CHAPTERS XI THROUGH TWENTY CHAPTER XI. The words that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh saying, Hear you the words of this covenant and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and say you to them, Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel. Cursed be the man who doesn't hear the words of this covenant which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying Obey my voice and do them according to all which I command you, so you shall be my people and I will be your God, that I may establish the oath which I swore to your fathers to give them a land flowing with milk and honey as it this day. Then answered I and said Amen, Yahweh. Yahweh said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying Hear you the words of this covenant and do them, for I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying Obey my voice. Yet they didn't obey, nor turn their ear, but walked everyone in the stubbornness of their evil heart. Therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant which I commanded them to do, but they didn't do them. Yahweh said to me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers who refuse to hear my words, and they are gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers. Therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold I will bring evil on them which they shall not be able to escape, and they shall cry to me, but I will not listen to them. Then shall the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry to the gods to which they offer incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble. For according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to bale. Judah, don't you pray for this people, either lift up crying or prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time that they cry to me because of their trouble. What has my beloved to do in my house seeing she has worked lewdness with many and the holy flesh is passed from you? When you do evil, then you rejoice. Yahweh called your name a green olive tree, beautiful with goodly fruit, with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire on it and its branches are broken. For Yahweh of armies who planted you has pronounced evil against you because of the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah which they have worked for themselves in provoking me to anger by offering incense to bale. Yahweh gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it, then you showed me their doings. But I was like a gentle lamb that has led to the slaughter and I didn't know that they had devised devices against me, saying let us destroy the tree with its fruit and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. But Yahweh of armies who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind, I shall see your vengeance on them, for to you have I revealed my cause. Therefore, thus says Yahweh concerning the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying you shall not prophesy in the name of Yahweh that you not die by our hand. Therefore thus says Yahweh of armies, behold, I will punish them.  CHAPTER XII Righteous are you, Yahweh, when I contend with you. Yet would I reason the cause with you? Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are all they at ease who deal very treacherously? You have planted them, yes, they have taken root, they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit.  Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter. How long shall the land mourn and the herbs of the whole country wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell therein the animals are consumed and the birds, because they said he shall not see our latter end. If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And though in a land of peace you are secure, how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?  Don't believe them, though they speak beautiful words to you. I have forsaken my house, I have cast off my heritage, I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies. My heritage has become to me as a lion in the forest, she has uttered her voice against me, therefore I have hated her. Is my heritage to me as a speckled bird of prey, are the birds of prey against her all around?  Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have troddened my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolation, it mourns to me being desolate. The whole land is made desolate because no man lays it to heart. Destroyers are come on all the bare heights in the wilderness, for the sword of Yahweh devours from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land. No flesh has peace.  Thus says Yahweh against all my evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit, behold I will pluck them up from their land and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them. It shall happen after that I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them, and I will bring them again every man to his heritage and every man to his land. It shall happen if they will diligently learn the ways of my people to swear by my name as Yahweh lives, even as they taught my people to swear by bail, then shall they be built up in the midst of my people. But if they will not hear, then will I pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it, says Yahweh. CHAPTER XIII.  So I bought a belt, according to the word of Yahweh, and put it on my waist. The word of Yahweh came to me the second time, saying, Take the belt that you have bought, which is on your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock. So I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as Yahweh commanded me. It happened after many days that Yahweh said to me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the belt from there which I commanded you to hide there. Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the belt from the place where I had hid it, and behold, the belt was marred. It was profitable for nothing. Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Thus says Yahweh, for this manner will I mar the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing. For as the belt cleaves to the waist of a man, so have I caused to cleave to me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, says Yahweh, that they may be to me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory. But they would not hear. Therefore you shall speak to them this word. Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel. Every bottle shall be filled with wine.  Then you shall tell them. Thus says Yahweh, behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit on David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness. I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, says Yahweh. I will not pity nor spare nor have compassion that I should not destroy them.  Give glory to Yahweh, your God, before He caused darkness and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you look for light He turned it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness. But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride, and my eye shall weep sore and run down with tears, because Yahweh's flock is taken captive.  The cities of the south are shut up and there is none to open them. Judah is carried away captive, all of it. It is wholly carried away captive. Lift up your eyes and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock? What will you say when He shall set over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? Shall not sorrows take hold of you as of a woman in travail? If you say in your heart, why are these things come on me? For the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered, and your heels suffer violence. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil. Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness. This is your lot, the portion measured to you from me, says Yahweh, because you have forgotten me and trusted in falsehood.  I have seen your abominations, even your adulteries and your naeing, the lewdness of your prostitution on the hills in the field. Woe to you, Jerusalem! You shall not be made clean. How long shall it yet be? CHAPTER XIV The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.  Their nobles send their little ones to the waters. They come to the cisterns and find no water. They return with their vessels empty. They are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads. Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed. They cover their heads. Yes, the hind also in the field calves and forsakes her young, because there is no grass. The wild donkey stand on the bare heights. They pant for air like jackals. Their eyes fail, because there is no herbage. Though our iniquities testify against us, work you for your name's sake, Yahweh, for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against you. You hope of Israel, its saviour in the time of trouble. Why should you be as a foreigner in the land, and as a wayfaring man who turns away to stay for a night?  Yet you, Yahweh, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name. Don't leave us. Thus says Yahweh to this people. Even so have they loved to wonder. They have not refrained their feet. Therefore Yahweh does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and visit their sins. Yahweh said to me, Don't pray for this people, for their good. When they fast I will not hear their cry, and when they offer bird offering and meal offering I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. Then said I, Ah, Lord Yahweh, behold, the prophets tell them you shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place. Then Yahweh said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I didn't send them. Neither have I commanded them, neither spoke I to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision and divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart. For thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, and I didn't send them. Yet they say sword and famine shall not be in this land. By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed. The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness on them. You shall say this word to them. Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach with a very grievous wound. If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword, and if I enter into the city, then behold those who are sick with famine, for both the prophet and the priest go about in the land and have no knowledge. Have you utterly rejected Judah? Has your soul loathed Zion? Why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came, and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay. We acknowledge Yahweh our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against you. Do not abhor us for your namesake. Do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember, don't break your covenant with us. Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren't you he, Yahweh our God? Therefore we will wait for you, for you have made all these things. CHAPTER XV Then said Yahweh to me, though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not be toward this people. Cast them out of my sight and let them go forth. It shall happen when they tell you where shall we go forth, and you shall tell them, thus says Yahweh, such as are for death to death, and such as are for the sword to the sword, and such as are for the famine to the famine, and such as are for captivity to captivity. I will point over them four kinds, says Yahweh, the sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth to devour and to destroy. I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside and ask of your welfare? You have rejected me, says Yahweh.   I am weary with repenting. I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land. I have bereaved them of children. I have destroyed my people. They didn't return from their ways. Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas. I have brought on them against the mother of the young men, a destroyer at noonday. I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly. She who has borne seven languishes, she has given up the spirit. Her son is gone down while it was yet day. She has been disappointed and confounded, and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says Yahweh. What was me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth? I have not lent, neither have men lent to me, yet every one of them does curse me. Yahweh said, Most certainly I will strengthen you for good. Most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the time of evil and in the time of affliction. In one break iron, even iron from the north and brass, your substance and your treasures will I give for a spoil without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.  Yahweh, you know. Remember me and visit me and avenge me of my persecutors. Take me away in your long suffering. Know that for your sake I have suffered reproach. Your words were found and I ate them, and your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by your name, Yahweh, God of armies. I didn't sit in the assembly of those who make merry, no rejoiced. I sat alone, because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable which refuses to be healed? Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook, as waters that fail? Therefore, thus says Yahweh, if you return, then I will bring you again, that you may stand before me, and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth. They shall return to you, but you shall not return to them. I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall, and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you.  I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible. CHAPTER XVI The word of Yahweh came also to me, saying, You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters in this place. For thus says Yahweh, concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who became the father of them in this land.  They shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground, and they shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth. For thus says Yahweh, don't enter into the house of morning, neither go to lament, neither bemoan them. For I have taken away my peace from this people, says Yahweh, even loving kindness and tender mercies.  They shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. Neither shall men break bread for them in morning, to comfort them for the dead. Neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother. We shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. For thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, behold, I will cause to cease out of this place before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride. It shall happen when you shall show this people all these words and they shall tell you why has Yahweh pronounced all this great evil against us, or what is our iniquity, or what is our sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God. Then you shall tell them, because your fathers have forsaken me, says Yahweh, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law. And you have done evil more than your fathers, for behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don't listen to me. Therefore will I cast you forth out of this land, into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, and there you shall serve other gods, day and night, for I will show you no favor. Therefore behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no more be said, as Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but as Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them. I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishermen, says Yahweh, and they shall fish them up. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill and out of the clefts of the rocks. For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from my face, neither is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. First, I will recompense their iniquity and their sin, double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations. Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, even vanity, and things in which there is no profit. Shall a man make to himself gods, which yet are no gods? Therefore behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause them to know, my hand and my might, and they shall know that my name is Yahweh. CHAPTER XVII. The sin of Judah is written with a pin of iron and with a point of a diamond. It is engraved on the tablet of their heart and on the horns of your altars, while their children remember their altars and their asherim by the green trees on the high hills. My mountain in the field I will give your substance and all your treasures for a spoil, and your high places because of sin throughout all your borders.  THE SAYS YAHWEI. Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Yahweh, for he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, assault land, and not inhabited. Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose trust Yahweh is, for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters who spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it? I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches and not by right.  A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be disappointed. Those who depart from me shall be written in the earth because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring of living waters. Heal me, O Yahweh, and I shall be healed. Save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise. Behold, they tell me, where is the word of Yahweh? Let it come now. As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you. Neither have I desired the woeful day. You know, that which came out of my lips was before your face. Don't be a terror to me. You are my refuge in the day of evil. Let them be disappointed who persecute me. But let not me be disappointed. Let them be dismayed, but don't let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction. Thus said Yahweh to me, Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, through which the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, and tell them, Hear you the word of Yahweh, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates. Thus says Yahweh, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, holy, neither do any work, but make the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. For they didn't listen, neither turn their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction. It shall happen. If you diligently listen to me, says Yahweh, and bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein, then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city shall remain forever. They shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the low land, and from the hill country, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices and meal offerings and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of Yahweh. But if you will not listen to me, to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then will I kindle a fire in its gates, and shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched. CHAPTER XVIII The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was making a work on the wheels. When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, House of Israel, can't I do with you as this potter, says Yahweh, behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, House of Israel. At one instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to pluck up and break down and to destroy it, if that nation concerning which I have spoken turned from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it, if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good with which I said I would benefit them. Now therefore speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yahweh, behold, I frame evil against you and devise a device against you. Return you now every one from his evil way and amend your ways and your doings. But they say it is in vain, for we will walk after our own devices and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore, thus says Yahweh, ask you now among the nations who has heard such things. The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field, or shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up? For my people have forgotten me. They have burned incense to false gods, and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up, to make their land an astonishment and a perpetual hissing. Every one who passes thereby shall be astonished and shake his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy. I will show them the back and not the face in the day of their calamity. Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest or council from the wise nor the word from the prophet.  Give he to me, Yahweh, and listen to the voice of those who contend with me. Shall evil be recompensed for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. But remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them. Therefore deliver up their children to the famine and give them over to the power of the sword and let their wives become childless and widows and let their men be slain of death and their young men struck of the sword in battle.   Don't forgive their iniquity. Neither blot out their sin from your sight. But let them be overthrown before you.  CHAPTER XIX Thus said Yahweh, Go and buy a potter's earthen bottle and take of the elders of the people and of the elders of the priests and go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harseth, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you and say, Hear you the word of Yahweh, kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem.  Because they have forsaken me and have estranged this place and have burned incense in it to other gods that they didn't know, they and their fathers, and the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocence and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I didn't command nor spoke it neither came it into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter.  I will make this city an astonishment and a hissing. Everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished and hissed because of all its plagues. I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life shall distress them. Then you shall break the bottle in the sight of the men who go with you and shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh of armies, even so will I break this people and this city as one breaks a potter's vessel that can't be made whole again, and they shall bury in Topheth until there be no place to bury. Thus will I do to this place, says Yahweh, and to its inhabitants even making this city as Topheth, and the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah which are defiled shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the army of the sky and have poured out drink offerings to other gods. Then came Jeremiah from Topheth where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of Yahweh's house and said to all the people, Thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, Behold I will bring on this city and on all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it because they have made their next stiff that they may not hear my words. CHAPTER XX Now Pashur, the son of Imer, the priest, who was chief officer in the house of Yahweh, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. Then Pashur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin which was in the house of Yahweh. It happened on the next day that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks, and then said Jeremiah to him, Yahweh has not called your name Pashur, but Magor Misabib.  And I will give all Judah into the hand of the King of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall kill them with the sword. Moreover, I will give all the riches of this city and all its gains and all the precious things of it, yes all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, and they shall make them a prey and take them and carry them to Babylon.  Yahweh, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded. You are stronger than I and have prevailed.  Everyone mocks me. For as often as I speak I cry out, I cry violence and destruction, because the word of Yahweh is made a reproach to me, and it is region all the day. If I say I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name than there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing and I can't contain. For I have heard the defaming of many terror on every side, denounce and we will denounce him, say all my familiar friends, those who watch for my fall, for adventure he will be persuaded, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take a revenge on him. But Yahweh is with me as an awesome mighty one, therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail. They shall be utterly disappointed, because they have not dealt wisely, even with an everlasting dishonor which shall never be forgotten. But Yahweh of armies, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you have I revealed my cause. Sing to Yahweh, praise you Yahweh, for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evil doers. Cursed be the day in which I was born, don't let the day in which my mother bore me be blessed.  Let that man be as the cities which Yahweh overthrew and didn't repent.  Why came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame? End of chapters 11 through 20 of the book of Jeremiah. CHAPTER XXI. The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashur the son of Melchizia, and Zephaniah the son of Ma'asea the priest, saying, Please inquire of Yahweh for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us. Per adventure Yahweh will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us. Then said Jeremiah to them, You shall tell Zedekiah, thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans who besiege you without the walls, and I will gather them into the midst of this city. I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and in wrath and in great indignation. I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and animal. They shall die of a great pestilence. Afterwards, says Yahweh, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people, even such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life. And he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. He shall not spare them, neither have pity nor have mercy. To this people you shall say, Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who remains in this city shall die by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence.  For I have set my face on this city for evil and not for good, says Yahweh. It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. Touching the house of the king of Judah, hear you the word of Yahweh.  Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, and of the rock of the plain, says Yahweh. You that say, Who shall come down against us, or who shall enter into our habitations?  Chapter 22 Thus said Yahweh, Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word. Say, Hear the word of Yahweh, king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter in by these gates. Thus says Yahweh, Execute you justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, and do no wrong, do no violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, nor the widow. Neither shed innocent blood in this place. For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter by the gates of this house, king sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he and his servants and his people. But if you will not hear these words, I swear by my myself, says Yahweh, that this house shall become a desolation, for thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah.   Many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Why has Yahweh done thus to this great city? Then they shall answer, because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh their God, and worshiped other gods, and served them. Don't you weep for the dead, neither bemoan him, but weep soar for him who goes away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country. For thus says Yahweh, touching Shalom the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went forth out of his place. He shall not return there any more, but in the place where they have led him captive there shall he die, and he shall see this land no more. Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice, who uses his neighbor's service without wages, and doesn't give him his hire, who says, I will build me a wide house and spacious chambers, and cuts him out windows, and its ceiling with cedar, and painted with vermilion. Shall you reign because you strive to excel in cedar? Didn't your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy. Then it was well. Wasn't this to know me, says Yahweh? But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence to do it. Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning Jehovah King, the son of Josiah, king of Judah. They shall not lament for him saying, Ah, my brother, or Ah, sister. They shall not lament for him saying, Ah, Lord, or Ah, his glory. He shall be buried with the burial of Adonki, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.  