1:1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were
in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:
1:2 To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of
Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
1:3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah,
to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah,
to the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
1:4 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
1:5 Before I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before you came forth
out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations.
1:6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
1:7 But the LORD said to me, Say not, I am a child: for you shall go to
all that I shall send you, and whatever I command you you shall speak.
1:8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with you to deliver you, said
the LORD.
1:9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD
said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
1:10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms,
to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build,
and to plant.
1:11 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Jeremiah, what see
you? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
1:12 Then said the LORD to me, You have well seen: for I will hasten my
word to perform it.
1:13 And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, What
see you? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward
the north.
1:14 Then the LORD said to me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth
on all the inhabitants of the land.
1:15 For, see, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north,
said the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne
at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof
round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
1:16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness,
who have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and worshipped
the works of their own hands.
1:17 You therefore gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all
that I command you: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound you
before them.
1:18 For, behold, I have made you this day a defended city, and an iron
pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah,
against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the
people of the land.
1:19 And they shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against
you; for I am with you, said the LORD, to deliver you.
2:1 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
2:2 Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus said the LORD; I
remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals, when
you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
2:3 Israel was holiness to the LORD, and the first fruits of his increase:
all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come on them, said the LORD.
2:4 Hear you the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families
of the house of Israel:
2:5 Thus said the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that
they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become
vain?
2:6 Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the
land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts
and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through
a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelled?
2:7 And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof
and the goodness thereof; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and
made my heritage an abomination.
2:8 The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law
knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets
prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.
2:9 Why I will yet plead with you, said the LORD, and with your children's
children will I plead.
2:10 For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send to Kedar, and
consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.
2:11 Has a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people
have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
2:12 Be astonished, O you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be
you very desolate, said the LORD.
2:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the
fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns,
that can hold no water.
2:14 Is Israel a servant? is he a home born slave? why is he spoiled?
2:15 The young lions roared on him, and yelled, and they made his land
waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.
2:16 Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of your
head.
2:17 Have you not procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken
the LORD your God, when he led you by the way?
2:18 And now what have you to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters
of Sihor? or what have you to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters
of the river?
2:19 Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backslidings shall
reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter,
that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and that my fear is not in you,
said the Lord GOD of hosts.
2:20 For of old time I have broken your yoke, and burst your bands; and
you said, I will not transgress; when on every high hill and under every
green tree you wander, playing the harlot.
2:21 Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then
are you turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine to me?
2:22 For though you wash you with nitre, and take you much soap, yet your
iniquity is marked before me, said the Lord GOD.
2:23 How can you say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim?
see your way in the valley, know what you have done: you are a swift dromedary
traversing her ways;
2:24 A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind at her
pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her
will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.
2:25 Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst:
but you said, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after
them will I go.
2:26 As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel
ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their
prophets.
2:27 Saying to a stock, You are my father; and to a stone, You have brought
me forth: for they have turned their back to me, and not their face: but
in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.
2:28 But where are your gods that you have made you? let them arise, if
they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number
of your cities are your gods, O Judah.
2:29 Why will you plead with me? you all have transgressed against me,
said the LORD.
2:30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction:
your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
2:31 O generation, see you the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness
to Israel? a land of darkness? why say my people, We are lords; we will
come no more to you?
2:32 Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people
have forgotten me days without number.
2:33 Why trim you your way to seek love? therefore have you also taught
the wicked ones your ways.
2:34 Also in your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents:
I have not found it by secret search, but on all these.
2:35 Yet you say, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from
me. Behold, I will plead with you, because you say, I have not sinned.
2:36 Why gad you about so much to change your way? you also shall be ashamed
of Egypt, as you were ashamed of Assyria.
2:37 Yes, you shall go forth from him, and your hands on your head: for
the LORD has rejected your confidences, and you shall not prosper in them.
3:1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become
another man's, shall he return to her again? shall not that land be greatly
polluted? but you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again
to me, said the LORD.
3:2 Lift up your eyes to the high places, and see where you have not been
lien with. In the ways have you sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness;
and you have polluted the land with your prostitutions and with your wickedness.
3:3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter
rain; and you had a whore's forehead, you refused to be ashamed.
3:4 Will you not from this time cry to me, My father, you are the guide
of my youth?
3:5 Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end?
Behold, you have spoken and done evil things as you could.
3:6 The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen
that which backsliding Israel has done? she is gone up on every high mountain
and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot.
3:7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn you to me. But
she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
3:8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed
adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous
sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
3:9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her prostitution, that
she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
3:10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to
me with her whole heart, but feignedly, said the LORD.
3:11 And the LORD said to me, The backsliding Israel has justified herself
more than treacherous Judah.
3:12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, you
backsliding Israel, said the LORD; and I will not cause my anger to fall
on you: for I am merciful, said the LORD, and I will not keep anger for
ever.
3:13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against
the LORD your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under
every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, said the LORD.
3:14 Turn, O backsliding children, said the LORD; for I am married to you:
and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring
you to Zion:
3:15 And I will give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed
you with knowledge and understanding.
3:16 And it shall come to pass, when you be multiplied and increased in
the land, in those days, said the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark
of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall
they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done
any more.
3:17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and
all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem:
neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.
3:18 In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel,
and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that
I have given for an inheritance to your fathers.
3:19 But I said, How shall I put you among the children, and give you a
pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, You
shall call me, My father; and shall not turn away from me.
3:20 Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you
dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, said the LORD.
3:21 A voice was heard on the high places, weeping and supplications of
the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have
forgotten the LORD their God.
3:22 Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.
Behold, we come to you; for you are the LORD our God.
3:23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the
multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.
3:24 For shame has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth; their
flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
3:25 We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covers us: for we have
sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even
to this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.
4:1 If you will return, O Israel, said the LORD, return to me: and if you
will put away your abominations out of my sight, then shall you not remove.
4:2 And you shall swear, The LORD lives, in truth, in judgment, and in
righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him
shall they glory.
4:3 For thus said the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up
your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
4:4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your
heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come
forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil
of your doings.
4:5 Declare you in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow you the
trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves,
and let us go into the defended cities.
4:6 Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring
evil from the north, and a great destruction.
4:7 The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles
is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make your land desolate;
and your cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.
4:8 For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger
of the LORD is not turned back from us.
4:9 And it shall come to pass at that day, said the LORD, that the heart
of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests
shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.
