001:001 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests
who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:
001:002 to whom the word of Yahweh came in the days of Josiah the son
of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
001:003 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah,
king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah,
the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the carrying away
of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
001:004 Now the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
001:005 Before I formed you in the belly I knew you, and before you
came forth out of the womb I sanctified you; I have appointed
you a prophet to the nations.
001:006 Then said I, Ah, Lord Yahweh! behold, I don't know how to speak;
for I am a child.
001:007 But Yahweh said to me, Don't say, I am a child; for to whoever I
shall send you, you shall go, and whatever I shall command you,
you shall speak.
001:008 Don't be afraid because of them; for I am with you to
deliver you, says Yahweh.
001:009 Then Yahweh put forth his hand, and touched my mouth; and Yahweh
said to me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth:
001:010 behold, I have this day set you over the nations and over
the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy
and to overthrow, to build and to plant.
001:011 Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Jeremiah,
what see you? I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
001:012 Then said Yahweh to me, You have well seen: for I watch
over my word to perform it.
001:013 The word of Yahweh came to me the second time, saying, What see you?
I said, I see a boiling caldron; and the face of it is
from the north.
001:014 Then Yahweh said to me, Out of the north evil shall break
forth on all the inhabitants of the land.
001:015 For, behold, I will call all the families of the kingdoms
of the north, says Yahweh; and they shall come, and they
shall set everyone his throne at the entrance of the gates
of Jerusalem, and against all the walls of it round about,
and against all the cities of Judah.
001:016 I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness,
in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense
to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.
001:017 You therefore gird up your waist, and arise, and speak
to them all that I command you: don't be dismayed at them,
lest I dismay you before them.
001:018 For, behold, I have made you this day a fortified city,
and an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land,
against the kings of Judah, against the princes of it,
against the priests of it, and against the people of the land.
001:019 They shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you:
for I am with you, says Yahweh, to deliver you.
002:001 The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
002:002 Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says
Yahweh, I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love
of your weddings; how you went after me in the wilderness,
in a land that was not sown.
002:003 Israel [was] holiness to Yahweh, the first fruits of his increase:
all who devour him shall be held guilty; evil shall come
on them, says Yahweh.
002:004 Hear you the word of Yahweh, O house of Jacob, and all the families
of the house of Israel:
002:005 thus says Yahweh, What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me,
that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity,
and are become vain?
002:006 Neither said they, Where is Yahweh who brought us up out
of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness,
through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of
drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that none
passed through, and where no man lived?
002:007 I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat the fruit of it and
the goodness of it; but when you entered, you defiled my land,
and made my heritage an abomination.
002:008 The priests didn't say, Where is Yahweh? and those who handle
the law didn't know me: the rulers also transgressed against me,
and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things
that do not profit.
002:009 Therefore I will yet contend with you, says Yahweh, and with
your children's children will I contend.
002:010 For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see; and send
to Kedar, and consider diligently; and see if there has been
such a thing.
002:011 Has a nation changed [its] gods, which yet are no gods? but my
people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
002:012 Be astonished, you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid,
be you very desolate, says Yahweh.
002:013 For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me,
the spring of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns,
broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
002:014 Is Israel a servant? is he a native-born [slave]? why is
he become a prey?
002:015 The young lions have roared on him, and yelled; and they have made
his land waste: his cities are burned up, without inhabitant.
002:016 The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown
of your head.
002:017 Haven't you procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken
Yahweh your God, when he led you by the way?
002:018 Now what have you to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters
of the Shihor? or what have you to do in the way to Assyria,
to drink the waters of the River?
002:019 Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding
shall reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil
thing and a bitter, that you have forsaken Yahweh your God,
and that my fear is not in you, says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.
002:020 For of old time I have broken your yoke, and burst your bonds;
and you said, I will not serve; for on every high hill and under
every green tree you did bow yourself, playing the prostitute.
002:021 Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed:
how then are you turned into the degenerate branches of a
foreign vine to me?
002:022 For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap,
yet your iniquity is marked before me, says the Lord Yahweh.
