# verses

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Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord; I am weary of restraining it. I will pour it out on the children in the street and on the gathering of young men together; for even the husband with the wife will be taken, the aged with the very old.


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And their houses will be turned over to others, their fields and their wives together; for I will stretch out My hand against the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord.


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For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness (to greed for unjust gain); and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.


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They have healed also the wound of the daughter of My people lightly <i>and</i> neglectfully, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.


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Were they brought to shame because they had committed abominations (extremely disgusting and vile things)? No, they were not at all ashamed, nor could they blush [at their idolatry]. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them they shall be overthrown, says the Lord.


text:
Thus says the Lord: Stand by the roads and look; and ask for the eternal paths, where the good, old way is; then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it! <f>ⓐ</f>


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Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hear <i>and</i> obey the sound of the trumpet! But they said, We will not listen <i>or</i> obey.


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Therefore hear, O [Gentile] nations, and know, O congregation [of believing ones], what [great things I will do] to them.


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Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing evil upon this people, the fruit of their thoughts (their schemes and devices) because they have not listened <i>and</i> obeyed My words, and as for My law, they have rejected it.


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To what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba [in southwestern Arabia] and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices sweet <i>or</i> pleasing to Me.


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Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people. And the fathers and the sons together will stumble against them; the neighbor and his friend will perish.


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Thus says the Lord: Behold, a people is coming from the north country, and a great nation is arousing itself from the ends of the earth.


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They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel (ruthless and inhuman) and have no mercy. Their voice sounds like the roaring sea; they ride on horses, every one set in array as a man for battle against you, O Daughter of Zion!


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We have heard the report of it; our hands become feeble <i>and</i> helpless. Anguish has taken hold of us, pangs like that of a woman in childbirth.


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Go not out into the field nor walk on the road, for the enemy is armed with the sword; terror is on every side.


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O daughter of my people [says Jeremiah], gird yourself with sackcloth and wallow in ashes; make mourning as for an only son, a most bitter lamentation, for the destroyer will suddenly come upon us [on prophet and people].


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I [says the Lord] have set you [Jeremiah] as an assayer <i>and</i> a prover of ore among My people, that you may know and try their doings and be like a watchtower.


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They are all the worst [kind] of rebels <i>and</i> utter and total revolters against God, going about publishing slander. They are [not gold and silver ore, but] bronze and iron; they are all corrupters.


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The bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain do they continue refining, for the wicked [the dross] are not removed.


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Men will call them reprobate <i>and</i> rejected silver [only dross, without good metal], because the Lord has rejected them.


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Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house and proclaim there this word and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.


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Trust not in the lying words [of the false prophets who maintain that God will protect Jerusalem because His temple is there], saying, This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.


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For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly <i>and</i> truly execute justice between every man and his neighbor,


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If you do not oppress the transient <i>and</i> the alien, the fatherless, and the widow or shed innocent blood [by oppression and by judicial murders] in [Jerusalem] or go after other gods to your own hurt,


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Then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers to dwell in forever.


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Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known,


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And [then dare to] come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My <f>[1]</f>Name, and say, [By the discharge of this religious formality] we are set free! — only to go on with this wickedness <i>and</i> these abominations?


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Has this house, which is called by My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes [a place of retreat for you between acts of violence]? Behold, I Myself have seen it, says the Lord.


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But go now to My place which was in Shiloh [in Ephraim], where I set My Name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel. <f>ⓐ</f>


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And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and [because] when I spoke to you persistently [even rising up early and speaking], you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer,


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Therefore will I do to this house (the temple), which is called by My Name <i>and</i> in which you trust, to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.


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And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole posterity of Ephraim.


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Therefore do not pray for this people [of Judah] or lift up a cry or entreaty for them or make intercession to Me, for I will not listen to <i>or</i> hear you.


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The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes for the <f>[2]</f>queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger!


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Am I the One Whom they provoke to anger? says the Lord. Is it not themselves [whom they provoke], to their own confusion <i>and</i> vexation <i>and</i> to their own shame?


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Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the flesh [if you will. It will avail you nothing].


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For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.


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But this thing I did command them: Listen to <i>and</i> obey My voice, and I will be your God and you will be My people; and walk in the whole way that I command you, that it may be well with you.


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But they would not listen to <i>and</i> obey Me or bend their ear [to Me], but followed the counsels <i>and</i> the stubborn promptings of their own evil hearts <i>and</i> minds, and they turned their backs <i>and</i> went in reverse instead of forward.


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Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent to you all My servants the prophets, sending them daily, early and late.


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Yet the people would not listen to <i>and</i> obey Me or bend their ears [to Me], but stiffened their necks and behaved worse than their fathers.


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Speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to <i>and</i> obey you; also call to them, but they will not answer you.


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Yet you shall say to them, This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or receive instruction <i>and</i> correction <i>and</i> warning; truth <i>and</i> faithfulness have perished and have completely vanished from their mouths.


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Cut off your hair [your crown, O Jerusalem] and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights, for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.


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For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight, says the Lord; they have set their abominations (extremely disgusting and shamefully vile things) in the house which is called by My Name to defile it.


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And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom], to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire [in honor of Molech, the fire god] — which I did not command, nor did it come into My mind <i>or</i> heart. <f>ⓑ</f>


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Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it shall no more be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom], but the Valley of Slaughter, for [in bloody warfare] they will bury in Topheth till there is no more room <i>and</i> no place else to bury. <f>ⓒ</f>


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And the dead bodies of this people will be meat for the fowls of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away.


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Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will become a waste.


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At that time, says the Lord, [the Babylonian army will break open the sepulchers, and] they shall bring out the <f>[1]</f>bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves.


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And they will [carelessly] scatter [the corpses] before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which [the dead] have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked and which they have sought, inquired of, <i>and</i> required and which they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered, or be buried; they shall be like <f>[2]</f>dung upon the face of the earth.


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And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those who remain of this evil family (nation), who remain in all the places to which I have driven them, says the Lord of hosts.


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Moreover, you [Jeremiah] shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: Shall men fall and not rise up again? Shall one turn away [from God] and not repent <i>and</i> return [to Him]?


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Why then is this people of Jerusalem turned away with a perpetual turning away [from Me]? They hold fast to <f>[3]</f>deceit (idolatry); they refuse to repent <i>and</i> return [to God].


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I have listened and heard, but they have not spoken aright; no man repents of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Everyone turns to his [individual] course, as the horse rushes like a torrent into battle.


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[Even the migratory birds are punctual to their seasons.] Yes, the stork [excelling in the great height of her flight] in the heavens knows her appointed times [of migration], and the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their return. But My people do not know the law of the Lord [which the lower animals instinctively recognize in so far as it applies to them].


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How can you say, We are wise, and we have the written law of the Lord [and are learned in its language and teachings]? Behold, the truth is, the lying pen of the scribes has made of the law a falsehood (a mere code of ceremonial observances). <f>ⓐ</f>


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The wise men shall be put to shame; they shall be dismayed and taken [captive]. Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom <i>and</i> broad, full intelligence is in them?


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Therefore will I give their wives to others and their fields to those who gain possession of them; for everyone, from the least even to the greatest, is given to covetousness (is greedy for unjust gain); from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.


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For they have healed the wound of the daughter of My people only lightly <i>and</i> slightingly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.


text:
They are brought to shame because they have committed abominations (extremely disgusting and shamefully vile things). And yet they were not at all ashamed, nor could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time of their punishment they shall be overthrown, says the Lord. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
I will gather <i>and</i> sweep them away, utterly consuming them, says the Lord. [I will find] no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and even the leaf is withered; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them [for I have appointed to them those who shall pass over them]. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
[Then say the people to each other] Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities and be silent <i>or</i> perish there! For the Lord our God has decreed our ruin and given us bitter <i>and</i> poisonous water to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord.


text:
We looked for peace <i>and</i> completeness, but no good came, and for a time of healing, but behold, dismay, trouble, <i>and</i> terror!


text:
The snorting of [Nebuchadnezzar’s] horses is heard from Dan [on the northern border of Palestine]. At the sound of the neighing of his strong war-horses the whole land quakes; for they come and devour the land and all that is in it, the city and those who dwell in it.


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For behold, I am sending among you serpents, adders which cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you, says the Lord.


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Oh, that I [Jeremiah] could comfort myself against sorrow, [for my grief is beyond healing], my heart is sick <i>and</i> faint within me!


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Behold [says the prophet, listen to the voice of] the cry of the daughter of my people [for help] because of those who dwell in a far country: Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her King in her? [But the Lord answers] Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images and with foreign idols?


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The harvest is past, the summer has ended <i>and</i> the gathering of fruit is over, yet we are not saved! [comes again the voice of the people.]


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For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I [Jeremiah] hurt; I go around mourning; dismay has taken hold on me.


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Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people restored? [Because Zion no longer enjoyed the presence of the Great Physician!] <f>ⓓ</f>


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Oh, that my head were waters and my eyes a reservoir of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!


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Oh, that I had in the wilderness a lodging place (a mere shelter) for wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers [rendering worship to idols instead of to the Lord, Who has espoused the people to Himself]; they are a gang of treacherous men [faithless even to each other].


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And they bend their tongue, [which is] their bow for the lies [they shoot]. And not according to faithfulness do they rule <i>and</i> become strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know <i>and</i> understand <i>and</i> acknowledge Me, says the Lord.


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Let everyone beware of his neighbor and put no trust in any brother. For every brother is an utter <i>and</i> complete supplanter (one who takes by the heel and trips up, a deceiver, a Jacob), and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer. <f>ⓐ</f>


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And they deceive <i>and</i> mock every one his neighbor and do not speak the truth. They have taught their tongues to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity.


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Your habitation is in the midst of deceit [oppression upon oppression and deceit upon deceit]; through deceit they refuse to know <i>and</i> understand Me, says the Lord.


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Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will melt them [by the process of affliction to remove the dross] and test them, for how else should I deal with the daughter of My people?


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Their tongue is a murderous arrow; it speaks deceitfully; one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lays snares and waits in ambush for him.


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For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing and for the pastures of the wilderness a lament, because they are burned up <i>and</i> desolated, so that no one passes through [them]; neither can men hear [any longer] the lowing of cattle. Both the fowls of the air and the beasts have fled, they are gone!


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I will make Jerusalem heaps [of ruins], a dwelling place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.


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Who is the wise man who may understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined <i>and</i> laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through it?


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And the Lord says, Because they have forsaken My law, which I set before them, and have not listened to <i>and</i> obeyed My voice or walked in accordance with it


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But have walked stubbornly after their own hearts and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,


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Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them bitter <i>and</i> poisonous water to drink.


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I will scatter them also among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword among them <i>and</i> after them until I have consumed them.


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Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skillful women to come.


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Let them make haste and raise a wailing over us <i>and</i> for us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids gush with water.


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For a sound of wailing is heard [coming] out of Zion: How we are plundered <i>and</i> ruined! We are greatly confounded <i>and</i> utterly put to shame, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings [our dwellings that have cast us out].


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Yet hear the word of the Lord, O you women, and let your ears receive the word of His mouth; teach your daughters a lament, and each one [teach] her neighbor a dirge.


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For death has come up into our windows; it has entered into our palaces, cutting off the children from outdoors and the young men from the streets.


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Speak, Thus says the Lord: The dead bodies of men shall fall like dung on the open field and like sheaves [of grain] behind the reaper, and none shall gather them. <f>ⓑ</f>


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Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise <i>and</i> skillful person glory <i>and</i> boast in his wisdom <i>and</i> skill; let not the mighty <i>and</i> powerful person glory <i>and</i> boast in his strength <i>and</i> power; let not the person who is rich [in physical gratification and earthly wealth] glory <i>and</i> boast in his [temporal satisfactions and earthly] riches;


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But let him who glories glory in this: that he understands and knows Me [personally and practically, directly discerning and recognizing My character], that I am the Lord, Who practices loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord. <f>ⓒ</f>


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Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will punish all who though circumcised [outwardly, in the flesh] are still uncircumcised [in corresponding inward purity] — <f>ⓓ</f>


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Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab [all of whom are related except Egypt], and all who live in the desert and who clip off the corners of their hair <i>and</i> beards; for all these nations are uncircumcised [in heart], and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.


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Thus says the Lord: Learn not the way of the [heathen] nations and be not dismayed at the signs of the heavens, though they are dismayed at them,


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For the customs <i>and</i> ordinances of the peoples are false, empty, <i>and</i> futile; it is but a tree which one cuts out of the forest [to make for himself a god], the work of the hands of the craftsman with the ax <i>or</i> other tool.


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They deck [the idol] with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers so it will not fall apart <i>or</i> move around.


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[Their idols] are like pillars of turned work [as upright and stationary and immobile as a palm tree], like scarecrows in a cucumber field; they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it possible for them to do good [and it is not in them].


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Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? For it is fitting to You <i>and</i> Your due! For among all the wise [men or gods] of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You.


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But they are altogether irrational <i>and</i> stupid and foolish. Their instruction is given by idols who are but wood [it is a teaching of falsity, emptiness, futility]!


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Silver beaten [into plates] is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; the [idols’] clothing is violet and purple — they are all the work of skillful men.


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But the Lord is the true God <i>and</i> the God of truth (the God Who is Truth). He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, and the nations are not able to bear His indignation.


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Thus shall you say to them: The gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.


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God made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and by His understanding <i>and</i> skill stretched out the heavens.


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When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind out from His treasuries <i>and</i> from His storehouses.


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Every man has become like a brute, irrational <i>and</i> stupid, without knowledge [of God]; every goldsmith is brought to shame by his graven idols; for his molten images are frauds <i>and</i> falsehood, and there is no breath in them.


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They are devoid of worth, usefulness, <i>or</i> truth, a work of delusion <i>and</i> mockery; in their time of trial <i>and</i> punishment they shall [helplessly] perish.


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The Portion of Jacob [the true God on Whom Israel has a claim] is not like these, for He is the Fashioner <i>and</i> Maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance — the Lord of hosts is His name.


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For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time and will bring distress on them, that they may feel it <i>and</i> find it [to be as I have said, and turn to Me].


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Woe is me because of my hurt! [says Jeremiah, speaking for the nation.] My wound is grievous <i>and</i> incurable. But I said, Surely this sickness <i>and</i> suffering <i>and</i> grief are mine, and I must endure, tolerate, <i>and</i> bear them.


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My tent (home) is taken by force <i>and</i> plundered, and all my [tent] cords are broken. My children have gone forth [as captives] from me, and they are no more; there is no one to stretch forth my tent any more and to set up my [tent] curtains.


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For the shepherds [of the people] have become like brutes, irrational <i>and</i> stupid, and have not sought the Lord <i>or</i> inquired of Him <i>or</i> required Him [by necessity and by right of His word]. Therefore they have not dealt prudently <i>and</i> have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.


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Hark, the sound of a rumor! [The invading army] comes! — a great commotion out of the north country — to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling place of jackals.


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O Lord [pleads Jeremiah in the name of the people], I know that [the determination of] the way of a man is not in himself; it is not in man [even in a strong man or in a man at his best] to direct his [own] steps. <f>ⓐ</f>


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O Lord, correct, instruct, <i>and</i> chastise me, but with judgment <i>and</i> in just measure — not in Your anger, lest You diminish me <i>and</i> bring me to nothing.


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Pour out Your wrath upon the nations that do not know <i>or</i> recognize You and upon the peoples that do not call upon Your name. For they have devoured Jacob, yes, devoured him and consumed him and made his habitation a desolate waste.


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Hear the words of this covenant <i>or</i> solemn pledge, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


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Say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed is the man who does not heed the words of this covenant <i>or</i> solemn pledge


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Which I commanded your fathers at the time that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to My voice and do according to all that I command you. So will you be My people, and I will be your God,


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That I may perform the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then I answered, Amen (so be it), O Lord.


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And 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 <i>or</i> solemn pledge and do them.


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For I earnestly protested to <i>and</i> warned your fathers at the time that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, protesting to <i>and</i> warning them persistently, saying, Obey My voice.


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Yet they did not obey or incline their ear [to Me], but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his own evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all [the calamities threatened in] the words of this covenant <i>or</i> solemn pledge, which I had commanded, but they did not do.


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And the Lord said to me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


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They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear My words; they have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant <i>or</i> solemn pledge which I made with their fathers.


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Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I am bringing evil <i>and</i> calamity upon them which they will not be able to escape; though they cry to Me, I will not listen to them.


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Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they offer incense, but they cannot save them at all in the time of their evil trouble.


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For [as many as] the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah; and [as many as] the number of the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.


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Therefore do not pray for this people or lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I will not listen when they cry out to Me in the time of their evil trouble.


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What right has My beloved [to be] in My house when she has wrought lewdness <i>and</i> done treacherously many times? Can vows <i>and</i> the holy flesh [of your sacrifices] remove from you your wickedness <i>and</i> avert your calamity? Can you by these [escape your doom and] rejoice exultantly?


text:
The Lord [acknowledged you once to be worthy to be] called a green olive tree, fair <i>and</i> of good fruit; but with the roar of a great tempest He will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. <f>ⓐ</f>


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For the Lord of hosts, Who planted you, has pronounced evil <i>and</i> calamity against you because of the evil which the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done against themselves in provoking Me to anger by offering incense to Baal.


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And the Lord gave me [Jeremiah] knowledge of it [their plot], and I knew it; then You [O Lord] showed me their doings.


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But I was like a tame lamb that is brought to the slaughter; I did not know that they had devised inventions <i>and</i> schemes against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.


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But, O Lord of hosts, Who judges rightly <i>and</i> justly, Who tests the heart and the mind, let me see Your vengeance on them, for to You I have revealed <i>and</i> committed my cause [rolling it upon You].


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Therefore thus says the Lord about the men of Anathoth [Jeremiah’s hometown], who seek your life [Jeremiah] and say, Prophesy not in the name of the Lord, that you die not by our hands —


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Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and their daughters will die by famine;


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And there will be no remnant [of the conspirators] left, for I will bring evil <i>and</i> calamity upon the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.


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Uncompromisingly righteous <i>and</i> rigidly just are You, O Lord, when I complain against <i>and</i> contend with You. Yet let me plead <i>and</i> reason the case with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are all they at ease <i>and</i> thriving who deal very treacherously <i>and</i> deceitfully?


text:
You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit. You are near in their mouths but far from their hearts.


text:
But You, O Lord, know <i>and</i> understand me <i>and</i> my devotion to You; You see me and try my heart toward You. [O Lord] pull [these rebellious ones] out like sheep for the slaughter and devote <i>and</i> prepare them for the day of slaughter.


text:
How long must the land mourn and the grass <i>and</i> herbs of the whole country wither? Through the wickedness of those who dwell in it, the beasts and the birds are consumed <i>and</i> are swept away [by the drought], because men [mocked] me, saying, He shall not [live to] see our final end.


text:
[But the Lord rebukes Jeremiah’s impatience, saying] If you have raced with men on foot and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? And if [you take to flight] in a land of peace where you feel secure, then what will you do [when you tread the tangled maze of jungle haunted by lions] in the swelling <i>and</i> flooding of the Jordan?


text:
For even your brethren and the house of your father — even they have dealt treacherously with you; yes, even they are [like a pack of hounds] in full cry after you. Believe them not, though they speak fair words <i>and</i> promise good things to you.


text:
I have forsaken My house, I have cast off My heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of My life into the hands of her enemies.


text:
My heritage has become to Me like a lion in the forest; she has uttered her voice against Me; therefore I have [treated her as if I] hated her.


text:
Is My heritage to Me like a speckled bird of prey? Are the birds of prey against her round about? Go, assemble all the wild beasts of the field; bring them to devour.


text:
Many shepherds [of an invading host] have destroyed My vineyard, they have trampled My portion underfoot; they have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.


text:
They have made it a desolation, and desolate it mourns before Me; the whole land has been made desolate, but no man lays it to heart.


text:
Destroyers have come upon all the bare heights in the desert, for the sword of the Lord devours from one end of the land even to the other; no flesh has peace <i>or</i> can find the means to escape.


text:
They have sown wheat but have reaped thorns; they have worn themselves out but without profit. And they shall be ashamed of your [lack of] harvests <i>and</i> revenues because of the fierce <i>and</i> glowing anger of the Lord.


text:
Thus says the Lord against all My evil neighbor [nations] who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit: Behold, I will pluck them up from their land and I will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.


text:
And after I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them and will bring them back again, every man to his heritage and every man to his land.


text:
And if these [neighbor nations] will diligently learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, saying, As the Lord lives — even as they taught My people to swear by Baal — then will they be built up in the midst of My people.


text:
But if any nation will not hear and obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, says the Lord.


text:
Thus the Lord said to me: Go and buy yourself a linen girdle and put it on your loins, but do not put it in water.


text:
So I bought a girdle <i>or</i> waistcloth, according to the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins.


text:
Take the girdle which you have bought, which is on your loins, and arise, go to the [river] Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.


text:
And after many days the Lord said to me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the girdle which I commanded you to hide there.


text:
Then I went to the Euphrates and dug and took the girdle <i>or</i> waistcloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the girdle was decayed <i>and</i> spoiled; it was good for nothing.


text:
Thus says the Lord: After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.


text:
These evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them and to worship them, shall even be like this girdle <i>or</i> waistcloth, which is profitable for nothing.


text:
For as the girdle clings to the loins of a man, so I caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me, says the Lord, that they might be for Me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory; but they would not listen <i>or</i> obey.


text:
Therefore you shall speak to them this word: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Every bottle <i>and</i> jar should be filled with wine. [The people] will say to you, Do we not certainly know that every bottle <i>and</i> jar should be filled with wine?


text:
Then say to them, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will fill with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit upon David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


text:
And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, says the Lord. I will not pity or spare or have compassion, that I should not destroy them.


text:
Give glory to the Lord your God before He brings darkness and before your feet stumble upon the dark <i>and</i> twilit mountains, and [before], while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death and makes it thick darkness.


text:
But if you will not hear <i>and</i> obey, I will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.


text:
Say to the king and the queen mother, Humble yourselves <i>and</i> take a lowly seat, for down from your head has come your beautiful crown (the crown of your glory).


text:
The cities of the South (the Negeb) have been shut up, and there is no one to open them; all Judah has been carried away captive, it has been wholly taken captive <i>and</i> into exile.


text:
Lift up your eyes and behold those [the eruption of a hostile army] who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you [to shepherd], your beautiful flock?


text:
What will you say [O Jerusalem] when He [the Lord] sets over you as head those [tyrannical foreign nations] whom you yourselves [at intervals] have taught to be lovers (allies) with you [instructing them, even your friends, to be head over you]? Will not pangs take hold of you like that of a woman in travail?


text:
And if you say in your heart, Why have these things come upon me? — [the answer is], Because of the greatness of your iniquity has your long robe been pulled aside [showing you in the garb of a menial] <i>and</i> have you [barefooted and treated like a slave] suffered violence.


text:
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also can you do good who are accustomed <i>and</i> taught [even trained] to do evil.


text:
This is your lot, the portion measured to you from Me, says the Lord, because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood [false gods and alliances with idolatrous nations].


text:
Therefore I Myself will [retaliate], throwing your skirts up over your face, that your shame [of being clad like a slave] may be exposed.


text:
I have seen your detestable acts, even your adulteries and your lustful neighings [after idols], and the lewdness of your harlotry on the hills in the field. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! For how long a time yet will you not [meet My conditions and] be made clean?


text:
Judah mourns and her gates languish; [her people] sit in black [mourning garb] upon the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.


text:
And their nobles send their little ones <i>and</i> their inferiors for water; they come to the cisterns and find no water. They return with empty vessels; they are put to shame and confounded and cover their heads.


text:
Because the ground is cracked <i>and</i> the tillers are dismayed, since there has been no rain on the land, the plowmen are put to shame, and they cover their heads.


text:
Yes, even the hind gives birth to her calf in the field and forsakes it, because there is no grass <i>or</i> herbage.


text:
And the wild donkeys stand on the bare heights; they pant for air like jackals <i>or</i> crocodiles; their eyesight fails because there is no grass.


text:
O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us [prays Jeremiah], deal <i>and</i> work with us for Your own name’s sake [that the heathen may witness Your might and faithfulness]! For our backslidings are many; we have sinned against You.


text:
O Hope of Israel, her Savior in time of trouble, why should You be like a sojourner in the land and like a wayfaring man who turns aside <i>and</i> spreads his tent to tarry [only] for a night?


text:
Why should You be [hesitant and inactive] like a man stunned <i>and</i> confused, like a mighty man who cannot save? Yet You, O Lord, are in the midst of us, and we are called by Your name; do not leave us!


text:
[And the Lord replied to Jeremiah] Thus says the Lord to this people [Judah]: In the manner <i>and</i> to the degree already pointed out have they loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore the Lord does not accept them; He will now [seriously] remember their iniquity and punish them for their sins.


text:
Though they fast, I will not hear their cry; and though they offer burnt offering and cereal offering [without heartfelt surrender to Me, or by offering it too late], I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.


text:
Then said I, Alas, Lord God! Behold, the [false] prophets say to them, You will not see the sword, nor will you have famine; but I [the Lord] will give you assured peace (peace that lasts, the peace of truth) in this place.


text:
Then the Lord said to me, The [false] prophets prophesy lies in My name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, nor have I spoken to them. They prophesy to you a false <i>or</i> pretended vision, a worthless divination [conjuring or practicing magic, trying to call forth the responses supposed to be given by idols], and the deceit of their own minds.


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the [false] prophets who prophesy in My name — although I did not send them — and who say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.


text:
And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword; and they shall have none to bury them — them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. For I will pour out their wickedness upon them [and not on their false teachers only, for the people could not have been deceived except by their own consent].


text:
Therefore [Jeremiah] you shall say to them, Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people has been smitten with a great wound, with a very grievous blow.


text:
If I go out into the field, then behold, those slain with the sword! And if I enter the city, then behold, those tormented with the diseases of famine! For both prophet and priest go about not knowing what to do <i>or</i> as beggars [exiled] in a land that they know not, and they have no knowledge.


text:
[O Lord] have You utterly rejected Judah? Do You loathe Zion? Why have You smitten us so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace <i>and</i> completeness, but no good came, and for a time of healing, but behold, dismay, disaster, <i>and</i> terror!


text:
We know <i>and</i> acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against You.


text:
Do not abhor, condemn, <i>and</i> spurn us, for Your name’s sake; do not dishonor, debase, <i>and</i> lightly esteem Your glorious throne; [earnestly] remember, break not Your covenant <i>or</i> solemn pledge with us.


text:
Are there any among the false gods of the nations who can cause rain? Or can the heavens [of their own will] give showers? Are You [alone] not He, O Lord our God? Therefore we will wait [expectantly] for You, for You have made all these things [the heavens and the rain].


text:
Then the Lord said to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood [interceding for them] before Me, yet My mind could not be turned with favor toward this people [Judah]. Send them out of My sight and let them go!


text:
And if they say to you, Where shall we go? then tell them, Thus says the Lord: Such as are [destined] for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for famine, to famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.


text:
And I will appoint over them four kinds [of destroyers], says the Lord: the sword to slay, the dogs to tear <i>and</i> drag away, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and to destroy.


text:
And I will cause them to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth <i>and</i> to be made a horror to all nations because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for [the horrible wickedness] which he did in Jerusalem. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?


text:
You have rejected <i>and</i> forsaken Me, says the Lord. You keep going in reverse. Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am weary of relenting [concerning your punishment].


text:
I will winnow them with a fan <i>and</i> a winnowing fork in the gates of the land; I will bereave them [of children], I will destroy My people; from their [evil] ways they did not return.


text:
I will increase the number of their widows more than the sand of the seas. I will bring upon them, [both] against the mother of young men <i>and</i> the young men [themselves], a destroyer at noonday. I will cause anguish and terrors to fall upon her [Jerusalem] suddenly.


text:
She who has borne seven languishes; she has expired. Her sun has gone down while it was yet day; she has been put to shame, confounded, <i>and</i> disgraced. And the rest of them I will deliver to the sword before their enemies, says the Lord.


text:
Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me to be a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither loaned, nor have men loaned to me, yet everyone curses me. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
The Lord said, Truly your release, affliction, <i>and</i> strengthening will be for good [purposes]; surely [Jeremiah] I will intercede for you with the enemy <i>and</i> I will cause the enemy to ask for your aid in the time of evil and in the time of affliction. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
Your [nation’s] substance and your treasures will I give as spoil, without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your territory.


text:
And I will make [your possessions] to pass with your enemies into a land which you do not know <i>and</i> I will make you to serve [your conquerors] there, for a fire is kindled in My anger which will burn upon you [Israel].


text:
[Jeremiah said] O Lord, You know <i>and</i> understand; [earnestly] remember me and visit me and avenge me on my persecutors. Take me not away [from joy or from life itself] in Your long-suffering [to my enemies]; know that for Your sake I suffer <i>and</i> bear reproach.


text:
Your words were found, and I ate them; and Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.


text:
I sat not in the assembly of those who make merry, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone because Your [powerful] hand was upon me, for You had filled me with indignation.


text:
Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you indeed be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail <i>and</i> are uncertain?


