\v 1 This is the message of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, who wrote this. He was a priest, from the town of Anathoth in the area where the tribe of Benjamin lives.
\v 2 Yahweh started to give him these messages when Josiah had been ruling Judah for almost thirteen years.
\v 3 Yahweh continued to give him messages when Josiah’s son Jehoiakim was the king, and he continued to do that until Zedekiah had been the king of Judah for almost eleven years. It was in the fifth month of that year that the people of Jerusalem were exiled to Babylonia.
\v 7 Yahweh replied, “Do not say that you are too young, because you must go to everyone to whom I will send you, and you must tell them everything that I tell you to say.
\v 8 And you must not be afraid of the people to whom you will speak, because I will protect you from being harmed by them. This will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it!”
\v 9 Then it was as though Yahweh touched my mouth and said, “Listen to me! I have put my message into your mouth.
\v 10 Today I am appointing you to warn nations and kingdoms. You will tell them that I will completely destroy and get rid of some of them and that I will establish others and cause them to be prosperous.”
\v 12 Yahweh said, “That is correct. And because the word for ‘almond’ resembles the word for ‘watching’, it means that I am watching what will happen, and I will make certain that what I have said to you about destroying nations will happen.”
\q2 I am summoning the armies of the kingdoms that are north of Judah to come to Jerusalem. \q1 Their kings will set up their thrones at the gates of this city to indicate that they are now the kings of Judah.
\q2 Their armies will attack and break down the walls of this city, and they will do the same thing to all the other towns in Judah.
\q1
\v 16 I will punish my people because of all the evil things that they have done;
\q1 they have abandoned me and they offer offerings of worship to false gods.
\q2 They worship idols that they have made with their own hands!
\s5
\p
\v 17 So, get up and put on your clothes to get ready for action! Then go to the people of Judah and tell them everything that I tell you to say. Do not be afraid of them, because if you are afraid of them, I will punish you as an example right in front of them!
\v 18 But listen! I will cause you to be strong, like a city that has strong walls around it. You will be as strong as an iron pillar or a bronze wall. Even the royal officials, the priests, and the general populace will not be able to defeat you.
\v 19 They will oppose you, but they will not be able to defeat you, because I will be with you and will protect you. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it!”
\v 6 One day when Josiah was the king of Judah, Yahweh said to me, “Have you seen what the people of Israel have done? They have turned away from me, like a woman who has abandoned her husband and sleeps with other men. They have gone up on every hilltop and under every shady tree and worshiped idols there.
\v 7 I thought that they would return to me, but they did not. And their brothers, the people of Judah, were watching all of this.
\s5
\v 8 So I sent the people of Israel away to other countries, as a man writes a note saying that he is divorcing his wife and then sends her away because she has committed adultery. But I realized that, just as the people of Israel, the people of Judah were not at all afraid of me. Instead, they acted just as the people of Israel had done. They also turned away from me and began worshiping idols, just as women who leave their husbands and go to other men.
\v 9 They did not care that worshiping idols offended me, so they have made the entire land unacceptable to me by worshiping idols of wood and stone.
\v 10 Then I replied, “Yahweh my God, you completely deceived the people by telling them that there would be peace in Jerusalem, but now our enemies are ready to slaughter us with their swords!”
\v 15 From the city of Dan in the far north to the hills of Ephraim a few miles north of Jerusalem messengers are proclaiming that disasters are coming.”
\v 3 This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, says to you: ‘If you improve your ways and start doing what is right, I will allow you to remain living in your land.
\v 4 But some people are repeatedly saying to you, ‘The temple of Yahweh is here, so we will be safe; he will not allow us and the temple to be destroyed.’ But do not pay attention to what they say, because they are deceiving you.
\v 5 I will act mercifully to you only if you change your behavior and stop doing evil things, and if you start to act fairly toward others,
\v 6 and if you stop oppressing foreigners who live in your country, and orphans and widows, and if you stop murdering people and worshiping foreign gods.
\v 7 If you do what I have told you, I will allow you to stay in this land that I promised to your ancestors long ago that it would belong to them and their descendants forever.
\v 8 People are repeatedly telling you, ‘The temple is here, so we are safe,’ and you are trusting that what they are saying is true. But those people are deceiving you; what they say is worthless.
\v 9 You think that you can steal things, murder people, commit adultery, tell lies in court, and worship Baal and all those other gods that you did not know about previously.
\v 10 Then you think you can come here and stand in front of this temple, which is my temple, and say ‘Nothing bad will happen to us!’, while you continue to do all those disgusting things.
\v 11 Perhaps you do not know that you have made this temple, which is my temple, to become like a cave where thieves hide. But I, Yahweh, am telling you that I have seen all these things!
\s5
\p
\v 12 Long ago I put my sacred tent in the district of Shiloh, to be a place where people would worship me. Think about how I destroyed it because my people, the Israelite people, did many wicked things there.
\v 13 And while you were continually doing those wicked things, I told you about it many times, but you refused to listen. I called out to you, but you refused to answer me.
\v 14 Therefore, just as I destroyed Shiloh, I will now destroy this temple that was built for people to worship me, this temple that you trust in, in this place that I gave to you and your ancestors.
\v 16 Yahweh said to me, “Jeremiah, do not pray for these people any longer. Do not call out on their behalf or plead for me to help them, because I will not pay any attention to you.
\v 17 Do you see the wicked things that they are doing in the streets of Jerusalem and in the other towns in Judah?
\v 18 The children gather firewood and their fathers make fires on the altars to burn sacrifices. The women knead dough to make cakes to offer to their goddess Asherah who is called the Queen of Heaven. And on their altars they pour out offerings of wine to their other idols. All of those things cause me to become extremely angry!
\v 19 But I am not the one whom they are hurting; they are really hurting themselves by doing these things for which they should be very ashamed!”
\v 20 So Yahweh the Lord says this: “Because I am extremely angry with what happens at this place, I will punish these people severely; my being very angry will be like a fire that will not be extinguished,
and I will destroy the people, their animals, their fruit trees, and their crops.”
\v 21 Therefore, this is what Yahweh, commander of the armies of angels, the God of Israel, says: “Take away your offerings that you bring to burn completely on your altars and your other sacrifices;
\v 23 What I told them was, ‘Obey me; if you do that, I will be your God and you will be my people. If you do the things that I want you to do, everything will go well for you.’
\v 24 But your ancestors would not pay any attention to me. They continued to do the evil things that they wanted to do, everything that in their stubborn inner beings they desired to do. Instead of coming closer to me, they went further away from me.
\v 25 From the day that your ancestors left Egypt until now, I have continued to send my prophets to you repeatedly.
\v 26 But you, my people, have not listened to me or paid attention to what I said; you have been stubborn, and you have done more sinful things than your ancestors did.”
\v 27 Then Yahweh said to me, “When you tell all this to my people, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer.
\v 28 Say to them, ‘You people of Judah have not obeyed Yahweh, your God; you have not accepted it when he tried to correct you. No one among you is truthful; you do not say anything that is true; you speak only lies.’
\q Because I have completely rejected this generation of people who have made me angry.”
\v 30 Yahweh says this: “The people of Judah have done many things that I say are evil. They have set up their disgusting idols in my temple, causing it to become an unacceptable place to worship me.
\v 31 They have built altars at Topheth in Hinnom Valley outside Jerusalem, and they sacrifice their sons and daughters on those altars. I never commanded them to do that; it was not even in my thoughts!
\v 32 So they should beware! There will be a time when that place will no longer be called Topheth or the Hinnom Valley; instead, it will be called the Valley of Slaughter. There will be a huge number of people who will be buried there, with the result that there will be no space to bury more bodies.
\s5
\v 33 The corpses of my people that are not buried and are left on the ground will be eaten by vultures and wild animals, and there will be no one to shoo them away.
\v 34 There will be no one singing and laughing anymore in the streets of Jerusalem; there will be no more joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides in Judah, because the land will be completely destroyed.”
\v 1 Yahweh says, “After your enemies have destroyed you, then they will break open the graves of your kings and other officials who lived in Judah, and the graves of your priests and prophets and other people who lived there.
\v 2 They will take out their bones from their graves and dishonor them by scattering them on the ground under the sun and the moon and the stars—those are the gods which my people loved and served and worshiped. No one will gather up their bones and bury them again; they will remain scattered on the ground like dung.
\v 3 And all the people of this wicked nation who are still alive and whom I have exiled to other countries will say, ‘We would prefer to die than to continue to stay alive here in these countries.’ That will be true because I, Yahweh, have said it.”
\v 4 Yahweh said to me, “Jeremiah, tell the people that this is what I, Yahweh, am saying to them: ‘When people fall down, they get up again, do they not?
\v 9 Those teachers, who think that they are wise, will be ashamed and dismayed when they are taken to other countries by their enemies
\q Because they sinned by rejecting what I told them. Truly, they were not very wise to do that!
\q
\v 10 So, I will give their wives to other men; I will give their fields to the enemy soldiers who conquer them.
\q All the people, including those who are least important and those who are most important, they all are trying to get money by tricking others
\q Even my prophets and priests, they all lie to get what they want.
\s5
\q
\v 11 They act as though the sins of my people are like small wounds that they can easily treat.
\q They tell the people that everything will go well with them, but that is not true; things will not go well with them.
\q
\v 12 They should be ashamed when they do disgusting things, but they do not even know how to show on their faces that they are ashamed about their sins.
\q So, they also will be among those who will be killed. They will be destroyed when I punish them.
\q
\v 13 I will allow their enemies to take away the figs and grapes that the people would have harvested from their fields. Their fruit trees will all wither.
\v 14 Then the people will say, “Why should we wait here in these small towns? We should go to the cities that have high walls around them, but even if we do that we will be killed there,
\q Because Yahweh our God has decided that we must be destroyed; it is as though he has given us a cup of poison to drink, because we sinned against him.
\q
\v 15 We hoped that things would go well for us, but things have not gone well.
\q We hoped that we would recover and be strong again, but only things that terrify us are happening to us.
\s5
\q
\v 16 People far north in the Israelite city of Dan can already hear the snorting of the horses of those who are preparing to attack us. It is as though the entire land is shaking as their army approaches;
\v 4 Do not trust your neighbors and even your brothers! They all are as deceitful as Jacob was.
\q They slander each other and tell lies about each other.
\q
\v 5 They deceive their friends and never tell the truth.
\q They lie continually and, because of that, they have become skilled liars; they do one oppressive deed after another until they grow tired from sinning so much.
\q
\v 6 Jeremiah, everyone living around you is a deceiver. Not one of them will admit that I am God.
\s5
\q
\v 7 Therefore I, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, say this:
\q Listen carefully to what I say: I will test my people, like a metalworker puts metal in a hot fire to completely burn out the impure bits.
\q Because of all the evil things that my people have done, there is absolutely nothing else that I can do.
\q
\v 8 What they say injures people like poisoned arrows do.
\v 25-26 There will be a time when I will punish all those people who have changed their bodies by circumcising them but who have not changed their inner beings: The Egyptian, the Moab, of Edom, and of the Ammon people groups, all those who live close to desert areas far from Judah. I will even punish the people of Israel because they are only circumcised on the outside, and physically, and not on the inside, in their inner self.”
\v 2 “Listen to the agreement that I made with the ancestors of the people of Jerusalem and the other cities in Judah. Then tell that agreement to them again.
\v 3 Then tell them that I, Yahweh, the God whom the Israelite people worship, said that I will curse everyone who does not obey what was written in that agreement that I made with them.
\v 4 It is the same agreement that I made with their ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt. What happened to them in Egypt was terrible; it was as though they were living in a hot furnace. When I brought them out of Egypt, I told them to obey me, and to do everything that I had commanded them to do. I also told them that if they obeyed me, they would be my people and I would be their God.
\v 5 Now tell these people that if they obey me, I will do what I promised to do for their ancestors. I will enable them to continue living in this very fertile land in which they now live.”
\p I replied, “Yahweh, I trust you that what you have said will happen.”
\v 6 Then Yahweh said to me, “Go into the streets of Jerusalem and to the other cities in Judah. Proclaim my message to the people. Tell them to listen to the agreement that I made with their ancestors and to obey it.
\v 8 But they did not obey me or even pay any attention to me. Everyone continued to be stubborn and to do the evil things that they wanted to do. I commanded them to do what was written in the agreement, but they refused. So I punished them in all the ways that I promised that I would.”
\v 10 Their ancestors refused to do what I told them to do, and now these people have returned to committing the sins that their ancestors committed. They are worshiping other gods. The people of Israel disobeyed the agreement that I made with their ancestors, and now the people of Judah have done the same thing.
\s5
\v 11 So now I, Yahweh, am warning them that I will cause disasters to come to them, and they will not escape. And when they call out for me to help them, I will not pay attention.
\v 12 When that happens, the people in Jerusalem and other cities in Judah will offer sacrifices and burn incense to their gods and ask for their help, but those gods will not be able to save them when those disasters come to them.
\v 13 There are now as many gods in Judah as there are towns in Judah; the people of Jerusalem have erected as many altars to burn incense to those gods as there are streets in Jerusalem.
\v 14 Jeremiah, do not pray for these people, and do not plead with me to rescue them. If you plead with me, I will not pay attention; and if they call out to me for help when they are in distress, I will not listen to them.”
\v 19 Before he did that, I was like a lamb that was being led away to be slaughtered; I did not know what they were planning to do. I did not know that they were saying, “Let us get rid of this tree and its fruit,” so I did not know that they intended to kill me, in order that no one would remember me.
\v 21 It was the men of my own town, Anathoth, who wanted to kill me, and they told me that they would kill me if I did not stop prophesying what Yahweh told me to say.
