 耶:1.(jer)  [耶肋米亞]  Jeremiah  [共 52 章]   [思高聖經]
  
             一編 神諭集(1-25)
 耶:1.1      [先知前後任職時期]
 耶:1.2      本雅明地內阿納托特城的司祭中，希耳克雅的兒子耶肋米亞的言行錄。──
 耶:1.3      上主的話傳給他，是在阿孟的兒子約史雅為猶大王執政第十三年；
 耶:1.4      以後傳給他，是在約史雅的兒子約雅金為猶大王，直到約史雅的兒子漆德克雅為猶大王第十一年年底，即直到是年五月，耶路撒冷居民被擄去充軍時為止。
 耶:1.5      [先知蒙召]  上主對我說：「我還沒有在母腹內形成你以前，我已認識了你；在你還沒有出離母胎以前，我已祝聖了你，選定了你作萬民的先知。」
 耶:1.6      我回答說：「哎呀! 我主上主! 你看，我還太年輕，不會說話」。
 耶:1.7      上主對我說：「你別說：我太年輕，因為我派你到那裏去，你就應到那裏去；我命你說什麼，你就應說什麼。
 耶:1.8      你不要害怕他們，因為有我與你同在，保護你──上主的斷語。」
 耶:1.9      此後，上主伸出手來，觸摸我的口，對我說：「看，我將我的話放在你口中；
 耶:1.10     看，我今天委派你對萬民和列國，執行拔除、破壞、毀滅、推翻、建設和栽培的任務。」
 耶:1.11     [兩個異象]  上主的話傳給我說：「耶肋米亞，你看見什麼﹖」我回答說：「我看見一棵杏樹枝。」
 耶:1.12     上主對我說：「你看的對，因為我要警醒，看我的話怎樣實現。」
 耶:1.13     上主的話二次傳給我說：「你看見什麼﹖」我回答說：「我看見一個沸騰的鍋，它的口由北面傾倒過來。」
 耶:1.14     上主對我說：「災禍將由北方燒起，一直燒到這地上的一切居民。
 耶:1.15     看啊，我必召集北方的一切國家──上主的斷語──叫各國前來，在耶路撒冷城門口，在城牆四周以及猶大各城市旁，建立自己的寶座。
 耶:1.16     我要向各城市的人民宣告我的判決，懲罰他們的一切罪惡，因為他們離棄我，向別的神祗獻香，崇拜了他們手製的作品。
 耶:1.17     [耶助米亞的使命]  至於你，你要束上腰，起來向他們傳示我命令你的一切。在他們面前，你不要畏懼，免得我在他們面前令你畏懼。
 耶:1.18     看啊，我今天使你成為堅城、銅牆、鐵壁，以對抗猶大君王和首領，司祭和當地的人民。
 耶:1.19     他們要攻擊你，卻不能得勝你，因為有我與你同在，協助你──上主的斷語。」
  
 耶:2.1      [以民不忠]  上主的話傳給我說：
 耶:2.2      「你去! 向耶路撒冷大聲疾呼說：上主這樣說：我憶起你年輕時的熱情，你訂婚時的戀愛；那時你在曠野裏，在未耕種的地上追隨了我。
 耶:2.3      以色列成了上主的聖民，成了祂收穫的初果，凡吞食她的都要有罪，災禍必要因此降在他們身上──上主的斷語。
 耶:2.4      [上主待選民之恩]  雅各伯家和以色列家的一切家族! 你們聽上主的話，
 耶:2.5      上主這樣說：你們的祖先在我身上發現了什麼不義，竟遠離我而去追隨「虛無」，自成為虛無呢﹖
 耶:2.6      他們也不問一問：那曾引我們由埃及地上來，那經過曠野、荒原和崎嶇之地，乾旱和黑暗之地，沒人遊歷，無人居住之地，引領我們的上主現在哪裏呢﹖
 耶:2.7      我引你們進入了肥沃的土地，吃食其中的出產和美物；但你們一進來，就玷污了我的土地，使我的產業成了可憎之物。
 耶:2.8      [司祭離上主]  們也不問一問：「上主在哪裏﹖」那些管理法律的，不認識我了；那些為人牧的，叛離了我；先知們也奉巴耳講預言，追隨無能的神袛。
 耶:2.9      為此，我要控訴你們──上主的斷語，也要控訴你們的子孫。
 耶:2.10     好吧! 你們往基廷島嶼去觀察一下，派人到刻達爾去詳細調察，看看有沒有與此相類似的事：
 耶:2.11     難道有一個民族更換了自己的神袛﹖──雖然他們並非真神；但是我的人民竟以自己的光榮，換取了一個「無能的東西。」
 耶:2.12     [背信的惡果]  諸天! 你們對此應驚駭戰慄，大為驚異──上主的斷語，
 耶:2.13     因為我的人民犯了雙重的罪惡：他們離棄了我這活水的泉源，卻給自己掘了蓄水池，不能蓄水的漏水池。
 耶:2.14     以色列豈是奴隸，或是家生的奴隸﹖為什麼竟成了人的掠奪物﹖
 耶:2.15     獅子向她咆哮，高聲吼叫：牠們使她的地域變成了荒野，使她的城市化為灰燼，無人居住。
 耶:2.16     連諾夫和塔黑培乃斯的子民，也削去你的腦蓋。
 耶:2.17     你這不是自作自受嗎﹖因為上主你的天主在路上引導你的時候，你竟離棄了祂。
 耶:2.18     現在你又為什麼跑到埃及去喝尼羅河的水，跑到亞述去喝幼發拉的河水﹖
 耶:2.19     是你的罪惡懲罰你，是你的不忠責斥你，那麼你應該明白覺察：離棄上主你的天主，對我沒有敬畏，是如何邪惡和痛苦的事──我主萬軍上主的斷語。
 耶:2.20     [選民的無恥]  的確，從古以來，你就折斷了你的軛，掙斷了你的繩索說：我不願服從；反在一切高丘上，和一切綠樹下，偃臥行淫。
 耶:2.21     我種植你時，原是精選的葡萄，純粹的真種子；你是怎麼竟給我變成了壞樹，成了野葡萄﹖
 耶:2.22     現在即使你用鹼洗濯，多加滷汁，你的罪污仍留在我面前──我主上主的斷語──
 耶:2.23     你怎能說：我沒有玷污我自己，我沒有追隨過巴耳﹖觀察你在谷中的行動，便知你的行動，無異一隻到處遊蕩，敏捷的母駱駝；
 耶:2.24     又像一頭習慣在荒野，急欲求配，呼氣喘息的野母驢；誰能抑制牠的性慾﹖凡尋找牠的，不必費辛苦，在她春情發動的月分，就可找著。
 耶:2.25     留心! 不要使你的腳赤裸，不要使你的喉嚨乾渴! 但是你卻說：不會，不可能! 我既愛異邦神袛，我要跟隨他們。
 耶:2.26     [背信所受之罰]  就如小偷被人發現時，感到羞愧；以色列家：他們，他們的君王和首領，他們的司祭和先知，都要同樣蒙受羞辱。
 耶:2.27     他們對木偶說：你是我的父親；對石碣說：是你生了我。的確，他們不但向我轉過臉去，而且也以背向著我；但是，在他們遭難的時候，卻喊說：起來，拯救我們!
 耶:2.28     你自己製造的神祗在哪裏﹖在你遭難的時候，他們若能救你，就讓他們起來! 因為猶大! 你神祗的數目竟等於你域邑的數目，巴耳的香壇與耶路撒冷的街道一般多。
 耶:2.29     你們背叛了我，為什麼又向我提出抗議──上主的斷語──
 耶:2.30     我打擊了你們的子孫，竟是徒然，你們沒有受到教訓；你們的刀劍如同一隻兇殘的獅子吞滅了眾先知。
 耶:2.31     你們這一代人，體會上主的話吧! 難道我對以色列像一個荒野，或像一個黑暗地方﹖為什麼我的人民說：我們獲得了自由，我們不再來找你﹖
 耶:2.32     一個處女豈能忘了自己的珍飾﹖一位新娘豈能忘了自己的彩帶﹖我的人民卻忘了我，時日已久長，無法計算。
 耶:2.33     你怎麼會如此想盡好方法去求愛﹖你也將你的方法教給了邪惡的女人；
 耶:2.34     連在你的衣邊上也發現無辜窮人的血漬：並不是在挖洞穴時，你捉住他們，而是在橡樹邊。
 耶:2.35     但你還說：我是無罪的，他的忿怒已離我遠去。看! 我要審判你，正因你說：我沒有犯罪。
 耶:2.36     為什麼這樣輕易改變你的道路﹖你必要因埃及而蒙羞，猶如曾因亞述而蒙羞一樣。
 耶:2.37     你畢竟要從那裏抱頭出走，因為上主擯棄了你所仗恃的，使你不能靠他們獲得成功。
  
 耶:3.1      [以民失節]  試問：若男人離棄了自己的妻子，她離開他而另嫁了別人，前夫豈能再回到她那裏去﹖像這樣的女人，豈不是已全被玷污了嗎﹖你已與許多愛人行淫，你還想回到我這裏來嗎﹖──上主的斷語──
 耶:3.2      你舉目環顧高丘．看看在什麼地方你沒有受過玷污﹖你坐在各路旁等候他們，像個在曠野裡的阿刺伯人，以你淫亂和邪惡玷污了這土地。
 耶:3.3      為此，秋雨不降，春雨不來。你具有娼妓的面孔，仍然不知羞恥。
 耶:3.4      從今以後，你要向我喊說：「我父!你是我青年時的良友!」
 耶:3.5      心想：「祂豈能永遠發怒，懷恨到底﹖」看，你雖如此說，卻仍盡力作惡。
 耶:3.6      [欺詐不實]  在約史雅為王的時日裏，上主對我說：「失節的以色列所做的，你看見了沒有﹖她上到一切高山上，走到所有的綠樹下，在那裏行淫。
 耶:3.7      我以為她作了這一切以後，會回到我這裏來；但是她沒有回來。她失信的姊妹猶大也看見了此事：
 耶:3.8      雖然看見了我為了失節的以色列所犯的種種姦淫，而命她離去，給了她休書，她這失信的姊妹猶大卻不害怕，竟然也去行淫。
 耶:3.9      由於她輕易行淫，與石碣和木偶淫亂，玷污了這土地。
 耶:3.10     儘管這樣，她失信的姊妹猶大回到我這裏來，仍不是全心，只是假意──上主的斷語。」
 耶:3.11     [北國人民改邪歸正]  上主於是對我說：「失節的以色列比失信的猶大，更顯得正義。
 耶:3.12     你去向北方宣布這些話說：失節的以色列! 請你歸來──上主的斷語──我不會對你怒容相向，因為我是仁慈的──上主的斷語──我不會永遠發怒，
 耶:3.13     只要你承認你的罪過，承認背叛上主你的天主，在一切綠樹下，與異邦神祗恣意相愛，沒有聽我的聲音，上主的斷語。
 耶:3.14     失節的女子，妳們歸來──上主的斷語──因為我是你們的主人，我要選取妳們，每城選一人，每族選二人，領妳們進入熙雍；
 耶:3.15     在那裏給妳們一些隨我心意的牧者，以智慧和明智牧養妳們。
 耶:3.16     你們在這地上繁衍增殖的時日裏──上主的斷語──人不再提「上主的約櫃」，也不再思念，不再追憶，不再關懷，不再製造。
 耶:3.17     那時，人要稱耶路撒冷為「上主的御座」，萬民要奉上主的名，匯集在耶路撒冷，不再隨從自己邪惡而頑固的心行事。
 耶:3.18     在那些時日內，猶大家與以色列家同行，從北方起回到我賜給了你們祖先作基業的地內。
 耶:3.19     我曾想過：多麼願意待你像一個兒子，賜給你賞心悅目的土地，列國中最美好的領土，我以為你會以「我父」稱呼我，不會轉身遠離我；
 耶:3.20     但是，你們，以色列家對待我，正如對自己良友不忠的婦女──上主的斷語。
 耶:3.21     在荒丘上可聽到一片喧嚷：那是以色列子民的哀號哭泣，因為他們走入了邪途，忘卻了自己的天主，上主。
 耶:3.22     「歸來! 失節的子民，讓我療愈你們的失節。」「看，我回到你這裏，的確，你是上主，我們的天主。
 耶:3.23     誠然丘嶺和山上的狂歡盡是虛幻；唯在上主，我們的天主那裏，有以色列的救援。
 耶:3.24     可恥的神祗，自我們幼年就吞噬了我們祖先的收入，他們的羊群、牛群和子女。
 耶:3.25     讓我們躺臥在我們恥辱中，讓我們以羞慚遮蓋我們，因為我們和我們的祖先，自我們幼年直到今日，得罪了上主我們的天主，從來沒有聽從上主我們的天主的聲音。」
  
 耶:4. 1     [南國猶大的腐敗]  以色列，若是你歸來──上主的斷語──就應向我歸來；若是你從我面前除去你可惡的偶像，就不應再四處遊蕩；
 耶:4. 2     若是你以誠實、公平和正義指著「上主永在」起誓，那麼，萬民必因你而蒙受祝福，也因你而得到光榮。
 耶:4. 3     因為上主對猶大人和耶路撒冷居民這樣說：「你們要開懇荒地，不要在荊棘中播種。
 耶:4. 4     猶大人和耶路撒冷的居民! 你們應為上主自行割損，除去心上的包皮，以免因你們的惡行，我的忿怒如火發作，焚燒得無人能熄滅。」
 耶:4. 5     [強敵不久來犯]  你們應該在猶大宣 佈，在耶路撒冷發表，在境內吹起號角，大聲疾呼說：「你們應集合，我們要進攻堅城! 」
 耶:4. 6     你們應該給熙雍指出路標，趕快出逃，絲毫不可遲延，因為我要由北方招來災禍，絕大的毀滅。
 耶:4. 7     獅子已衝出牠的叢林，毀滅萬民者已起程走出了他的宮庭，前來使你的地域變為曠野，使你的城邑荒涼，再沒有人居住。
 耶:4. 8     為此，你們應身穿苦衣，涕泣哀號，因為上主尚未由我們身上撤回祂的烈怒。
 耶:4. 9     到那一天──上主的斷語──君王與王侯必失去勇氣，司祭必驚駭，先知必驚異；
 耶:4.10     人必要說：「哎! 吾主上主! 你的確欺騙了這人民和耶路撒冷說：你們必享平安；其實，刀劍已到我們的咽喉! 」
 耶:4.11     那時人要對這人民和耶路撒冷說：「荒丘的熱風由曠野向我人民吹來，不是為吹淨，不是為清潔；
 耶:4.12     有一股強烈的風應我的命吹來；現在我要去裁判他們。
 耶:4.13     看啊! 他如濃雲湧上來，他的戰車有如旋風，他的戰馬快過飛鷹! 禍哉! 我們算是完了!
 耶:4.14     耶路撒冷! 洗淨你心內的邪惡，好使你能獲救。你那不義的思念藏在你內，要到何時﹖
 耶:4.15     因為由丹傳來信息，由厄弗辣因山聽到了凶信：
 耶:4.16     你們應通知人民，轉告耶路撒冷：圍攻的人由遠方前來，向猶大各城高聲吶喊，
 耶:4.17     像護守田地的人將她密密包圍，因為她觸怒了我──上主的斷語。
 耶:4.18     是你的行徑和作為給你造成了這一切；是你的邪惡使你受苦，受到傷心的痛苦。
 耶:4.19     [以民哀痛欲絕]  我的肺腑，我的肺腑! 我痛苦欲絕，我心已破碎，我心焦燥不寧，我不能緘默! 因為我親自聽到了角聲，開戰的喧嚷。
 耶:4.20     真是毀滅上加毀滅，全地盡已破壞；我的帳幕突然倒塌，我的帷幔忽然毀壞。
 耶:4.21     我瞻望敵旗，聞聽角聲，要到幾時﹖
 耶:4.22     這是因為我的人民愚昧，竟不認識我，是些無知的子民，沒有明悟，只知作惡，不知行善。
 耶:4.23     [災禍的慘狀]  我觀望大地，看，空虛混沌，我觀望諸天，卻毫無光亮；
 耶:4.24     我觀望山岳，看，它在戰慓，
 耶:4.25     我觀望，看，一個人也沒有，連天空的飛鳥都已逃循；所有的丘陵都在搖撼。
 耶:4.26     我觀望，看，農田盡變為荒野，所有的城邑盡毀於上主，毀於上主的烈怒。
 耶:4.27     原來上主這樣說：全地固然要荒蕪，但我卻不徹底加以毀滅。
 耶:4.28     為此，大地要悲傷，在上諸天要昏暗；因為我說了，再不後悔；決定了，再不撤回。
 耶:4.29     全城的人聽到了騎兵和弓手的喧嚷，都四散逃命，有深入森林的，有爬上山岩的；所有的城市都被放棄，沒有人居住。
 耶:4.30     你已被蹂躪還有什麼企圖﹖既使你身被紫綿，佩帶金飾，以鉛華描劃眼眉，使你漂亮，也是徒然! 你的愛人蔑視你，想謀害你的性命。
 耶:4.31     的確，我聽到了彷彿產婦的叫聲，彷彿首次分娩的呻吟，是熙雍女兒在伸開雙手喘息哀嘆：我真可憐．因為我的生命已陷在殘害者手中!
  
 耶:5.1      [南國猶大的邪惡]  請你們巡行耶路撒冷的街道，觀察注意，在她的廣場上搜尋：若他們能找到一人，一個履行正義，追求信實的人，我就寬恕這城。
 耶:5.2      雖然他們起誓說：「上主永在! 」其實他們起的誓仍是虛誓。
 耶:5.3      上主，你的眼睛難道不顧信實﹖你打擊了他們，他們卻毫不覺痛；你使他們挫敗，他們仍拒絕受教，使自己的面孔比火石還要頑硬，不願悔改。
 耶:5.4      我想：「不錯，他們原是無知的平民，不認識上主的道路和他們天主的法律。
 耶:5.5      我要去問有權勢的人，與他們談論，因為他們知道上主的道路和他們天主的法律。」哎! 連他們也都折斷了軛，掙斷了繩索。
 耶:5.6      為此，獅子由叢林出來襲擊他們，曠野的豺狼出來傷害他們，豹子潛伏在他們的城旁，凡出來的人都被撕裂，因為他們罪上加罪，失節有增無已。
 耶:5.7      如此，我怎能寬恕你﹖你的子孫離棄了我，奉「非神」發誓。我使他們飽食，他們卻去行淫，群集在妓院裏；
 耶:5.8      他們像荒淫雄壯的牡馬，各向自己近人的妻室嘶鳴。
 耶:5.9      這些事，我怎能不懲罰﹖──上主的斷語──像這樣的民族，我怎能不親自報復﹖
 耶:5.10     請你們登上她的牆上頭，加以毀壞，但不要完全毀滅，該除去她的枝條，因為它們不屬於上主。
 耶:5.11     以色列和猶大家，實在對我不忠，達到極點──
 耶:5.12     上主的斷語。他們否認上主說：「祂不存在! 災禍絕不會臨到我們身上，我們也絕不會見到戰爭和饑荒；
 耶:5.13     先知們不過是一陣風，他們並沒有上主的話；他們這樣只有自作自受。」
 耶:5.14     為此，上主萬軍的天主這樣說：「因為他們說了這話，看，我必使我的話在你的口中成為火，使這人民成為木柴，將他們吞滅。
 耶:5.15     以色列家!看，我從遠方給你們引來一個民族──上主的斷語──一個所向無敵的民族，一個古老的民族，一個你們不懂她的語言，也聽不出她說什麼的民族
 耶:5.16     他們的箭筒有如張開口的墳墓；他們都是善戰的勇士。
 耶:5.17     這民族必吃掉你的收穫和食糧，必吃掉你的兒子和女兒，必吃掉你的羊群和牛群，必吃掉你的葡萄和無花果，必以武力蹂躝你依恃的堅城。
 耶:5.18     即在那些時日裏──上主的斷語──我也不對你們加以徹底的毀滅。」
 耶:5.19     假使有人問：「為什麼上主我們的天主對我們做了這一切的事﹖」你當對他們說：「你們怎樣離棄了我，在你們國內事奉了外邦的神祗，你們也該怎樣在不屬於你們的境內事奉外邦人。」
 耶:5.20     [難免的懲罰]  你們將這事通知雅各伯家，轉告猶大說：
 耶:5.22     「你們愚昧無知，有目不見，有耳不聞的人民，請聽聽這話：
 耶:5.23     你們不敬畏我嗎﹖──上主的斷語──你們在我面前不戰憟嗎﹖是我堆積了沙石作海的界限，作為它永不能越過的界限：海浪雖洶湧，仍無能為力；雖怒號澎湃，仍不能越過。」
 耶:5.24     但這內心頑固忤逆的人民，竟背叛而離去，
 耶:5.25     從不反心自省：「我們應該敬畏上主，我們的天主，因為祂按時降下雨露、秋霜和春雨；又給我們保持固定的收穫時節。」
 耶:5.26     是你們的過犯混亂了這些時令，是你們的罪惡阻止了你們享這幸福。
 耶:5.27     因為在我的人民中發現了惡人；他們像隱伏的捕鳥者在窺探，布下羅網捕捉人。
 耶:5.28     猶如籠中滿了飛鳥，他們家中也充滿了欺詐，因此成了有勢力，有錢財的人。
 耶:5.29     他們肥胖紅潤，作奸犯科，不為孤兒辯護；只求自己享受，也不關懷窮人的權利。
 耶:5.30     像這樣的事，我怎能不懲罰﹖──上主的斷語──像這樣的民族，我怎能不親自報復﹖
 耶:5.31     在國內發生了一件恐怖而可憎的事：先知們說假預言，司祭們爭權奪利，我的人民反倒以此為樂；到了最後，你們究竟還要作什麼﹖
  
 耶:6.1      [耶京不久難免浩劫]  本雅明子民，請你們逃出耶路撒冷，在特科亞吹號，在貝特革楞豎立旗幟! 因為有一個災禍，即一個巨大的毀滅，已由北方隱約出現。
 耶:6.2      熙雍女郎彷彿美麗的草場，
 耶:6.3      牧童領著自己的羊群向她進發，在她四週張設帳幕，各據一方牧放。
 耶:6.4      「請你們備戰，向她進攻；來，讓我們在正午就上前進攻! 我們真不幸! 因為日已偏西，暮影已長!
 耶:6.5      不妨! 就趁夜上去，破壞她的宮闕。」
 耶:6.6      因為萬軍的上主這樣說：「你們該砍伐她的樹木，堆起壁壘，圍攻耶路撒冷，這該受罰的城市，因為在那裏充滿了壓榨。
 耶:6.7      泉源怎樣湧出水，她就怎樣湧出邪惡；從那裏只可聽到強暴和迫害，我只看見疾病和瘡痍。
 耶:6.8      耶路撒冷! 你應接受訓戒，免得我的心疏遠你，使你荒涼，成為沒有人居住的地方。」
 耶:6.9      萬軍的上主這樣說：「你應像收拾葡萄，把以色列的遺民收拾淨盡；又如收割的人向枝條再伸出你的手來。」
 耶:6.10     我應對誰說，應警告誰，使他們聽信我呢﹖看，他們的耳朵遲鈍不靈，不能留心細聽；看，上主的話對他們已成了笑柄，一點也不感興趣。
 耶:6.11     為此，我滿懷上主的忿怒，我已無法再控制：「只得將憤怒發洩在街上的孩童和青年的隊伍身上，因為男人和女人，年長和年老的人，都要被擄去；
 耶:6.12     他們的住宅、莊田和妻室，都要歸於他人，因為我要向本地的居民伸出我的手──上主的斷語。」
 耶:6.13     [百姓全敗壞]  實在，從最小的到最大的，都貪財圖利；從先知到司祭，都欺詐行事，
 耶:6.14     草率治療我人民的瘡痍說：「好了，好了! 」其實卻沒有好。
 耶:6.15     他們既行事可憎，就理當知恥；可是，他們不但毫不知恥，反而連羞愧也不知是什麼；為此，他們要與倒斃者一同倒斃，在我降罰他們時，都要一蹶不振──上主說。
 耶:6.16     上主這樣說：「你們應站在交叉路口，觀察探問舊路；那一條是好路，就在那路上走，你們的的心靈必獲安寧。」他們卻答說：「我們偏不走。」
 耶:6.17     「我給你們派駐哨兵，你們連注意號聲! 」他們卻答說：「我們偏不注意。」
 耶:6.18     為此，萬民! 你們應該細聽；群眾! 你們應知道他們的遭遇。
 耶:6.19     大地！注意：看，我必給這百姓帶來災禍，作他們失節的的苦果，因為他們沒有聽從我的言辭，拋棄了我的法律。
 耶:6.20     那些來自舍巴的乳香，出自遠方的香蒲，於我有何用﹖你們的全燔祭不受悅納，你們的犧牲不樂我意。
 耶:6.21     為此，上主這樣說：「看，我將這人民設下絆腳石，使父子一起絆倒，使鄰居和朋友同趨滅亡。」
 耶:6.22     [來犯的敵人]  上主這樣說：「看，有一個民族從北方前來，有一個強大的異邦從地極興起，
 耶:6.23     緊握弓戈，殘忍無情，像海嘯一般喧嚷，騎著戰馬，萬眾一心，嚴陣準備向你進攻，熙雍女郎! 」
 耶:6.24     我們聽到了這消息，束手無策，不勝憂慮，痛苦得有如臨產的婦女。
 耶:6.25     你們不要到田間去，不要在路上徘徊，因為敵人正在撕殺，四處令人恐怖。
 耶:6.26     我的女兒──人民──你該穿上麻衣，輾轉於灰塵，悲哀傷心痛哭，如喪獨子，因為劫奪者要突然來襲擊我們!
 耶:6.27     [不可救藥]  我立了你作我人民的考察員，原是為叫你認識並考察他們的行徑。
 耶:6.28     他們盡是極頑固的叛徒，往來散播流言，確是壞透了的破銅爛鐵。
 耶:6.29     風箱猛吹，雖有烈火，但鉛仍不溶化；煉工徒然鍛煉，渣滓總煉不掉。
 耶:6.30     人都稱他們為「拋棄的銀渣，」因為上主已將他們拋棄。
  
 耶:7.1      [虛偽的信賴]  上主有話傳給耶肋米亞說：
 耶:7.2      「你站在上主殿宇的門口，宣佈這話說：你們凡由這些門進來，朝拜上主的猶大人，請聽上主的話。
 耶:7.3      萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：改善你們的生活和行為，我就讓你們住在這地方；
 耶:7.4      不要信賴虛偽的話說：「這是上主的聖殿，上主的聖殿，上主的聖殿!
 耶:7.5      只有你們徹底改善你的生活和行為，在人與人之間行事公道，
 耶:7.6      不虐待旅客、孤兒、寡婦，不在這地方傾流無辜者的血，不自招禍患去跟隨外邦的神祗，
 耶:7.7      我才讓你們住在這地方，即我從開始便永遠賜給了你們祖先的土地。
 耶:7.8      可惜! 你們竟信賴虛偽無益的話。
 耶:7.9      怎麼﹖你們竟偷盜，兇殺，通姦，發虛誓，向巴耳獻香，跟隨素不相識的外方神祗，
 耶:7.10     然後來到這座歸我名下的殿裏，立在我面前說：「我們有了保障! 」好再去行這一切可惡的事﹖
 耶:7.11     難道這座歸我名下的殿宇，在你們眼中竟成了賊窩了嗎﹖哎! 我看實在是這樣──上主的斷語。
 耶:7.12     [聖所失靈]  那麼，請你們到我昔日在史羅立我名的地方去，察看我因我人民以色列的邪惡對她行了的事
 耶:7.13     現在因為你們做了這一切事──上主的斷語──我再三懇切勸告你們，你們又不聽；我呼喚你們，你們也不答應；
 耶:7.14     為此，我要對付你們依恃的這座歸於我名下的殿宇，並對付我給你們及你們祖先的地域，像對付史羅一樣；
 耶:7.15     我必將你們由我面前拋棄，如同拋棄了你們所有的兄弟，厄弗辣因全體後裔一樣。
 耶:7.16     [不可挽回的懲罰]  至於你，你不必為這人民祈禱，不必為他們呼籲哀求，也不必向我懇求，因為我不會俯聽你。
 耶:7.17     他們在猶大各城和耶路撒冷街道上做的是什麼事，難道你沒有看見﹖
 耶:7.18     兒子拾柴，父親燒火，母女揉麵給天后做餅，向外方神祗行奠祭，來觸怒我。
 耶:7.19     他們果真觸怒我嗎﹖──上主的斷語──豈不是觸犯自己，使自己滿面羞慚﹖
 耶:7.20     為此我上主這樣說：看，我的憤怒和怒火，必要傾注在這地方的人和走獸身上，田間的樹木和土地的出產上，燃燒不熄。
 耶:7.21     [服從勝於祭獻]  萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：「你們獻祭後，儘管再加獻全燔祭，儘管飽食祭肉；
 耶:7.22     可是，關於全燔祭和獻祭的事情，我在領你們祖先出離埃及那一天，並沒有對他們談及或吩咐什麼，
 耶:7.23     只吩咐了他們這事說：你們應聽從我的聲音，那麼我必作你們的天主，你們也必作我的人民；你們應走我吩咐你們的一切道路，好使你們獲得幸福。
 耶:7.24     他們不但不側耳細聽，反倒依照自己的計謀，隨自己邪惡的心生活，頑固不化；不以面向我，卻以背向我。
 耶:7.25     從你們祖先出離埃及那一天起，直到今日，我給你們派遣了我所有的僕人先知，而且每天清早給你們派遣，
 耶:7.26     但他們不但不側耳聽從我，反更硬起自己的頸項，比自己的祖先還要乖戾。
 耶:7.27     縱使你將這一切話告訴他們，他們也不會聽從你；任憑你怎樣呼喚，他們也不會答應你。
 耶:7.28     為此你對他們說：這個民族，不聽上主自己天主的聲音，不肯接受教訓；忠實已喪失，已絕於他們口中。
 耶:7.29     [邪行的惡報]  你該剪去你的一綹頭髮，把它拋掉，在高丘上唱哀歌，因為上主擯斥，且拋棄了祂憎恨的時代。
 耶:7.30     的確，猶大子民作了我視為邪惡的事──上主的斷語──將他們可惡之物，安置在歸我名下的殿宇裏，使殿宇遭受玷污；
 耶:7.31     又在本希農山谷的托斐特建築了丘壇，為火焚自己的子女；這是我從沒有吩咐，也從沒有想到的事。
 耶:7.32     為此，看，時日將到──上主的斷語──人不再稱這地方為「托斐特」，或「本希農谷」，卻要稱它為「屠殺谷」；由於墳地不夠，連托斐特也將充作墳場。
 耶:7.33     這人民的屍體將成為天空飛鳥和地上走獸的食物，而沒有人來驅逐。
 耶:7.34     我必使猶大城內和耶路撒冷街上，再也聽不到歡愉和喜樂的聲音，新郎和新娘的聲音，因為這地要變為荒野。
  
 耶:8.1      [猶大人民的頑固]  到那時──上主的斸語──人必從墳墓中拖出猶大君王的遺骸，公侯的遺骸，司祭的遺骸，先知的遺骸，和耶路撒冷居民的遺骸，
 耶:8.2      陳列在他們曾愛戀、事奉、追隨、求問和朝拜過的太陽、月亮和天上群星前，再沒有人收殮埋葬，任其留在地面充作肥料。
 耶:8.3      這可惡種族剩下的全體遺民，在我驅逐他們所到的任何地方，都願意死，而不願意生──萬軍上主斷語。
 耶:8.4      你應對他們說：上主這樣說：人跌倒了，豈能不再起來﹖人離去了，豈能不再回來﹖
 耶:8.5      為什麼這人民一墮落，便永久墮落，執迷不悟而不肯反悔呢﹖
 耶:8.6      我留心細聽，他們都言談不軌，沒有一個人悔恨自己的邪惡說：「可憐! 我做的是什麼事﹖」反倒各自一再任性奔馳，有如衝入戰場的戰馬。
 耶:8.7      天空的鶴鳥也知道自己的時令；斑鳩、燕子和雁，都固守自己的歸期；但是我的人民卻不知道上主的法令。
 耶:8.8      你怎麼能說：我們是智者，我們有上主的法律﹖的確，但已為書記們以荒謬的筆鋒把它編成了謊言。
 耶:8.9      智慧的人必要蒙羞驚慌，而至被捕；的確，他們既拋棄了上主話，還能有什麼智慧﹖
 耶:8.10     [司祭與先知皆應受罰]  為此，我必將他們的妻室交給外人，將他們的莊田交與別的地主，因為從最小的到最大的，都貪財圖利；從先知到司祭，都欺詐行事，
 耶:8.11     草率治療我人民的瘡痍說：「好了! 好了! 」其實卻沒有好。
 耶:8.12     他們既行事可憎，就理當知恥；可是，他們不但不知恥，反而連羞愧也不知是什麼；為此，他們要與倒斃者倒斃，在我降罰他們時，都要一蹶不振──上主說。
 耶:8.13     [逃避侵略]  我要徹底消滅他們──上主的斷語──葡萄樹上沒有葡萄，無花果樹上沒有無花果，樹葉都已凋零；我要派人來蹂躝。
 耶:8.14     為什麼我們還坐著﹖集合起來吧! 讓我們進入堅城，死在那裏，因為上主我們的天主要消滅我們，要我們喝苦膽，因為我們得罪了上主。
 耶:8.15     我們原期待和平，卻不見好轉；原期待復興的時機，反而只見恐怖!
 耶:8.16     從丹就可聽到敵人戰馬的喘息聲，戰馬嘶鳴，聲震全地；前來併吞土地和地上的一切，吞食城邑和城中的居民。
 耶:8.17     看，我必給你們派來不伯符咒的毒蛇，咬傷你們──上主的斷語──
 耶:8.18     無法療愈。 [無希望]  我戚戚憂傷，我心已憔悴。
 耶:8.19     由遠方傳來我的女兒──人民──哀號的呼聲：「上主已不在熙雍﹖或者她的君王已不在那裏嗎﹖──為什麼他們以自己的偶像和外邦的「虛無」激怒我﹖──
 耶:8.20     收割期已經過去，夏天已經完結，我們仍沒有獲救! 」
 耶:8.21     我的女兒──人民──的創傷使我心痛欲裂，鬱鬱不安，不勝感傷。
 耶:8.22     難道在基肋阿得沒有膏藥，或在那裏沒有醫生嗎﹖究竟為了什麼，我的女兒──人民──的創傷還沒有痊愈﹖
 耶:8.23     恨不得我的頭變成水源，我的眼化為淚泉，好能日夜哭泣我被殺死的女兒──人民!
  
 耶:9.1      [譴責猶大人民] 誰能在曠野給我找一個旅棧，叫我好離開我的人民，離他們而遠去﹖因為都是些淫亂之徒，是一群反叛；
 耶:9.2      他們彎起像弓的舌頭，使在地上得勢的，是虛偽而不是誠實，因為他們變本加厲作惡，全不理睬我──上主的斷語。
 耶:9.3      你們應各自提防自己的近人，不要信任弟兄，因為所有的弟兄都愛好欺詐，一般的近人都好說讒言；
 耶:9.4      人都欺騙自己的近人，不講實話，使自己的舌頭慣於說謊，竭力行惡，
 耶:9.5      不願悔悟，卻強暴上又加強暴，欺詐上又加欺詐，全不理睬我──上主的斷語。
 耶:9.6      為此萬軍的上主這樣說：「看，我要將他們淨化，提煉；否則，我將怎麼處理我的女兒--人民--的邪惡﹖
 耶:9.7      他們的舌頭像根毒箭，好出詐言；嘴上對鄰人說話溫和，心中卻設計陷害。
 耶:9.8      為這些事我豈能不懲罰﹖--上主的斷語--像這樣的一個民族，我豈能不圖報復﹖
 耶:9.9      [哀國土荒廢]  我要為群山號咷痛哭，為原野高唱哀歌，因為全都被焚毀，沒有人往來，再聽不到牲畜的聲音；自天空的飛鳥到地上的走獸，都逃去無蹤。
 耶:9.10     我要使耶路撒冷成為廢墟，成為豺狼的巢穴；使猶大的城市荒涼，無人居住。
 耶:9.11     誰夠聰明，能明白這事﹖上主親口吩咐誰公佈這事﹖「為什麼這地方遭受毀滅，荒蕪得有如無人經過的曠野﹖」
 耶:9.12     上主說：因為他們離棄了我給他們立定的法律，沒有聽從我的聲音，沒有按照法律而行；
 耶:9.13     反去順從自己頑固的心，追隨祖先教給他們的巴耳神。
 耶:9.14     為此萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：看，我必使這人民吃毒艾，飲毒水；
 耶:9.15     使他們流離到他們和他們祖先素不相識的民族中；派刀劍追擊他們，直至將他們完全消滅。
 耶:9.16     萬軍的上主這樣說：你們應該明白，快召哀悼的婦女來，派人去叫擅長哭泣的女人來，
 耶:9.17     叫她們迅速前來，對我們啼哭，使我們的眼睛流下眼淚，使我們的睫毛湧出淚水，
 耶:9.18     因為從熙雍那裏可以聽到哭聲：我們怎樣崩潰了，受了多大的恥辱! 竟要離開本國，拋棄我們的家園!
 耶:9.19     妳們婦女! 都應聽清上主的話，親耳聆聽祂口授的言詞；教妳們的女兒痛哭，彼此互相學唱哀歌：
 耶:9.20     因為死亡已從我們的窗戶爬進來，進入了我們的宮殿，殲滅了街上的孩童，和廣場上的青年。
 耶:9.21     你應這樣說──上主的斷語──人的屍體僵臥著，好像在田野裏的糞堆；又像遺留在收割者後面無人拾取的麥束。
 耶:9.22     [堪誇耀的事]  上主這樣說：「智者不應誇耀自己的智慧，力士不應誇耀自己的力量，富人不應誇耀自己的財富。
 耶:9.23     凡要誇耀的，只應在「知道和認識我」這件事上誇耀，因為在地上是我，上主，施行仁慈、公道和正義，因為我喜愛這些事──上主的斷語。
 耶:9.24     [未受割損的民族]  看，時日將到──上主的斷語──我要懲罰所有受過割損而仍存有包皮的人，
 耶:9.25     即埃及、猶大、厄東、阿孟子民、摩阿布和所有住在曠野剃除鬢髮的人，因為這一切民族都未受過割損，至於以色列全家卻是未受過內心的割損」。
  
 耶:10.1     [偶像乃虛無] 以色列家! 請聽上主對你們說的話。
 耶:10.2     上主這樣說：「你們不要學走異民的道路，不要畏懼天上的異兆：這是異民所畏懼的。
 耶:10.3     因為這些民族所敬畏的是「虛無」，是由森林砍來的樹木，是匠人用斧製的作品，
 耶:10.4     裝飾上金銀，用鐵釘鐵鎚釘住，叫它不動搖；
 耶:10.5     像胡瓜園裏的草人，不能言語；常需要人搬運，不能行走；你們不要害怕，因為它不能害人，也不能施救。
 耶:10.6     [上主惟一]  上主，沒有誰相似你；你是偉大的，你的名大有德能。
 耶:10.7     萬民的君王! 誰能不敬畏你﹖這是你應得的，因為萬民中所有的智者和他們所有的王國中，沒有誰與你相似；
 耶:10.8     你們全是愚昧無知。他們的教義全是虛偽不實，他們只不過是木偶；
 耶:10.9     是由塔爾史士採來的銀打成的薄片，是由敖非爾採來的黃金，是藝人和銀匠的製造品；穿的紫錦紅衣，都是工匠的作品。
 耶:10.10    只有上主是真天主，是生活的天主，永遠的君王；祂一震怒，大地便戰慄，萬民都不能抵受祂的忿怒。
 耶:10.11    【關於他們，你們應這樣說：那未能創造天地的神祗，只有從地上天下消滅。】
 耶:10.12    上主以自己的能力創造了大地，以自己的智慧奠定了寰宇，以自己的才智展佈了諸天。
 耶:10.13    祂一聲號令，使天上的水怒號，使雲彩從地極上騰，使雷電霹靂造成豪雨，使暴風從他的倉庫出發疾馳。
 耶:10.14    人都要自覺愚昧無知；每個銀匠必因自己的雕像感到羞愧，因為所鑄的像，只是「虛無」，沒有氣息；
 耶:10.15    是「虛無」，是愚弄人的作品；懲罰時期一到，它們都必要滅亡。
 耶:10.16    那位作雅各伯產業的，與他們迥然不同，因為祂是萬物的造主，以色列是作祂產業的支派，祂的名字叫「萬軍的上主」。
 耶:10.17    [恫嚇與悲傷]  你這被圍困的城池，快從地上拾起你的行囊!
 耶:10.18    因為上主這樣說：「看，這一次我必要遠遠拋棄這地的居民磨難他們，使他們覺悟。」
 耶:10.19    唉!我已遭破壞，我的創傷已不可治療，但我仍想：這只不過是疾病，我還能忍受。
 耶:10.20    我的帳幕已破壞，我的繩索都已裂斷，我的孩子全已離去，不復存在；再沒有人支搭我的帳幕，張設我的帷帳。
 耶:10.21    為民牧者既然愚蠢，不尋求上主，為此他們一事無成，羊群都已四散，
 耶:10.22    聽有個音訊傳來：將有大騷動從北方而來，要使猶大的城邑荒涼，成為豺狼的巢穴。
 耶:10.23    [不可逃避的災禍]  上主，我知道，人的道路不由人的，行走的人也不能隨便操縱自己的步伐。
 耶:10.24    上主，你懲戒我，只好按照正義，不要隨你的忿怒，免得我歸於烏有。
 耶:10.25    願你對不認識你的異民，和不呼求你名的宗族，發洩你的憤怒，因為他們併吞了雅各伯，毀滅破壞，蹂躝了她的住所。
  
 耶:11.1     [猶大違犯盟約] 上主有話傳給耶肋米亞說：
 耶:11.2     「你們應聽這盟約上的話，將這些話宣讀給猶大人和耶路撒冷的居民聽。
 耶:11.3     你應對他們說：「上主，以色列的天主這樣說：凡不聽從這盟約上的話的人，是可咒罵的!
 耶:11.4     這些話是我在領你們的祖先由鐵爐，即由埃及地出來的那天，對他們吩咐的。我對他們說：你們應聽從我的聲音，應依照我命令你們的一切去做，你們就必作我的人民，我也必作你們的天主，
 耶:11.5     好我能實踐對你們祖先所起的誓，賜給他們流奶流蜜的土地，有如今日。我即答說：「是，上主! 」
 耶:11.6     上主對我說：「你應在猶大城邑和耶路撒冷的街上宣佈這一切話說：你們應聽從這盟約上的話，依照遵行，
 耶:11.7     因為在我領你們的祖先由埃及上來的那一天，我就鄭重警告過他們，直到今日仍不斷勸告說：你們應聽從我的聲音!
 耶:11.8     他們不但不側耳聽從，反而各隨自己頑固的惡心生活，為此，我對他們執行了我命他們遵行，而他們沒有遵行的這盟約上的一切話。」
 耶:11.9     上主又對我說：「猶大和耶路撒冷居民間存有叛逆的陰謀，
 耶:11.10    他們再陷於他們那不願聽從我話的祖先的罪惡中，追隨事奉其他的神祗；以色列家和猶大家都違犯了我與他們祖先締結的盟約。
 耶:11.11    為此，上主這樣說：看，我必給他們召來不可逃避的災禍；即使他們向我呼號，我也不俯聽。
 耶:11.12    猶大城邑和耶路撒冷的居民，必去呼號他們獻香敬拜的神祗，但這些神祗在他們遭難時，決不能拯救他們。
 耶:11.13    的確，猶大! 你神祗的數目竟等於你城邑的數目；耶路撒冷有多少街道，你們也給可恥之物設立了多少祭壇，向巴耳獻香的祭壇。
 耶:11.14    至於你，你不必為這人民祈禱，不必為他們呼號祈求，因為他們在遭難時，才向我呼求，我必不俯聽。
 耶:11.15    我心愛的人! 你既為非作歹，還在我家裡做什麼﹖難道許願和祝聖的肉能使你免禍，叫你作惡而能倖免﹖
 耶:11.16    上主曾給你起名叫：「青綠茂盛而滿結佳果的橄欖樹」；但現在祂在雷電霹靂聲中，給綠葉燃起了火，燒毀了枝條。
 耶:11.17    那位培植你的萬軍的上主，命災禍來懲罰你，全是為了以色列家和猶大家自作自受的罪惡，因為他們向巴耳獻香，獨犯了我。
 耶:11.18    [先知遭同鄉人謀害]  上主叫我知道，我才知道；那時我看透了他們的作為：
 耶:11.19    我好像一隻馴服被牽去宰殺的羔羊，竟不知他們對我畜意謀害：「讓我毀壞這株生氣蓬勃的樹，將他由活人的地上拔除，使他的名字不再受人記念。」
 耶:11.20    公平審判和洞察肺腑的萬軍的上主! 願我見到你對他們的報復，因為我已向他們提出我的控訴。
 耶:11.21    為此，關於那些謀害我的性命，對我說：「你不要奉上主的名講預言，免得你死在我們手裏」的阿納托特人，上主這樣說，
 耶:11.22    萬軍的上主這樣說：「看，我必懲罰他們：青年必死在刀下，子女必死於饑荒，
 耶:11.23    使他們沒有子嗣，因為在懲罰他們的那年，我必給阿納托特人招來災禍。」
  