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord [to Jeremiah]: If you return [and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair], then I will give you again a settled place of quiet <i>and</i> safety, and you will be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile [cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God’s faithfulness], you shall be My mouthpiece. [But do not yield to them.] Let them return to you — not you to [the people].


text:
And I will make you to this people a fortified, bronze wall; they will fight against you, but they will not prevail over you, for I am with you to save <i>and</i> deliver you, says the Lord.


text:
And I will deliver you out of the hands of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the palms of the terrible <i>and</i> ruthless tyrants.


text:
For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who begot them in this land:


text:
They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like dung upon the face of the ground. They shall perish <i>and</i> be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the fowls of the air and for the beasts of the earth.


text:
For thus says the Lord: Enter not into the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan [the dead], for I have taken away My peace from this people, says the Lord, even My steadfast love <i>and</i> loving-kindness and tender mercy.


text:
Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them or cut themselves or make themselves bald for them.


text:
Neither shall men prepare food for the mourners to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.


text:
For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease from this place before your very eyes and in your days the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.


text:
And when you tell these people all these words and they inquire of you, Why has the Lord decreed all this enormous evil against us? Or, What is our iniquity? Or, What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?


text:
Then you shall say to them, [It is] because your fathers have forsaken Me, says the Lord, and have walked after other gods and have served and worshiped them and have forsaken Me and have not kept My law,


text:
And because you have done worse than your fathers. For behold, every one of you walks after the stubbornness of his own evil heart, so that you do not listen to <i>and</i> obey Me.


text:
Therefore I will cast you out of this land [of Judah] into the land [of the Babylonians] neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor there.


text:
Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it shall no more be said, As the Lord lives, Who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,


text:
But, As the Lord lives, Who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries to which He had driven them. And I will bring them again to their land which I gave to their fathers.


text:
Behold, I will send for many fishers, says the Lord, and they will fish them out; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and out of the clefts of the rocks.


text:
For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, neither is their iniquity concealed from My eyes.


text:
First [before I bring them back to their land] I will doubly recompense <i>and</i> punish them for their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with the abominable things offered to false gods with which they have filled My inheritance.


text:
[Then said Jeremiah] O Lord, my Strength and my Stronghold, and my Refuge in the day of affliction, to You shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, emptiness, <i>and</i> futility, worthless things in which there is no profit!


text:
Therefore [says the Lord] behold, I will make them know — [yes] this once I will make them know My power and My might; and they will know <i>and</i> recognize that My name is the Lord.


text:
The sin of Judah is written with a pen <i>or</i> stylus of iron and with the point of a diamond; it is engraved on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars,


text:
While their children [earnestly] remember their [heathen] altars and their Asherim [wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah] beside the green trees upon the high hills.


text:
O [Jerusalem] My mountain in the field, I will give your wealth <i>and</i> all your treasures to the spoil and your high places for sin [as the price of your sin] throughout all your territory.


text:
And you, through your own fault, will loosen your hand <i>and</i> discontinue from your heritage which I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in a land which you do not know, for you have kindled a fire in My anger which will burn throughout the ages.


text:
Thus says the Lord: Cursed [with great evil] is the strong man who trusts in <i>and</i> relies on frail man, making weak [human] flesh his arm, and whose mind <i>and</i> heart turn aside from the Lord.


text:
For he shall be like a shrub <i>or</i> a person naked and destitute in the desert; and he shall not see any good come, but shall dwell in the parched places in the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.


text:
[Most] blessed is the man who believes in, trusts in, <i>and</i> relies on the Lord, and whose hope <i>and</i> confidence the Lord is.


text:
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters that spreads out its roots by the river; and it shall not see <i>and</i> fear when heat comes; but its leaf shall be green. It shall not be anxious <i>and</i> full of care in the year of drought, nor shall it cease yielding fruit.


text:
The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse <i>and</i> corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]? <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
I the Lord search the mind, I try the heart, even to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.


text:
Like the partridge that gathers a brood which she did not hatch <i>and</i> sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches by unjust means <i>and</i> not by right. He will leave them, <i>or</i> they will leave him, in the midst of his days, and at his end he will be a fool.


text:
O Lord, the Hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be put to shame. They who depart from You <i>and</i> me [Your prophet] shall [disappear like] writing upon the ground, because they have forsaken the Lord, the Fountain of living waters.


text:
Behold, they say to me, Where is the word of the Lord [predicting the disaster that you said would befall us]? Let it come now!


text:
But as for me, I have not sought to escape from being a shepherd after You, nor have I desired the woeful day [of judgment]; You know that. Whatever I said was spoken in Your presence <i>and</i> was from You.


text:
Let those be put to shame who persecute me, but let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed. Bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.


text:
Thus said the Lord to me: Go and stand in the gate of the sons of the people, through which the kings of Judah enter and through which they go out, and also [stand] in all the gates of Jerusalem.


text:
Say to them, Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter through these gates.


text:
Thus says the Lord: Take heed to yourselves <i>and</i> for the sake of your lives bear no burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in through the gates of Jerusalem.


text:
And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy (set apart to the worship of God), as I commanded your fathers.


text:
Yet they would not listen <i>and</i> obey or incline their ears; but they stiffened their necks, that they might not hear and might not receive instruction.


text:
But if you diligently listen to <i>and</i> obey Me, says the Lord, and bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy (set apart to the worship of God), to do no work on it,


text:
Then there will enter through the gates of this city kings and princes who will sit upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses — the kings and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city will be inhabited <i>and</i> last throughout the ages.


text:
And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places round about Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country, and from the South (the Negeb), bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, cereal offerings and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the Lord.


text:
But if you will not listen to Me to keep the Sabbath day holy (set apart to the worship of God), and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem [with one] on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in her gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.


text:
And the vessel that he was making from clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he made it over, reworking it into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make it.


text:
O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does? says the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.


text:
At one time I will suddenly speak concerning a nation or kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it;


text:
And if [the people of] that nation concerning which I have spoken turn from their evil, I will relent <i>and</i> reverse My decision concerning the evil that I thought to do to them.


text:
At another time I will suddenly speak concerning a nation or kingdom, that I will build up and plant it;


text:
And if they do evil in My sight, obeying not My voice, then I will regret <i>and</i> reverse My decision concerning the good with which I said I would benefit them.


text:
Now therefore say to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Return now each one from his evil way; reform your [accustomed] ways <i>and</i> make your [individual] actions good <i>and</i> right.


text:
But they will say, That is in vain! For we will walk after our own devices, and we will each do as the stubbornness of his own evil heart dictates.


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord: Ask now among the nations: Who has heard such things? Virgin Israel has done a very vile <i>and</i> horrible thing.


text:
Will the snow of Mount Lebanon fail <i>and</i> vanish from its rocks [which tower above the land of Israel]? Will the cold, rushing waters of strange lands [that dash down from afar] be dried up?


text:
Yet My people have forgotten Me; they burn incense to false gods, they have been caused to stumble in their ways and in the ancient roads, to walk in bypaths, in a way not graded <i>and</i> built up [not on a highway],


text:
Making their land a desolation <i>and</i> a horror, a thing to be hissed at perpetually; everyone who passes by shall be astounded <i>and</i> horrified and shake his head.


text:
I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them My back and not My face in the day of their calamity [says the Lord].


text:
Then [my enemies] said, Come and let us devise schemes against Jeremiah; for the law [of Moses] shall not perish from the priest [as this false prophet Jeremiah predicts], nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us smite him with the tongue [making a charge against him to the king], and let us not pay any attention to his words.


text:
Shall evil be recompensed for good? Yet they have dug a pit for my life. [Earnestly] remember that I stood before You to speak good for them, to turn away Your anger from them.


text:
Therefore deliver up their children to the famine; give them over to the power of the sword. And let their wives become childless and widows; let their men meet death by pestilence, their young men be slain by the sword in battle.


text:
Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring a troop upon them, for they have dug a pit to take me and have hidden snares for my feet.


text:
Yet, Lord, You know all their plotting against me to slay me. Forgive not their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from Your sight. But let them be overthrown before You; deal with them in the time of Your anger.


text:
Thus says the Lord: Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take some of the old people and some of the elderly priests


text:
And go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom], which is by the entrance of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you,


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And say, Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am going to bring such evil upon this place that the ears of whoever hears of it will tingle.


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Because the people have forsaken Me and have estranged <i>and</i> profaned this place [Jerusalem] by burning incense in it to other gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents


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And have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I commanded not nor spoke of it, nor did it come into My mind <i>and</i> heart —


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Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom], but the Valley of Slaughter. <f>ⓐ</f>


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And I will pour out <i>and</i> make void the counsel <i>and</i> the plans of [the men of] Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives, and their dead bodies I will give to be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.


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And I will make this city an astonishment <i>and</i> a horror and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss [in scorn] because of all its plagues <i>and</i> disasters.


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And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and they shall eat each one the flesh of his neighbor <i>and</i> friend in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their lives distress them.


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And say to them, Thus said the Lord of hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it cannot be mended. Men will bury in Topheth because there will be no other place for burial <i>and</i> until there is no more room to bury.


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Thus will I do to this place, says the Lord, and to its inhabitants; and I will even make this city like Topheth.


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And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be like the place of Topheth — even all the houses upon whose roofs incense has been burned to all the host of the heavens and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods. <f>ⓑ</f>


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Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people,


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks, refusing to hear My words.


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Now Pashhur son of Immer, the priest, who was [also] chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.


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Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate by the house of the Lord. <f>ⓐ</f>


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And the next day Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, The Lord does not call your name Pashhur, but Magor-missabib [terror on every side].


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For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; they will fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon; he will carry them captive to Babylon and will slay them with the sword.


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Moreover, I will deliver all the riches of this city — all the results of its labors, all its precious things, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah — into the hand of their enemies, who will make them a prey <i>and</i> plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon.


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And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house shall go into captivity; you shall go to Babylon, and there you shall die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied falsely.


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[But Jeremiah said] O Lord, You have persuaded <i>and</i> deceived me, and I was persuaded <i>and</i> deceived; You are stronger than I am and You have prevailed. I am a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.


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For whenever I speak, I must cry out <i>and</i> complain; I shout, Violence and destruction! For the word of the Lord has become to me a reproach and a derision <i>and</i> has brought me insult all day long.


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If I say, I will not make mention of [the Lord] or speak any more in His name, in my mind <i>and</i> heart it is as if there were a burning fire shut up in my bones. And I am weary of enduring <i>and</i> holding it in; I cannot [contain it any longer].


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For I have heard many whispering <i>and</i> defaming, [There is] terror on every side! Denounce him! Let us denounce him! Say all my familiar friends, they who watch for my fall, Perhaps he will be persuaded <i>and</i> deceived; then we will prevail against him, and we will get our revenge on him.


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But the Lord is with me as a mighty <i>and</i> terrible One; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not overcome [me]. They will be utterly put to shame, for they will not deal wisely <i>or</i> prosper [in their schemes]; their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.


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But, O Lord of hosts, You Who try the righteous, Who see the heart and the mind, let me see Your vengeance on them, for to You have I revealed <i>and</i> committed my cause.


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Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For He has delivered the life of the poor <i>and</i> needy from the hands of evildoers.


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Cursed be the man who brought the tidings to my father, saying, A son is born to you! — making him very glad.


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And let that man be like the cities which the Lord overthrew, and did not relent. Let him hear the [war] cry in the morning and the shouting of alarm at noon,


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Because he did not slay me in the womb, so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb always great.


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The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying,


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Inquire, I pray you, of the Lord for us, for <f>[1]</f> Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all His wonderful works, forcing him to withdraw from us.


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Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back <i>and</i> dull the edge of the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls; and I will bring them into the midst of this city [Jerusalem].


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And I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm in anger, in fury, and in great indignation <i>and</i> wrath.


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And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they will die of a great pestilence.


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And afterward, says the Lord, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, the sword, and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and into the hands of their enemies, into the hands of those who seek their lives. And he will smite them with the edge of the sword; he will not spare them nor have pity or mercy <i>and</i> compassion upon them.


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And to this people you [Jeremiah] shall say, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.


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He who remains in this city [Jerusalem] shall die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence. But he who goes out and passes over to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be to him his only booty [as a prize of war].


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For I have set My face against this city for evil and not for good, says the Lord. It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.


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O house of David, thus says the Lord: Execute justice in the morning, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed, lest My wrath go forth like fire and burn so that none can quench it — because of the evil of your doings.


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Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, O rock of the plain, says the Lord — you who say, Who shall come down against us? Or, Who shall enter into our dwelling places?


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And I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says the Lord. I will kindle a fire in your forest, and it will devour all that is round about you.


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Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, you who sit upon the throne of David — you and your servants and your people who enter by these gates.


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Thus says the Lord: Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver out of the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong; do no violence to the stranger <i>or</i> temporary resident, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.


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For if you will indeed obey this word, then will there enter in through the gates of this [the king’s] house kings sitting [for David] upon David’s throne, riding in chariots and on horses — they and their servants and their people.


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But if you will not hear these words, I swear by Myself, says the Lord, that this house will become a desolation.


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For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah: [If you will not listen to Me, though] you are [as valuable] to Me as [the fat pastures of] Gilead [east of the Jordan] or as the [plentiful] summit of Lebanon [west of the Jordan], yet surely I will make you a wilderness and uninhabited cities.


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And I will prepare, solemnly set apart, <i>and</i> appoint [to execute My judgments against you] destroyers, each with his weapons, and they will cut down your [palaces built of] choicest cedars and cast them into the fire.


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And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, Why has the Lord done this to this great city?


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Then they will answer, Because [the people] forsook the covenant <i>or</i> solemn pledge with the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them.


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Weep not for him who is dead nor bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him who goes away [into captivity], for he shall return no more nor see his native country [again].


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For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum son of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father and who went forth out of this place: [Shallum] shall not return here any more;


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Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his [upper] chambers by injustice, who uses his neighbor’s service without wages and does not give him his pay [for his work],


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Who says, I will build myself a wide house with large rooms, and he cuts himself out windows, and it is ceiled <i>or</i> paneled with cedar and painted with vermilion.


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Do you think that being a king [merely] means [self-indulgent] vying [with Solomon] <i>and</i> striving to excel in cedar [palaces]? Did not your father [Josiah], as he ate and drank, do justice and righteousness [being upright and in right standing with God]? Then it was well with him.


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He judged <i>and</i> defended the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not [all] this [what it means] to know <i>and</i> recognize Me? says the Lord.


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But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness <i>and</i> dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, for oppression and doing violence.


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Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: [Relatives] shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, my brother! or, Ah, sister, [how great our loss! Subjects] shall not lament for him saying, Ah, lord! or Ah, his majesty! <i>or</i> Ah, [how great was] his glory!


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[No] he shall be buried with the burial of a donkey — dragged out and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.


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Go up [north] to Lebanon and cry out, and raise your voice in [the hills] of Bashan [across the Jordan], and cry out from Abarim [a range of mountains southeast of Palestine], for all your lovers (the king’s chosen allies) are destroyed. <f>ⓐ</f>


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I spoke to you in your [times of] prosperity, but you said, I will not listen! This has been your attitude from your youth; you have not obeyed My voice.


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The wind [of adversity] shall pasture upon <i>and</i> consume all your shepherds (your princes and statesmen), and your lovers (allies) shall go into captivity. Surely then shall you be ashamed and confounded <i>and</i> dismayed because of all your wickedness.


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O inhabitant of Lebanon [Jerusalem, whose palaces are made of Lebanon’s trees], you who make your nest among the cedars, how you will groan <i>and</i> how pitiable you will be when pangs come upon you, pain like that of a woman in childbirth! <f>ⓑ</f>


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As I live, says the Lord, though Coniah [also called Jeconiah and Jehoiachin] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet [ring] upon My right hand, yet would I tear you off.


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And I will give you into the hands of those who seek your life and into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and into the hands of the Chaldeans.


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And I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you will die.


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Is this man [King] Coniah a despised, broken pot? Is he a vessel in which no one takes pleasure? Why are they hurled out, he and his royal offspring, and cast into a land which they do not know, understand, <i>or</i> recognize?


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Thus says the Lord: Write this man [Coniah] down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days, for no man of his offspring shall succeed in sitting upon the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah.


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Woe to the shepherds (the civil leaders) who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasturing! says the Lord.


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Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for <i>and</i> feed My people: You have scattered My flock and driven them away and have not visited <i>and</i> attended to them; behold, I will visit <i>and</i> attend to you for the evil of your doings, says the Lord.


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And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries to which I have driven them and will bring them again to their folds <i>and</i> pastures; and they will be fruitful and multiply.


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And I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them. And they will fear no more nor be dismayed, neither will any be missing <i>or</i> lost, says the Lord.


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Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch (Sprout), and He will reign as King and do wisely and will execute justice and righteousness in the land.


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In His days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name by which He shall be called: The Lord Our Righteousness. <f>ⓐ</f>


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Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when they shall no more say, As the Lord lives, Who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,


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But, As the Lord lives, Who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries to which I had driven them. And they shall dwell in their own land. <f>ⓑ</f>.


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Concerning the prophets: My heart [says Jeremiah] is broken within me, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, a man whom wine has overcome, because of the Lord and because of His holy words [which He has pronounced against unfaithful leaders].


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For the land is full of adulterers (forsakers of God, Israel’s true Husband). Because of the curse [of God upon it] the land mourns, the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. They [both false prophets and people] rush into wickedness; <i>and</i> their course is evil, their might is not right.


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For both [false] prophet and priest are ungodly <i>and</i> profane; even in My house have I found their wickedness, says the Lord.


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Therefore their way will be to them like slippery paths in the dark; they will be driven on and fall into them. For I will bring evil upon them in the year of their punishment, says the Lord.


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And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: they prophesied by Baal and caused My people Israel to err <i>and</i> go astray.


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I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they encourage <i>and</i> strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none returns from his wickedness. They have all of them become to Me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.


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Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with [the bitterness of] wormwood and make them drink the [poisonous] water of gall, for from the [false] prophets of Jerusalem profaneness <i>and</i> ungodliness have gone forth into all the land.


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Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the [false] prophets who prophesy to you. They teach you vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility) <i>and</i> fill you with vain hopes; they speak a vision of their own minds and not from the mouth of the Lord.


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They are continually saying to those who despise Me <i>and</i> the word of the Lord, The Lord has said: You shall have peace; and they say to everyone who walks after the stubbornness of his own mind <i>and</i> heart, No evil shall come upon you.


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For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord, that he should perceive and hear His word? Who has marked His word [noticing and observing and giving attention to it] and has [actually] heard it?


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Behold, the tempest of the Lord has gone forth in wrath, a whirling tempest; it shall whirl <i>and</i> burst upon the heads of the wicked.


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The anger of the Lord shall not turn back until He has executed <i>and</i> accomplished the thoughts <i>and</i> intents of His mind <i>and</i> heart. In the latter days you shall consider <i>and</i> understand it perfectly.


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But if they had stood in My council, then they would have caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them [My people] from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.


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Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? says the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.


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I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed [visions on my bed at night].


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[How long shall this state of things continue?] How long yet shall it be in the minds of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even the prophets of the deceit of their own hearts,


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Who think that they can cause My people to forget My name by their dreams which every man tells to his neighbor, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?


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The prophet who has a dream, let him tell his dream; but he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat [for nourishment]? says the Lord.


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Is not My word like fire [that consumes all that cannot endure the test]? says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks in pieces the rock [of most stubborn resistance]?


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Therefore behold, I am against the [false] prophets, says the Lord, [I am even now descending upon them with punishment, these prophets] who steal My words from one another [imitating the phrases of the true prophets].


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Behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their [own deceitful] tongues and say, Thus says the Lord.


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Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord, and tell them and cause My people to err <i>and</i> go astray by their lies and by their vain boasting <i>and</i> recklessness — when I did not send them or command them; nor do they profit these people at all, says the Lord.


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And when these people, or a prophet or a priest, ask you, What is the burden of the Lord [the thing to be lifted up now]? then you shall say to them, What burden [indeed]! [You are the burden!] And I will disburden Myself of you <i>and</i> I will cast you off, says the Lord.


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And as for the prophet, the priest, or [any of these] the people, whoever [in mockery calls the word of the Lord a burden and] says, The burden of the Lord, I will even visit in wrath <i>and</i> punish that man and his house.


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[For the future, in speaking of the utterances of the Lord] thus shall you say every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother: What has the Lord answered? or, What has the Lord spoken?


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But the burden of the Lord you must mention no more, for every man’s burden is his own response <i>and</i> word [for as they mockingly call all prophecies burdens, whether good or bad, so will it prove to be to them; God will take them at their own word]; for you pervert the words [not of a lifeless idol, but] of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God!


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Thus shall you [reverently] say to the prophet: What has the Lord answered you? Or, What has the Lord spoken?


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But if you say, The burden of the Lord, therefore thus says the Lord: Because you said these words, The burden of the Lord, when I sent to you, saying, You shall not say, The burden of the Lord,


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Therefore behold, I, even I, will assuredly take you up and cast you away from My presence, you and the city [Jerusalem] which I gave to you and to your fathers.


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And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you and a perpetual shame which will not be forgotten.


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After Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile Jeconiah [also called Coniah and Jehoiachin] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and the princes of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me [in a vision] two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord.


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One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten.


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Then the Lord said to me, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs — the good figs very good, and the bad very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.


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Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Judah whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.


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For I will set My eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them up and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up.


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And I will give them a heart to know (recognize, understand, and be acquainted with) Me, that I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.


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And as for the bad figs, which are so bad that they cannot be eaten, surely thus says the Lord, So will I give up Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes and the residue of Jerusalem who remains in this land and those who dwell in the land of Egypt.


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I will even give them up to be a dismay <i>and</i> a horror <i>and</i> to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil, to be a reproach, a byword <i>or</i> proverb, a taunt, and a curse in all places where I will drive them.


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And I will send the sword, famine, and pestilence among them until they are consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.


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The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah — which was the first year of the reign of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon —


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Which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem:


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For these twenty-three years — from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah, even to this day — the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken to you persistently early and late, but you have not listened <i>and</i> obeyed.


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Although the Lord persistently sent you all the prophets, His servants, yet you have not listened and obeyed or [even] inclined your ear to hear.


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[The prophets came on My behalf] saying, Turn again now every one from his evil way and wrongdoing; [that you may not forfeit the right to] dwell in the land that the Lord gave to you and to your fathers from of old <i>and</i> forevermore.


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Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.


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Yet you have not listened to <i>and</i> obeyed Me, says the Lord, that you might provoke Me to anger with the works (idols) made by your hands to your own hurt.


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Behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, says the Lord, and I will send for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, My servant [or agent to fulfill My designs], and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will devote them [to God] <i>and</i> utterly destroy them and make them an amazement, a hissing, and perpetual <i>and</i> agelong desolations.


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Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones [grinding out the meal] and the light of the candle [which every home burned throughout the night]. <f>ⓐ</f>


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And this whole land shall be a waste and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon <f>[1]</f>seventy years. <f>ⓑ</f>


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Then when seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, says the Lord, for their iniquity, and will make the land [of the Chaldeans] a perpetual waste. <f>ⓒ</f>


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And I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.


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For many nations and great kings shall make bondmen of them, even them [the Chaldeans who enslaved other nations]; and I will recompense [all of] them according to their deeds and according to the work of their [own] hands.


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For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to me: Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.


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They shall drink and reel to and fro and be crazed because of the sword that I will send among them.


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Then I [Jeremiah] took the cup from the Lord’s hand and made all the nations drink it to whom the Lord had sent me: [that is,]


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Jerusalem and the cities of Judah [being most guilty because their privileges were greatest], its kings and princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is to this day; <f>ⓓ</f>


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And all the mixed foreign population; all the kings of the land of Uz; and all the kings of the land of the Philistines and [their cities of] Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;


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All the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the islands <i>and</i> the coastlands across the [Mediterranean] Sea;


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Dedan, Tema, Buz [neighboring tribes north of Arabia], and all who clip off the corners of their hair <i>and</i> beards; <f>ⓔ</f>


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All the kings of the north, far and near, one after another — and all the kingdoms of the world which are on the face of the earth. And after them the king of Sheshach (Babel or Babylon) shall drink.


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Then you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, be drunk, vomit, and fall to rise no more because of the sword which I am sending among you.


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And if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts: You shall surely drink!


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For behold, I am beginning to work evil in the city which is called by My Name, and shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, for I am calling for a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord of hosts. <f>ⓕ</f>


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Therefore prophesy against them all these words and say to them: The Lord shall roar from on high and utter His voice from His holy habitation; He shall roar mightily against His fold <i>and</i> pasture. He shall give a shout like those who tread grapes [in the winepress, but His shout will be] against all the inhabitants of the earth.


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A noise will come even to the ends of the earth, for the Lord has a controversy and an indictment against the nations; He will enter into judgment with all mankind; as for the wicked, He will give them to the sword, says the Lord.


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Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, evil will go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirling tempest will rise from the uttermost parts of the earth.


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And those slain by the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented or gathered or buried; their [dead bodies] shall be dung upon the ground. <f>ⓖ</f>


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Wail, you shepherds, and cry; and roll in ashes, you principal ones of the flock. For the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions have fully come, and you shall fall <i>and</i> be dashed into pieces like a choice vessel.


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And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal ones of the flock any means of escape.


text:
A voice! The cry of the shepherds and the wailing of the principal ones of the flock! For the Lord is laying waste <i>and</i> destroying their pasture.


text:
And the peaceable folds are devastated <i>and</i> brought to silence because of the fierce anger of the Lord.


text:
He has left His shelter like the lion; for their land has become a waste <i>and</i> an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppressor and because of [the Lord’s] fierce anger.


text:
In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah came this word from the Lord:


text:
Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the Lord’s house [Jeremiah] and speak to all [the people of] the cities of Judah who come to worship in the Lord’s house all the words that I command you to speak to them; subtract not a word.


text:
It may be that they will listen and turn every man from his evil way, that I may relent <i>and</i> reverse My decision concerning the evil which I purpose to do to them because of their evil doings.


text:
And you will say to them, Thus says the Lord: If you will not listen to <i>and</i> obey Me, to walk in My law, which I have set before you,


text:
And to hear <i>and</i> obey the words of My servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you urgently <i>and</i> persistently — though you have not listened <i>and</i> obeyed —


text:
Then will I make this house [the temple] like Shiloh [the home of the Tent of Meeting, abandoned and later destroyed after the ark was captured by the Philistines], and I will make this city subject to the curses of all nations of the earth [so vile in their sight will it be]. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
And the priests and the [false] prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord.


text:
Now when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the [false] prophets and all the people seized him, saying, You shall surely die!


text:
Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh [after the ark of the Lord had been taken by our enemies] and this city [Jerusalem] shall be desolate, without inhabitant? And all the people were gathered around Jeremiah in the [outer area of the] house of the Lord.


text:
When the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the Lord and sat down in the entry of the New Gate of the house of the Lord.


text:
Then the priests and the prophets said to the princes and to all the people, This man is deserving of death, for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.


text:
Then Jeremiah said to all the princes and to all the people: The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.


text:
Therefore now amend your ways and your doings and obey the voice of the Lord your God; then the Lord will relent <i>and</i> reverse the decision concerning the evil which He has pronounced against you.


text:
But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and upon its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.


text:
Then said the princes and all the people to the priests and to the prophets: This man is not deserving of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.


text:
Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah and said to all the people of Judah, Thus says the Lord of hosts: Zion shall be <f>[1]</f>plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps [of ruins], and the mountain of the house [of the Lord — Mount Moriah, on which stands the temple, shall become covered not with buildings, but] like a densely wooded height. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put [Micah] to death? Did he not [reverently] fear the Lord and entreat the Lord? And did not the Lord relent <i>and</i> reverse the decision concerning the evil which He had pronounced against them? But [here] we are thinking of committing what will be a great evil against ourselves.


text:
And there was also a man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land in words similar to those of Jeremiah.


text:
And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put [Uriah] to death; but when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt.


text:
And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan son of Achbor and certain other men [who went] with him into Egypt.


text:
And they fetched Uriah from Egypt and brought him to Jehoiakim the king, who slew him [God’s spokesman] with the sword and cast his dead body among the graves of the common people.


text:
But the hand of Ahikam son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that he might not be given into the hands of the people to put him [also] to death.


text:
In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:


text:
And send them to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the Ammonites, to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon by the hand of the messengers who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.


text:
And command them to say to their masters, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to your masters:


text:
I have made the earth, the men, and the beasts that are upon the face of the earth by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and I give it to whomever it seems right <i>and</i> suitable to Me.


text:
And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant <i>and</i> instrument, and the beasts of the field also I have given him to serve him.


text:
And all nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the [God-appointed] time [of punishment] of his own land comes; and then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave.


text:
But any nation or kingdom that will not serve this same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, says the Lord, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, until I have consumed it by [Nebuchadnezzar’s] hand.


text:
So do not listen to your [false] prophets, your diviners, your dreamers [and your dreams, whether your own or others’], your soothsayers, your sorcerers, who say to you, You shall not serve the king of Babylon.


text:
For they prophesy a lie to you which will cause you to be removed far from your land; and I will drive you out, and you will perish.


text:
But any nation that brings its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, that nation will I let remain on its own land, says the Lord, to cultivate it and dwell in it.


text:
I spoke also to Zedekiah king of Judah in the same way: Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.


text:
Why will you and your people die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the Lord has spoken concerning any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?


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Do not listen to <i>and</i> believe the words of the [false] prophets who are saying to you, You shall not serve the king of Babylon, for it is a lie that they prophesy to you.


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For I have not sent them, says the Lord; but they are prophesying falsely in My name. [It will only end when] I will drive you out to perish together with the [false] prophets who prophesy to you.


text:
Also I said to the priests and to all these people, Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of your [false] prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the Lord’s house shall now shortly be brought <f>[1]</f>back from Babylon; for they are prophesying a lie to you.


text:
Do not listen to them <i>or</i> heed them; serve the king of Babylon, and live. Why should this city be laid waste?


text:
But if they are true prophets and if the word of the Lord is really spoken by them, let them now make intercession to the Lord of hosts, that the vessels which are [still] left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon.


text:
For thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the [bronze] pillars [each twenty-seven feet high], the [bronze] Sea [the laver at which the priests cleansed their hands and feet before ministering at the altar], the [bronze] bases [of the ten lavers in Solomon’s temple used for washing animals to be offered as sacrifices], and the remainder of the vessels which are left in this city [Jerusalem], <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon Jeconiah [also called Coniah and Jehoiachin] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem —


text:
Yes, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels which [still] remain in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem:


text:
They will be <f>[2]</f>carried to Babylon and there will they be until the day that I visit them [with My favor], says the Lord. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.


text:
In that same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year and the fifth month, Hananiah son of Azzur, the [false] prophet, who was from Gibeon [one of the priests’ cities], said [falsely] to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people:


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Within two [full] years will I bring back into this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon.


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And I will also bring back to this place Jeconiah [also called Coniah and Jehoiachin] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, says the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who stood in the house of the Lord.


text:
The prophet Jeremiah said, Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord perform your words which you have prophesied to bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the Lord’s house and all who were carried away captive.


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Nevertheless, listen now to <i>and</i> hear this word which I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people:


text:
The prophets who were before me and before you from of old prophesied against many countries and against great kingdoms, of war, of evil, and of pestilence.


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But as for the prophet who [on the contrary] prophesies of peace, when that prophet’s word comes to pass, [only] then will it be known that the Lord has truly sent him.


text:
And Hananiah said in the presence of all the people, Thus says the Lord: Even so will I break the yoke bars of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within the space of two [full] years. But the prophet Jeremiah went his way.


text:
The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet [some time] after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke bar from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah:


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Go, tell Hananiah, Thus says the Lord: You have broken yoke bars of wood, but you have made in their stead bars of iron.


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For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put upon the neck of all these nations the iron yoke of servitude of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him. For I have given him even the beasts of the field. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Then said the prophet Jeremiah to Hananiah the prophet, Listen now, Hananiah, The Lord has not sent you, but you have made this people trust in a lie.


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Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will cast you from the face of the earth. This year you will die, because you have uttered <i>and</i> taught rebellion against the Lord.


text:
Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders in exile and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon.


text:
This was after King Jeconiah [also called Coniah and Jehoiachin] and the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.


text:
[The letter was sent] by the hand of Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. It said:


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the captives whom I have caused to be carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:


text:
Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not be diminished.


text:
And seek (inquire for, require, and request) the peace <i>and</i> welfare of the city to which I have caused you to be carried away captive; and pray to the Lord for it, for in the welfare of [the city in which you live] you will have welfare.


text:
For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Let not your [false] prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you; pay no attention <i>and</i> attach no significance to your dreams which you dream <i>or</i> to theirs,


text:
For thus says the Lord, When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and keep My good promise to you, causing you to return to this place.


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For I know the thoughts <i>and</i> plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts <i>and</i> plans for welfare <i>and</i> peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.


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Then you will seek Me, inquire for, <i>and</i> require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will release you from captivity and gather you from all the nations and all the places to which I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I caused you to be carried away captive.


text:
[But as for those still in Jerusalem] because you have said, The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon,


text:
Thus says the Lord concerning the king who sits upon the throne of David and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brethren who did not go forth with you into captivity —


text:
Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I am sending on them the sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like vile figs which are so bad they cannot be eaten.


text:
And I will pursue them with the sword, famine, and pestilence and will give them up to be tossed to and fro <i>and</i> to be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, an astonishment, <i>and</i> a terror, a hissing and a reproach among all the nations to which I have driven them,


text:
Because they have not listened to <i>and</i> heeded My words, says the Lord, which I sent to them persistently by My servants the prophets; but you [exiles] would not listen [either], says the Lord. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Hear therefore the word of the Lord, all you exiles whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.


text:
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab son of Kolaiah and concerning Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying lies to you in My name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of <f>[1]</f>Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he will slay them [those false prophets whom you say I have raised up for you in Babylon] before your eyes! <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
And because of them, this curse shall be taken up <i>and</i> used by all from Judah who are in captivity in Babylon: The Lord make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire —


text:
Because they have committed folly in Israel and have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have spoken words in My name falsely, which I had not commanded them. I am the One Who knows and I am witness, says the Lord.


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have sent letters in your [own] name to all the people who are in Jerusalem and to Zephaniah son of Maaseiah the priest and to all the priests, saying,


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The Lord has made you [Zephaniah] priest instead of Jehoiada the [deputy] priest, that you should have oversight in the house of the Lord over every madman who makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in the stocks and collar.


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Now therefore [continued the letter from Shemaiah in Babylon to Zephaniah in Jerusalem], why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you?


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For he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, [This captivity of yours] is to be long; build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat the fruit of them.


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Send [this message] to all those in captivity, saying, Thus says the Lord concerning Shemaiah of Nehelam: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, though I did not send him, and has caused you to trust in a lie,


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will punish Shemaiah of Nehelam and his offspring. He will not have anyone [born] to dwell among this people, nor will he see the good that I will do to My people, says the Lord, because he has spoken <i>and</i> taught rebellion against the Lord.


