The following is a record of what Jeremiah son of Hilkiah prophesied. He was one of the priests who lived at Anathoth in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. The LORD’s message came to him in the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon ruled over Judah. It also came in the days of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, and continued until the eleventh year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the people of Jerusalem were taken into exile in the fifth month of that year.

The LORD’s message came to me, “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb I chose you. Before you were born I set you apart. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.” I answered, “Oh, Sovereign LORD, I really do not know how to speak well enough for that, for I am too young.” The LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ But go to whomever I send you and say whatever I tell you. Do not be afraid of those to whom I send you, for I will be with you to protect you,” says the LORD.

Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I will most assuredly give you the words you are to speak for me. Know for certain that I hereby give you the authority to announce to nations and kingdoms that they will be uprooted and torn down, destroyed and demolished, rebuilt and firmly planted.”

Later the LORD’s message came to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I answered, “I see a branch of an almond tree.” Then the LORD said, “You have observed correctly. This means I am watching to make sure my threats are carried out.” The LORD’s message came to me a second time, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a pot of boiling water; it is tipped away from the north.” Then the LORD said, “From the north destruction will break out on all who live in the land.”

“For I will soon summon all the peoples of the kingdoms of the north,” says the LORD. “They will come and their kings will set up their thrones near the entrances of the gates of Jerusalem. They will attack all the walls surrounding it, and all the towns in Judah. In this way I will pass sentence on the people of Jerusalem and Judah because of all their wickedness. For they rejected me and offered sacrifices to other gods, worshiping what they made with their own hands.”

“But you, Jeremiah, get yourself ready. Go and tell these people everything I instruct you to say. Do not be terrified of them, or I will give you good reason to be terrified of them. I, the LORD, hereby promise to make you as strong as a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall. You will be able to stand up against all who live in the land, including the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and all the people of the land. They will attack you but they will not be able to overcome you, for I will be with you to rescue you,” says the LORD.

The LORD’s message came to me, “Go and declare in the hearing of the people of Jerusalem: ‘This is what the LORD says: “I have fond memories of you, how devoted you were to me in your early years. I remember how you loved me like a new bride; you followed me through the wilderness, through a land that had never been planted. Israel was set apart to the LORD; they were like the first fruits of a harvest to him. All who tried to devour them were punished; disaster came upon them,” says the LORD.

“Now listen to what the LORD’s message says, you descendants of Jacob, all you family groups from the nation of Israel. This is what the LORD says: ‘What fault could your ancestors have possibly found in me that they strayed so far from me? They paid allegiance to worthless idols, and so became worthless to me.

They did not ask: ‘Where is the LORD who delivered us out of Egypt, who brought us through the wilderness, through a land of valleys and gorges, through a land of desert and deep darkness, through a land in which no one travels, and where no one lives?’ I brought you into a fertile land so you could enjoy its fruits and its rich bounty. But when you entered my land, you defiled it; you made the land I call my own loathsome to me.

Your priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ Those responsible for teaching my law did not really know me. Your rulers rebelled against me. Your prophets prophesied in the name of the god Baal. They all worshiped idols that could not help them.

“So, once more I will state my case against you,” says the LORD. “I will also state it against your children and grandchildren. Go west across the sea to the coasts of Cyprus and see. Send someone east to Kedar and have them look carefully. See if such a thing as this has ever happened: Has a nation ever changed its gods (even though they are not really gods at all)? But my people have exchanged me, their glorious God, for a god that cannot help them at all!

Be amazed at this, O heavens. Be shocked and utterly dumbfounded,” says the LORD. “Do so because my people have committed a double wrong: they have rejected me, the fountain of life-giving water, and they have dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns which cannot even hold water.”

“Israel is not a slave, is he? He was not born into slavery, was he? If not, why then is he being carried off? Like lions his enemies roar victoriously over him; they raise their voices in triumph. They have laid his land waste; his cities have been burned down and deserted. Even the soldiers from Memphis and Tahpanhes have cracked your skulls, people of Israel.

You have brought all this on yourself, Israel, by deserting the LORD your God when he was leading you along the right path. What good will it do you then to go down to Egypt to seek help from the Egyptians? What good will it do you to go over to Assyria to seek help from the Assyrians? Your own wickedness will bring about your punishment. Your unfaithful acts will bring down discipline on you. Know, then, and realize how utterly harmful it was for you to reject me, the LORD your God, to show no respect for me,” says the Sovereign LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

“Indeed, long ago you threw off my authority and refused to be subject to me. You said, ‘I will not serve you.’ Instead, you gave yourself to other gods on every high hill and under every green tree, like a prostitute sprawls out before her lovers. I planted you in the land like a special vine of the very best stock. Why in the world have you turned into something like a wild vine that produces rotten, foul-smelling grapes?

You can try to wash away your guilt with a strong detergent. You can use as much soap as you want. But the stain of your guilt is still there for me to see,” says the Sovereign LORD. “How can you say, ‘I have not made myself unclean. I have not paid allegiance to the gods called Baal.’ Just look at the way you have behaved in the Valley of Hinnom. Think about the things you have done there.

You are like a flighty, young female camel that rushes here and there, crisscrossing its path. You are like a wild female donkey brought up in the wilderness. In her lust she sniffs the wind to get the scent of a male. No one can hold her back when she is in heat. None of the males need wear themselves out chasing after her. At mating time she is easy to find.

Do not chase after other gods until your shoes wear out and your throats become dry. But you say, ‘It is useless for you to try and stop me because I love those foreign gods and want to pursue them!’ Just as a thief has to suffer dishonor when he is caught, so the people of Israel will suffer dishonor for what they have done. So will their kings and officials, their priests and their prophets.

They say to a wooden idol, ‘You are my father.’ They say to a stone image, ‘You gave birth to me.’ Yes, they have turned away from me instead of turning to me. Yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’ But where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them save you when you are in trouble. The sad fact is that you have as many gods as you have towns, Judah.

“Why do you try to refute me? All of you have rebelled against me,” says the LORD. “It did no good for me to punish your people. They did not respond to such correction. You slaughtered your prophets like a voracious lion.” You people of this generation, listen to the LORD’s message.

“Have I been like a wilderness to you, Israel? Have I been like a dark and dangerous land to you? Why then do you say, ‘We are free to wander. We will not come to you any more?’ Does a young woman forget to put on her jewels? Does a bride forget to put on her bridal attire? But my people have forgotten me for more days than can even be counted.

“My, how good you have become at chasing after your lovers. Why, you could even teach prostitutes a thing or two. Even your clothes are stained with the lifeblood of the poor who had not done anything wrong; you did not catch them breaking into your homes. Yet, in spite of all these things you have done, you say, ‘I have not done anything wrong, so the LORD cannot really be angry with me any more.’ But watch out. I will bring down judgment on you because you say, ‘I have not committed any sin.’

Why do you constantly go about changing your political allegiances? You will get no help from Egypt just as you got no help from Assyria. Moreover, you will come away from Egypt with your hands covering your faces in sorrow and shame because the LORD will not allow your reliance on them to be successful and you will not gain any help from them.”

“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife, he may not take her back again. Doing that would utterly defile the land. But you, Israel, have given yourself as a prostitute to many gods. So what makes you think you can return to me?” says the LORD.

“Look up at the hilltops and consider this. Where have you not been ravished? You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the wilderness. You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods. That is why the rains have been withheld, and the spring rains have not come. Yet in spite of this you are obstinate as a prostitute. You refuse to be ashamed of what you have done.

Even now you say to me, ‘You are my father. You have been my faithful companion ever since I was young. You will not always be angry with me, will you? You will not be mad at me forever, will you?’ That is what you say, but you continually do all the evil that you can.”

When Josiah was king of Judah, the LORD said to me, “Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done. You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods. Yet even after she had done all that, I thought that she might come back to me. But she did not. Her sister, unfaithful Judah, saw what she did.

She also saw that, because of wayward Israel’s adulterous worship of other gods, I sent her away and gave her divorce papers. But still her unfaithful sister Judah was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other gods. Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone.

In spite of all this, Israel’s sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so,” says the LORD.

Then the LORD said to me, “Under the circumstances, wayward Israel could even be considered less guilty than unfaithful Judah. Go and shout this message to my people in the countries in the north. Tell them, ‘Come back to me, wayward Israel,’ says the LORD. ‘I will not continue to look on you with displeasure. For I am merciful,’ says the LORD. ‘I will not be angry with you forever.

However, you must confess that you have done wrong, and that you have rebelled against the LORD your God. You must confess that you have given yourself to foreign gods under every green tree, and have not obeyed my commands,’ says the LORD.

“Come back to me, my wayward sons,” says the LORD, “for I am your true master. If you do, I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion. I will give you leaders who will be faithful to me. They will lead you with knowledge and insight.

In those days, your population will greatly increase in the land. At that time,” says the LORD, “people will no longer talk about having the ark that contains the LORD’s covenant with us. They will not call it to mind, remember it, or miss it. No, that will not be done any more.

At that time the city of Jerusalem will be called the LORD’s throne. All nations will gather there in Jerusalem to honor the LORD’s name. They will no longer follow the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts.

At that time the nation of Judah and the nation of Israel will be reunited. Together they will come back from a land in the north to the land that I gave to your ancestors as a permanent possession.

“I thought to myself, ‘Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son. What a joy it would be for me to give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world.’ I thought you would call me, ‘Father’ and would never cease being loyal to me. But you have been unfaithful to me, nation of Israel, like an unfaithful wife who has left her husband,” says the LORD.

“A noise is heard on the hilltops. It is the sound of the people of Israel crying and pleading to their gods. Indeed they have followed sinful ways; they have forgotten to be true to the LORD their God. Come back to me, you wayward people. I want to cure your waywardness.”

Say, ‘Here we are. We come to you because you are the LORD our God. We know our noisy worship of false gods on the hills and mountains did not help us. We know that the LORD our God is the only one who can deliver Israel. From earliest times our worship of that shameful god, Baal, has taken away all that our ancestors worked for. It has taken away our flocks and our herds, and even our sons and daughters.

Let us acknowledge our shame. Let us bear the disgrace that we deserve. For we have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our ancestors. From earliest times to this very day we have not obeyed the LORD our God.’

“If you, Israel, want to come back,” says the LORD, “if you want to come back to me, you must get those disgusting idols out of my sight and must no longer go astray. You must be truthful, honest and upright when you take an oath saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives.’ If you do, the nations will pray to be as blessed by him as you are and will make him the object of their boasting.”

Yes, this is what the LORD has said to the people of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your unplowed ground, do not cast seeds among thorns. Commit yourselves to the LORD. Dedicate your hearts to me, people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Otherwise, my anger will blaze up like a flaming fire against you that no one will be able to extinguish. That will happen because of the evil you have done.”

The LORD said, “Announce this in Judah and proclaim it in Jerusalem: ‘Sound the trumpet throughout the land!’ Shout out loudly, ‘Gather together! Let us flee into the fortified cities!’ Raise a signal flag that tells people to go to Zion. Run for safety. Do not delay. For I am about to bring disaster out of the north. It will bring great destruction.

Like a lion that has come up from its lair the one who destroys nations has set out from his home base. He is coming out to lay your land waste. Your cities will become ruins and lie uninhabited. So put on sackcloth. Mourn and wail, saying, ‘The fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.’

“When this happens,” says the LORD, “the king and his officials will lose their courage. The priests will be struck with horror, and the prophets will be speechless in astonishment.”

In response to all this I said, “Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have surely allowed the people of Judah and Jerusalem to be deceived by those who say, ‘You will be safe.’ But in fact a sword is already at our throats.”

“At that time the people of Judah and Jerusalem will be told, ‘A scorching wind will sweep down from the hilltops in the wilderness on my dear people. It will not be a gentle breeze for winnowing the grain and blowing away the chaff. No, a wind too strong for that will come at my bidding. Yes, even now I myself am calling down judgment on them.’

Look. The enemy is approaching like gathering clouds. The roar of his chariots is like that of a whirlwind. His horses move more swiftly than eagles.” I cry out, “We are doomed, for we will be destroyed.”

“Oh people of Jerusalem, purify your hearts from evil so that you may yet be delivered. How long will you continue to harbor wicked schemes within you? For messengers are coming, heralding disaster, from the city of Dan and from the hills of Ephraim.

They are saying, ‘Announce to the surrounding nations, “The enemy is coming.” Proclaim this message to Jerusalem: “Those who besiege cities are coming from a distant land. They are ready to raise the battle cry against the towns in Judah.”’

“They will surround Jerusalem like men guarding a field because they have rebelled against me,” says the LORD. “The way you have lived and the things you have done will bring this on you. This is the punishment you deserve, and it will be painful indeed. The pain will be so bad it will pierce your heart.”

I said, “Oh, the feeling in the pit of my stomach. I writhe in anguish. Oh, the pain in my heart. My heart pounds within me. I cannot keep silent. For I hear the sound of the trumpet; the sound of the battle cry pierces my soul.

I see one destruction after another taking place, so that the whole land lies in ruins. I see our tents suddenly destroyed, their curtains torn down in a mere instant. How long must I see the enemy’s battle flags and hear the military signals of their bugles?”

The LORD answered, “This will happen because my people are foolish. They do not know me. They are like children who have no sense. They have no understanding. They are skilled at doing evil. They do not know how to do good.”

“I looked at the land and saw that it was an empty wasteland. I looked up at the sky, and its light had vanished. I looked at the mountains and saw that they were shaking. All the hills were swaying back and forth.

I looked and saw that there were no more people, and that all the birds in the sky had flown away. I looked and saw that the fruitful land had become a desert and that all of the cities had been laid in ruins. The LORD had brought this all about because of his blazing anger.

All this will happen because the LORD said, “The whole land will be desolate. However, I will not completely destroy it.”

“Because of this the land will mourn and the sky above will grow black. For I have made my purpose known and I will not relent or turn back from carrying it out.”

At the sound of the approaching horsemen and archers the people of every town will flee. Some of them will hide in the thickets. Others will climb up among the rocks. All the cities will be deserted. No one will remain in them.

And you, Zion, city doomed to destruction, you accomplish nothing by wearing a beautiful dress, decking yourself out in jewels of gold, and putting on eye shadow. You are making yourself beautiful for nothing. Your lovers spurn you. They want to kill you.

In fact, I hear a cry like that of a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first baby. It is the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath, reaching out for help, saying, “I am done in. My life is ebbing away before these murderers.”

