24 Jeremiah(예레미야) 36-52

[esse]

The Book of Jeremiah

The Book of Jeremiah is the prophecy of a man divinely called in his youth from the priest-city of Anathoth. A heartbroken prophet with a heartbreaking message, Jeremiah labors for more than forty years proclaiming a message of doom to the stiff-necked people of Judah. Despised and perse cuted by his countrymen, Jeremiah bathes his harsh prophecies in tears of compassion. His broken heart causes him to write a broken book, which is difficult to arrange chronologically or topically. But through his sermons and signs he faithfully declares that surrender to Gods will is the only way to escape calamity.

Yirmeyahu or Yirmeyah literally means “Yahweh Throws,” perhaps in the sense of laying a foundation. It may effectively mean “Yahweh Establishes, Appoints, or Sends.” The Greek form of the Hebrew name in the Septuagint is Hieremias, and the Latin form is Jeremias.

JJeremiah 36

The Scroll Read in the Temple

¹Now it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: ²“Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day. ³It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the adversities which I purpose to bring upon them, that everyone may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

⁴Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote on a scroll of a book, at the instruction of Jeremiah,^a all the words of the LORD which He had spoken to him. ⁵And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am confined, I cannot go into the house of the LORD. ⁶You go, therefore, and read from the scroll which you have written at my instruction,^a the words of theLORD, in the hearing of the people in the LORD’s house on the day of fasting. And you shall also read them in the hearing of all Judah who come from their cities. ⁷It may be that they will present their supplication before the LORD, and everyone will turn from his evil way. For great is the anger and the fury that the LORD has pronounced against this people.” ⁸And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from the book the words of theLORD in the LORD’s house.

⁹Now it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem. ¹⁰Then Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court at the entry of the New Gate of the LORD’s house, in the hearing of all the people.

The Scroll Read in the Palace

¹¹When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD from the book, ¹²he then went down to the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber; and there all the princes were sitting—Elishama the scribe, Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, Elnathan the son of Achbor, Gemariah the son of Shaphan, Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes. ¹³Then Michaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the book in the hearing of the people. ¹⁴Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the 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.” So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them. ¹⁵And they said to him, “Sit down now, and read it in our hearing.” So Baruch read it in their hearing.

¹⁶Now it happened, when they had heard all the words, that they looked in fear from one to another, and said to Baruch, “We will surely tell the king of all these words.” ¹⁷And they asked Baruch, saying, “Tell us now, how did you write all these words—at his instruction?”^a

¹⁸So Baruch answered them, “He proclaimed with his mouth all these words to me, and I wrotethem with ink in the book.”

¹⁹Then the princes said to Baruch, “Go and hide, you and Jeremiah; and let no one know where you are.”

The King Destroys Jeremiah’s Scroll

²⁰And they went to the king, into the court; but they stored the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the hearing of the king. ²¹So the king sent Jehudi to bring the scroll, and he took it from Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and in the hearing of all the princes who stood beside the king. ²²Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning on the hearth before him. ²³And it happened, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that the king cut it with the scribe’s knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. ²⁴Yet they were not afraid, nor did they tear their garments, the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words. ²⁵Nevertheless Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah implored the king not to burn the scroll; but he would not listen to them. ²⁶And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s^a son, Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the LORD hid them.

Jeremiah Rewrites the Scroll

²⁷Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch had written at the instruction of Jeremiah,^a the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying: ²⁸“Take yet another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned.²⁹And you shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, ‘Thus says the LORD: “You have burned this scroll, saying, ‘Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and cause man and beast to cease from here?’ ” ³⁰Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: “He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. ³¹I will punish him, his family, and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah all the doom that I have pronounced against them; but they did not heed.” ’ ”

³²Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the instruction of Jeremiah^a all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And besides, there were added to them many similar words.

Jeremiah 37

Zedekiah’s Vain Hope

¹Now King Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. ²But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land gave heed to the words of the LORD which He spoke by the prophet Jeremiah.

³And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “Pray now to the LORD our God for us.” ⁴Now Jeremiah was coming and going among the people, for they had not yet put him in prison. ⁵Then Pharaoh’s army came up from Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them, they departed from Jerusalem.

⁶Then the word of the LORD came to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, ⁷“Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Thus you shall say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Behold, Pharaoh’s army which has come up to help you will return to Egypt, to their own land. ⁸And the Chaldeans shall come back and fight against this city, and take it and burn it with fire.” ’ ⁹Thus says the LORD: ‘Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely depart from us,” for they will not depart. ¹⁰For though you had defeated the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and there remained only wounded men among them, they would rise up, every man in his tent, and burn the city with fire.’ ”

Jeremiah Imprisoned

¹¹And it happened, when the army of the Chaldeans left the siege of Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army, ¹²that Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin to claim his property there among the people. ¹³And when he was in the Gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard wasthere whose name was Irijah the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are defecting to the Chaldeans!”

¹⁴Then Jeremiah said, “False! I am not defecting to the Chaldeans.” But he did not listen to him.

So Irijah seized Jeremiah and brought him to the princes. ¹⁵Therefore the princes were angry with Jeremiah, and they struck him and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe. For they had made that the prison.

¹⁶When Jeremiah entered the dungeon and the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days,¹⁷then Zedekiah the king sent and took him out. The king asked him secretly in his house, and said, “Is there any word from the LORD?”

And Jeremiah said, “There is.” Then he said, “You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon!”

¹⁸Moreover Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “What offense have I committed against you, against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison? ¹⁹Where now are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land’? ²⁰Therefore please hear now, O my lord the king. Please, let my petition be accepted before you, and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.”

²¹Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah to the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread from the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was gone. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.

Jeremiah 38

Jeremiah in the Dungeon

¹Now Shephatiah the son of Mattan, Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, Jucal^a the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken to all the people, saying,²“Thus says the LORD: ‘He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes over to the Chaldeans shall live; his life shall be as a prize to him, and he shall live.’^a 3Thus says the LORD: ‘This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which shall take it.’ ”

⁴Therefore the princes said to the king, “Please, let this man be put to death, for thus he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man does not seek the welfare of this people, but their harm.”

⁵Then Zedekiah the king said, “Look, he is in your hand. For the king can do nothing against you.”⁶So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the king’s^a son, which was in the court of the prison, and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire. So Jeremiah sank in the mire.