4:10 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely you have greatly deceived this people
and Jerusalem, saying, You shall have peace; whereas the sword reaches
to the soul.
4:11 At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry
wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people,
not to fan, nor to cleanse,
4:12 Even a full wind from those places shall come to me: now also will
I give sentence against them.
4:13 Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a
whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! for we are spoiled.
4:14 O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved.
How long shall your vain thoughts lodge within you?
4:15 For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes affliction from mount
Ephraim.
4:16 Make you mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem,
that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against
the cities of Judah.
4:17 As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she
has been rebellious against me, said the LORD.
4:18 Your way and your doings have procured these things to you; this is
your wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reaches to your heart.
4:19 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart makes
a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul,
the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
4:20 Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled:
suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.
4:21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
4:22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are silly children,
and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good
they have no knowledge.
4:23 I beheld the earth, and, see, it was without form, and void; and the
heavens, and they had no light.
4:24 I beheld the mountains, and, see, they trembled, and all the hills
moved lightly.
4:25 I beheld, and, see, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens
were fled.
4:26 I beheld, and, see, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the
cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his
fierce anger.
4:27 For thus has the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet
will I not make a full end.
4:28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because
I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will
I turn back from it.
4:29 The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen;
they shall go into thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city shall
be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.
4:30 And when you are spoiled, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself
with crimson, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you rend
your face with painting, in vain shall you make yourself fair; your lovers
will despise you, they will seek your life.
4:31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish
as of her that brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter
of Zion, that mourns herself, that spreads her hands, saying, Woe is me
now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.
5:1 Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and
know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man, if there
be any that executes judgment, that seeks the truth; and I will pardon
it.
5:2 And though they say, The LORD lives; surely they swear falsely.
5:3 O LORD, are not your eyes on the truth? you have stricken them, but
they have not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to
receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they
have refused to return.
5:4 Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they
know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.
5:5 I will get me to the great men, and will speak to them; for they have
known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have
altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
5:6 Why a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings
shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that
goes out there shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are
many, and their backslidings are increased.
5:7 How shall I pardon you for this? your children have forsaken me, and
sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then
committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots'
houses.
5:8 They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his
neighbor's wife.
5:9 Shall I not visit for these things? said the LORD: and shall not my
soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
5:10 Go you up on her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take
away her battlements; for they are not the LORD's.
5:11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously
against me, said the LORD.
5:12 They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil
come on us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
5:13 And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus
shall it be done to them.
5:14 Why thus said the LORD God of hosts, Because you speak this word,
behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood,
and it shall devour them.
5:15 See, I will bring a nation on you from far, O house of Israel, said
the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose
language you know not, neither understand what they say.
5:16 Their quiver is as an open sepulcher, they are all mighty men.
5:17 And they shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which your sons
and your daughters should eat: they shall eat up your flocks and your herds:
they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees: they shall impoverish
your fenced cities, wherein you trusted, with the sword.
5:18 Nevertheless in those days, said the LORD, I will not make a full
end with you.
5:19 And it shall come to pass, when you shall say, Why does the LORD our
God all these things to us? then shall you answer them, Like as you have
forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers
in a land that is not your's.
5:20 Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,
5:21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which
have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:
5:22 Fear you not me? said the LORD: will you not tremble at my presence,
which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree,
that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet
can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?
5:23 But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted
and gone.
5:24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God,
that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserves
to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
5:25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have
withheld good things from you.
5:26 For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that
sets snares; they set a trap, they catch men.
5:27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore
they are become great, and waxen rich.
5:28 They are waxen fat, they shine: yes, they overpass the deeds of the
wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they
prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
5:29 Shall I not visit for these things? said the LORD: shall not my soul
be avenged on such a nation as this?
5:30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;
5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their
means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end
thereof?
6:1 O you children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the middle
of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire
in Bethhaccerem: for evil appears out of the north, and great destruction.
6:2 I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman.
6:3 The shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch
their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.
6:4 Prepare you war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to
us! for the day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched
out.
6:5 Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.
6:6 For thus has the LORD of hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast a
mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly
oppression in the middle of her.
6:7 As a fountain casts out her waters, so she casts out her wickedness:
violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and
wounds.
6:8 Be you instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you; lest
I make you desolate, a land not inhabited.
6:9 Thus said the LORD of hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant
of Israel as a vine: turn back your hand as a grape gatherer into the baskets.
6:10 To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold,
their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot listen: behold, the word of
the LORD is to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.
6:11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding
in: I will pour it out on the children abroad, and on the assembly of young
men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged
with him that is full of days.
6:12 And their houses shall be turned to others, with their fields and
wives together: for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of the
land, said the LORD.
6:13 For from the least of them even to the greatest of them every one
is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest every
one deals falsely.
6:14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly,
saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
6:15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? no, they were
not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall
among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast
down, said the LORD.
6:16 Thus said the LORD, Stand you in the ways, and see, and ask for the
old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find
rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
6:17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Listen to the sound of the trumpet.
But they said, We will not listen.
6:18 Therefore hear, you nations, and know, O congregation, what is among
them.
6:19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the
fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words, nor
to my law, but rejected it.
6:20 To what purpose comes there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet
cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your
sacrifices sweet to me.
6:21 Therefore thus said the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks
before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall on
them; the neighbor and his friend shall perish.
6:22 Thus said the LORD, Behold, a people comes from the north country,
and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.
6:23 They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no
mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride on horses, set in
array as men for war against you, O daughter of Zion.
6:24 We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish has
taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.
6:25 Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of
the enemy and fear is on every side.
6:26 O daughter of my people, gird you with sackcloth, and wallow yourself
in ashes: make you mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation:
for the spoiler shall suddenly come on us.
6:27 I have set you for a tower and a fortress among my people, that you
may know and try their way.
6:28 They are all grievous rebels, walking with slanders: they are brass
and iron; they are all corrupters.
6:29 The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder
melts in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.
6:30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD has rejected
them.
7:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
7:2 Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word,
and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, that enter in at
these gates to worship the LORD.
7:3 Thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and
your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
7:4 Trust you not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple
of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.
7:5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly
execute judgment between a man and his neighbor;
7:6 If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and
shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to
your hurt:
7:7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave
to your fathers, for ever and ever.
7:8 Behold, you trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
7:9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and
burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you know not;
7:10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my
name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?
7:11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers
in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, said the LORD.
7:12 But go you now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name
at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people
Israel.