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For, note well, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will release from captivity My people Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it.


text:
Ask now and see whether a man can give birth to a child? Why then do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor? Why are all faces turned pale?


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Alas! for that day will be great, so that none will be like it; it will be the time of Jacob’s [unequaled] trouble, but he will be saved out of it. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
For it will come to pass in that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will break [the oppressor’s] yoke from your neck, and I will burst your bonds; and strangers will no more make slaves of [the people of Israel].


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But they will serve the Lord their God and David’s [descendant] their King, Whom I will raise up for them. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Therefore fear not, O My servant Jacob, says the Lord, nor be dismayed <i>or</i> cast down, O Israel; for behold, I will save you out of a distant land [of exile] and your posterity from the land of their captivity. Jacob will return and will be quiet and at ease, and none will make him afraid <i>or</i> cause him to be terrorized <i>and</i> to tremble.


text:
For I am with you, says the Lord, to save you; for I will make a full <i>and</i> complete end of all the nations to which I have scattered you, but I will not make a full <i>and</i> complete end of you. But I will correct you in measure <i>and</i> with judgment and will in no sense hold you guiltless <i>or</i> leave you unpunished.


text:
There is none to plead your cause; for [the pressing together of] your wound you have no healing [device], no binding plaster.


text:
All your lovers (allies) have forgotten you; they neither seek, inquire of, <i>or</i> require you. For I have hurt you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel <i>and</i> merciless foe, because of the greatness of your perversity <i>and</i> guilt, because your sins are glaring <i>and</i> innumerable.


text:
Why do you cry out because of your hurt [the natural result of your sins]? Your pain is deadly (incurable). Because of the greatness of your perversity <i>and</i> guilt, because your sins are glaring <i>and</i> innumerable, I have done these things to you.


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Therefore all who devour you will be devoured; and all your adversaries, every one of them, will go into captivity. And they who despoil you will become a spoil, and all who prey upon you will I give for a prey.


text:
For I will restore health to you, and I will heal your wounds, says the Lord, because they have called you an outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no one seeks after <i>and</i> for whom no one cares!


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Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will release from captivity the tents of Jacob and have mercy on his dwelling places; the city will be rebuilt on its own [old] moundlike site, and the palace will be dwelt in after its former fashion.


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Out of them [city and palace] will come songs of thanksgiving and the voices of those who make merry. And I will multiply them, and they will not be few; I will also glorify them, and they will not be small.


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Their children too shall be as in former times, and their congregation shall be established before Me, and I will punish all who oppress them.


text:
And their prince will be one of them, and their ruler will come from the midst of them. I will cause him to draw near and he will approach Me, for who is he who would have the boldness <i>and</i> would dare [on his own initiative] to approach Me? says the Lord.


text:
Behold, the tempest of the Lord has gone forth with wrath, a sweeping <i>and</i> gathering tempest; it shall whirl <i>and</i> burst upon the heads of the wicked.


text:
The fierce anger <i>and</i> indignation of the Lord shall not turn back until He has executed <i>and</i> accomplished the thoughts <i>and</i> intents of His mind <i>and</i> heart. In the latter days you shall understand this.


text:
At that time, says the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be My people.


text:
Thus says the Lord: The people who survived the sword found favor in the wilderness [place of exile] — when Israel sought to find rest.


text:
The Lord appeared from of old to me [Israel], saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you <i>and</i> continued My faithfulness to you. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Again I will build you and you will be built, O Virgin Israel! You will again be adorned with your timbrels [small one-headed drums] and go forth in the dancing [chorus] of those who make merry. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Again you shall plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and make the fruit common <i>and</i> enjoy it [undisturbed].


text:
For there shall be a day when the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim shall cry out, Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.


text:
For thus says the Lord: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the head of the nations [on account of the chosen people, Israel]. Proclaim, praise, and say, The Lord has saved His people, the remnant of Israel!


text:
Behold, I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, and among them will be the blind and the lame, the woman with child and she who labors in childbirth together; a great company, they will return here to Jerusalem.


text:
They will come with weeping [in penitence and for joy], pouring out prayers [for the future]. I will lead them back; I will cause them to walk by streams of water and bring them in a straight way in which they will not stumble, for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim [Israel] is My firstborn.


text:
Hear the word of the Lord, O you nations, and declare it in the isles <i>and</i> coastlands far away, and say, He Who scattered Israel will gather him and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.


text:
For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from the hand of him who was too strong for him.


text:
They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion and shall flow together <i>and</i> be radiant with joy over the goodness of the Lord — for the corn, for the juice [of the grape], for the oil, and for the young of the flock and the herd. And their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow <i>or</i> languish any more at all.


text:
Then will the maidens rejoice in the dance, and the young men and old together. For I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and make them rejoice after their sorrow.


text:
I will satisfy fully the life of the priests with abundance [of offerings shared with them], and My people will be satisfied with My goodness, says the Lord.


text:
Thus says the Lord: A <f>[1]</f>voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
Thus says the Lord: Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord; and [your children] shall return from the enemy’s land.


text:
And there is hope for your future, says the Lord; your children shall come back to their own country.


text:
I have surely heard Ephraim [Israel] moaning thus: You have chastised me, and I was chastised, like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; bring me back, that I may be restored, for You are the Lord my God.


text:
Surely after I [Ephraim] was turned [from You], I repented; and after I was instructed, I penitently smote my thigh. I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore the disgrace of my youth [as a nation].


text:
Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a darling child <i>and</i> beloved? For as often as I speak against him, I do [earnestly] remember him still. Therefore My affection is stirred <i>and</i> My heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy, pity, <i>and</i> loving-kindness for him, says the Lord.


text:
Set up for yourselves highway markers [back to Canaan], make for yourselves guideposts; turn your thoughts <i>and</i> attention to the way by which you went [into exile]. Retrace your steps, O Virgin Israel, return to these your cities.


text:
How long will you waver <i>and</i> hesitate [to return], O you backsliding daughter? For the Lord has created a <f>[2]</f>new thing in the land [of Israel]: a female shall compass (woo, win, and protect) a man.


text:
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in her cities when I release them from exile: The Lord bless you, O habitation of justice <i>and</i> righteousness, O holy mountain!


text:
And [the people of] Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together — [nomad] farmers and those who wander about with their flocks.


text:
For I will [fully] satisfy the weary soul, and I will replenish every languishing <i>and</i> sorrowful person.


text:
Thereupon I [Jeremiah] awoke and looked, and my [trancelike] sleep was sweet [in the assurance it gave] to me.


text:
Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed (offspring) of man and of beast.


text:
And it will be that as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down, and to overthrow, destroy, and afflict [with evil], so will I watch over them to build and to plant [with good], says the Lord.


text:
In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
But everyone shall die for his own iniquity [only]; every man who eats sour grapes — his [own] teeth shall be set on edge.


text:
Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, <f>ⓔ</f>


text:
Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was their Husband, says the Lord.


text:
But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, says the Lord, I will put My law within them, and on their hearts will I write it; and I will be their God, and they will be My people.


text:
And they will no more teach each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know Me [recognize, understand, and be acquainted with Me], from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will [seriously] remember their sin no more. <f>ⓕ</f>


text:
Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for a light by day and the fixed order of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, Who stirs up the sea’s roaring billows <i>or</i> stills the waves when they roar — the Lord of hosts is His name:


text:
If these ordinances [of fixed order] depart from before Me, says the Lord, then the posterity of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me throughout the ages.


text:
Thus says the Lord: If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, says the Lord.


text:
Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when the city [of Jerusalem] shall be built [again] for the Lord from the <f>[3]</f>Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.


text:
And the measuring line shall go out farther straight onward to the hill Gareb and shall then turn to Goah [exact location unknown].


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And the whole valley [Hinnom] of the dead bodies and [the hill] of the ashes [long dumped there from the temple sacrifices], and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the Lord. It [the city] shall not be plucked up or overthrown any more to the end of the age. <f>ⓖ</f>


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The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of <f>[1]</f>Nebuchadrezzar.


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For the king of Babylon’s army was then besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the house of the king of Judah.


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For Zedekiah king of Judah had locked him up, saying, Why do you prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;


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And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hands of the Chaldeans but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye;


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And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him [for evil], says the Lord; and though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not prosper [why do you thus prophesy]? <f>ⓐ</f>


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Behold, Hanamel son of Shallum your uncle shall come to you and say, Buy my field that is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.


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So Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard in accordance with the word of the Lord, and he said to me, I pray you, buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin, for the right of inheritance is yours and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself. Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.


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And I bought the field that was in Anathoth from Hanamel my uncle’s son and weighed out for him the money — seventeen shekels of silver.


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And I signed the deed and sealed it, called witnesses, and weighed out for him the money on the scales.


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So I took the deed of the purchase — both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and the copy which was unsealed —


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And I gave the purchase deed to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of Hanamel my uncle’s son and the witnesses who signed the purchase deed, in the presence of all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the guard.


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this purchase deed which is sealed and this unsealed deed, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last a long time.


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For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall be purchased yet again in this land.


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Alas, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! There is nothing too hard <i>or</i> too wonderful for You —


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You Who show loving-kindness to thousands but recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosoms of their children after them. The great, the mighty God; the Lord of hosts is His name —


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Great [are You] in counsel and mighty in deeds, Whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to reward <i>or</i> repay each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings,


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Who wrought signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and even to this day [continues to do so], both in Israel and among other men, and made for Yourself a name, as at this day.


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And You brought forth Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and outstretched arm and with great terror;


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And You gave them this land which You swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;


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And they entered and took possession of it, but they obeyed not Your voice, nor walked in Your law; they have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do. Therefore You have caused all this evil to come upon them.


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See the siege mounds [of earth which the foe has heaped against the walls]; they have come up to the city to take it. And the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because [the people are overcome] by the sword and the famine and the pestilence. What You have spoken has come to pass, and behold, You see it.


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Yet, O Lord God, You said to me, Buy the field with money and get witnesses, even though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.


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Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it;


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And the Chaldeans who are fighting against this city shall come in and set this city on fire and burn it, along with the houses on whose roofs incense has been offered to Baal and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods to provoke Me to anger. <f>ⓑ</f>


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For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only evil before Me from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked Me to anger with the work of their hands [the idols], says the Lord.


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For this city has been to Me a [such a] provocation of My anger and My wrath from the day that they [finished] building it [in the time of Solomon, who was the first Israelite king who turned to idolatry] even to this day that I must remove it from before My face — <f>ⓒ</f>


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Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah which they have done to provoke Me to anger — they, their kings, their princes, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


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And they have turned their backs to Me and not their faces; though I taught them persistently, yet they would not listen and receive instruction.


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But they set their abominations [of idol worship] in the house which is called by My <f>[2]</f>Name to defile it.


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And they built the high places [for worship] of Baal in the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom] to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire [in worship also of and] to Molech — which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind <i>or</i> heart that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. <f>ⓓ</f>


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And now therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword and by famine and by pestilence:


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Behold, I will gather them out of all countries to which I drove them in My anger and in My wrath and in great indignation; I will bring them again to this place, and I will make them dwell safely.


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And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may [reverently] fear Me forever for the good of themselves and of their children after them.


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And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will not turn away from following them to do them good, and I will put My [reverential] fear in their hearts, so that they will not depart from Me. <f>ⓔ</f>


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Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly <i>and</i> in truth with My whole heart and with My whole being.


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For thus says the Lord: As I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.


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And fields shall be bought in this land of which you say, It is desolate, without man or beast; it is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.


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Men shall buy fields for money and shall sign deeds, seal them, and call witnesses in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South (the Negeb), for I will cause them to be released from their exile, says the Lord.


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Moreover, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the guard, saying,


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Thus says the Lord Who made [the earth], the Lord Who formed it to establish it — the Lord is His name:


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Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in <i>and</i> hidden, which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand).


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For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah which are torn down to make a defense against the siege mounds and before the sword: <f>ⓐ</f>


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They [the besieged Jews] are coming in to fight against the Chaldeans, and they [the houses] will be filled with the dead bodies of men whom I shall slay in My anger and My wrath; for I have hidden My face [in indignation] from this city because of all their wickedness.


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Behold, [in the future restored Jerusalem] I will lay upon it health and healing, and I will cure them and will reveal to them the abundance of peace (prosperity, security, stability) and truth.


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And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to be reversed and will rebuild them as they were at first.


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And I will cleanse them from all the guilt <i>and</i> iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will forgive all their guilt <i>and</i> iniquities by which they have sinned and rebelled against Me.


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And [Jerusalem] shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all the nations of the earth that hear of all the good I do for it, and they shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace, prosperity, security, <i>and</i> stability I provide for it.


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Thus says the Lord: Yet again there shall be heard in this place of which you say, It is a desolate waste, without man and without beast — even in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast —


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[There shall be heard again] the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing as they bring sacrifices of thanksgiving into the house of the Lord, Give praise <i>and</i> thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good; for His mercy <i>and</i> kindness <i>and</i> steadfast love endure forever! For I will cause the captivity of the land to be reversed <i>and</i> return to be as it was at first, says the Lord.


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Thus says the Lord of hosts: In this place which is desolate, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, there shall again be dwellings <i>and</i> pastures of shepherds resting their flocks.


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In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, in the cities of the South (the Negeb), in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah shall flocks pass again under the hands of him who counts them, says the Lord.


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Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the good promise I have made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.


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In those days and at that time will I cause a righteous Branch [the Messiah] to grow up to David; and He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. <f>ⓑ</f>


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In those days Judah shall be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name by which it will be called, The Lord is Our Righteousness (our Rightness, our Justice).


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For thus says the Lord: David shall never fail [to have] a man [descendant] to sit on the throne of the house of Israel,


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Nor shall the Levitical priests fail [to have] a man [descendant] to offer burnt offerings before Me and to burn cereal offerings and to make sacrifices continually (all day long).


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Thus says the Lord: If you can break My covenant with the day, and My covenant with the night, so that there should not be day and night in their season,


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Then can also My covenant be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign upon his throne, and [My league be broken also] with the Levitical priests, My ministers.


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As the host of [the stars of] the heavens cannot be numbered nor the sand of the sea be measured, so will I multiply the offspring of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.


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Have you not noticed that these people [the Jews] are saying, The Lord has cast off the two families [Israel and Judah] which He chose? Thus My people have despised [themselves in relation to God as His covenant people], so that they are no more a nation in their [own] sight.


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Thus says the Lord: If My covenant with day and night does not stand, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of the heavens and the earth [the whole order of nature],


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Then will I also cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant and will not choose one of his offspring to be ruler over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captivity to be reversed, and I will have mercy, kindness, <i>and</i> steadfast love on <i>and</i> for them. <f>ⓒ</f>


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The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion and all the people were fighting against Jerusalem and all of its cities:


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Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.


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And you will not escape out of his hand but will surely be taken and delivered into his hand; you will see the king of Babylon eye to eye, and he will speak with you face to face; and you will go to Babylon.


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Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the Lord concerning you: You shall not die by the sword;


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But you shall die in peace. And as with the burnings of [spices and perfumes on wood that were granted as suitable for and in honor of] your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so shall a burning be made for you; and [people] shall lament for you, saying, Alas, lord! For I have spoken the word, says the Lord.


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When the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and Azekah, for these were the only fortified cities remaining of the cities of Judah.


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[This is] the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them:


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Every man should let his Hebrew slaves, male and female, go free, so that no one should make a slave of a Jew, his brother.


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And all the princes and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant that everyone would let his manservant and his maidservant go free, so that none should make bondmen of them any more; they obeyed, and let them go.


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But afterward they turned around and caused the servants and the handmaids whom they had let go free to return [to their former masters] and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.


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Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying,


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At the end of seven years you shall let every man his brother who is a Hebrew go free who has sold himself <i>or</i> has been sold to you and has served you six years; but your fathers did not listen to <i>and</i> obey Me or incline their ear [submitting and consenting to Me]. <f>ⓐ</f>


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And you recently turned around <i>and</i> repented, doing what was right in My sight by proclaiming liberty each one to his neighbor [who was his bond servant]; and you made a covenant <i>or</i> pledge before Me in the house which is called by My <f>[1]</f>Name.


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But then you turned around and defiled My name; each of you caused to return to you your servants, male and female, whom you had set free as they might desire; and you brought them into subjection again to be your slaves.


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Therefore thus says the Lord: You have not listened to Me <i>and</i> obeyed Me in proclaiming liberty each one to his brother and neighbor. Behold, I proclaim to you liberty — to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, says the Lord; and I will make you to be tossed to and fro <i>and</i> to be a horror among all the kingdoms of the earth!


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And the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not kept the terms of the covenant <i>or</i> solemn pledge which they had made before Me, I will make them [like] the [sacrificial] calf which they cut in two and then passed between its separated parts [solemnizing their pledge to Me] — I will make those men the calf! <f>ⓑ</f>


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The princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf,


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I will give them into the hands of their enemies and into the hands of those who seek their life. And their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth.


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And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hands of their enemies and into the hands of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army which has withdrawn from you.


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Behold, I will command, says the Lord, and cause them [the Chaldeans] to return to this city; and they shall fight against it and take it and burn it with fire. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.


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Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak to them and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers; then give them [who are pledged to drink no wine] some wine to drink.


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So I took Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites,


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And I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah the man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, above the chamber of Maaseiah son of Shallum the keeper of the door.


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And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, Drink wine.


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But they said, We will drink no wine, for Jonadab son of Rechab, our father, commanded us: You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons, forever.


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Neither shall you build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard or have them; but you shall dwell all your days in tents, that you may live many days in the land where you are temporary residents.


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And we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab son of Rechab, our father, in all that he charged us, to drink no wine all our days — we, our wives, our sons, and our daughters —


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But we have dwelt in tents and have obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our ancestor commanded us.


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But when <f>[1]</f>Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, Come and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and the army of the Syrians. So we are living in Jerusalem.


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Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction and listen to My words <i>and</i> obey them? says the Lord.


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The command which Jonadab son of Rechab gave to his sons not to drink wine, has been carried out <i>and</i> established [as a custom for more than two hundred years]. To this day they drink no wine, but they have obeyed their father’s command. But I, even I, have persistently spoken to you, but you have not listened to <i>and</i> obeyed Me.


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I have sent also to you all My servants the prophets earnestly <i>and</i> persistently, saying, Return now every man from his evil way and amend your doings and go not after other gods to serve them; and then you shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers. But you did not submit <i>and</i> consent to Me or listen to <i>and</i> obey Me.


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Since the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab have fulfilled <i>and</i> established the command of their father which he commanded them, but these people have not listened to and obeyed Me,


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Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them, but they have not listened, and I have called to them, but they have not answered.


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And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and have kept all his precepts and have done according to all that he commanded you,


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Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab son of Rechab shall never fail [to have] a man [descendant] to stand before Me.


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In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:


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Take a scroll [of parchment] for a book and write on it all the words I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations from the day I spoke to you in the days of [King] Josiah until this day.


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It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do to them, so that each one may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. <f>ⓐ</f>


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Then Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote upon the scroll of the book all the words which Jeremiah dictated, [words] that the Lord had spoken to him.


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And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am [in hiding, virtually] restrained <i>and</i> shut up; I cannot go into the house of the Lord.


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Therefore you go, and on a day of fasting, in the hearing of all the people in the Lord’s house, you shall read the words of the Lord which you have written on the scroll at my dictation. Also you shall read them in the hearing of all who come out of the cities of Judah.


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It may be that they will make their supplication [for mercy] before the Lord, and each one will turn back from his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people.


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And Baruch son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from [Jeremiah’s] book the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house.


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And in the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, a fast was proclaimed before the Lord for all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came to Jerusalem from the cities of Judah.


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Then Baruch read in the hearing of all the people the words of Jeremiah from the scroll of the book in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court at the entry of the New Gate of the Lord’s house.


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When Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the Lord,


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He went down to the king’s house into the scribe’s chamber, and behold, all the princes were sitting there: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the [other] princes.


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Then Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the book in the hearing of the people.


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Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, Take in your hand the scroll from which you have read in the hearing of the people and come [to us]. So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them.


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Now when they had heard all the words, they turned one to another in fear and said to Baruch, We must surely tell the king of all these words.


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Then Baruch answered them, He dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink in the book.


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Then they went into the court to the king, but they [first] put the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe; then they reported all the words to the king.


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So the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and of all the princes who stood beside the king.


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Now it was the ninth month, and the king was sitting in the winter house, and a fire was burning there before him in the brazier.


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And [each time] when Jehudi had read three or four columns [of the scroll], he [King Jehoiakim] would cut them off with a penknife and cast them into the fire that was in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.


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Yet they were not afraid, nor did they rend their garments — neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all these words.


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Even though Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah tried to persuade the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.


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And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son and Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the Lord hid them.


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Now the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch wrote at the dictation of Jeremiah, [and the Lord] said:


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Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned.


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And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, Thus says the Lord: You have burned this scroll, saying, Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon shall surely come and destroy this land and shall cut off man and beast from it?


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Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: <f>[1]</f>He shall have no [heir] to sit upon the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and to the frost by night.


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And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah all the evil that I have pronounced against them — but they would not hear.


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Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and besides them many similar words were added.


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And Zedekiah son of Josiah, whom <f>[1]</f>Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah, reigned instead of Coniah [also called Jeconiah and Jehoiachin] son of Jehoiakim.


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But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to <i>and</i> obeyed the words of the Lord which He spoke through the prophet Jeremiah.


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Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah with Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now to the Lord our God for us.


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Now Jeremiah was coming in and going out among the people, for they had not [yet] put him in prison.


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And Pharaoh’s army had come forth out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the news about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem <i>and</i> departed.


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Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has come forth to help you, will return to Egypt, to their own land.


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And the Chaldeans shall come again and fight against this city, and they shall take it and burn it with fire.


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Thus says the Lord: Do not deceive yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans will surely stay away from us — for they will not stay away.


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For though you should defeat the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and there remained only the wounded <i>and</i> men stricken through among them, every man confined to his tent, yet they would rise up and burn this city with fire.


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And when the army of the Chaldeans had departed from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s approaching army,


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Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin [to slip away during the brief lull in the Chaldean invasion] to receive [the title to] his portion [of land, which the Lord had promised would eventually be valuable] there among the people.


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And when he was at the Gate of Benjamin, a sentry was [on guard] there, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, You are deserting to the Chaldeans.


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Then said Jeremiah, It is false! I am not deserting to the Chaldeans. But the sentry would not listen to him. So Irijah took Jeremiah and brought him to the princes.


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Therefore the princes were enraged with Jeremiah and beat him and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe — for they had made that the prison.


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Zedekiah the king sent and brought him out; and the king asked him secretly in his house, Is there any word from the Lord? And Jeremiah said, There is! And he said also, You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.


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Moreover, Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, In what have I sinned against you or against your servants or against this people, that you have put me in prison?


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Where now are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, The king of Babylon shall not come against you or against this land?


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Therefore hear now, I pray you, O my lord the king. Let my supplication, I pray you, come before you <i>and</i> be acceptable, that you do not cause me to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.


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Then Zedekiah the king commanded, and they committed Jeremiah to the court of the guard, and a round loaf of bread from the bakers’ street was given to him daily until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained [imprisoned] in the court of the guard.


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Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal [also called Jehucal] son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah spoke to all the people, saying,


text:
Thus says the Lord: He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life as his only booty [as a prize of war], and he shall live. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Thus says the Lord: This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.


text:
Therefore the princes said to the king, We beseech you, let this man [Jeremiah] be put to death; for [talking] thus he weakens the hands of the soldiers who remain in this city and the hands of all the people by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking the welfare of these people, but [to do them] harm.


text:
Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hands; for the king is in no position to do anything against you.


text:
So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon <i>or</i> cistern pit [in the charge] of Malchiah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard; and they let Jeremiah down [into the pit] with ropes. And in the dungeon <i>or</i> cistern pit there was no water, but only mire, and Jeremiah sank in the mire.


text:
Now when Ebed-melech the Ethiopian [a Cushite], one of the eunuchs who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon <i>or</i> cistern pit; and while the king was then sitting in the Gate of Benjamin,


text:
My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon <i>or</i> cistern pit; and he is liable to die of hunger <i>and</i> is [as good as] dead in the place where he is, for there is no more bread left in the city.


text:
Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Take from here thirty men with you and raise Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon <i>or</i> cistern pit before he dies.


text:
So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went into the house of the king [to a room] under the treasury, and took along from there old rags and worn-out garments and let them down by ropes into the dungeon <i>or</i> cistern pit to Jeremiah.


text:
And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, Put now these old rags and worn-out garments under your armpits under the ropes. And Jeremiah did so.


text:
So they drew up Jeremiah with the ropes and took him up out of the dungeon <i>or</i> cistern pit; and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.


text:
Then Zedekiah the king sent and brought Jeremiah the prophet to him into the third entrance that is in the house of the Lord. And the king said to Jeremiah, I am going to ask you something; hide nothing from me.


text:
Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, If I tell you, will you not surely put me to death? And even if I did give you counsel, you would not listen to me.


text:
So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, As the Lord lives, Who made our lives, I will not put you to death or give you into the hands of these men who seek your life.


text:
Then said Jeremiah to Zedekiah, Thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: If you will go forth <i>and</i> surrender to the princes of the king of Babylon, then you will live and this city will not be burned with fire; and you will live — you and your house.


text:
But if you will not go forth <i>and</i> surrender to the princes of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given into the hands of the Chaldeans and they will burn it with fire; and you will not escape out of their hands.


text:
And Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, I am afraid of the Jews who have deserted to the Chaldeans, lest the enemy deliver me into their [these former subjects’] hands and they mock me <i>and</i> abuse me.


text:
But Jeremiah said, They will not deliver you [to them]. Obey, I beg of you, the voice of the Lord, Who speaks to you through me. Then it will be well with you, and you will live.


text:
But if you refuse to go forth <i>and</i> surrender to them, this is the word [the vision] that the Lord has shown me:


text:
Behold, [in it] all the women who are left in the house of the king of Judah will be brought forth to the king of Babylon’s princes and will say [to you, King Zedekiah], Your friends have prevailed against your better judgment <i>and</i> have deceived you. Now when your feet are sunk in the mire [of trouble], they have turned their backs.


text:
All your wives and your children will be brought out to the Chaldeans; and you [yourself] will not escape out of their hands, but you will be seized by the king of Babylon, and you will cause this city [Jerusalem] to be burned with fire.


text:
But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you and say, Tell us what you said to the king and what he said to you; hide it not from us and we will not put you to death,


text:
Then you shall say to them, I was presenting to the king my humble plea that he would not send me back to Jonathan’s house to die there.


text:
Then came all the princes to Jeremiah and asked him [just what King Zedekiah had anticipated they would ask], and he told them all that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him, for what the conversation [with the king] had been was not discovered.


text:
So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken [by the Chaldeans].


text:
In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, <f>[1]</f>Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and besieged it. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, they broke into the city.


text:
[<f>[2]</f>When Jerusalem was taken] all the princes of the king of Babylon came in and sat in the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim [the Rabsaris] a chief of the eunuchs, and Nergal-sharezer [II, the Rabmag] a chief of the magicians, with all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.


text:
And when Zedekiah king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, they fled and went forth out of the city at night by way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls, and [the king] went out toward the Arabah (the Jordan Valley).


text:
But the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the [Syrian] land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence upon him.


text:
Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes; also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.


text:
And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the houses of the people and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.


text:
Then Nebuzaradan the [chief executioner and] captain of the guard carried away captive to Babylon the rest of the people who remained in the city, along with those who deserted to him, and the remainder of the [so-called better class of] people who were left.


text:
But Nebuzaradan the [Babylonian] captain of the guard left in the land of Judah some of the poor of the people who had nothing, giving them vineyards and fields at the same time.


text:
Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave command concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying,


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So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, Nebushasban [the Rabsaris] a chief of the eunuchs, Nergal-sharezer [II, the Rabmag] a chief of the magicians, and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon


text:
Sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the guard and entrusted him to Gedaliah [a prominent man whose father had once saved the prophet’s life] son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, that he should take him home [with him to Mizpah]. So Jeremiah was released <i>and</i> dwelt among the people. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
Now the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah while he was [still] shut up in the court of the guard, saying,


text:
Go and say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring to pass My words against this city for evil and not for good; and they will be accomplished before you on that day.


text:
But I will deliver you [Ebed-melech] on that day, says the Lord, and you will not be given into the hands of the men of whom you are afraid. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
For I will surely deliver you; and you will not fall by the sword, but your life will be [as your only booty and] as a reward of battle to you, because you have put your trust in Me, says the Lord.


text:
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him bound in chains among all who were carried away captive from Jerusalem and Judah, who were taken as exiles to Babylon.


text:
And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, The Lord your God pronounced evil upon this place.