The LORD said, “Go up and down through the streets of Jerusalem. Look around and see for yourselves. Search through its public squares. See if any of you can find a single person who deals honestly and tries to be truthful. If you can, then I will not punish this city. These people make promises in the name of the LORD. But the fact is, what they swear to is really a lie.”

LORD, I know you look for faithfulness. But even when you punish these people, they feel no remorse. Even when you nearly destroy them, they refuse to be corrected. They have become as hardheaded as a rock. They refuse to change their ways.

I thought, “Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way. They act like fools because they do not know what the LORD demands. They do not know what their God requires of them. I will go to the leaders and speak with them. Surely they know what the LORD demands. Surely they know what their God requires of them.” Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority and refuse to submit to him.

So like a lion from the thicket their enemies will kill them. Like a wolf from the rift valley they will destroy them. Like a leopard they will lie in wait outside their cities and totally destroy anyone who ventures out. For they have rebelled so much and done so many unfaithful things.

The LORD asked, “How can I leave you unpunished, Jerusalem? Your people have rejected me and have worshiped gods that are not gods at all. Even though I supplied all their needs, they were like an unfaithful wife to me. They went flocking to the houses of prostitutes. They are like lusty, well-fed stallions. Each of them lusts after his neighbor’s wife. I will surely punish them for doing such things!” says the LORD. “I will surely bring retribution on such a nation as this!”

The LORD commanded the enemy, “March through the vineyards of Israel and Judah and ruin them. But do not destroy them completely. Strip off their branches for these people do not belong to the LORD. For the nations of Israel and Judah have been very unfaithful to me,” says the LORD.

“These people have denied what the LORD says. They have said, ‘That is not so! No harm will come to us. We will not experience war and famine. The prophets will prove to be full of wind. The LORD has not spoken through them.’”

Because of that, the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies said, “Because these people have spoken like this, I will make the words that I put in your mouth like fire, and I will make this people like wood which the fiery judgments you speak will burn up.

Listen, nation of Israel! I am about to bring a nation from far away to attack you. It will be a nation founded long ago, enduring for many years, a nation whose language you will not know and whose speech you will not understand. Its soldiers are strong and mighty. Their arrows will send you to your grave. They will devour your harvest and your food. They will kill your sons and your daughters. They will consume your sheep and cattle. They will destroy your vines and fig trees. With the sword they will batter down the fortified cities you trust in.

“Yet even then I will not completely destroy you,” says the LORD.

“When your people ask, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?’ you must answer, ‘It is because you rejected me and served foreign gods in your own land. So you will serve foreigners in a land that does not belong to you.’”

“Proclaim this message among the descendants of Jacob and make it known throughout Judah. Hear this, you foolish people without understanding, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.

Should you not fear me?” says the LORD. “Should you not tremble in awe before me? I placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, an enduring barrier that it cannot cross. Though its waves surge, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot cross it.

But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and gone their own way. They do not say in their hearts, ‘Let us revere the LORD our God, who gives rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and who preserves for us the appointed weeks of harvest.’

Your misdeeds have stopped these things from coming; your sins have deprived you of my bounty.

Wicked scoundrels are found among my people. They lie in wait like bird catchers; they set deadly traps to catch people. Like a cage full of birds, their houses are filled with deceit. That is how they grow rich and powerful. They grow fat and sleek. There is no limit to the evil they do. They do not defend the cause of the orphan or uphold the rights of the poor.

“I will not punish them for these things?” says the LORD. “I will not bring retribution on a nation such as this?

Something horrible and shocking has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do when the end comes?”

“Run for safety, people of Benjamin! Get out of Jerusalem! Sound the trumpet in Tekoa! Light the signal fires at Beth Hakkerem! For disaster lurks out of the north; it will bring great destruction. I will destroy Daughter Zion, who is as delicate and defenseless as a young maiden.

Kings will attack it with their armies. They will encamp in siege all around it. Each of them will devastate the portion assigned to him. They will say, ‘Prepare to do battle against it! Come on! Let’s attack it at noon!’ But later they will say, ‘Woe to us! For the day is almost over and the shadows of evening are getting long. So come on, let’s go ahead and attack it by night and destroy all its fortified buildings.’

All of this is because the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has said: ‘Cut down the trees around Jerusalem and build up a siege ramp against its walls. This is the city which is to be punished. Nothing but oppression happens in it. As a well continually pours out fresh water so it continually pours out wicked deeds. Sounds of violence and destruction echo throughout it. All I see are sick and wounded people.’ So take warning, Jerusalem, or I will abandon you in disgust and make you desolate, a place where no one can live.”

This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies said to me: “Those who remain in Israel will be like the grapes thoroughly gleaned from a vine. So go over them again, as though you were a grape harvester passing your hand over the branches one last time.”

I answered, “Who would listen if I spoke to them and warned them? Their ears are so closed that they cannot hear! Indeed, the LORD’s message is offensive to them. They do not like it at all. I am as full of anger as you are, LORD, I am tired of trying to hold it in.”

The LORD answered, “Vent it, then, on the children who play in the street and on the young men who are gathered together. Husbands and wives are to be included, as well as the old and those who are advanced in years. Their houses will be turned over to others as will their fields and their wives. For I will unleash my power against those who live in this land,” says the LORD.

“That is because, from the least important to the most important of them, all of them are greedy for dishonest gain. Prophets and priests alike, all of them practice deceit. They offer only superficial help for the harm my people have suffered. They say, ‘Everything will be all right!’ But everything is not all right!

Are they ashamed because they have done such shameful things? No, they are not at all ashamed. They do not even know how to blush! So they will die, just like others have died. They will be brought to ruin when I punish them,” says the LORD.

The LORD said to his people: “You are standing at the crossroads. So consider your path. Ask where the old, reliable paths are. Ask where the path is that leads to blessing and follow it. If you do, you will find rest for your souls.” But they said, “We will not follow it!”

The LORD said, “I appointed prophets as watchmen to warn you, saying: ‘Pay attention to the warning sound of the trumpet!’” But they said, “We will not pay attention!”

So the LORD said, “Hear, you nations! Be witnesses and take note of what will happen to these people. Hear this, you peoples of the earth: ‘Take note! I am about to bring disaster on these people. It will come as punishment for their scheming. For they have paid no attention to what I have said, and they have rejected my law.

I take no delight when they offer up to me frankincense that comes from Sheba or sweet-smelling cane imported from a faraway land. I cannot accept the burnt offerings they bring me. I get no pleasure from the sacrifices they offer to me.’”

So, this is what the LORD says: ‘I will assuredly make these people stumble to their doom. Parents and children will stumble and fall to their destruction. Friends and neighbors will die.’

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Beware! An army is coming from a land in the north. A mighty nation is stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth. Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears. They are cruel and show no mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride forth on their horses. Lined up in formation like men going into battle to attack you, Daughter Zion.’”

The people cry out, “We have heard reports about them! We have become helpless with fear! Anguish grips us, agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby! Do not go out into the countryside. Do not travel on the roads. For the enemy is there with sword in hand. They are spreading terror everywhere.”

So I said, “Oh, my dear people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with painful sobs as though you had lost your only child. For any moment now that destructive army will come against us.”

The LORD said to me, “I have made you like a metal assayer to test my people like ore. You are to observe them and evaluate how they behave.”

I reported, “All of them are the most stubborn of rebels! They are as hard as bronze or iron. They go about telling lies. They all deal corruptly. The fiery bellows of judgment burn fiercely. But there is too much dross to be removed. The process of refining them has proved useless. The wicked have not been purged. They are regarded as ‘rejected silver’ because the LORD rejects them.”

The LORD said to Jeremiah: “Stand in the gate of the LORD’s temple and proclaim this message: ‘Listen to the LORD’s message, all you people of Judah who have passed through these gates to worship the LORD. The LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: Change the way you have been living and do what is right. If you do, I will allow you to continue to live in this land.

Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, “We are safe! The temple of the LORD is here! The temple of the LORD is here! The temple of the LORD is here!” You must change the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly. Stop oppressing resident foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. Stop killing innocent people in this land. Stop paying allegiance to other gods. That will only bring about your ruin.

If you stop doing these things, I will allow you to continue to live in this land which I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession.

“‘But just look at you! You are putting your confidence in a false belief that will not deliver you. You steal. You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to other gods whom you have not previously known.

Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own and say, “We are safe!” You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own is to be a hideout for robbers? You had better take note! I have seen for myself what you have done! says the LORD.

So, go to the place in Shiloh where I allowed myself to be worshiped in the early days. See what I did to it because of the wicked things my people Israel did. You also have done all these things, says the LORD, and I have spoken to you over and over again. But you have not listened! You have refused to respond when I called you to repent!

So I will destroy this temple which I have claimed as my own, this temple that you are trusting to protect you. I will destroy this place that I gave to you and your ancestors, just like I destroyed Shiloh. And I will drive you out of my sight just like I drove out your relatives, the people of Israel.’”

“But as for you, Jeremiah, do not pray for these people! Do not raise a cry of prayer for them! Do not plead with me to save them, because I will not listen to you. Do you see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? Children are gathering firewood, fathers are building fires with it, and women are mixing dough to bake cakes to offer to the goddess they call the Queen of Heaven. They are also pouring out drink offerings to other gods. They seem to do all this just to trouble me. But I am not really the one being troubled!” says the LORD.

“Rather they are bringing trouble on themselves to their own shame! So,” the Sovereign LORD says, “my raging fury will be poured out on this land. It will be poured out on human beings and animals, on trees and crops. And it will burn like a fire which cannot be extinguished.”

“The LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to the people of Judah: ‘You might as well add the meat of your burnt offerings to the other sacrifices and eat it, too! When I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices. I commanded them: “Obey me. If you do, I will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you and things will go well with you.”

But they did not listen to me or pay attention to me. They followed the stubborn inclinations of their wicked hearts. They became worse instead of better. From the time your ancestors left Egypt until today, I sent my servants the prophets to you again and again, day after day. But they did not listen or pay attention. They were more obstinate than their ancestors.’”

Then the LORD said to me, “When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you. When you call out to them, they will not respond. So tell them: ‘This is a nation that has not obeyed the LORD their God or accepted correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; it is not even spoken anymore.

Cut off your hair and throw it away; sing a song of mourning on the hilltops. For the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation that has provoked his wrath.’”

The LORD says, “The people of Judah have done what I consider evil. They have set up disgusting idols in the temple I claim as my own and have defiled it. They have built places of worship in Topheth, in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so they can burn their sons and daughters in fire—something I never commanded and never even entered my mind to command.

So watch out!” says the LORD. “The time will come when it will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. The corpses will be food for the birds of the sky and the wild animals, with no one to scare them away.

I will put an end to sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of brides and grooms, throughout the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. For the whole land will become a desolate wasteland.”

The LORD says, “When that time comes, the bones of the kings of Judah and its leaders, the bones of the priests and prophets and of all the other people who lived in Jerusalem will be dug up from their graves. They will be spread out and exposed to the sun, the moon, and the stars—things they adored and served, things to which they paid allegiance, sought guidance from, and worshiped. Their bones will not be regathered or buried again; they will be like manure spread on the ground.

I will leave some of these wicked people alive and banish them to other places. But wherever these survivors go, they will wish they had died rather than lived,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

The LORD said to me, “Tell them: ‘The LORD says, Do people not get back up when they fall down? Do they not turn around when they go the wrong way? Why then do these people of Jerusalem continually turn away from me in apostasy? They hold fast to deception and refuse to turn back.

I have listened carefully, but they do not speak honestly. None of them regrets the evil he has done; none says, “I have done wrong!” All of them persist in their own wayward course like a horse charging recklessly into battle.

Even the stork knows when it is time to migrate. The turtledove, swallow, and crane recognize the seasons for their journey. But my people do not recognize what I, the LORD, require of them.

How can you say, “We are wise! We have the law of the LORD”? In fact, the misleading pen of the scribes has turned it into a lie. The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the LORD’s word, what wisdom do they really have?

So I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. For from the least important to the most important, all of them are greedy for dishonest gain. Prophets and priests alike all practice deceit.

They treat the wound of my people lightly, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of the disgusting things they have done? No, they are not ashamed at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will be brought down,” says the LORD.

“I will take away their harvests,” says the LORD. “There will be no grapes on the vines, no figs on the fig trees, and even the leaves will wither. What I gave them will be taken away.”

The people say, “Why are we just sitting here? Let us gather inside the fortified cities and die there, since the LORD our God has condemned us. He has condemned us to drink poisoned water because we have sinned against him. We hoped for peace, but nothing good came; for a time of healing, but there is only terror.

From Dan the snorting of the enemy’s horses is heard; at the sound of their stallions the whole land trembles. They are coming to devour the land and all that fills it, the cities and those who live in them.”

The LORD says, “Indeed, I am sending against you snakes that cannot be charmed; they will bite you,” says the LORD.

Then I said, “There is no cure for my grief! I am sick at heart! I hear my dear people crying out throughout the land, ‘Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is her divine King no longer there?’” The LORD answers, “Why then do they provoke me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?”

“They cry, ‘Harvest time has come and gone, the summer is over, and still we have not been delivered.’ My heart is crushed because my dear people are crushed. I mourn; horror grips me.

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my dear people not been restored?

I wish my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! Then I could weep day and night for the slain of my dear people. I wish I had a lodging place in the wilderness so I could leave my people and go away from them, for they are all adulterers, a congregation of traitors.

The LORD says, “They bend their tongues like bows; lies and not truth prevail in the land. They go from one act of evil to another, and they do not acknowledge me.

Beware of your friends; do not trust even your relatives. For every relative is a deceiver, and every friend spreads slander. One friend deceives another, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they wear themselves out committing evil.

You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,” says the LORD.

Therefore the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says, “I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the wickedness of my people? Their tongues are deadly arrows; they speak deceitfully. With their mouths they speak peace to their neighbors, but in their hearts they set traps for them.

Should I not punish them for these things?” says the LORD. “Should I not bring retribution on a nation such as this?”

I said, “I will weep and mourn for the grasslands on the mountains; I will sing a mournful song for the pastures in the wilderness, because they are scorched and no one travels through them. The sound of livestock is no longer heard there; even the birds of the sky and the animals have fled and are gone.”

The LORD said, “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins; jackals will make their home there. I will destroy the towns of Judah so that no one will be able to live in them.”

I said, “Who is wise enough to understand why this has happened? Who has a word from the LORD to explain it? Why does the land lie in ruins, scorched like a desert through which no one travels?”

The LORD answered, “This has happened because these people have rejected my law that I set before them. They have not obeyed me or followed my law. Instead they have followed the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts and paid allegiance to the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.”

