JER 1:1
The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the
priests who were in Anathoth in the land of
Benjamin,
JER 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.
JER 1:3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim,
the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of
the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah,
king of Judah, until the exile of Jerusalem in the
fifth month.
JER 1:4 Now the word of the Lord came to me
saying,
JER 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I
knew you, And before you were born I consecrated
you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."
JER 1:6 Then I said, "Alas, Lord God! Behold,
I do not know how to speak, Because I am a youth."
JER 1:7 But the Lord said to me, "Do not say,
'I am a youth,' Because everywhere I send you, you
shall go, And all that I command you, you shall
speak.
JER 1:8 "Do not be afraid of them, For I am
with you to deliver you," declares the Lord.
JER 1:9 Then the Lord stretched out His hand
and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me,
"Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
JER 1:10 "See, I have appointed you this day
over the nations and over the kingdoms, To pluck up
and to break down, To destroy and to overthrow, To
build and to plant."
JER 1:11 And the word of the Lord came to me
saying, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" And I said, "I
see a rod of an almond tree."
JER 1:12 Then the Lord said to me, "You have
seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform
it."
JER 1:13 And the word of the Lord came to me
a second time saying, "What do you see?" And I said,
"I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north."
JER 1:14 Then the Lord said to me, "Out of
the north the evil will break forth on all the
inhabitants of the land.
JER 1:15 "For, behold, I am calling all the
families of the kingdoms of the north," declares the
Lord; "and they will come, and they will set each
one his throne at the entrance of the gates of
Jerusalem, and against all its walls round about,
and against all the cities of Judah.
JER 1:16 "And I will pronounce My judgments
on them concerning all their wickedness, whereby
they have forsaken Me and have offered sacrifices to
other gods, and worshiped the works of their own
hands.
JER 1:17 "Now, gird up your loins, and arise,
and speak to them all which I command you. Do not be
dismayed before them, lest I dismay you before them.
JER 1:18 "Now behold, I have made you today
as a fortified city, and as a pillar of iron and as
walls of bronze against the whole land, to the kings
of Judah, to its princes, to its priests and to the
people of the land.
JER 1:19 "And they will fight against you,
but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to
deliver you," declares the Lord.
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JER 2:1
Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
JER 2:2 "Go and proclaim in the ears of
Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the Lord," I remember
concerning you the devotion of your youth, The love
of your betrothals, Your following after Me in the
wilderness, Through a land not sown.
JER 2:3 "Israel was holy to the Lord, The
first of His harvest; All who ate of it became
guilty; Evil came upon them," declares the Lord.' "
JER 2:4 Hear the word of the Lord, O house of
Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel.
JER 2:5 Thus says the Lord, "What injustice
did your fathers find in Me, That they went far from
Me And walked after emptiness and became empty?
JER 2:6 "And they did not say, 'Where is the
Lord Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, Who
led us through the wilderness, Through a land of
deserts and of pits, Through a land of drought and
of deep darkness, Through a land that no one crossed
And where no man dwelt?'
JER 2:7 "And I brought you into the fruitful
land, To eat its fruit and its good things. But you
came and defiled My land, And My inheritance you
made an abomination.
JER 2:8 "The priests did not say, 'Where is
the Lord?' And those who handle the law did not know
Me; The rulers also transgressed against Me, And the
prophets prophesied by Baal And walked after things
that did not profit.
JER 2:9 "Therefore I will yet contend with
you," declares the Lord, "And with your sons' sons I
will contend.
JER 2:10 "For cross to the coastlands of
Kittim and see, And send to Kedar and observe
closely, And see if there has been such a thing as
this!
JER 2:11 "Has a nation changed gods, When
they were not gods? But My people have changed their
glory For that which does not profit.
JER 2:12 "Be appalled, O heavens, at this,
And shudder, be very desolate," declares the Lord.
JER 2:13 "For My people have committed two
evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living
waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken
cisterns, That can hold no water.
JER 2:14 "Is Israel a slave? Or is he a
homeborn servant? Why has he become a prey?
JER 2:15 "The young lions have roared at him,
They have roared loudly. And they have made his land
a waste; His cities have been destroyed, without
inhabitant.
JER 2:16 "Also the men of Memphis and
Tahpanhes Have shaved the crown of your head.
JER 2:17 "Have you not done this to yourself,
By your forsaking the Lord your God, When He led you
in the way?
JER 2:18 "But now what are you doing on the
road to Egypt, To drink the waters of the Nile? Or
what are you doing on the road to Assyria, To drink
the waters of the Euphrates?
JER 2:19 "Your own wickedness will correct
you, And your apostasies will reprove you; Know
therefore and see that it is evil and bitter For you
to forsake the Lord your God, And the dread of Me is
not in you," declares the Lord God of hosts.
JER 2:20 "For long ago I broke your yoke And
tore off your bonds; But you said, 'I will not
serve!' For on every high hill And under every green
tree You have lain down as a harlot.
JER 2:21 "Yet I planted you a choice vine, A
completely faithful seed. How then have you turned
yourself before Me Into the degenerate shoots of a
foreign vine?
JER 2:22 "Although you wash yourself with lye
And use much soap, The stain of your iniquity is
before Me," declares the Lord God.
JER 2:23 "How can you say, 'I am not defiled,
I have not gone after the Baals'? Look at your way
in the valley! Know what you have done! You are a
swift young camel entangling her ways,
JER 2:24 A wild donkey accustomed to the
wilderness, That sniffs the wind in her passion. In
the time of her heat who can turn her away? All who
seek her will not become weary; In her month they
will find her.
JER 2:25 "Keep your feet from being unshod
And your throat from thirst; But you said, 'It is
hopeless! No! For I have loved strangers, And after
them I will walk.'
JER 2:26 "As the thief is shamed when he is
discovered, So the house of Israel is shamed; They,
their kings, their princes, And their priests, and
their prophets,
JER 2:27 Who say to a tree,' You are my
father,' And to a stone,' You gave me birth.' 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.'
JER 2:28 "But where are your gods Which you
made for yourself? 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.
JER 2:29 "Why do you contend with Me? You
have all transgressed against Me," declares the
Lord.
JER 2:30 "In vain I have struck your sons;
They accepted no chastening. Your sword has devoured
your prophets Like a destroying lion.
JER 2:31 "O generation, heed the word of the
Lord. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, Or a land
of thick darkness? Why do My people say, 'We are
free to roam; We will come no more to Thee'?
JER 2:32 "Can a virgin forget her ornaments,
Or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten
Me Days without number.
JER 2:33 "How well you prepare your way To
seek love! Therefore even the wicked women You have
taught your ways.
JER 2:34 "Also on your skirts is found The
lifeblood of the innocent poor; You did not find
them breaking in. But in spite of all these things,
JER 2:35 Yet you said,' I am innocent; Surely
His anger is turned away from me.' Behold, I will
enter into judgment with you Because you say,' I
have not sinned.'
JER 2:36 "Why do you go around so much
Changing your way? Also, you shall be put to shame
by Egypt As you were put to shame by Assyria.
JER 2:37 "From this place also you shall go
out With your hands on your head; For the Lord has
rejected those in whom you trust, And you shall not
prosper with them."
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JER 3:1
God says, "If a husband divorces his wife, And she
goes from him, And belongs to another man, Will he
still return to her? Will not that land be
completely polluted? But you are a harlot with many
lovers; Yet you turn to Me," declares the Lord.
JER 3:2 "Lift up your eyes to the bare
heights and see; Where have you not been violated?
By the roads you have sat for them Like an Arab in
the desert, And you have polluted a land With your
harlotry and with your wickedness.
JER 3:3 "Therefore the showers have been
withheld, And there has been no spring rain. Yet you
had a harlot's forehead; You refused to be ashamed.
JER 3:4 "Have you not just now called to Me,
'My Father, Thou art the friend of my youth?
JER 3:5 'Will He be angry forever? Will He be
indignant to the end?' Behold, you have spoken And
have done evil things, And you have had your way."
JER 3:6 Then the Lord said to me in the days
of Josiah the king, "Have you seen what faithless
Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under
every green tree, and she was a harlot there.
JER 3:7 "And I thought, 'After she has done
all these things, she will return to Me'; but she
did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw
it.
JER 3:8 "And I saw that for all the
adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away
and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous
sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a
harlot also.
JER 3:9 "And it came about because of the
lightness of her harlotry, that she polluted the
land and committed adultery with stones and trees.
JER 3:10 "And yet in spite of all this her
treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with
all her heart, but rather in deception," declares
the Lord.
JER 3:11 And the Lord said to me, "Faithless
Israel has proved herself more righteous than
treacherous Judah.
JER 3:12 "Go, and proclaim these words toward
the north and say, 'Return, faithless Israel,'
declares the Lord; 'I will not look upon you in
anger. For I am gracious,' declares the Lord; 'I
will not be angry forever.
JER 3:13 'Only acknowledge your iniquity,
That you have transgressed against the Lord your God
And have scattered your favors to the strangers
under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My
voice,' declares the Lord.
JER 3:14 'Return, O faithless sons,' declares
the Lord;' For I am a master to you, And I will take
you one from a city and two from a family, And I
will bring you to Zion.'
JER 3:15 "Then I will give you shepherds
after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge
and understanding.
JER 3:16 "And it shall be in those days when
you are multiplied and increased in the land,"
declares the Lord, "they shall say no more, 'The ark
of the covenant of the Lord.' And it shall not come
to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they
miss it, nor shall it be made again.
JER 3:17 "At that time they shall call
Jerusalem 'The Throne of the Lord,' and all the
nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for
the name of the Lord; nor shall they walk anymore
after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
JER 3:18 "In those days the house of Judah
will walk with the house of Israel, and they will
come together from the land of the north to the land
that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.
JER 3:19 "Then I said, 'How I would set you
among My sons, And give you a pleasant land, The
most beautiful inheritance of the nations!' And I
said, 'You shall call Me, My Father, And not turn
away from following Me.'
JER 3:20 "Surely, as a woman treacherously
departs from her lover, So you have dealt
treacherously with Me, O house of Israel," declares
the Lord.
JER 3:21 A voice is heard on the bare
heights, The weeping and the supplications of the
sons of Israel; Because they have perverted their
way, They have forgotten the Lord their God.
JER 3:22 "Return, O faithless sons, I will
heal your faithlessness." "Behold, we come to Thee;
For Thou art the Lord our God.
JER 3:23 "Surely, the hills are a deception,
A tumult on the mountains. Surely, in the Lord our
God Is the salvation of Israel.
JER 3:24 "But the shameful thing has consumed
the labor of our fathers since our youth, their
flocks and their herds, their sons and their
daughters.
JER 3:25 "Let us lie down in our shame, and
let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned
against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, since
our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed
the voice of the Lord our God."
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JER 4:1
"If you will return, O Israel," declares the Lord,
"Then you should return to Me. And if you will put
away your detested things from My presence, And will
not waver,
JER 4:2 And you will swear,' As the Lord
lives,' In truth, in justice, and in righteousness;
Then the nations will bless themselves in Him, And
in Him they will glory."
JER 4:3 For thus says the Lord to the men of
Judah and to Jerusalem, "Break up your fallow
ground, And do not sow among thorns.
JER 4:4 "Circumcise yourselves to the Lord
And remove the foreskins of your heart, Men of Judah
and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Lest My wrath go forth
like fire And burn with none to quench it, Because
of the evil of your deeds."
JER 4:5 Declare in Judah and proclaim in
Jerusalem, and say, "Blow the trumpet in the land;
Cry aloud and say, 'Assemble yourselves, and let us
go Into the fortified cities.'
JER 4:6 "Lift up a standard toward Zion! Seek
refuge, do not stand still, For I am bringing evil
from the north, And great destruction.
JER 4:7 "A lion has gone up from his thicket,
And a destroyer of nations has set out; He has gone
out from his place To make your land a waste. Your
cities will be ruins Without inhabitant.
JER 4:8 "For this, put on sackcloth, Lament
and wail; For the fierce anger of the Lord Has not
turned back from us."
JER 4:9 "And it shall come about in that
day," declares the Lord, "that the heart of the king
and the heart of the princes will fail; and the
priests will be appalled, and the prophets will be
astounded."
JER 4:10 Then I said, "Ah, Lord God! Surely
Thou hast utterly deceived this people and
Jerusalem, saying, 'You will have peace'; whereas a
sword touches the throat."
JER 4:11 In that time it will be said to this
people and to Jerusalem, "A scorching wind from the
bare heights in the wilderness in the direction of
the daughter of My people - - not to winnow, and not
to cleanse,
JER 4:12 a wind too strong for this - - will
come at My command; now I will also pronounce
judgments against them.
JER 4:13 "Behold, he goes up like clouds, And
his chariots like the whirlwind; His horses are
swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!"
JER 4:14 Wash your heart from evil, O
Jerusalem, That you may be saved. How long will your
wicked thoughts Lodge within you?
JER 4:15 For a voice declares from Dan, And
proclaims wickedness from Mount Ephraim.
JER 4:16 "Report it to the nations, now!
Proclaim over Jerusalem, 'Besiegers come from a far
country, And lift their voices against the cities of
Judah.
JER 4:17 'Like watchmen of a field they are
against her round about, Because she has rebelled
against Me,' declares the Lord.
JER 4:18 "Your ways and your deeds Have
brought these things to you. This is your evil. How
bitter! How it has touched your heart!"
JER 4:19 My soul, my soul! I am in anguish!
Oh, my heart! My heart is pounding in me; I cannot
be silent, Because you have heard, O my soul, The
sound of the trumpet, The alarm of war.
JER 4:20 Disaster on disaster is proclaimed,
For the whole land is devastated; Suddenly my tents
are devastated, My curtains in an instant.
JER 4:21 How long must I see the standard,
And hear the sound of the trumpet?
JER 4:22 "For My people are foolish, They
know Me not; They are stupid children, And they have
no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, But to
do good they do not know."
JER 4:23 I looked on the earth, and behold,
it was formless and void; And to the heavens, and
they had no light.
JER 4:24 I looked on the mountains, and
behold, they were quaking, And all the hills moved
to and fro.
JER 4:25 I looked, and behold, there was no
man, And all the birds of the heavens had fled.
JER 4:26 I looked, and behold, the fruitful
land was a wilderness, And all its cities were
pulled down Before the Lord, before His fierce
anger.
JER 4:27 For thus says the Lord, "The whole
land shall be a desolation, Yet I will not execute a
complete destruction.
JER 4:28 "For this the earth shall mourn, And
the heavens above be dark, Because I have spoken, I
have purposed, And I will not change My mind, nor
will I turn from it."
JER 4:29 At the sound of the horseman and
bowman every city flees; They go into the thickets
and climb among the rocks; Every city is forsaken,
And no man dwells in them.
JER 4:30 And you, O desolate one, what will
you do? Although you dress in scarlet, Although you
decorate yourself with ornaments of gold, Although
you enlarge your eyes with paint, In vain you make
yourself beautiful; Your lovers despise you; They
seek your life.
JER 4:31 For I heard a cry as of a woman in
labor, The anguish as of one giving birth to her
first child, The cry of the daughter of Zion gasping
for breath, Stretching out her hands, saying, "Ah,
woe is me, for I faint before murderers."
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JER 5:1
"Roam to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
And look now, and take note. And seek in her open
squares, If you can find a man, If there is one who
does justice, who seeks truth, Then I will pardon
her.
JER 5:2 "And although they say, 'As the Lord
lives,' Surely they swear falsely."
JER 5:3 O Lord, do not Thine eyes look for
truth? Thou hast smitten them, But they did not
weaken; Thou hast consumed them, But they refused to
take correction. They have made their faces harder
than rock; They have refused to repent.
JER 5:4 Then I said, "They are only the poor,
They are foolish; For they do not know the way of
the Lord Or the ordinance of their God.
JER 5:5 "I will go to the great And will
speak to them, For they know the way of the Lord,
And the ordinance of their God." But they too, with
one accord, have broken the yoke And burst the
bonds.
JER 5:6 Therefore a lion from the forest
shall slay them, A wolf of the deserts shall destroy
them, A leopard is watching their cities. Everyone
who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
Because their transgressions are many, Their
apostasies are numerous.
JER 5:7 "Why should I pardon you? Your sons
have forsaken Me And sworn by those who are not
gods. When I had fed them to the full, They
committed adultery And trooped to the harlot's
house.
JER 5:8 "They were well-fed lusty horses,
Each one neighing after his neighbor's wife.
JER 5:9 "Shall I not punish these people,"
declares the Lord, "And on a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?
JER 5:10 "Go up through her vine rows and
destroy, But do not execute a complete destruction;
Strip away her branches, For they are not the
Lord's.
JER 5:11 "For the house of Israel and the
house of Judah Have dealt very treacherously with
Me," declares the Lord.
JER 5:12 They have lied about the Lord And
said, "Not He; Misfortune will not come on us; And
we will not see sword or famine.
JER 5:13 "And the prophets are as wind, And
the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to
them!"
JER 5:14 Therefore, thus says the Lord, the
God of hosts, "Because you have spoken this word,
Behold, I am making My words in your mouth fire And
this people wood, and it will consume them.
JER 5:15 "Behold, I am bringing a nation
against you from afar, O house of Israel," declares
the Lord."It is an enduring nation, It is an ancient
nation, A nation whose language you do not know, Nor
can you understand what they say.
JER 5:16 "Their quiver is like an open grave,
All of them are mighty men.
JER 5:17 "And they will devour your harvest
and your food; They will devour your sons and your
daughters; They will devour your flocks and your
herds; They will devour your vines and your fig
trees; They will demolish with the sword your
fortified cities in which you trust.
JER 5:18 "Yet even in those days," declares
the Lord, "I will not make you a complete
destruction.
JER 5:19 "And it shall come about when they
say, 'Why has the Lord our God done all these things
to us?' then you shall say to them, 'As you have
forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so
you shall serve strangers in a land that is not
yours.'
JER 5:20 "Declare this in the house of Jacob
And proclaim it in Judah, saying,
JER 5:21 'Hear this, O foolish and senseless
people, Who have eyes, but see not; Who have ears,
but hear not.
JER 5:22 'Do you not fear Me?' declares the
Lord.' Do you not tremble in My presence? For I have
placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, An
eternal decree, so it cannot cross over it. Though
the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail; Though they
roar, yet they cannot cross over it.
JER 5:23 'But this people has a stubborn and
rebellious heart; They have turned aside and
departed.
JER 5:24 'They do not say in their heart,
"Let us now fear the Lord our God, Who gives rain in
its season, Both the autumn rain and the spring
rain, Who keeps for us The appointed weeks of the
harvest."
JER 5:25 'Your iniquities have turned these
away, And your sins have withheld good from you.
JER 5:26 'For wicked men are found among My
people, They watch like fowlers lying in wait; They
set a trap, They catch men.
JER 5:27 'Like a cage full of birds, So their
houses are full of deceit; Therefore they have
become great and rich.
JER 5:28 'They are fat, they are sleek, They
also excel in deeds of wickedness; They do not plead
the cause, The cause of the orphan, that they may
prosper; And they do not defend the rights of the
poor.
JER 5:29 'Shall I not punish these people?'
declares the Lord,' On a nation such as this Shall I
not avenge Myself?'
JER 5:30 "An appalling and horrible thing Has
happened in the land:
JER 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, And
the priests rule on their own authority; And My
people love it so! But what will you do at the end
of it?
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JER 6:1
"Flee for safety, O sons of Benjamin, From the midst
of Jerusalem! Now blow a trumpet in Tekoa, And raise
a signal over Beth-haccerem; For evil looks down
from the north, And a great destruction.
JER 6:2 "The comely and dainty one, the
daughter of Zion, I will cut off.
JER 6:3"Shepherds and their flocks will come
to her, They will pitch their tents around her, They
will pasture each in his place.
JER 6:4 "Prepare war against her; Arise, and
let us attack at noon. Woe to us, for the day
declines, For the shadows of the evening lengthen!
JER 6:5 "Arise, and let us attack by night
And destroy her palaces!"
JER 6:6 For thus says the Lord of hosts, "Cut
down her trees, And cast up a siege against
Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished, In whose
midst there is only oppression.
JER 6:7 "As a well keeps its waters fresh, So
she keeps fresh her wickedness. Violence and
destruction are heard in her; Sickness and wounds
are ever before Me.
JER 6:8 "Be warned, O Jerusalem, Lest I be
alienated from you; Lest I make you a desolation, A
land not inhabited."
JER 6:9 Thus says the Lord of hosts, "They
will thoroughly glean as the vine the remnant of
Israel; Pass your hand again like a grape gatherer
Over the branches."
JER 6:10 To whom shall I speak and give
warning, That they may hear? Behold, their ears are
closed, And they cannot listen. Behold, the word of
the Lord has become a reproach to them; They have no
delight in it.
JER 6:11 But I am full of the wrath of the
Lord: I am weary with holding it in."Pour it out on
the children in the street, And on the gathering of
young men together; For both husband and wife shall
be taken, The aged and the very old.
JER 6:12 "And their houses shall be turned
over to others, Their fields and their wives
together; For I will stretch out My hand Against the
inhabitants of the land," declares the Lord.
JER 6:13 "For from the least of them even to
the greatest of them, Everyone is greedy for gain,
And from the prophet even to the priest Everyone
deals falsely.
JER 6:14 "And they have healed the brokenness
of My people superficially, Saying, 'Peace, peace,'
But there is no peace.
JER 6:15 "Were they ashamed because of the
abomination they have done? They were not even
ashamed at all; They did not even know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At
the time that I punish them, They shall be cast
down," says the Lord.
JER 6:16 Thus says the Lord, "Stand by the
ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where
the good way is, and walk in it; And you shall find
rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not
walk in it.'
JER 6:17 "And I set watchmen over you,
saying, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!' But
they said, 'We will not listen.'
JER 6:18 "Therefore hear, O nations, And
know, O congregation, what is among them.
JER 6:19 "Hear, O earth: behold, I am
bringing disaster on this people, The fruit of their
plans, Because they have not listened to My words,
And as for My law, they have rejected it also.
JER 6:20 "For what purpose does frankincense
come to Me from Sheba, And the sweet cane from a
distant land? Your burnt offerings are not
acceptable, And your sacrifices are not pleasing to
Me."
JER 6:21 Therefore, thus says the Lord,
"Behold, I am laying stumbling blocks before this
people. And they will stumble against them, Fathers
and sons together; Neighbor and friend will perish."
JER 6:22 Thus says the Lord, "Behold, a
people is coming from the north land, And a great
nation will be aroused from the remote parts of the
earth.
JER 6:23 "They seize bow and spear; They are
cruel and have no mercy; Their voice roars like the
sea, And they ride on horses, Arrayed as a man for
the battle Against you, O daughter of Zion!"
JER 6:24 We have heard the report of it; Our
hands are limp. Anguish has seized us, Pain as of a
woman in childbirth.
JER 6:25 Do not go out into the field, And do
not walk on the road, For the enemy has a sword,
Terror is on every side.
JER 6:26 O daughter of my people, put on
sackcloth And roll in ashes; Mourn as for an only
son, A lamentation most bitter. For suddenly the
destroyer Will come upon us.
JER 6:27 "I have made you an assayer and a
tester among My people, That you may know and assay
their way."
JER 6:28 All of them are stubbornly
rebellious, Going about as a talebearer. They are
bronze and iron; They, all of them, are corrupt.
JER 6:29 The bellows blow fiercely, The lead
is consumed by the fire; In vain the refining goes
on, But the wicked are not separated.
JER 6:30 They call them rejected silver,
Because the Lord has rejected them.
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JER 7:1
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord,
saying,
JER 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, who enter by
these gates to worship the Lord!'"
JER 7:3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God
of Israel, "Amend your ways and your deeds, and I
will let you dwell in this place.
JER 7:4 "Do not trust in deceptive words,
saying, 'This is the temple of the Lord, the temple
of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.'
JER 7:5 "For if you truly amend your ways and
your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a
man and his neighbor,
JER 7:6 if you do not oppress the alien, the
orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood
in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own
ruin,
JER 7:7 then I will let you dwell in this
place, in the land that I gave to your fathers
forever and ever.
