Jeremiah

^1:1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:

^1:2 To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

^1:3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

^1:4 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

^1:5 Before I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet unto the nations.

^1:6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

^1:7 But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for you shall go to all that I shall send you, and whatsoever I command you you shall speak.

^1:8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.

^1:9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

^1:10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

^1:11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what see you? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.

^1:12 Then said the LORD unto me, You have well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

^1:13 And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What see you? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.

^1:14 Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

^1:15 For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.

^1:16 And I will utter my judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

^1:17 You therefore gird up your loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command you: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound you before them.

^1:18 For, behold, I have made you this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.

^1:19 And they shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you.

^2:1 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

^2:2 Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the LORD; I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of yours espousals, when you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

^2:3 Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the first-fruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, says the LORD.

^2:4 Hear all of you the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:

^2:5 Thus says the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

^2:6 Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?

^2:7 And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when all of you entered, all of you defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.

^2:8 The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

^2:9 Wherefore I will yet plead with you, says the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead.

^2:10 For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.

^2:11 Has a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

^2:12 Be astonished, O all of you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be all of you very desolate, says the LORD.

^2:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

^2:14 Is Israel a servant? is he a native slave? why is he spoiled?

^2:15 The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.

^2:16 Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of your head.

^2:17 Have you not procured this unto yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God, when he led you by the way?

^2:18 And now what have you to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what have you to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?

^2:19 Yours own wickedness shall correct you, and your backslidings shall reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and that my fear is not in you, says the Lord GOD of hosts.

^2:20 For of old time I have broken your yoke, and burst your bands; and you said, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree you wander, playing the harlot.

^2:21 Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?

^2:22 For though you wash you with alkali, and take you much soap, yet yours iniquity is marked before me, says the Lord GOD.

^2:23 How can you say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see your way in the valley, know what you have done: you are a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

^2:24 A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.

^2:25 Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst: but you said, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.

^2:26 As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets.

^2:27 Saying to a stock, You are my father; and to a stone, You have brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.

^2:28 But where are your gods that you have made you? let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah.

^2:29 Wherefore will all of you plead with me? all of you all have transgressed against me, says the LORD.

^2:30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

^2:31 O generation, see all of you the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto you?

^2:32 Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

^2:33 Why trim you your way to seek love? therefore have you also taught the wicked ones your ways.

^2:34 Also in your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocent persons: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.

^2:35 Yet you says, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with you, because you says, I have not sinned.

^2:36 Why arm you about so much to change your way? you also shall be ashamed of Egypt, as you were ashamed of Assyria.

^2:37 Yea, you shall go forth from him, and yours hands upon yours head: for the LORD has rejected your confidences, and you shall not prosper in them.

^3:1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, says the LORD.

^3:2 Lift up yours eyes unto the high places, and see where you have not been lien with. In the ways have you sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your whoredoms and with your wickedness.

^3:3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; and you had a whore's forehead, you refused to be ashamed.

^3:4 Will you not from this time cry unto me, My father, you are the guide of my youth?

^3:5 Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done evil things as you could.

^3:6 The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot.

^3:7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn you unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

^3:8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

^3:9 And it came to pass through the levity of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

^3:10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, says the LORD.

^3:11 And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

^3:12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, you backsliding Israel, says the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, says the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.

^3:13 Only acknowledge yours iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and all of you have not obeyed my voice, says the LORD.

^3:14 Turn, O backsliding children, says the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

^3:15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

^3:16 And it shall come to pass, when all of you be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.

^3:17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.

^3:18 In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.

^3:19 But I said, How shall I put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, You shall call me, My father; and shall not turn away from me.

^3:20 Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have all of you dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says the LORD.

^3:21 A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.

^3:22 Return, all of you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto you; for you are the LORD our God.

^3:23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.

^3:24 For shame has devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

^3:25 We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covers us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.

^4:1 If you will return, O Israel, says the LORD, return unto me: and if you will put away yours abominations out of my sight, then shall you not remove.

^4:2 And you shall swear, The LORD lives, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

^4:3 For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

^4:4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, all of you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

^4:5 Declare all of you in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow all of you the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities.

^4:6 Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

^4:7 The lion has come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make your land desolate; and your cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

^4:8 For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.

^4:9 And it shall come to pass at that day, says the LORD, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.

^4:10 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, All of you shall have peace; whereas the sword reachs unto the soul.

^4:11 At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,

^4:12 Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them.

^4:13 Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.

^4:14 O Jerusalem, wash yours heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your vain thoughts lodge within you?

^4:15 For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes affliction from mount Ephraim.

^4:16 Make all of you mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.