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Now the Lord has brought it about and has done as He said: [It is] because you [of Judah] have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed His voice, therefore this thing has come upon you.


text:
Now, see, I am freeing you today [Jeremiah] from the chains upon your hands. If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will keep an eye on you <i>and</i> look after you well. But if it seems bad to you to come with me to Babylon, then do not do it. Behold, all the land is before you; wherever it seems good, right, <i>and</i> convenient for you to go, go there.


text:
While [Jeremiah] was hesitating, [the captain of the guard] said, Go back then to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wherever it seems right for you to go. So the captain of the guard gave him an allowance of food and a present and let him go.


text:
Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah and dwelt with him among the people who were left in the land.


text:
Now when all the captains of the forces that were in the open country [of Judah] and their men heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah son of Ahikam governor in the land [of Judah] and had committed to him men, women, and children, those of the poorest of the land who had not been taken into exile to Babylon,


text:
They went to Gedaliah at Mizpah — Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of the Maacathite, they and their men.


text:
And Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore to them and their men, saying, Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans; dwell in [this] land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.


text:
As for me, I will dwell at Mizpah to stand [for you] before the Chaldeans who come to us [ministering to them and looking after the king’s interests]; but as for you, gather the juice [of the grape], summer fruits and oil, and store them in your utensils [chosen for such purposes], and dwell in your cities that you have seized.


text:
Likewise, when all the Jews who were in Moab and among the people of Ammon and in Edom and who were in all the other countries heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had set over them [as governor] Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan,


text:
Then all the Jews returned from all the places to which they had been driven and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and gathered a great abundance of juice [of the grape] and summer fruits.


text:
Moreover, Johanan son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces that were in the open country came to Gedaliah at Mizpah


text:
And said to him, Do you know that Baalis king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to take your life? But Gedaliah son of Ahikam did not believe them.


text:
Then Johanan son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, Let me go, I pray you, and I will slay Ishmael son of Nethaniah, and no man will know it. Why should he slay you and cause all the Jews who are gathered to you to be scattered and the remnant of Judah to perish?


text:
But Gedaliah son of Ahikam said to Johanan son of Kareah, You shall not do this thing, for you speak falsely of Ishmael.


text:
Now in the seventh month [of that year] Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal descendants and one of the princes of the king, came [at the instigation of the Ammonites] with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam in Mizpah. As they were eating a meal together there in Mizpah,


text:
Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him arose and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword and killed him, the one whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Ishmael [manipulated by the Ammonites] also slew all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldean soldiers who were found there.


text:
There came eighty men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, having their beards shaved off and their clothes torn and having cut themselves, bringing cereal offerings and incense, going up [to Jerusalem] to present them in the house of the Lord.


text:
And Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all the way as he went. As he met them, he said to them, Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam.


text:
And when they came into the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah slew them, and cast them into the midst of the [city] cistern pit — he and the men with him.


text:
But ten men were among them who said to Ishmael, Do not kill us! For we have stores hidden in the field — of wheat and barley and oil and honey. So he refrained and did not slay them with their brethren.


text:
Now the cistern pit into which Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had slain in addition to Gedaliah was the one which Asa the king [of Judah] had once made for fear of Baasha king of Israel [should Baasha lay siege to Mizpah]. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with those who were slain.


text:
Then Ishmael carried away captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah — even the king’s daughters and all the people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah son of Ahikam. Ishmael son of Nethaniah carried them away captive and departed to cross over [the Jordan] to the Ammonites.


text:
But when Johanan son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces that were with him heard of all the evil that Ishmael son of Nethaniah had done,


text:
They took all their men and went to fight with Ishmael son of Nethaniah and found him by the great pool that is in Gibeon.


text:
Now when all the people who were [captives] with Ishmael saw Johanan son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces that were with him, they were glad.


text:
So all the people whom Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned around and came back, and went to Johanan son of Kareah.


text:
Then Johanan son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces that were with him took from Mizpah all the remainder of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael son of Nethaniah after he had slain Gedaliah son of Ahikam: [they were] the soldiers, the women, the children, and the eunuchs whom [Johanan] had brought back from Gibeon.


text:
And they departed and stayed at the lodging place of Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, [intending] to go to Egypt


text:
Because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them because Ishmael son of Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land [and whose death the king could avenge without much discrimination].


text:
Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah [Azariah] son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest came near


text:
And said to Jeremiah the prophet, We beseech you that you will let our supplication be presented before you and that you will pray to the Lord your God for us, even for all this remnant [of the people of Judah]; for whereas we were once many, there are but a few of us left, as you see with your [own] eyes.


text:
[Pray] that the Lord your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do.


text:
Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your words; and it will be that whatever thing the Lord will answer you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you.


text:
Then they said to Jeremiah, May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we fail to do according to all the things that the Lord your God sends you to tell us.


text:
Whether it is good or evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to Whom we are sending you [to inquire], that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.


text:
Then he called Johanan son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces that were with him and all the people from the least even to the greatest,


text:
And said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to Whom you sent me to present your supplication before Him:


text:
If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pull you up; for I will relent <i>and</i> comfort <i>and</i> ease Myself concerning the evil that [in chastisement] I have done to you [and I will substitute mercy and loving-kindness for judgment]. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are fearful [with the profound and reverent dread inspired by deity]; be not afraid of him, says the Lord, for [he is a mere man, while I am the all-wise, all-powerful, and ever-present God] I [the Lord] am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand.


text:
And I will grant mercy to you, that he may have mercy on you and permit you to remain in your own land.


text:
Saying, No, but we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war or hear the sound of the trumpet or be hungry for bread, and we will dwell there,


text:
Then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you are fully determined to go to Egypt and you do go to dwell there temporarily,


text:
Then the sword which you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt <i>and</i> in it, and there you shall die.


text:
So will it be with all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to dwell there temporarily; they will die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; none of them will remain or survive the evil that I will bring upon them.


text:
For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: As My anger and My wrath have been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall My wrath be poured forth upon you when you enter Egypt. You shall be a detested thing, an astonishment <i>and</i> horror, a curse, a thing lightly esteemed <i>and</i> a taunt <i>and</i> a reproach; you shall see this place no more.


text:
The Lord has said to you, O remnant of Judah, Do not go to Egypt. Know for a certainty that I [Jeremiah] have warned <i>and</i> testified to you this day


text:
That you have dealt deceitfully against your own lives; for you sent me [Jeremiah] to the Lord your God, saying, Pray for us to the Lord our God; and whatever the Lord our God says, declare it to us and we will do it.


text:
And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything that He sent me to tell you.


text:
Now therefore know for a certainty that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place [Egypt] where you desire to go to dwell temporarily.


text:
And when Jeremiah had finished speaking to all the people all these words of the Lord their God — everything for which the Lord their God had sent him to them —


text:
Then Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the proud <i>and</i> insolent men said to Jeremiah, You are not telling the truth! The Lord our God has not sent you to say, Do not go into Egypt to dwell there temporarily.


text:
But Baruch son of Neriah is setting you against us to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, so they may put us to death or carry us away captive to Babylon.


text:
So Johanan son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces and all the people did not obey the voice of the Lord to remain in the land of Judah.


text:
But Johanan son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces took all the remnant of Judah who had returned to dwell in the land of Judah from all the nations to which they had been driven —


text:
Even men, women, and children, the king’s daughters, and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan; also he took Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah.


text:
So they came into the land of Egypt — for they obeyed not the voice of the Lord. And they came to Tahpanhes.


text:
Take large stones in your hands and hide them in the mortar in the pavement of brick which is at the entrance of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah;


text:
And say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take <f>[1]</f>Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, My servant [because he works for Me], and I [through him] will set his throne upon these stones that I have hidden; and his [glittering, royal] canopy will be stretched over them. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
And he shall come and smite the land of Egypt, giving such as are [destined] for death, to death, and such as are [destined] for captivity, to captivity, and such as are [destined] for the sword, to the sword.


text:
And I [through him] will kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt; and he will burn [the houses] and carry [the people] away captive. And he will array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment [as he wills and when he chooses]; and he will go away from there in peace.


text:
[Nebuchadrezzar] shall break also the images <i>and</i> obelisks of Heliopolis [called On or Beth-shemesh — house of the sun] in the land of Egypt, and the temples of the gods of Egypt shall he burn with fire.


text:
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who were dwelling in the land of Egypt — at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Memphis — and in the country of Pathros, saying,


text:
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the evil that I brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah; and see, this day they are a desolation and no man dwells in them


text:
Because of the wickedness which they committed, provoking Me to anger in that they went to burn incense to serve other gods that they did not know — neither they, nor you, nor your fathers.


text:
Yet I sent to you all My servants the prophets earnestly <i>and</i> persistently, saying, Oh, do not do this loathsome <i>and</i> shamefully vile thing that I hate <i>and</i> abhor!


text:
But they did not listen <i>and</i> obey or submit <i>and</i> consent to turn from their wickedness and burn no incense to other gods.


text:
Therefore My wrath and My anger were poured out and were kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they became wasted and desolate, as it is this day.


text:
Therefore now thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil against yourselves that will cut off from you man and woman, infant and weaned child, out of Judah, to leave yourselves with none remaining?


text:
Why do you provoke Me to anger with the works (idols) of your own hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you [of your own accord] have come to dwell temporarily, that you might be cut off and become a curse and a reproach (an object of reviling and taunts) among all the nations of the earth?


text:
Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, the wickedness of their wives [who clung to their foreign gods], your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives [who imitated their queens], which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?


text:
They are not humbled (contrite, penitent, and bruised for their guilt and iniquities) even to this day, neither have they feared <i>and</i> revered [Me] nor walked in My law or My statutes which I set before you and before your fathers. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set My face against you for evil — even to cut off all Judah [from the land].


text:
And I will take away the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to come into the land of Egypt to dwell here temporarily [fleeing to Egypt instead of surrendering to the Chaldeans as directed by the Lord through Jeremiah], and they will all be consumed and will fall in the land of Egypt; they will be consumed by the sword and by famine. From the least even to the greatest, they shall die by the sword and by famine. And they will be a detestable thing, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach (an object of horror, reviling, and taunts).


text:
For I will punish all the inhabitants of the land of Egypt as I have punished Jerusalem — by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence —


text:
So that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to the land of Egypt to dwell temporarily shall escape or survive or return to the land of Judah, to which they desire <i>and</i> lift up their souls to return to dwell there; for none shall return except [a few] fugitives.


text:
Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by — a great assembly — even all the people who dwelt in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah:


text:
As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to <i>or</i> obey you.


text:
But we will certainly perform every word of the vows we have made: to burn incense to the <f>[1]</f>queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her as we have done — we and our fathers, our kings and our princes — in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then we had plenty of food and were well off <i>and</i> prosperous and saw no evil.


text:
But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.


text:
[And the wives said] When we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes [in the shape of a star] to represent <i>and</i> honor her and pour out drink offerings to her without [the knowledge and approval of] our husbands?


text:
Then Jeremiah said to all the people — to the men and to the women and to all the people who had given him that answer —


text:
The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem — you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land — did not the Lord [earnestly] remember [your idolatrous wickedness] and did it not come into His mind?


text:
The Lord could no longer endure the evil of your doings and the abominations which you have committed; because of them therefore has your land become a desolation and an [astonishing] waste and a curse, without inhabitants, as it is this day.


text:
Because you have burned incense [to idols] and because you have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord or walked in His law and in His statutes and in His testimonies, therefore this evil has fallen upon you, as it is this day.


text:
Moreover, Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who are in the land of Egypt,


text:
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You and your wives have both declared with your mouths and fulfilled it with your hands, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her. [Surely] then confirm your vows and [surely] perform your vows! [If you will defy all My warnings to you, then, by all means, go ahead!]


text:
Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all [you people of] Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by My great name, says the Lord, that My name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, As the Lord God lives.


text:
Behold, I am watching over them for evil and not for good; and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine until there is an end of them <i>and</i> they are all destroyed.


text:
Yet a small number who escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt to the land of Judah; and all the remnant of Judah who came to the land of Egypt to dwell temporarily shall know whose words shall stand, Mine or theirs.


text:
And this will be the sign to you, says the Lord, that I will punish you in this place, so that you may know that My words will surely stand against you for evil.


text:
Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hands of his enemies and into the hands of those who seek his life, just as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of <f>[2]</f>Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and was seeking his life.


text:
The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the dictation of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,


text:
You said, Woe is me now! For the Lord has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning <i>and</i> sighing and I find no rest.


text:
Say this to him: The Lord speaks thus: Behold, what I have built I will break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up — and this means the whole land.


text:
And should you <f>[1]</f>seek great things for yourself? Seek them not; for behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, says the Lord, but your life I will give to you [as your only booty and] as a [snatched] prize of war wherever you go.


text:
The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning <i>and</i> against the [Gentile] nations.


text:
Concerning <i>and</i> against Egypt: against the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates at Carchemish, which <f>[1]</f>Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote <i>and</i> defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Harness the horses, and mount, you horsemen! Stand forth with your helmets! Polish the spears, put on the coats of mail!


text:
Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and have turned backward, and their mighty warriors are beaten down. They flee in haste and look not back; terror is on every side! says the Lord. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Let not the swift flee nor the mighty man escape; in the north by the river Euphrates they stumble and fall.


text:
Who is this that rises up like the Nile [River], like the branches [of the Nile in the delta of Egypt] whose waters surge <i>and</i> toss?


text:
Egypt rises like the Nile, like the rivers whose waters surge <i>and</i> toss. She says, I will rise, I will cover the earth; I will destroy cities and their inhabitants.


text:
Go up, you horses, and drive furiously, you chariots! Let the warriors go forth — men of Ethiopia and Put who handle the shield, men of Lud who are skilled in handling and stringing the bow.


text:
But that day is a day of the Lord, the Lord of hosts — a day of vengeance, that He may avenge Himself on His adversaries. And the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiated and shall drink its fill of their blood; for the Lord, the Lord of hosts has a sacrifice [like that of a great sin offering] in the north country by the river Euphrates.


text:
Go up into Gilead and take [healing] balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt! In vain do you use many medicines; for you there is no healing <i>or</i> remedy.


text:
The nations have heard of your disgrace <i>and</i> shame, and your cry has filled the earth. For warrior has stumbled against <i>and</i> thrown down warrior, and they have fallen both of them together.


text:
The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the coming of <f>[2]</f>Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and his smiting of the land of Egypt:


text:
Declare in Egypt and proclaim in Migdol; and publish in Memphis and in Tahpanhes; say, Stand forth and get yourself ready, for the sword devours round about you.


text:
Why is your strong one [the sacred bull-god Apis] swept <i>and</i> dragged away? He stood not, because the Lord drove him <i>and</i> thrust him down.


text:
[The Lord] made many to stumble <i>and</i> fall; yes, they fell one upon another. And they said, Arise, and let us go back to our own people and to the land of our birth, away from the sword of the oppressor.


text:
They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is destroyed <i>and</i> is only a noise; he has let the appointed time [in which God had him on probation] pass by!


text:
As I live, says the King, Whose name is the Lord of hosts, surely like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea, so shall he [the king of Babylon, standing out above other rulers] come.


text:
O you daughter who dwells in Egypt <i>and</i> you who dwell with her, furnish yourselves [with all you will need] to go into exile, for Memphis will be waste, desolate, <i>and</i> burned up, without inhabitant.


text:
Egypt is a very fair heifer [like Apis the bull-god, to which the country is, so to speak, espoused], but destruction [a gadfly] is coming — out of the north it is coming [against her]!


text:
Also her hired troops in the midst of her are like fatted calves [in the stall], for they also are turned back and are fleeing together; they do not stand, because the day of their calamity is coming upon them, the time of their visitation (their inspection and punishment).


text:
The sound [of Egypt fleeing from the enemy] is like the rustling of an escaping serpent, for her foes advance with a mighty army and come against her with axes, like those who fell trees <i>and</i> cut wood.


text:
They shall cut down her forest, says the Lord, though it is impenetrable, because they [the invading army] are more numerous than locusts and cannot be counted.


text:
The Daughter of Egypt shall be disgraced; she shall be delivered into the hands of the people of the north [the Chaldeans].


text:
The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I will visit punishment upon Amon [the chief god of the sacred city, the capital of Upper Egypt] of No <i>or</i> Thebes, and upon Pharaoh and Egypt, with her gods and her kings — even Pharaoh and all those [Jews and others] who put their trust in [Pharaoh as a support against Babylon].


text:
And I will deliver them into the hands of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hands of his servants. Afterward [Egypt] will be <f>[3]</f>inhabited as in the days of old, says the Lord.


text:
But fear not, O My servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel. For behold, I will save you from afar, and your offspring from the land of their exile; and Jacob will return and be quiet and at ease, and none will make him afraid.


text:
Fear not, O Jacob My servant, says the Lord, for I am with you. For I will make a full <i>and</i> complete end of all the nations to which I have driven you; yet I will not make a full end of you. But I will chasten <i>and</i> correct you in just measure, and I will not hold you guiltless by any means <i>or</i> leave you unpunished.


text:
The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines before Pharaoh smote [the Philistine city] Gaza. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Thus says the Lord: Behold, waters are rising out of the north and shall become an overflowing stream and shall overflow the land and all that is in it, the city and those who dwell in it. Then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land [of Philistia] shall wail.


text:
At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of [the Chaldean king’s] war-horses, at the rattling of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers do not look back to their children, so feeble are their hands [with terror]


text:
Because of the day that is coming to destroy all the Philistines and to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains. For the Lord is destroying the Philistines, the remnant [still surviving] of the isle <i>or</i> coastland of Caphtor [where the Philistines originated]. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Baldness [as a token of mourning] will come upon Gaza; Ashkelon will be cut off <i>and</i> be dumb. O remnant of their valley <i>and</i> of the giants, how long will you gash yourselves [as a token of mourning]?


text:
O you sword of the Lord, how long will it be before you are quiet? Put yourself into your scabbard; rest and be still.


text:
How can it [the sword of the Lord] be quiet when the Lord has given it an assignment to discharge? Against Ashkelon and against the [whole Philistine] seashore He has appointed it.


text:
Concerning Moab: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe to [the city of] Nebo, for it is laid waste! Kiriathaim is put to shame and taken; Misgab [the high fortress] is put to shame, broken down, <i>and</i> crushed. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
The glory of Moab is no more; in Heshbon [a border town between Reuben and Gad, east of the Jordan River] they planned evil against her, saying, Come, let us cut her off from being a nation. You also, O [town of] Madmen, shall be brought to silence; the sword shall pursue you.


text:
For the ascent of Luhith will be climbed [by successive bands of fugitives] with continual weeping; for on the descent of Horonaim they have heard the distress of the cry of destruction.


text:
Flee! Save your lives! But they shall be like a destitute <i>and</i> forsaken person in the wilderness.


text:
For because you have trusted in your works [your bungling idol images] and in your treasures [instead of in God], you shall also be taken. And Chemosh [your god] shall go into captivity, his priests and his princes together.


text:
And the destroyer shall come upon every city; no city shall escape. The [Jordan] valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be devastated, as the Lord has said.


text:
Give wings to Moab, for [by that means only] she will flee and get away; her cities will be desolate, without any to dwell in them.


text:
Cursed be he who does the work of the Lord negligently [with slackness, deceitfully]; and cursed be he who keeps back his sword from blood [in executing judgment pronounced by the Lord].


text:
Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees [like wine] and has not been drawn off from one vessel to another, neither has he gone into exile. Therefore his taste remains in him, and his scent has not changed.


text:
Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I shall send to [Moab] tilters who shall tilt him up and shall empty his vessels and break his bottles (earthenware) in pieces.


text:
And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh [his god], as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Moab has been made desolate, and his cities have gone up [in smoke and flame]; and his chosen young men have gone down to the slaughter, says the King, Whose name is the Lord of hosts.


text:
Bemoan him, all you [nations] who are around him, and all you [nations more remote] who know his name; say, How broken is the mighty scepter [of national power] and the splendid rod [of glory]!


text:
Come down from your glory, you inhabitant of the Daughter of <f>[1]</f>Dibon, and sit on the ground among the thirsty! For the destroyer of Moab is advancing against you; he will destroy your strongholds.


text:
O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way and watch! Ask him who flees and her who escapes, What has happened?


text:
Moab is put to shame, for she is broken down. Wail and cry out! Tell by [the banks of] the Arnon that Moab is laid waste (destroyed).


text:
Make him drunk, for he has magnified himself against the Lord [by resisting Reuben’s occupation of the land the Lord had assigned him]. Moab also shall splash in his vomit, and he too shall be held in derision. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
For was not Israel [an object of] derision to you? Was he found among thieves — since whenever you speak of him you wag your head [in scorn]?


text:
O you inhabitants of Moab, leave the cities and dwell among the rocks, and be like the dove that makes her nest in the walls of the yawning ravine.


text:
We have heard of the [giddy] pride of Moab, the extremely proud one — his loftiness, his arrogance, his conceit, and the haughtiness of his heart.


text:
I know his insolent wrath, says the Lord, and the nothingness of his boastings <i>and</i> his deeds; they are false <i>and</i> have accomplished nothing.


text:
Therefore I will wail over Moab, and I will cry out over the whole of Moab. Over the men of Kir-heres (Kir-hareseth) there will be sighing <i>and</i> mourning. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
O vines of Sibmah, I weep for you more than the weeping of Jazer [over its ruins and wasted vineyards]. Your tendrils [of influence] have gone over the sea, reaching even to Jazer. The destroyer has fallen upon your summer fruit harvest and your [season’s] crop of grapes.


text:
Joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful orchards <i>and</i> fields and from the land of Moab. And I have made the juice [of the grape] to fail from what is pressed out in the vats; no one treads [the grapes] with shouting. Their shouting is no shouting [of joy, but is a battle cry].


text:
From the cry of Heshbon even to Elealeh even to Jahaz have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah [like a three-year-old heifer], for even the waters of Nimrim have become desolations.


text:
Moreover, I will cause to cease in Moab, says the Lord, the one who ascends <i>and</i> offers in the high place and the one who burns incense to his gods.


text:
Therefore My heart moans <i>and</i> sighs for Moab like flutes, and My heart moans <i>and</i> sighs like flutes for the men of Kir-heres (Kir-hareseth); therefore [the remnant of] the abundant riches they gained has perished.


text:
For every head is shaven bald and every beard cut off: upon all the hands are cuts (slashes) and upon the loins is sackcloth [all to express mourning]. <f>ⓔ</f>


text:
On all the housetops of Moab and in its streets there is lamentation everywhere, for I have broken Moab like a vessel in which there is no pleasure, says the Lord.


text:
How it is broken down! How they wail! How Moab has turned his back in shame! So Moab has become [an object of] a derision and a [horrifying] terror to all who are round about him.


text:
For thus says the Lord: Behold, he [Babylon] shall fly swiftly like an eagle and shall spread out his wings against Moab. <f>ⓕ</f>


text:
Kerioth [and the cities] shall be taken and the strongholds seized; and the hearts of the mighty warriors of Moab in that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs [in childbirth].


text:
And Moab shall be <f>[2]</f>destroyed from being a nation, because he has magnified himself against the Lord.


text:
He who flees from the terror will fall into the pit, and he who gets up out of the pit will be taken <i>and</i> caught in the trap <i>or</i> snare; for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation (their inspection and infliction of punishment), says the Lord.


text:
In the shadow of Heshbon the fugitives stand powerless (stopped in their tracks, helpless and without strength), for a fire has gone forth from Heshbon, a flame from the midst of Sihon; it has destroyed the corner of Moab and the crowns of the heads of the ones in tumult [the proud Moabites].


text:
Woe to you, O Moab! The people of [the god] Chemosh <i>are</i> undone; for your sons are taken away captive and your daughters into captivity.


text:
Yet will I reverse the captivity <i>and</i> <f>[3]</f>restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, says the Lord. Thus far is the judgment on Moab.


text:
Concerning <i>and</i> against the Ammonites: Thus says the Lord: Has Israel no sons [to return after their captivity and claim the territory of Gad east of the Jordan which the Ammonites have taken over]? Has [Israel’s Gad] no heir? Why then has Milcom [the god the Ammonites call their king] dispossessed <i>and</i> inherited Gad, and [why do] his people dwell in Gad’s cities?


text:
Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will cause an alarm of war to be heard against Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it [the high ground on which it stands] will become a desolate heap, and its daughter [villages] will be burned with fire. Then will Israel dispossess those who dispossessed him, says the Lord. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Wail, O Heshbon [in Moab, just south of Ammon], for Ai [in Ammon] is laid waste! Cry out, you daughter [villages] of Rabbah! Gird yourselves with sackcloth, lament, and run to and fro inside the [sheepfold] enclosures; for Milcom [the god-king] shall go into exile, together with his priests and his princes.


text:
Why do you boast of your valleys? Your valley flows away, O [Ammon] rebellious <i>and</i> faithless daughter, who trusted in her treasures, who said, Who can come against me?


text:
Behold, I will bring terror upon you, says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, from all who are round about you; and you will be driven out, each man fleeing straight before him [without thought of his neighbor], and there will be no one to gather together the fugitives.


text:
And <f>[1]</f>afterward I will reverse the captivity of the children of Ammon <i>and</i> restore their fortunes, says the Lord.


text:
Concerning <i>and</i> against Edom: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Is there no longer wisdom in Teman [a district in Edom]? Has counsel vanished from the intelligent <i>and</i> prudent? Is their wisdom all poured out <i>and</i> used up? <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Flee, turn back, dwell deep [in the deserts to escape the Chaldeans], O inhabitants of Dedan [neighbor of Edom]! For I will bring the calamity <i>and</i> destruction of Esau upon him [Edom] when I inspect <i>and</i> punish him.


text:
If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some ungleaned grapes? If thieves came by night, would they not destroy only what is enough [for them]?


text:
But I have stripped Esau (Edom) bare; I have uncovered his hiding places, and he cannot hide himself. His offspring will be destroyed, with his brethren and his neighbors; and he will be no more.


text:
Leave your fatherless children; I will [do what is necessary to] preserve them alive. And let [those who have been made] your widows trust <i>and</i> confide in Me.


text:
For thus says the Lord: Behold, they [Israel] whose rule was not to drink the cup [of wrath] shall assuredly drink — and are you to remain unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
For I have sworn by Myself, says the Lord, that Bozrah [in Edom, between Petra and the Dead Sea] shall become a horror, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all its cities shall be <f>[2]</f>perpetual wastes.


text:
I have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger is sent to the nations, saying, Gather together and come against her! And rise up for the battle.


text:
Your [object of] horror (your idol) has deceived you, and the pride of your heart [has deceived you], O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock [Sela or <f>[3]</f>Petra], who hold <i>and</i> occupy the height of the hill. Though you make your nest as high as the eagle’s, I will bring you down from there, says the Lord.


text:
And Edom shall be an astonishment <i>and</i> a horror; everyone who goes by it shall be astonished <i>and</i> shall hiss with horror at all its plagues <i>and</i> disasters.


text:
As [it was] in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, says the Lord, no man shall dwell there; neither shall a son of man live in it temporarily.


text:
See, there comes up one [Nebuchadnezzar] like a lion from [lurking in] the jungles (the pride) of the Jordan against the strong habitation [of Edom] <i>and</i> into the permanent pastures; for in a twinkling I will drive him [Edom] from there. And I will appoint over him the one whom I choose. For who is like Me? And who will appoint for Me the time <i>and</i> prosecute Me for this proceeding? And what [earthly, national] shepherd can stand before Me <i>and</i> defy Me?


text:
Therefore hear the plan of the Lord which He has made against Edom, and His purposes which He has formed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they shall be dragged away [by Nebuchadnezzar], even the little ones of the flock; surely He shall make their habitation desolate because of them <i>and</i> their fold shocked at their fate.


text:
At the sound of their fall the earth shall tremble; at their crying the sound shall be heard at the Red Sea.


text:
Behold, one will come up and fly swiftly like an eagle and spread his wings against [the Edomite city of] Bozrah; and in that day the hearts of the mighty warriors of Edom will be like the heart of a woman in her pangs [in childbirth]. <f>ⓔ</f>


text:
Concerning <i>and</i> against Damascus [in Syria]: Hamath and Arpad are confounded <i>and</i> put to shame, for they have heard bad news; they are fainthearted <i>and</i> wasting away; there is trouble <i>and</i> anxiety [like] on a [storm-tossed] sea which cannot rest.


text:
Damascus has become feeble; she has turned to flee, and terror <i>and</i> panic have seized her; anguish and sorrow have taken hold of her, like a woman in childbirth.


text:
How [remarkable that] the renowned city is not deserted, the city of my joy! [exclaims one from Damascus].


text:
Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all her soldiers shall be destroyed in that day, says the Lord of hosts. <f>ⓕ</f>


text:
And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it will consume the palaces of Ben-hadad [title of several kings of Syria].


text:
Concerning Kedar [a tribe of nomad Arabs] and concerning the kingdoms of <f>[4]</f>Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon shall smite: Thus says the Lord [to him]: Arise, go up against Kedar and destroy the sons of the east.


text:
Their tents and their flocks shall they [the Chaldeans] take — their tent hangings and all their utensils and their camels. And men shall cry to them, Terror on every side! <f>ⓖ</f>


text:
Flee, wander far off, dwell deep [in the deserts], O you inhabitants of Hazor [in the Arabian Desert] says the Lord, for <f>[5]</f>Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has planned a course against you and has conceived a purpose against you.


text:
Arise [Nebuchadrezzar], get up into a nation which is at ease, which dwells without care, says the Lord, [a nation] which has neither gates nor bars, which dwells apart <i>and</i> alone.


text:
And their camels will be booty, and their herds of cattle a spoil; and I will scatter to all [the four] winds those who [as evidence of their idolatry] clip off the corners of their hair, and I will bring their calamity from every side, says the Lord. <f>ⓗ</f>


text:
And Hazor shall become a dwelling place of jackals, a desolation forever; no man shall dwell there; neither shall a son of man live in it temporarily.


text:
The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning <i>and</i> against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,


text:
Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief [weapon and part] of their strength.


text:
And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four corners of heaven; and I will scatter them toward all those winds, and there will be no nation to which the outcasts of Elam will not come.


text:
And I will cause <f>[6]</f>Elam to be dismayed <i>and</i> terrified before their enemies and before those who seek <i>and</i> demand their lives; and I will bring evil <i>and</i> disaster upon them, even My fierce anger, says the Lord. And I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them.


text:
And I will set My throne [of judgment] in Elam [whose capital city was Shushan, from which God wrought wonders through Nehemiah, Esther, and Daniel]; and I will destroy from their king and princes, says the Lord. <f>ⓘ</f>


text:
But it shall be <f>[7]</f>in the latter days (the end of days) that I will reverse the captivity and restore the fortunes of Elam, says the Lord.


text:
The word that the Lord spoke concerning <i>and</i> against Babylon and concerning <i>and</i> against the land of the Chaldeans through Jeremiah the prophet: <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Declare it among the nations and publish it and set up a signal [to spread the news] — publish and conceal it not; say, Babylon has been taken; Bel [the patron god] is put to shame, Merodach (Bel) is dismayed <i>and</i> broken down. [Babylon’s] images are put to shame, her [senseless] idols are thrown down!


text:
For out of the north there has come up a nation [Media] against her which will make her land desolate, and none will dwell there. They will have fled, they will be gone — from man even to beast.


text:
In those days and at that time, says the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall come up weeping as they come and seek the Lord their God [inquiring for and of Him and requiring Him, both by right of necessity and of the promises of God’s Word].


text:
They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces in that direction, saying, Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.


text:
My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray [to favorite places of idolatry] on mountains [that seduce]. They have gone from [one sin to another] mountain to hill; they have forgotten their [own] resting-place. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
All who found them devoured them; and their adversaries said, We are not guilty, because they have sinned against the Lord [and are no longer holy to Him], their true habitation of righteousness <i>and</i> justice, even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.


text:
Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans; and be as the he-goats [who serve as examples and as leaders in the flight] before the flocks. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country. They will equip <i>and</i> set themselves against her; from there she will be taken. Their arrows will be like [both] an expert, mighty warrior <i>and</i> like his arrows — none [of them] will return in vain.


text:
Though you are glad, though you rejoice, O you who plunder My heritage, though you are wanton <i>and</i> skip about like a heifer at grass and neigh like strong stallions,


text:
Your mother [Babylon] shall be put to great shame; she who bore you shall blush <i>and</i> be disgraced. Behold, she shall be at the rear of the nations [least of the nations] — a wilderness, waste, and desert.


text:
Because of the wrath of the Lord she shall not be inhabited but shall be wholly desolate; everyone who goes by Babylon shall be appalled and hiss <i>and</i> mock at all her wounds <i>and</i> plagues.


text:
Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all you archers. Shoot at her! Spare not the arrows, for she has sinned against the Lord.


text:
Raise the battle cry against her round about! She gives her hand [in agreement] <i>and</i> surrenders; her supports <i>and</i> battlements fall, her walls are thrown down. For this is the vengeance of the Lord: take vengeance on her; as she has done [to others], do to her.


text:
Exterminate the sower from Babylon, and the one who handles the sickle in the time of harvest. For fear of the sword of the oppressor everyone shall return to his people, and everyone shall flee to his own land.


text:
Israel is a hunted <i>and</i> scattered sheep [driven hither and thither and preyed upon by savage beasts]; the lions have chased him. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last <f>[1]</f>Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has broken <i>and</i> gnawed his bones.


