Jeremias (Jeremiah)

Jeremias, Podcast/Download

1:1 The word of God which came to Jeremias the son of Chelcias, of the priests, who dwelt in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: 2 accordingly as the word of God came to him in the days of Josias son of Amos king of Juda, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3 And it was in the days of Joakim, son of Josias king of Juda, until the eleventh year of Sedekias king of Juda, even until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

4 And the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 5 Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee; I appointed thee a prophet to the nations.

6 And I said, O Lord, thou that art supreme Lord, behold, I know not how to speak, for I am a child. 7 And the Lord said to me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all to whomsoever I shall send thee, and according to all the words that I shall command thee, thou shalt speak. 8 Be not afraid before them: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. 9 And the Lord stretched forth his hand to me, and touched my mouth: and the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words into thy mouth.

10 Behold, I have appointed thee this day over nations and over kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to rebuild, and to plant.

11 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, What seest thou? And I said, A rod of an almond tree. 12 And the Lord said to me, Thou hast well seen: for I have watched over my words to perform them. 13 And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, A caldron on the fire; and the face of it is toward the north. 14 And the Lord said to me, From the north shall flame forth evils upon all the inhabitants of the land. 15 For, behold, I call together all the kingdoms of the earth from the north, saith the Lord; and they shall come, and shall set each one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls round about her, and against all the cities of Juda. 16 And I will speak to them in judgment, concerning all their iniquity, forasmuch as they have forsaken me, and sacrificed to strange gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

17 And do thou gird up thy loins, and stand up, and speak all the words that I shall command thee: be not afraid of their face, neither be thou alarmed before them; for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. 18 Behold, I have made thee this day as a strong city, and as a brazen wall, strong against all the kings of Juda, and the princes thereof, and the people of the land. 19 And they shall fight against thee; but they shall by no means prevail against thee; because I am with thee, to deliver thee, saith the Lord.

2:1 And he said, Thus saith the Lord, 2 I remember the kindness of thy youth, and the love of thine espousals, 3 in following the Holy One of Israel, saith the Lord, Israel was the holy people to the Lord, and the first-fruits of his increase: all that devoured him shall offend; evils shall come upon them, saith the Lord.

4 Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and every family of the house of Israel. 5 Thus saith the Lord, What trespass have your fathers found in me, that they have revolted far from me, and gone after vanities, and become vain? 6 And they said not, Where is the Lord, who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who guided us in the wilderness, in an untried and trackless land, in a land which no man at all went through, and no man dwelt there? 7 And I brought you to Carmel, that ye should eat the fruits thereof, and the good thereof; and ye went in, and defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination. 8 The priests said not, Where is the Lord? and they that held by the law knew me not: the shepherds also sinned against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after that which profited not.

9 Therefore I will yet plead with you, and will plead with your children’s children. 10 For go to the isles of the Chettians, and se; and send to Kedar, and observe accurately, and see if such things have been done; 11 if the nations will change their gods, though they are not gods: but my people have changed their glory, for that from which they shall not be profited. 12 The heaven is amazed at this, and is very exceedingly horror-struck, saith the Lord. 13 For my people has committed two faults, and evil ones: they have forsaken me, the fountain of water of life, and hewn out for themselves broken cisterns, which will not be able to hold water.

14 Is Israel a servant, or a home-born slave? why has he become a spoil? 15 The lions roared upon him, and uttered their voice, which have made his land a wilderness: and his cities are broken down, that they should not be inhabited. 16 Also the children of Memphis and Taphnas have known thee, and mocked thee. 17 Has not thy forsaking me brought these things upon thee? saith the Lord thy God.

18 And now what hast thou to do with the way of Egypt, to drink the water of Geon? and what hast thou to do with the way of the Assyrians, to drink the water of rivers? 19 Thine apostasy shall correct thee, and thy wickedness shall reprove thee: know then, and see, that thy forsaking me has been bitter to thee, saith the Lord thy God; and I have taken no pleasure in thee, saith the Lord thy God.

20 For of old thou hast broken thy yoke, and plucked asunder thy bands; and thou has said, I will not serve thee, but will go upon every high hill, and under every shady tree, there will I indulge in my fornication. 21 Yet I planted thee a fruitful vine, entirely of the right sort: how art thou a strange vine turned to bitterness! 22 Though thou shouldest wash thyself with nitre, and multiply to thyself soap, still thou art stained by thine iniquities before me, saith the Lord.

23 How wilt thou say, I am not polluted, and have not gone after Baal? behold thy ways in the burial-ground, and know what thou hast done: her voice has howled in the evening: 24 she has extended her ways over the waters of the desert; she was hurried along by the lusts of her soul; she is given up to them, who will turn her back? none that seek her shall be weary; at the time of her humiliation they shall find her. 25 Withdraw thy foot from a rough way, and thy throat from thirst: but she said I will strengthen myself: for she loved strangers, and went after them.

26 As is the shame of a thief when he is caught, so shall the children of Israel be ashamed; they, and their kings, and their princes, and their priests, and their prophets. 27 They said to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou has begotten me: and they have turned their backs to me, and not their faces: yet in the time of their afflictions they will say, Arise, and save us. 28 And where are thy gods, which thou madest for thyself? will they arise and save in the time of thine affliction? for according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Juda; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem they sacrificed to Baal. 29 Wherefore do ye speak unto me? ye all have been ungodly, and ye all have transgressed against me, saith the Lord. 30 In vain have I smitten your children; ye have not received correction: a sword has devoured your prophets as a destroying lion; yet ye feared not.

31 Hear ye the word of the Lord: thus saith the Lord, Have I been a wilderness or a dry land to Israel? wherefore has my people said, We will not be ruled over, and will not come to thee any more? 32 Will a bride forget her ornaments, or a virgin her girdle? but my people has forgotten me days without number. 33 What fair device wilt thou yet employ in thy ways, so as to seek love? it shall not be so; moreover thou has done wickedly in corrupting thy ways; 34 and in thine hands has been found the blood of innocent souls; I have not found them in holes, but on every oak. 35 Yet thou saidst, I am innocent: only let his wrath be turned away from me.

Behold, I will plead with thee, whereas thou sayest, I have not sinned. 36 For thou has been so exceedingly contemptuous as to repeat thy ways; but thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assur. 37 For thou shalt go forth thence also with thine hands upon thine head; for the Lord has rejected thine hope, and thou shalt not prosper in it.

3:1 If a man put away his wife, and she depart from him, and become another man’s, shall she return to him any more at all? shall not that woman be utterly defiled? ye thou hast gone a-whoring with many shepherds, and hast returned to me, saith the Lord. 2 Lift up thine eyes to look straight forward, and see where thou hast not been utterly defiled. Thou hast sat for them by the wayside as a deserted crow, and hast defiled the land with thy fornications and thy wickedness. 3 And thou didst retain many shepherds for a stumbling-block to thyself: thou hadst a whore’s face, thou didst become shameless toward all.

4 Hast thou not called me as it were a home, and the father and guide of thy virgin-time? 5 Will God’s anger continue for ever, or be preserved to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done these bad things, and hadst power to do them.

6 And the Lord said to me in the days of Josias the king, Hast thou seen what things the house of Israel has done to me? they have gone on every high mountain, and under every shady tree, and have committed fornication there. 7 And I said after she had committed all these acts of fornication, Turn again to me. Yet she returned not. And faithless Juda saw her faithlessness. 8 And I saw that (for all the sins of which she was convicted, wherein the house of Israel committed adultery, and I put her away, and gave into her hands a bill of divorcement,) yet faithless Juda feared not, but went and herself also committed fornication. 9 And her fornication was nothing accounted of; and she committed adultery with wood and stone. 10 And for all these things faithless Juda turned not to me with all her heart, but falsely.

