And there we shall live.� ? ¹⁵Because of this, hear now the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces so as to advance into Egypt, and if you enter so that you may live there, ? ¹⁶the sword which you dread will overtake you there, in the land of Egypt, and the famine, about which you are anxious, will cling to you in Egypt, and there you shall die. ? ¹⁷And all the men, who have set their faces so that they may advance to Egypt in order to live there, will die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence. None of them will remain, nor will they escape from the face of the evil that I will bring over them. ? ¹⁸For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Just as my fury and my indignation has been enflamed over the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will my indignation be enflamed over you, when you will have entered into Egypt. And so you will be an oath, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a disgrace. And you will never see this place again. ? ¹⁹This is the word of the Lord concerning you, O remnant of Judah: Do not choose to enter into Egypt, for certainly you understand what I have sworn to you this day. ? ²⁰For you have deceived your own souls. For you have sent me to the Lord our God, saying: �Pray on our behalf to the Lord our God. And in accord with anything whatsoever that the Lord our God will tell you, announce this to us, and we will do it.� ? ²¹And I have announced it to you this day, and you have not heeded the voice of the Lord your God, concerning everything about which he has sent me to you. ? ²²Therefore, know with certainty now, that you will die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence, in the place which you wish to enter so that you may live there.� ?

Chapter 43

¹Then it happened that, when Jeremiah had finished speaking all the words of the Lord their God to the people, all those words concerning which the Lord their God had sent him to them, ? ²Azariah, the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the exalted men, spoke to Jeremiah, saying: �You are speaking a lie! The Lord our God has not sent you to say: �You shall not enter into Egypt so as to live in that place.� ? ³Instead, Baruch, the son of Neriah, has incited you against us, so as to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, to put us to death and to cause us to be led away into Babylon.� ? ⁴And so Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the warriors, and all the people, did not heed the voice of the Lord to remain in the land of Judah. ? ⁵But Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the warriors, took away all the remnant of Judah, who had returned from all the nations (to which they had been scattered before) to live in the land of Judah: ? ⁶men, and women, and children, and the daughters of the king, and every soul that Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, had left behind with Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as well as Jeremiah, the prophet, and Baruch, the son of Neriah. ? ⁷And they entered into the land of Egypt. For they did not obey the voice of the Lord. And they went as far as Tahpanhes. ? ⁸And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah at Tahpanhes, saying: ? ⁹�Take great stones in your hand, and you shall conceal them in the crypt which is under the brick wall at the gate of the house of Pharaoh at Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah. ? ¹⁰And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send for and take Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will set his throne over these stones which I have concealed, and he will establish his throne upon them. ? ¹¹And he will come and strike the land of Egypt: those who are meant for death, shall go to death, and those for captivity, to captivity, and those for the sword, to the sword. ? ¹²And he will kindle a fire in the shrines of the gods of Egypt, and he will burn them down, and he will lead them away captive. And he will clothe himself with the land of Egypt, just as a shepherd is clothed with his cloak. And he will go forth from that place in peace. ? ¹³And he will crush the statues of the house of the Sun, those that are in the land of Egypt, and the shrines of the gods of Egypt he will burn up with fire.� ?

Chapter 44

¹The word that came through Jeremiah to all the Jews who were living in the land of Egypt, living at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Memphis, and in the land of Pathros, saying: ? ²�Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You yourselves have seen all this evil that I have led over Jerusalem and over all the cities of Judah. And behold, they are desolate to this day, and there is no inhabitant in them, ? ³because of the wickedness which they have done, so that they provoked me to wrath, and because they went to offer sacrifice and worship to strange gods, which neither they, nor you, nor your fathers knew. ? ⁴And I sent to you all my servants, the prophets, rising in the night, and sending, and saying: �Do not choose to do this abominable word, which I hate.� ? ⁵But they did not listen, nor did they incline their ear, so that they would convert from their evil, and so that they would not sacrifice to strange gods. ? ⁶And so my indignation and my fury was fanned and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. And they have been turned into desolation and devastation, just as it is this day. ? ⁷And now, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil against your own souls, so that, among you, man and woman, child and infant would pass away from the midst of Judah, and so that no remnant at all would be left behind of you? ? ⁸For you have provoked me by the works of your hands, by sacrificing to strange gods in the land of Egypt, into which you have entered in order to live there, and so that you would perish and become a curse and a disgrace before all the nations of the earth. ? ⁹How could you have forgotten the evils of your fathers, and the evils of the kings of Judah, and the evils of their wives, and your own evils, and the evils of your own wives, which they have done in the land of Judah and in the regions of Jerusalem? ? ¹⁰They have not been cleansed, even to this day. And they have not feared, and they have not walked in the law of the Lord and in my precepts, which I have given before you and before your fathers. ? ¹¹For this reason, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face upon you for evil. And I will disperse all of Judah. ? ¹²And I will take the remnant of Judah, who had set their faces so that they would enter into the land of Egypt and live there, and they will all be consumed in the land of Egypt. They will fall by the sword and by famine. And they will be consumed, from the least, even to the greatest. By sword and by famine shall they die. And they will be an oath, and a wonder, and a curse, and a disgrace. ? ¹³And I will visit against those who are living in the land of Egypt, just as I have visited against Jerusalem: with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence. ? ¹⁴And there will be no one who escapes, of those who remain among the remnant of the Jews, those who have gone to sojourn in the land of Egypt. And they wish to be returned to the land of Judah, for they lift up their souls so that they might return and live there. But there will be no one who may return, except those who will flee.� ? ¹⁵Then all the men, knowing that their wives were sacrificing to strange gods, and all of the women, a great multitude of whom were standing there, and all of the people who were living in the land of Egypt at Pathros, responded to Jeremiah, by saying: ? ¹⁶�Concerning the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not heed you. ? ¹⁷But we will continue to do every word which proceeds from our own mouth, so that we sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and we pour out libations to her, just as we and our fathers have done, our kings and our leaders, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For we were filled with bread, and it was well with us, and we saw no evil. ? ¹⁸But since the time that we ceased to offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and to pour out libations to her, we have been in need of all things, and we have been consumed by the sword and by famine. ? ¹⁹But when we offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, do we make cakes for her worship and offer libations to her without our husbands?� ? ²⁰And Jeremiah spoke to all the people, facing the men, and facing the women, and facing all the people who had responded this word to him, saying: ? ²¹�Was this not the sacrifice that you offered in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your leaders, and the people of the land, which has been called to mind by the Lord and which has entered into his heart? ? ²²And the Lord could no longer bear this, because of the evil of your intentions, and because of the abominations that you have done. And so, your land has become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, and it is without an inhabitant, even to this day. ? ²³This is because you have sacrificed to idols, and you have sinned against the Lord. And you have not heeded the voice of the Lord, and you have not walked in his law, and in his precepts, and in his testimonies. It is for this reason that these evils have happened to you, just as it is today.� ? ²⁴Then Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women: �Listen to the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt: ? ²⁵Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: You and your wives have spoken it with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hands, saying: �Let us perform our vows that we have made, so that we may offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and pour out libations to her.� You have fulfilled your vows and accomplished their works. ? ²⁶Because of this, listen to the word of the Lord, all you of Judah, who live in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the Lord, that my name will never again be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in the land of Egypt, saying: �As the Lord God lives.� ? ²⁷Behold, I will be vigilant over them for harm, and not for good. And all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be consumed, by the sword and by famine, until they are thoroughly consumed. ? ²⁸And a few men, who will flee from the sword, will return from the land of Egypt into the land of Judah. And all the remnant of Judah, who had entered into the land of Egypt so as to live there, will know whose word will be completed, mine or theirs. ? ²⁹And this will be a sign to you, says the Lord, that I will visit against you in this place, so that truly you may know that my words will be completed against you for harm.� ? ³⁰Thus says the Lord: �Behold, I will deliver Pharaoh Hophra, the king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of those who are seeking his life, just as I delivered Zedekiah, the king of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, his enemy and the one who was seeking his life.� ?