002:023 How can you say, I am not defiled, I have not gone after
the Baals? see your way in the valley, know what you have done:
[you are] a swift dromedary traversing her ways;
002:024 a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind
in her desire; in her occasion who can turn her away? all
those who seek her will not weary themselves; in her month
they shall find her.
002:025 Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst:
but you said, It is in vain; no, for I have loved strangers,
and after them will I go.
002:026 As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house
of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes,
and their priests, and their prophets;
002:027 who tell a stock, You are my father; and to a stone, You have
brought me forth: for they have turned their back to me,
and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they
will say, Arise, and save us.
002:028 But where are your gods that you have made you? let them arise,
if they can save you in the time of your trouble:
for according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah.
002:029 Why will you contend with me? you all have transgressed
against me, says Yahweh.
002:030 In vain have I struck your children; they received no correction:
your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
002:031 Generation, see the word of Yahweh. Have I been a wilderness
to Israel? or a land of thick darkness? why say my people,
We are broken loose; we will come no more to you?
002:032 Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet
my people have forgotten me days without number.
002:033 How trimmest you your way to seek love! therefore even the wicked
women have you taught your ways.
002:034 Also in your skirts is found the blood of the souls
of the innocent poor: you did not find them breaking in;
but it is because of all these things.
002:035 Yet you said, I am innocent; surely his anger is turned away
from me. Behold, I will enter into judgment with you,
because you say, I have not sinned.
002:036 Why go you about so much to change your way? you shall be
ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria.
002:037 From there also shall you go forth, with your hands on your head:
for Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust, and you
shall not prosper with them.
003:001 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him,
and become another man's, will he return to her again?
Won't that land be greatly polluted? But you have played
the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again
to me, says Yahweh.
003:002 Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see; where have
you not been lain with? By the ways have you sat for them,
as an Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land
with your prostitution and with your wickedness.
003:003 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has
been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute's forehead,
you refused to be ashamed.
003:004 Will you not from this time cry to me, My Father, you are
the guide of my youth?
003:005 Will he retain [his anger] forever? will he keep it to the end?
Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have
had your way.
003:006 Moreover Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king,
Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she
is gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree,
and there has played the prostitute.
003:007 I said after she had done all these things, She will return to me;
but she didn't return: and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
003:008 I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had
committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill
of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, didn't fear;
but she also went and played the prostitute.
003:009 It happened through the lightness of her prostitution,
that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery
with stones and with stocks.
003:010 Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not returned
to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense, says Yahweh.
003:011 Yahweh said to me, Backsliding Israel has shown herself more
righteous than treacherous Judah.
003:012 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,
Return, you backsliding Israel, says Yahweh; I will not look
in anger on you; for I am merciful, says Yahweh, I will not
keep [anger] forever.
003:013 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed
against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to
the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed
my voice, says Yahweh.
003:014 Return, backsliding children, says Yahweh; for I am a husband to you:
and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family,
and I will bring you to Zion:
003:015 and I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall
feed you with knowledge and understanding.
003:016 It shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased
in the land, in those days, says Yahweh, they shall say no more,
The ark of the covenant of Yahweh; neither shall it come to mind;
neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it;
neither shall it be made any more.
003:017 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Yahweh;
and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name
of Yahweh, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more
after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
003:018 In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house
of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land
of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance
to your fathers.
003:019 But I said, How I will put you among the children, and give
you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies
of the nations! and I said, You shall call me My Father,
and shall not turn away from following me.
003:020 Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have
you dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel, says Yahweh.
003:021 A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping [and]
the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have
perverted their way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God.
003:022 Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding.
Behold, we are come to you; for you are Yahweh our God.
003:023 Truly in vain is [the help that is looked for] from the hills,
the tumult on the mountains: truly in Yahweh our God is
the salvation of Israel.
003:024 But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers
from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons
and their daughters.
003:025 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us;
for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers,
from our youth even to this day; and we have not obeyed
the voice of Yahweh our God.