7:13 And now, because you have done all these works, said the LORD, and
I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not; and I
called you, but you answered not;
7:14 Therefore will I do to this house, which is called by my name, wherein
you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as
I have done to Shiloh.
7:15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers,
even the whole seed of Ephraim.
7:16 Therefore pray not you for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer
for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear you.
7:17 See you not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets
of Jerusalem?
7:18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the
women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour
out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
7:19 Do they provoke me to anger? said the LORD: do they not provoke themselves
to the confusion of their own faces?
7:20 Therefore thus said the Lord GOD; Behold, my anger and my fury shall
be poured out on this place, on man, and on beast, and on the trees of
the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall
not be quenched.
7:21 Thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings
to your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
7:22 For I spoke not to your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that
I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or
sacrifices:
7:23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will
be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk you in all the ways that
I have commanded you, that it may be well to you.
7:24 But they listened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels
and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not
forward.
7:25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt
to this day I have even sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily
rising up early and sending them:
7:26 Yet they listened not to me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened
their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
7:27 Therefore you shall speak all these words to them; but they will not
listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you.
7:28 But you shall say to them, This is a nation that obeys not the voice
of the LORD their God, nor receives correction: truth is perished, and
is cut off from their mouth.
7:29 Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation
on high places; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of
his wrath.
7:30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, said the LORD:
they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name,
to pollute it.
7:31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley
of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire;
which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.
7:32 Therefore, behold, the days come, said the LORD, that it shall no
more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley
of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.
7:33 And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the
heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.
7:34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the
streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the
voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall
be desolate.
8:1 At that time, said the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the
kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests,
and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
out of their graves:
8:2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the
host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after
whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped:
they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung on the
face of the earth.
8:3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them
that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places where I
have driven them, said the LORD of hosts.
8:4 Moreover you shall say to them, Thus said the LORD; Shall they fall,
and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?
8:5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slid back by a perpetual backsliding?
they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
8:6 I listened and heard, but they spoke not aright: no man repented him
of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course,
as the horse rushes into the battle.
8:7 Yes, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtle
and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my
people know not the judgment of the LORD.
8:8 How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? See,
certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
8:9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: see, they have
rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?
8:10 Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to them
that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even to the greatest
is given to covetousness, from the prophet even to the priest every one
deals falsely.
8:11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly,
saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
8:12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? no, they were
not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall
among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast
down, said the LORD.
8:13 I will surely consume them, said the LORD: there shall be no grapes
on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the
things that I have given them shall pass away from them.
8:14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the
defended cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God has put
us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned
against the LORD.
8:15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and
behold trouble!
8:16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled
at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and
have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that
dwell therein.
8:17 For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will
not be charmed, and they shall bite you, said the LORD.
8:18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.
8:19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of
them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king
in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and
with strange vanities?
8:20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
8:21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment
has taken hold on me.
8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then
is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that
I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
9:2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that
I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers,
an assembly of treacherous men.
9:3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not
valiant for the truth on the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil,
and they know not me, said the LORD.
9:4 Take you heed every one of his neighbor, and trust you not in any brother:
for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with
slanders.
9:5 And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not speak the
truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves
to commit iniquity.
9:6 Your habitation is in the middle of deceit; through deceit they refuse
to know me, said the LORD.
9:7 Therefore thus said the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and
try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?
9:8 Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit: one speaks
peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in heart he lays his wait.
9:9 Shall I not visit them for these things? said the LORD: shall not my
soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
9:10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the
habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up,
so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the
cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.
9:11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will
make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
9:12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom
the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it, for what the
land perishes and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passes through?
9:13 And the LORD said, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before
them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;
9:14 But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after
Baalim, which their fathers taught them:
9:15 Therefore thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold,
I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water
of gall to drink.
9:16 I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor
their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have
consumed them.
9:17 Thus said the LORD of hosts, Consider you, and call for the mourning
women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:
9:18 And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes
may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
9:19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we
are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our
dwellings have cast us out.
9:20 Yet hear the word of the LORD, O you women, and let your ear receive
the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one
her neighbor lamentation.
9:21 For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces,
to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.
9:22 Speak, Thus said the LORD, Even the carcasses of men shall fall as
dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none
shall gather them.
9:23 Thus said the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither
let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his
riches:
9:24 But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows
me, that I am the LORD which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness,
in the earth: for in these things I delight, said the LORD.
9:25 Behold, the days come, said the LORD, that I will punish all them
which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;
9:26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and
all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all
these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised
in the heart.
10:1 Hear you the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel:
10:2 Thus said the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed
at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
10:3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cuts a tree out of
the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.
10:4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails
and with hammers, that it move not.
10:5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs
be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot
do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
10:6 For as much as there is none like to you, O LORD; you are great, and
your name is great in might.
10:7 Who would not fear you, O King of nations? for to you does it appertain:
for as much as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their
kingdoms, there is none like to you.
10:8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine
of vanities.
10:9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from
Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and
purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.
10:10 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting
king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be
able to abide his indignation.
10:11 Thus shall you say to them, The gods that have not made the heavens
and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these
heavens.
10:12 He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world
by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
10:13 When he utters his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens,
and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes
lightning with rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasures.
10:14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded
by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no
breath in them.
10:15 They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation
they shall perish.
10:16 The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all
things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is
his name.
10:17 Gather up your wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.
10:18 For thus said the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants
of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it
so.
10:19 Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous; but I said, Truly this
is a grief, and I must bear it.
10:20 My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children
are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth
my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
10:21 For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD:
therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
10:22 Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out
of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of
dragons.
10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in
man that walks to direct his steps.
10:24 O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in your anger, lest you
bring me to nothing.
10:25 Pour out your fury on the heathen that know you not, and on the families
that call not on your name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured
him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.
11:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying,
11:2 Hear you the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah,
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
11:3 And say you to them, Thus said the LORD God of Israel; Cursed be the
man that obeys not the words of this covenant,
11:4 Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth
out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice,
and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall you be my people,
and I will be your God:
11:5 That I may perform the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to
give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered
I, and said, So be it, O LORD.
11:6 Then the LORD said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of
Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear you the words of this
covenant, and do them.
11:7 For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought
them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting,
saying, Obey my voice.
11:8 Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one
in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring on them
all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do: but they
did them not.
11:9 And the LORD said to me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah,
and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
11:10 They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which
refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them:
the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which
I made with their fathers.
11:11 Therefore thus said the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil on them,
which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry to me,
I will not listen to them.