JER 7:8 "Behold, you are trusting in
deceptive words to no avail.
JER 7:9 "Will you steal, murder, and commit
adultery, and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to
Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not
known,
JER 7:10 then come and stand before Me in
this house, which is called by My name, and say,' We
are delivered!' - - that you may do all these
abominations?
JER 7:11 "Has this house, which is called by
My name, become a den of robbers in your sight?
Behold, I, even I, have seen it," declares the Lord.
JER 7:12 "But go now to My place which was in
Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and
see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My
people Israel.
JER 7:13 "And now, because you have done all
these things," declares the Lord, "and I spoke to
you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not
hear, and I called you but you did not answer,
JER 7:14 therefore, I will do to the house
which is called by My name, in which you trust, and
to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I
did to Shiloh.
JER 7:15 "And I will cast you out of My
sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the
offspring of Ephraim.
JER 7:16 "As for you, do not pray for this
people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them,
and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you.
JER 7:17 "Do you not see what they are doing
in the cities of Judah and in the streets of
Jerusalem?
JER 7:18 "The children gather wood, and the
fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough
to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour
out libations to other gods in order to spite Me.
JER 7:19 "Do they spite Me?" declares the
Lord."Is it not themselves they spite, to their own
shame?"
JER 7:20 Therefore thus says the Lord God,
"Behold, My anger and My wrath will 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
will burn and not be quenched."
JER 7:21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God
of Israel, "Add your burnt offerings to your
sacrifices and eat flesh.
JER 7:22 "For I did not speak to your
fathers, or command them in the day that I brought
them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt
offerings and sacrifices.
JER 7:23 "But this is what I commanded them,
saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and
you will be My people; and you will walk in all the
way which I command you, that it may be well with
you.'
JER 7:24 "Yet they did not obey or incline
their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in
the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went
backward and not forward.
JER 7:25 "Since the day that your fathers
came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have
sent you all My servants the prophets, daily rising
early and sending them.
JER 7:26 "Yet they did not listen to Me or
incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they
did evil more than their fathers.
JER 7:27 "And you shall speak all these words
to them, but they will not listen to you; and you
shall call to them, but they will not answer you.
JER 7:28 "And you shall say to them, 'This is
the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord
their God or accept correction; truth has perished
and has been cut off from their mouth.
JER 7:29 'Cut off your hair and cast it away,
And take up a lamentation on the bare heights; For
the Lord has rejected and forsaken The generation of
His wrath.'
JER 7:30 "For the sons of Judah have done
that which is evil in My sight," declares the Lord,
"they have set their detestable things in the house
which is called by My name, to defile it.
JER 7:31 "And they have built the high places
of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of
Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in
the fire, which I did not command, and it did not
come into My mind.
JER 7:32 "Therefore, behold, days are
coming," declares the Lord, "when it will no more be
called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom,
but the valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury
in Topheth because there is no other place.
JER 7:33 "And the dead bodies of this people
will be food for the birds of the sky, and for the
beasts of the earth; and no one will frighten them
away.
JER 7:34 "Then I will make to cease from the
cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem
the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the
voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride;
for the land will become a ruin.
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JER 8:1
"At that time," declares the Lord, "they will bring
out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones
of its princes, and the bones of the priests, and
the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the
inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves.
JER 8:2 "And they will spread them out to the
sun, the moon, and to all the host of heaven, which
they have loved, and which they have served, and
which they have gone after, and which they have
sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not
be gathered or buried; they will be as dung on the
face of the ground.
JER 8:3 "And death will be chosen rather than
life by all the remnant that remains of this evil
family, that remains in all the places to which I
have driven them," declares the Lord of hosts.
JER 8:4 "And you shall say to them, 'Thus
says the Lord," Do men fall and not get up again?
Does one turn away and not repent?
JER 8:5 "Why then has this people, Jerusalem,
Turned away in continual apostasy? They hold fast to
deceit, They refuse to return.
JER 8:6 "I have listened and heard, They have
spoken what is not right; No man repented of his
wickedness, Saying, 'What have I done?' Everyone
turned to his course, Like a horse charging into the
battle.
JER 8:7 "Even the stork in the sky Knows her
seasons; And the turtledove and the swift and the
thrush Observe the time of their migration; But My
people do not know The ordinance of the Lord.
JER 8:8 "How can you say, 'We are wise, And
the law of the Lord is with us'? But behold, the
lying pen of the scribes Has made it into a lie.
JER 8:9 "The wise men are put to shame, They
are dismayed and caught; Behold, they have rejected
the word of the Lord, And what kind of wisdom do
they have?
JER 8:10 "Therefore I will give their wives
to others, Their fields to new owners; Because from
the least even to the greatest Everyone is greedy
for gain; From the prophet even to the priest
Everyone practices deceit.
JER 8:11 "And they heal the brokenness of the
daughter of My people superficially, Saying, 'Peace,
peace,' But there is no peace.
JER 8:12 "Were they ashamed because of the
abomination they had done? They certainly were not
ashamed, And they did not know how to blush;
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At
the time of their punishment they shall be brought
down," Declares the Lord.
JER 8:13 "I will surely snatch them away,"
declares the Lord; "There will be no grapes on the
vine, And no figs on the fig tree, And the leaf
shall wither; And what I have given them shall pass
away."' "
JER 8:14 Why are we sitting still? Assemble
yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities,
And let us perish there, Because the Lord our God
has doomed us And given us poisoned water to drink,
For we have sinned against the Lord.
JER 8:15 We waited for peace, but no good
came; For a time of healing, but behold, terror!
JER 8:16 From Dan is heard the snorting of
his horses; At the sound of the neighing of his
stallions The whole land quakes; For they come and
devour the land and its fulness, The city and its
inhabitants.
JER 8:17 "For behold, I am sending serpents
against you, Adders, for which there is no charm,
And they will bite you," declares the Lord.
JER 8:18 My sorrow is beyond healing, My
heart is faint within me!
JER 8:19 Behold, listen! The cry of the
daughter of my people from a distant land: "Is the
Lord not in Zion? Is her King not within her?" "Why
have they provoked Me with their graven images, with
foreign idols?"
JER 8:20 "Harvest is past, summer is ended,
And we are not saved."
JER 8:21 For the brokenness of the daughter
of my people I am broken; I mourn, dismay has taken
hold of me.
JER 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there
no physician there? Why then has not the health of
the daughter of my people been restored?
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JER 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!
JER 9:2 O that I had in the desert A
wayfarers' lodging place; That I might leave my
people, And go from them! For all of them are
adulterers, An assembly of treacherous men.
JER 9:3 "And they bend their tongue like
their bow; Lies and not truth prevail in the land;
For they proceed from evil to evil, And they do not
know Me," declares the Lord.
JER 9:4 "Let everyone be on guard against his
neighbor, And do not trust any brother; Because
every brother deals craftily, And every neighbor
goes about as a slanderer.
JER 9:5 "And everyone deceives his neighbor,
And does not speak the truth, They have taught their
tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves
committing iniquity.
JER 9:6 "Your dwelling is in the midst of
deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me,"
declares the Lord.
JER 9:7 Therefore thus says the Lord of
hosts, "Behold, I will refine them and assay them;
For what else can I do, because of the daughter of
My people?
JER 9:8 "Their tongue is a deadly arrow; It
speaks deceit; With his mouth one speaks peace to
his neighbor, But inwardly he sets an ambush for
him.
JER 9:9 "Shall I not punish them for these
things?" declares the Lord."On a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?
JER 9:10 "For the mountains I will take up a
weeping and wailing, And for the pastures of the
wilderness a dirge, Because they are laid waste, so
that no one passes through, And the lowing of the
cattle is not heard; Both the birds of the sky and
the beasts have fled; they are gone.
JER 9:11 "And I will make Jerusalem a heap of
ruins, A haunt of jackals; And I will make the
cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant."
JER 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? Why is
the land ruined, laid waste like a desert, so that
no one passes through?
JER 9:13 And the Lord said, "Because they
have forsaken My law which I set before them, and
have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it,
JER 9:14 but have walked after the
stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as
their fathers taught them, "
JER 9:15 therefore thus says the Lord of
hosts, the God of Israel, "behold, I will feed them,
this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned
water to drink.
JER 9:16 "And I will scatter them among the
nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have
known; and I will send the sword after them until I
have annihilated them."
JER 9:17 Thus says the Lord of hosts,
"Consider and call for the mourning women, that they
may come; And send for the wailing women, that they
may come!
JER 9:18 "And let them make haste, and take
up a wailing for us, That our eyes may shed tears,
And our eyelids flow with water.
JER 9:19 "For a voice of wailing is heard
from Zion, 'How are we ruined! We are put to great
shame, For we have left the land, Because they have
cast down our dwellings.'"
JER 9:20 Now hear the word of the Lord, O you
women, And let your ear receive the word of His
mouth; Teach your daughters wailing, And everyone
her neighbor a dirge.
JER 9:21 For death has come up through our
windows; It has entered our palaces To cut off the
children from the streets, The young men from the
town squares.
JER 9:22 Speak, "Thus declares the Lord, 'The
corpses of men will fall like dung on the open
field, And like the sheaf after the reaper, But no
one will gather them.'"
JER 9:23 Thus says the Lord, "Let not a wise
man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man
boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his
riches;
JER 9:24 but let him who boasts boast of
this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am
the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and
righteousness on earth; for I delight in these
things, "declares the Lord.
JER 9:25 "Behold, the days are coming,"
declares the Lord, "that I will punish all who are
circumcised and yet uncircumcised - -
JER 9:26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the
sons of Ammon, and Moab, and all those inhabiting
the desert who clip the hair on their temples; for
all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house
of Israel are uncircumcised of heart."
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JER 10:1
Hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house
of Israel.
JER 10:2 Thus says the Lord, "Do not learn
the way of the nations, And do not be terrified by
the signs of the heavens Although the nations are
terrified by them;
JER 10:3 For the customs of the peoples are
delusion; Because it is wood cut from the forest,
The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting
tool.
JER 10:4 "They decorate it with silver and
with gold; They fasten it with nails and with
hammers So that it will not totter.
JER 10:5 "Like a scarecrow in a cucumber
field are they, And they cannot speak; They must be
carried, Because they cannot walk! Do not fear them,
For they can do no harm, Nor can they do any good."
JER 10:6 There is none like Thee, O Lord;
Thou art great, and great is Thy name in might.
JER 10:7 Who would not fear Thee, O King of
the nations? Indeed it is Thy due! For among all the
wise men of the nations, And in all their kingdoms,
There is none like Thee.
JER 10:8 But they are altogether stupid and
foolish In their discipline of delusion - - their
idol is wood!
JER 10:9 Beaten silver is brought from
Tarshish, And gold from Uphaz, The work of a
craftsman and of the hands of a goldsmith; Violet
and purple are their clothing; They are all the work
of skilled men.
JER 10:10 But the Lord is the true God; He is
the living God and the everlasting King. At His
wrath the earth quakes, And the nations cannot
endure His indignation.
JER 10:11 Thus you shall say to them, "The
gods that did not make the heavens and the earth
shall perish from the earth and from under the
heavens."
JER 10:12 It is He who made the earth by His
power, Who established the world by His wisdom; And
by His understanding He has stretched out the
heavens.
JER 10:13 When He utters His voice, there is
a tumult of waters in the heavens, And He causes the
clouds to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes
lightning for the rain, And brings out the wind from
His storehouses.
JER 10:14 Every man is stupid, devoid of
knowledge; Every goldsmith is put to shame by his
idols; For his molten images are deceitful, And
there is no breath in them.
JER 10:15 They are worthless, a work of
mockery; In the time of their punishment they will
perish.
JER 10:16 The portion of Jacob is not like
these; For the Maker of all is He, And Israel is the
tribe of His inheritance; The Lord of hosts is His
name.
JER 10:17 Pick up your bundle from the
ground, You who dwell under siege!
JER 10:18 For thus says the Lord, "Behold, I
am slinging out the inhabitants of the land At this
time, And will cause them distress, That they may be
found."
JER 10:19 Woe is me, because of my injury! My
wound is incurable. But I said, "Truly this is a
sickness, And I must bear it."
JER 10:20 My tent is destroyed, And all my
ropes are broken; My sons have gone from me and are
no more. There is no one to stretch out my tent
again Or to set up my curtains.
JER 10:21 For the shepherds have become
stupid And have not sought the Lord; Therefore they
have not prospered, And all their flock is
scattered.
JER 10:22 The sound of a report! Behold, it
comes - - A great commotion out of the land of the
north - - To make the cities of Judah A desolation,
a haunt of jackals.
JER 10:23 I know, O Lord, that a man's way is
not in himself; Nor is it in a man who walks to
direct his steps.
JER 10:24 Correct me, O Lord, but with
justice; Not with Thine anger, lest Thou bring me to
nothing.
JER 10:25 Pour out Thy wrath on the nations
that do not know Thee, And on the families that do
not call Thy name; For they have devoured Jacob;
They have devoured him and consumed him, And have
laid waste his habitation.
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JER 11:1
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord,
saying,
JER 11:2 "Hear the words of this covenant,
and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem;
JER 11:3 and say to them,' Thus says the
Lord, the God of Israel, "Cursed is the man who does
not heed the words of this covenant
JER 11:4 which I commanded your forefathers
in the day that I brought them out of the land of
Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying,' Listen to My
voice, and do according to all which I command you;
so you shall be My people, and I will be your God,'
JER 11:5 in order to confirm the oath which I
swore to your forefathers, to give them a land
flowing with milk and honey, as it is this
day."'"Then I answered and said, "Amen, O Lord."
JER 11:6 And the Lord said to me, "Proclaim
all these words in the cities of Judah and in the
streets of Jerusalem, saying, 'Hear the words of
this covenant and do them.
JER 11:7 'For I solemnly warned your fathers
in the day that I brought them up from the land of
Egypt, even to this day, warning persistently,
saying, "Listen to My voice."
JER 11:8 'Yet they did not obey or incline
their ear, but walked, each one, in the stubbornness
of his evil heart; therefore I brought on them all
the words of this covenant, which I commanded them
to do, but they did not.' "
JER 11:9 Then the Lord said to me, "A
conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and
among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
JER 11:10 "They have turned back to the
iniquities of their ancestors who refused to hear My
words, and they have gone 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."
JER 11:11 Therefore thus says the Lord,
"Behold I am bringing disaster on them which they
will not be able to escape; though they will cry to
Me, yet I will not listen to them.
JER 11:12 "Then the cities of Judah and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods
to whom they burn incense, but they surely will not
save them in the time of their disaster.
JER 11:13 "For your gods are as many as your
cities, O Judah; and as many as the streets of
Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to the
shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal.
JER 11:14 "Therefore do not pray for this
people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I
will not listen when they call to Me because of
their disaster.
JER 11:15 "What right has My beloved in My
house When she has done many vile deeds? Can the
sacrificial flesh take away from you your disaster,
So that you can rejoice?"
JER 11:16 The Lord called your name, "A green
olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form"; With the
noise of a great tumult He has kindled fire on it,
And its branches are worthless.
JER 11:17 And the Lord of hosts, who planted
you, has pronounced evil against you because of the
evil of the house of Israel and of the house of
Judah, which they have done to provoke Me by
offering up sacrifices to Baal.
JER 11:18 Moreover, the Lord made it known to
me and I knew it; Then Thou didst show me their
deeds.
JER 11:19 But I was like a gentle lamb led to
the slaughter; And I did not know that they had
devised plots against me, saying, "Let us destroy
the tree with its fruit, And let us cut him off from
the land of the living, That his name be remembered
no more."
JER 11:20 But, O Lord of hosts, who judges
righteously, Who tries the feelings and the heart,
Let me see Thy vengeance on them, For to Thee have I
committed my cause.
JER 11:21 Therefore thus says the Lord
concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life,
saying, "Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord,
that you might not die at our hand";
JER 11:22 therefore, thus says the Lord of
hosts, "Behold, I am about to punish them! The young
men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters
will die by famine;
JER 11:23 and a remnant will not be left to
them, for I will bring disaster on the men of
Anathoth - - the year of their punishment."
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JER 12:1
Righteous art Thou, O Lord, that I would plead my
case with Thee; Indeed I would discuss matters of
justice with Thee: Why has the way of the wicked
prospered? Why are all those who deal in treachery
at ease?
JER 12:2 Thou hast planted them, they have
also taken root; They grow, they have even produced
fruit. Thou art near to their lips But far from
their mind.
JER 12:3 But Thou knowest me, O Lord; Thou
seest me; And Thou dost examine my heart's attitude
toward Thee. Drag them off like sheep for the
slaughter And set them apart for a day of carnage!
JER 12:4 How long is the land to mourn And
the vegetation of the countryside to wither? For the
wickedness of those who dwell in it, Animals and
birds have been snatched away, Because men have
said, "He will not see our latter ending."
JER 12:5 "If you have run with footmen and
they have tired you out, Then how can you compete
with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace,
How will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?
JER 12:6 "For even your brothers and the
household of your father, Even they have dealt
treacherously with you, Even they have cried aloud
after you. Do not believe them, although they may
say nice things to you."
JER 12:7 "I have forsaken My house, I have
abandoned My inheritance; I have given the beloved
of My soul Into the hand of her enemies.
JER 12:8 "My inheritance has become to Me
Like a lion in the forest; She has roared against
Me; Therefore I have come to hate her.
JER 12:9 "Is My inheritance like a speckled
bird of prey to Me? Are the birds of prey against
her on every side? Go, gather all the beasts of the
field, Bring them to devour!
JER 12:10 "Many shepherds have ruined My
vineyard, They have trampled down My field; They
have made My pleasant field A desolate wilderness.
JER 12:11 "It has been made a desolation,
Desolate, it mourns before Me; The whole land has
been made desolate, Because no man lays it to heart.
JER 12:12 "On all the bare heights in the
wilderness Destroyers have come, For a sword of the
Lord is devouring From one end of the land even to
the other; There is no peace for anyone.
JER 12:13 "They have sown wheat and have
reaped thorns, They have strained themselves to no
profit. But be ashamed of your harvest Because of
the fierce anger of the Lord."
JER 12:14 Thus says the Lord concerning all
My wicked neighbors who strike at the inheritance
with which I have endowed My people Israel, "Behold
I am about to uproot them from their land and will
uproot the house of Judah from among them.
JER 12:15 "And it will come about that after
I have uprooted them, I will again have compassion
on them; and I will bring them back, each one to his
inheritance and each one to his land.
JER 12:16 "Then it will come about that if
they will really learn the ways of My people, to
swear by My name, 'As the Lord lives,' even as they
taught My people to swear by Baal, then they will be
built up in the midst of My people.
JER 12:17 "But if they will not listen, then
I will uproot that nation, uproot and destroy it,"
declares the Lord.
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JER 13:1
Thus the Lord said to me, "Go and buy yourself a
linen waistband, and put it around your waist, but
do not put it in water."
JER 13:2 So I bought the waistband in
accordance with the word of the Lord and put it
around my waist.
JER 13:3 Then the word of the Lord came to me
a second time, saying,
JER 13:4 "Take the waistband that you have
bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to
the Euphrates and hide it there in a crevice of the
rock."
JER 13:5 So I went and hid it by the
Euphrates, as the Lord had commanded me.
JER 13:6 And it came about after many days
that the Lord said to me, "Arise, go to the
Euphrates and take from there the waistband which I
commanded you to hide there."
JER 13:7 Then I went to the Euphrates and
dug, and I took the waistband from the place where I
had hidden it; and lo, the waistband was ruined, it
was totally worthless.
JER 13:8 Then the word of the Lord came to
me, saying,
JER 13:9 "Thus says the Lord, 'Just so will I
destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of
Jerusalem.
JER 13:10 'This wicked people, who refuse to
listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of
their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve
them and to bow down to them, let them be just like
this waistband, which is totally worthless.
JER 13:11 'For as the waistband clings to the
waist of a man, so I made the whole household of
Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to
Me,' declares the Lord,' that they might be for Me a
people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but
they did not listen.'
JER 13:12 "Therefore you are to speak this
word to them, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of
Israel," Every jug is to be filled with wine."'And
when they say to you, 'Do we not very well know that
every jug is to be filled with wine?'
JER 13:13 then say to them,' Thus says the
Lord, "Behold I am about to fill all the inhabitants
of this land - - the kings that sit for David on his
throne, the priests, the prophets and all the
inhabitants of Jerusalem - - with drunkenness!
JER 13:14 "And I will dash them against each
other, both the fathers and the sons together,"
declares the Lord." I will not show pity nor be
sorry nor have compassion that I should not destroy
them."' "
JER 13:15 Listen and give heed, do not be
haughty, For the Lord has spoken.
JER 13:16 Give glory to the Lord your God,
Before He brings darkness And before your feet
stumble On the dusky mountains, And while you are
hoping for light He makes it into deep darkness, And
turns it into gloom.
JER 13:17 But if you will not listen to it,
My soul will sob in secret for such pride; And my
eyes will bitterly weep And flow down with tears,
Because the flock of the Lord has been taken
captive.
JER 13:18 Say to the king and the queen
mother, "Take a lowly seat, For your beautiful crown
Has come down from your head."
JER 13:19 The cities of the Negev have been
locked up, And there is no one to open them; All
Judah has been carried into exile, Wholly carried
into exile.
JER 13:20 "Lift up your eyes and see Those
coming from the north. Where is the flock that was
given you, Your beautiful sheep?
JER 13:21 "What will you say when He appoints
over you - - And you yourself had taught them - -
Former companions to be head over you? Will not
pangs take hold of you, Like a woman in childbirth?
JER 13:22 "And if you say in your heart, 'Why
have these things happened to me?' Because of the
magnitude of your iniquity Your skirts have been
removed, And your heels have been exposed.
JER 13:23 "Can the Ethiopian change his skin
Or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good
Who are accustomed to doing evil.
JER 13:24 "Therefore I will scatter them like
drifting straw To the desert wind.
JER 13:25 "This is your lot, the portion
measured to you From Me," declares the Lord,
"Because you have forgotten Me And trusted in
falsehood.
JER 13:26 "So I Myself have also stripped
your skirts off over your face, That your shame may
be seen.
JER 13:27 "As for your adulteries and your
lustful neighings, The lewdness of your prostitution
On the hills in the field, I have seen your
abominations. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will
you remain unclean?"
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JER 14:1
That which came as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah
in regard to the drought:
JER 14:2 "Judah mourns, And her gates
languish; They sit on the ground in mourning, And
the cry of Jerusalem has ascended.
JER 14:3 "And their nobles have sent their
servants for water; They have come to the cisterns
and found no water. They have returned with their
vessels empty; They have been put to shame and
humiliated, And they cover their heads.
JER 14:4 "Because the ground is cracked, For
there has been no rain on the land; The farmers have
been put to shame, They have covered their heads.
JER 14:5 "For even the doe in the field has
given birth only to abandon her young, Because there
is no grass.
JER 14:6 "And the wild donkeys stand on the
bare heights; They pant for air like jackals, Their
eyes fail For there is no vegetation.
JER 14:7 "Although our iniquities testify
against us, O Lord, act for Thy name's sake! Truly
our apostasies have been many, We have sinned
against Thee.
JER 14:8 "Thou Hope of Israel, Its Savior in
time of distress, Why art Thou like a stranger in
the land Or like a traveler who has pitched his tent
for the night?
JER 14:9 "Why art Thou like a man dismayed,
Like a mighty man who cannot save? Yet Thou art in
our midst, O Lord, And we are called by Thy name; Do
not forsake us!"
JER 14:10 Thus says the Lord to this people,
"Even so they have loved to wander; they have not
kept their feet in check. Therefore the Lord does
not accept them; now He will remember their iniquity
and call their sins to account."
JER 14:11 So the Lord said to me, "Do not
pray for the welfare of this people.
JER 14:12 "When they fast, I am not going to
listen to their cry; and when they offer burnt
offering and grain offering, I am not going to
accept them. Rather I am going to make an end of
them by the sword, famine and pestilence."
