after you: don't believe them, though they speak beautiful
words to you.
012:007 I have forsaken my house, I have cast off my heritage;
I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand
of her enemies.
012:008 My heritage is become to me as a lion in the forest:
she has uttered her voice against me; therefore I have hated her.
012:009 Is my heritage to me as a speckled bird of prey? are the birds
of prey against her round about? go you, assemble all the animals
of the field, bring them to devour.
012:010 Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden
my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion
a desolate wilderness.
012:011 They have made it a desolation; it mourns to me, being desolate;
the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.
012:012 Destroyers are come on all the bare heights in the wilderness;
for the sword of Yahweh devours from the one end of the land
even to the other end of the land: no flesh has peace.
012:013 They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns;
they have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing:
and you shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce
anger of Yahweh.
012:014 Thus says Yahweh against all my evil neighbors, who touch
the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit:
behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will
pluck up the house of Judah from among them.
012:015 It shall happen, after that I have plucked them up, I will return
and have compassion on them; and I will bring them again,
every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.
012:016 It shall happen, if they will diligently learn the ways
of my people, to swear by my name, As Yahweh lives;
even as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall
they be built up in the midst of my people.
012:017 But if they will not hear, then will I pluck up that nation,
plucking up and destroying it, says Yahweh.
013:001 Thus says Yahweh to me, Go, and buy you a linen belt, and put
it on your waist, and don't put it in water.
013:002 So I bought a belt according to the word of Yahweh, and put
it on my waist.
013:003 The word of Yahweh came to me the second time, saying,
013:004 Take the belt that you have bought, which is on your waist,
and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft
of the rock.
013:005 So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as Yahweh commanded me.
013:006 It happened after many days, that Yahweh said to me, Arise,
go to the Euphrates, and take the belt from there, which I
commanded you to hide there.
013:007 Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the belt from
the place where I had hid it; and behold, the belt was marred,
it was profitable for nothing.
013:008 Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
013:009 Thus says Yahweh, After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah,
and the great pride of Jerusalem.
013:010 This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in
the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other gods
to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this belt,
which is profitable for nothing.
013:011 For as the belt cleaves to the waist of a man, so have I caused
to cleave to me the whole house of Israel and the whole house
of Judah, says Yahweh; that they may be to me for a people,
and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory:
but they would not hear.
013:012 Therefore you shall speak to them this word: Thus says Yahweh,
the God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine:
and they shall tell you, Do we not certainly know that every
bottle shall be filled with wine?
013:013 Then shall you tell them, Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will fill
all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit
on David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets,
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
013:014 I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and
the sons together, says Yahweh: I will not pity, nor spare,
nor have compassion, that I should not destroy them.
013:015 Hear you, and give ear; don't be proud; for Yahweh has spoken.
013:016 Give glory to Yahweh your God, before he cause darkness,
and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and,
while you look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death,
and make it gross darkness.
013:017 But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret
for [your] pride; and my eye shall weep sore, and run down
with tears, because Yahweh's flock is taken captive.
013:018 Say you to the king and to the queen mother, Humble yourselves,
sit down; for your headdresses are come down, even the crown
of your glory.
013:019 The cities of the South are shut up, and there is none to open them:
Judah is carried away captive, all of it; it is wholly
carried away captive.
013:020 Lift up your eyes, and see those who come from the north:
where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?
013:021 What will you say, when he shall set over you as head those
whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? shall
not sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail?
013:022 If you say in your heart, Why are these things come on me?
for the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered,
and your heels suffer violence.
013:023 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?
then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.
013:024 Therefore will I scatter them, as the stubble that passes away,
by the wind of the wilderness.
013:025 This is your lot, the portion measured to you from me, says Yahweh;
because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.
013:026 Therefore will I also uncover your skirts on your face,
and your shame shall appear.
013:027 I have seen your abominations, even your adulteries,
and your neighing, the lewdness of your prostitution,
on the hills in the field. Woe to you, Jerusalem! you will
not be made clean; how long shall it yet be?
014:001 The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.
014:002 Judah mourns, and the gates of it languish, they sit in black
on the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
014:003 Their nobles send their little ones to the waters:
they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return
with their vessels empty; they are disappointed and confounded,
and cover their heads.
014:004 Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain
has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed,
they cover their heads.
014:005 Yes, the hind also in the field calves, and forsakes [her young],
because there is no grass.
014:006 The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights, they pant for air
like jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no herbage.
014:007 Though our iniquities testify against us, work you for
your name's sake, Yahweh; for our backslidings are many;
we have sinned against you.
014:008 You hope of Israel, the Savior of it in the time of trouble,
why should you be as a foreigner in the land, and as a wayfaring
man who turns aside to stay for a night?