11:12 Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and
cry to the gods to whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them
at all in the time of their trouble.
11:13 For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah;
and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up
altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.
11:14 Therefore pray not you for this people, neither lift up a cry or
prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to
me for their trouble.
11:15 What has my beloved to do in my house, seeing she has worked lewdness
with many, and the holy flesh is passed from you? when you do evil, then
you rejoice.
11:16 The LORD called your name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly
fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire on it, and
the branches of it are broken.
11:17 For the LORD of hosts, that planted you, has pronounced evil against
you, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which
they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense
to Baal.
11:18 And the LORD has given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then you
showed me their doings.
11:19 But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter;
and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us
destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the
land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
11:20 But, O LORD of hosts, that judge righteously, that try the reins
and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for to you have I revealed
my cause.
11:21 Therefore thus said the LORD of the men of Anathoth, that seek your
life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that you die not by
our hand:
11:22 Therefore thus said the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them:
the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall
die by famine:
11:23 And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil on the
men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.
12:1 Righteous are you, O LORD, when I plead with you: yet let me talk
with you of your judgments: Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
why are all they happy that deal very treacherously?
12:2 You have planted them, yes, they have taken root: they grow, yes,
they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their
reins.
12:3 But you, O LORD, know me: you have seen me, and tried my heart toward
you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the
day of slaughter.
12:4 How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither,
for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed,
and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our last end.
12:5 If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then
how can you contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein you
trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the swelling of Jordan?
12:6 For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have
dealt treacherously with you; yes, they have called a multitude after you:
believe them not, though they speak fair words to you.
12:7 I have forsaken my house, I have left my heritage; I have given the
dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.
12:8 My heritage is to me as a lion in the forest; it cries out against
me: therefore have I hated it.
12:9 My heritage is to me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are
against her; come you, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.
12:10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion
under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
12:11 They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourns to me; the
whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.
12:12 The spoilers are come on all high places through the wilderness:
for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even
to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.
12:13 They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves
to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues
because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
12:14 Thus said the LORD against all my evil neighbors, that touch the
inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I
will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from
among them.
12:15 And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will
return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man
to his heritage, and every man to his land.
12:16 And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways
of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD lives; as they taught my people
to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the middle of my people.
12:17 But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that
nation, said the LORD.
13:1 Thus said the LORD to me, Go and get you a linen girdle, and put it
on your loins, and put it not in water.
13:2 So I got a girdle according to the word of the LORD, and put it on
my loins.
13:3 And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying,
13:4 Take the girdle that you have got, which is on your loins, and arise,
go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.
13:5 So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.
13:6 And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said to me, Arise,
go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from there, which I commanded you
to hide there.
13:7 Then I went to Euphrates, and dig, and took the girdle from the place
where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was marred, it was profitable
for nothing.
13:8 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
13:9 Thus said the LORD, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah,
and the great pride of Jerusalem.
13:10 This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the
imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and
to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.
13:11 For as the girdle sticks to the loins of a man, so have I caused
to stick to me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah,
said the LORD; that they might be to me for a people, and for a name, and
for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.
13:12 Therefore you shall speak to them this word; Thus said the LORD God
of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say to
you, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?
13:13 Then shall you say to them, Thus said the LORD, Behold, I will fill
all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit on David's throne,
and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
with drunkenness.
13:14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the
sons together, said the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy,
but destroy them.
13:15 Hear you, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD has spoken.
13:16 Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before
your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and, while you look for light,
he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.
13:17 But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places
for your pride; and my eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because
the LORD's flock is carried away captive.
13:18 Say to the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for
your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory.
13:19 The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them:
Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried
away captive.
13:20 Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where
is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?
13:21 What will you say when he shall punish you? for you have taught them
to be captains, and as chief over you: shall not sorrows take you, as a
woman in travail?
13:22 And if you say in your heart, Why come these things on me?
For the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts discovered, and your
heels made bore.
13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then
may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
13:24 Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passes away by
the wind of the wilderness.
13:25 This is your lot, the portion of your measures from me, said the
LORD; because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.
13:26 Therefore will I discover your skirts on your face, that your shame
may appear.
13:27 I have seen your adulteries, and your neighings, the lewdness of
your prostitution, and your abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe
to you, O Jerusalem! will you not be made clean? when shall it once be?
14:1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.
14:2 Judah mourns, and the gates thereof languish; they are black to the
ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
14:3 And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came
to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty;
they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.
14:4 Because the ground is beat down, for there was no rain in the earth,
the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.
14:5 Yes, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there
was no grass.
14:6 And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the
wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.
14:7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do you it for your
name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.
14:8 O the hope of Israel, the savior thereof in time of trouble, why should
you be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turns aside
to tarry for a night?
14:9 Why should you be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot
save? yet you, O LORD, are in the middle of us, and we are called by your
name; leave us not.
14:10 Thus said the LORD to this people, Thus have they loved to wander,
they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD does not accept
them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
14:11 Then said the LORD to me, Pray not for this people for their good.
14:12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt
offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them
by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
14:13 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say to them, You
shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I will give
you assured peace in this place.
14:14 Then the LORD said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name:
I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke to them:
they prophesy to you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nothing,
and the deceit of their heart.
14:15 Therefore thus said the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy
in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not
be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
14:16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets
of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none
to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for
I will pour their wickedness on them.
14:17 Therefore you shall say this word to them; Let my eyes run down with
tears night and day, and let them not cease: for the virgin daughter of
my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow.
14:18 If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword!
and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine!
yes, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know
not.
14:19 Have you utterly rejected Judah? has your soul loathed Zion? why
have you smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace,
and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!
14:20 We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers:
for we have sinned against you.
14:21 Do not abhor us, for your name's sake, do not disgrace the throne
of your glory: remember, break not your covenant with us.
14:22 Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain?
or can the heavens give showers? are not you he, O LORD our God?
therefore we will wait on you: for you have made all these things.
15:1 Then said the LORD to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me,
yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight,
and let them go forth.
15:2 And it shall come to pass, if they say to you, Where shall we go forth?
then you shall tell them, Thus said the LORD; Such as are for death, to
death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for
the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.
15:3 And I will appoint over them four kinds, said the LORD: the sword
to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts
of the earth, to devour and destroy.
15:4 And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth,
because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he
did in Jerusalem.
15:5 For who shall have pity on you, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan you?
or who shall go aside to ask how you do?