 耶:12.1     [惡人為何長享幸福]  上主，幾時我與你爭論，總是你有理；但我仍願與你討論正義：「為什麼惡人的生活總是順利，一般詭詐極惡的人總享安寧﹖
 耶:12.2     你栽植了他們，他們就生根滋長，結出果實；他們的口離你近，他們的心卻離你遠。
 耶:12.3     至於你，上主，你是認識我和瞭解我的，你考察了我對你的心意；求你把他們像待宰的羔羊一樣拉出來，留待宰殺的一天。
 耶:12.4     【這地要哀傷，整個田野的草木要枯萎到幾時﹖由於居民的邪惡，野獸和飛鳥都被消滅。】因為他們說：「天主不管我們的作為。」
 耶:12.5     「你與人徒步競走，尚覺疲乏，你怎麼能與馬角逐﹖在平安的地區尚覺不安，在約旦河的叢林區，你更將何如﹖
 耶:12.6     連你的兄弟和你的父族對你都無誠意，在你後面厲聲喊叫；即便他們對你說好話，你也不要相信。」
 耶:12.7     [荒涼的領域]  「我離開了我的家，拋棄了我的產業，將我最心愛的交在敵人的手中。
 耶:12.8     我的產業對我竟好像是森林中的獅子，向我咆哮，為此我憎恨它。
 耶:12.9     我的產業對我竟成了一隻帶斑點的鷙鳥，以致鷙鳥圍著向它襲擊。你們去聚集田野的一切野獸，叫它們來吞噬。
 耶:12.10    許多牧童毀壞了我的葡萄園，蹂躝了我的產業，使我喜愛的產業變為荒蕪的曠野。
 耶:12.11    他們使它荒涼，荒涼得在我面前哀傷；全地荒涼，因為沒有一人關心。
 耶:12.12    破壞者已來到曠野的一切高崗上，因為上主的刀劍正在砍伐，從地極到地極，凡有血肉的，都不得安寧。
 耶:12.13    他們播種了麥子，卻收割了荊棘；雖筋疲力竭，卻沒有利益；由於上主的憤怒，都因自己的收穫而害羞。
 耶:12.14    [警告鄰邦異民]  上主這樣說：關於那些險惡的鄰邦．即侵犯我給予我民以色列佔有的產業的鄰邦，看，我要由他們的地上將他們拔除，也要由他們中拔除猶大家。
 耶:12.15    在我拔除他們以後，我要再憐憫他們，引他們復歸自己的產業，各回自己的故鄉。
 耶:12.16    設若他們慇勤學走我人民的道路，奉我名發誓說：「上主永在」，如同他們昔日教我人民奉巴耳發誓一樣，他們就可在我的人民中再度復興。
 耶:12.17    倘若他們不聽從，我必拔除這民族，將他們拔除消滅──上主的斷語。
 耶:13.1
 耶:13.2     [腰帶和酒壼的象徵]  上主對我這樣說：「你去買條麻帶，束在腰間，但是不要浸在水裏。」
 耶:13.3     我就照上主的話去買了根麻帶，束在腰間。
 耶:13.4     上主的話第二次傳給我說：
 耶:13.5     「拿你買來束在腰間的帶子，起身往幼發拉的去，藏在那裏的嚴石縫裏」。
 耶:13.6     我照上主吩咐我的去了；將帶子藏在幼發拉的近旁。
 耶:13.7     過了多日，上主對我說：「你起身往幼發拉的去，拿回我吩咐你藏在那裏的帶子」。
 耶:13.8     我便往幼發拉的去了，我由藏下的地方挖出那帶子；看，已經腐爛，毫無用處了。
 耶:13.9     於是有上主的話傳給我說：
 耶:13.10    「上主這樣說：我也要這樣毀滅猶大的驕傲，和耶路撒冷極度的高傲。
 耶:13.11    這個拒絕聽我的話，而隨從自己固執的心行事，追隨事奉，朝拜其他神祗的邪惡人民，必要如這毫無用處的帶子一樣。
 耶:13.12    因為正如帶子緊貼在人的腰間，同樣我也曾使以色列全家和猶大全家緊緊依附我──上主的斷語──成為我的人民，我的名譽，我的讚美和我的光榮；但是他們卻沒有聽從。
 耶:13.13    你應向他們宣佈這話：上主以色列的天主這樣說：每個壺應盛滿酒。如果他們對你說：難道我們不知道，每個壺都應盛滿酒嗎﹖
 耶:13.14    你就答覆他們說：上主這樣說：看，我要使這地上的一切居民，坐在達味寶座上的君王，以及司祭和先知並耶路撒冷的一切居民，都酩酊大醉，
 耶:13.15    使他們彼此衝突，連父子也彼此衝突──上主的斷語──我毫不憐憫、不慈悲、不留情地將他們消滅」。
 耶:13.16    [警戒百姓勿驕矜自負]  你們側耳傾聽，不要傲慢，因為是上主在說話。
 耶:13.17    黑暗來臨以前，在你的腳還沒有在黑暗中撞在山石上以前，應將光榮歸於上主的天主；不然，你們期待光明，祂反發放死影，使它變得漆黑。
 耶:13.18    假使你們還不聽從這警告，對你的驕傲，我只有暗自痛哭，眼淚直流，因為上主的羊群已被擄去。
 耶:13.19    [全國上下流徙遠方]  你應對君王和太后說：「你們應坐低位，因為你們華麗的王冠已由你們頭上落下」。
 耶:13.20    南部的城邑已被封鎖，沒有人去打開，全猶大已被擄去，全被擄去。
 耶:13.21    請你舉目觀望那來自北方的人；昔日委託給你的羊群，那壯麗的羊群，如今在那裏﹖
 耶:13.22    祂懲罰你，你還有什麼話說﹖是你教導了昔日的盟友來統治你，豈能不使你痛苦得像個臨產的婦女﹖
 耶:13.23    假使你心裏說：為什麼我遭遇了這些事──是因你罪大惡極，你的衣邊才被掀起，你的腳跟才受到污辱。
 耶:13.24    [絕望的遭遇]  雇士人豈能改變牠的膚色，豹子豈能改變牠的斑點﹖那你們這些習於作惡的人，豈能行善﹖
 耶:13.25    為此，我必使他們四散，像被曠野裏的風捲去的草芥。
 耶:13.26    這是你的命運，是我量給你的分子──上主的斷語──因為你忘記了我，信賴了「虛無」；
 耶:13.27    故此我也要將你的衣邊掀到你面上，使人見到你的羞恥。
 耶:13.28    你的姦淫，你春情的嘶鳴，你猥褻的淫亂，你在高丘上和田野間可恥的行為，我都看見了。禍哉，耶路撒冷! 你不肯自潔，要到何時﹖
  
 耶:14.1     [旱災為患]  有上主論旱災的話，傳給耶肋米亞說：
 耶:14.2     「猶大悲哀，城門蕭條，人人垂頭至地，耶路撒冷哀號四起。
 耶:14.3     顯貴派童僕去打水，來到井邊，卻不見有水，帶著空器回去，迷惑慚愧，遮住自己的頭。
 耶:14.4     因為地上不落雨，田地無法耕耘，農夫們都已絕望，遮住自己的頭。
 耶:14.5     甚至母鹿在田間生產，因為沒有青草，也得拋棄自己的幼雛。
 耶:14.6     野獸站在童山上，像野狗一般喘息；雙目失神，因為沒有草吃。
 耶:14.7     上主，我們的罪過若指證我們，但求你因你的名而施救，因為我們屢次失節，得罪了你。
 耶:14.8     你是以色列的希望，是她在患難中的救主。為什麼你在本鄉好像是個異鄉人，好像是個投宿一夜的旅客﹖
 耶:14.9     為什麼你好像是個沈睡的人，好像是個不能施救的勇士﹖上主，你常在我們之中，我們是歸你名下的人，求你不要離棄我們。
 耶:14.10    上主論這人民這樣說：「他們這樣愛好遊蕩，沒有約束自己的腳，為此上主不喜悅他們；現在憶起了他們的過犯，就懲罰他們的罪惡」。
 耶:14.11    上主對我說：「你不要為這人民求情!
 耶:14.12    即使他們齋戒，我也不會俯聽他們的呼籲；即使他們奉獻全燔祭和素祭，我也不會悅納，反而要用戰爭、饑饉和瘟疫將他們消滅」。
 耶:14.13    我於是說：「哎呀! 我主上主! 你看，先知們對他們說：你們決不會見到戰爭，你們決不會遭受饑荒，在這地方我必賜給你們真正的平安」。
 耶:14.14    上主對我說：「先知們以我的名預言謊話，我並沒有派遣他們，也沒有對他們說過話。他們給你們所預言的，是荒謬的幻象空妄的卜筮，存心騙人的欺詐。
 耶:14.15    為此上主這樣說：關於那些以我名義說預言的先知，我既沒有派遣他們，而他們反說：在這地方不會有戰爭和饑饉，他們就必死於戰爭和饑饉。
 耶:14.16    至於聽他們向自己講說預言的人民，必因饑饉和戰爭，陳屍在耶路撒冷街頭，沒有人掩埋他們和他們的妻室子女；我必將他們的邪惡都傾注在他們身上。
 耶:14.17    [先知的哀傷]  你應將這話轉告他們：我眼淚直流，晝夜不息，因為我的處女──人民──大受摧殘，受了嚴重的打擊。
 耶:14.18    我若走入田間，看見刀殺的遺屍；我若進入城裏，看見饑饉的可怖慘狀；就連先知和司祭們也流亡到他們素不相識的地方」。
 耶:14.19    難道你決意拋棄猶大，實心厭惡熙雍﹖為什麼你打擊我們，致使我們醫治無望﹖我們原是期待和平，卻不見好轉；希望醫治的時日，卻只見恐怖!　
 耶:14.20    上主，我們承認我們的罪惡，和我們祖先的過犯；我們實在得罪了你。
 耶:14.21    願你為了你的名，不要嫌棄，不要輕慢你光榮的御座! 望你記憶，不要廢除你與我們訂的盟約!
 耶:14.22    異民的「虛無」中，有能降雨的嗎﹖或是諸天能自施甘霖﹖難道不只是你，上主我們的天主! 我們寄望於你，因為你行了這一切事。
  
 耶:15.1     [上主不憐恤以民]  上主對我說：「縱使梅瑟和撒慕爾立在我面前，我的心仍不轉向這人民；你由我面前將他們驅逐，叫他們離去。
 耶:15.2     假如人對你說：我們往哪裏去﹖你就對他們說：上主這樣說：「該死的就死，該殺的就殺，該挨餓的就挨餓，該被擄去的，就被擄去。
 耶:15.3     我必用四種刑罰來懲罰他們──上主的斷語──用刀劍來殺，用野狗來拖，用天空的飛鳥和地上的野獸來吞食，來消滅。
 耶:15.4     我為了猶大王希則克雅的兒子默納舍在耶路撒冷所行的事，必使他們成為地上萬國恐怖的對象。
 耶:15.5     耶路撒冷! 誰還憐恤你，誰還同情你，誰還轉身向你問安﹖
 耶:15.6     你既離棄了我──上主的斷語──轉身背著我，我就只有對你伸出我的手，將你消滅；我對寬恕已感厭倦：
 耶:15.7     我要在這地的城門口，用簸箕將他們簸散，使他們喪失子女；我要消滅我的人民，因為他們不離開自己的行徑。
 耶:15.8     他們的寡婦已多過海邊的沙粒；我要給他們招來午間的破壞者，襲擊英俊勇士的母親，使痛苦和恐怖突然降到她身上。
 耶:15.9     生過七個子女的母親，現已身衰氣絕，還是白天，她的太陽已經西落，她只有絕望惆悵；至於他們的遺民，我必使他們在敵人面前死於刀下──上主的斷語。
 耶:15.10    [先知感懷身世]  我的母親! 我真不幸! 你竟生了我這與普世對抗相爭的人。我沒有向人借貸，人也沒有向我借貸，人卻都辱罵我。
 耶:15.11    實在，上主，我豈沒有盡力事奉你﹖我豈沒有在災難禍患時為仇人向你懇求﹖
 耶:15.12    人豈能折斷北方的鐵和銅﹖
 耶:15.13    【我必使你的財產和寶藏，任人搶劫，為賠補你在你全境內犯的罪惡，
 耶:15.14    叫你在你不認識的地方，給你的仇敵為奴，因為我的怒火已燃起，必對你們發作】。
 耶:15.15    上主，你都知道，求你回念我，眷顧我，為我報復迫害我的人，不要因你太忍耐，就讓我死去；你該知道：正是為了你，我才受人侮辱。
 耶:15.16    你的話一來到，我就吞下去；你的話便成了我的喜悅，我心中的歡樂，上主，萬軍的天主! 因為我是歸於你名下的，
 耶:15.17    我從沒有坐在歡笑者的集會中一同取樂；我卻依你的指示獨自靜坐，因為你使我憤怒填胸。
 耶:15.18    為什麼我的痛苦如此久長，我的創傷不可醫治，痊愈無望﹖你於我好像是一條不常有水，而變化無常的溪流!
 耶:15.19    為此上主這樣說：「你若回來，我必讓你回來，使你能再立在我面前；你若能發表高尚而非荒謬的思想，你就可作我的口舌，使他們轉向你，而不是你轉向他們。
 耶:15.20    這樣，我必使你對這人民成為一設防的銅牆，他們能攻擊你，卻不能制勝你，因為有我與你同在，援助你，解救你──上主的斷語──
 耶:15.21    我必解救你脫離惡人的手，由強暴人的掌握中將你贖回」。
  
 耶:16.1     [生子反不幸]  上主的話傳給我說：
 耶:16.2     「在這地方，你不要娶妻，不要有兒女，
 耶:16.3     因為上主關於生在這地方的子女，和在這境內生育他們的母親，以及生養他們的父親這樣說：
 耶:16.4     「他們必死於死症，沒有人哀悼，沒有人掩埋，有如地面上的糞土。他們反為戰爭和饑荒所毀滅，他們的屍首必成為天上飛鳥和地上野獸的食物」。
 耶:16.5     因為上主這樣說：「你不要進入居喪者之家，去舉哀弔唁，因為我已由這人民撤回了我的平安、慈愛和憐憫──上主的斷語──
 耶:16.6     無論大小都要死在這地方，無人掩埋，沒有人為他們舉喪，沒有人為了他們而刺身剃髮；
 耶:16.7     沒有人與居喪者分食喪餅，以相弔慰；沒有人與居父喪或母喪者飲一杯慰唁酒。
 耶:16.8     有宴會的家，你也不要進去，與他們一同坐下吃喝，
 耶:16.9     因為萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：看，我必在你們眼前，在你們的時日內，使這地方再也聽不到歡愉和喜樂的聲音，新郎和新娘的聲音。
 耶:16.10    [以色列的過犯]  當你把這一切話告訴這人民時，他們必問你說：為什麼上主對我們宣佈了這一切大災禍﹖我們有什麼過犯，我們有什麼罪惡干犯了上主我們的天主﹖
 耶:16.11    你就答應說：是因為你們的祖先離棄了我──上主的斷語──跟隨了別的神祗，事奉朝拜，而背棄了我，沒有遵守我的法律。
 耶:16.12    至於你們，你們作惡更甚於你的祖先；看，你們各人隨從自己頑固的惡意生活，不聽從我；
 耶:16.13    所以我必從這地上將你們驅逐，到你們和你們的祖先從不認識的地方去，讓你們在那裏日夜事奉別的神祗；我再也不對你們表示憐愛。
 耶:16.14    【為此，看，時日即將來臨──上主的斷語──人不再發誓說：領以色列子民由埃及地上來的「上主永在」，
 耶:16.15    卻要說：領以色列子民由北方，並由祂驅逐他們所至的各地回來的「上主永在」；因為我必領他們回到我已賜給他們祖先的地方。】
 耶:16.16    看，我必派許多漁夫──上主的斷語──來捕捉他們；以後，我又派許多獵人來， 從各山上，各丘陵和岩石的裂縫間，獵取他們，
 耶:16.17    因為我的眼注視他們的一切行徑，他們不能由我面前隱藏，他們的過犯在我眼前也不能隱藏。
 耶:16.18    我首先要加倍報復他們的過犯和罪惡，因為他們以死屍般的偶像玷污了我的土地，使我的基業上滿是醜惡的神像」。
 耶:16.19    [異民要歸依上主]  上主，我的力量，我的保障，我憂患之日的避難所，萬民必從地極來到你面前說：「我們的祖先承受的只是虛假、空虛和毫無益處的事」。
 耶:16.20    人豈能為自己製造神祗﹖凡製造的，絕不是神!
 耶:16.21    為此，看，我必叫他們知道，這次我必叫他們體驗我的手和我的能力，使他們知道我的名字是「上主」。
  
 耶:17.1     [鄭重警告]  猶大的罪是用鐵筆記錄下來的，用鑽石尖刻在他們的心坎上和他們的祭壇上，好叫他們的子孫記得他們在高崗上，青綠樹下和平原的山上，
 耶:17.2     設立了祭壇和神木。
 耶:17.3     你的財產和所有的寶藏，我必使人掠奪，以抵償你在全境內犯過的一切罪惡。
 耶:17.4     我必由你手中撤回我賜與你的產業，叫你在不相識的地方給你敵人為奴，因為我的怒火已燃起，將永遠不熄。
 耶:17.5     上主這樣說：「凡信賴世人，以血肉的人為自己的臂膊，決心遠離上主的人，是可咒罵的!
 耶:17.6     他必像一株在曠野中的檉柳，即使幸福來到，一點也不覺察，只住在曠野乾燥處，滿含鹽質無人居住之地。
 耶:17.7     凡信賴上主，以上主作依靠的人，是可祝福的；
 耶:17.8     他必像一株栽在水邊的樹木，生根河畔，不怕炎熱的侵襲，枝葉茂盛，不愁旱年，不斷結實。
 耶:17.9     人心最狡滑欺詐，已不可救藥；誰能透識﹖
 耶:17.10    我上主究察人心，考驗肺腑，依照各人的行徑和作為的結果，給人報酬。
 耶:17.11    誰不以正義積聚財物，就像一隻鷓鴣孵化不是自己產的卵，中途必要拋棄；結果，還是自己糊塗。
 耶:17.12    我們聖所的地方，從起初就是設在崇高之處的光榮寶座。
 耶:17.13    上主，以色列的希望! 凡離棄你的，必要蒙羞；上主，凡遠離你的，必被記錄在地上，因為他們離棄了活水的泉源。
 耶:17.14    [先知有恃無恐]  上主，求你醫治我，我必能痊愈；你拯救我，我必能獲救，因為你是我的榮耀。
 耶:17.15    看啊，世人對我說：上主的話在哪裏﹖讓它來吧!
 耶:17.16    至於我，我沒有強迫你加害，也沒有願望災禍的日子；你知道：凡出自我口的，都先向你面陳過。
 耶:17.17    請你不要成為我的恐怖，你原是我患難之日的避難所。
 耶:17.18    願迫害我的人蒙羞；而不是我蒙羞；願他們驚慌，而不是我驚慌；請你給他們招來災禍的日子，以雙倍的毀滅，消滅他們。
 耶:17.19    [勸人守安息日]  上主這樣對我說：「你去立在猶大君王出入的本雅明門前，立在耶路撒冷各門前，
 耶:17.20    向他們說：猶大的君王、全體猶大人和耶路撒冷居民，即凡由這些門進來的，他們聆聽上主的話!
 耶:17.21    上主這樣說：你們應該小心，不要在安息日擔運重載，進入耶路撒冷的城門。
 耶:17.22    不要在安息日從你們的家裏搬運重載；不要做任何工作，卻要按照我給你們祖先所吩咐的，聖化安息日。
 耶:17.23    他們不但不側耳傾聽，反而硬著頭頸，不願依從，不願受教。
 耶:17.24    設若你們認真聽從我──上主的斷語──在安息日，不將重擔搬進這城門，卻聖化安息日，不做任何工作；
 耶:17.25    那麼，坐在達味實座上的君王和王侯，便會乘車騎馬，與自己的公卿、猶大人和耶路撒冷的居民，從這城的門進來；這城必永遠有人居住；
 耶:17.26    人們從猶大各城、耶路撒冷四週、本雅明地、平原、山地和南方前來，帶著全燔祭、犧牲、素祭和乳香，在上主的殿裏奉獻感恩祭。
 耶:17.27    但是，如果你們不聽從我，不聖化安息日，反在安息日擔運重載，進入耶路撒冷的城門，我必在城門口放火，叫火吞滅耶路撒冷的宮殿，決不熄滅。」
  
 耶:18.1     [陶工製器的象徵]  上主有話傳給耶肋米亞說：
 耶:18.2     「起來，下到陶工家裏去，在那裏我要讓你聽到我的話」。
 耶:18.3     我便下到陶工家裏，見他正在輪盤上工作。
 耶:18.4     陶工用泥做的器皿，若在他手中壞了，他便再做，或另做成一個器皿，全隨陶工的意思去做。
 耶:18.5     於是上主的話傳給我說：
 耶:18.6     .「以色列家，我豈不能像這陶工一樣對待你們﹖──上主的斷語──以色列家! 看，你們在我手中，就像泥土在陶工手中一樣。
 耶:18.7     我一時可對一個民族，或一個國家，決意要拔除，要毀壞，要消滅；
 耶:18.8     但是我要打擊的民族，若離棄自己的邪惡，我也反悔，不再給他降原定的災禍。
 耶:18.9     或者，我一時想對一個民族或一個國家，決意要建設，要栽培，
 耶:18.10    但若她行我不喜歡的事，不聽從我的聲音，我也要反悔，不再給她所許過的恩惠。
 耶:18.11    現在你可告訴猶大人和耶路撒冷的居民說：上主這樣說：看，我已給你們安排了災禍，定了懲罰你們的計劃，希望你們每人離棄自己的邪道，改善自己的途徑和作為」。
 耶:18.12    他們反倒答說：「已沒有希望了! 因為我們願隨從自己的計謀，各按自己頑固的惡意行事」。
 耶:18.13    [猶大背信淪亡]  為此上主這樣說：「你們可到各民族去詢問：有誰聽到了像這樣的事﹖以色列處女做出了極可憎的事。
 耶:18.14    黎巴嫩山巔的巖石豈能缺少積雪﹖叢山間湧流的冰泉，豈能涸竭﹖
 耶:18.15    但我的人民卻忘掉了我，向「虛無」獻香，滑出了自己的正道，離開舊日的行徑，而走上了小道，不平坦的路，
 耶:18.16    使自己的地域變為驚愕的原因，取笑的目標；凡經過這地方的人，莫不驚異搖首。
 耶:18.17    我必像一陣東風在敵人面前將他們吹散；在他們滅亡之日，我必使你們只見我背，不見我面」。
 耶:18.18    [先知求主罰敵]  他們說：「來，我們合謀陷害耶肋米亞! 因為沒有司祭，法律不會因此廢止；沒有智者，計謀不會因此缺乏；沒有先知，神諭不會因此斷絕。來，我們用舌頭評擊他，不注意他的一切勸告」。
 耶:18.19    上主，願你俯聽我，請聽我敵人的聲明。
 耶:18.20    難道該以怨報德嗎﹖他們竟掘下陷阱來陷害我的性命! 望你記憶：我曾站在你面前為他們求情，替他們挽回你的盛怒。
 耶:18.21    為此，你應使他們的子孫遭受饑荒，任人屠殺；使他們的婦女喪子居寡，使他們的男人死於瘟疫，使他們的青年在戰埸上死於刀下。
 耶:18.22    當你引匪隊突擊他們時，願從他們的屋裏可聽到哭聲，因為他們掘了陷阱捕捉我，在我腳下設下羅網。
 耶:18.23    至於你，上主，你知道他們對我的一切計劃是要殺害我；請你不要寬恕他們的過惡，不要由你面前抹去他們的罪過，務使他們倒仆在你面前；在你發怒時，求你報復他們。
  
 耶:19.1     [碎瓶的象徵行為]  上主這樣對耶肋米亞說：「你去向陶工買一個瓦瓶，然後帶些民間長老和司祭首長，
 耶:19.2     到陶業門進口處的本希農山谷去，在那裏宣佈我要對你說的話。
 耶:19.3     你要說：猶大王和耶路撒冷的居民! 請聆聽上主的話。萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：看，我必給這地方招來災禍，凡聽見的，必要耳鳴，
 耶:19.4     因為他們離棄了我，使這地方成了異地，在這裏向他們和他們的祖先猶大王都不認識的外邦神祗獻香，使這地方充滿無辜的血，
 耶:19.5     給巴耳建了高丘，向巴耳火焚自己的兒子作全燔祭：這都是我從沒有吩咐，沒有說過，沒有想到的事。
 耶:19.6     因此，看，時日將到──上主的斷語──這地方不再叫作托斐特或本希農山谷，卻要叫做「屠殺谷」。
 耶:19.7     在這地方，我必使猶大和耶路撒冷的計劃落空，使他們在敵人面前喪身刀下，死在圖謀他們性命者的手中，將他們的屍首丟棄給天上的飛鳥，和地上的走獸作食物。
 耶:19.8     我必使這城成為驚愕的緣因和譏誚的目標；使凡從這裏經過的人，沒有不因她所受的一切打擊，而感到驚異和嗟嘆的!
 耶:19.9     我必使他們吞食自己子女的肉：在敵人和圖謀他們性命的人圍攻他們，處於困危之時，必吞食自己近人的肉。
 耶:19.10    以後，你就在與你同來的人眼前將那瓶打破，
 耶:19.11    對他們說：萬軍的上主這樣說：我要這樣破壞這人民和這城市，就如人打破這陶工的器皿，再也無法補救；人必將托斐特充作墳埸，因為再沒有地方可供埋葬。
 耶:19.12    我必這樣對待這地方和這地的居民──上主的斷語──使這城市像托斐特一樣；
 耶:19.13    耶路撒冷的房屋和猶大王的宮殿，即他們在樓頂上向天上的萬象獻香，並給外方的神祗行奠禮的一切房屋，都必像托斐特一樣，成為不潔的地方。
 耶:19.14    耶肋米亞奉上主派遣到托斐特宣講預言回來以後，站在上主殿宇的庭院裏，向全體人民說：
 耶:19.15    「萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：看，我必給這城市和她所屬的一切市鎮，招來我對她說過的災禍，因為她硬著頭頸，不肯聽從我的話」。
  
 耶:20.1     [先知無罪入獄]  依默爾的兒子帕市胡爾司祭，上主殿宇的總監督，聽見了耶肋米亞預言這些事，
 耶:20.2     帕市胡爾便打了耶肋米亞先知，給他加上腳鐐，把他囚在上主殿內本雅明上門的監牢裏。
 耶:20.3     次日，帕市胡爾給耶肋米亞去了腳鐐；耶肋米亞便對他說：「上主不再稱你為「帕市胡爾」，卻稱你為「驚慌四起」。
 耶:20.4     因為上主這樣說：看，我必使你和你的一切友人遭受驚慌；他們必倒在敵人的刀下，而且你要親眼看見這事；我將全猶大人交在巴比倫王的手中，他要將他們擄到巴比倫去，用刀擊殺。
 耶:20.5     這城的一切財物，一切積蓄，一切珍寶，以及猶大列王的一切寶藏，我都要交在他們敵人的手中，讓他們搶劫掠奪，運到巴比倫去。
 耶:20.6     至於你，帕市胡爾! 以及凡住在你家中的人，都要被擄去充軍；你和你向他們講假預言的一切友人，都要到巴比倫去，死在那裏，埋在那裏。」
 耶:20.7     [對上主有所不滿]  上主，你引誘了我，我讓我自己受了你的引誘；你確實比我強，你戰勝了。我終日成為笑柄，人都嘲笑我。
 耶:20.8     因為我每次發言，必得叫喊，必得高呼：「暴虐! 破壞! 」實在，上主的話，為我日日成為受侮辱和譏笑的因由。
 耶:20.9     假使我說：我不再想念他，不再以他的名發言；在我心中就像有火在焚燒，蘊藏在我的骨髓內；我竭力抑制，亦不可能。
 耶:20.10    實在，我聽到了多少人私相耳語：「驚慌四起! 你們揭發，我們就必對他提出控訴。」甚至我一切的友好都在偵察我的破綻：「也許他會入彀，那我們必能制勝他，對他施行報復。」
 耶:20.11    但是與我同在的上主，好像是一位孔武有力的戰士，為此迫害我的人只有失敗，決不能制勝；由於謀事不成，必蒙受極大的恥辱，永不可磨滅的羞辱。
 耶:20.12    噫萬軍的上主! 你考驗義人，洞察人的肝膽肺腑；我既給你訴說了我的案情，願你使我見到你對他們的報復。
 耶:20.13    你們應歌頌上主，讚揚上主，因為他從惡人的手中，救出了窮苦人的性命。
 耶:20.14    [生不如死]  願我誕生的那一天，是可咒罵的；願我母親生我的那一天，不蒙受祝福!
 耶:20.15    願那給我父親報信說：「給你生了一個男孩，」叫他異常高興的人，是可詛咒的!
 耶:20.16    願這人像上主不顧惜消滅的城市：早晨聽到哀號，正午聽到警報；
 耶:20.17    因為他沒有叫我死在母胎，使我的母親成為我的墳墓，叫她永遠不分娩生我! 為什麼我要從母胎裏出來，眼見辛酸痛苦，在羞辱中消磨我的歲月﹖
 耶:20.18    為什麼我要就母胎裏生出來，眼見辛酸痛苦，在羞辱中消磨我的歲月﹖
  
 耶:21.1     [猶大勢必國破家亡]  上主傳給耶肋米亞的話：那時，漆德克雅王正派瑪耳基雅的兒子帕市胡爾，和司祭瑪阿色雅的兒子責法尼雅來見他說：
 耶:21.2     替我們詢問上主：「巴比倫王拿步高既來與我們作戰，上主是否依照他所行的奇事來協助我們，叫他離我們遠去﹖」
 耶:21.3     耶肋米亞便回答他們說：「你們應這樣對漆德克雅說：
 耶:21.4     上主，以色列的天主這樣說：看，我必使你們手中所持，用以攻擊在城外圍攻你們的巴比倫王和加色丁人的武器，反回集中在這城的中心。
 耶:21.5     然後我要伸出手來，以強力的手臂、震怒、狂暴和憤恨痛擊你們，
 耶:21.6     痛擊住在這裏的人和獸；他們必死於盛行的瘟疫。
 耶:21.7     此後──上主的斷語──我必將猶大王漆德克雅和他的臣僕，並這城中幸免於瘟疫、刀劍和饑饉的人民，交在巴比倫王拿步高和他們的仇敵，以及謀圖他們性命者的手中，叫敵人用利刃擊殺他們，毫不饒恕，毫不憐憫，毫不表同情。
 耶:21.8     此外，你應對這人民說：上主這樣說：看，我將生命的路和死亡的路，擺在你們面前：
 耶:21.9     凡留在這城中的，必死於刀劍、饑饉和瘟疫；凡出來向圍攻你們的加色丁人投降的，必保全性命，必有生命當作自己的勝利品。
 耶:21.10    我所以轉面向著這城，是為降災，並不是為賜福──上主的斷語──這城必被交在巴比倫王手中，他要火燒這城。」
 耶:21.11    [對約雅金王的神諭]  對於猶大的王室，你應該這樣說：你們該聆聽上主的話，
 耶:21.12    達味家族! 上主這樣說：「你們應及早執行正義，從壓迫者手中解救被剝奪的人，免得我的忿怒，因你們行事邪惡，像火一般燒起，而沒有人能夠熄滅。」
 耶:21.13    [對耶京的預言]  至於你這居住在谷中和平原巖石上的人，看，我來對付你──上主的斷語──你們誇說：「誰能下來攻擊我們﹖誰能進入我們的巢穴﹖」
 耶:21.14    我必按照你們行為應得的，來懲罰你們──上主的斷語──我要在她的樹林裏放火，吞滅她四周的一切。
  
 耶:22.1     [先知警告君王]  上主這樣說：「你下到猶大王宮去，在那裏宣佈這話，
 耶:22.2     說：坐在達味寶座上的猶大王! 你和你的臣僕及從這些門進來的人民，該聆聽上主的話。
 耶:22.3     上主這樣說：你們應執行公道正義，從壓迫人的手中解救受剝奪的人，不要傷害虐待外方人和孤兒寡婦，不要在這地方上流無辜者的血。
 耶:22.4     假使你們實在照這話去做，必有坐在達味寶座上的君王，乘車騎馬，與自己的臣僕和人民從這宮殿的門進來；
 耶:22.5     倘若你們不聽從這話，我指著自己起誓──上主的斷語──這宮殿必要變為廢墟。
 耶:22.6     因為上主這樣論猶大王的宮殿說：即使你為我有如基肋阿得，又如黎巴嫩的山頂，我仍要使你變為荒野，成為無人居住的城市；
 耶:22.7     我要祝聖那已武裝的毀滅者來攻擊你，砍伐你最佳美的香柏，投入火中。
 耶:22.8     許多民族經過這城時，必互相問說：為什麼上主這樣對待了這座大城市﹖
 耶:22.9     人必答說：因為他們廢棄了上主他們的天主的盟約，敬拜事奉了別的神祇。」
 耶:22.10    [有關約阿哈次的神諭]  你們不要為已死的人哭泣，不要為他舉哀；卻要為遠去的人痛哭，因為他不會再回來，見他的生身地。
 耶:22.11    因為上主這樣論猶大王約史雅的兒子，即繼承他父親約史雅為王的沙隆說：「他一離開這地方，就不會再回來，
 耶:22.12    必死在被擄去的地方，不會再見此地。」
 耶:22.13    [有關約雅金的神諭]  禍哉，那不以公道正義建築自己的宮殿樓臺，叫人為自己徒勞而不給他工資的人!
 耶:22.14    他說：我得給自己建築廣大的宮殿，寬敞的樓臺，開設窗戶，鑲上香柏，塗上丹砂。
 耶:22.15    你為王是要以香柏爭勝嗎﹖你父親豈不也吃也喝﹖但他執行公道正義，為此能一切順利；
 耶:22.16    他親自裁判弱小和貧苦人的案件，因此一切順利；這豈不是表示他認識我﹖──上主的斷語──
 耶:22.17    至於你，你的眼和心，只顧私利，只知流無辜者的血，施行欺壓和勒索。
 耶:22.18    為此上主這樣說：「對於猶大王約史雅的兒子約雅金，人必不哀悼他說：哀哉，我兄弟! 或哀哉，我姊妹! 人必不哀悼他說：哀哉，主上! 或哀哉，陛下!
 耶:22.19    人要埋葬他如同埋葬一匹死驢，將他拖出，拋在耶路撒冷的門外。」
 耶:22.20    [有關耶路撒冷的神諭]  你該上黎巴嫩去呼喊，在巴商提高你的聲音，由阿巴陵喊叫，因為你的情侶都已滅亡。
 耶:22.21    在你歡樂時，我曾勸告過你，你卻說：「我不聽從。」你從幼年，就是這般行徑，從不聽我的聲音。
 耶:22.22    你所有的牧人將被風捲去，你的情侶必流徒遠方；那時你必因你行的一切邪惡，含羞抱愧。
 耶:22.23    你現在住在黎巴嫩，在香柏樹上營巢，但是，當痛苦，像產婦的痛苦襲擊你時，你將多麼可憐!
 耶:22.24    [有關苛尼雅的神諭]  我永在──上主的斷語──猶大王約雅金的兒子苛尼雅，即便你是我右手上蓋章的指環，我也要將你拔除，
 耶:22.25    交在圖謀你性命和你畏懼的人的手中，交在巴比倫王拿步高和加色丁人的手中；
 耶:22.26    將你和你生身的母親，拋在不是你們出生的異地，叫你們死在那裏。
 耶:22.27    他們必不能回到他心靈渴望回去的地方。
 耶:22.28    苛尼雅這人，不是個可鄙而該毀滅的器皿，或無人喜悅的傢具嗎﹖為什麼他和他的後裔被拋棄，被投擲到自己不相識的地方去﹖
 耶:22.29    地啊! 地啊! 請聆聽上主的話!
 耶:22.30    上主這樣說：「你應記錄：這人是一個無子女，畢生無成就的人，因為他的後裔中，沒有一人能成功，能坐上達味的寶座，再統治猶大。」
  
 耶:23.1     [假先知謠言惑眾]  禍哉，那把我牧場上的羊群摧殘和趕散的牧人──上主的斷語──
 耶:23.2     為此上主，以色列的天主，對牧放我民的牧人這樣說：「你們驅散趕走了我的羊群，不加照顧；現在，看，我必依照你們的惡行來懲罰你們──上主的斷語──
 耶:23.3     我要從我以前驅散牠們所到的各地，集合我尚存的羊，引導牠們再回自己的羊棧，叫牠們滋生繁殖；
 耶:23.4     我要興起牧者來牧放牠們，使牠們無恐無懼，再也不會失掉一個──上主的斷語。
 耶:23.5     看，時日將到──上主的斷語──我必給達味興起一支正義的苗芽，叫他執政為王，斷事明智，在地上執行公道正義。
 耶:23.6     在他的日子裏，猶大必獲救，以色列必居享安寧；人將稱他為：「上主是我們的正義。」
 耶:23.7     為此，看，時日將到──上主的斷語──人不再以『那領以色列子民由埃及地上來的上主，永在』的話起誓，
 耶:23.8     卻要以『那領以色列家的後裔，由北方，由他驅逐他們所到的各地回來，使他們再住在自己故鄉的上主，永在』的話起誓。
 耶:23.9     [有關假先知的神諭]  論到先知：我的心在我懷內已破碎，我渾身骨骸戰慄；為了上主，為了他的聖言，我好像成了一個醉漢，成了一個不勝酒力的人，
 耶:23.10    因為地上充滿了犯奸的人，為此，地受詛咒，只有哀傷，原野草場已枯乾；他們奔走的是邪路，他們的勢力是不義。
 耶:23.11    實在，先知和司祭都不虔誠，以至連在我的殿裏，也發現了他們的邪惡──上主的斷語──
 耶:23.12    因此，他們的道路為他們必將變為滑道，他們必被驅入黑暗，必要跌倒；因為到了降罰他們的年分，我必給他們招來災禍──上主的斷語──
 耶:23.13    在撒瑪黎雅的先知中，我亦發現了可惡的事：他們竟奉巴耳的名義說預言，使我的以色列民誤入歧途。
 耶:23.14    在耶路撒冷的先知中，我更發現了極可惡的事：他們竟犯姦淫，行動虛偽，助長惡人的勢力，致使誰也不痛悔自己的邪惡；他們對我猶如索多瑪，其中的居民好像哈摩辣人。
 耶:23.15    為此，萬軍的上主論先知這樣說：看啊! 我必叫他們吃苦艾，喝毒水，因為全地邪惡蔓延，都是出於耶路撒冷的先知。
 耶:23.16    萬軍的上主這樣說：不要聽向你們說預言的先知的話；他們只使你們妄想，他們講的，並非出自上主的口，而只是他們心中的幻想。
 耶:23.17    他們對那輕視我的人肯定：「上主說：你們必享平安。」對一切隨從自己頑固的心行事的人說：「災禍不會來到你們身上。」
 耶:23.18    其實，有誰參加過上主的會議，親自聽見過他的話﹖有誰曾留意聽他的話，而實在聽到了﹖
 耶:23.19    看，上主的憤怒，如暴風發作，像旋風在惡人的頭上旋轉。
 耶:23.20    上主的烈怒必不止息，直到他執行和完成了他心裏的計劃；到末日你們必能徹底明瞭。
 耶:23.21    我並沒有派遣這些先知，他們卻自動奔走；我並沒有對他們說話，他們卻擅說預言。
 耶:23.22    假使他們果真參加過我的會議，就該使我的人民聽到我的話，叫他們離棄自己邪道，和自己邪惡的行為。
 耶:23.23    難道對近處的，我是天主──上主的斷語──對遠處的，我就不是天主了嗎﹖
 耶:23.24    人若隱藏在暗處，我就看不見了嗎﹖──上主的斷語──難道我不是充滿天地的天主嗎？──上主的斷語──
 耶:23.25    我聽見了這些先知說的，他們奉我名預言虛妄說：我做了一夢，我做了一夢!
 耶:23.26    先知在民間妄說預言，宣講自己心中的幻想，要到幾時呢﹖
 耶:23.27    他們互相傳述自己的夢幻，企圖使我的人民忘記我的名，如同他們的祖先為了巴耳而忘記了我的名一樣。
 耶:23.28    得了夢的先知，讓他傳夢；得了我的話的，就該忠實傳述我的話；麥稈怎能與麥粒相比﹖──上主的斷語──
 耶:23.29    我的話豈不是像火﹖──上主的斷語──豈不是像擊碎巖石的鐵鎚﹖
 耶:23.30    為此，看──上主的斷語──我要懲罰互相竊取我話的先知。
 耶:23.31    看──上主的斷語──我要懲罰那些轉動自己的舌頭，妄說「神諭」的先知。
 耶:23.32    看──上主的斷語──我要懲罰那些預言和傳述幻夢，以自己的謊言妄語迷惑我人民的先知；我既沒有派遣他們，也沒有對他們有所吩咐，他們對這人民就決不能有任何貢獻──上主的斷語。
 耶:23.33    [上主的重擔]  若是這人民，先知或司祭問你什麼是「上主的重擔﹖」你就答應他們說：你們就是重擔，我要將你們拋棄──上主的斷語──
 耶:23.34    凡是問「上主的重擔」的先知、司祭或人民，我必懲罰這人和他的家。
 耶:23.35    你們應每人對自己的鄰人和兄弟這樣說：「上主有了什麼答覆﹖」或「上主說了什麼﹖」
 耶:23.36    不應再提「上主的重擔；」不然，各人的話必要成為自己的重擔，因為你們歪曲了永生的天主，萬軍的上主，和我們的天主的話。
 耶:23.37    你應這樣問先知說：「上主對你有了什麼答覆﹖」或「上主說了什麼﹖」
 耶:23.38    如果你們還說：「上主的重擔。」上主就要這樣說：就因你們還說「上主的重擔」這句話──我原派人對你們說：不要再說「上主的重擔」──
 耶:23.39    為此，看，我要把你們卸下，把你們和我賜與你們及你們祖先的城市，由我面前遠遠拋棄，
 耶:23.40    使你們永遠受辱，受永遠不能忘的污辱。
  
 耶:24.1     [兩筐無花果]  巴比倫王拿步高從耶路撒冷將猶大王約雅金的兒子耶苛尼雅和猶大的眾王侯，技工和鐵匠，擄到巴比倫去以後，上主使我見到一個神視：看，有兩筐無花果放在上主的殿前：
 耶:24.2     一筐內裝的是很好的無花果，好像是初熟的無花果；另一筐內裝的卻是很壞的無花果，壞得幾乎不能吃。
 耶:24.3     於是上主問我說：「耶肋米亞，你看見什麼﹖」我答說：「無花果：好的無花果實在好，壞的也實在壞，壞得至於不能吃。」
 耶:24.4     那時，有上主的話傳給我說：「
 耶:24.5     上主，以色列的天主這樣說：我要惠然眷顧，我從這裏遣往加色丁地去的猶大俘虜，像這些好無花果一樣；
 耶:24.6     好好照顧他們，領他們回到這地方來；從新建樹他們，不再拆毀；從新栽培他們，不再拔除；
 耶:24.7     賦給他們一顆認識我的心，知道只有我是上主；他們要作我的人民，我要作他們的天主；因為他們要全心回頭歸向我。
 耶:24.8     至於人怎樣對待那些壞的，壞得不可吃的無花果──上主這樣說──我也要怎樣對待猶大王漆德克雅和他的王侯，以及留在此地並住在埃及地的耶路撒冷遺民，
 耶:24.9     使他們成為地上各國恐怖的對象；在我驅逐他們所到的地方，成為人侮辱、譏笑、嘲弄和詛咒的對象；
 耶:24.10    給他們招來戰爭、饑荒和瘟疫，直到他們由我賜給他們和他們祖先的地上完全消滅。
  
 耶:25.1     [七十年的流亡]  猶大王約史雅的兒子約雅金執政第四年， 巴比倫王拿步高元年，有關於全猶大人民的話，傳給耶肋米亞；
 耶:25.2     耶肋米亞先知便將這話轉告給全猶大人民，和耶路撒冷所有的居民說：「
 耶:25.3     自猶大王阿孟的兒子約史雅執政第十三年，直到今日，已經二十三年，凡上主傳給我的話，我都急速告訴了你們，你們卻不聽。
 耶:25.4     上主不斷給你們派來他所有的僕人──先知們，你們總是不聽，不願傾耳諦聽。
 耶:25.5     他們說：你們應各自離棄自己的邪道，和自己的邪惡的行為，好能住在上主從永遠到永遠賜給了你們和你們祖先的地域裏；
 耶:25.6     不要追隨其他的神祇，事奉朝拜，以你們手做的東西來激怒我，你們就不致遭遇災禍。
 耶:25.7     你們沒有聽從我──上主的斷語──竟以你們手做的東西來激怒我，自招禍患。
 耶:25.8     為此，萬軍的上主這樣說：由於你們不聽我的話，
 耶:25.9     看，我必遣人召來北方的一切種族──上主的斷語──和我的僕人巴比倫王拿步高來進攻這地方，和這地方的居民，以及四周所有的民族；我要徹底消滅，任其荒涼，永遠成為笑柄和羞辱的對象。
 耶:25.10    此外，我還要息滅他們中歡樂喜慶的歌聲，新郎和新娘的歡笑聲，磨聲和燈光。
 耶:25.11    這地方要全變為淒涼的荒野，這些民族要七十年服從巴比倫王。
 耶:25.12    但是，一滿了七十年，我必要懲罰巴比倫王和這民族的罪惡──上主的斷語──以及加色丁人的國土，使它永遠成為荒野。
 耶:25.13    對這國土，我要執行我論它所說，在這書上所記載先知耶肋米亞論及萬民所預言的一切話，
 耶:25.14    因為強盛的民族和有力的君王，要使他們成為自己的奴隸；我必依照他們的作為和他們雙手所行的事，報復他們。
 耶:25.15    [萬民應喝義怒之杯]  上主，以色列的天主這樣對我說：「你從我手中接過這杯忿怒酒去，讓我派你所到的各民族喝。
 耶:25.16    他們必要喝，必要在我給他們派來的刀劍前，蹣跚發狂。」
 耶:25.17    我便從上主手中接過杯來，給了上主派我所到的各民族喝：
 耶:25.18    給耶路撒冷和猶大各城市，以及城中的君王和首長喝，使她們荒蕪淒涼，受人嘲笑詛咒，像今日一樣；
 耶:25.19    給埃及王法郎和他們的臣僕王侯並全體人民；
 耶:25.20    給所有的雜族，胡茲地和培肋舍特地的眾君王；給阿市刻隆、迦薩、厄刻龍和阿市多得的遺民；
 耶:25.21    給厄東、摩阿布和阿孟子民；
 耶:25.22    給提洛、漆冬和海外島嶼的眾君王；
 耶:25.23    給德丹、特瑪、步次和凡剃除鬢髮的人；
 耶:25.24    給阿剌伯和在沙漠居住的雜族的眾君王；
 耶:25.25    給齊默黎、厄藍和瑪待的眾君王；
 耶:25.26    給北方彼此相離或遠或近的眾君王，以及地面上所有的王國喝；最後喝的，是舍沙客的君王。
 耶:25.27    你應對他們說：「萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：你們要喝，喝醉，嘔吐，倒在我給你們派來的刀劍前，再不起來。
 耶:25.28    假使他們不肯從你手中取過杯去喝，你就對他們說：萬軍的上主這樣說：你必須喝。
 耶:25.29    因為，看，我開始降罰歸我名下的城市，而你們竟想全然免罰嗎﹖你們決不能免罰，因為我要給地上所有的居民招來刀劍──萬軍上主的斷語。
 耶:25.30    [萬民受審判]  你應給他們預言這一切話，對他們說：上主從高處作獅吼，從他的聖所發出他的聲音，對自己的牧場厲聲怒號，對地上所有的居民，像榨葡萄的人一樣喊叫。
 耶:25.31    一陣喧嘩嘈雜，直至地極，因為上主與萬民有了爭訟，與一切有血肉的人，進行審判，將惡人交給刀劍──上主的斷語──
 耶:25.32    萬軍的上主這樣說：看，各國相繼發生災禍，由地極捲來強烈的風暴。
 耶:25.33    到了那一天，從地極到地極，遍是上主殺戮的人，沒有人哀悼、收殮、埋葬，有如地面上的糞土。
 耶:25.34    為人牧者，你們應哭泣哀號! 為羊群領導者，你們應在灰塵中輾轉! 因為你們的日期已滿，你們要被宰殺，快要被宰割，像精選的公羊。
 耶:25.35    為人牧者，無路可逃；為羊群領導者，無法脫身。
 耶:25.36    聽啊! 為人牧者在哀號，為羊群領導者在哭泣，因為上主摧毀了他們的牧場。
 耶:25.37    寧靜的草場，因上主的怒燄，已成一片荒涼。
 耶:25.38    獅子離棄了自己的巢穴，因為他們的土地，由於刀劍的無情和上主的盛怒，已成了荒野。
  