I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, I will not hear. This has been your manner from your youth, that you didn't obey my voice. The wind shall feed all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity. Surely then you will be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness. Inhabitant of Lebanon, who makes your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied you will be, when pangs come on you, the pain as of a woman in travail. As I live, says Yahweh, though Caniah the son of Jehovah King, king of Judah, were the signet of my right hand, yet would I pluck you there, and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of them, of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.  But to the land where unto their soul longs to return, there shall they not return. Is this man Caniah a despised broken vessel? Is he a vessel in which none delights? Why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they don't know? O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Yahweh. Thus says Yahweh, write to you this man childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days, for no more shall a man of his seed prosper, sitting on the throne of David and ruling in Judah. CHAPTER XXIII Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pastor, says Yahweh. Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people. You have scattered my flock and driven them away, and have not visited them.  I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set up shepherds over them who shall feed them, and they shall fear no more nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, says Yahweh. Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I shall raise to David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name by which he shall be called. Yahweh are righteousness. Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that they shall no more say, as Yahweh lives who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but as Yahweh lives who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the North Country, and from all the countries where I had driven them, they shall dwell in their own land. Concerning the prophets, my heart within me is broken, all my bones shake. I am like a drunken man and like a man whom wine has overcome because of Yahweh and because of his holy words. For the land is full of adulterers, for because of swearing the land mourns, the pastors of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil and their might is not right, for both prophet and priest are profane. Yes, in my house have I found their wickedness, says Yahweh. Therefore their way shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness. They shall be driven on and fall therein. For I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation, says Yahweh. I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied by Baal and caused my people Israel to air. In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing.  They are all of them become to me as Sodom and its inhabitants as Gomorrah. Therefore thus says Yahweh of armies concerning the prophets. Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of Gal. For from the prophets of Jerusalem is ungodliness gone forth into all the land. Thus says Yahweh of armies, don't listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They teach you vanity, they speak a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of Yahweh.  For who has stood in the council of Yahweh, that he should perceive and hear his word? Who has marked my word and heard it? Behold, the storm of Yahweh, even his wrath, is gone forth. Yes, a whirling storm. It shall burst on the head of the wicked. The anger of Yahweh shall not return until he has executed, and until he have performed the intents of his heart. In the latter days you shall understand it perfectly. I sent not these prophets, yet they ran. I didn't speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words and had turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings. Am I a God at hand, says Yahweh, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? Says Yahweh. Don't I fill heaven and earth? Says Yahweh. I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart, who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name for bail? The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream, and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is this draw to the wheat, says Yahweh? Isn't my word like fire, says Yahweh, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? Therefore behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, who steal my words every one from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, who use their tongues and say, he says.  Yet I didn't send them nor commanded them. Neither do they prophet this people at all, says Yahweh. When this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, What is the burden of Yahweh? Then you shall tell them, What burden? I will cast you off, says Yahweh. As for the prophet and the priest and the people who shall say, The burden of Yahweh, I will even punish that man and his house. You shall say everyone to his neighbor and everyone to his brother, What has Yahweh answered? And what has Yahweh spoken? You shall mention the burden of Yahweh no more, for every man's own word shall be his burden, for you have perverted the words of the living God, of Yahweh of armies our God. You shall say to the prophet, What has Yahweh answered you? And what has Yahweh spoken? But if you say, The burden of Yahweh, therefore thus says Yahweh, because you say this word, The burden of Yahweh, and I have sent to you, saying, You shall not say the burden of Yahweh, therefore behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off in the city that I gave to you and your fathers away from my presence, and I will bring an everlasting reproach on you and a perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten. Chapter 24 Yahweh showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs set before the temple of Yahweh, after that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jecuniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe, and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten they were so bad. Then said Yahweh to me, What see you, Jeremiah? I said, figs, the good figs very good, and the bad, very bad, that can't be eaten they are so bad. The word of Yahweh came to me, saying, Thus says Yahweh, 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 Caldeans, for good, for I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land, and I shall build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. I will give them a heart to know me that I am Yahweh, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart. As the bad figs, which can't be eaten, they are so bad, surely thus says Yahweh, so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt, I will even give them up to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all places where I shall drive them.  CHAPTER XXV The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, the same was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, From the thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years, the word of Yahweh has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking, but you have not listened. Yahweh has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear, saying, Return you now, everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that Yahweh has given to you and to your fathers, from of old and even forever more, and don't go after other gods to serve them or worship them, and don't provoke me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm. Yet you have not listened to me, says Yahweh, that you may provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt. Therefore, thus says Yahweh of armies, because you have not heard my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says Yahweh, and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations around, and I will utterly destroy them and make them an astonishment and a hissing and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.  I will bring on 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. For many nations and great kings shall make bond servants of them, even of them, and I will recompense them, according to their deeds, and according to the work of their hands. For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to me, take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. They shall drink and reel back and forth, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at Yahweh's hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom Yahweh had sent me. To wit Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and its kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people, and all the mixed people, and all the kings of the land of the Uzz, and all the kings of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon, and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the Isle, which is beyond the sea, Deden, and Tema, and Buzz, and all who have the corners of their hair cut off, and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed people who dwell in the wilderness, and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes, and all the kings of the North, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world which are on the surface of the Earth, and the king of Sheshak shall drink after them. You shall tell them, thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel. Drink you, and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. It shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink, then you shall tell them, thus says Yahweh of armies, you shall surely drink. For behold, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name, and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished, for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the Earth, says Yahweh of armies. Therefore prophesy you against them all these words, and tell them, Yahweh will roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation. He will mightily roar against his fold. He will give a shout, as those who tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the Earth. A noise shall come, even to the end of the Earth. For Yahweh has a controversy with the nations. He will enter into judgment with all flesh. As for the wicked, he will give them to the sword, says Yahweh. Thus says Yahweh of armies, behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great storm shall be raced up from the uttermost parts of the Earth. The slain of Yahweh shall be, in that day, from one end of the Earth, even to the other end of the Earth. They shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried. They shall be dung on the surface of the ground. Wail, you shepherds, and cry, and wallow in the ashes, you principle of the flock.  The shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principle of the flock to escape. A voice of the cry of the shepherds and the wailing of the principle of the flock. For Yahweh lays waste to their pasture. The peaceable folds are brought to silence because of the fierce anger of Yahweh. He has left his covert as the lion, for their land is become an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppressing sword and because of his fierce anger. CHAPTER XXVI In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word from Yahweh, saying, Thus says Yahweh, Stand in the court of Yahweh's house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in Yahweh's house, all the words that I command you to speak to them. Don't diminish a word. It may be they will listen, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil which I purpose to do to them because of the evil of their doings.  The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of Yahweh. It happened when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that Yahweh had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold on him, saying, You shall surely die. Why have you prophesied in the name of Yahweh, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without inhabitant? All the people were gathered to Jeremiah in the house of Yahweh. When the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to the house of Yahweh, they sat in the entry of the new gate of Yahweh's house, then spoke the priests and the prophets to the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy of death, for he has prophesied against this city as you have heard with your ears. Then spoke Jeremiah to all the princes and to all the people, saying, Yahweh sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard. Now therefore amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of Yahweh your God, and Yahweh will repent him of the evil that he has pronounced against you. But as for me, behold, I am in your hand, do with me as is good and right in your eyes. Only know for certain that, if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on its inhabitants. For of a truth Yahweh has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears. Then said the princes and all the people, to the priests and to the prophets, This man is not worthy of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of Yahweh our God. Then rose up certain of the elders of the land and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying, Micah the Moorish Tite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus says Yahweh of armies, Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the field as the high places of a forest. Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death? Didn't he fear Yahweh and entreat the favor of Yahweh, and Yahweh relented of the disaster which he pronounced against them? Thus should we commit great evil against our own souls. There was also a man who prophesied in the name of Yahweh, Uriah, the son of Shemaiah, of Kyriath Jerim, and he prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah, and when Jehoi came the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death, but when Uriah heard it, he was afraid and fled, and went into Egypt, and Jehoi came the king, sent men into Egypt, namely Elnathon, the son of Aqor, and certain men with him into Egypt, and they fetched forth Uriah out of Egypt, and brought him to Jehoi came the king, who killed him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people. But the hand of Ahikam, the son of Safan, was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death. CHAPTER 27 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, Thus says Yahweh to me, Make bonds and bars, and put them on your neck, and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the children of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah, and give them a command to their masters, saying, Thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, You shall tell your masters, I have made the earth, the men and the animals that are on the surface of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm. And I give it to whom it seems right to me. Now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and the animals of the field also have I given him to serve him. All the nations shall serve him and his son and his son son until the time of his own land come, and then many nations and great kings shall make him their bond servant. It shall happen that the nation and the kingdom which shall not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon. That nation will I punish, says Yahweh, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.  But the nation that shall bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, that nation will I let remain in their own land, says Yahweh, and they shall till it and they shall dwell therein. I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people and live. Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as Yahweh has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?   Don't listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation? But if they be prophets, and if the word of Yahweh be with them, let them now make intercession to Yahweh of armies, that the vessels which are left in the house of Yahweh, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, don't go to Babylon. For thus says Yahweh of armies concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that are left in this city, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon didn't take, when he carried away captive Jechaniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem. Yes, thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that are left in the house of Yahweh, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem. They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be, until the day that I visit them, says Yahweh, then will I bring them up and restore them to this place. CHAPTER XXVIII It happened the same year in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azar, the prophet, who was of Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of Yahweh in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, Thus speaks Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.  Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who stood in the house of Yahweh, even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen, Yahweh do so. Yahweh perform your words which you have prophesied to bring again the vessels of Yahweh's house and all them of the captivity from Babylon to this place. Nevertheless hear you now this word that I speak in your ears and in the ears of all the people. The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries and against great kingdoms of war and of evil and of pestilence. The prophet who prophesies of peace when the word of the prophet shall happen, then shall the prophet be known that Yahweh has truly sent him. Then Hananiah the prophet took the bar from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck and broke it. Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people saying, thus says Yahweh, even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon within two full years from off the neck of all the nations. The prophet Jeremiah went his way. Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the bar from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah saying, go and tell Hananiah saying, thus says Yahweh, you have broken the bars of wood, but you have made in their place bars of iron. For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel. I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and they shall serve him, and I have given him the animals of the field also. Then said the prophet Jeremiah to Hananiah the prophet, here now Hananiah, Yahweh has not sent you that you make this people to trust in a lie.  This year you shall die because you have spoken rebellion against Yahweh. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month. CHAPTER XXIX Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders of the captivity and to the priests and to the prophets and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon, after that Checheniah the king and the queen mother and the eunuchs and the princes of Judah and Jerusalem and the craftsmen and the smiths were departed from Jerusalem, by the hand of Elisa the son of Safan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying, thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, to all the captivity whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. Hold you houses and dwell in them and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them.  Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive and pray to Yahweh for it, for in its peace you shall have peace. For thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.   For they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them, says Yahweh. For thus says Yahweh, after seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform many good word toward you in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says Yahweh, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end.    