15:6 You have forsaken me, said the LORD, you are gone backward: therefore
will I stretch out my hand against you, and destroy you; I am weary with
repenting.
15:7 And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave
them of children, I will destroy my people since they return not from their
ways.
15:8 Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have
brought on them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday:
I have caused him to fall on it suddenly, and terrors on the city.
15:9 She that has borne seven languishes: she has given up the ghost; her
sun is gone down while it was yet day: she has been ashamed and confounded:
and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies,
said the LORD.
15:10 Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and
a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor
men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them does curse me.
15:11 The LORD said, Truly it shall be well with your remnant; truly I
will cause the enemy to entreat you well in the time of evil and in the
time of affliction.
15:12 Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?
15:13 Your substance and your treasures will I give to the spoil without
price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.
15:14 And I will make you to pass with your enemies into a land which you
know not: for a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn on you.
15:15 O LORD, you know: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my
persecutors; take me not away in your long-suffering: know that for your
sake I have suffered rebuke.
15:16 Your words were found, and I did eat them; and your word was to me
the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name, O LORD
God of hosts.
15:17 I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone
because of your hand: for you have filled me with indignation.
15:18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to
be healed? will you be altogether to me as a liar, and as waters that fail?
15:19 Therefore thus said the LORD, If you return, then will I bring you
again, and you shall stand before me: and if you take forth the precious
from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: let them return to you; but return
not you to them.
15:20 And I will make you to this people a fenced brazen wall: and they
shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you: for I
am with you to save you and to deliver you, said the LORD.
15:21 And I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will
redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.
16:1 The word of the LORD came also to me, saying,
16:2 You shall not take you a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters
in this place.
16:3 For thus said the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters
that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bore them,
and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;
16:4 They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither
shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung on the face of the earth:
and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcasses
shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
16:5 For thus said the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither
go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this
people, said the LORD, even loving kindness and mercies.
16:6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not
be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make
themselves bald for them:
16:7 Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort
them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to
drink for their father or for their mother.
16:8 You shall not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them
to eat and to drink.
16:9 For thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will
cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice
of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the
voice of the bride.
16:10 And it shall come to pass, when you shall show this people all these
words, and they shall say to you, Why has the LORD pronounced all this
great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that
we have committed against the LORD our God?
16:11 Then shall you say to them, Because your fathers have forsaken me,
said the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them,
and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
16:12 And you have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, you walk
every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not listen
to me:
16:13 Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that you know
not, neither you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other gods
day and night; where I will not show you favor.
16:14 Therefore, behold, the days come, said the LORD, that it shall no
more be said, The LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel out
of the land of Egypt;
16:15 But, The LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel from
the land of the north, and from all the lands where he had driven them:
and I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.
16:16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, said the LORD, and they shall
fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt
them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of
the rocks.
16:17 For my eyes are on all their ways: they are not hid from my face,
neither is their iniquity hid from my eyes.
16:18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double;
because they have defiled my land, they have filled my inheritance with
the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.
16:19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of
affliction, the Gentiles shall come to you from the ends of the earth,
and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things
wherein there is no profit.
16:20 Shall a man make gods to himself, and they are no gods?
16:21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause
them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is
The LORD.
17:1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point
of a diamond: it is graven on the table of their heart, and on the horns
of your altars;
17:2 Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the
green trees on the high hills.
17:3 O my mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your
treasures to the spoil, and your high places for sin, throughout all your
borders.
17:4 And you, even yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that
I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which
you know not: for you have kindled a fire in my anger, which shall burn
for ever.
17:5 Thus said the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes
flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD.
17:6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when
good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in
a salt land and not inhabited.
17:7 Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD
is.
17:8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads
out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her
leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither
shall cease from yielding fruit.
17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who
can know it?
17:10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every
man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
17:11 As the partridge sits on eggs, and hatches them not; so he that gets
riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the middle of his days, and
at his end shall be a fool.
17:12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
17:13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake you shall be ashamed,
and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they
have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.
17:14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved:
for you are my praise.
17:15 Behold, they say to me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come
now.
17:16 As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow you:
neither have I desired the woeful day; you know: that which came out of
my lips was right before you.
17:17 Be not a terror to me: you are my hope in the day of evil.
17:18 Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded:
let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring on them the day
of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
17:19 Thus said the LORD to me; Go and stand in the gate of the children
of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they
go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
17:20 And say to them, Hear you the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah,
and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these
gates:
17:21 Thus said the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on
the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
17:22 Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day,
neither do you any work, but hallow you the sabbath day, as I commanded
your fathers.
17:23 But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck
stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.
17:24 And it shall come to pass, if you diligently listen to me, said the
LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath
day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;
17:25 Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes
sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they,
and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem:
and this city shall remain for ever.
17:26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places
about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and
from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices,
and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, to
the house of the LORD.
17:27 But if you will not listen to me to hallow the sabbath day, and not
to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath
day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour
the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
18:2 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you
to hear my words.
18:3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he worked a work
on the wheels.
18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the
potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter
to make it.
18:5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
18:6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? said the LORD.
Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house
of Israel.
18:7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning
a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
18:8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil,
I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.
18:9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning
a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
18:10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will
repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them.
18:11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, saying, Thus said the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against
you, and devise a device against you: return you now every one from his
evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
18:12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices,
and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
18:13 Therefore thus said the LORD; Ask you now among the heathen, who
has heard such things: the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
18:14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which comes from the rock of
the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place
be forsaken?
18:15 Because my people has forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity,
and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths,
to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
18:16 To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that
passes thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
18:17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will
show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
18:18 Then said they, Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah;
for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise,
nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue,
and let us not give heed to any of his words.
18:19 Give heed to me, O LORD, and listen to the voice of them that contend
with me.
18:20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have dig a pit for my
soul. Remember that I stood before you to speak good for them, and to turn
away your wrath from them.
18:21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their
blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their
children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young
men be slain by the sword in battle.
18:22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you shall bring a troop
suddenly on them: for they have dig a pit to take me, and hid snares for
my feet.
18:23 Yet, LORD, you know all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive
not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight, but let
them be overthrown before you; deal thus with them in the time of your
anger.
19:1 Thus said the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take
of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;
19:2 And go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry
of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you,
19:3 And say, Hear you the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants
of Jerusalem; Thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I
will bring evil on this place, the which whoever hears, his ears shall
tingle.