So the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: “I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poison water. I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors knew, and I will send the sword after them until I have destroyed them.”

The LORD of Heaven’s Armies told me to say, “Consider this and call for the mourning women; summon the skilled women. Let them come quickly and raise a lament over us, so that our eyes may run with tears and our eyelids flow with water.

For the sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How ruined we are! How great our shame! We have left the land, and our houses have been torn down!’”

“Now hear the word of the LORD, you women; let your ears receive the word from his mouth. Teach your daughters a lament; teach one another a dirge: ‘Death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses. It has cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares.’

Say, ‘The LORD declares: “The corpses of people will lie scattered like manure on the open field, like cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather it.”’”

The LORD says: “Wise people should not boast in their wisdom, powerful people should not boast in their power, rich people should not boast in their riches.

If someone wants to boast, they should boast in this: that they understand and know me, that I am the LORD who practices faithfulness, justice, and righteousness on earth, and that I delight in these things,” says the LORD.

“Watch out! The time is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh— Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the desert people who cut their hair at the temples. For none of these nations are circumcised in the LORD’s sight, and even the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

You people of Israel, listen to what the LORD has to say to you. This is what the LORD says: “Do not start following pagan religious practices. Do not be in awe of signs that occur in the sky, even though the nations hold them in awe.

For the religion of these people is worthless. They cut down a tree in the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his tools. He decorates it with overlays of silver and gold. He fastens it with hammer and nails so that it will not fall over.

Such idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field. They cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot harm you, nor do they have any power to help you.”

I said, “There is no one like you, LORD. You are great, and your name is renowned for power. Who should not revere you, O King of the nations? This honor belongs to you alone. Among all the wise people of the nations and among all their kings, there is no one like you.

They are all stupid and foolish. Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless! Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Ufaz to cover them. They are the work of craftsmen and goldsmiths; they are clothed in blue and purple, all made by skilled workers.

But the LORD is the only true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. When he shows his anger, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath.

You are to say this to them: ‘These gods did not make heaven and earth; they will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’

The LORD is the one who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and who spread out the skies by his understanding. When he thunders, the heavenly waters roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.

Everyone proves stupid and ignorant by idol-making. Every goldsmith is put to shame by the idols he makes, for his molten image is a fraud; there is no breath in them.

They are worthless, objects of mockery. When the time for punishment comes, they will perish. The portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Maker of all things. Israel is the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of Heaven’s Armies is his name.

Gather your belongings together and prepare to leave the land, you people of Jerusalem who are being besieged. For the LORD says, “I will now throw out those who live in this land. I will bring so much trouble on them that they will actually feel it.”

And I cried out, “We are doomed! Our wound is severe! We once thought, ‘This is only an illness. And we will be able to bear it!’ But our tents have been destroyed. The ropes that held them in place have been ripped apart. Our children are gone and are not coming back. There is no survivor to put our tents back up, no one left to hang their tent curtains in place.

For our leaders are stupid. They have not sought the LORD’s advice. So they do not act wisely, and the people they are responsible for have all been scattered.

Listen! News is coming even now. The rumble of a great army is heard approaching from a land in the north. It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble, places where only jackals live.

LORD, we know that people do not control their own destiny. It is not in their power to determine what will happen to them. Correct us, LORD, but only in due measure. Do not punish us in anger or you will reduce us to nothing.

Vent your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you. Vent it on the peoples who do not worship you. For they have destroyed the people of Jacob. They have completely destroyed them and left their homeland in utter ruin.

The LORD said to Jeremiah: “Hear the terms of the covenant I made with Israel and pass them on to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. Tell them that the LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘Anyone who does not keep the terms of the covenant will be under a curse. Those are the terms that I charged your ancestors to keep when I brought them out of Egypt, that place which was like an iron-smelting furnace.

I said at that time, “Obey me and carry out the terms of the covenant exactly as I commanded you. If you do, you will be my people and I will be your God. Then I will keep the promise I swore on oath to your ancestors to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.” That is the very land that you still live in today.’”

And I responded, “Amen! Let it be so, LORD!”

The LORD said to me, “Announce all the following words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the terms of my covenant with you and carry them out! For I solemnly warned your ancestors to obey me. I warned them again and again, ever since I delivered them out of Egypt until this very day.

But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me! Each one of them followed the stubborn inclinations of his own wicked heart. So I brought on them all the punishments threatened in the covenant because they did not carry out its terms as I commanded them to do.’”

The LORD said to me, “The people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem have plotted rebellion against me! They have gone back to the evil ways of their ancestors of old who refused to obey what I told them. They, too, have paid allegiance to other gods and worshiped them.

Both the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah have violated the covenant I made with their ancestors. So I, the LORD, say this: ‘I will soon bring disaster on them which they will not be able to escape! When they cry out to me for help, I will not listen to them.

Then those living in the towns of Judah and in Jerusalem will go and cry out for help to the gods to whom they have been sacrificing. However, those gods will by no means be able to save them when disaster strikes them. This is in spite of the fact that the people of Judah have as many gods as they have towns and the citizens of Jerusalem have set up as many altars to sacrifice to that disgusting god, Baal, as they have streets in the city!’

But as for you, Jeremiah, do not pray for these people. Do not raise a cry of prayer for them. For I will not listen to them when they call out to me for help when disaster strikes them.”

The LORD says to the people of Judah, “What right do you have to be in my temple, my beloved people? Many of you have done wicked things. Can your acts of treachery be so easily canceled by sacred offerings that you take joy in doing evil even while you make them?

I, the LORD, once called you a thriving olive tree, one that produced beautiful fruit. But I will set you on fire, fire that will blaze with a mighty roar. Then all your branches will be good for nothing. For though I, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, planted you in the land, I now decree that disaster will come on you because the nations of Israel and Judah have done evil and have made me angry by offering sacrifices to the god Baal.”

The LORD gave me knowledge, that I might have understanding. Then he showed me what the people were doing. Before this I had been like a docile lamb ready to be led to the slaughter. I did not know they were making plans to kill me.

I did not know they were saying, “Let’s destroy the tree along with its fruit! Let’s remove Jeremiah from the world of the living so people will not even be reminded of him any more.”

So I said, “O LORD of Heaven’s Armies, you are a just judge! You examine people’s hearts and minds. I want to see you pay them back for what they have done because I trust you to vindicate my cause.”

Then the LORD told me about some men from Anathoth who were threatening to kill me. They had threatened, “Stop prophesying in the name of the LORD or we will kill you!”

So the LORD of Heaven’s Armies said, “I will surely punish them! Their young men will be killed in battle. Their sons and daughters will die of starvation. Not one of them will survive. I will bring disaster on those men from Anathoth who threatened you. A day of reckoning is coming for them.”

LORD, you have always been fair whenever I have complained to you. However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice. Why are wicked people successful? Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives?

You plant them like trees and they put down their roots. They grow prosperous and are very fruitful. They always talk about you, but they really care nothing about you.

But you, LORD, know all about me. You watch me and test my devotion to you. Drag these wicked men away like sheep to be slaughtered! Appoint a time when they will be killed!

How long must the land be parched and the grass in every field be withered? How long must the animals and the birds die because of the wickedness of the people who live in this land? For these people boast, “God will not see what happens to us.”

The LORD answered, “If you have raced on foot against men and they have worn you out, how will you be able to compete with horses? And if you feel secure only in safe and open country, how will you manage in the thick undergrowth along the Jordan River?

As a matter of fact, even your own brothers and the members of your own family have betrayed you too. Even they have plotted to do away with you. So do not trust them even when they say kind things to you.

I will abandon my nation. I will forsake the people I call my own. I will turn my beloved people over to the power of their enemies.

The people I call my own have turned on me like a lion in the forest. They have roared defiantly at me. So I will treat them as though I hate them.

The people I call my own attack me like birds of prey or like hyenas. But other birds of prey are all around them. Let all the nations gather together like wild beasts. Let them come and destroy these people I call my own.

Many foreign rulers will ruin the land where I planted my people. They will trample all over my chosen land. They will turn my beautiful land into a desolate wilderness. They will lay it waste.

It will lie parched and empty before me. The whole land will be laid waste. But no one living in it will pay any heed. A destructive army will come marching over the hilltops in the wilderness.

For the LORD will use them as his destructive weapon against everyone from one end of the land to the other. No one will be safe.

My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds. They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it. They will be disappointed in their harvests because the LORD will take them away in his fierce anger.

“I, the LORD, also have something to say concerning the wicked nations who surround my land and have attacked and plundered the land that I gave to my people as a permanent possession.

I say: ‘I will uproot the people of those nations from their land and I will free the people of Judah who have been taken there. But after I have uprooted the people of those nations, I will relent and have pity on them.

I will restore the people of each of those nations to their own lands and to their own country. But they must make sure to learn to follow the religious practices of my people.

Once they taught my people to swear their oaths using the name of the god Baal. But then, they must swear oaths using my name, saying, “As surely as the LORD lives, I swear.”

If they do these things, then they will be included among the people I call my own. But I will completely uproot and destroy any of those nations that will not pay heed,’” says the LORD.

The LORD said to me, “Go and buy some linen shorts and put them on. Do not put them in water.” So I bought the shorts in keeping with the LORD’s instructions and put them on.

Then the LORD’s message came to me again, “Take the shorts that you bought and are wearing and go at once to Perath. Bury the shorts there in a crack in the rocks.” So I went and buried them at Perath as the LORD had ordered me to do.

Many days later the LORD said to me, “Go at once to Perath and get the shorts I ordered you to bury there.” So I went to Perath and dug up the shorts from the place where I had buried them. I found that they were ruined; they were good for nothing.

Then the LORD’s message came to me, “I, the LORD, say: ‘This shows how I will ruin the highly exalted position in which Judah and Jerusalem take pride. These wicked people refuse to obey what I have said. They follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts and pay allegiance to other gods by worshiping and serving them. So they will become just like these linen shorts which are good for nothing.

For,’ I say, ‘just as shorts cling tightly to a person’s body, so I bound the whole nation of Israel and the whole nation of Judah tightly to me.’ I intended for them to be my special people and to bring me fame, honor, and praise. But they would not obey me.”

“So tell them, ‘The LORD, the God of Israel, says, “Every wine jar is made to be filled with wine.”’ And they will probably say to you, ‘Do you not think we know that every wine jar is supposed to be filled with wine?’

Then tell them, ‘The LORD says, “I will soon fill all the people who live in this land with stupor. I will also fill the kings from David’s dynasty, the priests, the prophets, and the citizens of Jerusalem with stupor.

And I will smash them like wine bottles against one another, children and parents alike. I will not show any pity, mercy, or compassion. Nothing will keep me from destroying them,’ says the LORD.”

Then I said to the people of Judah, “Listen and pay attention! Do not be arrogant! For the LORD has spoken. Show the LORD your God the respect that is due him. Do it before he brings the darkness of disaster. Do it before you stumble into distress like a traveler on the mountains at twilight.

Do it before he turns the light of deliverance you hope for into the darkness and gloom of exile. But if you will not pay attention to this warning, I will weep alone because of your arrogant pride. I will weep bitterly, and my eyes will overflow with tears because you, the LORD’s flock, will be carried into exile.”

The LORD told me, “Tell the king and the queen mother, ‘Surrender your thrones, for your glorious crowns will be removed from your heads. The gates of the towns in southern Judah will be shut tight.

No one will be able to go in or out of them. All Judah will be carried off into exile. They will be completely carried off into exile.’”

Then I said, “Look up, Jerusalem, and see the enemy that is coming from the north. Where now is the flock of people that were entrusted to your care? Where now are the ‘sheep’ that you take such pride in?

What will you say when the LORD appoints as rulers over you those allies that you, yourself, had actually prepared as such? Then anguish and agony will grip you like that of a woman giving birth to a baby.

You will probably ask yourself, ‘Why have these things happened to me? Why have I been treated like a disgraced adulteress whose skirt has been torn off and her limbs exposed?’ It is because you have sinned so much.

But there is little hope for you ever doing good, you who are so accustomed to doing evil. Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard remove its spots?

“The LORD says, ‘That is why I will scatter your people like chaff that is blown away by a desert wind. This is your fate, the destiny to which I have appointed you, because you have forgotten me and have trusted in false gods.

So I will pull your skirt up over your face and expose you to shame like a disgraced adulteress! People of Jerusalem, I have seen your adulterous worship, your shameless prostitution to, and your lustful pursuit of, other gods.

I have seen your disgusting acts of worship on the hills throughout the countryside. You are doomed to destruction! How long will you continue to be unclean?’”

This was the LORD’s message to Jeremiah about the drought. “The people of Judah are in mourning. The people in her cities are pining away. They lie on the ground expressing their sorrow. Cries of distress come up to me from Jerusalem.

The leading men of the cities send their servants for water. They go to the cisterns, but they do not find any water there. They return with their containers empty. Disappointed and dismayed, they bury their faces in their hands.

They are dismayed because the ground is cracked because there has been no rain in the land. The farmers, too, are dismayed and bury their faces in their hands.

Even the doe abandons her newborn fawn in the field because there is no grass. Wild donkeys stand on the hilltops and pant for breath like jackals. Their eyes are strained looking for food, because there is none to be found.”

Then I said, “O LORD, intervene for the honor of your name even though our sins speak out against us. Indeed, we have turned away from you many times. We have sinned against you.

You have been the object of Israel’s hopes. You have saved them when they were in trouble. Why have you become like a resident foreigner in the land? Why have you become like a traveler who only stops in to spend the night?

Why should you be like someone who is helpless, like a champion who cannot save anyone? You are indeed with us, and we belong to you. Do not abandon us!”

Then the LORD spoke about these people. “They truly love to go astray. They cannot keep from running away from me. So I am not pleased with them. I will now call to mind the wrongs they have done and punish them for their sins.”

Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for good to come to these people! Even if they fast, I will not hear their cries for help. Even if they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them.

Instead, I will kill them through wars, famines, and plagues.”

Then I said, “Oh, Sovereign LORD, look! The prophets are telling them that you said, ‘You will not experience war or suffer famine. I will give you lasting peace and prosperity in this land.’”

Then the LORD said to me, “Those prophets are prophesying lies while claiming my authority! I did not send them. I did not commission them. I did not speak to them.

They are prophesying to these people false visions, worthless predictions, and the delusions of their own mind. I did not send those prophets, though they claim to be prophesying in my name.

They may be saying, ‘No war or famine will happen in this land.’ But I, the LORD, say this about them: ‘War and starvation will kill those prophets.’