⁷Now Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs, who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon. When the king was sitting at the Gate of Benjamin, ⁸Ebed-Melech went out of the king’s house and spoke to the king, saying: ⁹“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, and he is likely to die from hunger in the place where he is. For there is no more bread in the city.” ¹⁰Then the king commanded Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, saying, “Take from here thirty men with you, and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he dies.” ¹¹So Ebed-Melech took the men with him and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took from there old clothes and old rags, and let them down by ropes into the dungeon to Jeremiah. ¹²Then Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, “Please put these old clothes and rags under your armpits, under the ropes.” And Jeremiah did so. ¹³So they pulled Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the dungeon. And Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.

Zedekiah’s Fears and Jeremiah’s Advice

¹⁴Then Zedekiah the king sent and had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance of the house of the LORD. And the king said to Jeremiah, “I will ask you something. Hide nothing from me.”

¹⁵Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death? And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.”

¹⁶So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying, “As the LORD lives, who made our very souls, I will not put you to death, nor will I give you into the hand of these men who seek your life.”

¹⁷Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you surely surrender to the king of Babylon’s princes, then your soul shall live; this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live. ¹⁸But if you do not surrender to the king of Babylon’s princes, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans; they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their hand.’ ”

¹⁹And Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have defected to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they abuse me.”

²⁰But Jeremiah said, “They shall not deliver you. Please, obey the voice of the LORD which I speak to you. So it shall be well with you, and your soul shall live. ²¹But if you refuse to surrender, this is the word that the LORD has shown me: ²²‘Now behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah’s house shall be surrendered to the king of Babylon’s princes, and those women shall say:

“Your close friends have set upon you

And prevailed against you;

Your feet have sunk in the mire,

And they have turned away again.”

²³‘So they shall surrender all your wives and children to the Chaldeans. You shall not escape from their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon. And you shall cause this city to be burned with fire.’ ”

²⁴Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no one know of these words, and you shall not die. ²⁵But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you and say to you, ‘Declare to us now what you have said to the king, and also what the king said to you; do not hide it from us, and we will not put you to death,’ ²⁶then you shall say to them, ‘I presented my request before the king, that he would not make me return to Jonathan’s house to die there.’ ”

²⁷Then all the princes came to Jeremiah and asked him. And he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they stopped speaking with him, for the conversation had not been heard. ²⁸Now Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken. And he was there when Jerusalem was taken.

Jeremiah 39

The Fall of Jerusalem

¹In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem, and besieged it. ²In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the city was penetrated.

³Then all the princes of the king of Babylon came in and sat in the Middle Gate: Nergal-Sharezer, Samgar-Nebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris,^a Nergal-Sarezer, Rabmag,^b with the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon.

⁴So it was, when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, that they fled and went out of the city by night, by way of the king’s garden, by the gate between the two walls. And he went out by way of the plain.^a 5But the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And when they had captured him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on him. ⁶Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes in Riblah; the king of Babylon also killed all the nobles of Judah. ⁷Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with bronze fetters to carry him off to Babylon. ⁸And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the houses of the people with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. ⁹Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people who remained in the city and those who defected to him, with the rest of the people who remained. ¹⁰But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left in the land of Judah the poor people, who had nothing, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time.

Jeremiah Goes Free

¹¹Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying, ¹²“Take him and look after him, and do him no harm; but do to him just as he says to you.” ¹³So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent Nebushasban, Rabsaris, Nergal-Sharezer, Rabmag, and all the king of Babylon’s chief officers; ¹⁴then they sent someone to take Jeremiah from the court of the prison, and committed him to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, that he should take him home. So he dwelt among the people.

¹⁵Meanwhile the word of the LORD had come to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the prison, saying, ¹⁶“Go and speak to Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will bring My words upon this city for adversity and not for good, and they shall be performed in that day before you. ¹⁷But I will deliver you in that day,” says theLORD, “and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. ¹⁸For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in Me,” says the LORD.’ ”

Jeremiah 40

Jeremiah with Gedaliah the Governor

¹The 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 carried away captive to Babylon.

²And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him: “The LORD your God has pronounced this doom on this place. ³Now the LORD has brought it, and has done just as He said. Because you people have sinned against the LORD, and not obeyed His voice, therefore this thing has come upon you. ⁴And now look, I free you this day from the chains that were on your hand. If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will look after you. But if it seems wrong for you to come with me to Babylon, remain here. See, all the land is before you; wherever it seems good and convenient for you to go, go there.”

⁵Now while Jeremiah had not yet gone back, Nebuzaradan said, “Go back to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people. Or go wherever it seems convenient for you to go.” So the captain of the guard gave him rations and a gift and let him go. ⁶Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, to Mizpah, and dwelt with him among the people who were left in the land.

⁷And when all the captains of the armies who were in the fields, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed to him men, women, children, and the poorest of the land who had not been carried away captive to Babylon, ⁸then they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah^a the son of a Maachathite, they and their men. ⁹And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, took an oath before them and their men, saying, “Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you. ¹⁰As for me, I will indeed dwell at Mizpah and serve the Chaldeans who come to us. But you, gather wine and summer fruit and oil, put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that you have taken.” ¹¹Likewise, when all the Jews who were in Moab, among the Ammonites, in Edom, and who were in all the countries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ¹²then all the Jews returned out of all places where they had been driven, and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and gathered wine and summer fruit in abundance.

¹³Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces that were in the fields came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, ¹⁴and said to him, “Do you certainly know that Baalis the king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to murder you?” But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam did not believe them.

¹⁵Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke secretly to Gedaliah in Mizpah, saying, “Let me go, please, and I will kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no one will know it. Why should he murder you, so that all the Jews who are gathered to you would be scattered, and the remnant in Judah perish?”

¹⁶But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah, “You shall not do this thing, for you speak falsely concerning Ishmael.”

Jeremiah 41

Insurrection Against Gedaliah

¹Now it came to pass in the seventh month that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family and of the officers of the king, came with ten men to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, at Mizpah. And there they ate bread together in Mizpah. ²Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men who were with him, arose and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, and killed him whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. ³Ishmael also struck down all the Jews who were with him, that is, with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war.