Because you have said, Yahweh has raised us up prophets in Babylon, thus says Yahweh concerning the king who sits in the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers who haven't gone forth with you into captivity. Thus says Yahweh of armies, behold I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs that can't be eaten, they are so bad. I will pursue after them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth to be an object of horror and an astonishment and a hissing and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them. Because they have not listened to my words, says Yahweh, with which I sent to them my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them. But you would not hear, says Yahweh. Hear you therefore the word of Yahweh, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon. Thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab, the son of Koliah, and concerning Zedekiah, the son of Maseiah, who prophesy a lie to you in my name.  Because they have worked folly in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken words in my name falsely which I didn't command them. And I am he who knows, and have witnessed, says Yahweh. Concerning Shemaiiah, the Nehellomite, you shall speak saying. Thus speaks Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, saying, Because you have sent letters in your own name to all the people who are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah, the son of Maseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, saying, Yahweh has made you priest in the place of Jehoiata, the priest, that there may be officers in the house of Yahweh, for every man who is mad and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in the stocks and in shackles. Now therefore why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you, because he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, The captivity is long, build you houses, and dwell in them, and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the ears of Jeremiah the prophet. Then came the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah, saying, Send to all them of the captivity, saying, Thus says Yahweh concerning Shemaiiah, the Nehellomite. Because Shemaiiah has prophesied to you, and I didn't send him, and he has caused you to trust in a lie, therefore thus says Yahweh. Behold, I will punish Shemaiiah, the Nehellomite, and his seed, and he shall not have a man to dwell among his people. Neither shall he see the good that I will do to my people, says Yahweh, because he has spoken rebellion against Yahweh. CHAPTERS 30-36 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, Thus speaks Yahweh, the God of Israel, saying, Write you all the words that I have spoken to you in a book. For behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will turn again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, says Yahweh, and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. These are the words that Yahweh spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah. For thus says Yahweh, We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask now and see whether a man does travail with child. Why do I see every man with his hands on his waist as a woman in travail, and all the faces are turned into paleness? Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. It shall come to pass in that day, says Yahweh of armies, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and will burst your bonds, and strangers shall no more make him their bond-servant. But they shall serve Yahweh their God, and David their King, whom I will raise up to them. Therefore, don't you be afraid, O Jacob my servant, says Yahweh. Neither be dismayed, Israel, for behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity, and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid. For I am with you, says Yahweh, to save you, for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have scattered you, but I will not make a full end of you, but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished. For thus says Yahweh, your hurt is incurable, and your wound grievous. There is none to plead your cause that you may be bound up. You have no healing medicines.  They don't seek you, for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the greatness of your iniquity because your sins were increased. Why cry you for your hurt? Your pain is incurable. For the greatness of your iniquity because your sins were increased I have done these things to you.  For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds, says Yahweh, because they have called you an outcast, saying, It is Zion whom no man seeks after. Thus says Yahweh, behold, I will turn again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have compassion on his dwelling places, and the city shall be built on its own hill, and the palace shall be inhabited after its own manner. Out of them shall proceed thanksgiving, and the voice of those who make merry, and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few. I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. Their children also shall be as before, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all who oppress them. Their prince shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from the midst of them, and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach to me. For who is he who has had boldness to approach me, says Yahweh? You shall be my people, and I will be your God. Behold, the storm of Yahweh, even his wrath, is gone forth, a sweeping storm. It shall burst on the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of Yahweh shall not return until he has executed, and until he have performed the intents of his heart. In the latter days you shall understand it. CHAPTER 31 At that time, says Yahweh, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus says Yahweh, the people who were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness, even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you. Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O Virgin of Israel. Again you shall be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who make merry. Again you shall plant vineyards in the mountains of Samaria. The planters shall plant, and shall enjoy its fruit. For there shall be a day that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim shall cry. Arise you, and let us go up to Zion, to Yahweh our God. For thus says Yahweh, sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations. Publish you, praise you, and say, Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth. And with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child, and her who travailes with child together. A great company shall they return here. They shall come with weeping, and with petitions will I lead them. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble. For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.  And say, he who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as shepherd does his flock. For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he. They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd. And their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together. For I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says Yahweh. Thus says Yahweh, a voice is heard in rama, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children because they are no more. Thus says Yahweh, refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for your work shall be rewarded, says Yahweh, and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your latter end, says Yahweh, and your children shall come again to their own border. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself, thus you have chastised me, and I was chastised as a calf unaccustomed to the yoke. Turn you me, and I shall be turned, for you are Yahweh, my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented, and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh. I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him, says Yahweh. Set up road signs, make guideposts, set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went. Turn again, Virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities. How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth. A woman shall encompass a man. Thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities when I shall bring again their captivity. Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness. Judah and all its cities shall dwell therein together, the farmers and those who go out with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I replenished. On this I awakened and saw, and my sleep was sweet to me. Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of animal.  In those days they shall say no more, the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. But everyone shall die for his own iniquity.  Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh. I will put my law in their inward parts and in their heart will I write it, and I will be their God and they shall be my people, and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, no Yahweh, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yahweh. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more. Thus says Yahweh, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the seas so that its waves roar. Yahweh of armies is his name. If these ordinances depart from before me, says Yahweh, then the seed of Israel shall also cease from being a nation before me forever. Thus says Yahweh, if heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, then will I also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, says Yahweh. Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that the city shall be built to Yahweh from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner. The measuring line shall go out further straight onward to the hill-garab, and shall turn about to Goa. The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy to Yahweh. It shall not be plucked up nor thrown down any more forever. CHAPTER 32 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. Now at that time the king of Babylon's army was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard, which was in the king of Judah's house. For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Why do you prophesy and say, Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it, and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall see his eyes, and he shall bring Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall be he until I visit him, says Yahweh. Though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not prosper.  So enamel my uncle's son came to me in the court of the guard, according to the word of Yahweh, and said to me, Please 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. When I knew that this was the word of Yahweh, I bought the field that was in Anathoth, of Hanamel, my uncle's son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. I subscribed the deed, and sealed it, and called witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances. So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and that which was open, and I delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Nariah, the son of Maseah, in the presence of Hanamel, my uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses who subscribed the deed of the purchase, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the guard. I commanded Baruch before him, saying, Thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel. Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days. For thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land. Now after I had delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Nariah, I prayed to Yahweh, saying, Ah, Lord Yahweh, behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for you who show loving-kindness to thousands, and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. The great, the mighty God Yahweh of armies is his name, great in counsel and mighty in work, whose eyes are open on all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings, who performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even to this day, both in Israel and among other men, and made you a name as in this day, and brought forth your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders and with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror, and gave them this land which you did swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they came in and possessed it. But they didn't obey your voice, neither 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 on them. They have come to the city to take it, and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it because of the sword and of the famine and of the pestilence. And what you have spoken has happened, and behold, you see it. You have said to me, Lord Yahweh, buy you the field for money and call witnesses, whereas the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. Then came the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah, saying, Behold, I am Yahweh, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? Therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and he shall take it, and the Chaldeans who fight against this city shall come and set this city on fire and burn it with the houses on whose roofs they have offered incense to bale and poured out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only that which was evil in my sight from their youth. For the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, says Yahweh. For this city has been to me a provocation of my anger and of my wrath from the day that they built it even to this day, that I should remove it from before my face 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, and their prophets, and the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned to me the back and not the face, and though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction. But they set their abominations in the house which is called by my name to defile it. They built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Moloch, which I didn't command them, neither did it come to my mind that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin. Now therefore, thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning this city, about which you say it is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence. Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries where I have driven them in my anger and in my wrath and in great indignation, and I will bring them again to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, and I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and of their children after them, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from following them to do them good, and I will put my fear in their hearts that they may not depart from me. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. For thus says Yahweh, like as I have brought all this great evil on this people, so will I bring on them all the good that I have promised them. Fields shall be bought in this land about which you say it is desolate without man or animal. It is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. Men shall buy fields for money and subscribe the deeds and seal them and call witnesses in the land of Benjamin and in the places about Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah and in the cities of the hill country and in the cities of the low land and in the cities of the south, for I shall cause their captivity to return, says Yahweh. CHAPTER 33 Moreover the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah the second time while he was yet shut up in the court of the guards, saying, Thus says Yahweh who does it, Yahweh who forms it to establish it, Yahweh is his name. Call to me and I will answer you, and will show you great things and difficult which you don't know. For thus says Yahweh the God of Israel concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah which were broken down to make a defense against the mounds and against the sword, while men came to fight with the Chaldeans and to fill them with the dead bodies of men whom I have killed in my anger and in my wrath, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city. Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and I will reveal to them abundance of peace and truth. I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and I will build them as at the first. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against me and by which they have transgressed against me. This city shall be to me for a name of joy and for a praise and for a glory, before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do to them, and shall fear and tremble for all the good and for all the peace that I procure to it. Thus says Yahweh, yet again shall there be heard in this place about which you say it is a waste, without man and without animal, even in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem they are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without animal, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, give thanks to Yahweh of armies, for Yahweh is good, for his loving kindness endures forever, and of them who bring sacrifices of thanksgiving into the house of Yahweh. For I will cause the captivity of the land to return as at the first, says Yahweh. Thus says Yahweh of armies, yet again shall there be in this place which is waste, without man and without animal, and in all its cities a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the low land, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah shall be flocks again to pass under the hands of him who numbers them, says Yahweh. He told the days come, says Yahweh, that I will perform that good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah. In those days, and at that time, will I cause a branch of righteousness to grow up to David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name by which she shall be called, Yahweh, our righteousness. For thus says Yahweh, David shall never want a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. Neither shall the priests, the Levites, want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to burn meal offerings, and to sacrifice continually. The word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, saying, thus says Yahweh, if you can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night, so that there shall not be day and night in their season, then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, and he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites the priests my ministers, as the army of the sky cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David my servant and the Levites who minister to me. The word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, saying, don't you consider what these people have spoken, saying, the two families which Yahweh did choose, he has cast them off? Thus do they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. Thus says Yahweh, if my covenant of day and night fails, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then will I also cast away the seed of Jacob, and of David my servant, so that I will not take of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for I will cause their captivity to return, and will have mercy on them. Chapter 34 The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his dominion, and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of it, saying, thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, go and speak to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and tell him, thus says Yahweh, behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape out of his hand, but shall surely be taken, and delivered into his hand.   Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these things to Zedekiah, king of Judah, in Jerusalem, when the king of Babylon's army was fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Flakish, and against Azikah, for these alone remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities. The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them, that every man should let his male servant and every man his female servant, who is a Hebrew or a Hebrew S, go free, that none should make bond servants of them to wit of a Jew his brother. All the princes and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant, that everyone should let his male servant and everyone his female servant go free, that none should make bond servants of them any more. They obeyed and let them go, but afterwards they turned and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.   Therefore Thus says Yahweh, you have not listened to me to proclaim liberty every man to his brother and every man to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim to you a liberty, says Yahweh, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine, and I will make you to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth. I will give them men who have transgressed my covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf into and passed between its parts. The princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs and the priests and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf. I will even give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life, and their dead body shall be for food to the birds of the sky and to the animals of the earth.  Behold, I will command, says Yahweh, and cause them to return to this city, and they shall fight against it and take it and burn it with fire, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant. CHAPTER 35 The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, Go to the house of the Recibites, and speak to them, and bring them into the house of Yahweh, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink. Then I took Jezaniah, the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah, and his brothers, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Recibites, and I brought them into the house of Yahweh, into the chamber of the sons of Hannan, the son of Adalia, the man of God, who was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Messiah, the son of Shalom, the keeper of the threshold.   Neither shall you build house, or sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any. But all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land in which you sojourn. We have obeyed the voice of Jonah dabb, the son of Rechav, our father, and all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, nor to build houses for us to dwell in. Neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed, but we have lived in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonah dabb, our father, commanded us. But it happened when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land that we said, Come, let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians, so we dwell at Jerusalem. Then came the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah, saying, Thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, will you not receive instruction to listen to my words, says Yahweh.  But I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking, and you have not listened to me. I have sent also to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Return you now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and don't go after other gods to serve them, and you shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers. But you have not inclined your ear, nor listened to me. Because the sons of Jonah dabb, the son of Rechav, have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them, but this people has not listened to me. Therefore thus says Yahweh, God of armies, the God of Israel. Behold, I will bring on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them, but they have not heard, and I have called to them, but they have not answered. Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, Thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel. Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonah dabb your father, and kept all his precepts, and have done according to all that he commanded you, therefore thus says Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel. Jonah dabb, the son of Rechav, shall not want a man to stand before me forever. CHAPTER 36 It happened in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, Take a scroll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purposed to do to them, that they may return every man from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. Then Jeremiah called Baruch, the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of Yahweh, which he had spoken to him, on a scroll of a book. Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up, I can't go into the house of Yahweh. Before go you, and read in the scroll which you have written from my mouth, the words of Yahweh in the ears of the people in Yahweh's house, on the fast day. And also you shall read them in the ears of all Judah who come out of their cities. It may be they will present their supplication before Yahweh, and will return everyone from his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath that Yahweh has pronounced against this people. Baruch, the son of Neriah, did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of Yahweh in Yahweh's house. Now it happened in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, in the ninth month, that all the people in Jerusalem, and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem, proclaimed a fast before Yahweh. Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of Yahweh, in the chamber of Gamaria, son of Saphon, the scribe in the upper court, at the entry of the new gate of Yahweh's house, in the ears of all the people. When Micaiah, the son of Gamaria, the son of Saphon, had heard out of the book all the words of Yahweh, he went down into the king's house, into the scribe's chamber.  Then Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.  So Baruch the son of Nariah took the scroll in his hand, and came to them. They said to him, Sit down now and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears. Now it happened when they had heard all the words, they turned in fear one toward another, and said to Baruch, We will surely tell a king of all these words. They asked Baruch, Saying, Tell us now, how did you write all these words at his mouth? Then Baruch answered them. He pronounced all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book. Then said the princes to Baruch, Go, hide you, you and Jeremiah, and let no man know where you are. They went into the king into the court, but they had laid up the scroll in the chamber of Elashama the scribe, and they told all the words in the ears of the king. So the king sent Jehoi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elashama the scribe. Jehoi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes who stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire in the brazier before him. It happened when Jehoi had read three or four leaves, that the king cut it with the pen knife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. They were not afraid, nor tore their garments, neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words. Moreover, Elnathan and Delayiah and Gamaria had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the scroll, but he would not hear them. The king commanded Jeremeel the king's son, and Sarayiah the son of Azrael, and Shalamiah the son of Abdel to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but Yahweh hid them. Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah saying, take again another scroll and write in it all the former words that were in the first scroll which Jehoiachim the king of Judah has burned. Concerning Jehoiachim, king of Judah, you shall say, thus says Yahweh, you have burned the scroll saying, why have you written therein saying the king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land and shall cause to cease from their man and animal. Therefore says Yahweh concerning Jehoiachim king of Judah, he shall have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat and in the night to the frost. I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity, and I will bring on them and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem and on the men of Judah all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they didn't listen. Then took Jeremiah another scroll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Narayah, who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiachim king of Judah had burned in the fire, and there were added besides to them many like words. End of CHAPTERS 30 THROUGH 36


On the castle tower in the spring, a cherry blossom viewing feast, exchanging cups of sake, the moon dancing in each, branches of pine trees shooting out, they've grown a thousand years. Where have the glorious old days gone? On the battlefield campsite in the autumn, a cold layer of frost, wild keys honking in flight. You can count them in the clear moonlight. The pine trees like swords stuck in the ground, the cold moonlight makes them shine. Where have the glorious old days gone? Over the ruined castle at midnight, the bright moon shining as ever it shined. For whom does the moon shine so bright? Only vines on the castle wall climbing up. Can you hear anything but the wind as it blows? In the sky, past and present, the everlasting moon rising and falling. The ever-changing world is the moonlight telling us how the world goes. Ah, the midnight moon over the ruined castle.