^4:17 As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she has been rebellious against me, says the LORD.

^4:18 Your way and your doings have procured these things unto you; this is your wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reachs unto yours heart.

^4:19 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

^4:20 Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.

^4:21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

^4:22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are foolish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

^4:23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

^4:24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.

^4:25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.

^4:26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.

^4:27 For thus has the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

^4:28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.

^4:29 The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.

^4:30 And when you are spoiled, what will you do? Though you cloth yourself with crimson, though you deck you with ornaments of gold, though you rent your face with painting, in vain shall you make yourself fair; your lovers will despise you, they will seek your life.

^4:31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewails herself, that spreads her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

^5:1 Run all of you back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if all of you can find a man, if there be any that executes judgment, that seeks the truth; and I will pardon it.

^5:2 And though they say, The LORD lives; surely they swear falsely.

^5:3 O LORD, are not yours eyes upon the truth? you have stricken them, but they have not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

^5:4 Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.

^5:5 I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

^5:6 Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goes out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.

^5:7 How shall I pardon you for this? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.

^5:8 They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife.

^5:9 Shall I not visit for these things? says the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

^5:10 Go all of you up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD's.

^5:11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, says the LORD.

^5:12 They have lied concerning the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:

^5:13 And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them.

^5:14 Wherefore thus says the LORD God of hosts, Because all of you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

^5:15 Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, says the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you know not, neither understand what they say.

^5:16 Their quiver is as an open tomb, they are all mighty men.

^5:17 And they shall eat up yours harvest, and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat: they shall eat up your flocks and yours herds: they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees: they shall impoverish your fenced cities, wherein you trusted, with the sword.

^5:18 Nevertheless in those days, says the LORD, I will not make a full end with you.

^5:19 And it shall come to pass, when all of you shall say, Wherefore does the LORD our God all these things unto us? then shall you answer them, Like all of you have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall all of you serve strangers in a land that is not your's.

^5:20 Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying,

^5:21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:

^5:22 Fear all of you not me? says the LORD: will all of you not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

^5:23 But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.

^5:24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that gives rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserves unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

^5:25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you.

^5:26 For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that sets snares; they set a trap, they catch men.

^5:27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and becoming rich.

^5:28 They are becoming fat, they shine: yea, they pass over the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.

^5:29 Shall I not visit for these things? says the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

^5:30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;

^5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will all of you do in the end thereof?

^6:1 O all of you children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem: for evil appears out of the north, and great destruction.

^6:2 I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman.

^6:3 The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.

^6:4 Prepare all of you war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.

^6:5 Arise, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces.

^6:6 For thus has the LORD of hosts said, Hew all of you down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.

^6:7 As a fountain casts out her waters, so she casts out her wickedness: violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds.

^6:8 Be you instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you; lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited.

^6:9 Thus says the LORD of hosts, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine: turn back yours hand as a grape-gatherer into the baskets.

^6:10 To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.

^6:11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.

^6:12 And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD.

^6:13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely.

^6:14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

^6:15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, says the LORD.

^6:16 Thus says the LORD, Stand all of you in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and all of you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

^6:17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

^6:18 Therefore hear, all of you nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them.

^6:19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.

^6:20 To what purpose comes there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me.

^6:21 Therefore thus says the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.

^6:22 Thus says the LORD, Behold, a people comes from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.

^6:23 They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against you, O daughter of Zion.

^6:24 We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

^6:25 Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.

^6:26 O daughter of my people, gird you with sackcloth, and wallow yourself in ashes: make you mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.

^6:27 I have set you for a tower and a fortress among my people, that you may know and try their way.

^6:28 They are all grievous apostates, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.

^6:29 The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melts in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away.

^6:30 Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD has rejected them.

^7:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

^7:2 Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.

^7:3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

^7:4 Trust all of you not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.

^7:5 For if all of you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if all of you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;

^7:6 If all of you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:

^7:7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

^7:8 Behold, all of you trust in lying words, that cannot profit.

^7:9 Will all of you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom all of you know not;

^7:10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

^7:11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, says the LORD.

^7:12 But go all of you now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.

^7:13 And now, because all of you have done all these works, says the LORD, and I spoke unto you, rising up early and speaking, but all of you heard not; and I called you, but all of you answered not;

^7:14 Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein all of you trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

^7:15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

^7:16 Therefore pray not you for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear you.

^7:17 See you not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

^7:18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

^7:19 Do they provoke me to anger? says the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?

^7:20 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

^7:21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.

^7:22 For I spoke not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:

^7:23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and all of you shall be my people: and walk all of you in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.

^7:24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

^7:25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:

^7:26 Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.