JER 14:13 But, "Ah, Lord God!" I said, "Look,
the prophets are telling them, 'You will not see the
sword nor will you have famine, but I will give you
lasting peace in this place.'"
JER 14:14 Then the Lord said to me, "The
prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I
have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken
to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision,
divination, futility and the deception of their own
minds.
JER 14:15 "Therefore thus says the Lord
concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My
name, although it was not I who sent them - - yet
they keep saying, 'There shall be no sword or famine
in this land' - - by sword and famine those prophets
shall meet their end!
JER 14:16 "The people also to whom they are
prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of
Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and
there will be no one to bury them - - neither them,
nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters
- - for I shall pour out their own wickedness on
them.
JER 14:17 "And you will say this word to
them, 'Let my eyes flow down with tears night and
day, And let them not cease; For the virgin daughter
of my people has been crushed with a mighty blow,
With a sorely infected wound.
JER 14:18 'If I go out to the country,
Behold, those slain with the sword! Or if I enter
the city, Behold, diseases of famine! For both
prophet and priest Have gone roving about in the
land that they do not know.' "
JER 14:19 Hast Thou completely rejected
Judah? Or hast Thou loathed Zion? Why hast Thou
stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We waited
for peace, but nothing good came; And for a time of
healing, but behold, terror!
JER 14:20 We know our wickedness, O Lord, The
iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against
Thee.
JER 14:21 Do not despise us, for Thine own
name's sake; Do not disgrace the throne of Thy
glory; Remember and do not annul Thy covenant with
us.
JER 14:22 Are there any among the idols of
the nations who give rain? Or can the heavens grant
showers? Is it not Thou, O Lord our God? Therefore
we hope in Thee, For Thou art the one who hast done
all these things.
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JER 15:1
Then the Lord said to me, "Even though Moses and
Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not
be with this people; send them away from My presence
and let them go!
JER 15:2 "And it shall be that when they say
to you, 'Where should we go?' then you are to tell
them, 'Thus says the Lord:" Those destined for
death, to death; And those destined for the sword,
to the sword; And those destined for famine, to
famine; And those destined for captivity, to
captivity."'
JER 15:3 "And I shall appoint over them four
kinds of doom," declares the Lord: "the sword to
slay, the dogs to drag off, and the birds of the sky
and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
JER 15:4 "And I shall make them an object of
horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because
of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah,
for what he did in Jerusalem.
JER 15:5 "Indeed, who will have pity on you,
O Jerusalem, Or who will mourn for you, Or who will
turn aside to ask about your welfare?
JER 15:6 "You who have forsaken Me," declares
the Lord, "You keep going backward. So I will
stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I
am tired of relenting!
JER 15:7 "And I will winnow them with a
winnowing fork At the gates of the land; I will
bereave them of children, I will destroy My people;
They did not repent of their ways.
JER 15:8 "Their widows will be more numerous
before Me Than the sand of the seas; I will bring
against them, against the mother of a young man, A
destroyer at noonday; I will suddenly bring down on
her Anguish and dismay.
JER 15:9 "She who bore seven sons pines away;
Her breathing is labored. Her sun has set while it
was yet day; She has been shamed and humiliated. So
I shall give over their survivors to the sword
Before their enemies," declares the Lord.
JER 15:10 Woe to me, my mother, that you have
borne me As a man of strife and a man of contention
to all the land! I have neither lent, nor have men
lent money to me, Yet everyone curses me.
JER 15:11 The Lord said, "Surely I will set
you free for purposes of good; Surely I will cause
the enemy to make supplication to you In a time of
disaster and a time of distress.
JER 15:12 "Can anyone smash iron, Iron from
the north, or bronze?
JER 15:13 "Your wealth and your treasures I
will give for booty without cost, Even for all your
sins And within all your borders.
JER 15:14 "Then I will cause your enemies to
bring it Into a land you do not know; For a fire has
been kindled in My anger, It will burn upon you."
JER 15:15 Thou who knowest, O Lord, Remember
me, take notice of me, And take vengeance for me on
my persecutors. Do not, in view of Thy patience,
take me away; Know that for Thy sake I endure
reproach.
JER 15:16 Thy words were found and I ate
them, And Thy words became for me a joy and the
delight of my heart; For I have been called by Thy
name, O Lord God of hosts.
JER 15:17 I did not sit in the circle of
merrymakers, Nor did I exult. Because of Thy hand
upon me I sat alone, For Thou didst fill me with
indignation.
JER 15:18 Why has my pain been perpetual And
my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Wilt Thou
indeed be to me like a deceptive stream With water
that is unreliable?
JER 15:19 Therefore, thus says the Lord, "If
you return, then I will restore you - - Before Me
you will stand; And if you extract the precious from
the worthless, You will become My spokesman. They
for their part may turn to you, But as for you, you
must not turn to them.
JER 15:20 "Then I will make you to this
people A fortified wall of bronze; And though they
fight against you, They will not prevail over you;
For I am with you to save you And deliver you,"
declares the Lord.
JER 15:21 "So I will deliver you from the
hand of the wicked, And I will redeem you from the
grasp of the violent."
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JER 16:1
The word of the Lord also came to me saying,
JER 16:2 "You shall not take a wife for
yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place."
JER 16:3 For thus says the Lord concerning
the sons and daughters born in this place, and
concerning their mothers who bear them, and their
fathers who beget them in this land:
JER 16:4 "They will die of deadly diseases,
they will not be lamented or buried; they will be as
dung on the surface of the ground and come to an end
by sword and famine, and their carcasses will become
food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of
the earth."
JER 16:5 For thus says the Lord, "Do not
enter a house of mourning, or go to lament or to
console them; for I have withdrawn My peace from
this people," declares the Lord, "My lovingkindness
and compassion.
JER 16:6 "Both great men and small will die
in this land; they will not be buried, they will not
be lamented, nor will anyone gash himself or shave
his head for them.
JER 16:7 "Neither will men break bread in
mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead,
nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for
anyone's father or mother.
JER 16:8 "Moreover you shall not go into a
house of feasting to sit with them to eat and
drink."
JER 16:9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel: "Behold, I am going to eliminate from
this place, before your eyes and in your time, the
voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness, the
voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.
JER 16:10 "Now it will come about when you
tell this people all these words that they will say
to you, 'For what reason has the Lord declared all
this great calamity against us? And what is our
iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed
against the Lord our God?'
JER 16:11 "Then you are to say to them, 'It
is because your forefathers have forsaken Me,'
declares the Lord, 'and have followed other gods and
served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have
forsaken and have not kept My law.
JER 16:12 'You too have done evil, even more
than your forefathers; for behold, you are each one
walking according to the stubbornness of his own
evil heart, without listening to Me.
JER 16:13 'So I will hurl you out of this
land into the land which you have not known, neither
you nor your fathers; and there you will serve other
gods day and night, for I shall grant you no favor.'
JER 16:14 "Therefore behold, days are
coming," declares the Lord, "when it will no longer
be said, 'As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons
of Israel out of the land of Egypt,'
JER 16:15 but,' As the Lord lives, who
brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the
north and from all the countries where He had
banished them.' For I will restore them to their own
land which I gave to their fathers.
JER 16:16 "Behold, I am going to send for
many fishermen," declares the Lord, "and they will
fish for them; and afterwards I shall send for many
hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain
and every hill, and from the clefts of the rocks.
JER 16:17 "For My eyes are on all their ways;
they are not hidden from My face, nor is their
iniquity concealed from My eyes.
JER 16:18 "And I will first doubly repay
their iniquity and their sin, because they have
polluted My land; they have filled My inheritance
with the carcasses of their detestable idols and
with their abominations."
JER 16:19 O Lord, my strength and my
stronghold, And my refuge in the day of distress, To
Thee the nations will come From the ends of the
earth and say, "Our fathers have inherited nothing
but falsehood, Futility and things of no profit."
JER 16:20 Can man make gods for himself? Yet
they are not gods!
JER 16:21 "Therefore behold, I am going to
make them know - - This time I will make them know
My power and My might; And they shall know that My
name is the Lord."
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JER 17:1
The sin of Judah is written down with an iron
stylus; With a diamond point it is engraved upon the
tablet of their heart, And on the horns of their
altars,
JER 17:2 As they remember their children, So
they remember their altars and their Asherim By
green trees on the high hills.
JER 17:3 O mountain of Mine in the
countryside, I will give over your wealth and all
your treasures for booty, Your high places for sin
throughout your borders.
JER 17:4 And you will, even of yourself, let
go of your inheritance That I gave you; And I will
make you serve your enemies In the land which you do
not know; For you have kindled a fire in My anger
Which will burn forever.
JER 17:5 Thus says the Lord, "Cursed is the
man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his
strength, And whose heart turns away from the Lord.
JER 17:6 "For he will be like a bush in the
desert And will not see when prosperity comes, But
will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land
of salt without inhabitant.
JER 17:7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in
the Lord And whose trust is the Lord.
JER 17:8 "For he will be like a tree planted
by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And
will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves
will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year
of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.
JER 17:9 "The heart is more deceitful than
all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand
it?
JER 17:10 "I, the Lord, search the heart, I
test the mind, Even to give to each man according to
his ways, According to the results of his deeds.
JER 17:11 "As a partridge that hatches eggs
which it has not laid, So is he who makes a fortune,
but unjustly; In the midst of his days it will
forsake him, And in the end he will be a fool."
JER 17:12 A glorious throne on high from the
beginning Is the place of our sanctuary.
JER 17:13 O Lord, the hope of Israel, All who
forsake Thee will be put to shame. Those who turn
away on earth will be written down, Because they
have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the
Lord.
JER 17:14 Heal me, O Lord, and I will be
healed; Save me and I will be saved, For Thou art my
praise.
JER 17:15 Look, they keep saying to me,
"Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now!"
JER 17:16 But as for me, I have not hurried
away from being a shepherd after Thee, Nor have I
longed for the woeful day; Thou Thyself knowest the
utterance of my lips Was in Thy presence.
JER 17:17 Do not be a terror to me; Thou art
my refuge in the day of disaster.
JER 17:18 Let those who persecute me be put
to shame, but as for me, let me not be put to shame;
Let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed.
Bring on them a day of disaster, And crush them with
twofold destruction!
JER 17:19 Thus the Lord said to me, "Go and
stand in the public gate, through which the kings of
Judah come in and go out, as well as in all the
gates of Jerusalem;
JER 17:20 and say to them,' Listen to the
word of the Lord, kings of Judah, and all Judah, and
all inhabitants of Jerusalem, who come in through
these gates:
JER 17:21 'Thus says the Lord, "Take heed for
yourselves, and do not carry any load on the sabbath
day or bring anything in through the gates of
Jerusalem.
JER 17:22 "And you shall not bring a load out
of your houses on the sabbath day nor do any work,
but keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your
forefathers.
JER 17:23 "Yet they did not listen or incline
their ears, but stiffened their necks in order not
to listen or take correction.
JER 17:24 "But it will come about, if you
listen attentively to Me," declares the Lord, "to
bring no load in through the gates of this city on
the sabbath day, but to keep the sabbath day holy by
doing no work on it,
JER 17:25 then there will come in through 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 will be
inhabited forever.
JER 17:26 "They will come in from the cities
of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem, from
the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the
hill country, and from the Negev, bringing burnt
offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings and incense,
and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house
of the Lord.
JER 17:27 "But if you do not listen to Me to
keep the sabbath day holy by not carrying a load and
coming in through the gates of Jerusalem on the
sabbath day, then I shall kindle a fire in its
gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem
and not be quenched."'"
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JER 18:1
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord
saying,
JER 18:2 "Arise and go down to the potter's
house, and there I shall announce My words to you."
JER 18:3 Then I went down to the potter's
house, and there he was, making something on the
wheel.
JER 18:4 But the vessel that he was making of
clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he
remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the
potter to make.
JER 18:5 Then the word of the Lord came to me
saying,
JER 18:6 "Can I not, O house of Israel, deal
with you as this potter does?" declares the
Lord."Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so
are you in My hand, O house of Israel.
JER 18:7 "At one moment I might speak
concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to
uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it;
JER 18:8 if that nation against which I have
spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning
the calamity I planned to bring on it.
JER 18:9 "Or at another moment I might speak
concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build
up or to plant it;
JER 18:10 if it does evil in My sight by not
obeying My voice, then I will think better of the
good with which I had promised to bless it.
JER 18:11 "So now then, speak to the men of
Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem
saying, 'Thus says the Lord," Behold, I am
fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan
against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil
way, and reform your ways and your deeds."'
JER 18:12 "But they will say, 'It's hopeless!
For we are going to follow our own plans, and each
of us will act according to the stubbornness of his
evil heart.'
JER 18:13 "Therefore thus says the Lord, 'Ask
now among the nations, Who ever heard the like of
this? The virgin of Israel Has done a most appalling
thing.
JER 18:14 'Does the snow of Lebanon forsake
the rock of the open country? Or is the cold flowing
water from a foreign land ever snatched away?
JER 18:15 'For My people have forgotten Me,
They burn incense to worthless gods And they have
stumbled from their ways, From the ancient paths, To
walk in bypaths, Not on a highway,
JER 18:16 To make their land a desolation, An
object of perpetual hissing; Everyone who passes by
it will be astonished And shake his head.
JER 18:17 'Like an east wind I will scatter
them Before the enemy; I will show them My back and
not My face In the day of their calamity.' "
JER 18:18 Then they said, "Come and let us
devise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the law is not
going to be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the
sage, nor the divine word to the prophet! Come on
and let us strike at him with our tongue, and let us
give no heed to any of his words."
JER 18:19 Do give heed to me, O Lord, And
listen to what my opponents are saying!
JER 18:20 Should good be repaid with evil?
For they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood
before Thee To speak good on their behalf, So as to
turn away Thy wrath from them.
JER 18:21 Therefore, give their children over
to famine, And deliver them up to the power of the
sword; And let their wives become childless and
widowed. Let their men also be smitten to death,
Their young men struck down by the sword in battle.
JER 18:22 May an outcry be heard from their
houses, When Thou suddenly bringest raiders upon
them; For they have dug a pit to capture me And
hidden snares for my feet.
JER 18:23 Yet Thou, O Lord, knowest All their
deadly designs against me; Do not forgive their
iniquity Or blot out their sin from Thy sight. But
may they be overthrown before Thee; Deal with them
in the time of Thine anger!
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JER 19:1
Thus says the Lord, "Go and buy a potter's
earthenware jar, and take some of the elders of the
people and some of the senior priests.
JER 19:2 "Then go out to the valley of Ben-hinnom,
which is by the entrance of the potsherd gate; and
proclaim there the words that I shall tell you,
JER 19:3 and say,' Hear the word of the Lord,
O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus
says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "Behold I
am about to bring a calamity upon this place, at
which the ears of everyone that hears of it will
tingle.
JER 19:4 "Because they have forsaken Me and
have made this an alien place and have burned
sacrifices in it to other gods that neither they nor
their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever
known, and because they have filled this place with
the blood of the innocent
JER 19:5 and have built the high places of
Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt
offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded
or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My mind;
JER 19:6 therefore, behold, days are coming,
"declares the Lord," when this place will no longer
be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-hinnom, but
rather the valley of Slaughter.
JER 19:7 "And I shall make void the counsel
of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I shall
cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies
and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I
shall give over their carcasses as food for the
birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.
JER 19:8 "I shall also make this city a
desolation and an object of hissing; everyone who
passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of
all its disasters.
JER 19:9 "And I shall make them eat the flesh
of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and
they will eat one another's flesh in the siege and
in the distress with which their enemies and those
who seek their life will distress them."'
JER 19:10 "Then you are to break the jar in
the sight of the men who accompany you
JER 19:11 and say to them,' Thus says the
Lord of hosts, "Just so shall I break this people
and this city, even as one breaks a potter's vessel,
which cannot again be repaired; and they will bury
in Topheth because there is no other place for
burial.
JER 19:12 "This is how I shall treat this
place and its inhabitants," declares the Lord, "so
as to make this city like Topheth.
JER 19:13 "And the houses of Jerusalem and
the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled
like the place Topheth, because of all the houses on
whose rooftops they burned sacrifices to all the
heavenly host and poured out libations to other
gods."' "
JER 19:14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth,
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:
JER 19:15 "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, 'Behold, I am about to bring on this
city and all its towns the entire calamity that I
have declared against it, because they have
stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words.'"
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JER 20:1
When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was
chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard
Jeremiah prophesying these things,
JER 20:2 Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet
beaten, and put him in the stocks that were at the
upper Benjamin Gate, which was by the house of the
Lord.
JER 20:3 Then it came about on the next day,
when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, that
Jeremiah said to him, "Pashhur is not the name the
Lord has called you, but rather Magor-missabib.
JER 20:4 "For thus says the Lord, 'Behold, I
am going to make you a terror to yourself and to all
your friends; and while your eyes look on, they will
fall by the sword of their enemies. So I shall give
over all Judah to the hand of the king of Babylon,
and he will carry them away as exiles to Babylon and
will slay them with the sword.
JER 20:5 'I shall also give over all the
wealth of this city, all its produce, and all its
costly things; even all the treasures of the kings
of Judah I shall give over to the hand of their
enemies, and they will plunder them, take them away,
and bring them to Babylon.
JER 20:6 'And you, Pashhur, and all who live
in your house will go into captivity; and you will
enter Babylon, and there you will die, and there you
will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you
have falsely prophesied.' "
JER 20:7 O Lord, Thou hast deceived me and I
was deceived; Thou hast overcome me and prevailed. I
have become a laughingstock all day long; Everyone
mocks me.
JER 20:8 For each time I speak, I cry aloud;
I proclaim violence and destruction, Because for me
the word of the Lord has resulted In reproach and
derision all day long.
JER 20:9 But if I say, "I will not remember
Him Or speak anymore in His name," Then in my heart
it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones;
And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure
it.
JER 20:10 For I have heard the whispering of
many, "Terror on every side! Denounce him; yes, let
us denounce him!" All my trusted friends, Watching
for my fall, say: "Perhaps he will be deceived, so
that we may prevail against him And take our revenge
on him."
JER 20:11 But the Lord is with me like a
dread champion; Therefore my persecutors will
stumble and not prevail. They will be utterly
ashamed, because they have failed, With an
everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.
JER 20:12 Yet, O Lord of hosts, Thou who dost
test the righteous, Who seest the mind and the
heart; Let me see Thy vengeance on them; For to Thee
I have set forth my cause.
JER 20:13 Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord!
For He has delivered the soul of the needy one From
the hand of evildoers.
JER 20:14 Cursed be the day when I was born;
Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me!
JER 20:15 Cursed be the man who brought the
news To my father, saying, "A baby boy has been born
to you!" And made him very happy.
JER 20:16 But let that man be like the cities
Which the Lord overthrew without relenting, And let
him hear an outcry in the morning And a shout of
alarm at noon;
JER 20:17 Because he did not kill me before
birth, So that my mother would have been my grave,
And her womb ever pregnant.
JER 20:18 Why did I ever come forth from the
womb To look on trouble and sorrow, So that my days
have been spent in shame?
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JER 21:1
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when
King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of
Malchijah, and Zephaniah the priest, the son of
Maaseiah, saying,
JER 21:2 "Please inquire of the Lord on our
behalf, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is
warring against us; perhaps the Lord will deal with
us according to all His wonderful acts, that the
enemy may withdraw from us."
JER 21:3 Then Jeremiah said to them, "You
shall say to Zedekiah as follows:
JER 21:4 'Thus says the Lord God of Israel,
"Behold, I am about to turn back the weapons of war
which are in your hands, with which you are warring
against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who
are besieging you outside the wall; and I shall
gather them into the center of this city.
JER 21:5 "And I Myself shall war against you
with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, even in
anger and wrath and great indignation.
JER 21:6 "I shall also strike down the
inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they
will die of a great pestilence.
JER 21:7 "Then afterwards," declares the
Lord, "I shall give over Zedekiah king of Judah and
his servants and the people, even those who survive
in this city from the pestilence, the sword, and the
famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon, and into the hand of their foes, and into
the hand of those who seek their lives; and he will
strike them down with the edge of the sword. He will
not spare them nor have pity nor compassion."'
JER 21:8 "You shall also say to this people,
'Thus says the Lord," Behold, I set before you the
way of life and the way of death.
JER 21:9 "He who dwells in this city will die
by the sword and by famine and by pestilence; but he
who goes out and falls away to the Chaldeans who are
besieging you will live, and he will have his own
life as booty.
JER 21:10 "For I have set My face against
this city for harm and not for good," declares the
Lord."It will be given into the hand of the king of
Babylon, and he will burn it with fire."'
JER 21:11 "Then say to the household of the
king of Judah, 'Hear the word of the Lord,
JER 21:12 O house of David, thus says the
Lord: "Administer justice every morning; And deliver
the person who has been robbed from the power of his
oppressor, That My wrath may not go forth like fire
And burn with none to extinguish it, Because of the
evil of their deeds.
JER 21:13 "Behold, I am against you, O valley
dweller, O rocky plain," declares the Lord, "You men
who say, 'Who will come down against us? Or who will
enter into our habitations?'
JER 21:14 "But I shall punish you according
to the results of your deeds," declares the Lord,
"And I shall kindle a fire in its forest That it may
devour all its environs."'"
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JER 22:1
Thus says the Lord, "Go down to the house of the
king of Judah, and there speak this word,
JER 22:2 and say,' Hear the word of the Lord,
O king of Judah, who sits on David's throne, you and
your servants and your people who enter these gates.
JER 22:3 'Thus says the Lord, "Do justice and
righteousness, and deliver the one who has been
robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not
mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan,
or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this
place.
JER 22:4 "For if you men will indeed perform
this thing, then kings will enter the gates of this
house, sitting in David's place on his throne,
riding in chariots and on horses, even the king
himself and his servants and his people.
JER 22:5 "But if you will not obey these
words, I swear by Myself," declares the Lord, "that
this house will become a desolation."' "
JER 22:6 For thus says the Lord concerning
the house of the king of Judah: "You are like Gilead
to Me, Like the summit of Lebanon; Yet most
assuredly I shall make you like a wilderness, Like
cities which are not inhabited.
JER 22:7 "For I shall set apart destroyers
against you, Each with his weapons; And they will
cut down your choicest cedars And throw them on the
fire.
JER 22:8 "And many nations will pass by this
city; and they will say to one another, 'Why has the
Lord done thus to this great city?'
JER 22:9 "Then they will answer, 'Because
they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God and
bowed down to other gods and served them.'"
JER 22:10 Do not weep for the dead or mourn
for him, But weep continually for the one who goes
away; For he will never return Or see his native
land.
JER 22:11 For thus says the Lord in regard to
Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became
king in the place of Josiah his father, who went
forth from this place, "He will never return there;
JER 22:12 but in the place where they led him
captive, there he will die and not see this land
again.
JER 22:13 "Woe to him who builds his house
without righteousness And his upper rooms without
justice, Who uses his neighbor's services without
pay And does not give him his wages,
JER 22:14 Who says,' I will build myself a
roomy house With spacious upper rooms, And cut out
its windows, Paneling it with cedar and painting it
bright red.'
JER 22:15 "Do you become a king because you
are competing in cedar? Did not your father eat and
drink, And do justice and righteousness? Then it was
well with him.
JER 22:16 "He pled the cause of the afflicted
and needy; Then it was well. Is not that what it
means to know Me?" Declares the Lord.
JER 22:17 "But your eyes and your heart Are
intent only upon your own dishonest gain, And on
shedding innocent blood And on practicing oppression
and extortion."
JER 22:18 Therefore thus says the Lord in
regard to Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of
Judah, "They will not lament for him: 'Alas, my
brother!' or, 'Alas, sister!' They will not lament
for him: 'Alas for the master!' or, 'Alas for his
splendor!'
JER 22:19 "He will be buried with a donkey's
burial, Dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates
of Jerusalem.
JER 22:20 "Go up to Lebanon and cry out, And
lift up your voice in Bashan; Cry out also from
Abarim, For all your lovers have been crushed.