19:4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and
have burned incense in it to other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers
have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the
blood of innocents;
19:5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with
fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I commanded not, nor spoke it,
neither came it into my mind:
19:6 Therefore, behold, the days come, said the LORD, that this place shall
no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The
valley of slaughter.
19:7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place;
and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by
the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcasses will I give
to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
19:8 And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that
passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues
thereof.
19:9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh
of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend
in the siege and narrow place, with which their enemies, and they that
seek their lives, shall straiten them.
19:10 Then shall you break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with
you,
19:11 And shall say to them, Thus said the LORD of hosts; Even so will
I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that
cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there
be no place to bury.
19:12 Thus will I do to this place, said the LORD, and to the inhabitants
thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
19:13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah,
shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose
roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and have poured
out drink offerings to other gods.
19:14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy;
and he stood in the court of the LORD's house; and said to all the people,
19:15 Thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring
on this city and on all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against
it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my
words.
20:1 Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor
in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.
20:2 Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks
that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.
20:3 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah
out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah to him, The LORD has not called your
name Pashur, but Magormissabib.
20:4 For thus said the LORD, Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself,
and to all your friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies,
and your eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand
of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and
shall slay them with the sword.
20:5 Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the
labors thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures
of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which
shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.
20:6 And you, Pashur, and all that dwell in your house shall go into captivity:
and you shall come to Babylon, and there you shall die, and shall be buried
there, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies.
20:7 O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger
than I, and have prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocks me.
20:8 For since I spoke, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because
the word of the LORD was made a reproach to me, and a derision, daily.
20:9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in
his name. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my
bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
20:10 For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say
they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying,
Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and
we shall take our revenge on him.
20:11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors
shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed;
for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be
forgotten.
20:12 But, O LORD of hosts, that try the righteous, and see the reins and
the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for to you have I opened
my cause.
20:13 Sing to the LORD, praise you the LORD: for he has delivered the soul
of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
20:14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my
mother bore me be blessed.
20:15 Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man
child is born to you; making him very glad.
20:16 And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented
not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide;
20:17 Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have
been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.
20:18 Why came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my
days should be consumed with shame?
21:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah
sent to him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah
the priest, saying,
21:2 Inquire, I pray you, of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of
Babylon makes war against us; if so be that the LORD will deal with us
according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.
21:3 Then said Jeremiah to them, Thus shall you say to Zedekiah:
21:4 Thus said the LORD God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons
of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of
Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls,
and I will assemble them into the middle of this city.
21:5 And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and
with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.
21:6 And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast:
they shall die of a great pestilence.
21:7 And afterward, said the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah,
and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from
the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar
king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand
of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of
the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.
21:8 And to this people you shall say, Thus said the LORD; Behold, I set
before you the way of life, and the way of death.
21:9 He that stays in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine,
and by the pestilence: but he that goes out, and falls to the Chaldeans
that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be to him for a prey.
21:10 For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good,
said the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon,
and he shall burn it with fire.
21:11 And touching the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear you the word
of the LORD;
21:12 O house of David, thus said the LORD; Execute judgment in the morning,
and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest
my fury go out like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of
the evil of your doings.
21:13 Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of
the plain, said the LORD; which say, Who shall come down against us? or
who shall enter into our habitations?
21:14 But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, said
the LORD: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall
devour all things round about it.
22:1 Thus said the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and
speak there this word,
22:2 And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sit on the
throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people that enter in
by these gates:
22:3 Thus said the LORD; Execute you judgment and righteousness, and deliver
the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence
to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood
in this place.
22:4 For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the
gates of this house kings sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots
and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.
22:5 But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, said the
LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.
22:6 For thus said the LORD to the king's house of Judah; You are Gilead
to me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make you a wilderness,
and cities which are not inhabited.
22:7 And I will prepare destroyers against you, every one with his weapons:
and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
22:8 And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every
man to his neighbor, Why has the LORD done thus to this great city?
22:9 Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of
the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.
22:10 Weep you not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for
him that goes away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
22:11 For thus said the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of
Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out
of this place; He shall not return thither any more:
22:12 But he shall die in the place where they have led him captive, and
shall see this land no more.
22:13 Woe to him that builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers
by wrong; that uses his neighbor's service without wages, and gives him
not for his work;
22:14 That said, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cuts
him out windows; and it is paneled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
22:15 Shall you reign, because you close yourself in cedar? did not your
father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well
with him?
22:16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with
him: was not this to know me? said the LORD.
22:17 But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and
for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do
it.
22:18 Therefore thus said the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah
king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or,
Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
22:19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth
beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
22:20 Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and
cry from the passages: for all your lovers are destroyed.
22:21 I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, I will not hear.
This has been your manner from your youth, that you obeyed not my voice.
22:22 The wind shall eat up all your pastors, and your lovers shall go
into captivity: surely then shall you be ashamed and confounded for all
your wickedness.
22:23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that make your nest in the cedars, how gracious
shall you be when pangs come on you, the pain as of a woman in travail!
22:24 As I live, said the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king
of Judah were the signet on my right hand, yet would I pluck you there;
22:25 And I will give you into the hand of them that seek your life, and
into the hand of them whose face you fear, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar
king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
22:26 And I will cast you out, and your mother that bore you, into another
country, where you were not born; and there shall you die.
22:27 But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they
not return.
22:28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein
is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into
a land which they know not?
22:29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
22:30 Thus said the LORD, Write you this man childless, a man that shall
not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting
on the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.
23:1 Woe be to the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!
said the LORD.
23:2 Therefore thus said the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that
feed my people; You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and
have not visited them: behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings,
said the LORD.
23:3 And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries where
I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they
shall be fruitful and increase.
23:4 And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they
shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, said
the LORD.
23:5 Behold, the days come, said the LORD, that I will raise to David a
righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute
judgment and justice in the earth.
23:6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and
this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
23:7 Therefore, behold, the days come, said the LORD, that they shall no
more say, The LORD lives, which brought up the children of Israel out of
the land of Egypt;
23:8 But, The LORD lives, which brought up and which led the seed of the
house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries where
I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.
23:9 My heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones
shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome,
because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness.
23:10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land
mourns; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course
is evil, and their force is not right.
23:11 For both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house have I
found their wickedness, said the LORD.
23:12 Why their way shall be to them as slippery ways in the darkness:
they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil on them,
even the year of their visitation, said the LORD.
23:13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied
in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.
23:14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing:
they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands
of evildoers, that none does return from his wickedness; they are all of
them to me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
23:15 Therefore thus said the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold,
I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall:
for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the
land.
