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Jeremiah 21
The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, when king Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, 2 Inquire, I pray you, of Yahweh for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon makes war against us: perhaps Yahweh will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.
3 Then said Jeremiah to them, In this manner shall you say to Zedekiah: 4 In this manner says Yahweh, the Elohim 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 that besiege you, outside the walls; and I will gather them into the middle of this city. 5 And 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. 6 And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence. 7 And afterward, 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 Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that 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.
8 And to this people you shall say, In this manner says Yahweh: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9 He that remains in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that goes out, and passes over to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be to him for a prey. 10 For I have set my face upon 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.
11 And touching the house of the king of Judah, hear the word of Yahweh: 12 O house of David, thus says Yahweh, Execute justice in the morning, and deliver him that is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my wrath goes forth like fire, and burns so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. 13 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? 14 And I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says Yahweh; and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is all around her.
Jeremiah 22
In this manner said Yahweh: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, 2 and say, Hear the word of Yahweh, O king of Judah, that sits upon the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people that enter in by these gates. 3 In this manner says Yahweh: Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him that is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the sojourner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people. 5 But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says Yahweh, that this house shall become a desolation. 6 For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, and the head of Lebanon; yet surely I will make you a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited. 7 And I will prepare destroyers against you, every one with his weapons; and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire. 8 And 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? 9 Then they shall answer, Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh their Elohim, and worshiped other elohim, and served them.
10 Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him that goes away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country. 11 For thus says Yahweh touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went forth out of this place: He shall not return there any more; 12 but in the place where they have led him captive, there shall he die, and he shall see this land no more.
13 Woe to him that builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by injustice; that uses his neighbor’s service without wages, and gives him not his hire; 14 that says, I will build myself a wide house and spacious chambers, and cut out windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. 15 Shall you reign, because you strive to excel in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. 16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not this to know me? says Yahweh. 17 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. 18 Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim 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 my king! or, Ah his glory! 19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all your lovers are destroyed. 21 I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, I will not hear. This has been your manner from your youth, that you obeyed not my voice. 22 The wind shall feed all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shall you be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness. 23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that make your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied shall you be when pangs come upon you, the pain as of a woman in travail!
24 As I live, says Yahweh, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet I would pluck you from there; 25 and I will give you into the hand of them that seek your life, and into the hand of them of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 And I will cast you out, and your mother that bore you, into another country, where you were not born; and there shall you die. 27 But to the land to which their soul longs to return, there shall they not return. 28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? Is he a vessel in which no one delights? Why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they know not? 29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Yahweh. 30 In this manner says Yahweh, Write this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days; for no more shall a man of his seed prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling in Judah.
Jeremiah 23
Woe to the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says Yahweh. 2 Therefore thus says Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel, against the shepherds that feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, says Yahweh. 3 And 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. 4 And I will set up shepherds over them, who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, says Yahweh.
5 Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name by which he shall be called: Yahweh our righteousness. 7 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; 8 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. And they shall dwell in their own land.
9 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. 10 For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. And their course is evil, and their might is not right; 11 for both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house have I found their wickedness, says Yahweh. 12 Therefore their way shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall in it; for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, says Yahweh.
13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. 14 In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evil-doers, so that no one returns from his wickedness: they have all of them become to me as Sodom, and the inhabitants of it as Gomorrah. 15 Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem has unrighteousness gone forth into all the land.
16 In this manner says Yahweh of hosts, Do not listen to the words of the prophets that prophesy to you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Yahweh. 17 They say continually to them that despise me, Yahweh has said, You shall have peace; and to every one that walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, No evil shall come upon you. 18 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? 19 Behold, the tempest of Yahweh, even his wrath, has gone forth, yes, a whirling tempest: it shall burst upon the head of the wicked. 20 The anger of Yahweh shall not return, until he has executed, and till he has performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand it perfectly. 21 I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I spoke not to them, yet they prophesied. 22 But if they had stood in my council, then they would have caused my people to hear my words, and would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
23 Am I an Elohim at hand, says Yahweh, and not an Elohim afar off? 24 Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him? says Yahweh. Do not I fill heaven and earth? says Yahweh. 25 I have heard what the prophets have said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. 26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart? 27 That 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 Baal. 28 The prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat? says Yahweh. 29 Is not my word like fire? says Yahweh; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 30 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, that steal my words every one from his neighbor. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets, says Yahweh, that use their tongues, and say, He says. 32 Behold, I am against them that prophesy lying dreams, says Yahweh, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; neither do they profit this people at all, says Yahweh.
33 And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, What is the burden of Yahweh? Then you shall say to them, What burden! I will cast you off, says Yahweh. 34 And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of Yahweh, I will even punish that man and his house. 35 In this manner shall you say every one to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, What has Yahweh answered? and, What has Yahweh spoken? 36 And the burden of Yahweh shall you mention no more: for every man’s own word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living Elohim, of Yahweh of hosts our Elohim. 37 In this manner shall you say to the prophet, What has Yahweh answered you? and, What has Yahweh spoken? 38 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; 39 therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off, and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from my presence: 40 and I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
Jeremiah 24
Yahweh showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs set before the temple of Yahweh, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah 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. 2 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. 3 Then said Yahweh to me, What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.
4 And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 5 In this manner says Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel: Like these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for good. 6 For I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Yahweh: and they shall be my people, and I will be their Elohim; for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
8 And as the bad figs, which cannot 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, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt: 9 I will even give them up to be tossed to and fro 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. 10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they are consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.