11 And the Lord said to me, Israel has justified himself more than faithless Juda. 12 Go and read these words toward the north, and thou shalt say, Return to me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not set my face against you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not be angry with you for ever. 13 Nevertheless, know thine iniquity, that thou hast sinned against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to strangers under every shady tree, but thou didst not hearken to my voice, saith the Lord. 14 Turn, ye children that have revolted, saith the Lord; for I will rule over you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you in to Sion: 15 and I will give you shepherds after my heart, and they shall certainly tend you with knowledge.

16 And it shall come to pass that when ye are multiplied and increased upon the land, saith the Lord, in those days they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Holy One of Israel: it shall not come to mind; it shall not be named; neither shall it be visited; nor shall this be done any more. 17 In those days and at that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered to it: and they shall not walk any more after the imaginations of their evil heart.

18 In those days the house of Juda, shall come together to the house of Israel, and they shall come, together, from the land of the north, and from all the countries, to the land, which I caused their fathers to inherit. 19 And I said, So be it, Lord, for thou saidst I will set thee among children, and will give thee a choice land, the inheritance of the Almighty God of the Gentiles: and I said, Ye shall call me Father; and ye shall not turn away from me. 20 But as a wife acts treacherously against her husband, so has the house of Israel dealt treacherously against me, saith the Lord.

21 A voice from the lips was heard, even of weeping and supplication of the children of Israel: for they have dealt unrighteously in their ways, they have forgotten God their Holy One. 22 Turn, ye children that are given to turning, and I will heal your bruises.

Behold, we will be thy servants; for thou art the Lord our God. 23 Truly the hills and the strength of the mountains were a lying refuge: but by the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. 24 But shame has consumed the labours of our fathers from our youth; their sheep and their calves, and their sons and their daughters. 25 We have lain down in our shame, and our disgrace has covered us: because we and our fathers have sinned before our God, from our youth until this day; and we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God.

4:1 If Israel will return to me, saith the Lord, he shall return: and if he will remove his abominations out of his mouth, and fear before me, and swear, 2 The Lord lives, with truth, in judgment and righteousness, then shall nations bless by him, and by him they shall praise God in Jerusalem.

3 For thus saith the Lord to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Break up fresh ground for yourselves, and sow not among thorns. 4 Circumcise yourselves to your God, and circumcise your hardness of heart, ye men of Juda, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my wrath go forth as fire, and burn, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your devices.

5 Declare ye in Juda, and let it be heard in Jerusalem: say ye, Sound the trumpet in the land; cry ye aloud: say ye, Gather yourselves together, and let us enter into the fortified cities. 6 Gather up your wares and flee to Sion: hasten, stay not: for I will bring evils from the north, and great destruction. 7 The lion is gone up from his lair, he has roused himself to the destruction of the nations, and has gone forth out of his place, to make the land desolate; and the cities shall be destroyed, so as to be without inhabitant. 8 For these things gird yourselves with sackclothes, and lament, and howl: for the anger of the Lord is not turned away from you. 9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be amazed, and the prophets shall wonder.

10 And I said, O sovereign Lord, verily thou hast deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, There shall be peace; whereas behold, the sword has reached even to their soul.

11 At that time they shall say to this people and to Jerusalem, There is a spirit of error in the wilderness: the way of the daughter of my people is not to purity, nor to holiness. 12 But a spirit of full vengeance shall come upon me; and now I declare my judgments against them. 13 Behold, he shall come up as a cloud, and his chariots as a tempest: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are in misery.

14 Cleanse thine heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayest be saved: how long will thy grievous thoughts be within thee? 15 For a voice of one publishing from Dan shall come, and trouble out of mount Ephraim shall be heard of. 16 Remind ye the nations; behold, they are come: proclaim it in Jerusalem, that bands are approaching from a land afar off, and have uttered their voice against the cities of Juda. 17 As keepers of a field, they have surrounded her; because thou, saith the Lord, has neglected me. 18 Thy ways and thy devices have brought these things upon thee; this is thy wickedness, for it is bitter, for it has reached to thy heart.

19 I am pained in my bowels, my bowels, and the sensitive powers of my heart; my soul is in great commotion, my heart is torn: I will not be silent, for my soul has heard the sound of a trumpet, the cry of war, and of distress: it calls on destruction; 20 for all the land is distressed: suddenly my tabernacle is distressed, my curtains have been rent asunder. 21 How long shall I see fugitives, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

22 For the princes of my people have not known me, they are foolish and unwise children: they are wise to do evil, but how to do good they have not known.

23 I looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was not; and to the sky, an there was no light in it. 24 I beheld the mountains, and they trembled, and I saw all the hills in commotion. 25 I looked, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky were scared. 26 I saw, and, behold, Carmel was desert, and all the cities were burnt with fire at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of his fierce anger they were utterly destroyed.

27 Thus saith the Lord, The whole land shall be desolate; but I will not make a full end. 28 For these things let the earth mourn, and let the sky be dark above: for I have spoken, and I will not repent; I have purposed, and I will not turn back from it. 29 The whole land has recoiled from the noise of the horseman and the bent bow; they have gone into the caves, and have hidden themselves in the groves, and have gone up upon the rocks: every city was abandoned, no man dwelt in them. 30 And what wilt thou do? Though thou clothe thyself with scarlet, and adorn thyself with golden ornaments; though thou adorn thine eyes with stibium, thy beauty will be in vain: thy lovers have rejected thee, they seek thy life.

31 For I have heard thy groaning as the voice of a woman in travail, as of her that brings forth her first child; the voice of the daughter of Zion shall fail through weakness, and she shall lose the strength of her hands, saying, Woe is me! for my soul faints because of the slain.

5:1 Run ye about in the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and know, and seek in her broad places, if ye can find one, if there is any one that does judgment, and seeks faithfulness; and I will pardon them, saith the Lord. 2 The Lord lives, they say; do they not therefore swear falsely? 3 O Lord, thine eyes are upon faithfulness: thou hast scourged them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them; but they would not receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; and they would not return. 4 Then I said, It may be they are poor; for they are weak, for they know not the way of the Lord, or the judgment of God. 5 I will go to the rich men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of God: but, behold, with one consent they have broken the yoke, they have burst the bonds.

6 Therefore has a lion out of the forest smitten them, and a wolf has destroyed them even to their houses, and a leopard has watched against their cities: all that go forth from them shall be hunted: for they have multiplied their ungodliness, they have strengthened themselves in their revoltings. 7 In what way shall I forgive thee for these things? Thy sons have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: and I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and lodged in harlots’ houses. 8 They became as wanton horses: they neighed each one after his neighbour’s wife. 9 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this.

10 Go up upon her battlements, and break them down; but make not a full end: leave her buttresses: for they are the Lord’s. 11 For the house of Israel have indeed dealt treacherously against me, saith the Lord: the house of Juda also 12 have lied to their Lord, and they have said, These things are not so; no evils shall come upon us; and we shall not see sword or famine. 13 Our prophets became wind, and the word of the Lord was not in them.

14 Therefore thus saith the Lord Almighty, Because ye have spoken this word, behold, I have made my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. 15 Behold, I will bring upon you a nation from far, O house of Israel, saith the Lord; a nation the sound of whose language one shall not understand. 16 They are all mighty men: 17 and they shall devour your harvest, and your bread; and shall devour your sons, and your daughters; and they shall devour your sheep, and your calves, and devour your vineyards, and your fig-plantations, and your olive yards: and they shall utterly destroy your strong cities, wherein ye trusted, with the sword. 18 And it shall come to pass in those days, saith the Lord thy God, that I will not utterly destroy you.

19 And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore has the Lord our God done all these things to us? that thou shalt say to them, Because ye served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.

