meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Prophets/Jeremiah/English/The Koren Jerusalem Bible.txt"}
text: Jeremiah
  ירמיהו
  The Koren Jerusalem Bible
  
  
  Jeremiah
  
  
  
  
  
  The words of Yirmeyahu the son of Ĥilqiyyahu, of the priests who were in ῾Anatot in the land of Binyamin:
  to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Yoshiyyahu the son of Amon king of Yehuda, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
  It came also in the days of Yehoyaqim the son of Yoshiyyahu king of Yehuda to the end of the eleventh year of Żidqiyyahu the son of Yoshiyyahu king of Yehuda, to the carrying away of Yerushalayim captive in the fifth month.
  Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
  Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou didst come out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet to the nations.
  Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
  But the Lord said to me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all to whom I shall send thee, and whatever I command thee thou shalt speak.
  Do not be afraid of them: for I am with thee to deliver thee, says the Lord.
  Then the Lord put out his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
  See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
  Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, What dost thou see, Yirmeyahu? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
  Then the Lord said to me, Thou hast seen well: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
  And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, What dost thou see? And I said, I see a boiling pot; and its face is from the north.
  Then the Lord said to me, Out of the north the evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
  For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says the Lord; and they shall come, and they shall set everyone his throne at the entrance of the gates of Yerushalayim, and against all its walls round about, and against all the cities of Yehuda.
  And I will utter my judgments against them regarding all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.
  Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command thee: do not be dismayed at them, lest I dismay thee before them.
  For, behold, I have made thee this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and walls of brass against the whole land, against the kings of Yehuda, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.
  And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, says the Lord, to deliver thee.
  
  
  
  Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
  Go and cry in the ears of Yerushalayim, saying, Thus says the Lord; I remember in thy favour, the devotion of thy youth, thy love as a bride, when thou didst go after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
  Israel is holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall be held guilty; evil shall come upon them, says the Lord.
  Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Ya῾aqov, and all the families of the house of Yisra᾽el.
  Thus says the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become themselves worthless?
  Neither did they say, Where is the Lord who brought us up out of the land of Miżrayim, 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 no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?
  And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat its fruit and its bounty; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.
  The priests said not, Where is the Lord? and they that handle the Tora knew me not: the rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by the Ba῾al, and walked after things that do not profit.
  Wherefore I will yet plead with you, says the Lord, and with your children’s children will I plead.
  For pass over the isles of Kittiyyim, and see; and send to Qedar, and consider diligently, and see if there has been such a thing.
  Has a nation changed their gods, even though they are not gods? but my people have changed its glory for that which does not profit.
  Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be greatly appalled, says the Lord.
  For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and have hewn them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
  Is Yisra᾽el a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he become a prey?
  The young lions roared upon him, and gave tongue, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.
  Also the children of Nof and Taĥpanĥes have broken the crown of thy head.
  Hast thou not done this to thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, when he led thee on the way?
  And now what hast thou to do on the road to Miżrayim, to drink the water of Shiĥor? or what hast thou to do on the road to Ashshur, to drink the water of the River?
  Thy own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, says the Lord God of hosts.
  For long ago I broke thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou didst say, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou didst sprawl, playing the harlot.
  And I had planted thee a noble vine, an entirely right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine to me?
  For though thy wash thyself with lye, and take thee much soap, yet the stain of thy iniquity is before me, says the Lord God.
  How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after the Be῾alim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a restive young camel doubling back on her tracks,
  a wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind in her desire; in her lust who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.
  Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou didst say, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.
  As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Yisra᾽el ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets,
  saying to a stock of wood, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast 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.
  But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Yehuda.
  Why will you contend with me? you all have transgressed against me, says the Lord.
  In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
  O generation, see the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness to Yisra᾽el? a land of darkness? why do my people say, We are free; we will come no more to Thee?
  Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
  How well thou dost direct thy path to seek love! Therefore thou hast even taught bad women thy ways.
  Also in thy skirts is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor: whom thou didst not find in the act of breaking in. Yet in spite of all these things
  thou sayst, Because I am innocent, surely his anger has turned from me. Behold, I will enter into judgment with thee, because thou sayst, I have not sinned.
  Why dost thou cheapen thyself so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Miżrayim, as thou wast ashamed of Ashshur.
  Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thy hands upon thy head: for the Lord has rejected those in whom thou dost trust, and thou shalt not prosper by them.
  
  
  
  It was said, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return to her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; and wilt thou yet return again to me? says the Lord.
  Lift up thy eyes to the high places, and see where thou hast not been lain with. On the highways hast thou sat for them, as the ῾Aravian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy harlotries and with thy wickedness.
  Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; and thou didst have a harlot’s forehead, thou didst refuse to be ashamed.
  Wilt thou not from this time cry to me, My father, Thou art the guide of my youth?
  Will he bear a grudge for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things and hast had thy way.
  The Lord said also to me in the days of Yoshiyyahu the king, Hast thou seen that which faithless Yisra᾽el has done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot.
  And I said, After she has done all these things, she will return to me. But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Yehuda saw it.
  And I saw when, forasmuch as faithless Yisra᾽el had committed adultery, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; that her treacherous sister Yehuda was not afraid but went and played the harlot also.
  And it came to pass through the lightness of her harlotry, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with wood.
  And yet for all this her treacherous sister Yehuda has not turned to me with her whole heart, but in pretence, says the Lord.
  And the Lord said to me, Faithless Yisra᾽el has proved herself more just than treacherous Yehuda.
  Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return thou faithless Yisra᾽el, says the Lord; and I will not frown upon you: for I am merciful, says the Lord, and I will not bear a grudge for ever.
  Only acknowledge thy iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord.
  Turn, O faithless children, says the Lord; for I have taken you to myself: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Żiyyon:
  and I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
  And it shall come to pass, when you multiply and increase in the land, in those days, says the Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: nor shall it come to mind: nor shall they remember it; nor shall they miss it; nor shall that be done any more.
  At that time they shall call Yerushalayim the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Yerushalayim: nor shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
  In those days the house of Yehuda shall walk with the house of Yisra᾽el, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance to your fathers.
  But I said, How shall I put thee among the sons, and give thee a pleasant land, the finest heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and thou shalt not turn away from me.
  Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Yisra᾽el, says the Lord.
  A voice is heard upon the high hills, weeping and supplications of the children of Yisra᾽el: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the Lord their God.
  Return, faithless children, and I will heal your backslidings. Here we are, we are come to Thee; for Thou art the Lord our God.
  Truly from the worship on the hills comes delusion, and from the uproar on the mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Yisra᾽el.
  For the shameful idolatry has devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
  Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us: for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.
  
  
  
  If thou wilt return, O Yisra᾽el, says the Lord, return to me: and if thou wilt put away thy abominations out of my sight, without wavering,
  and wilt swear, As the Lord lives, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; then the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
  For thus says the Lord to the men of Yehuda and Yerushalayim, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
  Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Yehuda and inhabitants of Yerushalayim: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
  Declare in Yehuda, and publish in Yerushalayim; and say, Blow the shofar in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.
  Set up the standard toward Żiyyon: seek cover, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.
  The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of nations is on his way; he is gone out of his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without inhabitant.
  For this gird on sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned back from us.
  And it shall come to pass on that day, says the Lord, that the heart of the king shall fail, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.
  Then said I, Ah, Lord God surely Thou hast greatly deceived this people and Yerushalayim, saying, You shall have peace; whereas the sword reaches to the soul.
  At that time shall it be said of this people and of Yerushalayim, A dry wind of the high hills in the wilderness towards the daughter of my people, not a wind to winnow, nor to cleanse the corn,
  but a wind stronger than those shall come for me: now also will I give sentence against them.
  Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a storm wind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! for we are ruined.
  O Yerushalayim, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayst be saved. How long shall thy thoughts of calamity lodge within thee?
  For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes calamity from mount Efrayim.
  Make mention to the nations; behold, publish against Yerushalayim, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Yehuda.
  As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she has been rebellious against me, says the Lord.
  Thy way and thy doings have brought these things upon thee; this is thy wickedness, and it is bitter; it reaches to thy heart.
  My bowels, my bowels! I am shaken in the chambers of my heart; my heart moans within me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the shofar, the alarm of war.
  Destruction follows upon destruction; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.
  How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the shofar?
  For my people is foolish, they do not know me; they are sottish children, and they have no understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
  I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
  I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved to and fro.
  I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky were fled.
  I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down, at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger.
  For thus says the Lord, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
  For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not relent, neither will I turn back from it.
  The whole city flees at the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks; every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.
  And thou, O ruined one, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thyself with ornaments of gold, though thou enlarge thy eyes with paint, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.
  For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her that brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Żiyyon, sobbing and spreading out her hands, saying, Woe is me, now! for my soul faints before the slayers.
  
  
  
  Run to and fro through the streets of Yerushalayim, and see now, and know, and seek in its broad places, if you can find a man, if there be any that does justice, that seeks the truth; and I will pardon it.
  And though they say, As the Lord lives; surely they swear falsely.
  O Lord, are not Thy eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they have not smarted; Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
  Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God.
  I will get me to the great men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God: but these all alike have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
  Therefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf from the deserts shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: everyone that goes out from there shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
  How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
  They were up betimes like well fed horses; every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.
  Shall I not punish for these things? says the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation at this?
  Go up upon her vine rows, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her branches; for they are not the Lord’s.
  For the house of Yisra᾽el and the house of Yehuda have dealt very treacherously against me, says the Lord.
  They have belied the Lord, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword or famine:
  And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done to them.
  Wherefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, Because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
  Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Yisra᾽el, says the Lord: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowst not, neither dost thou understand what they say.
  Their quiver is like an open tomb, they are all mighty men.
  And they shall eat up thy harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall batter thy fortified cities, wherein thou dost trust, with the sword.
  Nevertheless in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a full end with you.
  And it shall come to pass, when you shall say, Why does the Lord our God do all these things to us? then shalt thou answer them, As you have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
  Declare this in the house of Ya῾aqov, and publish it in Yehuda, saying,
  Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; who have eyes, and see not; who have ears, and hear not:
  Do you not fear me? says the Lord: will you not tremble at my presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though its waves toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?
  But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.
  Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season: that keeps for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
  Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you.
  For among my people are found wicked men: they lie in wait, as he that sets snares; they set a trap, they catch men.
  As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and grown rich.
  They are grown fat, and sleek: yea, they overpass in deeds of wickedness: they judge not the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
  Shall I not punish for these things? says the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
  An appalling and horrible thing is committed in the land;
  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 when the end of it comes?
  
  
  
  O children of Binyamin, flee for safety out of the midst of Yerushalayim, and blow the shofar in Teqoa, and set up a beacon in Bet-hakkerem: for evil appears out of the north, and great destruction.
  Thou seemest comely and delicate, O daughter of Żiyyon.
  Yet shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.
  Prepare 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 lengthened.
  Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.
  For thus says the Lord of hosts, Hew down trees, and cast up a mound against Yerushalayim: this is the city to be punished; there is oppression everywhere in the midst of her.
  As a well keeps its water fresh, so she keeps fresh her wickedness: violence and spoil, grief and wounds, is heard in her before me continually.
  Be thou instructed, O Yerushalayim, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.
  Thus says the Lord of hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Yisra᾽el like a vine: pass thy hand again like a grapegatherer over the branches.
  To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.
  Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord; I am weary of holding it in: I will pour it out upon the infants in the street, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.
  And their houses shall be turned over to others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord.
  For from the least of them even to the greatest of them everyone is greedy for gain; and from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely.
  They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people superficially, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
  They should have been ashamed when they had committed abomination; but they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among the fallen: at the time that I punish them they shall stumble, says the Lord.
  Thus says the Lord, Stand on the highways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk upon it, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
  And I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the shofar. But they said, We will not hearken.
  Therefore hear, you nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.
  Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened to my words, nor to my Tora, but have rejected it.
  To what purpose comes incense to me from Sheva, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet to me.
  Therefore thus says the Lord, Behold, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.
  Thus says the Lord, Behold, a people comes from the north country, and a great nation shall stir from the sides of the earth.
  They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Żiyyon.
  We have heard the report of it: our hands grow feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.
  Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy is there, and terror on every side.
  O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, and roll in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.
  I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayst know and test their way.
  They are all grievous revolters, going about with slanders: they are brass and iron; they all deal corruptly.
  The bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire; but the founder melts in vain, for the wicked are not separated.
  Base silver shall they be called, for the Lord has rejected them.
  
  
  
  The word that came to Yirmeyahu from the Lord, saying,
  Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all Yehuda, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.
  Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
  Trust not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.
  For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbour;
  if you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:
  then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
  Behold, you trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
  Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to the Ba῾al, and walk after other gods whom you know not;
  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?
  Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, says the Lord.
  But go now to my place which was in Shilo, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Yisra᾽el.
  And now, because you have done all these deeds, says the Lord, and though I spoke to you, from morning till night, but you did not listen; and I called you, but you did not answer;
  therefore will I do to this house, which is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shilo.
  And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, the whole seed of Efrayim.
  Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
  Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Yehuda and in the streets of Yerushalayim?
  The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
  Do they provoke me to anger? says the Lord: do they not provoke themselves to their own disgrace?
  Therefore thus says the Lord God; Behold, my anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
  Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat.
  For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Miżrayim, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
  but this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.
  But they did not hearken, nor incline their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
  From the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Miżrayim to this day I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them from morning till night.
  Yet they did not hearken to me, nor incline their ear, but stiffened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
  Therefore thou shalt speak all these words to them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call to them; but they will not answer thee.
  But thou shalt say to them, This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God, nor does it receive correction: truthfulness is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
  Cut off thy hair, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the high hills; for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
  For the children of Yehuda have done evil in my sight, says the Lord: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.
  And they have built the high places of Tofet, which is in the valley of Ben-hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command them, nor did it come into my heart.
  Therefore, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, it shall no more be called Tofet, nor the valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Tofet, because there is no room.
  And the carcasses of this people shall be food for the birds of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.
  Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Yehuda, and from the streets of Yerushalayim, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.
  