Chapter 45

¹The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch, the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book, from the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, saying: ? ²�Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to you, Baruch: ? ³You have said: �Woe to me, a wretched man! For the Lord has added sorrow to my sorrow. I have labored in my groaning, and I have not found rest.� ? ⁴Thus says the Lord: So shall you say to him: Behold, those whom I have built up, I destroy, and those whom I have planted, I uproot, even this entire land. ? ⁵And are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not choose to seek them. For behold, I will lead evil over all that is flesh, says the Lord. But I will give your life to you unto salvation, in every place, wherever you may travel.� ?

Chapter 46

¹The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles, ? ²about Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh Neco, the king of Egypt, which was beside the river Euphrates at Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, struck down, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah: ? ³� �Prepare the heavy and the light shield, and advance to war! ? ⁴Harness the horses, and let the horsemen climb upon them! Stand forth with helmets! Sharpen the lances! Clothe yourselves in armor!� ? ⁵And what is next? I have seen them terrified, and turning their backs, their strong ones cut down. They have fled in disorder and have not looked back. Terror on every side, says the Lord. ? ⁶Let not the swift take flight; let not the strong ones think to save themselves. They have been conquered and ruined, toward the north, near the river Euphrates. ? ⁷Who is this, who ascends like a flood, and whose streams swell up, like those of the rivers? ? ⁸Egypt ascends in the form of a river, and its waves will be moved like those of a river. And he will say: �I will ascend and cover the earth! I will perish the city and its inhabitants!� ? ⁹Mount the horses, and exult upon chariots, and let the strong ones advance: the Ethiopians, and the Libyans, who hold the heavy shield, and the Lydians, who grasp and shoot arrows. ? ¹⁰For this is the day of the Lord, the God of hosts, a day of vengeance, so that he may vindicate himself of his enemies. The sword will devour, and be satiated, and be inebriated with their blood. For there is a victim of the Lord, the God of hosts, in the land of the north, beside the river Euphrates. ? ¹¹Ascend to Gilead, and take its balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt! It is in vain that you multiply medicines; there will be no health for you! ? ¹²The nations have heard of your disgrace, and your wailing has filled the earth. For the strong have stumbled against the strong, and both have fallen together.� ? ¹³The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, concerning how Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, would arrive and strike the land of Egypt: ? ¹⁴�Announce it to Egypt, and make it heard in Migdol, and let it resonate in Memphis and in Tahpanhes. Say this: Stand and prepare yourself! For the sword will devour everything around you. ? ¹⁵Why have your strong ones decayed? They have not stood firm, because the Lord has overthrown them. ? ¹⁶He has multiplied those in ruin, and each man has fallen beside his neighbor. And they will say: �Rise up, and let us return to our own people and to the land of our nativity, away from the face of the sword of the dove. ? ¹⁷Call the name of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt: �Time has brought tumult.� ? ¹⁸As I live, says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts, just as Tabor is among the mountains, and just as Carmel is beside the sea, so will he come. ? ¹⁹Equip yourself for the transmigration, O daughter who inhabitants Egypt. For Memphis will be in desolation, and it will be deserted and uninhabited. ? ²⁰Egypt is like a stately and finely-formed calf. The one who will goad her will come from the north. ? ²¹Her hired hands also, who move within her midst, like fatted calves have been turned back, and they have fled at the same time, and they are not able to stand firm. For the day of their passing away has overwhelmed them; it is the time of their visitation. ? ²²Her voice will sound out like brass. For they will rush forward with an army, and with axes they will come against her, like those who chop wood. ? ²³They have cut down her forest, says the Lord, which was not able to be counted. They have been multiplied more than locusts, and they are without number. ? ²⁴The daughter of Egypt has been confounded, and she has been delivered into the hand of the people of the north. ? ²⁵The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, said: Behold, I will visit against the tumult of Alexandria, and against Pharaoh, and against Egypt, and against her gods, and against her kings, and against Pharaoh, and against those who trust in him. ? ²⁶And I will give them over to the hand of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants. And after this, it shall be inhabited, just as in the former days, says the Lord. ? ²⁷And as for you, my servant Jacob, you should not be afraid, and you should not dread, O Israel. For behold, I will bring your salvation from afar, and your offspring from the land of your captivity. And Jacob will return and have rest, and he will prosper. And there will be no one who may terrify him. ? ²⁸And as for you, my servant Jacob, do not be afraid, says the Lord. For I am with you. For I will consume all the nations to which I have cast you out. Yet truly, I will not consume you. Instead, I will chastise you in judgment, but neither will I spare you, as if you were innocent.� ?