JER 22:21 "I spoke to you in your prosperity;
But you said, 'I will not listen!' This has been
your practice from your youth, That you have not
obeyed My voice.
JER 22:22 "The wind will sweep away all your
shepherds, And your lovers will go into captivity;
Then you will surely be ashamed and humiliated
Because of all your wickedness.
JER 22:23 "You who dwell in Lebanon, Nested
in the cedars, How you will groan when pangs come
upon you, Pain like a woman in childbirth!
JER 22:24 "As I live," declares the Lord,
"even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of
Judah were a signet ring on My right hand, yet I
would pull you off;
JER 22:25 and I shall give you over into the
hand of those who are seeking your life, yes, into
the hand of those whom you dread, even into the hand
of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand
of the Chaldeans.
JER 22:26 "I shall hurl you and your mother
who bore you into another country where you were not
born, and there you will die.
JER 22:27 "But as for the land to which they
desire to return, they will not return to it.
JER 22:28 "Is this man Coniah a despised,
shattered jar? Or is he an undesirable vessel? Why
have he and his descendants been hurled out And cast
into a land that they had not known?
JER 22:29 "O land, land, land, Hear the word
of the Lord!
JER 22:30 "Thus says the Lord, 'Write this
man down childless, A man who will not prosper in
his days; For no man of his descendants will prosper
Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in
Judah.'"
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JER 23:1
"Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and
scattering the sheep of My pasture!" declares the
Lord.
JER 23:2 Therefore thus says the Lord God of
Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending My
people: "You have scattered My flock and driven them
away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am
about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,"
declares the Lord.
JER 23:3 "Then I Myself shall gather the
remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I
have driven them and shall bring them back to their
pasture; and they will be fruitful and multiply.
JER 23:4 "I shall also raise up shepherds
over them and they will tend them; and they will not
be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any
be missing," declares the Lord.
JER 23:5 "Behold, the days are coming,"
declares the Lord, "When I shall raise up for David
a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and
act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the
land.
JER 23:6 "In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell securely; And this is His name
by which He will be called, 'The Lord our
righteousness.'
JER 23:7 "Therefore behold, the days are
coming," declares the Lord, "when they will no
longer say, 'As the Lord lives, who brought up the
sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,'
JER 23:8 but,' As the Lord lives, who brought
up and led back the descendants of the household of
Israel from the north land and from all the
countries where I had driven them.' Then they will
live on their own soil."
JER 23:9 As for the prophets: My heart is
broken within me, All my bones tremble; I have
become like a drunken man, Even like a man overcome
with wine, Because of the Lord And because of His
holy words.
JER 23:10 For the land is full of adulterers;
For the land mourns because of the curse. The
pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their
course also is evil, And their might is not right.
JER 23:11 "For both prophet and priest are
polluted; Even in My house I have found their
wickedness," declares the Lord.
JER 23:12 "Therefore their way will be like
slippery paths to them, They will be driven away
into the gloom and fall down in it; For I shall
bring calamity upon them, The year of their
punishment," declares the Lord.
JER 23:13 "Moreover, among the prophets of
Samaria I saw an offensive thing: They prophesied by
Baal and led My people Israel astray.
JER 23:14 "Also among the prophets of
Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: The
committing of adultery and walking in falsehood; And
they strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no
one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them
have become to Me like Sodom, And her inhabitants
like Gomorrah.
JER 23:15 "Therefore thus says the Lord of
hosts concerning the prophets, 'Behold, I am going
to feed them wormwood And make them drink poisonous
water, For from the prophets of Jerusalem Pollution
has gone forth into all the land.'"
JER 23:16 Thus says the Lord of hosts, "Do
not listen to the words of the prophets who are
prophesying to you. They are leading you into
futility; They speak a vision of their own
imagination, Not from the mouth of the Lord.
JER 23:17 "They keep saying to those who
despise Me, 'The Lord has said," You will have peace
"';And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness
of his own heart, They say, 'Calamity will not come
upon you.'
JER 23:18 "But who has stood in the council
of the Lord, That he should see and hear His word?
Who has given heed to His word and listened?
JER 23:19 "Behold, the storm of the Lord has
gone forth in wrath, Even a whirling tempest; It
will swirl down on the head of the wicked.
JER 23:20 "The anger of the Lord will not
turn back Until He has performed and carried out the
purposes of His heart; In the last days you will
clearly understand it.
JER 23:21 "I did not send these prophets, But
they ran. I did not speak to them, But they
prophesied.
JER 23:22 "But if they had stood in My
council, Then they would have announced My words to
My people, And would have turned them back from
their evil way And from the evil of their deeds.
JER 23:23 "Am I a God who is near," declares
the Lord, "And not a God far off?
JER 23:24 "Can a man hide himself in hiding
places, So I do not see him?" declares the Lord." Do
I not fill the heavens and the earth?" declares the
Lord.
JER 23:25 "I have heard what the prophets
have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying,
'I had a dream, I had a dream!'
JER 23:26 "How long? Is there anything in the
hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even
these prophets of the deception of their own heart,
JER 23:27 who intend to make My people forget
My name by their dreams which they relate to one
another, just as their fathers forgot My name
because of Baal?
JER 23:28 "The prophet who has a dream may
relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak
My word in truth. What does straw have in common
with grain?" declares the Lord.
JER 23:29 "Is not My word like fire?"
declares the Lord, "and like a hammer which shatters
a rock?
JER 23:30 "Therefore behold, I am against the
prophets," declares the Lord, "who steal My words
from each other.
JER 23:31 "Behold, I am against the
prophets," declares the Lord, "who use their tongues
and declare, 'The Lord declares.'
JER 23:32 "Behold, I am against those who
have prophesied false dreams," declares the Lord,
"and related them, and led My people astray by their
falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send
them or command them, nor do they furnish this
people the slightest benefit," declares the Lord.
JER 23:33 "Now when this people or the
prophet or a priest asks you saying, 'What is the
oracle of the Lord?' then you shall say to them,
'What oracle?' The Lord declares, 'I shall abandon
you.'
JER 23:34 "Then as for the prophet or the
priest or the people who say, 'The oracle of the
Lord,' I shall bring punishment upon that man and
his household.
JER 23:35 "Thus shall each of you say to his
neighbor and to his brother, 'What has the Lord
answered?' or, 'What has the Lord spoken?'
JER 23:36 "For you will no longer remember
the oracle of the Lord, because every man's own word
will become the oracle, and you have perverted the
words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God.
JER 23:37 "Thus you will say to that prophet,
'What has the Lord answered you?' and, 'What has the
Lord spoken?'
JER 23:38 "For if you say, 'The oracle of the
Lord!' surely thus says the Lord, 'Because you said
this word," The oracle of the Lord! "I have also
sent to you, saying," You shall not say,' The oracle
of the Lord!' "'
JER 23:39 "Therefore behold, I shall surely
forget you and cast you away from My presence, along
with the city which I gave you and your fathers.
JER 23:40 "And I will put an everlasting
reproach on you and an everlasting humiliation which
will not be forgotten."
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JER 24:1
After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried
away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of
Judah, and the officials of Judah with the craftsmen
and smiths from Jerusalem and had brought them to
Babylon, the Lord showed me: behold, two baskets of
figs set before the temple of the Lord!
JER 24:2 One basket had very good figs, like
first-ripe figs; and the other basket had very bad
figs, which could not be eaten due to rottenness.
JER 24:3 Then the Lord said to me, "What do
you see, Jeremiah?" And I said, "Figs, the good
figs, very good; and the bad figs, very bad, which
cannot be eaten due to rottenness."
JER 24:4 Then the word of the Lord came to
me, saying,
JER 24:5 "Thus says the Lord God of Israel,
'Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the
captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this
place into the land of the Chaldeans.
JER 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 up and not overthrow them, and I
will plant them and not pluck them up.
JER 24:7 'And I will give them a heart to
know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be My
people, and I will be their God, for they will
return to Me with their whole heart.
JER 24:8' But like the bad figs which cannot
be eaten due to rottenness - - indeed, thus says the
Lord - - so I will abandon Zedekiah king of Judah
and his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem who
remain in this land, and the ones who dwell in the
land of Egypt.
JER 24:9 'And I will make them a terror and
an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth, as a
reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all
places where I shall scatter them.
JER 24:10 'And I will send the sword, the
famine, and the pestilence upon them until they are
destroyed from the land which I gave to them and
their forefathers.'"
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JER 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 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon),
JER 25:2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to
all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, saying,
JER 25:3 "From the thirteenth year of Josiah
the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day,
these twenty-three years the word of the Lord has
come to me, and I have spoken to you again and
again, but you have not listened.
JER 25:4 "And the Lord has sent to you all
His servants the prophets again and again, but you
have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear,
JER 25:5 saying,' Turn now everyone from his
evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell
on the land which the Lord has given to you and your
forefathers forever and ever;
JER 25:6 and do not go after other gods to
serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke
Me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will
do you no harm.'
JER 25:7 "Yet you have not listened to Me,"
declares the Lord, "in order that you might provoke
Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own
harm.
JER 25:8 "Therefore thus says the Lord of
hosts, 'Because you have not obeyed My words,
JER 25:9 behold, I will send and take all the
families of the north,' declares the Lord,' and I
will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My
servant, and will bring them against this land, and
against its inhabitants, and against all these
nations round about; and I will utterly destroy
them, and make them a horror, and a hissing, and an
everlasting desolation.
JER 25:10 'Moreover, I will take from them
the voice of joy 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
lamp.
JER 25:11 'And this whole land shall be a
desolation and a horror, and these nations shall
serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
JER 25:12 'Then it will be when seventy years
are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and
that nation,' declares the Lord,' for their
iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will
make it an everlasting desolation.
JER 25:13 'And I will bring upon that land
all My words which I have pronounced against it, all
that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has
prophesied against all the nations.
JER 25:14 '(For many nations and great kings
shall make slaves of them, even them; and I will
recompense them according to their deeds, and
according to the work of their hands.)' "
JER 25:15 For thus the Lord, the God of
Israel, says to me, "Take this cup of the wine of
wrath from My hand, and cause all the nations, to
whom I send you, to drink it.
JER 25:16 "And they shall drink and stagger
and go mad because of the sword that I will send
among them."
JER 25:17 Then I took the cup from the Lord's
hand, and made all the nations drink, to whom the
Lord sent me:
JER 25:18 Jerusalem and the cities of Judah,
and its kings and its princes, to make them a ruin,
a horror, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day;
JER 25:19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his
servants, his princes, and all his people;
JER 25:20 and all the foreign people, all the
kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land
of the Philistines (even Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and
the remnant of Ashdod);
JER 25:21 Edom, Moab, and the sons of Ammon;
JER 25:22 and all the kings of Tyre, all the
kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastlands
which are beyond the sea;
JER 25:23 and Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who
cut the corners of their hair;
JER 25:24 and all the kings of Arabia and all
the kings of the foreign people who dwell in the
desert;
JER 25:25 and all the kings of Zimri, all the
kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media;
JER 25:26 and all the kings of the north,
near and far, one with another; and all the kingdoms
of the earth which are upon the face of the ground,
and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.
JER 25:27 "And you shall say to them, 'Thus
says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel," Drink,
be drunk, vomit, fall, and rise no more because of
the sword which I will send among you."'
JER 25:28 "And it will be, if they refuse to
take the cup from your hand to drink, then you will
say to them, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts:" You
shall surely drink!
JER 25:29 "For behold, I am beginning to work
calamity in this city which is called by My name,
and shall you be completely free from punishment?
You will not be free from punishment; for I am
summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the
earth," declares the Lord of hosts.'
JER 25:30 "Therefore you shall prophesy
against them all these words, and you shall say to
them, 'The Lord will roar from on high, And utter
His voice from His holy habitation; He will roar
mightily against His fold. He will shout like those
who tread the grapes, Against all the inhabitants of
the earth.
JER 25:31 'A clamor has come to the end of
the earth, Because the Lord has a controversy with
the nations. He is entering into judgment with all
flesh; As for the wicked, He has given them to the
sword,' declares the Lord."
JER 25:32 Thus says the Lord of hosts,
"Behold, evil is going forth From nation to nation,
And a great storm is being stirred up From the
remotest parts of the earth.
JER 25:33 "And those slain by the Lord on
that day shall be from one end of the earth to the
other. They shall not be lamented, gathered, or
buried; they shall be like dung on the face of the
ground.
JER 25:34 "Wail, you shepherds, and cry; And
wallow in ashes, you masters of the flock; For the
days of your slaughter and your dispersions have
come, And you shall fall like a choice vessel.
JER 25:35 "Flight shall perish from the
shepherds, And escape from the masters of the flock.
JER 25:36 "Hear the sound of the cry of the
shepherds, And the wailing of the masters of the
flock! For the Lord is destroying their pasture,
JER 25:37 "And the peaceful folds are made
silent Because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
JER 25:38 "He has left His hiding place like
the lion; For their land has become a horror Because
of the fierceness of the oppressing sword, And
because of His fierce anger."
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JER 26:1
In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son
of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the
Lord, saying,
JER 26:2 "Thus says the Lord, 'Stand in the
court of the Lord's house, and speak to all the
cities of Judah, who have come to worship in the
Lord's house, all the words that I have commanded
you to speak to them. Do not omit a word!
JER 26:3 'Perhaps they will listen and
everyone will turn from his evil way, that I may
repent of the calamity which I am planning to do to
them because of the evil of their deeds.'
JER 26:4 "And you will say to them, 'Thus
says the Lord," If you will not listen to Me, to
walk in My law, which I have set before you,
JER 26:5 to listen to the words of My
servants the prophets, whom I have been sending to
you again and again, but you have not listened;
JER 26:6 then I will make this house like
Shiloh, and this city I will make a curse to all the
nations of the earth."'"
JER 26:7 And the priests and the prophets and
all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words
in the house of the Lord.
JER 26:8 And when Jeremiah finished speaking
all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all
the people, the priests and the prophets and all the
people seized him, saying, "You must die!
JER 26:9 "Why have you prophesied in the name
of the Lord saying, 'This house will be like Shiloh,
and this city will be desolate, without
inhabitant'?" And all the people gathered about
Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.
JER 26:10 And when the princes of Judah heard
these things, they came up from the king's house to
the house of the Lord and sat in the entrance of the
New Gate of the Lord's house.
JER 26:11 Then the priests and the prophets
spoke to the officials and to all the people,
saying, "A death sentence for this man! For he has
prophesied against this city as you have heard in
your hearing."
JER 26:12 Then Jeremiah spoke to all the
officials 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.
JER 26:13 "Now therefore amend your ways and
your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God;
and the Lord will change His mind about the
misfortune which He has pronounced against you.
JER 26:14 "But as for me, behold, I am in
your hands; do with me as is good and right in your
sight.
JER 26:15 "Only know for certain that if you
put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on
yourselves, and on this city, and on its
inhabitants; for truly the Lord has sent me to you
to speak all these words in your hearing."
JER 26:16 Then the officials and all the
people said to the priests and to the prophets, "No
death sentence for this man! For he has spoken to us
in the name of the Lord our God."
JER 26:17 Then some of the elders of the land
rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people,
saying,
JER 26:18 "Micah of Moresheth prophesied in
the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to
all the people of Judah, saying, 'Thus the Lord of
hosts has said," Zion will be plowed as a field, And
Jerusalem will become ruins, And the mountain of the
house as the high places of a forest."'
JER 26:19 "Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all
Judah put him to death? Did he not fear the Lord and
entreat the favor of the Lord, and the Lord changed
His mind about the misfortune which He had
pronounced against them? But we are committing a
great evil against ourselves."
JER 26:20 Indeed, there was also a man who
prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah the son of
Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim; and he prophesied
against this city and against this land words
similar to all those of Jeremiah.
JER 26:21 When King Jehoiakim and all his
mighty men and all the officials heard his words,
then the king sought to put him to death; but Uriah
heard it, and he was afraid and fled, and went to
Egypt.
JER 26:22 Then King Jehoiakim sent men to
Egypt: Elnathan the son of Achbor and certain men
with him went into Egypt.
JER 26:23 And they brought Uriah from Egypt
and led him to King Jehoiakim, who slew him with a
sword, and cast his dead body into the burial place
of the common people.
JER 26:24 But the hand of Ahikam the son of
Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not given
into the hands of the people to put him to death.
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JER 27:1
In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of
Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah
from the Lord, saying - -
JER 27:2 thus says the Lord to me - - "Make
for yourself bonds and yokes and put them on your
neck,
JER 27:3 and send word to the king of Edom,
to the king of Moab, to the king of the sons of
Ammon, to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon
by the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah
king of Judah.
JER 27:4 "And command them to go to their
masters, saying, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, thus you shall say to your masters,
JER 27:5 "I have made the earth, the men and
the beasts which are on the face of the earth by My
great power and by My outstretched arm, and I will
give it to the one who is pleasing in My sight.
JER 27:6 "And now I have given all these
lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the
wild animals of the field to serve him.
JER 27:7 "And all the nations shall serve
him, and his son, and his grandson, until the time
of his own land comes; then many nations and great
kings will make him their servant.
JER 27:8 "And it will be, that the nation or
the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck
under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish
that nation with the sword, with famine, and with
pestilence," declares the Lord, "until I have
destroyed it by his hand.
JER 27:9 "But as for you, do not listen to
your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your
soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who speak to you,
saying, 'You shall not serve the king of Babylon.'
JER 27:10 "For they prophesy a lie to you, in
order to remove you far from your land; and I will
drive you out, and you will perish.
JER 27:11 "But the nation which will bring
its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and
serve him, I will let remain on its land," declares
the Lord, "and they will till it and dwell in it."'
"
JER 27:12 And I spoke words like all these to
Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, "Bring your necks
under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him
and his people, and live!
JER 27:13 "Why will you die, you and your
people, by the sword, famine, and pestilence, as the
Lord has spoken to that nation which will not serve
the king of Babylon?
JER 27:14 "So do not listen to the words of
the prophets who speak to you, saying, 'You shall
not serve the king of Babylon,' for they prophesy a
lie to you;
JER 27:15 for I have not sent them, "declares
the Lord," but they prophesy falsely in My name, in
order that I may drive you out, and that you may
perish, you and the prophets who prophesy to you."
JER 27:16 Then I spoke to the priests and to
all this people, saying, "Thus says the Lord: Do not
listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to
you, saying, 'Behold, the vessels of the Lord's
house will now shortly be brought again from
Babylon'; for they are prophesying a lie to you.
JER 27:17 "Do not listen to them; serve the
king of Babylon, and live! Why should this city
become a ruin?
JER 27:18 "But if they are prophets, and if
the word of the Lord is with them, let them now
entreat the Lord of hosts, that the vessels which
are left in the house of the Lord, in the house of
the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, may not go to
Babylon.
JER 27:19 "For thus says the Lord of hosts
concerning the pillars, concerning the sea,
concerning the stands, and concerning the rest of
the vessels that are left in this city,
JER 27:20 which Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon did not take when he carried into exile
Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from
Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah
and Jerusalem.
JER 27:21 "Yes, thus says the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that are
left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of
the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem,
JER 27:22 'They shall be carried to Babylon,
and they shall be there until the day I visit them,'
declares the Lord.' Then I will bring them back and
restore them to this place.'"
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JER 28:1
Now it came about in the same year, in the beginning
of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the
fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah the
son of Azzur, the prophet, who was from Gibeon,
spoke to me in the house of the Lord in the presence
of the priests and all the people, saying,
JER 28:2 "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, 'I have broken the yoke of the king
of Babylon.
JER 28:3 'Within two years I am going to
bring back to this place all the vessels of the
Lord's house, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
took away from this place and carried to Babylon.
JER 28:4 'I am also going to bring back to
this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of
Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who went to
Babylon,' declares the Lord,' for I will break the
yoke of the king of Babylon.' "
JER 28:5 Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to
the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests
and in the presence of all the people who were
standing in the house of the Lord,
JER 28:6 and the prophet Jeremiah said,
"Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord confirm your
words which you have prophesied to bring back the
vessels of the Lord's house and all the exiles, from
Babylon to this place.
JER 28:7 "Yet hear now this word which I am
about to speak in your hearing and in the hearing of
all the people!
JER 28:8 "The prophets who were before me and
before you from ancient times prophesied against
many lands and against great kingdoms, of war and of
calamity and of pestilence.
JER 28:9 "The prophet who prophesies of
peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to
pass, then that prophet will be known as one whom
the Lord has truly sent."
JER 28:10 Then Hananiah the prophet took the
yoke from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke
it.
JER 28:11 And Hananiah spoke in the presence
of all the people, saying, "Thus says the Lord,
'Even so will I break within two full years, the
yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck
of all the nations.'" Then the prophet Jeremiah went
his way.
JER 28:12 And the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah, after Hananiah the prophet had broken the
yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah,
saying,
JER 28:13 "Go and speak to Hananiah, saying,
'Thus says the Lord," You have broken the yokes of
wood, but you have made instead of them yokes of
iron."
JER 28:14 'For thus says 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 also given him the beasts of the
field."' "
JER 28:15 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to
Hananiah the prophet, "Listen now, Hananiah, the
Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people
trust in a lie.
JER 28:16 "Therefore thus says the Lord,
'Behold, I am about to remove you from the face of
the earth. This year you are going to die, because
you have counseled rebellion against the Lord.'"
JER 28:17 So Hananiah the prophet died in the
same year in the seventh month.
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JER 29:1
Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah
the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the
elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets, and
all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into
exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
JER 29:2 (This was after King Jeconiah and
the queen mother, the court officials, the princes
of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the smiths
had departed from Jerusalem.)
JER 29:3 The letter was sent 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,
JER 29:4 "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent
into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon,
JER 29:5 'Build houses and live in them; and
plant gardens, and eat their produce.
JER 29:6 'Take wives and become the fathers
of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons
and give your daughters to husbands, that they may
bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do
not decrease.
JER 29:7 'And seek the welfare of the city
where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the
Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have
welfare.'
JER 29:8 "For thus says the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, 'Do not let your prophets who are
in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do
not listen to the dreams which they dream.
JER 29:9 'For they prophesy falsely to you in
My name; I have not sent them,' declares the Lord.
JER 29:10 "For thus says the Lord, 'When
seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I
will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to
bring you back to this place.
JER 29:11 'For I know the plans that I have
for you,' declares the Lord,' plans for welfare and
not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
JER 29:12 'Then you will call upon Me and
come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
JER 29:13 'And you will seek Me and find Me,
when you search for Me with all your heart.
JER 29:14 'And I will be found by you,'
declares the Lord,' and I will restore your fortunes
and will gather you from all the nations and from
all the places where I have driven you,' declares
the Lord,' and I will bring you back to the place
from where I sent you into exile.'
JER 29:15 "Because you have said, 'The Lord
has raised up prophets for us in Babylon' - -
JER 29:16 for thus says the Lord concerning
the king who sits on the throne of David, and
concerning all the people who dwell in this city,
your brothers who did not go with you into exile - -
JER 29:17 thus says the Lord of hosts,'
Behold, I am sending upon them the sword, famine,
and pestilence, and I will make them like split-open
figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness.
JER 29:18 'And I will pursue them with the
sword, with famine and with pestilence; and I will
make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth,
to be a curse, and a horror, and a hissing, and a
reproach among all the nations where I have driven
them,
JER 29:19 because they have not listened to
My words,' declares the Lord,' which I sent to them
again and again by My servants the prophets; but you
did not listen,' declares the Lord.
JER 29:20 "You, therefore, hear the word of
the Lord, all you exiles, whom I have sent away from
Jerusalem to Babylon.
JER 29:21 "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah
and concerning Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who are
prophesying to you falsely in My name, 'Behold, I
will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon, and he shall slay them before your
eyes.
JER 29:22 'And because of them a curse shall
be used by all the exiles from Judah who are in
Babylon, saying, "May the Lord make you like
Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon
roasted in the fire,
JER 29:23 because they have acted foolishly
in Israel, and have committed adultery with their
neighbors' wives, and have spoken words in My name
falsely, which I did not command them; and I am He
who knows, and am a witness, "declares the Lord.'"