  
  
  At that time, says the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Yehuda, 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 Yerushalayim, out of their graves:
  and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
  And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places into which I have driven them, says the Lord of hosts.
  Moreover thou shalt say to them, Thus says the Lord; Shall men fall and not rise up again? shall a man turn away, and not turn back again?
  Why then is this people of Yerushalayim turned away in a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast to deceit, they refuse to turn back again.
  I hearkened and heard, but they spoke not aright: no man repents him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? everyone turns to his own course, as the horse rushes into the battle.
  Yea, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtle and the swift and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people do not know the judgment of the Lord.
  How can you say, We are wise, and the Tora of the Lord is with us? Surely, the pen wrought in vain, in vain the scribes.
  The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?
  Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to those who shall take possession of them: for everyone from the least to the greatest is greedy for gain, from the prophet to the priest everyone deals falsely.
  For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people superficially, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
  They should have been ashamed when they had committed abomination; but they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush; therefore shall they fall among the fallen: in the time of their punishment they shall stumble, says the Lord.
  I will surely consume them, says the Lord: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.
  Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be cut off there: for the Lord our God has cut us off, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord.
  We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold terror!
  The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: the whole land trembles at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those who dwell therein.
  For, behold, I will send venomous serpents among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, says the Lord.
  When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.
  Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people coming from a far country: Is not the Lord in Żiyyon? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved idols, and with foreign vanities?
  The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
  For the hurt of the daughter of my people, I am broken; I am thrown into gloom: astonishment has taken hold of me.
  Is there no balm in Gil῾ad; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
  Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
  
  
  
  Oh, that I were in the wilderness, in 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.
  And they bend their tongues, their bow of falsehood: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know me not, says the Lord.
  Take heed everyone of his neighbour, and trust not in any brother: for every brother acts deceitfully, and every neighbour goes about with slanders.
  And they deceive everyone his neighbour, and do not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
  Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says the Lord.
  Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will smelt them, and try them; for how else shall I do for the daughter of my people?
  Their tongue is a sharpened arrow; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he lies in wait for him.
  Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
  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 can pass through them; neither can men hear the sound of the cattle; both the birds of the heavens and the beasts are fled; they are gone.
  And I will make Yerushalayim heaps, a den of jackals; and I will make the cities of Yehuda desolate, without inhabitant.
  Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish, and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passes through?
  And the Lord says, Because they have forsaken my Tora which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, nor walked therein;
  but have walked after the stubborn-­ness of their own heart, and after the Be῾alim, as their fathers taught them:
  therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
  I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.
  Thus says the Lord of hosts, Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skilful women, that they may come:
  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.
  For a voice of wailing is heard out of Żiyyon, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.
  Yet hear the word of the Lord, O you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation.
  For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the broad places.
  Speak, Thus says the Lord, And the carcasses of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvester, and none shall gather them.
  Thus says the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
  but let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercise faithful love, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the Lord.
  Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will punish all the circumcised with the uncircumcised;
  Miżrayim, and Yehuda, and Edom, and the children of ῾Ammon, and Mo᾽av, and all the desert dwellers that have the corners of their hair cut off; for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Yisra᾽el are uncircumcised in the heart.
  
  
  
  Hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Yisra᾽el:
  thus says the Lord, Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them.
  For the customs of the people are vanity: a tree out of the forest is cut down, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.
  They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
  They are like a rigid post, and they cannot speak; they must needs be carried, because they cannot walk. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.
  Forasmuch as there is none like Thee, O Lord; Thou art great, and Thy name is great in might.
  Who would not fear Thee, O King of the nations? for to Thee it is fitting: for among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like Thee.
  Stupid and senseless are they all: the teaching of their vain idols is but – wood!
  Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Ufaz, the work of the crafts-man, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of skilful men.
  But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his anger the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
  Thus shall you say to them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
  He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
  When his voice resounds with the great mass of water in the heavens, and he raises vapours from the ends of the earth; when he makes lightning flashes among the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his storehouses:
  every man becomes stupid, without knowledge: every founder is put to shame by his carved idol: for his molten image is false, and there is no breath in them.
  They are vanity, the work of delusion: in the time of their punishment they shall perish.
  The portion of Ya῾aqov is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Yisra᾽el is the tribe of his inheritance: The Lord of hosts is his name.
  Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the besieged city.
  For thus says the Lord, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel it.
  Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is the affliction, and I must bear it.
  My tent is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone out of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
  For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not sought the Lord: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.
  Behold, the noise of the report is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Yehuda desolate, and a den of jackals.
  O Lord, I know that a man’s way is not his own; it is not in man to direct his steps as he walks.
  O Lord, correct me, but in due measure, not in Thy anger, lest Thou bring me to nothing.
  Pour out Thy fury upon the nations that know Thee not, and upon the families that call not on Thy name: for they have devoured Ya῾aqov, devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.
  
  
  
  The word that came to Yirmeyahu from the Lord, saying,
  Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Yehuda, and to the inhabitants of Yerushalayim;
  and say to them, Thus says the Lord God of Yisra᾽el; Cursed be the man that obeys not the words of this covenant,
  which I commanded your fathers on the day that I brought them out of the land of Miżrayim, from 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:
  that I may perform the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, Amen, O Lord.
  Then the Lord said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Yehuda, and in the streets of Yerushalayim, saying, Hear the words of this covenant, and do them.
  For I earnestly forewarned your fathers on the day that I brought them up out of the land of Miżrayim, to this day, forewarning them from morning till night, saying, Obey my voice.
  Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not.
  And the Lord said to me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Yehuda, and among the inhabitants of Yerushalayim.
  They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words; and they have gone after other gods to serve them: the house of Yisra᾽el and the house of Yehuda have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.
  Therefore thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry to me, I will not hearken to them.
  Then shall the cities of Yehuda and inhabitants of Yerushalayim go, and cry to the gods to whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.
  For according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Yehuda; and according to the number of the streets of Yerushalayim have you set up altars to the shameful thing, altars to burn incense to the Ba῾al.
  Therefore pray not thou for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them at the time that they cry to me for their trouble.
  What has my beloved to do in my house, seeing she has acted vilely with many, and the holy flesh is passed from thee? when thou doest evil, then thou dost rejoice.
  The Lord called thy name, A green olive tree, fair with goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.
  For the Lord of hosts, that planted thee, has pronounced evil against thee, because of the evil which the house of Yisra᾽el and the house of Yehuda, have done to provoke me to anger in offering incense to the Ba῾al.
  And the Lord has given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then Thou didst show me their doings.
  But I was like a gentle lamb brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
  But, O Lord of hosts, that dost judge righteously, that dost try the reins and the heart, let me see Thy vengeance on them: for to Thee have I revealed my cause.
  Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the men of ῾Anatot, that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the Lord, that thou die not by our hand:
  therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine:
  and there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of ῾Anatot, the year of their punishment.
  
  
  
  Right wouldst Thou be, O Lord, if I were to contend with Thee: yet I will reason these points of justice with Thee: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they happy that deal very treacherously?
  Thou hast planted them, indeed, they have taken root: they grow, indeed they bring forth fruit: Thou art near in their mouth, and far from their inward parts.
  But Thou, O Lord, knowst me: Thou hast seen me, and tried my heart towards Thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
  How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole field wither? for the wickedness of them that dwell there, the beasts and the birds are consumed; because they said, He shall not see our last end.
  If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? And dost thou feel secure in the land of peace? how wilt thou do in the wild country of the Yarden?
  For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they deal treacherously with thee: indeed, they are in full cry after thee: believe them not, though they speak fair words to thee.
  I have forsaken my house, I have left my heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.
  My heritage has become to me as a lion in the forest; it cries out against me: therefore have I hated it.
  My inheritance is a long clawed eagle to me. But the eagle is round about her! Come, assemble together all the wild beasts of the field, bring them to devour.
  Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
  They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourns to me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.
  The spoilers are come upon all high hills through the wilderness: for the sword of the Lord devours from the one end of the land to the other end of the land: no flesh has peace.
  They have sown wheat, but have reaped thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: be then ashamed of your harvests because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
  Thus says the Lord against all my evil neighbours, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Yisra᾽el to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Yehuda from among them.
  And it shall come to pass, after I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them back, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.
  And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, As the Lord lives; just as they taught my people to swear by the Ba῾al; then shall they be built in the midst of my people.
  But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, says the Lord.
  
  
  
  Thus says the Lord to me, Go and get thee a linen girdle, and put it upon thy loins, and put it not in water.
  So I got a girdle according to the word of the Lord, and put in on my loins.
  And the word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying,
  Take the girdle that thou hast got, which is upon thy loins, and arise, go to Perat, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.
  So I went, and hid it in Perat, as the Lord commanded me.
  And it came to pass after many days, that the Lord said to me, Arise, go to Perat, and take from there the girdle, which I commanded thee to hide there.
  Then I went to Perat, and dug, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was spoilt, it was profitable for nothing.
  Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
  Thus says the Lord, After this manner will I spoil the pride of Yehuda, and the great pride of Yerushalayim.
  This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and go after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.
  For as the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, so have I caused the whole house of Yisra᾽el and the whole house of Yehuda, to cleave to me, says the Lord; that they might be to me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.
  Therefore thou shalt speak to them this word; Thus says the Lord God of Yisra᾽el, Every bottle shall be filled with wine;    and when they shall say to thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?
  then shalt thou say to them, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings of the house of David that sit upon his throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, with drunkenness.
  And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, says the Lord: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.
  Hear, and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord has spoken.
  Give glory to the Lord your God, before it grows dark, and before your feet stumble upon the mountains of twilight, and, while you look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.
  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 the Lord’s flock is carried away captive.
  Say to the king and to the queen mother, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your glorious crown has fallen from your head.
  The cities of the Negev shall be shut up, and none shall open them: Yehuda shall be carried away captive entirely, it shall be wholly carried away captive.
  Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?
  What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them to be thy captains, as chief over thee: shall not pangs take hold of thee, as a woman in travail?
  And if thou say in thy heart, Why come these things upon me? For the greatness of thy iniquity are thy skirts uncovered, and thy heels made bare.
  Can the Kushite change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
  Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness.
  This is thy lot, the portion I have measured out to thee, says the Lord; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.
  Therefore will I strip thy skirts about thy face, that thy shame may be seen.
  I have seen thy adulteries, and thy neighings, thy disgusting harlotry, and thy abominable idols on the hills in the field. Woe to thee, O Yerushalayim! wilt thou not be made clean? How much longer will it be?
  
  
  
  The word of the Lord that came to Yirmeyahu concerning the droughts.
  Yehuda mourns, and its gates languish in gloom to the ground; and the cry of Yerushalayim is gone up.
  And their nobles have sent their little ones for water: they come to the pits, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are ashamed and confounded, and cover their heads.
  Because of the ground which is cracked, for there has been no rain on the earth, the ploughmen are ashamed, they cover their heads.
  For the hind also calves in the field, and forsakes its young, because there is no grass.
  And the wild asses stand in the high places, they snuff up the wind like jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no herbage.
  O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against Thee.
  O the hope of Yisra᾽el, its saviour in time of trouble, why shouldst Thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night?
  Why shouldst Thou be as a man surprised, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by Thy name; leave us not.
  Thus says the Lord to this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not restrained their feet, therefore the Lord does not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and punish their sins.
  Then said the Lord to me, Pray not for this people for their good.
  When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and a meal offering, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
  Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, the prophets say to them, You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.
  Then the Lord said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke I to them: they prophesy to you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their own heart.
  Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
  And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Yerushalayim because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, neither them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.
  Therefore thou shalt 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 wound, with a very grievous blow.
  If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold those that are sick with famine! for both prophet and priest go about into a land that they know not.
  Hast Thou utterly rejected Yehuda? has Thy soul despised Żiyyon? why hast Thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold terror!
  We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against Thee.
  Do not abhor us, for Thy name’s sake, do not dishonour the throne of Thy glory: remember, break not Thy covenant with us.
  Are there any among the worthless gods of the nations that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not Thou he, O Lord our God? therefore we set our hope on Thee: for Thou hast made all these things.
  
  
  
  Then said the Lord to me, Though Moshe and Shemu᾽el were to stand before me, my mind could not incline towards this people: send them out of my sight, and let them depart.
  And it shall come to pass, if they say to thee, Whither shall we depart? then thou shalt tell them, Thus says the Lord; 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 the captivity, to the captivity.
  And I will appoint over them four kinds of ravagers, says the Lord: the sword to slay, and the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.
  And I will make them into a horror for all the kingdoms of the earth, on account of Menashshe the son of Yeĥizqiyyahu king of Yehuda, for that which he did in Yerushalayim.
  For who shall have pity upon thee, O Yerushalayim, or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest?
  Thou hast forsaken me, says the Lord, thou art gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary of relenting.
  And I will winnow them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways.
  Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them, upon the mothers of the young men, a spoiler at noonday: I have caused tumult and terrors to fall upon it suddenly.
  She that has born seven languishes: she has fainted away; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she has been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says the Lord.
  Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast born me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent, nor have men lent to me; yet every one of them curses me.
  The Lord said, Have I not provided for thy welfare; have I not made the enemy entreat thy intercession, in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
  Shall iron break iron from the north, and brass.
  Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders.
  And I will cause thee to pass with thy enemies into a land which thou knowst not: for a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn upon you.
  O Lord, Thou knowst: remember me, and be mindful of me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in Thy long suffering: know that for Thy sake I have suffered insult.
  Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts.
  I sat not in the assembly of the merrymakers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of Thy hand: for Thou hast filled me with indignation.
  Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? wilt Thou be to me like a deceitful stream, like waters that fail?
  Therefore thus says the Lord, If thou return, then will I bring thee back, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou bring out the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return to thee; but return not thou to them.
  And I will make thee to this people a fortified wall of brass: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, says the Lord.
  And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.
  
  
  
  The word of the Lord came also to me, saying,
  Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.
  For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bore them, and concerning their fathers that begot them in this land;
  they shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcasses shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the beasts of the earth.
  For thus says the Lord, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, both love and mercy.
  Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor gash themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
  neither shall men break bread for them during the mourning, to comfort him for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for his father or for his mother.
  Thou shalt also not go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.
  For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; 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.
  And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt tell this people all these words, and they shall say to thee, Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?
  then shalt thou say to them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my Tora;
  and you have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, that they may not hearken to me:
  therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that you know not, neither you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no favour.
  Therefore, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when it shall no more be said, As the Lord lives, that brought up the children of Yisra᾽el out of the land of Miżrayim;
  but, As the Lord lives, that brought up the children of Yisra᾽el from the land of the north, and from all the lands into which he had driven them: and I will bring them back into their land that I gave to their fathers.
  Behold, I will send for many fishers, says the Lord, and they shall fish for them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them out from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.
  For my eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from my eyes.
  And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have profaned my land, they have filled my inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.
  O Lord, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, nations shall come to Thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vain idols, and things in which there is no profit.
  Shall a man make gods to himself, and they are no gods?
  Therefore, behold, I will make known to them this once, I will cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The Lord.
  
  
  
  The sin of Yehuda is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the tablet of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars.
  As they remember their children so they remember their altars and their asherim by the green trees upon the high hills.
  O mountain dweller in the fields, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil; thy high places, because of sin, throughout all thy borders.
  And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thy heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thy enemies in the land which thou knowst not: for you have kindled a fire in my anger, which shall burn for ever.
  Thus says the Lord; Cursed be the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord.
  For he shall be like the juniper tree 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.
  Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.
  For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not see when the heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be anxious in the year of drought, nor shall it cease from yielding fruit.
  The heart is deceitful above all things, and grievously weak: who can know it?
  I, the Lord, search the heart, I try the inward parts, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
  As the partridge sits on eggs, but hatches them not; so is he that gets riches, and not by right; he shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
  A glorious throne exalted from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
  O Lord, the hope of Yisra᾽el, all that forsake Thee shall be ashamed, and they who depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.
  Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for Thou art my praise.
  Behold, they say to me, Where is the word of the Lord? let it come now.
  As for me, I did not hasten to be a shepherd to follow Thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; Thou knowst: that which came out of my lips was before Thee.
  Be not a terror to me: Thou art my hope in the day of evil.
  Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let me not be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
  Thus said the Lord to me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Yehuda come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Yerushalayim:
  and say to them, Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Yehuda, and all Yehuda, and all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, that enter in by these gates:
  thus says the Lord; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Yerushalayim;
  neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do any work, but hallow the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
  But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.
  And it shall come to pass, if you diligently hearken to me, says the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work on it;
  then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes who sit upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Yehuda, and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim: and this city shall remain for ever.
  And they shall come from the cities of Yehuda, and from the places about Yerushalayim, and from the land of Binyamin, and from the coastal plain, and from the mountains, and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meal offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, to the house of the Lord.
  But if you will not hearken to me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, and if you enter in at the gates of Yerushalayim on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Yerushalayim, and it shall not be quenched.
  