⁴And it happened, on the second day after he had killed Gedaliah, when as yet no one knew it,⁵that certain men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, eighty men with their beards shaved and their clothes torn, having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand, to bringthem to the house of the LORD. ⁶Now Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went along; and it happened as he met them that he said to them, “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam!” ⁷So it was, when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah killed them and cast them into the midst of a pit, he and the men who were with him. ⁸But ten men were found among them who said to Ishmael, “Do not kill us, for we have treasures of wheat, barley, oil, and honey in the field.” So he desisted and did not kill them among their brethren. ⁹Now the pit into which Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had slain, because of Gedaliah, was the same one Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with the slain. ¹⁰Then Ishmael carried away captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah, the king’s daughters and all the people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive and departed to go over to the Ammonites.

¹¹But when Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces that were with him heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done, ¹²they took all the men and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah; and they found him by the great pool that is in Gibeon. ¹³So it was, when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, that they were glad. ¹⁴Then all the people whom Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned around and came back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah.¹⁵But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men and went to the Ammonites.

¹⁶Then Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, took from Mizpah all the rest of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah after he had murdered Gedaliah the son of Ahikam—the mighty men of war and the women and the children and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon. ¹⁷And they departed and dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, as they went on their way to Egypt, ¹⁸because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had murdered Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made governor in the land.

Jeremiah 42

The Flight to Egypt Forbidden

¹Now all the captains of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, came near ²and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Please, let our petition be acceptable to you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, for all this remnant (since we are left but a few of many, as you can see), ³that the LORD your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do.”

⁴Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard. Indeed, I will pray to the LORD your God according to your words, and it shall be, that whatever the LORD answers you, I will declare it to you. I will keep nothing back from you.”

⁵So they said to Jeremiah, “Let the LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do according to everything which the LORD your God sends us by you. ⁶Whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.”

⁷And it happened after ten days that the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah. ⁸Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, ⁹and said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before Him: ¹⁰‘If you will still remain in this land, then I will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up. For I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you. ¹¹Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him,’ says the LORD, ‘for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hand. ¹²And I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land.’

¹³“But if you say, ‘We will not dwell in this land,’ disobeying the voice of the LORD your God,¹⁴saying, ‘No, but we will go to the land of Egypt where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor be hungry for bread, and there we will dwell’— ¹⁵Then hear now the word of theLORD, O remnant of Judah! Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you wholly set your faces to enter Egypt, and go to dwell there, ¹⁶then it shall be that the sword which you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; the famine of which you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die. ¹⁷So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to dwell there. They shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. And none of them shall remain or escape from the disaster that I will bring upon them.’

¹⁸“For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘As My anger and My fury have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will My fury be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.’

¹⁹“The LORD has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have admonished you this day. ²⁰For you were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to the LORD our God, and according to all that theLORD your God says, so declare to us and we will do it.’ ²¹And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, or anything which He has sent you by me. ²²Now therefore, know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to dwell.”

Jeremiah 43

Jeremiah Taken to Egypt

¹Now it happened, when Jeremiah had stopped speaking to all the people all the words of theLORD their God, for which the LORD their God had sent him to them, all these words, ²that Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, “You speak falsely! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to dwell there.’³But Baruch the son of Neriah has set you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death or carry us away captive to Babylon.” ⁴So Johanan the son of Kareah, all the captains of the forces, and all the people would not obey the voice of the LORD, to remain in the land of Judah. ⁵But Johanan the 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 nations where they had been driven— ⁶men, women, children, the king’s daughters, and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah. ⁷So they went to the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the LORD. And they went as far as Tahpanhes.

⁸Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, ⁹“Take large stones in your hand, and hide them in the sight of the men of Judah, in the clay in the brick courtyard which is at the entrance to Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes; ¹⁰and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will send and bring Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will set his throne above these stones that I have hidden. And he will spread his royal pavilion over them. ¹¹When he comes, he shall strike the land of Egypt and deliver to death those appointed for death, and to captivity those appointed for captivity, and to the sword those appointed for the sword. ¹²I^a will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them and carry them away captive. And he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment, and he shall go out from there in peace. ¹³He shall also break the sacred pillars of Beth Shemesh^a that are in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians he shall burn with fire.” ’ ”

Jeremiah 44

Israelites Will Be Punished in Egypt

¹The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt, who dwell at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Noph,^a and in the country of Pathros, saying, ²“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘You have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, ³because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke Me to anger, in that they went to burn incense and to serve other gods whom they did not know, they nor you nor your fathers. ⁴However I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, “Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate!” ⁵But they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods. ⁶So My fury and My anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day.’

⁷“Now therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Why do you committhis great evil against yourselves, to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, out of Judah, leaving none to remain, ⁸in that you provoke Me to wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to dwell, that you may cut yourselves off and be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? ⁹Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁰They have not been humbled, to this day, nor have they feared; they have not walked in My law or in My statutes that I set before you and your fathers.’

¹¹“Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will set My face against you for catastrophe and for cutting off all Judah. ¹²And I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to dwell there, and they shall all be consumed and fall in the land of Egypt. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine. They shall die, from the least to the greatest, by the sword and by famine; and they shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse and a reproach! ¹³For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, ¹⁴so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt to dwell there shall escape or survive, lest they return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return and dwell. For none shall return except those who escape.’ ”

¹⁵Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, with all the women who stood by, a great multitude, and all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying: ¹⁶“As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you! ¹⁷But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and 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, were well-off, and saw no trouble. ¹⁸But 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.”

¹⁹The women also said, “And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands’ permission?”

²⁰Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people—the men, the women, and all the people who had given him that answer—saying: ²¹“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 theLORD remember them, and did it not come into His mind? ²²So the LORD could no longer bear it,because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you committed. Therefore your land is a desolation, an astonishment, a curse, and without an inhabitant, as it is this day.²³Because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD or walked in His law, in His statutes or in His testimonies, therefore this calamity has happened to you, as at this day.”

²⁴Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, “Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt! ²⁵Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: ‘You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, “We will surely keep our vows that we have made, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” You will surely keep your vows and perform your vows!’ ²⁶Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all 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 named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, “The Lord GOD lives.” ²⁷Behold, I will watch over them for adversity 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 to them. ²⁸Yet a small number who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah; and all the remnant of Judah, who have gone to the land of Egypt to dwell there, shall know whose words will stand, Mine or theirs. ²⁹And this shall be a sign to you,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that My words will surely stand against you for adversity.’