The people to whom they are prophesying will die through war and famine. Their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem and there will be no one to bury them.

This will happen to the men and their wives, their sons, and their daughters. For I will pour out on them the destruction they deserve.”

“Tell these people this, Jeremiah: ‘My eyes overflow with tears day and night without ceasing. For my people, my dear children, have suffered a crushing blow. They have suffered a serious wound. If I go out into the countryside, I see those who have been killed in battle. If I go into the city, I see those who are sick because of starvation. For both prophet and priest—they go peddling in the land but they are not humbled.’”

Then I said, “LORD, have you completely rejected the nation of Judah? Do you despise the city of Zion? Why have you struck us with such force that we are beyond recovery? We hope for peace, but nothing good has come of it. We hope for a time of relief from our troubles, but experience terror. LORD, we confess that we have been wicked. We confess that our ancestors have done wrong. We have indeed sinned against you. For the honor of your name, do not treat Jerusalem with contempt. Do not treat with disdain the place where your glorious throne sits. Be mindful of your covenant with us. Do not break it!”

“Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people, I would not feel pity for them! Get them away from me! Tell them to go away!”

“I will punish them in four different ways… I have grown tired of feeling sorry for you!”

I said, “Oh, mother, how I regret that you ever gave birth to me! I am always starting arguments and quarrels with the people of this land…”

The LORD said, “If you say what is worthwhile instead of what is worthless, I will again allow you to be my spokesman… I will make you as strong as a wall to these people, a fortified wall of bronze…”

The LORD’s message came to me, “Do not get married and do not have children here in this land… I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, to the glad celebration of brides and grooms in this land.”

“When you tell these people about all this, they will undoubtedly ask you, ‘Why has the LORD threatened us with such great disaster? What wrong have we done? What sin have we done to offend the LORD our God?’ Then tell them that the LORD says, ‘It is because your ancestors rejected me and paid allegiance to other gods. They have served them and worshiped them. But they have rejected me and not obeyed my law. And you have acted even more wickedly than your ancestors! Each one of you has followed the stubborn inclinations of your own wicked heart and not obeyed me. So I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. There you must worship other gods day and night, for I will show you no mercy.’”

Yet I, the LORD, say: “A new time will certainly come. People now affirm their oaths with ‘I swear as surely as the LORD lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.’ But in that time they will affirm them with ‘I swear as surely as the LORD lives who delivered the people of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished them.’ At that time I will bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors.”

But for now I, the LORD, say: “I will send many enemies who will catch these people like fishermen. After that I will send others who will hunt them out like hunters from all the mountains, all the hills, and the crevices in the rocks. For I see everything they do. Their wicked ways are not hidden from me. Their sin is not hidden away where I cannot see it. Before I restore them I will punish them in full for their sins and the wrongs they have done. For they have polluted my land with the lifeless statues of their disgusting idols. They have filled the land I have claimed as my own with their detestable idols.”

Then I said, “LORD, you give me strength and protect me. You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble. Nations from all over the earth will come to you and say, ‘Our ancestors had nothing but false gods – worthless idols that could not help them at all. Can people make their own gods? No, what they make are not gods at all.”

The LORD said, “So I will now let this wicked people know – I will let them know my mighty power in judgment. Then they will know that my name is the LORD.”

The sin of Judah is engraved with an iron chisel on their stone-hard hearts. It is inscribed with a diamond point on the horns of their altars. Their children are always thinking about their altars and their sacred poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah, set up beside the green trees on the high hills and on the mountains and in the fields. I will give your wealth and all your treasures away as plunder. I will give it away as the price for the sins you have committed throughout your land. You will lose your hold on the land which I gave to you as a permanent possession. I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you know nothing about. For you have made my anger burn like a fire that will never be put out.

The LORD says, “I will put a curse on people who trust in mere human beings, who depend on mere flesh and blood for their strength, and whose hearts have turned away from the LORD. They will be like a shrub in the arid rift valley. They will not experience good things even when they happen. It will be as though they were growing in the stony wastes in the wilderness, in a salt land where no one can live.

My blessing is on those people who trust in me, who put their confidence in me. They will be like a tree planted near a stream whose roots spread out toward the water. It has nothing to fear when the heat comes. Its leaves are always green. It has no need to be concerned in a year of drought. It does not stop bearing fruit.

The human mind is more deceitful than anything else. It is incurably bad. Who can understand it? I, the LORD, probe into people’s minds. I examine people’s hearts. I deal with each person according to how he has behaved. I give them what they deserve based on what they have done.

The person who gathers wealth by unjust means is like the partridge that broods over eggs but does not hatch them. Before his life is half over he will lose his ill-gotten gains. At the end of his life it will be clear he was a fool.”

Then I said, “LORD, from the very beginning you have been seated on your glorious throne on high. You are the place where we can find refuge. You are the one in whom Israel may find hope. All who leave you will suffer shame. Those who turn away from you will be consigned to the netherworld. For they have rejected you, the LORD, the fountain of life.”

LORD, grant me relief from my suffering so that I may have some relief; rescue me from those who persecute me so that I may be rescued, for you give me reason to praise! Look at what they are saying to me, “Where are the events in the LORD’s message? Let’s see them happen, please!” But I have not pestered you to bring disaster. I have not desired the time of irreparable devastation. You know that. You are fully aware of every word that I have spoken. Do not cause me dismay! You are my source of safety in times of trouble. May those who persecute me be disgraced. Do not let me be disgraced. May they be dismayed. Do not let me be dismayed. Bring days of disaster on them. Bring on them the destruction they deserve.

The LORD told me, “Go and stand in the People’s Gate through which the kings of Judah enter and leave the city. Then go and stand in all the other gates of the city of Jerusalem. And then announce to them, ‘Listen to the LORD’s message, you kings of Judah, and everyone from Judah, and all you citizens of Jerusalem, those who pass through these gates.

The LORD says, ‘Be very careful if you value your lives! Do not carry any loads in through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. Do not carry any loads out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day. But observe the Sabbath day as a day set apart to the LORD, as I commanded your ancestors. Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They stubbornly refused to pay attention or to respond to any discipline.’

The LORD says, ‘You must make sure to obey me. You must not bring any loads through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day. You must set the Sabbath day apart to me. You must not do any work on that day. If you do this, then the kings and princes who follow in David’s succession and ride in chariots or on horses will continue to enter through these gates, as well as their officials and the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. This city will always be filled with people.

Then people will come here from the towns in Judah, from the villages surrounding Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin, from the foothills, from the southern hill country, and from the southern part of Judah. They will come bringing offerings to the temple of the LORD: burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, and incense along with their thank offerings.

But you must obey me and set the Sabbath day apart to me. You must not carry any loads in through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. If you disobey, I will set the gates of Jerusalem on fire. It will burn down all the fortified dwellings in Jerusalem and no one will be able to put it out.’”

The LORD said to Jeremiah: “Go down at once to the potter’s house. I will speak to you further there.” So I went down to the potter’s house and found him working at his wheel. Now and then there would be something wrong with the pot he was molding from the clay with his hands. So he would rework the clay into another kind of pot as he saw fit.

Then the LORD’s message came to me, “I, the LORD, say: ‘O nation of Israel, can I not deal with you as this potter deals with the clay? In my hands, you, O nation of Israel, are just like the clay in this potter’s hand.’

There are times, Jeremiah, when I threaten to uproot, tear down, and destroy a nation or kingdom. But if that nation I threatened stops doing wrong, I will cancel the destruction I intended to do to it. And there are times when I promise to build up and establish a nation or kingdom. But if that nation does what displeases me and does not obey me, then I will cancel the good I promised to do to it.

So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem this: The LORD says, ‘I am preparing to bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. So, every one of you, stop the evil things you have been doing. Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.’

But they just keep saying, ‘We do not care what you say! We will do whatever we want to do! We will continue to behave wickedly and stubbornly!’”

Therefore, the LORD says, “Ask the people of other nations whether they have heard of anything like this. Israel should have been like a virgin. But she has done something utterly revolting! Does the snow ever completely vanish from the rocky slopes of Lebanon? Do the cool waters from those distant mountains ever cease to flow? Yet my people have forgotten me and offered sacrifices to worthless idols!

This makes them stumble along in the way they live and leave the old reliable path of their fathers. They have left them to walk in bypaths, in roads that are not smooth and level. So their land will become an object of horror. People will forever hiss out their scorn over it. All who pass that way will be filled with horror and will shake their heads in derision.

I will scatter them before their enemies like dust blowing in front of a burning east wind. I will turn my back on them and not look favorably on them when disaster strikes them.”

Then some people said, “Come on! Let us consider how to deal with Jeremiah! There will still be priests to instruct us, wise men to give us advice, and prophets to declare God’s word. Come on! Let’s bring charges against him and get rid of him! Then we will not need to pay attention to anything he says.”

Then I said, “LORD, pay attention to me. Listen to what my enemies are saying. Should good be paid back with evil? Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me. Just remember how I stood before you pleading on their behalf to keep you from venting your anger on them.

So let their children die of starvation. Let them be cut down by the sword. Let their wives lose their husbands and children. Let the older men die of disease and the younger men die by the sword in battle. Let cries of terror be heard in their houses when you send bands of raiders unexpectedly to plunder them. For they have virtually dug a pit to capture me and have hidden traps for me to step into.

But you, LORD, know all their plots to kill me. Do not pardon their crimes! Do not ignore their sins as though you had erased them! Let them be brought down in defeat before you! Deal with them while you are still angry!

The LORD told Jeremiah, “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take with you some of the leaders of the people and some of the leaders of the priests. Go out to the part of the Hinnom Valley which is near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Announce there what I tell you. Say, ‘Listen to the LORD’s message, you kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem! This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, has said, “Look here. I am about to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it ring!

I will do so because these people have rejected me and have defiled this place. They have offered sacrifices in it to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah knew anything about. They have filled it with the blood of innocent children. They have built places here for worship of the god Baal so that they could sacrifice their children as burnt offerings to him in the fire. Such sacrifices are something I never commanded them to make! They are something I never told them to do! Indeed, such a thing never even entered my mind!

So I, the LORD, say: “The time will soon come that people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Hinnom Valley. But they will call this valley the Valley of Slaughter! In this place I will thwart the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will deliver them over to the power of their enemies who are seeking to kill them. They will die by the sword at the hands of their enemies. I will make their dead bodies food for the birds and wild beasts to eat.

I will make this city an object of horror, a thing to be hissed at. All who pass by it will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it. I will reduce the people of this city to desperate straits during the siege imposed on it by their enemies who are seeking to kill them. I will make them so desperate that they will eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters and the flesh of one another.”’

The LORD continued, “Now break the jar in front of those who have come here with you. Tell them the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says, ‘I will do just as Jeremiah has done. I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter’s vessel which is broken beyond repair. The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.’

I, the LORD, say: ‘That is how I will deal with this city and its citizens. I will make it like Topheth. The houses in Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled by dead bodies just like this place, Topheth. For they offered sacrifice to the stars and poured out drink offerings to other gods on the roofs of those houses.’”

Then Jeremiah left Topheth where the LORD had sent him to give that prophecy. He went to the LORD’s temple and stood in its courtyard and called out to all the people. “The LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says, ‘I will soon bring on this city and all the towns surrounding it all the disaster I threatened to do to it. I will do so because they have stubbornly refused to pay any attention to what I have said!’”

Now Pashhur son of Immer heard Jeremiah prophesy these things. He was the priest who was chief of security in the LORD’s temple. When he heard Jeremiah’s prophecy, he had the prophet flogged. Then he put him in the stocks which were at the Upper Gate of Benjamin in the LORD’s temple.

But the next day Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks. When he did, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD’s name for you is not ‘Pashhur’ but ‘Terror is Everywhere.’ For the LORD says, ‘I will make both you and your friends terrified of what will happen to you. You will see all of them die by the swords of their enemies.

I will hand all the people of Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will carry some of them away into exile in Babylon and he will kill others of them with the sword. I will hand over all the wealth of this city to their enemies. I will hand over to them all the fruits of the labor of the people of this city and all their prized possessions, as well as all the treasures of the kings of Judah.

Their enemies will seize it all as plunder and carry it off to Babylon. You, Pashhur, and all your household will go into exile in Babylon. You will die there and you will be buried there. The same thing will happen to all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’”

LORD, you coerced me into being a prophet, and I allowed you to do it. You overcame my resistance and prevailed over me. Now I have become a constant laughingstock. Everyone ridicules me. For whenever I prophesy, I must cry out, “Violence and destruction are coming!” This message from the LORD has made me an object of continual insults and derision. Sometimes I think, “I will make no mention of his message. I will not speak as his messenger any more.” But then his message becomes like a fire locked up inside of me, burning in my heart and soul. I grow weary of trying to hold it in; I cannot contain it. I hear many whispering words of intrigue against me. Those who would cause me terror are everywhere! They are saying, “Come on, let’s publicly denounce him!” All my so-called friends are just watching for something that would lead to my downfall. They say, “Perhaps he can be enticed into slipping up, so we can prevail over him and get our revenge on him.” But the LORD is with me to help me like an awe-inspiring warrior. Therefore those who persecute me will fail and will not prevail over me. They will be thoroughly disgraced because they did not succeed. Their disgrace will never be forgotten. O LORD of Heaven’s Armies, you test and prove the righteous. You see into people’s hearts and minds. Pay them back for what they have done because I trust you to vindicate my cause. Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD! For he rescues the oppressed from the clutches of evildoers. Cursed be the day I was born! May that day not be blessed when my mother gave birth to me. Cursed be the man who made my father very glad when he brought him the news that a baby boy had been born to him! May that man be like the cities that the LORD destroyed without showing any mercy. May he hear a cry of distress in the morning and a battle cry at noon. For he did not kill me before I came from the womb, making my pregnant mother’s womb my grave forever. Why did I ever come forth from my mother’s womb? All I experience is trouble and grief, and I spend my days in shame.