  
  
  The word which came to Yirmeyahu from the Lord, saying,
  Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
  Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he was at work on the wheels.
  And the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter: so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it.
  Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
  O house of Yisra᾽el, cannot I do with you as this potter? says the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Yisra᾽el.
  At one time I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, or to destroy;
  but if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.
  And at another time, I speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant;
  but if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them.
  Now therefore speak to the men of Yehuda, and to the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, saying, Thus says the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.
  And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do after the stubbornness of his evil heart.
  Therefore thus says the Lord; Ask now among the heathen, who has heard such things: the virgin of Yisra᾽el has done a very horrible thing.
  Does the snow of Levanon fail from the crags of the fields? or do the far off cold and flowing waters cease to run?
  but my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to vain gods, and they stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not levelled,
  to make their land an astonishment, a perpetual hissing; everyone that passes by it shall be astonished, and shake his head.
  I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them my back, and not my face, in the day of their calamity.
  Then said they, Come and let us contrive devices against Yirmeyahu; for Tora shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
  Give heed to me, O Lord, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
  Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before Thee to speak good for them, and to turn away Thy wrath from them.
  Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
  Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
  Yet, Lord, Thou knowst all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from Thy sight, but let them be overthrown before Thee; deal thus with them in the time of Thy anger.
  
  
  
  Thus says the Lord, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests;
  and go out into the valley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate of Ĥarsit, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee,
  And say, Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Yehuda, and inhabitants of Yerushalayim; Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, which whoever hears it, his ears shall tingle.
  Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Yehuda, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
  they have built also the high places of the Ba῾al, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to the Ba῾al, which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind:
  therefore, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Tofet, nor The valley of Ben-hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter.
  And I will make void the counsel of Yehuda and Yerushalayim in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcasses will I give to be food for the birds of the sky, and for the beasts of the earth.
  And I will make this city desolate, and a hissing; every one that passes by it shall be astonished and hiss because of all its disasters.
  And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall afflict them.
  Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
  And shalt say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tofet, till there be no place to bury.
  Thus will I do to this place, says the Lord, and to its inhabitants, and make this city as Tofet:
  and the houses of Yerushalayim, and the houses of the kings of Yehuda, shall be defiled as the place of the Tofet, with all the houses upon the roofs of which they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings to other gods.
  Then came Yirmeyahu from the Tofet, to which the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord’s house; and said to all the people,
  Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have made their necks stiff, that they might not hear my words.
  
  
  
  Now Pashĥur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the Lord, heard that Yirmeyahu prophesied these things.
  Then Pashĥur smote Yirmeyahu the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Binyamin, which was by the house of the Lord.
  And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashĥur brought Yirmeyahu out of the stocks. Then Yirmeyahu said to him, The Lord has called thy name not Pashĥur, but Magor-missaviv (Terror all Around.)
  For thus says the Lord, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thy eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Yehuda into the hand of the king of Bavel, and he shall carry them captive into Bavel, and shall slay them with the sword.
  Moreover I will deliver all the wealth of this city, and all its gains, and all its precious things, and all the treasures of the kings of Yehuda will I give into the hand of their enemies, who shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Bavel.
  And thou, Pashĥur, and all that dwell in thy house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Bavel, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.
  O Lord, Thou didst persuade me, and I was persuaded: Thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocks me.
  For whenever I speak, I cry out aloud, I shout of violence and ruin; therefore the word of the Lord is made a reproach unto me, and a derision all the day.
  Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with containing myself, and I cannot.
  Though I heard the calumny of many, the terror all around. Denounce, and we will denounce him, say my familiar friends as they watch for my stumbling, Perhaps he will be persuaded, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.
  But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
  But, O Lord of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the inward parts and the heart, let me see Thy vengeance on them: for to Thee have I opened my cause.
  Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord: for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evildoers.
  Cursed be the day on which I was born: let not the day on which my mother bore me be blessed.
  Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born to thee; making him very glad.
  And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear a cry in the morning, and an alarm at noontide;
  because he slew me not from the womb; so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb always great.
  Why did I come out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?
  
  
  
  The word which came to Yirmeyahu from the Lord, when king Żidqiyyahu sent to him Pashĥur the son of Malkiyya and Żefanya the son of Ma῾aseya the priest, saying,
  Inquire, I pray thee, of the Lord for us; for Nevukhadreżżar, king of Bavel is making war against us; perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, so that he may go up from us.
  Then said Yirmeyahu to them, Thus shall you say to Żidqiyyahu;
  Thus says the Lord God of Yisra᾽el; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Bavel, and against the Kasdim, who besiege you outside the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.
  And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.
  And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.
  And afterwards, says the Lord, I will deliver Żidqiyyahu king of Yehuda, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left over in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.
  And to this people thou shalt say, Thus says the Lord; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.
  He that abides in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goes out, and falls away to the Kasdim that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be to him for booty.
  For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, says the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Bavel, and he shall burn it with fire.
  And to the house of the king of Yehuda, say, Hear the word of the Lord;
  O house of David, thus says the Lord; Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
  Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, O rock of the plain, says the Lord; who say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?
  But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says the Lord: and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is round about her.
  
  
  
  Thus says the Lord; Go down to the house of the king of Yehuda, and speak there this word,
  and say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Yehuda, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:
  thus says the Lord; Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.
  For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings of the house of David sitting upon his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.
  But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.
  For thus says the Lord to the house of the king of Yehuda; Thou art as Gil῾ad to me, the summit of Levanon: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, cities which are not inhabited.
  And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
  And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Why has the Lord done so to this great city?
  Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.
  Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goes away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native land.
  For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum the son of Yoshiyyahu king of Yehuda, who reigned instead of Yoshiyyahu his father, who went forth out of this place; He shall not return there any more:
  but he shall die in the place to which they have led him into exile, and shall see this land no more.
  Woe to him that builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; that uses his neighbour’s service without wages, and gives him not for his hire;
  that says, I will build me a wide house with large upper chambers, and he cuts him out windows; and it is covered with rafters of cedar, and painted with vermilion.
  Shalt thou reign, because thou dost compete in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?
  He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? says the Lord.
  But thou hast eyes and heart only for thy dishonest gain, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for practising violence.
  Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Yehoyaqim the son of Yoshiyyahu king of Yehuda, They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
  He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Yerushalayim.
  Go up to Levanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from ῾Avarim: for all thy lovers are destroyed.
  I spoke to thee in thy prosperity; but thou didst say, I will not hear. This has been thy manner from thy youth, that thou didst not obey my voice.
  The wind shall drive away all thy shepherds, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.
  O inhabitant of Levanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how pitiable shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!
  As I live, says the Lord, though Konyahu the son of Yehoyaqim king of Yehuda were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I tear thee off;
  and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel, and into the hand of the Kasdim.
  And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bore thee, into another country, where you were not born; and there shall you die.
  But to the land to which they desire to return, to it shall they not return.
  Is this man Konyahu a despised broken vessel, an object that no one cares for? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and banished to a land which they know not?
  O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord.
  Thus says the Lord, Write this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall pros­per, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Yehuda.
  
  
  
  Woe to the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord.
  Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Yisra᾽el against the shepherds that feed my people; You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not taken care of them: behold, I will punish you for the evil of your doings, says the Lord.
  And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries into which I have driven them, and will bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
  And I will set up shepherds over them who shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, says the Lord.
  Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise to David a righteous offshoot, and he shall reign as a king and prosper, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the earth.
  In his days Yehuda shall be saved, and Yisra᾽el shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord is our righteousness.
  Therefore, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when they shall no more say, As the Lord lives, who brought up the children of Yisra᾽el out of the land of Miżrayim;
  but, As the Lord lives, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Yisra᾽el out of the north country, and from all countries into which I have driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.
  My heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the Lord, and because of his holy words.
  For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing, the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. For their course was evil, and their force unjust.
  For both prophet and priest are hypocrites; even in my house have I found their wickedness, says the Lord.
  Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery ways in the darkness: into which they shall be driven, and fall: for I will bring evil upon them, the year of their punishment, says the Lord.
  And I have seen folly in the prophets of Shomeron; they prophesied by the Ba῾al, and caused my people Yisra᾽el to err.
  But in the prophets of Yerushalayim I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, so that none returns from his wickedness: they are all of them become to me like Sedom, and its inhabitants like ῾Amora.
  Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Yerushalayim has hypocrisy gone out to all the land.
  Thus says the Lord of hosts, Hearken not to the words of the prophets that prophesy to you: they lead you into vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.
  They say still to them that despise me, The Lord has said, You shall have peace; and they say to every one that walks after the stubbornness of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.
  For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord, that he might perceive and hear his word? who has marked his word, and heard it?
  Behold the storm wind of the Lord, fury has gone forth, a whirling tempest, it shall fall upon the head of the wicked.
  The anger of the Lord shall not return, until he has executed, and till he has performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days you shall consider it perfectly.
  I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
  But if they had stood in my counsel, then they should have caused my people to hear my words, and turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
  Am I a God near at hand, says the Lord, and not a God afar off?
  Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? says the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.
  I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
  How long shall this be? Is it in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies and the prophets of the deceit of their own heart;
  That think to cause my people to forget My name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers forgot My name for the Ba῾al?
  The prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? says the Lord.
  Is not My word like a fire? says the Lord; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
  Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, that steal My words every one from his neighbour.
  Behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He says.
  Behold, I am against them that prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord, and do tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, says the Lord.
  And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt then say to them, What burden? I will forsake you, says the Lord.
  And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will even punish that man and his house.
  Thus shall you say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What has the Lord answered? and, What has the Lord spoken?
  and the burden of the Lord shall you mention no more: for the burden shall belong to the man of his word; but you have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts our God.
  Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What has the Lord answered thee? and, What has the Lord spoken?
  But if you say, The burden of the Lord; then thus says the Lord, Because you say this thing, The burden of the Lord, and I have sent to you, saying, You shall not say, The burden of the Lord;
  therefore, behold, I myself, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence.
  And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
  
  
  
  The Lord showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the Lord, after Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel had carried away captive Yekhonyahu the son of Yehoyaqim the king of Yehuda, and the princes of Yehuda with the carpenters and smiths, from Yerushalayim, and had brought them to Bavel.
  One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very poor figs, which could not be eaten, they were so poor.
  Then said the Lord to me, What seest thou, Yirmeyahu? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, that cannot be eaten, they are so poor.
  Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
  Thus says the Lord, the God of Yisra᾽el; Like these good figs, so will I favourably regard those that are carried away captive of Yehuda, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Kasdim.
  For I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
  And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
  And as the bad figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus says the Lord, So will I make Żidqiyyahu the king of Yehuda, and his princes, and the residue of Yerushalayim, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Miżrayim:
  I will make them a horror for evil to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and curse, in all the places into which I shall drive them.
  And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they are consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.
  
  
  
  The word that came to Yirmeyahu concerning all the people of Yehuda in the fourth year of Yehoyaqim the son of Yoshiyyahu king of Yehuda, that was the first year of Nevukhadreżżar, king of Bavel;
  which Yirmeyahu the prophet spoke to all the people of Yehuda, and to all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, saying,
  From the thirteenth year of Yoshiyyahu, the son of Amon king of Yehuda, and until this day, these twenty three years, the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken to you, from morning till night; but you have not hearkened.
  And the Lord has sent to you all his servants the prophets, sending them from morning till night; but you have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear.
  They said, Turn back now everyone from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and to your fathers for ever and ever:
  and do not go after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and do not provoke me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.
  Yet you have not hearkened to me, says the Lord; that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt.
  Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts; Because you have not heard my words,
  behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nevukhadreżżar the king of Bavel, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual ruins.
  Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.
  And this whole land shall be a ruin, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Bavel seventy years.
  And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Bavel, and that nation, says the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Kasdim, and will make it everlasting desolation.
  And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Yirmeyahu has prophesied against all the nations.
  For many nations and great kings shall enslave them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.
  For thus says the Lord God of Yisra᾽el to me; Take this wine cup of fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.
  And they shall drink, and stagger, and be crazed, because of the sword that I will send among them.
  Then I took the cup at the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me:
  namely, Yerushalayim, and the cities of Yehuda, and its kings, and its princes, to make them a ruin, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;
  Par῾o king of Miżrayim, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;
  and all the ῾Erev, and all the kings of the land of ῾Uż, and all the kings of the land of Pelishtim, and Ashqelon, and ῾Azza, and ῾Eqron, and the remnant of Ashdod,
  Edom, and Mo᾽av, and the children of ῾Ammon,
  and all the kings of Żor, and all the kings of Żidon, and the kings of island which is beyond the sea,
  Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that have the corners of their hair cut off,
  and all the kings of ῾Arav, and all the kings of the ῾Erev that dwell in the desert,
  and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of ῾Elam, and all the kings of the Maday,
  and all the kings of the north both far and near, one after another, and all the kingdoms of the world, who are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshakh shall drink after them.
  Therefore thou shalt say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Drink, and be drunk, and vomit, and fail, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.
  And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thy hand to drink, then shalt thou say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts; You shall certainly drink.
  For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should you go utterly unpunished? you shall not go unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord of hosts.
  Therefore prophesy against them all these words, and say to them, The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar because of his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.
  A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with the nations, he will enter into judgment with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, says the Lord.
  Thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great stormwind shall be raised up from the far ends of the earth.
  And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.
  Howl, shepherds, and cry; and roll yourselves in dust, you chief of the flock: for the days are altogether come about for you to be slaughtered and dispersed, and you shall fall like a choice vessel.
  And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the chief of the flock to escape.
  A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a howling of the chief of the flock, shall be heard: for the Lord has ruined their pasture.
  And the peaceable pastures are silent because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
  He has forsaken his covert, like the lion: for their land is desolate because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger.
  
  
  
  In the beginning of the reign of Yehoyaqim son of Yoshiyyahu king of Yehuda came this word from the Lord, saying,
  Thus says the Lord; Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Yehuda, which come to worship in the Lord’s house, all the words that I command thee to speak to them; leave nothing out:
  Perhaps they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may relent of the evil, which I purpose to do to them because of the evil of their doings.
  And thou shalt say to them, Thus says the Lord; If you will not hearken to me, to walk in my Tora, which I have set before you,
  to hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send to you, (sending from morning to night, but you have not hearkened;)
  then will I make this house like Shilo, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.
  So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Yirmeyahu as he spoke these words in the house of the Lord.
  Now it came to pass, when Yirmeyahu had made an end of speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took hold of him, saying, Thou shalt surely die.
  Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, This house shall be like Shilo, and this city shall be desolate without inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Yirmeyahu in the house of the Lord.
  When the princes of Yehuda heard these things, then they came up from the king’s house unto the house of the Lord, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the Lord’s house.
  Then spoke the priests and the prophets to the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.
  Then spoke Yirmeyahu to all the princes and to all the people, saying, The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.
  Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will relent of the evil that he has pronounced against you.
  As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seems good and proper in your eyes.
  But know for certain, that if you put me to death, you shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon its inhabitants: for of a truth the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.
  Then said the princes and all the people to the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.
  Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying,
  Mikha the Morashti prophesied in the days of Ĥizqiyyahu king of Yehuda, and spoke to all the people of Yehuda, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts; Żiyyon shall be plowed like a field, and Yerushalayim shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.
  Did Ĥizqiyyahu king of Yehuda and all Yehuda put him to death? did he not rather fear the Lord, and beseech the Lord, and the Lord repented of the evil which he had pronounced against them? And shall we bring such a great evil against our souls?
  And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriyyahu the son of Shema῾yahu of Qiryat-hayye῾arim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Yirmeyahu:
  and when Yehoyaqim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death: but when Uriyyahu heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Miżrayim;
  and Yehoyaqim the king sent men to Miżrayim, namely, Elnatan the son of ῾Akhbor, and others with him into Miżrayim.
  And they fetched Uriyyahu out of Miżrayim, and brought him to Yehoyaqim the king, who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body upon the graves of the common people.
  Nevertheless the hand of Aĥiqam the son of Shafan was with Yirmeyahu, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.
  