Chapter 47

¹The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah, the prophet, against the Philistines, before Pharaoh struck Gaza. ? ²Thus says the Lord: �Behold, waters will rise up from the north, and they will be like an inundating torrent, and they will cover the land and its plenitude, the city and its inhabitants. The men will cry out, and all the inhabitants of the land will wail, ? ³before the uproar of a procession of weapons and of his soldiers, before the commotion of his four-horse chariots and the multitude of his wheels. The fathers have not looked back for the sons, because of feebleness of hands, ? ⁴because of the arrival of the day on which all the Philistines will be devastated, and Tyre and Sidon will be destroyed, with all the rest of their helpers. For the Lord has depopulated the Philistines, the remnant of the island of Cappadocia. ? ⁵Baldness has arrived over Gaza. Ashkelon has been silenced, along with the remnant of their valley. And how long will you continue to be cut down? ? ⁶O sharp sword of the Lord, how long will you be without rest? Enter your sheath; be refreshed and silenced. ? ⁷But how can it find rest, when the Lord has ordered it against Ashkelon and against its maritime regions, and when a task has been appointed to it there?� ?

Chapter 48

¹Against Moab, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: �Woe upon Nebo! For it has been devastated and confounded. Kiriathaim has been seized; the strong one has been confounded and has trembled. ? ²There is no longer any rejoicing in Moab over Heshbon. They have devised evil. �Come and let us destroy it as a nation.� Then you will be utterly silenced, and the sword will pursue you. ? ³A voice of clamor from Horonaim: devastation and great destruction! ? ⁴Moab has been crushed. Announce an outcry for her little ones. ? ⁵For, along the ascent of Luhith, the mourner will ascend with weeping. For, on the descent of Horonaim, the enemies have heard the wailing of devastation. ? ⁶Flee, save your lives! And you shall be like a saltcedar tree in the desert. ? ⁷For because you have had faith in your fortifications and in your storehouses, you too will be seized. And Chemosh will go into captivity: his priests and his leaders together. ? ⁸And the despoiler will overwhelm every city, and not a single city will be saved. And the valleys will perish, and the fields will be destroyed. For the Lord has spoken. ? ⁹Give a blossom to Moab. For it will depart when it is blossoming. And its cities will become desolate and uninhabited. ? ¹⁰Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord deceitfully. And cursed is he who prohibits his sword from blood. ? ¹¹Moab has been fertile from his youth, and he has rested amid his brood. And he has not been transferred from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into the transmigration. Therefore, his taste has remained with him, and his scent has not changed. ? ¹²Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will send to him those who will line up and knock down his bottles, and they will knock him down and empty his vessels, and they will break their bottles against one another. ? ¹³And Moab will be confounded by Chemosh, just as the house of Israel was shamed by Bethel, in which they had faith. ? ¹⁴How can you say: �We are strong and robust men of battle?� ? ¹⁵Moab has been devastated, and they have cut down her cities. And her elect young men have descended to slaughter. So says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts. ? ¹⁶The passing away of Moab draws near and arrives. Its evil will rush forward with great speed. ? ¹⁷Console him, all you who surround him and all you who know his name. Say: �How has the strong staff become broken, the glorious staff?� ? ¹⁸Descend from your glory, and sit in thirst, O habitation of the daughter of Dibon! For the destroyer of Moab has ascended to you; he has dissipated your fortifications. ? ¹⁹Stand in the way, and gaze out, O habitation of Aroer! Question him who is fleeing, and say to him who has escaped: �What has happened?� ? ²⁰Moab has been confounded, because he has been conquered. Wail and cry out! Announce it in Arnon: Moab has been devastated, ? ²¹and judgment has arrived upon the land of the plains: upon Holon, and upon Jahzah, and upon Mephaath, ? ²²and upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon the house of Deblathaim, ? ²³and upon Kiriathaim, and upon the house of Gamul, and upon the house of Meon, ? ²⁴and upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, those far away and those nearby. ? ²⁵The horn of Moab has been cut away, and his arm has been crushed, says the Lord. ? ²⁶Inebriate him, for he has lifted himself up against the Lord. And Moab will thrust his hand into his own vomit, and also now he himself will become a derision. ? ²⁷For Israel had been a derision to them. It was as if you had discovered him among thieves. Because of your own words, then, which you have spoken against him, you will be led away captive. ? ²⁸Relinquish the cities, and live upon a rock, O inhabitants of Moab, and be like a dove nesting at the mouth of an opening at the summit. ? ²⁹We have listened to the arrogance of Moab; he is very proud: his exaltation, and arrogance, and pride, and the loftiness of his heart. ? ³⁰I myself know, says the Lord, his boasting, and that his ability is not in accord with it, nor is it in accord with what he has been striving to do. ? ³¹For this reason, I will wail over Moab, and I will cry out to all of Moab, to the men on the brick wall who are lamenting. ? ³²O vineyard of Sibmah, I will weep for you, with the mourning of Jazer. Your offshoots have crossed over the sea. They have reached even to the sea of Jazer. The despoiler has rushed over your harvest and your vintage. ? ³³Rejoicing and exultation has been taken away from Carmel and from the land of Moab. And I have taken the wine from the winepresses. The treader of grapes will no longer sing the usual rhythmic chant. ? ³⁴From the outcry of Heshbon, even to Elealeh and Jahzah, they have uttered their voice; from Zoar, even to Horonaim, like a three year old calf. So too, the waters of Nimrim will be very bad. ? ³⁵And I will take away from Moab, says the Lord, the one who makes offerings in exalted places, and the one who sacrifices to his gods. ? ³⁶Because of this, my heart will resound for Moab, like the pipes, and my heart will make a sound like the pipes for the men on the brick wall. For he has done more than he was able, yet still they have perished. ? ³⁷For every head will be bald, and every beard will be shaved. All the hands will be bound together, and there will be haircloth on every back. ? ³⁸Over all the rooftops of Moab, and in its streets, everyone will mourn. For I have crushed Moab like a useless vessel, says the Lord. ? ³⁹How was it conquered, so that they would wail? How is it that Moab has cast down his neck and been confounded? And Moab will be a derision and an example to everyone around him.� ? ⁴⁰Thus says the Lord: �Behold, he will fly like the eagle, and he will extend his wings to Moab. ? ⁴¹Kerioth has been captured, and the fortifications have been taken. And in that day, the heart of the strong ones of Moab will be like the heart of a woman giving birth. ? ⁴²And Moab will cease to be a people. For he has been glorified against the Lord. ? ⁴³Terror and the pit and the snare will overwhelm you, O inhabitant of Moab, says the Lord. ? ⁴⁴Whoever flees from the terror will fall into the pit. And whoever climbs out of the pit will be seized by the snare. For I will lead over Moab the year of their visitation, says the Lord. ? ⁴⁵Those fleeing from the snare stood in the shadow of Heshbon. For a fire has gone forth from Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and it will devour the portion of Moab, and the top of the head of the sons of tumult. ? ⁴⁶Woe to you, O Moab! You have been ruined, O people of Chemosh! For your sons and your daughters have been taken into captivity. ? ⁴⁷But I will convert the captivity of Moab in the last days, says the Lord.� Such are the judgments of Moab thus far. ?