³⁰“Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy who sought his life.’ ”

Jeremiah 45

Assurance to Baruch

¹The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the instruction of Jeremiah,^a in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, ²“Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch: ³‘You said, “Woe is me now! For the LORD has added grief to my sorrow. I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.” ’

⁴“Thus you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, what I have built I will break down, and what I have planted I will pluck up, that is, this whole land. ⁵And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh,” says the LORD. “But I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go.” ’ ”

Jeremiah 46

Judgment on Egypt

¹The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the nations. ²Against Egypt.

Concerning the army of Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, which was by the River Euphrates in Carchemish, and which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:

³“Order the buckler and shield,

And draw near to battle!

⁴Harness the horses,

And mount up, you horsemen!

Stand forth with your helmets,

Polish the spears,

Put on the armor!

⁵Why have I seen them dismayed and turned back?

Their mighty ones are beaten down;

They have speedily fled,

And did not look back,

For fear was all around,” says the LORD.

⁶“Do not let the swift flee away,

Nor the mighty man escape;

They will stumble and fall

Toward the north, by the River Euphrates.

⁷“Who is this coming up like a flood,

Whose waters move like the rivers?

⁸Egypt rises up like a flood,

And its waters move like the rivers;

And he says, ‘I will go up and cover the earth,

I will destroy the city and its inhabitants.’

⁹Come up, O horses, and rage, O chariots!

And let the mighty men come forth:

The Ethiopians and the Libyans who handle the shield,

And the Lydians who handle and bend the bow.

¹⁰For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts,

A day of vengeance,

That He may avenge Himself on His adversaries.

The sword shall devour;

It shall be satiated and made drunk with their blood;

For the Lord GOD of hosts has a sacrifice

In the north country by the River Euphrates.

¹¹“Go up to Gilead and take balm,

O virgin, the daughter of Egypt;

In vain you will use many medicines;

You shall not be cured.

¹²The nations have heard of your shame,

And your cry has filled the land;

For the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty;

They both have fallen together.”

Babylonia Will Strike Egypt

¹³The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon would come and strike the land of Egypt.

¹⁴“Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol;

Proclaim in Noph^a and in Tahpanhes;

Say, ‘Stand fast and prepare yourselves,

For the sword devours all around you.’

¹⁵Why are your valiant men swept away?

They did not stand

Because the LORD drove them away.

¹⁶He made many fall;

Yes, one fell upon another.

And they said, ‘Arise!

Let us go back to our own people

And to the land of our nativity

From the oppressing sword.’

¹⁷They cried there,

‘Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise.

He has passed by the appointed time!’

¹⁸“As I live,” says the King,

Whose name is the LORD of hosts,

“Surely as Tabor is among the mountains

And as Carmel by the sea, so he shall come.

¹⁹O you daughter dwelling in Egypt,

Prepare yourself to go into captivity!

For Noph^a shall be waste and desolate, without inhabitant.

²⁰“Egypt is a very pretty heifer,

But destruction comes, it comes from the north.

²¹Also her mercenaries are in her midst like fat bulls,

For they also are turned back,

They have fled away together.

They did not stand,

For the day of their calamity had come upon them,

The time of their punishment.

²²Her noise shall go like a serpent,

For they shall march with an army

And come against her with axes,

Like those who chop wood.

²³“They shall cut down her forest,” says the LORD,

“Though it cannot be searched,

Because they are innumerable,

And more numerous than grasshoppers.

²⁴The daughter of Egypt shall be ashamed;

She shall be delivered into the hand

Of the people of the north.”

²⁵The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will bring punishment on Amon^a of No,^b 26And I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the hand of his servants. Afterward it shall be inhabited as in the days of old,” says the LORD.

God Will Preserve Israel

²⁷“But do not fear, O My servant Jacob,

And do not be dismayed, O Israel!

For behold, I will save you from afar,

And your offspring from the land of their captivity;

Jacob shall return, have rest and be at ease;

No one shall make him afraid.

²⁸Do not fear, O Jacob My servant,” says the LORD,

“For I am with you;

For I will make a complete end of all the nations

To which I have driven you,

But I will not make a complete end of you.

I will rightly correct you,

For I will not leave you wholly unpunished.”

Jeremiah 47

Judgment on Philistia

¹The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before Pharaoh attacked Gaza.

²Thus says the LORD:

“Behold, waters rise out of the north,

And shall be an overflowing flood;

They shall overflow the land and all that is in it,

The city and those who dwell within;

Then the men shall cry,

And all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.

³At the noise of the stamping hooves of his strong horses,

At the rushing of his chariots,

At the rumbling of his wheels,

The fathers will not look back for their children,

Lacking courage,

⁴Because of the day that comes to plunder all the Philistines,

To cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains;

For the LORD shall plunder the Philistines,

The remnant of the country of Caphtor.

⁵Baldness has come upon Gaza,

Ashkelon is cut off

With the remnant of their valley.

How long will you cut yourself?

⁶“O you sword of the LORD,

How long until you are quiet?

Put yourself up into your scabbard,

Rest and be still!

⁷How can it be quiet,

Seeing the LORD has given it a charge

Against Ashkelon and against the seashore?

There He has appointed it.”

Jeremiah 48

Judgment on Moab

¹Against Moab.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:

“Woe to Nebo!

For it is plundered,

Kirjathaim is shamed and taken;

The high stronghold^a is shamed and dismayed—

²No more praise of Moab.

In Heshbon they have devised evil against her:

‘Come, and let us cut her off as a nation.’

You also shall be cut down, O Madmen!^a

The sword shall pursue you;

³A voice of crying shall be from Horonaim:

‘Plundering and great destruction!’

⁴“Moab is destroyed;

Her little ones have caused a cry to be heard;^a

⁵For in the Ascent of Luhith they ascend with continual weeping;

For in the descent of Horonaim the enemies have heard a cry of destruction.

⁶“Flee, save your lives!

And be like the juniper^a in the wilderness.

⁷For because you have trusted in your works and your treasures,

You also shall be taken.

And Chemosh shall go forth into captivity,

His priests and his princes together.

⁸And the plunderer shall come against every city;

No one shall escape.

The valley also shall perish,

And the plain shall be destroyed,

As the LORD has spoken.

⁹“Give wings to Moab,

That she may flee and get away;

For her cities shall be desolate,

Without any to dwell in them.

¹⁰Cursed is he who does the work of the LORD deceitfully,

And cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood.

¹¹“Moab has been at ease from his^a youth;

He has settled on his dregs,

And has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,

Nor has he gone into captivity.

Therefore his taste remained in him,

And his scent has not changed.