  
  
  In the beginning of the reign of Yehoyaqim the son of Yoshiyyahu king of Yehuda, came this word to Yirmeyahu from the Lord, saying,
  Thus says the Lord to me; Make bonds and bars for thyself, and put them upon thy neck,
  and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Mo᾽av, and to the king of the children of ῾Ammon, and to the king of Żor, and to the king of Żidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Yerushalayim to Żidqiyyahu king of Yehuda;
  and command them to say to their masters, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Thus shall you say to your masters;
  I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it to whom it seemed proper in my eyes.
  And now have I given all these lands to the hand of Nevukhadneżżar the king of Bavel, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.
  And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the time of his own land come also: and then many nations and great kings shall make him a slave.
  And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve this Nevukhadneżżar the king of Bavel, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Bavel, that nation will I punish, says the Lord, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
  Therefore hearken not to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Bavel:
  for they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and you should perish.
  But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Bavel, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, says the Lord; and they shall till it, and dwell in it.
  I spoke also to Żidqiyya king of Yehuda according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Bavel, and serve him and his people, and live.
  Why will you die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the Lord has spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Bavel?
  Therefore hearken not to the words of the prophets that speak to you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Bavel; for they prophesy a lie to you.
  For I have not sent them, says the Lord; but they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that you might perish, you, and the prophets that prophesy to you.
  Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus says the Lord; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy to you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the Lord’s house shall now shortly be brought back from Bavel: for they prophesy a lie to you.
  Hearken not to them; serve the king of Bavel, and live: why should this city be laid waste?
  But if they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord be with them, let them now make intercession to the Lord of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Yehuda, and at Yerushalayim, go not to Bavel.
  For thus says the Lord of hosts con-cerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city.
  Which Nevukhadneżżar king of Bavel did not take, when he carried away Yekhonya the son of Yehoyaqim king of Yehuda captive from Yerushalayim to Bavel, and all the nobles of Yehuda and Yerushalayim:
  for thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Yehuda and of Yerushalayim;
  they shall be carried to Bavel, and there shall they be until the day that I take heed of them, says the Lord; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.
  
  
  
  And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Żidqiyya king of Yehuda, in the fourth year and in the fifth month, that Ĥananya the son of Azur the prophet, who was of Giv῾on, spoke to me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
  Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Bavel.
  Within two full years will I bring again to this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house, that Nevukhadneżżar king of Bavel took away from this place, and carried them to Bavel:
  And I will bring again to this place Yekhonya the son of Yehoyaqim, king of Yehuda, with all the captives of Yehuda, that went into Bavel, says the Lord: for I will break the yoke of the king of Bavel.
  Then the prophet Yirmeya said to the prophet Ĥananya in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the Lord,
  and the prophet Yirmeya said, Amen: the Lord do so: the Lord perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring back the vessels of the Lord’s house, and all that were carried away captive, from Bavel to this place.
  Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thy ears, and in the ears of all the people;
  the prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.
  As for the prophet who prophesies for peace, when the word of that prophet shall come to pass, then shall it be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.
  Then Ĥananya the prophet took the bar from off the prophet Yirmeya’s neck, and broke it.
  And Ĥananya spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus said the Lord; Even so will I break the yoke of Nevukhadneżżar king of Bavel from the neck of all the nations within the space of two years. And the prophet Yirmeya went his way.
  Then the word of the Lord came to Yirmeyahu, after Ĥananya the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Yirmeya, saying,
  Go and tell Ĥananya, saying, Thus says the Lord; Thou hast broken the bars of wood; but thou shalt make instead of them bars of iron.
  For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nevukhad-neżżar king of Bavel; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.
  Then said the prophet Yirmeya to Ĥananya the prophet, Hear now, Ĥananya; The Lord has not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie.
  Therefore thus says the Lord; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast uttered rebellion against the Lord.
  So Ĥananya the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.
  
  
  
  Now these are the words of the letter that Yirmeya the prophet sent from Yerushalayim to the residue of the elders who were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nevukhadneżżar had carried away captive from Yerushalayim to Bavel:
  (after Yekhonya the king, and the queen mother, and the officers, the princes of Yehuda and Yerushalayim, and the craftsmen and the smiths, had departed from Yerushalayim;)
  by the hand of El῾asa the son of Shefan, and Gemarya the son of Ĥilqiyya, (whom Żidqiyya king of Yehuda had sent to Nevukhad­neżżar king of Bavel) to Bavel, saying,
  Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el, to all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Yerushalayim to Bavel;
  Build houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
  Take wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that you may be increased there, and not diminished.
  And seek the peace of the city into which I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray to the Lord for it: for in its peace shall you have peace.
  For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that are in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to the dreams which you encourage them to dream.
  For they prophesy falsely to you in my name: I have not sent them, says the Lord.
  For thus says the Lord, That after seventy years are accomplished at Bavel I will take heed of you, and perform my good word towards you, in causing you to return to this place.
  For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
  Then shall you call upon me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will hearken to you.
  And you shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.
  And I will allow myself to be found by you, says the Lord: and I will restore you from your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places into which I have driven you, says the Lord; and I will bring you back to the place from which I caused you to be driven away.
  Because you have said, The Lord has raised us up prophets in Bavel;
  thus says the Lord of the king that sits upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwell in this city, of your brethren that did not go out with you into captivity;
  thus says the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.
  And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will make them for a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations where I have driven them:
  because they have not hearkened to my words, says the Lord, which I sent to them by my servants the prophets, (sending them from morning till night; but you would not hear, says the Lord.)
  Hear therefore the word of the Lord, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent from Yerushalayim to Bavel:
  Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el, of Aĥ᾽av the son of Qolaya, and of Żidqiyyahu the son of Ma῾aseya, who prophesy a lie to you in my name; Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nevukhadneżżar king of Bavel; and he shall slay them before your eyes;
  And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Yehuda who are in Bavel, saying, The Lord make thee like Żidqiyyahu and like Aĥ᾽av, whom the king of Bavel roasted in the fire;
  because they have committed baseness in Yisra᾽el, and have committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; but I am he who knows, and I am a witness, says the Lord.
  Thus shalt thou also speak to Shema῾yahu the Neĥelamite, saying,
  Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el, saying, Because thou hast sent letters in thy name to all the people that are at Yerushalayim, and to Żefanya the son of Ma῾aseya the priest, and to all the priests, saying,
  The Lord has made thee priest in the place of Yehoyada the priest, that there should be officers in the house of the Lord, for every man that is mad, and acts the prophet, that thou shouldst put him in the stocks, and in the collar.
  Now therefore why hast thou not rebuked Yirmeyahu of ῾Anatot, who acts the prophet to you?
  seeing that he sent to us in Bavel, saying, This captivity is long: build houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
  And Żefanya the priest read this letter in the ears of Yirmeyahu the prophet.
  Then came the word of the Lord to Yirmeyahu, saying,
  Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus says the Lord concerning Shema῾ya the Neĥelamite; Because Shema῾ya has prophesied to you, and I sent him not, and he caused you to trust in a lie:
  therefore thus says the Lord; Behold, I will punish Shema῾ya the Neĥelamite, and his posterity: he shall not have a man to dwell among this people; neither shall he behold the good that I will do for my people, says the Lord; because he has uttered rebellion against the Lord.
  
  
  
  The word that came to Yirmeyahu from the Lord, saying,
  Thus speaks the Lord God of Yisra᾽el, saying, Write all the words that I have spoken to thee in a book.
  For, lo, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will bring back the captivity of my people Yisra᾽el and Yehuda, says the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.
  And these are words that the Lord spoke concerning Yisra᾽el and concerning Yehuda.
  For thus says the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.
  Ask now, and see whether a man travails with child? why then do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned to paleness?
  Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: and it is a time of trouble to Ya῾aqov; but he shall be saved out of it.
  For it shall come to pass on that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy hands, and strangers shall no more enslave him:
  but they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
  Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Ya῾aqov, says the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Yisra᾽el: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Ya῾aqov shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.
  For I am with thee, says the Lord, to save thee: for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in due measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.
  For thus says the Lord, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.
  There is none to take up thy case, to bind up the wound: thou hast no healing medicines.
  All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thy iniquity; thy sins were increased.
  Why criest thou for thy hurt, that thy sorrow is incurable? for the multitude of thy iniquity, because thy sins were increased, I have done these things to thee.
  Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thy adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that plunder thee will I give for a prey.
  For I will restore health to thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, says the Lord; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Żiyyon, for whom no one cares.
  Thus says the Lord; Behold, I will bring back the captivity of Ya῾aqov’s tents, and have mercy on his dwellingplaces; and the city shall be built upon her own tel, and the palace shall stand on its proper place.
  And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be diminished; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.
  Their children also shall be as before, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them.
  And their prince shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach me? says the Lord.
  And you shall be my people, and I will be yourGod.
  Behold, the storm wind of the Lord goes out with fury, a sweeping storm: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.
  The fierce anger of the Lord shall not turn back, until he has done it, and until he has performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand this.
  
  
  
  At that time, says the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Yisra᾽el, and they shall be my people.
  Thus says the Lord, The people who were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Yisra᾽el sought for rest.
  The Lord appeared of old to me, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore I have remained true to thee.
  Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Yisra᾽el: thou shalt again be adorned with thy timbrels, and shalt go out dancing with them that make merry.
  Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Shomron: the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy the fruit.
  For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Efrayim shall cry, Arise, and let us go up to Żiyyon to the Lord our God.
  For thus says the Lord; Sing with gladness for Ya῾aqov, and shout on the hilltops of the nations: announce, praise, and say, O Lord, save Thy people, the remnant of Yisra᾽el.
  Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the ends of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travails with child together: a great company shall return there.
  They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, in which they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Yisra᾽el, and Efrayim is my firstborn.
  Hear the word of the Lord, O you nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Yisra᾽el will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd keeps his flock.
  For the Lord has redeemed Ya῾aqov, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
  Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Żiyyon, and shall flow to the bounty of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be like a watered garden; and they shall not languish in sorrow any more.
  Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning to joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
  And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says the Lord.
  Thus says the Lord; A voice was heard in Rama, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Raĥel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted for her children, because they are not.
  Thus says the Lord; Keep thy voice from weeping, and thy eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, says the Lord; and they shall come back again from the land of the enemy.
  And there is hope for thy future, says the Lord, and thy children shall come back again to their own border.
  I have surely heard Efrayim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, like an untrained calf: turn me back, and I shall be turned; for Thou art the Lord my God.
  For after I had returned away, I repented; and after I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, and even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
  Is Efrayim my dear son? is he a darling child? for whenever I speak of him, I earnestly remember him still: therefore my inward parts are moved for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord.
  Set up waymarks for thyself, make thee signposts: set thy heart towards the highway, the way on which thou didst go: turn back, O virgin of Yisra᾽el, turn back to these thy cities.
  How long wilt thou turn about, O thou faithless daughter? for the Lord has created a new thing in the earth, a woman shall court a man.
  Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Yet again they shall use this speech in the land of Yehuda and in its cities, when I shall bring back their captivity; The Lord bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.
  And in it shall dwell Yehuda, and all its cities together, the farmers, and they that go out with the flocks.
  For I will satisfy the weary soul, and I replenish every languishing soul.
  Upon this I awoke, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet to me.
  Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Yisra᾽el and the house of Yehuda with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
  And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to break down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, says the Lord.
  In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.
  But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.
  Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Yisra᾽el, and with the house of Yehuda:
  not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Miżrayim; which covenant of mine they broke, although I was their master, says the Lord;
  but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Yisra᾽el after those days, says the Lord; I will put my Tora in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people,
  and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
  Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea that its waves roar; the Lord of hosts is his name:
  If those ordinances depart from before me, says the Lord, then the seed of Yisra᾽el also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.
  Thus says the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then I will also cast off all the seed of Yisra᾽el for all that they have done, says the Lord God.
  Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when the city shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Ĥanan᾽el to the corner gate.
  And the measuring line shall go out further straight to the hill Garev, and shall turn round to go to Go῾a.
  And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the wadi of Qidron, to the corner of the horse gate towards the east, shall be holy to the Lord; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.
  
  
  
  The word that came to Yirmeyahu from the Lord in the tenth year of Żidqiyyahu king of Yehuda, which was the eighteenth year of Nevukhadreżżar.
  At that time, the king of Bavel’s army was besieging Yerushalayim: and Yirmeyahu the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the house of the king of Yehuda.
  For Żidqiyyahu king of Yehuda had shut him up, saying, why dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Bavel, and he shall take it;
  and Żidqiyyahu king of Yehuda shall not escape out of the hand of the Kasdim, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Bavel, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes:
  and he shall lead Żidqiyyahu to Bavel, and there shall he be until I visit him, says the Lord: though you fight with the Kasdim, you shall not prosper?
  And Yirmeyahu said, The word of the Lord has come to me, saying,
  Behold, Ĥanam᾽el the son of Shallum thy uncle shall come to thee, saying, Buy my field that is in ῾Anatot: for the right of redemption is thine to buy it.
  So Ĥanam᾽el my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of the Lord, and said to me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in ῾Anatot, which is in the country of Binyamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.
  And I bought the field from Ĥanam᾽el my uncle’s son, that was in ῾Anatot, and weighed him the money, seventeen shekels of silver.
  And I subscribed the deed, and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed the money in the balances.
  So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and which was open:
  and I gave the deed of the purchase to Barukh the son of Neriyya, the son of Meĥaseya, in the sight of Ĥanam᾽el my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the deed of the purchase, before all the men of Yehuda that sat in the court of the guard.
  And I charged Barukh before them, saying,
  Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Take these documents, this deed of the purchase, both that which is sealed, and this open deed; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last for many days.
  For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be bought again in this land.
  Now when I had delivered the deed of the purchase to Barukh the son of Neriyya, I prayed to the Lord, saying,
  Ah Lord God! behold, Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for Thee:
  Thou showst loyal love to thousands, and dost recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: O great and mighty God! the Lord of hosts is his name,
  Great in counsel, and mighty in performance: Thy eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:
  who has set signs and wonders in the land of Miżrayim, to this day, and in Yisra᾽el, and among mankind: and hast made Thee a name, as at this day;
  and hast brought Thy people Yisra᾽el out of the land of Miżrayim with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great terror;
  and hast given them this land, which Thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;
  and they came in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not Thy voice, neither followed Thy Tora; they have done nothing of all that Thou didst command them to do: therefore Thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them:
  behold the siege works are come to the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Kasdim that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what Thou hast spoken is come to pass; and, behold, Thou seest it.
  And Thou hast said to me, O Lord God, Buy the field for money and take witnesses; though the city is given into the hand of the Kasdim.
  Then came the word of the Lord to Yirmeyahu, saying,
  Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any-thing too hard for me?
  Therefore thus says the Lord; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Kasdim, and into the hand of Nevukhad­reżżar king of Bavel, and he shall take it:
  and the Kasdim, that fight against this city, shall come and set fire to this city, and burn it together with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense to the Ba῾al, and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.
  For the children of Yisra᾽el and the children of Yehuda have done only evil before Me, from their youth: for the children of Yisra᾽el have only provoked Me to anger with the work of their hands, says the Lord.
  For this has been to Me as a provocation of My anger and of My fury from the day that they built it and to this day; that I should remove it from before My face,
  because of all the evil of the children of Yisra᾽el and of the children of Yehuda, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Yehuda, and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim.
  And they have turned their back to me, and not their face: though I taught them, teaching them from morning till night, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.
  But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it.
  And they built the high places of the Ba῾al, which are in the valley of Ben-hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molekh; which I did not command them, nor did it come into my mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Yehuda to sin.
  And now therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Yisra᾽el, concerning this city, of which you say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Bavel by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence;
  behold, I will gather them out of all countries, into which I have driven them in My anger, and in My fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:
  and they shall be My people, and I will be their God:
  and I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for their good, and that of their children after them:
  and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing good to them; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not turn aside from me.
  And I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will truly plant them in this land, with My whole heart and with My whole soul.
  For thus says the Lord; Just as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.
  And fields shall be brought in this land of which you say, It is desolate without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Kasdim.
  Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe deeds, and seal them, and take witnesses, in the land of Binyamin, and in the places about Yerushalayim, and in the cities of Yehuda, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the coastal plain, and in the cities of the Negev: for I will cause their captivity to return, says the Lord.
  