Chapter 49

¹Against the sons of Ammon. Thus says the Lord: �Does Israel have no sons? Or is there no heir for him? Then why has Milcom possessed the inheritance of Gad, and why have his people lived in his cities? ? ²Therefore, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will cause the noise of battle to be heard over Rabbah of the sons of Ammon. And it will be scattered into a tumult, and her daughters will be burned with fire. And Israel shall possess those who had possessed him, says the Lord. ? ³Wail, O Heshbon! For Ai has been devastated. Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah! Wrap yourselves with haircloth. Mourn and circle the hedges. For Milcom will be led into the transmigration: his priests and his leaders together. ? ⁴Why have you gloried in the valleys? Your valley has flowed away, O delicate daughter, for you had confidence in your treasures, and you were saying, �Who can approach me?� ? ⁵Behold, I will lead a terror over you, says the Lord, the God of hosts, from those who are all around you. And you will be dispersed, each one from before your sight. There will be no one who will gather together those who are fleeing. ? ⁶And after this, I will cause the captives of the sons of Ammon to return, says the Lord.� ? ⁷Against Idumea. Thus says the Lord of hosts: �Is there no longer any wisdom in Teman? Counsel has perished from the sons. Their wisdom has become useless. ? ⁸Flee and turn your backs! Descend into the chasm, O inhabitants of Dedan! For I have brought the perdition of Esau over him, the time of his visitation. ? ⁹If those who gather grapes had passed by you, would they not have left behind a cluster? If there were thieves in the night, they would seize what was enough for themselves. ? ¹⁰Yet truly, I have stripped Esau bare. I have revealed his secrets, and he is not able to be concealed. His offspring has been devastated, with his brothers and his neighbors, and he himself will not exist. ? ¹¹Leave behind your orphans. I will make sure that they live. And your widows will hope in me.� ? ¹²For thus says the Lord: �Behold, those who judged that they would not drink the cup, will certainly drink. And so, will you be released as if you were innocent? You will not be released as if innocent. Instead, you shall certainly drink. ? ¹³For I have sworn by myself, says the Lord, that Bozrah will be a desolation, and a disgrace, and a wasteland, and a curse. And all her cities will be a perpetual wilderness. ? ¹⁴I have heard a report from the Lord, and an legate has been sent to the nations: �Gather yourselves together, and go forth against her, and let us rise up to battle.� ? ¹⁵For behold, I have made you little among the nations, contemptible among men. ? ¹⁶Your arrogance has deceived you, by the pride of your heart, you who live in the caverns of the rock and who strive to take hold of the height of the hill. But even if you make your nest like that of an eagle, I will pull you down from there, says the Lord. ? ¹⁷And Idumea will be a desert. Everyone who passes by it will be stupefied and will hiss over all its wounds. ? ¹⁸Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors were overthrown, says the Lord: there will not be a man living there, and no son of man will tend it. ? ¹⁹Behold, he will ascend like a lion from the arrogance of the Jordan, against the robust beauty. For I will cause him to rush against her suddenly. And who will be the elect one, whom I may appoint over her? For who is like me? And who can endure me? And who is that pastor who can withstand my countenance? ? ²⁰Because of this, listen to the counsel of the Lord, which he has undertaken concerning Edom, and to his thoughts, which he has devised concerning the inhabitants of Teman. Certainly, the little ones of the flock will cast them down, unless they scatter them with their habitation. ? ²¹The earth has been shaken at the noise of their destruction. The outcry of their voice has been heard at the Red Sea. ? ²²Behold, he will ascend like an eagle and will fly. And he will spread his wings over Bozrah. And in that day, the heart of the strong ones of Idumea will be like the heart of a woman giving birth.� ? ²³Against Damascus. �Hamath has been confounded, with Arpad. For they have heard a most grievous report. They have been stirred up like the sea. Because of anxiousness, they were not able to rest. ? ²⁴Damascus has been broken. She has been turned to flight. Trembling has taken hold of her. Anguish and sorrows have seized her, like a woman giving birth. ? ²⁵How could they have abandoned the praiseworthy city, the city of rejoicing? ? ²⁶For this reason, her young men will fall in her streets. And all the men of battle will be silenced in that day, says the Lord of hosts. ? ²⁷And I will kindle a fire at the wall of Damascus, and it will devour the defensive walls of Ben-hadad.� ? ²⁸Against Kedar and against the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has struck down. Thus says the Lord: �Rise up and ascend to Kedar, and lay waste to the sons of the East. ? ²⁹They will seize their tabernacles and their flocks. And they will take for themselves their tents, and all their vessels, and their camels. And they will call down a terror upon them on every side. ? ³⁰Flee, go away urgently! Sit in deep pits, you who inhabit Hazor, says the Lord. For Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has undertaken a counsel against you, and he has devised plans against you. ? ³¹Rise up, and ascend to a nation that is quiet and lives in confidence, says the Lord. They have neither gates nor bars. They dwell alone. ? ³²And their camels will be a spoil, and the multitude of their cattle will be a prey. And I will disperse, into every wind, those who have shaved their hair. And from all their confines, I will lead great destruction over them, says the Lord. ? ³³And Hazor will be a habitation for serpents, deserted even unto eternity. No man will abide there, nor will a son of man tend it.� ? ³⁴The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, saying: ? ³⁵�Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, and the summit of their strength. ? ³⁶And I will lead the four winds over Elam, from the four corners of heaven. And I will scatter them into all these winds. And there will be no nation to which the fugitives of Elam will not travel. ? ³⁷And I will cause Elam to be terrified before their enemies and in the sight of those who seek their life. And I will lead an evil over them, the wrath of my fury, says the Lord. And I will send the sword after them, until I consume them. ? ³⁸And I will set my throne in Elam, and I will perish the kings and princes from there, says the Lord. ? ³⁹But in the last days, I will cause the captives of Elam to return, says the Lord.� ?