The LORD spoke to Jeremiah when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. Zedekiah sent them to Jeremiah to ask, “Please ask the LORD to come and help us, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is attacking us. Maybe the LORD will perform one of his miracles as in times past and make him stop attacking us and leave.” Jeremiah answered them, “Tell Zedekiah that the LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘The forces at your disposal are now outside the walls fighting against King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the Babylonians who have you under siege. I will gather those forces back inside the city. In anger, in fury, and in wrath I myself will fight against you with my mighty power and great strength! I will kill everything living in Jerusalem, people and animals alike! They will die from terrible diseases. Then I, the LORD, promise that I will hand over King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and any of the people who survive the war, starvation, and disease. I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and to their enemies who want to kill them. He will slaughter them with the sword. He will not show them any mercy, compassion, or pity.’ “But tell the people of Jerusalem that the LORD says, ‘I will give you a choice between two courses of action. One will result in life; the other will result in death. Those who stay in this city will die in battle or of starvation or disease. Those who leave the city and surrender to the Babylonians who are besieging it will live. They will escape with their lives. For I, the LORD, say that I am determined not to deliver this city but to bring disaster on it. It will be handed over to the king of Babylon and he will destroy it with fire.’” The LORD told me to say to the royal court of Judah, “Listen to the LORD’s message, O royal family descended from David. The LORD says: ‘See to it that people each day are judged fairly. Deliver those who have been robbed from those who oppress them. Otherwise, my wrath will blaze out against you. It will burn like a fire that cannot be put out because of the evil that you have done. Listen, you who sit enthroned above the valley on a rocky plateau. I am opposed to you,’ says the LORD. ‘You boast, “No one can swoop down on us. No one can penetrate into our places of refuge.” But I will punish you as your deeds deserve,’ says the LORD. ‘I will set fire to your palace; it will burn up everything around it.’”

The LORD told me, “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah. Give him a message from me there. Say: ‘Listen, O king of Judah who follows in David’s succession. You, your officials, and your subjects who pass through the gates of this palace must listen to the LORD’s message. The LORD says, “Do what is just and right. Deliver those who have been robbed from those who oppress them. Do not exploit or mistreat resident foreigners who live in your land, children who have no fathers, or widows. Do not kill innocent people in this land. If you are careful to obey these commands, then the kings who follow in David’s succession and ride in chariots or on horses will continue to come through the gates of this palace, as will their officials and their subjects. But, if you do not obey these commands, I solemnly swear that this palace will become a pile of rubble. I, the LORD, affirm it!”’ “‘For the LORD says concerning the palace of the king of Judah, “This place looks like a veritable forest of Gilead to me. It is like the wooded heights of Lebanon in my eyes. But I swear that I will make it like a wilderness whose towns have all been deserted. I will send men against it to destroy it with their axes and hatchets. They will hack up its fine cedar panels and columns and throw them into the fire.”’ “‘People from other nations will pass by this city. They will ask one another, “Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?” The answer will come back, “It is because they broke their covenant with the LORD their God and worshiped and served other gods.”’ “‘Do not weep for the king who was killed. Do not grieve for him. But weep mournfully for the king who has gone into exile. For he will never return to see his native land again.’” “‘For the LORD has spoken about Shallum son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah but was carried off into exile. He has said, “He will never return to this land. For he will die in the country where they took him as a captive. He will never see this land again.”’ “‘Sure to be judged is the king who builds his palace using injustice and treats people unfairly while adding its upper rooms. He makes his countrymen work for him for nothing. He does not pay them for their labor. He says, “I will build myself a large palace with spacious upper rooms.” He cuts windows in its walls, panels it with cedar, and paints its rooms red. Does it make you any more of a king that you outstrip everyone else in building with cedar? Just think about your father. He was content that he had food and drink. He did what was just and right. So things went well with him. He upheld the cause of the poor and needy. So things went well for Judah.’ The LORD says, ‘That is a good example of what it means to know me.’ But you are always thinking and looking for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means. Your eyes and your heart are set on killing some innocent person and committing fraud and oppression. So the LORD has this to say about Josiah’s son, King Jehoiakim of Judah: People will not mourn for him, saying, “This makes me sad, my brother! This makes me sad, my sister!” They will not mourn for him, saying, “Poor, poor lord! Poor, poor majesty!” He will be left unburied just like a dead donkey. His body will be dragged off and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.’” People of Jerusalem, go up to Lebanon and cry out in mourning. Go to the land of Bashan and cry out loudly. Cry out in mourning from the mountains of Moab. For your allies have all been defeated. While you were feeling secure I gave you warning. But you said, “I refuse to listen to you.” That is the way you have acted from your earliest history onward. Indeed, you have never paid attention to me. My judgment will carry off all your leaders like a storm wind! Your allies will go into captivity. Then you will certainly be disgraced and put to shame because of all the wickedness you have done. You may feel as secure as a bird nesting in the cedars of Lebanon. But oh how you will groan when the pains of judgment come on you. They will be like those of a woman giving birth to a baby.

The LORD says, “The leaders of my people are sure to be judged. They were supposed to watch over my people like shepherds watch over their sheep. But they are causing my people to be destroyed and scattered. So the LORD God of Israel has this to say about the leaders who are ruling over his people: ‘You have caused my people to be dispersed and driven into exile. You have not taken care of them. So I will punish you for the evil that you have done. I, the LORD, affirm it!’ Then I myself will regather those of my people who are still alive from all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back to their homeland. They will greatly increase in number. I will install rulers over them who will care for them. Then they will no longer need to fear or be terrified. None of them will turn up missing. I, the LORD, promise it! I, the LORD, promise that a new time will certainly come when I will raise up for them a righteous branch, a descendant of David. He will rule over them with wisdom and understanding and will do what is just and right in the land. Under his rule Judah will enjoy safety and Israel will live in security. This is the name he will go by: ‘The LORD has provided us with justice.’ So I, the LORD, say: ‘A new time will certainly come. People now affirm their oaths with “I swear as surely as the LORD lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.” But at that time they will affirm them with “I swear as surely as the LORD lives who delivered the descendants of the former nation of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished them.” At that time they will live in their own land.’”

Here is what the LORD says concerning the false prophets: My heart and my mind are deeply disturbed. I tremble all over. I am like a drunk person, like a person who has had too much wine, because of the way the LORD and his holy word are being mistreated. For the land is full of people unfaithful to him. They live wicked lives and they misuse their power. So the land is dried up because it is under his curse. The pastures in the wilderness are withered. Moreover, the LORD says, “Both the prophets and priests are godless. I have even found them doing evil in my temple! So the paths they follow will be dark and slippery. They will stumble and fall headlong. For I will bring disaster on them. A day of reckoning is coming for them.” The LORD affirms it! The LORD says, “I saw the prophets of Samaria doing something that was disgusting. They prophesied in the name of the god Baal and led my people Israel astray. But I see the prophets of Jerusalem doing something just as shocking. They are unfaithful to me and continually prophesy lies. So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil, with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom, and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah.” So then I, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, have something to say concerning the prophets of Jerusalem: “I will make these prophets eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment. For the prophets of Jerusalem are the reason that ungodliness has spread throughout the land.” The LORD of Heaven’s Armies says to the people of Jerusalem: “Do not listen to what those prophets are saying to you. They are filling you with false hopes. They are reporting visions of their own imaginations, not something the LORD has given them to say. They continually say to those who reject what the LORD has said, ‘Things will go well for you!’ They say to all those who follow the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts, ‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’ Yet which of them has ever stood in the LORD’s inner circle so they could see and hear what he has to say? Which of them have ever paid attention or listened to what he has said? But just watch! The wrath of the LORD will come like a storm! Like a raging storm it will rage down on the heads of those who are wicked. The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has fully carried out his intended purposes. In days to come you people will come to understand this clearly. I did not send those prophets. Yet they were in a hurry to give their message. I did not tell them anything. Yet they prophesied anyway. But if they had stood in my inner circle, they would have proclaimed my message to my people. They would have caused my people to turn from their wicked ways and stop doing the evil things they are doing. Do you people think that I am some local deity and not the transcendent God? Do you really think anyone can hide himself where I cannot see him? Do you not know that I am everywhere? I have heard what those prophets who are prophesying lies in my name are saying. They are saying, ‘I have had a dream! I have had a dream!’ Those prophets are just prophesying lies. They are prophesying the delusions of their own minds. How long will they go on plotting to make my people forget who I am through the dreams they tell one another? That is just as bad as what their ancestors did when they forgot who I am by worshiping the god Baal. Let the prophet who has had a dream go ahead and tell his dream. Let the person who has received my message report that message faithfully. What is like straw cannot compare to what is like grain! My message is like a fire that purges dross! It is like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces! So I affirm that I am opposed to those prophets who steal messages from one another that they claim are from me. I am opposed to those prophets who are using their own tongues to declare, ‘The LORD declares….’ I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies. I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all. Jeremiah, when one of these people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, ‘What burdensome message do you have from the LORD?’ tell them, ‘You are the burden, and I will cast you away.’ I will punish any prophet, priest, or other person who says, ‘The LORD’s message is burdensome.’ You must no longer say that the LORD’s message is burdensome. For what is burdensome really pertains to what a person himself says. You are misrepresenting the words of our God, the living God. If you continue to say, ‘The LORD’s message is burdensome,’ I will carry you far off and throw you away. I will bring on you lasting shame and lasting disgrace which will never be forgotten.

The LORD showed me two baskets of figs sitting before his temple. This happened after King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon deported Jehoiakim’s son, King Jeconiah of Judah. He deported him and the leaders of Judah from Jerusalem, along with the craftsmen and metal workers, and took them to Babylon. One basket had very good-looking figs in it. They looked like those that had ripened early. The other basket had very bad-looking figs in it, so bad they could not be eaten. The LORD said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I answered, “I see figs. The good ones look very good. But the bad ones look very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.” The LORD’s message came to me, “I, the LORD, the God of Israel, say: ‘The exiles of Judah whom I sent away from here to the land of Babylon are like those good figs. I consider them to be good. I will look after their welfare and will restore them to this land. There I will build them up and will not tear them down. I will plant them firmly in the land and will not uproot them. I will give them the desire to acknowledge that I am the LORD. I will be their God and they will be my people. For they will wholeheartedly return to me.’ “I, the LORD, also solemnly assert: ‘King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and the people who remain in Jerusalem or who have gone to live in Egypt are like those bad figs. I consider them to be just like those bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. I will bring such disaster on them that all the kingdoms of the earth will be horrified. I will make them an object of reproach, a proverbial example of disaster. I will make them an object of ridicule, an example to be used in curses. That is how they will be remembered wherever I banish them. I will bring war, starvation, and disease on them until they are completely destroyed from the land I gave them and their ancestors.’”

In the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah, the LORD spoke to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah (the same year Nebuchadnezzar became king of Babylon). For twenty-three years the LORD’s messages came to me again and again, but you did not listen. Therefore the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says, “Because you have not listened, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. These nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. When the seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation for their guilt.”

Then the LORD gave me a cup filled with the wine of his wrath and commanded me to make all the nations drink from it—Judah first, then the surrounding kingdoms, and finally the king of Babylon himself. The LORD will roar from on high, bring charges against the nations, and pass judgment on all humankind. Disaster will move from nation to nation until the earth is laid bare.

At the beginning of the reign of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, the LORD said to Jeremiah, “Go stand in the courtyard of the LORD’s temple and speak to all the people of Judah who come to worship there. Tell them everything I command you; do not omit a single word. Perhaps they will listen and turn from their evil ways so that I may relent from the disaster I intend to bring on them. If they do not obey, then I will make this temple like Shiloh and this city an example used in curses among all the nations.”

When Jeremiah finished speaking, the priests, prophets, and people seized him and cried, “You must die!” They accused him of prophesying against the temple and the city. Officials convened court at the New Gate, and Jeremiah defended himself, declaring that the LORD had sent him and warning that killing him would bring innocent blood upon the city.

The officials and people acquitted Jeremiah, citing the precedent of the prophet Micah under Hezekiah. Yet another prophet, Uriah son of Shemaiah, had been executed by Jehoiakim. Jeremiah was spared only because Ahikam son of Shaphan protected him.

The LORD spoke to Jeremiah early in the reign of Josiah’s son, King Zedekiah of Judah. The LORD told me, “Make a yoke out of leather straps and wooden crossbars and put it on your neck. Use it to send messages to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon…”

“I made the earth and the people and animals on it by my mighty power and great strength, and I give it to whomever I see fit. I have at this time placed all these nations of yours under the power of my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon…”

“Do not listen to your prophets… They are prophesying lies… Things will go better for the nation that submits to the yoke of servitude to the king of Babylon…”

The prophet Hananiah son of Azzur… spoke to Jeremiah in the LORD’s temple… “I will break the yoke of servitude to the king of Babylon…”

Then the prophet Jeremiah responded… “If a prophet prophesied peace and prosperity, it was only known that the LORD truly sent him when what he prophesied came true.”

Hananiah took the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and broke it… But shortly after… the LORD’s message came to Jeremiah… “You have indeed broken the wooden yoke. But you have only succeeded in replacing it with an iron one!”

“Listen, Hananiah! The LORD did not send you… You will die this very year…” In the seventh month of that same year the prophet Hananiah died.

The prophet Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles Nebuchadnezzar had carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon. It was addressed to the elders who were left among the exiles, to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the other people who were exiled in Babylon.

The letter said: “The LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says to all those he sent into exile to Babylon from Jerusalem, ‘Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters… Grow in number; do not dwindle away.

Work to see that the city where I sent you as exiles enjoys peace and prosperity. Pray to the LORD for it. For as it prospers you will prosper.’”

“Do not let the prophets among you… deceive you… They are prophesying lies to you and claiming my authority to do so. But I did not send them,” says the LORD.

“Only when the seventy years of Babylonian rule are over will I again take up consideration for you… For I know what I have planned for you… plans to prosper you, not to harm you… a future filled with hope.”

“When you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you… I will reverse your plight and will regather you from all the nations… I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.”

The LORD also spoke against the prophets who were proclaiming good news falsely and against Shemaiah the Nehelamite, who had counseled rebellion against the LORD and caused the people to trust in a lie.

The LORD spoke to Jeremiah. “The LORD God of Israel says, ‘Write everything that I am about to tell you in a scroll. For I, the LORD, affirm that the time will come when I will reverse the plight of my people, Israel and Judah,’ says the LORD. ‘I will bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors and they will take possession of it once again.’”

So here is what the LORD has to say about Israel and Judah. Yes, here is what he says: “You hear cries of panic and of terror; there is no peace in sight. Ask yourselves this and consider it carefully: Have you ever seen a man give birth to a baby? Why then do I see all these strong men grabbing their stomachs in pain like a woman giving birth? And why do their faces turn so deathly pale?

Alas, what a terrible time of trouble it is! There has never been any like it. It is a time of trouble for the descendants of Jacob, but some of them will be rescued out of it. When the time for them to be rescued comes,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will rescue you from foreign subjugation. I will deliver you from captivity. Foreigners will then no longer subjugate them.