004:001 If you will return, Israel, says Yahweh, if you will return to me,
and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight;
then you shall not be removed;
004:002 and you shall swear, As Yahweh lives, in truth, in justice,
and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves
in him, and in him shall they glory.
004:003 For thus says Yahweh to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, Break up
your fallow ground, and don't sow among thorns.
004:004 Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and take away the foreskins
of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can
quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
004:005 Declare you in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say,
Blow you the trumpet in the land: cry aloud and say,
Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.
004:006 Set up a standard toward Zion: flee for safety, don't stay;
for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.
004:007 A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations;
he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make your
land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.
004:008 For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail;
for the fierce anger of Yahweh hasn't turned back from us.
004:009 It shall happen at that day, says Yahweh, that the heart
of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes;
and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.
004:010 Then said I, Ah, Lord Yahweh! surely you have greatly deceived
this people and Jerusalem, saying, You shall have peace;
whereas the sword reaches to the life.
004:011 At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A hot
wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter
of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse;
004:012 a full wind from these shall come for me: now will I also utter
judgments against them.
004:013 Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots [shall
be] as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles.
Woe to us! for we are ruined.
004:014 Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved.
How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?
004:015 For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes evil from
the hills of Ephraim:
004:016 make you mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem,
[that] watchers come from a far country, and give out their
voice against the cities of Judah.
004:017 As keepers of a field are they against her round about,
because she has been rebellious against me, says Yahweh.
004:018 Your way and your doings have procured these things to you;
this is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches
to your heart.
004:019 My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart;
my heart is disquieted in me; I can't hold my peace;
because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet,
the alarm of war.
004:020 Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is
laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, [and] my curtains
in a moment.
004:021 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound
of the trumpet?
004:022 For my people are foolish, they don't know me; they are
foolish children, and they have no understanding; they are
wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
004:023 I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void;
and the heavens, and they had no light.
004:024 I saw the mountains, and behold, they trembled, and all the hills
moved back and forth.
004:025 I saw, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds
of the sky were fled.
004:026 I saw, and behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all
the cities of it were broken down at the presence of Yahweh,
[and] before his fierce anger.
004:027 For thus says Yahweh, The whole land shall be a desolation;
yet will I not make a full end.
004:028 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black;
because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have
not repented, neither will I turn back from it.
004:029 Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers;
they go into the thickets, and climb up on the rocks:
every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.
004:030 You, when you are made desolate, what will you do?
Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck you
with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint,
in vain do you make yourself beautiful; [your] lovers despise you,
they seek your life.
004:031 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail,
the anguish as of her who brings forth her first child,
the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath,
who spreads her hands, [saying], Woe is me now! for my soul
faints before the murderers.
005:001 Run you back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem,
and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places of it,
if you can find a man, if there are any who does justly,
who seeks truth; and I will pardon her.
005:002 Though they say, As Yahweh lives; surely they swear falsely.
005:003 O Yahweh, don't your eyes look on truth? you have stricken them,
but they were not grieved; you have consumed them, but they
have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces
harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
005:004 Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they
don't know the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their God:
005:005 I will get me to the great men, and will speak to them;
for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God.
But these with one accord have broken the yoke,
and burst the bonds.
005:006 Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, a wolf
of the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch
against their cities; everyone who goes out there shall
be torn in pieces; because their transgressions are many,
[and] their backsliding is increased.
005:007 How can I pardon you? your children have forsaken me, and sworn
by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full,
they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops
at the prostitutes' houses.
005:008 They were as fed horses roaming at large; everyone neighed
after his neighbor's wife.
005:009 Shall I not visit for these things? says Yahweh; and shall
not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
005:010 Go up on her walls, and destroy; but don't make a full end:
take away her branches; for they are not Yahweh's.
005:011 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt
very treacherously against me, says Yahweh.
005:012 They have denied Yahweh, and said, It is not he; neither shall
evil come on us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
005:013 and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them:
thus shall it be done to them.