\v 22 So Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, said about them, “I will punish them. Their young men will be killed in wars, and their children will die because they have no food.
\v 23 I have set a time when I will bring disasters to the people of Anathoth, and when that happens, none of them will remain alive.”
\v 14 This is also what Yahweh said to me: “I will punish the evil nearby nations that have been trying to take away the land that I gave to my Israelite people. I will force them to leave their own lands. But I will throw the people of Judah out of their lands, also.
\v 15 But later I will act mercifully toward those nations again, and I will bring them back to their own lands again. Each clan will come back to its own land.
\s5
\v 16 And if the people of the other nations whose armies have invaded Israel learn the religious customs of my people, and if they learn that I am listening when they solemnly promise that they will do something, like they taught my people to believe that their god Baal was listening when they made solemn promises, I will cause them to become prosperous, and they also will be my people.
\v 17 But I will expel any nation whose people refuse to obey me, and I will destroy that nation and its people. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.”
\v 10 Those wicked people refuse to pay attention to what I say. They stubbornly do just what they desire to do; they worship other gods. Therefore, they will become completely useless, like your waistcloth.
\v 11 Just like a waistcloth clings closely to a man’s waist, I wanted the people of Israel and Judah to cling closely to me. I wanted them to be my people, people who would praise me and honor me. But they would not pay attention to me.
\v 12 So, tell this to them: ‘Yahweh, the God whom you Israelite people worship, says that every leather wineskin should be filled with wine.’ And when you tell that to them, they will reply, ‘Of course we know that all wineskins should be filled with wine!’
\v 13 And then you must tell them, ‘No, that is not what Yahweh means. What he said means that he will cause this land to be filled with people who are drunk. That will include all of you—the king who sits on the throne that King David previously sat on, the priests and the prophets, and even the common people of Jerusalem.’
\v 14 He is saying, ‘I will cause a drunken brawl among you. Even parents will brawl with their children. I will not pity you or act mercifully toward you at all; pitying you will not prevent me from getting rid of you.’”
\v 11 Then Yahweh said to me, “Do not pray for these people anymore.
\v 12 When they fast, I will not pay any attention. When they bring to me their offerings of animals to be completely burned on the altar and their offerings of flour, I will not accept them. Instead, I will get rid of them by wars, by famines, and by diseases.”
\v 13 Then I replied to him, “Yahweh my God, their prophets are telling the people that they will not experience wars or famines. They are telling the people that you will surely allow us to have peace in our land for many years.”
\v 14 Yahweh replied to me, “Those prophets say that they are speaking what I tell them to say, but they are telling lies. I did not send them, so what they are saying is false. They say that they have received visions from me, and that they are telling things that I have revealed to them, but that is not true. They are saying foolish things that they have only thought of themselves.
\v 15 So this is what I say about those prophets who are predicting what will happen, saying that I told them those things: They are saying that we Israelites will not die from wars or famines, but I did not send those prophets. And they themselves will die from wars or from famines.
\v 16 And the people to whom they are predicting these things, they and their wives and their sons and their daughters, will also die from wars or from famines. Their corpses will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem, and there will not be anyone to bury them. I will punish them like they deserve to be punished.
\s5
\p
\v 17 So, Jeremiah, tell this to them about yourself:
\v 1 Then Yahweh said this to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel could come back from their graves and stand in front of me and plead with me for these Israelite people, I would not act mercifully toward these people. I would tell you to send them away from me. Cause them to leave me!
\v 2 And if they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’, tell them, ‘This is what Yahweh says:
\q1 The ones that I say must die in wars, will die in wars.
\q1 The ones that I say must die from hunger, will die from hunger.
\q1 The ones that I say must be captured and taken to other countries, will be captured and taken to other countries.
\s5
\p
\v 3 I will send four things that will get rid of them: I will send enemy soldiers using swords to kill them. I will send wild dogs to drag away their corpses. I will send vultures to eat their corpses. And I will send other wild animals to eat what remains of their corpses.
\v 4 Because of the wicked things that King Manasseh did in Jerusalem, I will cause people in all the kingdoms of the earth to be horrified concerning what will happen in Judah to my people.
\s5
\q1
\v 5 You people of Jerusalem, no one will feel sorry for you.
\q2 No one will weep for you.
\q2 No one will wish that you would not be hurt.
\q1
\v 6 You people have abandoned me;
\q2 you have continued to walk away from me.
\q1 So, I will lift up my fist to smash you;
\q2 I am tired of acting mercifully toward.
\q1
\v 7 At the gates of your cities, I will scatter you like a farmer scatters the chaff from his grain by winnowing it.
\q2 You, my people, have refused to turn away from your evil behavior.
\q1 So, I will get rid of you,
\q2 and I will even cause your children to be killed.
\s5
\q1
\v 8 I will cause there to be more widows in Judah
\q2 than there are grains of sand on the seashore.
\q1 I will bring on you an enemy army
\q2 that will destroy your young men and cause their mothers to weep.
\q1 I will cause you to suddenly experience great suffering and become very terrified.
\q1
\v 9 A woman who has seven children will become faint and gasp for breath;
\q2 it will be as though her daylight will become darkness,
\q1 because most of her children will be dead,
\q2 and she will be disgraced and humiliated.
\q1 And her children who are still alive, I will enable your enemies to kill them.
\v 4 Many of them will die from terrible diseases. And no one will mourn for them. No one will even bury their corpses; the corpses will lie on the ground, scattered like manure. Others will die in wars or from hunger, and then their corpses will become food for vultures and wild animals.”
\v 5 This is also what Yahweh said to me: “Do not go to funerals to mourn or to show those whose relatives have died that you feel sorry for them, because I have stopped protecting them, and I have caused that things will not go well for them. I have stopped faithfully loving them and acting mercifully toward them.
\v 6 Very many people will die in this land, including those who are important and those who are not important. And no one will mourn for them, or even bury their corpses. No one will cut himself or shave his head to show that he is very sad.
\s5
\v 7 No one will bring food to comfort those who are mourning, not even if it is their father or their mother who is mourning. No one will give them a cup of wine to cheer them up.
\p
\v 8 And do not go into the houses where people are feasting. Do not eat or drink anything with them.
\v 9 I want you to do this because this is what I, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, say: ‘While you are still alive and seeing it happen, I will cause there to be no more singing and laughing in this land. There will be no more joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides.’
\v 10 When you tell these things to the people, they will ask, ‘Why has Yahweh declared that these terrible things will happen to us? What have we done for which we deserve to be punished like this? What sin have we committed against Yahweh our God?’
\v 11 Then this is what you must tell them that I am replying to them: ‘It is because your ancestors turned away from me, Yahweh. They worshiped other gods and served them. They abandoned me and did not obey my commands.
\v 12 But you who are living now have done more wicked things than your ancestors did! Each of you stubbornly does the evil things that he desires and refuses to pay attention to what I say.
\v 13 So, I will throw you out of this land, and I will send you to a land that you and your ancestors have never known about. There you will worship other gods day and night. And I will not act mercifully toward you.’
\v 14 But there will be a time when people who are solemnly promising to do something will no longer say, ‘I will do this, just as surely as Yahweh lives—the one who brought the Israelite people here from Egypt.’
\v 15 Instead, they will say ‘I will do this, just as surely as Yahweh lives—the one who brought us Israelite people back to our own land, from the lands to the north and from all the other lands to which he had exiled us.’ They will be able to say that because some day I will bring your descendants back to this land that I gave to your ancestors.
\v 16 But now I am summoning your enemies who will seize them like fishermen catch fish. I am summoning those who will search for them on every mountain and hill, and in every cave, like hunters search for animals to kill.
\v 17 I am watching them carefully. I see every sin that they commit. They will not be able to hide from me .
\v 18 Because of all the wicked things that they have done, I will punish them twice as much as I would punish other people. I will do that because they have caused my own land to become unacceptable to me because of their worshiping lifeless statues of detestable gods, and also because they have filled my land with the other evil things that they have done.”
\v 1 Yahweh said, “It is as though a list of the sins committed by the people of Judah is engraved with an iron chisel, or engraved using the fine point of a very hard stone,
\v 19 This is what Yahweh said to me: “Go to the city gates in Jerusalem. First go to the gate where the kings of Judah go in and out of the city, and then go to each of the other gates.
\v 20 Say to the people at each gate, ‘You kings of Judah and everyone else who is living in Jerusalem and all you other people of Judah who enter these gates, listen to this message from Yahweh!
\v 21 He says, “Listen to this warning carefully if you want to live! Stop doing work on Sabbath days! Stop carrying loads through these gates on those days!
\v 22 Do not carry loads out of your houses or do any other work on Sabbath days! Instead, cause Sabbath days to be holy. I commanded your ancestors to do that,
\v 23 but they did not listen to me or obey me. When I did things to correct them, they stubbornly refused to pay attention to what I said or to accept it.
\s5
\v 24 But I say that if you obey me, and if you do not carry loads through these gates on Sabbath days or do any other work on Sabbath days, and if you dedicate the Sabbath days to me,
\v 25 kings of Judah and their officials will continue to go in and out of these gates. There will always be someone who is a descendant of King David ruling here in Jerusalem. Kings and their officials will go in and out of these gates, riding in chariots and on horses, and there will be people living in this city forever.
\s5
\v 26 And people will come to Jerusalem bringing offerings to be completely burned on the altar and other offerings. They will bring to the temple grain offerings and incense and offerings to thank me. People will bring these offerings from the towns in Judah and the villages near Jerusalem and from the land where the tribe of Benjamin lives and from the western foothills and from the southern Judean wilderness.
\v 27 But if you do not pay attention to what I say, and if you refuse to dedicate the Sabbath days to me, and if you continue to carry loads through these gates into the city on Sabbath days, I will burn these gates completely. The fire will spread to the palaces, and no one will be able to put out that fire.”’”
\v 3 So I went to that shop, and I saw the man who makes pots. He was working at the wheel that he uses to form pots.
\v 4 But when he finished making one jar, it was not as good as he hoped it to be. So, he took the clay and formed it into another jar, shaping it as he desired to.
\v 6 “Perhaps the people of Israel think that I cannot do to them like this man who makes pots has done. But what they think is wrong. I can control what happens to them like this man controls what he does with the clay in his hands.
\v 7 There may be a time when I proclaim that I will get rid of a nation or kingdom, like someone pulls up a plant with its roots, and smash it, and destroy it.
\v 8 But if the people of that nation repent of doing evil things, I will not send to them the disasters that I planned to send.
\s5
\v 9 And there may be a time when I proclaim that I will establish a nation or kingdom and cause it to be strong.
\v 10 But if the people of that nation start to do evil things and refuse to obey me, then I will not bless them as I said that I would do.
\v 11 Therefore, Jeremiah, go and warn all the people in Jerusalem and in other places in Judah. Say to them, ‘This is what Yahweh says: I am planning a disaster that I will send to you. So, each of you should turn from your evil behavior and start doing what is right, in order that good things will come to you instead!’
\v 12 But the people will say back to you, ‘It is useless for you to say these things to us. We will continue to be stubborn and behave as wickedly as we want to.’”
\v 18 Then the people said, “Come, we should plan to attack Jeremiah. We have many priests who teach us God’s laws, wise men who give us good advice, and prophets who tell us what will happen. We do not need Jeremiah! So we should slander him and not pay attention to anything that he says.”
\v 1 This is another message that Yahweh gave to me: “Go and buy a clay jar from a man who makes them. Then take with you some of the elders of the people and leaders of the priests.
\v 2 Go out of the city past the Broken Pottery Gate, to the place overlooking the dump for broken pottery in the Hinnom Valley. Then give them a message.
\v 3 Say to them, ‘This message is for you kings of Judah and other people of Jerusalem. Listen to what Yahweh is saying! The God of Israel, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, says that he will bring a terrible disaster on Jerusalem. Those who hear about it will be stunned.
\v 4 That will happen because you Israelite people have stopped worshiping me, and have caused this place to be a place where you worship foreign gods. You burn sacrifices to gods that neither you nor your ancestors nor even the kings of Judah ever heard about. And you have filled this place with the blood of innocent people whom you have killed.
\v 5 You have built houses on the top of many hills to honor your god Baal, and at those places you have killed your own children and offered them to be sacrifices to Baal. I never commanded you to do that, I never spoke about doing that, and never even considered allowing that!
\s5
\v 6 So, beware, because I, Yahweh, say that there will be a time when this garbage dump will no longer be called Topheth or Hinnom Valley; it will be called Slaughter Valley.
\v 7 In this place I will ruin the plans of you people who live in Jerusalem and in other places in Judah. I will allow your enemies who want to kill you to kill many of you with their swords. Then I will allow your corpses to remain on the ground to be food for vultures and wild animals.
\v 8 I will completely destroy Jerusalem and cause it to become a heap of ruins that people will despise. All the people who pass by will be appalled, and they will be shocked when they see that the city has been destroyed.
\v 9 I will enable your enemies who want to kill you to surround the city for a long time. Then the food will be all gone, and you people will be extremely hungry, with the result that you people in the city will eat the flesh of your own children and your neighbors’ children.’
\v 11 Then say to them, ‘This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, says: Just like this jar has been smashed and cannot be repaired, I will smash this city of Jerusalem and other places in Judah. You will bury some of your corpses here in this dump, until there is no more space to bury any more corpses.
\v 12 That is what I will do to this city and to you people who live here. I will make you unfit to worship me, and this city will be like you, just as Topheth is.
\v 13 The houses in Jerusalem and the palaces of the kings of Judah will be unfit, like this place will be. All the houses where you burned incense on the rooftops to honor the stars that you worshiped, and where you poured out wine to be an offering to your gods, will become unfit for anyone who worships me to live in.’”