 二:編 預言 與記事(26-35)
  
 耶:26.1     [先知的性命受到威脅]  猶大王約史雅的兒子約雅金即位之初，上主有這話傳給耶肋米亞說：「
 耶:26.2     上主這樣說：你去站在上主殿宇的庭院裏，對猶大各城凡來到上主殿內朝拜的人，說我命你對他們應說的一切話，一句也不可減少。
 耶:26.3     或許他們會聽從，終於各自離棄自己的邪道，使我後悔而不降曾因他們行事邪惡，給他們想降的災禍。
 耶:26.4     你應對他們說：上主這樣說：假使你們不聽從我，不遵行我給你們當面頒佈的法律，
 耶:26.5     不聽信我不斷給你們派來，而你們不聽從我的僕人──先知們的話，
 耶:26.6     我必使這殿像史羅一樣，使這城成為舉世萬民詛咒的對象。」
 耶:26.7     [耶肋米亞受審]  司祭和先知以及全體人民，都聽見耶肋米亞在上主殿裏宣布了這些話。
 耶:26.8     當耶肋米亞講完了上主命他向全體人民應說的一切話以後，司祭和先知以及全體人民就拿住他說：「你真該死!
 耶:26.9     為什麼你奉上主的名預言說：這殿必要像史羅，這城必要荒蕪，而沒有人居住呢! 」全體人民都在上主的殿裏集合起來反對耶肋米亞。
 耶:26.10    猶大的民事官員聽到發生了這事，便從王宮上到上主殿裏，坐在上主殿宇的新門口。
 耶:26.11    司祭和先知便對官員和全體人民說：「這人該死，因為他預言反對這城，你們也親耳聽見了。」
 耶:26.12    耶肋米亞遂答覆官員和全體人民說：「是上主派我預言你們剛纔聽到的一切反對這殿和這城的話。
 耶:26.13    現在你們應該改善你們的品行和作為，聽從上主你們天主的勸告，上主就必會後悔自己曾決意要給你們降的災禍。
 耶:26.14    至於我，看，我已在你們手裏，你們看著怎樣好，怎樣對，就怎麼對待我。
 耶:26.15    但你們卻要切實知道：你們若殺害我，便是給自己和這城與其中的居民招來無辜的血債，因為實是上主派了我來，給你們當面宣布這一切話。」
 耶:26.16    [官員與民眾為先知辯護]  官員和全體人民於是對司祭和先知說：「這人不該死，因為他是奉上主我們天主的名，向我們發言。」
 耶:26.17    且有地方上的一些長老也相繼起來，對集合在場的全體人民說：
 耶:26.18    「在猶大王希則克雅時日內，有摩勒舍特人米該亞先知，曾對全體猶大人民發言說：萬軍的上主這樣說：「熙雍要變為耕地，耶路撒冷將成為廢墟，聖殿的山必化為樹木叢生的丘陵。
 耶:26.19    猶大王希則克雅和猶大又何曾將他處死﹖豈不是敬畏上主，求上主開恩，致使上主反悔不降自己對他們曾決意要降的災禍嗎﹖為什麼我們要自找苦受，做這窮凶極惡的事﹖」
 耶:26.20    此外，尚有一人，克黎雅特耶阿陵人舍瑪雅的兒子烏黎雅，也曾奉上主的名說過預言。他說預言反對這城和這地，與耶肋米亞的話完全一樣。
 耶:26.21    當時的約雅金與其所有軍政官員聽到了他的話，王就設法要殺他。烏黎雅聽見了就害怕，逃往埃及去了。
 耶:26.22    約雅金王遂派人到埃及去，即派阿革波爾的兒子厄耳納堂和隨從他的一些人到埃及去，
 耶:26.23    從埃及引渡烏黎雅，解送給約雅金王，王把他斬了，將他的屍體拋在平民的公墓裏。
 耶:26.24    惟有沙番的兒子阿希甘一手衛護耶肋米亞，不讓他交在人民手中，遭受殺害。
  
 耶:27.1     [猶大應臣屬巴比倫]  猶大王約史雅的兒子漆德克雅第四年，上主有這話傳給耶肋米亞說：「
 耶:27.2     上主對我這樣說：你要備製繩索和木軛，放在你頸上；
 耶:27.3     然後託那些來耶路撒冷覲見猶大王漆德克雅的使者，送給厄東王和摩阿布王，阿孟子民的王和提洛王以及漆冬王，
 耶:27.4     吩咐他們對自己的主上說：萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：你們應如此對你們的主上說：
 耶:27.5     是我以我的大能和我伸展的手臂，創造了大地、人類及地面上的走獸，我能把大地賜給我喜歡給的人。
 耶:27.6     現在我把這些土地交在我的僕人巴比倫王拿步高的手中，連田野的走獸我也賜給他，作他的奴隸；
 耶:27.7     列國要作他、他的兒子和孫子的奴隸，直到他國家的時運終於來到──他也不例外──那時必有強盛的民族和強大的君王來使他作奴隸。
 耶:27.8     若一個民族或國家，不願作巴比倫王拿步高的奴隸，或不願屈服在巴比倫王軛下，我必以戰爭、饑饉和瘟疫懲罰這民族──上主的斷語──直至將他們悉數交在他手中。
 耶:27.9     所以你們不要聽從常對你們說：「你們決不會作巴比倫王的奴隸」的先知、占卦師、卜夢者、巫士和術士的話，
 耶:27.10    因為他們給你們預言的只是謊話，致使你們遠離故土，叫我驅逐你們，令你們趨於滅亡。
 耶:27.11    至於引領接受巴比倫王的軛，甘願作他奴隸的民族，我必使他們仍留在本土──上主的斷語──在那裏安居樂業。
 耶:27.12    [先知警告漆德克雅王]  我於是全依照這些話轉告猶大王漆德克雅說：「你們應引頸接受巴比倫王的軛，服事他和他的人民，你們纔可生存。
 耶:27.13    為什麼你和你的人民寧願死於刀劍、饑饉和瘟疫，如同上主對不願服事巴比倫王的民族所警告的呢﹖
 耶:27.14    你們不要聽從對你們說：「不要服事巴比倫王」的先知的話，因為他們給你們預言的只是謊話；
 耶:27.15    我並沒有派遣他們──上主的斷語──他們竟奉我的名向你們預言，叫我驅逐你們，使你們和對你們說預言的先知同趨滅亡。」
 耶:27.16    [警告人民勿為假先知所惑]  對司祭和這全體人民我也曾警告說：「上主這樣說：你們的先知們對你們說：看，上主殿宇的器皿，現在快要由巴比倫送回來了! 你們不要聽信，因為他們對你們預言的只是謊話。
 耶:27.17    你們不要聽信他們，只管服事巴比倫王，就必生存。為什麼要使這城變為荒野﹖
 耶:27.18    假使他們是先知，真有上主的話，請他們祈求萬軍的上主，使尚留在上主殿宇，猶大王宮和耶路撒冷的器皿，不致運到巴比倫去。
 耶:27.19    因為萬軍的上主這樣論到銅柱、銅海和銅座，以及在這城剩下的殘餘器皿，
 耶:27.20    即巴比倫王拿步高把猶大王約雅金的兒子耶苛尼雅，及猶大和耶路撒冷所有的貴族，從耶路撒冷擄到巴比倫時，沒有帶走的器皿，
 耶:27.21    萬軍的上主，以色列的天主論到這些尚存在上主殿宇、猶大王宮和耶路撒冷的器皿，這樣說：
 耶:27.22    都要運到巴比倫去，留在那裏，直到我再來眷顧的一天──上主的斷語──那時，我必再取回來，放在原處。」
  
 耶:28.1     [假先知哈納尼雅]  同年，即猶大王漆德克雅即位之初第四年五月，基貝紅人阿組爾的兒子哈納尼雅先知，在上主殿裏當著司祭和全體人民對我說：「
 耶:28.2     萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：我已折斷了巴比倫王的軛。
 耶:28.3     還有兩年，我就要取回巴比倫王拿步高，由這地取去，帶往巴比倫的一切上主殿的器皿，再放在這地方，
 耶:28.4     且領回猶大王約雅金的兒子耶苛尼雅及一切流徙至巴比倫的猶大俘虜，再來到這地方──上主的斷語──因為我要折斷巴比倫王的軛。」
 耶:28.5     耶肋米亞先知立即當著站在上主殿裏的司祭和全體人民，答覆了先知哈納尼雅。
 耶:28.6     耶肋米亞先知說：「盼望是這樣! 惟願上主這樣做! 惟願上主實踐你預言的話，使上主殿宇的器皿和一切俘虜，從巴比倫再回到這地方來!
 耶:28.7     不過請聽我當面願對你和全體人民要說的這一句話：
 耶:28.8     自古以來，在我和你以前的先知，對多少地區和強盛的王國，曾預言過戰爭，饑饉和瘟疫。
 耶:28.9     至於預言和平的先知，只在這先知的話實現以後，纔可認出這先知確是上主派遣的。
 耶:28.10    哈納尼雅先知便從耶肋米亞先知頸上取下木軛，折斷了，
 耶:28.11    然後對全體人民說：「上主這樣說：還有兩年，我要這樣從一切民族的頸上，折斷巴比倫王拿步高的軛。」於是耶肋米亞先知只得自行離去。
 耶:28.12    哈納尼雅先知從耶肋米亞先知頸上取下木軛折斷以後，即有上主的話傳給耶肋米亞說：「
 耶:28.13    你去告訴哈納尼雅說：上主這樣說：；你折斷了木軛，但我必做鐵軛來代替。
 耶:28.14    因為萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：我要將鐵軛放在這一切民族的頸上，使他們服事拿步高巴比倫王；他們該服事他，因為連田野的走獸我也交給了他。」
 耶:28.15    耶肋米亞先知於是對哈納尼雅先知說：「哈納尼雅! 請聽，上主並沒有派遣你，你竟使這人民相信謊言。
 耶:28.16    為此，上主這樣說：看，我要把你趕出地面；今年你必要死，因為你說了背叛上主的話。」
 耶:28.17    哈納尼雅先知就死在那年七月。
  
 耶:29.1     [致函慰問充軍同胞]  以下是先知耶肋米亞從耶路撒冷給被擄去的長老、司祭和先知，以及拿步高從耶路撒冷擄往巴比倫的其餘民眾寄送的書信全文──
 耶:29.2     耶苛尼雅王與太后和太監，猶大和耶路撒冷的政要、技工及鐵匠，離開耶路撒冷之後，
 耶:29.3     猶大王漆德克雅派沙番的兒子厄拉撒和希則克雅的兒子革瑪黎雅以巴比倫見巴比倫王拿步高，耶肋米亞便託他們帶去──信上說：「
 耶:29.4     萬軍的上主，以色列的天主，向由耶路撒冷被擄往巴比倫的全體俘虜這樣說：
 耶:29.5     你們應建築房屋居住，種植田園，吃田園的出產；
 耶:29.6     自己娶妻，生養兒女，也給自己的子女娶妻擇夫，生養兒女；在那裏繁殖，不要減少。
 耶:29.7     在我令你們流徙所到的城裏，你們應尋求當地的平安，為當地祈禱上主，因為你們的幸福是有賴於當地的安寧。
 耶:29.8     為此萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：不要讓你們中間的先知和卜卦師欺騙你們，不要聽信他們所作的幻夢，
 耶:29.9     因為這些人奉我名給你們預言謊話，我並沒有派遣他們──上主的斷語──
 耶:29.10    上主只這樣說：巴比倫的七十年期限一滿，我必看顧你們，給你們履行我的諾言，領你們回到這地方。
 耶:29.11    誠然，我知道我對你們所懷的計劃──上主的斷語──是和平而不是災禍的計劃，令你們有前途，有希望。
 耶:29.12    那時你呼求我，前來懇求我，我必俯聽；
 耶:29.13    尋找我，必找到我，因為你們是全心尋求我。
 耶:29.14    我必將我自己顯示給你們──上主的斷語──轉變你們的命運：從我驅逐你們所至的各國各地召集你們──上主的斷語──領你們回到我以前使你們從那裏被擄去的地方。
 耶:29.15    因為上主論及坐在達味寶座上的君王，和住在這城裏的全體人民，即沒有與你們同去充軍的兄弟，這樣說：
 耶:29.16    萬軍的上主這樣說：看，我必給他們招來戰爭、饑饉和瘟疫，使他們有如壞得不可吃的爛無花果，
 耶:29.17    以戰爭、饑饉和瘟疫窮迫他們，使他們在地上各國遭受虐待，在我驅逐他們所到的各民族中，成為咒罵、驚恐、嘲笑、詛咒的對象，
 耶:29.18    因為他們沒有聽從我的話──上主的斷語──我不斷給他們派遣我的僕人先知，他們卻沒有聽從──上主的斷語──
 耶:29.19    至於你們，這些我由耶路撒冷遷往巴比倫的全體俘虜，你們應該聽從上主的話。
 耶:29.20    也許你們要說：上主在巴比倫給我們興起了一些先知。
 耶:29.21    但萬軍的上主，以色列的天主，論及奉我名給你們預言謊話的科拉雅的兒子阿哈布，和瑪阿色雅的兒子漆德克雅這樣說：看，我必將他們交在巴比倫王拿步高的手中，在你們面前將他們處決；
 耶:29.22    在巴比倫的一切猶大俘虜，必拿他們當詛咒說：願上主使你像巴比倫王用火烙死的漆德克雅和阿哈布!
 耶:29.23    因為他們在以色列中間行了敗德的事：姦污人的妻子，妄用我的名字，說我沒有吩咐的話；這是我知道的，我就是見證──上主的斷語。」
 耶:29.24    [反對慰問書的假先知]  你應對乃赫藍人舍瑪雅這樣說：
 耶:29.25    萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：因為你以自己的名義，給在耶路撒冷的全體人民，和司祭瑪阿色雅的兒子責法尼雅，及所有的司祭致書說：「
 耶:29.26    上主立你代替司祭約雅達為司祭，作上主殿宇的監督，為拘捕一切自充知的狂妄之徒，給他帶上腳鐐鐵枷。
 耶:29.27    為什麼你至今還不責斥向你自稱為先知的阿納托特人耶肋米亞﹖
 耶:29.28    他竟派人到巴比倫對我們說：為期尚遠；不如建屋居住，種植田園，吃田園的出產! 」
 耶:29.29    司祭責法尼雅當面將這書信念給先知耶肋米亞聽了。
 耶:29.30    於是有上主的話傳給耶肋米亞說：「
 耶:29.31    你派人對全體俘虜說：論及乃赫藍人舍瑪雅，上主這樣說：因為舍瑪雅沒有我的委派，竟向你們說預言，叫你們相信謊言，
 耶:29.32    為此上主這樣說：看，我必懲罰乃赫藍人舍瑪雅和他的後裔：他的後代必沒有一個人住在這民族中，能見到我賜給我人民的幸福──上主的斷語──因為他說了背叛上主的話。」
  
 耶:30.1     [致函慰問充軍同胞]  這是上主傳給耶肋米亞的話：
 耶:30.2     上主以色列的天主這樣說：「凡我對你說的話，你都要寫在一本書上，
 耶:30.3     因為，看，時日將到──上主的斷語──我必轉變我人民以色列和猶大的命運──上主說──使他們回去佔領我賜給他們祖先的土地。」
 耶:30.4     以下是上主論及以色列和猶大說的話：
 耶:30.5     上主這樣說：「人聽到了恐怖的喊叫：只有恐慌，沒有平安。
 耶:30.6     你們且自問自究：是否男人要生產﹖為什麼我竟見人人兩手叉腰，像正在生產的婦女，個個面色顯得蒼白﹖
 耶:30.7     噫! 這一天，真偉大，無可比擬，雖為雅各伯是痛苦的時期，但他們將由此而得救。
 耶:30.8     到了那一天──萬軍上主的斷語──我要折斷他們頸上所負的軛，粉碎他們的鎖鏈，他們不再作外方人的奴隸，
 耶:30.9     只服事上主，他們的天主，和我給他們興起的君王達味。
 耶:30.10    為此，我的僕人雅各伯，你不用害怕──上主的斷語──以色列，你不要驚慌；因為，看，我必從遠方救出你來，從充軍之地救回你的後裔；使雅各伯歸來，居享安寧，無所恐懼，
 耶:30.11    因為有我與你同在──上主的斷語──作你的救援。誠然，對我使你流徙所到的各民族，我要執行毀滅；但對你，我卻不執行毀滅，只依正義懲罰你，不讓你全然免罰。」
 耶:30.12    [罪的惡果]  不錯，上主這樣說：「你的創傷不可治療，你的傷口無法醫治；
 耶:30.13    沒有人願意擔任調理你的創傷，無藥可使你的傷處收結。
 耶:30.14    你所有的愛人都忘掉了你，不再追求你，因為我像打擊敵人一樣，以殘酷的刑罰打擊了你，因為你太不義，你的罪惡，增添不已。
 耶:30.15    為什麼你還要為你的創傷悲號﹖你的創傷已不可治療：因為你太不義，你的罪惡增添不已，我纔這樣對待了你。
 耶:30.16    但是，凡吞滅你的，必被吞滅；凡與你為敵的，必被擄去充軍；凡劫掠你的，必遭劫掠；凡搶奪你的，我必使他們受人搶奪。
 耶:30.17    實在，我要使你的傷處收結，療愈你的創傷──上主的斷語──因為他們稱你為棄婦，無人過問的熙雍。」
 耶:30.18    [以民的復興]  上主這樣說：「看，我要轉變雅各伯帳幕的命運，憐憫他的家室，好使城市仍建在自己的山上，宮殿依然聳立在自己的原處，
 耶:30.19    從那裏發出頌謝的歌聲，歡樂的呼聲。我必使他們繁昌，人數不再減少；我要顯耀他們，使他們不再受人輕視。
 耶:30.20    他們的子孫必要像昔日一樣，在我面前重新建立自己的集會；凡壓迫他們的，我必予以懲罰。
 耶:30.21    他們的元首，將是他們中的一個；他們的統帥，將出自他們之中；我要使他們前來接近我，他必與我接近，因為誰敢冒性命的危險，來與我接近──上主的斷語──
 耶:30.22    這樣，你們必作我的人民，我必作你們的天主」。
 耶:30.23    看，上主的憤怒如暴風怒號，如撗掃的暴風，在惡人的頭上施轉。
 耶:30.24    上主的烈怒必不止息，直到祂執行完成了祂心裏的計劃；在末日你們必會明瞭。
  
 耶:31.1     [重訂新約]  在那時候──上主的斷語──我將作以色列各宗族的天主，他們將作我的人民。
 耶:31.2     上主這樣說：逃脫了刀劍的人民，在曠野中找到了寵遇；以色列來到了自己安身的地方。
 耶:31.3     上主自遠處顯現給她說：我愛妳，我永遠愛妳，因此我給妳留了我的仁慈；
 耶:31.4     我要再修建妳，而妳必再建立起來；妳必再帶上妳的小鼓，出來歡樂歌舞；
 耶:31.5     再在撒馬黎雅山上栽種葡萄，栽種培埴，必有收穫；
 耶:31.6     因為終有一天，守望的人要在厄弗辣因山上喊說：起來，讓我們上熙雍去，到上主我們的天主那裏去!
 耶:31.7     [北國流亡子民必要歸來]  因為上主這樣說：你們應為雅各伯歡呼，向為首的民族喝采，傳揚稱讚說：上主救了自己的百姓，以色列的遺民。
 耶:31.8     看，我由北地引他們歸來，從大地的盡頭召集他們，其中有瞎子，有跛子，有懷孕的和正在生產的，形成一大隊回到這裏來。
 耶:31.9     他們含淚前行，我卻撫慰引導，領他們踏上不會跌倒的坦途，來到溪流旁，因為我是以色列的慈父，厄弗辣因是我的長子。
 耶:31.10    [請萬民讚頌施救的天主]  萬民! 請聽上主的話，向遙遠的海島宣傳說：那昔日驅散以色列的，再要來聚集他們，看守他們像牧童看守自己的羊群。
 耶:31.11    因為上主必拯救雅各伯，比他更強者的手中將他們贖回。
 耶:31.12    他們將要前來，在熙雍山巔歡呼，湧向上主的美物，飽享穀、麥、酒、油，小牛小羊；他們的心靈要好像受灌溉的田園，再也不感憔悴。
 耶:31.13    那時，處女必歡欣鼓舞，老幼必相聚同樂，因為我將使的悲哀變成喜樂，使他們由自己的憂苦中獲得安慰歡樂；
 耶:31.14    我將以肥脂滋潤司祭的心靈，以美物飽飫我的人民──上主的斷語。
 耶:31.15    [以色列復歸天主]  上主這樣說：「聽! 在辣瑪有嘆息聲，酸辛哭泣；辣黑耳悲悼自己的兒子，不願受安慰，因為他們已不存在了! 」
 耶:31.16    上主這樣說：「要止住痛哭，不再流淚，因為你的辛苦終必有報──上主的斷語──他們必會由敵地歸來!
 耶:31.17    你們的前途大有希望──上主的斷語──你的子孫都要歸回自己的疆域。
 耶:31.18    我實在聽到厄弗辣因在悲歎說：你懲罰了我，我受了杖搫，有如一頭不馴服的公牛犢；你使我歸來，我必歸來，因為你是上主，我的天主。
 耶:31.19    的確，我自離棄你以後，我已後悔；在我覺悟以後，我拍腿自慚自愧，因為我又染上了我少年時的恥辱。
 耶:31.20    厄弗辣因豈不是我的寵兒，我鍾愛的嬌子﹖因為我幾時恐嚇他，反倒更顧念他；對他我五內感動，不得不大施愛憐──上主的斷語」。
 耶:31.21    請你給自己樹立路程碑，設置指路牌，細心回想你走的路線，以往你走過的大道；以色列處女! 歸來，回到妳自己的城邑。
 耶:31.22    妳要流浪到幾時﹖叛逆的女兒! 因為上主在地上正在創造一件新事：女人包圍男人。
 耶:31.23    [南國也要由充軍地歸來]  萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：「當我轉變他們的命運時，在猶大地和她城市中的人，還要用這話祝賀說：正義的所在，神聖的山嶺! 願上主祝福你。
 耶:31.24    猶大和她各城中的人，農夫和隨羊遷徙的人，將要同住在那裏，
 耶:31.25    因為我要振作困乏的心靈，飽飫一切苦悶的心靈。──
 耶:31.26    至此，我醒來了，我看見了，我的睡眠為我實在甘甜。──
 耶:31.27    看，時日將到──上主的斷語──我要給以色列家和猶大家播散人種和獸種；
 耶:31.28    就如昔日我曾監視他們，為將他們拔除、破壞、推翻、毀滅、損害；同樣，日後我必要監視他們、為將他們建設、栽培──上主的斷語──
 耶:31.29    在那時日裏，人必不再說：「祖先吃了酸葡萄，子孫的牙齒也要酸軟」。
 耶:31.30    不，各人只因自己的罪惡而死；只有吃酸葡萄的人，自己的牙齒才酸軟。
 耶:31.31    [天主與新以民訂立新約]  看，時日將到──上主的斷語──我必要與以色列家和猶大家訂立新約，
 耶:31.32    不像我昔日──握住他們的手，引他們出離埃及時──與他們的祖先訂立盟約；雖然我是他們的夫君，他們已自行破壞了我這盟約──上主的斷語──
 耶:31.33    我願在那些時日後，與以色列家訂立的盟約──上主的斷語──就是：我要將我的法律放在他們的肺腑裏，寫在他們的心頭上；我要作他們的天主，他們要作我的人民。
 耶:31.34    那時，誰也不再教訓自己的近人或弟兄說：「你們該認識上主」，因為不論大小，人人都必認識我──上主的斷語──因為我要寬恕他們的過犯，不再記憶他們的罪惡。
 耶:31.35    [內在的新約永存不廢]  那指定太陽照耀白日，規定月亮星辰照耀黑夜，撥動海洋使波濤怒號，號稱「萬軍的上主」的上主這樣說：
 耶:31.36    假若這些規定已由我面前消失──上主的斷語──以色列種族在我面前也就永不再是一個民族。
 耶:31.37    上主這樣說：假若能測量在上的諸天，能探察在下大地的基礎，我也就因他們所做的一切，拋棄整個以色列種族──上主的斷語」。
 耶:31.38    [新國新首都]  看，時日將到──上主的斷語──上主的城必要重建，不但自哈納乃耳堡直到角門，
 耶:31.39    而且測量的繩墨還要向外伸展，直到加勒布丘，再轉向哥阿；
 耶:31.40    連滿了屍首和灰燼的整個山谷，以及直到克德隆溪流和東邊馬門角旁所有的田地，都將祝聖給上主，永不再遭受摧殘破壞。」
  
 耶:32.1     [先知奉命買田]  猶大王漆德克雅第十年，拿步高在位第十八年，由上主傳給耶肋米亞的話：
 耶:32.2     那時巴比倫王的軍隊正圍攻耶路撒冷，耶肋米亞先知被幽禁在猶大王室監獄的庭院裏。
 耶:32.3     猶大王漆德克雅幽禁了先知，對他說：「你為什麼預言說：上主這樣說：看，我必將這城交在巴比倫王手中，他要佔領這座城；
 耶:32.4     猶大王漆德克雅必逃不出加色丁人的手，因為他必被交在巴比倫王的手中，與他面對面相談，眼對眼相視；
 耶:32.5     他必帶漆德克雅到巴比倫去，住在那裏，直到我再來看顧他──上主的斷語──你們若抵抗加色丁人，決不會成功﹖」
 耶:32.6     耶肋米亞說：「有上主的話傳給我說：
 耶:32.7     看，你叔父沙隆的兒子哈納默耳要到你這裏來說：你購買我在阿納托特的那塊田吧! 因為你有買回的權利，應把它買回來」。
 耶:32.8     我叔父的兒子哈納默耳，正如上主所說，到監獄庭院裏來找我，對我說：「請你購買我在本雅明地內阿納托特的那塊田吧! 因為你有繼承權，和有權買回你為你自己買下吧! 」於是我知道，這是上主的話。
 耶:32.9     我便買了我叔父的兒子哈納默耳在阿納托特的那塊田地，秤給他十七「協刻耳」銀子，
 耶:32.10    寫了契約，封上，請人作證，在天秤上秤了銀子；
 耶:32.11    然後按照法定條例，拿著加封和未加封的購買契約，
 耶:32.12    當著我叔父的兒子哈納默耳，和在購買契約上簽名的見證人，以及監獄庭院裏在座的眾猶大人眼前，將這購買的契約交給了乃黎雅的兒子，瑪赫色雅的孫子巴路克，
 耶:32.13    並當著他們眼前吩咐巴路克說：
 耶:32.14    「萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：將這些加封和未加封的文件，購買的契約拿去，放在一瓦器內，長久保存，
 耶:32.15    因為萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：在這地方，人還要購買房屋、莊田和葡萄園」。
 耶:32.16    [耶肋米亞的祈禱]  我將購買的契約交給乃黎雅的兒子巴路克以後，便祈求上主說：
 耶:32.17    「啊! 我主上主! 看，你以你的大能和伸展的手臂，創造了天地；為你是沒有困難的事。
 耶:32.18    你對千萬人施行仁慈，但也向後世的子孫本人，追討他們祖先的罪債；你是偉大有力的天主，「萬軍的天主」是你的名號。
 耶:32.19    你有偉大的計謀，行大事的能力；雙目注視人類子孫所有的行徑，依照各人的行徑和行事的結果，給予酬報。
 耶:32.20    你直到今日在埃及地，在以色列和人世間，施行奇蹟和異事，使你自己成名，有如今日；
 耶:32.21    你以靈蹟奇事，有力的手腕和伸展的臂膊，巨大恐嚇，從埃及地領出了你的人民以色列，
 耶:32.22    給了他們你曾向他們的祖先起誓，要給他們的這塊流奶流蜜的土地。
 耶:32.23    他們來了，佔領了這地，郤沒有聽從你的聲音，沒有履行你的法律，沒有做你命他們應做的一切事，為此你給他們招來了這一切災禍。
 耶:32.24    看，圍攻的工事已逼近城市，勢必攻陷；這個已面臨兵刀饑荒和瘟疫的城市，必落在進攻的加色丁人手中；你所說的現已實現，你已目睹；
 耶:32.25    然而，我主上主! 正當這城交在加色丁人手中之際，你卻對我說：你要請人作證，用銀子購買田地」。
 耶:32.26    [上主的答覆]  於是有上主的話傳給我說：
 耶:32.27    「看，我是上主，是一切有血肉者的天主：難道我有做不到的事嗎﹖
 耶:32.28    為此，上主這樣說：看，我將這城交在加色丁人和巴比倫王拿步高的手中，他必佔領這座城。
 耶:32.29    進攻這城的加色丁人要來放火焚燒，把這座城和在屋頂上給巴耳焚香，向外神行奠禮，惹我動怒的房屋，燒得乾乾淨淨，
 耶:32.30    因為以色列和猶大子民自幼在我眼前只知作惡；實在，以色列子民雙手所行的，無不使我動怒──上主的斷語──
 耶:32.31    實在，這座城，自從他們開始建築那一天，直到今日，常惹我動怒生氣，致使我不得不從我面前將她消滅。
 耶:32.32    這全是出於以色列和猶大子民，即他們、他們的君王、朝臣、司祭、先知，以及猶大人和耶路撒冷和居民，所行的一切使我動怒的惡事。
 耶:32.33    他們對我轉過背來，卻不對我轉過臉來；我雖不斷懇切施教，他們仍不願聽從，接受勸告；
 耶:32.34    反將可惡之物安置在歸我名下的殿裏，使我的殿宇受到了玷污；
 耶:32.35    又在本希農山谷給巴耳建造了一些丘壇，給摩肋客人火祭自己的子女：這是我從來沒有吩咐，也從來沒有想到過的事；他們竟做出這些可惡的事，來引誘猶大犯罪。
 耶:32.36    現在，上主以色列的天主，對這座你說要因兵戈饑荒瘟疫，而被交在巴比倫王手中的城市，卻這樣說：
 耶:32.37    看，我必從我生氣憤恨發怒時驅逐他們所到的各地，再召集他們，領他們回到這地方來，安然居住，
 耶:32.38    作我的人民，我作他們的天主，
 耶:32.39    且使他們一心一德，終生敬畏我，造福自己和自己後代的子孫；
 耶:32.40    與他們訂立一永久的盟約，再不離棄他們，為他們謀幸福，將敬畏我之情賦於他們心內，使他們不再離開；
 耶:32.41    我樂意好待他們，專心致志將他們安頓在這城裏。
 耶:32.42    因為上主這樣說：我怎樣給這人民招來了這一切大災禍，也要同樣給他們招來我預許的一切幸福。
 耶:32.43    在這個你們說已成荒野，已人獸絕跡，已交在加色丁人手中的地域裏，還有田地的交易；
 耶:32.44    在本雅明地，在耶路撒冷城郊，在猶大、山地、平原和南部的城裏，人們還要花錢買田，寫契蓋章，請人作證，因為我要轉變他們的命運──上主的斷語」。
  
 耶:33.1     [上主預許復興]  耶肋米亞還拘禁在監獄的庭院的時候，又有上主的話傳給他說：
 耶:33.2     那創造形成和奠定大地，且名叫「雅威」的上主這樣說：
 耶:33.3     你呼喚我，我必答覆你，把偉大和你不知道的奧秘事情告訴你。
 耶:33.4     上主以色列的天主這樣論及這城為圍攻工事和武力摧毀的房屋和猶大王宮說──
 耶:33.5     他們前去與加色丁人交戰，只不過是將屍體充塞城市，因為我以盛怒殺戳了他們，因了他們的種種罪惡，我已掩面不顧這城市──
 耶:33.6     看，我必使他們的瘡痍收口痊愈，獲得醫治；給他們大開和平安寧的寶庫；
 耶:33.7     轉變猶大和以色列的命運，使他們復興如初；
 耶:33.8     洗除他們得罪我的一切罪惡，赦免他們得罪和違背我的一切過犯。
 耶:33.9     這城必使我在普世萬民間獲得喜慶、讚美和光榮；他們聽到我對這城行的一切善事，必因我賜給這城的種種幸福與和平，起敬起畏。
 耶:33.10    上主這樣說：「在你們所謂人獸絕跡的荒野地方，在猶大的城市和耶路撒冷，沒有居民和牲畜的荒涼街上，
 耶:33.11    人還要聽到愉快和喜樂的聲音，新郎和新娘的聲音；還要聽見在上主殿宇奉獻感恩祭的人說：請你們讚頌萬軍的上主，因為上主是美善的，祂的慈愛永遠常存；因為我要轉變這地的命運，使它復興如初──上主說」。
 耶:33.12    萬軍的上主這樣說：「在這人獸絕跡的荒涼地方，和其中所有的城市裏，仍要有牧童牧放羊群的牧埸；
 耶:33.13    在山地和平原以及南部的各城鎮裏，在本雅明地，在耶路撒冷城郊，在猶大的各城市裏，仍要有人數點手下經過的羊群──上主說。
 耶:33.14    [正義的萌芽]  看，時日將到──上主的斷語──我要實踐我對以色列家和猶大家預許賜福的諾言。
 耶:33.15    在那些日子裏，在那時期內，我必由達味出生一正義的苗芽，在地上執行公道和正義；
 耶:33.16    在那時日裏，猶大必獲救，耶路撒冷必居享安寧，人用以稱呼她的名字將是「上主是我們的正義」。
 耶:33.17    因為上主這樣說：達味總不斷有人坐在以色列家的寶座上；
 耶:33.18    肋未司祭也總不斷有人站在我前奉獻全燔祭，焚燒祭品，天天殺牲舉祭」。
 耶:33.19    [達味後裔的義務]  有上主的話傳給耶肋米亞說：
 耶:33.20    「上主這樣說：假若你們能破壞我與白日黑夜訂立的盟約，使白日黑夜不再依循自己的時序，
 耶:33.21    那我與我僕達味的盟約也就可以破壞，使他再沒有兒子繼位為王；我與我的僕役肋未司祭的盟約，也就可以破壞。
 耶:33.22    我要這樣增添我僕達味的後裔和服事我的肋未人，有如天上數不清的軍旅，海中量不盡的沙粒」。
 耶:33.23    [天主必要轉變以民的命運]  有上主的話傳給耶肋米亞說：
 耶:33.24    「難道你沒有注意這人民說些什麼話嗎﹖他們說：上主揀選了兩個家族，如今他又把他們拋棄了! 他們竟這樣輕視我的人民，不再把他們看作一個民族。
 耶:33.25    上主這樣說：假若我沒有與白日黑夜訂立盟約，沒有給上天下地設立軌道，
 耶:33.26    我就可以拋棄雅各伯與我僕達味的後裔，不再由他的後裔選拔人，來統治亞巴郎、依撒格和雅各伯的後裔，因為我必要憐憫他們，轉變他們的命運」。
  
 耶:34.1     [漆德克雅的悲慘結局]  當巴比倫王拿步高與自己所有的軍隊，及他手下統治的天下各國和一切民族，前來進攻耶路撒冷和她所有的城鎮時，有上主的話傳給耶肋米亞說：
 耶:34.2     「上主以色列的天主這樣說：你去對猶大王漆德克雅說，告訴他上主這樣說：看，我必將這城交在巴比倫王手中，他將放火燒城，
 耶:34.3     你必逃不出他的手，終必被擒，交在他手中；你必要與巴比倫王目對目相視，面對面相談；你必要到巴比倫去；
 耶:34.4     但是，猶大王漆德克雅! 請聽上主的話，上主論你這樣說：你決不會死在刀下，
 耶:34.5     必要平安死去；正如有人給在你以前的上代祖先君王焚香，同樣也有人給你焚香，向你致哀；『噫嘻，我主! 』的確，是我說了這話──上主的斷語」。
 耶:34.6     耶肋米亞就在耶路撒冷，對猶大君王漆德克雅說了這一切話，
 耶:34.7     那時巴比倫王的軍隊正在攻打耶路撒冷和猶大其餘的城市，攻打拉基士和阿則卡，因為在猶大城市中，只剩下了這兩座設防的城市。
 耶:34.8     [未守解放奴隸的信約]  漆德克雅王與當時在耶路撒冷的全體人民訂約，要對奴婢宣佈自由以後，有上主的話傳給耶肋米亞：
 耶:34.9     每人應釋放自己的希伯來奴婢，使他們獲享自由；誰也不該再以自己的弟兄猶大人作奴婢。
 耶:34.10    所有入盟的首長和全體人民都同意，每人要釋放自己的奴婢，使他們獲享自由，不再以他們為奴婢：他們同意了，也釋放了。
 耶:34.11    但是，後來他們改變主意，把他們釋放恢復自由的奴婢，再叫回來，強迫他們再作奴婢。
 耶:34.12    於是有上主的話傳給耶肋米亞說：
 耶:34.13    「上主以色列的天主這樣說：在我領你們的祖先，由埃及地，奴隸之所，出來的那一天，與他們訂立了盟約說：
 耶:34.14    每七年初，你們應各自釋放賣身給你的希伯來弟兄：他服事了你六年，你應該讓他自由離去。你們的祖先卻不聽，也不向我側耳。
 耶:34.15    今日你們自己反悔，作了我認為正直的事，各向自己的近人宣布自由，在歸我名下的殿裏，當著我面訂了盟約。
 耶:34.16    但事後卻變了主意，褻瀆我名，竟再召回自己已經釋放，身獲自由的奴婢，迫使他們再做你們的奴婢。
 耶:34.17    為此上主這樣說：你們既不聽從我，各向自己的弟兄，各向自己的近人宣布自由，看，我來對你們宣佈釋放刀劍和瘟疫及饑荒的自由──上主的斷語──使你們成為地上一切王國驚慌恐怖的對象。
 耶:34.18    凡違犯我盟約，凡不履行剖開牛犢，由兩半中間走過，在我面前所立的盟約誓詞的人，我必將他們交出：
 耶:34.19    凡剖開牛犢，由兩半中走過的猶大和耶路撒冷的首長、官員、司祭，以及當地的全體人民，
 耶:34.20    我必將他們悉數交在他們的敵人，和圖謀他們性命者的手中，使他們的屍首成為天上飛鳥和地上走獸的食物。
 耶:34.21    至於猶大王漆德克雅和他的臣相，我也將他們交在他們敵人手中，交在圖謀他們性命者的手中，交在由你們面前撤退的巴比倫王軍隊的手中。
 耶:34.22    我必下令──上主的斷語──叫他們再回來，進攻，佔領，火燒這城市；至於猶大的其他城市，我必使它們化為無人居住的荒野」。
  
 耶:35.1     [以勒加布人為示範]  猶大王約史雅的兒子約雅金為王時，上主有話傳給耶肋米亞說：
 耶:35.2     「你到勒加布人家裏去，與他們會談，引他們走進上主殿宇的一間房裏，給他們酒喝」。
 耶:35.3     於是我帶了哈巴漆尼雅的孫子，依爾米雅的兒子雅匝尼雅，和他的兄弟與他所有的兒子，以及勒加布全家，
 耶:35.4     到了上主的殿宇，進了天主的人依革達里雅的兒子哈南的兒子們的房間──這間房靠近長官室，正是在看守殿門的沙隆的兒子瑪阿色雅的住房上面，
 耶:35.5     將滿杯滿爵的酒，擺在勒加布的子孫面前，向他們請說：「請喝酒吧! 」
 耶:35.6     他們答說：「我們不喝酒，因為我們的祖先勒加布的兒子約納達布曾吩咐我們說：你們和你們的兒子永不可喝酒；
 耶:35.7     也不可建造房屋，不可播種，不可栽植或佔有葡萄園，卻要終身住在帳幕裏，好使你們能長久生活在你們作客的地方。
 耶:35.8     在我們的祖先勒加布的兒子約納達布吩咐我們的一切事上，我們全聽從了他的話，我們、妻子和兒女，終身不喝酒，
 耶:35.9     也不建造房屋居住，也沒有葡萄園或田地和播種的事，
 耶:35.10    只住在帳幕裏，全聽從並履行我們的祖先約納達布吩咐的事。
 耶:35.11    只在巴比倫王拿步高上來進攻這城時，我們才說：走吧! 到耶路撒冷去，躲避加色丁和阿蘭軍隊；從此我們才住在耶路撒冷」。
 耶:35.12    於是有上主的話傳給耶肋米亞說：
 耶:35.13    「萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：你去對猶大人和耶路撒冷的居民說：你們不接受教訓，聽從我的話嗎﹖──上主的斷語──
 耶:35.14    勒加布的兒子約納達布的話居然有人遵守：他命子孫們不喝酒，他們直到今日就不喝酒，全聽從了他們祖先的命令；我不斷懇切教訓你們，你們卻沒有聽從；
 耶:35.15    我給你們派遣──且不斷派遣，我所有的僕人先知們，來勸你們各自離棄自己的邪道，改善自己的行為，不再追隨事奉外方的神祗，好能住在我賜給你們和你們祖先的地方；你們仍不側耳聽從我。
 耶:35.16    實在，勒加布的兒子約納達布的子孫，遵守了他們祖先吩咐的命令；至於這民族，卻不聽從我。
 耶:35.17    為此，上主萬軍的天主，以色列的天主這樣說：看，我必給猶大和耶路撒冷所有的居民，招來我對他們所預告的一切災禍，因為我訓諭他們，他們不聽；我呼喚他們，他們不答應」。
 耶:35.18    於是耶肋米亞對勒加布人家族說：「萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：因為你們聽從了祖先約納達布的命令，遵守了他的一切規誡，完全依照他所吩咐的做了；
 耶:35.19    為此，萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：勒加布的兒子約納達布從此永不會缺少侍立在我面前的人」。
  
           三編 耶路撒冷毀滅前後(36-45)
  
 耶:36.1     [約雅金王火燒卷冊]  猶大王約史雅的兒子約雅金第四年，上主有這話傳給耶肋米亞說：
 耶:36.2     「你拿卷冊來，寫上自從我由約史雅時日，對你說話那一天以來，直到今日，關於耶路撒冷和猶大及列邦對你所說的一切話，
 耶:36.3     也許猶大家聽了我有意對他們施行的一切災禍，會各自離棄自己的邪道，叫我好寬恕他們的過犯和罪惡」。
 耶:36.4     於是耶肋米亞叫了乃黎雅的兒子巴路克來；巴路克來依照耶肋米亞的口授，在卷冊上寫上了上主對先知說的一切話。
 耶:36.5     耶肋米亞吩咐巴路克說：「我被阻止，不能到上主的殿宇去，
 耶:36.6     所以你去，在一個禁食的日子上，誦讀卷冊上依我口授寫的上主的話，給在上主殿裏的全體人民聽，也讀給來自各城的全體猶大人聽，
 耶:36.7     也許他們會向上主哀求，各自願離棄自己的邪道，因為上主對這人民用以恐嚇的憤恨和忿怒，真正厲害! 」
 耶:36.8     乃黎雅的兒子巴路克全按耶肋米亞先知吩咐的做了：在上主殿宇裏，宣讀了卷冊上上主的話。
 耶:36.9     猶大王約史雅的兒子約雅金第五年九月，耶路撒冷全體人民以及從猶大城市來到耶路撒冷的全體人民，集合在上主面前宣佈禁食。
 耶:36.10    巴路克就乘機在上主殿宇內，沙番的兒子革馬黎雅書記的房子那裏，即上院靠近上主殿宇新門的進口處，宣讀卷冊上耶肋米亞的話，給全體人民聽。
 耶:36.11    沙番的兒子革馬黎雅的兒子米加雅，聽了卷冊上所有的上主的話，
 耶:36.12    就下到王宮書記的事務所內，看，眾首長都正坐在那裏，有書記厄里沙瑪，舍瑪雅的兒子德拉雅，阿革波爾的兒子厄耳納堂，沙番的兒子革瑪黎雅，哈納尼雅的兒子漆德克雅和其餘的首長。
 耶:36.13    米加雅就把自己在巴路克給人民宣讀卷冊時所聽到的一切話，告訴了他們。
 耶:36.14    眾首長便派乃塔尼雅的兒子猶狄和雇史的兒子舍肋米雅到巴路克那裏說：「請你來，並請你隨手帶上你讀給人民聽的那軸卷冊」。乃黎雅的兒子巴路克立即手內拿上那軸卷冊，到他們那裏去了。
 耶:36.15    他們對他說：「請坐，讀給我們聽! 」巴路克讀給他們聽了。
 耶:36.16    他們聽了這一切話，就彼此不勝驚慌說：「我們必須將這一切話稟告君王! 」
 耶:36.17    然後問巴路克說：「請你告訴我們：你怎樣由耶肋米亞的口授寫了這一切話﹖」
 耶:36.18    巴路克答覆他們說：「這一切話都是他口授給我的，我只不過用筆墨記錄在這卷冊上」。
 耶:36.19    於是首長對巴路克說：「你快去和耶肋米亞藏起來，不要讓人知道你們藏在哪裏」。
 耶:36.20    然後他們一同到內殿去拜見君王，那軸卷冊卻留在書記厄里沙瑪室內，只將這一切話稟告了君王。
 耶:36.21    君王於是打發猶狄去取那軸卷冊；猶狄由書記厄里沙瑪室內取了來，讀給君王和環立在君王旁的眾朝臣聽。
 耶:36.22    那時正是九月，君王住在冬宮裏，面前正燒著一盆火，
 耶:36.23    猶狄只讀了三四行，君王就用書記的刀把它割下，拋在火盆的火裏，直到那軸卷冊在火盆內被燒盡。
 耶:36.24    君王與眾臣僕聽了這一切話，毫不害怕，也不撕裂自己的衣服，
 耶:36.25    雖然厄耳納堂和德拉雅及革瑪黎雅曾苦苦哀求君王不要燒毀那軸卷冊，君王不但不聽，
 耶:36.26    反命王子耶辣默耳，阿次黎耳的兒子色辣雅和哈貝德耳的兒子舍肋米雅，去逮捕書記巴路克和先知耶肋米亞；但是上主卻將他們藏起來了。
 耶:36.27    君王焚燒了那軸載有巴路克由耶肋米亞口授記錄的話的卷冊以後，有上主的話傳給耶肋米亞說：
 耶:36.28    「你拿另一軸卷冊來，寫上猶大王約雅金所燒毀的前一軸卷冊上的一切話。
 耶:36.29    關於猶大王約雅金你應說：上主這樣說：你燒毀了這軸卷冊說：為什麼你在上面寫道：巴比倫王必來破壞這地方，消滅這地方的人民和獸﹖
 耶:36.30    為此上主關於猶大王約雅金這樣說：他必沒有人繼坐達味的寶座，死後必棄屍原野，遭受日晒夜露。
 耶:36.31    對他和他的後裔及臣僕，我要懲罰他們的罪惡，給他們和耶路撒冷居民及猶大人，召來我向他們預告，他們卻不理會的一切災禍」。
 耶:36.32    耶肋米亞就拿來另一軸卷冊，交給書記乃黎雅的兒子巴路克。巴路克依照耶肋米亞的口授，在上面筆錄了猶大王約雅金，在火中燒毀了的那軸卷冊上所有的話；並且還加添了許多相類似的話。
  