005:014 Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, Because you speak
this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire,
and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
005:015 Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far, house of Israel,
says Yahweh: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you don't know, neither understand
what they say.
005:016 Their quiver is an open tomb, they are all mighty men.
005:017 They shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, [which] your sons
and your daughters should eat; they shall eat up your flocks
and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;
they shall beat down your fortified cities, in which you trust,
with the sword.
005:018 But even in those days, says Yahweh, I will not make a full
end with you.
005:019 It shall happen, when you shall say, Why has Yahweh our God
done all these things to us? then shall you say to them,
Like as you have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land,
so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
005:020 Declare you this in the house of Jacob, and publish it
in Judah, saying,
005:021 Hear now this, foolish people, and without understanding;
who have eyes, and don't see; who have ears, and don't hear:
005:022 Don't you fear me? says Yahweh: won't you tremble at my presence,
who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea,
by a perpetual decree, that it can't pass it? and though
the waves of it toss themselves, yet they can't prevail;
though they roar, yet they can't pass over it.
005:023 But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart;
they are revolted and gone.
005:024 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear Yahweh our God,
who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season;
who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
005:025 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins
have withheld good from you.
005:026 For among my people are found wicked men: they watch,
as fowlers lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men.
005:027 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit:
therefore they are become great, and grew rich.
005:028 They are grew fat, they shine: yes, they overpass in deeds
of wickedness; they don't plead the cause, the cause
of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and the right
of the needy they don't judge.
005:029 Shall I not visit for these things? says Yahweh; shall not my
soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
005:030 A wonderful and horrible thing is happen in the land:
005:031 the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule
by their means; and my people love to have it so:
and what will you do in the end of it?
006:001 Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the midst
of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up
a signal on Beth Haccherem; for evil looks forth from the north,
and a great destruction.
006:002 The comely and delicate one, the daughter of Zion, will I cut off.
006:003 Shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall
pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed
everyone in his place.
006:004 Prepare you war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon.
Woe to us! for the day declines, for the shadows of the evening
are stretched out.
006:005 Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces.
006:006 For thus has Yahweh of Armies said, Hew you down trees, and cast
up a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited;
she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.
006:007 As a well casts forth its waters, so she casts forth her wickedness:
violence and destruction is heard in her; before me continually
is sickness and wounds.
006:008 Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from you;
lest I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited.
006:009 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, They shall thoroughly glean
the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn again your hand
as a grape gatherer into the baskets.
006:010 To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? behold,
their ear is uncircumcised, and they can't listen:
behold, the word of Yahweh is become to them a reproach;
they have no delight in it.
006:011 Therefore I am full of the wrath of Yahweh; I am weary
with holding in: pour it out on the children in the street,
and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband
with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him who is
full of days.
006:012 Their houses shall be turned to others, their fields and their
wives together; for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants
of the land, says Yahweh.
006:013 For from the least of them even to the greatest of them
everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet
even to the priest everyone deals falsely.
006:014 They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly,
saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
006:015 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay,
they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush:
therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time
that I visit them they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
006:016 Thus says Yahweh, Stand you in the ways and see, and ask
for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein,
and you shall find rest for your souls: but they said,
We will not walk [therein].
006:017 I set watchmen over you, [saying], Listen to the sound of the trumpet;
but they said, We will not listen.
006:018 Therefore hear, you nations, and know, congregation,
what is among them.
006:019 Hear, earth: behold, I will bring evil on this people,
even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened
to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.
006:020 To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from Sheba,
and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings
are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.
006:021 Therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks
before this people; and the fathers and the sons together shall
stumble against them; the neighbor and his friend shall perish.
006:022 Thus says Yahweh, Behold, a people comes from the north country;
and a great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost
parts of the earth.
006:023 They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy;
their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses,
everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you,
daughter of Zion.
006:024 We have heard the report of it; our hands wax feeble:
anguish has taken hold of us, [and] pangs as of a woman in travail.
006:025 Don't go forth into the field, nor walk by the way;
for the sword of the enemy, [and] terror, are on every side.