20 Proclaim these things to the house of Jacob, and let them be heard in the house of Juda. 21 Hear ye now these things, O foolish and senseless people; who have eyes, and see not; and have ears, and hear not: 22 will ye not be afraid of me? saith the Lord; and will ye not fear before me, who have set the sand for a bound to the sea, as a perpetual ordinance, and it shall not pass it: yea, it shall rage, but not prevail; and its waves shall roar, but not pass over it.

23 But this people has a disobedient and rebellious heart; and they have turned aside and gone back: 24 and they have not said in their heart, Let us fear now the Lord our God, who gives us the early and latter rain, according to the season of the fulfillment of the ordinance of harvest, and has preserved it for us. 25 Your transgressions have turned away these things, and your sins have removed good things from you. 26 For among my people were found ungodly men; and they have set snares to destroy men, and have caught them.

27 As a snare which has been set is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore have they grown great, and become rich: 28 and they have transgressed the rule of judgment; they have not judged the cause of the orphan, nor have they judged the cause of the widow. 29 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

30 Shocking and horrible deeds have been done on the land; 31 the prophets utter unrighteous prophecies, and the priests have clapped their hands: and my people has loved to have it thus: and what will ye do for the future.

6:1 Strengthen yourselves, ye children of Benjamin, to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and sound an alarm with the trumpet in Thecue, and set up a signal over Baethacharma: for evil threatens from the north, and a great destruction is coming. 2 And thy pride, O daughter of Sion, shall be taken away. 3 The shepherds and their flocks shall come to her; and they shall pitch their tents against her round about, and shall feed their flocks each with his hand.

4 Prepare yourselves for war against her; rise up, and let us go up against her at noon. Woe to us! for the day has gone down, for the shadows of the day fail. 5 Rise, and let us go up against her by night, and destroy her foundations.

6 For thus saith the Lord, Hew down her trees, array a numerous force against Jerusalem. O false city; there is all oppression in her. 7 As a cistern cools water, so her wickedness cools her, ungodliness and misery shall be heard in her, as continually before her.

8 Thou shalt be chastened, O Jerusalem, with pain and the scourge, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee a desert land, which shall not be inhabited.

9 For thus saith the Lord, Glean, glean thoroughly as a vine the remnant of Israel: turn back your hands as a grape-gatherer to his basket. 10 To whom shall I speak, and testify, that he may hearken? behold, thine ears are uncircumcised, and they shall not be able to hear: behold, the word of the Lord is become to them a reproach, they will not at all desire it.

11 And I allowed my wrath to come to full, yet I kept it in, and did not utterly destroy them: I will pour it out on the children without, and on the assembly of young men together: for man and woman shall be taken together, the old man with him that is full of days. 12 And their houses shall be turned to others, with their fields and their wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of this land, saith the Lord.

13 For from the least of them even to the greatest they have all committed iniquity; from the priest even to the false prophet they have all wrought falsely. 14 And they healed the breach of my people imperfectly, making light of it, and saying, Peace, peace, and where is peace? 15 They were ashamed because they failed; yet they were not ashamed as those who are truly ashamed, and they knew not their own disgrace: therefore shall they utterly fall when they do fall, and in the time of visitation shall they perish, said the Lord.

16 Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths of the Lord; and see what is the good way, and walk in it, and ye shall find purification for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in them. 17 I have set watchmen over you, saying, Hear ye the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hear it.

18 Therefore have the nations heard, and they that feed their flocks. 19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evils upon this people, even the fruit of their rebellions; for they have not heeded my words, and they have rejected my law. 20 Wherefore do ye bring me frankincense from Saba, and cinnamon from a land afar off? your whole-burnt-offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices have not been pleasant to me. 21 Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring weakness upon this people, and the fathers and sons shall be weak together; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.

22 Thus saith the Lord, Behold, a people comes from the north, and nations shall be stirred up from the end of the earth. 23 They shall lay hold on bow and spear; the people is fierce, and will have no mercy; their voice is as the roaring sea; they shall array themselves for war against thee as fire on horses and chariots, O daughter of Sion.

24 We have heard the report of them: our hands are weakened: anguish has seized us, the pangs as of a woman in travail. 25 Go not forth into the field, and walk not in the ways; for the sword of the enemy lingers round about. 26 O daughter of my people, gird thyself with sackcloth: sprinkle thyself with ashes; make for thyself pitiable lamentation, as the mourning for a beloved son: for misery will come suddenly upon you.

27 I have caused thee to be tried among tried nations, and thou shalt know me when I have tried their way. 28 They are all disobedient, walking perversely: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupted. 29 The bellows have failed from the fire, the lead has failed: the silversmith works at his trade in vain; their wickedness is not consumed. 30 Call ye them reprobate silver, because the Lord has rejected them.

7:1 2 Hear ye the word of the Lord, all Judea. 3 Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Correct your ways and your devices, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Trust not in yourselves with lying words, for they shall not profit you at all, saying, It is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.

5 For if ye thoroughly correct your ways and your practices, and do indeed execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; 6 and oppress not the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, and go not after strange gods to your hurt: 7 then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers of old and for ever.

8 But whereas ye have trusted in lying words, whereby ye shall not be profited; 9 and ye murder, and commit adultery, and steal, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and are gone after strange gods whom ye know not, 10 so that it is evil with you; yet have ye come, and stood before me in the house, whereon my name is called, and ye have said, We have refrained from doing all these abominations. 11 Is my house, whereon my name is called, a den of robbers in your eyes? And, behold, I have seen it, saith the Lord. 12 For go ye to my place with is in Selo, where I caused my name to dwell before, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.

13 And now, because ye have done all these deeds, and I spoke to you, but ye hearkened not to me; and I called you, but ye answered not; 14 therefore I also will do to the house whereon my name is called, wherein ye trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Selo. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast away your brethren, all the seed of Ephraim.

16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, and intercede not for them to be pitied, yea, pray not, and approach me not for them: for I will not hearken unto thee. 17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 Their children gather wood, and their fathers kindle a fire, and their women knead dough, to make cakes to the host of heaven; and they have poured out drink-offerings to strange gods, that they might provoke me to anger. 19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the Lord: do they not provoke themselves, that their faces may be ashamed?

20 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, my anger and wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and upon the men, and upon the cattle, and upon every tree of their field, and upon the fruits of the land; and it shall burn, and not be quenched.

21 Thus saith the Lord, Gather your whole-burnt-offerings with your meat-offerings, and eat flesh. 22 For I spoke not to your fathers, and commanded them not in the day wherein I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, concerning whole-burnt-offerings and sacrifice: 23 but I commanded them this thing, saying, Hear ye my voice, and I will be to you a God, and ye shall be to me a people: and walk ye in all my ways which I shall command you, that it may be well with you. 24 But they hearkened not to me, and their ear gave no heed, but they walked in the imaginations of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward; 25 from the day that their fathers went forth out of the land of Egypt, even until this day. And I sent to you all my servants, the prophets, by day and early in the morning: yea, I sent them, 26 but they hearkened not to me, and their ear gave no heed; and they made their neck harder than their fathers.

27 Therefore thou shalt speak this word to them; 28 This is the nation which has not hearkened to the voice of the Lord, nor received correction: truth has failed from their mouth.

29 Cut off thine hair, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on thy lips; for the Lord has reprobated and rejected the generation that does these things. 30 For the children of Juda have wrought evil before me, saith the Lord; they have set their abominations in the house on which my name is called, to defile it. 31 And they have built the altar of Tapheth, which is in the valley of the son of Ennom, to burn their sons and their daughters with fire; which I did not command them to do, neither did I design it in my heart.

32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when they shall no more say, The altar of Tapheth, and the valley of the son of Ennom, but, The valley of the slain; and they shall bury in Tapheth, for want of room. 33 And the dead bodies of this people shall be for food to the birds of the sky, and to the wild beasts of the earth; and there shall be none to drive them away. 34 And I will destroy out of the cities of Juda, and the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of them that make merry, and the voice of them that rejoice, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride; for the whole land shall become a desolation.