Chapter 50

¹The word that the Lord has spoken about Babylon and about the land of the Chaldeans, by the hand of Jeremiah the prophet. ? ²�Announce it among the Gentiles, and make it known. Lift up a sign. Proclaim it and do not conceal it. Say this: �Babylon has been captured. Bel has been confounded. Merodach has been conquered. Their graven things have been confounded. Their idols have not survived.� ? ³For a nation has ascended against her from the north, which will set her land in desolation. And there will be no one who may live within it, from man even to beast. For they have been removed and have gone away. ? ⁴In those days and in that time, says the Lord, the sons of Israel will advance, they and the sons of Judah together. Weeping as they walk, they will hurry on, and they will seek the Lord their God. ? ⁵They will ask the way to Zion; their faces will be set toward this place. They will arrive and will be joined to the Lord by an everlasting covenant, which nothing will wipe away into oblivion. ? ⁶My people have become a lost flock. Their shepherds have led them astray and have caused them to wander in the mountains. They have crossed from mountain to hill. They have forgotten their resting place. ? ⁷All whom they have found, they have devoured. And their enemies have said: �We have not sinned. For it is they who have sinned against the Lord, the beauty of justice, and against the Lord, the hope of their fathers.� ? ⁸Withdraw from the midst of Babylon, and go forth from the land of the Chaldeans. And be like young goats before the flock. ? ⁹For behold, I am raising up, and I will lead against Babylon, a congregation of great nations from the land of the north. And they will be prepared against her, and from there she will be taken. Their arrows, like those of a strong man, a killer, will not return empty. ? ¹⁰And Chaldea will become a prey. All who lay waste to her will be filled, says the Lord. ? ¹¹For you exult and you speak great things, plundering my inheritance. For you have spread out like calves upon the grass, and you have bellowed like bulls. ? ¹²Your mother has been exceedingly shamed, and she who bore you has become equal to the dust. Behold, she will be the last among the nations, a desert, impassable and dry. ? ¹³By the wrath of the Lord, it will not be inhabited. Instead, it will be entirely desolate. Every one who passes by Babylon will be stupefied and will hiss over all her wounds. ? ¹⁴Prepare yourselves against Babylon, on every side, all you who bend the bow. Make war against her! You should not spare the arrows, for she has sinned against the Lord. ? ¹⁵Cry out against her! For where she has put forth a hand, her foundations have fallen, her walls have been destroyed. For it is the vengeance of the Lord. Take vengeance against her! Just as she has done, do so to her. ? ¹⁶Destroy the founder from Babylon, and the one who holds the sickle in the time of harvest. Before the face of the sword of the dove, each one will turn back to his people, and every one will flee to his own land. ? ¹⁷Israel is a scattered flock. The lions have driven him away. First, the king of Assyria devoured him. And last, this Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has taken away his bones. ? ¹⁸Because of this, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will visit the king of Babylon and his land, just as I have visited the king of Assyria. ? ¹⁹And I will lead back Israel to his habitation. And he will pasture on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul will be satiated at mount Ephraim and Gilead. ? ²⁰In those days and at that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel will be sought, and there will be none. And the sin of Judah will be sought, and none will be found. For I will be forgiving to them, whom I will leave behind. ? ²¹Ascend against the land of the rulers, and visit against its inhabitants! Scatter and destroy whatever has been left behind them, says the Lord, and act according to all that I have instructed you. ? ²²A voice of war in the land, and great destruction! ? ²³How has the mallet of the entire earth been broken and crushed? How has Babylon been turned into a desert among the nations? ? ²⁴I have ensnared you, and you have been captured, O Babylon, and you did not realize it. You have been discovered and seized, because you provoked the Lord. ? ²⁵The Lord has opened his storehouse, and he has brought forth the instruments of his wrath. For there is work for the Lord, the God of hosts, within the land of the Chaldeans. ? ²⁶Advance against her from the furthest regions! Open, so that those who will trample her may go out! Take stones from the road, and gather them into piles, and destroy her. And let there be nothing left of her. ? ²⁷Scatter all her strong ones. Let them descend to the slaughter. Woe to them! For their day has arrived, the time of their visitation. ? ²⁸It is the voice of those who are fleeing and of those who have escaped from the land of Babylon: to announce in Zion the revenge of the Lord our God, the revenge of his Temple. ? ²⁹Announce it to the many in Babylon, to all who bend the bow. Stand together against her all around, and let no one escape. Repay her according to her work. In accord with all that she has done, do to her. For she has raised herself up against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel. ? ³⁰For this reason, her young men will fall in her streets. And all her men of war will be silenced, in that day, says the Lord. ? ³¹Behold, I am against you, O proud one, says the Lord, the God of hosts. For your day has arrived, the time of your visitation. ? ³²And the proud one will fall and be ruined. And there will be no one who may lift him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it will devour everything around him.� ? ³³Thus says the Lord of hosts: �The sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have endured calumny together. All who have seized them are holding them and refusing to release them. ? ³⁴Their redeemer is strong. The Lord of hosts is his name. He will defend their case in judgment, so that he may terrify the land and disturb the inhabitants of Babylon. ? ³⁵A sword is for the Chaldeans, says the Lord, and for the inhabitants of Babylon, and for her leaders, and for her wise ones. ? ³⁶A sword is for her diviners, who will be fooled. A sword is for her strong ones, who will be afraid. ? ³⁷A sword is for their horses, and for their chariots, and for all the common people who are in her midst. And they will be like women. A sword is for her storehouses, and they will be plundered. ? ³⁸A drought is over her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is a land of graven images, and they glory in portents. ? ³⁹Because of this, dragons will live there with the fig fauns, and ostriches will live in it. And it will no longer be inhabited, even in perpetuity, nor will it be raised up, even from generation to generation. ? ⁴⁰Just as the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and their neighboring towns, says the Lord, no man will live there, and a son of man will not tend it. ? ⁴¹Behold, a people arrives from the north, and a great nation. And many kings will rise up from the ends of the earth. ? ⁴²They will take up the bow and the shield. They are cruel and merciless. Their voice will sound out, like the sea, and they will ride upon horses, like a man prepared for battle against you, O daughter of Babylon. ? ⁴³The king of Babylon has heard the report about them, and his hands have been weakened. Anguish has overtaken him, like the pains of a woman giving birth. ? ⁴⁴Behold, he will ascend like a lion from the arrogance of the Jordan to the robust beauty. For I will cause him to rush upon her suddenly. And who will be the elect one, whom I may appoint over her? For who is like me? And who can endure me? And who is that pastor who can withstand my countenance?� ? ⁴⁵Because of this, listen to the counsel of the Lord, which he has conceived in his mind against Babylon, and to his thoughts, which he has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: �Certainly the little ones of the flocks will pull them down, unless their habitation will have been destroyed with them. ? ⁴⁶At the voice of the captivity of Babylon, the earth has been moved, and an outcry has been heard among the nations.� ?