  
  
  Moreover the word of the Lord came to Yirmeyahu the second time, while he was still confined in the court of the guard, saying,
  Thus says the Lord the maker of it, the Lord that formed it, to establish it; the Lord is his name;
  Call to me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowst not.
  For thus says the Lord, the God of Yisra᾽el, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Yehuda, which are thrown down to withstand the siege works and the sword;
  they come to fight with the Kasdim, and thereby to fill them with the dead bodies of those men, whom I shall stay in my anger and in my fury, those on account of whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city.
  Behold, I will bring it healing and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.
  And I will cause the captivity of Yehuda and the captivity of Yisra᾽el to return, and will build them, as at the first.
  And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, in which they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, in which they have sinned against me, and in which they have transgressed against me.
  And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, who shall hear all the good that I do to them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure to it:
  Thus says the Lord; Again there shall be heard in this place, (which you say shall be desolate without man and without beast, namely, in the cities of Yehuda, and in the desolate streets of Yerushalayim, that are without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast,)
  the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good; for his loyal love endures for ever: when they shall bring the sacrifice of thanksgiving into the house of the Lord. For I will cause the captivity of the land to return, as at the first, says the Lord.
  Thus says the Lord of hosts; Again in this place, which is desolate without man and without beast, and in all its cities, shall be a habitation of shepherds who make their flocks lie down.
  In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the Negev, and in the land of Binyamin, and in the places about Yerushalayim, and in the cities of Yehuda, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that counts them, says the Lord.
  Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Yisra᾽el and to the house of Yehuda.
  In those days, and at that time, will I cause an offshoot of righteousness to grow up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
  In those days shall Yehuda be saved, and Yerushalayim shall dwell safely: and this is the name whereby she shall be called, namely, The Lord is our righteousness.
  For thus says the Lord; David shall never lack a man sitting upon the throne of the house of Yisra᾽el;
  Neither shall the priests the Levites lack a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to burn meal offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.
  And the word of the Lord came to Yirmeyahu, saying,
  Thus says the Lord; If you can break My covenant with the day, and My covenant with the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;
  then also My covenant may be broken with David My servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, My ministers.
  As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David My servant, and the Levites that minister to me.
  Moreover the word of the Lord came to Yirmeyahu, saying,
  Hast thou not observed what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the Lord has chosen, he has cast them off? thus they have despised My people, so that they should no more be a nation in their sight.
  Thus says the Lord; If I have not appointed my covenant with day and night, the ordinances of heaven and earth;
  then will I cast away the seed of Ya῾aqov and David my servant, and not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Avraham, Yiżĥaq, and Ya῾aqov. No, for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.
  
  
  
  The word which came to Yirmeyahu from the Lord, when Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion, and all the people, fought against Yerushalayim, and against all its cities, saying,
  Thus says the Lord, the God of Yisra᾽el; Go and speak to Żidqiyyahu king of Yehuda, and tell him, Thus says the Lord; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Bavel, and he shall burn it with fire:
  and thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and be delivered into his hand; and thy eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Bavel, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Bavel.
  Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Żidqiyyahu king of Yehuda; Thus says the Lord of thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword:
  but thou shalt die in peace: and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings which were before thee, so shall they make a burning for thee; and they will lament thee, saying, Ah master! for I have pronounced a word, says the Lord.
  Then Yirmeyahu the prophet spoke all these words to Żidqiyyahu king of Yehuda in Yerushalayim,
  when the army of the king of Bavel fought against Yerushalayim, and against all the cities of Yehuda that were left, against Lakhish, and against ῾Azeqa; for these fortified cities remained of the cities of Yehuda.
  This is the word that came to Yirmeyahu from the Lord, after the king Żidqiyyahu had made a covenant with all the people which were at Yerushalayim, proclaim liberty to them;
  that every man should let his Hebrew manservant, and every man his Hebrew maidservant, go free; that none should enslave any of them, namely a man of Yehuda, being his brother.
  Now when all the princes, and all the people, who had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should enslave them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go.
  But afterwards they relapsed, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.
  Therefore the word of the Lord came to Yirmeyahu from the Lord saying,
  Thus says the Lord, the God of Yisra᾽el; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Miżrayim, out of the house of slavery, saying,
  At the end of seven years, shall you release every man his brother being a Hebrew, who has been sold to thee; and when he has served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not to Me, neither inclined their ear.
  And you now turned, and had done right in My sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and you had made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My name:
  nevertheless you relapsed and have profaned My name, and everyone of you has caused his servant, and his handmaid, (whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure,) to return, and has brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids.
  Therefore thus says the Lord; since you have not hearkened to Me, in proclaiming liberty, everyone to his brother, and everyone to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, says the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
  And I will give the men that have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two, and passed between its sections,
  the princes of Yehuda, and the princes of Yerushalayim, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the sections of the calf;
  I will give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for food to the birds of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth.
  And Żidqiyyahu king of Yehuda and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Bavel’s army, who are gone up from you.
  Behold, I will command, says the Lord, and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Yehuda a desolation without inhabitant.
  
  
  
  The word which came to Yirmeyahu from the Lord in the days of Yehoyaqim the son of Yoshiyyahu king of Yehuda, saying,
  Go to the house of the Rekhavim, and speak to them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.
  Then I took Ya᾽azanya the son of Yirmeyahu, the son of Ĥavażżinya, and his brothers, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rekhavim;
  and I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the chamber of the sons of Ĥanan, the son of Yigdalyahu, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Ma῾aseyahu the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door:
  and I set before the sons of the house of the Rekhavim goblets full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, Drink wine.
  But they said, We will drink no wine: for Yonadav the son of Rekhav our father commanded us, saying, You shall drink no wine, neither you, nor your sons for ever:
  Neither shall you build a house, nor sow seed, nor plant a vineyard, nor have one: but all your days you shall dwell in tents; that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.
  And we have obeyed the voice of Yonadav the son of Rekhav our father in all that he charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, and our daughters;
  nor to build houses for us to dwell in; neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed:
  but we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Yonadav our father commanded us.
  But it came to pass, when Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel came up into the land that we said, Come, and let us go to Yerushalayim for fear of the army of the Kasdim, and for fear of the army of Aram: so we dwell at Yerushalayim.
  Then came the word of the Lord to Yirmeyahu, saying,
  Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el, Go and tell the men of Yehuda and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, Will you not receive instruction to hearken to my words? says the Lord.
  The words of Yonadav the son of Rekhav, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, has been kept; for to this day they drink none, but obey their father’s commandment: yet I have spoken to you, from morning till night; but you did not hearken to me.
  I have also sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them from morning till night, saying, Return now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but you have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened to me.
  For the sons of Yonadav the son of Rekhav have kept the commandment of their father, which he commanded them; but this people has not hearkened to me:
  therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Behold, I will bring upon Yehuda and upon all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim all the evil that I have pronounced against them: because I have spoken to them, but they have not heard; and I have called to them, but they have not answered.
  And Yirmeyahu said to the house of the Rekhavim, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Because you have obeyed the commandment of Yonadav your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according to all that he has commanded you:
  therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Yonadav the son of Rekhav shall not lack a man to stand before me for ever.
  
  
  
  And it came to pass in the fourth year of Yehoyaqim the son of Yoshiyyahu king of Yehuda, that this word came to Yirmeyahu from the Lord, saying,
  Take a scroll, and write in it all the words which I have spoken to thee about Yisra᾽el, and about Yehuda, and about all the nations, from the day I spoke to thee, from the days of Yoshiyyahu, and to this day.
  It may be that the house of Yehuda will hear all the evil which I purpose to do to them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
  Then Yirmeyahu called Barukh the son of Neriyya: and Barukh wrote from the mouth of Yirmeyahu all the words of the Lord, which he had spoken to him, upon a scroll.
  And Yirmeyahu commanded Barukh, saying, I am confined; I cannot go into the house of the Lord:
  therefore go thou and read in the scroll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the Lord in the ears of the people in the Lord’s house upon the fast day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Yehuda that come out of their cities.
  It may be they will present their supplication before the Lord, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the Lord has pronounced against this people.
  And Barukh the son of Neriyya did according to all that Yirmeyahu the prophet com-manded him, reading in the book the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house.
  And it came to pass in the fifth year of Yehoyaqim the son of Yoshiyyahu king of Yehuda, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all the people in Yerushalayim, and to all the people that came from the cities of Yehuda to Yerushalayim.
  Then Barukh read in the book the words of Yirmeyahu in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemaryahu the son of Shafan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the Lord’s house, in the ears of all the people.
  When Mikhayehu the son of Gemaryahu, the son of Shafan, had heard out of the book all the words of the Lord,
  then he went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber: and, lo, all the princes sat there, Elishama the scribe, and Delayahu the son of Shema῾yahu, and Elnatan the son of ῾Akhbor, and Gemaryahu the son of Shafan and Żidqiyyahu the son of Ĥananyahu, and all the princes.
  Then Mikhayehu declared to them all the words that he had heard, when Barukh read the book in the ears of the people.
  Therefore all the princes sent Yehudi the son of Netanyahu, the son of Shelemyahu, the son of Kushi, to Barukh, saying, Take in thy hand the scroll in which thou hast read in the ears of the people, and come. So Barukh the son of Neriyya took the scroll in his hand, and came to them.
  And they said to him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Barukh read it in their ears.
  Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they turned to one another in fear, and said to Barukh, We will surely tell the king of all these words,
  and they asked Barukh, saying, Tell us now, How didst thou write all these words at his mouth?
  Then Barukh answered them, He dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink in the book.
  Then the princes said to Barukh, Go, hide thyself, thou and Yirmeyahu; and let no man know where you are.
  And they went in to the king to the court, but they deposited the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and recited all the words in the ears of the king.
  So the king sent Yehudi to fetch the scroll: and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Yehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes who stood beside the king.
  Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month: and there was a fire in the brazier burning before him.
  And it came to pass, that when Yehudi had read three or four leaves, he would cut it with a penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.
  Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words.
  Elnatan and Delayahu and Gemaryahu even pleaded with the king not to burn the scroll: but he would not listen to them.
  But the king commanded Yeraĥme᾽el the king’s son, and Serayahu the son of ῾Azri᾽el, and Shelemyahu the son of ῾Avde᾽el, to seize Barukh the scribe and Yirmeyahu the prophet: but the Lord hid them.
  Then the word of the Lord came to Yirmeyahu, after the king had burned the scroll, with the words which Barukh wrote at the mouth of Yirmeyahu, saying,
  Take thee again another scroll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Yehoyaqim the king of Yehuda has burned.
  And thou shalt say to Yehoyaqim king of Yehuda, Thus says the Lord; Thou hast burned this scroll, saying, Why hast thou written in it to say that The king of Bavel shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cut off from it both man and beast?
  Therefore thus says the Lord of Yehoyaqim king of Yehuda; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day, and to the frost by night.
  And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, and upon the men of Yehuda, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not.
  Then Yirmeyahu took another scroll, and gave it to Barukh the scribe, the son of Neriyya; who wrote in it from the mouth of Yirmeyahu all the words of the book which Yehoyaqim king of Yehuda had burned in the fire: and there were added to them besides many similar words.
  
  
  
  And king Żidqiyyahu the son of Yoshiyyahu reigned instead of Konyahu the son of Yehoyaqim, whom Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel made king in the land of Yehuda.
  But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, hearkened to the words of the Lord, which he spoke by the prophet Yirmeyahu.
  And Żidqiyyahu the king sent Yehukhal the son of Shelemya and Żefanyahu the son of Ma῾aseya the priest to the prophet Yirmeyahu, saying, Pray for us to the Lord our God.
  Now Yirmeyahu came in and went out among the people: for they had not put him into prison.
  Then Par῾o’s army was come out of Miżrayim: and when the Kasdim that besieged Yerushalayim heard tidings of them, they departed from Yerushalayim.
  Then came the word of the Lord to the prophet Yirmeyahu saying,
  Thus says the Lord, the God of Yisra᾽el; Thus shall you say to the king of Yehuda, that sent you to me to inquire of me; Behold, Par῾o’s army, which is come out to help you, shall return to Miżrayim into their own land.
  And the Kasdim shall come back, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.
  Thus says the Lord; Do not deceive yourselves, saying, The Kasdim shall surely depart from us: for they shall not depart.
  For even if you had smitten the whole army of the Kasdim that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.
  And it came to pass that when the army of the Kasdim had withdrawn from Yerushalayim for fear of Par῾o’s army,
  then Yirmeyahu went out of Yerushalayim to go into the land of Binyamin, to slip out from these amongst the people.
  And when he was in the gate of Binyamin, a sentry was there, whose name was Yeriyya, the son of Shelemya, the son of Ĥananya; and he seized Yirmeyahu the prophet, saying, Thou art deserting to the Kasdim.
  Then Yirmeyahu said, It is false; I am not deserting to the Kasdim. But he did not hearken to him: so Yeriyya seized Yirmeyahu, and brought him to the princes.
  So the princes were angry with Yirmeyahu, and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Yehonatan the scribe: for they had made that the prison.
  When Yirmeyahu was entered into the pit, and into the cells, and Yirmeyahu had remained there many days;
  then Żidqiyyahu the king sent, and took him out: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from the Lord? And Yirmeyahu said, There is: for, said he, thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Bavel.
  Moreover Yirmeyahu said to king Żidqiyyahu, How have I offended against thee, or against thy servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison?
  Where are now your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, The king of Bavel shall not come against you, nor against this land?
  Therefore hear now, I pray thee, O my lord the king: let my supplication, I pray thee be accepted before thee; that thou cause me not to return to the house of Yehonatan the scribe, lest I die there.
  Then Żidqiyyahu the king commanded that they should commit Yirmeyahu to the court of the guard, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was spent. Thus Yirmeyahu remained in the court of the guard.
  