But they will be subject to the LORD their God and to the Davidic ruler whom I will raise up as king over them. So I, the LORD, tell you not to be afraid, you descendants of Jacob, my servants. Do not be terrified, people of Israel. For I will rescue you and your descendants from a faraway land where you are captives.

The descendants of Jacob will return to their land and enjoy peace. They will be secure and no one will terrify them. For I, the LORD, affirm that I will be with you and will rescue you. I will completely destroy all the nations where I scattered you. But I will not completely destroy you. I will indeed discipline you, but only in due measure. I will not allow you to go entirely unpunished.”

Moreover, the LORD says to the people of Zion, “Your injuries are incurable; your wounds are severe. There is no one to plead your cause. There are no remedies for your wounds. There is no healing for you. All your allies have abandoned you. They no longer have any concern for you. For I have attacked you like an enemy would. I have chastened you cruelly. For your wickedness is so great and your sin is so much.

Why do you complain about your injuries, that your pain is incurable? I have done all this to you because your wickedness is so great and your sin is so much. But all who destroyed you will be destroyed. All your enemies will go into exile. Those who plundered you will be plundered. I will cause those who pillaged you to be pillaged. Yes, I will restore you to health. I will heal your wounds. I, the LORD, affirm it! For you have been called an outcast, Zion, whom no one cares for.”

The LORD says, “I will restore the ruined houses of the descendants of Jacob. I will show compassion on their ruined homes. Every city will be rebuilt on its former ruins. Every fortified dwelling will occupy its traditional site. Out of those places you will hear songs of thanksgiving and the sounds of laughter and merriment. I will increase their number and they will not dwindle away. I will bring them honor and they will no longer be despised.

The descendants of Jacob will enjoy their former privileges. Their community will be reestablished in my favor and I will punish all who try to oppress them. One of their own people will be their leader. Their ruler will come from their own number. I will invite him to approach me, and he will do so. For no one would dare approach me on his own. I, the LORD, affirm it! Then you will again be my people and I will be your God.

Just watch! The wrath of the LORD will come like a storm. Like a raging storm it will rage down on the heads of those who are wicked. The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has fully carried out his intended purposes. In days to come you will come to understand this. At that time I will be the God of all the clans of Israel and they will be my people. I, the LORD, affirm it!”

The LORD says, “The people of Israel who survived death at the hands of the enemy will find favor in the wilderness as they journey to find rest for themselves. In a far-off land the LORD will manifest himself to them. He will say to them, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love. That is why I have continued to be faithful to you.

I will rebuild you, my dear children Israel, so that you will once again be built up. Once again you will take up the tambourine and join in the happy throng of dancers. Once again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria. Those who plant them will once again enjoy their fruit. Yes, a time is coming when watchmen will call out on the mountains of Ephraim, “Come! Let us go to Zion to worship the LORD our God!”’”

Moreover, the LORD says, “Sing for joy for the descendants of Jacob. Utter glad shouts for that foremost of the nations. Make your praises heard. Then say, ‘LORD, rescue your people. Deliver those of Israel who remain alive.’ Then I will reply, ‘I will bring them back from the land of the north. I will gather them in from the distant parts of the earth.

Blind and lame people will come with them, so will pregnant women and women about to give birth. A vast throng of people will come back here. They will come back shedding tears of contrition. I will bring them back praying prayers of repentance. I will lead them besides streams of water, along smooth paths where they will never stumble. I will do this because I am Israel’s father; Ephraim is my firstborn son.’”

Listen to the LORD’s message, O nations. Proclaim it in the faraway lands along the sea. Say, “The one who scattered Israel will regather them. He will watch over his people like a shepherd watches over his flock.” For the LORD will rescue the descendants of Jacob. He will secure their release from those who had overpowered them.

They will come and shout for joy on Mount Zion. They will be radiant with joy over the good things the LORD provides, the grain, the fresh wine, the olive oil, the young sheep and calves he has given to them. They will be like a well-watered garden and will not grow faint or weary any more.

The LORD says, “At that time young women will dance and be glad. Young men and old men will rejoice. I will turn their grief into gladness. I will give them comfort and joy in place of their sorrow. I will provide the priests with abundant provisions. My people will be filled to the full with the good things I provide.”

The LORD says, “A sound is heard in Ramah, a sound of crying in bitter grief. It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are gone.” The LORD says to her, “Stop crying! Do not shed any more tears! For your heartfelt repentance will be rewarded. Your children will return from the land of the enemy. I, the LORD, affirm it!

Indeed, there is hope for your posterity. Your children will return to their own territory. I, the LORD, affirm it! I have indeed heard the people of Israel say mournfully, ‘We were like a calf untrained to the yoke. You disciplined us and we learned from it. Let us come back to you and we will do so, for you are the LORD our God.

For after we turned away from you we repented. After we came to our senses we struck our thigh in sorrow. We are ashamed and humiliated because of the disgraceful things we did previously.’ Indeed, the people of Israel are my dear children. They are the children I take delight in. For even though I must often rebuke them, I still remember them with fondness. So I am deeply moved with pity for them and will surely have compassion on them. I, the LORD, affirm it!

I will say, ‘My dear children of Israel, keep in mind the road you took when you were carried off. Mark off in your minds the landmarks. Make a mental note of telltale signs marking the way back. Return, my dear children of Israel. Return to these cities of yours. How long will you vacillate, you who were once like an unfaithful daughter?

For I, the LORD, promise to bring about something new on the earth, something as unique as a woman protecting a man!’”

The LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says, “I will restore the people of Judah to their land and to their towns. When I do, they will again say of Jerusalem, ‘May the LORD bless you, you holy mountain, the place where righteousness dwells.’ The land of Judah will be inhabited by people who live in its towns as well as by farmers and shepherds with their flocks. I will fully satisfy the needs of those who are weary and fully refresh the souls of those who are faint.”

“Indeed, a time is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will cause people and animals to sprout up in the lands of Israel and Judah. In the past I saw to it that they were uprooted and torn down, that they were destroyed and demolished and brought disaster. But now I will see to it that they are built up and firmly planted. I, the LORD, affirm it!”

“When that time comes, people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, but the children’s teeth have grown numb.’ Rather, each person will die for his own sins. The teeth of the person who eats the sour grapes will themselves grow numb.

“Indeed, a time is coming,” says the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” says the LORD.

“But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the LORD. “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people. People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” says the LORD. “For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”

The LORD has made a promise to Israel. He promises it as the one who fixed the sun to give light by day and the moon and stars to give light by night. He promises it as the one who stirs up the sea so that its waves roll. His name is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

The LORD affirms, “The descendants of Israel will not cease forever to be a nation in my sight. That could only happen if the fixed ordering of the heavenly lights were to cease to operate before me.”

The LORD says, “I will not reject all the descendants of Israel because of all that they have done. That could only happen if the heavens above could be measured or the foundations of the earth below could all be explored,” says the LORD.

“Indeed a time is coming,” says the LORD, “when the city of Jerusalem will be rebuilt as my special city. It will be built from the Tower of Hananel westward to the Corner Gate. The boundary line will extend beyond that, straight west from there to the Hill of Gareb and then turn southward to Goah.

The whole valley where dead bodies and sacrificial ashes are thrown and all the terraced fields out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far north as the corner of the Horse Gate will be included within this city that is sacred to the LORD. The city will never again be torn down or destroyed.”

In the tenth year that Zedekiah was ruling over Judah the LORD spoke to Jeremiah. That was the same as the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. Now at that time, the armies of the king of Babylon were besieging Jerusalem. The prophet Jeremiah was confined in the courtyard of the guardhouse attached to the royal palace of Judah.

The LORD’s message came to me, ‘Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, will come to you soon. He will say to you, “Buy my field at Anathoth…” And then my cousin Hanamel did come to me… When this happened, I recognized that the LORD had indeed spoken to me.

So I bought the field… I signed the deed of purchase, sealed it… There were two copies of the deed of purchase. One was sealed… The other was left unsealed. I took both copies… and gave them to Baruch… In the presence of all these people I instructed Baruch… “Put them in a clay jar so that they may be preserved for a long time to come.” For the LORD… says, “Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”

After I had given the copies… I prayed to the LORD, ‘Oh, Sovereign LORD… Nothing is too hard for you! …You kept the promise… But when they came in… they did not obey you… So you brought all this disaster on them… Yet… you… have said to me, “Buy that field with silver and have the transaction legally witnessed.”’

The LORD’s message came to Jeremiah. “I am the LORD, the God of all humankind. There is, indeed, nothing too difficult for me… I will indeed hand this city over… They will capture it… This will happen because the people… have repeatedly done what displeases me…”

“But now… I have something further to say… I will certainly regather my people… I will bring them back to this place and allow them to live here in safety. They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them a single-minded purpose… I will make a lasting covenant with them…”

“Fields will again be bought in this land… deeds of purchase signed, sealed, and witnessed… For I will restore them to their land. I, the LORD, affirm it!”

The LORD’s message came to Jeremiah a second time… “Call on me in prayer and I will answer you. I will show you great and mysterious things…” “I will most surely heal the wounds of this city… I will purify them… I will forgive all their sins…”

“Happy sounds will again be heard… sounds of joy and gladness… Give thanks to the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. For the LORD is good and his unfailing love lasts forever…”

“The time will certainly come when I will fulfill my gracious promise… I will raise up for them a righteous descendant of David… David will never lack a successor… Nor will the Levitical priests ever lack someone to stand before me…”

“Only if you people could break my covenant with the day and with the night… could my covenant with my servant David… ever be broken…” “Indeed, I will restore them and show mercy to them.”

The LORD’s message came to Jeremiah while King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon was attacking Jerusalem and the towns around it with a large army. This is what the LORD God of Israel told Jeremiah, “Go, speak to King Zedekiah of Judah. Tell him, ‘This is what the LORD has said, “Take note. I am going to hand this city over to the king of Babylon and he will burn it down… Then you must go to Babylon.”’”

However, listen to the LORD’s message, King Zedekiah of Judah… “You will not die in battle or be executed. You will die a peaceful death… Indeed, you have my own word on this. I, the LORD, affirm it!”

The LORD spoke to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to grant their slaves their freedom… They originally complied with the covenant and freed them. But later they had changed their minds… and forced them to be slaves again.

The LORD’s message came to Jeremiah… “I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt where they had been slaves… ‘Every seven years each of you must free any fellow Hebrews…’ But your ancestors did not obey me… Recently… you… did what is pleasing to me… But then you turned right around… and forced them to be your slaves again.”

“Therefore, I will grant you freedom, the freedom to die in war, or by starvation or disease… I will punish those people who have violated their covenant with me. I will make them like the calf they cut in two and passed between its pieces… I will hand them over to their enemies… Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals… They will fight against it and capture it and burn it down.”

The LORD spoke to Jeremiah when Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah. “Go to the Rechabite community… offer them some wine to drink.” …I set cups and pitchers full of wine in front of the members of the Rechabite community and said to them, “Have some wine.”

But they answered, “We do not drink wine because our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab commanded us not to… ‘Do not build houses… Live in tents all your lives…’ We… have obeyed everything… We have lived in tents… and done exactly as he commanded us…”

Then the LORD’s message came to Jeremiah… “You must learn a lesson from this about obeying what I say! … Jonadab… has been carried out… But I have spoken to you over and over again, but you have not obeyed me! … So… I will soon bring on Judah… all the disaster that I threatened…”

Then Jeremiah spoke to the Rechabite community… “You have obeyed the orders of your ancestor Jonadab…” …“Jonadab son of Rechab will never lack a male descendant to serve me.”

The LORD spoke to Jeremiah in the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah. “Get a scroll. Write on it everything I have told you to say about Israel, Judah, and all the other nations since I began to speak to you in the reign of Josiah until now. Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the disaster I intend to bring on them, they will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. If they do, I will forgive their sins and the wicked things they have done.”

So Jeremiah summoned Baruch son of Neriah. Then, Baruch wrote down in a scroll all of the LORD’s words which he had told to Jeremiah as they came from his mouth. Then Jeremiah told Baruch, “I am no longer allowed to go into the LORD’s temple. So you go there… Read out loud… what I told you the LORD said… Perhaps then they will ask the LORD for mercy and will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. For the LORD has threatened to bring great anger and wrath against these people.”

So Baruch… read what the LORD had said from the scroll in the temple of the LORD… Micaiah… heard… and went down to the chamber of the royal secretary in the king’s palace… Micaiah told them everything he had heard…

All the officials sent Jehudi… to Baruch… “Come here and bring with you the scroll…” …They said to him, “Please sit down and read it to us.” So Baruch sat down and read it to them. When they had heard it all, they expressed their alarm to one another… “We must certainly give the king a report…”

Then they asked Baruch… “How did you come to write all these words? Do they actually come from Jeremiah’s mouth?” Baruch answered, “Yes… He dictated all these words to me and I wrote them down in ink on this scroll.” Then the officials said… “You and Jeremiah must go and hide…”

The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll… Then he himself read it to the king and all the officials who were standing around him. Since it was the ninth month of the year, the king was sitting in his winter quarters. A fire was burning in the firepot in front of him.

As soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king would cut them off with a penknife and throw them on the fire in the firepot. He kept doing so until the whole scroll was burned up in the fire. Neither he nor any of his attendants showed any alarm when they heard all that had been read. Nor did they tear their clothes to show any grief or sorrow.

The king did not even listen to Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah, who had urged him not to burn the scroll. He also ordered… to arrest… Baruch and… Jeremiah. However, the LORD hid them.

The LORD’s message came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll… “Get another scroll and write on it everything that was written on the original scroll… Tell King Jehoiakim… ‘The LORD says… “You burned the scroll…” …“None of his line will occupy the throne of David… I will punish him and his descendants…” …Then Jeremiah got another scroll… As Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote on this scroll everything that had been on the scroll… They also added… several other messages of the same kind.

Zedekiah son of Josiah succeeded Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim as king… Neither he nor the officials… nor the people of Judah paid any attention to what the LORD said through the prophet Jeremiah. King Zedekiah… said, “Please pray to the LORD our God on our behalf.”

The LORD’s message came to the prophet Jeremiah… “Pharaoh’s army… is about to go back home to Egypt. Then the Babylonian forces will return… They will attack the city and will capture it and burn it down… do not deceive yourselves… even if… only wounded men were left… they would get up and burn this city down.”

Jeremiah started to leave Jerusalem… But… Irijah… stopped him… “You are deserting to the Babylonians!” Jeremiah answered, “That’s a lie!” …The officials… had him flogged and put in prison… So Jeremiah was put in prison… for a long time.