006:026 Daughter of my people, gird you with sackcloth, and wallow
yourself in ashes: make you mourning, as for an only son,
most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly
come on us.
006:027 I have made you a tester of metals [and] a fortress among my people;
that you may know and try their way.
006:028 They are all grievous rebels, going about with slanders;
they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly.
006:029 The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire:
in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are
not plucked away.
006:030 Refuse silver shall men them, because Yahweh has rejected them.
007:001 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,
007:002 Stand in the gate of Yahweh's house, and proclaim there
this word, and say, Hear the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah,
who enter in at these gates to worship Yahweh.
007:003 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Amend your ways
and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
007:004 Don't you trust in lying words, saying, The temple of Yahweh,
the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, are these.
007:005 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings;
if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;
007:006 if you don't oppress the foreigner, the fatherless,
and the widow, and don't shed innocent blood in this place,
neither walk after other gods to your own hurt:
007:007 then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land
that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forevermore.
007:008 Behold, you trust in lying words, that can't profit.
007:009 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely,
and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you
have not known,
007:010 and come and stand before me in this house, which is called
by my name, and say, We are delivered; that you may do
all these abominations?
007:011 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers
in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says Yahweh.
007:012 But go you now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused
my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it
for the wickedness of my people Israel.
007:013 Now, because you have done all these works, says Yahweh, and I
spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn't hear;
and I called you, but you didn't answer:
007:014 therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name,
in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you
and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.
007:015 I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all
your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
007:016 Therefore don't you pray for this people, neither lift up
a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me;
for I will not hear you.
007:017 Don't you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in
the streets of Jerusalem?
007:018 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire,
and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen
of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods,
that they may provoke me to anger.
007:019 Do they provoke me to anger? says Yahweh; [do they] not
[provoke] themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?
007:020 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, my anger and my
wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal,
and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground;
and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
007:021 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Add your burnt
offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat.
007:022 For I didn't speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day
that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt
offerings or sacrifices:
007:023 but this thing I commanded them, saying, Listen to my voice,
and I will be your God, and you shall be my people;
and walk you in all the way that I command you, that it may
be well with you.
007:024 But they didn't listen nor turn their ear, but walked in [their
own] counsels [and] in the stubbornness of their evil heart,
and went backward, and not forward.
007:025 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt
to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets,
daily rising up early and sending them:
007:026 yet they didn't listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but made
their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.
007:027 You shall speak all these words to them; but they will not
listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will
not answer you.
007:028 You shall tell them, This is the nation that has not listened
to the voice of Yahweh their God, nor received instruction:
truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
007:029 Cut off your hair, [Jerusalem], and cast it away, and take up
a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected
and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
007:030 For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight,
says Yahweh: they have set their abominations in the house
which is called by my name, to defile it.
007:031 They have built the high places of Topheth, which is
in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons
and their daughters in the fire; which I didn't command,
nor did it come into my mind.
007:032 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall
no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom,
but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth,
until there be no place [to bury].
007:033 The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds
of the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and none shall
frighten them away.
007:034 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from
the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice
of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride;
for the land shall become a waste.
008:001 At that time, says Yahweh, they shall bring out the bones
of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes,
and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets,
and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves;
008:002 and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon,
and all the army of the sky, which they have loved,
and which they have served, and after which they have walked,
and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped:
they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be
for dung on the surface of the earth.
008:003 Death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue
that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places
where I have driven them, says Yahweh of Armies.
008:004 Moreover you shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh: Shall men fall,
and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return?
008:005 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual
backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
008:006 I listened and heard, but they didn't speak aright:
no man repents him of his wickedness, saying, What have I
done? everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes
headlong in the battle.
008:007 Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times;
and the turtledove and the swallow and the crane observe the time
of their coming; but my people don't know Yahweh's law.
008:008 How do you say, We are wise, and the law of Yahweh is with us?
But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely.
008:009 The wise men are disappointed, they are dismayed and taken:
behold, they have rejected the word of Yahweh; and what manner
of wisdom is in them?