23:16 Thus said the LORD of hosts, Listen not to the words of the prophets
that prophesy to you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their
own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.
23:17 They say still to them that despise me, The LORD has said, You shall
have peace; and they say to every one that walks after the imagination
of his own heart, No evil shall come on you.
23:18 For who has stood in the counsel of the LORD, and has perceived and
heard his word? who has marked his word, and heard it?
23:19 Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous
whirlwind: it shall fall grievously on the head of the wicked.
23:20 The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and
till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days you
shall consider it perfectly.
23:21 I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to
them, yet they prophesied.
23:22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to
hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and
from the evil of their doings.
23:23 Am I a God at hand, said the LORD, and not a God afar off?
23:24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? said
the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? said the LORD.
23:25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name,
saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
23:26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy
lies? yes, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;
23:27 Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams
which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten
my name for Baal.
23:28 The prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that has
my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?
said the LORD.
23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? said the LORD; and like a hammer that
breaks the rock in pieces?
23:30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, said the LORD, that
steal my words every one from his neighbor.
23:31 Behold, I am against the prophets, said the LORD, that use their
tongues, and say, He said.
23:32 Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, said the LORD,
and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their
lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall
not profit this people at all, said the LORD.
23:33 And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you,
saying, What is the burden of the LORD? you shall then say to them, What
burden? I will even forsake you, said the LORD.
23:34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall
say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house.
23:35 Thus shall you say every one to his neighbor, and every one to his
brother, What has the LORD answered? and, What has the LORD spoken?
23:36 And the burden of the LORD shall you mention no more: for every man's
word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living
God, of the LORD of hosts our God.
23:37 Thus shall you say to the prophet, What has the LORD answered you?
and, What has the LORD spoken?
23:38 But since you say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus said the
LORD; Because you say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent
to you, saying, You shall not say, The burden of the LORD;
23:39 Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will
forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you
out of my presence:
23:40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach on you, and a perpetual
shame, which shall not be forgotten.
24:1 The LORD showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before
the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried
away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes
of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought
them to Babylon.
24:2 One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe:
and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they
were so bad.
24:3 Then said the LORD to me, What see you, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs;
the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten,
they are so evil.
24:4 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
24:5 Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will
I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have
sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.
24:6 For I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again
to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will
plant them, and not pluck them up.
24:7 And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and
they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return
to me with their whole heart.
24:8 And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely
thus said the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his
princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them
that dwell in the land of Egypt:
24:9 And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the
earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse,
in all places where I shall drive them.
24:10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among
them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to
their fathers.
25:1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah
in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was
the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon;
25:2 The which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah, and
to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,
25:3 From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah,
even to this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the
LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking;
but you have not listened.
25:4 And the LORD has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising
early and sending them; but you have not listened, nor inclined your ear
to hear.
25:5 They said, Turn you again now every one from his evil way, and from
the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given
to you and to your fathers for ever and ever:
25:6 And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and
provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you
no hurt.
25:7 Yet you have not listened to me, said the LORD; that you might provoke
me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.
25:8 Therefore thus said the LORD of hosts; Because you have not heard
my words,
25:9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, said the
LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring
them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against
all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make
them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.
25:10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice
of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the
sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
25:11 And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and
these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
25:12 And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that
I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, said the LORD, for
their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual
desolations.
25:13 And I will bring on that land all my words which I have pronounced
against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied
against all the nations.
25:14 For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also:
and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the
works of their own hands.
25:15 For thus said the LORD God of Israel to me; Take the wine cup of
this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to
drink it.
25:16 And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword
that I will send among them.
25:17 Then took I the cup at the LORD's hand, and made all the nations
to drink, to whom the LORD had sent me:
25:18 To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof,
and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an
hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;
25:19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all
his people;
25:20 And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz,
and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah,
and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,
25:21 Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon,
25:22 And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings
of the isles which are beyond the sea,
25:23 Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners,
25:24 And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people
that dwell in the desert,
25:25 And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the
kings of the Medes,
25:26 And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and
all the kingdoms of the world, which are on the face of the earth: and
the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.
25:27 Therefore you shall say to them, Thus said the LORD of hosts, the
God of Israel; Drink you, and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise
no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.
25:28 And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink,
then shall you say to them, Thus said the LORD of hosts; You shall certainly
drink.
25:29 For, see, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my
name, and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished:
for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth, said the
LORD of hosts.
25:30 Therefore prophesy you against them all these words, and say to them,
The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation;
he shall mightily roar on his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they
that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.
25:31 A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD has
a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give
them that are wicked to the sword, said the LORD.
25:32 Thus said the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation
to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of
the earth.
25:33 And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the
earth even to the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither
gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung on the ground.
25:34 Howl, you shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes,
you principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your
dispersions are accomplished; and you shall fall like a pleasant vessel.
25:35 And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of
the flock to escape.
25:36 A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and an howling of the principal
of the flock, shall be heard: for the LORD has spoiled their pasture.
25:37 And the peaceable habitations are cut down because of the fierce
anger of the LORD.
25:38 He has forsaken his covert, as the lion: for their land is desolate
because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger.
26:1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king
of Judah came this word from the LORD, saying,
26:2 Thus said the LORD; Stand in the court of the LORD's house, and speak
to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD's house,
all the words that I command you to speak to them; diminish not a word:
26:3 If so be they will listen, and turn every man from his evil way, that
I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do to them because of the
evil of their doings.
26:4 And you shall say to them, Thus said the LORD; If you will not listen
to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you,
26:5 To listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent to
you, both rising up early, and sending them, but you have not listened;
26:6 Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a
curse to all the nations of the earth.
26:7 So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah
speaking these words in the house of the LORD.
26:8 Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all
that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests
and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, You shall surely
die.
26:9 Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, This house
shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant?
And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.
26:10 When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from
the king's house to the house of the LORD, and sat down in the entry of
the new gate of the LORD's house.
26:11 Then spoke the priests and the prophets to the princes and to all
the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he has prophesied against
this city, as you have heard with your ears.
26:12 Then spoke Jeremiah to all the princes and to all the people, saying,
The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all
the words that you have heard.
26:13 Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice
of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he
has pronounced against you.
26:14 As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seems good and
meet to you.
26:15 But know you for certain, that if you put me to death, you shall
surely bring innocent blood on yourselves, and on this city, and on the
inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak
all these words in your ears.