JER 29:24 And to Shemaiah the Nehelamite you
shall speak, saying,
JER 29:25 "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, 'Because you have sent letters in
your own name to all the people who are in
Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the
priest, and to all the priests, saying,
JER 29:26 "The Lord has made you priest
instead of Jehoiada the priest, to be the overseer
in the house of the Lord over every madman who
prophesies, to put him in the stocks and in the iron
collar,
JER 29:27 now then, why have you not rebuked
Jeremiah of Anathoth who prophesies to you?
JER 29:28 "For he has sent to us in Babylon,
saying, 'The exile will be long; build houses and
live in them and plant gardens and eat their
produce.'"' "
JER 29:29 And Zephaniah the priest read this
letter to Jeremiah the prophet.
JER 29:30 Then came the word of the Lord to
Jeremiah, saying,
JER 29:31 "Send to all the exiles, saying,
'Thus says the Lord concerning Shemaiah the
Nehelamite," Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you,
although I did not send him, and he has made you
trust in a lie, "
JER 29:32 therefore thus says the Lord,
"Behold, I am about to punish Shemaiah the
Nehelamite and his descendants; he shall not have
anyone living among this people, and he shall not
see the good that I am about to do to My people,"
declares the Lord, "because he has preached
rebellion against the Lord."'"
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JER 30:1
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord,
saying,
JER 30:2 "Thus says the Lord, the God of
Israel, 'Write all the words which I have spoken to
you in a book.
JER 30:3 'For, behold, days are coming,'
declares the Lord,' when I will restore the fortunes
of My people Israel and Judah.' The Lord says,' I
will also bring them back to the land that I gave to
their forefathers, and they shall possess it.' "
JER 30:4 Now these are the words which the
Lord spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah,
JER 30:5 "For thus says the Lord, 'I have
heard a sound of terror, Of dread, and there is no
peace.
JER 30:6 'Ask now, and see, If a male can
give birth. Why do I see every man With his hands on
his loins, as a woman in childbirth? And why have
all faces turned pale?
JER 30:7 'Alas! for that day is great, There
is none like it; And it is the time of Jacob's
distress, But he will be saved from it.
JER 30:8 'And it shall come about on that
day,' declares the Lord of hosts,' that I will break
his yoke from off their neck, and will tear off
their bonds; and strangers shall no longer make them
their slaves.
JER 30:9 'But they shall serve the Lord their
God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for
them.
JER 30:10 'And fear not, O Jacob My servant,'
declares the Lord,' And do not be dismayed, O
Israel; For behold, I will save you from afar, And
your offspring from the land of their captivity. And
Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease,
And no one shall make him afraid.
JER 30:11 'For I am with you,' declares the
Lord,' to save you; For I will destroy completely
all the nations where I have scattered you, Only I
will not destroy you completely. But I will chasten
you justly, And will by no means leave you
unpunished.'
JER 30:12 "For thus says the Lord, 'Your
wound is incurable, And your injury is serious.
JER 30:13 'There is no one to plead your
cause; No healing for your sore, No recovery for
you.
JER 30:14 'All your lovers have forgotten
you, They do not seek you; For I have wounded you
with the wound of an enemy, With the punishment of a
cruel one, Because your iniquity is great And your
sins are numerous.
JER 30:15 'Why do you cry out over your
injury? Your pain is incurable. Because your
iniquity is great And your sins are numerous, I have
done these things to you.
JER 30:16 'Therefore all who devour you shall
be devoured; And all your adversaries, every one of
them, shall go into captivity; And those who plunder
you shall be for plunder, And all who prey upon you
I will give for prey.
JER 30:17 'For I will restore you to health
And I will heal you of your wounds,' declares the
Lord,' Because they have called you an outcast,
saying: "It is Zion; no one cares for her."'
JER 30:18 "Thus says the Lord, 'Behold, I
will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob And
have compassion on his dwelling places; And the city
shall be rebuilt on its ruin, And the palace shall
stand on its rightful place.
JER 30:19 'And from them shall proceed
thanksgiving And the voice of those who make merry;
And I will multiply them, and they shall not be
diminished; I will also honor them, and they shall
not be insignificant.
JER 30:20 'Their children also shall be as
formerly, And their congregation shall be
established before Me; And I will punish all their
oppressors.
JER 30:21 'And their leader shall be one of
them, And their ruler shall come forth from their
midst; And I will bring him near, and he shall
approach Me; For who would dare to risk his life to
approach Me?' declares the Lord.
JER 30:22 'And you shall be My people, And I
will be your God.' "
JER 30:23 Behold, the tempest of the Lord!
Wrath has gone forth, A sweeping tempest; It will
burst on the head of the wicked.
JER 30:24 The fierce anger of the Lord will
not turn back, Until He has performed, and until He
has accomplished The intent of His heart; In the
latter days you will understand this.
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JER 31:1
"At that time," declares the Lord, "I will be the
God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be
My people."
JER 31:2 Thus says the Lord, "The people who
survived the sword Found grace in the wilderness - -
Israel, when it went to find its rest."
JER 31:3 The Lord appeared to him from afar,
saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.
JER 31:4 "Again I will build you, and you
shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! Again you
shall take up your tambourines, And go forth to the
dances of the merrymakers.
JER 31:5 "Again you shall plant vineyards On
the hills of Samaria; The planters shall plant And
shall enjoy them.
JER 31:6 "For there shall be a day when
watchmen On the hills of Ephraim shall call out,
'Arise, and let us go up to Zion, To the Lord our
God.'"
JER 31:7 For thus says the Lord, "Sing aloud
with gladness for Jacob, And shout among the chiefs
of the nations; Proclaim, give praise, and say, 'O
Lord, save Thy people, The remnant of Israel.'
JER 31:8 "Behold, I am bringing them from the
north country, And I will gather them from the
remote parts of the earth, Among them the blind and
the lame, The woman with child and she who is in
labor with child, together; A great company, they
shall return here.
JER 31:9 "With weeping they shall come, And
by supplication I will lead them; I will make them
walk by streams of waters, On a straight path in
which they shall not stumble; For I am a father to
Israel, And Ephraim is My first-born."
JER 31:10 Hear the word of the Lord, O
nations, And declare in the coastlands afar off, And
say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him, And
keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock."
JER 31:11 For the Lord has ransomed Jacob,
And redeemed him from the hand of him who was
stronger than he.
JER 31:12 "And they shall come and shout for
joy on the height of Zion, And they shall be radiant
over the bounty of the Lord - - Over the grain, and
the new wine, and the oil, And over the young of the
flock and the herd; And their life shall be like a
watered garden, And they shall never languish again.
JER 31:13 "Then the virgin shall rejoice in
the dance, And the young men and the old, together,
For I will turn their mourning into joy, And will
comfort them, and give them joy for their sorrow.
JER 31:14 "And I will fill the soul of the
priests with abundance, And My people shall be
satisfied with My goodness," declares the Lord.
JER 31:15 Thus says the Lord, "A voice is
heard in Ramah, Lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children; She refuses to
be comforted for her children, Because they are no
more."
JER 31:16 Thus says the Lord, "Restrain your
voice from weeping, And your eyes from tears; For
your work shall be rewarded," declares the Lord,
"And they shall return from the land of the enemy.
JER 31:17 "And there is hope for your
future," declares the Lord, "And your children shall
return to their own territory.
JER 31:18 "I have surely heard Ephraim
grieving, 'Thou hast chastised me, and I was
chastised, Like an untrained calf; Bring me back
that I may be restored, For Thou art the Lord my
God.
JER 31:19 'For after I turned back, I
repented; And after I was instructed, I smote on my
thigh; I was ashamed, and also humiliated, Because I
bore the reproach of my youth.'
JER 31:20 "Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a
delightful child? Indeed, as often as I have spoken
against him, I certainly still remember him;
Therefore My heart yearns for him; I will surely
have mercy on him," declares the Lord.
JER 31:21 "Set up for yourself roadmarks,
Place for yourself guideposts; Direct your mind to
the highway, The way by which you went. Return, O
virgin of Israel, Return to these your cities.
JER 31:22 "How long will you go here and
there, O faithless daughter? For the Lord has
created a new thing in the earth - - A woman will
encompass a man."
JER 31:23 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, "Once again they will speak this word
in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I
restore their fortunes, 'The Lord bless you, O abode
of righteousness, O holy hill!'
JER 31:24 "And Judah and all its cities will
dwell together in it, the farmer and they who go
about with flocks.
JER 31:25 "For I satisfy the weary ones and
refresh everyone who languishes."
JER 31:26 At this I awoke and looked, and my
sleep was pleasant to me.
JER 31:27 "Behold, days are coming," declares
the Lord, "when I will sow the house of Israel and
the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the
seed of beast.
JER 31:28 "And it will come about that as I
have watched over them to pluck up, to break down,
to overthrow, to destroy, and to bring disaster, so
I will watch over them to build and to plant,"
declares the Lord.
JER 31:29 "In those days they will not say
again, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the
children's teeth are set on edge.'
JER 31:30 "But everyone will die for his own
iniquity; each man who eats the sour grapes, his
teeth will be set on edge.
JER 31:31 "Behold, days are coming," declares
the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
JER 31:32 not like the covenant which I made
with their fathers in the day I took them by the
hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My
covenant which they broke, although I was a husband
to them, "declares the Lord.
JER 31:33 "But this is the covenant which I
will make with the house of Israel after those
days," declares the Lord, "I will put My law within
them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will
be their God, and they shall be My people.
JER 31:34 "And they shall not teach again,
each man his neighbor and each man his brother,
saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me,
from the least of them to the greatest of them,"
declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their
iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
JER 31:35 Thus says the Lord, Who gives the
sun for light by day, And the fixed order of the
moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up
the sea so that its waves roar; The Lord of hosts is
His name:
JER 31:36 "If this fixed order departs From
before Me," declares the Lord, "Then the offspring
of Israel also shall cease From being a nation
before Me forever."
JER 31:37 Thus says the Lord, "If the heavens
above can be measured, And the foundations of the
earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off
all the offspring of Israel For all that they have
done," declares the Lord.
JER 31:38 "Behold, days are coming," declares
the Lord, "when the city shall be rebuilt for the
Lord from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.
JER 31:39 "And the measuring line shall go
out farther straight ahead to the hill Gareb; then
it will turn to Goah.
JER 31:40 "And the whole valley of the dead
bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far
as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate
toward the east, shall be holy to the Lord; it shall
not be plucked up, or overthrown anymore forever."
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JER 32:1
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the
tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the
eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.
JER 32:2 Now at that time the army of the
king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and
Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the
guard, which was in the house of the king of Judah,
JER 32:3 because Zedekiah king of Judah had
shut him up, saying, "Why do you prophesy, saying,
'Thus says the Lord," Behold, I am about to give
this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and
he will take it;
JER 32:4 and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not
escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but he
shall surely be given into the hand of the king of
Babylon, and he shall speak with him face to face,
and see him eye to eye;
JER 32:5 and he shall take Zedekiah to
Babylon, and he shall be there until I visit him,
"declares the Lord." If you fight against the
Chaldeans, you shall not succeed "'?"
JER 32:6 And Jeremiah said, "The word of the
Lord came to me, saying,
JER 32:7 'Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum
your uncle is coming to you, saying, "Buy for
yourself my field which is at Anathoth, for you have
the right of redemption to buy it."'
JER 32:8 "Then Hanamel my uncle's son came to
me in the court of the guard according to the word
of the Lord, and said to me, 'Buy my field, please,
that is at Anathoth, which is in the land of
Benjamin; for you have the right of possession and
the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.' Then
I knew that this was the word of the Lord.
JER 32:9 "And I bought the field which was at
Anathoth from Hanamel my uncle's son, and I weighed
out the silver for him, seventeen shekels of silver.
JER 32:10 "And I signed and sealed the deed,
and called in witnesses, and weighed out the silver
on the scales.
JER 32:11 "Then I took the deeds of purchase,
both the sealed copy containing the terms and
conditions, and the open copy;
JER 32:12 and I gave the deed of purchase to
Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in
the sight of Hanamel my uncle's son, and in the
sight of the witnesses who signed the deed of
purchase, before all the Jews who were sitting in
the court of the guard.
JER 32:13 "And I commanded Baruch in their
presence, saying,
JER 32:14 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, "Take these deeds, this sealed deed
of purchase, and this open deed, and put them in an
earthenware jar, that they may last a long time."
JER 32:15 'For thus says the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, "Houses and fields and vineyards
shall again be bought in this land."'
JER 32:16 "After I had given the deed of
purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, then I prayed
to the Lord, saying,
JER 32:17 'Ah Lord God! Behold, Thou hast
made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power
and by Thine outstretched arm! Nothing is too
difficult for Thee,
JER 32:18 who showest lovingkindness to
thousands, but repayest the iniquity of fathers into
the bosom of their children after them, O great and
mighty God. The Lord of hosts is His name;
JER 32:19 great in counsel and mighty in
deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the
sons of men, giving to everyone according to his
ways and according to the fruit of his deeds;
JER 32:20 who hast set signs and wonders in
the land of Egypt, and even to this day both in
Israel and among mankind; and Thou hast made a name
for Thyself, as at this day.
JER 32:21 'And Thou didst bring Thy people
Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with
wonders, and with a strong hand and with an
outstretched arm, and with great terror;
JER 32:22 and gavest them this land, which
Thou didst swear to their forefathers to give them,
a land flowing with milk and honey.
JER 32:23 'And they came in and took
possession of it, but they did not obey Thy voice or
walk in Thy law; they have done nothing of all that
Thou commandedst them to do; therefore Thou hast
made all this calamity come upon them.
JER 32:24 'Behold, the siege mounds have
reached the city to take it; and the city is given
into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it,
because of the sword, the famine, and the
pestilence; and what Thou hast spoken has come to
pass; and, behold, Thou seest it.
JER 32:25 'And Thou hast said to me, O Lord
God, "Buy for yourself the field with money, and
call in witnesses" - - although the city is given
into the hand of the Chaldeans.' "
JER 32:26 Then the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah, saying,
JER 32:27 "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of
all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?"
JER 32:28 Therefore thus says the Lord,
"Behold, I am about to give this city into the hand
of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon, and he shall take it.
JER 32:29 "And the Chaldeans who are fighting
against this city shall enter and set this city on
fire and burn it, with the houses where people have
offered incense to Baal on their roofs and poured
out libations to other gods to provoke Me to anger.
JER 32:30 "Indeed the sons of Israel and the
sons of Judah have been doing only evil in My sight
from their youth; for the sons of Israel have been
only provoking Me to anger by the work of their
hands," declares the Lord.
JER 32:31 "Indeed this city has been to Me a
provocation of My anger and My wrath from the day
that they built it, even to this day, that it should
be removed from before My face,
JER 32:32 because of all the evil of the sons
of Israel and the sons of Judah, which they have
done to provoke Me to anger - - they, their kings,
their leaders, their priests, their prophets, the
men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
JER 32:33 "And they have turned their back to
Me, and not their face; though I taught them,
teaching again and again, they would not listen and
receive instruction.
JER 32:34 "But they put their detestable
things in the house which is called by My name, to
defile it.
JER 32:35 "And they built the high places of
Baal that are in the valley of Ben-hinnom to cause
their sons and their daughters to pass through the
fire to Molech, which I had not commanded them nor
had it entered My mind that they should do this
abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
JER 32:36 "Now therefore thus says the Lord
God of Israel concerning this city of which you say,
'It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by
sword, by famine, and by pestilence.'
JER 32:37 "Behold, I will gather them out of
all the lands to which I have driven them in My
anger, in My wrath, and in great indignation; and I
will bring them back to this place and make them
dwell in safety.
JER 32:38 "And they shall be My people, and I
will be their God;
JER 32:39 and I will give them one heart and
one way, that they may fear Me always, for their own
good, and for the good of their children after them.
JER 32:40 "And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from
them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me
in their hearts so that they will not turn away from
Me.
JER 32:41 "And I will rejoice over them to do
them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this
land with all My heart and with all My soul.
JER 32:42 "For thus says the Lord, 'Just as I
brought all this great disaster on this people, so I
am going to bring on them all the good that I am
promising them.
JER 32:43 'And fields shall be bought in this
land of which you say, "It is a desolation, without
man or beast; it is given into the hand of the
Chaldeans."
JER 32:44 'Men shall buy fields for money,
sign and seal deeds, and call in witnesses in the
land of Benjamin, in the environs of Jerusalem, in
the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill
country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the
cities of the Negev; for I will restore their
fortunes,' declares the Lord."
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JER 33:1
Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the
second time, while he was still confined in the
court of the guard, saying,
JER 33:2 "Thus says the Lord who made the
earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it, the
Lord is His name,
JER 33:3 'Call to Me, and I will answer you,
and I will tell you great and mighty things, which
you do not know.'
JER 33:4 "For thus says the Lord God of
Israel concerning the houses of this city, and
concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which
are broken down to make a defense against the siege
mounds and against the sword,
JER 33:5 'While they are coming to fight with
the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the corpses of
men whom I have slain in My anger and in My wrath,
and I have hidden My face from this city because of
all their wickedness:
JER 33:6 'Behold, I will bring to it health
and healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal
to them an abundance of peace and truth.
JER 33:7 'And I will restore the fortunes of
Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and I will rebuild
them as they were at first.
JER 33:8 'And I will cleanse them from all
their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me,
and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they
have sinned against Me, and by which they have
transgressed against Me.
JER 33:9 'And it shall be to Me a name of
joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the
earth, which shall hear of all the good that I do
for them, and they shall fear and tremble because of
all the good and all the peace that I make for it.'
JER 33:10 "Thus says the Lord, 'Yet again
there shall be heard in this place, of which you
say," It is a waste, without man and without beast,
"that is, in the cities of Judah and in the streets
of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and
without inhabitant and without beast,
JER 33:11 the voice of joy and the voice of
gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice
of the bride, the voice of those who say, "Give
thanks to the Lord of hosts, For the Lord is good,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting"; and of those
who bring a thank offering into the house of the
Lord. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as
they were at first, 'says the Lord.
JER 33:12 "Thus says the Lord of hosts,
'There shall again be in this place which is waste,
without man or beast, and in all its cities, a
habitation of shepherds who rest their flocks.
JER 33:13 'In the cities of the hill country,
in the cities of the lowland, in the cities of the
Negev, in the land of Benjamin, in the environs of
Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, the flocks
shall again pass under the hands of the one who
numbers them,' says the Lord.
JER 33:14 ' Behold, days are coming,'
declares the Lord,' when I will fulfill the good
word which I have spoken concerning the house of
Israel and the house of Judah.
JER 33:15 'In those days and at that time I
will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring
forth; and He shall execute justice and
righteousness on the earth.
JER 33:16 'In those days Judah shall be
saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety; and this
is the name by which she shall be called: the Lord
is our righteousness.'
JER 33:17 "For thus says the Lord, 'David
shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the
house of Israel;
JER 33:18 and the Levitical priests shall
never lack a man before Me to offer burnt offerings,
to burn grain offerings, and to prepare sacrifices
continually.' "
JER 33:19 And the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah, saying,
JER 33:20 "Thus says the Lord, 'If you can
break My covenant for the day, and My covenant for
the night, so that day and night will not be at
their appointed time,
JER 33:21 then My covenant may also be broken
with David My servant that he shall not have a son
to reign on his throne, and with the Levitical
priests, My ministers.
JER 33:22 'As the host of heaven cannot be
counted, and the sand of the sea cannot be measured,
so I will multiply the descendants of David My
servant and the Levites who minister to Me.' "
JER 33:23 And the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah, saying,
JER 33:24 "Have you not observed what this
people have spoken, saying, 'The two families which
the Lord chose, He has rejected them'? Thus they
despise My people, no longer are they as a nation in
their sight.
JER 33:25 "Thus says the Lord, 'If My
covenant for day and night stand not, and the fixed
patterns of heaven and earth I have not established,
JER 33:26 then I would reject the descendants
of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his
descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. But I will restore their fortunes
and will have mercy on them.'"
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JER 34:1
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army,
with all the kingdoms of the earth that were under
his dominion and all the peoples, were fighting
against Jerusalem and against all its cities,
saying,
JER 34:2 "Thus says the Lord God of Israel,
'Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and say to
him:" Thus says the Lord,' Behold, I am giving this
city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he
will burn it with fire.
JER 34:3 'And you will not escape from his
hand, for you will surely be captured and delivered
into his hand; and you will see the king of Babylon
eye to eye, and he will speak with you face to face,
and you will go to Babylon.' "'
JER 34:4 "Yet hear the word of the Lord, O
Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the Lord
concerning you, 'You will not die by the sword.
JER 34:5 'You will die in peace; and as
spices were burned for your fathers, the former
kings who were before you, so they will burn spices
for you; and they will lament for you, "Alas,
lord!"' For I have spoken the word, "declares the
Lord.
JER 34:6 Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all
these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem
JER 34:7 when the army of the king of Babylon
was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the
remaining cities of Judah, that is, Lachish and
Azekah, for they alone remained as fortified cities
among the cities of Judah.
JER 34:8 The word which came to Jeremiah from
the Lord, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant
with all the people who were in Jerusalem to
proclaim release to them:
JER 34:9 that each man should set free his
male servant and each man his female servant, a
Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman; so that no one should
keep them, a Jew his brother, in bondage.
JER 34:10 And all the officials and all the
people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant
that each man should set free his male servant and
each man his female servant, so that no one should
keep them any longer in bondage; they obeyed, and
set them free.
JER 34:11 But afterward they turned around
and took back the male servants and the female
servants, whom they had set free, and brought them
into subjection for male servants and for female
servants.
JER 34:12 Then the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
JER 34:13 "Thus says the Lord God of Israel,
'I made a covenant with your forefathers in the day
that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from
the house of bondage, saying,
JER 34:14 "At the end of seven years each of
you shall set free his Hebrew brother, who has been
sold to you and has served you six years, you shall
send him out free from you; but your forefathers did
not obey Me, or incline their ear to Me.
JER 34:15 "Although recently you had turned
and done what is right in My sight, each man
proclaiming release to his neighbor, and you had
made a covenant before Me in the house which is
called by My name.
JER 34:16 "Yet you turned and profaned My
name, and each man took back his male servant and
each man his female servant, whom you had set free
according to their desire, and you brought them into
subjection to be your male servants and female
servants."'
JER 34:17 "Therefore thus says the Lord, 'You
have not obeyed Me in proclaiming release each man
to his brother, and each man to his neighbor.
Behold, I am proclaiming a release to you,' declares
the Lord, 'to the sword, to the pestilence, and to
the famine; and I will make you a terror to all the
kingdoms of the earth.
JER 34:18 'And I will give the men who have
transgressed My covenant, who have not fulfilled the
words of the covenant which they made before Me,
when they cut the calf in two and passed between its
parts - -
JER 34:19 the officials of Judah, and the
officials of Jerusalem, the court officers, and the
priests, and all the people of the land, who passed
between the parts of the calf - -
JER 34:20 and I will give them into the hand
of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek
their life. And their dead bodies shall be food for
the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.
JER 34:21 'And Zedekiah king of Judah and his
officials I will give into the hand of their
enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their
life, and into the hand of the army of the king of
Babylon which has gone away from you.
JER 34:22 'Behold, I am going to command,'
declares the Lord,' and I will bring them back to
this city; and they shall fight against it and take
it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities
of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.'"
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JER 35:1
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the
days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah,
saying,
JER 35:2 "Go to the house of the Rechabites,
and speak to them, and bring them into the house of
the Lord, into one of the chambers, and give them
wine to drink."
JER 35:3 Then I took Jaazaniah the son of
Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and his brothers, and
all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites,
JER 35:4 and I brought them into the house of
the Lord, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the
son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was near the
chamber of the officials, which was above the
chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the
doorkeeper.
JER 35:5 Then I set before the men of the
house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and
cups; and I said to them, "Drink wine!"
JER 35:6 But they said, "We will not drink
wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father,
commanded us, saying, 'You shall not drink wine, you
or your sons, forever.