008:010 Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their
fields to those who shall possess them: for everyone from
the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness;
from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely.
008:011 They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly,
saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
008:012 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay,
they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush:
therefore shall they fall among those who fall; in the time
of their visitation they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
008:013 I will utterly consume them, says Yahweh: there shall be no
grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf
shall fade; and [the things that] I have given them shall
pass away from them.
008:014 Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter
into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there;
for Yahweh our God has put us to silence, and given us water
of gall to drink, because we have sinned against Yahweh.
008:015 We looked for peace, but no good came; [and] for a time of healing,
and behold, dismay!
008:016 The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound
of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles;
for they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it;
the city and those who dwell therein.
008:017 For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will
not be charmed; and they shall bite you, says Yahweh.
008:018 Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart
is faint within me.
008:019 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land
that is very far off: isn't Yahweh in Zion? Isn't her King in her?
Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images,
and with foreign vanities?
008:020 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
008:021 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt:
I mourn; dismay has taken hold on me.
008:022 Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why
then isn't the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
009:001 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears,
that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter
of my people!
009:002 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men;
that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they
are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
009:003 They bend their tongue, [as it were] their bow, for falsehood;
and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth:
for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don't
know me, says Yahweh.
009:004 Take you heed everyone of his neighbor, and don't you trust
in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant,
and every neighbor will go about with slanders.
009:005 They will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak
the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies;
they weary themselves to commit iniquity.
009:006 Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they
refuse to know me, says Yahweh.
009:007 Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, Behold, I will melt them,
and try them; for how [else] should I do, because of the daughter
of my people?
009:008 Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit:
one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth,
but in his heart he lays wait for him.
009:009 Shall I not visit them for these things? says Yahweh;
shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
009:010 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing,
and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation,
because they are burned up, so that none passes through;
neither can men hear the voice of the livestock; both the birds
of the sky and the animals are fled, they are gone.
009:011 I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals; and I
will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.
009:012 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and [who is]
he to whom the mouth of Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare
it? why is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness,
so that none passes through?
009:013 Yahweh says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set
before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein,
009:014 but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart,
and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them;
009:015 therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Behold, I
will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give
them water of gall to drink.
009:016 I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor
their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them,
until I have consumed them.
009:017 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, Consider you, and call for the mourning
women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women,
that they may come:
009:018 and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us,
that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush
out with waters.
009:019 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined!
we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land,
because they have cast down our dwellings.
009:020 Yet hear the word of Yahweh, you women, and let your ear receive
the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing,
and everyone her neighbor lamentation.
009:021 For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces;
to cut off the children from outside, [and] the young men
from the streets.
009:022 Speak, Thus says Yahweh, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung
on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester;
and none shall gather [them].
009:023 Thus says Yahweh, Don't let the wise man glory in his wisdom,
neither let the mighty man glory in his might, don't let
the rich man glory in his riches;
009:024 but let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding,
and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving
kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth:
for in these things I delight, says Yahweh.
009:025 Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will punish all
those who are circumcised in [their] uncircumcision:
009:026 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab,
and all that have the corners [of their hair] cut off, who dwell
in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised,
and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.
010:001 Hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you, house of Israel!
010:002 Thus says Yahweh, "Don't learn the way of the nations,
and don't be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations
are dismayed at them.
010:003 For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree
out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman
with the axe.
010:004 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails
and with hammers, that it not move.
010:005 They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don't speak:
they must be carried, because they can't go. Don't be afraid
of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them
to do good."
010:006 There is none like you, Yahweh; you are great, and your name
is great in might.
010:007 Who should not fear you, King of the nations? for to you does
it appertain; because among all the wise men of the nations,
and in all their royal estate, there is none like you.
010:008 But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction
of idols! it is but a stock.
010:009 There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish,
and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands
of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing;
they are all the work of skillful men.
010:010 But Yahweh is the true God; he is the living God,
and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles,
and the nations are not able to abide his indignation.