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will visit <i>and</i> punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I visited <i>and</i> punished the king of Assyria.


text:
And I will bring Israel [home] again to his fold <i>and</i> pasturage, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan [in the most fertile districts both west and east], and his soul will be satisfied upon the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.


text:
In those days and at that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel will be sought, but there will be none, and the sins of Judah [will be sought], but none will be found, for I will pardon those whom I cause to remain as a remnant (the preserved ones who come forth after a long tribulation). <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
Go up against [Babylon] the land of Merathaim [two rebellions, double or intense defiance], even against it and against the inhabitants of Pekod [visitation and punishment]. Slay and utterly destroy them, says the Lord, and do according to all that I have commanded you.


text:
How the hammer of the whole earth is crushed and broken! How Babylon has become a horror of desolation among the nations!


text:
I set a trap for you, and you also were taken, O Babylon, and you did not know it; you were found and also caught because you have struggled <i>and</i> contended against the Lord.


text:
The Lord has opened His armory and has brought forth [the nations who unknowingly are] the weapons of His indignation <i>and</i> wrath, for the Lord God of hosts has work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.


text:
Come against her from every quarter <i>and</i> from the utmost border. Open her granaries <i>and</i> storehouses; pile up [their contents] like heaps of rubbish. Burn <i>and</i> destroy her utterly; let nothing be left of her.


text:
Slay all her bullocks (her choice youths, the strength of her army); let them go down to the slaughter! Woe to [the Chaldeans]! For their day has come, the time of their visitation (their inspection and punishment).


text:
Listen! The voice of those [Jews] who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon proclaiming in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance [of the Lord upon the Chaldeans] for [the plundering and destruction of] His temple.


text:
Call together [many] archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp against her round about; let none from there escape. Recompense her according to her deeds; just as she has done, do to her. For against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel, has she been proudly defiant <i>and</i> presumptuous.


text:
Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets <i>and</i> squares, and all her soldiers shall be destroyed on that day, says the Lord.


text:
Behold, I am against you, O Babylon [you who are pride and presumption personified], says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, for your day has come, the time when I will visit <i>and</i> punish you.


text:
And Pride (the arrogant one) shall stumble (totter) and fall, and none shall raise him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all who are round about him.


text:
Thus says the Lord of hosts: The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together; all who took them captive have held them fast; they refuse to let them go.


text:
Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is His name. He will surely <i>and</i> thoroughly plead their case <i>and</i> defend their cause, that He may give rest to [the land of Israel and to the Babylonian-enslaved nations of] the earth, but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.


text:
A sword upon the Chaldeans, says the Lord — upon the inhabitants of Babylon and upon her princes (rulers in civic matters) and upon her wise men (the astrologers and rulers in religious affairs)!


text:
A sword upon the babbling liars (the diviners), that they may become fools! A sword upon her mighty warriors, that they may be dismayed <i>and</i> destroyed!


text:
A sword upon their horses and upon their chariots and upon all the mixed foreign troops that are in the midst of her, that they may become [as weak and defenseless as] women! A sword upon her treasures, that they may be plundered!


text:
A sword <i>and</i> a drought upon her waters, that they may be dried up! For it is a land of images, and they are mad over idols (objects of terror in which they foolishly trust).


text:
Therefore <f>[2]</f>wild beasts of the desert shall dwell [in Babylon] with the jackals, and ostriches shall dwell there. And it shall never again be inhabited with people, even from generation to generation. <f>ⓔ</f>


text:
As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, says the Lord, so no man shall dwell there; neither shall any son of man live there temporarily. <f>ⓕ</f>


text:
Behold, a people is coming from the north; and a great nation and many kings are stirring from the uttermost parts of the earth.


text:
They lay hold of bow, lance, <i>and</i> spear; they are cruel <i>and</i> have no mercy <i>or</i> compassion. They sound like the roaring of the sea; they ride upon horses, every man equipped like a man [ready] for the battle against you, O Daughter of Babylon!


text:
The king of Babylon has heard the news about them, and his hands fall feeble <i>and</i> helpless; anguish has seized him, and pangs like that of a woman in childbirth.


text:
See, there comes up one like a lion from the jungles (the pride) of the Jordan against the strong habitation [of Babylon] <i>and</i> into the permanent pasturage <i>and</i> sheepfold; for in a twinkling I will drive him [Babylon] from there. And I will appoint over him the one whom I choose. For who is like Me? And who will challenge Me <i>and</i> prosecute Me for this proceeding? And what [earthly, national] shepherd can stand before Me <i>and</i> defy Me? <f>ⓖ</f>


text:
Therefore hear the plan of the Lord which He has made against Babylon, and His purposes which He has formed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they shall be dragged away, even the little ones of the flock; surely He shall make their habitation desolate because of them <i>and</i> their fold amazed <i>and</i> appalled at their fate.


text:
At the cry, Babylon has been taken! the earth shall tremble, and the cry shall be heard among the nations.


text:
Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon and against those who dwell among those rebelling against Me a destroying wind <i>and</i> spirit;


text:
And I will send to Babylon strangers <i>or</i> winnowers who will winnow her and will empty her land; for in the day of calamity they will be against her on every side.


text:
Against him who bends let the archer bend his bow, and against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail. And spare not her young men; devote [to God] and utterly destroy her entire host.


text:
For Israel has not been widowed <i>and</i> forsaken, nor has Judah, by his God, the Lord of hosts, though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.


text:
Flee out of the midst of Babylon! Let every man save his life! Let not destruction come upon you through her [punishment for] sin <i>and</i> guilt. For it is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; He will render to her a recompense. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, making all the earth drunken. The nations drank of her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Babylon has suddenly fallen and is shattered (destroyed)! Wail for her [if you care to]! Get balm for her [incurable] pain; if [you do] so she may [possibly] be healed! <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her guilt <i>and</i> the judgment against her reach to heaven and are lifted even to the skies. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
The Lord has brought forth <i>and</i> made known the righteousness [of our cause]; come and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.


text:
Make clean <i>and</i> sharp the arrows, take up the shields <i>or</i> coats of armor [and cover your bodies with them]! The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes [who with the Persians will destroy the Babylonian Empire], for His purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it; for that is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance [upon Babylon for the plundering and destruction] of His temple.


text:
Set up a standard <i>or</i> signal [to spread the news] upon the walls of Babylon! Make the watch <i>and</i> blockade strong, set the guards, prepare the ambushes! For the Lord has both purposed and done that which He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.


text:
O [Babylon] you who dwell by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, and the line measuring your life is cut. <f>ⓔ</f>


text:
The Lord of hosts has sworn by Himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men, as with [a swarm of] locusts [who strip a land clean], and they will lift up a song <i>and</i> shout [of victory] over you.


text:
He made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.


text:
When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from His treasuries.


text:
Every man has become stupid <i>and</i> brutelike, without knowledge [of God]; every goldsmith is put to shame by the images he has made; for his molten idols are a lie, and there is no breath [of life] in them.


text:
They are worthless (emptiness, falsity, futility), a work of delusion <i>and</i> worthy of derision; in the time of their inspection <i>and</i> punishment they shall [helplessly] perish.


text:
Not like these [gods] is He Who is the Portion of Jacob [the true God on Whom Israel has a claim], for He is the One Who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance — the Lord of hosts is His name. <f>ⓕ</f>


text:
You [Cyrus of Persia, soon to conquer Babylon] are My battle-ax <i>or</i> maul and weapon of war — for with you I break nations in pieces, with you I destroy kingdoms,


text:
With you I break in pieces the horse and his rider, with you I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer,


text:
With you I break in pieces man and woman, with you I break in pieces old man and youth, with you I break in pieces young man and maiden,


text:
With you I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock, with you I break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen, and with you I break in pieces governors and commanders.


text:
And I will [completely] repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil that they have done in Zion — before your very eyes [I will do it], says the Lord.


text:
Behold, I am against you, says the Lord, O destroying mountain [which is burning out, you who will be as barren and desolate as an extinct volcano], you who [would] destroy the whole earth. I will stretch out My hand over <i>and</i> against you and roll you down from the [burnt] crags and will make you a burnt-out mountain [of combustive fires].


text:
And [O Babylon] they shall not take your cracked stones for a cornerstone, or any stone for foundations, but you shall be waste <i>and</i> <f>[1]</f>desolate forever, says the Lord.


text:
Set up a standard <i>or</i> signal in the land [to spread the news]! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare <i>and</i> dedicate the nations for war against her; call against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up like [a swarm of] locusts [when their wings are not yet released from their horny cases].


text:
Prepare <i>and</i> dedicate the nations for war against her — the kings of Media, with their governors and commanders (deputies), and every land of their dominion.


text:
[I foresee this:] The land trembles and writhes in pain <i>and</i> sorrow, for the purposes of the Lord against Babylon stand — to make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.


text:
The mighty warriors of Babylon have ceased to fight; they have remained in their holds. Their might has failed; they have become [weak and helpless] like women. Her dwelling places are burned up; her bars [and defenses generally] are broken.


text:
One post shall run to meet another and one messenger to meet another to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every side <i>and</i> to its farthest end,


text:
And that the passages [or ferries across the Euphrates] are stopped, and the great marshes they [the Medes] have burned with fire, and the men of war are frightened.


text:
For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is [being prepared]; yet a little while and the time of harvest shall come to her.


text:
[The inhabitants of Zion say] <f>[2]</f>Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has devoured us, he has crushed us, he has made us an empty vessel. Like a monster he has swallowed us up, he has filled his belly with our delicacies; he has rinsed us out <i>and</i> cast us away.


text:
May the violence done to me and to my flesh <i>and</i> blood be upon Babylon, will the inhabitant of Zion say; and, May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, will Jerusalem say.


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will plead your cause and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her lake <i>or</i> great reservoir and make her fountain dry.


text:
And Babylon shall become heaps [of ruins], a dwelling place of jackals, a horror (an astonishing desolation) and a hissing [of amazement], without inhabitant.


text:
They [the Chaldean lords] shall be roaring together [before their sudden capture] like young lions [over their prey], they [the princes] shall be growling like lions’ whelps.


text:
When the revelers are <f>[3]</f>inflamed [with wine and lust during their drinking bouts], I will prepare them a feast [of My wrath] and make them drunk, that they may rejoice and fall asleep to a perpetual sleep and not waken, says the Lord.


text:
How Sheshach [Babylon] is taken! And the praise of the whole earth is surprised <i>and</i> seized! How Babylon has become an astonishing desolation <i>and</i> a horror among the nations!


text:
Her cities have become a desolation <i>and</i> a horror, a land of drought and a wilderness, a land in which no one lives, nor does any son of man pass through it.


text:
And I will punish <i>and</i> execute judgment upon Bel [the god] in Babylon and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed up [the sacred vessels and the people of Judah and elsewhere who were taken captive]. The nations will not flow any more to him. Yes, the wall of Babylon has fallen!


text:
My people, come out of the midst of her! And let every man save his life from the fierce anger of the Lord! <f>ⓖ</f>


text:
And beware, lest your heart faint and you be afraid at the report (rumor) heard in the land; for in one year shall one report come and in another year another report, and violence shall be in the land, ruler against ruler.


text:
Therefore behold, the days will come when I will execute judgment <i>and</i> punishment upon the idols of Babylon; her whole land will be confounded <i>and</i> put to shame, and all her slain will fall in the midst of her.


text:
Then heaven and earth and all that is in them shall sing for joy over Babylon, for the [Median] destroyers shall come against her from the north, says the Lord. <f>ⓗ</f>


text:
As Babylon caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all [her] land.


text:
You who have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still! [Seriously and earnestly] remember the Lord from afar [Babylon], and let [desolate] Jerusalem come into your mind.


text:
We are confounded <i>and</i> ashamed, for we have heard reproach; confusion <i>and</i> shame have covered our faces, for strangers have come into the [most] sacred parts of the sanctuary of the Lord [even those forbidden for entrance by all but the high priest or the appointed priests].


text:
Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will execute judgment upon [Babylon’s] idols <i>and</i> images, and throughout all her land the wounded will groan.


text:
Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify her strong height (her lofty stronghold), yet destroyers will come upon her from Me, says the Lord.


text:
The sound of a cry [comes] from Babylon, and [the sound of] great destruction <i>and</i> ruin from the land of the Chaldeans!


text:
For the Lord is destroying Babylon <i>and</i> laying her waste and stilling her great voice [the hum of the city’s life]. And the waves [of her conquerors] roar like great waters, the noise of their voices is raised up [like the tramping of an army].


text:
For the destroyer is coming upon her, upon Babylon; and her mighty warriors are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for the Lord is a God of recompense; He will surely requite.


text:
And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her commanders (deputies) and her mighty warriors; and they will sleep a perpetual sleep and not waken, says the King — the Lord of hosts is His name.


text:
Thus says the Lord of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown <i>and</i> [the foundations] made bare, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; the peoples shall labor in vain, and the nations [only] to satisfy the fire, and they shall be weary. <f>ⓘ</f>


text:
The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now this Seraiah was chief chamberlain <i>or</i> quartermaster [and brother of Baruch].


text:
So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon — even all these words that are written against Babylon.


text:
Then say, O Lord, You have spoken concerning this place that it shall be cut off, so that nothing shall remain and dwell in it, neither man nor beast; but it shall be desolate forever.


text:
And it shall be that when you have finished reading this book, you shall bind a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates.


text:
Then say, Thus will Babylon sink and not rise because of the evil that I will bring upon her; and [the Babylonians] will be weary (hopelessly exhausted). Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. <f>ⓙ</f>


text:
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah [not the prophet] of Libnah. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
For all this came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah because of the anger of the Lord, and [in the end] He cast them out from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.


text:
And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, <f>[1]</f>Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem; and they pitched against it and built moveable towers <i>and</i> siege mounds against it round about. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
And in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was so severe in the city that there was no bread for the people of the land.


text:
Then the city [wall] was broken through, so that all the men of war might flee, and they went forth out of the city by night [as Ezekiel had foretold] by way of the gate between the two walls by the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans were round about the city. And they [the Jewish soldiers fled] by way of the Arabah (the Jordan Valley). <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.


text:
Then they seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the [Syrian] land of Hamath [on the northern border of Israel], where he pronounced sentence upon him.


text:
And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he slew also all the princes of Judah at Riblah.


text:
Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him with shackles and carried him to Babylon and put him in prison <f>[2]</f>[mill] till the day of his death. <f>ⓔ</f>


text:
Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, there came to Jerusalem Nebuzaradan captain of the guard, who stood <i>and</i> served before the king of Babylon.


text:
And he burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he consumed with fire.


text:
And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls round about Jerusalem.


text:
Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive some of the poorest of the people and those who were left in the city [at the time it was captured], along with those who went out to the king of Babylon [during the siege] and the remnant of the multitude [the country’s working people].


text:
But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and tillers of the soil.


text:
Also the pillars of bronze that belonged to the house of the Lord, and the bronze bases <i>or</i> pedestals [which supported the ten basins] and the bronze Sea <i>or</i> huge laver that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke into pieces and carried all the bronze of them to Babylon.


text:
The pots [for carrying away ashes] also and the shovels and the snuffers and the bowls and the spoons and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service they took away.


text:
Also the small bowls and the firepans and the basins and the pots and the lampstands and the incense cups and the bowls for the drink offerings — whatever was of gold the captain of the guard took away as gold, and whatever was of silver as silver.


text:
The two pillars, one Sea <i>or</i> huge laver, and <f>[3]</f>twelve bronze bulls <i>or</i> oxen under the Sea, which King Solomon had made in the house of the Lord — the bronze of all these things was beyond weighing.


text:
Concerning the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits (twenty-seven feet), and an ornamental molding of twelve cubits (eighteen feet) went around its circumference; it was four fingers thick, and it [the pillar] was hollow.


text:
An upper part <i>or</i> capital of bronze was on top of it. The height of one capital was five cubits (seven and one-half feet), with a network and pomegranates around it, all of bronze. The second pillar also, with its pomegranates, was similar to these.


text:
And there were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; and all the pomegranates upon the network were a hundred round about.


text:
And the captain of the guard took [as prisoners] Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the door.


text:
He took also out of the city a court officer who had been overseer of the soldiers, and seven men of them who were next to the king [as advisers] <i>and</i> saw his face, who were found in the city, and the scribe of the prince <i>or</i> captain of the army who mustered the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city.


text:
And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.


text:
And the king of Babylon smote them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land.


text:
This is the number of people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;


text:
In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the [Babylonian] guard carried away captive of the Jews 745 persons. All the persons were 4,600.


text:
And in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin [also called Coniah and Jeconiah] king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah [and showed favor to him] and brought him out of prison. <f>ⓕ</f>


text:
He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were [captives] with him in Babylon,


text:
Jehoiachin put off his prison garments, and he dined regularly at the king’s table all the days of his life.


text:
And his allowance, a continual one, was given him by the king of Babylon, a portion according to his requirements until the day of his death, <f>[4]</f>all the days of his life.


text:
How solitary <i>and</i> lonely sits the city [Jerusalem] that was [once] full of people! How like a widow has she become! She who was <f>[1]</f>great among the nations and princess among the provinces has become a tributary [in servitude]!


text:
She weeps bitterly in the night, and her tears are [constantly] on her cheeks. Among all her lovers (allies) she has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Judah has gone into exile [to escape] from the affliction and laborious servitude [of the homeland]. She dwells among the [heathen] nations, but she finds no rest; all her persecutors overtook her amid the [dire] straits [of her distress].


text:
The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly <i>or</i> the appointed feasts. All her gates are desolate, her priests sigh <i>and</i> groan, her maidens are grieved <i>and</i> vexed, and she herself is in bitterness.


text:
Her adversaries have become the head; her enemies prosper. For the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her young children have gone into captivity before the enemy. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
From the Daughter of Zion all her beauty <i>and</i> majesty have departed. Her princes have become like harts that find no pasture; they have fled without strength before the pursuer.


text:
Jerusalem [earnestly] remembers in the days of her affliction, in the days of her [compulsory] wanderings <i>and</i> her bitterness, all the pleasant <i>and</i> precious things that she had from the days of old. When her people fell into <i>and</i> at the hands of the adversary, and there was none to help her, the enemy [gloated as they] looked at her, and they mocked at her desolations <i>and</i> downfall.


text:
Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she has become an unclean thing <i>and</i> has been removed. All who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness; yes, she herself groans <i>and</i> sighs and turns [her face] away.


text:
Her filthiness was in <i>and</i> on her skirts; she did not [seriously and earnestly] consider her final end. Therefore she has come down [from throne to slavery] singularly <i>and</i> astonishingly; she has no comforter. O Lord [cries Jerusalem], look at my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself [in triumph]!


text:
The adversary has spread out his hand upon all her precious <i>and</i> desirable things; for she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary [of the temple] — <f>[2]</f>when You commanded that they should not even enter Your congregation [in the outer courts]. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
All her people groan <i>and</i> sigh, seeking for bread; they have given their desirable <i>and</i> precious things [in exchange] for food to revive their strength <i>and</i> bring back life. See, O Lord, and consider how wretched <i>and</i> lightly esteemed, how vile <i>and</i> abominable, I have become!


text:
Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which was dealt out to me, with which the Lord has afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger!


text:
From above He has sent fire into my bones, and it prevailed against them. He has spread a net for my feet; He has turned me back. He has made me hopelessly miserable and faint all the day long.


text:
The yoke of my transgressions is bound by His hand; they were twined together; they were set upon my neck. He has made my strength fail <i>and</i> [me to] stumble; the Lord has delivered me into the hands of those I am unable to resist <i>or</i> withstand. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
The Lord has made of no account all my [Jerusalem’s] mighty men in the midst of me; He has proclaimed a set time against me to crush my young men. The Lord has trodden as in a winepress the Virgin Daughter of Judah.


text:
For these things I weep; my eyes overflow with tears, because a comforter, one who could refresh <i>and</i> restore my soul, is far from me. My children are desolate <i>and</i> perishing, for the enemy has prevailed. <f>ⓔ</f>


text:
Zion stretches forth her hands, but there is no comforter for her. The Lord has commanded concerning <i>and</i> against Jacob that his neighbors should be his adversaries; Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them [an object of contempt].


text:
The Lord is righteous (just and in the right); for I have rebelled against His commandment (His word). Hear, I pray you, all you peoples, and look at my sorrow <i>and</i> suffering; my maidens and my young men have gone into captivity.


text:
I [Jerusalem] called to my lovers [allies], but they deceived me. My priests and my elders expired in the city while they sought food to save their lives.


text:
Behold, O Lord, how distressed I am! My vital parts (emotions) are in tumult <i>and</i> are deeply disturbed; my heart cannot rest <i>and</i> is violently agitated within me, for I have grievously rebelled. Outside the house the sword bereaves, at home there is [famine, pestilence] death!


text:
[My foes] have heard that I [Jerusalem] sigh <i>and</i> groan, that I have no comforter [in You]. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad [O Lord] that You have done it. You will bring the day [of Judah’s punishment] that you have foretold <i>and</i> proclaimed; [it involves also my foes’ punishment] and they will become like me. <f>ⓕ</f>


text:
Let all their wickedness come before You; and deal with them as You have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my sighs <i>and</i> groans are many and my heart is faint.


text:
How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger! He has cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty <i>and</i> splendor of Israel and has not [earnestly] remembered His footstool in the day of His anger!


text:
The Lord has swallowed up all the country places <i>and</i> habitations of Jacob and has spared not <i>nor</i> pitied; He has demolished in His wrath the strongholds of the Daughter of Judah. He has cast down to the ground the kingdom and its rulers, polluting them <i>and</i> depriving them of their sanctity.


text:
He has broken off in His fierce anger every horn (means of defense) of Israel. He has drawn back His right hand from before the enemy. And He has burned amidst Jacob like a flaming fire consuming all around.


text:
He has bent His bow like an enemy; He has stood with His right hand set like a foe and has slain all the delights <i>and</i> pride of the eye; on <i>and</i> in the tent of the Daughter of Zion He has poured out His wrath like fire.


text:
The Lord has become like an enemy; He has destroyed Israel. He has destroyed all its palaces, has laid in ruins its strongholds, and has multiplied in the Daughter of Judah groaning and moaning and lamentation.


text:
And He has violently broken down His temple like a booth <i>or</i> hedge of a garden; He has destroyed the place of His appointed assembly. The Lord has caused the solemn appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion and has spurned <i>and</i> rejected in the indignation of His anger the king and the priest.


text:
The Lord has scorned, rejected, <i>and</i> cast off His altar; He has abhorred <i>and</i> disowned His sanctuary. He has given into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces [and high buildings]; they have raised a clamor in the house of the Lord as on a day of a solemn appointed feast.


text:
The Lord purposed to lay in ruins the [city] wall of the Daughter of Zion. He marked it off by measuring line; He restrained not His hand from destroying. He made rampart and wall lament; they languished together.


text:
Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are [exiled] among the nations; the law is no more; her prophets also obtain no vision from the Lord.


text:
The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground keeping silent; they have cast dust on their heads, they have girded themselves with sackcloth. The maidens of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground [says Jeremiah].


text:
My eyes fail from weeping, my emotions are deeply disturbed, my heart is poured out upon the ground [in grief] because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and nurslings faint in the streets of the city.


text:
They keep crying to their mothers, Where is corn and wine [food and drink]? as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as their lives ebb away on their mothers’ bosom.


text:
What [example of suffering in the past] is sufficient for me to remind you for your [comfort]? To what shall I liken you, O Daughter of Jerusalem? With what shall I compare you, that I may comfort you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion? For your ruin is as measureless as the sea! Who can heal you? <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Your prophets have predicted for you falsehood and delusion <i>and</i> foolish things; and they have not exposed your iniquity <i>and</i> guilt to avert your captivity [by causing you to repent]. But they have divined <i>and</i> declared to you false <i>and</i> deceptive prophecies, worthless <i>and</i> misleading.


text:
All who pass by clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city which was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?


text:
All your enemies have opened wide their mouths against you; they scornfully hiss and gnash their teeth. They cry, We have swallowed her up! Certainly this is the day we have looked for; we have it, we see it!


text:
The Lord has done what He planned; He has carried out <i>and</i> finished His word which He threatened <i>and</i> decreed <f>[1]</f>in the days of old. He has demolished without pity; He has made the enemy rejoice over you and has exalted the might of your foes. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
The hearts [of the inhabitants of Jerusalem] cried to the Lord. [Then to the congregation, I, Jeremiah, cried, addressing the wall as its symbol] O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night; give yourself no rest, let not your eyes stop [shedding tears].


text:
Arise [from your bed], cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward Him for the lives of your young children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
Behold, O Lord, and consider [carefully] to whom You have done this. Should <i>and</i> shall women eat the fruit of their own bodies, the children whom they have tended <i>and</i> swaddled with their hands? Should <i>and</i> shall priest and prophet be slain in the place set apart [for the worship] of the Lord?


text:
The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets; my maidens and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger, slaughtering them without pity.


text:
You [Lord] called together, as on an appointed feast day of solemn assembly, my terrors (dangers) from every side. And there was not one in the day of God’s wrath who escaped or survived; those I have nursed and brought up, my enemy has destroyed.


text:
He has built up [siege mounds] against me and surrounded me with bitterness, tribulation, <i>and</i> anguish.


text:
He has caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my heart [the seat of my affections and desires].


text:
He has filled me with bitterness; He has made me drink to excess <i>and</i> until drunken with wormwood [bitterness].


text:
And You have bereaved my soul <i>and</i> cast it off far from peace; I have forgotten what good <i>and</i> happiness <i>are</i>.


text:
[O Lord] remember [earnestly] my affliction and my misery, my wandering <i>and</i> my outcast state, the wormwood and the gall.


text:
It is because of the Lord’s mercy <i>and</i> loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
They are new every morning; great <i>and</i> abundant is Your stability <i>and</i> faithfulness. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
The Lord is my portion <i>or</i> share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him <i>and</i> wait expectantly for Him. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully <i>and</i> expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him [inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God’s word].


text:
It is good that one should hope in <i>and</i> wait quietly for the salvation (the safety and ease) of the Lord.


text:
Let him sit alone uncomplaining <i>and</i> keeping silent [in hope], because [God] has laid [the yoke] upon him [for his benefit]. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
Let him put his mouth in the dust [in abject recognition of his unworthiness] — there may yet be hope. <f>ⓔ</f>


text:
Let him give his cheek to the One Who smites him [even through His human agents]; let him be filled [full] with [men’s] reproach [in meekness].


text:
But though He causes grief, yet will He be moved to compassion according to the multitude of His loving-kindness <i>and</i> tender mercy.


text:
To turn aside <i>and</i> deprive a man of his rights before the face of the Most High <i>or</i> a superior [acting as God’s representative],


text:
Is it not out of the mouth of the Most High that evil and good both proceed [adversity and prosperity, physical evil or misfortune and physical good or happiness]?


text:
Why does a living man sigh [one who is still in this life’s school of discipline]? [And why does] a man complain for the punishment of his sins?


text:
You have covered Yourself with wrath and pursued <i>and</i> afflicted us; You have slain without pity.


text:
My eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the maidens [and the daughter-towns] of my city [Jerusalem].


text:
They [thought they had] destroyed my life in the dungeon (pit) and cast a stone [over it] above me. <f>ⓗ</f>


text:
O Lord, You have pleaded the causes of my soul [You have managed my affairs and You have protected my person and my rights]; You have rescued <i>and</i> redeemed my life!


text:
Look at their sitting down and their rising up [their movements, doings, and secret counsels]; I am their singsong [the subject of their derision and merriment]. <f>ⓚ</f>


text:
How the gold has become dim! How the most pure gold has changed! The hallowed stones [of the temple] are poured out at the head of every street.


text:
The noble <i>and</i> precious sons of Zion, [once] worth their weight in fine gold — how they are esteemed [merely] as earthen pots <i>or</i> pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones, but the daughter of my people has become cruel like ostriches in the wilderness [that desert their young].


text:
The tongue of the nursing babe cleaves to the roof of its mouth because of thirst; the young children beg for food, but no one gives it to them.


text:
Those who feasted on dainties are perishing in the streets; those who were brought up in purple lie cleaving to refuse <i>and</i> ash heaps.


text:
For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands had come against her <i>or</i> been laid on her. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
[In physical appearance] her princes were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; they were more ruddy in body than rubies <i>or</i> corals, their shapely figures [suggested a carefully cut] sapphire.


text:
[Prolonged famine has made] them look blacker than soot and darkness; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones; it is withered and it has become [dry] like a stick.


text:
Those who are slain with the sword are more fortunate than those who are the victims of hunger [slain by the famine]; for they [the hungry] pine <i>and</i> ebb away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.


text:
The hands of [heretofore] compassionate women have boiled their own children; they were their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people [Judah].


text:
The Lord has fulfilled His wrath; He has poured out His fierce anger and has kindled a fire in Zion that has consumed her foundations.


text:
The kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the inhabitants of the earth, that the oppressor and enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.


text:
[But this happened] because of the sins of her [false] prophets and the iniquities of her priests, who shed the blood of the just <i>and</i> righteous in the midst of her.


text:
[The false prophets and priests] wandered [staggering] in the streets as if blind; they had so polluted themselves with blood it was not [lawful] for men to touch their garments.


text:
[People] cried to them, Go away! Unclean! Depart! Depart! Touch not! When they fled away, then they wandered [as fugitives]; men said among the nations, They shall not stay here any longer.


text:
The anger of the Lord has scattered [and divided them among the nations]; He will no longer look after them. They did not respect the persons of the priests; they did not favor the elders.


text:
As for us, our eyes yet failed <i>and</i> wasted away in looking for our worthless help. In our watching [on our watchtower] we have watched <i>and</i> waited expectantly for a nation [Egypt or some other one to come to our rescue] that could not save us. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
[The missiles of the enemy] dog our steps, so that we cannot go into our streets; our end is near, our days are fulfilled — yes, our end has come.


text:
Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky; they pursued us on the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.


text:
The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord [our king], was taken in their snares — he of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.


text:
Rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. But the cup [of the wine of God’s wrath] also shall pass to you; you shall become drunk and make yourself naked. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
The punishment of your iniquity will be accomplished <i>and</i> completed, O Daughter of Zion; [the Lord] will no more carry you away <i>or</i> keep you in exile. But He will inspect <i>and</i> punish your iniquity <i>and</i> guilt, O Daughter of Edom; He will uncover your sins. <f>ⓔ</f>


text:
O Lord, [earnestly] remember what has come upon us! Look down and see our reproach (our national disgrace)!


text:
We have given the hand [as a pledge of fidelity and submission] to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians [merely] to get food to satisfy [our hunger].


text:
We get our bread at the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness [the wild Arabs, who may attack if we venture into the fields to reap our harvests].


text:
Our skin glows <i>and</i> is parched as from [the heat of] an oven because of the burning heat of [the fever of] famine.


text:
The crown has fallen from our head [our honor is brought to the dust]! Woe to us, for we have sinned!


text:
Because of this our hearts are faint <i>and</i> sick; because of these things our eyes are dim <i>and</i> see darkly.


text:
But You, O Lord, remain <i>and</i> reign forever; Your throne endures from generation to [all] generations.


text:
Turn us to Yourself, O Lord, and we shall be turned <i>and</i> restored! Renew our days as of old! —


text:
Now [when I was] in [my] thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was in the midst of captivity beside the river Chebar [in Babylonia], the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.


text:
The word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud with a fire enveloping it <i>and</i> flashing continually; a brightness was about it and out of the midst of it there seemed to glow amber metal, out of the midst of the fire.


text:
And out of the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures [or cherubim]. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man,


text:
And their legs were straight legs, and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot, and they sparkled like burnished bronze.


text:
And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides. And the four of them had their faces and their wings thus:


text:
Their wings touched one another; they turned not when they went but went every one straight forward.


text:
As for the <f>[1]</f>likeness of their faces, they each had the face of a man [in front], and each had the face of a lion on the right side and the face of an ox on the left side; the four also had the face of an eagle [at the back of their heads]. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Such were their faces. And their wings were stretched out upward [each creature had four wings]; two wings of each one were touching the [adjacent] wing of the creatures on either side of it, and [the remaining] two wings of each creature covered its body.


text:
And they went every one straight forward; wherever the spirit would go, they went, and they turned not when they went.


text:
In the midst of the living creatures there was what looked like burning coals of fire, like torches moving to and fro among the living creatures; the fire was bright and out of the fire went forth lightning.


text:
Now as I was still looking at the living creatures, I saw one wheel upon the ground beside each of the living creatures with its four faces.


text:
As to the appearance of the wheels and their construction: in appearance they gleamed like chrysolite; and the four were formed alike, and their construction work was as it were a wheel within a wheel.


text:
When they went, they went in one of their four directions without turning [for they were faced that way].


text:
As for their rims, they were so high that they were dreadful, and the four had their rims full of eyes round about.


text:
And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.


text:
Wherever the spirit went, the creatures went and the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit <i>or</i> life of the [four living creatures acting as one] living creature was in the wheels.


text:
When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up high beside them, for the spirit <i>or</i> life of the [combined] living creature was in the wheels.


text:
Over the head of the [combined] living creature there was the likeness of a firmament, looking like the terrible <i>and</i> awesome [dazzling of shining] crystal <i>or</i> ice stretched across the expanse of sky over their heads.


text:
And under the firmament their wings were stretched out straight, one toward another. Every living creature had two wings which covered its body on this side and two which covered it on that side.


text:
And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings like the noise of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, the sound of tumult like the noise of a host. When they stood, they let down their wings.


text:
And there was a voice above the firmament that was over their heads; when they stood, they let down their wings.


text:
And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne in appearance like a sapphire stone, and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with the appearance of a Man. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
From what had the appearance of His waist upward, I saw a lustre as it were glowing metal with the appearance of fire enclosed round about within it; and from the appearance of His waist downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness [of a halo] round about Him.