\v 14 Then I returned from the garbage dump where Yahweh had sent me to tell them that message, and I stood in the courtyard of Yahweh’s temple and said this to all the people who were there:
\v 15 “This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, says: ‘I will bring a disaster to this city and to the villages around it like I promised, because you people have stubbornly refused to pay attention to what I said to you.’”
\v 3 The next day, when Pashhur released me, I said to him, “Pashhur, Yahweh is giving you a new name. From now on, your name will be ‘Surrounded by Terror,’
\v 4 because Yahweh says this to you: ‘I will cause you and your loved ones to be terrified. You will watch them being killed by your enemies’ swords. I will enable the army of the king of Babylon to capture the people of Judah. Those soldiers will take some of the people to Babylon, and they will kill others with their swords.
\v 5 And I will enable their soldiers to take away other things in Jerusalem: all your wealth and the produce of your hard work. They will take to Babylon all the very valuable things that belonged to your kings.
\v 6 And as for you, Pashhur, they will take you and all your family to Babylon. You and your family and all your friends who have prophesied things that are lies will die there and be buried there.’”
\v 18 I have continually experienced much trouble and sorrow,
\q2 and I am disgraced now when I am about to die;
\q1 why was it necessary for me to me born?
\s5
\c 21
\p
\v 1 Yahweh gave me another message when King Zedekiah of Judah sent a man named Pashhur son of Malkijah, and a priest named Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, to talk to me. They pleaded with me, saying,
\v 2 “The army of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is attacking Judah. Please speak to Yahweh for us. Ask him if he will help us. Perhaps he will force Nebuchadnezzar’s army to leave by performing a miracle for us, like the miracles he performed previously.”
\v 3 I replied to them, “Go back to King Zedekiah. Tell him,
\v 4 ‘This is what Yahweh, the God whom we Israelites worship, says: “I will cause your weapons to be useless in fighting against the king of Babylon and his army that is outside the walls of Jerusalem, attacking. I will enable them to enter into the center of this city.
\v 6 I will send a very terrible plague on the people of this city, and on their domestic animals, and many of them will die.”
\v 7 And Yahweh says there are many people in this city who want to kill you. So, he will enable the army of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and other people in this city to capture you, King Zedekiah, and your officials, and all the other people who do not die from the plague. His army will slaughter your soldiers; they will not act mercifully toward you or pity you at all.’
\v 9 Everyone who remains in Jerusalem will die. They will be killed in battles or die from being hungry or from diseases. But those who surrender to the army of Babylon that is surrounding your city will remain alive. They will escape dying.
\v 10 This will happen because I, Yahweh, have decided to cause this city to experience disasters, not to experience something good. The army of the king of Babylon will capture this city and will destroy it completely by fire.’”
\v 1 This is another message that Yahweh gave to me: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and say this to him:
\v 2 ‘You are the king of Judah. You are the ruler, like King David was. You and your officials and your people must listen
\v 3 to what Yahweh says: “Act fairly and justly. Do what is right. Help those who have been robbed. Rescue people from those who oppress them. Stop doing evil deeds. Do not mistreat those who have come here from other countries, and do not mistreat orphans and widows. Stop murdering here in Jerusalem.
\v 4 If you obey these commands carefully, there will always be some descendant of King David who will be ruling here in Jerusalem. The king and his officials and other people will ride through the gates of the city in chariots and on horses.
\v 8 People from many nations will walk past the ruins of this city and say to each other, “Why did Yahweh destroy this city that was very great?”
\v 9 And other people will reply, “He did it because his people stopped obeying the agreement that they had made with Yahweh their God. Instead, they worshiped other gods.”
\v 11 Jehoahaz became king after his father, King Josiah, died, but Jehoahaz was captured and taken to Babylonia. And this is what Yahweh says about him: “He also will never return to Judah.
\v 12 He will die in that country where they have taken him as a captive and will never see his own country again.”
\v 24 Yahweh says this: “Jehoiachin son of King Jehoiakim of Judah, as surely as I am alive, I will punish you. Even if you were the ring on my finger that shows that I am the king, I would pull you off.
\v 25 You are afraid of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his huge army, because they are wanting to kill you. I will enable them to capture you.
\v 26 I will expel you and your mother from this land, and you will be taken to another country. Neither of you were born there, but you will both die there.
\v 1 Yahweh declares, “Terrible things will happen to the leaders of my people—those who are like shepherds of the people who are like my sheep—because they have scattered my people and sent them away, and have not taken care of them.
\v 2 So, this is what I, Yahweh, the God whom the Israelite people worship, say to those leaders: ‘Instead of taking care of my people and leading them to places where they are safe like a shepherd does for his sheep, you have scattered them. So I will punish you for the evil things that you have done.
\v 3 But later I will gather those who are still alive, from the countries where I have forced them to go. I will bring them back to their own country, where they will have many children, and their number will increase.
\v 4 Then I will appoint other leaders for my people, leaders who will take care of them. And my people will never be afraid of anything again, and none of them will be like a lost sheep that has been driven off by its shepherd.’”
\v 7 Yahweh also says that at that time, people who are solemnly promising to do something will no longer say, “I will do it as surely as Yahweh lives, who rescued the Israelite people from Egypt.”
\v 8 Instead, they will say, “I will do it as surely as Yahweh lives, who brought us Israelite people back to our own land, from the land to the northeast and from all the other countries to which he had exiled us.” And they will live in their own land again.
\v 25 I have heard those prophets prophesy lies, saying that they are telling people messages from me. They say, ‘Listen to me tell you the dream I received from God last night! I really had this dream!’
\v 26 How long will they continue to do this? How long will those lying prophets continue to prophesy things that come only from their own minds?
\v 27 They think that because of the dreams that they tell to each other, people will forget me, like their ancestors forgot about me when they started to worship Baal.
\s5
\v 28 Allow those false prophets to tell people their dreams, but those who have messages that really come from me should proclaim those messages faithfully. I, Yahweh, say that like straw and grain are certainly very different, my messages and the message from those false prophets are certainly very different .
\v 32 I oppose those prophets who falsely say that I told them something in a vision, but they are only telling lies that cause my people to sin. I did not send those prophets. I did not even appoint them to be prophets. And they have no messages that will benefit my people at all. That is what I, Yahweh, declare.”
\v 33 Yahweh said to me, “If one of those prophets or priests or one of the other people asks you, ‘What problem has Yahweh told you about now?’, you must reply, ‘He has not given me anything to say to you! Instead, Yahweh says that he will abandon you!’
\v 34 And if any prophet or priest or anyone else falsely says, ‘I have a prophecy from Yahweh,’ I will punish that person and his family.
\v 36 But instead you are only concerned with your own ideas and with twisting the true message from the true God, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, whom we worship.
\v 37 This is what you should ask each prophet: ‘What did Yahweh reply when you talked to him? What is he saying to us?’
\v 38 If he replies, ‘What I told you is a prophecy from Yahweh’ then let him know I will punish him, becasue I told my true prophets not to give any messages to this people right now.
\v 39 So I, Yahweh, will get rid of you false prophets. I will expel you from my presence. And I will get rid of this city that I gave to you and to your ancestors.
\v 1 The army of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon captured Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and his officials, and all his skilled workers and took them to Babylon. After that happened, Yahweh gave me a vision. In the vision I saw two baskets of figs that had been placed in front of the temple.
\v 2 One basket was full of good figs, like the kind that ripen first. The other basket was filled with figs that were bad, with the result that they could not be eaten.
\v 5 “This is what I, Yahweh, the God whom the Israelite people say that they worship, say: The good figs represent the people of Judah whom I exiled to Babylonia. I sent them there for their own good.
\v 6 and I will not exile them again, instead I will bring them back to this land and let them build up houses and cities again. They will be like plants that grow and prosper and are never cut down.
\v 7 I will enable them to desire to know in their inner beings that I am Yahweh. They will be my people, and I will be their God, because they will return to me sincerely.
\s5
\p
\v 8 But I, Yahweh, also say, the bad figs represent Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his officials, and all the other people who remain in Jerusalem, and those who have gone to Egypt. I will do to them like people do to rotten figs.
\v 9 I will cause them to experience calamities, with the result that people in every nation on the earth will be horrified, and will hate them because they are evil people. Wherever I scatter them, people will make fun of them, and say that they are disgraced, and ridicule them, and curse them.
\v 10 And I will cause them to experience wars and famines and diseases, until they have disappeared from Israel, this land which I gave to them and to their ancestors.”
\v 1 After Jehoiakim had been ruling Judah for almost four years, Yahweh gave me this message for all the people of Judah. It was during the year that King Nebuchadnezzar started to rule in Babylon.
\v 2 Jeremiah spoke this message to all the people in Jerusalem and other places in Judah:
\v 3 “Yahweh has been giving me messages for twenty-three years. He started giving me messages when Josiah son of Amon, had been ruling Judah for almost thirteen years. And I have faithfully told you those messages, but you have not paid any attention to them.
\v 5 Each time their message was this: ‘Turn from all your evil behavior, from all the evil things that you have continually been doing. If you do that, you will be able to stay in this land that Yahweh gave to you and to your ancestors, to belong to you forever.
\v 6 Do not cause Yahweh to become angry by serving and worshiping idols that you have made with your hands. If you do not cause him to be angry, he will not punish you.’
\v 7 And Yahweh says, ‘But you would not pay attention to the messages that I gave to those prophets. You caused me to become extremely angry by your worshiping idols that you had made with your own hands. That resulted in my punishing you.
\v 8 So now, I, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, say that because you have not paid attention to what I said,
\v 9 I will gather all the armies of the nations that will come from the northeast. I have appointed King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to lead them. I have appointed him to do my work for me. I will bring those armies to attack this land, all the people living in it, and even nearby countries. I will completely destroy them, and cause them to be places that people are horrified about, and that people will ridicule, places that will be ruined forever.
\s5
\v 10 I will cause happy singing and laughing to cease in your land. There will no longer be brides and bridegrooms talking joyfully. There will not be the sound of people grinding grain with millstones. There will be no lamps lit in your houses.
\v 11 All of this land will become a desert where no one will live. And the people of Israel and of the nearby countries will be exiled to Babylonia and work for the kings of Babylon for seventy years.
\s5
\p
\v 12 Then, after they have been in Babylonia for seventy years, I will punish the king of Babylonia and his people for the sins that they have committed. I will cause Babylonia to become a wasteland forever.
\v 13 I will cause them to experience all the terrible things that Jeremiah has written about—all the punishments that he predicted will happen to all those nations.
\v 14 The leaders of many nations will cause the people of Babylonia to become their slaves, like the people of Babylonia caused my people to become slaves. I will punish them like they deserve for having caused my people to suffer.’”
\v 15 Then Yahweh, the God of Israel, gave me a vision. In the vision he was holding a cup of wine. He said, “Take from me this cup that is full of wine that represents punishment. I will cause all the leaders of the nations to which I will send you to drink some of the wine in this cup.
\v 16 When they drink the wine, they will stagger and act like crazy people, because they will realize that I will massacre many of their people with swords.”
\v 17 So, in the vision, I took that cup full of wine from Yahweh, and I took it to all the nations to which he sent me, and caused the leaders of those nations to drink some of that wine.
\v 18 I went to Jerusalem and the other towns in Judah, and the king and the other officials drank some of the wine from that cup. And, starting from that day, they all eventually were removed from having authority, and became people whom others ridiculed, who were despised, and cursed.
\s5
\v 19 In the vision Egypt had to drink some of the wine, including the king and his officials and many of his people,
\v 20 and foreigners who were living there. In the vision the land of Uz and the cities and kings of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and Ashdod had to drink some of the wine.
\v 21 Then the vision about the kings of Edom, Moab, and Ammon began.
\s5
\v 22 Then there were more visions about the kings of the cities of Tyre and Sidon across the Mediterranean Sea, about the kings who had to drink some of the wine.
\v 23 In the vision the religious leaders of the cities of Dedan, Tema, and Buz, which were cities in Arabia and other distant places, they had to drink some of the wine.
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\v 24 In the vision other places in Arabia and the kings of tribes in the desert
\v 25 and the kings of the Zimri, Elam, and Media people groups,
\v 26 and kings in countries to the north that are near to Israel and to countries that are far from Israel, one after the other—all the kingdoms in the world had to drink, and finally the king of Babylon had to drink some of the wine.
\v 27 Then in the vision Yahweh said to me, “Tell them that this is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Drink from this cup some of the wine that represents the punishment that I will give you. Drink a lot of it and become drunk and vomit. You will fall down and not get up again, because I will cause you to be killed in wars that I will send to you.
\v 28 If any of those to whom you give this wine refuse to drink it, tell them that Yahweh, commander of the angel armies says that they must drink it.
\v 29 I am starting to bring disaster to my own people. They will not be exempt from punishment, for I am sending wars to all the nations on the earth. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, have said it.’
\v 2 “This is what I, Yahweh, am telling you: Stand in the courtyard in front of my temple, and speak to all the people from the various towns in Judah who come there to worship me. Tell them everything that I tell you; do not leave out anything.
\v 3 If you do tell them everything, perhaps they will pay attention, and each one of them will turn away from his evil behavior. Then I will change my mind, and not bring on them the disaster that I was planning to bring on them because of the evil things that they have done.
\v 4-5 Say to them, ‘This is what Yahweh says: I sent to you the prophets who serve me, to tell you what you should do. I sent them to you many times, but you have not paid attention to what they said. If you will not pay attention to what I say and do not obey the message that I have given to you, and if you do not pay attention to what the prophets say,
\v 6 I will destroy this temple like I destroyed Shiloh, the place where the sacred tent was put. And I will cause Jerusalem to be a place whose name people in every nation on the earth will say when they curse someone.’”