^7:27 Therefore you shall speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to you: you shall also call unto them; but they will not answer you.

^7:28 But you shall say unto them, This is a nation that obeys not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receives correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

^7:29 Cut off yours hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.

^7:30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.

^7:31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.

^7:32 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.

^7:33 And the carcasses of this people shall be food for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.

^7:34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of delight, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.

^8:1 At that time, says the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:

^8:2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.

^8:3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places where I have driven them, says the LORD of hosts.

^8:4 Moreover you shall say unto them, Thus says the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?

^8:5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slides back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

^8:6 I hearkened and heard, but they spoke not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rushes into the battle.

^8:7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.

^8:8 How do all of you say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.

^8:9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?

^8:10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely.

^8:11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

^8:12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says the LORD.

^8:13 I will surely consume them, says the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

^8:14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

^8:15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!

^8:16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.

^8:17 For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, says the LORD.

^8:18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

^8:19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?

^8:20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

^8:21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment has taken hold on me.

^8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

^9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

^9:2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of travelling men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

^9:3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, says the LORD.

^9:4 Take all of you heed every one of his neighbour, and trust all of you not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders.

^9:5 And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.

^9:6 Yours habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says the LORD.

^9:7 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?

^9:8 Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he lays his wait.

^9:9 Shall I not visit them for these things? says the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

^9:10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.

^9:11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.

^9:12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perishes and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passes through?

^9:13 And the LORD says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;

^9:14 But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:

^9:15 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

^9:16 I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.

^9:17 Thus says the LORD of hosts, Consider all of you, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:

^9:18 And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.

^9:19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.

^9:20 Yet hear the word of the LORD, O all of you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation.

^9:21 For death has come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.

^9:22 Speak, Thus says the LORD, Even the carcasses of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.

^9:23 Thus says the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

^9:24 But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the LORD.

^9:25 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;

^9:26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.

^10:1 Hear all of you the word which the LORD speaks unto you, O house of Israel:

^10:2 Thus says the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

^10:3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

^10:4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

^10:5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must essentially be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

^10:6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might.

^10:7 Who would not fear you, O King of nations? in order to you does it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto you.

^10:8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.

^10:9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.

^10:10 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.

^10:11 Thus shall all of you say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.

^10:12 He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by his discretion.

^10:13 When he utters his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings with rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasures.

^10:14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

^10:15 They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

^10:16 The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.

^10:17 Gather up your wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.

^10:18 For thus says the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.

^10:19 Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous; but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.

^10:20 My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone out of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

^10:21 For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.

^10:22 Behold, the noise of the bruit has come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.

^10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walks to direct his steps.

^10:24 O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in yours anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

^10:25 Pour out your fury upon the heathen that know you not, and upon the families that call not on your name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

^11:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying,

^11:2 Hear all of you the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

^11:3 And say you unto them, Thus says the LORD God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeys not the words of this covenant,

^11:4 Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall all of you be my people, and I will be your God:

^11:5 That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD.

^11:6 Then the LORD said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear all of you the words of this covenant, and do them.

^11:7 For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.

^11:8 Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do: but they did them not.

^11:9 And the LORD said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

^11:10 They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went 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.

^11:11 Therefore thus says the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.

^11:12 Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

^11:13 For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have all of you set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal.

^11:14 Therefore pray not you for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.

^11:15 What has my beloved to do in mine house, seeing she has wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from you? when you do evil, then you rejoice.

^11:16 The LORD called your name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.

^11:17 For the LORD of hosts, that planted you, has pronounced evil against you, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal.

^11:18 And the LORD has given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then you showed me their doings.

^11:19 But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.

^11:20 But, O LORD of hosts, that judge righteously, that try the reins and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for unto you have I revealed my cause.

^11:21 Therefore thus says the LORD of the men of Anathoth, that seek your life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that you die not by our hand:

^11:22 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine:

^11:23 And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.

^12:1 Righteous are you, O LORD, when I plead with you: yet let me talk with you of your judgments: Wherefore does the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?

^12:2 You have planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their reins.

^12:3 But you, O LORD, know me: you have seen me, and tried mine heart toward you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

^12:4 How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our last end.

^12:5 If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the swelling of Jordan?

^12:6 For even your brethren, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; yea, they have called a multitude after you: believe them not, though they speak fair words unto you.

^12:7 I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.

^12:8 Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest; it cries out against me: therefore have I hated it.

^12:9 Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come all of you, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour.

^12:10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

^12:11 They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourns unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.

^12:12 The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness: for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land: no flesh shall have peace.