8:1 At that time, saith the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Juda, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves; 2 and they shall spread them out to the sun, and the moon, and to all the stars, and to all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and to which they have held, and which they have worshipped; they shall not be mourned for, neither shall they be buried; but they shall be for an example on the face of the earth, 3 because they chose death rather than life, even to all the remnant that are left of that family, in every place whither I shall drive them out.

4 For thus saith the Lord, Shall not he that falls arise? or he that turns away, shall he not turn back again? 5 Wherefore has this my people turned away with a shameless revolting, and strengthened themselves in their willfulness, and refused to return? 6 Hearken, I pray you, and hear: will they not speak thus, There is no man that repents of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? the runner has failed from his course, as a tired horse in his neighing. 7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knows her time, also the turtle-dove and wild swallow; the sparrows observe the times of their coming in; but this my people knows not the judgments of the Lord.

8 How will ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? In vain have the scribes used a false pen. 9 The wise men are ashamed, and alarmed, and taken; because they have rejected the word of the Lord; what wisdom is there in them? 10 Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to new inheritors; and they shall gather their fruits, saith the Lord. 11 12 13 There are no grapes on the vines, and there are no figs on the fig-trees, and the leaves have fallen off.

14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the strong cities, and let us be cast out there: for God has cast us out, and made us drink water of gall, because we have sinned before him. 15 We assembled for peace, but there was no prosperity; for a time of healing, but behold anxiety.

16 We shall hear the neighing of his swift horses out of Dan: the whole land quaked at the sound of the neighing of his horses; and he shall come, and devour the land and the fullness of it; the city, and them that dwell in it. 17 For, behold, I send forth against you deadly serpents, which cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you 18 mortally with the pain of your distressed heart.

19 Behold, there is a sound of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land afar off: Is not the Lord in Sion? is there not a king there? because they have provoked me with their graven images, and with strange vanities. 20 The summer is gone, the harvest is past, and we are not saved.

21 For the breach of the daughter of my people I have been saddened: in my perplexity pangs have seized upon me as of a woman in travail. 22 And is there no balm in Galaad, or is there no physician there? why has not the healing of the daughter of my people taken place?

9:1 Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? then would I weep for this my people day and night, even for the slain of the daughter of my people.

2 Who would give me a most distant lodge in the wilderness, that I might leave my people, and depart from them? for they all commit adultery, an assembly of treacherous men. 3 And they have bent their tongue like a bow: falsehood and not faithfulness has prevailed upon the earth; for they have gone on from evil to evil, and have not known me, saith the Lord. 4 Beware ye each of his neighbour, and trust ye not in your brethren: for every one will surely supplant, and every friend will walk craftily. 5 Every one will mock his friend; they will not speak truth: their tongue has learned to speak falsehoods; they have committed iniquity, they ceased not, so as to return. 6 There is usury upon usury, and deceit upon deceit: they would not know me, saith the Lord.

7 Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will try them with fire, and prove them; for I will do thus because of the wickedness of the daughter of my people. 8 Their tongue is a wounding arrow; the words of their mouth are deceitful: one speaks peaceably to his neighbour, but in himself retains enmity. 9 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a people as this? 10 Take up a lamentation for the mountains, and a mournful dirge for the paths of the wilderness, for they are desolate for want of men; they heard not the sound of life from the birds of the sky, nor the cattle: they were amazed, they are gone. 11 And I will remove the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and make it a dwelling-place of dragons; and I will utterly waste the cities of Juda, so that they shall not be inhabited.

12 Who is the wise man, that he may understand this? and he that has the word of the mouth of the Lord addressed to him, let him tell you wherefore the land has been destroyed, has been ravaged by fire like a desert, so that no one passes through it. 13 And the Lord said to me, Because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them, and have not hearkened to my voice; 14 but went after the lusts of their evil heart, and after the idols which their fathers taught them to worship: 15 therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them with trouble and will cause them to drink water of gall: 16 and I will scatter them among the nations, to them whom neither they nor their fathers knew; and I will send a sword upon them, until I have consumed them with it.

17 Thus saith the Lord, Call ye the mourning women, and let them come; and send to the wise women, and let them utter their voice; 18 and let them take up a lamentation for you, and let your eyes pour down tears, and your eyelids drop water. 19 For a voice of lamentation has been heard in Sion, How are we become wretched! we are greatly ashamed, for we have forsaken the land, and have abandoned our tabernacles! 20 Hear now, ye women, the word of God, and let your ears receive the words of his mouth, and teach your daughters lamentation, and every woman her neighbour a dirge. 21 For death has come up through your windows, it has entered into our land, to destroy the infants without, and the young men from the streets. 22 And the carcases of the men shall be for an example on the face of the field of your land, like grass after the mower, and there shall be none to gather them.

23 Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, and let not the strong man boast in his strength, and let not the rich man boast in his wealth; 24 but let him that boasts boast in this, the understanding and knowing that I am the Lord that exercise mercy, and judgment, and righteousness, upon the earth; for in these things is my pleasure, saith the Lord.

25 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will visit upon all the circumcised their uncircumcision; 26 on Egypt, and on Idumea, and on Edom, and on the children of Ammon, and on the children of Moab, and on every one that shaves his face round about, even them that dwell in the wilderness; for all the Gentiles are uncircumcised in flesh, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in their hearts.

10:1 Hear ye the word of the Lord, which he has spoken to you, O house of Israel.

2 Thus saith the Lord, Learn ye not the ways of the heathen, and be not alarmed at the signs of the sky; for they are alarmed at them, falling on their faces. 3 For the customs of the nations are vain; it is a tree cut out of the forest, the work of the carpenter, or a molten image. 4 They are beautified with silver and gold, they fix them with hammers and nails; 5 they will set them up that they may not move; it is wrought silver, they will not walk, it is forged silver They must certainly be borne, for they cannot ride of themselves. Fear them not; for they cannot do any evil, and there is no good in them.

11 Thus shall ye say to them, Let the gods which have not made heaven and earth perish from off the earth, and from under this sky. 12 It is the Lord that made the earth by his strength, who set up the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the sky, 13 and set abundance of waters in the sky, and brought up clouds from the ends of the earth; he made lightnings for the rain, and brought forth light out of his treasures. 14 Every man is deprived of knowledge, every goldsmith is confounded because of his graven images; for he has cast false gods, there is no breath in them. 15 They are vain works, wrought in mockery; in the time of their visitation they shall perish. 16 Such is not the portion of Jacob; for he that formed all things, he is his inheritance; the Lord is his name.

17 He has gathered thy substance from without the lodged in choice vessels. 18 For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will overthrow the inhabitants of this land with affliction, that thy plague may be discovered.

19 Alas for thy ruin! thy plague is grievous: and I said, Surely this is thy wound, and it has overtaken thee. 20 Thy tabernacle is in a ruinous state, it has perished; and all thy curtains have been torn asunder: my children and my cattle are no more: there is no more any place for my tabernacle, nor place for my curtains. 21 For the shepherds have become foolish, and have not sought the Lord; therefore the whole pasture has failed, and the sheep have been scattered. 22 Behold, there comes a sound of a noise, and a great earthquake from the land of the north, to make the cities of Juda a desolation, and a resting-place for ostriches.

23 I know, O Lord, that man’s way is not his own; neither shall a man go, and direct his going. 24 Chasten us, O Lord, but with judgment; and not in wrath, lest thou make us few. 25 Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that have not known thee, and upon the families that have not called upon thy name: for they have devoured Jacob, and consumed him, and have made his pasture desolate.