Then King Zedekiah had him brought… and asked… “Is there any message from the LORD?” Jeremiah answered, “Yes… You will be handed over to the king of Babylon.” …Jeremiah asked… “What crime have I committed…?” …Zedekiah… ordered… Jeremiah be committed to the courtyard of the guardhouse… a loaf of bread… every day…

Now… officials… had heard… “Those who stay in this city will die… Those who leave… will live…” …They said to the king, “This man must be put to death… He is demoralizing the soldiers…” King Zedekiah said… “I cannot do anything to stop you.”

So the officials took Jeremiah and put him in the cistern… There was no water… only mud… he sank in the mud.

An Ethiopian, Ebed Melech… heard… and said… “Those men have been very wicked… he is sure to die…” Then the king… “Take thirty men… go pull… Jeremiah out of the cistern before he dies.” …He got… worn-out clothes and old rags… “Put these… under your armpits…” …So they pulled Jeremiah up… Jeremiah… still remained confined…

Some time later Zedekiah… said… “Do not hide anything from me…” Jeremiah said… “If I answer you, you will certainly kill me…” …Zedekiah… promised… “I will not kill you…”

Then Jeremiah said… “You must surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon. If you do, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down… But if you do not surrender… they will burn it down. You yourself will not escape…”

Zedekiah said… “I am afraid…” Jeremiah answered… “Please obey the LORD… Then all will go well with you…” …“All the women… will be led out… They will taunt you… ‘Now that your feet are stuck in the mud, they have turned their backs on you.’” …“This city will be burned down.”

Then Zedekiah told Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone know about the conversation…” …All the officials… came and question Jeremiah… He told them exactly what the king had instructed… So Jeremiah remained confined… until the day Jerusalem was captured.

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege to it. The siege began in the tenth month of the ninth year that Zedekiah ruled over Judah. It lasted until the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year. On that day they broke through the city walls. Then the officers of the king of Babylon came and set up quarters in the Middle Gate.

When King Zedekiah of Judah and all his soldiers saw them, they tried to escape by night, but the Babylonian army chased after them and captured Zedekiah in the rift valley plains of Jericho. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was passed on him. His sons and the nobles of Judah were executed, and Zedekiah was blinded and bound to be taken to Babylon.

The Babylonians burned the palace, the temple of the LORD, and the houses of the people, and they tore down the walls of Jerusalem. The remaining people were taken into exile, while some of the poorest were left in the land and given fields and vineyards.

Orders were issued concerning Jeremiah that he be protected and treated according to his wishes. He was released and entrusted to Gedaliah. While Jeremiah was still confined, the LORD spoke a word of deliverance to Ebed-Melech, promising rescue because he trusted in the LORD.

The LORD spoke to Jeremiah after Nebuzaradan the captain of the royal guard had set him free at Ramah. He had taken him there in chains along with all the people from Jerusalem and Judah who were being carried off into exile to Babylon. The captain of the royal guard said to Jeremiah that the LORD had threatened this place with disaster and had brought it about because the people sinned against the LORD and did not obey him.

Nebuzaradan removed Jeremiah’s chains and told him he was free to go where he wished, offering care if he chose to go to Babylon. He urged Jeremiah to go back to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed to govern the towns of Judah. Nebuzaradan gave Jeremiah provisions and a present and let him go. Jeremiah went to Gedaliah at Mizpah and lived among the people left in the land.

Officers of the Judean army who had been hiding came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. Gedaliah assured them not to fear submitting to the Babylonians, urging them to settle, harvest, and store provisions. Judeans scattered in surrounding lands returned and gathered at Mizpah, and the land yielded abundant harvest.

Johanan warned Gedaliah that Ishmael son of Nethaniah had been sent to kill him, but Gedaliah would not believe it and refused a preemptive strike. In the seventh month, Ishmael and ten men came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. During a meal, they killed Gedaliah and the Judeans with him, along with Babylonian soldiers present.

The next day Ishmael deceived pilgrims from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria and slaughtered most of them, throwing their bodies into a cistern, sparing only those who promised hidden supplies. Ishmael then took captive the people remaining in Mizpah, including royal princesses, and set out toward Ammon.

Johanan and the officers pursued Ishmael and caught him near the pool at Gibeon. The captives turned and went over to Johanan, but Ishmael escaped with eight men to Ammon. Johanan led the rescued people away, fearing Babylonian retaliation because Ishmael had killed the Babylon-appointed governor. They stopped near Bethlehem on their way toward Egypt.

Then all the army officers, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah and all the people of every class, went to the prophet Jeremiah. They asked him to pray to the LORD and to seek guidance for the few who remained. Jeremiah agreed and promised to report everything the LORD said. The people swore to obey the LORD’s word, whether it pleased them or not.

Ten days later the LORD’s message came. Jeremiah declared that if they stayed in the land, the LORD would build and plant them and would show compassion, even granting them mercy under Babylon. They were commanded not to fear the king of Babylon, and warned not to set their faces toward Egypt as a refuge from war, hunger, or danger.

Jeremiah warned that if they went to Egypt, the very disasters they feared would follow them there. They would die by war, starvation, or disease. The LORD declared that going to Egypt would make them an object of horror and curse, and that they would never see the land again. Jeremiah concluded that they had made a fatal mistake: they asked for God’s word but did not intend to obey it.

Then Johanan, Azariah, and other arrogant men accused Jeremiah of lying and claimed Baruch was inciting him against them. They refused to obey the LORD’s command to remain in Judah. Johanan and the officers led the remnant, including women, children, royal princesses, Jeremiah, and Baruch, on to Egypt. They came to Tahpanhes.

At Tahpanhes the LORD told Jeremiah to bury large stones in the pavement at Pharaoh’s residence and to announce that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon would set his throne there. Egypt would be struck by war, exile, and disease, and its temples and gods would be destroyed. Babylon would pass through Egypt unharmed, stripping it clean.

The LORD then addressed the Judeans living throughout Egypt, reminding them that Jerusalem and Judah became ruins because of persistent idolatry. Though repeatedly warned, the people refused to listen. Now they were repeating the same offense in Egypt, endangering the last remnant.

The LORD declared that the Judeans in Egypt would be destroyed by war, starvation, and disease, with only a few fugitives returning. The people responded defiantly, insisting they would continue sacrificing to the Queen of Heaven, claiming prosperity under her worship.

Jeremiah replied that the LORD remembered their idolatry and that it caused the land’s devastation. The LORD swore that his name would no longer be invoked by Judeans in Egypt and that disaster would overtake them. As a confirming sign, Pharaoh Hophra would be handed over to his enemies, just as Zedekiah had been handed to Nebuchadnezzar.

The prophet Jeremiah spoke to Baruch son of Neriah while he was writing down in a scroll the words that Jeremiah spoke to him. This happened in the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah. The LORD God of Israel had a message for Baruch. Baruch had said he felt hopeless because the LORD had added sorrow to his suffering, and that he was worn out and could not find rest.

The LORD told Jeremiah to tell Baruch that he was about to tear down what he had built and uproot what he had planted throughout the whole earth. Baruch was not to seek great things for himself. Disaster was coming on all humanity, but the LORD would allow Baruch to escape with his life wherever he went.

This was the LORD’s message to the prophet Jeremiah about the nations. Concerning Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt, which was defeated by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Carchemish, the LORD calls Egypt to prepare for battle even as terror overtakes her troops. Though Egypt rises like the Nile in confidence, the day belongs to the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, a day of reckoning in the north by the Euphrates River.

Egypt’s defeat is total. No medicine can heal her wound. Her soldiers stumble and fall together. The LORD announces Nebuchadnezzar’s advance against Egypt itself, declaring that Pharaoh is nothing more than empty noise who missed his moment. Egypt is likened to a beautiful heifer attacked by swarms, her mercenaries fleeing and her land cut down like a forest.

The LORD declares judgment on Egypt, its gods, its kings, and all who trust in Pharaoh. Egypt will be handed over to Nebuchadnezzar and his army. Yet afterward, Egypt will again be inhabited. In contrast, the LORD reassures Israel not to fear. Though disciplined, Jacob will not be completely destroyed. The LORD promises rescue, restoration, and measured correction.

This was the LORD’s message to the prophet Jeremiah about the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza. Enemies were gathering in the north like rising waters, overwhelming the land and its cities like a flood. People would cry out in alarm. Fathers would hear the hoofbeats of horses and the rumbling of chariots and would not turn back to save their children because they were paralyzed with fear.

The time had come to destroy all the Philistines and to cut off the help that remained for Tyre and Sidon. The LORD would destroy the Philistines, the remnant from the island of Crete. Gaza would shave its head in mourning, and Ashkelon would be struck dumb. The people would cry to the sword of the LORD to return to its sheath, but it could not rest because the LORD had ordered it to strike Ashkelon and the seacoast.

The LORD of Heaven’s Armies pronounced judgment on Moab. Cities would fall, fortresses would be torn down, and cries of anguish would rise throughout the land. Moab trusted in its deeds and riches, and its god Chemosh would go into exile along with his priests and officials. No town would escape; valley and plateau alike would be devastated.

Moab had lived undisturbed like wine left on its dregs, never poured from vessel to vessel. Because of this, its taste and aroma remained unchanged. But the LORD declared that the time had come to empty Moab out, to shatter its towns and disappoint its god, just as Israel was disappointed by false trust at Bethel.

The LORD called the surrounding nations to mourn Moab’s fall. Pride, arrogance, and boasting against the LORD would lead to shame. Agriculture, wine production, and joy would cease. Mourning would fill rooftops and public squares as Moab became an object of ridicule.

Judgment would come like an eagle swooping down. Terror, pits, and traps would overtake the people. Moab would no longer be a nation because it exalted itself against the LORD. Yet at the close of the oracle, the LORD promised that in days to come he would reverse Moab’s ill fortune.

The LORD spoke about the Ammonites, challenging their assumption that Israel was gone and that Gad’s land could be taken. Rabbah would hear the battle cry and become a ruin. Milcom would go into exile with his priests and officials. Terror would come from every side and Ammon would be scattered, yet in days to come the LORD would reverse Ammon’s ill fortune.

The LORD then spoke about Edom, questioning whether wisdom remained in Teman and declaring that disaster would fall on Esau’s descendants. Edom would be stripped bare, hiding places uncovered, and Bozrah would become a ruin and curse. A summons goes out among the nations to gather for battle.

The LORD declared that Edom’s terror and arrogant heart deceived her. Though she dwelt in rock clefts and high places, even if she nested like an eagle, the LORD would bring her down. Edom would become an object of horror like Sodom and Gomorrah, and the earth would quake at her downfall. A nation would swoop down on Bozrah like an eagle, and Edom’s soldiers would be fearful like a woman in labor.

The LORD spoke about Damascus. “The people of Hamath and Arpad will be dismayed because they have heard bad news. Their courage will melt away because of worry. Their hearts will not be able to rest. The people of Damascus will lose heart and turn to flee. Panic will grip them. Pain and anguish will seize them like a woman in labor. How deserted will that once-famous city be, that city that was once filled with joy! For her young men will fall in her city squares. All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. “I will set fire to the walls of Damascus; it will burn up the palaces of Ben Hadad.”

The LORD spoke about Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered. “Army of Babylon, go and attack Kedar. Lay waste those who live in the eastern desert. Their tents and their flocks will be taken away. Their tent curtains, equipment, and camels will be carried off. People will shout to them, ‘Terror is all around you!’” The LORD says, “Flee quickly, you who live in Hazor. Take up refuge in remote places. For King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has laid out plans to attack you. He has formed his strategy on how to defeat you.”

The LORD says, “Army of Babylon, go and attack a nation that lives in peace and security. They have no gates or walls to protect them. They live all alone. Their camels will be taken as plunder. Their vast herds will be taken as spoil. I will scatter to the four winds those desert peoples who cut their hair short at the temples. I will bring disaster against them from every direction,” says the LORD. “Hazor will become a permanent wasteland, a place where only jackals live. No one will live there. No human being will settle in it.”

This was the LORD’s message to the prophet Jeremiah about Elam, which came early in the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah. The LORD of Heaven’s Armies said, “I will kill all the archers of Elam, who are the chief source of her military might. I will cause enemies to blow through Elam from every direction like the winds blowing in from the four quarters of heaven. I will scatter the people of Elam to the four winds. There will not be any nation where the refugees of Elam will not go. I will make the people of Elam terrified of their enemies, who are seeking to kill them. I will vent my fierce anger and bring disaster upon them,” says the LORD. “I will send armies chasing after them until I have completely destroyed them. I will establish my sovereignty over Elam. I will destroy their king and their leaders,” says the LORD. “Yet in days to come I will reverse Elam’s ill fortune,” says the LORD.

The LORD spoke concerning Babylon and the land of Babylonia through the prophet Jeremiah. “Announce the news among the nations! Proclaim it! Signal for people to pay attention! Declare the news! Do not hide it! Say: ‘Babylon will be captured. Bel will be put to shame. Marduk will be dismayed. Babylon’s idols will be put to shame. Her disgusting images will be dismayed. For a nation from the north will attack Babylon. It will lay her land waste. People and animals will flee out of it. No one will inhabit it.’”

“When that time comes,” says the LORD, “the people of Israel and Judah will return to the land together. They will come back with tears of repentance as they seek the LORD their God. They will ask the way to Zion; they will turn their faces toward it. They will come and bind themselves to the LORD in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten.”

“My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have allowed them to go astray. They have wandered around in the mountains. They have roamed from one mountain and hill to another. They have forgotten their resting place. All who encountered them devoured them. Their enemies who did this said, ‘We are not liable for punishment! For those people have sinned against the LORD, their true pasture. They have sinned against the LORD in whom their ancestors trusted.’”

“People of Judah, get out of Babylon quickly! Leave the land of Babylonia! Be the first to depart! Be like the male goats that lead the herd. For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylon a host of mighty nations from the land of the north. They will set up their battle lines against her. They will come from the north and capture her. Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier who does not return from the battle empty-handed. Babylonia will be plundered. Those who plunder it will take all they want,” says the LORD.

“People of Babylonia, you plundered my people. That made you happy and glad. You frolic about like calves in a pasture. Your joyous sounds are like the neighs of a stallion. But Babylonia will be put to great shame. The land where you were born will be disgraced. Indeed, Babylonia will become the least important of all nations. It will become a dry and barren desert. After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited. It will be totally desolate. All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scorn because of all the disasters that have happened to it.”