\v 7 Jeremiah did what Yahweh told him to do. The priests, the false prophets, and many other people listened to him as he told them that message outside the temple.
\v 8 But as soon as Jeremiah finished telling them everything that Yahweh had commanded him to say, they all seized him and said, “You must be executed!
\v 9 Why are you prophesying that this temple will be destroyed like Shiloh was destroyed? Why are you saying that this city will be destroyed, and that no one will live here anymore? All the people surrounded Jeremiah as he stood in front of the temple.
\v 10 When the officials of Judah heard about all this that was happening, they rushed from the palace and sat down at the gate of the temple named The New Gate, to judge Jeremiah’s case.
\v 11 The priests and the prophets told the officials and the other people who were there, “This man should be executed, because he has prophesied that this city will be destroyed, and you yourselves have heard him say that!”
\v 12 Then Jeremiah replied to the officials and the other people. He said to them, “Yahweh sent me to prophesy all the things that you heard me say about what will happen to this temple and this city.
\v 13 But if you change your behavior and stop sinning, and start to obey Yahweh our God, he will change his mind, and not send to you the disasters that he said that he would send.
\v 14 As for me, I am not able to free myself from your grasp. So you can do to me whatever you want to do.
\v 15 But you need to know that if you kill me, you will be killing a man who is innocent. And you and everyone else in this city will be guilty, because the truth is that it was Yahweh who sent me to speak every word that you have heard me say.”
\v 16 Then the officials and the other people said to the priests and the false prophets, “This man does not deserve to be executed, because he has spoken to us the message that Yahweh gave him!”
\v 18 They said, “Remember what Micah, the prophet from Moresheth, prophesied during the years that Hezekiah was the king of Judah. He told the people of Judah this:
\q1 ‘This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, says:
\q1 There will be a large clump of trees on top of the hill where the temple is now.’
\v 19 But did Hezekiah or anyone else in Judah kill Micah for saying that? No! Instead, Hezekiah revered Yahweh, and pleaded that he would act mercifully toward them. So, Yahweh changed his mind about sending to them the terrible disaster that he said he would send. And now if we kill Jeremiah, we are going to bring even worse disaster on ourselves!”
\v 20 At that time, Uriah son of Shemaiah from the city of Kiriath Jearim was also prophesying from Yahweh. He was predicting that the city and the rest of the land would experience the same disasters that Jeremiah was predicting.
\v 21 When King Jehoiakim and his army officers and officials heard what Uriah was saying, the king sent someone to kill Uriah. But Uriah heard about it, and became very afraid, and he escaped to Egypt.
\s5
\v 22 Then King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan son of Acbor along with several other men to Egypt.
\v 23 They captured Uriah and took him back to Jerusalem to King Jehoiakim. The king then commanded a soldier to kill Uriah with a sword. Then they buried his corpse in a place where poor people are buried.
\v 24 However, Ahikam son of Shaphan defended me, and persuaded the officials not to allow the mob to murder Jeremiah.
\s5
\c 27
\p
\v 1 Soon after Zedekiah son of Josiah became the king of Judah, Yahweh gave a message to me.
\v 3 Then send them to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon, and give them to the ambassadors from those countries who have come to Jerusalem to talk to King Zedekiah.
\v 4 Tell them to give this message to their kings: This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, whom Israel worships, says:
\v 5 ‘With my very great power I created the earth and the people and the animals that are on the earth. And I can give those things to anyone whom I want to.
\v 6 And now I am going to enable King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who does what I want him to do, to control your countries. I am going to enable him to rule everything, even the wild animals.
\v 7 The people of all the nations will work for him, and later for his son, and later for his grandson, until the time for them to rule is finished. Then the armies of many great kings from many nations will conquer Babylon.’
\v 8 But now I tell you that you must do what the king of Babylon wants you to do, like an ox that has a yoke on its neck must do what its master wants it to do. I will punish any nation that refuses to do that. I will cause those people to experience war and famine and diseases, until the armies of Babylon have conquered that nation.
\s5
\v 9 So, do not pay attention to your false prophets and fortune tellers and people who predict what will happen by working magic or by talking with spirits of dead people. Those people say not to serve him because the king of Babylon will not conquer your country.
\v 10 Those people are all liars. If you believe what they say, it will result in your being exiled from your land. I will cause you to be taken from your land, and you will die far away.
\v 11 But the people of any country who do what the king of Babylon wants them to do will remain in their own country and be able to plant their crops as they always have done. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.”
\v 12 After I gave that message to those ambassadors, I gave the same message to King Zedekiah of Judah. I said to him, “If you want to remain alive, do what the king of Babylon and his officials want you to do.
\v 13 It would be foolish for you not to do that, because the result would be that you and your people would die by your enemies’ swords or by famine or diseases, which Yahweh will cause any nation to experience that refuses to allow the king of Babylon to rule them.
\v 14 Do not pay attention to those prophets who say to you, ‘Do not obey the king of Babylon since he will not conquer your country.’ They are liars.
\v 15 This is what Yahweh says: ‘I have not appointed those prophets. They are saying that I gave them messages, but they are lying. So, if you believe them, I will expel you from this land. And you and all those prophets will die in Babylon!’”
\v 16 Then I spoke to the priests and the other people, and I said, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘Do not believe your prophets who tell you that all the gold items that were taken from my temple by soldiers from Babylon will soon be returned from Babylon, because what they are prophesying is a lie.
\v 17 Do not pay attention to what they say. Surrender to the king of Babylon. If you do that, you will remain alive. If you do not do that, this entire city will be destroyed.
\v 18 If they are really prophets who speak messages from me, tell them to plead to me, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, that the soldiers from Babylon will not be allowed to take away to Babylon the valuable items that still remain in the temple and in the king’s palace and in the other palaces in Jerusalem.
\v 19 I say this because the huge pillars that are in front of the temple and the large tank that was called “The Sea” and the ten water carts and all the other items that are used for offering sacrifices are still in this city.
\v 20 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon left those things here when he exiled Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, to Babylon, along with all the other leaders of Jerusalem and the leaders of other places in Judah.
\s5
\v 21 Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, says this about all those valuable things that are still outside the temple and in the palace of the king of Judah:
\v 22 They will all be carried away to Babylon. And they will stay there until I say that they should be brought back to Jerusalem. Then they will be bought back here. That is what I, Yahweh, say.’”
\v 1 These things occurred when Zedekiah was beginning his rule as king of Judah. It happened on the fourth year and fifth month of his rule, that Azzur’s son Hananiah, a prophet from the city of Gibeon, spoke to Jeremiah in the courtyard of the temple, while all the priests and other people were listening. He said,
\v 2 “This is what the Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, whom Israel worships, says: ‘I will cause the king of Babylon to stop ruling you.
\v 3 Within two years, I will cause to be brought back to this temple all the valuable things that King Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers took from this temple and took to Babylon.
\v 4 And I will also bring back to this place Jehoiachin, who was the son of the Jehoiakim, the King of Judah, and all the other people who were captured and taken to Babylon. The king of Babylon has forced you to do what he wants, like someone puts a yoke on the neck of an ox to force it to do what he wants it to do. But I will cause that to end. That will happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.’”
\v 6 He said, “I want that to be true! I desire that what you have predicted will happen just as you said! I hope that he will cause men from Babylon to bring back all the valuable things that were in this temple, and all the people who were taken to Babylon.
\v 7 But now listen to what I say to you while all these people are listening.
\s5
\v 8 Many years ago, those who were prophets before you and I became prophets spoke messages about many nations and great kingdoms. They predicted that wars and disasters and plagues would occur in those nations.
\v 9 So now you or any other prophet who predicts that things will go well for us must show that your message is correct. Only if what you predict actually happens will we know that you were truly appointed by Yahweh.”
\v 11 Then he said this to all the people who were there: “This is what Yahweh says: ‘Just like Hananiah has broken this yoke, within two years I will cause King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to stop forcing the people to do what he wants, which has been like a heavy yoke on all their necks .’” After Hananiah said that, Jeremiah left the temple area.
\v 13 “Go and say this to Hananiah: ‘Yahweh, Commander of the angel armies, whom Israel worships, says that you have broken a wooden yoke, but that he will replace it with an iron yoke.
\v 14 I have forced the people of all these nations to become slaves of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. That is like an iron yoke around their necks. I have put everything, even wild animals, under his control.’”
\v 15 Then Jeremiah went to Hananiah and said to him, “Hananiah, listen to this: Yahweh has not appointed you; instead, you have told lies to the people, and they have believed your lies.
\v 16 Therefore, this is what Yahweh says: ‘You will soon die. Before the end of this year, you will die, because you have encouraged people to act against Yahweh.’”
\v 1-2 After King Jehoiachin, his mother, his palace officials, other officials in Judah and Jerusalem, and all the various kinds of craftsmen had been exiled to Babylon, Jeremiah wrote a letter to the elders, the priests, the prophets and all the other people who had been taken from Jerusalem to Babylon by soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar.
\v 3 He gave the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan, and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, when they were about to go to Babylon to be ambassadors from King Zedekiah to King Nebuchadnezzar. This is the letter that Jeremiah wrote, the message that Yahweh gave him.
\s5
\p
\v 4 This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says to all you people who were captured here in Jerusalem and taken there to Babylon:
\v 5 “Build houses there, and plan to stay there because you will be there for many years. Plant gardens, and eat the food that is produced in the gardens.
\v 6 Get married and have children. Then when they grow up, choose wives for your sons, and husbands for your daughters, in order that they also may have children. In that way, the number of your people will increase, not decrease.
\v 7 Also, do things that will cause things to go well for the other people there in the city where I sent you. Pray that things will go well for the people in that city, because if things go well for them, things will go well for you, also.”
\v 8 This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says: “There are false prophets and fortune tellers among you. Do not allow them to deceive you. Do not pay attention to them when they tell you their dreams,
\v 9 because they are telling you lies, saying that I have given them the messages that they are telling you. But, I have not appointed them.”
\v 10 This is also what Yahweh says: “After you and your children have been in Babylon for seventy years, I will help you, and do for you the things that I promised, and I will enable you to return here to Jerusalem.
\v 11 I, Yahweh, know what I have planned for you. I am planning to cause things to go well for you, not to cause you to experience disasters. I am planning to give you many things that you can confidently expect to receive in the future that your people will survive to see.
\s5
\v 12 At that time, when you go to worship me and call out my name in prayer, I will listen to what you pray.
\v 13 If you earnestly desire for me to bless you, you will see that I will answer you.
\v 14 I will help you. I will cause you to no longer be slaves in Babylon. I will gather you from all the nations to which I have exiled you, and I will bring you back here to your own land, to the place from which you were taken.”
\v 15 Some of you say that Yahweh has appointed prophets for you there in Babylon.
\v 16 But this is what Yahweh says about the king who rules here in Jerusalem, and about all the other people who are still living here—your relatives who were not taken to Babylon with you.
\v 17 Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, says this: “I will cause them to experience wars and famines and diseases. I will cause them to become like bad figs that are very rotten, with the result that no one can eat them.
\v 18 I will not stop causing them to experience wars and famines and diseases. And I will scatter them all around the world. In every country where I force them to be taken, I will cause them to be people whom others curse and be horrified about and mock.
\v 19 That will happen because they have refused to pay attention to my messages, messages that I gave to the prophets whom I sent to them. And you who have been exiled to Babylon have not paid attention to them, either.” That is what Yahweh says.
\v 21 This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships,, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah, and about Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are telling lies to you, saying that they are giving messages from him: “They will be seized and taken to King Nebuchadnezzar, who will cause them to be executed while you are watching.
\v 22 Because of what will happen to them, all you people who have been taken from Judah to Babylon will say this when they curse someone: ‘I hope that Yahweh will do to you the same thing that he did to Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon caused to be killed by being burned in a fire.’
\v 23 They have done terrible things to my Israelite people. They have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and they have spoken lies, saying that they were messages from me. They have said things that I did not tell them to say, and I, Yahweh, have heard them say those things.”
\v 25 “This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says: “You wrote a letter that no one told you to write. You sent it to Zephaniah the priest, son of Maaseiah, and you sent copies to the other priests and all the other people here in Jerusalem. This is what you wrote to him:
\v 26 ‘Zephaniah, Yahweh has appointed you to be the priest instead of Jehoiada, to supervise those who work in the temple. Anyone who acts like a crazy man and who claims that he is a prophet, you should put his arms and legs and head into stocks.
\v 28 He sent a letter to us who are here in Babylon, saying that we will be here for a long time. He said that therefore we should build houses and plan to stay here, and plant gardens, and eat the food that is produced in the gardens.”
\v 31 “Send this message to all the people from Judah who are there in Babylon: Say that this is what Yahweh says about Shemaiah, the man from Nehelam: ‘I did not appoint him, but he has deceived you and caused you to believe the lies that he prophesied.
\v 32 So, I will punish him and his family. He has incited you to rebel against me. Because of that, all of his descendants will soon die. I will do many good things for you, my people, but he and his descendants will not see those things, because they will be dead. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it!’”
\v 2 “I, Yahweh, the God of Israel am telling you to write down everything that I have said to you.
\v 3 I want you to know that some day I will free my people, the people of Israel and Judah, from being slaves in Babylon. I will bring them back to this land that I gave to their ancestors, and this land will belong to them again. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.”
\v 23 This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says: “When I bring them back from the countries to which they have been exiled, all the people from the towns in Judah will again say, ‘I hope that Yahweh will bless this my home, the holy place where righteous people will live!’