JER 35:7 'And you shall not build a house,
and you shall not sow seed, and you shall not plant
a vineyard or own one; but in tents you shall dwell
all your days, that you may live many days in the
land where you sojourn.'
JER 35:8 "And we have obeyed the voice of
Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that
he commanded us, not to drink wine all our days, we,
our wives, our sons, or our daughters,
JER 35:9 nor to build ourselves houses to
dwell in; and we do not have vineyard or field or
seed.
JER 35:10 "We have only dwelt in tents, and
have obeyed, and have done according to all that
Jonadab our father commanded us.
JER 35:11 "But it came about, when
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the
land, that we said, 'Come and let us go to Jerusalem
before the army of the Chaldeans and before the army
of the Arameans.' So we have dwelt in Jerusalem."
JER 35:12 Then the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah, saying,
JER 35:13 "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, 'Go and say to the men of Judah and
the inhabitants of Jerusalem," Will you not receive
instruction by listening to My words? "declares the
Lord.
JER 35:14 "The words of Jonadab the son of
Rechab, which he commanded his sons not to drink
wine, are observed. So they do not drink wine to
this day, for they have obeyed their father's
command. But I have spoken to you again and again;
yet you have not listened to Me.
JER 35:15 "Also I have sent to you all My
servants the prophets, sending them again and again,
saying: 'Turn now every man from his evil way, and
amend your deeds, and do not go after other gods to
worship them, then you shall dwell in the land which
I have given to you and to your forefathers; but you
have not inclined your ear or listened to Me.
JER 35:16 'Indeed, the sons of Jonadab the
son of Rechab have observed the command of their
father which he commanded them, but this people has
not listened to Me.' "'
JER 35:17 "Therefore thus says the Lord, the
God of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I am
bringing on Judah and on all the inhabitants of
Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced
against them; because I spoke to them but they did
not listen, and I have called them but they did not
answer.'"
JER 35:18 Then Jeremiah said to the house of
the Rechabites, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, 'Because you have obeyed the command
of Jonadab your father, kept all his commands, and
done according to all that he commanded you;
JER 35:19 therefore thus says the Lord of
hosts, the God of Israel, "Jonadab the son of Rechab
shall not lack a man to stand before Me always."'"
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JER 36:1
And it came about in the fourth year of Jehoiakim
the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word
came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
JER 36:2 "Take a scroll and write on it all
the words which I have spoken to you concerning
Israel, and concerning Judah, and concerning all the
nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the
days of Josiah, even to this day.
JER 36:3 "Perhaps the house of Judah will
hear all the calamity which I plan to bring on them,
in order that every man will turn from his evil way;
then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin."
JER 36:4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son
of Neriah, and Baruch wrote at the dictation of
Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, which He had
spoken to him, on a scroll.
JER 36:5 And Jeremiah commanded Baruch,
saying, "I am restricted; I cannot go into the house
of the Lord.
JER 36:6 "So you go and read from the scroll
which you have written at my dictation the words of
the Lord to the people in the Lord's house on a fast
day. And also you shall read them to all the people
of Judah who come from their cities.
JER 36:7 "Perhaps their supplication will
come before the Lord, and everyone will turn from
his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath
that the Lord has pronounced against this people."
JER 36:8 And Baruch the son of Neriah did
according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded
him, reading from the book the words of the Lord in
the Lord's house.
JER 36:9 Now it came about in the fifth year
of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in
the ninth month, that all the people in Jerusalem
and all the people who came from the cities of Judah
to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the Lord.
JER 36:10 Then Baruch read from the book the
words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord in the
chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe,
in the upper court, at the entry of the New Gate of
the Lord's house, to all the people.
JER 36:11 Now when Micaiah the son of
Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard all the
words of the Lord from the book,
JER 36:12 he went down to the king's house,
into the scribe's chamber. And, behold, all the
officials were sitting there - - Elishama the
scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and
Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of
Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all
the other officials.
JER 36:13 And Micaiah declared to them all
the words that he had heard, when Baruch read from
the book to the people.
JER 36:14 Then all the officials sent Jehudi
the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son
of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, "Take in your hand the
scroll from which you have read to the people and
come." So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll
in his hand and went to them.
JER 36:15 And they said to him, "Sit down
please, and read it to us." So Baruch read it to
them.
JER 36:16 Now it came about when they had
heard all the words, they turned in fear one to
another and said to Baruch, "We will surely report
all these words to the king."
JER 36:17 And they asked Baruch, saying,
"Tell us please, how did you write all these words?
Was it at his dictation?"
JER 36:18 Then Baruch said to them, "He
dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them
with ink on the book."
JER 36:19 Then the officials said to Baruch,
"Go, hide yourself, you and Jeremiah, and do not let
anyone know where you are."
JER 36:20 So they went to the king in the
court, but they had deposited the scroll in the
chamber of Elishama the scribe, and they reported
all the words to the king.
JER 36:21 Then the king sent Jehudi to get
the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of
Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it to the king
as well as to all the officials who stood beside the
king.
JER 36:22 Now the king was sitting in the
winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning
in the brazier before him.
JER 36:23 And it came about, when Jehudi had
read three or four columns, the king cut it with a
scribe's knife and threw it into the fire that was
in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in
the fire that was in the brazier.
JER 36:24 Yet the king and all his servants
who heard all these words were not afraid, nor did
they rend their garments.
JER 36:25 Even though Elnathan and Delaiah
and Gemariah entreated the king not to burn the
scroll, he would not listen to them.
JER 36:26 And the king commanded Jerahmeel
the king's son, Seraiah the son of Azriel, and
Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the
scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the Lord hid
them.
JER 36:27 Then the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll and
the words which Baruch had written at the dictation
of Jeremiah, saying,
JER 36:28 "Take again another scroll and
write on it all the former words that were on the
first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah
burned.
JER 36:29 "And concerning Jehoiakim king of
Judah you shall say, 'Thus says the Lord," You have
burned this scroll, saying,' Why have you written on
it that the king of Babylon shall certainly come and
destroy this land, and shall make man and beast to
cease from it?' "
JER 36:30 'Therefore thus says the Lord
concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah, "He shall have
no one to sit on the throne of David, and his dead
body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and
the frost of the night.
JER 36:31 "I shall also punish him and his
descendants and his servants for their iniquity, and
I shall bring on them and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem and the men of Judah all the calamity that
I have declared to them - - but they did not
listen."' "
JER 36:32 Then Jeremiah took another scroll
and gave it to Baruch the son of Neraiah, the
scribe, and he wrote on it at the dictation of
Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim
king of Judah had burned in the fire; and many
similar words were added to them.
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Chapter 37
JER 37:1
Now Zedekiah the son of Josiah whom Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon had made king in the land of Judah,
reigned as king in place of Coniah the son of
Jehoiakim.
JER 37:2 But neither he nor his servants nor
the people of the land listened to the words of the
Lord which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.
JER 37:3 Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal the
son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah,
the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, "Please
pray to the Lord our God on our behalf."
JER 37:4 Now Jeremiah was still coming in and
going out among the people, for they had not yet put
him in the prison.
JER 37:5 Meanwhile, Pharaoh's army had set
out from Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who had been
besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them,
they lifted the siege from Jerusalem.
JER 37:6 Then the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah the prophet, saying,
JER 37:7 "Thus says the Lord God of Israel,
'Thus you are to say to the king of Judah, who sent
you to Me to inquire of Me:" Behold, Pharaoh's army
which has come out for your assistance is going to
return to its own land of Egypt.
JER 37:8 "The Chaldeans will also return and
fight against this city, and they will capture it
and burn it with fire."'
JER 37:9 "Thus says the Lord, 'Do not deceive
yourselves, saying," The Chaldeans will surely go
away from us, "for they will not go.
JER 37:10 'For even if you had defeated the
entire army of Chaldeans who were fighting against
you, and there were only wounded men left among
them, each man in his tent, they would rise up and
burn this city with fire.' "
JER 37:11 Now it happened, when the army of
the Chaldeans had lifted the siege from Jerusalem
because of Pharaoh's army,
JER 37:12 that Jeremiah went out from
Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin in order to
take possession of some property there among the
people.
JER 37:13 While he was at the Gate of
Benjamin, a captain of the guard whose name was
Irijah, the son of Shelemiah the son of Hananiah was
there; and he arrested Jeremiah the prophet, saying,
"You are going over to the Chaldeans!"
JER 37:14 But Jeremiah said, "A lie! I am not
going over to the Chaldeans"; yet he would not
listen to him. So Irijah arrested Jeremiah and
brought him to the officials.
JER 37:15 Then the officials were angry at
Jeremiah and beat him, and they put him in jail in
the house of Jonathan the scribe, which they had
made into the prison.
JER 37:16 For Jeremiah had come into the
dungeon, that is, the vaulted cell; and Jeremiah
stayed there many days.
JER 37:17 Now King Zedekiah sent and took him
out; and in his palace the king secretly asked him
and said, "Is there a word from the Lord?" And
Jeremiah said, "There is!" Then he said, "You will
be given into the hand of the king of Babylon!"
JER 37:18 Moreover Jeremiah said to King
Zedekiah, "In what way have I sinned against you, or
against your servants, or against this people, that
you have put me in prison?
JER 37:19 "Where then are your prophets who
prophesied to you, saying, 'The king of Babylon will
not come against you or against this land'?
JER 37:20 "But now, please listen, O my lord
the king; please let my petition come before you,
and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan
the scribe, that I may not die there."
JER 37:21 Then King Zedekiah gave
commandment, and they committed Jeremiah to the
court of the guardhouse and gave him a loaf of bread
daily from the bakers' street, until all the bread
in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the
court of the guardhouse.
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Chapter 38
JER 38:1
Now Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the
son of Pashhur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and
Pashhur the son of Malchijah heard the words that
Jeremiah was speaking to all the people, saying,
JER 38:2 "Thus says the Lord, 'He who stays
in this city will die by the sword and by famine and
by pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans
will live and have his own life as booty and stay
alive.'
JER 38:3 "Thus says the Lord, 'This city will
certainly be given into the hand of the army of the
king of Babylon, and he will capture it.'"
JER 38:4 Then the officials said to the king,
"Now let this man be put to death, inasmuch as he is
discouraging the men of war who are left in this
city and all the people, by speaking such words to
them; for this man is not seeking the well-being of
this people, but rather their harm."
JER 38:5 So King Zedekiah said, "Behold, he
is in your hands; for the king can do nothing
against you."
JER 38:6 Then they took Jeremiah and cast him
into the cistern of Malchijah the king's son, which
was in the court of the guardhouse; and they let
Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there
was no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into
the mud.
JER 38:7 But Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a
eunuch, while he was in the king's palace, heard
that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. Now the
king was sitting in the Gate of Benjamin;
JER 38:8 and Ebed-melech went out from the
king's palace and spoke to the king, saying,
JER 38:9 "My lord the king, these men have
acted wickedly in all that they have done to
Jeremiah the prophet whom they have cast into the
cistern; and he will die right where he is because
of the famine, for there is no more bread in the
city."
JER 38:10 Then the king commanded Ebed-melech
the Ethiopian, saying, "Take thirty men from here
under your authority, and bring up Jeremiah the
prophet from the cistern before he dies."
JER 38:11 So Ebed-melech took the men under
his authority and went into the king's palace to a
place beneath the storeroom and took from there
worn-out clothes and worn-out rags and let them down
by ropes into the cistern to Jeremiah.
JER 38:12 Then Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said
to Jeremiah, "Now put these worn-out clothes and
rags under your armpits under the ropes"; and
Jeremiah did so.
JER 38:13 So they pulled Jeremiah up with the
ropes and lifted him out of the cistern, and
Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guardhouse.
JER 38:14 Then King Zedekiah sent and had
Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third
entrance that is in the house of the Lord; and the
king said to Jeremiah, "I am going to ask you
something; do not hide anything from me."
JER 38:15 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "If
I tell you, will you not certainly put me to death?
Besides, if I give you advice, you will not listen
to me."
JER 38:16 But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah
in secret saying, "As the Lord lives, who made this
life for us, surely I will not put you to death nor
will I give you over to the hand of these men who
are seeking your life."
JER 38:17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah,
"Thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel,
'If you will indeed go out to the officers of the
king of Babylon, then you will live, this city will
not be burned with fire, and you and your household
will survive.
JER 38:18 'But if you will not go out to the
officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will
be given over to the hand of the Chaldeans; and they
will burn it with fire, and you yourself will not
escape from their hand.' "
JER 38:19 Then King Zedekiah said to
Jeremiah, "I dread the Jews who have gone over to
the Chaldeans, lest they give me over into their
hand and they abuse me."
JER 38:20 But Jeremiah said, "They will not
give you over. Please obey the Lord in what I am
saying to you, that it may go well with you and you
may live.
JER 38:21 "But if you keep refusing to go
out, this is the word which the Lord has shown me:
JER 38:22 'Then behold, all of the women who
have been left in the palace of the king of Judah
are going to be brought out to the officers of the
king of Babylon; and those women will say, "Your
close friends Have misled and overpowered you; While
your feet were sunk in the mire, They turned back."
JER 38:23 'They will also bring out all your
wives and your sons to the Chaldeans, and you
yourself will not escape from their hand, but will
be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and
this city will be burned with fire.' "
JER 38:24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah,
"Let no man know about these words and you will not
die.
JER 38:25 "But if the officials hear that I
have talked with you and come to you and say to you,
'Tell us now what you said to the king, and what the
king said to you; do not hide it from us, and we
will not put you to death,'
JER 38:26 then you are to say to them,' I was
presenting my petition before the king, not to make
me return to the house of Jonathan to die there.' "
JER 38:27 Then all the officials came to
Jeremiah and questioned him. So he reported to them
in accordance with all these words which the king
had commanded; and they ceased speaking with him,
since the conversation had not been overheard.
JER 38:28 So Jeremiah stayed in the court of
the guardhouse until the day that Jerusalem was
captured.
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Chapter 39
JER 39:1
Now it came about when Jerusalem was captured in the
ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth
month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his
army came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it;
JER 39:2 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in
the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the
city wall was breached.
JER 39:3 Then all the officials of the king
of Babylon came in and sat down at the Middle Gate:
Nergal-sar-ezer, Samgar-nebu, Sar-sekim the Rab-saris,
Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, and all the rest of the
officials of the king of Babylon.
JER 39:4 And it came about, when Zedekiah the
king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, that
they fled and went out of the city at night by way
of the king's garden through the gate between the
two walls; and he went out toward the Arabah.
JER 39:5 But the army of the Chaldeans
pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of
Jericho; and they seized him and brought him up to
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land
of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.
JER 39:6 Then the king of Babylon slew the
sons of Zedekiah before his eyes at Riblah; the king
of Babylon also slew all the nobles of Judah.
JER 39:7 He then blinded Zedekiah's eyes and
bound him in fetters of bronze to bring him to
Babylon.
JER 39:8 The Chaldeans also burned with fire
the king's palace and the houses of the people, and
they broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
JER 39:9 And as for the rest of the people
who were left in the city, the deserters who had
gone over to him and the rest of the people who
remained, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard
carried them into exile in Babylon.
JER 39:10 But some of the poorest people who
had nothing, Nebuzaradan the captain of the
bodyguard left behind in the land of Judah, and gave
them vineyards and fields at that time.
JER 39:11 Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
gave orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan the
captain of the bodyguard, saying,
JER 39:12 "Take him and look after him, and
do nothing harmful to him; but rather deal with him
just as he tells you."
JER 39:13 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the
bodyguard sent word, along with Nebushazban the Rab-saris,
and Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, and all the leading
officers of the king of Babylon;
JER 39:14 they even sent and took Jeremiah
out of the court of the guardhouse and entrusted him
to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan,
to take him home. So he stayed among the people.
JER 39:15 Now the word of the Lord had come
to Jeremiah while he was confined in the court of
the guardhouse, saying,
JER 39:16 "Go and speak to Ebed-melech the
Ethiopian, saying, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel," Behold, I am about to bring My words
on this city for disaster and not for prosperity;
and they will take place before you on that day.
JER 39:17 "But I will deliver you on that
day," declares the Lord, "and you shall not be given
into the hand of the men whom you dread.
JER 39:18 "For I will certainly rescue you,
and you will not fall by the sword; but you will
have your own life as booty, because you have
trusted in Me," declares the Lord.'"
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Chapter 40
JER 40:1
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord after
Nebuzaradan captain of the bodyguard had released
him from Ramah, when he had taken him bound in
chains, among all the exiles of Jerusalem and Judah,
who were being exiled to Babylon.
JER 40:2 Now the captain of the bodyguard had
taken Jeremiah and said to him, "The Lord your God
promised this calamity against this place;
JER 40:3 and the Lord has brought it on and
done just as He promised. Because you people sinned
against the Lord and did not listen to His voice,
therefore this thing has happened to you.
JER 40:4 "But now, behold, I am freeing you
today from the chains which are on your hands. If
you would prefer to come with me to Babylon, come
along, and I will look after you; but if you would
prefer not to come with me to Babylon, never mind.
Look, the whole land is before you; go wherever it
seems good and right for you to go."
JER 40:5 As Jeremiah was still not going
back, he said, "Go on back then to Gedaliah the son
of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of
Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and
stay with him among the people; or else go anywhere
it seems right for you to go." So the captain of the
bodyguard gave him a ration and a gift and let him
go.
JER 40:6 Then Jeremiah went to Mizpah to
Gedaliah the son of Ahikam and stayed with him among
the people who were left in the land.
JER 40:7 Now all the commanders of the forces
that were in the field, they and their men, heard
that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah the
son of Ahikam over the land and that he had put him
in charge of the men, women and children, those of
the poorest of the land who had not been exiled to
Babylon.
JER 40:8 So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah,
along with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan
and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son
of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite,
and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite, both they
and their men.
JER 40:9 Then Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the
son of Shaphan, swore to them and to their men,
saying, "Do not be afraid of serving the Chaldeans;
stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, that
it may go well with you.
JER 40:10 "Now as for me, behold, I am going
to stay at Mizpah to stand for you before the
Chaldeans who come to us; but as for you, gather in
wine and summer fruit and oil, and put them in your
storage vessels, and live in your cities that you
have taken over."
JER 40:11 Likewise also all the Jews who were
in Moab and among the sons of Ammon and in Edom, and
who were in all the other countries, heard that the
king of Babylon had left a remnant for Judah and
that he had appointed over them Gedaliah the son of
Ahikam, the son of Shaphan.
JER 40:12 Then all the Jews returned from all
the places to which they had been driven away and
came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah,
and gathered in wine and summer fruit in great
abundance.
JER 40:13 Now Johanan the son of Kareah and
all the commanders of the forces that were in the
field came to Gedaliah at Mizpah,
JER 40:14 and said to him, "Are you well
aware that Baalis the king of the sons of Ammon has
sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take your
life?" But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam did not
believe them.
JER 40:15 Then Johanan the son of Kareah
spoke secretly to Gedaliah in Mizpah, saying, "Let
me go and kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and not
a man will know! Why should he take your life, so
that all the Jews who are gathered to you should be
scattered and the remnant of Judah perish?"
JER 40:16 But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said
to Johanan the son of Kareah, "Do not do this thing,
for you are telling a lie about Ishmael."
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Chapter 41
JER 41:1
Now it came about in the seventh month that Ishmael
the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the
royal family and one of the chief officers of the
king, along with ten men, came to Mizpah to Gedaliah
the son of Ahikam. While they were eating bread
together there in Mizpah,
JER 41:2 Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the
ten men who were with him arose and struck down
Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with
the sword and put to death the one whom the king of
Babylon had appointed over the land.
JER 41:3 Ishmael also struck down all the
Jews who were with him, that is with Gedaliah at
Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the
men of war.
JER 41:4 Now it happened on the next day
after the killing of Gedaliah, when no one knew
about it,
JER 41:5 that eighty men came from Shechem,
from Shiloh, and from Samaria with their beards
shaved off and their clothes torn and their bodies
gashed, having grain offerings and incense in their
hands to bring to the house of the Lord.
JER 41:6 Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah
went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he
went; and it came about as he met them that he said
to them, "Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam!"
JER 41:7 Yet it turned out that as soon as
they came inside the city, Ishmael the son of
Nethaniah and the men that were with him slaughtered
them, and cast them into the cistern.
JER 41:8 But ten men who were found among
them said to Ishmael, "Do not put us to death; for
we have stores of wheat, barley, oil and honey
hidden in the field." So he refrained and did not
put them to death along with their companions.
JER 41:9 Now as for the cistern where Ishmael
had cast all the corpses of the men whom he had
struck down because of Gedaliah, it was the one that
King Asa had made on account of Baasha, king of
Israel; Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with
the slain.
JER 41:10 Then Ishmael took captive all the
remnant of the people who were in Mizpah, the king's
daughters and all the people who were left in Mizpah,
whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had
put under the charge of Gedaliah the son of Ahikam;
thus Ishmael the son of Nethaniah took them captive
and proceeded to cross over to the sons of Ammon.
JER 41:11 But Johanan the son of Kareah and
all the commanders of the forces that were with him
heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of
Nethaniah had done.
JER 41:12 So they took all the men and went
to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and they
found him by the great pool that is in Gibeon.
JER 41:13 Now it came about, as soon as all
the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son
of Kareah and the commanders of the forces that were
with him, they were glad.
JER 41:14 So all the people whom Ishmael had
taken captive from Mizpah turned around and came
back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah.
JER 41:15 But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah
escaped from Johanan with eight men and went to the
sons of Ammon.
JER 41:16 Then Johanan the son of Kareah and
all the commanders of the forces that were with him
took from Mizpah all the remnant of the people whom
he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah,
after he had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam,
that is, the men who were soldiers, the women, the
children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back
from Gibeon.
JER 41:17 And they went and stayed in Geruth
Chimham, which is beside Bethlehem, in order to
proceed into Egypt
JER 41:18 because of the Chaldeans; for they
were afraid of them, since Ishmael the son of
Nethaniah had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam,
whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the
land.
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Chapter 42
JER 42:1
Then all the commanders of the forces, Johanan the
son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all
the people both small and great approached
JER 42:2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet,
"Please let our petition come before you, and pray
for us to the Lord your God, that is for all this
remnant; because we are left but a few out of many,
as your own eyes now see us,
JER 42:3 that the Lord your God may tell us
the way in which we should walk and the thing that
we should do."
JER 42:4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to
them, "I have heard you. Behold, I am going to pray
to the Lord your God in accordance with your words;
and it will come about that the whole message which
the Lord will answer you I will tell you. I will not
keep back a word from you."
JER 42:5 Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the
Lord be a true and faithful witness against us, if
we do not act in accordance with the whole message
with which the Lord your God will send you to us.
JER 42:6 "Whether it is pleasant or
unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the Lord
our God to whom we are sending you, in order that it
may go well with us when we listen to the voice of
the Lord our God."
JER 42:7 Now it came about at the end of ten
days that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
JER 42:8 Then he called for Johanan the son
of Kareah, and all the commanders of the forces that
were with him, and for all the people both small and
great,
JER 42:9 and said to them, "Thus says the
Lord the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to
present your petition before Him:
JER 42:10 'If you will indeed stay in this
land, then I will build you up and not tear you
down, and I will plant you and not uproot you; for I
shall relent concerning the calamity that I have
inflicted on you.
JER 42:11 'Do not be afraid of the king of
Babylon, whom you are now fearing; do not be afraid
of him,' declares the Lord,' for I am with you to
save you and deliver you from his hand.
JER 42:12 'I will also show you compassion,
so that he will have compassion on you and restore
you to your own soil.
JER 42:13 'But if you are going to say, "We
will not stay in this land," so as not to listen to
the voice of the Lord your God,
JER 42:14 saying, "No, but we will go to the
land of Egypt, where we shall not see war or hear
the sound of a trumpet or hunger for bread, and we
will stay there";
JER 42:15 then in that case listen to the
word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the
Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "If you really set
your mind to enter Egypt, and go in to reside there,
JER 42:16 then it will come about that the
sword, which you are afraid of will overtake you
there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about
which you are anxious, will follow closely after you
there in Egypt; and you will die there.