11:1 The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying,

2 Hear ye the words of this covenant, and thou shalt speak to the men of Juda, and to the dwellers in Jerusalem; 3 and thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Cursed is the man, who shall not hearken to the words of this covenant, 4 which I commanded your fathers, in the day wherein I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, Hearken to my voice, and do all things that I shall command you; so shall ye be to me a people, and I will be to you a God; 5 that I may confirm mine oath, which I sware to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then I answered and said, So be it, O Lord. 6 And the Lord said to me, Read these words in the cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them. 7 8 But they did them not.

9 And the Lord said to me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Juda, and among the dwellers in Jerusalem. 10 They are turned aside to the iniquities of their fathers that were of old, who would not hearken to my words: and, behold, they go after strange gods, to serve them: and the house of Israel and the house of Juda have broken my covenant, which I made with their fathers.

11 Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I bring evils upon this people, out of which they shall not be able to come forth; and they shall presently cry to me, but I will not hearken to them. 12 And the cities of Juda and the dwellers in Jerusalem shall go, and cry to the gods to whom they burn incense; which shall not deliver them in the time of their troubles. 13 For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Juda; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to burn incense to Baal.

14 And thou, pray not for this people, and intercede not for them in supplication and prayer: for I will not hear in the day in which they call upon me, in the day of their affliction. 15 Why has my beloved wrought abomination in my house? will prayers and holy offerings take away thy wickedness from thee, or shalt thou escape by these things? 16 The Lord called thy name a fair olive tree, of a goodly shade in appearance, at the noise of its being lopped, fire was kindled against it; great is the affliction coming upon thee: her branches are become good for nothing. 17 And the Lord that planted thee has pronounced evils against thee, because of the iniquity of the house of Israel and the house of Juda, whatsoever they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger by burning incense to Baal.

18 O Lord, teach me, and I shall know: then I saw their practices. 19 But I as an innocent lamb led to the slaughter, knew not: against me they devised an evil device, saying, Come and let us put wood into his bread, and let us utterly destroy him from off the land of the living, and let his name not be remembered any more. 20 O Lord, that judgest righteously, trying the reins and hearts, let me see thy vengeance taken upon them, for to thee I have declared my cause.

21 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the men of Anathoth, that seek my life, that say, Thou shalt not prophesy at all in the name of the Lord, but if thou dost, thou shalt die by our hands: 22 behold, I will visit them: their young men shall die by the sword; and their sons and their daughters shall die of famine: 23 and there shall be no remnant left of them; for I will bring evil upon the dwellers in Anathoth, in the year of their visitation.

12:1 Righteous art thou, O Lord, that I may make my defence to thee, yea, I will speak to thee of judgments. Why is it that the way of ungodly men prospers? that all that deal very treacherously are flourishing? 2 Thou hast planted them, and they have taken root; they have begotten children, and become fruitful; thou art near to their mouth, and far from their reins. 3 But thou, Lord, knowest me; thou hast proved my heart before thee; purify them for the day of their slaughter. 4 How long shall the land mourn, and the grass of the field wither, for the wickedness of them, that dwell in it? the beasts and birds are utterly destroyed; because the people said, God shall not see our ways.

5 Thy feet run, and they cause thee to faint; how wilt thou prepare to ride upon horses? and thou hast been confident in the land of thy peace? how wilt thou do in the roaring of Jordan? 6 For even thy brethren and the house of thy father, even these have dealt treacherously with thee; and they have cried out, they are gathered together in pursuit of thee; trust not thou in them, though they shall speak fair words to thee.

7 I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given my beloved one into the hands of her enemies. 8 My inheritance has become to me as a lion in a forest; she has uttered her voice against me; therefore have I hated her. 9 Is not my inheritance to me a hyaena’s cave, or a cave round about her? Go ye, gather together all the wild beasts of the field, and let them come to devour her.

10 Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have defiled my portion, they have made my desirable portion a trackless wilderness; 11 it is made a complete ruin: for my sake the whole land has been utterly ruined, because there is none that lays the matter to heart. 12 The ravagers are come to every passage in the wilderness: for the sword of the Lord will devour from one end of the land to the other: no flesh has any peace. 13 Sow wheat, and reap thorns; their portions shall not profit them: be ashamed of your boasting, because of reproach before the Lord.

14 For thus saith the Lord, concerning all the evil neighbours that touch mine inheritance, which I have divided to my people Israel; Behold, I will draw them away from their land, and I will cast out Juda from the midst of them.

15 And it shall come to pass, after I have cast them out, that I will return, and have mercy upon them, and will cause them to dwell every one in his inheritance, and every one in his land. 16 And it shall be, if they will indeed learn the way of my people, to swear by my name, saying, The Lord lives; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall that nation be built in the midst of my people. 17 But if they will not return, then will I cut off that nation with utter ruin and destruction.

13:1 Thus saith the Lord, Go and procure for thyself a linen girdle, and put it about thy loins, and let it not be put in water. 2 So I procured the girdle according to the word of the Lord, and put it about my loins. 3 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 4 Take the girdle that is upon thy loins, and arise, and go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock. 5 So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me. 6 And it came to pass after many days, that the Lord said to me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take thence the girdle, which I commanded thee to hide there. 7 So I went to the river Euphrates, and dug, and took the girdle out of the place where I had buried it: and, behold, it was rotten, utterly good for nothing.

8 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, 9 Thus will I mar the pride of Juda, and the pride of Jerusalem; 10 even this great pride of the men that will not hearken to my words, and have gone after strange gods, to serve them, and to worship them: and they shall be as this girdle, which can be used for nothing. 11 For as a girdle cleaves about the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave to myself the house of Israel, and the whole house of Juda; that they might be to me a famous people, and a praise, and a glory: but they did not hearken to me.

12 And thou shalt say to this people, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and it shall come to pass, if they shall say to thee, Shall we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? that thou shalt say to them, 13 Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will fill the inhabitants of this land, and their kings the sons of David that sit upon their throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and Juda and all the dwellers in Jerusalem, with strong drink. 14 And I will scatter them a man and his brother, and their fathers and their sons together: I will not have compassion, saith the Lord, and I will not spare, neither will I pity to save them from destruction.

15 Hear ye, and give ear, and be not proud: for the Lord has spoken. 16 Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and ye shall wait for light, and behold the shadow of death, and they shall be brought into darkness. 17 But if ye will not hearken, your soul shall weep in secret because of pride, and your eyes shall pour down tears, because the Lord’s flock is sorely bruised.

18 Say ye to the king and the princes, Humble yourselves, and sit down; for your crown of glory is removed from your head. 19 The cities toward the south were shut, and there was none to open them: Juda is removed into captivity,they have suffered a complete removal. 20 Lift up thine eyes, O Jerusalem, and behold them that come from the north; where is the flock that was given thee, the sheep of thy glory? 21 What wilt thou say when they shall visit thee, for thou didst teach them lessons for rule against thyself; shall not pangs seize thee as a woman in travail? 22 And if thou shouldest say in thine heart, Wherefore have these things happened to me? Because of the abundance of thine iniquity have thy skirts been discovered, that thine heels might be exposed.

23 If the Ethiopian shall change his skin, or the leopardess her spots, then shall ye be able to do good, having learnt evil. 24 So I scattered them as sticks carried by the wind into the wilderness. 25 Thus is thy lot, and the reward of your disobedience to me, saith the Lord; as thou didst forget me, and trust in lies, 26 I also will expose thy skirts upon thy face, and thy shame shall be seen; 27 thine adultery also, and thy neighing, and the looseness of thy fornication: on the hills and in the fields I have seen thine abominations. Woe to thee, O Jerusalem, for thou hast not been purified so as to follow me; how long yet shall it be?

14:1 AND THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO JEREMIAS CONCERNING THE DROUGHT.