014:009 Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can't
save? yet you, Yahweh, are in the midst of us, and we are
called by your name; don't leave us.
014:010 Thus says Yahweh to this people, Even so have they loved to wander;
they have not refrained their feet: therefore Yahweh does
not accept them; now he will remember their iniquity,
and visit their sins.
014:011 Yahweh said to me, Don't pray for this people for [their] good.
014:012 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer
burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them;
but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine,
and by the pestilence.
014:013 Then said I, Ah, Lord Yahweh! behold, the prophets tell them,
You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine;
but I will give you assured peace in this place.
014:014 Then Yahweh said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name;
I didn't send them, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke
I to them: they prophesy to you a lying vision, and divination,
and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart.
014:015 Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets
who prophesy in my name, and I didn't send them,
yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land:
By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
014:016 The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the
streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword;
and they shall have none to bury them--them, their wives,
nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their
wickedness on them.
014:017 You shall say this word to them, Let my eyes run down with
tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin
daughter of my people is broken with a great breach,
with a very grievous wound.
014:018 If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with
the sword! and if I enter into the city, then, behold, those who
are sick with famine! for both the prophet and the priest go
about in the land, and have no knowledge.
014:019 Have you utterly rejected Judah? has your soul loathed Zion?
why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us?
We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing,
and behold, dismay!
014:020 We acknowledge, Yahweh, our wickedness, and the iniquity
of our fathers; for we have sinned against you.
014:021 Do not abhor [us], for your name's sake; do not disgrace the throne
of your glory: remember, don't break your covenant with us.
014:022 Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can
cause rain? or can the sky give showers? Aren't you he,
Yahweh our God? therefore we will wait for you; for you
have made all these things.
015:001 Then said Yahweh to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood
before me, yet my mind would not be toward this people:
cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.
015:002 It shall happen, when they tell you, Where shall we go
forth? then you shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh: Such as
are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword,
to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine;
and such as are for captivity, to captivity.
015:003 I will appoint over them four kinds, says Yahweh:
the sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the sky,
and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy.
015:004 I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms
of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah,
king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
015:005 For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? or who will bemoan
you? or who will turn aside to ask of your welfare?
015:006 You have rejected me, says Yahweh, you are gone backward:
therefore have I stretched out my hand against you,
and destroyed you; I am weary with repenting.
015:007 I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land;
I have bereaved [them] of children, I have destroyed my people;
they didn't return from their ways.
015:008 Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas;
I have brought on them against the mother of the young men
a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors
to fall on her suddenly.
015:009 She who has borne seven languishes; she has given up the spirit;
her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been
disappointed and confounded: and the residue of them will I
deliver to the sword before their enemies, says Yahweh.
015:010 Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man
of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth!
I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; [yet] everyone
of them does curse me.
015:011 Yahweh said, Most certainly I will strengthen you for good;
most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication
to you in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
015:012 Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass?
015:013 Your substance and your treasures will I give for a spoil
without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.
015:014 I will make [them] to pass with your enemies into a land
which you don't know; for a fire is kindled in my anger,
which shall burn on you.
015:015 Yahweh, you know; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me
of my persecutors; don't take me away in your longsuffering:
know that for your sake I have suffered reproach.
015:016 Your words were found, and I ate them; and your words were
to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called
by your name, Yahweh, God of Armies.
015:017 I didn't sit in the assembly of those who make merry, nor rejoiced;
I sat alone because of your hand; for you have filled
me with indignation.
015:018 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses
to be healed? will you indeed be to me as a deceitful [brook],
as waters that fail?
015:019 Therefore thus says Yahweh, If you return, then will I bring
you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take
forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth:
they shall return to you, but you shall not return to them.
015:020 I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and they
shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you;
for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says Yahweh.
015:021 I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will
redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.
016:001 The word of Yahweh came also to me, saying,
016:002 You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters,
in this place.
016:003 For thus says Yahweh concerning the sons and concerning
the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning
their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers
who became the father of them in this land:
016:004 They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented,
neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the surface
of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword,
and by famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds
of the sky, and for the animals of the earth.
016:005 For thus says Yahweh, Don't enter into the house of mourning,
neither go to lament, neither bemoan them; for I have taken
away my peace from this people, says Yahweh, even loving
kindness and tender mercies.
016:006 Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not
be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves,
nor make themselves bald for them;
016:007 neither shall men break [bread] for them in mourning,
to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup
of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
016:008 You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them,
to eat and to drink.
016:009 For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Behold, I will
cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in
your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness,
the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
016:010 It shall happen, when you shall show this people all these words,
and they shall tell you, Why has Yahweh pronounced all this
great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is
our sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God?