 耶:37.1     [耶肋米亞無罪入獄]  約史雅的兒子漆德克雅繼約雅金的兒子耶苛尼雅為王，巴比倫王拿步高立他為王統治猶大地。
 耶:37.2     他和他的臣僕及本地人民，都沒有聽從上主藉耶肋米亞先知所說的話。
 耶:37.3     漆德克雅王派舍肋米亞的兒子猶加耳，和司祭瑪阿色雅的兒子責法尼雅到耶肋米亞先知那裏說：「請你為我們轉求上主，我們的天主! 」
 耶:37.4     那時，耶肋米亞尚出入於民間，人還沒有將他放在監獄裏。
 耶:37.5     法郎軍隊忽由埃及出發，圍攻耶路撒冷的加色丁人一聽見他們出動的消息，就由耶路撒冷撤退了。
 耶:37.6     此時上主有話傳給耶肋米亞先知說：
 耶:37.7     「上主，以色列的天主這樣說：你們應這樣回答派你們前來求問我的猶大君王說：看，出發前來援助你們的法郎軍隊，仍要回到自己的本地埃及去。
 耶:37.8     至於加色丁人仍要捲土重來，進攻這座城市；且要攻下，放火燒城。
 耶:37.9     上主這樣說：你們不要自欺說：加色丁人已離我們遠去! 其實，他們並沒有遠去。
 耶:37.10    縱使你們能擊敗與你們交戰的加色丁人所有的軍隊，使他們中只剩下一些受傷的人，他們仍要由帳中奮起，放火燒毀這座城市。
 耶:37.11    加色丁人的軍隊受法郎軍隊的威脅，由耶路撒冷撤退時，
 耶:37.12    耶肋米亞就離開耶路撒冷，到本雅明地去，要在那裏由自己的親族間分得一份產業。
 耶:37.13    當他到了本雅明門時，那裏有一個站崗的人，名叫依黎雅，是舍肋米亞的兒子，哈納尼雅的孫子，捉住耶肋米亞先知說：「你想去投降加色丁人! 」
 耶:37.14    耶肋米亞答說：「冤枉! 我不是去投降加色人丁」。依黎雅不聽他說，就捉住耶肋米亞，帶他去見首長。
 耶:37.15    首長們遂發怒，將耶肋米亞鞭打了，幽禁在書記約納堂家的監牢裏，因為他們早已把他的家改成了監獄。
 耶:37.16    於是耶肋米亞走進了一穹形的地窖內，在那裏住了多日。
 耶:37.17    此後，漆德克雅王派人提出他來，在自己的宮殿私下問他說：「上主有什麼話沒有﹖」耶肋米亞答說：「有」。接著說：「你必被交在巴比倫王手中」。
 耶:37.18    此外，耶肋米亞還問漆德克雅王說：「我在什麼事上得罪了你和你的臣僕，以及這些人民，你們竟將我放在監牢裏﹖
 耶:37.19    你們那些曾向你們預言說：巴比倫王不會來攻打你們和這地方的先知，現在在哪裏﹖
 耶:37.21    於是漆德克雅王下令，將耶肋米亞囚禁在監獄的庭院裏，每日由麵包房取一份食物給他，直到城中糧食用盡。從此耶肋米亞就住在拘留所內的庭院裏。
  
 耶:38.1      [耶肋米亞在蓄水池內]  瑪堂的兒子舍法提雅，帕市胡爾的兒子革達里雅，舍肋米雅的兒子猶加耳，瑪耳基雅的兒子帕市胡爾聽見耶肋米亞向全體人民講話說：
 耶:38.2      「上主這樣說：凡留在這城裏的，必死於刀劍、饑荒和瘟疫；凡出降加色丁人的，必能生存：獲得生命如獲得戰利品一樣，可得生存。
 耶:38.3      上主這樣說：這座城市必交在巴比倫王軍隊的手中，他必佔領這座城市。」
 耶:38.4      眾首長就對君王說：「請將這人處死! 因為他說出了這樣使遺留在城裏的戰士和全體人民喪志的話；實在，這人謀求的，不是人民的福利，而是人民的災禍。」
 耶:38.5      漆德克雅王答說：「看，他已經在你們手中；君王不能反對你們。」
 耶:38.6      他們便將耶肋米亞丟在王子瑪耳基雅在監獄庭院裏有的蓄水池內，用繩將他放下去；池內沒有水，只有污泥；耶肋米亞就陷在污泥裏。
 耶:38.7      [一外邦人營救先知]  住在王宮裏的雇士人厄貝得默肋客宦官，聽見人把耶肋米亞放在蓄水池裏。那時君王正坐在本雅明門旁，
 耶:38.8      厄貝得默肋客就從王宮出來，稟告君王說：
 耶:38.9      「我主君王! 這些人對先知耶肋米亞作的事，實在毒辣；他們竟將他丟在蓄水池裏，在那裏他必要餓死，因為城中沒有糧食了! 」
 耶:38.10     王便命雇士人厄貝得默肋客說：「你立即帶三個人去，將耶肋米亞先知，趁他還沒有死，從蓄水池裏拉出來! 」
 耶:38.11     厄貝得默肋客立即帶了一些人，回到王宮，從儲藏室拿了些破舊衣裳和破舊布片，用繩索給在蓄水池裏的耶肋米亞放下去。
 耶:38.12     雇士人厄貝得默肋客對耶肋米亞說：「請把破舊的衣服和布片，放在你兩腋下，然後把繩放在下面。」耶肋米亞就這樣做了。
 耶:38.13     於是他們用繩索將耶肋米亞從蓄水池裏拉上來；這樣，耶肋米亞纔仍能住在拘留所的庭院裏。
 耶:38.14     漆德克雅王派人帶耶肋米亞先知到上主殿宇第三入口處去見他。君王對耶肋米亞說：「我要問你一件事，你什麼也不可對我隱瞞! 」
 耶:38.15     耶肋米亞答覆漆德克雅說：「我若稟告你，你豈不要將我處死嗎﹖我若給你出主意，你也不會聽從我! 」
 耶:38.16     漆德克雅王對耶肋米亞暗地發誓說：「那賜與我們這生命的上主永在，我決不將你處死，也決不將你交在這些圖謀你性命者的手中。」
 耶:38.17     於是耶肋米亞對漆德克雅說：「萬軍的天主，以色列的天主上主這樣說：如果你出去，向巴比倫王的將帥投降，你的性命必可保全，這城不至於被焚；你和你全家也必生存。
 耶:38.18     但是，如果你不出去向巴比倫王將帥投降，這城必會被交在加色丁人的手裏，由他們放火燒城，而你也逃不出他們的手。」
 耶:38.19     漆德克雅王便對耶肋米亞說：「我很害怕那些投降加色丁人的猶太人，將我交在他們手中，任他們凌辱我。」
 耶:38.20     耶肋米亞答說：「他們不會將你交出! 在我對你所說的事上，你只管聽上主的聲音，事必於你有利，你的性命必可保全。
 耶:38.21     但是，如果你拒絕出降，這就是上主使我預見的事：
 耶:38.22     看，凡留在猶大王宮的一切婦女，都要被領出，交給巴比倫王的將帥，哭訴著說：對你高唱和平的友人，欺騙了你，愚弄了你；見你雙腳陷入泥淖，就轉背逃遁。
 耶:38.23     你的妻子兒女，都要被領出，交給加色丁人；連你也逃不出他們的手，終於被巴比倫王捉去；至於這城，必要被火焚毀。」
 耶:38.24     於是漆德克雅對耶肋米亞說：「任何人不得知道這些話，否則你就該死!
 耶:38.25     倘若首長們聽說我曾與你談論，而前來問你說：請你告訴我們，你對君王說了什麼﹖你不可對我們隱瞞，否則我們就要你的命! 究竟君王對你說了些什麼﹖
 耶:38.26     你要回答他們說：我向君王面呈我的請求，請他不要叫我再回到約納堂的家裏去，死在那裏。」
 耶:38.27     果然，眾首長前來質問耶肋米亞，他就全依照君王吩咐的話答覆了他們。他們對他無話可說，因為那次的談話，沒有被人竊聽了去。
 耶:38.28     這樣，耶肋米亞直到耶路撒冷淪陷的那一天，就住在拘留所的庭院裏。 [耶京失陷君王被擒]  [當耶路撒冷被攻陷以後──]
  
 耶:39.1      猶大王漆德克雅第九年十月，巴比倫王拿步高率領全軍進攻，包圍了耶路撒冷，
 耶:39.2      漆德克雅第十一年四月初九，京城被攻破──
 耶:39.3      巴比倫王眾將帥入城，坐鎮中央門：計有衛隊長乃步匝辣當、大將軍乃步沙次班、戰車司令乃爾加耳沙勒責爾和巴比倫王其餘眾將帥。
 耶:39.4      猶大王漆德克雅和所有的戰士一見如此，就立即逃遁，夜間棄城出走，取道御苑，穿過兩牆間的便門，直向阿辣巴的路上跑去。
 耶:39.5      加色丁人軍隊立即追趕他們，就在耶里哥荒野追上了漆德克雅，將他捉住，帶到哈瑪特境內的黎貝拉去見巴比倫王拿步高；王即宣判了他的罪狀。
 耶:39.6      巴比倫王在黎貝拉，就當漆德克雅眼前殺了他的兒子；巴比倫王也殺了猶大所有的貴卿；
 耶:39.7      然後挖了漆德克雅的雙眼，給他帶上鎖鏈，送往巴比倫去。
 耶:39.8      於是加色丁人放火焚燒了王宮和民房，拆毀了耶路撒冷的城牆；
 耶:39.9      城中剩下的人民，和已向他投降的人民，以及其餘的平民，衛隊長乃步匝辣當都擄到巴比倫去。
 耶:39.10     至於人民中一無所有的窮人，衛隊長乃步匝辣當仍讓他們留居猶大地，同時還給他們分配了些葡萄園和農田。
 耶:39.11     [乃步匝辣當解救耶肋米亞]  關於耶肋米亞，巴比倫王拿步高對衛隊長乃步匝辣當下令說：
 耶:39.12     「將他帶去，好好看待他，不但絲毫不可加害，反要照他對你說的，給他照辦!」
 耶:39.13     於是衛隊長乃步匝辣當，大將軍乃步沙次班，戰車司令乃爾加耳沙勒責爾，及巴比倫王其餘將帥派人前去，
 耶:39.14     由拘留所的庭院裏提出耶肋米亞來，交給了沙番的孫子，阿希甘的兒子革達里雅，叫他帶到自己的家裏去；從此耶肋米亞就再居住在民間。
 耶:39.15     耶肋米亞還監禁在拘留所的庭院時，上主有話傳給他說：「
 耶:39.16     你去告訴雇士人厄貝得默肋客說：萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：看，我使我的話實現在這座城上，不是為賜福，而是為降禍：到了那天，要當著你面前實現。
 耶:39.17     到了那天，我必救你──上主的斷語──你不會被交在你怕與他們相見的人的手裏，
 耶:39.18     因為我必拯救你，你不會喪身在刀下，你必獲得性命如獲得戰利品，因為你信賴了我──上主的斷語。」
  
 耶:40.1     [耶肋米亞擇居故鄉]  隊長乃步匝辣當從辣瑪釋放耶肋米亞以後，上主又有話傳給先知──在提出他時，他還帶著鎖鏈，夾在要充軍到巴比倫的耶路撒冷和猶大的俘虜中──
 耶:40.2     衛隊長提出耶肋米亞後，便對他說：「雅威你的天主對這地方，曾預言過這番災禍，
 耶:40.3     如今果然來了；雅威照他所說的做了；因為你們犯罪相反雅威，沒有聽從他的聲音，所以為你們纔發生了這樣的事。
 耶:40.4     現在，你看，今天我給你除去手上的鎖鏈；你若看著同我一起到巴比倫去好，就去，我必另眼看待你；你若看著同我一起到巴比倫去不好，沒有關係；你看，整個大地擺在你面前，你看著那裏好，去那裏相宜，就到那裏去罷。
 耶:40.5     你若願住下，可回到巴比倫王委任管理猶大城鎮的沙番的孫子，阿希甘的兒子革達里雅那裏去，與他一同住在民間；或是到你看著相宜去的任何地方去。」衛隊長便給了他乾糧和禮物，打發他走了。
 耶:40.6     耶肋米亞來到米茲帕阿希甘的兒子革達里雅那裏，與他一同住在當地的遺民間。
 耶:40.7     [革達里雅力圖收拾民心]  在鄉間殘存的各部隊首領和他們的屬下，聽說巴比倫王委派了阿希甘的兒子革達里雅管理當地，任命他照顧當地未遷徙至巴比倫去的男女、幼童和窮人，
 耶:40.8     便親自和自己的屬下來到米茲帕革達里雅那裏；前來的，有乃塔尼雅的兒子依市瑪耳，卡勒亞的兒子約哈南，堂胡默特的兒子色辣雅，乃托法人厄法依的兒子們和瑪阿加人的兒子雅匝尼雅。
 耶:40.9     沙番的孫子，阿希甘的兒子革達里雅對他們和部屬起誓說：「你們不要怕事奉加色丁人；住在本地，臣屬於巴比倫王，於你們必然有利。
 耶:40.10    至於我，看，我願住在米茲帕，為對付到我們這裏來的加色丁人；你們只管儲藏酒、油和夏季的出產，安放在器皿內，住在所佔的城市裏。」
 耶:40.11    散居在摩阿布，阿孟子民間，厄東地以及其他各地的一切猶太人，也聽說巴比倫王給猶大留下了遺民，派了沙番的孫子，阿希甘的兒子革達里雅管理他們，
 耶:40.12    所有的猶太人就從自己飄流所至之地回來，來到猶大地米茲帕革達里雅那裏，收得了大量的酒和夏季的出產。
 耶:40.13    [革達里雅暗遭謀害]  卡勒亞的兒子約哈南，和在鄉間所有部隊的首領，都到米茲帕革達里雅那裏，
 耶:40.14    對他說：「你是否知道：阿孟子民的君王巴里斯派遣乃塔尼雅的兒子依市瑪耳來殺害你﹖」但是阿希甘的兒子革達里雅不相信他們的話。
 耶:40.15    卡勒亞的兒子約哈南私下在米茲帕對革達里雅提議說：「讓我去殺了乃塔尼雅的兒子依市瑪耳，沒有人會知道；為什麼要讓他來謀害你的性命，使集合在你身邊的一切猶太人又遭離散，猶大遺民再遭滅亡﹖」
 耶:40.16    阿希甘的兒子革達里雅答覆卡勒亞的兒子約哈南說：「不要作這件事，因為你論依市瑪耳所說的，只不過是流言。」
  
 耶:41.1     到了七月，厄里沙瑪的孫子，乃塔尼雅的兒子依市瑪耳──他是王家的後代，是君王的大臣──帶了十個人來到米茲帕阿希甘的兒子革達里雅那裏；當他們在米茲帕一同進餐時，
 耶:41.2     乃塔尼雅的兒子依市瑪耳和他帶來的十個人就起來，拔刀擊殺了巴比倫王委派管理地方的沙番的孫子，阿希甘的兒子革達里雅。
 耶:41.3     凡在米茲帕與革達里雅在一起的猶太人，和在那裏偶然相遇的加色丁兵士，依市瑪耳也都擊殺了。
 耶:41.4     [朝聖團遇害]  革達里雅被害後第二天，人尚一無所知。
 耶:41.5     有八十個人從舍根、史羅、撒瑪黎雅前來，都剃去了鬍鬚，撕破了衣服，割傷了身體，手裏拿著素祭祭品和乳香，要帶到上主殿宇去，
 耶:41.6     沿途且走且哭。乃塔尼雅的兒子依市瑪耳從米茲帕出來迎接他們，一遇見他們就對他們說：「你們往阿希甘的兒子革達里雅那裏去罷! 」
 耶:41.7     他們到了城市中心，乃塔尼雅的兒子依市瑪耳和自己的部下就將他們殺了，扔在蓄水池裏。
 耶:41.8     其中有十個人卻對依市瑪耳說：「不要殺害我們，因為我們在田野裏藏有油、蜜、大麥和小麥。」他遂即住手，沒有將他們與他們的弟兄一同殺掉。
 耶:41.9     依市瑪耳將所殺之人的屍首，丟在那裏的一個蓄水池內，那是一個很大的蓄水池，原是阿撒君王為對抗以色列君王巴厄沙而建造的；乃塔尼雅的兒子依市瑪耳用自己所殺之人的屍首填滿了這蓄水池。
 耶:41.10    以後依市瑪耳擄去了留在米茲帕的遺民和王室閨秀，以及還留在米茲帕所有的人民：這些人，原是衛隊長乃步匝辣當委託給阿希甘的兒子革達里雅的；乃塔尼雅的兒子依市瑪耳卻將他們擄走，投往阿孟子民那裏去。
 耶:41.11    [遺民之間的內戰]  卡勒亞的兒子約哈南和隨從他的其餘部隊首領，得知乃塔尼雅的兒子依市瑪耳所做的一切惡事，
 耶:41.12    就帶領自己所有的部下，去攻擊乃塔尼雅的兒子依市瑪耳，在基貝紅大水池旁與他相遇。
 耶:41.13    與依市耳瑪在一起的全體人民，一見卡勒亞的兒子約哈南和隨他前來的眾部隊首領，無不喜出望外。
 耶:41.14    依市瑪耳從米茲帕擄來的全體人民，都轉身歸順卡勒亞的兒子約哈南；
 耶:41.15    只有乃塔尼雅的兒子依市瑪耳和八個人，由約哈南面前逃脫，跑到阿孟子民那裏去了。
 耶:41.16    卡勒亞的兒子約哈南與隨從自己的眾部隊首領，就接收了乃塔尼雅的兒子依市瑪耳，在謀害阿希甘的兒子革達里雅後，從米茲帕擄走的全部遺民，能作戰的男子和婦女，幼童及宦官，從基貝紅將他們帶回來，
 耶:41.17    一路前行，在靠近白冷的革魯特基默罕住下，有意進入埃及，
 耶:41.18    遠避加色丁人。他們實在害怕見到加色丁人，因為乃塔尼雅的兒子依市瑪耳，謀殺了巴比倫王委派管理地方的阿希甘的兒子革達里雅。
  
 耶:42.1     [遺民蓄意入居埃及]  眾部隊首領與卡勒亞的兒子約哈南和瑪阿色雅的兒子阿匝黎雅及全體人民，不分大小，
 耶:42.2     前來對耶肋米亞先知說：「願你接受我們對你的請求，請你為我們全體遺民，轉求上主你的天主。我們原來人數眾多，如今只剩下你親眼見的這幾個人了。
 耶:42.3     惟願上主你的天主指示我們該走的路，和當行的事! 」
 耶:42.4     耶肋米亞先知答覆他們說：「我聽見了! 好，我願依照你們的話，祈求上主你們的天主；但凡上主答覆的話，我必全告訴你們，不對你們隱瞞什麼。」
 耶:42.5     他們答覆耶肋米亞說：「願上主在我們中間作真實和忠信的見證，如果我們不依照上主你的天主叫你傳給我們的一切話去做。
 耶:42.6     或好或壞，我們願聽從上主我們天主的話，因為是我們派你去向他祈求；我們聽從了上主我們的天主的話，我們就必順利。」
 耶:42.7     十天以後，上主有話傳給了耶肋米亞，
 耶:42.8     他便召集卡勒亞的兒子約哈南和隨從他的眾部隊首領以及全體人民，不分大小，
 耶:42.9     對他們說：「你們派我去向他面陳你們的請求的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：
 耶:42.10    如果你們決意住在這地方，我必建立你們，決不加以破壞；我必栽培你們，決不予以拔除，因為我已後悔給你們所降的災禍。
 耶:42.11    你們不要害怕你們所害怕的巴比倫王；不要害怕他──上主的斷語──因為有我與你們同在，作你們的救援，從他的手中搶救你們。
 耶:42.12    我必憐恤你們，也叫他憐恤你們，讓你們仍住在你們的國土內。
 耶:42.13    但是，如果你們不聽從上主你們的天主的話，說：我們不願住在這地方；
 耶:42.14    或說：不，我們要去埃及地，在那裏再見不到戰爭，再聽不到號聲，再不缺乏食糧；我們要去住在那裏!
 耶:42.15    那麼，猶大的遺民! 請你們聽上主的話。萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：假使你們決意要往埃及去，在那裏寄居，
 耶:42.16    你們害怕的刀劍，必在埃及地襲擊你們；你們憂慮的饑荒，必在埃及跟蹤你們，使你們死在那裏。
 耶:42.17    凡決意往埃及去，到那裏寄居的人，必要死於刀劍、饑荒和瘟疫，沒有一人能幸免，逃脫我給他們招來的災禍。
 耶:42.18    的確，萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：正如我對耶路撒冷居民曾發怒洩恨；同樣我要對去埃及的你們洩恨，叫你們遭受憎恨、厭惡、詛咒、侮辱，永不再見此地。」
 耶:42.19    「猶大的遺民! 這是上主對你們說的話：不要到埃及去。你們該清楚知道：我今天對你們作證，
 耶:42.20    你們實在是自己欺騙自己；原是你們派我去求問上主你天主說：請你為我們轉求上主我們的天主，凡上主我們的天主說的，你要全告訴我們，我們必依照遵行。
 耶:42.21    我今天告訴了你們，你們卻全不聽從上主你們的天主，打發我來告訴你們的話。
 耶:42.22    現在，你們該知道：在你們要去寄居的地方，你們必死於刀劍、饑荒和瘟疫。」
  
 耶:43.1     [先知在埃及]  耶肋米亞向全體人民說完上主他們的天主的一切話，即上主他們的天主派遣他來向他們轉告的這一切話以後，
 耶:43.2     瑪阿色雅的兒子阿匝黎雅和卡勒亞的兒子約哈南，以及一切傲慢反叛的人，就對耶肋米亞說：「你說謊；上主我們的天主並沒有派你說：你們不要去寄居埃及；
 耶:43.3     只是乃黎雅的兒子巴路克挑唆你反對我們，好將我們交在加色丁人手中，或殺或擄到巴比倫去。」
 耶:43.4     卡勒亞的兒子約哈南和眾部隊首領以及全體人民，沒有聽從上主的勸告，住在猶大地內。
 耶:43.5     卡勒亞的兒子約哈南和眾部隊首領，反而率領全體猶大遣民，即那些四散到各民族間，又回來住在猶大境內的人：
 耶:43.6     男子和婦女，幼童和王家閨秀，以及衛隊長乃步匝辣當給沙番的孫子，阿希甘的兒子留下的人，連同先知耶肋米亞和乃黎雅的兒子巴路克，
 耶:43.7     到埃及地去了；沒有聽從上主的勸告，而來到塔黑培乃斯。
 耶:43.8     在塔黑培乃斯上主有話傳給耶肋米亞說：「
 耶:43.9     你用手拿一些大石頭，當著猶大人眼前，藏在塔黑培乃斯法郎王宮門前石鋪地道下面，
 耶:43.10    然後對他們說：萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：看，我必派人去領我的僕人巴比倫王拿步高來，在你藏的這些石頭上安置他的寶座，張設他的華蓋。
 耶:43.11    他必來攻打埃及地，叫那該死的死，該擄的擄，該殺的殺；
 耶:43.12    必來放火焚燒埃及的神廟，燒毀或擄走廟內的神像；必來收取埃及地，如同牧人收取自己的外衣；最後安然離去。
 耶:43.13    此外，他還要粉碎埃及地太陽神廟的石柱，放火焚燒埃及的神廟。」
  
 耶:44.1     [國破家亡仍不悔改]  以下是關於住在埃及地，住在米革多耳，塔黑培乃斯、諾夫和帕特洛斯地的一切猶太人，傳給耶肋米亞的話：「
 耶:44.2     萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：你們看見了我對耶路撒冷和猶大各城召來的一切災禍，看，今日已成為無人居住的曠野。
 耶:44.3     這是因為他們做了惹我動怒的惡事，向他們、你們和你們的祖先從不認識的外方神祇焚香敬拜；
 耶:44.4     雖然我早就不斷給你們派遣我所有的先知僕人們說：你們切不可做我所憎恨的可惡之事!
 耶:44.5     他們卻沒有側耳聽從，沒有放棄他們向外方神祇焚香的惡習。
 耶:44.6     於是我的憤恨如火發作，焚毀了猶大城市和耶路撒冷的街市，使她成為荒涼的曠野，有如今日。
 耶:44.7     現在，上主萬軍的天主以色列的天主這樣說：為什麼你們招來這樣大的災禍，加害自己，使你們中的男人、婦女、幼童、嬰兒，全由猶大滅絕，不給你們留下遺民﹖
 耶:44.8     為什麼你們做惹我動怒的事，向你們來寄居的埃及地的外方神祇獻香，使你們自遭滅亡，成為普世萬民詛咒和恥笑的對象﹖
 耶:44.9     難道你們忘了你們的祖先、猶大君王和他們的妻妾、你們自己和你們的女人，在猶大地和耶路撒冷街上犯的種種罪惡﹖
 耶:44.10    他們直到今日尚不後悔，也不畏懼，更不履行我給你們和你們的祖先頒布的法律和誡命。
 耶:44.11    為此，萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：看，我面向你們，是為降災，消滅整個猶大。
 耶:44.12    凡決意往埃及地去，要在那裏寄居的猶大遺民，我必要剷除，叫他們全死在埃及地，喪身刀下，饑餓而死；不分老幼都死於刀劍、饑荒，飽受憎恨、厭惡、詛咒和侮辱。
 耶:44.13    我必以刀劍、饑荒和瘟疫懲罰住在埃及地的人，如懲罰耶路撒冷一樣，
 耶:44.14    使前往寄居埃及的猶大遺民，無一能幸免逃脫，返回他們所渴望回去居住的猶大地；除少數脫身者外，他們不會回來了。」
 耶:44.15    於是凡知道自己的女人曾向外方神祇燒香的人，和一大群環立在旁的婦女，以及住在埃及地和帕特洛斯的全體人民，就答覆耶肋米亞說：
 耶:44.16    「你奉上主的名對我們說的話，我們不願聽從；
 耶:44.17    至於凡出自我們口中的話，我們必定實行，給天后焚香奠酒，如同我們、我們的祖先、君王及首領，在猶大城和耶路撒冷街上所做的一樣；那時我們都豐衣足食，安享太平，不見災禍。
 耶:44.18    可是，自從我們斷絕向天后獻香，不給她奠酒以來，我們就什麼也缺乏，死於刀劍和饑荒。
 耶:44.19    至於我們的女人向天后焚香奠酒，又那能沒有我們男人的同意，依照她的形狀，給她備製祭餅，向她奠酒呢﹖」
 耶:44.20    耶肋米亞便對全體人民，對答覆他的男人和婦女以及所有的人說：
 耶:44.21    「難道你們、你們的祖先、君王、首領和地方上的人民，在猶大城和耶路冷街上燒香的事，上主就不記得了，再也不懷念在心了嗎﹖
 耶:44.22    上主再也不能容忍你們邪惡的行為，和你們做的可惡的事，為此你們的土地變成了荒野，成了驚愕和詛咒的對象，無人居住，有如今日：
 耶:44.23    就因為你們燒香得罪了上主，不聽上主的勸告，不覆行他的法律、誡命和法令，纔給你們招來了像今日這樣的災禍。」
 耶:44.24    以後，耶肋米亞又對全體人民和全體婦女說：「凡在埃及境內的猶大人，請聽上主的話!
 耶:44.25    萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：你們和你們的女人都要親手做你們親口說的事；你們說：我們決意實踐我們許的誓願，向天后燒香奠酒。你們就實踐你們的誓願，舉行你們的奠祭罷!
 耶:44.26    但是，所有住在埃及地的猶大人，你們且聽上主的話：看，我以我偉大的名起誓──上主說：在埃及全地任何猶大人的口中，不會再呼號我名說：我主上主永在!
 耶:44.27    看，我注視他們，是為降災，不是為賜福，使在埃及地所有的猶大人，都死於刀劍饑荒，徹底消滅；
 耶:44.28    即使有逃脫刀劍，從埃及地回到猶大的人，為數也寥寥無幾。到埃及地來寄居的全體猶大遺民，終於會知道：誰的話要應驗，是我的還是他們的。
 耶:44.29    這為你們是個徵兆──上主的斷語──就在這地方我要懲罰你們，叫你們知道：我對你們要降災的話，必要絕對應驗。
 耶:44.30    上主這樣說：看，我必將埃及王法郎曷斐辣交在他仇人和圖謀他性命的人手中，就如我曾將猶大王漆德克雅，交在他仇人和圖謀他性命的巴比倫王拿步高的手中一樣。」
  
 耶:45.1     [巴路克必可保性命]  以下是耶肋米亞先知對乃黎雅的兒子巴路克說的話：他在猶大王約史雅的兒子約雅金第四年，由耶肋米亞口授，在卷冊上記錄了這些話：
 耶:45.2     「上主，以色列的天主論及你，巴路克，這樣說：
 耶:45.3     你曾說：我多麼可憐!因為上主在我的愁苦上還加添痛苦；我呻吟憔悴，得不到安寧!
 耶:45.4     你應這樣對他說：上主這樣說：看! 我拆毀的，是我所建造的；我拔除的，是我所栽培的；我要打擊全地，
 耶:45.5     你還有什麼大事可為自己請求；不必請求了。看，我給一切血肉招來災禍──上主的斷語──至於你，不論你到什麼地方去，我必賜你獲得性命，如獲勝利品。」
  
 四:編 論及 異民的神諭(46-51)
  
 耶:46.1     [涉及外邦的神諭]  上主傳給耶肋米亞先知論及外邦的話。
 耶:46.2     關於埃及：對於埃及王法郎乃苛，於猶大王約史雅的兒子約雅金第四年，在幼發拉的河附近的加克米士，被巴比倫王拿步高擊敗的軍隊：
 耶:46.3     你們應準備盾牌鎧甲，衝鋒上陣!
 耶:46.4     騎士，你們應裝備戰馬，快騎上，戴上盔，磨快槍，披甲出陣!
 耶:46.5     怎麼﹖我看見他們驚惶潰退，他們的勇士遭受襲擊，急速奔逃，不敢回顧，竟然恐怖四起﹖──上主的斷語。
 耶:46.6     敏捷的不能逃脫，英勇的不能自救，在靠近幼發拉的河的北岸，瓦解覆滅!
 耶:46.7     那如尼羅，水波起伏如河流，湧上來的是誰﹖
 耶:46.8     埃及如尼羅，水波起伏如河流，湧上來說：「我湧上來淹沒大地，掃滅城市和城中的居民。
 耶:46.9     戰馬上前，戰車急馳，戰士出陣，持盾的雇士人和普特人，張弓的路丁人!
 耶:46.10    這一天正是我主萬軍的上主，報復自己仇敵的復仇日，刀劍必要吞噬、飽嘗、痛飲他們的鮮血；在靠近幼發拉的河北岸，我主萬軍的上主必要執行一場大屠殺。
 耶:46.11    埃及的處女! 你儘管上基肋阿得去拾取香草，只是徒然增添藥材；你已無法治療!
 耶:46.12    萬民聞知了你的羞辱，大地充滿了你的哀哭；噫! 勇士衝向勇士，雙方同時倒仆。
 耶:46.13    上主論及巴比倫王拿步高前來攻擊埃及地，對耶肋米亞先知說的話：
 耶:46.14    你們在埃及宣傳，在米革多耳傳報，在諾夫及塔黑培乃斯傳布說：你起來準備! 刀劍已在你四周撕殺。
 耶:46.15    怎麼，阿丕斯逃跑了，你的牛神也站立不住﹖原來上主已將牠推倒。
 耶:46.16    你的混合部隊已離心潰退，各向自己的同僚說：起來，回到我們的民族，我們的生身地去，遠避吞殺的刀劍!
 耶:46.17    人應給埃及王法郎起個綽號，叫「時機過後的叫囂。」
 耶:46.18    我永在──那稱謂萬軍上主的君王的斷語──有一位必要前來，勢如群山中的大博爾，又如海濱的加爾默耳。
 耶:46.19    寄居在埃及的女兒! 請你自備流徙的行裝，因為諾夫將要變為荒野，被火焚燒，再沒有人居住。
 耶:46.20    埃及是一頭美麗的小母牛，但是有一隻牛蠅從北方向她撲來。
 耶:46.21    她的傭兵在她內雖像肥胖的牛犢，也一同轉身逃遁，不能抵抗，因為他們遭殃的日子，受罰的時期，已來到他們身上。
 耶:46.22    她發聲嘶嘶好像蛇行，因為敵人正在率軍前進，好像伐木的樵夫，帶著斧鉞向她衝來：
 耶:46.23    砍伐她的森林──上主的斷語──雖然它稠密得不可侵入，因為他們多於蝗蟲，不可勝數。
 耶:46.24    埃及女兒，已被交在北方民族手裏，遭受污辱。
 耶:46.25    萬軍的上主，以色列的天主說：「看，我必懲罰諾地的阿孟，法郎和埃及，埃及的神祇和君王，以及信賴法郎的人，
 耶:46.26    將他們交在圖謀他們性命的巴比倫王拿步高和他臣僕的手中；但是以後，埃及仍如昔日有人居住──上主的斷語。
 耶:46.27    至於你，我的僕人雅各伯，你不用害怕；以色列，你不必驚慌；因為，看，我必從遠方救出你來；從充軍之地，救出你的後裔；雅各伯必將歸來，居享安寧，無所恐懼。
 耶:46.28    雅各伯，我的僕人! 你不用害怕──上主的斷語──有我與你同在；誠然，對我使你流徙所至的各民族，我要加以毀滅；但是你，我必不毀滅，只依照正義懲罰你，不讓你全然免罰。
  
 耶:47.1     [關於培肋舍特人的神諭]  在法郎尚未進攻迦薩以前，關於培肋舍特，上主有話傳給耶肋米亞先知說：
 耶:47.2     上主這樣說：「看，有水從北方湧來，形成一條氾濫的河流，淹沒大地和地上的一切，首都和其中的居民；人們必要喊叫，大地所有的居民必要哀號。
 耶:47.3     一聽到他駿馬的鐵蹄聲，轔轔的戰車聲，和隆隆的飛輪聲，為父親的已束手無策，不能再顧及自己的兒子，
 耶:47.4     因為消滅一切培肋舍特人，和摧毀提洛及漆冬一切殘餘助手的日子來到了，上主要消滅培肋舍特人，加非托爾島的遺民，
 耶:47.5     迦薩已一片荒涼，阿市刻隆已遭受滅亡；阿納克人的遺民，你們要割傷己身到何時呢﹖
 耶:47.6     唉! 上主的刀劍! 到何時你纔休息﹖請你入鞘休息安歇罷!
 耶:47.7     但上主既對它出了命，它怎能休息﹖阿市刻隆和海濱，是他給它指向的地方。
  
 耶:48.1     [關於摩阿布的神諭]  關於摩阿布：萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：「禍哉，乃波! 因為她遭受了浩劫；克黎雅塔殷蒙受了羞辱，被人攻佔；城堡被人侮辱，飽受驚恐。
 耶:48.2     摩阿布的誇耀不再存在，在赫市朋就有人對她蓄意謀害：「來，我們將她剷除，使她不再是個民族! 」連你瑪德門，也要遭受蹂躪，在你後面緊隨著刀劍。
 耶:48.3     由曷洛納因傳來哀號的聲音：蹂躪! 絕大的蹂躪!
 耶:48.4     摩阿布遭受了蹂躪，哀號之聲直達祚阿爾。
 耶:48.5     他們哭泣著攀登路希特山坡；在曷洛納因斜坡上，人們可聽到悽慘的悲號：
 耶:48.6     請你們逃跑，拯救你們的性命! 願你們有如曠野中的楊柳!
 耶:48.7     正因你信賴你的工作和財富，你也要被佔領；革摩士與自己的司祭和執事，也要一同充軍。
 耶:48.8     正如上主說了：蹂躪者必踏遍所有的城市，無一可以幸免；山谷必遭破壞，平原必摧殘。
 耶:48.9     你們給摩阿布立墓碑，因為她已全被消滅，她的城邑全化為無人居住的荒野。──
 耶:48.10    那怠慢執行上主工作的，是可咒罵的；那制止自己的刀劍見血的，也是可咒罵的。──
 耶:48.11    摩阿布自少年就享安逸，安息在自己的糟粕上，從沒有由一缸傾注到另一缸內，也從沒有被擄充軍，為此她的滋味仍然存在，她的香味還未改變。
 耶:48.12    惟其如此，看，時日將到──上主的斷語──我必給她派傾倒的人來將她倒空，倒乾她的酒缸，打碎她的酒瓶；
 耶:48.13    那時，摩阿布必因革摩士而受辱，就如以色列家因他們信賴的貝特耳而受辱一樣。
 耶:48.14    你們怎能說：「我們是勇士，善戰的力士﹖」
 耶:48.15    蹂躪摩阿布者上來進攻她的城市，精銳的少年，下去遭受殺戮──名叫「萬軍上主」的君王的斷語──
 耶:48.16    摩阿布的災難已逼近前來，她的禍患加速進行。
 耶:48.17    你們四鄰，凡認識她聲名的，都應對她惋惜說：「怎麼，威能的權杖，光榮的柄杖，也被折斷! 」
 耶:48.18    住在狄朋的女兒! 你該由榮耀中下來，坐在乾地上，因為蹂躪摩阿布者已前來攻擊你，摧毀你的要塞。
 耶:48.19    阿洛厄爾的居民! 請你站在路旁觀望，向在逃亡出走的男女探問說：「發生了什麼事﹖」
 耶:48.20    摩阿布已羞愧無地，因為已經瓦解；你們應悲哭哀號，在阿爾農宣布：「摩阿布遭受了蹂躪! 」
 耶:48.21    懲罰已來到了平原之地，到了曷隆、雅哈茲和默法阿特；
 耶:48.22    到了狄朋、乃波和貝特狄貝拉塔因；
 耶:48.23    到了克黎雅塔殷、貝特加慕耳和貝特默紅；
 耶:48.24    到了克黎約特、波責辣和摩阿布地遠近的各城市。
 耶:48.25    摩阿布的角已被砍下，她的手臂已被折斷──上主斷語。
 耶:48.26    請你們灌醉她，因為她自高自大，反抗上主；摩阿布必要在自己的嘔吐中輾轉，連她自己也要成為笑柄。
 耶:48.27    以色列為你豈不是一個笑柄﹖難道她是被人發現在盜賊之中，為什麼你一提到她，就只有搖頭﹖
 耶:48.28    摩阿布的居民! 你們該離棄城市，住在巖石間，彷彿在深谷懸崖邊緣結巢的鵓鴿。
 耶:48.29    我們聽說過摩阿布的驕傲，她的確驕傲無比；我們也聽說過她的強橫、矜誇、自大和心中的傲慢。
 耶:48.30    我知道她狂妄，好事空談，舉動輕率──上主的斷語──
 耶:48.31    為此，我為摩阿布哀哭，為整個摩阿布悲號，為克爾赫勒斯人嘆息。
 耶:48.32    息貝瑪葡萄園! 我為雅則爾痛哭，更為你痛哭；你的枝葉曾越過海洋，伸展到雅則爾；現在蹂躪者竟突然來摧殘你夏季的果實和秋季的收穫。
 耶:48.33    摩阿布的田園已再沒有歡欣喜樂；我已使槽中無酒可榨；榨酒的不再榨酒，再也聽不見歡呼。
 耶:48.34    赫市朋和厄肋阿肋的哀號遠達雅哈茲，由左哈爾發出的呼聲，直達曷洛納因和厄革拉舍里史雅，因為尼默陵的水業已枯竭。
 耶:48.35    如此，我要給摩阿布滅絕上高丘向神祇獻香的人──上主的斷語──
 耶:48.36    為此我的心像笛蕭一般為摩阿布嗚咽，我的心像笛簫一般為克爾赫勒斯人嗚咽，因為他們獲得的積蓄，都已喪失。
 耶:48.37    人人剃光頭髮，人人剪去鬍鬚，手上帶有割傷，腰間繫有苦衣；
 耶:48.38    摩阿布所有的屋頂和廣場上，處處可聽到哀聲，因為我擊碎了摩阿布，有如擊碎一不中人意的器皿──上主的斷語──
 耶:48.39    摩阿布崩潰得多麼悽慘! 你們真該嚎啕!她是多麼含羞轉過背來! 摩阿布竟成了她四鄰的笑柄和恐怖。
 耶:48.40    因為上主這樣說：「看，敵人好像老鷹飛翔，向摩阿布展開自已的翅膀，
 耶:48.41    攻取了城池，佔領了要塞；在那一日，摩阿布的勇士必心志頹喪有如臨產的婦人。
 耶:48.42    摩阿布必要消滅，不再成為一個民族，因為她自高自大，反抗上主。
 耶:48.43    摩阿布的居民! 恐怖、陷阱和羅網齊來襲擊你──上主的斷語──
 耶:48.44    逃脫了恐怖的，必落在陷阱裏；爬出了陷阱的，必為羅網纏住；在懲罰她的那年，我要給摩阿布召來這一切──上主的斷語──
 耶:48.45    逃命的人，筋疲力盡，站在赫市朋的陰影下；但是從赫市朋發出了火，從息紅宮中冒出了火焰，吞滅了摩阿布的首領，和騷動子民的頭目。
 耶:48.46    禍哉，摩阿布! 革摩士的人民! 你算完了，因為你的兒子已被擄去充軍，你的女兒流為囚徒；
 耶:48.47    雖然如此，在末日我仍要轉變摩阿布的命運──上主的斷語。至此是關於摩阿布的判決。
  
 耶:49.1     [關於摩阿布的神諭]  關於阿孟子民：上主這樣說：「難道以色列沒有子孫，沒有後嗣﹖為什麼米耳公佔據了加得，而他的人民竟住在加得的城中﹖
 耶:49.2     為此，看，時日將到──上主的斷語──我必使阿孟子民的辣巴聽到戰爭的吶喊；她要成為一堆廢墟，她的附屬城市要為火燒盡；以色列終歸要繼承自己的產業──上主說。
 耶:49.3     赫市朋，哀號罷! 因為破壞者已來近了；辣巴的女郎! 你們該哭泣，穿上苦衣哀傷，割傷自己的身體，因為米耳公要與自己的司祭和公卿，同去充軍。
 耶:49.4     失節的女郎! 你為什麼要誇耀你的山谷是富裕的山谷，仗恃你的寶藏說：「有誰敢來與我對抗﹖
 耶:49.5     看，我從各方給你召來恐怖──我主萬軍上主的斷語──你們必被驅逐，各自奔逃，再沒有人來聚集逃散的人。
 耶:49.6     雖然如此，日後我仍要轉變阿孟子民的命運──上主的斷語。」
 耶:49.7     [關於厄東的神諭]  關於厄東，萬軍的上主這樣說：「難道在特曼已沒有智慧，聰敏的人已計窮才盡了嗎﹖
 耶:49.8     德丹的居民! 你們該轉身逃遁，藏居深處，因為我要給厄撒烏招來災禍，已到了懲罰他的時候。
 耶:49.9     如果收葡萄的人來到你這裏，決不會留下殘餘；如果盜賊夜間來襲，必要盡力搶取；
 耶:49.10    我就要這樣暴露厄撒烏，揭發他的隱處，使他無法躲藏；他的後裔，必被消滅，不再存於自己的鄰邦中。
 耶:49.11    請留下你的孤兒，我必使他們生存，你的寡婦也可託付給我。
 耶:49.12    因為上主這樣說：看，那原來不該飲苦爵的，一定要飲，你要想完全免罰嗎﹖你決不致於免罰，你也該痛飲!
 耶:49.13    因為，我曾指自己起誓──上主的斷語──波責辣必成為一片荒涼，受人憎恨、侮辱和詛咒；她所有的城市，必要永遠變為荒野。
 耶:49.14    我從上主聽得了一個消息，在萬民間傳開了一個號令：「你們該聯盟向她進攻! 你們該起來交戰! 」
 耶:49.15    因為，看，我已使你成為萬民中最小的，成為人間最可輕賤的。
 耶:49.16    你高居在石縫的隱處，盤據在峻嶺的山巔。你自以為驚異，你心內的驕傲欺騙了你。即使你像老鷹一樣高結你的巢穴，我也要從那裏將你推下──上主的斷語。
 耶:49.17    厄東必變成荒野，凡由她那裏經過的人，見了她的種種慘狀，必要唏噓嘆。
 耶:49.18    她必要像毀滅的索多瑪、哈摩辣及附近的城市一樣──上主說──再沒有人居住，再沒有人在那裏寄宿。
 耶:49.19    看，好像一隻雄獅，從約但的叢林上來，走向常綠的牧場；同樣，我也要突然將他們趕走，派我選定的人民來統治。誠然，誰是我的對手﹖誰敢向我提出質問﹖誰是能對抗我的牧人﹖
 耶:49.20    為此，請你們聽上主對厄東設計的計謀，對特曼居民策劃的策略：連最弱小的羊也要被人牽去，他們的牧場也必陷於戰慄中。
 耶:49.21    他們倒塌的響聲，震撼大地；哀號之聲，直達紅海。
 耶:49.22    看，他好像老鷹飛升翱翔，在波責辣上展開自己的翅膀；在那一日，厄東的勇士必心志頹喪，有如臨產的婦女。
 耶:49.23    [關於大馬士革的神諭]  關於大馬士革：哈瑪特和阿爾帕得聽到了不好的消息，大起恐慌，像海洋一樣動盪，愁苦得不能安寧。
 耶:49.24    大馬士革失去勇氣，轉身逃遁，極感戰慄，備受憂慮痛苦，好像一臨產的婦女。
 耶:49.25    哀哉，有名的城邑，享樂的都市，已被摒棄!
 耶:49.26    她的少年將倒斃在廣場，她的戰士在那一日內要悉數滅亡──萬軍上主的斷語──
 耶:49.27    我必在大馬士革城牆上放火，吞滅本哈達得的宮闕。
 耶:49.28    [關於刻達爾和哈祚爾的神諭]  關於刻達爾和巴比倫王拿步高克服了的哈祚爾諸國，上主這樣說：「起來! 進攻刻達爾，蹂躪東方子民!
 耶:49.29    奪取他們的帳幕和牲畜，帷幔和所有的器具；牽走他們的駱駝，向他們吶喊：四面恐怖。
 耶:49.30    哈祚爾的居民! 你們應逃遁遠去，藏匿深處──上主的斷語──因為巴比倫王拿步高已設計謀害你們，已策畫攻擊你們。
 耶:49.31    起來，進攻優游閒居，不設門閂，孑然獨居的民族──上主的斷語──
 耶:49.32    搶奪他們的駱駝，劫掠他們成群的牲畜；凡剃去鬢髮的，我必叫他們隨風飄散，由四面八方給他們招來災禍──上主的斷語──
 耶:49.33    哈祚爾要變為豺狼的巢穴，永遠荒涼，不會留下一人，不會再有人居住。」
 耶:49.34    [關於厄藍的神諭]  猶大王漆德克雅初年，關於厄藍有上主的話傳給耶肋米亞先知說：
 耶:49.35    「萬軍的上主這樣說：看，我要折斷厄藍的弓弩，稱雄的勢力；
 耶:49.36    我要從天下四面八方，給厄藍召來四方的風，使他們隨風飄散，以致沒有一個民族，沒有厄藍的難民。
 耶:49.37    我必使厄藍在自己的仇敵，和圖謀自己性命的人前，驚惶失措；給他們招來災禍，我忿怒的火焰──上主的斷語──派出刀劍追迫他們，直至將他們完全消滅。
 耶:49.38    我必在厄藍設立我的寶座，殲滅其中的君王將帥──上主的斷語──
 耶:49.39    雖然如此，在末日我仍要轉變厄藍的命運──上主的斷語。」
  