\v 27 Then Yahweh said to me, “There will be a time when I will greatly increase the number of people and the number of livestock here in Israel and Judah.
\v 28 Previously, I caused their enemies to remove the people from their land and to destroy their land and to bring many disasters to it. But in the future, I will enable them to build houses and to plant crops here in Israel again. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.
\v 29 Previously the people often said, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, but it is the children’s teeth that ache.’ They meant that it was not fair for them to be punished for their ancestors’ sins. But when I bring them back to their land, they will no longer say that.
\v 30 But now all people will die because of the sins that they themselves have committed. It will be more like ‘The person who eats sour grapes will have his own teeth aching.’
\v 31 I, Yahweh, say this: ‘There will be a time when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
\v 32 This new agreement will not be like the agreement that I made with their ancestors when I took them by their hands and led them out of Egypt. They disobeyed that agreement, even though I loved them like husbands love their wives.’
\v 33 This is what I, Yahweh, say: ‘This is the new agreement that I will make with the people of Israel some day: I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their inner beings. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
\v 34 And it will not be necessary for them to teach their neighbors or their relatives and say, “You need to know Yahweh,” because everyone, including both unimportant people and very important people, will already know me. And I will forgive them for having been very wicked, and I will never think again about the sins that they have committed.’”
\q1 That is certain, because I, Yahweh, have said it!
\s5
\p
\v 38 I, Yahweh, also say that there will be a time when everything in Jerusalem will be rebuilt for me, from the tower of Hananel at the northeast corner, west to the gate named the Corner Gate.
\v 39 Workers will stretch a measuring line over Gareb Hill all the way southwest to Goah.
\v 40 And the whole area, including the place where corpses and ashes are thrown in the Kidron Valley, and all the fields to the east as far as the Horse Gate, will become set apart for me. And the city of Jerusalem will never again be captured or destroyed.”
\v 1 After Zedekiah had been ruling Judah for almost ten years, Yahweh gave me another message, during the time that Nebuchadnezzar had been ruling Babylonia for almost eighteen years.
\v 3 King Zedekiah had put me there. I continued to prophesy there about what would happen. I continued to say, “Yahweh says that he is about to allow the army of the king of Babylon to capture this city.
\v 5 Then his soldiers will take Zedekiah to Babylon, and he will remain there until I arrange for him to be punished. And if he tries to fight against the soldiers from Babylonia, he will not succeed.” King Zedekiah asked Jeremiah why he continued to say that, but Yahweh had said this would be so.
\v 7 “Your cousin Hanamel son of Shallum your uncle, will come to you. He will say to you, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth, your hometown. Because you are my closest relative, it is written in our laws that you have the right to buy it before I ask if anyone else wants to buy it.’”
\v 8 And just as Yahweh had predicted, my cousin Hanamel came to see me in the courtyard of the palace. He said, “Please buy my field at Anathoth in the area where the descendants of Benjamin live. It is written in our laws that you have the right to buy it before I ask if anyone else wants to buy it.” When he said that, I knew that the message that I had received was truly from Yahweh.
\v 9 So, I bought the field at Anathoth. I paid Hanamel almost two hundred grams of silver for it.
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\v 10 I signed the paper it on which it was written that I was buying it, while others were watching. Then I weighed the silver and gave it to him.
\v 11 Then I took two copies of the paper. One was sealed and the other was not sealed. On both of them was written the price and conditions of the purchase. I took both copies
\v 12 and I gave them to Baruch son of Neraiah, and the grandson of Mahseiah. I did this while my cousin Hanamel, the other witnesses who had signed the paper, and other men of Judah who were there in the courtyard, were watching.
\s5
\p
\v 13 Then, while they were all listening, I said to Baruch,
\v 14 “This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says: ‘Take both copies of this paper and put them in a clay jar, to preserve them for a long time.
\v 15 Do that because this is what I, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, say: Some day people will again own property in this land, and they will buy and sell houses and vineyards and fields.’”
\v 18 You show thousands of people that you will always be faithful to your covenant with them, but people suffer the consequences of the sins that their parents have committed. You are the great and powerful God. You are Yahweh, commander of the angel armies.
\v 20 You performed many miracles in Egypt, and you continue to perform miracles here in Israel and everywhere else in the world. Because of that, you have become very famous.
\v 21 You brought our Israelite ancestors out of Egypt by performing many great miracles, using your very great power, causing our enemies to be terrified.
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\v 22 You gave to us Israelite people this land that you solemnly promised to give to our ancestors, a land that is very fertile.
\v 23 Our ancestors came here and conquered this land and started to live in it, but they refused to obey you or to do what you commanded them to do. Because of that, you have caused them to experience all these disasters.
\v 24 And now, the army of Babylonia has built ramps up against our city walls in order to attack our city. Because of our enemies’ swords and because of famines and diseases, they will be able to conquer it easily. The things that you said would happen have now happened.
\v 25 And it is evident that the Babylonian army will soon conquer this city. So now, I do not understand why you told me to buy this field with my silver, while others were watching. It seems that I have just been wasting my money by doing that!”
\v 28 So, this is what I say: It is true that I will enable the Babylonian army and King Nebuchadnezzar to capture this city.
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\v 29 The soldiers of Babylonia who are now outside the walls around the city will enter and burn this city. They will burn down all the houses where people caused me to become angry by burning incense on the tops of their roofs to honor Baal and by pouring out offerings of wine to other gods.
\p
\v 30 The people of Israel and Judah have continually done only evil things from the time that they became a nation. They have caused me to become very angry by all their evil deeds.
\s5
\v 31 From the time that this city was built until now, the people of this city have done only things that caused me to be very angry. So now I will destroy it.
\v 32 The people of Israel and Judah, including their kings, their officials, the priests, the false prophets, and all the other people in Jerusalem have committed many sins that have caused me to become angry.
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\v 33 My people have turned away from me and have refused to return to me. Even though I taught them things many times, they would not pay attention to what I taught them, and they would not obey me.
\v 34 They have set up their detestable idols even in my own temple and defiled it.
\v 35 They have built on the hilltops places to worship Baal in Ben Hinnom Valley outside Jerusalem, and there they sacrifice their sons and daughters to their god Molech. I never commanded them to do such horrible deeds. I never even considered ordering such a terrible thing. And by doing it they have caused all the people of Judah to be guilty of having sinned.”
\v 36 “But now I will say something more about this city. You people of Jerusalem have been saying, ‘The army of the king of Babylon will conquer it, either by their swords or because of famines or diseases.’ But this is what I, the God of Israel, say:
\v 37 ‘I will certainly bring my people back here again, from all the countries to which I will force them to go because I am extremely angry with them. I will bring them back to this city and allow them to live here safely.
\v 38 They will be my people, and I will be their God.
\v 39 I will give them one way of thinking and behaving, in order that they may revere me, for their good and for the good of their descendants.
\v 40 I will make an agreement with them that will last forever: I will never stop doing good things for them, and they will always honor me; they will never stop worshiping me.
\v 41 I will be happy to do good things for them, and I will surely enable them to return to this land and remain here; I will do that with all my inner being and all my strength.’
\v 42 And this is also what I, Yahweh, say: ‘I have caused them to experience all these disasters. Similarly, some day I will do for them all the good things that I have promised.
\v 43 By buying land you, Jeremiah, have predicted that some day people will buy and sell fields in this land about which you people of Jerusalem now say, “The Babylonian soldiers have destroyed it. It is now desolate. It is a land where there are no longer any people or animals.”
\v 44 But some day people will again buy and sell fields here. People will sign documents about buying those fields, and other people will witness them doing that. That will happen in the land where the descendants of Benjamin live and here in the villages near Jerusalem, in other towns in Judah, in the hill country and in the foothills to the west, and in the southern Judean wilderness. Some day I will cause them to prosper again. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.’”
\v 4 This is what I, Yahweh, the God of Israel, say: ‘The men in this city have torn down some of their houses, and even parts of the king’s palace, to get materials to strengthen the walls around the city, in order that the soldiers of Babylonia would not be able to break through the walls after they climb up the ramps that they have built against the walls, and kill the inhabitants with their swords.
\v 5 You are expecting to fight against the army from Babylonia, but what will happen is that the houses of this city will be filled with the corpses of the men of this city whom I will allow to be killed because I am extremely angry with them. I have abandoned them because of all the wicked things that they have done.
\s5
\p
\v 6 However, there will be a time when I will cause the people in this city to be healthy and strong again. I will enable them to be prosperous and have peace.
\v 7 I will bring the people of Judah and Israel back from the lands to which they were exiled. I will enable them to rebuild their towns.
\v 8 I will get rid of their guilt for all the sins that they have committed against me, and I will forgive them for their sin of rebelling against me.
\v 9 When that happens, all the nations of the world will rejoice, and they will praise me and honor me. They will hear about all the good things that I have done for this city and, because of that, they will revere me, and they will tremble because I have caused the people in this city to have peace and to prosper.’
\v 10 And this is also what I, Yahweh, say: ‘You people have said that this is a land where there are no longer any people or animals. But in the streets of Jerusalem that are now completely empty, and in the other towns in Judah,
\v 11 some day people will again be happy and laugh. Brides and bridegrooms will again sing joyfully. And many other people will also sing joyfully as they bring their offerings to me to thank me for what I have done for them. They will sing this song:
\v 12 This land is now desolate. There are no people or animals living here. But I, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, say this: ‘In this land there will again be pastures where shepherds will lead their sheep
\v 13 Shepherds will again count their sheep as the sheep walk by, outside the towns in the hill country, in the western foothills, in the southern Judean wilderness, in the land where the descendants of Benjamin live, around Jerusalem, and outside all the other towns in Judah.’ That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.
\v 14 Listen to this! I, Yahweh, say that there will be a time when I will do for the people of Israel and Judah all the good things that I promised to do for them.
\q1
\v 15 At that time I will appoint a righteous man who will be a descendant of King David.
\q2 Throughout the land, he will do what is just and right.
\q1
\v 16 At that time, the people of Judah will be rescued from their enemies,
\v 17 And this is also what I, Yahweh, say: ‘There will be descendants of King David ruling Israel forever.
\v 18 And there will always be priests who are descendants of Levi who stand in front of me and offer sacrifices that will be completely burned on the altar and who will burn food offerings and other sacrifices.’”
\v 21 Similarly, you cannot annul the promise that I made with King David, who served me well, that there will always be descendants of his who will rule Judah. The same is true for my agreement with the descendants of Levi who are priests who do work for me.
\v 22 No one can count the stars in the sky, and no one can count the grains of sand at the seashore. Similarly, I will cause there to be a huge number of descendants of David and descendants of Levi who will work for me.’”
\v 24 “Surely you know that some people are saying, ‘Yahweh chose two groups, the people of Judah and the people of Israel, and later abandoned them.’ Thepeople who are saying this are despising my people; they are saying that Israel no longer deserves to be considered a nation.
\v 25 But this is what I say: ‘I will not reject my people any quicker than I will change my laws that control the day and the night, the sky and the earth.
\v 26 Similarly, I will never abandon the descendants of David or the other descendants of Jacob, and I will always allow descendants of David to rule the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will bring them back to their land, and I will act mercifully toward them.’”
\v 1 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came with the armies of all the kingdoms that he ruled, and they fought against Jerusalem and the other towns in Judah. At that time, Yahweh gave me this message:
\v 2 “Go to Zedekiah the King of Judah, and say to him, ‘This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to enable the army of the king of Babylon to capture this city, and they will burn it down.
\v 3 You will not escape from them; they will capture you and take you to the king of Babylon. You will meet him and speak with him face to face; then they will take you to Babylon.”
\v 4 But King Zedekiah, listen to what Yahweh has promised: “You will not be killed in a battle;
\v 5 you will die peacefully. When you die, people will burn incense to honor you just as they did for your ancestors who were kings before you became king. They will mourn for you, calling out, ‘We are very sad that our king is dead!’ I, Yahweh, promise that will happen.”’”
\v 7 At that time the army of Babylonia had surrounded Jerusalem and Lachish and Azekah. Those three cities were the only three cities in Judah that had high walls around them that still had not been captured.
\s5
\p
\v 8 King Zedekiah had decreed that the people must free their slaves.
\v 9 He decreed that the people must free their Hebrew slaves, both the men slaves and the women slaves. No one would be allowed to force a fellow Jew to continue to be his slave.
\s5
\v 10 The officials and the rest of the people had obeyed what the king decreed,
\v 11 but later they changed their minds. They forced the men and women whom they had freed to become their slaves again.
\s5
\p
\v 12 So Yahweh gave me this message to tell to them:
\v 14 I told them that they must free all their Hebrew slaves after the slaves had worked for them for six years. But your ancestors did not pay any attention to what I said.
\s5
\v 15 Recently, you obeyed my command and stopped doing what was wrong and did what was right. You made a solemn agreement at my temple that you would free your slaves, and then you freed them.
\v 16 But now you have disregarded what you solemnly promised, and you have shown contempt for what I said by taking back the women and men whom you had freed and said they could live wherever they wanted to. Now you have forced them to be your slaves again.
\v 17 Therefore, this is what I, Yahweh, say: ‘Because you have not obeyed me by freeing your fellow Israelites, I will free you to be destroyed by the swords of your enemies and by famines and diseases. All the nations of the earth will be horrified because of what happens to you.
\v 18-19 Because you have disregarded what I said in my agreement with you, I will do to you just what you did to the calves that you cut in half to show that you would surely do what you solemnly promised that you would do. I will enable your enemies to cut you into pieces, you officials of Judah and you officials of Jerusalem, and you officials in the palace, and you priests and all you common people. I will do that because you have ignored the fact that you had solemnly promised to free your slaves.