2 Judea has mourned, and her gates are emptied, and are darkened upon the earth; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. 3 And her nobles have sent their little ones to the water: they came to the wells, and found no water: and brought back their vessels empty. 4 And the labours of the land failed, because there was no rain: the husbandmen were ashamed, they covered their heads. 5 And hinds calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass. 6 The wild asses stood by the forests, and snuffed up the wind; their eyes failed, because there was no grass.

7 Our sins have risen up against us: O Lord, do thou for us for thine own sake; for our sins are many before thee; for we have sinned against thee. 8 O Lord, thou art the hope of Israel, and deliverest us in time of troubles; why art thou become as a sojourner upon the land, or as one born in the land, yet turning aside for a resting-place? 9 Wilt thou be as a man asleep, or as a strong man that cannot save? yet thou art among us, O Lord, and thy name is called upon us; forget us not.

10 Thus saith the Lord to this people, They have loved to wander, and they have not spared, therefore God has not prospered them; now will he remember their iniquity. 11 And the Lord said to me, Pray not for this people for their good: 12 for though they fast, I will not hear their supplication; and though they offer whole-burnt-offerings and sacrifices, I will take no pleasure in them: for I will consume them with sword, and with famine, and with pestilence.

13 And I said, O ever living Lord! behold, their prophets prophesy, and say, Ye shall not see a sword, nor shall famine be among you; for I will give truth and peace on the land, and in this place.

14 Then the Lord said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, and I commanded them not, and I spoke not to them: for they prophesy to you false visions, and divinations, and auguries, and devices of their own heart. 15 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy lies in my name, and I sent them not, who say, Sword and famine shall not be upon this land; they shall die by a grievous death, and the prophets shall be consumed by famine. 16 And the people to whom they prophesy, they also shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, because of the sword and famine; and there shall be none to bury them: their wives also, and their sons, and their daughters shall die thus; and I will pour out their wickedness upon them.

17 And thou shalt speak this word to them; Let your eyes shed tears day and night, and let them not cease: for the daughter of my people has been sorely bruised, and her plague is very grievous. 18 If I go forth into the plain, then behold the slain by the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold the distress of famine! for priest and prophet have gone to a land which they knew not.

19 Hast thou utterly rejected Juda? and has thy soul departed from Sion? wherefore has thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we waited for peace, but there was no prosperity; for a time of healing, and behold trouble! 20 We know, O Lord, our sins, and the iniquities of our fathers: for we have sinned before thee. 21 Refrain for thy name’s sake, destroy not the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us. 22 Is there any one among the idols of the Gentiles that can give rain? and will the sky yield his fulness at their bidding? Art not thou he? we will even wait on thee, O Lord: for thou hast made all these things.

15:1 And the Lord said to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before my face, my soul could not be toward them: dismiss this people, and let them go forth. 2 And it shall be, if they say to thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord; As many as are for death, to death; and as many as are for famine, to famine; and as many as are for the sword, to the sword; and as many as are for captivity, to captivity. 3 And I will punish them with four kinds of death, saith the Lord, the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the wild beasts of the earth, and the birds of the sky to devour and destroy. 4 And I will deliver them up for distress to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasses son of Ezekias king of Juda, for all that he did in Jerusalem.

5 Who will spare thee, O Jerusalem? and who will fear for thee? or who will turn back to ask for thy welfare? 6 Thou hast turned away from me, saith the Lord, thou wilt go back: therefore I will stretch out my hand, and will destroy thee, and will no more spare them. 7 And I will completely scatter them; in the gates of my people they are bereaved of children: they have destroyed my people because of their iniquities.

8 Their widows have been multiplied more than the sand of the sea: I have brought young men against the mother, even distress at noon-day: I have suddenly cast upon her trembling and anxiety. 9 She that bore seven is spent; her soul has fainted under trouble; her sun is gone down while it is yet noon; she is ashamed and disgraced: I will give the remnant of them to the sword before their enemies.

10 Woe is me, my mother! thou hast born me as some man of strife, and at variance with the whole earth; I have not helped others, nor has any one helped me; my strength has failed among them that curse me. 11 Be it so, Lord, in their prosperity; surely I stood before thee in the time of their calamities, and in the time of their affliction, for their good against the enemy. 12 Will iron be known? whereas thy strength is a brazen covering. 13 Yea, I will give thy treasures for a spoil as a recompence, because of all thy sins and that in all thy borders. 14 And I will enslave thee to thine enemies round about, in a land which thou hast not known; for a fire has been kindled out of my wrath; it shall burn upon you.

15 O Lord, remember me, and visit me, and vindicate me before them that persecute me; do not bear long with them; know how I have met with reproach for thy sake, from those who set at nought thy words; 16 consume them; and thy word shall be to me for the joy and gladness of my heart: for thy name has been called upon me, O Lord Almighty. 17 I have not sat in the assembly of them as they mocked, but I feared because of thy power: I sat alone, for I was filled with bitterness.

18 Why do they that grieve me prevail against me? my wound is severe; whence shall I be healed? it is indeed become to me as deceitful water, that has no faithfulness.

19 Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou wilt return, then will I restore thee, and thou shalt stand before my face: and if thou wilt bring forth the precious from the worthless, thou shalt be as my mouth: and they shall return to thee; but thou shalt not return to them. 20 And I will make thee to this people as a strong brazen wall; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall by no means prevail against thee; 21 for I am with thee to save thee, and to deliver thee out of the hand of wicked men; and I will ransom thee out of the hand of pestilent men.

16:1 And thou shalt not take a wife, saith the Lord God of Israel: 2 and there shall be no son born to thee, nor daughter in this place. 3 For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that have born them, and concerning their fathers that have begotten them in this land; 4 They shall die of grievous death; they shall not be lamented, nor buried; they shall be for an example on the face of the earth; and they shall be for the wild beasts of the land, and for the birds of the sky: they shall fall by the sword, and shall be consumed with famine.

5 Thus saith the Lord, Enter not into their mourning feast, and go not to lament, and mourn not for them: for I have removed my peace from this people. 6 They shall not bewail them, nor make cuttings for them, and they shall not shave themselves for them: 7 and there shall be no bread broken in mourning for them for consolation over the dead: they shall not give one to drink a cup for consolation over his father or his mother.

8 Thou shalt not enter into the banquet-house, to sit with them to eat and to drink. 9 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Behold, I will make to cease out of this place before your eyes, and in your days, the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

10 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt report to this people all these words, and they shall say to thee, Wherefore has the Lord pronounced against us all these evils? what is our unrighteousness? and what is our sin which we have sinned before the Lord our God? 11 Then thou shalt say to them, Because your fathers forsook me, saith the Lord, and went after strange gods and served them, and worshipped them, and forsook me, and kept not my law; 12 (and ye sinned worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the lusts of your own evil heart, so as not to hearken to me); 13 therefore I will cast you off from this good land into a land which neither ye nor your fathers have known; and ye shall serve their other gods, who shall have no mercy upon you.

14 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when they shall no more say, The Lord lives, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 15 but, The Lord lives, who brought up the house of Israel from the land of the north, and from all countries whither they were thrust out: and I will restore them to their own land, which I gave to their fathers.

16 Behold, I will send many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt them upon every mountain, and upon every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. 17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways; and their iniquities have not been hidden from mine eyes. 18 And I will recompense their mischiefs doubly, and their sins, whereby they have profaned my land with the carcases of their abominations, and with their iniquities, whereby they have trespassed against mine inheritance.

19 O Lord, thou art my strength, and mine help, and my refuge in days of evil: to thee the Gentiles shall come from the end of the earth, and shall say, How vain were the idols which our fathers procured to themselves, and there is no help in them. 20 Will a man make gods for himself, whereas these are no gods? 21 Therefore, behold, I will at this time manifest my hand to them, and will make known to them my power; and they shall know that my name is the Lord.