¹²“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD,

“That I shall send him wine-workers

Who will tip him over

And empty his vessels

And break the bottles.

¹³Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh,

As the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.

¹⁴“How can you say, ‘We are mighty

And strong men for the war’?

¹⁵Moab is plundered and gone up from her cities;

Her chosen young men have gone down to the slaughter,” says the King,

Whose name is the LORD of hosts.

¹⁶“The calamity of Moab is near at hand,

And his affliction comes quickly.

¹⁷Bemoan him, all you who are around him;

And all you who know his name,

Say, ‘How the strong staff is broken,

The beautiful rod!’

¹⁸“O daughter inhabiting Dibon,

Come down from your glory,

And sit in thirst;

For the plunderer of Moab has come against you,

He has destroyed your strongholds.

¹⁹O inhabitant of Aroer,

Stand by the way and watch;

Ask him who flees

And her who escapes;

Say, ‘What has happened?’

²⁰Moab is shamed, for he is broken down.

Wail and cry!

Tell it in Arnon, that Moab is plundered.

²¹“And judgment has come on the plain country:

On Holon and Jahzah and Mephaath,

²²On Dibon and Nebo and Beth Diblathaim,

²³On Kirjathaim and Beth Gamul and Beth Meon,

²⁴On Kerioth and Bozrah,

On all the cities of the land of Moab,

Far or near.

²⁵The horn of Moab is cut off,

And his arm is broken,” says the LORD.

²⁶“Make him drunk,

Because he exalted himself against the LORD.

Moab shall wallow in his vomit,

And he shall also be in derision.

²⁷For was not Israel a derision to you?

Was he found among thieves?

For whenever you speak of him,

You shake your head in scorn.

²⁸You who dwell in Moab,

Leave the cities and dwell in the rock,

And be like the dove which makes her nest

In the sides of the cave’s mouth.

²⁹“We have heard the pride of Moab

(He is exceedingly proud),

Of his loftiness and arrogance and pride,

And of the haughtiness of his heart.”

³⁰“I know his wrath,” says the LORD,

“But it is not right;

His lies have made nothing right.

³¹Therefore I will wail for Moab,

And I will cry out for all Moab;

I^a will mourn for the men of Kir Heres.

³²O vine of Sibmah! I will weep for you with the weeping of Jazer.

Your plants have gone over the sea,

They reach to the sea of Jazer.

The plunderer has fallen on your summer fruit and your vintage.

³³Joy and gladness are taken

From the plentiful field

And from the land of Moab;

I have caused wine to fail from the winepresses;

No one will tread with joyous shouting—

Not joyous shouting!

³⁴“From the cry of Heshbon to Elealeh and to Jahaz

They have uttered their voice,

From Zoar to Horonaim,

Like a three-year-old heifer;^a

For the waters of Nimrim also shall be desolate.

³⁵“Moreover,” says the LORD,

“I will cause to cease in Moab

The one who offers sacrifices in the high places

And burns incense to his gods.

³⁶Therefore My heart shall wail like flutes for Moab,

And like flutes My heart shall wail

For the men of Kir Heres.

Therefore the riches they have acquired have perished.

³⁷“For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped;

On all the hands shall be cuts, and on the loins sackcloth—

³⁸A general lamentation

On all the housetops of Moab,

And in its streets;

For I have broken Moab like a vessel in which is no pleasure,” says the LORD.

³⁹“They shall wail:

‘How she is broken down!

How Moab has turned her back with shame!’

So Moab shall be a derision

And a dismay to all those about her.”

⁴⁰For thus says the LORD:

“Behold, one shall fly like an eagle,

And spread his wings over Moab.

⁴¹Kerioth is taken,

And the strongholds are surprised;

The mighty men’s hearts in Moab on that day shall be

Like the heart of a woman in birth pangs.

⁴²And Moab shall be destroyed as a people,

Because he exalted himself against the LORD.

⁴³Fear and the pit and the snare shall be upon you,

O inhabitant of Moab,” says the LORD.

⁴⁴“He who flees from the fear shall fall into the pit,

And he who gets out of the pit shall be caught in the snare.

For upon Moab, upon it I will bring

The year of their punishment,” says the LORD.

⁴⁵“Those who fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon

Because of exhaustion.

But a fire shall come out of Heshbon,

A flame from the midst of Sihon,

And shall devour the brow of Moab,

The crown of the head of the sons of tumult.

⁴⁶Woe to you, O Moab!

The people of Chemosh perish;

For your sons have been taken captive,

And your daughters captive.

⁴⁷“Yet I will bring back the captives of Moab

In the latter days,” says the LORD.

Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

Jeremiah 49

Judgment on Ammon

¹Against the Ammonites.

Thus says the LORD:

“Has Israel no sons?

Has he no heir?

Why then does Milcom^a inherit Gad,

And his people dwell in its cities?

²Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD,

“That I will cause to be heard an alarm of war

In Rabbah of the Ammonites;

It shall be a desolate mound,

And her villages shall be burned with fire.

Then Israel shall take possession of his inheritance,” says the LORD.

³“Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai is plundered!

Cry, you daughters of Rabbah,

Gird yourselves with sackcloth!

Lament and run to and fro by the walls;

For Milcom shall go into captivity

With his priests and his princes together.

⁴Why do you boast in the valleys,

Your flowing valley, O backsliding daughter?

Who trusted in her treasures, saying,

‘Who will come against me?’

⁵Behold, I will bring fear upon you,”

Says the Lord GOD of hosts,

“From all those who are around you;

You shall be driven out, everyone headlong,

And no one will gather those who wander off.

⁶But afterward I will bring back

The captives of the people of Ammon,” says the LORD.

Judgment on Edom

⁷Against Edom.

Thus says the LORD of hosts:

“Is wisdom no more in Teman?

Has counsel perished from the prudent?

Has their wisdom vanished?

⁸Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Dedan!

For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him,

The time that I will punish him.

⁹If grape-gatherers came to you,

Would they not leave some gleaning grapes?

If thieves by night,

Would they not destroy until they have enough?

¹⁰But I have made Esau bare;

I have uncovered his secret places,^a

And he shall not be able to hide himself.

His descendants are plundered,

His brethren and his neighbors,

And he is no more.

¹¹Leave your fatherless children,

I will preserve them alive;

And let your widows trust in Me.”