\s5
\v 20 I will enable your enemies to capture you, and they will kill you. And your bodies will be food for vultures and wild animals.
\p
\v 21 I will enable the army of the king of Babylon to capture King Zedekiah and his officials. Although the king of Babylon and his army have left Jerusalem for a short time,
\v 22 I will summon them back again. This time, they will fight against this city and capture it and burn it down. I will make sure that all the towns in Judah are destroyed, with the result that no one will live there anymore.’”
\v 2 “Go to the place where families of the Rekab clan live. Invite them to my temple. When they arrive, take them into one of the inside rooms and offer them some wine.”
\v 3 So I went to see Jaazaniah and all his brothers and sons who represented the Rekab clan. Jaazaniah was a son of another man named Jeremiah and grandson of Habazziniah.
\v 4 I took them to the temple, and we went into the room where the sons of Igdaliah’s son Hanan, who was a prophet, stayed. That room was next to the room that was used by the men who were in charge of the entrances to the temple. It was above the room that belonged to Maaseiah, who was the temple gatekeeper and the son of Shallum.
\v 6 but they refused. They said, “We do not drink wine, because our ancestor Jonadab son of Rekab, commanded us, saying ‘You and your descendants must never drink wine.
\v 7 And you must not build houses or plant vineyards or other crops. Instead, you must always live in tents. If you obey those commands, you all will live for many years in this land.’
\v 11 But when the army of King Nebuchadnezzar attacked this country, we said, ‘We must go to Jerusalem to escape from the armies of Babylonia and Aram.’ So, we came to Jerusalem and we are living here.”
\v 13 “This is what I, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, say: ‘Go and tell this to the people in Jerusalem and in other places in Judah: “Why do you not listen to me or learn something about how to obey me?
\v 14 The Rekab clan still do not drink wine, because their ancestor Jonadab told them to not do that. In contrast, I have spoken to you many times, but you ignored me and refused to obey me.
\v 15 Many times I sent prophets to you. They told you, ‘Turn away from your wicked behavior, and do things that you should do. Stop worshiping other gods, in order that you will be able to live peacefully in this land that I gave to you and your ancestors.’ But you would not pay attention to what I said or obey me.
\v 17 Therefore, this is what I, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, say: ‘You have refused to listen to me and you did not answer when I called you. Therefore, I will cause the people in Jerusalem and other places in Judah to experience all the disasters that I said that I would cause to happen.’”’”
\v 18 Then Jeremiah turned to the Rekab clan and said, “This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says: ‘You have obeyed what your ancestor Jonadab told you. You have obeyed all his instructions.
\v 19 Therefore, this is what Yahweh says: “There will always be descendants of Jonadab who will do work for me.”’”
\v 2 “Get a scroll, and write on it the messages that I have given to you regarding Israel, Judah, and the other nations. Write all of the messages, starting from the time that I gave you the first message, when Josiah was the king, up until now.
\v 3 When the people of Judah hear again about all the disasters that I plan to cause them to experience, perhaps each one of them will repent. If they do that, I will be able to forgive them for the wrong things that they have done.”
\v 4 So Jeremiah summoned Baruch son of Neraiah. Then, as Jeremiah dictated to him all the messages that Yahweh had spoken to him, he wrote them on a scroll.
\v 6 So, you go to the temple on the next day when the people are fasting, and read to them the messages from Yahweh that you wrote while I dictated them to you. Read them aloud to all the people who are there, including the people of Judah who come there from their towns.
\v 7 Perhaps they will turn from their evil behavior and request Yahweh to act mercifully toward them. They must do that, because Yahweh is very angry with them and has threatened to punish them severely.”
\v 8 Baruch did what Jeremiah told him to do. He went to the temple and read to the people all those messages from Yahweh.
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\v 9 He did it on the ninth month, on a day when their leaders had proclaimed that all the people in Jerusalem, and the people who had come there from other towns in Judah, should fast to please Yahweh. This happened when Jehoiakim had been king for almost five years.
\v 10 Baruch read to all the people the messages that he had written on the scroll. He read them while he was in the temple, in the room where Gemariah stayed. He was the son of Shaphan, who had previously been the king’s secretary. That room was close to the upper courtyard of the temple, near the entrance to the temple that is called the New Gate.
\v 12 he went down to the secretary’s room in the palace, where all the king’s officials were meeting. Elishama the king’s secretary was there. Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Acbor, Gemariah, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials of the king were also there.
\v 13 When Micaiah told them about the messages that Baruch had been reading to the people,
\v 14 the officials sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, and grandson of Shelemiah and great-grandson of Cushi, to tell Baruch to come and read the messages to them, also. So Baruch took the scroll and went to them.
\v 16 After they had heard all the messages, they were afraid. They looked at each other and then they said, “We must tell these messages to the king!”
\v 17 Then they asked Baruch, “How did you get this scroll? Did Jeremiah dictate to you all the messages on this scroll?”
\v 20 They put the scroll in the room of Elishama, the king’s secretary. Then they went to the king, who was in the courtyard, and reported to him everything that Baruch had read to them.
\v 21 Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. Jehudi brought it from Elishama’s room and read it to the king, while all the king’s officials were standing there.
\v 22 It was in the cold season, and the king was in a part of the palace where he stayed when it was cold. He was sitting in front of a fire to keep warm.
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\v 23 Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king cut off that section of the scroll with a knife and threw it into the fire. He did that, section by section, until the entire scroll was burned up.
\v 24 Neither the king nor his officials showed that they were afraid that God would punish them. They did not tear their clothes to show that they were sorry for what they had done.
\s5
\v 25 Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah pleaded with the king not to burn the scroll, but he did not pay any attention.
\v 26 Then the king commanded his son Jerahmeel, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch and me. But they were unable to do that because Yahweh had hidden us.
\s5
\p
\v 27 After the king had burned the scroll on which were written the messages that I had dictated to Baruch, Yahweh said this to me:
\v 28 “Get another scroll, and tell Baruch to write everything again, the same messages that he had written on the scroll that King Jehoiakim burned.
\v 29 Then go to the king and say to him, ‘Yahweh says this: You burned the scroll because you did not like what was written on it, that the king of Babylon would surely come with his army and destroy this land and get rid of all the people and the animals.
\v 30 Now this is what I, Yahweh, say about you, Jehoiakim: None of your descendants will rule this kingdom. Your corpse will be thrown out on the ground and not buried; it will be under the hot sun during the days and struck by frost during the nights.
\v 31 I will punish you and your family and your officials for their sins. And I will cause the people of Jerusalem and the people of the other towns in Judah to experience all the disasters that I promised, because you all would not pay attention to what I said!”’”
\v 32 So Jeremiah took another scroll, and again he dictated the messages to Baruch. He wrote everything that had been written on the other scroll, the one that King Jehoiakim had burned in the fire. But this time, Jeremiah added more messages.
\v 1 After Jehoiakim died, his son Jehoiachin became king for only three months, after which King Josiah’s son Zedekiah became the king of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, appointed him to be the new king.
\v 2 But King Zedekiah and his palace officials and the other people in the land paid no attention to the messages that Yahweh gave me.
\s5
\p
\v 3 However, one day King Zedekiah sent Jehukal son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the priest, son of Maaseiah, to me. They requested me to pray to Yahweh our God for our nation.
\p
\v 4 At that time Jeremiah had not yet been put in prison, so he could go and come wherever and whenever he wanted to, without being hindered.
\p
\v 5 At that time, the army of Hophra, the king of Egypt, came to the southern border of Judah. When the army of Babylonia heard about that, they stopped surrounding Jerusalem and left there to fight against the army from Egypt.
\v 7 “I, Yahweh, the God of Israel, say this: The king of Judah has sent messengers to you to ask me what is going to happen. Tell the king that even though the army of the king of Egypt came to help him, they are about to return to Egypt.
\v 9 So, this is what Jeremiah said to you Israelites: ‘You should not deceive yourselves, thinking that the army from Babylonia has gone and will not return. That is not true.
\v 10 And even if your soldiers could destroy almost all of the soldiers from Babylonia who are attacking you, and allow only those who were wounded to remain alive in their tents, those men would come out of their tents and completely burn this city.’”
\v 11 When the army from Babylonia left Jerusalem because the army from Egypt was approaching,
\v 12 Jeremiah started to leave the city. He intended to go to the area where the descendants of Benjamin live, in order to take possession of my share of the property from my family.
\v 13 But as he was walking out the Benjamin Gate, the head guard seized Jeremiah and said, “You are deserting us and going to the soldiers from Babylonia!” The man who seized him was Irijah son of Shelemiah, and grandson of Hananiah.
\v 14 But Jeremiah protested and said, “That is not true! I was not intending to do that!” But Irijah would not pay attention to what Jeremiah said. He took Jeremiah to the king’s officials.
\v 15 They were very angry with him. They commanded the guards to beat Jeremiah and then to put him in the house where Jonathan the king’s secretary stayed. They had changed Jonathan’s house to make it become a prison.
\v 17 Then King Zedekiah secretly sent a servant to him, who took Jeremiah to the palace. There the king asked him, “Do you have any messages from Yahweh?” Jeremiah replied, “Yes, the message is that you will be put into the hands of the king of Babylon.”
\v 18 Then Jeremiah asked the king, “What crime have I committed against you or against your officials or against the Israelite people, with the result that you have commanded that I be put in a prison?
\v 20 Your majesty, I plead with you to listen to me. Do not send me back to the dungeon in the house of Jonathan your secretary, because if you do that, I will die there.”
\v 21 So King Zedekiah commanded that Jeremiah not be sent back to the prison cell. Instead, he was allowed to be watched by the guards in the courtyard of the palace. The king also commanded that they should bring him a loaf of fresh bread every day, until there was no bread left in the city. So they put Jeremiah in that courtyard and he remained there.
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\p
\v 1 Four officials, Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehukal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah, heard what Jeremiah had been telling all the people.
\v 2 He had been telling them that Yahweh was saying, “Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die. They will be killed by their enemies’ swords or from famines or from diseases. But those who surrender to the Babylonian army will remain alive. They will escape; they will not be killed.
\v 3 Yahweh also says that the army of the king of Babylon will certainly capture this city.”
\v 4 So those officials went to the king and said, “This man Jeremiah should be executed! Because of what he is saying, he is discouraging our soldiers who remain in the city. He is also discouraging the people. He is not saying things that will help us; he is saying things that will defeat us.”
\v 6 So those officials took Jeremiah from his cell and lowered him by ropes into a cistern in the courtyard. The cistern belonged to Malkijah, who was a son of the king. There was no water in the ciestern, but there was a lot of mud, so he sank down deep into the mud.
\v 7 But Ebed-Melek, a palace official from Ethiopia, heard someone say that Jeremiah was in the well. At that time the king was deciding people’s cases at the Benjamin Gate.
\v 9 “Your majesty, those men have done a very evil thing. They have put the prophet Jeremiah in a well. Almost all the food in the city is gone, so no one will be able to bring him any food, and as a result he will die from hunger!”
\v 11 So Ebed-Melek took charge of those thirty men; they went into a room in the palace below the room where people had stored things. There they found some old rags and discarded clothing. They took those things and went to the well. They fastened them to a rope and lowered the rope to me.
\v 12 Then Ebed-Melek called down to me, “Put these rags underneath your armpits, to protect you from being injured by the ropes!” So Jeremiah did that.
\v 14 One day King Zedekiah summoned Jeremiah, and he was brought to the king, who was waiting for him at the entrance of the temple. He said to Jeremiah, “I want to ask you something. I want you to answer me truthfully, and to not conceal anything.”
\v 15 Jeremiah replied, “If I tell you the truth, you will command that I be executed. And if I give you good advice, you will not pay attention to what I say.”
\v 16 But King Zedekiah secretly promised him, “Tell me the truth! And as surely as Yahweh lives, I will not cause you to be executed, and I will not put you into the hands of those who are wanting to kill you.”
\v 17 So then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says: ‘If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, you and your family will be spared, and this city will not be burned.
\v 18 But if you refuse to surrender to them, you will not escape. And the army from Babylonia will capture this city and completely burn it.’”
\v 19 The king replied, “But I am afraid to surrender to the soldiers from Babylon, because their officers may put me into the hands of the people of Judah who have already joined the soldiers from Babylonia, and those people from Judah will mistreat me.”
\v 20 Jeremiah replied, “If you obey Yahweh by doing what I tell you to do, they will not put you into the hands of our people. Things will go well for you, and you will remain alive.
\v 23 All of your wives and children in the city will be led out to the soldiers from Babylonia, and you also will not escape. The soldiers of the king of Babylon will seize you, and they will burn down this city.”
\v 24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Do not tell anyone what you told me; if you tell anyone, the king’s officials may kill you.
\v 25 If my officials find out that I talked to you, perhaps they will come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you and the king were talking about. If you do not tell us, we will kill you.’
\v 26 If that happens, just tell them that you pleaded with me not to send you back to the dungeon in Jonathan’s house, because you were afraid that you would die if you were put there again.”
\v 27 And that is what happened. The king’s officials came to Jeremiah and asked why the king had summoned him. But he told them what the king told him to tell them. So they did not ask Jeremiah any more questions, because no one had heard what the king and Jeremiah had said to each other.
\v 28 So Jeremiah remained being guarded in the courtyard of the palace, until the day that the army of Babylonia captured Jerusalem.
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\p
\v 1 After King Zedekiah had been ruling Judah for almost nine years, King Nebuchadnezzar came in the tenth month of the year with his army, and they surrounded Jerusalem.