17:1 Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and will lean his arm of flesh upon him, while his heart departs from the Lord. 6 And he shall be as the wild tamarisk in the desert: he shall not see when good comes; but he shall dwell in barren places, and in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. 7 But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord shall be. 8 And he shall be as a thriving tree by the waters, and he shall cast forth his root toward a moist place: he shall not fear when heat comes, and there shall be upon him shady branches: he shall not fear in a year of drought, and he shall not fail to bear fruit.

 9 The heart is deep beyond all things, and it is the man, and who can know him? 10 I the Lord try the hearts, and prove the reins, to give to every one according to his ways, and according to the fruits of his devices.

11 The partridge utters her voice, she gathers eggs which she did not lay; so is a man gaining his wealth unjustly; in the midst of his days his riches shall leave him, and at his latter end he will be a fool.

12 An exalted throne of glory is our sanctuary. 13 O Lord, the hope of Israel, let all that have left thee be ashamed, let them that have revolted be written on the earth, because they have forsaken the fountain of life, the Lord.

14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; for thou art my boast.

15 Behold, they say to me, Where is the word of the Lord? let it come. 16 But I have not been weary of following thee, nor have I desired the day of man; thou knowest; the words that proceed out of my lips are before thy face. 17 Be not to me a stranger, but spare me in the evil day. 18 Let them that persecute me be ashamed, but let me not be ashamed: let them be alarmed, but let me not be alarmed: bring upon them the evil day, crush them with double destruction.

19 Thus saith the Lord; Go and stand in the gates of the children of thy people, by which the kings of Juda enter, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem: 20 and thou shalt say to them, Hear the word of the Lord, ye kings of Juda, and all Judea, and all Jerusalem, all who go in at these gates:

21 thus saith the Lord; Take heed to your souls, and take up no burdens on the sabbath-day, and go not forth through the gates of Jerusalem; 22 and carry forth no burdens out of your houses on the sabbath-day, and ye shall do no work: sanctify the sabbath-day, as I commanded your fathers. 23 But they hearkened not, and inclined not their ear, but stiffened their neck more than their fathers did, so as not to hear me, and not to receive correction. 24 And it shall come to pass, if ye will hearken to me, saith the Lord, to carry in no burdens through the gates of this city on the sabbath-day, and to sanctify the sabbath-day, so as to do no work upon it, 25 that there shall enter through the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, and riding on their chariots and horses, they, and their princes, the men of Juda, and the dwellers in Jerusalem: and this city shall be inhabited for ever. 26 And men shall come out of the cities of Juda, and from round about Jerusalem, and out of the land of Benjamin, and out of the plain country, and from the hill country, and from the south country, bringing whole-burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and incense, and manna, and frankincense, bringing praise to the house of the Lord.

27 But it shall come to pass, if ye will not hearken to me to sanctify the sabbath-day, to bear no burdens, nor go in with them by the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath-day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the streets of Jerusalem, and shall not be quenched.

18:1 The word that came from the Lord to 2 Jeremias, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there thou shalt hear my words. 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he was making a vessel on the stones. 4 And the vessel which he was making with his hands fell: so he made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to him to make it. 5 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

6 Shall I not be able, O house of Israel, to do to you as this potter? behold, as the clay of the potter are ye in my hands. 7 If I shall pronounce a decree upon a nation, or upon a kingdom, to cut them off, and to destroy them; 8 and that nation turn from all their sins, then will I repent of the evils which I purposed to do to them. 9 And if I shall pronounce a decree upon a nation and kingdom, to rebuild and to plant it; 10 and they do evil before me, so as not to hearken to my voice, then will I repent of the good which I spoke of, to do it to them.

11 And now say to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Behold, I prepare evils against you, and devise a device against you: let every one turn now from his evil way, and amend your practices. 12 And they said, We will quit ourselves like men, for we will pursue our perverse ways, and we will perform each the lusts of his evil heart.

13 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Enquire now among the nations, who has heard such very horrible things as the virgin of Israel has done? 14 Will fertilising streams fail to flow from a rock, or snow fail from Libanus? will water violently impelled by the wind turn aside? 15 For my people have forgotten me, they have offered incense in vain, and they fail in their ways, leaving the ancient tracks, to enter upon impassable paths; 16 to make their land a desolation, and a perpetual hissing; all that go through it shall be amazed, and shall shake their heads. 17 I will scatter them before their enemies like an east wind; I will shew them the day of their destruction.

18 Then they said, Come, and let us devise a device against Jeremias; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and we will hear all his words.

19 Hear me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my pleading. 20 Forasmuch as evil is rewarded for good; for they have spoken words against my soul, and they have hidden the punishment they meant for me; remember that I stood before thy face, to speak good for them, to turn away thy wrath from them. 21 Therefore do thou deliver their sons to famine, and gather them to the power of the sword: let their women be childless and widows; and let their men be cut off by death, and their young men fall by the sword in war. 22 Let there be a cry in their houses: thou shalt bring upon them robbers suddenly: for they have formed a plan to take me, and have hidden snares for me.

23 And thou, Lord, knowest all their deadly counsel against me: account not their iniquities guiltless, and blot not out their sins from before thee: let their weakness come before thee; deal with them in the time of thy wrath.

19:1 Then said the Lord to me, Go and get an earthen bottle, the work of the potter, and thou shalt bring some of the elders of the people, and of the priests; 2 and thou shalt go forth to the burial-place of the sons of their children, which is at the entrance of the gate of Charsith; and do thou read there all these words which I shall speak to thee: 3 and thou shalt say to them,

Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye kings of Juda, and men of Juda, and the dwellers in Jerusalem, and they that enter in by these gates; thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, so that the ears of every one that hears it shall tingle. 4 Because they forsook me, and profaned this place, and burnt incense in it to strange gods, which they and their fathers knew not; and the kings of Juda have filled this place with innocent blood, 5 and built high places for Baal, to burn their children in the fire, which things I commanded not, neither did I design them in my heart:

6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when this place shall no more be called, The fall and burial-place of the son of Ennom, but, The burial-place of slaughter. 7 And I will destroy the counsel of Juda and the counsel of Jerusalem in this place; and I will cast them down with the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the sky and to the wild beasts of the earth. 8 And I will bring this city to desolation and make it a hissing; every one that passes by it shall scowl, and hiss because of all her plague. 9 And they shall eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat every one the flesh of his neighbour in the blockade, and in the siege wherewith their enemies shall besiege them.

10 And thou shalt break the bottle in the sight of the men that go forth with thee, 11 and thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord, Thus will I break in pieces this people, and this city, even as an earthen vessel is broken in pieces which cannot be mended again. 12 Thus will I do, saith the Lord, to this place, and to the inhabitants of it, that this city may be given up, as one that is falling to ruin. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Juda shall be as a ruinous place, because of their uncleannesses in all the houses, wherein they burnt incense upon their roofs to all the host of heaven, and poured drink-offerings to strange gods.

14 And Jeremias came from the place of the Fall, whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord’s house: and said to all the people, Thus saith the Lord; 15 Behold I bring upon this city, and upon all the cities belonging to it, and upon the villages of it, all the evils which I have spoken against it, because they have hardened their neck, that they might not hearken to my commands.

20:1 Now Paschor the son of Emmer, the priest, who also had been appointed chief of the house of the Lord, heard Jeremias prophesying these words. 2 And he smote him, and cast him into the dungeon which was by the gate of the upper house that was set apart, which was by the house of the Lord.

3 And Paschor brought Jeremias out of the dungeon: and Jeremias said to him, The Lord has not called thy name Paschor, but Exile. 4 For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will give thee up to captivity with all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall see it: and I will give thee and all Juda into the hands of the king of Babylon, and they shall carry them captives, and cut them in pieces with swords. 5 And I will give all the strength of this city, and all the labours of it, and all the treasures of the king of Juda, into the hands of his enemies, and they shall bring them to Babylon. 6 And thou and all the dwellers in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt die in Babylon, and there thou and all thy friends shall be buried, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.