 耶:50.1     [關於巴比倫的神諭]  關於巴比倫和加色丁地上主藉耶肋米亞先知所說的話：
 耶:50.2     你們該在民族間宣布傳揚，該樹起旗幟傳揚，不該隱瞞，說：「巴比倫已陷落了，貝耳遭受了羞辱，默洛達客傾倒了；她的偶像遭受了恥辱，她的神祇傾倒了。」
 耶:50.3     因為有一民族從北方上來，向她進攻，使她的國土化為無人居住，人獸絕跡的荒野。
 耶:50.4     [以民回歸故鄉]  在那些日子裡和在那時期中──上主的斷語──以色列子民要與猶大子民一同歸來，且走且哭，尋覓上主他們的天主，
 耶:50.5     他們必詢問熙雍的所在，面朝往那裏的道路說：來，讓我們以永久不可忘的盟約依附上主! 」
 耶:50.6     我的人民是一群迷途的羊群，他們的牧人使他們流浪，在群山間徘徊，翻山越嶺地漫遊，忘掉了自己的羊棧。
 耶:50.7     凡遇見他們的，將他們吞噬；他們的仇敵反而說：「我們並沒有過錯，因為是他們得罪了上主，正義的淵源和他們祖先的希望。」
 耶:50.8     [邀請外邦人離開巴比倫]  你們該逃離巴比倫，走出加色丁地，如同羊群前領頭的公山羊。
 耶:50.9     因為，看，我必從北方，發動一群強盛的民族前來進攻巴比倫，列陣向她進攻，就地將她攻陷；他們的箭像是善戰的勇士，從不空手而歸。
 耶:50.10    加色丁必遭劫掠，凡劫掠她的，必心滿意足──上主的斷語。
 耶:50.11    [遺棄巴比倫]  你們搶奪我產業的人，你們儘管喜樂，儘管歡欣：跳躍，好像踏青的小公牛；嘶鳴，有如獲偶的牡馬!
 耶:50.12    你們的母親已遭受極大的恥辱，生養你的，已滿面羞慚。看，她已成為民族中最卑下的，成了曠野、旱地和荒原；
 耶:50.13    在上主的盛怒下，她已無人居住，滿目淒涼：凡經過巴比倫的人，看見她的種種慘狀，莫不驚異嗟嘆。
 耶:50.14    [上前進攻]  一切開張弓弩的射手! 你們應列陣圍攻巴比倫，向她射擊，不要吝惜箭羽，因為她得罪了上主。
 耶:50.15    你們四周圍繞，向她吶喊! 她必伸手請降，她的城樓必將陷落，她的城牆必要被攻陷，因為這是上主的報復。你們報復她，照她作的還報!
 耶:50.16    你們要殲滅巴比倫播種和手持鐮刀收割的人! 面臨無情的刀劍，各人回歸自己的民族，各自逃往自己的故鄉。
 耶:50.17    [以色列歸國]  以色列是獅子追捕的亡羊，首先吞噬她的，是亞述君王；最後咬碎她骨骸的，是拿步高巴比倫王。
 耶:50.18    為此，萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：「看，我要懲罰巴比倫王和他的國土，就如我懲罰了亞述君王一樣。
 耶:50.19    我要領以色列回歸自己的牧場，在加爾默耳和巴商牧放，使他們的心靈在厄弗辣因與基肋阿得山上，獲得滿足。
 耶:50.20    在那些日子裏和在那時期中──上主的斷語──要想尋求以色列的不義，卻一無所有；要想尋猶大的罪惡，卻一無所見；因為我必寬恕我留下的遺民。
 耶:50.21    [上主的劍出擊巴比倫]  你們該向默辣塔因地推進，進攻培科得的居民，屠殺，徹底將他們消滅──上主的斷語──全照我吩咐的進行。
 耶:50.22    地上發生了交戰的吶喊，巨大的毀滅。
 耶:50.23    怎麼，威震全地的鎚子也被破碎毀壞了﹖怎麼，巴比倫在萬民中也變得如此悽涼﹖
 耶:50.24    我給你佈下羅網，你竟被捉住；而你，巴比倫，尚不自覺；你被尋獲，且被捉住，因為你竟敢違抗上主! 」
 耶:50.25    上主開了自已的武庫，搬出了自己洩怒的武器，因為吾主萬軍的上主，在加色丁地有事要完成。
 耶:50.26    你們從四面八方向她湧來，打開她的倉庫，堆積成堆，徹底消滅，不給她留下殘餘；
 耶:50.27    屠殺她的一切公牛，叫他們下入屠場! 他們的災難臨頭，因為他們的日子到了，到了懲罰他們的時候。
 耶:50.28    聽從巴比倫地逃命出走的人，在熙雍報告說：「上主我們的天主在復仇，為自己的殿宇雪恥。
 耶:50.29    你們召集弓手，一切挽弓的人，來向巴比倫進攻，在她周圍紮營，不要讓她有人逃脫，該按照她的作為而報復她，照她所作的對待她，因為她傲慢反對上主，反對以色列的聖者。
 耶:50.30    為此，她的青年人要倒斃在她的廣場，她所有的戰士都要在那一天內滅亡──上主的斷語──
 耶:50.31    你這驕橫的人! 看，我來對付你──我主萬軍上主的斷語──因為你的日子到了，到了懲罰你的時候。
 耶:50.32    驕橫的必要傾覆顛仆，再沒有人來使她復興；我必放火燒毀她的城市，火要吞滅她四周的一切。」
 耶:50.33    [殘忍的報復]  萬軍的上主這樣說：「以色列子民與猶大子民一同遭受了壓迫；凡俘擄他們的，都扣留他們，不肯釋放。」
 耶:50.34    但是他們的救贖者，名叫萬軍的上主，剛強有力，必要辯護他們的案件，使大地安寧，使巴比倫的居民惶亂。
 耶:50.35    刀劍加於加色丁人──上主的斷語──加於巴比倫的居民，她的公卿和她的謀臣；
 耶:50.36    刀劍加於她的巫士，使他們瘋狂；刀劍加於她的勇士，叫他們驚慌；
 耶:50.37    刀劍加於她的戰馬戰車，加於她境內所有的雜族，使他們柔弱如婦女；刀劍加於她的府庫，使人任意搶奪；
 耶:50.38    刀劍加於她的水源，叫水源涸竭，因為她偶像遍地，人們癡戀這些怪物；
 耶:50.39    為此，她必成為野貓和野狗的巢穴，駝鳥的棲身地，永遠不會有人居住，世世代代不會有居民；
 耶:50.40    恰如天主滅亡了的索多瑪、哈摩辣及附近的城市一樣──上主的斷語──再沒有人居住，再沒有人留宿。
 耶:50.41    [北軍壓境]  看，有一個民族，從北方來，有一個強盛的異邦和許多君王從地極興起，
 耶:50.42    緊握弓矛，殘忍無情，像海嘯般喧嚷，騎著戰馬，萬眾一心，嚴陣準備向你進攻，巴比倫女郎!
 耶:50.43    巴比倫王聽到了他們前來的消息，束手無策，不勝憂慮，痛苦得有如臨盆的產婦。
 耶:50.44    看哪，好像一隻雄獅，從約但的叢林上來，走向常綠的牧場；同樣，我也要轉瞬間將他們趕走，派我選定的人來統治。誠然，誰是我的對手﹖誰敢向我提出質問﹖誰能對抗我的牧人﹖
 耶:50.45    為此，請你們聽上主對巴比倫設下的計謀，對加色丁地策劃的策略：連最弱小的羊也一定要被人牽去，他們的牧場也必對他們戰慄。
 耶:50.46    巴比倫轟然陷落，大地為之震動；哀號之聲，直達萬邦。
  
 耶:51.1     [巴比倫到時必滅亡]  上主這樣說：「看，我必要興起毀滅的颶風，襲擊巴比倫和加色丁的居民，
 耶:51.2     給巴比倫派簸手來簸揚她，掃空她的國土，因為在禍患之日，人必四面向她進攻。」
 耶:51.3     弓手不要放下自己的弓箭，戰士不要卸下自己的鎧甲，不要憐恤她的青年，卻要殲滅她所有的部隊，
 耶:51.4     使他們倒斃在加色丁境內，沿途被人刺殺，
 耶:51.5     因為他們的國土，充滿了反抗以色列聖者的罪惡；可是以色列和猶大並未成為寡婦，也未喪失自己的天主，萬軍的上主。
 耶:51.6     [巴比倫滅亡]  你們逃離巴比倫，各救自己的性命，不要因了她的罪過而自遭喪亡，因為現在是上主復仇的時候，上主要對她報復。
 耶:51.7     巴比倫在上主手中，曾是個灌醉大地的金爵，萬民飲了她的酒，萬民纔如此狂亂。
 耶:51.8     霎時間，巴比倫傾覆瓦解，你們為她舉哀，拿香料來醫治她的創傷，也許她會痊癒。
 耶:51.9     我們本願治癒巴比倫，但是她卻不痊癒；我們放下她，各自回歸故鄉，因為她罪惡滔天，直達雲霄。
 耶:51.10    上主表彰了我們的正義，來，我們在熙雍稱揚上主我們的天主的偉業。
 耶:51.11    磨尖箭矢，裝滿箭囊! 上主已激起瑪待王的銳氣，因為他對巴比倫的計劃，是要將她消滅；是上主報復，為自己的殿宇復仇。
 耶:51.12    你們向巴比倫城牆樹立旗幟，加緊防衛，派駐防哨，預設埋伏，因為上主怎樣計劃了，就怎樣實踐他對巴比倫居民所下的斷語。
 耶:51.13    啊，你住在多水之旁，富有寶藏；現在到了你的結局，到了切斷你尺度的時刻。
 耶:51.14    萬軍的上主指著自己起誓說：「我必用像蝗蟲那麼多的人群填塞你，對你高唱凱歌。」
 耶:51.15    [雅威是惟一萬有的主宰]  上主以自己的能力創造了大地，以自己的智慧奠定了寰宇，以自己的才智展布了諸天。
 耶:51.16    他一聲號令使天上的水怒號，使雲彩從地極上騰，使雷聲霹靂，造成豪雨，使暴風從他的倉庫出發。
 耶:51.17    人都要自覺愚昧無知；每個銀匠必因自己的刻像感到羞慚，因為所鑄的像，只是「虛無」，沒有氣息；
 耶:51.18    是「虛幻」，是愚弄人的作品；懲罰時期一到，必要盡歸滅亡。
 耶:51.19    那位作雅各伯產業的，與它們卻完全不同，因為他是萬物的造主，以色列是作他產業的支派；他的名字叫「萬軍的上主」。
 耶:51.20    [天主的鎚子]  巴比倫! 你曾是我的鎚子，作戰的武器；我曾用你粉碎萬民，用你毀滅邦國，
 耶:51.21    用你粉碎戰馬和騎士，用你粉碎戰車和御夫，
 耶:51.22    用你粉碎男子和婦女，用你粉碎老翁和幼童，用你粉碎少男和少女，
 耶:51.23    用你粉碎牧人和牲畜，用你粉碎農夫和耕牛，用你粉碎州牧和監督。
 耶:51.24    但是，如今我要在你們眼前，報復巴比倫和所有的加色丁居民，對熙雍作的一切惡事──上主的斷語──
 耶:51.25    好事毀滅的山嶺! 看，我要攻擊你──上主的斷語──是你毀滅了整個大地，我要向你伸出我的手，使你從崖石上滾下，使你成為烈火焚毀的山嶺。
 耶:51.26    人們不再從你那裏鑿取角石或基石，因為你將永遠為荒丘──上主的斷語。
 耶:51.27    [作戰的號召]  你們在地上樹立旗幟，在萬民間吹起號角，祝聖萬民向她進攻，召集阿辣辣特和明尼及阿市革納次王國向她進攻，派遣一員大將向他進攻；衝鋒的馬隊，好像刺毛直豎的蚱蜢。
 耶:51.28    祝聖萬民：瑪待的君王和他的州牧，他所有的監督以及他整個版圖的民眾，向她進攻。
 耶:51.29    大地戰慄惶悚，因為上主正在進行攻巴比倫的計劃，使巴比倫地成為無人居住的荒野。
 耶:51.30    [巴比倫被攻破]  巴比倫的兵士放棄作戰，留在堡壘中，失去了勇氣，有如婦人；她的房屋已為火焚毀，她的門閂已被折斷。
 耶:51.31    跑差的，傳信的，都相繼跑去通報巴比倫王，京城四周已被佔領，
 耶:51.32    渡口已被攻陷，要塞已遭火焚；戰士都十分恐惶。
 耶:51.33    因為萬軍的上主，以色列的天主這樣說：「巴比倫女郎有如到了該踐踏的禾場；還有片刻就到收割她的時期。
 耶:51.34    [耶路撒冷要求報復]  巴比倫王拿步高把我吞食毀滅，使我變成了空器皿；他彷復一條龍，併吞了我，以我的美味滿足了自己的肚腹，然後將我驅逐。
 耶:51.35    熙雍的居民說：「要對巴比倫報復我身受的凌辱! 」耶路撒冷說：「要對加色丁居民報復我的血債! 」
 耶:51.36    為此，上主這樣說：「看，我必為你辯護，報復你的冤仇，乾涸她的河川，枯竭她的泉源。
 耶:51.37    巴比倫必成為一堆瓦礫，豺狼的巢穴；令人恐怖嘲笑，無人居住。
 耶:51.38    巴比倫人像壯獅一樣，一起怒號，像母獅的幼雛一樣，一起咆哮。
 耶:51.39    在他們激昂時，我必給他們擺設盛宴，使他們酣醉昏迷，長眠不醒──上主的斷語──
 耶:51.40    我必使他們下到屠場，無異羔羊綿羊和山羊。
 耶:51.41    [哀巴比倫]  怎麼，舍沙客竟陷落了，全地的光榮竟遭受了劫掠﹖怎麼，連巴比倫在萬民中也變得如此悽涼﹖
 耶:51.42    海洋衝擊巴比倫，使她全被驚濤怒浪所淹沒；
 耶:51.43    她的城市盡化為荒野，乾旱淒涼之地，再沒有人居住，再沒有過客。
 耶:51.44    我必懲罰巴比倫的貝耳，由他口裏奪出他所吞滅的，萬民必不再向他湧來，因為巴比倫的城牆已倒塌。
 耶:51.45    [勸慰充軍的以民]  我的人民! 你們從她那裏出來，各救自己的性命脫免上主忿怒的烈火。
 耶:51.46    你們不要膽怯，不要害怕地方上流傳的謠言；因為今年傳來這謠言，明年又另有謠言；地方上常有暴亂，暴君互相傾軋。
 耶:51.47    看，時日將到，我必懲罰巴比倫的偶像；使她全國飽受恥辱，國內死傷遍地。
 耶:51.48    上天下地和其中所有的一切，必對巴比倫吶喊歡呼，因為從北方必有破壞者來向她進襲──上主的斷語──
 耶:51.49    為了以色列被剌殺的人，巴比倫也該傾覆，就如全地被刺殺的人，曾為了巴比倫而倒斃。
 耶:51.50    你們逃脫了刀劍的人! 快走，不要停留；從遠方懷念上主，思戀耶路撒冷。
 耶:51.51    我們聽到了侮辱，感到恥辱，滿面羞慚，因為外方人闖進了上主殿宇的聖所。
 耶:51.52    為此，看，時日將到──上主斷語──我必懲罰她的偶像，使她國內的人都負傷呻吟；
 耶:51.53    即使巴比倫爬上諸天，即使她盤據高處不可侵犯，我仍要派破壞者來向她進襲──上主的斷語。
 耶:51.54    [巴比倫崩潰]  聽從巴比倫發出的喧嚷，從加色丁地發生的絕大破壞!
 耶:51.55    是上主在毀滅巴比倫，消弭其中嘈雜的聲音；敵人洶湧而來，有如汪洋怒濤，揚聲吶喊。
 耶:51.56    果然，破壞者已來到巴比倫，她的勇士都已被擒，她的弓弩盡被折斷，因為上主是報復的天主，他必嚴厲加以報復。
 耶:51.57    我必使她的諸侯和謀士，州牧和監督以及勇士飲醉，長眠不醒──名為萬軍上主君王的斷語。
 耶:51.58    萬軍的上主這樣說：「巴比倫廣闊的城牆要被夷為平地，她高大的城門要被火焚盡：這樣百姓只有白白徒勞，萬民的辛苦，也只有付之一炬。」
 耶:51.59    [耶肋米亞對巴比倫的預言]  以下是瑪赫色雅的孫子，乃黎雅的兒子色辣雅同猶大王漆德克雅，在他為王第四年，同往巴比倫去時，耶肋米亞先知對他吩咐的話，那時色辣雅身為行營總督。
 耶:51.60    耶肋米亞在一本書上記錄了要降在巴比倫的一切災禍，所記錄的全是關於巴比倫的事。
 耶:51.61    耶肋米亞對色辣雅說：「你一到了巴比倫，就應設法宣讀這一切話，
 耶:51.62    然後說：上主，關於這地你親自說過，要將它消滅，使這地無人居住，成為人和走獸絕跡的荒野。
 耶:51.63    你朗誦完了這本書以後，在書上繫上一塊石頭，把書拋在幼發拉的河中，
 耶:51.64    然後說：巴比倫也要如此沉沒，再也不能由我給她招來的災禍中復興。」耶肋米亞的話至此為止。
  
 歷:史的附錄
  
 耶:52.1     [全書結論猶大滅亡]  漆德克雅登極時，年二十一歲，在耶路撒泠為王十一年，他的母親名叫哈慕塔耳，是里貝納人耶勒米雅的女兒。
 耶:52.2     他行了上主視為惡的事，全像約雅金所行的一樣，
 耶:52.3     因此上主對耶路撒泠和猶大大發忿怒，由自己面前將他們拋棄。以後漆德克雅背叛了巴比倫王。
 耶:52.4     漆德克雅為王九年十月十日，巴比倫王拿步高率領全軍來進攻耶路撒泠，紮營圍城，在城四周建築了壁壘，
 耶:52.5     圍攻京城，直至漆德克雅為王十一年。
 耶:52.6     是年四月九日，城中發生了嚴重的饑荒，當地人民已沒有糧食，
 耶:52.7     京城遂被攻破，加色丁人還在圍攻京城時，君王和全體士兵，黑夜出了靠近御苑的雙牆城門，逃往阿辣巴。
 耶:52.8     加色丁軍隊便追趕君王，在耶里哥曠野追上了漆德克雅。此時他的軍隊已離開他逃散了。
 耶:52.9     加色丁軍隊擒獲了君王，帶他上哈瑪特地的黎貝拉去見巴比倫王，巴比倫王即宣判了他的罪案。
 耶:52.10    巴比倫王在黎貝拉當著漆德克雅眼前殺了他的兒子，和猶大的眾首領，
 耶:52.11    然後剜了漆德克雅的眼，給他帶上鎖鏈，送往巴比倫去，直到他死，囚在監內。
 耶:52.12    [聖京被焚]  巴比倫王拿步高為王十九年五月十日，侍立於巴比倫王左右的衛隊長乃步匝辣當來到了耶路撒泠，
 耶:52.13    焚毀了上的殿、王宮和耶路撒泠所有的民房；凡是高大的建築都用火燒了。
 耶:52.14    跟隨衛隊長的所有加色丁軍隊，拆毀了耶路撒泠周圍的城牆；
 耶:52.15    城中剩下的人民和已投降巴比倫王的人以及剩下的工匠，隊長乃步匝辣當都擄了去，
 耶:52.16    只留下了當地一部分最窮的平民，作園丁和農民。
 耶:52.17    [聖殿被劫]  加色丁人又將上主殿內的銅柱，和上主殿內的銅座、銅海都打碎，把銅都運往巴比倫；
 耶:52.18    此外鍋、鏟、蠟剪、盆碟、香盤，以及行禮用的一切銅器，全都帶走；
 耶:52.19    爵杯、提爐、盆碟、鍋子、蠟台、勺子和盆盂，凡是純金純銀的，衛隊長也都拿走了。
 耶:52.20    撒羅滿王為上主殿做的兩根柱子，一個銅海和下面的十二個銅牛，及十個盆座：這些器皿的銅，重量無法估計。
 耶:52.21    至於兩根柱子，每根高十八肘；周圍是十二肘，有四指厚，中空。
 耶:52.22    每根柱子上面有銅柱頭，高五肘，柱頭四周有網子和石榴，全是銅的；另一柱子同樣也有像這樣的裝飾和石榴。
 耶:52.23    石榴有九十六個，往下懸著；網子四周共有一百個石榴。
 耶:52.24    [朝臣被殺]  衛隊長又擒獲了大司祭色辣雅，大司祭責法尼雅和三個門丁，
 耶:52.25    由城中還擒獲了一個管理軍隊的宦官，七個在城裏搜到的君王的親信，一個徵募當地人民的軍長的書記，和城中搜到的六十個當地平民。
 耶:52.26    衛隊長乃步匝辣當捉住他們帶到黎貝拉去見巴比倫王；
 耶:52.27    巴比倫王就在哈瑪特地的黎貝拉將他們殺了。從此，猶大人由本鄉被擄去充軍。
 耶:52.28    [俘虜的數目]  以下是拿步高擄去的人數：在第七年擄去的猶大人，為數是三千零二十三人。
 耶:52.29    拿步高第十八年，由耶路撒冷擄去的是八百三十二人；
 耶:52.30    拿步高第二十三年，衛隊長乃步匝辣當擄去了七百四十五名猶大人：擄去的人數共計是四千六百名。
 耶:52.31    [耶苛尼雅出獄]  猶大王耶苛尼雅被擄後第三十七年十二月二十五日，巴比倫王厄威耳默洛達客登極元年，大赦猶大王耶苛尼雅，放他出獄，
 耶:52.32    親切與他交談，令他坐在與他一同在巴比倫的眾王之上，
 耶:52.33    脫去他的囚衣，以後一生日日與王共進飲食。
 耶:52.34    他的生活費用，在他有生之日，直到他死，每天不斷由巴比倫王供應。 [耶肋米亞完篇]

 jer1.      [Jeremiah]   34 chapters    [耶肋米亞先知書]   [英文版]

 jer:1.1   The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, of a priestly family in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin.
 jer:1.2   The word of the LORD first came to him in the days of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign,
 jer:1.3   and continued through the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the downfall and exile of Jerusalem in the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah.
 jer:1.4   The word of the LORD came to me thus:
 jer:1.5   Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.
 jer:1.6   "Ah, Lord GOD!" I said, "I know not how to speak; I am too young."
 jer:1.7   But the LORD answered me, Say not, "I am too young." To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak.
 jer:1.8   Have no fear before them, because I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.
 jer:1.9   Then the LORD extended his hand and touched my mouth, saying, See, I place my words in your mouth!
 jer:1.10  This day I set you over nations and over kingdoms, To root up and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant.
 jer:1.11  The word of the LORD came to me with the question: What do you see, Jeremiah? "I see a branch of the watching-tree," I replied.
 jer:1.12  Then the LORD said to me: Well have you seen, for I am watching to fulfill my word.
 jer:1.13  A second time the word of the LORD came to me with the question: What do you see? "I see a boiling cauldron," I replied, "that appears from the north."
 jer:1.14  And from the north, said the LORD to me, evil will boil over upon all who dwell in the land.
 jer:1.15  Lo, I am summoning all the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD; Each king shall come and set up his throne at the gateways of Jerusalem, Opposite her walls all around and opposite all the cities of Judah.
 jer:1.16  I will pronounce my sentence against them for all their wickedness in forsaking me, And in burning incense to strange gods and adoring their own handiwork.
 jer:1.17  But do you gird your loins; stand up and tell them all that I command you. Be not crushed on their account, as though I would leave you crushed before them;
 jer:1.18  For it is I this day who have made you a fortified city, A pillar of iron, a wall of brass, against the whole land: Against Judah's kings and princes, against its priests and people.
 jer:1.19  They will fight against you, but not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.
   
 jer:2.1   This word of the LORD came to me:
 jer:2.2   Go, cry out this message for Jerusalem to hear! I remember the devotion of your youth, how you loved me as a bride, Following me in the desert, in a land unsown.
 jer:2.3   Sacred to the LORD was Israel, the first fruits of his harvest; Should anyone presume to partake of them, evil would befall him, says the LORD.
 jer:2.4   Listen to the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob! All you clans of the house of Israel,
 jer:2.5   thus says the LORD: What fault did your fathers find in me that they withdrew from me, Went after empty idols, and became empty themselves?
 jer:2.6   They did not ask, "Where is the LORD who brought us up from the land of Egypt, Who led us through the desert, through a land of wastes and gullies, Through a land of drought and darkness, through a land which no one crosses, where no man dwells?"
 jer:2.7   When I brought you into the garden land to eat its goodly fruits, You entered and defiled my land, you made my heritage loathsome.
 jer:2.8   The priests asked not, "Where is the LORD?" Those who dealt with the law knew me not: the shepherds rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after useless idols.
 jer:2.9   Therefore will I yet accuse you, says the LORD, and even your children's children I will accuse.
 jer:2.10  Pass over to the coast of the Kittim and see, send to Kedar and carefully inquire: Where has the like of this been done?
 jer:2.11  Does any other nation change its gods?-- yet they are not gods at all! But my people have changed their glory for useless things.
 jer:2.12  Be amazed at this, O heavens, and shudder with sheer horror, says the LORD.
 jer:2.13  Two evils have my people done: they have forsaken me, the source of living waters; They have dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water.
 jer:2.14  Is Israel a slave, a bondman by birth? Why then has he become booty?
 jer:2.15  Against him lions roar full-throated cries. They have made his land a waste; his cities are charred ruins, without inhabitant.
 jer:2.16  Yes, the people of Memphis and Tahpanhes shave the crown of your head.
 jer:2.17  Has not the forsaking of the LORD, your God, done this to you?
 jer:2.18  And now, why go to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? Why go to Assyria, to drink the waters of the Euphrates?
 jer:2.19  Your own wickedness chastises you, your own infidelities punish you. Know then, and see, how evil and bitter is your forsaking the LORD, your God, And showing no fear of me, says the Lord, the GOD of hosts.
 jer:2.20  Long ago you broke your yoke, you tore off your bonds. "I will not serve," you said. On every high hill, under every green tree, you gave yourself to harlotry.
 jer:2.21  I had planted you, a choice vine of fully tested stock; How could you turn out obnoxious to me, a spurious vine?
 jer:2.22  Though you scour it with soap, and use much lye, The stain of your guilt is still before me, says the Lord GOD.
 jer:2.23  How can you say, "I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baals"? Consider your conduct in the Valley, recall what you have done: A frenzied she-camel, coursing near and far,
 jer:2.24  breaking away toward the desert, Snuffing the wind in her ardor-- who can restrain her lust? No beasts need tire themselves seeking her; in her month they will meet her.
 jer:2.25  Stop wearing out your shoes and parching your throat! But you say, "No use! no! I love these strangers, and after them I must go."
 jer:2.26  As the thief is shamed when caught, so shall the house of Israel be shamed: They, their kings and their princes, their priests and their prophets;
 jer:2.27  They who say to a piece of wood, "You are my father," and to a stone, "You gave me birth." They turn to me their backs, not their faces; yet, in their time of trouble they cry out, "Rise up and save us!"
 jer:2.28  Where are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them rise up! Will they save you in your time of trouble? For as numerous as your cities are your gods, O Judah! And as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up for Baal.
 jer:2.29  How dare you still plead with me? You have all rebelled against me, says the LORD.
 jer:2.30  In vain I struck your children; the correction they did not take. Your sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.
 jer:2.31  You, of this generation, take note of the word of the Lord: Have I been a desert to Israel, a land of darkness? Why do my people say, "We have moved on, we will come to you no more"?
 jer:2.32  Does a virgin forget her jewelry, a bride her sash? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
 jer:2.33  How well you pick your way when seeking love! You who, in your wickedness, have gone by ways unclean!
 jer:2.34  You, on whose clothing there is the life-blood of the innocent, whom you found committing no burglary;
 jer:2.35  Yet withal you say, "I am innocent; at least, his anger is turned away from me." Behold, I will judge you on that word of yours, "I have not sinned."
 jer:2.36  How very base you have become in changing your course! By Egypt will you be shamed, as you were shamed by Assyria.
 jer:2.37  From there also shall you go away with hands upon your head; For the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, with them you will have no success.
   
 jer:3.1   If a man sends away his wife and, after leaving him, she marries another man, Does the first husband come back to her? Would not the land be wholly defiled? But you have sinned with many lovers, and yet you would return to me! says the LORD.
 jer:3.2   Lift your eyes to the heights, and see, where have men not lain with you? By the waysides you waited for them like an Arab in the desert. You defiled the land by your wicked harlotry.
 jer:3.3   Therefore the showers were withheld, the spring rain failed. But because you have a harlot's brow, you refused to blush.
 jer:3.4   Even now do you not call me, "My father, you who are the bridegroom of my youth"?
 jer:3.5   "Will he keep his wrath forever, will he hold his grudge to the end?" This is what you say; yet you do all the evil you can.
 jer:3.6   The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: See now what rebellious Israel has done! She has gone up every high mountain, and under every green tree she has played the harlot.
 jer:3.7   And I thought, after she has done all this she will return to me. But she did not return. Then, even though her traitor sister Judah saw
 jer:3.8   that for all the adulteries rebellious Israel had committed, I put her away and gave her a bill of divorce, nevertheless her traitor sister Judah was not frightened; she too went off and played the harlot.
 jer:3.9   Eager to sin, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and wood.
 jer:3.10  With all this, the traitor sister Judah did not return to me wholeheartedly, but insincerely, says the LORD.
 jer:3.11  Then the LORD said to me: Rebel Israel is inwardly more just than traitorous Judah.
 jer:3.12  Go, proclaim these words toward the north, and say: Return, rebel Israel, says the LORD, I will not remain angry with you; For I am merciful, says the LORD, I will not continue my wrath forever.
 jer:3.13  Only know your guilt: how you rebelled against the LORD, your God, How you ran hither and yon to strangers (under every green tree) and would not listen to my voice, says the LORD.
 jer:3.14  Return, rebellious children, says the LORD, for I am your Master; I will take you, one from a city, two from a clan, and bring you to Zion.
 jer:3.15  I will appoint over you shepherds after my own heart, who will shepherd you wisely and prudently.
 jer:3.16  When you multiply and become fruitful in the land, says the LORD, They will in those days no longer say, "The ark of the covenant of the LORD!" They will no longer think of it, or remember it, or miss it, or make another.
 jer:3.17  At that time they will call Jerusalem the LORD'S throne; there all nations will be gathered together to honor the name of the LORD at Jerusalem, and they will walk no longer in their hardhearted wickedness.
 jer:3.18  In those days the house of Judah will join the house of Israel; together they will come from the land of the north to the land which I gave to your fathers as a heritage.
 jer:3.19  I had thought: How I should like to treat you as sons, And give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful among the nations! You would call me, "My Father," I thought, and never cease following me.
 jer:3.20  But like a woman faithless to her lover, even so have you been faithless to me, O house of Israel, says the LORD.
 jer:3.21  A cry is heard on the heights! the plaintive weeping of Israel's children, Because they have perverted their ways and forgotten the LORD, their God.
 jer:3.22  Return, rebellious children, and I will cure you of your rebelling. "Here we are, we now come to you because you are the LORD, our God.
 jer:3.23  Deceptive indeed are the hills, the thronging mountains; In the LORD, our God, alone is the salvation of Israel.
 jer:3.24  The shame-god has devoured our fathers' toil from our youth, Their sheep and their cattle, their sons and their daughters.
 jer:3.25  Let us lie down in our shame, let our disgrace cover us, for we have sinned against the LORD, our God, From our youth to this day, we and our fathers also; we listened not to the voice of the LORD, our God."
   
 jer:4.1   If you wish to return, O Israel, says the LORD, return to me. If you put your detestable things out of my sight, and do not stray,
 jer:4.2   Then you can swear, "As the LORD lives," in truth, in judgment, and in justice; Then shall the nations use his name in blessing, and glory in him.
 jer:4.3   For to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, thus says the LORD: Till your untilled ground, sow not among thorns.
 jer:4.4   For the sake of the LORD, be circumcised, remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem; Lest my anger break out like fire, and burn till none can quench it, because of your evil deeds.
 jer:4.5   Proclaim it in Judah, make it heard in Jerusalem; Blow the trumpet through the land, summon the recruits! Say, "Fall in, let us march to the fortified cities."
 jer:4.6   Bear the standard to Zion, seek refuge without delay! Evil I bring from the north, and great destruction.
 jer:4.7   Up comes the lion from his lair, the destroyer of nations has set out, has left his place, To turn your land into desolation, till your cities lie waste and empty.
 jer:4.8   So gird yourselves with sackcloth, mourn and wail: "The blazing wrath of the LORD is not turned away from us."
 jer:4.9   In that day, says the LORD, The king will lose heart, and the princes; the priests will be amazed, and the prophets stunned.
 jer:4.10  "Alas! Lord GOD," they will say, "You only deceived us When you said: Peace shall be yours; for the sword touches our very soul."
 jer:4.11  At that time it will be said of this people and of Jerusalem, "From the glaring heights through the desert a wind comes toward the daughter of my people." Not to winnow, not to cleanse,
 jer:4.12  does this wind from the heights come at my bidding; And I myself now pronounce sentence upon them.
 jer:4.13  See! like storm clouds he advances, like a hurricane his chariots; Swifter than eagles are his steeds: "Woe to us! we are ruined."
 jer:4.14  Cleanse your heart of evil, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long must your pernicious thoughts lodge within you?
 jer:4.15  Listen! They proclaim it from Dan, from Mount Ephraim they announce destruction:
 jer:4.16  "Make this known to the nations, announce it to Jerusalem: The besiegers are coming from the distant land, shouting their war cry against the cities of Judah."
 jer:4.17  Like watchmen of the fields they surround her, for she has rebelled against me, says the LORD.
 jer:4.18  Your conduct, your misdeeds, have done this to you; how bitter is this disaster of yours, how it reaches to your very heart!
 jer:4.19  My breast! my breast! how I suffer! The walls of my heart! My heart beats wildly, I cannot be still; For I have heard the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
 jer:4.20  Ruin after ruin is reported; the whole earth is laid waste. In an instant my tents are ravaged; in a flash, my shelters.
 jer:4.21  How long must I see that signal, hear that trumpet sound!
 jer:4.22  Fools my people are, they know me not; Senseless children they are, having no understanding; They are wise in evil, but know not how to do good.
 jer:4.23  I looked at the earth, and it was waste and void; at the heavens, and their light had gone out!
 jer:4.24  I looked at the mountains, and they were trembling, and all the hills were crumbling!
 jer:4.25  I looked and behold, there was no man; even the birds of the air had flown away!
 jer:4.26  I looked and behold, the garden land was a desert, with all its cities destroyed before the LORD, before his blazing wrath.
 jer:4.27  For thus says the LORD: Waste shall the whole land be; I will (not) wholly destroy it.
 jer:4.28  Because of this the earth shall mourn, the heavens above shall darken; I have spoken, I will not repent, I have resolved, I will not turn back.
 jer:4.29  At the shout of horseman and bowman each city takes to flight; They shrink into the thickets, they scale the rocks: All the cities are abandoned, and no one dwells in them.
 jer:4.30  You now who are doomed, what do you mean by putting on purple, bedecking yourself with gold, Shading your eyes with cosmetics, beautifying yourself in vain? Your lovers spurn you, they seek your life.
 jer:4.31  Yes, I hear the moaning, as of a woman in travail, like the anguish of a mother with her first child- The cry of daughter Zion gasping, as she stretches forth her hands: "Ah, woe is me! I sink exhausted before the slayers!"
   
 jer:5.1   Roam the streets of Jerusalem, look about and observe, Search through her public places, to find even one Who lives uprightly and seeks to be faithful, and I will pardon her!
 jer:5.2   Though they say, "As the LORD lives," they swear falsely.
 jer:5.3   O LORD, do your eyes not look for honesty? You struck them, but they did not cringe; you laid them low, but they refused correction; They set their faces harder than stone, and refused to return to you.
 jer:5.4   It is only the lowly, I thought, who are foolish; For they know not the way of the LORD, their duty to their God.
 jer:5.5   I will go to the great ones and speak with them; For they know the way of the LORD, their duty to their God. But, one and all, they had broken the yoke, torn off the harness.
 jer:5.6   Therefore lions from the forest slay them, wolves of the desert ravage them, Leopards keep watch round their cities: all who come out are torn to pieces For their many crimes and their numerous rebellions.
 jer:5.7   Why should I pardon you these things? Your sons have forsaken me, they swear by gods that are not. I fed them, but they committed adultery; to the harlot's house they throng.
 jer:5.8   Lustful stallions they are, each neighs after another's wife.
 jer:5.9   Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD; On a nation such as this shall I not take vengeance?
 jer:5.10  Climb to her terraces, and ravage them, destroy them (not) wholly. Tear away her tendrils, they do not belong to the LORD.
 jer:5.11  For they have openly rebelled against me, both the house of Israel and the house of Judah, says the LORD.
 jer:5.12  They denied the LORD, saying, "Not he-- No evil shall befall us, neither sword nor famine shall we see.
 jer:5.13  The prophets have become wind, and the word is not in them. May their threats be carried out against themselves!"
 jer:5.14  Now, for this that you have said, says the LORD, the God of hosts- Behold, I make my words in your mouth, a fire, And this people is the wood that it shall devour!--
 jer:5.15  Beware, I will bring against you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, says the LORD; A long-lived nation, an ancient nation, a people whose language you know not, whose speech you cannot understand.
 jer:5.16  Their quivers are like open graves; all of them are warriors.
 jer:5.17  They will devour your harvest and your bread, devour your sons and your daughters, Devour your sheep and cattle, devour your vines and fig trees; They will beat flat with the sword the fortified city in which you trust.
 jer:5.18  Yet even in those days, says the LORD, I will not wholly destroy you.
 jer:5.19  And when they ask, "Why has the LORD done all these things to us?" say to them, "As you have forsaken me to serve strange gods in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a land not your own."
 jer:5.20  Announce this to the house of Jacob, proclaim it in Judah:
 jer:5.21  Pay attention to this, foolish and senseless people Who have eyes and see not, who have ears and hear not.
 jer:5.22  Should you not fear me, says the LORD, should you not tremble before me? I made the sandy shore the sea's limit, which by eternal decree it may not overstep. Toss though it may, it is to no avail; though its billows roar, they cannot pass.
 jer:5.23  But this people's heart is stubborn and rebellious; they turn and go away,
 jer:5.24  And say not in their hearts, "Let us fear the LORD, our God, Who gives us rain early and late, in its time; Who watches for us over the appointed weeks of harvest."
 jer:5.25  Your crimes have prevented these things, your sins have turned back these blessings from you.
 jer:5.26  For there are among my people criminals; like fowlers they set traps, but it is men they catch.
 jer:5.27  Their houses are as full of treachery as a bird-cage is of birds; Therefore they grow powerful and rich,
 jer:5.28  fat and sleek. They go their wicked way; justice they do not defend By advancing the claim of the fatherless or judging the cause of the poor.
 jer:5.29  Shall I not punish these things? says the LORD; on a nation such as this shall I not take vengeance?
 jer:5.30  A shocking, horrible thing has happened in the land:
 jer:5.31  The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests teach as they wish; Yet my people will have it so; what will you do when the end comes?
   
 jer:6.1   Flee, sons of Benjamin, out of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, raise a signal over Beth-haccherem; For evil threatens from the north, and mighty destruction.
 jer:6.2   O lovely and delicate daughter Zion, you are ruined!
 jer:6.3   Against her, shepherds come with their flocks; all around, they pitch their tents, each one grazes his portion.
 jer:6.4   "Prepare for war against her, Up! let us rush upon her at midday! Alas! the day is waning, evening shadows lengthen;
 jer:6.5   Up! let us rush upon her by night, destroy her palaces!"
 jer:6.6   For thus says the LORD of hosts: Hew down her trees, throw up a siege mound against Jerusalem. Woe to the city marked for punishment; nought but oppression within her!
 jer:6.7   As the well gushes out its waters, so she gushes out her wickedness. Violence and destruction resound in her; ever before me are wounds and blows.
 jer:6.8   Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I be estranged from you; Lest I turn you into a desert, a land where no man dwells.
 jer:6.9   Thus says the LORD of hosts: Glean, glean like a vine the remnant of Israel; Pass your hand, like a vintager, repeatedly over the tendrils.
 jer:6.10  To whom shall I speak? whom shall I warn, and be heard? See! their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot give heed; See, the word of the LORD has become for them an object of scorn, which they will not have.
 jer:6.11  Therefore my wrath brims up within me, I am weary of holding it in; I will pour it out upon the child in the street, upon the young men gathered together. Yes, all will be taken, husband and wife, graybeard with ancient.
 jer:6.12  Their houses will fall to strangers, their fields and their wives as well; For I will stretch forth my hand against those who dwell in this land, says the LORD.
 jer:6.13  Small and great alike, all are greedy for gain; prophet and priest, all practice fraud.
 jer:6.14  They would repair, as though it were nought, the injury to my people: "Peace, peace!" they say, though there is no peace.
 jer:6.15  They are odious; they have done abominable things, yet they are not at all ashamed, they know not how to blush. Hence they shall be among those who fall; in their time of punishment they shall go down, says the LORD.
 jer:6.16  Thus says the LORD: Stand beside the earliest roads, ask the pathways of old Which is the way to good, and walk it; thus you will find rest for your souls. But they said, "We will not walk it."
 jer:6.17  When I raised up watchmen for them: "Hearken to the sound of the trumpet!" they said, "We will not hearken."
 jer:6.18  Therefore hear, O nations, and know, O earth, what I will do with them:
 jer:6.19  See, I bring evil upon this people, the fruit of their own schemes, Because they heeded not my words, because they despised my law.
 jer:6.20  Of what use to me incense that comes from Sheba, or sweet cane from far-off lands? Your holocausts find no favor with me, your sacrifices please me not.
 jer:6.21  Therefore, thus says the LORD: See, I will place before this people obstacles to bring them down; Fathers and sons alike, neighbors and friends shall perish.
 jer:6.22  Thus says the LORD: See, a people comes from the land of the north, a great nation, roused from the ends of the earth.
 jer:6.23  Bow and javelin they wield; cruel and pitiless are they. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride forth on steeds, Each in his place, for battle against you, daughter Zion.
 jer:6.24  We hear the report of them; helpless fall our hands, Anguish takes hold of us, throes like a mother's in childbirth.
 jer:6.25  Go not forth into the field, step not into the street, Beware of the enemy's sword; terror on every side!
 jer:6.26  O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes. Mourn as for an only child with bitter wailing, For sudden upon us comes the destroyer.
 jer:6.27  A tester among my people I have appointed you, to search and test their way.
 jer:6.28  Arch-rebels are they all, dealers in slander, all of them corrupt.
 jer:6.29  The bellows roars, the lead is consumed by the fire; In vain has the smelter refined, the wicked are not drawn off.
 jer:6.30  "Silver rejected" they shall be called, for the LORD has rejected them.
   
 jer:7.1   The following message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
 jer:7.2   Stand at the gate of the house of the LORD, and there proclaim this message: Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD!
 jer:7.3   Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Reform your ways and your deeds, so that I may remain with you in this place.
 jer:7.4   Put not your trust in the deceitful words: "This is the temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD!"
 jer:7.5   Only if you thoroughly reform your ways and your deeds; if each of you deals justly with his neighbor;
 jer:7.6   if you no longer oppress the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow; if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place, or follow strange gods to your own harm,
 jer:7.7   will I remain with you in this place, in the land which I gave your fathers long ago and forever.
 jer:7.8   But here you are, putting your trust in deceitful words to your own loss!
 jer:7.9   Are you to steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, go after strange gods that you know not,
 jer:7.10  and yet come to stand before me in this house which bears my name, and say: "We are safe; we can commit all these abominations again"?
 jer:7.11  Has this house which bears my name become in your eyes a den of thieves? I too see what is being done, says the LORD.
 jer:7.12  You may go to Shiloh, which I made the dwelling place of my name in the beginning. See what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.
 jer:7.13  And now, because you have committed all these misdeeds, says the LORD, because you did not listen, though I spoke to you untiringly; because you did not answer, though I called you,
 jer:7.14  I will do to this house named after me, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, just as I did to Shiloh.
 jer:7.15  I will cast you away from me, as I cast away all your brethren, all the offspring of Ephraim.
 jer:7.16  You, now, do not intercede for this people; raise not in their behalf a pleading prayer! Do not urge me, for I will not listen to you.
 jer:7.17  Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem?
 jer:7.18  The children gather wood, their fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, while libations are poured out to strange gods in order to hurt me.
 jer:7.19  Is it I whom they hurt, says the LORD; is it not rather themselves, to their own confusion?
 jer:7.20  See now, says the Lord GOD, my anger and my wrath will pour out upon this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruits of the earth; it will burn without being quenched.
 jer:7.21  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Heap your holocausts upon your sacrifices; eat up the flesh!
 jer:7.22  In speaking to your fathers on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I gave them no command concerning holocaust or sacrifice.
 jer:7.23  This rather is what I commanded them: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk in all the ways that I command you, so that you may prosper.
 jer:7.24  But they obeyed not, nor did they pay heed. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.
 jer:7.25  From the day that your fathers left the land of Egypt even to this day, I have sent you untiringly all my servants the prophets.
 jer:7.26  Yet they have not obeyed me nor paid heed; they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their fathers.
 jer:7.27  When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either; when you call to them, they will not answer you.
 jer:7.28  Say to them: This is the nation which does not listen to the voice of the LORD, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.
 jer:7.29  Cut off your dedicated hair and throw it away! on the heights intone an elegy; For the LORD has rejected and cast off the generation that draws down his wrath.
 jer:7.30  The people of Judah have done what is evil in my eyes, says the LORD. They have defiled the house which bears my name by setting up in it their abominable idols.
 jer:7.31  In the Valley of Ben-hinnom they have built the high place of Topheth to immolate in fire their sons and their daughters, such a thing as I never commanded or had in mind.
 jer:7.32  Therefore, beware! days will come, says the LORD, when Topheth and the Valley of Ben-hinnom will no longer be called such, but rather the Valley of Slaughter. For lack of space, Topheth will be a burial place.
 jer:7.33  The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the field, which no one will drive away.
 jer:7.34  In the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem I will silence the cry of joy, the cry of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will be turned to rubble.
   