\v 2 One and a half years later, after Zedekiah had been ruling for almost eleven years, in the eleventh year and fourth month, soldiers from Babylonia broke through the city wall. Then they rushed in and captured the city.
\v 3 Then all the officers of the king of Babylon came in and sat down at the Middle Gate to decide what they would do to the city. They included Nergal-Sharezer, Samgar Nebo, Sarsekim who was one of the chief administrative officers, Nergal-Sharezer, the king’s advisor, and many other officials.
\v 4 When King Zedekiah and all his soldiers realized that the army of Babylonia had broken into the city, they fled. They waited until it was dark. Then they went out of the city through the king’s garden, through the gate that was between the two walls. Then they started running toward the plain along the Jordan.
\v 5 But the soldiers from Babylonia pursued the king, and they caught him on the plains near Jericho. They took him to the king of Babylon, who was at Riblah in the Hamath. There Nebuchadnezzar told his soldiers what they should do to punish Zedekiah.
\s5
\v 6 They forced Zedekiah to watch while they killed his sons and all the officials from Judah.
\v 9 Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the king’s bodyguards, forced to go to Babylon most of the other people who remained in the city and the Jews who had joined the soldiers of Babylonia.
\v 14 sent some men to bring Jeremiah out of the courtyard outside of the palace. They took him to Gedaliah who was the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan. Then Gedaliah took Jeremiah to his home, and he stayed in Judah among his own people who had been allowed to remain there.
\s5
\p
\v 15 But while Jeremiah was still being guarded in the palace courtyard, Yahweh gave him this message:
\v 16 “Say this to Ebed-Melek, the official from Ethiopia: ‘This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says: I will do to this city everything that I said that I would do. Everthing I told you would be done, and you will see it with your own eyes.
\v 18 You trusted me, so I will save you. You will not be killed by our enemies’ swords. You will live. That will surely happen, because I, Yahweh, have said it.’”
\v 1 The soldiers from Babylonia captured Jeremiah and many other people from Jerusalem and other places in Judah. They planned to take them to Babylon. So they fastened chains around their wrists and took them to Ramah, a town north of Jerusalem. While they were there, Jeremiah was released. This is how it happened:
\v 2 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the king’s guards, found that Jeremiah was there. He summoned Jeremiah and said to him, “Yahweh your God said that he would cause this land to experience a disaster.
\v 3 And now he has caused it to happen. He has done just what he said that he would do, because you people sinned against Yahweh and refused to obey him.
\v 4 But today I am going to take the chains off your wrists and release you. If you want to come with me to Babylon, that will be fine. I will take care of you. But if you do not want to come with me, do not come. Stay here. Look, the entire country is available; you can choose whatever part you want to go to. You can go wherever you think it is best.” Then he took the chains off Jeremiah’s wrists.
\v 5 He said, “If you decide to stay here, go to Gedaliah. The king of Babylon appointed him to be the governor of Judah. You will be allowed to stay here with the people that he is governing. But you can do whatever you want to.”
\p Then Nebuzaradan gave Jeremiah some food and some money, and he allowed him to go.
\p
\v 6 He returned to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and he stayed in Judah with the people who still remained in the land.
\s5
\p
\v 7 The Israelite soldiers who had not surrendered to the army of Babylonia were roaming around in the countryside. Then their leaders heard someone say that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah to be the governor of the very poor people who were still in Judah, who had not been taken to Babylon.
\v 8 So they went to talk to Gedaliah at Mizpah. Those who went included Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai from Netophath, and Jezaniah from Maacah, and the soldiers who were with them.
\v 9 Gedaliah solemnly promised that the soldiers from Babylonia would not harm them. He said, “Do not be afraid to do things for them. Stay here in this land and do things for the king of Babylon. If you do that, things will go well for you.
\v 10 As for me, I will stay here at Mizpah to be your representative to the officials from Babylonia who come to talk with us. But you should return to your towns, and eat the things that are produced on your land. Harvest the grapes and the fruit that ripens in the summer and the olives, make wine and olive oil, and store it.”
\v 11 Then the Jews who had fled to Moab, Ammon, Edom, and other nearby countries heard people say that the king of Babylon had allowed a few people to remain in Judah, and that he had appointed Gedaliah to be their governor.
\v 12 So they began to return to Judah. They stopped at Mizpah to talk with Gedaliah. Then they went to various places in Judea, and they harvested a great amount of grapes and summer fruit.
\s5
\p
\v 13 Some time later, Johanan and all the other leaders of the Israelite soldiers who had not surrendered to the army of Babylonia came to Gedaliah at Mizpah.
\v 14 They said to him, “Do you know that Baalis, the king of the people of Ammon, has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to assassinate you?” But Gedaliah did not believe what they said.
\v 15 Later Johanan talked with Gedaliah privately. He said, “Allow me to go and murder Ishmael secretly. It would not be good to allow him to come and murder you! If you are killed, what will happen to all the Jews who have returned to this area? They will be scattered, and the other people who remain in Judah will all be killed!”
\v 1 Ishmael son of Nethaniah was a member of the king’s family. He had been one of King Zedekiah’s important officials. In the seventh month of that year, he went to Mizpah with ten other men to talk with Gedaliah. While they were eating together,
\v 2 Ishmael and the other ten men jumped up, and with their swords they killed Gedaliah—the man whom the king of Babylon had appointed to be their governor!
\v 3 Ishmael and the other men also killed all the Jews and the Babylonians who his soldiers found with Gedaliah at Mizpah.
\s5
\p
\v 4 The next day, before anyone had found out that Gedaliah had been murdered,
\v 5 eighty men from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria came to worship at the temple of Yahweh in Mizpah. They had shaved off their beards and torn their clothes and cut themselves to show that they were mourning. And they had brought grain offerings and incense to burn on the altar.
\v 6 Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out of the city to meet them, weeping as he went. When he reached them, he said, “Come and see what has happened to Gedaliah!”
\v 7 But as soon as they had all entered the town, Ishmael and his men killed most of them and threw their corpses into a well.
\s5
\v 8 There were only ten of them whom they spared. They were not killed because they promised to Ishmael that if he allowed them to remain alive, they would bring him lots of wheat and barley and olive oil and honey that they had hidden.
\v 9 The well where Ishmael’s men had thrown the corpses of the men whom they had murdered was the deep well that King Asa’s men had dug in order that they would have water in the city if the army of King Baasha of Israel would surround the city. Ishmael’s men filled that well with corpses.
\v 10 Then Ishmael and his men captured the king’s daughters and some of the other people who had been left in Mizpah by the chief Babylonian guard Nebuzaradan so that Gedaliah would take care of them. Ishmael and his men took those people and started back toward the Ammon area.
\v 11 But Johanan son of Kareah and all the other leaders of the Israelite soldiers who had not surrendered to the army of Babylonia heard about what Ishmael son of Nethaniah and his men had done.
\v 12 So they immediately went with all their men to stop them. They caught up with them at the large pool near the city of Gibeon.
\s5
\v 13 When all the people whom Ishmael and his men had captured saw Johanan and the soldiers who were with him, they shouted joyfully.
\v 14 So all those who had been captured in Mizpah escaped, and they started to help Johanan.
\s5
\v 15 But Ishmael son of Nethaniah and eight of his men escaped and fled to the Ammon area.
\v 16 Then Johanan son of Kareah and the men who were with him gathered together all the people whom they had rescued at Gibeon. They included soldiers and women and children and some of the king’s palace officials. They were all people whom Ishmael and his men had captured after they had killed Gedaliah.
\v 17 They took them all to Geruth Kimham village near Bethlehem. And they all prepared to go to Egypt.
\v 18 They were worried about what the soldiers of Babylonia would do to them when they found out that Ishmael had killed Gedaliah, who had been appointed by the king of Babylonia to be their governor.
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\p
\v 1 Then Johanan son of Kereah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the other leaders of the Israelite soldiers who had not surrendered to the army of Babylonia, and many other people, including those who were important and those who were not important, came to me.
\v 2 They said, “Please listen to our request and pray to Yahweh our God for all of us. Although we were previously a huge number of people, you can see that now we are only a small number of people who have survived.
\v 3 Pray that Yahweh our God will show us what we should do and where we should go.”
\v 5 They replied to me, “We know that Yahweh our God will be a faithful witness against us if we refuse to do everything that he tells us to do.
\v 6 We are requesting you to ask Yahweh our God what we should do. When he replies, we will obey him, whether we like what he says or not. We will do that because we know that things will go well for us if we obey him.”
\v 7 So I prayed to Yahweh, and ten days later he gave me his reply.
\v 8 So I summoned Johanan son of Kereah and all the other leaders of the and all the other people, including those who were important and those who were not important.
\v 9 I said to them, “You told me to tell Yahweh, the God of Israel what you were requesting. This is what he replied:
\v 10 ‘You should stay here in this land. If you do that, I will cause your nation to be strong and not be weak. I will cause you to prosper and not be exiled again. I will stop the disasters that I made you experience.
\v 13 But if you refuse to obey Yahweh our God, and if you say ‘We will not stay here;
\v 14 instead, we will go to Egypt. There we will not experience any wars, we will not hear trumpets signaling our soldiers to prepare for battles, and we will not be hungry.’
\v 15 Listen now! you people who are left in Judah! Listen to what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says to you: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt, and if you go and live there,
\v 17 That is what will happen to all you who are determined to go to Egypt and live there. Some of you will be killed by the swords of your enemies, and others of you will die from famines and from diseases. None of you will escape the disasters that I will bring on you.’
\v 18 And Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, also says this: ‘Because I was very angry, I severely punished all the people of Jerusalem. I will do the same things to you when you go to Egypt. The result will be that people will curse you. They will be horrified about what has happened to you. They will make fun of you, and you will never see this land again.’
\v 19 You little group of people of Judah who are still alive, listen to me: Yahweh has told you, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ So do not forget what I have warned you today.
\v 22 You want to go to Egypt and live there. So now, you can be sure of this: All of you will die there. Some of you will be killed by the swords of your enemies and others will die from famines or from diseases.”
\v 2 But then Johanan son of Kareah and Azariah son of Hoshaiah and some other insolent men said to me, “You are lying! Yahweh our God has not told us that we should not go to Egypt!
\v 3 We think that Baruch son of Neriah has urged you to say this, in order that if we stay here, the soldiers from Babylonia will seize us and kill us or take us to Babylonia.”
\v 4 So Johanan and the other leaders of the Judean soldiers and many of the other people who were there refused to obey Yahweh’s command to stay in Judah.
\v 6 They included men, women, children, the king’s daughters, and all those whom Nebuzaradan had left with Gedaliah, and they also took Baruch and me.
\v 9 “While the people of Judah are watching you, take some large rocks and bury them under the brick pavement at the entrance to the king’s palace there at Tachpanches.
\v 10 Then say to the people of Judah, ‘This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says: “I will summon Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, who does my work, to come with his army to Egypt. I will set up his throne over these stones that I told Jeremiah to bury. And Nebuchadnezzar will set up his tent there to show that he has become the king of Egypt.
\v 11 When his army comes, they will attack Egypt. Then those will die who I have determined must die, those who I have determined must be captured will be captured, and those who I have determined must be killed by swords will be killed by swords.
\v 12 Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt and take away their idols as souvenirs. His troops will clean Egypt like a shepherd cleans lice from his cloak and leave without having been harmed.
\v 13 But before they leave, they will have torn down the pillars that are in the temple of their sun god and burned all of the temple of the false Egyptian gods.”’”
\v 1 This is the message that Yahweh gave me concerning the Judeans who were living in northern Egypt—in Migdol, Tachpanches, and Memphis—and in the region of Pathros in southern Egypt:
\v 2 “This is what I, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, say: You saw the disaster that I caused the people in Jerusalem and the other towns in Judah to experience. Those towns are now ruined and deserted.
\v 3 That happened because I was extremely angry with them on account of their being very wicked. They burned incense to other gods and worshiped them. They were gods that you previously did not know about, and your ancestors also did not know about them.
\v 5 But my people would not pay any attention to what I said to them. They would not turn away from their wicked behavior, or stop burning incense to worship other gods.
\v 6 So I poured out the consequences of my great anger on them. My punishment fell on the streets of Jerusalem and on the other towns in Judah like a fire. It caused those towns to be ruined and deserted, and they are still like that.
\s5
\p
\v 7 So now I, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, ask you: Why are you causing yourselves to experience these disasters? Do you not realize that because of what you are doing, soon there will be no more men or women or children or infants left among you who have come here to Egypt from Judah?
\v 8 Why are you provoking me and causing me to be very angry by burning incense to the idols that you have made here in Egypt? If you continue doing this, you will destroy yourselves, and you will cause yourselves to be people whom all the nations on the earth will curse and despise.
\s5
\v 9 Have you forgotten how I punished your ancestors for the wicked things that they did, and how I punished the kings and queens of Judah for what they did, and you and your wives for the sins that you committed in the streets of Jerusalem and the other towns in Judah?
\v 10 Up until this day you have not humbled yourselves or revered me. You have not obeyed the laws and decrees that I gave to you and your ancestors.
\s5
\p
\v 11 Therefore, this is what I, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, say: I am determined to cause all of you to experience disasters and to get rid of everyone in Judah.
\v 12 You people from Judah who have survived were determined to come and live here in Egypt. So I will get rid of all of you here in Egypt. Every one of you will die, including those who are important and those who are not important. Some of you will be killed by your enemies’ swords, some will die from famines. You will become people whom others curse, be horrified about, and make fun of.
\v 13 I will punish you here in Egypt like I punished others in Jerusalem, some of whom were killed by their enemies’ swords and some of whom died from famines or diseases.