text:
Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face and I heard a voice of One speaking. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
And the Spirit entered into me when He spoke to me and set me upon my feet, and I heard Him speaking to me.


text:
And He said to me, I send you, son of man, to the children of Israel, two rebellious nations that have rebelled against Me. They and their fathers have transgressed against Me even to this very day.


text:
And the children are impudent and hard of heart. I send you to them and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord God.


text:
And they, whether they will hear or refuse to hear — for they are a rebellious house — yet shall they know <i>and</i> realize that there has been a prophet among them.


text:
And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words; though briers and thorns are all around you and you dwell <i>and</i> sit among scorpions, be not afraid of their words nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.


text:
And you shall speak My words to them whether they will hear or refuse to hear, for they are most rebellious.


text:
As for you, son of man, hear what I say to you; be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.


text:
And He spread it before me and it was written within and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.


text:
He said to me, Son of man, eat what you find [in this book]; eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel.


text:
And He said to me, Son of man, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it. Then I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.


text:
For you are not sent to a people of a foreign speech and of a difficult language but to the house of Israel;


text:
Not to many peoples of foreign speech and of a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to such people, they would have listened to you <i>and</i> heeded My words.


text:
But the house of Israel will not listen to you <i>and</i> obey you since they will not listen to Me <i>and</i> obey Me, for all the house of Israel are impudent and stubborn of heart.


text:
Behold, I have made your face strong <i>and</i> hard against their faces and your forehead strong <i>and</i> hard against their foreheads.


text:
Like an adamant harder than flint <i>or</i> a diamond point have I made your forehead; fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Moreover, He said to me, Son of man, all My words that I shall speak to you, receive in your heart and hear with your ears.


text:
And go, get you to the [Jewish] captives [in Babylon], to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, Thus says the Lord God, whether they will hear or refuse to hear.


text:
Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing [saying], Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place [above the firmament].


text:
I heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched <i>and</i> joined each one the other [its sister wing], and I heard the noise of the wheels beside them and the noise of a great rushing.


text:
So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away [in the vision], and I went in bitterness [of discouragement] in the heat of my spirit; and the hand of the Lord was strong upon me.


text:
Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib, who sat <i>and</i> dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat and remained there among them seven days, overwhelmed with astonishment <i>and</i> silent.


text:
Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at My mouth and give them warning from Me. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
If I say to the wicked, You shall surely die, and you do not give him warning or speak to warn the wicked to turn from his wicked way, to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at your hand.


text:
Yet if you warn the wicked and he turn not from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered yourself.


text:
Again, if a righteous man turns from his righteousness (right doing and right standing with God) and some gift or providence which I lay before him he perverts into an occasion to sin and he commits iniquity, he shall die; because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood will I require at your hand.


text:
Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he is warned; also you have delivered yourself from guilt.


text:
And the hand of the Lord was there upon me, and He said to me, Arise, go forth into the plain and I will talk with you there.


text:
Then I arose and went forth into the plain, and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory I had seen by the river Chebar, and I fell on my face.


text:
Then the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; He spoke and said to me, Go, shut yourself up in your house.


text:
But you, O son of man, behold, ropes will be put upon you and you will be bound with them, and you cannot go out among people.


text:
And I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth so that you cannot talk and be a reprover of the people, for they are a rebellious house.


text:
But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth and you shall say to the people, Thus says the Lord God; he who hears, let him hear, and he who refuses to hear, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.


text:
And you, son of man, take a tile and lay it before you, and make upon it a drawing of a city, even Jerusalem.


text:
And put siege works against it, build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it; set camps also against it and set battering rams against it round about.


text:
Moreover, take a plate of iron and place it for an iron wall between you and the city; and set your face toward it and it shall be besieged, and you shall press the siege against it. This is a sign to the house of Israel.


text:
Then [bound as you are] lie upon your left [and north] side to bear symbolically the iniquity of the house of the ten tribes of Israel upon that side. According to the number of days that you shall lie upon it you shall bear their iniquity.


text:
For I have laid upon you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, 390 days [representing 390 years]; so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.


text:
And when you have fulfilled the days for Israel, lie again, but on your right [and south] side, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have appointed you one day for each year.


text:
Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem and your arm shall be uncovered [ready for battle], and you shall prophesy against [the city].


text:
And, behold, I will lay bands upon you and you shall not turn yourself from one side to another till you have ended the days of your siege.


text:
Also take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and put them into one vessel and make bread of them. According to the number of the days that you shall lie upon your side, 390 days you shall eat of it.


text:
And the food you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels <i>or</i> a full half pound a day, to be eaten at a fixed time each day.


text:
You shall drink water by measure also, about one quart <i>or</i> the sixth part of a hin; you shall drink at a fixed time each day.


text:
And you shall eat your food as barley cakes and you shall bake it with human dung as fuel in the sight of the people.


text:
And the Lord said, Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the nations to whom I will drive them. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself or is torn in pieces; neither did there ever come abominable flesh into my mouth. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Then He said to me, Behold, I will let you use cow’s dung instead of human dung, and you shall prepare your food with it.


text:
Moreover, He said to me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread [by which life is supported] in Jerusalem; and they shall eat bread rationed by weight and with fearfulness, and they shall drink water rationed by measure and with dismay (silent, speechless grief caused by the impending starvation), <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
In order that they may lack bread and water and look at one another in dismay and waste away [in their punishment] for their iniquity.


text:
And you, son of man [Ezekiel], take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor and shave your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair into three parts.


text:
You shall burn one part with fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and you shall take a second part and strike with the sword round about it; and a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.


text:
And of these again take some hairs and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire; from there a fire shall come forth into all the house of Israel.


text:
Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem; in the center of the nations I have set her, and countries are round about her.


text:
And she has changed <i>and</i> rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the [heathen] nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are round about her; for [Israel] rejected My ordinances, and as for My statutes, they have not walked in them. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you were more turbulent <i>and</i> raged [against Me] more than the nations that are round about you and have not walked in My statutes, neither have kept My ordinances, nor have done according to the ordinances [concerning] the nations that are round about you; <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments in the midst of you in the sight of the nations.


text:
And because of all your abominations, I will do in you that which I have not done and the like of which I will never do again. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on you and all who are left of you I will scatter to all the winds. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, surely because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore will I also diminish you <i>and</i> withdraw My eye that it shall not spare you. And I also will have no pity.


text:
And a third of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed by famine in the midst of you; a third shall fall by the sword round about you; and I will scatter a third to all the winds and will draw out a sword after them.


text:
Thus shall My anger be spent and I will cause My wrath toward them to rest and I will be eased <i>and</i> comforted. And they shall know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that I the Lord have spoken in My zeal, when I have accomplished My wrath upon them. <f>ⓔ</f>


text:
Moreover, I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are round about you and in the sight of all who pass by. <f>ⓕ</f>


text:
So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror <i>and</i> an astonishment to the [heathen] nations around you when I shall execute judgments upon you in anger and in wrath and in furious chastisements <i>and</i> rebukes — I the Lord have spoken it. <f>ⓖ</f>


text:
When I shall loose against them the evil arrows of hunger that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, then I will increase the famine upon you and will break your staff of bread.


text:
And I will send upon you hunger and wild beasts, and they shall bereave you [of your loved ones]; and pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I the Lord have spoken it.


text:
And say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the river ravines and the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places [of idolatrous worship],


text:
And your altars shall be made desolate and your sun-pillars shall be broken in pieces, and I will cast down your slain before your idols. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
And I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.


text:
In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste and the high places shall be made desolate, that your altars may bear their guilt <i>and</i> be laid waste and made desolate, your idols may be broken and destroyed, your sun-images may be hewn down, and your handiworks may be wiped away <i>and</i> blotted out.


text:
And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall <f>[1]</f>know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that I am the Lord.


text:
Yet will I leave some of you alive. When you have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when you shall be scattered through the countries,


text:
Then those of you who escape shall [earnestly] remember Me among the nations to which they shall be carried captive, how that I have been broken by their lewdness <i>and</i> have Myself broken their wanton heart which has departed from Me and blinded their eyes which turn after their idols wantonly; and they shall be loathsome in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.


text:
And they shall know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that I am the Lord. I have not said in vain that I would bring this evil calamity [in punishment] upon them.


text:
Thus says the Lord God: Strike with your fist, stamp with your foot, and say, Alas! over all the vile abominations of the house of Israel for which [Israel] shall fall by sword, by famine, and by pestilence.


text:
He who is far off shall die of the pestilence, and he that is near shall fall by the sword, and he who remains and is preserved shall die by the famine. Thus will I accomplish My wrath upon them.


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Then shall you know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that I am the Lord, when their slain shall lie among their idols round about their altars upon every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every thickly leafed oak, the places where they were accustomed to offer sweet incense to all their idols.


text:
And I will stretch out My hand upon them and make the land desolate and waste, yes, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblah [a Moabite city], throughout all their dwelling places; and they shall know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that I am the Lord.


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Also, son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Now is the end upon you, and I will send My anger upon you and will judge you according to your ways and will bring upon you retribution for all your abominations.


text:
And My eye will not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring recompense for your evil ways upon you, while your abominations are in the midst of you [calling down punishment from a righteous God]; and you shall know (recognize, understand, and realize) that I am the Lord.


text:
Thus says the Lord God: Behold, an evil is coming, [an evil so destructive and injurious, so sudden and violent, that it stands alone, not as a succession but as] only one evil.


text:
An end has come! The end has come! [The end — after sleeping so long] awakes against you. See, it has come!


text:
Your turn (your doom) has come upon you, O inhabitant of the land; the time has come, the day is near, a day not of joyful shouting, but a day of tumult upon the mountains.


text:
Now will I shortly pour out My wrath upon you and finish spending My anger against you, and I will judge you according to your ways and will recompense you with punishment for all your abominations.


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And My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways while your abominations are right in the midst of you. And you shall know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that it is I the Lord Who smites you.


text:
Behold, the day! Behold, it has come! Your doom has gone forth, the rod has blossomed, pride has budded.


text:
Violence has grown up into a rod of wickedness; none of [Israel] shall remain, none of their abundance, none of their wealth; neither shall there be preeminence among them <i>or</i> wailing for them.


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The time has come, the day draws near. Let not the buyer rejoice nor the seller mourn, for wrath is upon all their multitude.


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For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, even were they yet alive. For the vision [of punishment] is touching [Israel’s] whole multitude; he shall not come back, neither shall any strengthen himself whose life is in his iniquity.


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They have blown the trumpet and have made all ready, but none goes to the battle, for My wrath is upon all their multitude.


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The sword is without and pestilence and famine are within. He who is in the field shall die by the sword, and him who is in the city shall famine and pestilence devour.


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But those of them that escape shall escape, but shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, every one in his iniquity’s [punishment].


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They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth; horror <i>and</i> dismay shall cover them, and shame shall be upon all faces and baldness upon all their heads [as evidence of grief].


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They shall cast their silver into the streets, and their gold shall be [discarded] like an unclean thing <i>or</i> rubbish; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord; they shall not satisfy their animal cravings nor fill their stomachs with them, for [wealth] has been the stumbling block of their iniquity. <f>ⓒ</f>


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As for the beauty of gold for ornament, they turned it to pride and made of it the images of their abominations (idols) and of their detestable things. Therefore I will make it to them as an unclean thing.


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And I will give it for plunder into the hands of strangers and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil, and they shall profane it.


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Also I will turn My face from them and they shall profane My secret treasure [the temple]; and robbers shall enter into it and profane it.


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Prepare the chain [of imprisonment], for the land is full of bloodguiltiness [murders committed with pretended formalities of justice] and the city is full of violence.


text:
Therefore I will bring in the worst of the [heathen] nations, who will take possession of the houses [of the people of Judah]; I will also silence their strongholds <i>and</i> put an end to their proud might, and their holy places <i>and</i> those who sanctify them shall be profaned.


text:
Distress, panic, <i>and</i> destruction shall come, and they [of Judah] shall seek peace, and there shall be none.


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Calamity shall come upon calamity and rumor shall be upon rumor, and they shall seek a vision of the prophet; and the law <i>and</i> instruction shall cease from the [distracted] priest and counsel from the [dismayed] elders. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
The king [of Judah] shall wear mourning and the prince shall clothe himself with garments of despair <i>and</i> desolation, while the hands of the people of the land shall tremble [palsied by terror]; for I will do to them in accordance with their ways, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know, recognize, <i>and</i> realize that I am the Lord.


text:
And in the sixth year [of the capitivity of King Jehoiachin], in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house [a captive of the Babylonians] with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me.


text:
Then I beheld, and lo, a likeness of a Man with the appearance of fire; from His waist downward He was like fire, and from His waist upward He had the appearance of brightness like gleaming bronze.


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And He put forth the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heavens and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the door of the inner [court] which faces toward the north, where was the seat of the idol (image) of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
And behold, there was the glory of the God of Israel [Who had loved and chosen them], like the vision I saw in the plain. <f>ⓑ</f>


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Then He [the Spirit] said to me, Son of man, now lift up your eyes toward the north. So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, on the north of the altar gate was that idol (image) of jealousy in the entrance.


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Furthermore, [the Spirit] said to me, Son of man, do you see what they are doing? The great abominations that the house of Israel is committing here to drive Me far from My sanctuary? But you shall again see greater abominations.


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And He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall.


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Then He said to me, Son of man, dig now in the wall. And when I had dug in the wall, behold, there was a door.


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So I went in and saw there pictures of every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts and all the idols of the house of Israel, painted round about on the wall.


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And there stood before these [pictures] seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan [the scribe], with every man his censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense was going up [in prayer to these their gods].


text:
Then said He to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his [secret] chambers of [idol] pictures? For they say, The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.


text:
Then He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz [a Babylonian god, who was supposed to die annually and subsequently be resurrected].


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Then said [the Spirit] to me, Have you seen this, O son of man? Yet again you shall see greater abominations that they are committing.


text:
And He brought me to the inner court of the Lord’s house; and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the bronze altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, and they were bowing themselves toward the east <i>and</i> worshiping the sun.


text:
Then [the Spirit] said to me, Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too slight a thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here, that they must fill the land with violence and turn back afresh to provoke Me to anger? And behold, they put the branch to their nose [actually, before their mouths, in superstitious worship]!


text:
Therefore I will deal in wrath; My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
[The Spirit] cried in my ears [in the vision] with a loud voice, saying, Cause those to draw near who have charge over the city [as executioners], every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.


text:
And behold, six men came from the direction of the Upper Gate, which faces north, every man with his battle-ax in his hand; and one man among them was clothed in linen, with a writer’s ink bottle at his side. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar.


text:
And the glory of the God of Israel [the Shekinah, cloud] had gone up from the cherubim upon which it had rested to [stand above] the threshold of the [Lord’s] house. And [the Lord] called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s ink bottle at his side.


text:
And the Lord said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in the midst of it.


text:
And to the others He said in my hearing, Follow [the man with the ink bottle] through the city and smite; let not your eye spare, neither have any pity.


text:
Slay outright the elderly, the young man and the virgin, the infant and the women; but do not touch <i>or</i> go near anyone on whom is the mark. Begin at My sanctuary. So they began with the old men who were in front of the temple [who did not have the Lord’s mark on their foreheads]. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
And He said to [the executioners], Defile the temple and fill its courts with the slain. Go forth! And they went forth and slew in the city.


text:
And while they were slaying them and I was left, I fell upon my face and cried, Ah, Lord God! Will You destroy all that is left of Israel in Your pouring out of Your wrath <i>and</i> indignation upon Jerusalem?


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Then said He to me, The iniquity <i>and</i> guilt of the house of Israel and Judah are exceedingly great; the land is full of blood and the city full of injustice <i>and</i> perverseness; for they say, The Lord has forsaken the land; the Lord does not see [what we are doing].


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And as for Me, My eye will not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their wicked doings upon their own heads.


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And behold, the man clothed in linen, who had the ink bottle at his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as You have commanded me.


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Then I looked and behold, in the firmament that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared above them something looking like a sapphire stone, in form resembling a throne.


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And [the Lord] spoke to the man clothed in linen and said, Go in among the whirling wheels under the cherubim; fill your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim and scatter them over the city. And he went in before my eyes. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Now the cherubim stood on the south side of the house when the man went in; and the cloud [the Shekinah] filled the inner court.


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Then the glory of the Lord mounted up from the cherubim to stand over the threshold of the [Lord’s] house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’s glory. <f>ⓑ</f>


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And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even to the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when He speaks. <f>ⓒ</f>


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And when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim, [the man] went in and stood beside a wheel.


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And a cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took some of it and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and went out.


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And I looked and behold, there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub and another wheel beside another cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like sparkling chrysolite.


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When they went, they went in any one of the four directions [in which their four individual faces were turned]; they did not turn as they went, but to the place to which the front wheel faced the others followed; they turned not as they went.


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And their whole body, their backs, their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that each had.


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And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of the cherub, the second the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.


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And the cherubim mounted upward. This is the [same] living creature [the four regarded as one] that I saw by the river Chebar [in Babylonia]. <f>ⓓ</f>


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And when the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the wheels did not turn from beside them.


text:
When those stood still, these stood still; and when those mounted up, these [the wheels] mounted up also, for the spirit of life was in these [wheels]. <f>ⓔ</f>


text:
Then the glory of the Lord [the Shekinah, cloud] went forth from above the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim.


text:
And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight, and they went forth with the wheels beside them; and they stood at the entrance of the East Gate of the house of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel [the Shekinah, cloud] was over them.


text:
This is the living creature [of four combined creatures] that I saw beneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar, and I knew that they were cherubim.


text:
Each one had four faces and each one had four wings, and what looked like the hands of a man was under their wings.


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And as for the likeness of their faces, they were the same faces which I saw by the river Chebar, with regard to their appearances and themselves; they went every one straight forward.


text:
Moreover, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the East Gate of the Lord’s house, which faces east. And behold, at the door of the gateway there were twenty-five men; and I saw in the midst of them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.


text:
Then [the Spirit] said to me, Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and give wicked counsel in this city,


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And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and He said to me, Speak. Say, Thus says the Lord: This is what you thought, O house of Israel, for I know the things that come into your mind.


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Therefore thus says the Lord God: Your slain whom you have laid in your midst; they are the flesh and this city is the boiling pot, but you shall be brought forth out of the midst of it.


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And I will bring you forth out of the midst of it and deliver you into the hands of foreigners and execute judgments among you.


text:
You shall fall by the sword; I will judge <i>and</i> punish you [before your neighbors] at the border <i>or</i> outside the land of Israel, and you shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord.


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This city shall not be your boiling pot, neither shall you be the flesh in the midst of it; I will judge you at the border <i>or</i> outside of Israel;


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And you shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord; for you have not walked in My statutes nor executed My ordinances, but have acted according to the ordinances of the nations around you.


text:
And while I was prophesying, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down upon my face and cried with a loud voice, Ah, Lord God! Will You make a complete end of the remnant of Israel?


text:
Son of man, your brethren, even your kindred, your fellow exiles, and all the house of Israel, all of them, are they of whom the [present] inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, They have gone far from the Lord [and from this land]; therefore this land is given to us for a possession.


text:
Therefore say, Thus says the Lord God: Whereas I have removed [Israel] far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet I have been to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries to which they have come.


text:
Therefore say, Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give back to you the land of Israel.


text:
And when they return there, they shall take away from it all traces of its detestable things and all its abominations (sex impurities and heathen religious practices).


text:
And I will give them one heart [a new heart] and I will put a new spirit within them; and I will take the stony [unnaturally hardened] heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh [sensitive and responsive to the touch of their God], <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
That they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances, and do them. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God.


text:
But as for those whose heart yearns for <i>and</i> goes after their detestable things and their loathsome abominations [associated with idolatry], I will repay their deeds upon their own heads, says the Lord God.


text:
Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels which were beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel [the Shekinah, cloud] was over them.


text:
Then the glory of the Lord rose up from over the midst of the city and stood over the mountain which is on the east side of the city.


text:
And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen went up from me.


text:
Son of man, you dwell in the midst of the house of the rebellious, who have eyes to see and see not, who have ears to hear and hear not, for they are a rebellious house. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Therefore, son of man, prepare your belongings for removing <i>and</i> going into exile, and move out by day in their sight; and you shall remove from your place to another place in their sight. It may be they will consider <i>and</i> perceive that they are a rebellious house.


text:
And you shall bring forth your baggage by day in their sight, as baggage for removing into exile; and you shall go forth yourself at evening in their sight, as those who go forth into exile.


text:
In their sight you shall bear your baggage upon your shoulder and carry it forth in the dark; you shall cover your face so that you cannot see the land, for I have set you as a sign for the house of Israel.


text:
And I did as I was commanded. I brought forth my baggage by day, as baggage for exile, and in the evening I dug through the wall with my own hands. I brought out my baggage in the dark, carrying it upon my shoulder in their sight.


text:
Say to them, Thus says the Lord God: This oracle <i>or</i> revelation concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel who are in it.


text:
Say, I am your sign; as I have done, so shall it be done to them; into banishment, into captivity, they shall go.


text:
And the prince who is in their midst shall lift up his luggage to his shoulder in the dark; then shall he go forth. They shall dig through the wall to carry out through the hole in it. He shall cover his face so that he will <f>[1]</f>not see with his eyes the land.


text:
My net also will I spread over him, and he shall be taken in My snare, and I will bring him to Babylonia, to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he <f>[2]</f>not see it, though he shall die there. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
And I will scatter toward every wind all who are about him to help him, even all his bands; and I will draw out the sword after them.


text:
And they shall know (recognize, understand, and realize) that I am the Lord, when I shall scatter them among the nations and disperse them in the countries.


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But I will leave a few survivors who will escape the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, that they may declare <i>and</i> confess all their [idolatrous] abominations among the nations to which they go, and [thus God’s punishment of them will be justified before everyone and] they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord.


text:
And say to the people of the land, Thus says the Lord God concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the land of Israel: They shall eat their bread with fearfulness and drink water with dismay, for their land will be stripped <i>and</i> plundered of all its fullness, because of the violence of all those who dwell in it.


text:
And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be deserted <i>and</i> become a desolation; and you shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord.


text:
Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel, saying, The days drag on and every vision comes to nothing <i>and</i> is not fulfilled?


text:
Tell them therefore, Thus says the Lord God: I will put an end to this proverb, and they shall use it no more as a proverb in Israel. But say to them, The days are at hand and the fulfillment of every vision.


text:
For there shall be no more any false, empty, <i>and</i> fruitless vision or flattering divination in the house of Israel.


text:
For I am the Lord; I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall be performed (come to pass); it shall be no more delayed <i>or</i> prolonged, for in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and will perform it, says the Lord God.


text:
Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that [Ezekiel] sees is for many days to come, and he prophesies of the times that are far off.


text:
Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God: There shall none of My words be deferred any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be performed, says the Lord God.


text:
Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own mind <i>and</i> heart, Hear the word of the Lord!


text:
Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit [and things they have not seen] and have seen nothing!


text:
You have not gone up into the gaps <i>or</i> breeches, nor built up the wall for the house of Israel that it might stand in the battle in the day of the Lord.


text:
They have seen falsehood and lying divination, saying, The Lord says; but the Lord has not sent them. Yet they have hoped <i>and</i> made men to hope for the confirmation of their word.


text:
Have you not seen a false vision and have you not spoken a lying divination when you say, The Lord says, although I have not spoken?


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have spoken empty, false, <i>and</i> delusive words and have seen lies, therefore behold, I am against you, says the Lord God.


text:
And My hand shall be against the prophets who see empty, false, <i>and</i> delusive visions and who give lying prophecies. They shall not be in the secret council of My people, nor shall they be recorded in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel; and you shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord God.


text:
Because, even because they have seduced My people, saying, Peace, when there is no peace, and because when one builds a [flimsy] wall, behold, [these prophets] daub it over with whitewash,


text:
Say to them who daub it with whitewash that it shall fall! There shall be a downpour of rain; and you, O great hailstones, shall fall, and a violent wind shall tear apart [the whitewashed, flimsy wall].


text:
Behold, when the wall is fallen, will you not be asked, Where is the coating with which you [prophets] daubed it?


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will even rend it with a stormy wind in My wrath, and there shall be an overwhelming rain in My anger and great hailstones in wrath to destroy [that wall].


text:
So will I break down the wall that you have daubed with whitewash and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundations will be exposed; when it falls, you will perish <i>and</i> be consumed in the midst of it. And you will know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord.


text:
Thus will I accomplish My wrath upon the wall and upon those who have daubed it with whitewash, and I will say to you, The wall is no more, neither are they who daubed it,


text:
The [false] prophets of Israel who prophesied deceitfully about Jerusalem, seeing visions of peace for her when there is no peace, says the Lord God.


text:
And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who prophesy out of [the wishful thinking of] their own minds <i>and</i> hearts; prophesy against them,


text:
And say, Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the women who sew pillows to all armholes and fasten magic, protective charms to all wrists, and deceptive veils upon the heads of those of every stature to hunt <i>and</i> capture human lives! Will you snare the lives of My people to keep your own selves alive?


text:
You have profaned Me among My people [in payment] for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, slaying persons who should not die and giving [a guaranty of] life to those who should not live, by your lying to My people, who give heed to lies.


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against your pillows <i>and</i> charms <i>and</i> veils with which you snare human lives like birds, and I will tear them from your arms and will let the lives you hunt go free, the lives you are snaring like birds.


text:
Your [deceptive] veils also will I tear and deliver My people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted <i>and</i> snared. Then you shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord.


text:
Because with lies you have made the righteous sad <i>and</i> disheartened, whom I have not made sad <i>or</i> disheartened, and because you have encouraged <i>and</i> strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way and be saved [in that you falsely promised him life],


text:
Therefore you will no more see false visions or practice divinations, and I will deliver My people out of your hand. Then you will know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord.


text:
Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and put the stumbling block of their iniquity <i>and</i> guilt before their faces; should I permit Myself to be inquired of at all by them?


text:
Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Every man of the house of Israel who takes his idols [of self-will and unsubmissiveness] into his heart and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity [idols of silver and gold] before his face, and yet comes to the prophet [to inquire of him], I the Lord will answer him, answer him according to the multitude of his idols,


text:
That I may lay hold of the house of Israel in the thoughts of their own mind <i>and</i> heart, because they are all estranged from Me through their idols.


text:
Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent <i>and</i> turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations.


text:
For anyone of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who separates himself from Me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity <i>and</i> guilt before his face, and [yet] comes to the prophet to inquire for himself of Me, I the Lord will answer him Myself!


text:
And I will set My face against that [false worshiper] and will make him a sign and a byword, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people; and you shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord.


text:
[The prophet has not been granted permission to give an answer to the hypocritical inquirer] but if the prophet does give the man the answer he desires [thus allowing himself to be a party to the inquirer’s sin], I the Lord will see to it that the prophet is deceived in his answer, and I will stretch out My hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of My people Israel.


text:
And they both shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the iniquity of the [presumptuous] prophet shall be the same as the iniquity of the [hypocritical] inquirer,


text:
That the house of Israel may go no more astray from Me, neither defile themselves any more with all their transgressions, but that they may be My people, and I may be their God, says the Lord God.


text:
Son of man, when a land sins against Me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out My hand against it and break its staff of bread and send famine upon it and cut off from it man and beast,


text:
Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they would save but their own lives by their righteousness (their uprightness and right standing with Me), says the Lord God.


text:
If I cause ferocious <i>and</i> evil wild animals to pass through the land and they ravage <i>and</i> bereave it, and it becomes desolate so that no man may pass through because of the beasts;


text:
Though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters; they themselves alone would be delivered but the land would be desolate (laid waste and deserted).


text:
Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, Sword, go through the land, so that I cut off man and beast from it,


text:
Though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they themselves alone would be delivered.


text:
Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out My wrath upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast,


text:
Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they would but deliver their own lives by their righteousness (their moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relation).


text:
For thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send My four sore acts of judgment upon Jerusalem — the sword, the famine, the evil wild beasts, and the pestilence — to cut off from it man and beast! <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
And yet, behold, in it shall be left a remnant (an escaped portion), both sons and daughters. They shall be carried forth to you [in Babylon], and when you see their [ungodly] walk and their [wicked] doings, you will be consoled for the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it.


text:
And they shall console you when you see their evil ways and their rebellious actions. Then you shall know (understand and realize) that I have not done without cause all that I have done in Jerusalem, says the Lord God.


text:
Son of man, How is the wood of the grapevine [Israel] more than that of any tree, the vine branch which was among the trees of the forest? <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Shall wood be taken from it to do any work? Or will men take a peg of it on which to hang any vessel?


text:
Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire consumes both ends of it and the middle of it is charred. Is it suitable <i>or</i> profitable for any work?


text:
Notice, even when it was whole, it was good for no work; how much less shall it be useful <i>and</i> profitable when the fire has devoured it and it is charred?