¹²For thus says the LORD: “Behold, those whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunk. And are you the one who will altogether go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink of it. ¹³For I have sworn by Myself,” says the LORD, “that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse. And all its cities shall be perpetual wastes.”

¹⁴I have heard a message from the LORD,

And an ambassador has been sent to the nations:

“Gather together, come against her,

And rise up to battle!

¹⁵“For indeed, I will make you small among nations,

Despised among men.

¹⁶Your fierceness has deceived you,

The pride of your heart,

O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock,

Who hold the height of the hill!

Though you make your nest as high as the eagle,

I will bring you down from there,” says the LORD.^a

¹⁷“Edom also shall be an astonishment;

Everyone who goes by it will be astonished

And will hiss at all its plagues.

¹⁸As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah

And their neighbors,” says the LORD,

“No one shall remain there,

Nor shall a son of man dwell in it.

¹⁹“Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the floodplain^a of the Jordan

Against the dwelling place of the strong;

But I will suddenly make him run away from her.

And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her?

For who is like Me?

Who will arraign Me?

And who is that shepherd

Who will withstand Me?”

²⁰Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD that He has taken against Edom,

And His purposes that He has proposed against the inhabitants of Teman:

Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out;

Surely He shall make their dwelling places desolate with them.

²¹The earth shakes at the noise of their fall;

At the cry its noise is heard at the Red Sea.

²²Behold, He shall come up and fly like the eagle,

And spread His wings over Bozrah;

The heart of the mighty men of Edom in that day shall be

Like the heart of a woman in birth pangs.

Judgment on Damascus

²³Against Damascus.

“Hamath and Arpad are shamed,

For they have heard bad news.

They are fainthearted;

There is trouble on the sea;

It cannot be quiet.

²⁴Damascus has grown feeble;

She turns to flee,

And fear has seized her.

Anguish and sorrows have taken her like a woman in labor.

²⁵Why is the city of praise not deserted, the city of My joy?

²⁶Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets,

And all the men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the LORD of hosts.

²⁷“I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus,

And it shall consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad.”^a

Judgment on Kedar and Hazor

²⁸Against Kedar and against the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon shall strike.

Thus says the LORD:

“Arise, go up to Kedar,

And devastate the men of the East!

²⁹Their tents and their flocks they shall take away.

They shall take for themselves their curtains,

All their vessels and their camels;

And they shall cry out to them,

‘Fear is on every side!’

³⁰“Flee, get far away! Dwell in the depths,

O inhabitants of Hazor!” says the LORD.

“For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you,

And has conceived a plan against you.

³¹“Arise, go up to the wealthy nation that dwells securely,” says the LORD,

“Which has neither gates nor bars,

Dwelling alone.

³²Their camels shall be for booty,

And the multitude of their cattle for plunder.

I will scatter to all winds those in the farthest corners,

And I will bring their calamity from all its sides,” says the LORD.

³³“Hazor shall be a dwelling for jackals, a desolation forever;

No one shall reside there,

Nor son of man dwell in it.”

Judgment on Elam

³⁴The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, ³⁵“Thus says the LORD of hosts:

‘Behold, I will break the bow of Elam,

The foremost of their might.

³⁶Against Elam I will bring the four winds

From the four quarters of heaven,

And scatter them toward all those winds;

There shall be no nations where the outcasts of Elam will not go.

³⁷For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies

And before those who seek their life.

I will bring disaster upon them,

My fierce anger,’ says the LORD;

‘And I will send the sword after them

Until I have consumed them.

³⁸I will set My throne in Elam,

And will destroy from there the king and the princes,’ says the LORD.

³⁹‘But it shall come to pass in the latter days:

I will bring back the captives of Elam,’ says the LORD.”

Jeremiah 50

Judgment on Babylon and Babylonia

¹The word that the LORD spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.

²“Declare among the nations,

Proclaim, and set up a standard;

Proclaim—do not conceal it—

Say, ‘Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed.

Merodach^a is broken in pieces;

Her idols are humiliated,

Her images are broken in pieces.’

³For out of the north a nation comes up against her,

Which shall make her land desolate,

And no one shall dwell therein.

They shall move, they shall depart,

Both man and beast.

⁴“In those days and in that time,” says the LORD,

“The children of Israel shall come,

They and the children of Judah together;

With continual weeping they shall come,

And seek the LORD their God.

⁵They shall ask the way to Zion,

With their faces toward it, saying,

‘Come and let us join ourselves to the LORD

In a perpetual covenant

That will not be forgotten.’

⁶“My people have been lost sheep.

Their shepherds have led them astray;

They have turned them away on the mountains.

They have gone from mountain to hill;

They have forgotten their resting place.

⁷All who found them have devoured them;

And their adversaries said, ‘We have not offended,

Because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice,

The LORD, the hope of their fathers.’

⁸“Move from the midst of Babylon,

Go out of the land of the Chaldeans;

And be like the rams before the flocks.

⁹For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon

An assembly of great nations from the north country,

And they shall array themselves against her;

From there she shall be captured.

Their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior;^a

None shall return in vain.

¹⁰And Chaldea shall become plunder;

All who plunder her shall be satisfied,” says the LORD.

¹¹“Because you were glad, because you rejoiced,

You destroyers of My heritage,

Because you have grown fat like a heifer threshing grain,

And you bellow like bulls,

¹²Your mother shall be deeply ashamed;

She who bore you shall be ashamed.

Behold, the least of the nations shall be a wilderness,

A dry land and a desert.

¹³Because of the wrath of the LORD

She shall not be inhabited,

But she shall be wholly desolate.

Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified

And hiss at all her plagues.

¹⁴“Put yourselves in array against Babylon all around,

All you who bend the bow;

Shoot at her, spare no arrows,

For she has sinned against the LORD.

¹⁵Shout against her all around;

She has given her hand,

Her foundations have fallen,

Her walls are thrown down;

For it is the vengeance of the LORD.

Take vengeance on her.

As she has done, so do to her.

¹⁶Cut off the sower from Babylon,

And him who handles the sickle at harvest time.

For fear of the oppressing sword

Everyone shall turn to his own people,

And everyone shall flee to his own land.

¹⁷“Israel is like scattered sheep;

The lions have driven him away.

First the king of Assyria devoured him;

Now at last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.”

¹⁸Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:

“Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land,

As I have punished the king of Assyria.

¹⁹But I will bring back Israel to his home,

And he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan;

His soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead.