\v 14 None of you people who came from Judah and now live in Egypt, none of you will be successful in any attempt to escape from Egypt, you will not grow in numbers while you live in Egypt, and you will not be able to return to Judah, even though you desire to return to Judah, you will not be able to go back there to live and make your homes. None of you will be able to return to Judah, except only a very small number of you who will be able able to escape from Egypt and to return Judah and live there.”
\v 15 Then a large group of the people who had started to live in northern Egypt and southern Egypt, including all the men who knew that their wives had been burning incense to other gods, and all the women who were standing there, said this to me:
\v 17 We will certainly do everything that we said that we would do. We will burn incense to worship our goddess Asherah, the Queen of Heaven, and we will pour out offerings of wine to her, just like we and our ancestors and our kings and their officials have always done in the streets of Jerusalem and in the other towns in Judah. At that time, we had plenty of food, and we were prosperous and we did not have any troubles.
\v 18 But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and giving her offerings of wine, we have had many troubles, and some of our people have been killed by our enemies or died from hunger.”
\v 19 And the women said, “Furthermore, we burned incense and poured out wine offerings to the Queen of Heaven, and we also made small cakes that resembled her idol, to offer to her, and we poured drinks to honor her. But our husbands certainly knew about and approved of what we were doing!”
\v 21 “Do not think that Yahweh did not know that you and your ancestors and your kings and their officials and all the other people in Judah were burning incense to worship idols in the streets of Jerusalem and in the other towns in Judah! He knew about it!
\v 22 It was because Yahweh could no longer endure your wicked actions and the detestable things that you were doing that he caused your land to be a place whose name people say when they curse someone, a land that is ruined and which has no one living in it. And your land is still like that.
\v 23 It is because you burned incense to worship idols and committed other sins against Yahweh that you experienced all those disasters. It is because you have not obeyed him or obeyed his laws and decrees and commandments.”
\v 24 Then Jeremiah said to all of them, including the women, “All you people of Judah who are here in Egypt, listen to this message from Yahweh.
\v 25 This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, says to you men: ‘You and your wives have said that you would continue to do what you promised, to burn incense and pour out wine to the goddess whom you call the Queen of Heaven. And you have proved by your actions that you intend to continue to do that. So go ahead and continue doing what you have promised to do for her.’
\v 26 But now, all you people from Judah who are now living here in Egypt, listen to this message from Yahweh. He says, ‘I have solemnly declared, using my great name, that soon none of you people from Judah who are here in Egypt will ever again use my name. There will be none of you who, when you solemnly promise to do something, will ever again say, “I will do it as surely as Yahweh lives.”
\v 27 Because I will be watching over you, not to cause good things to happen to you but to cause things to happen that will harm you. Almost everyone from Judah who is now here in Egypt will be killed by their enemies’ swords or die from famine until almost all of you have come to an end.
\v 28 Only a very few of you will not die by the sword and will return to Judah. When that happens, all those who came to Egypt will find out whose words were true, theirs or mine.’
\v 29 And Yahweh also says, ‘I will do something that will prove to you that everything that I have said will happen, and that I will punish you here in this place.
\v 30 I will cause Hophra, the king of Egypt, to be captured by his enemies who want to kill him, just like I caused King Zedekiah of Judah to be captured by the soldiers of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.’”
\v 1 After Jehoiakim son of King Josiah had been ruling Judah for almost four years, Baruch son of Neriah wrote down all the messages that the prophet Jeremiah had dictated. Jeremiah gave a message and he said,
\v 2 “Baruch, Yahweh, the God of Israel, has a message for you.
\v 3 You have said, ‘Terrible things are happening to me! I have endured much pain already. And now Yahweh is causing me to be very sad, in addition to my having pain. I am exhausted from my groaning, and I am unable to rest!’
\v 4 But Baruch, this is what Yahweh says: ‘I will destroy this nation that I established. This nation is like a tree that I planted and that I will now pull up with its roots. I will do this everywhere in the world.
\v 5 So, should you desire that people do things to honor you in a special way? Do not desire that. It is true that I will cause all these people to experience a great disaster, but wherever you go, I will protect you, and you will not be killed.’”
\v 1 These are messages that Yahweh gave to the prophet Jeremiah about other nations.
\p
\v 2 After Jehoiakim son of King Josiah, had been ruling Judah for almost four years, this message about Egypt was given to me by Yahweh. It was when the army of King Necho of Egypt was defeated by the army of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Carchemish by the Euphrates River.
\v 25 I, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, the God whom Israel worships, say, ‘I will punish Amon, the god whom the people of the city of Thebes worship, and all the other gods in Egypt. I will punish the king of Egypt and all those who trust in him.
\v 26 I will cause them to be captured by those who want to kill them—Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and his army officers. But many years later, people will live in Egypt again. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.’
\v 1 Yahweh gave to the prophet Jeremiah a message about the people of Philistia. The message was given to him before the city of Gaza in Philistia was captured by the army of Egypt.
\q2 I will moan for the men of the city of Kir Hareseth, the old capital of Moab.
\q1
\v 32 You people of the city of Sibmah, you have many vineyards, and I will be sad when they are destroyed.
\q2 It is as though the branches of your vines extend across the Dead Sea to the city of Jazer, but the enemies of Moab will take your grapes and wine from you!
\s5
\q1
\v 33 But no one will be joyful or happy in Moab now;
\q2 your fruit and grapes that ripen in the summer will soon be destroyed.
\q1 There will be no grape juice coming from the winepresses,
\q2 so there will be no wine.
\q1 People will not shout joyfully
\q2 as they tread on the grapes;
\q1 people will shout,
\q2 but they will not be shouting joyfully.
\s5
\q1
\v 34 Instead, the sound of their wailing will rise from the city of Heshbon to the town of Elealeh and the village of Jahaz,
\q2 from the city of Zoar as far as the town of Horonaim Eglath Shelishiyah.
\q1 Even the water in the stream of Nimrim will be dried up.
\q1
\v 35 I, Yahweh, say that I will get rid of the people who offer sacrifices on the hilltops,
\q2 thos who burn incense to their gods.
\s5
\q1
\v 36 I moan for the people of Moab and Kir Hareseth
\q2 like someone playing a funeral song on a flute,
\q2 because all their wealth will disappear.
\q1
\v 37 The men will shave their heads and their beards to show that they are mourning.
\q2 They all will slash their hands and wear rough cloth around their waists.
\s5
\q1
\v 38 In every home and in the town plazas in Moab there will be people who are mourning,
\q2 because I will have destroyed Moab
\q2 like someone smashes an old jar that no one wants anymore.
\q1
\v 39 Moab will be completely shattered with terror!
\q2 And you will hear the people wailing loudly!
\q1 They will be disgraced.
\q2 Moab will become a nation that people ridicule.
\q1 The people in nearby countries will be horrified about what has happened there.
\v 12 And this is also what Yahweh says: “If those who do not deserve to suffer must suffer, you people of Edom must suffer much more! You will not escape being punished.
\v 13 I, Yahweh, have solemnly promised, using my own name, that your chief city Bozrah will become a place that people will be horrified about. It will be a heap of ruins. People will make fun of it and use its name when they curse people. All the nearby towns and villages will be ruined forever.”
\v 28 This is a message about the Kedar people and the kingdom of Hazor that Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon is attacking. This is what Yahweh said:
\v 59 Seraiah, son of Neraiah and grandson of Mahseiah, was an important servant of King Zedekiah. After Zedekiah had been ruling Judah for almost four years, the prophet Jeremiah gave him a message. This was when Seraiah was about to go to Babylon with the king.
\v 60 Now Jeremiah had written on a scroll a list of all the disasters that he had written about, disasters that would soon happen to Babylon.
\v 61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon, read aloud everything that I have written on this scroll.
\v 62 Then pray, ‘Yahweh, you said that you will thoroughly destroy Babylon, with the result that people and animals will no longer live there. You said that it will be desolate forever.’
\v 64 Then say, ‘In the same way, Babylon and its people will disappear and never exist again, because of the disasters that Yahweh will bring to it.’”
\v 1 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became the king of Judah. He ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of a man named Jeremiah from Libnah.
\v 2 Zedekiah did many things that Yahweh says are evil, like his father Jehoiakim had done.
\v 3 The events described here happened because Yahweh was angry with the people of Jerusalem and of other places in Judah, and finally he exiled them and said that he did not want to have anything to do with them anymore.
\p Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
\s5
\v 4 So, on the tenth day of the tenth month, when Zedekiah had been ruling for almost nine years, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon led his entire army to attack Jerusalem. They surrounded the city and built dirt ramps up to the top of the city walls to enable them to attack the city.
\v 5 They continued to surround Jerusalem until Zedekiah had been ruling for almost eleven years.
\s5
\p
\v 6 When Zedekiah had been ruling for almost eleven years, on the ninth day of the fourth month of that year, the famine in the city had become very severe, and there was no more food for the people to eat.
\v 7 Then the soldiers of Babylonia broke through a section of the city wall, and all the Israelite soldiers fled. But because the city was surrounded by soldiers from Babylonia, Zedekiah and the Israelite soldiers waited until it became dark. Then they left the city through the gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden. Then they ran toward the plain along the Jordan.
\v 8 But the soldiers of Babylonia pursued King Zedekiah, and they caught up with him on the plains near Jericho. He was alone because all his men had all deserted him and had scattered.
\s5
\v 9 The soldiers of Babylonia took him to the king of Babylon, who was at Riblah in the region of Hamath. There the king of Babylon told his soldiers what they should do to punish Zedekiah.
\v 10 They forced Zedekiah to watch while they killed his sons and all the officials from Judah.
\v 11 Then they gouged out Zedekiah’s eyes. They fastened him with bronze chains and took him to Babylon. They put him in a prison, and he remained there until the day that he died.
\v 12 On the tenth day of the fifth month of that year, which was when King Nebuchadnezzar had been ruling for almost nineteen years, Nebuzaradan, who was the captain of the king’s bodyguards and one of the king’s officials, arrived in Jerusalem.
\v 13 He commanded his soldiers to burn down the temple of Yahweh, the king’s palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem. They also destroyed all the important buildings in the city.
\v 14 Then he supervised the soldiers from Babylonia while they tore down the walls on all sides of Jerusalem.
\s5
\v 15 Then Nebuzaradan forced to go to Babylon some of the poorest people, those Israelites who had said they would support the king of Babylon, the rest of the craftsmen, and other people who had remained in Jerusalem.
\v 16 But Nebuzaradan allowed some of the very poor people to remain in Judah to take care of the vineyards and fields.
\v 17 The soldiers from Babylonia broke into pieces the huge bronze pillars that were in front of the temple, and the large bronze water tank called “The Sea,” and the ten bronze water carts, and they took all the bronze to Babylon.
\v 18 They also took away the basins for holding the ashes from the burned sacrifices, the shovels for cleaning out the ashes, the tools for snuffing out the wicks of the lamps, the basins for holding the blood of the sacrificed animals, the dishes for incense, and all the other bronze items that were used when they made sacrifices at the temple.
\v 19 Nebuzaradan also told his soldiers to take away the small bowls, the dishes for burning incense, the basins, pots, lampstands, bowls for incense, and the bowls used for pouring out the wine offerings. They took all the other items that were made of pure gold or silver.
\v 20 The bronze from the two pillars, the large water tank called “The Sea” and the twelve statues of oxen that were beneath it, and the water carts, was more than they could weigh. Those things had been made for the temple during the time that Solomon was the king.
\v 21 Each of the pillars was 27 feet tall and 18 feet around. They were hollow, and each had sides that were 3 inches thick.
\s5
\v 22 The bronze head on the top of each pillar was seven and one-half feet high and was decorated all around with a bronze network of figures that represented pomegranates.
\v 23 There was a total of one hundred figures of pomegranates on the network at the top, 96 of which could be seen from the ground.
\v 24 When Nebuzaradan returned to Babylon, he took with him as prisoners Seraiah the high priest, Zephaniah who was Seraiah’s deputy, and the three men who guarded the entrances to the temple.
\v 25 He found some other people who were hiding in the city. So from them he took a commander of the army of Judah, seven of the king’s advisors, the army commander’s chief secretary who was in charge of recruiting soldiers for the army, and sixty other soldiers.
\v 26 Nebuzaradan took them all to the king of Babylon, who was still at Riblah.
\v 27 There at Riblah in the Hamath region, the king of Babylon commanded that they all be executed.
\p Many of the people of Judah were forced to leave their own land.
\s5
\v 28 The number of people who were captured and sent to Babylon at that time, when Nebuchadnezzar had been ruling for almost seven years, was 3,023.
\v 29 Then, when he had been ruling for almost eighteen years, his soldiers took 832 more from Jerusalem to Babylonia.
\v 30 When he had been ruling almost twenty-three years, he sent Nebuzaradan to Jerusalem again, and he brought back 745 more Israelites to Babylonia. That was a total of 4,600 Israelites who were taken to Babylonia.
\s5
\p
\v 31 After King Jehoiachin of Judah had been in prison in Babylon for almost thirty-seven years, Awel-Marduk became the king of Babylon. He was kind to Jehoiachin and ordered that he be released from prison. That was on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the year that Awel-Marduk became king.
\s5
\v 32 He always spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and gave him a position in which he was honored more than all the other kings who had been exiled to Babylon.
\v 33 He supplied new clothes for Jehoiachin, to replace the clothes that he had been wearing in prison. He also allowed Jehoiachin to eat with him every day, all during the rest of his life.
\v 34 Every day, the king of Babylon gave him some money to buy the things that he needed. That continued until the day that Jehoiachin died.
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