010:011 Thus shall you say to them, The gods that have not made
the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth,
and from under the heavens.
010:012 He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world
by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched
out the heavens:
010:013 when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;
he makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind
out of his treasuries.
010:014 Every man is become brutish [and is] without knowledge;
every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image;
for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
010:015 They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their
visitation they shall perish.
010:016 The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former
of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance:
Yahweh of Armies is his name.
010:017 Gather up your wares out of the land, you who abide in the siege.
010:018 For thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants
of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they
may feel [it].
010:019 Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous:
but I said, Truly this is [my] grief, and I must bear it.
010:020 My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken:
my children are gone forth from me, and they are no more:
there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set
up my curtains.
010:021 For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired
of Yahweh: therefore they have not prospered, and all their
flocks are scattered.
010:022 The voice of news, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out
of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation,
a dwelling place of jackals.
010:023 Yahweh, I know that the way of man is not in himself:
it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
010:024 Yahweh, correct me, but in measure: not in your anger,
lest you bring me to nothing.
010:025 Pour out your wrath on the nations that don't know you,
and on the families that don't call on your name:
for they have devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him
and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.
011:001 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,
011:002 Hear you the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah,
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
011:003 and say you to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: Cursed be
the man who doesn't hear the words of this covenant,
011:004 which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them
forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying,
Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you:
so shall you be my people, and I will be your God;
011:005 that I may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers,
to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as at this day.
Then answered I, and said, Amen, Yahweh.
011:006 Yahweh said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah,
and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear you the words
of this covenant, and do them.
011:007 For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I
brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day,
rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.
011:008 Yet they didn't obey, nor turn their ear, but walked
everyone in the stubbornness of their evil heart:
therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant,
which I commanded them to do, but they didn't do them.
011:009 Yahweh said to me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah,
and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
011:010 They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers,
who refused to hear my words; and they are gone after other gods
to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah
have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.
011:011 Therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will bring evil on them,
which they shall not be able to escape; and they shall cry to me,
but I will not listen to them.
011:012 Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem
go and cry to the gods to which they offer incense:
but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.
011:013 For according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah;
and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have
you set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn
incense to Baal.
011:014 Therefore don't you pray for this people, neither lift up cry
nor prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time
that they cry to me because of their trouble.
011:015 What has my beloved to do in my house, seeing she has worked
lewdness [with] many, and the holy flesh is passed from you?
when you do evil, then you rejoice.
011:016 Yahweh called your name, A green olive tree, beautiful with
goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled
fire on it, and the branches of it are broken.
011:017 For Yahweh of Armies, who planted you, has pronounced evil
against you, because of the evil of the house of Israel and
of the house of Judah, which they have worked for themselves
in provoking me to anger by offering incense to Baal.
011:018 Yahweh gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it: then you shown
me their doings.
011:019 But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter;
and I didn't know that they had devised devices against me,
[saying], Let us destroy the tree with the fruit of it,
and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his
name may be no more remembered.
011:020 But, Yahweh of Armies, who judges righteously, who tests
the heart and the mind, I shall see your vengeance on them;
for to you have I revealed my cause.
011:021 Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the men of Anathoth,
who seek your life, saying, You shall not prophesy in the name
of Yahweh, that you not die by our hand;
011:022 therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, Behold, I will punish them:
the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their
daughters shall die by famine;
011:023 and there shall be no remnant to them: for I will bring evil
on the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.
012:001 Righteous are you, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet would
I reason the cause with you: why does the way of the wicked
prosper? why are all they at ease who deal very treacherously?
012:002 You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow,
yes, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth,
and far from their heart.
012:003 But you, Yahweh, know me; you see me, and try my heart toward you:
pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them
for the day of slaughter.
012:004 How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole
country wither? for the wickedness of those who dwell therein,
the animals are consumed, and the birds; because they said,
He shall not see our latter end.
012:005 If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you,
then how can you contend with horses? and though in a land
of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride
of the Jordan?
012:006 For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they