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Like the wood of the grapevine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


text:
And I will set My face against them; they shall go out from one fire and another fire shall devour them, and you shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord, when I set My face against them.


text:
And I will make the land desolate (laid waste and deserted) because they have acted faithlessly [through their idolatry], says the Lord.


text:
Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know, understand, <i>and</i> realize her [idolatrous] abominations [that they] are disgusting, detestable, and shamefully vile.


text:
And say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem [representing Israel]: Your [spiritual] origin and your birth are thoroughly Canaanitish; your [spiritual] father was an Amorite and your [spiritual] mother a Hittite. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
And as for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt or swaddled with bands at all.


text:
No eye pitied you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were cast out in the open field, for your person was abhorrent <i>and</i> loathsome on the day that you were born.


text:
And when I passed by you and saw you rolling about in your blood, I said to you in your blood, Live! Yes, I said to you still in your natal blood, Live!


text:
I caused you [Israel] to multiply as the bud which grows in the field, and you increased and became tall and you came to full maidenhood <i>and</i> beauty; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown, yet you were naked and bare.


text:
Now I passed by you again and looked upon you; behold, you were maturing <i>and</i> at the time for love, and I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I plighted My troth to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord, and you became Mine.


text:
Then I washed you with water; yes, I thoroughly washed away your [clinging] blood from you and I anointed you with oil.


text:
I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with [fine seal] leather; and I girded you about with fine linen and covered you with silk.


text:
Thus you were decked with gold and silver, and your raiment was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth; you ate fine flour and honey and oil. And you were exceedingly beautiful and you prospered into royal estate.


text:
And your renown went forth among the nations for your beauty, for it was perfect through My majesty <i>and</i> splendor which I had put upon you, says the Lord God.


text:
But you trusted in <i>and</i> relied on your own beauty and were unfaithful to God <i>and</i> played the harlot [in idolatry] because of your renown, and you poured out your fornications upon anyone who passed by [as you worshiped the idols of every nation which prevailed over you] and your beauty was his.


text:
And you took some of your garments and made for yourself gaily decorated high places <i>or</i> shrines and played the harlot on them — things which should not come and that which should not take place.


text:
You did also take your fair jewels <i>and</i> beautiful vessels of My gold and My silver which I had given you and made for yourself images of men, and you played the harlot with them;


text:
My bread also which I gave you — fine flour and oil and honey with which I fed you — you have even set it before the idols for a sweet odor. Thus it was, says the Lord God.


text:
Moreover, you have taken your sons and your daughters whom you have borne to Me, and you have sacrificed them [to your idols] to be destroyed. Were your harlotries too little,


text:
That you have slain My children and delivered them up, in setting them apart <i>and</i> causing them to pass through the fire for [your idols]?


text:
And in all your abominations and idolatrous whoredoms you have not [earnestly] remembered the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, rolling about in your natal blood.


text:
You have built also for yourself a vaulted chamber (brothel) and have made a high place [of idol worship] in every street.


text:
At every crossway you built your high place [for idol worship] and have made your beauty an abomination [abhorrent, loathsome, extremely disgusting, and detestable]; and you have made your body available to every passerby and multiplied your [idolatry and spiritual] harlotry.


text:
You have also played the harlot with the Egyptians, your neighbors, [by adopting their idolatries] whose worship is thoroughly sensuous, and you have multiplied your harlotry to provoke Me to anger.


text:
Behold therefore, I have stretched out My hand against you, diminished your ordinary allowance of food, and delivered you over to the will of those who hate <i>and</i> despise you, the daughters of the Philistines, who turned away in shame from your despicable policy <i>and</i> lewd behavior [for they are faithful to their gods]!


text:
You played the harlot also with the Assyrians because you were unsatiable; yes, you played the harlot with them, and yet you were not satisfied.


text:
Moreover, you multiplied your harlotry with the land of trade, with Chaldea, and yet even with this you were not satisfied.


text:
How weak <i>and</i> spent with longing <i>and</i> lust is your heart <i>and</i> mind, says the Lord God, seeing you do all these things, the work of a bold, domineering harlot,


text:
In that you build your vaulted place (brothel) at the head of every street and make your high place at every crossing. But you were not like a harlot because you scorned pay.


text:
Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers and hire them, bribing [the nations to ally themselves with you], that they may come to you on every side for your harlotries (your idolatrous unfaithfulnesses to God).


text:
And you are different [the reverse] from other women in your harlotries, in that nobody follows you to lure you into harlotry and in that you give hire when no hire is given you; and so you are different.


text:
Thus says the Lord God: Because your brass [coins and gifts] <i>and</i> your filthiness were emptied out and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers, and because of all the [filthy] idols of your abominations, and the blood of your children that you gave to them,


text:
Therefore behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you have taken pleasure, and all those whom you have loved with all those whom you have hated; I will even gather them [the allies you have courted] against you on every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness [making you, Israel, an object of loathing and of mockery, a spectacle among the nations].


text:
And I the Lord will judge you as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged, and I will bring upon you the blood of [your divine Husband’s] wrath and jealousy. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
And I will also give you into the hand of those [your enemies], and they shall throw down your vaulted place (brothel) and shall demolish your high places [of idolatry]; they shall strip you of your clothes and shall take your splendid jewels and leave you naked and bare.


text:
They shall also bring up a company against you, and they shall stone you with stones and hew down <i>and</i> thrust you through with their swords.


text:
And they shall burn your houses with fire and execute judgments upon you before the eyes of many women spectators [the nations]. And I will cause you to cease playing the harlot, and you also shall give hire no more.


text:
So will I make My wrath toward you to rest and My jealousy shall depart from you [My adulterous wife], and I will be quiet and will be no more angry.


text:
Because you have not [earnestly] remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me with all these things, therefore behold, I also will bring your deeds down on your own head, says the Lord God. Did you not commit this lewdness above <i>and</i> in addition to all your other abominations?


text:
Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb against you: As is the mother, so is her daughter.


text:
You are your [spiritual] mother’s daughter who loathed her husband and her children, and you are the sister of your sisters who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.


text:
And your elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters who dwelt in the north <i>and</i> at your left hand; and your younger sister who dwelt in the south <i>and</i> at your right hand is Sodom and her daughters.


text:
Yet you were not satisfied to walk after their ways or to do after their abominations, but very soon you were more corrupt in all your ways than they were [for your sin, as those taught of God, is far blacker than theirs]. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
As I live, says the Lord God, Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters.


text:
Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, overabundance of food, prosperous ease, <i>and</i> idleness were hers and her daughters’; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.


text:
And they were haughty and committed abominable offenses before Me; therefore I removed them when I saw it <i>and</i> I saw fit. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
Neither has Samaria committed half of your sins, but you have multiplied your [idolatrous] abominations more than they and have seemed to justify your sisters [Samaria and Sodom] in all their wickedness by all the abominable things which you have done — you even make them appear righteous in comparison with you.


text:
Take upon you <i>and</i> bear your own shame <i>and</i> disgrace [in your punishment], you also who called in question <i>and</i> judged your sisters, for you have virtually absolved them by your sins in which you behaved more abominably than they; they are more right than you. Yes, be ashamed <i>and</i> confounded and bear your shame <i>and</i> disgrace, you also, for you have seemed to justify your sisters <i>and</i> make them appear righteous.


text:
I will restore them again from their captivity, restore the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your own fortunes in the midst of them [in the day of the Lord], <f>ⓔ</f>


text:
That you [Judah], amid your shame <i>and</i> disgrace, may be compelled to recognize your wickedness <i>and</i> be thoroughly ashamed <i>and</i> confounded at all you have done, becoming [converted and bringing] consolation <i>and</i> comfort to [your sisters.]


text:
And your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate; then you and your daughters shall return to your former estate.


text:
Before your own wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become like her, an object of reproach <i>and</i> a byword for the daughters of Syria <i>and</i> of Edom and for all who are round about them and for the daughters of the Philistines — those round about who despise you.


text:
Yes, thus says the Lord God: I will even deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant;


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Nevertheless, I will [earnestly] remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant. <f>ⓕ</f>


text:
Then you will [earnestly] remember your ways and be ashamed <i>and</i> confounded when you shall receive your sisters, both your elder and your younger; I will give them to you as daughters, but not on account of your covenant [with Me]. <f>ⓖ</f>


text:
And I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord, <f>ⓗ</f>


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That you may [earnestly] remember and be ashamed <i>and</i> confounded and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I have forgiven you all that you have done, says the Lord God.


text:
Say, Thus says the Lord God: A great eagle [Nebuchadnezzar] with great wings and long pinions, rich in feathers of various colors, came to Lebanon [symbolic of Jerusalem] and took the top of the cedar [tree].


text:
He broke off the topmost of its young twigs [the youthful King Jehoiachin] and carried it into a land of trade [Babylon]; he set it in a city of merchants.


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He took also of the seedlings of the land [Zedekiah, one of the native royal family] and planted it in fertile soil <i>and</i> a fruitful field; he placed it beside abundant waters and set it as a willow tree [to succeed Zedekiah’s nephew Jehoiachin in Judah as vassal king].


text:
And it grew and became a spreading vine of low [not Davidic] stature, whose branches turned [in submission] toward him, and its roots remained under <i>and</i> subject to him [the king of Babylon]; so it became a vine and brought forth branches and shot forth leafy twigs.


text:
There was also another great eagle [the Egyptian king] with great wings and many feathers; and behold, this vine [Zedekiah] bent its roots [languishingly] toward him and shot forth its branches toward him, away from the beds of its planting, for him to water.


text:
Though it was planted in good soil where water was plentiful for it to produce leaves and to bear fruit, it was transplanted, that it might become a splendid vine.


text:
Thus says the Lord God: Ask, Will it thrive? Will he [the insulted Nebuchadnezzar] not pluck up its roots and strip off its fruit so that all its fresh sprouting leaves will wither? It will not take a strong arm or many people to pluck it up by its roots [totally ending Israel’s national existence]. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Yes, behold, though transplanted, will it prosper? Will it not utterly wither when the east wind touches it? It will wither in the furrows <i>and</i> beds where it sprouted <i>and</i> grew. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Say now to the rebellious house, Do you not know <i>and</i> realize what these things mean? Tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and took its king [Jehoiachin] and its princes and brought them with him to Babylon. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
And he took one of the royal family [the king’s uncle, Zedekiah] and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath. He also took the mighty <i>and</i> chief men of the land, <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
That the kingdom might become low <i>and</i> base and be unable to lift itself up, but that by keeping his [Nebuchadnezzar’s] covenant it might stand.


text:
But he [Zedekiah] rebelled against him [Nebuchadnezzar] in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Will he prosper? Will he escape who does such things? Can he break the covenant with [Babylon] and yet escape?


text:
As I live, says the Lord God, surely in the place where the king [Nebuchadnezzar] dwells who made [Zedekiah as vassal] king, whose oath [Zedekiah] despised and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the midst of Babylon shall [Zedekiah] die.


text:
Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company help him in the war when the [Babylonians] cast up mounds and build forts to destroy many lives.


text:
For [Zedekiah] despised the oath and broke the covenant and behold, he had given his hand, and yet has done all these things; he shall not escape.


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Therefore thus says the Lord God: As I live, surely My oath [made for Me by Nebuchadnezzar] that [Zedekiah] has despised and My covenant with him that he has broken, I will even bring down on his own head.


text:
And I will spread My net over him, and he shall be taken in My snare; and I will bring him to Babylon and will enter into judgment <i>and</i> punishment with him there for his trespass <i>and</i> treason that he has committed against Me.


text:
And all his fugitives [from Judah] in all his bands shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered toward every wind. And you shall know (understand and realize) that I the Lord have spoken it.


text:
Thus says the Lord God: I Myself will take a twig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out; I will crop off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one and will plant it upon a mountain high and exalted. <f>ⓔ</f>


text:
On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bring forth boughs and bear fruit and be a noble cedar, and under it shall dwell all birds of every feather; in the shade of its branches they shall nestle <i>and</i> find rest.


text:
And all the trees of the field shall know (understand and realize) that I the Lord have brought low the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree flourish. I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.


text:
What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?


text:
Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine; the soul that sins, it shall die. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
But if a man is [uncompromisingly] righteous (upright and in right standing with God) and does what is lawful and right,


text:
And has not eaten [at the idol shrines] upon the mountains nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, has not defiled his neighbor’s wife nor come near to a woman in her time of impurity,


text:
And has not wronged anyone but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has taken nothing by robbery but has given his bread to the hungry and has covered the naked with a garment,


text:
Who does not charge interest or percentage of increase on what he lends [in compassion], who withholds his hand from iniquity, who executes true justice between man and man,


text:
Who has walked in My statutes and kept My ordinances, to deal justly; [then] he is [truly] righteous; he shall surely live, says the Lord God. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
If he begets a son who is a robber or a shedder of blood, who does to a brother either of these sins of violence,


text:
And leaves undone all of the duties [of a righteous man], and has even eaten [the food set before idols] on the mountains and defiled his neighbor’s wife,


text:
Has wronged the poor and needy, has taken by robbery, has not restored [to the debtor] his pledge, has lifted up his eyes to the idols, has committed abomination (things hateful and exceedingly vile in the eyes of God),


text:
And has charged interest or percentage of increase on what he has loaned [in supposed compassion]; shall he then live? He shall not live! He has done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.


text:
But if this wicked man begets a son who sees all the sins which his father has committed, and considers <i>and</i> fears [God] and does not do like his father,


text:
Who has not eaten [food set before idols] upon the mountains nor has lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, has not defiled his neighbor’s wife,


text:
Nor wronged anyone, nor has taken anything in pledge, nor has taken by robbery but has given his bread to the hungry and has covered the naked with a garment,


text:
Who has withdrawn his hand from [oppressing] the poor, who has not received interest or increase [from the needy] but has executed My ordinances and has walked in My statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity of his father; he shall surely live.


text:
As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother, and did that which is not good among his people, behold, he shall die for his iniquity <i>and</i> guilt.


text:
Yet do you say, Why does not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son has done that which is lawful and right and has kept all My statutes and has done them, he shall surely live.


text:
The soul that sins, it [is the one that] shall die. The son shall not bear <i>and</i> be punished for the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear <i>and</i> be punished for the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him only, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon the wicked only.


text:
But if the wicked man turns from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all My statutes and does that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.


text:
None of his transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; for his righteousness which he has executed [for his moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relation], he shall live.


text:
Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? says the Lord, and not rather that he should turn from his evil way <i>and</i> return [to his God] and live?


text:
But if the righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? None of his righteous deeds which he has done shall be remembered. In his trespass that he has trespassed and in his sin that he has sinned, in them shall he die.


text:
Yet you say, The way of the Lord is not fair <i>and</i> just. Hear now, O house of Israel: Is not My way fair <i>and</i> just? Are not your ways unfair <i>and</i> unjust?


text:
When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity and dies in his sins, for his iniquity that he has done he shall die.


text:
Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness which he has committed and does that which is lawful and right, he shall save his life.


text:
Because he considers and turns away from all his transgressions which he has committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.


text:
Yet says the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not fair and just! O house of Israel, are not My ways fair and just? Are not your ways unfair and unjust?


text:
Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin <i>and</i> so shall they not be a stumbling block to you. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
Cast away from you all your transgressions by which you have transgressed against Me, and make you a new mind <i>and</i> heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, O house of Israel? <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies, says the Lord God. Therefore turn (be converted) and live!


text:
And say, What a lioness was your mother [Jerusalem-Judah]! She couched among lions; in the midst of young lions she nourished her cubs.


text:
And she [the royal mother-city] brought up one of her cubs [Jehoahaz]; he became a young lion and he learned to catch the prey; he devoured men. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with hooks to the land of Egypt. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Now when she had waited, she saw her hope was lost. Then she took another of her cubs [Jehoiachin] and made him a young lion. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
And he [Jehoiachin] went up and down among the lions; he became a young lion and learned to catch prey, and he devoured men.


text:
And he knew <i>and</i> ravaged their strongholds and he laid waste their cities, and the land was appalled and all who were in it by the noise of his roaring.


text:
Then the nations set against [the king] on every side from the provinces, and they spread their net over him [Jehoiachin]; he was taken in their pit. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
With hooks they put him in a cage and brought him to the king of Babylon; they brought him into custody <i>and</i> put him in strongholds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.


text:
Your mother [the mother-city Jerusalem] was like a vine [like you, Zedekiah, and in your blood] planted by the waters; it was fruitful and full of branches by reason of abundant water. <f>ⓔ</f>


text:
And it had strong rods for the scepters of those who bore rule and its height was exalted among the thick branches <i>and</i> into the clouds, and it was seen in its height among the multitude of its branches <i>and</i> was conspicuous.


text:
But the vine was plucked up in God’s wrath [by His agent the Babylonian king] and it was cast down to the ground; the east wind dried up its fruit; its strong rods were broken off and withered; the fire [of God’s judgment] consumed them.


text:
And fire went out of a rod [Zedekiah] of its branches which has consumed the vine’s fruit, so that it has in it no [longer a] strong rod to be a scepter for ruling. This is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation <i>and</i> a dirge.


text:
In the seventh year, in the fifth [month], on the tenth [day] of the month [after the beginning of the Babylonian captivity, which was to last seventy years], certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord and sat down before me [Ezekiel, in Babylonia]. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Have you come to inquire of Me? As I live, says the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you!


text:
Will you judge them, son of man [Ezekiel], will you judge them? Then cause them to know, understand, <i>and</i> realize the abominations of their fathers. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
And say to them, Thus says the Lord God: In the day when I chose Israel and lifted up My hand <i>and</i> swore to the offspring of the house of Jacob and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up My hand <i>and</i> swore to them, saying, I am the Lord your God,


text:
On that day I lifted up My hand <i>and</i> swore to them to bring them out of the land of Egypt to a land that I had searched out for them, flowing with milk and honey, [a land] which is an ornament <i>and</i> a glory to all lands.


text:
Then said I to them, Let every man cast away the abominable things on which he feasts his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.


text:
But they rebelled against Me and would not listen to Me; they did not every man cast away the abominable things on which they feasted their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I [thought], I will pour out My wrath upon them and finish My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.


text:
But I acted for My name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the [heathen] nations among whom they dwelt, in whose sight I made Myself known to them by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.


text:
And I gave them My statutes and showed <i>and</i> made known to them My judgments, which, if a man keeps, he must live in <i>and</i> by them.


text:
Moreover, also I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might understand <i>and</i> realize that I am the Lord Who sanctifies them [separates and sets them apart].


text:
But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness; they walked not in My statutes and they despised <i>and</i> cast away My judgments, which, if a man keeps, he must even live in <i>and</i> by them; and they grievously profaned My Sabbaths. Then I thought I would pour out My wrath on them in the wilderness and uproot <i>and</i> consume them.


text:
But I acted for My name’s sake, that it should not be profaned before the [heathen] nations in whose sight I brought them out.


text:
Yet also I lifted up My hand to swear to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the ornament <i>and</i> glory of all lands —


text:
Because they despised <i>and</i> rejected My ordinances and walked not in My statutes and profaned My Sabbaths, for their hearts went after their idols.


text:
Yet My eye pitied them instead of destroying them, and I did not make a full end of them in the wilderness.


text:
But I said to their sons in the wilderness, You shall not walk in the statutes of your fathers nor observe their ordinances nor defile yourselves with their idols.


text:
And hallow (separate and keep holy) My Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that I am the Lord your God.


text:
Yet the sons rebelled against Me; they walked not in My statutes, neither kept My ordinances which, if a man does, he must live in <i>and</i> by them; they profaned My Sabbaths. Then I thought I would pour out My wrath on them and finish My anger against them in the wilderness.


text:
Yet I withheld My hand and acted for My name’s sake, that it should not be debased and profaned in the sight of the [heathen] nations, in whose sight I had brought them forth [from bondage].


text:
Moreover, I lifted up My hand <i>and</i> swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the [heathen] nations and disperse them in the countries,


text:
Because they had not executed My ordinances but had despised <i>and</i> rejected My statutes and had profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were set on their fathers’ idols.


text:
Wherefore also I gave them [over to] statutes that were not good and ordinances whereby they should not live <i>and</i> could not have life, <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
And I [let them] pollute <i>and</i> make themselves unclean in their own offerings [to their idols], in that they caused to pass through the fire all the firstborn, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that I am the Lord. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Again in this your fathers blasphemed Me, in that they dealt faithlessly <i>and</i> treacherously with Me and committed a treasonous trespass against Me.


text:
For when I had brought them into the land which I lifted up My hand <i>and</i> swore to give to them, then they saw every high hill and every dark <i>and</i> leafy tree [as a place for idol worship], and they offered there their sacrifices and there they presented their offering that provoked My anger <i>and</i> sadness; there also they made their sweet-smelling savor and poured out there their drink offerings.


text:
Then I said to them, What is the high place to which you go? And the name of it is called Bamah [high place] to this day.


text:
Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Do you [exiles] debase <i>and</i> defile yourselves after the manner of your fathers? And do you play the harlot after their loathsome <i>and</i> detestable things?


text:
And when you offer your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, do you not debase <i>and</i> defile yourselves with all your idols to this day? And shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you!


text:
And that which has come up in your mind shall never happen, in that you think, We will be as the nations, as the tribes of the countries, to serve idols of wood and stone.


text:
As I live, says the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out will I be King over you.


text:
And I will bring you out from the peoples and will gather you out of the countries in which you are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out.


text:
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter into judgment with you <i>and</i> contend with you face to face.


text:
As I entered into judgment <i>and</i> contended with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment <i>and</i> contend with you, says the Lord God. <f>ⓔ</f>


text:
And I will cause you to pass under the rod [as the shepherd does his sheep when he counts them, and I will count you as Mine and I will constrain you] and bring you into the covenant to which you are permanently bound. <f>ⓕ</f>


text:
And I will purge out <i>and</i> separate from among you the rebels and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they temporarily dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you shall know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that I am the Lord. <f>ⓖ</f>


text:
As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord God: Go, serve every one of you his idols, now and hereafter, if you will not listen to Me! But you shall not profane My holy name any more with your sacrificial gifts and your idols!


text:
For on My holy mountain, on the mountain height of Israel, says the Lord God, there all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, shall serve Me. There will I [graciously] accept them, and there will I require your offerings and the firstfruits <i>and</i> the choicest of your contributions, with all your sacred things.


text:
I will accept you [graciously] as a pleasant odor when I lead you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries in which you have been scattered, and I will manifest My holiness among you in the sight of the nations [who will seek Me because of My power displayed in you]. <f>ⓗ</f>


text:
And you shall know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that I am the Lord, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country which I lifted up My hand <i>and</i> swore to give to your fathers.


text:
And there you shall [earnestly] remember your ways and all your doings with which you have defiled yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evil deeds which you have done.


text:
And you shall know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that I am the Lord, when I deal with you for My name’s sake, not according to your evil ways nor according to your corrupt doings, O house of Israel, says the Lord God.


text:
Son of man, set your face toward the south, preach against the south, and prophesy against the forest land of the South (the Negeb),


text:
And say to the forest of the South (the Negeb), Hear the word of the Lord; Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in you and it shall devour every green tree in you and every dry tree. The blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be scorched by it.


text:
Then said I, Ah, Lord God! They are saying of me, Does he not speak in parables <i>and</i> make allegories?


text:
Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem and direct your [prophetic] word against the holy places; prophesy against the land of Israel


text:
And say to the land of Israel, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am against you and will draw forth My sword out of its sheath and will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked.


text:
Because I will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My sword go out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north,


text:
And all living shall know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that I the Lord have drawn My sword out of its sheath; it shall not be sheathed any more.


text:
Sigh therefore, son of man! With breaking heart and with bitterness shall you sigh before their eyes.


text:
And it shall be that when they say to you, Why do you sigh? that you shall answer, Because of the tidings. When it comes, every heart will melt and all hands will be feeble, and every spirit will faint and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it comes and it shall be fulfilled, says the Lord God.


text:
Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord: Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened and also polished;


text:
It [the sword of Babylon] is sharpened that it may make a slaughter, polished that it may flash <i>and</i> glitter like lightning! Shall we then rejoice <i>and</i> make mirth [when such a calamity is impending]? But the rod <i>or</i> scepter of My son [Judah] rejects <i>and</i> views with contempt every tree [that is, since God’s promise long ago to Judah is certain, he believes Judah’s scepter must remain no matter what power arises against it]! <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
And the sword [of Babylon] is given to be polished that it may be put to use; the sword is sharpened and polished to be given into the hand of the slayer.


text:
Cry and wail, son of man, for it is against My people; it is against all the princes of Israel; they are thrown to the sword along with My people, <i>and</i> terrors by reason of the sword are upon My people. Therefore smite your thigh [in dismay].


text:
For this sword has been tested <i>and</i> proved [on others], and what if the rejecting <i>and</i> despising rod <i>or</i> scepter of Judah shall be no more but completely swept away? says the Lord God.


text:
Therefore, son of man, prophesy and smite your hands together and let the sword be doubled, yes, trebled in intensity — the sword for those to be overthrown <i>and</i> pierced through; it is the sword of great slaughter which encompasses them [so that none can escape, even by entering into their inner chambers].


text:
I have set the threatening <i>and</i> glittering sword against all their gates, that their hearts may melt and their stumblings be multiplied. Ah! It is made [to flash] like lightning; it is pointed <i>and</i> sharpened for slaughter.


text:
Turn [O sword] and cut right or cut left, whichever way your lust for blood <i>and</i> your edge direct you.


text:
Also, son of man, mark out two ways by which the sword of the king of Babylon may come; both shall come forth from the same land. And make a signpost (a hand); make it at the head of the way to a city.


text:
You shall point out a way for the [Babylonian] sword to come to Rabbah [the capital] of the sons of Ammon and to Judah with Jerusalem, the fortified <i>and</i> inaccessible.


text:
For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the fork of the two ways, to use divination. He shakes the arrows to and fro, he consults the teraphim (household gods), he looks at the liver.


text:
In his right hand is the lot marked for Jerusalem: to set battering rams, to open the mouth calling for slaughter, to lift up the voice with a war cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up siege mounds, and to build siege towers.


text:
And it shall seem like a lying divination to them who have sworn oaths [of allegiance to Nebuchadnezzar]. [Will he now fight against their homeland?] But he will remind them of their guilt <i>and</i> iniquity [in violating those oaths], that they may be caught. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have made your guilt <i>and</i> iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear — because, I say, you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken with the [enemy’s] hand.


text:
And you, O dishonored and wicked one [Zedekiah], the prince of Israel, whose day will come at the time of your final reckoning <i>and</i> punishment,


text:
Thus says the Lord God: Remove the [high priest’s] miter <i>or</i> headband and take off the [king’s] crown; things shall not remain as they have been; the low is to be exalted and the high is to be brought low.


text:
I will overthrow, overthrow, overthrow it; this also shall be no more until He comes Whose right it is [to reign in judgment and in righteousness], and I will give it to Him. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
And you, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord God concerning the sons of Ammon and concerning their reproach: Say, A sword, a sword is drawn for the slaughter; it is polished to cause it to devour to the uttermost <i>and</i> to flash like lightning,


text:
While they see for you false visions, while they divine lies for you to lay you [of Ammon] upon the headless trunks of those who are slain, of the wicked whose day is coming at the time of the final reckoning <i>and</i> punishment.


text:
Return [the sword] to its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin <i>and</i> of your birth, I will judge you.


text:
And I will pour out My indignation upon you [O sons of Ammon]; I will blow upon you with the fire of My wrath and will deliver you into the hand of brutish men, skillful to destroy.


text:
You shall be for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land; you shall be no more remembered, for I the Lord have spoken it. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
And you son of man [Ezekiel], will you judge, will you judge the bloodshedding city? Then cause her to know all her abominations,


text:
And say, Thus says the Lord God: A city that sheds blood in the midst of her so that her time [of doom] will come, and makes idols [over those who worship them] to defile her!


text:
In your blood which you have shed you have become guilty, and you are defiled by the idols which you have made, and you have caused your time [of judgment and punishment] to draw near and have arrived at the full measure of your years. Therefore have I made you a reproach to the [heathen] nations and a mocking to all countries.


text:
Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been intending to shed blood.


text:
In you have they treated father and mother lightly; in the midst of you they have dealt unjustly <i>and</i> by oppression in relation to the stranger; in you they have wronged the fatherless and the widow.


text:
In you are slanderous men who arouse suspicions to shed blood, and in you are they who have eaten [food offered to idols] upon the mountains; in the midst of you they have committed lewdness.


text:
In you men have uncovered their fathers’ nakedness [the nakedness of mother or stepmother]; in you they have humbled women who are [ceremonially] unclean [during their periods or because of childbirth].


text:
And one has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife, another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law, and another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter.


text:
In you they have accepted bribes to shed blood; you have taken [forbidden] interest and [percentage of] increase, and you have greedily gained from your neighbors by oppression <i>and</i> extortion and have forgotten Me, says the Lord God.


text:
Behold therefore, I have struck My hands together at your dishonest gain which you have made and at the blood which has been in the midst of you.


text:
Can your heart <i>and</i> courage endure or can your hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with you? I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it.


text:
And I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will consume your filthiness out of you.


text:
And you shall be dishonored <i>and</i> profane yourself in the sight of the nations, and you shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord.


text:
Son of man, the house of Israel has become to Me scum <i>and</i> waste matter. All of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of the furnace; they are the dross of silver.


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have all become scum <i>and</i> waste matter, behold therefore, I will gather you [O Israel] into the midst of Jerusalem.


text:
As they gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it in order to melt it, so will I gather you in My anger and in My wrath, and I will put you in and melt you.


text:
Yes, I will gather you and blow upon you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it.


text:
As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in the midst of it, and you shall know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that I the Lord have poured out My wrath upon you [O Israel].


text:
Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed nor rained upon in the day of indignation.


text:
There is a conspiracy of [Israel’s false] prophets in the midst of her, like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken [in their greed] treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in the midst of her.


text:
Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things. They have made no distinction between the sacred and the secular, neither have they taught people the difference between the unclean and the clean and have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.


text:
Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves rending <i>and</i> devouring the prey, shedding blood and destroying lives to get dishonest gain.


text:
And her prophets have daubed them over with whitewash, seeing false visions and divining lies to them, saying, Thus says the Lord God — when the Lord has not spoken.


text:
The people of the land have used oppression <i>and</i> extortion and have committed robbery; yes, they have wronged <i>and</i> vexed the poor and needy; yes, they have oppressed the stranger <i>and</i> temporary resident wrongfully.


text:
And I sought a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.


text:
Therefore have I poured out My indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their own way have I repaid [by bringing it] upon their own heads, says the Lord God.


text:
And they played the harlot in Egypt. There they played the harlot in their youth; there their bosoms were pressed and there their virgin breasts were handled.


text:
And the names of them were Aholah the elder and Aholibah her sister, and they became Mine and they bore sons and daughters. As for the identity of their names, Aholah is Samaria and Aholibah is Jerusalem.


text:
And Aholah played the harlot when she was Mine, and she was foolishly fond of her lovers <i>and</i> doted on the Assyrians her neighbors,


text:
Who were clothed with blue, governors and deputies, all of them attractive young men, horsemen riding upon horses.


text:
And she bestowed her harlotries upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and on whomever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself.


text:
Neither has she left her harlotries since the days of Egypt [from where she brought them], for in her youth men there lay with her and handled her girlish bosom, and they poured out their sinful desire upon her.


text:
Wherefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians upon whom she doted.


text:
These uncovered her nakedness <i>and</i> shame; they took her sons and her daughters and they slew her with the sword, and her name became notorious <i>and</i> a byword among women when judgments were executed upon her.


text:
And her sister Aholibah saw this; yet she was more corrupt in her foolish fondness than she, and in her harlotries she was more wanton than her sister in her harlotries.


text:
She doted upon the Assyrians — governors and deputies, her neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.


text:
But [Aholibah] carried her harlotries further, for she saw men pictured upon the wall, the pictures of the Chaldeans sketched in bright red pigment,


text:
Girded with girdles on their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, a picture of Babylonian men whose native land was Chaldea,


text:
Then as soon as she saw [the sketches of] them, she doted on them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.


text:
And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their evil desire; and when she was polluted by them, she [Jerusalem] broke the relationship <i>and</i> pushed them away from her in disgust.


text:
So she flaunted her harlotries and exposed her nakedness, and I was disgusted and turned from her, as I had turned in disgust from her sister.


text:
Yet she multiplied her harlotries, remembering the days of her youth in which she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.


text:
For she doted upon her paramours there, whose lust was sensuous <i>and</i> vulgar like that of asses <i>or</i> stallions.


text:
Thus you yearned for the lewdness of your youth, when those of Egypt handled your bosom on account of your girlish breasts.


text:
Therefore, O Aholibah, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will rouse up your lovers against you, from whom you turned in disgust, and I will bring them against you on every side:


text:
The Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, desirable young men, governors and officers all of them, princes, men of renown <i>and</i> counselors, all of them riding on horses.


text:
And they shall come against you with weapons, chariots, wagons <i>and</i> wheels, and with a host of infantry which shall array themselves against you with buckler and shield and helmet round about; and I will commit the judgment <i>and</i> punishment to them, and they shall judge <i>and</i> punish you according to their [heathen] customs in such matters.


text:
And I will set My jealous indignation against you, and they shall deal with you in fury; they shall take away your nose and your ears, and those who are left of you shall fall by the sword; they shall take your sons and your daughters, and the remainder shall be devoured by the fire.


text:
Thus I will put an end to your lewdness and your harlotry brought from the land of Egypt, so that you will not lift up your eyes to them nor [earnestly] remember Egypt any more.


text:
For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hands of those from whom you turned away in disgust.


text:
They shall deal with you in hatred and shall take away all [the earnings of] your labor and shall leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your harlotry shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your wanton ways.


text:
These things shall be done to you, because you have played the harlot after the nations and because you have defiled yourself with their idols.


text:
You have walked in the way of your sister [Samaria, Israel’s capital]; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.


text:
Thus says the Lord God: You shall drink of your sister’s cup which is deep and wide <i>and</i> brimful; you shall be laughed to scorn and held in derision, for it contains much [too much to endure].


text:
You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of wasting astonishment <i>and</i> horror and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria.


text:
You shall drink it and drain it out, and then gnaw the pieces of it [which in your drunkenness you have broken] and shall tear your [own] breasts; for I have spoken it, says the Lord God.