^12:13 They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

^12:14 Thus says the LORD against all mine evil neighbours, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them.

^12:15 And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.

^12:16 And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The LORD lives; as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built in the midst of my people.

^12:17 But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, says the LORD.

^13:1 Thus says the LORD unto me, Go and get you a linen girdle, and put it upon your loins, and put it not in water.

^13:2 So I got a girdle according to the word of the LORD, and put it on my loins.

^13:3 And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying,

^13:4 Take the girdle that you have got, which is upon your loins, and arise, go to Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.

^13:5 So I went, and hid it by Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.

^13:6 And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, Arise, go to Euphrates, and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded you to hide there.

^13:7 Then I went to Euphrates, and dug, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it: and, behold, the girdle was ruined, it was profitable for nothing.

^13:8 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

^13:9 Thus says the LORD, After this manner will I ruin the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.

^13:10 This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.

^13:11 For as the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, says the LORD; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.

^13:12 Therefore you shall speak unto them this word; Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine: and they shall say unto you, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?

^13:13 Then shall you say unto them, Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.

^13:14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, says the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.

^13:15 Hear all of you, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD has spoken.

^13:16 Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while all of you look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.

^13:17 But if all of you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock is carried away captive.

^13:18 Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory.

^13:19 The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them: Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive.

^13:20 Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?

^13:21 What will you say when he shall punish you? for you have taught them to be captains, and as chief over you: shall not sorrows take you, as a woman in travail?

^13:22 And if you say in yours heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of yours iniquity are your skirts discovered, and your heels made bare.

^13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may all of you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

^13:24 Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness.

^13:25 This is your lot, the portion of your measures from me, says the LORD; because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.

^13:26 Therefore will I discover your skirts upon your face, that your shame may appear.

^13:27 I have seen yours adulteries, and your neighings, the lewdness of your whoredom, and yours abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto you, O Jerusalem! will you not be made clean? when shall it once be?

^14:1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth.

^14:2 Judah mourns, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.

^14:3 And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.

^14:4 Because the ground is cracked, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads.

^14:5 Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.

^14:6 And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.

^14:7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do you it for your name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.

^14:8 O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why should you be as a stranger in the land, and as a travelling man that turns aside to tarry for a night?

^14:9 Why should you be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet you, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; leave us not.

^14:10 Thus says the LORD unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the LORD does not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.

^14:11 Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.

^14:12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

^14:13 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say unto them, All of you shall not see the sword, neither shall all of you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.

^14:14 Then the LORD said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their heart.

^14:15 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.

^14:16 And 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 upon them.

^14:17 Therefore you shall say this word unto them; Let mine 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 blow.

^14:18 If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.

^14:19 Have you utterly rejected Judah? has your soul loathed Zion? why have you smitten us, and there is no healing for us? we looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold trouble!

^14:20 We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against you.

^14:21 Do not detest us, for your name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of your glory: remember, break not your covenant with us.

^14:22 Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? are not you he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon you: for you have made all these things.

^15:1 Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

^15:2 And it shall come to pass, if they say unto you, Where shall we go forth? then you shall tell them, Thus says the LORD; 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 the captivity, to the captivity.

^15:3 And I will appoint over them four kinds, says the LORD: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.

^15:4 And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

^15:5 For who shall have pity upon you, O Jerusalem? or who shall lament for you? or who shall go aside to ask how you do?

^15:6 You have forsaken me, says the LORD, you are gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against you, and destroy you; I am weary with repenting.

^15:7 And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people since they return not from their ways.

^15:8 Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city.

^15:9 She that has borne seven languishes: she has given up the spirit; her sun is gone down while it was yet day: she has been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, says the LORD.

^15:10 Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on interest, nor men have lent to me on interest; yet every one of them does curse me.

^15:11 The LORD said, Verily it shall be well with your remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to plead you well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

^15:12 Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?

^15:13 Your substance and your treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.

^15:14 And I will make you to pass with yours enemies into a land which you know not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.

^15:15 O LORD, you know: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in your longsuffering: know that for your sake I have suffered rebuke.

^15:16 Your words were found, and I did eat them; and your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by your name, O LORD God of hosts.

^15:17 I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand: for you have filled me with indignation.

^15:18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? will you be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?

^15:19 Therefore thus says the LORD, If you return, then will I bring you again, and you shall stand before me: and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: let them return unto you; but return not you unto them.

^15:20 And I will make you unto this people a fenced brazen wall: and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you: for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says the LORD.

^15:21 And I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.

^16:1 The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,

^16:2 You shall not take you a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters in this place.

^16:3 For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that brings forth them in this land;

^16:4 They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcasses shall be food for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

^16:5 For thus says the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor lament for them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the LORD, even loving kindness and mercies.