²⁰In those days and in that time,” says the LORD,

“The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none;

And the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found;

For I will pardon those whom I preserve.

²¹“Go up against the land of Merathaim, against it,

And against the inhabitants of Pekod.

Waste and utterly destroy them,” says the LORD,

“And do according to all that I have commanded you.

²²A sound of battle is in the land,

And of great destruction.

²³How the hammer of the whole earth has been cut apart and broken!

How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!

²⁴I have laid a snare for you;

You have indeed been trapped, O Babylon,

And you were not aware;

You have been found and also caught,

Because you have contended against the LORD.

²⁵The LORD has opened His armory,

And has brought out the weapons of His indignation;

For this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts

In the land of the Chaldeans.

²⁶Come against her from the farthest border;

Open her storehouses;

Cast her up as heaps of ruins,

And destroy her utterly;

Let nothing of her be left.

²⁷Slay all her bulls,

Let them go down to the slaughter.

Woe to them!

For their day has come, the time of their punishment.

²⁸The voice of those who flee and escape from the land of Babylon

Declares in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God,

The vengeance of His temple.

²⁹“Call together the archers against Babylon.

All you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around;

Let none of them escape.^a

Repay her according to her work;

According to all she has done, do to her;

For she has been proud against the LORD,

Against the Holy One of Israel.

³⁰Therefore her young men shall fall in the streets,

And all her men of war shall be cut off in that day,” says the LORD.

³¹“Behold, I am against you,

O most haughty one!” says the Lord GOD of hosts;

“For your day has come,

The time that I will punish you.^a

³²The most proud shall stumble and fall,

And no one will raise him up;

I will kindle a fire in his cities,

And it will devour all around him.”

³³Thus says the LORD of hosts:

“The children of Israel were oppressed,

Along with the children of Judah;

All who took them captive have held them fast;

They have refused to let them go.

³⁴Their Redeemer is strong;

The LORD of hosts is His name.

He will thoroughly plead their case,

That He may give rest to the land,

And disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.

³⁵“A sword is against the Chaldeans,” says the LORD,

“Against the inhabitants of Babylon,

And against her princes and her wise men.

³⁶A sword is against the soothsayers, and they will be fools.

A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed.

³⁷A sword is against their horses,

Against their chariots,

And against all the mixed peoples who are in her midst;

And they will become like women.

A sword is against her treasures, and they will be robbed.

³⁸A drought^a is against her waters, and they will be dried up.

For it is the land of carved images,

And they are insane with their idols.

³⁹“Therefore the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals,

And the ostriches shall dwell in it.

It shall be inhabited no more forever,

Nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.

⁴⁰As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah

And their neighbors,” says the LORD,

“So no one shall reside there,

Nor son of man dwell in it.

⁴¹“Behold, a people shall come from the north,

And a great nation and many kings

Shall be raised up from the ends of the earth.

⁴²They shall hold the bow and the lance;

They are cruel and shall not show mercy.

Their voice shall roar like the sea;

They shall ride on horses,

Set in array, like a man for the battle,

Against you, O daughter of Babylon.

⁴³“The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,

And his hands grow feeble;

Anguish has taken hold of him,

Pangs as of a woman in childbirth.

⁴⁴“Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the floodplain^a of the Jordan

Against the dwelling place of the strong;

But I will make them suddenly run away from her.

And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her?

For who is like Me?

Who will arraign Me?

And who is that shepherd

Who will withstand Me?”

⁴⁵Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD that He has taken against Babylon,

And His purposes that He has proposed against the land of the Chaldeans:

Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out;

Surely He will make their dwelling place desolate with them.

⁴⁶At the noise of the taking of Babylon

The earth trembles,

And the cry is heard among the nations.

Jeremiah 51

The Utter Destruction of Babylon

¹Thus says the LORD:

“Behold, I will raise up against Babylon,

Against those who dwell in Leb Kamai,^a

A destroying wind.

²And I will send winnowers to Babylon,

Who shall winnow her and empty her land.

For in the day of doom

They shall be against her all around.

³Against her let the archer bend his bow,

And lift himself up against her in his armor.

Do not spare her young men;

Utterly destroy all her army.

⁴Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans,

And those thrust through in her streets.

⁵For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah,

By his God, the LORD of hosts,

Though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”

⁶Flee from the midst of Babylon,

And every one save his life!

Do not be cut off in her iniquity,

For this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance;

He shall recompense her.

⁷Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand,

That made all the earth drunk.

The nations drank her wine;

Therefore the nations are deranged.

⁸Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed.

Wail for her!

Take balm for her pain;

Perhaps she may be healed.

⁹We would have healed Babylon,

But she is not healed.

Forsake her, and let us go everyone to his own country;

For her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.

¹⁰The LORD has revealed our righteousness.

Come and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.

¹¹Make the arrows bright!

Gather the shields!

The LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.

For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it,

Because it is the vengeance of the LORD,

The vengeance for His temple.

¹²Set up the standard on the walls of Babylon;

Make the guard strong,

Set up the watchmen,

Prepare the ambushes.

For the LORD has both devised and done

What He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.

¹³O you who dwell by many waters,

Abundant in treasures,

Your end has come,

The measure of your covetousness.

¹⁴The LORD of hosts has sworn by Himself:

“Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts,

And they shall lift up a shout against you.”

¹⁵He has made the earth by His power;

He has established the world by His wisdom,

And stretched out the heaven by His understanding.

¹⁶When He utters His voice—

There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:

“He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;

He makes lightnings for the rain;

He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”^a

¹⁷Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge;

Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image;

For his molded image is falsehood,

And there is no breath in them.

¹⁸They are futile, a work of errors;

In the time of their punishment they shall perish.

¹⁹The Portion of Jacob is not like them,

For He is the Maker of all things;

And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance.

The LORD of hosts is His name.

²⁰“You are My battle-ax and weapons of war:

For with you I will break the nation in pieces;

With you I will destroy kingdoms;

²¹With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider;

With you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;

²²With you also I will break in pieces man and woman;

With you I will break in pieces old and young;

With you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;

²³With you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;

With you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen;

And with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.

²⁴“And I will repay Babylon

And all the inhabitants of Chaldea

For all the evil they have done

In Zion in your sight,” says the LORD.

²⁵“Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,

Who destroys all the earth,” says the LORD.