“Take up your battle positions all around Babylon, all you soldiers who are armed with bows. Shoot all your arrows at her! Do not hold any back! For she has sinned against the LORD. Shout the battle cry from all around the city. She will throw up her hands in surrender. Her towers will fall. Her walls will be torn down. Because I, the LORD, am wreaking revenge, take out your vengeance on her! Do to her as she has done! Kill all the farmers who sow the seed in the land of Babylon. Kill all those who wield the sickle at harvest time. Let all the foreigners return to their own people. Let them hurry back to their own lands to escape destruction by that enemy army.”

“The people of Israel are like scattered sheep which lions have chased away. First the king of Assyria devoured them. Now last of all King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has gnawed their bones. So I, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, say: ‘I will punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria. But I will restore the flock of Israel to their own pasture. They will graze on Mount Carmel and the land of Bashan. They will eat until they are full on the hills of Ephraim and the land of Gilead. When that time comes, no guilt will be found in Israel. No sin will be found in Judah. For I will forgive those of them I have allowed to survive. I, the LORD, affirm it!’”

The LORD says, “Attack the land of Merathaim and the people who live in Pekod! Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them! Do just as I have commanded you! The noise of battle can be heard in the land of Babylonia. There is the sound of great destruction. Babylon hammered the whole world to pieces. But see how that ‘hammer’ has been broken and shattered! See what an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations! I set a trap for you, Babylon; you were caught before you knew it. You fought against me. So you were found and captured. I have opened up the place where my weapons are stored. I have brought out the weapons for carrying out my wrath. For I, the Sovereign LORD of Heaven’s Armies, have work to carry out in the land of Babylonia. Come from far away and attack Babylonia! Open up the places where she stores her grain! Pile her up in ruins! Destroy her completely! Do not leave anyone alive! Kill all her soldiers! Let them be slaughtered! They are doomed, for their day of reckoning has come, the time for them to be punished.”

Listen! Fugitives and refugees are coming from the land of Babylon. They are coming to Zion to declare there how the LORD our God is getting revenge, getting revenge for what they have done to his temple.

“Call for archers to come against Babylon! Summon against her all who draw the bow! Set up camp all around the city! Do not allow anyone to escape! Pay her back for what she has done. Do to her what she has done to others. For she has proudly defied me, the Holy One of Israel. So her young men will fall in her city squares. All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,” says the LORD.

“Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city,” says the Sovereign LORD of Heaven’s Armies. “Indeed, your day of reckoning has come, the time when I will punish you. You will stumble and fall, you proud city; no one will help you get up. I will set fire to your towns; it will burn up everything that surrounds you.”

The LORD of Heaven’s Armies says, “The people of Israel are oppressed. So too are the people of Judah. All those who took them captive are holding them prisoners. They refuse to set them free. But the one who will rescue them is strong. His name is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. He will strongly champion their cause. As a result he will bring peace and rest to the earth, but trouble and turmoil to the people who inhabit Babylonia.”

“Destructive forces will come against the Babylonians,” says the LORD. “They will come against the people who inhabit Babylonia, against her leaders and her men of wisdom. Destructive forces will come against her false prophets; they will be shown to be fools! Destructive forces will come against her soldiers; they will be filled with terror! Destructive forces will come against her horses and her chariots. Destructive forces will come against all the foreign troops within her; they will be as frightened as women! Destructive forces will come against her treasures; they will be taken away as plunder! A drought will come upon her land; her rivers and canals will be dried up. All of this will happen because her land is filled with idols. Her people act like madmen because of those idols they fear. Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there. Ostriches will dwell in it too. But no people will ever live there again. No one will dwell there for all time to come. I will destroy Babylonia just like I did Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns. No one will live there. No human being will settle in it,” says the LORD.

“Look! An army is about to come from the north. A mighty nation and many kings are stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth. Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears. They are cruel and show no mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride forth on their horses. Lined up in formation like men going into battle, they are coming against you, fair Babylon! The king of Babylon will become paralyzed with fear when he hears news of their coming. Anguish will grip him, agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby.”

“A lion coming up from the thick undergrowth along the Jordan scatters the sheep in the pastureland around it. So too I will chase the Babylonians off of their land. Then I will appoint over it whomever I choose. For there is no one like me. There is no one who can call me to account. There is no ruler that can stand up against me. So listen to what I, the LORD, have planned against Babylon, what I intend to do to the people who inhabit the land of Babylonia. Their little ones will be dragged off. I will completely destroy their land because of what they have done. The people of the earth will quake when they hear Babylon has been captured. Her cries of anguish will be heard by the other nations.”

The LORD says, “I will cause a destructive wind to blow against Babylon and the people who inhabit Babylonia. I will send people to winnow Babylonia like a wind blowing away chaff. They will winnow her and strip her land bare. This will happen when they come against her from every direction, when it is time to destroy her. Do not give her archers time to string their bows or to put on their coats of armor. Do not spare any of her young men. Completely destroy her whole army. Let them fall slain in the land of Babylonia, mortally wounded in the streets of her cities.”

“For Israel and Judah will not be forsaken by their God, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. For the land of Babylonia is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel. Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people. Flee to save your lives. Do not let yourselves be killed because of her sins. For it is time for the LORD to wreak his revenge. He will pay Babylonia back for what she has done. Babylonia had been a gold cup in the LORD’s hand. She had made the whole world drunk. The nations had drunk from the wine of her wrath. So they have all gone mad. But suddenly Babylonia will fall and be destroyed. Cry out in mourning over it! Get medicine for her wounds! Perhaps she can be healed! Foreigners living there will say, ‘We tried to heal her, but she could not be healed. Let’s leave Babylonia and each go back to his own country. For judgment on her will be vast in its proportions. It will be like it is piled up to heaven, stacked up into the clouds.’ The exiles from Judah will say, ‘The LORD has brought about a great deliverance for us! Come on, let’s go and proclaim in Zion what the LORD our God has done!’”

“Sharpen your arrows! Fill your quivers! The LORD will arouse a spirit of hostility in the kings of Media. For he intends to destroy Babylonia. For that is how the LORD will get his revenge, how he will get his revenge for the Babylonians’ destruction of his temple. Give the signal to attack Babylon’s wall! Bring more guards! Post them all around the city! Put men in ambush! For the LORD will do what he has planned. He will do what he said he would do to the people of Babylon.”

“You who live along the rivers of Babylon, the time of your end has come. You who are rich in plundered treasure, it is time for your lives to be cut off. The LORD of Heaven’s Armies has solemnly sworn, ‘I will fill your land with enemy soldiers. They will swarm over it like locusts. They will raise up shouts of victory over it.’ He is the one who by his power made the earth. He is the one who by his wisdom fixed the world in place, by his understanding he spread out the heavens. When his voice thunders, the waters in the heavens roar. He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons. He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain. He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it. All idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made. For the image he forges is merely a sham. There is no breath in any of those idols. They are worthless, objects to be ridiculed. When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed. The LORD, who is the portion of the descendants of Jacob, is not like them. For he is the one who created everything, including the people of Israel whom he claims as his own. His name is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.”

“Babylon, you are my war club, my weapon for battle. I used you to smash nations. I used you to destroy kingdoms. I used you to smash horses and their riders. I used you to smash chariots and their drivers. I used you to smash men and women. I used you to smash old men and young men. I used you to smash young men and young women. I used you to smash shepherds and their flocks. I used you to smash farmers and their teams of oxen. I used you to smash governors and leaders.”

“But I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wicked things they did in Zion right before the eyes of you Judeans,” says the LORD.

The LORD says, “Beware! I am opposed to you, Babylon! You are like a destructive mountain that destroys all the earth. I will unleash my power against you; I will roll you off the cliffs and make you like a burned-out mountain. No one will use any of your stones as a cornerstone. No one will use any of them in the foundation of his house. For you will lie desolate forever,” says the LORD.

“Raise up battle flags throughout the lands. Sound the trumpets calling the nations to do battle. Prepare the nations to do battle against Babylonia. Call for these kingdoms to attack her: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander to lead the attack. Send horses against her like a swarm of locusts. Prepare the nations to do battle against her. Prepare the kings of the Medes. Prepare their governors and all their leaders. Prepare all the countries they rule to do battle against her. The earth will tremble and writhe in agony. For the LORD will carry out his plan. He plans to make the land of Babylonia a wasteland where no one lives. The soldiers of Babylonia will stop fighting. They will remain in their fortified cities. They will lose their strength to do battle. They will be as frightened as women. The houses in her cities will be set on fire. The gates of her cities will be broken down. One runner after another will come to the king of Babylon. One messenger after another will come bringing news. They will bring news to the king of Babylon that his whole city has been captured. They will report that the fords have been captured, the reed marshes have been burned, the soldiers are terrified. For the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel says, ‘Fair Babylon will be like a threshing floor which has been trampled flat for harvest. The time for her to be cut down and harvested will come very soon.’”

“King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon devoured me and drove my people out. Like a monster from the deep he swallowed me. He filled his belly with my riches. He made me an empty dish. He completely cleaned me out.” The person who lives in Zion says, “May Babylon pay for the violence done to me and to my relatives.” Jerusalem says, “May those living in Babylonia pay for the bloodshed of my people.”

Therefore the LORD says, “I will stand up for your cause. I will pay the Babylonians back for what they have done to you. I will dry up their sea. I will make their springs run dry. Babylon will become a heap of ruins. Jackals will make their home there. It will become an object of horror and of hissing scorn, a place where no one lives. The Babylonians are all like lions roaring for prey. They are like lion cubs growling for something to eat. When their appetites are all stirred up, I will set out a banquet for them. I will make them drunk so that they will pass out, they will fall asleep forever, they will never wake up,” says the LORD. “I will lead them off to be slaughtered like lambs, rams, and male goats.”

“See how Babylon has been captured! See how the pride of the whole earth has been taken! See what an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations! The sea has swept over Babylon. She has been covered by a multitude of its waves. The towns of Babylonia have become heaps of ruins. She has become a dry and barren desert. No one lives in those towns any more. No one even passes through them. I will punish the god Bel in Babylon. I will make him spit out what he has swallowed. The nations will not come streaming to him any longer. Indeed, the walls of Babylon will fall.”

“Get out of Babylon, my people! Flee to save your lives from the fierce anger of the LORD! Do not lose your courage or become afraid because of the reports that are heard in the land. For a report will come in one year. Another report will follow it in the next. There will be violence in the land with ruler fighting against ruler.”

“So the time will certainly come when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Her whole land will be put to shame. All her mortally wounded will collapse in her midst. Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will sing for joy over Babylon. For destroyers from the north will attack it,” says the LORD.

“Babylon must fall because of the Israelites she has killed, just as the earth’s mortally wounded fell because of Babylon. You who have escaped the sword, go, do not delay. Remember the LORD in a faraway land. Think about Jerusalem. ‘We are ashamed because we have been insulted. Our faces show our disgrace. For foreigners have invaded the holy rooms in the LORD’s temple.’ Yes, but the time will certainly come,” says the LORD, “when I will punish her idols. Throughout her land the mortally wounded will groan. Even if Babylon climbs high into the sky and fortifies her elevated stronghold, I will send destroyers against her,” says the LORD.

Cries of anguish will come from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians. For the LORD is ready to destroy Babylon, and put an end to her loud noise. Their waves will roar like turbulent waters. They will make a deafening noise. For a destroyer is attacking Babylon. Her warriors will be captured; their bows will be broken. For the LORD is a God who punishes; he pays back in full.

“I will make her officials and wise men drunk, along with her governors, leaders, and warriors. They will fall asleep forever and never wake up,” says the King whose name is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says, “Babylon’s thick wall will be completely demolished. Her high gates will be set on fire. The peoples strive for what does not satisfy. The nations grow weary trying to get what will be destroyed.”

This is the order Jeremiah the prophet gave to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went to King Zedekiah of Judah in Babylon during the fourth year of his reign. (Seraiah was a quartermaster.) Jeremiah recorded on one scroll all the judgments that would come upon Babylon, all these prophecies written about Babylon. Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon, make sure you read aloud all these prophecies. Then say, ‘O LORD, you have announced that you will destroy this place so that no people or animals live in it any longer. Certainly it will lie desolate forever!’ When you finish reading this scroll aloud, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River. Then say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the disaster I am ready to bring upon her; they will grow faint.’”

The prophecies of Jeremiah end here.

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah. He did what displeased the LORD just as Jehoiakim had done. What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the LORD’s anger when he drove them out of his sight. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside it. They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year that Zedekiah ruled over Judah. The city remained under siege until Zedekiah’s eleventh year. By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city was so severe the residents had no food. They broke through the city walls, and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden. The Babylonians had the city surrounded. Then they headed for the rift valley. But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with Zedekiah in the rift valley plains of Jericho, and his entire army deserted him. They captured him and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the territory of Hamath and he passed sentence on him there. The king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons put to death while Zedekiah was forced to watch. He also had all the nobles of Judah put to death there at Riblah. He had Zedekiah’s eyes put out and had him bound in chains. Then the king of Babylon had him led off to Babylon and he was imprisoned there until the day he died.

On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard who served the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem. He burned down the LORD’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house. The whole Babylonian army that came with the captain of the royal guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem. Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took into exile some of the poor, the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. But he left behind some of the poor and gave them fields and vineyards.

The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the temple of the LORD, as well as the movable stands and the large bronze basin called “The Sea.” They took all the bronze to Babylon. They also took the pots, shovels, trimming shears, basins, pans, and all the bronze utensils used by the priests. The captain of the royal guard took the gold and silver bowls, censers, basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and vessels. The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the LORD’s temple, including the two pillars, the large bronze basin called “The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under “The Sea,” and the movable stands, was too heavy to be weighed. Each of the pillars was about 27 feet high, about 18 feet in circumference, three inches thick, and hollow. The bronze top of one pillar was about seven and one-half feet high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate-shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its pomegranate-shaped ornaments was like it. There were ninety-six pomegranate-shaped ornaments on the sides; in all there were one hundred pomegranate-shaped ornaments over the latticework that went around it.

The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers. From the city he took an official who was in charge of the soldiers, seven of the king’s advisers who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens for military service, and sixty citizens who were discovered in the middle of the city. Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed at Riblah in the territory of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile away from its land.

Here is the official record of the number of people Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: In the seventh year, 3,023 Jews; in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem; in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, carried into exile 745 Judeans. In all 4,600 people went into exile.

In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, King Evil-Merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison. He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than the other kings who were with him in Babylon. Jehoiachin took off his prison clothes and ate daily in the king’s presence for the rest of his life. He was given daily provisions by the king of Babylon for the rest of his life until the day he died.