26:16 Then said the princes and all the people to the priests and to the
prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he has spoken to us in the
name of the LORD our God.
26:17 Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spoke to all
the assembly of the people, saying,
26:18 Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah,
and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus said the LORD of hosts;
Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and
the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.
26:19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death?
did he not fear the LORD, and sought the LORD, and the LORD repented him
of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure
great evil against our souls.
26:20 And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the LORD,
Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjathjearim, who prophesied against this
city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah.
26:21 And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the
princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death: but when
Urijah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt;
26:22 And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the
son of Achbor, and certain men with him into Egypt.
26:23 And they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him to Jehoiakim
the king; who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the
graves of the common people.
26:24 Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah,
that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to
death.
27:1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king
of Judah came this word to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
27:2 Thus said the LORD to me; Make you bonds and yokes, and put them on
your neck,
27:3 And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to
the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of
Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah
king of Judah;
27:4 And command them to say to their masters, Thus said the LORD of hosts,
the God of Israel; Thus shall you say to your masters;
27:5 I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are on the ground,
by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it to whom
it seemed meet to me.
27:6 And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar
the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given
him also to serve him.
27:7 And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until
the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall
serve themselves of him.
27:8 And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will
not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not
put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will
I punish, said the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with
the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
27:9 Therefore listen not you to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor
to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which
speak to you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon:
27:10 For they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land;
and that I should drive you out, and you should perish.
27:11 But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king
of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land,
said the LORD; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.
27:12 I spoke also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words,
saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve
him and his people, and live.
27:13 Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine,
and by the pestilence, as the LORD has spoken against the nation that will
not serve the king of Babylon?
27:14 Therefore listen not to the words of the prophets that speak to you,
saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie
to you.
27:15 For I have not sent them, said the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie
in my name; that I might drive you out, and that you might perish, you,
and the prophets that prophesy to you.
27:16 Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus
said the LORD; Listen not to the words of your prophets that prophesy to
you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD's house shall now shortly
be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie to you.
27:17 Listen not to them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: why should
this city be laid waste?
27:18 But if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be with them,
let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which
are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah,
and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon.
27:19 For thus said the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning
the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels
that remain in this city.
27:20 Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away
captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon,
and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;
27:21 Yes, thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the
vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king
of Judah and of Jerusalem;
27:22 They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the
day that I visit them, said the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore
them to this place.
28:1 And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of
Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that
Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spoke to me
in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the
people, saying,
28:2 Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken
the yoke of the king of Babylon.
28:3 Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels
of the LORD's house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from
this place, and carried them to Babylon:
28:4 And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim
king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon,
said the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
28:5 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah in the presence
of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the
house of the LORD,
28:6 Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform
your words which you have prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the
LORD's house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this
place.
28:7 Nevertheless hear you now this word that I speak in your ears, and
in the ears of all the people;
28:8 The prophets that have been before me and before you of old prophesied
both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of
evil, and of pestilence.
28:9 The prophet which prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet
shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD has
truly sent him.
28:10 Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's
neck, and broke it.
28:11 And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus
said the LORD; Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years.
And the prophet Jeremiah went his way.
28:12 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, after that
Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet
Jeremiah, saying,
28:13 Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus said the LORD; You have broken
the yokes of wood; but you shall make for them yokes of iron.
28:14 For thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a
yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts
of the field also.
28:15 Then said the prophet Jeremiah to Hananiah the prophet, Hear now,
Hananiah; The LORD has not sent you; but you make this people to trust
in a lie.
28:16 Therefore thus said the LORD; Behold, I will cast you from off the
face of the earth: this year you shall die, because you have taught rebellion
against the LORD.
28:17 So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.
29:1 Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent
from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders which were carried away captives,
and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar
had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon;
29:2 (After that Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the
princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths, were
departed from Jerusalem;)
29:3 By the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of
Hilkiah, (whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon) saying,
29:4 Thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all that are carried
away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to
Babylon;
29:5 Build you houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the
fruit of them;
29:6 Take you wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your
sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and
daughters; that you may be increased there, and not diminished.
29:7 And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried
away captives, and pray to the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall
you have peace.
29:8 For thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets
and your diviners, that be in the middle of you, deceive you, neither listen
to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.
29:9 For they prophesy falsely to you in my name: I have not sent them,
said the LORD.
29:10 For thus said the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished
at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing
you to return to this place.
29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, said the LORD, thoughts
of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
29:12 Then shall you call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I
will listen to you.
29:13 And you shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me
with all your heart.
29:14 And I will be found of you, said the LORD: and I will turn away your
captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the
places where I have driven you, said the LORD; and I will bring you again
into the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive.
29:15 Because you have said, The LORD has raised us up prophets in Babylon;
29:16 Know that thus said the LORD of the king that sits on the throne
of David, and of all the people that dwells in this city, and of your brothers
that are not gone forth with you into captivity;
29:17 Thus said the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will send on them the sword,
the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that
cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
29:18 And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with
the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms
of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and an hissing, and a
reproach, among all the nations where I have driven them:
29:19 Because they have not listened to my words, said the LORD, which
I sent to them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending
them; but you would not hear, said the LORD.
29:20 Hear you therefore the word of the LORD, all you of the captivity,
whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon:
29:21 Thus said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, of Ahab the son of
Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, which prophesy a lie to you
in my name; Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar
king of Babylon; and he shall slay them before your eyes;
29:22 And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah
which are in Babylon, saying, The LORD make you like Zedekiah and like
Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;
29:23 Because they have committed villainy in Israel, and have committed
adultery with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken lying words in my
name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, said
the LORD.
29:24 Thus shall you also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying,
29:25 Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because
you have sent letters in your name to all the people that are at Jerusalem,
and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests,
saying,
29:26 The LORD has made you priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest,
that you should be officers in the house of the LORD, for every man that
is mad, and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in prison,
and in the stocks.
29:27 Now therefore why have you not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, which
makes himself a prophet to you?
29:28 For therefore he sent to us in Babylon, saying, This captivity is
long: build you houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the
fruit of them.
29:29 And Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah
the prophet.
29:30 Then came the word of the LORD to Jeremiah, saying,
29:31 Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus said the LORD concerning
Shemaiah the Nehelamite; Because that Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and
I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie:
29:32 Therefore thus said the LORD; Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the
Nehelamite, and his seed: he shall not have a man to dwell among this people;
neither shall he behold the good that I will do for my people, said the
LORD; because he has taught r