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have forgotten Me [your divine Husband] and cast Me behind your back, therefore bear also [the consequences of] your lewdness and your harlotry.


text:
The Lord said, moreover, to me: Son of man, will you judge Aholah and Aholibah? Then declare <i>and</i> show to them their abominations (the detestable, loathsome, and shamefully vile things they do),


text:
For they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands, even with their idols have they committed adultery [against Me]. And they have also caused their sons, whom they bore to Me, to pass through the fire to their images [as an offering of food] to be devoured [by them].


text:
Moreover, this they have done to Me: they have defiled My sanctuary on the same day [of their idolatries] and have profaned My Sabbaths.


text:
For when they had slain their children [as offerings] to their idols, then they came the same day into My sanctuary to profane it [by daring to offer sacrifice there also]! And behold, thus have they done in the midst of My house!


text:
And furthermore, you have sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came — those for whom you washed yourself, painted your eyelids, and decked yourself with ornaments;


text:
And you sat upon a stately couch with a table spread before it upon which you set My incense and My oil.


text:
And the sound of a careless crowd was with her, and with men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness, who put bracelets upon the hands of both sisters and beautiful crowns upon their heads.


text:
Then I said of the one [Aholah] worn out with adulteries, Will they now play the harlot with her [now that she is old] and she with them?


text:
Yet they went in to her as they go in to a woman who plays the harlot; so they went in to Aholah and to Aholibah [Israel and Judah], the lewd women.


text:
And the righteous men, they shall judge <i>and</i> condemn them to the punishment due to adulteresses, to women who shed blood, for they are adulteresses and blood is upon their hands.


text:
For thus says the Lord God: I will bring up a host upon them and will give them over to be tossed to and fro and robbed.


text:
And the host shall stone them with stones and cut them down with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters and burn up their houses with fire.


text:
Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.


text:
Thus your lewdness shall be recompensed upon you and you shall suffer the penalty for your sinful idolatry; and you shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord God.


text:
Again in the ninth year [of King Jehoiachin’s captivity by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon], in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,


text:
Son of man, record the name of the day, even of this same day; the king of Babylon set himself against <i>and</i> assailed Jerusalem this same day.


text:
And utter a parable against the rebellious house [of Judah] and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Put on a pot; put it on and also pour water into it.


text:
Put into it the pieces [of meat], all the good pieces, the thigh and the shoulder; fill it with the choice of the bones.


text:
Take the choicest of the flock and burn also the unused bones under it, and make it boil well and seethe its bones in [the pot].


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose rust <i>and</i> scum are in it and whose rust <i>and</i> scum have not gone out of it! Take out of it piece by piece, without making any choice.


text:
For the blood she has shed remains in the midst of her; she put it upon the bare rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust.


text:
That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance, I have put her blood [guilt for her children sacrificed to Molech] upon the bare rock, that it would not be covered.


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Woe to the bloodguilty city! Also I will make the pile [of fuel] great.


text:
Heap on wood, kindle the fire <i>and</i> make it hot, boil well the meat <i>and</i> mix the spices, pour out the broth when thick, and let the bones be burned up.


text:
Then set [the pot Jerusalem] back empty upon the coals, that the bronze of it may be hot and may glow and the filthiness of it may be melted in it and the rust <i>and</i> scum of it may be consumed.


text:
She has wearied herself <i>and</i> Me with toil; yet her great rust <i>and</i> scum go not forth out of her, for however hotly the fire burns, her thick rust <i>and</i> filth will not go out of her by fire.


text:
In your filthiness is abomination; [and therefore] because I would have cleansed you and you were not cleansed, you shall not be cleansed from your filthiness any more until I have satisfied My wrath against <i>and</i> upon you.


text:
I the Lord have spoken it; it shall come to pass and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I relent; according to your ways and according to your doings shall they judge <i>and</i> punish you, says the Lord God.


text:
Son of man [Ezekiel], behold, I take away from you the desire of your eyes [your wife] at a single stroke. Yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, neither shall your tears flow.


text:
Sigh <i>and</i> groan, but not aloud [be silent]; make no mourning for the dead; bind your turban upon your head and put your shoes on your feet, and do not cover your beard or eat the bread of mourners [furnished by others].


text:
So I spoke to the people in the morning and in the evening my wife died, and I did the next morning as I was commanded.


text:
And the people said to me, Will you not tell us what these things are supposed to mean to us, that you are acting as you do?


text:
Speak to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will profane My sanctuary — [in which you take] pride as your strength, the desire of your eyes, and the pity <i>and</i> sympathy of your soul [that you would spare with your life]; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind shall fall by the sword.


text:
And you shall do as I [Ezekiel] have done; you shall not cover your beard nor eat the bread of mourning [brought to you by others],


text:
And your turbans shall be upon your heads and your shoes upon your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but you shall pine away for your iniquities (your guilt) and sigh <i>and</i> groan to one another. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Thus Ezekiel is to you a sign; according to all that he has done you shall do. And when this [destruction of the temple] comes, you shall know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that I am the Lord God [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].


text:
And you, son of man, on the day when I take from them [My temple] their strength <i>and</i> their stronghold, their joy and their glory, the delight of their eyes and their hearts’ chief desire, and also [take] their sons and their daughters —


text:
On that day an escaped fugitive shall come to you to cause you to hear of it [the destruction of Jerusalem] with your own ears.


text:
In that day your mouth shall be open to him who has escaped, and you shall speak and be no more speechless, and you shall be a sign to them and they shall know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that I am the Lord.


text:
And say to the Ammonites, Hear the word of the Lord God, for thus says the Lord God: Because you said Aha! over My sanctuary when it was profaned and over the land of Israel when it was made desolate and over the house of Judah when it went into captivity <i>and</i> exile,


text:
Therefore behold, I am delivering you to the people of the East for a possession, and they shall set their encampments among you and make their dwellings in your midst; they shall eat your fruit and they shall drink your milk.


text:
And I will make Rabbah [your chief city] a stable for camels and [the cities of] the Ammonites a fold for flocks. And you shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].


text:
For thus says the Lord God: Because you have clapped your hands and stamped with the feet and rejoiced [in heart] with all the contempt, malice, <i>and</i> spite that is in you against the land of Israel,


text:
Therefore behold, I have stretched out My hand against you and will hand you over for a prey <i>and</i> a spoil to the nations, and I will cut you off from the peoples and will cause you to perish <i>and</i> be lost out of the countries; I will destroy you. Then will you know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service]. <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Thus says the Lord God: Because Moab says, as does Seir [Edom], Behold, the house of Judah is like all the [heathen] nations,


text:
Therefore behold, I will lay open the flank of Moab from the cities, from its cities on its frontiers <i>and</i> in every quarter, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim.


text:
I will give it along with the children of Ammon to the people of the East for a possession, that it <i>and</i> the children of Ammon may not be [any more seriously] remembered among the nations.


text:
And I will execute judgments <i>and</i> punishments upon Moab, and they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service]. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
Thus says the Lord God: Because Edom has dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance and has greatly offended <i>and</i> has become doubly guilty by taking revenge upon them,


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will also stretch out My hand against Edom and will cut off <i>and</i> root out man and beast from it, and I will make it desolate; from Teman even to Dedan they shall fall by the sword.


text:
And I will lay My vengeance upon Edom by the hand of My people Israel, and they shall do upon Edom according to My anger and according to My wrath, and they shall know My vengeance, says the Lord God. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
Thus says the Lord God: Because the Philistines have dealt revengefully and have taken vengeance contemptuously, with malice <i>and</i> spite in their hearts, to destroy in perpetual enmity,


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will stretch out My hand against the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites [an immigration in Philistia] and destroy the remainder of the seacoast.


text:
And I will execute great vengeance upon them with wrathful rebukes <i>and</i> chastisements, and they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord, when I lay My vengeance upon them. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
And in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month [after the carrying away of King Jehoiachin], the word of the Lord came to me, saying,


text:
Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha! She is broken that has been the gate of the people; she is open to me [Tyre]; I shall become full now that she is desolate <i>and</i> a wasteland,


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you as the sea mounts up by its waves.


text:
And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers; I will also <f>[1]</f>scrape her dust from her and make her bare like the top of a rock.


text:
Her island in the midst of the sea shall become a place for the spreading of nets, for I have spoken it, says the Lord God; and she shall become a prey <i>and</i> a spoil to the nations.


text:
And Tyre’s daughters [her towns and villages on the mainland] in the level place shall be slain by the sword, and they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].


text:
For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring from the north upon Tyre <f>[2]</f>Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, with horses and chariots and with horsemen and a host of many people.


text:
He shall slay with the sword your daughters [the towns and villages] in the level area [on the mainland], and he shall make a fortified wall against you and cast up a siege mound against you and raise up a roof of bucklers <i>and</i> shields as a defense against you.


text:
And he shall set his battering engines in shock against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers.


text:
Because of the great number of [Nebuchadrezzar’s] horses, their dust will cover you; your walls [O Tyre] will shake at the noise of the horsemen and of the wagon wheels and of the chariots, when he enters into your gates as men enter into the city in whose walls there has been made a breach.


text:
With the hoofs of his horses [Nebuchadrezzar] will trample all your streets; he will slay your people with the sword and your strong pillars <i>or</i> obelisks will fall to the ground.


text:
And [your adversaries] shall make a spoil of your riches and make booty of your merchandise. And they shall break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses, and they shall lay the stones and the timber and the very dust from your demolished city out in the midst of the water [between the island and the mainland city site to make a causeway].


text:
And I will cause the noise of your songs to cease, and the sound of your lyres shall be no more heard.


text:
And I will make you [Tyre] a <f>[3]</f>bare rock; you shall be a place upon which to spread nets; you shall never be rebuilt, for I the Lord have spoken it, says the Lord God.


text:
Thus says the Lord God to Tyre: Shall not the isles <i>and</i> coastlands shake at the sound of your fall when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is made in the midst of you?


text:
Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones and lay aside their robes and strip off their embroidered garments; they shall clothe themselves with tremblings; they shall sit upon the ground and shall tremble every moment and be astonished at you <i>and</i> appalled.


text:
They shall take up a lamentation over you and say to you, How you are destroyed <i>and</i> vanished, O renowned city that was won from the seas <i>and</i> inhabited by seafaring men, renowned city that was mighty on the sea, she and her inhabitants who caused their terror to fall upon all who dwell there!


text:
Now the isles <i>and</i> coastlands tremble in the day of your fall; yes, the isles that are in the sea are troubled <i>and</i> dismayed at your departure.


text:
For thus says the Lord God: When I make you a desolate city like the cities that are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep over you and great waters cover you,


text:
Then I will thrust you down with those who descend into the pit (the place of the dead) to the people of olden times, and I will make you [Tyre] to dwell in the lower world like the places that were desolate of old, with those who go down to the pit, that you be not inhabited or shed forth your glory <i>and</i> renown in the land of the living.


text:
I will make you a terror [bring you to a dreadful end] and you shall be no more. Though you be sought, yet you shall never be found again, says the Lord God.


text:
And say to Tyre, O you who dwell at the entrance to the sea, who are merchant of the peoples of many islands <i>and</i> coastlands, thus says the Lord God: O Tyre, you have thought <i>and</i> said, I am perfect in beauty.


text:
They have made all your planks <i>and</i> boards of fir trees from Senir [a peak of Mount Hermon]; they have taken a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you.


text:
Of the oaks of Bashan they have made your oars; they have made your deck <i>and</i> benches of boxwood from the coasts of Cyprus, inlaid with ivory.


text:
Of fine linen with embroidered work from Egypt was your sail, that it might be an ensign for you; blue and purple from the coasts of Elishah [of Asia Minor] was the [ship’s] awning which covered you.


text:
The inhabitants of Sidon and [the island] of Arvad were your oarsmen; your skilled <i>and</i> wise men, O Tyre, were in you; they were your pilots.


text:
The old men of Gebal [a city north of Sidon] and its skilled <i>and</i> wise men in you were your calkers; all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in you to deal in your merchandise <i>and</i> trading.


text:
Persia and Lud and Put were in your army as your men of war; they hung the shield and helmet in you; they gave you beauty <i>and</i> splendor.


text:
The men of Arvad with your army were upon your walls round about and valorous men [of Gamad] were in your towers; they hung their shields upon your walls round about; they have perfected your beauty <i>and</i> splendor.


text:
Tarshish [in Spain] carried on traffic with you because of the abundance of your riches of all kinds; with silver, iron, tin, and lead they traded for your wares.


text:
Javan (Greece), Tubal, and Meshech [in the mountainous region between the Black and Caspian Seas] traded with you. They exchanged the lives of men [taken as slaves] and vessels of bronze for your merchandise.


text:
They of the house of Togarmah (Armenia) traded for your wares with [chariot] horses, cavalry horses, and mules.


text:
The men of Dedan [in Arabia] traded with you; many islands <i>and</i> coastlands were your own markets; they brought you in payment <i>or</i> as presents ivory tusks and ebony.


text:
Aram (Syria or Mesopotamia) <i>and Edom</i> traded with you because of the multitude of the wares of your making. They exchanged for your merchandise emeralds, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and agate <i>or</i> rubies.


text:
Judah and the land of Israel, they were your traders; they exchanged in your market wheat of Minnith [in Ammon], olives <i>or</i> early figs, honey, oil, and balm.


text:
Damascus traded with you because of the abundance of supplies of your handiworks and the immense wealth of every kind, with wine of Helbon [Aleppo] and white wool [of Sachar in Syria].


text:
Vedan also and [Arabic] Javan traded with yarn from Uzal [in Arabia] for your wares; wrought iron, cassia, and calamus were exchanged for your merchandise.


text:
Arabia and all the princes of Kedar, they were the merchants in lambs, rams, and goats favored by you; in these they traded with you.


text:
The merchants of Sheba and Raamah [in Arabia] traded with you; they exchanged for your wares the choicest of all kinds of spices and all precious stones and gold.


text:
Haran and Canneh and Eden [in Mesopotamia], the merchants of Sheba [on the Euphrates], Asshur, and Chilmad [near Bagdad] were your traders.


text:
These traded with you in choice fabrics, in bales of garments of blue and embroidered work, and in treasures of many colored rich damask <i>and</i> carpets bound with cords and made firm; in these they traded with you.


text:
The ships of Tarshish were your caravans for your merchandise, and you were replenished [Tyre] and were heavily loaded <i>and</i> made an imposing fleet [in your location] in the heart of the seas.


text:
Your rowers have brought you out into great <i>and</i> deep waters; the east wind has broken <i>and</i> wrecked you in the heart of the seas.


text:
Your riches, your wares, your merchandise, your oarsmen and your pilots, your caulkers, your dealers in merchandise, and all your men of war who are in you, with all your company which is in your midst, sink in the heart of the seas on the day of your ruin!


text:
The waves <i>and</i> the countryside shake at the [piercing] sound of the [hopeless, wailing] cry of your pilots.


text:
And down from their ships come all who handle the oar. The mariners and all the pilots of the sea stand upon the shore


text:
And are heard wailing loudly over you, and they cry bitterly. They cast up dust on their heads; they wallow in ashes,


text:
And they make themselves [utterly] bald for you and gird themselves with sackcloth, and they weep over you in bitterness of heart and with bitter mourning <i>and</i> wailing.


text:
And in their wailing they take up a lamentation for you and lament over you, saying, Who was ever like Tyre, the destroyed (the annihilated), [who has become so still] in the heart of the sea?


text:
When your wares came forth from the seas, you met the desire, the demand, <i>and</i> the necessities of many people; you enriched the kings of the earth with your abundant wealth and merchandise.


text:
Now you are shattered by the seas in the depths of the waters; your merchandise and all your crew have gone down with you.


text:
All the inhabitants of the isles <i>and</i> coastlands are astonished <i>and</i> appalled at you, and their kings are horribly frightened <i>and</i> shudder greatly; their faces quiver.


text:
The merchants among the people hiss over you [with malicious joy]; you have become a horror <i>and</i> a source of terrors. You shall be <f>[1]</f>no more [forever].


text:
Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord God: Because your heart is lifted up and you have said <i>and</i> thought, I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas; yet you are only man [weak, feeble, made of earth] and not God, though you imagine yourself to be almost more than mortal with your mind as the mind of God;


text:
Indeed, you are [imagining yourself] wiser than Daniel; there is no secret [you think] that is hidden from you;


text:
With your own wisdom and with your own understanding you have gotten you riches <i>and</i> power and have brought gold and silver into your treasuries;


text:
By your great wisdom and by your traffic you have increased your riches <i>and</i> power, and your heart is proud <i>and</i> lifted up because of your wealth;


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have imagined your mind as the mind of God [having thoughts and purposes suitable only to God Himself], <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
Behold therefore, I am bringing strangers upon you, the most terrible of the nations, and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom [O Tyre], and they shall defile your splendor.


text:
They shall bring you down to the pit [of destruction] and you shall die the [many] deaths of all the Tyrians that are slain in the heart of the seas.


text:
Will you still say, I am a god, before him who slays you? But you are only a man [made of earth] and no god in the hand of him who wounds <i>and</i> profanes you.


text:
You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers, for I have spoken it, says the Lord God.


text:
Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, Thus says the Lord God: You are the full measure <i>and</i> pattern of exactness [giving the finishing touch to all that constitutes completeness], full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.


text:
You were in <f>[1]</f>Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the carnelian, topaz, jasper, chrysolite, beryl, onyx, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald; and your settings and your sockets <i>and</i> engravings were wrought in gold. On the day that you were created they were prepared. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
You were the anointed cherub that covers with overshadowing [wings], and I set you so. You were upon the holy mountain of God; you walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire [like the paved work of gleaming sapphire stone upon which the God of Israel walked on Mount Sinai]. <f>ⓒ</f>


text:
You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until iniquity <i>and</i> guilt were found in you.


text:
Through the abundance of your commerce you were filled with lawlessness <i>and</i> violence, and you sinned; therefore I cast you out as a profane thing from the mountain of God and the guardian cherub drove you out from the midst of the stones of fire.


text:
Your heart was proud <i>and</i> lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I lay you before kings, that they might gaze at you.


text:
You have profaned your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities <i>and</i> the enormity of your guilt, by the unrighteousness of your trade. Therefore I have brought forth a fire from your midst; it has consumed you, and I have reduced you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who looked at you.


text:
All who know you among the people are astonished and appalled at you; you have come to a horrible end and shall never return to being. <f>ⓓ</f>


text:
And say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Sidon, and I will show forth My glory <i>and</i> be glorified in the midst of you. And they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord when I execute judgments <i>and</i> punishments in her, and am set apart <i>and</i> separated <i>and</i> My holiness is manifested in her.


text:
For I will send pestilence into her and blood into her streets, and the wounded shall be judged <i>and</i> fall by the sword in the midst of her on every side, and they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].


text:
And there shall be no more a brier to prick the house of Israel or a hurting thorn of all those around them who have treated them with contempt, and they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord God [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].


text:
Thus says the Lord God: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and I shall be set apart <i>and</i> separated <i>and</i> My holiness made apparent in them in the sight of the nations, then shall they dwell in their own land which I gave to My servant Jacob.


text:
And they shall dwell safely in it and shall build houses and plant vineyards; yes, they shall dwell securely <i>and</i> with confidence when I have executed judgments <i>and</i> punishments upon all those round about them who have despised <i>and</i> trodden upon them <i>and</i> pushed them away, and they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord their God [their Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].


text:
In the tenth year [of the captivity of King Jehoiachin by the king of Babylon], in the tenth [month], on the twelfth [day] of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,


text:
Son of man, set your face toward Pharaoh king of Egypt and prophesy against him and against all Egypt.


text:
Say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster [of sluggish and unwieldy strength] that lies in the midst of his [delta] streams, [boastfully] declaring, My river Nile is my own and I have made it for myself.


text:
But I will put hooks in your jaws [O Egyptian dragon] and I will cause the fish of your rivers to stick to your scales, and I will draw you up out of the midst of your streams with all the fish of your streams which stick to your scales.


text:
And I will cast you forth into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers; you shall fall upon the open field and not be gathered up or buried. I have given you for food to the [wild] beasts of the earth and the birds of the heavens.


text:
And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service], because they have been a [deceitful] staff [made of fragile] reeds to the house of Israel.


text:
When they grasped you with the hand <i>and</i> leaned upon you, you broke and tore their whole shoulder, and [by injuring their muscles made them so stiff and rigid that] they could do no more than stand.


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will bring a sword upon you and cut off man and beast from you,


text:
And the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. And they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service]. Because you have said, The river is mine and I have made it,


text:
Behold therefore, I am against you and against your streams, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter [plundered] waste and desolation [of subjection] from [northern] Migdol to [southern] Syene, even as far as the border of Ethiopia.


text:
No foot of man shall pass through it [in travel], no foot of beast shall pass through it [in trade with other countries], neither shall [Egypt] be [truly] inhabited [again] for forty years.


text:
And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation [plundered and reduced to subjection] in the midst of desolated (plundered and reduced to subjection) countries, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be a desolation forty years. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and will disperse them through the countries.


text:
Yet thus says the Lord God: At the end of [their] forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered, <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
And I will reverse the captivity of Egypt [as I will that of Israel] and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros [under Egypt], the land of their origin, and they shall be there a lowly kingdom.


text:
It shall be the lowliest of the kingdoms, neither shall it <f>[1]</f>exalt itself any more above the nations; I will diminish [the Egyptians] so they shall never again rule over the nations.


text:
And never again shall Egypt have the confidence <i>and</i> be the reliance of the house of Israel; their iniquity will be brought to remembrance whenever [Israel] looks toward them [for help]. They shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord God [Who demands loyalty and obedient service].


text:
In the twenty-seventh year [after King Jehoiachin was taken to Babylon], in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,


text:
Son of man, <f>[2]</f>Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon caused his army to render heavy service [at My bidding] against Tyre; every [soldier’s] head became bald and every shoulder was worn <i>and</i> peeled [with carrying loads of earth and stones for siege works]. Yet he had no remuneration from Tyre [in proportion to the time and labor expended in the thirteen years’ siege], either for himself or his army, for the work that he had done against it [for Me].


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall carry off her great mass of people <i>and</i> of things (her riches) and take her spoil and take her prey, and it shall be the wages for his army.


text:
I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor with which he served [against Tyre] because they did it for Me, says the Lord God.


text:
In that day will I cause a horn to spring forth to the house of Israel and I will open your lips among them, and they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].


text:
For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time [of doom] for the nations.


text:
And a sword shall come upon Egypt, and anguish <i>and</i> great sorrow shall be in Ethiopia (Cush), when the slain fall in Egypt and they [of Babylon] carry away her great mass of people <i>and</i> of things and her foundations are broken down.


text:
Ethiopia (Cush) and Put, Lud and all the mingled people [foreigners living in Egypt], Cub (Lub, Libya) and the children of the land of the covenant [the Jews who had taken refuge in Egypt] shall fall with [the Egyptians] by the sword.


text:
Thus says the Lord: They also who uphold <i>or</i> lean upon <i>and</i> are supported by Egypt shall fall, and the pride of her power shall come down; from Migdol [in the north] to Syene [in the south] they shall fall within her by the sword, says the Lord God.


text:
And they shall be desolated in the midst of countries that are desolated, and her cities shall be in the midst of cities that are wasted [by plunder and subjection].


text:
And they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service], when I have set a fire in Egypt and all her helpers are broken <i>and</i> destroyed.


text:
In that day shall [swift] messengers go forth from Me in ships to terrify the careless <i>and</i> unsuspecting Ethiopians, and there shall be anguish <i>and</i> great sorrow upon them as in the day of Egypt’s [doom], for behold, [their day] comes!


text:
Thus says the Lord God: I will also make the tumult <i>and</i> the wealth <i>and</i> the large population of Egypt to cease by the hand of <f>[1]</f>Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon.


text:
He and his people with him, the [most] terrible of the nations, shall be brought in to destroy the land, and they shall draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain.


text:
And I will make the [artificial] streams [of the Nile delta] dry and will sell the land into the hand of evil men, and I will make the land desolate, and all that is in it, by the hand of strangers. I the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service] have spoken it.


text:
Thus says the Lord God: I will also destroy the idols and I will put an end to the images in Noph <i>or</i> Memphis, and there shall be no longer a prince of the land of Egypt. And I will put fear in the land of Egypt.


text:
And I will make Pathros desolate and will set fire to Zoan and will execute judgments <i>and</i> punishments upon No <i>or</i> Thebes.


text:
And I will pour My wrath upon Pelusium, the stronghold of Egypt, and I will cut off the tumult, the prosperity <i>and</i> the population of No <i>or</i> Thebes.


text:
And I will set fire to Egypt; Pelusium shall have great anguish and No <i>or</i> Thebes shall be torn open and Noph <i>or</i> Memphis shall have adversaries in the daytime <i>and</i> all the day long.


text:
The young men of Aven <i>or</i> On and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword, and the [women and children] shall go into captivity.


text:
At Tehaphnehes also the day shall withdraw itself <i>and</i> be dark when I break there the yokes <i>and</i> dominion of Egypt, and the pride of her power shall come to an end. As for her, a cloud [of calamities] shall cover her and her daughters shall go into captivity.


text:
Thus will I execute judgments <i>and</i> punishments upon Egypt. Then shall they know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].


text:
And in the eleventh year [after King Jehoiachin was taken to Babylon], in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,


text:
Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and behold, it has not been bound up to heal it by binding it with a bandage, to make it strong to hold <i>and</i> wield the sword.


text:
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt and will break his arms, both the strong one and the one which was broken, and I will cause the sword to fall from his hand.


text:
And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put My sword in his hand, but I will break Pharaoh’s arms and he will groan before [Nebuchadrezzar] with the groanings of a mortally wounded man.


text:
But I will strengthen <i>and</i> hold up the arms of the king of Babylon and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down, and they [of Egypt] shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service], when I put My sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he shall stretch it out upon the land of Egypt.


text:
And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them through the countries, and they shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].


text:
And in the eleventh year [after King Jehoiachin was taken captive to Babylon], in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,


text:
Behold, [I will liken you to] Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and with forestlike shade and of high stature, with its top among the thick boughs [even among the clouds].


text:
The waters nourished it; the deep made it grow tall; its rivers ran round about its planting, sending out its streams to all the trees of the forest [the other nations].


text:
Therefore it towered higher than all the trees of the forest; its boughs were multiplied and its branches became long, because there was much water when they were shot forth.


text:
All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs, and under its branches all the wild beasts of the field brought forth their young and under its shadow dwelt all of the great nations.


text:
Thus was it beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches, for its root was by many <i>and</i> great waters.


text:
The cedars in the garden of God could not hide <i>or</i> rival it; the cypress trees did not have boughs like it and the plane trees did not have branches like it, nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty.


text:
I made it beautiful with the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of <f>[1]</f>Eden that were in the garden of God envied it [Assyria].


text:
Therefore thus said the Lord God: Because it is exalted in stature and has set its top among the thick boughs <i>and</i> the clouds, and its heart is proud of its height, <f>ⓐ</f>


text:
I will even <f>[2]</f>deliver it into the hand of a mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with it. I have driven it out for its wickedness <i>and</i> lawlessness.


text:
And strangers, the most terrible of the nations, will cut it off and leave it; upon the mountains and in all the valleys its branches will fall and its boughs will lie broken by all the watercourses of the land, and all the peoples of the earth will go down out of its shade and leave it.


text:
Upon its ruins all the birds of the heavens will dwell, and all the wild beasts of the field will be upon [Assyria’s fallen] branches.


text:
All this is so that none of the trees by the waters may exalt themselves because of their height or shoot up their top among the thick boughs <i>and</i> the clouds, and that none of their mighty ones should stand upon [their own estimate of] themselves for their height, all that drink water. For they are all delivered over to death, to the lower world, in the midst of the children of men, with those who go down to the pit (the grave).


text:
Thus says the Lord God: When [Assyria] goes down to Sheol (the place of the dead), I will cause a mourning; I will cover the deep for it and I will restrain its floods, and the many waters [that contributed to its prosperity] will be stayed; and I will cause Lebanon to be in black gloom <i>and</i> to mourn for it, and all the trees of the field, dismayed, will faint because of it.


text:
I will make the nations quake at the sound of its fall when I cast it down to Sheol with those who descend into the pit, and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all [the trees] that drink water, will be comforted in the netherworld [at Assyria’s downfall].


text:
They also shall go down into Sheol with it to those who were slain by the sword — yes, those who were its arm, who dwelt under its shadow in the midst of the nations.


text:
To whom [O Egypt] among the trees of Eden are you thus like in glory and in greatness? Yet you [also] shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the netherworld. You shall lie among the <f>[3]</f>uncircumcised heathen with those who are slain by the sword. This is <f>[4]</f>how it shall be with Pharaoh and all the multitude of his strength, his tumult, <i>and</i> his store [of wealth and glory], says the Lord God. <f>ⓑ</f>


text:
In the twelfth year [after King Jehoiachin of Judah was taken into exile by the king of Babylon], in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,


text:
Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him, You have likened [yourself] to a young lion, leader of the nations, but you are like a [monster] dragon in the seas; you break forth in your rivers and trouble the waters with your feet, and you make foul their rivers [the sources of their prosperity].


text:
Thus says the Lord God: I will therefore throw out My net over you with a host of many peoples, and they shall bring you up in My dragnet.


text:
Then I will leave you [Egypt] upon the shore; I will cast you on the open field and will cause all the birds of the heavens to settle upon you, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with you.


text:
And I will scatter your flesh upon the mountains and fill the valleys with your high heap of corpses <i>and</i> their worms.


text:
I will also water with your flowing blood the land, even to the mountains, and the hollows <i>and</i> water channels shall be full of you.


text:
And when I have extinguished you, I will cover the heavens [of Egypt] and make their stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud and the moon shall not give her light.


text:
All the bright lights of the heavens I will make dark over you and set darkness upon your land, says the Lord God.


text:
I will also trouble <i>and</i> vex the hearts of many peoples when I bring your breaking <i>and</i> trembling <i>and</i> destruction <i>and</i> carry you captive among the nations, into the countries which you have not known.


text:
I will make many peoples amazed <i>and</i> appalled at you [Egypt], and their kings shall shudder <i>and</i> be horribly afraid because of you when I brandish My sword before them; they shall tremble every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your downfall.


text:
I will cause your multitude, your tumult, <i>and</i> your store [of wealth, strength, and glory] to fall by the swords of the mighty — the most terrible among the nations are they all. And they shall bring to nothing the pomp <i>and</i> pride of Egypt, and all its multitude [with its activity and its wealth in every sphere] shall be destroyed.


text:
I will destroy also all its beasts from beside many <i>and</i> great waters, and no foot of man shall trouble them any more, nor shall the hoofs of beasts trouble them.


text:
Then will I make their waters sink down (subside, be quiet, and become clear); their rivers I will cause to run [slowly and smoothly] like oil, says the Lord God.


text:
When I make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country is stripped <i>and</i> destitute of all that of which it was full when I smite all those who dwell in it, then will they know, understand, <i>and</i> realize that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who requires and calls forth loyalty and obedient service].


text:
This is the lamentation with which they shall intone <i>or</i> chant the lament for her; the daughters of the nations shall chant their lament with it; over Egypt and over all her multitude, her tumult, <i>and</i> her wealth in every sphere shall they chant it, says the Lord God.


text:
In the twelfth year [after King Jehoiachin of Judah was taken into exile], on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,


text:
Son of man, wail over the multitude of Egypt and cast them down, even her and the daughters of the famous <i>and</i> majestic nations, to the netherworld, with those who go down to the pit;


text:
Whom [among them] do you surpass in beauty? Go down and be laid with the uncircumcised (the heathen).


text:
They shall fall in the midst of those who are slain by the sword; she [Egypt] is delivered to the sword; they draw her down [to her judgment], and all her multitudes [with their noise and stores].


text:
The strong among the mighty shall speak of [Pharaoh] out of the midst of Sheol (the place of the dead, the netherworld) with those who helped him; they are gone down; they lie still, even the uncircumcised (the heathen) slain by the sword.


text:
Assyria is there and all her company; their graves are round about her, all of them slain, fallen by the sword,


text:
Whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit and whose company is round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror to spread in the land of the living.


text:
Elam [an auxiliary of Assyria] is there and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who have gone down uncircumcised into the netherworld, who caused their terror to spread in the land of the living and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit.


text:
They have set her a bed (a sepulcher) among the slain with all her multitude — their graves round about her, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, for their terror had spread in the land of the living, and they henceforth bear their shame with those who go down to the pit; they are laid in the midst of the slain.


text:
Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude are there; their graves are round about [Pharaoh], all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, for they caused their terror to be spread in the land of the living.


text:
And they shall not lie with the mighty who have fallen of the uncircumcised [and] who have gone down to Sheol (the place of the dead, the netherworld) with their weapons of war, whose swords were laid [with honors] under their heads and whose iniquities are upon their bones, for they caused their terror to spread in the land of the living.