JER 42:17 "So all the men who set their mind
to go to Egypt to reside there will die by the
sword, by famine, and by pestilence; and they will
have no survivors or refugees from the calamity that
I am going to bring on them."' "
JER 42:18 For thus says the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, "As My anger and wrath have been
poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so My
wrath will be poured out on you when you enter
Egypt. And you will become a curse, an object of
horror, an imprecation, and a reproach; and you will
see this place no more."
JER 42:19 The Lord has spoken to you, O
remnant of Judah, "Do not go into Egypt!" You should
clearly understand that today I have testified
against you.
JER 42:20 For you have only deceived
yourselves; for it is you who sent me to the Lord
your God, saying, "Pray for us to the Lord our God;
and whatever the Lord our God says, tell us so, and
we will do it."
JER 42:21 So, I have told you today, but you
have not obeyed the Lord your God, even in whatever
He has sent me to tell you.
JER 42:22 Therefore you should now clearly
understand that you will die by the sword, by
famine, and by pestilence, in the place where you
wish to go to reside.
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Chapter 43
JER 43:1
But it came about, as soon as Jeremiah whom the Lord
their God had sent, had finished telling all the
people all the words of the Lord their God - - that
is, all these words - -
JER 43:2 that Azariah the son of Hoshaiah,
and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the arrogant
men said to Jeremiah, "You are telling a lie! The
Lord our God has not sent you to say, 'You are not
to enter Egypt to reside there';
JER 43:3 but Baruch the son of Neriah is
inciting you against us to give us over into the
hand of the Chaldeans, so they may put us to death
or exile us to Babylon."
JER 43:4 So Johanan the son of Kareah and all
the commanders of the forces, and all the people,
did not obey the voice of the Lord, so as to stay in
the land of Judah.
JER 43:5 But Johanan the son of Kareah and
all the commanders of the forces took the entire
remnant of Judah who had returned from all the
nations to which they had been driven away, in order
to reside in the land of Judah - -
JER 43:6 the men, the women, the children,
the king's daughters and every person that
Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had left
with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam and grandson of
Shaphan, together with Jeremiah the prophet and
Baruch the son of Neriah - -
JER 43:7 and they entered the land of Egypt
(for they did not obey the voice of the Lord) and
went in as far as Tahpanhes.
JER 43:8 Then the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying,
JER 43:9 "Take some large stones in your
hands and hide them in the mortar in the brick
terrace which is at the entrance of Pharaoh's palace
in Tahpanhes, in the sight of some of the Jews;
JER 43:10 and say to them,' Thus says the
Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "Behold, I am
going to send and get Nebuchadnezzar the king of
Babylon, My servant, and I am going to set his
throne right over these stones that I have hidden;
and he will spread his canopy over them.
JER 43:11 "He will also come and strike the
land of Egypt; those who are meant for death will be
given over to death, and those for captivity to
captivity, and those for the sword to the sword.
JER 43:12 "And I shall set fire to the
temples of the gods of Egypt, and he will burn them
and take them captive. So he will wrap himself with
the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself with
his garment, and he will depart from there safely.
JER 43:13 "He will also shatter the obelisks
of Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt; and
the temples of the gods of Egypt he will burn with
fire."'"
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Chapter 44
JER 44:1
The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Jews
living in the land of Egypt, those who were living
in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and the land of
Pathros, saying,
JER 44:2 "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, 'You yourselves have seen all the
calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and all
the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are
in ruins and no one lives in them,
JER 44:3 because of their wickedness which
they committed so as to provoke Me to anger by
continuing to burn sacrifices and to serve other
gods whom they had not known, neither they, you, nor
your fathers.
JER 44:4 'Yet I sent you all My servants the
prophets, again and again, saying, "Oh, do not do
this abominable thing which I hate."
JER 44:5 'But they did not listen or incline
their ears to turn from their wickedness, so as not
to burn sacrifices to other gods.
JER 44:6 'Therefore My wrath and My anger
were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah
and in the streets of Jerusalem, so they have become
a ruin and a desolation as it is this day.
JER 44:7 'Now then thus says the Lord God of
hosts, the God of Israel, "Why are you doing great
harm to yourselves, so as to cut off from you man
and woman, child and infant, from among Judah,
leaving yourselves without remnant,
JER 44:8 provoking Me to anger with the works
of your hands, burning sacrifices to other gods in
the land of Egypt, where you are entering to reside,
so that you might be cut off and become a curse and
a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
JER 44:9 "Have you forgotten the wickedness
of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of
Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, your own
wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which
they committed in the land of Judah and in the
streets of Jerusalem?
JER 44:10 "But they have not become contrite
even to this day, nor have they feared nor walked in
My law or My statutes, which I have set before you
and before your fathers."'
JER 44:11 "Therefore thus says the Lord of
hosts, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I am going to set
My face against you for woe, even to cut off all
Judah.
JER 44:12 'And I will take away the remnant
of Judah who have set their mind on entering the
land of Egypt to reside there, and they will all
meet their end in the land of Egypt; they will fall
by the sword and meet their end by famine. Both
small and great will die by the sword and famine;
and they will become a curse, an object of horror,
an imprecation and a reproach.
JER 44:13 'And I will punish those who live
in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem,
with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence.
JER 44:14 'So there will be no refugees or
survivors for the remnant of Judah who have entered
the land of Egypt to reside there and then to return
to the land of Judah, to which they are longing to
return and live; for none will return except a few
refugees.' "
JER 44:15 Then all the men who were aware
that their wives were burning sacrifices to other
gods, along with all the women who were standing by,
as a large assembly, including all the people who
were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt,
responded to Jeremiah, saying,
JER 44:16 "As for the message that you have
spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we are not
going to listen to you!
JER 44:17 "But rather we will certainly carry
out every word that has proceeded from our mouths,
by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and
pouring out libations to her, just as we ourselves,
our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in
the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem;
for then we had plenty of food, and were well off,
and saw no misfortune.
JER 44:18 "But since we stopped burning
sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out
libations to her, we have lacked everything and have
met our end by the sword and by famine."
JER 44:19 "And," said the women, "when we
were burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven, and
were pouring out libations to her, was it without
our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes
in her image and poured out libations to her?"
JER 44:20 Then Jeremiah said to all the
people, to the men and women - - even to all the
people who were giving him such an answer - -
saying,
JER 44:21 "As for the smoking sacrifices that
you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets
of Jerusalem, you and your forefathers, your kings
and your princes, and the people of the land, did
not the Lord remember them, and did not all this
come into His mind?
JER 44:22 "So the Lord was no longer able to
endure it, because of the evil of your deeds,
because of the abominations which you have
committed; thus your land has become a ruin, an
object of horror and a curse, without an inhabitant,
as it is this day.
JER 44:23 "Because you have burned sacrifices
and have sinned against the Lord and not obeyed the
voice of the Lord or walked in His law, His statutes
or His testimonies, therefore this calamity has
befallen you, as it has this day."
JER 44:24 Then Jeremiah said to all the
people, including all the women, "Hear the word of
the Lord, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt,
JER 44:25 thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, as follows:' As for you and your
wives, you have spoken with your mouths and
fulfilled it with your hands, saying, "We will
certainly perform our vows that we have vowed, to
burn sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pour out
libations to her." Go ahead and confirm your vows,
and certainly perform your vows!'
JER 44:26 "Nevertheless hear the word of the
Lord, all Judah who are living in the land of Egypt,
'Behold, I have sworn by My great name,' says the
Lord, 'never shall My name be invoked again by the
mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt,
saying," As the Lord God lives."
JER 44:27 'Behold, I am watching over them
for harm and not for good, and all the men of Judah
who are in the land of Egypt will meet their end by
the sword and by famine until they are completely
gone.
JER 44:28 'And those who escape the sword
will return out of the land of Egypt to the land of
Judah few in number. Then all the remnant of Judah
who have gone to the land of Egypt to reside there
will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs.
JER 44:29 'And this will be the sign to you,'
declares the Lord,' that I am going to punish you in
this place, so that you may know that My words will
surely stand against you for harm.'
JER 44:30 "Thus says the Lord, 'Behold, I am
going to give over Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt to
the hand of his enemies, to the hand of those who
seek his life, just as I gave over Zedekiah king of
Judah to the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,
who was his enemy and was seeking his life.'"
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Chapter 45
JER 45:1
This is the message which Jeremiah the prophet spoke
to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written
down these words in a book at Jeremiah's dictation,
in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah,
king of Judah, saying:
JER 45:2 "Thus says the Lord the God of
Israel to you, O Baruch:
JER 45:3 'You said, "Ah, woe is me! For the
Lord has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my
groaning and have found no rest."'
JER 45:4 "Thus you are to say to him, 'Thus
says the Lord," Behold, what I have built I am about
to tear down, and what I have planted I am about to
uproot, that is, the whole land."
JER 45:5 'But you, are you seeking great
things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I
am going to bring disaster on all flesh,' declares
the Lord,' but I will give your life to you as booty
in all the places where you may go.'"
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Chapter 46
JER 46:1
That which came as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah
the prophet concerning the nations.
JER 46:2 To Egypt, concerning the army of
Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt, which was by the
Euphrates River at Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of
Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:
JER 46:3 "Line up the shield and buckler, And
draw near for the battle!
JER 46:4 "Harness the horses, And mount the
steeds, And take your stand with helmets on! Polish
the spears, Put on the scale-armor!
JER 46:5 "Why have I seen it? They are
terrified, They are drawing back, And their mighty
men are defeated And have taken refuge in flight,
Without facing back; Terror is on every side!"
Declares the Lord.
JER 46:6 Let not the swift man flee, Nor the
mighty man escape; In the north beside the river
Euphrates They have stumbled and fallen.
JER 46:7 Who is this that rises like the
Nile, Like the rivers whose waters surge about?
JER 46:8 Egypt rises like the Nile, Even like
the rivers whose waters surge about; And He has
said, "I will rise and cover that land; I will
surely destroy the city and its inhabitants."
JER 46:9 Go up, you horses, and drive madly,
you chariots, That the mighty men may march forward:
Ethiopia and Put, that handle the shield, And the
Lydians, that handle and bend the bow.
JER 46:10 For that day belongs to the Lord
God of hosts, A day of vengeance, so as to avenge
Himself on His foes; And the sword will devour and
be satiated And drink its fill of their blood; For
there will be a slaughter for the Lord God of hosts,
In the land of the north by the river Euphrates.
JER 46:11 Go up to Gilead and obtain balm, O
virgin daughter of Egypt! In vain have you
multiplied remedies; There is no healing for you.
JER 46:12 The nations have heard of your
shame, And the earth is full of your cry of
distress; For one warrior has stumbled over another,
And both of them have fallen down together.
JER 46:13 This is the message which the Lord
spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to smite the land of
Egypt:
JER 46:14 "Declare in Egypt and proclaim in
Migdol, Proclaim also in Memphis and Tahpanhes; Say,
'Take your stand and get yourself ready, For the
sword has devoured those around you.'
JER 46:15 "Why have your mighty ones become
prostrate? They do not stand because the Lord has
thrust them down.
JER 46:16 "They have repeatedly stumbled;
Indeed, they have fallen one against another. Then
they said, 'Get up! And let us go back To our own
people and our native land Away from the sword of
the oppressor.'
JER 46:17 "They cried there, 'Pharaoh king of
Egypt is but a big noise; He has let the appointed
time pass by!'
JER 46:18 "As I live," declares the King
Whose name is the Lord of hosts, "Surely one shall
come who looms up like Tabor among the mountains, Or
like Carmel by the sea.
JER 46:19 "Make your baggage ready for exile,
O daughter dwelling in Egypt, For Memphis will
become a desolation; It will even be burned down and
bereft of inhabitants.
JER 46:20 "Egypt is a pretty heifer, But a
horsefly is coming from the north - - it is coming!
JER 46:21 "Also her mercenaries in her midst
Are like fattened calves, For even they too have
turned back and have fled away together; They did
not stand their ground. For the day of their
calamity has come upon them, The time of their
punishment.
JER 46:22 "Its sound moves along like a
serpent; For they move on like an army And come to
her as woodcutters with axes.
JER 46:23 "They have cut down her forest,"
declares the Lord; "Surely it will no more be found,
Even though they are now more numerous than locusts
And are without number.
JER 46:24 "The daughter of Egypt has been put
to shame, Given over to the power of the people of
the north."
JER 46:25 The Lord of hosts, the God of
Israel, says, "Behold, I am going to punish Amon of
Thebes, and Pharaoh, and Egypt along with her gods
and her kings, even Pharaoh and those who trust in
him.
JER 46:26 "And I shall give them over to the
power of those who are seeking their lives, even
into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and
into the hand of his officers. Afterwards, however,
it will be inhabited as in the days of old,"
declares the Lord.
JER 46:27 "But as for you, O Jacob My
servant, do not fear, Nor be dismayed, O Israel!
For, see, I am going to save you from afar, And your
descendants from the land of their captivity; And
Jacob shall return and be undisturbed And secure,
with no one making him tremble.
JER 46:28 "O Jacob My servant, do not fear,"
declares the Lord, "For I am with you. For I shall
make a full end of all the nations Where I have
driven you, Yet I shall not make a full end of you;
But I shall correct you properly And by no means
leave you unpunished."
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Chapter 47
JER 47:1
That which came as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah
the prophet concerning the Philistines, before
Pharaoh conquered Gaza.
JER 47:2 Thus says the Lord: "Behold, waters
are going to rise from the north And become an
overflowing torrent, And overflow the land and all
its fulness, The city and those who live in it; And
the men will cry out, And every inhabitant of the
land will wail.
JER 47:3 "Because of the noise of the
galloping hoofs of his stallions, The tumult of his
chariots, and the rumbling of his wheels, The
fathers have not turned back for their children,
Because of the limpness of their hands,
JER 47:4 On account of the day that is coming
To destroy all the Philistines, To cut off from Tyre
and Sidon Every ally that is left; For the Lord is
going to destroy the Philistines, The remnant of the
coastland of Caphtor.
JER 47:5 "Baldness has come upon Gaza;
Ashkelon has been ruined. O remnant of their valley,
How long will you gash yourself?
JER 47:6 "Ah, sword of the Lord, How long
will you not be quiet? Withdraw into your sheath; Be
at rest and stay still.
JER 47:7 "How can it be quiet, When the Lord
has given it an order? Against Ashkelon and against
the seacoast - - There He has assigned it."
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Chapter 48
JER 48:1
Concerning Moab. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, "Woe to Nebo, for it has been
destroyed; Kiriathaim has been put to shame, it has
been captured; The lofty stronghold has been put to
shame and shattered.
JER 48:2 "There is praise for Moab no longer;
In Heshbon they have devised calamity against her:
'Come and let us cut her off from being a nation!'
You too, Madmen, will be silenced; The sword will
follow after you.
JER 48:3 "The sound of an outcry from
Horonaim, 'Devastation and great destruction!'
JER 48:4 "Moab is broken, Her little ones
have sounded out a cry of distress.
JER 48:5 "For by the ascent of Luhith They
will ascend with continual weeping; For at the
descent of Horonaim They have heard the anguished
cry of destruction.
JER 48:6 "Flee, save your lives, That you may
be like a juniper in the wilderness.
JER 48:7 "For because of your trust in your
own achievements and treasures, Even you yourself
will be captured; And Chemosh will go off into exile
Together with his priests and his princes.
JER 48:8 "And a destroyer will come to every
city, So that no city will escape; The valley also
will be ruined, And the plateau will be destroyed,
As the Lord has said.
JER 48:9 "Give wings to Moab, For she will
flee away; And her cities will become a desolation,
Without inhabitants in them.
JER 48:10 "Cursed be the one who does the
Lord's work negligently, And cursed be the one who
restrains his sword from blood.
JER 48:11 "Moab has been at ease since his
youth; He has also been undisturbed on his lees,
Neither has he been emptied from vessel to vessel,
Nor has he gone into exile. Therefore he retains his
flavor, And his aroma has not changed.
JER 48:12 "Therefore behold, the days are
coming," declares the Lord, "when I shall send to
him those who tip vessels, and they will tip him
over, and they will empty his vessels and shatter
his jars.
JER 48:13 "And Moab will be ashamed of
Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of
Bethel, their confidence.
JER 48:14 "How can you say, 'We are mighty
warriors, And men valiant for battle'?
JER 48:15 "Moab has been destroyed, and men
have gone up to his cities; His choicest young men
have also gone down to the slaughter," Declares the
King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
JER 48:16 "The disaster of Moab will soon
come, And his calamity has swiftly hastened.
JER 48:17 "Mourn for him, all you who live
around him, Even all of you who know his name; Say,
'How has the mighty scepter been broken, A staff of
splendor!'
JER 48:18 "Come down from your glory And sit
on the parched ground, O daughter dwelling in Dibon,
For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you,
He has ruined your strongholds.
JER 48:19 "Stand by the road and keep watch,
O inhabitant of Aroer; Ask him who flees and her who
escapes And say, 'What has happened?'
JER 48:20 "Moab has been put to shame, for it
has been shattered. Wail and cry out; Declare by the
Arnon That Moab has been destroyed.
JER 48:21 "Judgment has also come upon the
plain, upon Holon, Jahzah, and against Mephaath,
JER 48:22 against Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim,
JER 48:23 against Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, and
Beth-meon,
JER 48:24 against Kerioth, Bozrah, and all
the cities of the land of Moab, far and near.
JER 48:25 "The horn of Moab has been cut off,
and his arm broken," declares the Lord.
JER 48:26 "Make him drunk, for he has become
arrogant toward the Lord; so Moab will wallow in his
vomit, and he also will become a laughingstock.
JER 48:27 "Now was not Israel a laughingstock
to you? Or was he caught among thieves? For each
time you speak about him you shake your head in
scorn.
JER 48:28 "Leave the cities and dwell among
the crags, O inhabitants of Moab, And be like a dove
that nests Beyond the mouth of the chasm.
JER 48:29 "We have heard of the pride of Moab
- - he is very proud - - Of his haughtiness, his
pride, his arrogance and his self-exaltation.
JER 48:30 "I know his fury," declares the
Lord, "But it is futile; His idle boasts have
accomplished nothing.
JER 48:31 "Therefore I shall wail for Moab,
Even for all Moab shall I cry out; I will moan for
the men of Kir-heres.
JER 48:32 "More than the weeping for Jazer I
shall weep for you, O vine of Sibmah! Your tendrils
stretched across the sea, They reached to the sea of
Jazer; Upon your summer fruits and your grape
harvest The destroyer has fallen.
JER 48:33 "So gladness and joy are taken away
From the fruitful field, even from the land of Moab.
And I have made the wine to cease from the wine
presses; No one will tread them with shouting, The
shouting will not be shouts of joy.
JER 48:34 "From the outcry at Heshbon even to
Elealeh, even to Jahaz they have raised their voice,
from Zoar even to Horonaim and to Eglath-shelishiyah;
for even the waters of Nimrim will become desolate.
JER 48:35 "And I shall make an end of Moab,"
declares the Lord, "the one who offers sacrifice on
the high place and the one who burns incense to his
gods.
JER 48:36 "Therefore My heart wails for Moab
like flutes; My heart also wails like flutes for the
men of Kir-heres. Therefore they have lost the
abundance it produced.
JER 48:37 "For every head is bald and every
beard cut short; there are gashes on all the hands
and sackcloth on the loins.
JER 48:38 "On all the housetops of Moab and
in its streets there is lamentation everywhere; for
I have broken Moab like an undesirable vessel,"
declares the Lord.
JER 48:39 "How shattered it is! How they have
wailed! How Moab has turned his back - - he is
ashamed! So Moab will become a laughingstock and an
object of terror to all around him."
JER 48:40 For thus says the Lord, "Behold,
one will fly swiftly like an eagle, And spread out
his wings against Moab.
JER 48:41 "Kerioth has been captured And the
strongholds have been seized, So the hearts of the
mighty men of Moab in that day Will be like the
heart of a woman in labor.
JER 48:42 "And Moab will be destroyed from
being a people Because he has become arrogant toward
the Lord.
JER 48:43 "Terror, pit, and snare are coming
upon you, O inhabitant of Moab," declares the Lord.
JER 48:44 "The one who flees from the terror
Will fall into the pit, And the one who climbs up
out of the pit Will be caught in the snare; For I
shall bring upon her, even upon Moab, The year of
their punishment," declares the Lord.
JER 48:45 "In the shadow of Heshbon The
fugitives stand without strength; For a fire has
gone forth from Heshbon, And a flame from the midst
of Sihon, And it has devoured the forehead of Moab
And the scalps of the riotous revelers.
JER 48:46 "Woe to you, Moab! The people of
Chemosh have perished; For your sons have been taken
away captive, And your daughters into captivity.
JER 48:47 "Yet I will restore the fortunes of
Moab In the latter days," declares the Lord. Thus
far the judgment on Moab.
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Chapter 49
JER 49:1
Concerning the sons of Ammon. Thus says the Lord:
"Does Israel have no sons? Or has he no heirs? Why
then has Malcam taken possession of Gad And his
people settled in its cities?
JER 49:2 "Therefore behold, the days are
coming," declares the Lord, "That I shall cause a
trumpet blast of war to be heard Against Rabbah of
the sons of Ammon; And it will become a desolate
heap, And her towns will be set on fire. Then Israel
will take possession of his possessors," Says the
Lord.
JER 49:3 "Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai has been
destroyed! Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah, Gird
yourselves with sackcloth and lament, And rush back
and forth inside the walls; For Malcam will go into
exile Together with his priests and his princes.
JER 49:4 "How boastful you are about the
valleys! Your valley is flowing away, O backsliding
daughter Who trusts in her treasures, saying, 'Who
will come against me?'
JER 49:5 "Behold, I am going to bring terror
upon you," Declares the Lord God of hosts, "From all
directions around you; And each of you will be
driven out headlong, With no one to gather the
fugitives together.
JER 49:6 "But afterward I will restore The
fortunes of the sons of Ammon," Declares the Lord.
JER 49:7 Concerning Edom. Thus says the Lord
of hosts, "Is there no longer any wisdom in Teman?
Has good counsel been lost to the prudent? Has their
wisdom decayed?
JER 49:8 "Flee away, turn back, dwell in the
depths, O inhabitants of Dedan, For I will bring the
disaster of Esau upon him At the time I punish him.
JER 49:9 "If grape gatherers came to you,
Would they not leave gleanings? If thieves came by
night, They would destroy only until they had
enough.
JER 49:10 "But I have stripped Esau bare, I
have uncovered his hiding places So that he will not
be able to conceal himself; His offspring has been
destroyed along with his relatives And his
neighbors, and he is no more.
JER 49:11 "Leave your orphans behind, I will
keep them alive; And let your widows trust in Me."
JER 49:12 For thus says the Lord, "Behold,
those who were not sentenced to drink the cup will
certainly drink it, and are you the one who will be
completely acquitted? You will not be acquitted, but
you will certainly drink it.
JER 49:13 "For I have sworn by Myself,"
declares the Lord, "that Bozrah will become an
object of horror, a reproach, a ruin and a curse;
and all its cities will become perpetual ruins."
JER 49:14 I have heard a message from the
Lord, And an envoy is sent among the nations,
saying, "Gather yourselves together and come against
her, And rise up for battle!"
JER 49:15 "For behold, I have made you small
among the nations, Despised among men.
JER 49:16 "As for the terror of you, The
arrogance of your heart has deceived you, O you who
live in the clefts of the rock, Who occupy the
height of the hill. Though you make your nest as
high as an eagle's, I will bring you down from
there," declares the Lord.
JER 49:17 "And Edom will become an object of
horror; everyone who passes by it will be horrified
and will hiss at all its wounds.
JER 49:18 "Like the overthrow of Sodom and
Gomorrah with its neighbors," says the Lord, "no one
will live there, nor will a son of man reside in it.
JER 49:19 "Behold, one will come up like a
lion from the thickets of the Jordan against a
perennially watered pasture; for in an instant I
shall make him run away from it, and whoever is
chosen I shall appoint over it. For who is like Me,
and who will summon Me into court? And who then is
the shepherd who can stand against Me?"