 jer:8.1   At that time, says the LORD, the bones of the kings and princes of Judah, the bones of the priests and the prophets, and the bones of the citizens of Jerusalem will be emptied out of their graves
 jer:8.2   and spread out before the sun and the moon and the whole army of heaven, which they loved and served, which they followed, consulted, and worshiped. They will not be gathered up for burial, but will lie like dung upon the ground.
 jer:8.3   Death will be preferred to life by all the survivors of this wicked race who remain in any of the places to which I banish them, says the LORD of hosts.
 jer:8.4   Tell them: Thus says the LORD: When someone falls, does he not rise again? if he goes astray, does he not turn back?
 jer:8.5   Why do these people rebel with obstinate resistance? Why do they cling to deceptive idols, refuse to turn back?
 jer:8.6   I listen closely: they speak what is not true; No one repents of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done!" Everyone keeps on running his course, like a steed dashing into battle.
 jer:8.7   Even the stork in the air knows it seasons; Turtledove, swallow and thrush observe their time of return, But my people do not know the ordinance of the LORD.
 jer:8.8   How can you say, "We are wise, we have the law of the LORD"? Why, that has been changed into falsehood by the lying pen of the scribes!
 jer:8.9   The wise are confounded, dismayed and ensnared; Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, of what avail is their wisdom?
 jer:8.10  Therefore, I will give their wives to strangers, their fields to spoilers. Small and great alike, all are greedy for gain, prophet and priest, all practice fraud.
 jer:8.11  They would repair, as though it were nought, the injury to the daughter of my people: "Peace, peace!" they say, though there is no peace.
 jer:8.12  They are odious; they have done abominable things, yet they are not at all ashamed, they know not how to blush. Hence they shall be among those who fall; in their time of punishment they shall go down, says the LORD.
 jer:8.13  I will gather them all in, says the LORD: no grapes on the vine, No figs on the fig trees, foliage withered!
 jer:8.14  Why do we remain here? Let us form ranks and enter the walled cities, to perish there; For the LORD has wrought our destruction, he has given us poison to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
 jer:8.15  We wait for peace to no avail; for a time of healing, but terror comes instead.
 jer:8.16  From Dan is heard the snorting of his steeds; The neighing of his stallions shakes the whole land. They come devouring the land and all it contains, the city and those who dwell in it.
 jer:8.17  Yes, I will send against you poisonous snakes, Against which no charm will work when they bite you, says the LORD.
 jer:8.18  My grief is incurable, my heart within me is faint.
 jer:8.19  Listen! the cry of the daughter of my people, far and wide in the land! Is the LORD no longer in Zion, is her King no longer in her midst? (Why do they provoke me with their idols, with their foreign nonentities?)
 jer:8.20  "The harvest has passed, the summer is at an end, and yet we are not safe!"
 jer:8.21  I am broken by the ruin of the daughter of my people. I am disconsolate; horror has seized me.
 jer:8.22  Is there no balm in Gilead, no physician there? Why grows not new flesh over the wound of the daughter of my people?
 jer:8.23  Oh, that my head were a spring of water, my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night over the slain of the daughter of my people!
   
 jer:9.1   Would that I had in the desert a travelers' lodge! That I might leave my people and depart from them. They are all adulterers, a faithless band.
 jer:9.2   They ready their tongues like a drawn bow; with lying, and not with truth, they hold forth in the land. They go from evil to evil, but me they know not, says the LORD.
 jer:9.3   Be on your guard, everyone against his neighbor; put no trust in any brother. Every brother apes Jacob, the supplanter, every friend is guilty of slander.
 jer:9.4   Each one deceives the other, no one speaks the truth. They have accustomed their tongues to lying, and are perverse, and cannot repent.
 jer:9.5   Violence upon violence, deceit upon deceit: They refuse to recognize me, says the LORD.
 jer:9.6   Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: I will smelt them and test them; how else should I deal with their wickedness?
 jer:9.7   A murderous arrow is his tongue, his mouth utters deceit; He speaks cordially with his friends, but in his heart he lays an ambush!
 jer:9.8   For these things, says the LORD, shall I not punish them? On a nation such as this shall I not take vengeance?
 jer:9.9   Over the mountains, break out in cries of lamentation, over the pasture lands, intone a dirge: They are scorched, and no man crosses them, unheard is the bleat of the flock; Birds of the air as well as beasts, all have fled, and are gone.
 jer:9.10  I will turn Jerusalem into a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; The cities of Judah I will make into a waste, where no one dwells.
 jer:9.11  Who is so wise that he can understand this? Let him to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken make it known: Why is the land ravaged, scorched like a wasteland untraversed?
 jer:9.12  The LORD answered: Because they have abandoned my law, which I set before them, and have not followed it or listened to my voice,
 jer:9.13  but followed rather the hardness of their hearts and the Baals, as their fathers had taught them;
 jer:9.14  therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: See now, I will give them wormwood to eat and poison to drink.
 jer:9.15  I will scatter them among nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known; I will send the sword to pursue them until I have completely destroyed them.
 jer:9.16  Thus says the LORD of hosts: Attention! tell the wailing women to come, summon the best of them;
 jer:9.17  Let them come quickly and intone a dirge for us, That our eyes may be wet with weeping, our cheeks run with tears.
 jer:9.18  The dirge is heard from Zion: Ruined we are, and greatly ashamed; We must leave the land, give up our homes!
 jer:9.19  Hear, you women, the word of the LORD, let your ears receive his message. Teach your daughters this dirge, and each other this lament.
 jer:9.20  Death has come up through our windows, has entered our palaces; It cuts down the children in the street, young people in the squares.
 jer:9.21  The corpses of the slain lie like dung on a field, Like sheaves behind the harvester, with no one to gather them.
 jer:9.22  Thus says the LORD: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man glory in his strength, nor the rich man glory in his riches;
 jer:9.23  But rather, let him who glories, glory in this, that in his prudence he knows me, Knows that I, the LORD, bring about kindness, justice and uprightness on the earth; For with such am I pleased, says the LORD.
 jer:9.24  See, days are coming, says the LORD, when I will demand an account of all those circumcised in their flesh:
 jer:9.25  Egypt and Judah, Edom and the Ammonites, Moab and the desert dwellers who shave their temples. For all these nations, like the whole house of Israel, are uncircumcised in heart.
   
 jer:10.1   Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel.
 jer:10.2   Thus says the LORD: Learn not the customs of the nations, and have no fear of the signs of the heavens, though the nations fear them.
 jer:10.3   For the cult idols of the nations are nothing, wood cut from the forest, Wrought by craftsmen with the adze,
 jer:10.4   adorned with silver and gold. With nails and hammers they are fastened, that they may not totter.
 jer:10.5   Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, they cannot speak; They must be carried about, for they cannot walk. Fear them not, they can do no harm, neither is it in their power to do good.
 jer:10.6   No one is like you, O LORD, great are you, great and mighty is your name.
 jer:10.7   Who would not fear you, King of the nations, for it is your due! Among all the wisest of the nations, and in all their domain, there is none like you.
 jer:10.8   One and all they are dumb and senseless, these idols they teach about are wooden:
 jer:10.9   Silver strips brought from Tarshish, and gold from Ophir, The work of the craftsman and the handiwork of the smelter, Clothed with violet and purple- all of them the work of artisans.
 jer:10.10  The LORD is true God, he is the living God, the eternal King, Before whose anger the earth quakes, whose wrath the nations cannot endure:
 jer:10.11  Thus shall you say of them: Let the gods that did not make heaven and earth perish from the earth, and from beneath these heavens!
 jer:10.12  He who made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his skill.
 jer:10.13  When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar, and he brings up clouds from the end of the earth; He makes the lightning flash in the rain, and releases stormwinds from their chambers.
 jer:10.14  Every man is stupid, ignorant; every artisan is put to shame by his idol: He has molded a fraud, without breath of life.
 jer:10.15  Nothingness are they, a ridiculous work; they will perish in their time of punishment.
 jer:10.16  Not like these is the portion of Jacob: he is the creator of all things; Israel is his very own tribe, LORD of hosts is his name.
 jer:10.17  Lift your bundle and leave the land, O city living in a state of siege!
 jer:10.18  For thus says the LORD: Behold, this time I will sling away the inhabitants of the land; I will hem them in, that they may be taken.
 jer:10.19  Woe is me! I am undone, my wound is incurable; Yet I had thought: if I make light of my wound, I can bear it.
 jer:10.20  My tent is ruined, all its cords are severed. My sons have left me, they are no more: no one to pitch my tent, no one to raise its curtains.
 jer:10.21  Yes, the shepherds were stupid as cattle, the LORD they sought not; Therefore they had no success, and all their flocks were scattered.
 jer:10.22  Listen! a noise! it comes closer, a great uproar from the northern land: To turn the cities of Judah into a desert haunt of jackals.
 jer:10.23  You know, O LORD, that man is not master of his way; Man's course is not within his choice, nor is it for him to direct his step.
 jer:10.24  Punish us, O LORD, but with equity, not in anger, lest you have us dwindle away.
 jer:10.25  Pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not, on the tribes that call not upon your name; For they have devoured Jacob utterly, and laid waste his dwelling.
   
 jer:11.1   The following message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
 jer:11.2   Speak to the men of Judah and to the citizens of Jerusalem,
 jer:11.3   saying to them: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not observe the terms of this covenant,
 jer:11.4   which I enjoined upon your fathers the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that iron foundry, saying: Listen to my voice and do all that I command you. Then you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
 jer:11.5   Thus I will fulfill the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey: the one you have today. "Amen, LORD," I answered.
 jer:11.6   Then the LORD said to me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and obey them.
 jer:11.7   Urgently and constantly I warned your fathers to obey my voice, from the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt even to this day.
 jer:11.8   But they did not listen or give ear. Each one followed the hardness of his evil heart, till I brought upon them all the threats of this covenant which they had failed to observe as I commanded them.
 jer:11.9   A conspiracy has been found, the LORD said to me, among the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem.
 jer:11.10  They have returned to the crimes of their forefathers who refused to obey my words. They also have followed and served strange gods; the covenant which I had made with their fathers, the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken.
 jer:11.11  Therefore, thus says the LORD: See, I bring upon them misfortune which they cannot escape. Though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.
 jer:11.12  Then the cities of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to which they have been offering incense. But these gods will give them no help whatever when misfortune strikes.
 jer:11.13  For as numerous as your cities are your gods, O Judah! And as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars for offering sacrifice to Baal.
 jer:11.14  Do not intercede on behalf of this people, nor utter a plea for them. I will not listen when they call to me at the time of their misfortune.
 jer:11.15  What right has my beloved in my house, while she prepares her plots? Can vows and sacred meat turn away your misfortune from you? Will you still be jubilant
 jer:11.16  when you hear the great invasion? A spreading olive tree, goodly to behold, the LORD has named you; Now he sets fire to it, its branches burn.
 jer:11.17  The LORD of hosts who planted you has decreed misfortune for you because of the evil done by the house of Israel and by the house of Judah, who provoked me by sacrificing to Baal.
 jer:11.18  I knew it because the LORD informed me; at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings.
 jer:11.19  Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me: "Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more."
 jer:11.20  But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge, searcher of mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause!
 jer:11.21  Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth who seek your life, saying, "Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD; else you shall die by our hand."
 jer:11.22  Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: I am going to punish them. The young men shall die by the sword; their sons and daughters shall die by famine.
 jer:11.23  None shall be spared among them, for I will bring misfortune upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their punishment.
   
 jer:12.1   You would be in the right, O LORD, if I should dispute with you; even so, I must discuss the case with you. Why does the way of the godless prosper, why live all the treacherous in contentment?
 jer:12.2   You planted them; they have taken root, they keep on growing and bearing fruit. You are upon their lips, but far from their inmost thoughts.
 jer:12.3   You, O Lord, know me, you see me, you have found that at heart I am with you. Pick them out like sheep for the slaughter, set them apart for the day of carnage.
 jer:12.4   How long must the earth mourn, the green of the whole countryside wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell in it beasts and birds disappear, because they say, "God does not see our ways."
 jer:12.5   If running against men has wearied you, how will you race against horses? And if in a land of peace you fall headlong, what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?
 jer:12.6   For even your own brothers, the members of your father's house, betray you; they have recruited a force against you. Do not believe them, even if they are friendly to you in their words.
 jer:12.7   I abandon my house, cast off my heritage; The beloved of my soul I deliver into the hand of her foes.
 jer:12.8   My heritage has turned on me like a lion in the jungle; Because she has roared against me, I treat her as an enemy.
 jer:12.9   My heritage is a prey for hyenas, is surrounded by vultures; Come, gather together, all you beasts of the field, come and eat!
 jer:12.10  Many shepherds have ravaged my vineyard, have trodden my heritage underfoot; The portion that delighted me they have turned into a desert waste.
 jer:12.11  They have made it a mournful waste, desolate it lies before me, Desolate, all the land, because no one takes it to heart.
 jer:12.12  Upon every desert height brigands have come up. The LORD has a sword which consumes the land, from end to end: no peace for all mankind.
 jer:12.13  They have sown wheat and reaped thorns, they have tired themselves out to no purpose; They recoil before their harvest, the flaming anger of the LORD.
 jer:12.14  Thus says the LORD against all my evil neighbors who plunder the heritage which I gave my people Israel as their own: See, I will pluck them up from their land; the house of Judah I will pluck up in their midst.
 jer:12.15  But after plucking them up, I will pity them again and bring them back, each to his heritage, each to his land.
 jer:12.16  And if they carefully learn my people's custom of swearing by my name, "As the LORD lives," they who formerly taught my people to swear by Baal shall be built up in the midst of my people.
 jer:12.17  But if they do not obey, I will uproot and destroy that nation entirely, says the LORD.
   
 jer:13.1   The LORD said to me: Go buy yourself a linen loincloth; wear it on your loins, but do not put it in water.
 jer:13.2   I bought the loincloth, as the LORD commanded, and put it on.
 jer:13.3   A second time the word of the LORD came to me thus:
 jer:13.4   Take the loincloth which you bought and are wearing, and go now to the Parath; there hide it in a cleft of the rock.
 jer:13.5   Obedient to the LORD'S command, I went to the Parath and buried the loincloth.
 jer:13.6   After a long interval, he said to me: Go now to the Parath and fetch the loincloth which I told you to hide there.
 jer:13.7   Again I went to the Parath, sought out and took the loincloth from the place where I had hid it. But it was rotted, good for nothing!
 jer:13.8   Then the message came to me from the LORD:
 jer:13.9   Thus says the LORD: So also I will allow the pride of Judah to rot, the great pride of Jerusalem.
 jer:13.10  This wicked people who refuse to obey my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts, and follow strange gods to serve and adore them, shall be like this loincloth which is good for nothing.
 jer:13.11  For, as close as the loincloth clings to a man's loins, so had I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD; to be my people, my renown, my praise, my beauty. But they did not listen.
 jer:13.12  Now speak to them this word: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Every wineflask is meant to be filled with wine. If they reply, "Do we not know that every wineflask is meant to be filled with wine?"
 jer:13.13  say to them: Thus says the LORD: Beware! I am filling with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land, the kings who succeed to David's throne, the priests and prophets, and all the citizens of Jerusalem.
 jer:13.14  I will dash them against each other, fathers and sons together, says the LORD; I will show no compassion, I will not spare or pity, but will destroy them.
 jer:13.15  Give ear, listen humbly, for the LORD speaks.
 jer:13.16  Give glory to the LORD, your God, before it grows dark; Before your feet stumble on darkening mountains; Before the light you look for turns to darkness, changes into black clouds.
 jer:13.17  If you do not listen to this in your pride, I will weep in secret many tears; My eyes will run with tears for the LORD'S flock, led away to exile.
 jer:13.18  Say to the king and to the queen mother: come down from your throne; From your heads fall your magnificent crowns.
 jer:13.19  The cities of the Negeb are besieged, with no one to relieve them; All Judah is banished in universal exile.
 jer:13.20  Lift up your eyes and see men coming from the north. Where is the flock entrusted to you, the sheep that were your glory?
 jer:13.21  What will you say when they place as rulers over you those whom you taught to be your lovers? Will not pangs seize you like those of a woman giving birth?
 jer:13.22  If you ask in your heart why these things befall you: For your great guilt your skirts are stripped away and you are violated.
 jer:13.23  Can the Ethiopian change his skin? the leopard his spots? As easily would you be able to do good, accustomed to evil as you are.
 jer:13.24  I will scatter them like chaff that flies when the desert wind blows.
 jer:13.25  This is your lot, the portion measured out to you from me, says the LORD. Because you have forgotten me, and trusted in the lying idol,
 jer:13.26  I now will strip off your skirts from you, so that your shame will appear.
 jer:13.27  Your adulteries, your neighings, your shameless prostitutions: On the hills in the highlands I see these horrible crimes of yours. Woe to you, Jerusalem, how long will it yet be before you become clean!
   
 jer:14.1   The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
 jer:14.2   Judah mourns, her gates are lifeless; Her people sink down in mourning: from Jerusalem ascends a cry of anguish.
 jer:14.3   The nobles send their servants for water, but when they come to the cisterns They find no water and return with empty jars. Ashamed, despairing, they cover their heads
 jer:14.4   because of the stricken soil; Because there is no rain in the land the farmers are ashamed, they cover their heads.
 jer:14.5   Even the hind in the field deserts her offspring because there is no grass.
 jer:14.6   The wild asses stand on the bare heights, gasping for breath like jackals; Their eyes grow dim, because there is no vegetation to be seen.
 jer:14.7   Even though our crimes bear witness against us, take action, O LORD, for the honor of your name-- Even though our rebellions are many, though we have sinned against you.
 jer:14.8   O Hope of Israel, O LORD, our savior in time of need! Why should you be a stranger in this land, like a traveler who has stopped but for a night?
 jer:14.9   Why are you like a man dumbfounded, a champion who cannot save? You are in our midst, O LORD, your name we bear: do not forsake us!
 jer:14.10  Thus says the LORD of this people: They so love to wander that they do not spare their feet. The LORD has no pleasure in them; now he remembers their guilt, and will punish their sins.
 jer:14.11  Then the LORD said to me: Do not intercede for this people.
 jer:14.12  If they fast, I will not listen to their supplication. If they offer holocausts or cereal offerings, I will not accept them. Rather, I will destroy them with the sword, famine, and pestilence.
 jer:14.13  Ah! Lord GOD, I replied, it is the prophets who say to them, "You shall not see the sword; famine shall not befall you. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place."
 jer:14.14  Lies these prophets utter in my name, the LORD said to me. I did not send them; I gave them no command nor did I speak to them. Lying visions, foolish divination, dreams of their own imagination, they prophesy to you.
 jer:14.15  Therefore, thus says the LORD: Concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, though I did not send them; who say, "Sword and famine shall not befall this land": by the sword and famine shall these prophets meet their end.
 jer:14.16  The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out into the streets of Jerusalem by famine and the sword. No one shall bury them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour out upon them their own wickedness.
 jer:14.17  Speak to them this word: Let my eyes stream with tears day and night, without rest, Over the great destruction which overwhelms the virgin daughter of my people, over her incurable wound.
 jer:14.18  If I walk out into the field, look! those slain by the sword; If I enter the city, look! those consumed by hunger. Even the prophet and the priest forage in a land they know not.
 jer:14.19  Have you cast Judah off completely? Is Zion loathsome to you? Why have you struck us a blow that cannot be healed? We wait for peace, to no avail; for a time of healing, but terror comes instead.
 jer:14.20  We recognize, O LORD, our wickedness, the guilt of our fathers; that we have sinned against you.
 jer:14.21  For your name's sake spurn us not, disgrace not the throne of your glory; remember your covenant with us, and break it not.
 jer:14.22  Among the nations' idols is there any that gives rain? Or can the mere heavens send showers? Is it not you alone, O LORD, our God, to whom we look? You alone have done all these things.
   
 jer:15.1   The LORD said to me: Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them away from me.
 jer:15.2   If they ask you where they should go, tell them, Thus says the LORD: Whoever is marked for death, to death; whoever is marked for the sword, to the sword; whoever is marked for famine, to famine; whoever is marked for captivity, to captivity.
 jer:15.3   Four kinds of scourge I have decreed against them, says the LORD: the sword to slay them; dogs to drag them about; the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy them.
 jer:15.4   And I will make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.
 jer:15.5   Who will pity you, Jerusalem, who will console you? Who will stop to ask about your welfare?
 jer:15.6   You have disowned me, says the LORD, turned your back upon me; And so I stretched out my hand to destroy you, I was weary of sparing you.
 jer:15.7   I winnowed them with the fan in every city gate. I destroyed my people through bereavement; they returned not from their evil ways.
 jer:15.8   Their widows were more numerous before me than the sands of the sea. I brought against the mother of youths the spoiler at midday; Suddenly I struck her with anguish and terror.
 jer:15.9   The mother of seven swoons away, gasping out her life; Her sun sets in full day, she is disgraced, despairing. Their survivors I will give to the sword before their enemies, says the LORD.
 jer:15.10  Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth! a man of strife and contention to all the land! I neither borrow nor lend, yet all curse me.
 jer:15.11  Tell me, LORD, have I not served you for their good? Have I not interceded with you in the time of misfortune and anguish?
 jer:15.12  (No can break iron, especially the iron from north, that is mixed with bronze.)
 jer:15.13  (The Lord said to me, "I will send enimies to carry away the wealth and treasures of my people, in order to punish them for the sins they have committed throughout the land.)
 jer:15.14  (I will make them serve their enimies in a land they know nothing about, because my anger is like fire, and it will burn for ever.)
 jer:15.15  You know I have. Remember me, LORD, visit me, and avenge me on my persecutors. Because of your long-suffering banish me not; know that for you I have borne insult.
 jer:15.16  When I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart, Because I bore your name, O LORD, God of hosts.
 jer:15.17  I did not sit celebrating in the circle of merrymakers; Under the weight of your hand I sat alone because you filled me with indignation.
 jer:15.18  Why is my pain continuous, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become for me a treacherous brook, whose waters do not abide!
 jer:15.19  Thus the LORD answered me: If you repent, so that I restore you, in my presence you shall stand; If you bring forth the precious without the vile, you shall be my mouthpiece. Then it shall be they who turn to you, and you shall not turn to them;
 jer:15.20  And I will make you toward this people a solid wall of brass. Though they fight against you, they shall not prevail, For I am with you, to deliver and rescue you, says the LORD.
 jer:15.21  I will free you from the hand of the wicked, and rescue you from the grasp of the violent.
   
 jer:16.1   This message came to me from the LORD:
 jer:16.2   Do not marry any woman; you shall not have sons or daughters in this place,
 jer:16.3   for thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who will be born in this place, the mothers who will give them birth, the fathers who will beget them in this land:
 jer:16.4   Of deadly disease they shall die. Unlamented and unburied they will lie like dung on the ground. Sword and famine will make an end of them, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.
 jer:16.5   Go not into a house of mourning, the LORD continued: go not there to lament or offer sympathy. For I have withdrawn my friendship from this people, says the LORD, my kindness and my pity.
 jer:16.6   They shall die, the great and the lowly, in this land, and shall go unburied and unlamented. No one will gash himself or shave his head for them.
 jer:16.7   They will not break bread with the bereaved to console them in their bereavement; they will not give them the cup of consolation to drink over the death of father or mother.
 jer:16.8   Enter not a house where people are celebrating, to sit with them eating and drinking.
 jer:16.9   For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Before your very eyes and during your lifetime I will silence from this place the cry of joy and the cry of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
 jer:16.10  When you proclaim all these words to this people and they ask you: "Why has the LORD pronounced all these great evils against us? What is our crime? What sin have we committed against the LORD, our God?"--
 jer:16.11  you shall answer them: It is because your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and followed strange gods, which they served and worshiped; but me they have forsaken, and my law they have not observed.
 jer:16.12  And you have done worse than your fathers. Here you are, every one of you, walking in the hardness of his evil heart instead of listening to me.
 jer:16.13  I will cast you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known; there you can serve strange gods day and night, because I will not grant you my mercy.
 jer:16.14  However, days will surely come, says the LORD, when it will no longer be said, "As the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites out of Egypt";
 jer:16.15  but rather, "As the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites out of the land of the north and out of all the countries to which he had banished them." I will bring them back to the land which I gave their fathers.
 jer:16.16  Look! I will send many fishermen, says the LORD, to catch them. After that, I will send many hunters to hunt them out from every mountain and hill and from the clefts of the rocks.
 jer:16.17  For my eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor does their guilt escape my view.
 jer:16.18  I will at once repay them double for their crime and their sin of profaning my land with their detestable corpses of idols, and filling my heritage with their abominations.
 jer:16.19  O LORD, my strength, my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress! To you will the nations come from the ends of the earth, and say, "Mere frauds are the heritage of our fathers, empty idols of no use."
 jer:16.20  Can man make for himself gods? These are not gods.
 jer:16.21  Look, then: I will give them knowledge; this time I will leave them in no doubt Of my strength and my power: they shall know that my name is LORD.
   
 jer:17.1   The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus, Engraved with a diamond point upon the tablets of their hearts. (And the horns of their altars,
 jer:17.2   when their sons remember their altars and their sacred poles, beside the green trees, on the high hills,
 jer:17.3   Your wealth and all your treasures I will give as spoil. In recompense for all your sins throughout your borders,
 jer:17.4   You will relinquish your hold on your heritage which I have given you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land that you know not: For a fire has been kindled by my wrath that will burn forever.
 jer:17.5   Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD.
 jer:17.6   He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, But stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth.
 jer:17.7   Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD.
 jer:17.8   He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.
 jer:17.9   More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it?
 jer:17.10  I, the LORD, alone probe the mind and test the heart, To reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merit of his deeds.
 jer:17.11  A partridge that mothers a brood not her own is the man who acquires wealth unjustly: In midlife it will desert him; in the end he is only a fool.
 jer:17.12  A throne of glory, exalted from the beginning, such is our holy place.
 jer:17.13  O hope of Israel, O LORD! all who forsake you shall be in disgrace; The rebels in the land shall be put to shame; they have forsaken the source of living waters (the LORD).
 jer:17.14  Heal me, LORD, that I may be healed; save me, that I may be saved, for it is you whom I praise.
 jer:17.15  See how they say to me, "Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come to pass!"
 jer:17.16  Yet I did not press you to send calamity; the day without remedy I have not desired. You know what passed my lips; it is present before you.
 jer:17.17  Do not be my ruin, you, my refuge in the day of misfortune.
 jer:17.18  Let my persecutors, not me, be confounded; let them, not me, be broken. Bring upon them the day of misfortune, crush them with repeated destruction.
 jer:17.19  Thus said the LORD to me: Go, stand at the Gate of Benjamin, where the kings of Judah enter and leave, and at the other gates of Jerusalem.
 jer:17.20  There say to them: Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all you citizens of Jerusalem who enter these gates!
 jer:17.21  Thus says the LORD: As you love your lives, take care not to carry burdens on the sabbath day, to bring them in through the gates of Jerusalem.
 jer:17.22  Bring no burden from your homes on the sabbath. Do no work whatever, but keep holy the sabbath, as I commanded your fathers,
 jer:17.23  though they did not listen or give ear, but stiffened their necks so as not to hear or take correction.
 jer:17.24  If you obey me wholeheartedly, says the LORD, and carry no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath, keeping the sabbath holy and abstaining from all work on it,
 jer:17.25  then, through the gates of this city, kings who sit upon the throne of David will continue to enter, riding in their chariots or upon their horses, along with their princes, and the men of Judah, and the citizens of Jerusalem. This city will remain inhabited forever.
 jer:17.26  To it people will come from the cities of Judah and the neighborhood of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the foothills, from the hill country and the Negeb, to bring holocausts and sacrifices, cereal offerings and incense and thank offerings to the house of the LORD.
 jer:17.27  But if you do not obey me and keep holy the sabbath, if you carry burdens and come through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath, I will set unquenchable fire to its gates, which will consume the palaces of Jerusalem.
   
 jer:18.1   This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
 jer:18.2   Rise up, be off to the potter's house; there I will give you my message.
 jer:18.3   I went down to the potter's house and there he was, working at the wheel.
 jer:18.4   Whenever the object of clay which he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased.
 jer:18.5   Then the word of the Lord came to me:
 jer:18.6   Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? says the LORD. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.
 jer:18.7   Sometimes I threaten to uproot and tear down and destroy a nation or a kingdom.
 jer:18.8   But if that nation which I have threatened turns from its evil, I also repent of the evil which I threatened to do.
 jer:18.9   Sometimes, again, I promise to build up and plant a nation or a kingdom.
 jer:18.10  But if that nation does what is evil in my eyes, refusing to obey my voice, I repent of the good with which I promised to bless it.
 jer:18.11  And now, tell this to the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem: Thus says the LORD: Take care! I am fashioning evil against you and making a plan. Return, each of you, from his evil way; reform your ways and your deeds.
 jer:18.12  But they will say, "No use! We will follow our own devices; each one of us will behave according to the stubbornness of his evil heart!"
 jer:18.13  Therefore thus says the LORD: Ask among the nations- who has ever heard the like? Truly horrible things has virgin Israel done!
 jer:18.14  Does the snow of Lebanon desert the rocky heights? Do the gushing waters dry up that flow fresh down the mountains?
 jer:18.15  Yet my people have forgotten me: they burn incense to a thing that does not exist. They stumble out of their ways, the paths of old, To travel on bypaths, not the beaten track.
 jer:18.16  Their land shall be turned into a desert, an object of lasting ridicule: All passers-by will be amazed, will shake their heads.
 jer:18.17  Like the east wind, I will scatter them before their enemies; I will show them my back, not my face, in their day of disaster.
 jer:18.18  "Come," they said, "let us contrive a plot against Jeremiah. It will not mean the loss of instruction from the priests, nor of counsel from the wise, nor of messages from the prophets. And so, let us destroy him by his own tongue; let us carefully note his every word."
 jer:18.19  Heed me, O LORD, and listen to what my adversaries say.
 jer:18.20  Must good be repaid with evil that they should dig a pit to take my life? Remember that I stood before you to speak in their behalf, to turn away your wrath from them.
 jer:18.21  So now, deliver their children to famine, do away with them by the sword. Let their wives be made childless and widows; let their men die of pestilence, their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
 jer:18.22  May cries be heard from their homes, when suddenly you send plunderers against them. For they have dug a pit to capture me, they have hid snares for my feet;
 jer:18.23  But you, O LORD, know all their plans to slay me. Forgive not their crime, blot not out their sin in your sight! Let them go down before you, proceed against them in the time of your anger.
   
 jer:19.1   Thus said the LORD: Go, buy a potter's earthen flask. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests,
 jer:19.2   and go out toward the Valley of Ben-hinnom, at the entrance of the Potsherd Gate; there proclaim the words which I will speak to you:
 jer:19.3   Listen to the word of the LORD, kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to bring such evil upon this place that all who hear of it will feel their ears tingle.
 jer:19.4   This is because they have forsaken me and alienated this place by burning in it incense to strange gods which neither they nor their fathers knew; and the kings of Judah have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.
 jer:19.5   They have built high places for Baal to immolate their sons in fire as holocausts to Baal: such a thing as I neither commanded nor spoke of, nor did it ever enter my mind.
 jer:19.6   Therefore, days will come, says the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth, or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather, the Valley of Slaughter.
 jer:19.7   In this place I will foil the plan of Judah and Jerusalem; I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those that seek their lives. Their corpses I will give as food to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field.
 jer:19.8   I will make this city an object of amazement and derision. Because of all its wounds, every passer-by will be amazed and will catch his breath.
 jer:19.9   I will have them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters; they shall eat one another's flesh during the strict siege by which their enemies and those who seek their lives will confine them.
 jer:19.10  And you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who went with you,
 jer:19.11  and say to them: Thus says the LORD of hosts: Thus will I smash this people and this city, as one smashes a clay pot so that it cannot be repaired. And Topheth shall be a burial place, for lack of place to bury elsewhere.
 jer:19.12  Thus I will do to this place and to its inhabitants, says the LORD; I will make this city like Topheth.
 jer:19.13  And the houses of Jerusalem and the palaces of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Topheth, all the houses upon whose roofs they burnt incense to the whole host of heaven and poured out libations to strange gods.
 jer:19.14  When Jeremiah returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, he stood in the court of the house of God and said to all the people:
 jer:19.15  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I will surely bring upon this city all the evil with which I threatened it, because they have stiffened their necks and have not obeyed my words.
   
 jer:20.1   Jeremiah was heard prophesying these things by the priest Pashhur, son of Immer, chief officer in the house of the LORD.
 jer:20.2   So he had the prophet scourged and placed in the stocks at the upper Gate of Benjamin in the house of the LORD.
 jer:20.3   The next morning, after Pashhur had released Jeremiah from the stocks, the prophet said to him: Instead of Pashhur, the LORD will name you "Terror on every side."
 jer:20.4   For thus says the LORD: Indeed, I will deliver you to terror, you and all your friends. Your own eyes shall see them fall by the sword of their enemies. All Judah I will deliver to the king of Babylon, who shall take them captive to Babylon or slay them with the sword.
 jer:20.5   All the wealth of this city, all it has toiled for and holds dear, all the treasures of the kings of Judah, I will give as plunder into the hands of their foes, who shall seize it and carry it away to Babylon.
 jer:20.6   You Pashhur, and all the members of your household shall go into exile. To Babylon you shall go, you and all your friends; there you shall die and be buried, because you have prophesied lies to them.
 jer:20.7   You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed. All the day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me.
 jer:20.8   Whenever I speak, I must cry out, violence and outrage is my message; The word of the LORD has brought me derision and reproach all the day.
 jer:20.9   I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.
 jer:20.10  Yes, I hear the whisperings of many: "Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!" All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. "Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him."
 jer:20.11  But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph. In their failure they will be put to utter shame, to lasting, unforgettable confusion.
 jer:20.12  O LORD of hosts, you who test the just, who probe mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause.
 jer:20.13  Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD, For he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!
 jer:20.14  Cursed be the day on which I was born! May the day my mother gave me birth never be blessed!
 jer:20.15  Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, saying, "A child, a son, has been born to you!" filling him with great joy.
 jer:20.16  Let that man be like the cities which the LORD relentlessly overthrew; Let him hear war cries in the morning, battle alarms at noonday,
 jer:20.17  because he did not dispatch me in the womb! Then my mother would have been my grave, her womb confining me forever.
 jer:20.18  Why did I come forth from the womb, to see sorrow and pain, to end my days in shame?
   
 jer:21.1   The message which came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent him Pashhur, son of Malchiah, and the priest Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah, with this request:
 jer:21.2   Inquire for us of the LORD, because Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, is attacking us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all his wonderful works, so that he will withdraw from us.
 jer:21.3   But Jeremiah answered them: This is what you shall report to Zedekiah:
 jer:21.4   Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I will turn back in your hands the weapons with which you intend to fight the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls. These weapons I will pile up in the midst of this city,
 jer:21.5   and I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and mighty arm, in anger, and wrath, and great rage!
 jer:21.6   I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die in a great pestilence.
 jer:21.7   After that, says the LORD, I will hand over Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his ministers and the people in this city who survive pestilence, sword, and famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, into the hands of their enemies and those who seek their lives. He shall strike them with the edge of the sword, without quarter, without pity or mercy.
 jer:21.8   And to this people you shall say: Thus says the LORD: See, I am giving you a choice between life and death.
 jer:21.9   Whoever remains in this city shall die by the sword or famine or pestilence. But whoever leaves and surrenders to the besieging Chaldeans shall live and have his life as booty.
 jer:21.10  For I have turned against this city, for its woe and not for its good, says the LORD. It shall be given into the power of the king of Babylon who shall burn it with fire.
 jer:21.11  To the royal house of Judah: Hear the word of the LORD,
 jer:21.12  O house of David! Thus says the LORD: Each morning dispense justice, rescue the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor, Lest my fury break out like fire which burns without being quenched, because of the evil of your deeds.
 jer:21.13  Beware! I am against you, Valley-site, Rock of the Plain, says the LORD. You who say, "Who will attack us, who can penetrate our retreats?"
 jer:21.14  I will punish you, says the LORD, as your deeds deserve! I will kindle a fire in its forest that shall devour all its surroundings.
   
 jer:22.1   The LORD told me this: Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and there deliver this message:
 jer:22.2   You shall say: Listen to the word of the LORD, king of Judah, who sit on the throne of David, you, your ministers, and your people that enter by these gates!
 jer:22.3   Thus says the LORD: Do what is right and just. Rescue the victim from the hand of his oppressor. Do not wrong or oppress the resident alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.
 jer:22.4   If you carry out these commands, kings who succeed to the throne of David will continue to enter the gates of this palace, riding in chariots or mounted on horses, with their ministers, and their people.
 jer:22.5   But if you do not obey these commands, I swear by myself, says the LORD: this palace shall become rubble.
 jer:22.6   For thus says the LORD concerning the palace of the king of Judah: Though you be to me like Gilead, like the peak of Lebanon, I will turn you into a waste, a city uninhabited.
 jer:22.7   Against you I will send destroyers, each with his axe: They shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
 jer:22.8   Many people will pass by this city and ask one another: "Why has the LORD done this to so great a city?"
 jer:22.9   And the answer will be given: "Because they have deserted their covenant with the LORD, their God, by worshiping and serving strange gods."
 jer:22.10  Weep not for him who is dead, mourn not for him! Weep rather for him who is going away; never again will he see the land of his birth.
 jer:22.11  Thus says the LORD concerning Shallum, son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded his father as king. He has left this place never to return.
 jer:22.12  Rather, he shall die in the place where they exiled him; this land he shall not see again.
 jer:22.13  Woe to him who builds his house on wrong, his terraces on injustice; Who works his neighbor without pay, and gives him no wages.
 jer:22.14  Who says, "I will build myself a spacious house, with airy rooms," Who cuts out windows for it, panels it with cedar, and paints it with vermillion.
 jer:22.15  Must you prove your rank among kings by competing with them in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink? He did what was right and just, and it went well with him.
 jer:22.16  Because he dispensed justice to the weak and the poor, it went well with him. Is this not true knowledge of me? says the LORD.
 jer:22.17  But your eyes and heart are set on nothing except on your own gain, On shedding innocent blood, on practicing oppression and extortion.
 jer:22.18  Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah: They shall not lament him, "Alas! my brother"; "Alas! sister." They shall not lament him, "Alas, Lord! alas, Majesty!"
 jer:22.19  The burial of an ass shall he be given, dragged forth and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
 jer:22.20  Scale Lebanon and cry out, in Bashan lift up your voice; Cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers are crushed.
 jer:22.21  I spoke to you when you were secure, but you answered, "I will not listen." This has been your way from your youth, not to listen to my voice.
 jer:22.22  The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds, your lovers shall go into exile. Surely then you shall be ashamed and confounded because of all your wickedness.
 jer:22.23  You who dwell on Lebanon, who nest in the cedars, How you shall groan when pains come upon you, like the pangs of a woman in travail!
 jer:22.24  As I live, says the LORD, if you, Coniah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, are a signet ring on my right hand, I will snatch you from it.
 jer:22.25  I will deliver you into the hands of those who seek your life; the hands of those whom you fear; the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and the Chaldeans.
 jer:22.26  I will cast you out, you and the mother who bore you, into a different land from the one you were born in; and there you shall die.
 jer:22.27  Neither of them shall come back to the land for which they yearn.
 jer:22.28  Is this man Coniah a vessel despised, to be broken up, an instrument that no one wants? Why are he and his descendants cast out? why thrown into a land they know not?
 jer:22.29  O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD--
 jer:22.30  Thus says the LORD: Write this man down as one childless, who will never thrive in his lifetime! No descendant of his shall achieve a seat on the throne of David as ruler again over Judah.
   
 jer:23.1   Woe to the shepherds who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the LORD.
 jer:23.2   Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who shepherd my people: You have scattered my sheep and driven them away. You have not cared for them, but I will take care to punish your evil deeds.
 jer:23.3   I myself will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands to which I have driven them and bring them back to their meadow; there they shall increase and multiply.
 jer:23.4   I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be missing, says the LORD.
 jer:23.5   Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David; As king he shall reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land.
 jer:23.6   In his days Judah shall be saved, Israel shall dwell in security. This is the name they give him: "The LORD our justice."
 jer:23.7   Therefore, the days will come, says the LORD, when they shall no longer say, "As the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt";
 jer:23.8   but rather, "As the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of the house of Israel up from the land of the north"--and from all the lands to which I banished them; they shall again live on their own land.
 jer:23.9   Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken, my bones all tremble; I am like a man who is drunk, overcome by wine, Because of the LORD, because of his holy words.
 jer:23.10  With adulterers the land is filled; on their account the land mourns, the pasture ranges are seared. Theirs is an evil course, theirs is unjust power.
 jer:23.11  Both prophet and priest are godless! In my very house I find their wickedness, says the LORD.
 jer:23.12  Hence their way shall become for them slippery ground. In the darkness they shall lose their footing, and fall headlong; Evil I will bring upon them: the year of their punishment, says the LORD.
 jer:23.13  Among Samaria's prophets I saw unseemly deeds: They prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.
 jer:23.14  But among Jerusalem's prophets I saw deeds still more shocking: Adultery, living in lies, siding with the wicked, so that no one turns from evil; To me they are all like Sodom, its citizens like Gomorrah.
 jer:23.15  Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts against the prophets: Behold, I will give them wormwood to eat, and poison to drink; For from Jerusalem's prophets ungodliness has gone forth into the whole land.
 jer:23.16  Thus says the LORD of hosts: Listen not to the words of your prophets, who fill you with emptiness; Visions of their own fancy they speak, not from the mouth of the LORD.
 jer:23.17  They say to those who despise the word of the LORD, "Peace shall be yours"; And to everyone who walks in hardness of heart, "No evil shall overtake you."
 jer:23.18  Now, who has stood in the council of the LORD, to see him and to hear his word? Who has heeded his word, so as to announce it?
 jer:23.19  See, the storm of the LORD! His wrath breaks forth In a whirling storm that bursts upon the heads of the wicked.
 jer:23.20  The anger of the LORD shall not abate until he has done and fulfilled what he has determined in his heart. When the time comes, you shall fully understand.
 jer:23.21  I did not send these prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
 jer:23.22  Had they stood in my council, and did they but proclaim to my people my words, They would have brought them back from evil ways and from their wicked deeds.
 jer:23.23  Am I a God near at hand only, says the LORD, and not a God far off?
 jer:23.24  Can a man hide in secret without my seeing him? says the LORD. Do I not fill both heaven and earth? says the LORD.
 jer:23.25  I have heard the prophets who prophesy lies in my name say, "I had a dream! I had a dream!"
 jer:23.26  How long will this continue? Is my name in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy lies and their own deceitful fancies?
 jer:23.27  By their dreams which they recount to each other, they think to make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name for Baal.
 jer:23.28  Let the prophet who has a dream recount his dream; let him who has my word speak my word truthfully! What has straw to do with the wheat? says the LORD.
 jer:23.29  Is not my word like fire, says the LORD, like a hammer shattering rocks?
 jer:23.30  Therefore I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who steal my words from each other.
 jer:23.31  Yes, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who borrow speeches to pronounce oracles.
 jer:23.32  Yes, I am against the prophets who prophesy lying dreams, says the LORD, and who lead my people astray by recounting their lies and by their empty boasting. From me they have no mission or command, and they do this people no good at all, says the LORD.
 jer:23.33  And when this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, "What is the burden of the LORD?" you shall answer, "You are the burden, and I cast you off, says the LORD."
 jer:23.34  If a prophet or a priest or anyone else mentions "the burden of the LORD," I will punish that man and his house.
 jer:23.35  Thus you shall ask, when speaking to one another, "What answer did the LORD give?" or, "What did the LORD say?"
 jer:23.36  But the burden of the LORD you shall mention no more. For each man his own word becomes the burden so that you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.
 jer:23.37  Thus shall you ask the prophet, "What answer did the LORD give?" or, "What did the LORD say?"
 jer:23.38  But if you ask about "the burden of the LORD," then thus says the LORD: Because you use this phrase, "the burden of the LORD," though I forbade you to use it,
 jer:23.39  therefore I will lift you on high and cast you from my presence, you and the city which I gave to you and your fathers.
 jer:23.40  And I will bring upon you eternal reproach, eternal, unforgettable shame.
   
 jer:24.1   The LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD.--This was after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had exiled from Jerusalem Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, the artisans and the skilled workers, and brought them to Babylon.--
 jer:24.2   One basket contained excellent figs, the early-ripening kind. But the other basket contained very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten.
 jer:24.3   Then the LORD said to me: What do you see, Jeremiah? "Figs," I replied; "the good ones are very good, but the bad ones very bad, so bad they cannot be eaten."
 jer:24.4   Thereupon this word of the LORD came to me:
 jer:24.5   Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, even so will I regard with favor Judah's exiles whom I sent away from this place into the land of the Chaldeans.
 jer:24.6   I will look after them for their good, and bring them back to this land, to build them up, not to tear them down; to plant them, not to pluck them out.
 jer:24.7   I will give them a heart with which to understand that I am the LORD. They shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
 jer:24.8   And like the figs that are bad, so bad they cannot be eaten--yes, thus says the LORD--even so will I treat Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes, the remnant of Jerusalem remaining in this land and those who have settled in the land of Egypt.
 jer:24.9   I will make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all the places to which I will drive them.
 jer:24.10  I will send upon them the sword, famine, and pestilence, until they have disappeared from the land which I gave them and their fathers.
   
 jer:25.1   The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah (the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon).
 jer:25.2   This word the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem:
 jer:25.3   Since the thirteenth year of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day-these three and twenty years-the word of the LORD has come to me and I spoke to you untiringly, but you would not listen.
 jer:25.4   Though you refused to listen or pay heed, the LORD has sent you without fail all his servants the prophets
 jer:25.5   with this message: Turn back, each of you, from your evil way and from your evil deeds; then you shall remain in the land which the LORD gave you and your fathers, from of old and forever.
 jer:25.6   Do not follow strange gods to serve and adore them, lest you provoke me with your handiwork, and I bring evil upon you.
 jer:25.7   But you would not listen to me, says the LORD, and so you provoked me with your handiwork to your own harm.
 jer:25.8   Hence, thus says the LORD of hosts: Since you would not listen to my words,
 jer:25.9   lo! I will send for and fetch all the tribes of the north, says the LORD (and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant); I will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against all these neighboring nations. I will doom them, making them an object of horror, of ridicule, of everlasting reproach.
 jer:25.10  Among them I will bring to an end the song of joy and the song of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstone and the light of the lamp.
 jer:25.11  This whole land shall be a ruin and a desert. Seventy years these nations shall be enslaved to the king of Babylon;
 jer:25.12  but when the seventy years have elapsed, I will punish the king of Babylon and the nation and the land of the Chaldeans for their guilt, says the LORD. Their land I will turn into everlasting desert.
 jer:25.13  Against that land I will fulfill all the words I have spoken against it (all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations).
 jer:25.14  They also shall be enslaved to great nations and mighty kings, and thus I will repay them according to their own deeds and according to their own handiwork.
 jer:25.15  For thus said the LORD, the God of Israel, to me: Take this cup of foaming wine from my hand, and have all the nations to whom I will send you drink it.
 jer:25.16  They shall drink, and be convulsed, and go mad, because of the sword I will send among them.
 jer:25.17  I took the cup from the hand of the LORD and gave drink to all the nations to which the LORD sent me:
 jer:25.18  (Jerusalem, the cities of Judah, her kings and her princes, to make them a ruin and a desert, an object of ridicule and cursing, as they are today;)
 jer:25.19  Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his servants, his princes, all the people under him, native
 jer:25.20  and foreign; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines: Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;
 jer:25.21  Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites;
 jer:25.22  all the kings of Tyre, of Sidon, and of the shores beyond the sea;
 jer:25.23  Dedan and Tema and Buz, all the desert dwellers who shave their temples;
 jer:25.24  (all the kings of Arabia;)
 jer:25.25  all the kings of Zimri, of Elam, of the Medes;
 jer:25.26  all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other; all the kingdoms upon the face of the earth (and after them the king of Sheshach shall drink).
 jer:25.27  Tell them: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink! become drunk and vomit; fall, never to rise, before the sword that I will send among you!
 jer:25.28  If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, say to them: Thus says the LORD of hosts: You must drink!
 jer:25.29  For since with this city, which is called by my name, I begin to inflict evil, how can you possibly be spared? You shall not be spared! I will call down the sword upon all who inhabit the earth, says the LORD of hosts.
 jer:25.30  Prophesy against them all these things and say to them: The LORD roars from on high, from his holy dwelling he raises his voice; Mightily he roars over the range, a shout like that of vintagers over the grapes.
 jer:25.31  To all who inhabit the earth to its very ends the uproar spreads; For the LORD has an indictment against the nations, he is to pass judgment upon all mankind: The godless shall be given to the sword, says the LORD.
 jer:25.32  Thus says the LORD of hosts: Lo! calamity stalks from nation to nation; A great storm is unleashed from the ends of the earth.
 jer:25.33  On that day, those whom the LORD has slain will be strewn from one end of the earth to the other. None will mourn them, none will gather them for burial; they shall lie like dung on the field.
 jer:25.34  Howl, you shepherds, and wail! roll in the dust, leaders of the flock! The time for your slaughter has come; like choice rams you shall fall.
 jer:25.35  There is no flight for the shepherds, no escape for the leaders of the flock.
 jer:25.36  Listen! Wailing from the shepherds, howling by the leaders of the flock! For the LORD lays waste their grazing place,
 jer:25.37  desolate lie the peaceful pastures;
 jer:25.38  The lion leaves his lair, and their land is made desolate By the sweeping sword, by the burning wrath of the LORD.
   