016:011 Then shall you tell them, Because your fathers have forsaken me,
says Yahweh, and have walked after other gods, and have
served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken me,
and have not kept my law;
016:012 and you have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold,
you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart,
so that you don't listen to me:
016:013 therefore will I cast you forth out of this land into the land
that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers;
and there shall you serve other gods day and night;
for I will show you no favor.
016:014 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall
no more be said, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children
of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
016:015 but, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel
from the land of the north, and from all the countries where
he had driven them. I will bring them again into their land
that I gave to their fathers.
016:016 Behold, I will send for many fishermen, says Yahweh, and they
shall fish them up; and afterward I will send for many hunters,
and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill,
and out of the clefts of the rocks.
016:017 For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from
my face, neither is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.
016:018 First I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double,
because they have polluted my land with the carcasses
of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance
with their abominations.
016:019 Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day
of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the ends
of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited
nothing but lies, [even] vanity and things in which there
is no profit.
016:020 Shall a man make to himself gods, which yet are no gods?
016:021 Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I
cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know
that my name is Yahweh.
017:001 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, [and] with the point
of a diamond: it is engraved on the tablet of their heart,
and on the horns of your altars;
017:002 while their children remember their altars and their Asherim
by the green trees on the high hills.
017:003 My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your
treasures for a spoil, [and] your high places, because of sin,
throughout all your borders.
017:004 You, even of yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage
that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies
in the land which you don't know: for you have kindled a fire
in my anger which shall burn forever.
017:005 Thus says Yahweh: Cursed is the man who trusts in man,
and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Yahweh.
017:006 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not
see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places
in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited.
017:007 Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose trust Yahweh is.
017:008 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads
out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes,
but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year
of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
017:009 The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is
exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?
017:010 I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give
every man according to his ways, according to the fruit
of his doings.
017:011 As the partridge that sits on [eggs] which she has not laid,
so is he who gets riches, and not by right; in the midst
of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall
be a fool.
017:012 A glorious throne, [set] on high from the beginning,
is the place of our sanctuary.
017:013 Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall
be disappointed. Those who depart from me shall be written
in the earth, because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring
of living waters.
017:014 Heal me, O Yahweh, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall
be saved: for you are my praise.
017:015 Behold, they tell me, Where is the word of Yahweh? let
it come now.
017:016 As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you;
neither have I desired the woeful day; you know:
that which came out of my lips was before your face.
017:017 Don't be a terror to me: you are my refuge in the day of evil.
017:018 Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but let not me
be disappointed; let them be dismayed, but don't let me
be dismayed; bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them
with double destruction.
017:019 Thus said Yahweh to me: Go, and stand in the gate of the children
of the people, through which the kings of Judah come in,
and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
017:020 and tell them, Hear you the word of Yahweh, you kings of Judah,
and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
that enter in by these gates:
017:021 Thus says Yahweh, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden
on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
017:022 neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath
day holy, neither do any work: but make the Sabbath day,
as I commanded your fathers.
017:023 But they didn't listen, neither turn their ear, but made
their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might
not receive instruction.
017:024 It shall happen, if you diligently listen to me, says Yahweh,
to bring in no burden through the gates of this city
on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy,
to do no work therein;
017:025 then shall there enter in by the gates of this city
kings and princes sitting on the throne of David,
riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes,
the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
and this city shall remain forever.
017:026 They shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places
round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from
the lowland, and from the hill country, and from the South,
bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meal offerings,
and frankincense, and bringing [sacrifices of] thanksgiving,
to the house of Yahweh.
017:027 But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy,
and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem
on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates of it,
and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall
not be quenched.
018:001 The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,
018:002 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause
you to hear my words.
018:003 Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was
making a work on the wheels.
018:004 When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand
of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed
good to the potter to make it.
018:005 Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
018:006 House of Israel, can't I do with you as this potter? says Yahweh.
Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand,
house of Israel.
018:007 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning
a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it;
018:008 if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil,
I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.
018:009 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning
a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
018:010 if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they not obey
my voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said
I would benefit them.
018:011 Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I frame
evil against you, and devise a device against you:
return you now everyone from his evil way, and amend your ways
and your doings.
018:012 But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our
own devices, and we will do everyone after the stubbornness
of his evil heart.
018:013 Therefore thus says Yahweh: Ask you now among the nations,
who has heard such things; the virgin of Israel has done
a very horrible thing.
018:014 Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? [or]
shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?
018:015 For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to
false [gods]; and they have been made to stumble in their ways,
in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up;
018:016 to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing;
everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished,
and shake his head.
018:017 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy;
I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day
of their calamity.
018:018 Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah;
for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel
from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let
us strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed
to any of his words.
018:019 Give heed to me, Yahweh, and listen to the voice of those who
contend with me.
018:020 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have dug a pit
for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good
for them, to turn away your wrath from them.