JER 49:20 Therefore hear the plan of the Lord
which He has planned against Edom, and His purposes
which He has purposed against the inhabitants of
Teman: surely they will drag them off, even the
little ones of the flock; surely He will make their
pasture desolate because of them.
JER 49:21 The earth has quaked at the noise
of their downfall. There is an outcry! The noise of
it has been heard at the Red Sea.
JER 49:22 Behold, He will mount up and swoop
like an eagle, and spread out His wings against
Bozrah; and the hearts of the mighty men of Edom in
that day will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
JER 49:23 Concerning Damascus."Hamath and
Arpad are put to shame, For they have heard bad
news; They are disheartened. There is anxiety by the
sea, It cannot be calmed.
JER 49:24 "Damascus has become helpless; She
has turned away to flee, And panic has gripped her;
Distress and pangs have taken hold of her Like a
woman in childbirth.
JER 49:25 "How the city of praise has not
been deserted, The town of My joy!
JER 49:26 "Therefore, her young men will fall
in her streets, And all the men of war will be
silenced in that day," declares the Lord of hosts.
JER 49:27 "And I shall set fire to the wall
of Damascus, And it will devour the fortified towers
of Ben-hadad."
JER 49:28 Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms
of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
defeated. Thus says the Lord, "Arise, go up to Kedar
And devastate the men of the east.
JER 49:29 "They will take away their tents
and their flocks; They will carry off for themselves
Their tent curtains, all their goods, and their
camels, And they will call out to one another,
'Terror on every side!'
JER 49:30 "Run away, flee! Dwell in the
depths, O inhabitants of Hazor," declares the Lord;
"For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has formed a
plan against you And devised a scheme against you.
JER 49:31 "Arise, go up against a nation
which is at ease, Which lives securely," declares
the Lord."It has no gates or bars; They dwell alone.
JER 49:32 "And their camels will become
plunder, And the multitude of their cattle for
booty, And I shall scatter to all the winds those
who cut the corners of their hair; And I shall bring
their disaster from every side," declares the Lord.
JER 49:33 "And Hazor will become a haunt of
jackals, A desolation forever; No one will live
there, Nor will a son of man reside in it."
JER 49:34 That which came as the word of the
Lord to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, at the
beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah,
saying,
JER 49:35 "Thus says the Lord of hosts,
'Behold, I am going to break the bow of Elam, The
finest of their might.
JER 49:36 'And I shall bring upon Elam the
four winds From the four ends of heaven, And shall
scatter them to all these winds; And there will be
no nation To which the outcasts of Elam will not go.
JER 49:37 'So I shall shatter Elam before
their enemies And before those who seek their lives;
And I shall bring calamity upon them, Even My fierce
anger,' declares the Lord,' And I shall send out the
sword after them Until I have consumed them.
JER 49:38 'Then I shall set My throne in
Elam, And I shall destroy out of it king and
princes,' Declares the Lord.
JER 49:39 'But it will come about in the last
days That I shall restore the fortunes of Elam,'
"Declares the Lord.
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Chapter 50
JER 50:1
The word which the Lord spoke concerning Babylon,
the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the
prophet:
JER 50:2 "Declare and proclaim among the
nations. Proclaim it and lift up a standard. Do not
conceal it but say, 'Babylon has been captured, Bel
has been put to shame, Marduk has been shattered;
Her images have been put to shame, her idols have
been shattered.'
JER 50:3 "For a nation has come up against
her out of the north; it will make her land an
object of horror, and there will be no inhabitant in
it. Both man and beast have wandered off, they have
gone away!
JER 50:4 "In those days and at that time,"
declares the Lord, "the sons of Israel will come,
both they and the sons of Judah as well; they will
go along weeping as they go, and it will be the Lord
their God they will seek.
JER 50:5 "They will ask for the way to Zion,
turning their faces in its direction; they will come
that they may join themselves to the Lord in an
everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.
JER 50:6 "My people have become lost sheep;
Their shepherds have led them astray. They have made
them turn aside on the mountains; They have gone
along from mountain to hill And have forgotten their
resting place.
JER 50:7 "All who came upon them have
devoured them; And their adversaries have said, 'We
are not guilty, Inasmuch as they have sinned against
the Lord who is the habitation of righteousness,
Even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.'
JER 50:8 "Wander away from the midst of
Babylon, And go forth from the land of the Chaldeans;
Be also like male goats at the head of the flock.
JER 50:9 "For behold, I am going to arouse
and bring up against Babylon A horde of great
nations from the land of the north, And they will
draw up their battle lines against her; From there
she will be taken captive. Their arrows will be like
an expert warrior Who does not return empty-handed.
JER 50:10 "And Chaldea will become plunder;
All who plunder her will have enough," declares the
Lord.
JER 50:11 "Because you are glad, because you
are jubilant, O you who pillage My heritage, Because
you skip about like a threshing heifer And neigh
like stallions,
JER 50:12 Your mother will be greatly
ashamed, She who gave you birth will be humiliated.
Behold, she will be the least of the nations, A
wilderness, a parched land, and a desert.
JER 50:13 "Because of the indignation of the
Lord she will not be inhabited, But she will be
completely desolate; Everyone who passes by Babylon
will be horrified And will hiss because of all her
wounds.
JER 50:14 "Draw up your battle lines against
Babylon on every side, All you who bend the bow;
Shoot at her, do not be sparing with your arrows,
For she has sinned against the Lord.
JER 50:15 "Raise your battle cry against her
on every side! She has given herself up, her pillars
have fallen, Her walls have been torn down. For this
is the vengeance of the Lord: Take vengeance on her;
As she has done to others, so do to her.
JER 50:16 "Cut off the sower from Babylon,
And the one who wields the sickle at the time of
harvest; From before the sword of the oppressor They
will each turn back to his own people, And they will
each flee to his own land.
JER 50:17 "Israel is a scattered flock, the
lions have driven them away. The first one who
devoured him was the king of Assyria, and this last
one who has broken his bones is Nebuchadnezzar king
of Babylon.
JER 50:18 "Therefore thus says the Lord of
hosts, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I am going to
punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I
punished the king of Assyria.
JER 50:19 'And I shall bring Israel back to
his pasture, and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan,
and his desire will be satisfied in the hill country
of Ephraim and Gilead.
JER 50:20 'In those days and at that time,'
declares the Lord,' search will be made for the
iniquity of Israel, but there will be none; and for
the sins of Judah, but they will not be found; for I
shall pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.'
JER 50:21 "Against the land of Merathaim, go
up against it, And against the inhabitants of Pekod.
Slay and utterly destroy them," declares the Lord,
"And do according to all that I have commanded you.
JER 50:22 "The noise of battle is in the
land, And great destruction.
JER 50:23 "How the hammer of the whole earth
Has been cut off and broken! How Babylon has become
An object of horror among the nations!
JER 50:24 "I set a snare for you, and you
were also caught, O Babylon, While you yourself were
not aware; You have been found and also seized
Because you have engaged in conflict with the Lord."
JER 50:25 The Lord has opened His armory And
has brought forth the weapons of His indignation,
For it is a work of the Lord God of hosts In the
land of the Chaldeans.
JER 50:26 Come to her from the farthest
border; Open up her barns, Pile her up like heaps
And utterly destroy her, Let nothing be left to her.
JER 50:27 Put all her young bulls to the
sword; Let them go down to the slaughter! Woe be
upon them, for their day has come, The time of their
punishment.
JER 50:28 There is a sound of fugitives and
refugees from the land of Babylon, To declare in
Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, Vengeance
for His temple.
JER 50:29 "Summon many against Babylon, All
those who bend the bow: Encamp against her on every
side, Let there be no escape. Repay her according to
her work; According to all that she has done, so do
to her; For she has become arrogant against the
Lord, Against the Holy One of Israel.
JER 50:30 "Therefore her young men will fall
in her streets, And all her men of war will be
silenced in that day," declares the Lord.
JER 50:31 "Behold, I am against you, O
arrogant one," Declares the Lord God of hosts, "For
your day has come, The time when I shall punish you.
JER 50:32 "And the arrogant one will stumble
and fall With no one to raise him up; And I shall
set fire to his cities, And it will devour all his
environs."
JER 50:33 Thus says the Lord of hosts, "The
sons of Israel are oppressed, And the sons of Judah
as well; And all who took them captive have held
them fast, They have refused to let them go.
JER 50:34 "Their Redeemer is strong, the Lord
of hosts is His name; He will vigorously plead their
case, So that He may bring rest to the earth, But
turmoil to the inhabitants of Babylon.
JER 50:35 "A sword against the Chaldeans,"
declares the Lord, "And against the inhabitants of
Babylon, And against her officials and her wise men!
JER 50:36 "A sword against the oracle
priests, and they will become fools! A sword against
her mighty men, and they will be shattered!
JER 50:37 "A sword against their horses and
against their chariots, And against all the
foreigners who are in the midst of her, And they
will become women! A sword against her treasures,
and they will be plundered!
JER 50:38 "A drought on her waters, and they
will be dried up! For it is a land of idols, And
they are mad over fearsome idols.
JER 50:39 "Therefore the desert creatures
will live there along with the jackals; The
ostriches also will live in it, And it will never
again be inhabited Or dwelt in from generation to
generation.
JER 50:40 "As when God overthrew Sodom And
Gomorrah with its neighbors," declares the Lord, "No
man will live there, Nor will any son of man reside
in it.
JER 50:41 "Behold, a people is coming from
the north, And a great nation and many kings Will be
aroused from the remote parts of the earth.
JER 50:42 "They seize their bow and javelin;
They are cruel and have no mercy. Their voice roars
like the sea, And they ride on horses, Marshalled
like a man for the battle Against you, O daughter of
Babylon.
JER 50:43 "The king of Babylon has heard the
report about them, And his hands hang limp; Distress
has gripped him, Agony like a woman in childbirth.
JER 50:44 "Behold, one will come up like a
lion from the thicket of the Jordan to a perennially
watered pasture; for in an instant I shall make them
run away from it, and whoever is chosen I shall
appoint over it. For who is like Me, and who will
summon Me into court? And who then is the shepherd
who can stand before Me?"
JER 50:45 Therefore hear the plan of the Lord
which He has planned against Babylon, and His
purposes which He has purposed against the land of
the Chaldeans: surely they will drag them off, even
the little ones of the flock; surely He will make
their pasture desolate because of them.
JER 50:46 At the shout, "Babylon has been
seized!" the earth is shaken, and an outcry is heard
among the nations.
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Chapter 51
JER 51:1
Thus says the Lord: "Behold, I am going to arouse
against Babylon And against the inhabitants of
Leb-kamai The spirit of a destroyer.
JER 51:2 "And I shall dispatch foreigners to
Babylon that they may winnow her And may devastate
her land; For on every side they will be opposed to
her In the day of her calamity.
JER 51:3 "Let not him who bends his bow bend
it, Nor let him rise up in his scale-armor; So do
not spare her young men; Devote all her army to
destruction.
JER 51:4 "And they will fall down slain in
the land of the Chaldeans, And pierced through in
their streets."
JER 51:5 For neither Israel nor Judah has
been forsaken By his God, the Lord of hosts,
Although their land is full of guilt Before the Holy
One of Israel.
JER 51:6 Flee from the midst of Babylon, And
each of you save his life! Do not be destroyed in
her punishment, For this is the Lord's time of
vengeance; He is going to render recompense to her.
JER 51:7 Babylon has been a golden cup in the
hand of the Lord, Intoxicating all the earth. The
nations have drunk of her wine; Therefore the
nations are going mad.
JER 51:8 Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been
broken; Wail over her! Bring balm for her pain;
Perhaps she may be healed.
JER 51:9 We applied healing to Babylon, but
she was not healed; Forsake her and let us each go
to his own country, For her judgment has reached to
heaven And towers up to the very skies.
JER 51:10 The Lord has brought about our
vindication; Come and let us recount in Zion The
work of the Lord our God!
JER 51:11 Sharpen the arrows, fill the
quivers! The Lord has aroused the spirit of the
kings of the Medes, Because His purpose is against
Babylon to destroy it; For it is the vengeance of
the Lord, vengeance for His temple.
JER 51:12 Lift up a signal against the walls
of Babylon; Post a strong guard, Station sentries,
Place men in ambush! For the Lord has both purposed
and performed What He spoke concerning the
inhabitants of Babylon.
JER 51:13 O you who dwell by many waters,
Abundant in treasures, Your end has come, The
measure of your end.
JER 51:14 The Lord of hosts has sworn by
Himself: "Surely I will fill you with a population
like locusts, And they will cry out with shouts of
victory over you."
JER 51:15 It is He who made the earth by His
power, Who established the world by His wisdom, And
by His understanding He stretched out the heavens.
JER 51:16 When He utters His voice, there is
a tumult of waters in the heavens, And He causes the
clouds to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes
lightning for the rain, And brings forth the wind
from His storehouses.
JER 51:17 All mankind is stupid, devoid of
knowledge; Every goldsmith is put to shame by his
idols, For his molten images are deceitful, And
there is no breath in them.
JER 51:18 They are worthless, a work of
mockery; In the time of their punishment they will
perish.
JER 51:19 The portion of Jacob is not like
these; For the Maker of all is He, And of the tribe
of His inheritance; The Lord of hosts is His name.
JER 51:20 He says, "You are My war-club, My
weapon of war; And with you I shatter nations, And
with you I destroy kingdoms.
JER 51:21 "And with you I shatter the horse
and his rider,
JER 51:22 And with you I shatter the chariot
and its rider, And with you I shatter man and woman,
And with you I shatter old man and youth, And with
you I shatter young man and virgin,
JER 51:23 And with you I shatter the shepherd
and his flock, And with you I shatter the farmer and
his team, And with you I shatter governors and
prefects.
JER 51:24 "But I will repay Babylon and all
the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their evil that
they have done in Zion before your eyes," declares
the Lord.
JER 51:25 "Behold, I am against you, O
destroying mountain, Who destroys the whole earth,"
declares the Lord, "And I will stretch out My hand
against you, And roll you down from the crags And I
will make you a burnt out mountain.
JER 51:26 "And they will not take from you
even a stone for a corner Nor a stone for
foundations, But you will be desolate forever,"
declares the Lord.
JER 51:27 Lift up a signal in the land, Blow
a trumpet among the nations! Consecrate the nations
against her, Summon against her the kingdoms of
Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz; Appoint a marshal
against her, Bring up the horses like bristly
locusts.
JER 51:28 Consecrate the nations against her,
The kings of the Medes, Their governors and all
their prefects, And every land of their dominion.
JER 51:29 So the land quakes and writhes, For
the purposes of the Lord against Babylon stand, To
make the land of Babylon A desolation without
inhabitants.
JER 51:30 The mighty men of Babylon have
ceased fighting, They stay in the strongholds; Their
strength is exhausted, They are becoming like women;
Their dwelling places are set on fire, The bars of
her gates are broken.
JER 51:31 One courier runs to meet another,
And one messenger to meet another, To tell the king
of Babylon That his city has been captured from end
to end;
JER 51:32 The fords also have been seized,
And they have burned the marshes with fire, And the
men of war are terrified.
JER 51:33 For thus says the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel: "The daughter of Babylon is like
a threshing floor At the time it is stamped firm;
Yet in a little while the time of harvest will come
for her."
JER 51:34 "Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has
devoured me and crushed me, He has set me down like
an empty vessel; He has swallowed me like a monster,
He has filled his stomach with my delicacies; He has
washed me away.
JER 51:35 "May the violence done to me and to
my flesh be upon Babylon," The inhabitant of Zion
will say; And, "May my blood be upon the inhabitants
of Chaldea," Jerusalem will say.
JER 51:36 Therefore thus says the Lord,
"Behold, I am going to plead your case And exact
full vengeance for you; And I shall dry up her sea
And make her fountain dry.
JER 51:37 "And Babylon will become a heap of
ruins, a haunt of jackals, An object of horror and
hissing, without inhabitants.
JER 51:38 "They will roar together like young
lions, They will growl like lions' cubs.
JER 51:39 "When they become heated up, I
shall serve them their banquet And make them drunk,
that they may become jubilant And may sleep a
perpetual sleep And not wake up," declares the Lord.
JER 51:40 "I shall bring them down like lambs
to the slaughter, Like rams together with male
goats.
JER 51:41 "How Sheshak has been captured, And
the praise of the whole earth been seized! How
Babylon has become an object of horror among the
nations!
JER 51:42 "The sea has come up over Babylon;
She has been engulfed with its tumultuous waves.
JER 51:43 "Her cities have become an object
of horror, A parched land and a desert, A land in
which no man lives, And through which no son of man
passes.
JER 51:44 "And I shall punish Bel in Babylon,
And I shall make what he has swallowed come out of
his mouth; And the nations will no longer stream to
him. Even the wall of Babylon has fallen down!
JER 51:45 "Come forth from her midst, My
people, And each of you save yourselves From the
fierce anger of the Lord.
JER 51:46 "Now lest your heart grow faint,
And you be afraid at the report that will be heard
in the land - - For the report will come one year,
And after that another report in another year, And
violence will be in the land With ruler against
ruler - -
JER 51:47 Therefore behold, days are coming
When I shall punish the idols of Babylon; And her
whole land will be put to shame, And all her slain
will fall in her midst.
JER 51:48 "Then heaven and earth and all that
is in them Will shout for joy over Babylon, For the
destroyers will come to her from the north,"
Declares the Lord.
JER 51:49 Indeed Babylon is to fall for the
slain of Israel, As also for Babylon the slain of
all the earth have fallen.
JER 51:50 You who have escaped the sword,
Depart! Do not stay! Remember the Lord from afar,
And let Jerusalem come to your mind.
JER 51:51 We are ashamed because we have
heard reproach; Disgrace has covered our faces, For
aliens have entered The holy places of the Lord's
house.
JER 51:52 "Therefore behold, the days are
coming," declares the Lord, "When I shall punish her
idols, And the mortally wounded will groan
throughout her land.
JER 51:53 "Though Babylon should ascend to
the heavens, And though she should fortify her lofty
stronghold, From Me destroyers will come to her,"
declares the Lord.
JER 51:54 The sound of an outcry from
Babylon, And of great destruction from the land of
the Chaldeans!
JER 51:55 For the Lord is going to destroy
Babylon, And He will make her loud noise vanish from
her. And their waves will roar like many waters; The
tumult of their voices sounds forth.
JER 51:56 For the destroyer is coming against
her, against Babylon, And her mighty men will be
captured, Their bows are shattered; For the Lord is
a God of recompense, He will fully repay.
JER 51:57 "And I shall make her princes and
her wise men drunk, Her governors, her prefects, and
her mighty men, That they may sleep a perpetual
sleep and not wake up," Declares the King, whose
name is the Lord of hosts.
JER 51:58 Thus says the Lord of hosts, "The
broad wall of Babylon will be completely razed, And
her high gates will be set on fire; So the peoples
will toil for nothing, And the nations become
exhausted only for fire."
JER 51:59 The message which Jeremiah the
prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the
grandson of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the
king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his
reign. (Now Seraiah was quartermaster.)
JER 51:60 So Jeremiah wrote in a single
scroll all the calamity which would come upon
Babylon, that is, all these words which have been
written concerning Babylon.
JER 51:61 Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "As
soon as you come to Babylon, then see that you read
all these words aloud,
JER 51:62 and say,' Thou, O Lord, hast
promised concerning this place to cut it off, so
that there will be nothing dwelling in it, whether
man or beast, but it will be a perpetual
desolation.'
JER 51:63 "And it will come about as soon as
you finish reading this scroll, you will tie a stone
to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates,
JER 51:64 and say,' Just so shall Babylon
sink down and not rise again, because of the
calamity that I am going to bring upon her; and they
will become exhausted.' "Thus far are the words of
Jeremiah.
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Chapter 52
JER 52:1
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became
king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and
his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of
Jeremiah of Libnah.
JER 52:2 And he did evil in the sight of the
Lord like all that Jehoiakim had done.
JER 52:3 For through the anger of the Lord
this came about in Jerusalem and Judah until He cast
them out from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled
against the king of Babylon.
JER 52:4 Now it came about in the ninth year
of his reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month,
that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all
his army, against Jerusalem, camped against it, and
built a siege wall all around it.
JER 52:5 So the city was under siege until
the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
JER 52:6 On the ninth day of the fourth month
the famine was so severe in the city that there was
no food for the people of the land.
JER 52:7 Then the city was broken into, and
all the men of war fled and went forth from the city
at night by way of the gate between the two walls
which was by the king's garden, though the Chaldeans
were all around the city. And they went by way of
the Arabah.
JER 52:8 But the army of the Chaldeans
pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains
of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him.
JER 52:9 Then they captured the king and
brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in
the land of Hamath; and he passed sentence on him.
JER 52:10 And the king of Babylon slaughtered
the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also
slaughtered all the princes of Judah in Riblah.
JER 52:11 Then he blinded the eyes of
Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him with
bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon, and put
him in prison until the day of his death.
JER 52:12 Now on the tenth day of the fifth
month, which was the nineteenth year of King
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the
captain of the bodyguard, who was in the service of
the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.
JER 52:13 And he burned the house of the
Lord, the king's house, and all the houses of
Jerusalem; even every large house he burned with
fire.
JER 52:14 So all the army of the Chaldeans
who were with the captain of the guard broke down
all the walls around Jerusalem.
JER 52:15 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the
guard carried away into exile some of the poorest of
the people, the rest of the people who were left in
the city, the deserters who had deserted to the king
of Babylon, and the rest of the artisans.
JER 52:16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the
guard left some of the poorest of the land to be
vinedressers and plowmen.
JER 52:17 Now the bronze pillars which
belonged to the house of the Lord and the stands and
the bronze sea, which were in the house of the Lord,
the Chaldeans broke in pieces and carried all their
bronze to Babylon.
JER 52:18 And they also took away the pots,
the shovels, the snuffers, the basins, the pans, and
all the bronze vessels which were used in temple
service.
JER 52:19 The captain of the guard also took
away the bowls, the firepans, the basins, the pots,
the lampstands, the pans and the libation bowls,
what was fine gold and what was fine silver.
JER 52:20 The two pillars, the one sea, and
the twelve bronze bulls that were under the sea, and
the stands, which King Solomon had made for the
house of the Lord - - the bronze of all these
vessels was beyond weight.
JER 52:21 As for the pillars, the height of
each pillar was eighteen cubits, and it was twelve
cubits in circumference and four fingers in
thickness, and hollow.
JER 52:22 Now a capital of bronze was on it;
and the height of each capital was five cubits, with
network and pomegranates upon the capital all
around, all of bronze. And the second pillar was
like these, including pomegranates.
JER 52:23 And there were ninety-six exposed
pomegranates; all the pomegranates numbered a
hundred on the network all around.
JER 52:24 Then the captain of the guard took
Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second
priest, with the three officers of the temple.
JER 52:25 He also took from the city one
official who was overseer of the men of war, and
seven of the king's advisers who were found in the
city, and the scribe of the commander of the army
who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men
of the people of the land who were found in the
midst of the city.
JER 52:26 And Nebuzaradan the captain of the
guard took them and brought them to the king of
Babylon at Riblah.
JER 52:27 Then the king of Babylon struck
them down and put them to death at Riblah in the
land of Hamath. So Judah was led away into exile
from its land.
JER 52:28 These are the people whom
Nebuchadnezzar carried away into exile: in the
seventh year 3,023 Jews;
JER 52:29 in the eighteenth year of
Nebuchadnezzar 832 persons from Jerusalem;
JER 52:30 in the twenty-third year of
Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard
carried into exile 745 Jewish people; there were
4,600 persons in all.
JER 52:31 Now it came about in the
thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king
of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth
of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in
the first year of his reign, showed favor to
Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of
prison.
JER 52:32 Then he spoke kindly to him and set
his throne above the thrones of the kings who were
with him in Babylon.
JER 52:33 So Jehoiachin changed his prison
clothes, and had his meals in the king's presence
regularly all the days of his life.
JER 52:34 And for his allowance, a regular
allowance was given him by the king of Babylon, a
daily portion all the days of his life until the day
of his death.