 jer:26.1   In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this message came from the LORD:
 jer:26.2   Thus says the LORD: Stand in the court of the house of the LORD and speak to the people of all the cities of Judah who come to worship in the house of the LORD; whatever I command you, tell them, and omit nothing.
 jer:26.3   Perhaps they will listen and turn back, each from his evil way, so that I may repent of the evil I have planned to inflict upon them for their evil deeds.
 jer:26.4   Say to them: Thus says the LORD: If you disobey me, not living according to the law I placed before you
 jer:26.5   and not listening to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send you constantly though you do not obey them,
 jer:26.6   I will treat this house like Shiloh, and make this the city which all the nations of the earth shall refer to when cursing another.
 jer:26.7   Now the priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the LORD.
 jer:26.8   When Jeremiah finished speaking all that the LORD bade him speak to all the people, the priests and prophets laid hold of him, crying, "You must be put to death!
 jer:26.9   Why do you prophesy in the name of the LORD: 'This house shall be like Shiloh,' and 'This city shall be desolate and deserted'?" And all the people gathered about Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.
 jer:26.10  When the princes of Judah were informed of these things, they came up from the king's palace to the house of the LORD and held court at the New Gate of the house of the LORD.
 jer:26.11  The priests and prophets said to the princes and to all the people, "This man deserves death; he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears."
 jer:26.12  Jeremiah gave this answer to the princes and all the people: "It was the LORD who sent me to prophesy against this house and city all that you have heard.
 jer:26.13  Now, therefore, reform your ways and your deeds; listen to the voice of the LORD your God, so that the LORD will repent of the evil with which he threatens you.
 jer:26.14  As for me, I am in your hands; do with me what you think good and right.
 jer:26.15  But mark well: if you put me to death, it is innocent blood you bring on yourselves, on this city and its citizens. For in truth it was the LORD who sent me to you, to speak all these things for you to hear."
 jer:26.16  Thereupon the princes and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, "This man does not deserve death; it is in the name of the LORD, our God, that he speaks to us."
 jer:26.17  At this, some of the elders of the land came forward and said to all the people assembled,
 jer:26.18  "Micah of Moresheth used to prophesy in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and he told all the people of Judah: Thus says the LORD of hosts: Zion shall become a plowed field, Jerusalem a heap of ruins, and the temple mount a forest ridge.
 jer:26.19  Did Hezekiah, king of Judah, and all Judah condemn him to death? Did they not rather fear the LORD and entreat the favor of the LORD, so that he repented of the evil with which he had threatened them? But we are on the point of committing this great evil to our own undoing."
 jer:26.20  There was another man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Uriah, son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath-jearim; he prophesied the same things against this city and land as Jeremiah did.
 jer:26.21  When King Jehoiakim and all his officers and princes were informed of his words, the king sought to kill him. But Uriah heard of it and fled in fear to Egypt.
 jer:26.22  Thereupon King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan, son of Achbor, and others with him into Egypt
 jer:26.23  to bring Uriah back to the king, who had him slain by the sword and his corpse cast into the common grave.
 jer:26.24  But Ahikam, son of Shaphan, protected Jeremiah, so that he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.
   
 jer:27.1   (In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah,) . . . this message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
 jer:27.2   Thus said the LORD to me: Make for yourself bands and yoke bars and put them over your shoulders.
 jer:27.3   Send to the kings of Edom, of Moab, of the Ammonites, of Tyre, and of Sidon, through the ambassadors who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah, king of Judah,
 jer:27.4   and charge them thus: Tell your masters: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
 jer:27.5   It was I who made the earth, and man and beast on the face of the earth, by my great power, with my outstretched arm; and I can give them to whomever I think fit.
 jer:27.6   Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant; even the beasts of the field I have given him for his use.
 jer:27.7   All nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his land, too, shall come. Then it in turn shall serve great nations and mighty kings.
 jer:27.8   Meanwhile, if any nation or kingdom will not serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, or will not bend its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with sword, famine, and pestilence, says the LORD, until I give them into his hand.
 jer:27.9   You, however, must not listen to your prophets, to your diviners and dreamers, to your soothsayers and sorcerers, who say to you, "You need not serve the king of Babylon."
 jer:27.10  For they prophesy lies to you, in order to drive you far from your land, to make me banish you so that you will perish.
 jer:27.11  The people that submits its neck to the yoke of the king of Babylon to serve him I will leave in peace on its own land, says the LORD, to till it and dwell in it.
 jer:27.12  To Zedekiah, king of Judah, I spoke the same words: Submit your necks to the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, so that you may live.
 jer:27.13  Why should you and your people die by sword, famine, and pestilence, with which the LORD has threatened the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
 jer:27.14  Do not listen to the words of those prophets who say, "You need not serve the king of Babylon," for they prophesy lies to you.
 jer:27.15  I did not send them, says the LORD, but they prophesy falsely in my name, with the result that I must banish you, and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.
 jer:27.16  To the priests and to all the people I spoke as follows: Thus says the LORD: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you: "The vessels of the house of the LORD will be brought back from Babylon soon now," for they prophesy lies to you.
 jer:27.17  Do not listen to them! Serve the king of Babylon that you may live; else this city will become a heap of ruins.
 jer:27.18  If they were prophets, if the word of the LORD were with them, they would intercede with the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which remain in the house of the LORD and in the palace of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem might not be taken to Babylon.
 jer:27.19  For thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, the bronze sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels that remain in this city,
 jer:27.20  which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, did not take when he exiled Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem--
 jer:27.21  yes, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem:
 jer:27.22  To Babylon they shall be brought, and there they shall remain, until the day I look for them, says the LORD; then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.
   
 jer:28.1   That same year, in (the beginning of) the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, the prophet Hananiah, son of Azzur, from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people:
 jer:28.2   "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 'I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
 jer:28.3   Within two years I will restore to this place all the vessels of the temple of the LORD which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took away from this place to Babylon.
 jer:28.4   And I will bring back to this place Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon,' says the LORD. 'for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.'"
 jer:28.5   The prophet Jeremiah answered the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people assembled in the house of the LORD,
 jer:28.6   and said: Amen! thus may the LORD do! May he fulfill the things you have prophesied by bringing the vessels of the house of the LORD and all the exiles back from Babylon to this place!
 jer:28.7   But now, listen to what I am about to state in your hearing and the hearing of all the people.
 jer:28.8   From of old, the prophets who were before you and me prophesied war, woe, and pestilence against many lands and mighty kingdoms.
 jer:28.9   But the prophet who prophesies peace is recognized as truly sent by the LORD only when his prophetic prediction is fulfilled.
 jer:28.10  Thereupon the prophet Hananiah took the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, broke it,
 jer:28.11  and said in the presence of all the people: "Thus says the LORD: 'Even so, within two years I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, from off the neck of all the nations.'" At that, the prophet Jeremiah went away.
 jer:28.12  Some time after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
 jer:28.13  Go tell Hananiah this: Thus says the LORD: By breaking a wooden yoke, you forge an iron yoke!
 jer:28.14  For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: A yoke of iron I will place on the necks of all these nations serving Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and they shall serve him; even the beasts of the field I give him.
 jer:28.15  To the prophet Hananiah the prophet Jeremiah said: Hear this, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, and you have raised false confidence in this people.
 jer:28.16  For this, says the LORD, I will dispatch you from the face of the earth; this very year you shall die, because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.
 jer:28.17  That same year, in the seventh month, Hananiah the prophet died.
   
 jer:29.1   This is the contents of the letter which the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, to the priests, the prophets, and all the people who were exiled by Nebuchadnezzar from Jerusalem to Babylon.
 jer:29.2   This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the courtiers, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans and the skilled workmen had left Jerusalem.
 jer:29.3   Delivered in Babylon by Elasah, son of Shaphan, and by Gemariah, son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to the king of Babylon, the letter read:
 jer:29.4   Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon:
 jer:29.5   Build houses to dwell in; plant gardens, and eat their fruits.
 jer:29.6   Take wives and beget sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters. There you must increase in number, not decrease.
 jer:29.7   Promote the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you; pray for it to the LORD, for upon its welfare depends your own.
 jer:29.8   thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let yourselves be deceived by the prophets and diviners who are among you; do not listen to those among you who dream dreams.
 jer:29.9   For they prophesy lies to you in my name; I did not send them, says the LORD.
 jer:29.10  Thus says the LORD: Only after seventy years have elapsed for Babylon will I visit you and fulfill for you my promise to bring you back to this place.
 jer:29.11  For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope.
 jer:29.12  When you call me, when you go to pray to me, I will listen to you.
 jer:29.13  When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart,
 jer:29.14  you will find me with you, says the LORD, and I will change your lot; I will gather you together from all the nations and all the places to which I have banished you, says the LORD, and bring you back to the place from which I have exiled you.
 jer:29.15  As for your saying, "The LORD has raised up for us prophets here in Babylon"--
 jer:29.16  Thus says the LORD concerning the king who sits on David's throne, and all the people who remain in this city, your brethren who did not go with you into exile;
 jer:29.17  thus says the LORD of hosts: I am sending against them sword, famine and pestilence. I will make them like rotten figs, too bad to be eaten.
 jer:29.18  I will pursue them with sword, famine, and pestilence, and make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, of malediction, astonishment, ridicule, and reproach to all the nations among which I will banish them.
 jer:29.19  For they did not listen to my words, says the LORD, though I kept sending them my servants the prophets, only to have them go unheeded, says the LORD.
 jer:29.20  You, now, listen to the word of the LORD, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.
 jer:29.21  This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, has to say about those who prophesy lies to you in my name, Ahab, son of Kolaiah, and Zedekiah, son of Maaseiah: I am handing them over to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who will slay them before your eyes.
 jer:29.22  All the exiles of Judah in Babylon will pattern a curse after them: "May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the flames."
 jer:29.23  For they are criminals in Israel, committing adultery with their neighbors' wives, and alleging in my name things I did not command. I know, I am witness, says the LORD.
 jer:29.24  Say this to Shemaiah, the Nehelamite:
 jer:29.25  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you sent letters on your own authority to all the people of Jerusalem, to all the priests and to Zephaniah, the priest, son of Maaseiah, with this message:
 jer:29.26  "The LORD has appointed you priest in place of the priest Jehoiada, so that there may be police officers in the house of the LORD, to take action against all madmen and those who pose as prophets, by putting them into the stocks or the pillory.
 jer:29.27  Why, then, do you not rebuke Jeremiah of Anathoth who poses as a prophet among you?
 jer:29.28  For he sent us in Babylon this message: It will be a long time; build houses to live in; plant gardens and eat their fruits. . . ."
 jer:29.29  When the priest Zephaniah read this letter to the prophet,
 jer:29.30  the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
 jer:29.31  Send the message to all the exiles: Thus says the LORD concerning Shemaiah, the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah prophesies to you without a mission from me, and raises false confidence,
 jer:29.32  says the LORD, I will therefore punish Shemaiah, the Nehelamite, and his offspring. None of them shall survive among this people to see the good I will do to this people, says the LORD, because he preached rebellion against the LORD.
   
 jer:30.1   The following message came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
 jer:30.2   Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Write all the words I have spoken to you in a book.
 jer:30.3   For behold, the days will come, says the LORD, when I will change the lot of my people (of Israel and Judah, says the LORD), and bring them back to the land which I gave to their fathers; they shall have it as their possession.
 jer:30.4   These are the words which the LORD spoke to Israel and to Judah:
 jer:30.5   thus says the LORD: A cry of dismay we hear; fear reigns, not peace.
 jer:30.6   Inquire, and see: since when do men bear children? Why, then, do I see all these men, with their hands on their loins like women in childbirth? Why have all their faces turned deathly pale?
 jer:30.7   How mighty is that day-- none like it! A time of distress for Jacob, though he shall be saved from it.
 jer:30.8   On that day, says the LORD of hosts, "I will break his yoke from off your necks and snap your bonds." Strangers shall no longer enslave them;
 jer:30.9   instead, they shall serve the LORD, their God, and David, their king, whom I will raise up for them.
 jer:30.10  But you, my servant Jacob, fear not, says the LORD, be not dismayed, O Israel! Behold, I will deliver you from the far-off land, your descendants, from their land of exile; Jacob shall again find rest, shall be tranquil and undisturbed,
 jer:30.11  for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you. I will make an end of all the nations among which I have scattered you; but of you I will not make an end. I will chastise you as you deserve, I will not let you go unpunished.
 jer:30.12  For thus says the LORD: Incurable is your wound, grievous your bruise;
 jer:30.13  There is none to plead your cause, no remedy for your running sore, no healing for you.
 jer:30.14  All your lovers have forgotten you, they do not seek you. I struck you as an enemy would strike, punished you cruelly;
 jer:30.15  Why cry out over your wound? your pain is without relief. Because of your great guilt, your numerous sins, I have done this to you.
 jer:30.16  Yet all who devour you shall be devoured, all your enemies shall go into exile. All who plunder you shall be plundered, all who pillage you I will hand over to pillage.
 jer:30.17  For I will restore you to health; of your wounds I will heal you, says the LORD. "The outcast" they have called you, "with no avenger."
 jer:30.18  Thus says the LORD: See! I will restore the tents of Jacob, his dwellings I will pity; City shall be rebuilt upon hill, and palace restored as it was.
 jer:30.19  From them will resound songs of praise, the laughter of happy men. I will make them not few, but many; they will not be tiny, for I will glorify them.
 jer:30.20  His sons shall be as of old, his assembly before me shall stand firm; I will punish all his oppressors.
 jer:30.21  His leader shall be one of his own, and his rulers shall come from his kin. When I summon him, he shall approach me; how else should one take the deadly risk of approaching me? says the LORD.
 jer:30.22  You shall be my people, and I will be your God.
 jer:30.23  See, the storm of the LORD! His wrath breaks forth In a whirling storm that bursts upon the heads of the wicked.
 jer:30.24  The anger of the LORD will not abate until he has done and fulfilled what he has determined in his heart. When the time comes, you will fully understand.
   
 jer:31.1   At that time, says the LORD, I will be the God of all the tribes of Israel, and they shall be my people.
 jer:31.2   Thus says the LORD: The people that escaped the sword have found favor in the desert. As Israel comes forward to be given his rest,
 jer:31.3   the LORD appears to him from afar: With age-old love I have loved you; so I have kept my mercy toward you.
 jer:31.4   Again I will restore you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin Israel; Carrying your festive tambourines, you shall go forth dancing with the merrymakers.
 jer:31.5   Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; those who plant them shall enjoy the fruits.
 jer:31.6   Yes, a day will come when the watchmen will call out on Mount Ephraim: "Rise up, let us go to Zion, to the LORD, our God."
 jer:31.7   For thus says the LORD: Shout with joy for Jacob, exult at the head of the nations; proclaim your praise and say: The LORD has delivered his people, the remnant of Israel.
 jer:31.8   Behold, I will bring them back from the land of the north; I will gather them from the ends of the world, with the blind and the lame in their midst, The mothers and those with child; they shall return as an immense throng.
 jer:31.9   They departed in tears, but I will console them and guide them; I will lead them to brooks of water, on a level road, so that none shall stumble. For I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my first-born.
 jer:31.10  Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, proclaim it on distant coasts, and say: He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together, he guards them as a shepherd his flock.
 jer:31.11  The LORD shall ransom Jacob, he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror.
 jer:31.12  Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion, they shall come streaming to the LORD'S blessings: The grain, the wine, and the oil, the sheep and the oxen; They themselves shall be like watered gardens, never again shall they languish.
 jer:31.13  Then the virgins shall make merry and dance, and young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will console and gladden them after their sorrows.
 jer:31.14  I will lavish choice portions upon the priests, and my people shall be filled with my blessings, says the LORD.
 jer:31.15  Thus says the LORD: In Ramah is heard the sound of moaning, of bitter weeping! Rachel mourns her children, she refuses to be consoled because her children are no more.
 jer:31.16  Thus says the LORD: Cease your cries of mourning, wipe the tears from your eyes. The sorrow you have shown shall have its reward, says the LORD, they shall return from the enemy's land.
 jer:31.17  There is hope for your future, says the LORD; your sons shall return to their own borders.
 jer:31.18  I hear, I hear Ephraim pleading: You chastised me, and I am chastened; I was an untamed calf. If you allow me, I will return, for you are the LORD, my God.
 jer:31.19  I turn in repentance; I have come to myself, I strike my breast; I blush with shame, I bear the disgrace of my youth.
 jer:31.20  Is Ephraim not my favored son, the child in whom I delight? Often as I threaten him, I still remember him with favor; My heart stirs for him, I must show him mercy, says the LORD.
 jer:31.21  Set up road markers, put up guideposts; Turn your attention to the highway, the road by which you went. Turn back, O virgin Israel, turn back to these your cities.
 jer:31.22  How long will you continue to stray, rebellious daughter? The LORD has created a new thing upon the earth: the woman must encompass the man with devotion.
 jer:31.23  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: When I change their lot in the land of Judah and her cities, they shall again repeat this greeting: "May the LORD bless you, holy mountain, abode of justice!"
 jer:31.24  Judah and all her cities, the farmers and those who lead the flock, shall dwell there together.
 jer:31.25  For I will refresh the weary soul; every soul that languishes I will replenish.
 jer:31.26  Upon this I awoke and opened my eyes; but my sleep was sweet to me.
 jer:31.27  The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will seed the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast.
 jer:31.28  As I once watched over them to uproot and pull down, to destroy, to ruin, and to harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD.
 jer:31.29  In those days they shall no longer say, "The fathers ate unripe grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge,"
 jer:31.30  but through his own fault only shall anyone die: the teeth of him who eats the unripe grapes shall be set on edge.
 jer:31.31  The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
 jer:31.32  It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.
 jer:31.33  But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
 jer:31.34  No longer will they have need to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the LORD. All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.
 jer:31.35  Thus says the LORD, He who gives the sun to light the day, moon and stars to light the night; Who stirs up the sea till its waves roar, whose name is LORD of hosts:
 jer:31.36  If ever these natural laws give way in spite of me, says the LORD, Then shall the race of Israel cease as a nation before me forever.
 jer:31.37  Thus says the LORD: If the heavens on high can be measured, or the foundations below the earth be sounded, Then will I cast off the whole race of Israel because of all they have done, says the LORD.
 jer:31.38  The days are coming, says the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt as the LORD'S, from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.
 jer:31.39  The measuring line shall be stretched from there straight to the hill Gareb and then turn to Goah.
 jer:31.40  The whole valley of corpses and ashes, all the slopes toward the Kidron Valley, as far as the corner of the Horse Gate at the east, shall be holy to the LORD. Never again shall the city be rooted up or thrown down.
   
 jer:32.1   This message came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.
 jer:32.2   At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned in the quarters of the guard, at the king's palace.
 jer:32.3   Zedekiah, king of Judah, had imprisoned him there, remonstrating: "How dare you prophesy: Thus says the LORD: I am handing over this city to the king of Babylon, who will capture it.
 jer:32.4   Neither shall Zedekiah, king of Judah, escape the hands of the Chaldeans; rather shall he be handed over to the king of Babylon. They shall meet and speak face to face,
 jer:32.5   and Zedekiah shall be taken to Babylon. There he shall remain, until I attend to him, says the LORD; in fighting the Chaldeans, you cannot win!"
 jer:32.6   This message came to me from the LORD, said Jeremiah:
 jer:32.7   Hanamel, son of your uncle Shallum, will come to you with the offer: "Buy for yourself my field in Anathoth, since you, as nearest relative, have the first right of purchase."
 jer:32.8   Then, as the LORD foretold, Hanamel, my uncle's son, came to me to the quarters of the guard and said, "Please buy my field in Anathoth, in the district of Benjamin; as nearest relative, you have the first claim to possess it; make it yours." I knew this was what the LORD meant,
 jer:32.9   so I bought the field in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, paying him the money, seventeen silver shekels.
 jer:32.10  When I had written and sealed the deed, called witnesses and weighed out the silver on the scales,
 jer:32.11  I accepted the deed of purchase, both the sealed copy, containing title and conditions, and the open one.
 jer:32.12  This deed of purchase I gave to Baruch, son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed the deed, and before all the men of Judah who happened to be in the quarters of the guard.
 jer:32.13  In their presence I gave Baruch this charge:
 jer:32.14  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both the sealed and the open deed of purchase, and put them in an earthen jar, so that they can be kept there a long time.
 jer:32.15  For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.
 jer:32.16  After giving the deed of purchase to Baruch, son of Neriah, I prayed thus to the LORD:
 jer:32.17  Ah, Lord GOD, you have made heaven and earth by your great might, with your outstretched arm; nothing is impossible to you.
 jer:32.18  You continue your kindness through a thousand generations; and you repay the fathers' guilt, even into the lap of their sons who follow them. O God, great and mighty, whose name is LORD of hosts,
 jer:32.19  great in counsel, mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of men, giving to each according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds:
 jer:32.20  you have wrought signs and wonders in the land of Egypt and to this day, both in Israel and among all other men, until now you have gained renown.
 jer:32.21  With strong hand and outstretched arm you brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt amid signs and wonders and great terror.
 jer:32.22  This land you gave them, as you had promised their fathers under oath, a land flowing with milk and honey.
 jer:32.23  They entered and took possession of it, but they did not listen to your voice; by your law they did not live, and what you commanded they failed to do. Hence you let all these evils befall them.
 jer:32.24  See, the siegeworks have arrived at this city to breach it; the city will be handed over to the Chaldeans who are attacking it, amid sword, famine, and pestilence. What you threatened has happened, you see it yourself;
 jer:32.25  and yet you tell me, O Lord GOD: Buy the field with money, call in witnesses. But the city has already been handed over to the Chaldeans!
 jer:32.26  Then this word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
 jer:32.27  I am the LORD, the God of all mankind! Is anything impossible to me?
 jer:32.28  This now is what the LORD says: I will hand over this city to the Chaldeans, for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to take.
 jer:32.29  The Chaldeans who are attacking it shall enter this city and set fire to it, burning it and its houses, on the roofs of which incense was burned to Baal and libations were poured out to strange gods as a provocation to me.
 jer:32.30  The Israelites and the Judeans from their youth have done only what is evil in my eyes; the Israelites did nothing but provoke me with the works of their hands, says the LORD.
 jer:32.31  From the day it was built to this day, this city has excited my anger and wrath,
 jer:32.32  so that I must put it out of my sight for all the wickedness the Israelites and Judeans, with their kings and their princes, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem, have done to provoke me.
 jer:32.33  They turned their backs to me, not their faces; though I kept teaching them, they would not listen to my correction.
 jer:32.34  They defiled the house named after me by the horrid idols they set up in it.
 jer:32.35  They built high places to Baal in the Valley of Ben-hinnom, and immolated their sons and daughters to Molech, bringing sin upon Judah; this I never commanded them, nor did it even enter my mind that they should practice such abominations.
 jer:32.36  Now, therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, which as you say is handed over to the king of Babylon amid sword, famine, and pestilence:
 jer:32.37  Behold, I will gather them together from all the lands to which in anger, wrath, and great rage I banish them; I will bring them back to this place and settle them here in safety.
 jer:32.38  They shall be my people, and I will be their God.
 jer:32.39  One heart and one way I will give them, that they may fear me always, to their own good and that of their children after them.
 jer:32.40  I will make with them an eternal covenant, never to cease doing good to them; into their hearts I will put the fear of me, that they may never depart from me.
 jer:32.41  I will take delight in doing good to them: I will replant them firmly in this land, with all my heart and soul.
 jer:32.42  For thus says the LORD: Just as I brought upon this people all this great evil, so I will bring upon them all the good I promise them.
 jer:32.43  Fields shall again be bought in this land, which you call a desert, without man or beast, handed over to the Chaldeans.
 jer:32.44  Fields shall be bought with money, deeds written and sealed, and witnesses shall be used in the land of Benjamin, in the suburbs of Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah and of the hill country, in the cities of the foothills and of the Negeb, when I change their lot, says the LORD.
   
 jer:33.1   The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time while he was still imprisoned in the quarters of the guard:
 jer:33.2   Thus says the LORD who made the earth and gave it form and firmness, whose name is LORD:
 jer:33.3   Call to me, and I will answer you; I will tell to you things great beyond reach of your knowledge.
 jer:33.4   Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of Judah's kings, which are being destroyed in the face of siegeworks and the sword:
 jer:33.5   men come to battle the Chaldeans, and these houses will be filled with the corpses of those whom I slay in my anger and wrath, when I hide my face from this city for all their wickedness.
 jer:33.6   Behold, I will treat and assuage the city's wounds; I will heal them, and reveal to them an abundance of lasting peace.
 jer:33.7   I will change the lot of Judah and the lot of Israel, and rebuild them as of old.
 jer:33.8   I will cleanse them of all the guilt they incurred by sinning against me; all their offenses by which they sinned and rebelled against me, I will forgive.
 jer:33.9   Then Jerusalem shall be my joy, my praise, my glory, before all the nations of the earth, as they hear of all the good I will do among them. They shall be in fear and trembling over all the peaceful benefits I will give her.
 jer:33.10  Thus says the LORD: In this place of which you say, "How desolate it is, without man, without beast!" and in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem that are now deserted, without man, without citizen, without beast, there shall yet be heard
 jer:33.11  the cry of joy, the cry of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, the voice of the bride, the sound of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD, singing, "Give thanks to the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good; his mercy endures forever." For I will restore this country as of old, says the LORD.
 jer:33.12  Thus says the LORD of hosts: In this place, now desolate, without man or beast, and in all its cities there shall again be sheepfolds for the shepherds to couch their flocks.
 jer:33.13  In the cities of the hill country, of the foothills, and of the Negeb, in the land of Benjamin and the suburbs of Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the LORD.
 jer:33.14  The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah.
 jer:33.15  In those days, in that time, I will raise up for David a just shoot; he shall do what is right and just in the land.
 jer:33.16  In those days Judah shall be safe and Jerusalem shall dwell secure; this is what they shall call her: "The LORD our justice."
 jer:33.17  For thus says the LORD: Never shall David lack a successor on the throne of the house of Israel,
 jer:33.18  nor shall priests of Levi ever be lacking, to offer holocausts before me, to burn cereal offerings, and to sacrifice victims.This word of the LORD also came to Jeremiah:
 jer:33.19  Thus says the LORD:
 jer:33.20  If you can break my covenant with day, and my covenant with night, so that day and night no longer alternate in sequence,
 jer:33.21  then can my covenant with my servant David also be broken, so that he will not have a son to be king upon his throne, and my covenant with the priests of Levi who minister to me.
 jer:33.22  Like the host of heaven which cannot be numbered, and the sands of the sea which cannot be counted, I will multiply the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister to me.
 jer:33.23  This word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
 jer:33.24  Have you not noticed what these people are saying: "The LORD has rejected the two tribes which he had chosen"? They spurn my people as if it were no longer a nation in their eyes.
 jer:33.25  Thus says the LORD: When I have no covenant with day and night, and have given no laws to heaven and earth,
 jer:33.26  then too will I reject the descendants of Jacob and of my servant David, so as not to take from his descendants rulers for the race of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will change their lot and show them mercy.
   
 jer:34.1   This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD while Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his armies and the earth's kingdoms subject to him, as well as the other peoples, were all attacking Jerusalem and all her cities:
 jer:34.2   Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Go to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and tell him: Thus says the LORD: I am handing this city over to the king of Babylon; he will destroy it with fire.
 jer:34.3   Neither shall you escape his hand; rather you will be captured and fall into his hands. You shall see the king of Babylon and speak to him face to face. Then you shall be taken to Babylon.
 jer:34.4   But if you obey the word of the LORD, Zedekiah, king of Judah, then, says the LORD to you, you shall not die by the sword.
 jer:34.5   You shall die in peace, and they will lament you as their lord, and burn spices for your burial as they did for your fathers, the kings who preceded you from the first; it is I who make this promise, says the LORD.
 jer:34.6   The prophet Jeremiah told all these things to Zedekiah, king of Judah, in Jerusalem,
 jer:34.7   while the armies of the king of Babylon were attacking Jerusalem and the remaining cities of Judah, Lachish, and Azekah, since these alone were left of the fortified cities of Judah.
 jer:34.8   This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made an agreement with all the people in Jerusalem to issue an edict of emancipation.
 jer:34.9   Everyone was to free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should hold a man of Judah, his brother, in slavery.
 jer:34.10  All the princes and the others who entered the agreement consented to set free their male and female servants, so that they should be slaves no longer. But though they agreed and freed them,
 jer:34.11  afterward they took back their male and female slaves whom they had set free and again forced them into service.
 jer:34.12  Then this word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
 jer:34.13  Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: The day I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the place where they were slaves, I made this covenant with them:
 jer:34.14  Every seventh year each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother who has sold himself to you; six years he shall serve you, but then you shall let him go free. Your fathers, however, did not heed me or obey me.
 jer:34.15  Today you indeed repented and did what is right in my eyes by proclaiming the emancipation of your brethren and making an agreement before me in the house that is named after me.
 jer:34.16  But then you changed your mind and profaned my name by taking back your male and female slaves to whom you had given their freedom; you forced them once more into slavery.
 jer:34.17  Therefore, thus says the LORD: You did not obey me by proclaiming your neighbors and kinsmen free. I now proclaim you free, says the LORD, for the sword, famine, and pestilence. I will make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
 jer:34.18  The men who violated my covenant and did not observe the terms of the agreement which they made before me, I will make like the calf which they cut in two, between whose two parts they passed.
 jer:34.19  The princes of Judah and of Jerusalem, the courtiers, the priests, and the common people, who passed between the parts of the calf,
 jer:34.20  I will hand over, all of them, to their enemies, to those who seek their lives: their corpses shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.
 jer:34.21  Zedekiah, too, king of Judah, and his princes, I will hand over to their enemies, to those who seek their lives, to the soldiers of the king of Babylon who have at present withdrawn from you.
 jer:34.22  I will give the command, says the LORD, and bring them back to this city. They shall attack and capture it, and destroy it with fire; the cities of Judah I will turn into a desert where no man dwells.
   
 jer:35.1   This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:
 jer:35.2   Approach the Rechabites and speak to them; bring them into the house of the LORD, to one of the rooms, and give them wine to drink.
 jer:35.3   So I went and brought Jaazaniah, son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, his brothers and all his sons, the whole company of the Rechabites,
 jer:35.4   into the house of the LORD, to the room of the sons of Hanan, son of Igdaliah, the man of God, next to the princes' room, above the room of Maaseiah, son of Shallum, keeper of the doorway.
 jer:35.5   I set before these Rechabite men bowls full of wine and offered them cups to drink the wine.
 jer:35.6   "We do not drink wine," they said to me: "Jonadab, Rechab's son, our father, forbade us in these words: 'Neither you nor your children shall ever drink wine.
 jer:35.7   Build no house and sow no seed; neither plant nor own a vineyard. You shall dwell in tents all your life, so that you may live long on the earth where you are wayfarers.'
 jer:35.8   Now we have heeded Jonadab, Rechab's son, our father, in all his prohibitions. All our lives we have not drunk wine, neither we, nor our wives, nor our sons, nor our daughters.
 jer:35.9   We build no houses to live in; we own no vineyards or fields or crops,
 jer:35.10  and we live in tents; we obediently do everything our father Jonadab commanded us.
 jer:35.11  But when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, invaded this land, we decided to come into Jerusalem to escape the army of the Chaldeans and the army of Aram; that is why we are now living in Jerusalem."
 jer:35.12  Then this word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
 jer:35.13  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Go, say to the men of Judah and to the citizens of Jerusalem: Will you not take correction and obey my words? says the LORD.
 jer:35.14  The advice of Jonadab, Rechab's son, by which he forbade his children to drink wine, has been followed: to this day they have not drunk it; they obeyed their father's command. Me, however, you have not obeyed, although I spoke to you untiringly and insistently.
 jer:35.15  I kept sending you all my servants the prophets, telling you to turn back, all of you, from your evil way; to reform your conduct, and not follow strange gods or serve them, if you would remain on the land which I gave you and your fathers; but you did not heed me or obey me.
 jer:35.16  Yes, the children of Jonadab, Rechab's son, observed the command which their father laid on them; but this people does not obey me!
 jer:35.17  Now, therefore, says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: I will bring upon Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem every evil that I threatened; because when I spoke they did not obey, when I called they did not answer.
 jer:35.18  But to the company of the Rechabites Jeremiah said: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Since you have obeyed the command of Jonadab, your father, kept all his commands and done everything he commanded you,
 jer:35.19  thus therefore says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Never shall there fail to be a descendant of Jonadab, Rechab's son, standing in my service.
   
 jer:36.1   In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
 jer:36.2   Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you against Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, in the days of Josiah, until today.
 jer:36.3   Perhaps, when the house of Judah hears all the evil I have in mind to do to them, they will turn back each from his evil way, so that I may forgive their wickedness and their sin.
 jer:36.4   So Jeremiah called Baruch, son of Neriah, who wrote down on a scroll, as Jeremiah dictated, all the words which the LORD had spoken to him.
 jer:36.5   Then Jeremiah charged Baruch: I cannot go to the house of the LORD; I am prevented from doing so.
 jer:36.6   Do you go on the fast day and read publicly in the LORD'S house the LORD'S words from the scroll you wrote at my dictation; read them also to all the men of Judah who come up from their cities.
 jer:36.7   Perhaps they will lay their supplication before the LORD and will all turn back from their evil way; for great is the fury of anger with which the LORD has threatened this people.
 jer:36.8   Baruch, son of Neriah, did everything the prophet Jeremiah commanded; from the book-scroll he read the LORD'S words in the LORD'S house.
 jer:36.9   In the ninth month, in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, a fast to placate the LORD was proclaimed for all the people of Jerusalem and all who came from Judah's cities to Jerusalem.
 jer:36.10  It was in the room of Gemariah, son of the scribe Shaphan, in the upper court of the LORD'S house, at the entrance of the New Temple-Gate, that Baruch publicly read the words of Jeremiah from his book.
 jer:36.11  Now Micaiah, son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD read from the book.
 jer:36.12  So he went down to the king's palace, into the scribe's chamber, where the princes were just then in session: Elishama, the scribe, Delaiah, son of Shemaiah, Elnathan, son of Achbor, Gemariah, son of Shaphan, Zedekiah, son of Hananiah, and the other princes.
 jer:36.13  To them Micaiah reported all that he had heard Baruch read publicly from his book.
 jer:36.14  Thereupon the princes sent Jehudi, son of Nethaniah, son of Shelemiah, son of Cushi, to Baruch with the order: "Come, and bring with you the scroll you read publicly to the people." Scroll in hand, Baruch, son of Neriah, went to them.
 jer:36.15  "Sit down," they said to him, "and read it to us." Baruch read it to them,
 jer:36.16  and when they heard all its words, they were frightened and said to one another, "We must certainly tell the king all these things."
 jer:36.17  Then they asked Baruch: "Tell us, please, how you came to write down all these words."
 jer:36.18  "Jeremiah dictated all these words to me," Baruch answered them, "and I wrote them down with ink in the book."
 jer:36.19  At this the princes said to Baruch, "Go into hiding, you and Jeremiah; let no one know where you are."
 jer:36.20  Leaving the scroll in safekeeping in the room of Elishama the scribe, they entered the room where the king was. When they told him everything that had happened,
 jer:36.21  he sent Jehudi to fetch the scroll. Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the scribe, and read it to the king and to all the princes who were in attendance on the king.
 jer:36.22  Now the king was sitting in his winter house, since it was the ninth month, and fire was burning in a brazier before him.
 jer:36.23  Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king would cut off the piece with a scribe's knife and cast it into the fire in the brazier, until the entire roll was consumed in the fire.
 jer:36.24  Hearing all these words did not frighten the king and his ministers or cause them to rend their garments.
 jer:36.25  And though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them,
 jer:36.26  but commanded Jerahmeel, a royal prince, and Seraiah, son of Azriel, and Shelemiah, son of Abdeel, to arrest Baruch, the secretary, and the prophet Jeremiah. But the LORD kept them concealed.
 jer:36.27  This word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after the king burned the scroll with the text Jeremiah had dictated to Baruch:
 jer:36.28  Take another scroll, and write on it everything that the first scroll contained, which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, burned up.
 jer:36.29  And against Jehoiakim, king of Judah, say this: Thus says the LORD: You burned that scroll, saying, "Why did you write on it: Babylon's king shall surely come and lay waste this land and empty it of man and beast?"
 jer:36.30  The LORD now says of Jehoiakim, king of Judah: No descendant of his shall succeed to David's throne; his corpse shall be cast out, exposed to the heat of day, to the cold of night.
 jer:36.31  I will punish him and his descendants and his ministers for their wickedness; against them and the citizens of Jerusalem and the men of Judah I will fulfill all the threats of evil which went unheeded.
 jer:36.32  Jeremiah took another scroll, and gave it to his secretary, Baruch, son of Neriah; he wrote on it at Jeremiah's dictation all the words contained in the book which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, had burned in the fire, and many others of the same kind in addition.
   
 jer:37.1   Coniah, son of Jehoiakim, was succeeded by King Zedekiah, son of Josiah; he was made king over the land of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
 jer:37.2   Neither he, nor his ministers, nor the people of the land would listen to the words of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah the prophet.
 jer:37.3   Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal, son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah with this request: "Pray to the LORD, our God, for us."
 jer:37.4   At this time Jeremiah had not yet been put into prison; he still came and went freely among the people.
 jer:37.5   Also, Pharaoh's army had set out from Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard this report they marched away from the city.
 jer:37.6   This word of the LORD then came to the prophet Jeremiah:
 jer:37.7   Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Give this answer to the king of Judah who sent you to me to consult me: Pharaoh's army which has set out to help you will return to its own land, Egypt.
 jer:37.8   The Chaldeans shall return to the fight against this city; they shall capture it and destroy it with fire.
 jer:37.9   Thus says the LORD: Do not deceive yourselves with the thought that the Chaldeans will leave you for good, because they shall not leave!
 jer:37.10  Even if you were to defeat the whole Chaldean army now attacking you, and only the wounded remained, each in his tent, these would rise up and destroy the city with fire.
 jer:37.11  When the Chaldean army lifted the siege of Jerusalem at the threat of the army of Pharaoh,
 jer:37.12  Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem for the district of Benjamin, to take part with his family in the division of an inheritance.
 jer:37.13  But when he reached the Gate of Benjamin, he met the captain of the guard, a man named Irijah, son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah; he seized the prophet Jeremiah, saying, "You are deserting to the Chaldeans!"
 jer:37.14  "That is a lie!" Jeremiah answered, "I am not deserting to the Chaldeans." Without listening, Irijah kept Jeremiah in custody and brought him to the princes.
 jer:37.15  The princes were enraged, and had Jeremiah beaten and thrown into prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, which they were using as a jail.
 jer:37.16  And so Jeremiah entered the vaulted dungeon, where he remained a long time.
 jer:37.17  Once King Zedekiah had him brought to his palace and he asked him secretly whether there was any message from the LORD. Yes! Jeremiah answered: you shall be handed over to the king of Babylon.
 jer:37.18  Jeremiah then asked King Zedekiah: In what have I wronged you, or your ministers, or this people, that you should put me in prison?
 jer:37.19  And where are your own prophets now,
 jer:37.20  who prophesied to you that the king of Babylon would not attack you or this land? Hear now, my lord king, and grant my petition: do not send me back into the house of Jonathan the scribe, or I shall die there.
 jer:37.21  King Zedekiah ordered that Jeremiah be confined in the quarters of the guard, and given a loaf of bread each day from the bakers' shop until all the bread in the city was eaten up. Thus Jeremiah remained in the quarters of the guard.
   
 jer:38.1   Shephatiah, son of Mattan, Gedaliah, son of Pashhur, Jucal, son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur, son of Malchiah, heard Jeremiah speaking these words to all the people:
 jer:38.2   Thus says the LORD: He who remains in this city shall die by sword, or famine, or pestilence; but he who goes out to the Chaldeans shall live; his life shall be spared him as booty, and he shall live.
 jer:38.3   Thus says the LORD: This city shall certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon; he shall capture it.
 jer:38.4   "This man ought to be put to death," the princes said to the king; "he demoralizes the soldiers who are left in this city, and all the people, by speaking such things to them; he is not interested in the welfare of our people, but in their ruin."
 jer:38.5   King Zedekiah answered: "He is in your power"; for the king could do nothing with them.
 jer:38.6   And so they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Prince Malchiah, which was in the quarters of the guard, letting him down with ropes. There was no water in the cistern, only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.
 jer:38.7   Now Ebed-melech, a Cushite, a courtier in the king's palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. The king happened just then to be at the Gate of Benjamin,
 jer:38.8   and Ebed-melech went there from the palace and said to him,
 jer:38.9   "My lord king, these men have been at fault in all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah, casting him into the cistern. He will die of famine on the spot, for there is no more food in the city."
 jer:38.10  Then the king ordered Ebed-melech the Cushite to take three men along with him, and draw the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern before he should die.
 jer:38.11  Ebed-melech took the men along with him, and went first to the linen closet in the palace, from which he took some old, tattered rags; these he sent down to Jeremiah in the cistern, with ropes.
 jer:38.12  Then he said to Jeremiah, "Put the old, tattered rags between your armpits and the ropes." Jeremiah did so,
 jer:38.13  and they drew him up with the ropes out of the cistern. But Jeremiah remained in the quarters of the guard.
 jer:38.14  Once King Zedekiah summoned the prophet Jeremiah to come to him at the third entrance to the house of the LORD. "I have a question to ask you," the king said to Jeremiah; "hide nothing from me." Jeremiah answered Zedekiah:
 jer:38.15  If I tell you anything, you will have me killed, will you not? If I counsel you, you will not listen to me!
 jer:38.16  But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah secretly: "As the LORD lives who gave us the breath of life, I will not kill you; nor will I hand you over to these men who seek your life."
 jer:38.17  Thereupon Jeremiah said to Zedekiah: Thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: If you surrender to the princes of Babylon's king, you shall save your life; this city shall not be destroyed with fire, and you and your family shall live.
 jer:38.18  But if you do not surrender to the princes of Babylon's king, this city shall fall into the hands of the Chaldeans, who shall destroy it with fire, and you shall not escape their hands.
 jer:38.19  King Zedekiah, however, said to Jeremiah, "I am afraid of the men of Judah who have deserted to the Chaldeans; I may be handed over to them, and they will mistreat me."
 jer:38.20  You will not be handed over, Jeremiah answered. Please obey the voice of the LORD and do as I tell you; then it shall go well with you, and your life will be spared.
 jer:38.21  But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the LORD shows me:
 jer:38.22  All the women left in the house of Judah's king shall be brought out to the princes of Babylon's king, and they shall taunt you thus: "They betrayed you, outdid you, your good friends! Now that your feet are stuck in the mud, they slink away."
 jer:38.23  All your wives and sons shall be led forth to the Chaldeans, and you shall not escape their hands; you shall be handed over to the king of Babylon, and this city shall be destroyed with fire.
 jer:38.24  Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "Let no one know about this conversation, or you shall die.
 jer:38.25  If the princes hear I spoke to you, if they come and ask you, 'Tell us what you said to the king; do not hide it from us, or we will kill you,' or, 'What did the king say to you?'
 jer:38.26  give them this answer: 'I petitioned the king not to send me back to Jonathan's house to die there.'"
 jer:38.27  When all the princes came to Jeremiah, they questioned him, and he answered them in the very words the king had commanded. They said no more to him, for nothing had been heard of the earlier conversation.
 jer:38.28  Thus Jeremiah stayed in the quarters of the guard till the day Jerusalem was taken.When Jerusalem was taken. . . .
   
 jer:39.1   In the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army marched against Jerusalem and besieged it.
 jer:39.2   On the ninth day of the fourth month, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, a breach was made in the city's defenses.
 jer:39.3   All the princes of the king of Babylon came and occupied the middle gate: Nergal-sharezer, of Simmagir, the chief officer, Nebushazban, the high dignitary, and all the other princes of the king of Babylon. . . .
 jer:39.4   When Zedekiah, king of Judah, saw them, he and all his warriors fled by night, leaving the city on the Royal Garden Road through the gate between the two walls. He went in the direction of the Arabah,
 jer:39.5   but the Chaldean army pursued them, and overtook and captured Zedekiah in the desert near Jericho. He was brought to Riblah, in the land of Hamath, where Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, pronounced sentence upon him.
 jer:39.6   As Zedekiah looked on, his sons were slain at Riblah by order of the king of Babylon, who slew also all the nobles of Judah.
 jer:39.7   He then blinded Zedekiah and bound him in chains to bring him to Babylon.
 jer:39.8   The Chaldeans set fire to the king's palace and the houses of the people, and demolished the walls of Jerusalem.
 jer:39.9   Nebuzaradan, chief of the bodyguard, deported to Babylon the rest of the people left in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the rest of the workmen.
 jer:39.10  But some of the poor who had no property were left in the land of Judah by Nebuzaradan, chief of the bodyguard, and were given at the same time vineyards and farms.
 jer:39.11  Concerning Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, gave the following orders through Nebuzaradan, chief of the bodyguard:
 jer:39.12  "Take him and look after him; let no harm befall him, but treat him as he himself requests."
 jer:39.13  Thereupon Nebuzaradan, chief of the bodyguard, and Nebushazban, the high dignitary, and Nergal-sharezer, the chief officer, and all the nobles of the king of Babylon,
 jer:39.14  had Jeremiah taken out of the quarters of the guard, and entrusted to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, to be brought home. And so he remained among the people.
 jer:39.15  While Jeremiah was still imprisoned in the quarters of the guard, the word of the LORD came to him:
 jer:39.16  Go, tell this to Ebed-melech the Cushite: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am now fulfilling the words I spoke against this city, for evil and not for good; and this before your very eyes.
 jer:39.17  But on that day I will rescue you, says the LORD; you shall not be handed over to the men of whom you are afraid.
 jer:39.18  I will make certain that you escape and do not fall by the sword. Your life shall be spared as booty, because you trusted in me, says the LORD.
   