^16:6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:

^16:7 Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

^16:8 You shall not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

^16:9 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of delight, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

^16:10 And it shall come to pass, when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall say unto you, Wherefore has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?

^16:11 Then shall you say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

^16:12 And all of you have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, all of you walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:

^16:13 Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that all of you know not, neither all of you nor your fathers; and there shall all of you serve other gods day and night; where I will not show you favour.

^16:14 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

^16:15 But, The LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands where he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

^16:16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, says the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

^16:17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.

^16:18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.

^16:19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto you from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

^16:20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?

^16:21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.

^17:1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;

^17:2 Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.

^17:3 O my mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures to the spoil, and your high places for sin, throughout all your borders.

^17:4 And you, even yourself, shall discontinue from yours heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve yours enemies in the land which you know not: for all of you have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.

^17:5 Thus says the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD.

^17:6 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, in a salt land and not inhabited.

^17:7 Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

^17:8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

^17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

^17:10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

^17:11 As the partridge sits on eggs, and hatches them not; so he that gets riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.

^17:12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.

^17:13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake you shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.

^17:14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise.

^17:15 Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.

^17:16 As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow you: neither have I desired the woeful day; you know: that which came out of my lips was right before you.

^17:17 Be not a terror unto me: you are my hope in the day of evil.

^17:18 Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

^17:19 Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;

^17:20 And say unto them, Hear all of you the word of the LORD, all of you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:

^17:21 Thus says the LORD; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;

^17:22 Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do all of you any work, but hallow all of you the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.

^17:23 But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.

^17:24 And it shall come to pass, if all of you diligently hearken unto me, says the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;

^17:25 Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon 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 for ever.

^17:26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and food offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD.

^17:27 But if all of you will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

^18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

^18:2 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words.

^18:3 Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.

^18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was ruined in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

^18:5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

^18:6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? says the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are all of you in mine hand, O house of Israel.

^18:7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;

^18:8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

^18:9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;

^18:10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

^18:11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return all of you now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

^18:12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

^18:13 Therefore thus says the LORD; Ask all of you now among the heathen, who has heard such things: the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.

^18:14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which comes from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?

^18:15 Because my people has forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a road not properly built;

^18:16 To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.

^18:17 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.

^18:18 Then said they, Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

^18:19 Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.

^18:20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before you to speak good for them, and to turn away your wrath from them.

^18:21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.

^18:22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you shall bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.

^18:23 Yet, LORD, you know all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight, but let them be overthrown before you; deal thus with them in the time of yours anger.

^19:1 Thus says the LORD, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;

^19:2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you,

^19:3 And say, Hear all of you the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever hears, his ears shall tingle.

^19:4 Because they have forsaken me, and have cut off this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocent persons;

^19:5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind:

^19:6 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.

^19:7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcasses will I give to be food for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

^19:8 And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.

^19:9 And 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 strictness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

^19:10 Then shall you break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with you,

^19:11 And shall say unto them, Thus says the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.

^19:12 Thus will I do unto this place, says the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:

^19:13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.

^19:14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD's house; and said to all the people,

^19:15 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.

^20:1 Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.

^20:2 Then Pashur stroke Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

^20:3 And it came to pass on the next day, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD has not called your name Pashur, but Magormissabib.

^20:4 For thus says the LORD, Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself, and to all your friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and yours eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.

^20:5 Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.

^20:6 And you, Pashur, and all that dwell in yours house shall go into captivity: and you shall come to Babylon, and there you shall die, and shall be buried there, you, and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies.

^20:7 O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and have prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocks me.

^20:8 For since I spoke, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.

^20:9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

^20:10 For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Possibly he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

^20:11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.

^20:12 But, O LORD of hosts, that try the righteous, and see the reins and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for unto you have I opened my cause.

^20:13 Sing unto the LORD, praise all of you the LORD: for he has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.

^20:14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.

^20:15 Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A male child is born unto you; making him very glad.

^20:16 And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide;

^20:17 Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.

^20:18 Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

^21:1 The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,

^21:2 Enquire, I pray you, of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon makes war against us; if so be that the LORD will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.

^21:3 Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus shall all of you say to Zedekiah:

^21:4 Thus says the LORD God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith all of you fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.

^21:5 And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.

^21:6 And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.

^21:7 And afterward, says the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and 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.

^21:8 And unto this people you shall say, Thus says the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.

^21:9 He that abides in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goes out, and falls to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.

^21:10 For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, says the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.

^21:11 And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear all of you the word of the LORD;

^21:12 O house of David, thus says the LORD; Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fi