Chapter 51

¹Thus says the Lord: �Behold, I will raise up, over Babylon and over its inhabitants, who have lifted up their heart against me, something like a pestilent wind. ? ²And I will send winnowers into Babylon, and they will winnow her, and they will demolish her land. For they will overwhelm her from every side in the day of her affliction. ? ³Let him who draws the bow, not draw his bow. And let him who wears armor, not rise up. Do not spare her young men. Destroy her entire military. ? ⁴And the slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and the wounded in its regions. ? ⁵Yet Israel and Judah have not been widowed by their God, the Lord of hosts, though their land has been filled with transgression against the Holy One of Israel. ? ⁶Flee from the midst of Babylon! And let each one save his own life. Do not be silent about her iniquity. For it is the time of revenge from the Lord. He himself will repay her, in her turn. ? ⁷Babylon is a gold cup in the hand of the Lord, inebriating the entire earth. The nations have drunk from her wine, and therefore they have staggered. ? ⁸Suddenly, Babylon has fallen and been crushed. Wail over her! Take a balm to her pain, if perhaps she may be healed.� ? ⁹�We would have cured Babylon, but there is no cure. Let us abandon her, and let each one of us go to his own land. For her judgment has reached even to the heavens, and has been lifted up even to the clouds. ? ¹⁰The Lord has brought forth our justices. Come and let us describe in Zion the work of the Lord our God.� ? ¹¹Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers. The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. And his mind is against Babylon, so that he may destroy her. For this is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his temple. ? ¹²Upon the walls of Babylon, lift up a sign. Increase the watch! Rouse the watchmen! Prepare ambushes! For the Lord has planned and has accomplished all that he has spoken, against the inhabitants of Babylon. ? ¹³You who live above many waters, rich in treasures: your end has arrived, your measure has been cut short. ? ¹⁴The Lord of hosts has sworn by himself, saying: �For I will fill you with men as with locusts, and they will sing a rhythmic chant against you.� ? ¹⁵The One who made the earth by his strength, who prepared the world by his wisdom, and who stretched out the heavens by his prudence: ? ¹⁶when he utters his voice, the waters will be multiplied in the heavens. The One who lifts up the clouds from the ends of the earth: he has turned lightning into rain, and he has brought forth wind from his storehouses. ? ¹⁷Each man has become foolish before his own knowledge. Each sculptor has been confounded by his own sculpture. For what he has formed of them is a lie, and there is no spirit in them. ? ¹⁸They are empty works, deserving of ridicule. In the time of their visitation, they will perish. ? ¹⁹The portion of Jacob is not like their portion. For the One who made all things is his portion, and Israel is the scepter of his inheritance. The Lord of hosts is his name: ? ²⁰�For me, you strike together the instruments of war; and with you, I will strike together nations; and with you, I will scatter the kingdoms. ? ²¹And with you, I will strike together the horse and his rider; and with you, I will strike together the chariot and its rider. ? ²²And with you, I will strike together man and woman; and with you, I will strike together the old man and the boy; and with you, I will strike together the young man and the virgin. ? ²³And with you, I will strike together the pastor and his flock; and with you, I will strike together the farmer and his yoke of oxen; and with you, I will strike together military leaders and civil leaders. ? ²⁴And I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their evil that they have done in Zion, before your eyes, says the Lord. ? ²⁵Behold, I am against you, you pestilent mountain, says the Lord, for you are corrupting the entire earth. And I will extend my hand over you, and I will roll you down from the rocks, and I will make you into a burning mountain. ? ²⁶And they will not take from you a stone for the corner, nor a stone for the foundations. Instead, you will be destroyed unto eternity,� says the Lord. ? ²⁷Lift up a sign in the land! Sound the trumpet among the nations! Sanctify the nations against her. Announce against her the kings of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Number against her Taphsar. Lead in the horse, like the stinging locust. ? ²⁸Sanctify the nations against her: the kings of Media, their military leaders, and all their civil leaders, and the entire land under their authority. ? ²⁹And the earth will be shaken and will be disturbed. For the plan of the Lord against Babylon will awaken, so that he may make the land of Babylon desolate and uninhabitable. ? ³⁰The strong ones of Babylon have ceased to do battle. They have lived in fortresses. Their health has been devoured, and they have become like women. Her tabernacles have been set ablaze; her bars have been broken. ? ³¹Runner will go forth to meet runner, and messenger will meet messenger, so as to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been captured, from one end to the other, ? ³²and that the fords were seized in advance, and that the marshes have been burned with fire, and that the men of war have been set in disarray. ? ³³For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: �The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor. This is the time of her threshing. A little while longer, and the time of her harvest will arrive.