“And I will stretch out My hand against you,

Roll you down from the rocks,

And make you a burnt mountain.

²⁶They shall not take from you a stone for a corner

Nor a stone for a foundation,

But you shall be desolate forever,” says the LORD.

²⁷Set up a banner in the land,

Blow the trumpet among the nations!

Prepare the nations against her,

Call the kingdoms together against her:

Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.

Appoint a general against her;

Cause the horses to come up like the bristling locusts.

²⁸Prepare against her the nations,

With the kings of the Medes,

Its governors and all its rulers,

All the land of his dominion.

²⁹And the land will tremble and sorrow;

For every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon,

To make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.

³⁰The mighty men of Babylon have ceased fighting,

They have remained in their strongholds;

Their might has failed,

They became like women;

They have burned her dwelling places,

The bars of her gate are broken.

³¹One runner will run to meet another,

And one messenger to meet another,

To show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on all sides;

³²The passages are blocked,

The reeds they have burned with fire,

And the men of war are terrified.

³³For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:

“The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor

When it is time to thresh her;

Yet a little while

And the time of her harvest will come.”

³⁴“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon

Has devoured me, he has crushed me;

He has made me an empty vessel,

He has swallowed me up like a monster;

He has filled his stomach with my delicacies,

He has spit me out.

³⁵Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon,”

The inhabitant of Zion will say;

“And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!”

Jerusalem will say.

³⁶Therefore thus says the LORD:

“Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you.

I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry.

³⁷Babylon shall become a heap,

A dwelling place for jackals,

An astonishment and a hissing,

Without an inhabitant.

³⁸They shall roar together like lions,

They shall growl like lions’ whelps.

³⁹In their excitement I will prepare their feasts;

I will make them drunk,

That they may rejoice,

And sleep a perpetual sleep

And not awake,” says the LORD.

⁴⁰“I will bring them down

Like lambs to the slaughter,

Like rams with male goats.

⁴¹“Oh, how Sheshach^a is taken!

Oh, how the praise of the whole earth is seized!

How Babylon has become desolate among the nations!

⁴²The sea has come up over Babylon;

She is covered with the multitude of its waves.

⁴³Her cities are a desolation,

A dry land and a wilderness,

A land where no one dwells,

Through which no son of man passes.

⁴⁴I will punish Bel in Babylon,

And I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed;

And the nations shall not stream to him anymore.

Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall.

⁴⁵“My people, go out of the midst of her!

And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the LORD.

⁴⁶And lest your heart faint,

And you fear for the rumor that will be heard in the land

(A rumor will come one year,

And after that, in another year

A rumor will come,

And violence in the land,

Ruler against ruler),

⁴⁷Therefore behold, the days are coming

That I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon;

Her whole land shall be ashamed,

And all her slain shall fall in her midst.

⁴⁸Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them

Shall sing joyously over Babylon;

For the plunderers shall come to her from the north,” says the LORD.

⁴⁹As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall,

So at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.

⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword,

Get away! Do not stand still!

Remember the LORD afar off,

And let Jerusalem come to your mind.

⁵¹We are ashamed because we have heard reproach.

Shame has covered our faces,

For strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the LORD’s house.

⁵²“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD,

“That I will bring judgment on her carved images,

And throughout all her land the wounded shall groan.

⁵³Though Babylon were to mount up to heaven,

And though she were to fortify the height of her strength,

Yet from Me plunderers would come to her,” says the LORD.

⁵⁴The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,

And great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,

⁵⁵Because the LORD is plundering Babylon

And silencing her loud voice,

Though her waves roar like great waters,

And the noise of their voice is uttered,

⁵⁶Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon,

And her mighty men are taken.

Every one of their bows is broken;

For the LORD is the God of recompense,

He will surely repay.

⁵⁷“And I will make drunk

Her princes and wise men,

Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men.

And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep

And not awake,” says the King,

Whose name is the LORD of hosts.

⁵⁸Thus says the LORD of hosts:

“The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken,

And her high gates shall be burned with fire;

The people will labor in vain,

And the nations, because of the fire;

And they shall be weary.”

Jeremiah’s Command to Seraiah

⁵⁹The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiahwas the quartermaster. ⁶⁰So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon. ⁶¹And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words, ⁶²then you shall say, ‘O LORD, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.’ ⁶³Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates. ⁶⁴Then you shall say, ‘Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.’ ”

Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 52

The Fall of Jerusalem Reviewed

¹Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ²He also did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. ³For because of the anger of theLORD this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, till He finally cast them out from His presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

⁴Now it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month,that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around. ⁵So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ⁶By the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. ⁷Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were near the city all around. And they went by way of the plain.^a

⁸But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. ⁹So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgment on him. ¹⁰Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah.¹¹He also put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

The Temple and City Plundered and Burned

¹²Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month (which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ¹³He burned the house of the LORD and the king’s house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire. ¹⁴And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around.¹⁵Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive some of the poor people, the rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. ¹⁶But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land as vinedressers and farmers.

¹⁷The bronze pillars that were in the house of the LORD, and the carts and the bronze Sea thatwere in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried all their bronze to Babylon. ¹⁸They also took away the pots, the shovels, the trimmers, the bowls, the spoons, and all the bronze utensils with which the priests ministered. ¹⁹The basins, the firepans, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons, and the cups, whatever was solid gold and whatever was solid silver, the captain of the guard took away. ²⁰The two pillars, one Sea, the twelve bronze bulls which were underit, and the carts, which King Solomon had made for the house of the LORD—the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. ²¹Now concerning the pillars: the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, a measuring line of twelve cubits could measure its circumference, and its thickness was four fingers; it was hollow. ²²A capital of bronze was on it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with a network and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze. The second pillar, with pomegranates was the same. ²³There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates, all around on the network, were one hundred.

The People Taken Captive to Babylonia

²⁴The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. ²⁵He also took out of the city an officer who had charge of the men of war, seven men of the king’s close associates who were found in the city, the principal scribe 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. ²⁶And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²⁷Then the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive from its own land.

²⁸These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews; ²⁹in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two persons; ³⁰in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred and forty-five persons. All the persons were four thousand six hundred.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison

³¹Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that Evil-Merodach^a king of Babylon, in the firstyear of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison. ³²And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³So Jehoiachin changed from his prison garments, and he ate bread regularly before the king all the days of his life. ³⁴And as for his provisions, there was a regular ration given him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------