7 Thou hast deceived me, O Lord, and I have been deceived: thou hast been strong, and has prevailed: I am become a laughing-stock, I am continually mocked every day. 8 For I will laugh with my bitter speech, I will call upon rebellion and misery: for the word of the Lord is become a reproach to me and a mockery all my days. 9 Then I said, I will by no means name the name of the Lord, and I will no more at all speak in his name. But it was a burning fire flaming in my bones, and I am utterly weakened on all sides, and cannot bear up. 10 For I have heard the reproach of many gathering round, saying, Conspire ye, and let us conspire together against him, even all his friends: watch his intentions, if perhaps he shall be deceived, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall be avenged on him.

11 But the Lord was with me as a mighty man of war: therefore they persecuted me, but could not perceive anything against me; they were greatly confounded, for they perceived not their disgrace, which shall never be forgotten.

12 O Lord, that provest just deeds, understanding the reins and hearts, let me see thy vengeance upon them: for to thee I have revealed my cause. 13 Sing ye to the Lord, sing praise to him: for he has rescued the soul of the poor from the hand of evil-doers.

14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born: the day wherein my mother brought me forth, let it not be blessed. 15 Cursed be the man who brought the glad tidings to my father, saying, A male child is born to thee. 16 Let that man rejoice as the cities which the Lord overthrew in wrath, and repented not: let him hear crying in the morning, and loud lamentation at noon; 17 because he slew me not in the womb, and my mother became not my tomb, and her womb always great with me. 18 Why is it that I came forth of the womb to see troubles and distresses, and my days are spent in shame?

21:1 THE WORD THAT CAME FROM THE LORD TO JEREMIAS, WHEN KING SEDEKIAS SENT TO HIM PASCHOR THE SON OF MELCHIAS, AND SOPHONIAS SON OF BASAEAS, THE PRIEST, SAYING,

2 Enquire of the Lord for us; for the king of Babylon has risen up against us; if the Lord will do according to all his wonderful works, and the king shall depart from us.

3 And Jeremias said to them, Thus shall ye say to Sedekias king of Juda, 4 Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war wherewith ye fight against the Chaldeans that have besieged you from outside the wall, and I will gather them into the midst of this city. 5 And I will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, with wrath and great anger. 6 And I will smite all the dwellers in this city, both men and cattle, with grievous pestilence: and they shall die. 7 And after this, thus saith the Lord; I will give Sedekias king of Juda, and his servants, and the people that is left in this city from the pestilence, and from the famine, and from the sword, into the hands of their enemies, that seek their lives: and they shall cut them in pieces with the edge of the sword: I will not spare them, and I will not have compassion upon them.

8 And thou shalt say to this people, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I have set before you the way of life, and the way of death. 9 He that remains in this city shall die by the sword, and by famine: but he that goes forth to advance to the Chaldeans that have besieged you, shall live, and his life shall be to him for a spoil, and he shall live. 10 For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good: it shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall consume it with fire.

11 O house of the king of Juda, hear ye the word of the Lord. 12 O house of David, thus saith the Lord; Judge judgment in the morning, and act rightly, and rescue the spoiled one from the hand of him that wrongs him, lest mine anger be kindled like fire, and it burn, and there be none to quench it. 13 Behold, I am against thee that dwellest in the valley of Sor; in the plain country, even against them that say, Who shall alarm us? or who shall enter into our habitation? 14 And I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things round about it.

22:1 Thus saith the Lord; Go thou, and go down to the house of the king of Juda, and thou shalt speak there this word, 2 and thou shalt say,

Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Juda, that sittest on the throne of David, thou, and thy house, and thy people, and they that go in at these gates: 3 thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and justice, and rescue the spoiled out of the hand of him that wrongs him: and oppress not the stranger, and orphan, and widow, and sin not, and shed no innocent blood in this place. 4 For if ye will indeed perform this word, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, and riding on chariots and horses, they, and their servants, and their people. 5 But if ye will not perform these words, by myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, that this house shall be brought to desolation.

6 For thus saith the Lord concerning the house of the king of Juda; Thou art Galaad to me, and the head of Libanus: yet surely I will make thee a desert, even cities that shall not be inhabited: 7 and I will bring upon thee a destroying man, and his axe: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire. 8 And nations shall pass through this city, and each shall say to his neighbour, Why has the Lord done thus to this great city? 9 And they shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped strange gods, and served them.

10 Weep not for the dead, nor lament for him: weep bitterly for him that goes away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native land. 11 For thus saith the Lord concerning Sellem the son of Josias, who reigns in the place of Josias his father, who has gone forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more: 12 but in that place whither I have carried him captive, there shall he die, and shall see this land no more.

13 He that builds his house not with justice, and his upper chambers not with judgment, who works by means of his neighbour for nothing, and will by no means give him his reward. 14 Thou hast built for thyself a well-proportioned house, airy chambers, fitted with windows, and wainscoted with cedar, and painted with vermilion. 15 Shalt thou reign, because thou art provoked with thy father Achaz? they shall not eat, and they shall not drink: it is better for thee to execute judgment and justice. 16 They understood not, they judged not the cause of the afflicted, nor the cause of the poor: is not this thy not knowing me? saith the Lord. 17 Behold, thine eyes are not good, nor thine heart, but they go after thy covetousness, and after the innocent blood to shed it, and after acts of injustice and slaughter, to commit them.

18 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Joakim son of Josias, king of Juda, even concerning this man; they shall not bewail him, saying, Ah brother! neither shall they at all weep for him, saying, Alas Lord. 19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass; he shall be dragged roughly along and cast outside the gate of Jerusalem.

20 Go up to Libanus, and cry; and utter thy voice to Basan, and cry aloud to the extremity of the sea: for all thy lovers are destroyed. 21 I spoke to thee on occasion of thy trespass, but thou saidst, I will not hearken. This has been thy way from thy youth, thou hast not hearkened to my voice. 22 The wind shall tend all thy shepherds, and thy lovers shall go into captivity; for then shalt thou be ashamed and disgraced because of all thy lovers. 23 O thou that dwellest in Libanus, making thy nest in the cedars, thou shalt groan heavily, when pangs as of a travailing woman are come upon thee.

24 As I live, saith the Lord, though Jechonias son of Joakim king of Juda were indeed the seal upon my right hand, thence would I pluck thee; 25 and I will deliver thee into the hands of them that seek thy life, before whom thou art afraid, into the hands of the Chaldeans. 26 And I will cast forth thee, and thy mother that bore thee, into a land where thou wast not born; and there ye shall die. 27 But they shall by no means return to the land which they long for in their souls. 28 Jechonias is dishonoured as a good-for-nothing vessel; for he is thrown out and cast forth into a land which he knew not.

29 Land, land, hear the word of the Lord. 30 Write ye this man an outcast: for there shall none of his seed at all grow up to sit on the throne of David, or as a prince yet in Juda.

23:1 Woe to the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of their pasture! 2 Therefore thus saith the Lord against them that tend my people; Ye have scattered my sheep, and driven them out, and ye have not visited them: behold, I will take vengeance upon you according to your evil practices. 3 And I will gather in the remnant of my people in every land, whither I have driven them out, and will set them in their pasture; and they shall increase and be multiplied. 4 And I will raise up shepherds to them, who shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be alarmed, saith the Lord.

5 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and understand, and shall execute judgment and righteousness on the earth. 6 In his days both Juda shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell securely: and this is his name, which the Lord shall call him, Josedec among the prophets. 7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when they shall no more say, The Lord lives, who brought up the house of Israel out of the land of Egypt;