� ? ³⁴�Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, has consumed me, has devoured me. He has made me like an empty vessel. He has swallowed me like a dragon. He has filled his belly with my tender ones, and he has cast me out. ? ³⁵This iniquity is against me, and so my flesh is upon Babylon,� says the habitation of Zion. �And my blood is upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,� says Jerusalem. ? ³⁶Because of this, thus says the Lord: �Behold, I will judge your case, and I will avenge your vengeance, and I will make her sea into a desert, and I will dry up her spring. ? ³⁷And Babylon will become a tumult, the habitation of dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, because there is no inhabitant. ? ³⁸They will roar together, like lions, they will shake their manes, like young lions. ? ³⁹In their heat, I will give them a drink, and I will inebriate them, so that they become drowsy, and sleep an everlasting sleep, and do not rise up, says the Lord. ? ⁴⁰I will lead them away, like lambs to the slaughter, and like rams with young goats. ? ⁴¹How was Sesac captured, and how was the renowned one of all the earth seized? How has Babylon become an astonishment among the nations? ? ⁴²The sea has ascended over Babylon; she has been covered by the multitude of its waves. ? ⁴³Her cities have become an astonishment, an uninhabited and desolate land, a land in which no one may live, nor may a son of man pass through it. ? ⁴⁴And I will visit against Bel in Babylon, and I will cast from his mouth what he has swallowed. And the nations will no longer flow together before him. For even the wall of Babylon will also fall. ? ⁴⁵Go forth from her midst, my people, so that each one may save his life from the wrath of the fury of the Lord. ? ⁴⁶For otherwise, your heart may faint, and you may be afraid at the news that is heard in the land. And the news will arrive within a year, and after that year more news will arrive. And iniquity will be in the land, and one ruler will be over another ruler. ? ⁴⁷Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, when I will visit against the graven images of Babylon. And her entire land will be confounded, and all her slain will fall in her midst. ? ⁴⁸And the heavens and the earth, and all the things that are in them, will give praise over Babylon. For despoilers will approach her from the north, says the Lord. ? ⁴⁹And in the manner that Babylon has caused the slain to fall in Israel, so the slain of Babylon will fall over the entire earth. ? ⁵⁰You who have fled from the sword, approach, do not stand still. Remember from afar the Lord, and let Jerusalem rise up in your heart. ? ⁵¹We have been confounded, for we heard reproach. Shame has covered our faces, for strangers have overwhelmed the holiness of the house of the Lord. ? ⁵²Because of this, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when I will visit against her graven images, and within all her land the wounded will groan. ? ⁵³If Babylon were to ascend to heaven, and establish her strength on high, her despoilers would go forth from me, says the Lord.� ? ⁵⁴A voice of outcry from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans! ? ⁵⁵For the Lord has despoiled Babylon, and he has perished the great voice from her. And their wave will make a sound like many waters. Their voice has uttered a noise. ? ⁵⁶For the despoiler has overwhelmed her, that is, Babylon, and her strong ones have been apprehended, and their bow has been weakened. For the Lord, the powerful revenger, will certainly repay. ? ⁵⁷�And I will inebriate her leaders, and her wise ones, and her military rulers, and her civil rulers, and her strong ones. And they will sleep an everlasting sleep, and they will not awaken,� says the King: the Lord of hosts is his name. ? ⁵⁸Thus says the Lord of hosts: �That very wide wall of Babylon will be utterly overturned, and her exalted gates will be burned with fire, and the labors of the people will be as nothing, and the labors of the nations will be sent into the fire and will perish.� ? ⁵⁹The word that Jeremiah, the prophet, instructed to Seraiah, the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he traveled with king Zedekiah into Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was the leader of the prophets. ? ⁶⁰And Jeremiah wrote in one book all the evil that was to overwhelm Babylon; all these words were written against Babylon. ? ⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: �When you will enter into Babylon, and you will see and read all these words, ? ⁶²you will say: �O Lord, you have spoken against this place so that you may destroy it, so that there would not be anyone, from man even to beast, who may live in it, and so that it may be desolate forever.� ? ⁶³And when you will have completed reading this book, you will tie a stone to it, and you will cast it into the midst of the Euphrates. ? ⁶⁴And you will say: �So shall Babylon be submerged! And she will not rise up before the face of the affliction that I will lead over her. And she will be broken.� � The words of Jeremiah thus far. ?