 jer:40.1   This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, had released him in Ramah, where he had found him a prisoner in chains, among the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being exiled to Babylon.
 jer:40.2   When the captain of the bodyguard took charge of Jeremiah, he said to him, "The LORD, your God, foretold the ruin of this place.
 jer:40.3   Now he has brought about in deed what he threatened; because you sinned against the LORD and did not obey his voice, this fate has befallen you.
 jer:40.4   And now, I am freeing you today from the fetters that bind your hands; if it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, you may come: I will look after you well. But if it does not please you to come to Babylon, you need not come. See, the whole land is before you; go wherever you think good and proper";
 jer:40.5   and then, before he left--"or go to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed ruler over the cities of Judah; stay with him among the people, or go wherever you please." The captain of the bodyguard gave him food and gifts and let him go.
 jer:40.6   Jeremiah went to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, in Mizpah, and stayed with him among the people left in the land.
 jer:40.7   When the army leaders who were still in the field with all their men heard that the king of Babylon had given Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, charge of the land, of men, women, and children, and of those poor who had not been led captive to Babylon,
 jer:40.8   they came with their men to Gedaliah in Mizpah: Ishmael, son of Nethaniah; Johanan, son of Kareah; Seraiah, son of Tanhumeth; the sons of Ephai of Netophah; and Jezaniah of Beth-maacah.
 jer:40.9   Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, adjured them and their men not to be afraid to serve the Chaldeans: to stay in the land and submit to the king of Babylon, for their own welfare;
 jer:40.10  saying that he himself would remain in Mizpah, as their intermediary with the Chaldeans who should come to them. They were to collect the wine, the fruit, and the oil, to store them in jars, and to settle in the cities they occupied.
 jer:40.11  When the people of Judah in Moab, those among the Ammonites, those in Edom, and those in all other lands heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah, and had appointed over them Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan,
 jer:40.12  they all returned to the land of Judah from the places to which they had scattered. They went to Gedaliah at Mizpah and had a rich harvest of wine and fruit.
 jer:40.13  Now Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the leaders of the armies in the field came to Gedaliah in Mizpah
 jer:40.14  and asked him whether he did not know that Baalis, the king of the Ammonites, had sent Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, to assassinate him.
 jer:40.15  But Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, would not believe them. Then Johanan, son of Kareah, said secretly to Gedaliah in Mizpah: "Let me go and kill Ishmael, son of Nethaniah; no one will know it. Why should he be allowed to kill you? All the Jews who have now rallied to you will be dispersed and the remnant of Judah will perish."
 jer:40.16  Nevertheless, Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, answered Johanan, son of Kareah, "You shall do nothing of the kind; you have lied about Ishmael."
   
 jer:41.1  In the seventh month Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of royal descent, one of the king's nobles, came with ten men to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, at Mizpah. And while they were together at table in Mizpah,
 jer:41.2  Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, and the ten who were with him, rose up and attacked with swords Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon had made ruler over the land; and they killed him.
 jer:41.3  Ishmael also slew all the men of Judah of military age who were with Gedaliah and the Chaldean soldiers who were there.
 jer:41.4  The second day after the murder of Gedaliah, before anyone knew of it,
 jer:41.5  eighty men with beards shaved off, clothes in rags, and with gashes on their bodies came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria, bringing food offerings and incense for the house of the LORD.
 jer:41.6  Ishmael son of Nethaniah, went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went.
 jer:41.7  "Come to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam," he said as he met them. When they were once inside the city, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, and his men slew them and threw them into the cistern.
 jer:41.8  But there were ten among them who pleaded with Ishmael: "Do not kill us; we have stores buried in the field: wheat and barley, oil and honey." And so he spared them and did not kill them, as he had killed their companions.
 jer:41.9  The cistern into which Ishmael threw all the corpses of the men he had killed was the large one made by King Asa to defend himself against Baasha, king of Israel; this cistern Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, filled with the slain.
 jer:41.10  Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, led away the remnant of the people left in Mizpah and the princesses, whom Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, had confided to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam. With these captives, Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, set out to make his way to the Ammonites.
 jer:41.11  But when Johanan, son of Kareah, and the other army leaders with him heard of the crimes Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, had committed,
 jer:41.12  they took all their men and set out to attack Ishmael, son of Nethaniah. They overtook him at the Great Waters in Gibeon.
 jer:41.13  At the sight of Johanan, son of Kareah, and the other army leaders, the people who were Ishmael's captives rejoiced.
 jer:41.14  All of those whom Ishmael had brought away from Mizpah went over to Johanan, son of Kareah.
 jer:41.15  But Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, escaped from Johanan and fled to the Ammonites with eight men.
 jer:41.16  Then Johanan, son of Kareah, and all his army leaders took charge of the remnant of the people, both the soldiers and the women and children with their guardians, whom Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, had brought away from Mizpah after he killed Gedaliah, son of Ahikim. From Gibeon,
 jer:41.17  they retreated to the lodging place of Chimham near Bethlehem, where they stopped, intending to flee into Egypt.
 jer:41.18  They were afraid of the Chaldeans, because Ishmael, son of Nethaniah, had slain Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made ruler in the land of Judah.
   
 jer:42.1   Then all the army leaders, Johanan, son of Kareah, Azariah, son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, high and low, approached the prophet Jeremiah
 jer:42.2   and said, "Grant our petition; pray for us to the LORD, your God, for all this remnant. We are now few who once were many, as you well see.
 jer:42.3   Let the LORD, your God, show us what way we should take and what we should do."
 jer:42.4   Very well! the prophet Jeremiah answered them: I will pray to the LORD, your God, as you desire; whatever the LORD answers you, I will tell you; I will withhold nothing from you.
 jer:42.5   And they said to Jeremiah, "May the LORD be our witness: we will truly and faithfully follow all the instructions the LORD, your God, will send us.
 jer:42.6   Whether it is pleasant or difficult, we will obey the command of the LORD, our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us for obeying the command of the LORD, our God."
 jer:42.7   Ten days passed before the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.
 jer:42.8   Then he called Johanan, son of Kareah, his army leaders, and all the people, high and low,
 jer:42.9   and said to them: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to offer your prayer:
 jer:42.10  If you remain quietly in this land I will build you up, and not tear you down; I will plant you, not uproot you; for I regret the evil I have done you.
 jer:42.11  Do not fear the king of Babylon, before whom you are now afraid; do not fear him, says the LORD, for I am with you to save you, to rescue you from his power.
 jer:42.12  I will grant you mercy, so that he will be sorry for you and let you return to your land.
 jer:42.13  But if you disobey the voice of the LORD, your God, and decide not to remain in this land,
 jer:42.14  saying, "No, we will go to Egypt, where we will see no more of war, hear the trumpet alarm no longer, nor hunger for bread; there we will live";
 jer:42.15  then listen to the word of the LORD, remnant of Judah: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: If you are determined to go to Egypt, when you arrive there to stay,
 jer:42.16  the sword you fear shall reach you in the land of Egypt; the hunger you dread shall cling to you no less in Egypt, and there you shall die.
 jer:42.17  All those men who determine to go to Egypt to stay, shall die by the sword, famine, and pestilence; not one shall survive or escape the evil that I will bring upon them.
 jer:42.18  For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Just as my furious anger was poured out upon the citizens of Jerusalem, so shall my anger be poured out on you when you reach Egypt. You shall become an example of malediction and horror, a curse and a reproach, and you shall never see this place again.
 jer:42.19  It is the LORD who has spoken to you, remnant of Judah; do not go to Egypt! You can never say that I did not warn you this day.
 jer:42.20  At the cost of your lives you have deceived me, sending me to the LORD, your God, saying, "Pray for us to the LORD, our God; make known to us all that the LORD, our God, shall say, and we will do it."
 jer:42.21  Today I proclaim his message, but you obey the voice of the LORD, your God, in nothing that he has commissioned me to make known to you.
 jer:42.22  Have no doubt of this, you shall die by the sword, famine, and pestilence in the place where you wish to go and settle.
   
 jer:43.1   When Jeremiah finished speaking to the people all these words of the LORD, their God, with which the LORD had sent him to them,
 jer:43.2   Azariah, son of Hoshaiah, Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the insolent men shouted to Jeremiah: "You lie; it was not the LORD, our God, who sent you to tell us not to go to Egypt to settle.
 jer:43.3   It is Baruch, son of Neriah, who stirs you up against us, to hand us over to the Chaldeans to be killed or exiled to Babylon."
 jer:43.4   Johanan, son of Kareah, and the rest of the leaders and the people did not obey the LORD'S command to stay in the land of Judah.
 jer:43.5   Instead, Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the army leaders took along the whole remnant of Judah that had been dispersed among the nations and had returned thence to dwell again in the land of Judah:
 jer:43.6   men, women, and children, the princesses and everyone whom Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, had entrusted to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan; also Jeremiah, the prophet, and Baruch, son of Neriah.
 jer:43.7   Against the LORD'S command they went to Egypt, and arrived at Tahpanhes. . . .
 jer:43.8   This word of the LORD came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes:
 jer:43.9   Take with you large stones and sink them in mortar in the brickyard at the entrance to the royal building in Tahpanhes, while the men of Judah look on,
 jer:43.10  and then say to them: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and bring him here. He will set his throne upon these stones which I, Jeremiah, have sunk, and stretch his canopy over them.
 jer:43.11  He shall come and strike the land of Egypt: with death, whoever is marked for death; with exile, everyone destined for exile; with the sword, all who are intended for the sword.
 jer:43.12  He shall set fire to the temples of Egypt's gods, and burn the gods or carry them off. As a shepherd delouses his cloak, he shall delouse the land of Egypt and depart victorious.
 jer:43.13  He shall smash the obelisks of the temple of the sun in the land of Egypt and destroy with fire the temples of the Egyptian gods.
   
 jer:44.1   This word came to Jeremiah for all the people of Judah who were living in Egypt, at Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, and in Upper Egypt:
 jer:44.2   Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the evil I brought on Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah. Today they are ruins and uninhabited,
 jer:44.3   because of the evil they did to provoke me, going after strange gods, serving them and sacrificing to them, gods which neither they, nor you, nor your fathers knew.
 jer:44.4   Though I kept sending to you all my servants the prophets, with the plea not to commit this horrible deed which I hate,
 jer:44.5   they would not listen or accept the warning to turn away from the evil of sacrificing to strange gods.
 jer:44.6   Therefore the fury of my anger poured forth in flame over the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, so that they became the ruinous waste they are today.
 jer:44.7   Now thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you inflict so great an evil upon yourselves? Will you root out from Judah man and wife, child and nursling, and not leave yourselves even a remnant?
 jer:44.8   Will you go on provoking me by the works of your hands, by sacrificing to strange gods here in the land of Egypt where you have come to live? Will you be rooted out and become a curse and a disgrace among all the nations of the earth?
 jer:44.9   Have you forgotten the evil deeds which your fathers, and the kings of Judah and their wives, and you yourselves and your wives have done in the land of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem?
 jer:44.10  To this day they have not been crushed; they do not fear or follow the law and the statutes which I set before you and your fathers.
 jer:44.11  Hence, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have determined evil against you; and I will uproot all Judah.
 jer:44.12  I will take away the remnant of Judah who insisted on coming to dwell in Egypt, so that they shall be wholly destroyed. In the land of Egypt they shall fall by the sword or be consumed by hunger. High and low, they shall die by the sword, or by hunger, and become an example of malediction, a horror, a curse and a reproach.
 jer:44.13  Thus will I punish those who live in Egypt, just as I punished Jerusalem with sword, hunger, and pestilence. None of the remnant of Judah that have come to settle in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive.
 jer:44.14  None shall return to the land of Judah, though they yearn to return and live there. Only scattered refugees shall return.
 jer:44.15  From all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to strange gods, from all the women who were present in the immense crowd, and from all the people who lived in Lower and Upper Egypt, Jeremiah received this answer:
 jer:44.16  "We will not listen to what you say in the name of the LORD.
 jer:44.17  Rather will we continue doing what we had proposed; we will burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, as we and our fathers, our kings and princes have done in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had enough food to eat and we were well off; we suffered no misfortune.
 jer:44.18  But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we are in need of everything and are being destroyed by the sword and by hunger.
 jer:44.19  And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out libations to her, was it without our husbands' consent that we baked for her cakes in her image and poured out libations to her?"
 jer:44.20  To all the people, men and women, who gave him this answer, Jeremiah said:
 jer:44.21  Was it not this that the LORD remembered and brought to mind, that you burned incense in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem: you, your fathers, your kings and princes, and the people generally?
 jer:44.22  The LORD could no longer bear your evil deeds, the horrible things which you were doing; and so your land became a waste, a desert, a thing accursed and without inhabitants, as it is today.
 jer:44.23  Because you burned incense and sinned against the LORD, not obeying the voice of the LORD, not living by his law, his statutes, and his decrees, this evil has befallen you at the present day.
 jer:44.24  Jeremiah said further to all the people, including the women: Hear the word of the LORD, all you Judeans in the land of Egypt:
 jer:44.25  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: You and your wives have stated your intentions, and kept them in fact: "We will continue to fulfill the vows we have made to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out libations to her." Very well! keep your vows, carry out your resolutions!
 jer:44.26  But listen then to the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who live in Egypt; I swear by my own great name, says the LORD, in the whole land of Egypt no man of Judah shall henceforth pronounce my name, saying, "As the Lord GOD lives."
 jer:44.27  I am watching over them to do evil, not good. All the men of Judah in Egypt shall perish by the sword or famine until they are utterly destroyed.
 jer:44.28  Those who escape the sword to return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah shall be few in number. The whole remnant of Judah who came to settle in Egypt shall know whose word stands, mine or theirs.
 jer:44.29  That you may know how surely my threats of punishment for you shall be fulfilled, this shall be a sign to you, says the LORD, that I will punish you in this place.
 jer:44.30  Thus says the LORD: See! I will hand over Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, to his enemies, to those who seek his life, just as I handed over Zedekiah, king of Judah, to his enemy and mortal foe, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.
   
 jer:45.1   This is the message that the prophet Jeremiah gave to Baruch, son of Neriah, when he wrote in a book the prophecies that Jeremiah dictated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:
 jer:45.2   Thus says the LORD, God of Israel, to you, Baruch,
 jer:45.3   because you said, "Alas! the LORD adds grief to my pain; I am weary from groaning, and can find no rest":
 jer:45.4   say this to him, says the LORD: What I have built, I am tearing down; what I have planted, I am uprooting: even the whole land.
 jer:45.5   And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not! I am bringing evil on all mankind, says the LORD, but your life I will leave you as booty, wherever you may go.
   
 jer:46.1   This is the word of the LORD that came to the prophet Jeremiah against the nations.
 jer:46.2   Concerning Egypt. Against the army of Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:
 jer:46.3   Prepare shield and buckler! march to battle!
 jer:46.4   Harness the horses, mount, charioteers! Fall in with your helmets; polish your spears, put on your breastplates.
 jer:46.5   What do I see? With broken ranks They fall back; their heroes are routed, They flee headlong without making a stand. Terror on every side, says the LORD!
 jer:46.6   The swift cannot flee, nor the hero escape: There in the north, on the Euphrates' bank, they stumble and fall.
 jer:46.7   Who is this that surges forward like the Nile, like rivers of billowing waters?
 jer:46.8   Egypt surges like the Nile, like rivers of billowing waters. "I will surge forward," he says, "and cover the earth, destroying the city and its people.
 jer:46.9   Forward, horses! drive madly, chariots! Set out, warriors, Cush and Put, bearing your shields, Men of Lud, stretching your bows!"
 jer:46.10  But this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, vengeance on his foes! The sword devours, is sated, drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts holds a slaughter feast in the northland, on the Euphrates.
 jer:46.11  Go up to Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter Egypt! No use to multiply remedies; for you there is no cure.
 jer:46.12  The nations hear of your shame, your cries fill the earth. Warrior trips over warrior, both fall together.
 jer:46.13  The message which the LORD gave to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the advance of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to attack the land of Egypt:
 jer:46.14  Announce it in Egypt, publish it in Migdol, proclaim it in Memphis and Tahpanhes! Say: Take your stand, prepare yourselves, the sword has already devoured your neighbors.
 jer:46.15  Why has Apis fled, your mighty one failed to stand? The LORD thrust him down;
 jer:46.16  he stumbled repeatedly, and fell. They said one to another, "Up! let us return to our own people, To the land of our birth, away from the destroying sword."
 jer:46.17  Call Pharaoh, king of Egypt, by the name "The noise that let its time go by."
 jer:46.18  As I live, says the King whose name is LORD of hosts, Like Tabor among the mountains he shall come, like Carmel above the sea.
 jer:46.19  Pack your baggage for exile, capital city of daughter Egypt; Memphis shall become a desert, an empty ruin.
 jer:46.20  Egypt is a pretty heifer, from the north a horsefly lights upon her.
 jer:46.21  The mercenaries in her ranks are like fatted calves; They too turn and flee together, stand not their ground, When the day of their ruin comes upon them, the time of their punishment.
 jer:46.22  She sounds like a retreating reptile! Yes, they come in force; like woodchoppers, they attack her with axes.
 jer:46.23  They cut down her forest, says the LORD, impenetrable though it be; More numerous than locusts, they cannot be counted.
 jer:46.24  Disgraced is daughter Egypt, handed over to the people of the north.
 jer:46.25  The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, has said: See! I will punish Amon of Thebes, and Egypt, her gods and her kings, Pharaoh, and those who trust in him.
 jer:46.26  I will hand them over to those who seek their lives, to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his ministers. But later on Egypt shall be inhabited again, as in times past, says the LORD.
 jer:46.27  But you, my servant Jacob, fear not; be not dismayed, O Israel. Behold, I will deliver you from the far-off land, your descendants, from their land of exile. Jacob shall again find rest, shall be tranquil and undisturbed.
 jer:46.28  You, my servant Jacob, never fear, says the LORD, for I am with you; I will make an end of all the nations to which I have driven you, But of you I will not make an end: I will chastise you as you deserve, I will not let you go unpunished.
   
 jer:47.1   This is the word that came from the LORD to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh attacked Gaza:
 jer:47.2   Thus says the LORD: Behold: waters are rising from the north, a torrent in flood; It shall flood the land and all that is in it, the cities and their people. All the people of the land set up a wailing cry.
 jer:47.3   They hear the stamping hooves of his steeds, the rattling chariots, the rumbling wheels. Fathers turn not to save their children; their hands fall helpless
 jer:47.4   Because of the day which has come to ruin all the Philistines, And cut off from Tyre and Sidon the last of their allies. Yes, the LORD is destroying the Philistines, the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor.
 jer:47.5   Gaza is shaved bald, Ashkelon is reduced to silence; Ashdod, the remnant of their strength, how long will you gash yourself?
 jer:47.6   Alas, sword of the LORD! how long till you find rest? Return into your scabbard; stop, be still!
 jer:47.7   How can it find rest when the LORD has commanded it? Against Ashkelon and the seashore he has appointed it.
   
 jer:48.1   Concerning Moab, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe to Nebo, it is laid waste; Kiriathaim is disgraced and captured, Disgraced and overthrown is the stronghold:
 jer:48.2   Moab's glory is no more. Evil they plan against Heshbon: "Come, let us put an end to her as a people." You, too, Madmen, shall be reduced to silence; behind you stalks the sword.
 jer:48.3   Listen! a cry from Horonaim of ruin and great destruction!
 jer:48.4   Moab is crushed, their outcry is heard in Zoar.
 jer:48.5   The ascent of Luhith they climb weeping; On the descent to Horonaim the cry of destruction is heard.
 jer:48.6   "Flee, save your lives, to survive like the wild ass in the desert!"
 jer:48.7   Because you trusted in your works and your treasures, you also shall be captured. Chemosh shall go into exile, his priests and princes with him.
 jer:48.8   The destroyer comes upon every city, not a city escapes; Ruined is the valley, wasted the plain, as the LORD has said.
 jer:48.9   Set up a memorial for Moab, for it is an utter wasteland; Its cities are turned into ruins where no one dwells.
 jer:48.10  (Cursed be he who does the LORD'S work remissly, cursed he who holds back his sword from blood.)
 jer:48.11  Moab has been tranquil from his youth, has rested upon his lees; He was not poured from one flask to another, he went not into exile. Thus he kept his taste, and his scent was not lost.
 jer:48.12  Hence, the days shall come, says the LORD, when I will send him coopers to turn him over; they shall empty his flasks and break his jars.
 jer:48.13  Chemosh shall disappoint Moab, as Israel was disappointed by Bethel in which they trusted.
 jer:48.14  How can you say, "We are heroes, men valiant in war"?
 jer:48.15  The ravager of Moab and his cities advances, the flower of his youth goes down to be slaughtered, says the King, the LORD of hosts by name.
 jer:48.16  Near at hand is Moab's ruin, his disaster hastens apace.
 jer:48.17  Mourn for him, all you his neighbors, all you who knew him well! Say: How the strong staff is broken, the glorious rod!
 jer:48.18  Come down from glory, sit on the ground, you that dwell in Dibon; Moab's ravager has come up against you, he has ruined your strongholds.
 jer:48.19  Stand by the wayside, watch closely, you that dwell in Aroer; Ask the man who flees, the woman who tries to escape: say to them, "What has happened?"
 jer:48.20  Moab is disgraced, yes, destroyed, howl and cry out; Publish it at the Arnon, Moab is ruined!
 jer:48.21  For judgment has come on the land of the plateau: on Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath,
 jer:48.22  on Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim,
 jer:48.23  on Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon,
 jer:48.24  on Kerioth and on Bozrah: on all the cities of Moab, far and near.
 jer:48.25  Moab's strength is broken, his might is shattered, says the LORD.
 jer:48.26  Because he boasted against the LORD, make Moab drunk so that he retches and vomits, and he too becomes a laughingstock.
 jer:48.27  Is Israel a laughingstock to you? Was she caught among thieves, that you shake your head whenever you speak of her?
 jer:48.28  Leave the cities, dwell in the crags, you that dwell in Moab. Be like a dove that nests out of reach on the edge of a chasm.
 jer:48.29  We have heard of the pride of Moab, pride beyond bounds: His loftiness, his pride, his scorn, his insolence of heart.
 jer:48.30  I know, says the LORD, his arrogance; liar in boast, liar in deed.
 jer:48.31  And so I wail over Moab, over all Moab I cry, over the men of Kir-heres I moan.
 jer:48.32  More than for Jazer I weep over you, vineyard of Sibmah. Your tendrils trailed down to the sea, as far as Jazer they stretched. Upon your harvest, upon your vintage, the ravager has fallen.
 jer:48.33  Joy and jubilation are at an end in the fruit gardens of the land of Moab. I drain the wine from the wine vats, the treader treads no more, the vintage shout is stilled.
 jer:48.34  The cry of Heshbon and Elealeh is heard as far as Jahaz; they call from Zoar to Horonaim, and to Eglath-shelishiyah, for even the waters of Nimrim turn into a desert.
 jer:48.35  I will leave no one in Moab, says the LORD, to offer a holocaust on the high place, or to burn incense to his gods.
 jer:48.36  Hence the wail of flutes for Moab is in my heart; for the men of Kir-heres the wail of flutes is in my heart: the wealth they acquired has perished.
 jer:48.37  Every head has been made bald, every beard shaved; every hand is gashed, and the loins of all are clothed in sackcloth.
 jer:48.38  On every roof of Moab and in all his squares there is mourning; I have shattered Moab like a pot that no one wants, says the LORD.
 jer:48.39  How terror seizes Moab, and wailing! How he turns his back in shame! Moab has become a laughingstock and a horror to all his neighbors!
 jer:48.40  For thus says the LORD: Behold, like an eagle he soars, spreads his wings over Moab.
 jer:48.41  Cities are taken, strongholds seized: On that day the hearts of Moab's heroes are like the heart of a woman in travail.
 jer:48.42  Moab shall be destroyed, no more a people, because he boasted against the LORD.
 jer:48.43  Terror, pit, and trap be upon you, people of Moab, says the LORD.
 jer:48.44  He who flees from the terror falls into the pit; He who climbs from the pit is caught in the trap; For I will bring these things upon Moab in the year of their punishment, says the LORD.
 jer:48.45  In Heshbon's shadow stop short the exhausted refugees; For fire breaks forth from Heshbon, and a blaze from the house of Sihon: It consumes the brow of Moab, the skull of the noisemakers.
 jer:48.46  Woe to you, O Moab, you are ruined, O people of Chemosh! Your sons are taken into exile, your daughters into captivity.
 jer:48.47  But I will change the lot of Moab in the days to come, says the LORD. Thus far the judgment on Moab.
   
 jer:49.1   Concerning the Ammonites, thus says the LORD: Has Israel no sons? has he no heir? Why then has Milcom disinherited Gad, why have his people settled in Gad's cities?
 jer:49.2   But the days are coming, says the LORD, when against Rabbah of the Ammonites I will sound the battle alarm; She shall become a mound of ruins, and her daughter cities shall be destroyed by fire. Israel shall inherit those who disinherited her, says the LORD.
 jer:49.3   Howl, Heshbon, for the ravager approaches, shriek, daughters of Rabbah! Put on sackcloth and mourn, run to and fro, gashing yourselves; For Milcom goes into exile along with his priests and captains.
 jer:49.4   Why do you glory in your strength, your ebbing strength, rebellious daughter? You who trust in your treasures, saying, "Who can come against me?"
 jer:49.5   I am bringing terror upon you, says the Lord GOD of hosts, from all round about you; You shall be scattered, each man in headlong flight, with no one to rally the fugitives.
 jer:49.6   But afterward I will change the lot of the Ammonites, says the LORD.
 jer:49.7   Concerning Edom, thus says the LORD of hosts: Is there no more wisdom in Teman, has counsel perished from the prudent, has their wisdom become corrupt?
 jer:49.8   Flee, retreat, hide in deep holes, you who live in Dedan: For I will bring destruction upon Esau when I come to punish him.
 jer:49.9   If vintagers came upon you, they would leave no gleanings; If thieves by night, they would destroy as they pleased.
 jer:49.10  So I myself will strip Esau; I will uncover his retreats so that he cannot hide. He is ruined: sons, and brothers, and neighbors, so that he is no more.
 jer:49.11  Leave your orphans behind, I will keep them alive; your widows, let them trust in me.
 jer:49.12  For thus says the LORD: Even those not sentenced to drink the cup must drink it! Shall you then go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished; you shall surely drink it.
 jer:49.13  By my own self I have sworn, says the LORD: Bozrah shall become an object of horror and a disgrace, a desolation and a curse; she and all her cities shall become ruins forever.
 jer:49.14  I have heard a report from the LORD, a herald has been sent among the nations: Gather together, move against her, rise up for battle.
 jer:49.15  Small will I make you among the nations, despised among men!
 jer:49.16  The terror you spread beguiled you, and your presumption of heart; You that live in rocky crags, that hold the heights of the hill: Though you build your nest high as the eagle, from there I will drag you down, says the LORD.
 jer:49.17  Edom shall become an object of horror. Every passer-by shall be appalled and catch his breath at all her wounds.
 jer:49.18  As when Sodom, Gomorrah, and their neighbors were overthrown, says the LORD, not a man shall dwell there: no one shall visit there.
 jer:49.19  As when a lion comes up from the thicket of Jordan to the permanent feeding grounds, So I, in an instant, will drive men off; and whom I choose I will establish there! For who is like me? who can call me to account? What shepherd can stand against me?
 jer:49.20  Therefore, hear the counsel of the LORD, which he has taken against Edom; Hear the plans he has made against those that live in Teman: They shall be dragged away, even the smallest sheep, their own pasture shall be aghast because of them.
 jer:49.21  At the noise of their fall the earth quakes, to the Red Sea the outcry is heard!
 jer:49.22  See! like an eagle he soars aloft, and spreads his wings over Bozrah; On that day the hearts of Edom's heroes shall be like the heart of a woman in travail.
 jer:49.23  Concerning Damascus: Hamath and Arpad are covered with shame, they have heard bad news; Worried, they toss like the sea which cannot rest.
 jer:49.24  Damascus is weakened, she turns to flee, panic has seized her. Distress and pangs take hold of her, like those of a woman in travail.
 jer:49.25  How can the city of glory be forsaken, the town of delight!
 jer:49.26  But now her young men shall fall in her streets, and all her warriors shall be stilled. On that day, says the LORD of hosts,
 jer:49.27  I will set fire to the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.
 jer:49.28  Of Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, thus says the LORD: Rise up, attack Kedar, ravage the Easterners.
 jer:49.29  Their tents and herds shall be taken away, their tent curtains and all their goods; Their camels they shall carry off for themselves, and shout from upon them, "Terror on every side!"
 jer:49.30  Flee! leave your homes, hide in deep holes, you that live in Hazor, says the LORD; For counsel has been taken against you, a plan has been formed against you (Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon).
 jer:49.31  Rise up! set out against a nation that is at peace, that lives secure, says the LORD, That has no gates or bars, and dwells alone.
 jer:49.32  Their camels shall be your booty, their many herds your spoil; I will scatter to the winds those who shave their temples, from all sides I will bring ruin upon them, says the LORD.
 jer:49.33  Hazor shall become a haunt of jackals, a desert forever, Where no man lives, no human being stays.
 jer:49.34  The following word of the LORD against Elam came to the prophet Jeremiah at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah:
 jer:49.35  Thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the mainstay of their might.
 jer:49.36  I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four ends of the heavens: I will scatter them to all these winds, till there is no nation to which the outcasts of Elam shall not come.
 jer:49.37  I will break Elam before their foes, before those who seek their life; I will bring evil upon them, my burning wrath, says the LORD. I will send the sword to pursue them until I have completely made an end of them;
 jer:49.38  My throne I will set up in Elam and destroy from there king and princes, says the LORD.
 jer:49.39  But in the days to come I will change the lot of Elam, says the LORD.
   
 jer:50.1   The word which the LORD spoke against Babylon, against the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:
 jer:50.2   Announce and publish it among the nations; publish it, hide it not, but say: Babylon is taken, Bel confounded, Merodach shattered; her images are put to shame, her idols shattered.
 jer:50.3   A people from the north advances against her to turn her land into a desert, So that no one shall live there, because man and beast have fled away.
 jer:50.4   In those days, at that time, says the LORD, the men of Israel and of Judah shall come, Weeping as they come, to seek the LORD, their God;
 jer:50.5   to their goal in Zion they shall ask the way. "Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD with covenant everlasting, never to be forgotten."
 jer:50.6   Lost sheep were my people, their shepherds misled them, straggling on the mountains; From mountain to hill they wandered, losing the way to their fold.
 jer:50.7   Whoever came upon them devoured them, and their enemies said, "We incur no guilt, Because they sinned against the LORD, the hope of their fathers, their abode of justice."
 jer:50.8   Flee from Babylon, leave the land of the Chaldeans, be like the rams at the head of the flock.
 jer:50.9   See, I am stirring up against Babylon a band of great nations from the north; from there they advance, and she shall be taken. Their arrows are arrows of the skilled warrior; none shall return without effect.
 jer:50.10  Chaldea shall be their plunder, and all her plunderers shall be enriched, says the LORD.
 jer:50.11  Yes, rejoice and exult, you that plunder my portion; Frisk like calves on the green, snort like stallions!
 jer:50.12  Your mother shall be sorely put to shame, she that bore you shall be abashed; See, the last of the nations, a desert, dry and waste.
 jer:50.13  Because of the LORD'S wrath she shall be empty, and become a total desert; Everyone who passes by Babylon will be appalled and catch his breath, at all her wounds.
 jer:50.14  Take your posts encircling Babylon, you who bend the bow; Shoot at her, spare not your arrows,
 jer:50.15  raise the war cry against her on all sides. She surrenders, her bastions fall, her walls are torn down: Vengeance of the LORD is this! Take revenge on her, as she has done, do to her; for she sinned against the LORD.
 jer:50.16  Cut off from Babylon the sower and him who wields the sickle in harvest time! Before the destroying sword, each of them turns to his own people, everyone flees to his own land.
 jer:50.17  A stray sheep was Israel that lions pursued; Formerly the king of Assyria devoured her, now Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon gnaws her bones.
 jer:50.18  Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as once I punished the king of Assyria;
 jer:50.19  But I will bring back Israel to her fold, to feed on Carmel and Bashan, And on Mount Ephraim and Gilead, till she has her fill.
 jer:50.20  In those days, at that time, says the LORD: They shall seek Israel's guilt, but it shall be no more, and Judah's sins, but these shall no longer be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.
 jer:50.21  Attack the land of Merathaim, and those who live in Pekod; Slaughter and doom them, says the LORD, do all I have commanded you.
 jer:50.22  Battle alarm in the land, dire destruction!
 jer:50.23  How has the hammer of the whole earth been broken and shattered! What an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations.
 jer:50.24  You ensnared yourself, and were caught, O Babylon, before you knew it! You were discovered and seized, because you challenged the LORD.
 jer:50.25  The LORD opens his armory and brings forth the weapons of his wrath; For the Lord GOD of hosts has work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.
 jer:50.26  Come upon her from every side, open her granaries, Pile up her goods in heaps and doom it, leave not a remnant.
 jer:50.27  Slay all her oxen, let them go down to the slaughter; Woe to them! their day has come, the time of their punishment.
 jer:50.28  Listen! the fugitives, the escaped from the land of Babylon: They announce in Zion the vengeance of the LORD, our God.
 jer:50.29  Call up against Babylon archers, all who bend the bow; Encamp around her, let no one escape. Repay her for her deeds; as she has done, do to her, For she insulted the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
 jer:50.30  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, all her warriors shall perish on that day, says the LORD.
 jer:50.31  I am against you, man of insolence, says the Lord GOD of hosts; For your day has come, the time for me to punish you.
 jer:50.32  Insolence stumbles and falls; there is no one to raise him up. I will kindle in his cities a fire that shall devour everything around him.
 jer:50.33  Thus says the LORD of hosts: Oppressed are the men of Israel, and with them the men of Judah; All their captors hold them fast and refuse to let them go.
 jer:50.34  Strong is their avenger, whose name is LORD of hosts; He will defend their cause with success, and give rest to the earth, but unrest to those who live in Babylon.
 jer:50.35  A sword upon the Chaldeans, says the LORD, upon Babylon's people, her princes and wise men!
 jer:50.36  A sword upon the soothsayers, that they may become fools! A sword upon her warriors, that they may tremble;
 jer:50.37  A sword upon her motley throng, that they may become women! A sword upon her treasures, that they may be plundered;
 jer:50.38  A sword upon her waters, that they may dry up! For it is a land of idols, and they shall be made frantic by fearful things.
 jer:50.39  Hence, wildcats and desert beasts shall dwell there, and ostriches shall occupy it; Never again shall it be peopled, or lived in, from age to age.
 jer:50.40  As when God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah, with their neighbors, says the LORD, Not a man shall dwell there, no human being shall tarry there.
 jer:50.41  See! a people comes from the north, a great nation, and mighty kings roused from the ends of the earth.
 jer:50.42  Bow and javelin they wield, cruel and pitiless are they; They sound like the roaring sea, as they ride forth on steeds, Each in his place for battle against you, daughter Babylon.
 jer:50.43  The king of Babylon hears news of them, and helpless fall his hands; Anguish seizes him, throes like a mother's in childbirth.
 jer:50.44  As when a lion comes up from the Jordan's thicket to the permanent feeding grounds, So I, in one instant, will drive them off, and whom I choose I will establish there; For who is like me? who calls me to account? what shepherd can stand against me?
 jer:50.45  Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD which he has taken against Babylon; Hear the plans he has made against the land of the Chaldeans: They shall be dragged away, even the smallest sheep; their own pasture shall be aghast because of them.
 jer:50.46  At the cry "Babylon is captured!" the earth quakes; the outcry is heard among the nations.
   
 jer:51.1   Thus says the LORD: See! I rouse against Babylon, and against those who live in Chaldea, a destroying wind.
 jer:51.2   Against Babylon I will send winnowers to winnow her and lay waste her land; They shall besiege her from all sides on the day of affliction.
 jer:51.3   Let the bowman draw his bow, and flaunt his coat of mail; Spare not her young men, doom her entire army.
 jer:51.4   The slain shall fall in the land of Chaldea, the transfixed, in her streets;
 jer:51.5   For Israel and Judah are not widowed of their God, the LORD of hosts, And the Chaldean land is full of guilt to be punished by the Holy One of Israel.
 jer:51.6   Flee out of Babylon; let each one save his life, perish not for her guilt; This is a time of vengeance for the LORD, he pays her her due.
 jer:51.7   Babylon was a golden cup in the hand of the LORD which made the whole earth drunk; The nations drank its wine, with this they have become mad.
 jer:51.8   Babylon suddenly falls and is crushed: howl over her! Bring balm for her wounds, in case she can be healed.
 jer:51.9   "We have tried to heal Babylon, but she cannot be healed. Leave her, let us go, each to his own land." Her judgment reaches heaven, it touches the clouds.
 jer:51.10  The LORD has brought to light our just cause; come, let us tell in Zion what the LORD, our God, has done.
 jer:51.11  Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers; The LORD has stirred up the spirit of Media's kings; Babylon he is resolved to destroy. Yes, it is the vengeance of the LORD, vengeance for his temple.
 jer:51.12  Against the walls of Babylon raise a signal, make strong the watch; Post sentries, arrange ambushes! For the LORD has planned and he will carry out his threat against the inhabitants of Babylon.
 jer:51.13  You who dwell by mighty waters, rich in treasure, Your end has come, the term at which you shall be cut off!
 jer:51.14  The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself: I will fill you with men as numerous as locusts, who shall raise over you the vintage shout!
 jer:51.15  He has sworn who made the earth by his power, and established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his skill.
 jer:51.16  When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar, and he brings up clouds from the end of the earth; He makes the lightning flash in the rain, and releases stormwinds from their chambers.
 jer:51.17  Every man is stupid, ignorant; every artisan is put to shame by his idol: He molded a fraud, without breath of life.
 jer:51.18  Nothingness are they, a ridiculous work, that will perish in their time of punishment.
 jer:51.19  Not like these is the portion of Jacob, he is the creator of all things; Israel is his very own tribe, LORD of hosts is his name.
 jer:51.20  You are my hammer, my weapon for war; With you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms.
 jer:51.21  With you I shatter horse and rider, with you I shatter chariot and driver.
 jer:51.22  With you I shatter man and wife, with you I shatter old and young, with you I shatter the youth and maiden.
 jer:51.23  With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock, with you I shatter the farmer and his team, with you I shatter satraps and prefects.
 jer:51.24  Thus will I repay Babylon, and all who live in Chaldea All the evil they did to Zion, as you shall see with your own eyes, says the LORD.
 jer:51.25  Beware! I am against you, destroying mountain, destroyer of the entire earth, says the LORD; I will stretch forth my hand against you, roll you down over the cliffs, and make you a burnt mountain:
 jer:51.26  They will not take from you a cornerstone, or a foundation stone; Ruins forever shall you be, says the LORD.
 jer:51.27  Raise a signal on the earth, blow the trumpet among the nations; Dedicate peoples to war against her, summon against her the kingdoms, Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; Appoint recruiting officers against her, send up horses like bristling locusts.
 jer:51.28  Dedicate peoples to war against her: the king of Media, Its governors and all its prefects, every land in his domain.
 jer:51.29  The earth quakes and writhes, the LORD'S plan against Babylon is carried out, Turning the land of Babylon into a desert where no one lives.
 jer:51.30  Babylon's warriors have ceased to fight, they remain in their strongholds; Dried up is their strength, they have become women. Burned are their homes, and broken their bars.
 jer:51.31  One runner meets another, herald meets herald, Telling the king of Babylon that all his city is taken.
 jer:51.32  The fords have been seized, and the fortresses set on fire, while warriors are in panic.
 jer:51.33  For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trodden; Yet a little while, and the harvest time will come for her.
 jer:51.34  He has consumed me, routed me, (Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,) he has left me as an empty vessel; He has swallowed me like a dragon: filled his belly with my delights, and cast me out.
 jer:51.35  My torn flesh be upon Babylon, says the city on Zion; My blood upon the people of Chaldea, says Jerusalem.
 jer:51.36  But now, thus says the LORD: Surely I will defend your cause, I will avenge you; I will dry up her sea, and drain her fountain.
 jer:51.37  Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; A place of horror and ridicule, where no one lives.
 jer:51.38  They all roar like lions, growl like lion cubs.
 jer:51.39  When they are parched, I will set a drink before them to make them drunk, that they may be overcome with perpetual sleep, never to awaken, says the LORD.
 jer:51.40  I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats.
 jer:51.41  How has she been seized, made captive, the glory of the whole world! What a horror has Babylon become among nations:
 jer:51.42  against Babylon the sea rises, she is overwhelmed by the roaring waves!
 jer:51.43  Her cities have become a desert, parched and arid land Where no man lives, and no one passes through.
 jer:51.44  I will punish Bel in Babylon, and make him disgorge what he swallowed; peoples shall stream to him no more. The wall of Babylon falls!
 jer:51.45  Leave her, my people, let each one save himself from the burning wrath of the LORD.
 jer:51.46  Be not discouraged for fear of rumors spread in the land; this year the rumor comes, then violence in the land, tyrant against tyrant.
 jer:51.47  But behold, the days are coming when I will punish the idols of Babylon; her whole land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall lie fallen within her.
 jer:51.48  Then heaven, and earth, and everything in them shall shout over Babylon with joy, when the destroyers come against her from the north, says the LORD.
 jer:51.49  Babylon, too, must fall, O slain of Israel, as at the hands of Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.
 jer:51.50  You who have escaped the sword, go on, stand not still; Remember the LORD from afar, let Jerusalem come to your minds.
 jer:51.51  We are ashamed because we have heard taunts, confusion covers our faces; strangers have entered the holy places of the house of the LORD.
 jer:51.52  But behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will punish her idols, and in her whole land the wounded will groan.
 jer:51.53  Though Babylon scale the heavens, and make her strong heights inaccessible, destroyers from me shall reach her, says the LORD.
 jer:51.54  Hear! loud cries from Babylon, dire destruction from the land of the Chaldeans;
 jer:51.55  For the LORD lays Babylon waste, stills her loud cry, Though her waves were roaring like mighty waters, and their clamor was heard afar.
 jer:51.56  For the destroyer comes upon her, (Babylon,) her heroes are captured, their bows broken; The LORD is a God who requites, he will surely repay.
 jer:51.57  I will make her princes and her wise men drunk, her governors, her prefects, and her warriors, so that they sleep an eternal sleep, never to awaken, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
 jer:51.58  Thus says the LORD of hosts: The walls of spacious Babylon shall be leveled utterly; her lofty gates shall be destroyed by fire. The toil of the nations is for nothing; for the flames the peoples weary themselves.
 jer:51.59  This was the errand given by the prophet Jeremiah to Seraiah, son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon for the king in the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah; Seraiah was chief quartermaster.
 jer:51.60  Jeremiah had written all the misfortune that was to befall Babylon in a single book: all these words that were written against Babylon.
 jer:51.61  And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: When you reach Babylon, see that you read aloud all these words,
 jer:51.62  and then say: O LORD, you yourself threatened to destroy this place, so that neither man nor beast should dwell in it, since it would remain an everlasting desert.
 jer:51.63  When you have finished reading this book, tie a stone to it and throw it in the Euphrates,
 jer:51.64  and say: Thus shall Babylon sink. Never shall she rise, because of the evil I am bringing upon her. (To "weary themselves" are the words of Jeremiah.)

 jer:52.1   Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
 jer:52.2   He did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.
 jer:52.3   Indeed, what was done in Jerusalem and in Judah so angered the LORD that he cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
 jer:52.4   In the tenth month of the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his whole army advanced against Jerusalem, encamped around it, and built siege walls on every side.
 jer:52.5   The siege of the city continued until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
 jer:52.6   On the ninth day of the fourth month, when famine had gripped the city and the people had no more bread,
 jer:52.7   the city walls were breached. Then all the soldiers took to flight and left the city by night through the gate between the two walls which was near the king's garden. With the Chaldeans surrounding the city, they went in the direction of the Arabah.
 jer:52.8   But the Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the desert near Jericho, while his whole army fled from him.
 jer:52.9   The king, therefore, was arrested and brought to Riblah, in the land of Hamath, to the king of Babylon, who pronounced sentence on him.
 jer:52.10  As Zedekiah looked on, the king of Babylon slew his sons as well as all the princes of Judah at Riblah.
 jer:52.11  Then he blinded Zedekiah, bound him with fetters, and had him brought to Babylon and kept in prison until the day of his death.
 jer:52.12  On the tenth day of the fifth month (this was in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, captain of the bodyguard, came to Jerusalem as the representative of the king of Babylon.
 jer:52.13  He burned the house of the LORD, the palace of the king, and all the houses of Jerusalem; every large building he destroyed with fire.
 jer:52.14  And the Chaldean troops who were with the captain of the guard tore down all the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.
 jer:52.15  Then Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, led into exile the rest of the people left in the city, and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the artisans.
 jer:52.16  But some of the country's poor, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, left behind as vinedressers and farmers.
 jer:52.17  The bronze pillars that belonged to the house of the LORD, and the wheeled carts and the bronze sea in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke into pieces; they carried away all the bronze to Babylon.
 jer:52.18  They took also the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the bowls, the pans, and all the bronze vessels used for service.
 jer:52.19  The basins also, the fire holders, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the pans, the sacrificial bowls which were of gold or silver, these too the captain of the guard carried off,
 jer:52.20  as well as the two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve oxen of bronze under the sea, and the wheeled carts which King Solomon had made for the house of the LORD. The bronze of all these furnishings could not be weighed.
 jer:52.21  Each of the pillars was eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in diameter; each was four fingers thick, and hollow inside.
 jer:52.22  A bronze capital five cubits high surmounted the one pillar, and a network with pomegranates encircled the capital, all of brass; and so for the other pillar. The pomegranates. . .
 jer:52.23  there were ninety-six pomegranates. There were a hundred pomegranates, all around the network.
 jer:52.24  The captain of the guard also took Seraiah, the high priest, Zephaniah, the second priest, and the three keepers of the entry.
 jer:52.25  And from the city he took one courtier, a commander of soldiers, and seven men in the personal service of the king who were present in the city, and the scribe of the army commander who mustered the people of the land, and sixty of the common people who were in the city.
 jer:52.26  The captain of the guard, Nebuzaradan, arrested these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah,
 jer:52.27  who had them struck down and put to death in Riblah, in the land of Hamath. Thus was Judah exiled from her land.
 jer:52.28  This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar led away captive: in his seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three people of Judah;
 jer:52.29  in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, eight hundred and thirty-two persons from Jerusalem;
 jer:52.30  in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, exiled seven hundred and forty-five people of Judah: four thousand six hundred persons in all.
 jer:52.31  In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, in the inaugural year of his reign, took up the case of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, and released him from prison.
 jer:52.32  He spoke kindly to him and gave him a throne higher than that of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.
 jer:52.33  Jehoiachin took off his prison garb and ate at the king's table as long as he lived.
 jer:52.34  The allowance given him by the king of Babylon was a perpetual allowance, in fixed daily amounts, all the days of his life until the day of his death. [end of Jeremiah]