  
  
  Then Shefatya the son of Mattan, and Gedalyahu the son of Pashĥur and Yukhal the son of Shelemyahu, and Pashĥur the son of Malkiyya, heard the words that Yirmeyahu had spoken to all the people, saying,
  Thus says the Lord, He that remains in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goes over to the Kasdim shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live.
  Thus says the Lord, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Bavel, who shall take it.
  Therefore the princes said to the king, We pray thee, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakens the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words to them: for this man seeks not the welfare of this people, but their hurt.
  Then Żidqiyyahu, the king said, Behold, he is in your hand: for the king can do nothing against you.
  Then they took Yirmeyahu and cast him into the pit of Malkiyyahu the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard: and they let Yirmeyahu down with ropes. And in the pit there was no water, but only mire; and Yirmeyahu sank in the mire.
  Now when ῾Eved-melekh the Kushi, a eunuch who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Yirmeyahu in the pit; (the king was sitting in the gate of Binyamin)
  then ῾Eved-melekh went out of the king’s house, and spoke to the king, saying,
  My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Yirmeyahu the prophet, whom they have cast into the pit; and he may well die there of hunger: seeing that there is no more bread in the city.
  Then the king commanded ῾Eved-melekh the Kushi, saying, Take from here thirty men with thee, and take up Yirmeyahu the prophet out of the pit, before he dies.
  So ῾Eved-melekh took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took from there old rags and worn out clothes, and let them down by ropes into the pit to Yirmeyahu.
  And ῾Eved-melekh the Kushi said to Yirmeyahu, Put now these old rags and clothes into thy armpits under the ropes. And Yirmeyahu did so.
  So they drew up Yirmeyahu with the ropes, and took him up out of the pit: and Yirmeyahu remained in the court of the guard.
  Then Żidqiyyahu the king sent, and took Yirmeyahu the prophet to him into the third entry that is in the house of the Lord: and the king said to Yirmeyahu, I will ask thee something; hide nothing from me.
  Then Yirmeyahu said to Żidqiyyahu, If I declare it to thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, thou wilt not hearken to me.
  So Żidqiyyahu the king swore secretly to Yirmeyahu, saying, As the Lord lives, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life.
  Then Yirmeyahu said to Żidqiyyahu, Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; If thou wilt indeed go out to the princes of the king of Bavel, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou and thy house shall live:
  but if thou wilt not go out to the princes of the king of Bavel, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Kasdim, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.
  And Żidqiyyahu the king said to Yirmeyahu, I am afraid of the men of Yehuda who have deserted to the Kasdim, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they torture me.
  But Yirmeyahu said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey now the voice of the Lord, which I speak to thee: so it shall be well with thee, and thy soul shall live.
  But if thou refuse to go out, this is the word that the Lord has shown me.
  And, behold, all the women that are left in the king of Yehuda’s house shall be brought out to the princes of the king of Bavel, and those women shall say, Thy familiar friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: thy feet are sunk in the mire, they are turned away back.
  So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Kasdim: and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Bavel: and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire.
  Then Żidqiyyahu said to Yirmeyahu, Let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die.
  But if the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they come to thee, and say to thee, Tell us now what thou hast said to the king, hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to death; and also what the king said to thee:
  then thou shalt say to them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Yonatan’s house, to die there.
  Then all the princes came to Yirmeyahu and asked him: and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not overheard.
  So Yirmeyahu remained in the court of the guard until the day that Yerushalayim was taken:    And he was there when Yerushalayim was taken.
  
  
  
  In the ninth year of Żidqiyyahu king of Yehuda, in the tenth month, Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel and all his army came against Yerushalayim, and they besieged it.
  In the eleventh year of Żidqiyyahu, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city.
  And all the princes of the king of Bavel, came in, and sat in the middle gate, namely Nergal-sar᾽eżer, Samgar-nevo, Sarsekhim Rav-saris, Nergal-sar᾽eżer Rav-mag, with all the remainder of the princes of the king of Bavel.
  And it came to pass, that when Żidqiyyahu the king of Yehuda, and all the men of war saw them, then they fled, and went out of the city by night, by the way of the king’s garden, by the gate between the two walls: and he went out the way of the Arava.
  But the army of the Kasdim pursued after them, and overtook Żidqiyyahu in the plains of Yereĥo: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel to Rivla in the land of Ĥamat, where he gave judgment upon him.
  Then the king of Bavel slew the sons of Żidqiyyahu in Rivla before his eyes: also the king of Bavel slew all the nobles of Yehuda.
  Moreover he put out Żidqiyyahu’s eyes, and bound him with fetters, to carry him to Bavel.
  And the Kasdim burned the king’s house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and broke down the walls of Yerushalayim.
  Then Nevuzar᾽adan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Bavel the remnant of the people that remained in the city and the deserters who had deserted to him, with the rest of the people that remained.
  But Nevuzar᾽adan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, who had nothing, in the land of Yehuda, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.
  Now Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel gave charge concerning Yirmeyahu to Nevuzar᾽adan the captain of the guard, saying,
  Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do to him as he shall say to thee.
  Then sent Nevuzar᾽adan the captain of the guard, and Nevushazban, the Rav-saris, and Nergal-sar᾽eżer the Rav-mag and all the princes of the king of Bavel:
  and they sent, and took Yirmeyahu out of the court of the guard, and committed him to Gedalyahu the son of Aĥiqam the son of Shafan, that he should carry him home: so he dwelt among the people.
  Now the word of the Lord came to Yirmeyahu, while he was shut up in the court of the guard, saying,
  Go and speak to ῾Eved-melekh the Kushi, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el, Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee.
  But I will deliver thee on that day, says the Lord: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid;
  for I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey to thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, says the Lord.
  
  
  
  The word that came to Yirmeyahu from the Lord, after Nevuzar᾽adan the captain of the guard had let him go from Rama, when he had taken him bound as he was in chains among all the exiles of Yerushalayim and Yehuda who were carried away as exiles to Bavel.
  And the captain of the guard took Yirmeyahu, and said to him, The Lord thy God has pronounced this evil upon this place.
  Now the Lord has brought it, and done according as he has said: because you have sinned against the Lord, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come upon you.
  And now, behold, I release thee this day from the chains which were upon thy hand. If it seem good to thee to come with me into Bavel, come; and I will look after thee: but if it seem ill to thee to come with me into Bavel, do not come: behold, all the land is before thee: wherever it seems good and convenient for thee to go, go there.
  (Then since he did not yet turn about;) Go back then, said he, Gedalya the son of Aĥiqam the son of Shafan, whom the king of Bavel has made governor over the cities of Yehuda, and dwell with him among the people: or go wherever it seems convenient to thee to go. So the captain of the guard gave him an allowance of food and a present, and let him go.
  Then Yirmeyahu went to Gedalya the son of Aĥiqam to Miżpa; and dwelt with him among the people that were left in the land.
  Now when all the captains of the forces which were in the fields, they and their men, heard that the king of Bavel had made Gedalya the son of Aĥiqam governor in the land, and had committed to him men, and women, and children, and of the poor of the land, of them that were not carried away captive to Bavel;
  then they came to Gedalya to Miżpa, namely, Yishma᾽el the son of Netanyahu, and Yoĥanan and Yonatan the sons of Qareaĥ, and Seraya the son of Tanĥumet, and the sons of ῾Efay the Netofatite, and Yezanyahu the son of the Ma῾akhatite, they and their men.
  And Gedalyahu the son of Aĥiqam the son of Shafan swore to them and to their men, saying, Fear not to serve the Kasdim: dwell in the land and serve the king of Bavel, and it shall be well with you.
  As for me, behold, I will dwell at Miżpa to stand before the Kasdim who will come to us: but as for you, gather wine, and summer fruits, and oil, and put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that you have taken.
  Likewise when all the men of Yehuda that were in Mo᾽av, and among the children of ῾Ammon, and in Edom, and that were in all the countries, heard that the king of Bavel had left a remnant of Yehuda, and that he had set over them Gedalyahu the son of Aĥiqam the son of Shafan;
  then all the men of Yehuda returned out of all places unto which they were driven, and came to the land of Yehuda, to Gedalyahu, to Miżpa, and gathered a great abundance of wine and summer fruits.
  Moreover Yoĥanan the son of Qareaĥ, and all the captains of the forces that were in the countryside, came to Gedalyahu to Miżpa,
  and said to him, Dost thou certainly know that Ba῾alis the king of the children of ῾Ammon has sent Yishma᾽el the son of Netanya to slay thee? But Gedalyahu the son of Aĥiqam did not believe them.
  Then Yoĥanan the son of Qareaĥ spoke to Gedalyahu in Miżpa secretly, saying, Let me go, I pray thee, and I will slay the son of Netanya, and no man shall know it: why should he slay thee, that all Yehuda that are gathered to thee should be scattered, and the remnant of Yehuda should perish?
  But Gedalyahu the son of Aĥiqam said to Yoĥanan the son of Qareaĥ, Thou shalt not do this thing: for thou speakest falsely of Yishma᾽el.
  
  
  
  Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Yishma᾽el the son of Netanya the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, and some of the chief officers of the king, and ten men with him, came to Gedalyahu the son of Aĥiqam to Miżpa; and there they did eat bread together in Miżpa.
  Then Yishma᾽el the son of Netanya and the ten men that were with him arose, and struck Gedalyahu the son of Aĥiqam the son of Shafan with the sword, and slew him, whom the king of Bavel had made governor over the land.
  And Yishma᾽el slew all the men of Yehuda that were with him, with Gedalyahu, at Miżpa, and the Kasdim that were found there, and the men of war.
  And it came to pass on the second day after the killing of Gedalyahu, (and no man knew it,)
  that there came certain men from Shekhem, from Shilo, and from Shomeron, eighty men, (their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves,) with offerings and incense in their hand, to bring them to the house of the Lord.
  And Yishma᾽el the son of Netanya went out of Miżpa to meet them, weeping as he went: and it came to pass, as he met them, that he said to them, Come to Gedalyahu the son of Aĥiqam.
  And when they came into the midst of the city, Yishma᾽el the son of Netanya slew them, and cast them into the midst of the pit, he, and the men that were with him.
  But ten men were found among them that said to Yishma᾽el, Slay us not: for we have in the countryside hidden stores, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he desisted, and did not slay them among their brethren.
  Now the pit wherein into which Yishma᾽el had cast all the dead bodies of the men, whom he had slain because of Gedalyahu, was that which Asa the king had made for fear of Ba῾sha king of Yisra᾽el: and Yishma᾽el the son of Netanyahu filled it with the slain.
  Then Yishma᾽el carried away captive all the residue of the people that were in Miżpa, the king’s daughters, and all the people that remained in Miżpa, whom Nevuzar᾽adan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedalyahu the son of Aĥiqam: and Yishma᾽el the son of Netanya carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the children of ῾Ammon.
  But when Yoĥanan the son of Qareaĥ, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, heard of all the evil that Yishma᾽el the son of Netanya had done,
  then they took all the men, and went to fight with Yishma᾽el the son of Netanya, and found him by the great pool of waters that are in Giv῾on.
  Now it came to pass, that when all the people who were with Yishma᾽el saw Yoĥanan the son of Qareaĥ, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, then they were glad.
  So all the people that Yishma᾽el had carried away captive from Miżpa turned about and came back, and went to Yoĥanan the son of Qareaĥ.
  But Yishma᾽el the son of Netanya escaped from Yoĥanan with eight men, and went to the children of ‘Ammon.
  Then Yoĥanan the son of Qareaĥ, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, took all the remnant of the people from Miżpa, whom he had recovered from Yishma᾽el the son of Netanya, (after the latter had slain Gedalya the son of Aĥiqam,) mighty men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs whom he then brought from Giv῾on:
  and they departed, and dwelt in Gerut-kimaham, which is by Bet-leĥem, to go to enter into Miżrayim,
  because of the Kasdim: for they were afraid of them, because of Yishma᾽el the son of Netanya had slain Gedalyahu the son of Aĥiqam, whom the king of Bavel had made governor over the land.
  
  
  
  Then all the captains of the forces, and Yoĥanan the son of Qareaĥ, and Yezanya the son of Hosha῾ya, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near,
  and said to Yirmeyahu the prophet, Let now our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us to the Lord thy God, for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thy eyes see us: )
  that the Lord thy God may show us the way in which we may walk, and the thing we may do.
  Then Yirmeyahu the prophet said to them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatever thing the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you.
  Then they said to Yirmeyahu, The Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not act according to all the things for which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us.
  Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.
  And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of the Lord came to Yirmeyahu.
  Then he called Yoĥanan the son of Qareaĥ, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,
  and he said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Yisra᾽el, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him;
  If you will still abide in this land, then I will build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent of the evil that I have done to you.
  Be not afraid of the king of Bavel, of whom you are afraid; be not afraid of him, says the Lord: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.
  And I will show mercies to you, that he may have mercy upon you, and let you return to your own land.
  But if you say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the Lord your God,
  saying, No; but we will go into the land of Miżrayim, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the shofar, nor have hunger for bread; and there will we dwell:
  and now therefore hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of Yehuda; thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; If indeed you set your faces to enter into Miżrayim and go to sojourn there;
  then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which you feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Miżrayim, and the famine, of which you were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Miżrayim; and there you shall die.
  And all the men that set their faces to go into Miżrayim to sojourn there shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.
  For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; As my anger and my fury has been poured out upon the inhabitants of Yerushalayim; so shall my fury be poured out upon you, when you shall enter into Miżrayim: and you shall be an oath, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.
  The Lord has said concerning you, O remnant of Yehuda; Do not go into Miżrayim: know certainly that I have forewarned you this day.
  For you have gone astray at peril of your lives, when you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, Pray for us to the Lord our God; and according to all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare to us, and we will do it.
  And now I have this day declared it to you; but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, nor anything for which he has sent me to you.
  Now therefore know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place where you desire to go and to sojourn.
  