Chapter 52

¹Zedekiah was a son of twenty-one years when he first began to reign. And he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. ? ²And he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, in accord with all that Jehoiakim had done. ? ³And so the fury of the Lord was toward Jerusalem, and toward Judah, even until he cast them away from his face. And Zedekiah drew away from the king of Babylon. ? ⁴And it happened that, in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, he and his entire army, came against Jerusalem. And they besieged it, and they built fortifications against it, on every side. ? ⁵And the city was besieged, until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. ? ⁶Then, in the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, a famine gripped the city. And there was no nourishment for the people of the land. ? ⁷And the city was broken, and all the men of war fled, and they departed from the city at night by way of the gate which is between the two walls, and which leads to the king�s garden, while the Chaldeans were besieging the city all around, and they went away by the road that leads to the wilderness. ? ⁸But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king. And they overtook Zedekiah in the desert which is near Jericho. And all of his companions fled away from him. ? ⁹And when they had captured the king, they led him away to the king of Babylon at Riblah, which is in the land of Hamath. And he spoke a judgment against him. ? ¹⁰And the king of Babylon cut the throats of the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the leaders of Judah at Riblah. ? ¹¹And he plucked out the eyes of Zedekiah, and he bound him with shackles, and the king of Babylon led him away to Babylon, and he placed him in the prison house, even until the day of his death. ? ¹²Then, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, which is the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, arrived. And he was standing before the king of Babylon at Jerusalem. ? ¹³And he set fire to the house of the Lord, and to the house of the king, and to all the houses of Jerusalem. And every great house he burned with fire. ? ¹⁴And the entire army of the Chaldeans, who were with the chief of the military, destroyed the entire wall all around Jerusalem. ? ¹⁵Then Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, took away some of the poor people, and some of the rest of the common people, who had remained in the city, and some of the fugitives, who had fled over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. ? ¹⁶Yet truly, some of the poor of the land, Nebuzaradan, the leader of the military, left behind as vinedressers and farmers. ? ¹⁷The Chaldeans also broke apart the bronze pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the sea of brass that was in the house of the Lord. And they took all the brass of these things to Babylon. ? ¹⁸And they took the cooking pots, and the hooks, and the psalteries, and the bowls, and the little mortars, and all the bronze vessels that had been used in the ministry. ? ¹⁹And the chief of the military took the water pots, and the censers, and the pitchers, and the basins, and the lampstands, and the mortars, and the little cups, whatever was gold, for the gold, and whatever was silver, for the silver, ? ²⁰as well as the two pillars, and the one brass sea, and the twelve oxen of brass that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the Lord. There was no weight of brass left behind out of all these vessels. ? ²¹Now concerning the pillars, one pillar was eighteen cubits high, and a cord of twelve cubits encircled it. Moreover, its thickness was four fingers, and the interior was hollow. ? ²²And heads of brass were upon both. And the height of one head was five cubits. And little nets with pomegranates were upon the heads all around, all of brass. The second pillar was similar, and the pomegranates. ? ²³And there were ninety-six pomegranates hanging down; and there were one hundred pomegranates in all, surrounded by the little nets. ? ²⁴And the chief of the military took Seraiah, the first priest, and Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three keepers of the vestibule. ? ²⁵He also took from the city one eunuch who was in charge of the men of war, and seven men among those who served before the face of the king, who were found in the city, and a scribe, a leader of the military, who tested the new recruits, and sixty men from the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city. ? ²⁶Then Nebuzaradan, the chief of the military, took them, and he led them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ? ²⁷And the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah, in the land of Hamath. And Judah was carried away from his land. ? ²⁸This is the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews; ? ²⁹in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, eight hundred thirty-two souls from Jerusalem; ? ³⁰in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, the chief of the military, carried away of the Jews seven hundred forty-five souls. Therefore, all the souls were four thousand six hundred. ? ³¹And it happened that, in the thirty-seventh year of the transmigration of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth of the month, Evilmerodach, the king of Babylon, in the very first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, and he brought him out of the prison house. ? ³²And he spoke with him for good, and he set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were after him in Babylon. ? ³³And he changed his prison garments, and he ate bread in his sight always, all the days of his life. ? ³⁴And for his meals, a continual provision was allotted to him by the king of Babylon, a measure for every single day, until the day of his death, all the days of his life. ?