  
  
  And it came to pass, that when Yirmeyahu had made an end of speaking to all the people all the words of the Lord their God, for which the Lord their God had sent him to them, all these words,
  then ῾Azarya the son of Hosha῾ya and Yoĥanan the son of Qareaĥ, and all the proud men, spoke, saying to Yirmeyahu, Thou speakest falsely: the Lord our God has not sent thee to say, Do not go into Miżrayim to sojourn there:
  but Barukh the son of Neriyya sets thee on against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Kasdim, that they might put us into Bavel.
  So Yoĥanan the son of Qareaĥ, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, did not obey the voice of the Lord, to dwell in the land of Yehuda.
  But Yoĥanan the son of Qareaĥ, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Yehuda, that were returned from all nations, into which they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Yehuda;
  men, and women, and children, and the king’s daughters, and every person that Nevuzar᾽adan the captain of the guard had left with Gedalyahu the son of Aĥiqam the son of Shafan, together with Yirmeyahu the prophet, and Barukh the son of Neriyya.
  And they came into the land of Miżrayim: for they did not obey the voice of the Lord: thus they came to Taĥpanĥes.
  Then the word of the Lord came to Yirmeyahu in Taĥpanĥes, saying,
  Take great stones in thy hand, and hide them in the mortar in the brick work, which is at the entrance of Par῾o’s house in Taĥpanĥes, in the sight of the men of Yehuda;
  and say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Behold, I will send and take Nevukhadreżżar the king of Bavel, my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them.
  And when he comes, he shall smite the land of Miżrayim, and deliver such as are for death to death; and such as are for captivity to captivity; and such as are for the sword to the sword.
  And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Miżrayim, and he shall burn them, and carry them away captives: and he shall fold up the land of Miżrayim, as a shepherd folds up his garment; and he shall go out from there in peace.
  And he shall break up the pillars of Bet-Shemesh, that are in the land of Miż­rayim; and he shall burn with fire the houses of the gods of Miżrayim.
  
  
  
  The word that came to Yirmeyahu concerning all the men of Yehuda who dwelt in the land of Miżrayim, who dwelt at Migdol, and at Taĥpanĥes, and at Nof, and in the country of Patros, saying,
  Thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Yisra᾽el; You have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Yerushalayim, and upon all the cities of Yehuda; and, behold, this day they are a ruin, and no one dwells in them,
  because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods, whom they knew not, neither they, you, nor your fathers.
  Yet I sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them from morning till night, saying, Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate.
  But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods.
  So that my fury and my anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Yehuda and in the streets of Yerushalayim; and they have become a waste and a desolation, as at this day.
  Therefore now thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Why do you commit this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, from the midst of Yehuda, leaving you no remnant;
  in that you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Miżrayim into which you are gone to dwell, that you might cut yourselves off, and that you might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
  Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Yehuda, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives which they have committed in the land of Yehuda, and in the streets of Yerushalayim?
  They are not humbled to this day, neither have they feared, nor followed my Tora, nor my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.
  Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Yehuda,
  and I will take the remnant of Yehuda, that have set their faces to go into the land of Miżrayim to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed, and fall in the land of Miżrayim; they shall be consumed, and by the sword and by the famine: they shall die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they shall become an oath, an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.
  For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Miżrayim, as I have punished Yerushalayim, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence:
  so that none of the remnant of Yehuda, who are gone into the land of Miżrayim to sojourn there, shall escape or survive, to return to the land of Yehuda, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none but fugitives shall return.
  Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude even all the people that dwelt in the land of Miżrayim, in Patros, answered Yirmeyahu, saying,
  As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken to thee,
  but we will certainly do everything that we uttered with our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Yehuda, and in the streets of Yerushalayim: for then we had plenty of bread, and were well off, and saw no evil.
  But since we left off burning incense to the queen of heaven, and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
  And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to her, did we alone make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our menfolk?
  Then Yirmeyahu said to all the people, to the men, and to the women, and to all the people who had given him that answer, saying,
  The incense that you burned in the cities of Yehuda, and in the streets of Yerushalayim, you, and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them, and came it not into his mind?
  so that the Lord could no longer bear the evil of your doings, and the abominations which you committed; therefore is your land a ruin, and an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as at this day.
  Because you burned incense, and because you sinned against the Lord, and did not obey the voice of the Lord, nor followed his Tora, nor his statutes, nor his testimonies; therefore this evil has happened to you, as at this day.
  Moreover Yirmeyahu said to all the people, and to all the women, Hear the word of the Lord, all those of Yehuda who are in the land of Miżrayim:
  thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el saying; You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hands, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to her: if you will accomplish your vows, accomplish them; and if you will perform your vows, then perform them.
  Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all those of Yehuda who dwell in the land of Miżrayim; Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the Lord, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Yehuda in all the land of Miżrayim, saying, the Lord God lives.
  Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Yehuda that are in the land of Miżrayim shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them.
  Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Miżrayim into the land of Yehuda, and all the remnant of Yehuda, who are gone into the land of Miż­rayim to sojourn there, shall know whose words shall stand, mine, or theirs.
  And this shall be a sign to you, says the Lord, that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil:
  thus says the Lord; Behold, I will give Par῾o Ĥofra king of Miżrayim into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life; as I gave Żidqiyyahu king of Yehuda into the hand of Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel, who was his enemy, and sought his life.
  
  
  
  The word that Yirmeyahu the prophet spoke to Barukh the son of Neriyya when he had written these words in a book at the mouth of Yirmeyahu in the fourth year of Yehoyaqim the son of Yoshiyyahu king of Yehuda, saying,
  Thus says the Lord, the God of Yisra᾽el to thee, O Barukh;
  Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the Lord has added grief to my pain; I am weary in my sighing, and I find no rest.
  Thus shalt thou say to him, The Lord says thus; Behold, that which I have built I break down, and that which I have planted I pluck up, namely this whole land.
  And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, says the Lord): but thy life I will give to thee for a prey in all the places to which thou goest.
  
  
  
  The word of the Lord which came to Yirmeyahu the prophet against the nations;
  against Miżrayim, against the army of Par῾o Nekho, king of Miżrayim, which was by the river Perat in Karkemish, whom Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel smote in the fourth year of Yehoyaqim the son of Yoshiyyahu king of Yehuda.
  Order the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.
  Harness the horses; and mount, O horsemen, and stand to with your helmets; polish the spears, and put on the coats of mail.
  Why have I seen them dismayed and turning back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled away, and they do not look back: terror all around, says the Lord.
  Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble, and fall towards the north by the river Perat.
  Who is this that rises like the River, and like streams of turbulent waters?
  Miżrayim rises like the River, and like streams of turbulent waters: and he says I will go up, and I will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and its inhabitants.
  Come up, O horses; and rage, O chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; Kush and Put, that handle the shield; and Ludim, that handle and bend the bow.
  For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be sated, and drink its fill of their blood: for the Lord God of hosts has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Perat.
  Go up to Gil῾ad, and take balm, O virgin, daughter of Miżrayim: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.
  The nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry has filled the land: for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, and they are both fallen together.
  The word that the Lord spoke to Yirmeyahu the prophet, how Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel should come and smite the land of Miżrayim.
  Declare in Miżrayim, and publish in Migdol, and report in Nof and in Taĥpanĥes: say, Stand to, and prepare thyself; for the sword shall devour round about thee.
  Why are thy valiant men swept away? None of them stood, because the Lord did thrust him down.
  He made many to fall, indeed, one fell upon another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.
  They did cry there, Par῾o king of Miżrayim is but a noise; he has passed the time appointed.
  As I live, says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts, Surely as Tavor is among the mountains, and as Karmel by the sea, so shall he come.
  O thou daughter dwelling in Miżrayim, furnish thyself with the baggage of Exile: for Nof shall be waste and desolate without inhabitant.
  Miżrayim is like a very fair heifer, but destruction comes; it comes out of the north.
  Also her hired men in the midst of her are like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, and are fled away together: they did not stand, because the day of their calamity was come upon them, and the time of their punishment.
  Her sound is like that of a snake on the move; for they shall march with force and come against her with axes, like hewers of wood.
  They shall cut down her forest, says the Lord, though it cannot be searched; because they are more numerous than locusts, and are innumerable.
  The daughter of Miżrayim shall be confounded; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.
  The Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el, says; Behold, I will punish Amon of No, and Par῾o and Miżrayim, with their gods, and their kings; even Par῾o, and all those who trust in him:
  and I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel, and into the hand of his servants: and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, says the Lord.
  But fear not thou, O my servant Ya῾aqov, and be not dismayed, O Yisra᾽el: for, behold, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Ya῾aqov shall return, and be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.
  Fear thou not, O Ya῾aqov my servant, says the Lord: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in due measure; yet will I not utterly destroy thee.
  
  
  
  The word of the Lord that came to Yirmeyahu the prophet against the Pelishtim, before Par῾o smote ῾Azza.
  Thus says the Lord; Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all its fullness; the city, and those who dwell in it; then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl.
  At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his stallions, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers do not look back to their children for feebleness of hands;
  because of the day that comes to spoil all the Pelishtim, and to cut off from Żor and Żidon every helper that remains: for the Lord will spoil the Pelishtim, the remnant of the country of Kaftor.
  Baldness is come upon ῾Azza; Ashqelon is cut off; O remnant of their valley, how long wilt thou gash thyself?
  O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.
  How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord has given it a charge against Ashqelon, and against the sea shore? there he has appointed it.
  
  
  
  Against Mo᾽av thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Woe to Nevo! for it is spoiled: Qiryatayim is confounded and taken: Misgav is confounded and dismayed.
  There shall be no more praise of Mo᾽av: in Ĥeshbon they have devised evil against it; come, and let us cut it off from being a nation. Also thou shalt be cut down, O Madmen; the sword shall pursue thee.
  A voice of crying shall come from Ĥoronayim, spoiling and great destruction.
  Mo᾽av is destroyed; her little ones have raised a cry.
  For in the ascent of Luĥit with continual weeping shall they go up; for in the going down of Ĥoronayim they have heard the distressing cry of destruction.
  Flee, save your lives, and be like the juniper tree in the wilderness.
  For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken: and Kemosh shall go out into exile, his priests and his princes together.
  And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape: the valley also shall be ruined, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the Lord has spoken.
  Give wings to Mo᾽av, that it may flee and get away: for her cities shall be desolate, without any to dwell in them.
  Cursed be he that does the work of the Lord negligently, and cursed be he that keeps back his sword from blood.
  Mo᾽av has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into exile: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.
  Therefore, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will send to him tilters who will tilt him, and will empty his vessels, and break their bottles.
  And Mo᾽av shall be ashamed of Kemosh, as the house of Yisra᾽el was ashamed of Bet-el their confidence.
  How say you, We are mighty and strong men for the war?
  Mo᾽av is spoiled, and they have gone up into her cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
  The calamity of Mo᾽av is near at hand, and his affliction hastens space.
  All you that are about him, bemoan him, and all you that know his name; say, How is the strong staff broken, and the glorious rod!
  Thou daughter that dost inhabit Divon, come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Mo᾽av shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strongholds.
  O inhabitant of ῾Aro῾er, stand by the way, and espy; ask him that flees, and her that escapes, and say, What is done?
  Mo᾽av is confounded; for it is broken down: howl and cry; tell it in Arnon, that Mo᾽av is spoiled,
  and judgment is come upon the plain country; upon Ĥolon, and upon Yahża, and upon Mefa῾at,
  and upon Divon, and upon Nevo, and upon Bet-divlatayim,
  and upon Qiryatayim, and upon Bet-gamul, and upon Bet-me῾on,
  and upon Qeriyyot, and upon Bożra, upon all the cities of the land of Mo᾽av, far or near.
  The horn of Mo᾽av is cut off, and his arm is broken, says the Lord.
  Make him drunk: for he magnified himself against the Lord: Mo᾽av shall wallow in his vomit, and he too shall be in derision.
  For was not Yisra᾽el a derision to thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou didst speak of him, thou didst wag the head.
  O you that dwell in Mo᾽av, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that makes her nest in the sides of the mouth of the abyss.
  We have heard the pride of Mo᾽av, (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his arrogance and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart.
  I know, says the Lord, his insolence, and his injustice; his pratings have wrought injustice.
  Therefore will I howl for Mo᾽av, and I will cry out for all Mo᾽av; there will be mourning for the men of Qir-ĥeres.
  O vine of Sivma I will weep for thee with the weeping of Ya῾zer: thy branches are gone over the sea, they reach to the sea of Ya῾zer: the spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage.
  And joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field, and from the land of Mo᾽av; and I have caused wine to fail from the winepresses: none shall tread with shouting of joy; their shouting shall be no shouting.
  From the cry of Ĥeshbon to El῾ale, to Yahaż, they have uttered their voice; from Żo῾ar to Ĥoronayim, ῾Eglat, Shelishiyya; for also the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate.
  Moreover I will cause to cease in Mo᾽av, says the Lord, him that offers in the high place, and him that burns incense to his gods.
  Therefore my heart shall moan for Mo᾽av like flutes, and my heart shall moan like pipes for the men of Qir-ĥeres: because the abundance that he has gained has perished.
  For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be gashes, and upon the loins sackcloth.
  There shall be lamentation generally upon all the housetops of Mo᾽av, and in its streets; for I have broken Mo᾽av like an unwanted vessel, says the Lord.
  They shall howl, saying, How is it broken down! how has Mo᾽av turned her back with shame! so shall Mo᾽av be a derision and a cause of despair to all them about him.
  For thus says the Lord; Behold, he shall fly like an eagle, and shall spread his wings over Mo᾽av.
  Qeriyyot is taken, and the strongholds are surprised, and the mighty men’s hearts in Mo᾽av at that day shall be like the heart of a woman in her pangs;
  and Mo᾽av shall be destroyed from being a people, because he has magnified himself against the Lord.
  Terror, and pit, and snare, shall be upon thee, O inhabitant of Mo᾽av, says the Lord.
  He that flees from the Terror shall fall into the pit; and he that gets up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon it, upon Mo᾽av, the year of their punishment, says the Lord.
  In the shadow of Ĥeshbon the fugitives stood without strength: for a fire has gone out of Ĥeshbon and a flame from the midst of Siĥon, and has devoured the corner of Mo᾽av, and the crown of the head of the roaring people.
  Woe to these, O Mo᾽av! The people of Kemosh is perishing: for thy sons are taken into captivity, and thy daughters into thraldom.
  Yet I will bring back the captivity of Mo᾽av in the latter days, says the Lord. Thus for the judgment of Mo᾽av.
  
  
  
  Concerning the children of ῾Ammon, thus says the Lord; Has Yisra᾽el no sons? has he no heir? why then does Malkam inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities?
  Therefore, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabba of the children of ῾Ammon; and it shall become a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Yisra᾽el dispossess those who dispossessed him, says the Lord.
  Howl, O Ĥeshbon, for ῾Ay is plundered: cry, O daughters of Rabba, gird yourselves with sackcloth; lament, and run to and fro by the hedges; for Malkam shall go into exile, and his priests and his princes together.
  Why dost thou glory in the valleys? thy valley flows with blood, O backsliding daughter, that trusts in her treasures, saying, Who shall come against me?
  Behold, I will bring terror upon thee, says the Lord God of hosts, from all those who are round about thee; and you shall be driven out every man straight before him; and there shall be none to take in the wanderer.
  And afterwards I will bring back the captivity of the children of ῾Ammon, says the Lord.
  Concerning Edom, thus says the Lord of hosts; Is wisdom no more in Teman? has counsel perished from the prudent? has their wisdom vanished?
  Flee, turn back, dwell in the deeps, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of ῾Esav upon him, the time when I punish him.
  If grape gatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleanings? if thieves by night, they will destroy only till they have enough.
  But I have stripped ῾Esav bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is plundered, and his brethren, and his neighbours, and he himself is no more.
  Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; an let thy widows trust in me.
  For thus says the Lord; Behold, they to whom it did not appertain to drink of the cup shall surely drink; and art thou one who shall go scot free? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink.
  For I have sworn by myself, says the Lord, that Bożra shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all its cities shall be perpetual ruins.
  I have heard a rumour from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent to the heathen, saying, Gather yourselves together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.
  For, lo, I have made thee small among the nations, despised among men.
  Thy terribleness has deceived thee, and the pride of thy heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldst make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from there, says the Lord.
  Also Edom shall be a desolation: everyone that goes by it shall be horrified, and shall hiss at all her disasters.
  As in the overthrow of Sedom and ῾Amora and its neighbour cities, says the Lord, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it.
  Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the wild country of the Yarden against a strong sheepfold: for in a moment I will make him run over her: and whoever is chosen, I will appoint him over her; for who is like me? and who will set me a time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?
  Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord, that he has taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely the least of the flock shall drag them away: surely their fold shall be appalled at them.
  The earth is moved at the noise of their fall; the sound of her cry is heard at the Sea of Suf.
  Behold, he shall come up and fly like the eagle, and spread his wings over Bożra: and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
  Concerning Dammeseq. Ĥamat is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is anxiety on the sea; it cannot be quiet.
  Dammeseq is grown feeble, and turns herself to flee, and fear has gripped her: anguish and sorrows have seized on her, like a woman in travail.
  How was the city of praise left without succour, the city of my joy!
  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, says the Lord of hosts.
  And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Dammeseq, and it shall consume the palaces of Ben-hadad.
  Concerning Qedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Ĥażor, which Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel, shall smite, thus says the Lord; Arise, go up to Qedar, and plunder the men of the east.
  Their tents and their flocks shall be taken away: they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry to them, Terror on every side!
  Flee, get you far off, dwell in the deeps, O inhabitants of Ĥażor, says the Lord; for Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a purpose against you.
  Arise, get you up to a nation at ease, that dwells in security, says the Lord, who have neither gates nor bars, dwelling alone.
  And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter to every wind those who have the corners of their hair cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every side says the Lord.
  And Ĥażor shall be a den of jackals, and a desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.
  The word of the Lord that came to Yirmeyahu the prophet against ῾Elam in the beginning of the reign of Żidqiyyahu king of Yehuda, saying,
  Thus says the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of ῾Elam, the chief of their might.
  And upon ῾Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them to all those winds; and there shall be no nation to which the outcasts of ῾Elam shall not come.
  For I will cause ῾Elam to lost heart before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, my fierce anger, says the Lord; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:
  and I will set my throne in ῾Elam, and will destroy from there the king and the princes, says the Lord.
  But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring back the captivity of ῾Elam, says the Lord.
  
  
  
  The word that the Lord spoke against Bavel and against the land of the Kasdim by Yirmeyahu the prophet.
  Declare among the nations, and publish, and set up a banner; proclaim, and conceal not: say, Bavel is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodakh is broken in pieces; her idols are put to shame, her images are shattered.
  For out of the north comes up a nation against her, who shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell in it: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
  In those days, and in that time, says the Lord, the children of Yisra᾽el shall come, they and the children of Yehuda together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God.
  They shall ask the way to Żiyyon with their faces towards it, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.
  My people has been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place.
  All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries have said, We are not guilty, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.
  Flee out of the midst of Bavel, and depart from the land of the Kasdim, and be as the he goats before the flocks.
  For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Bavel an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall array themselves against her; from there she shall be taken: their arrows shall be like those of a death dealing warrior; none shall return in vain.
  And the land of the Kasdim shall be a spoil: all that plunder her shall be satisfied, says the Lord.
  Because you were glad, because you rejoiced, O robbers of my heritage, because you are grown fat like the heifer at grass, and you neigh like stallions;
  your mother shall be greatly ashamed; she that bore you shall be disgraced: behold, shall be the last of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
  Because of the wrath of the Lord it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: everyone that goes by Bavel shall be horrified, and shall hiss because of all her plagues.
  Array yourselves against Bavel round about: all you that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against the Lord.
  Shout against her round about: she has submitted herself: her butresses are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the Lord. Take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do to her!
  Cut off the sower from Bavel, and him that handles the sickle in the time of harvest! For fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn everyone to his people, and they shall flee everyone to his own land.
  Yisra᾽el is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Ashshur devoured him; and last this Nevukhadreżżar has broken his bones.
  Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; Behold, I will punish the king of Bavel and his land, as I have punished the king of Ashshur.
  And I will bring Yisra᾽el back again to his habitation, and he shall feed on the Karmel and the Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Efrayim and the Gil῾ad.
  In those days, and in that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Yisra᾽el shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Yehuda, but they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I will leave as a remnant.
  Go up against the land of Meratayim, against it, and against the inhabitants of Peqod: lay waste and utterly destroy after them, says the Lord, and do according to all that I have commanded thee.
  A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.
  How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Bavel become a desolation among the nations!
  I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Bavel, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the Lord.
  The Lord has opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for the Lord God of hosts has a work to do in the land of Kasdim.
  Come against her from the utmost border, open her stables: cast her up like heaps of grain, and destroy her utterly! let nothing of her be left!
  Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them! for their day is come, the time of their punishment.
  The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Bavel, to declare in Żiyyon the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance for his temple.
  Call together the archers against Bavel: all you that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her deeds; according to all that she has done, do to her: for she has been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Yisra᾽el.
  Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, says the Lord.
  Behold, I am against thee, O thou arrogant one, says the Lord God of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will punish thee.
  And the arrogant one shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up: and I will kindle a fire in his cities and it shall devour all round about him.
  Thus says the Lord of hosts; The children of Yisra᾽el and the children of Yehuda were oppressed together: and all that took them captive held them fast; they refused to let them go.
  Their redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name: he will surely plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, but unrest to the inhabitants of Bavel.
  A sword upon the Kasdim, says the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Bavel, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men!
  A sword upon the liars; and they shall become fools: a sword upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed!
  A sword upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall become the women: a sword upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed!
  A drought upon her waters; and they shall be dried up for it is a land of carved idols, and they are mad over things of horror.
  Therefore the wild beasts of the desert shall dwell there, with jackals and desert owls: and it shall be no more inhabited forever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
  As God overthrew Sedom and ῾Amora and its neighbour cities, says the Lord; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell in it.
  Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the farthest parts of the earth.
  They shall hold the bow and javelin: they are cruel, and will not show mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, everyone lined up, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Bavel.
  The king of Bavel has heard the report of them, and his hands have grown feeble: anguish has taken hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail.
  Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the wild country of the Yarden against a strong sheepfold: for in a moment I will make them run over her: and whoever is chosen I will appoint him over her; for who is like me? and who will set me a time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?
  Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord, that he has taken against Bavel; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of Kasdim: Surely the least of the flock shall drag them away: surely the fold shall he appalled at them!
  At the noise of the taking of Bavel the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.
  
  
  
  Thus says the Lord; Behold, I will raise up against Bavel, and against them that dwell in Lev-qamay, a destroying wind;
  and will send to Bavel winnowers, and they shall winnow her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.
  Against him that bends let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifts himself up in his coat of mail: and spare not her young men; destroy utterly all her host.
  Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Kasdim, and they that are thrust through in her streets.
  For Yisra᾽el has not been widowed, nor Yehuda of his God, of the Lord of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Yisra᾽el.
  Flee out of the midst of Bavel, and let every man save his life: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; he will render to her a recompense.
  Bavel was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, that made all the earth drunk: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
  Bavel is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, perhaps she may be healed.
  We would have healed Bavel, but she was not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one to his own country: for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up to the skies.
  The Lord has brought forth our vindication: come, and let us declare in Żiyyon the work of the Lord our God.
  Select the arrows; fill up the quivers: the Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Maday: for his purpose against Bavel is to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance for his temple.
  Set up a banner upon the walls of Bavel, make the watch strong, set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the Lord has both devised and done that which he spoke against the inhabitants of Bavel.
  O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thy end is come, and the measure of thy greed.
  The Lord of hosts has sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill thee with men as with locusts; and they shall raise shout against thee.
  He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding.
  When his voice resounds with great mass of water in the heavens, and he raises vapours from the ends of the Earth; when he makes lightning flashes among the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his storehouses:
  every man becomes stupid, without knowledge: every founder is put to shame by his carved idol: for his molten image is false, and there is no breath in them.
  They are vanity, the work of delusion: in the time of their punishment they shall perish.
  The portion of Ya῾aqov is not like them; for he is the fashioner of all things, and (Yisra᾽el) is the tribe of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts is his name.
  Thou art my chief and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will destroy kingdoms;
  and with these will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and its rider;
  with thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I shatter old and young; and with thee will I shatter the young man and the maid;
  I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces governors and deputies.
  And I will pay back to Bavel and to all the inhabitants of Kasdim all their evil that they have done in Żiyyon in your sight, says the Lord.
  Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, says the Lord, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.
  And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, says the Lord.
  Set up a banner in the land, blow a shofar among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up like bristling locusts.
  Prepare nations for war against her, the kings of the Maday, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of his dominion.
  And the land trembles and withers in pain: for every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Bavel, to make the land of Bavel a desolation without inhabitant.
  The mighty men of Bavel have ceased to fight, they have remained in their fortresses: their might has failed; they have become like women: her dwellingplaces have been set on fire, her bars are broken.
  One runner shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to tell the king of Bavel that his city is taken on every side,
  and that the fords are seized, and the thickets have been burned with fire, and the men of war are panic stricken.
  For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Yisra᾽el; The daughter of Bavel is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
  Nevukhadreżżar the king of Bavel has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel; like a crocodile, he has swallowed me up, he has filled his belly with my delicacies, he has scoured me clean.
  The violence done to me and to my flesh shall be upon Bavel, shall the inhabitant of Żiyyon say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Kasdim, shall Yerushalayim say.
  Therefore thus says the Lord; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her spring dry.
  And Bavel shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.
  They shall roar together like lions: they shall growl like lions’ whelps.
  When they are heated, I will make feasts for them, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake, says the Lord.
  I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.
  How is Sheshakh taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised! how is Bavel become an astonishment among the nations!
  The sea is come up upon Bavel: she is covered with the multitude of its waves.
  Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land in which no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass by them.
  And I will punish Bel in Bavel, and I will take out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow together any more to him: the very wall of Bavel has fallen.
  My people, go out of the midst of her, and deliver every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord.
  And lest your heart faint, and you fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land: for a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and there will be violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
  Therefore, behold, days are coming, when I will do judgment upon the carved idols of Bavel: and her whole land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
  Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Bavel: for the spoilers shall come unto her from the north, says the Lord.
  As Bavel has caused the slain of Yisra᾽el to fall, so at Bavel shall fall the slain of all the land.
  You that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still; remember the Lord afar off, and let Yerushalayim come into your mind.
  We are ashamed, because we have heard reproach: shame has covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the Lord’s house.
  Therefore, behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will do judgment upon her carved idols: and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
  Though Bavel should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me shall spoilers come to her, says the Lord.
  A sound of a cry comes from Bavel, and great destruction from the land of the Kasdim:
  because the Lord has spoiled Bavel, and has quelled from her midst the great clamour; when her waves roar like great waters, noise of their voice is sounded:
  because the spoiler is come upon her, upon Bavel, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the Lord God of recompenses shall surely pay back.
  And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her governors, and her deputies, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake, says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
  Thus says the Lord of hosts; The broad walls of Bavel shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the nations for the fire; and they shall be weary.
  The word which Yirmeyahu the prophet commanded Seraya the son of Neriyya, son of Maĥseya, when he went with Żidqiyyahu, the king of Yehuda into Bavel in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraya was marshal of the camp.
  So Yirmeyahu wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Bavel, namely all these words that are written against Bavel.
  And Yirmeyahu said to Seraya, When thou comest to Bavel, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;
  then shalt thou say, O Lord, Thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate forever.
  And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Perat:
  and thou shalt say, Thus shall Bavel sink, and shall not rise, because of the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far the words of Yirmeyahu.
  
  
  
  Żidqiyyahu was twenty one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Yerushalayim. And his mother’s name was Ĥamutal the daughter of Yirmeyahu of Livna.
  And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Yehoyaqim had done.
  For through the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Yerushalayim and Yehuda, till he cast them out from his presence. Then Żidqiyyahu rebelled against the king of Bavel.
  And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel came, he and all his army, against Yerushalayim, and encamped against it, and built a siege work against it round about.
  So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of king Żidqiyyahu.
  And in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
  Then the city was breached, and all the men of war fled, and went out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden; (now the Kasdim were by the city round about:) and they went by the way of the plain.
  But the army of the Kasdim pursued after the king, and overtook Żidqiyyahu in the plains of Yereĥo; and all his army was scattered from him.
  Then they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Bavel to Rivla in the land of Ĥamat; where he gave judgment upon him.
  And the king of Bavel slew the sons of Żidqiyyahu before his eyes: he slew also all the princes of Yehuda in Rivla.
  Then he put out the eyes of Żidqiyyahu; and the king of Bavel bound him in fetters, and carried him to Bavel, and put him in prison till the day of his death.
  Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nevukhadreżżar king of Bavel, Nevuzar᾽adan, captain of the guard, who served the king of Bavel, came to Yerushalayim.
  And he burned the house of the Lord, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Yerushalayim, and every great house he burned with fire:
  and all the army of the Kasdim, that were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Yerushalayim round about.
  Then Nevuzar᾽adan the captain of the guard carried away into exile certain of the poor of the people, and the residue of the people that remained in the city, and the deserts who had deserted to the king of Bavel, and the rest of the multitude.
  But Nevuzar᾽adan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the land for vinedressers and for fieldworkers.
  Also the pillars of brass that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of the Lord, the Kasdim broke, and carried all the brass of them to Bavel.
  The pans also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass with which they ministered, they took away.
  And the bowls, and the firepans, and the basins, and the pans, and the candlesticks, and the spoons, and the bowls both that which was of gold in gold, and that which was of silver in silver, the captain of the guard took away.
  The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brass bulls that were under the bases, which king Shelomo had made in the house of the Lord: the brass of all these vessels was unweighed.
  And as for the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a thread of twelve cubits did compass it; and its thickness was four fingers: it was hollow.
  And a capital of brass was upon it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates upon the capitals round about, all of brass. The second pillar also and the pomegranates were like these.
  And there were ninety six pomegranates on a side; and all the pomegranates upon the network were a hundred round about.
  And the captain of the guard took Seraya the chief priest, and Żefanya the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:
  he also took out of the city an officer, who had the charge of the men of war; and seven of those men who were near the king’s person, who were found in the city; and the scribe of the chief of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, that were found in the midst of the city.
  So Nevuzar᾽adan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Bavel to Rivla.
  And the king of Bavel smote them, and put them to death in Rivla in the land of Ĥamat. Thus Yehuda was exiled out of his own land.
  This is the number of the people whom Nevukhadreżżar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand and twenty three men of Yehuda:
  in the eighteenth year of Nevukhadreżżar he carried away from Yerushalayim eight hundred and thirty two persons:
  in the twenty third year of Nevukhadreżżar, Nevuzar᾽adan the captain of the guard carried away into exile of the men of Yehuda seven hundred and forty five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred.
  And it came to pass in the thirty seventh year of the exile of Yehoyakhin king of Yehuda, in the twelfth month, on the twenty fifth day of the month, that Evil-merodakh king of Bavel in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of Yehoyakhin king of Yehuda, and brought him out of prison,
  and spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Bavel,
  and changed his prison garments: and he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life.
  And for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Bavel, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.