2 I exhort therefore, first of all, ^[a]that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men; ² for kings and all that are in high place; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity. ³ This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; ⁴ who would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁵ For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus, ⁶ who gave himself a ransom for all; the testimony to be borne in its own times; ⁷ whereunto I was appointed a ^[b]preacher and an apostle (I speak the truth, I lie not), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

⁸ I desire therefore that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and ^[c]disputing. ⁹ In like manner, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety; not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment; ¹⁰ but (which becometh women professing godliness) through good works. ¹¹ Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. ¹² But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness. ¹³ For Adam was first formed, then Eve; ¹⁴ and Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled hath fallen into transgression: ¹⁵ but she shall be saved through ^[d]her child-bearing, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety.

7 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ² Stand in the gate of Jehovah’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship Jehovah. ³ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. ⁴ Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, are these. ⁵ For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; ⁶ if ye oppress not the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt: ⁷ then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even for evermore.

⁸ Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. ⁹ Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods that ye have not known, ¹⁰ and come and stand before me in this house, ^[a]which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that ye may do all these abominations? ¹¹ Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, saith Jehovah.

¹² But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. ¹³ And now, because ye have done all these works, saith Jehovah, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not: ¹⁴ therefore will I do unto the house which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. ¹⁵ And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.

¹⁶ Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear thee. ¹⁷ Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the 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. ¹⁹ Do they provoke me to anger? saith Jehovah; do they not provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces? ²⁰ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, mine anger and my wrath 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.

²¹ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat ye flesh. ²² For I spake 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: ²³ but this thing I commanded them, saying, Hearken unto my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and walk ye in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you. ²⁴ But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and ^[b]went backward, and not forward. ²⁵ Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: ²⁶ yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.

²⁷ And thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee. ²⁸ And thou shalt say unto them, This is the nation that hath not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah their God, nor received ^[c]instruction: ^[d]truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.

²⁹ Cut off ^[e]thy hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Jehovah hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. ³⁰ For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, saith Jehovah: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. ³¹ And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded not, neither came it into my ^[f]mind. ³² Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, ^[g]till there be no place to bury. ³³ And the dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away. ³⁴ Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.

8 At that time, saith Jehovah, 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; ² and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. ³ And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith Jehovah of hosts.

⁴ Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah: Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return? ⁵ Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. ⁶ I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repenteth him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one ^[a]turneth to his course, as a horse that rusheth headlong in the battle. ⁷ Yea, the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle-dove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the law of Jehovah.

⁸ How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of Jehovah is with us? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes hath ^[b]wrought falsely. ⁹ The wise men are put to shame, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of Jehovah; and what manner of wisdom is in them? ¹⁰ Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall possess them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. ¹¹ And they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. 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, saith Jehovah. ¹³ I will utterly consume them, saith Jehovah: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf shall fade; and ^[c]the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

¹⁴ Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us ^[d]be silent there; for Jehovah our God hath ^[e]put us to silence, and given us water of ^[f]gall to drink, because we have sinned against Jehovah. ¹⁵ We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and, behold, dismay! ¹⁶ The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembleth; for they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those that dwell therein. ¹⁷ For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, saith Jehovah.

¹⁸ Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! my heart is faint within me. ¹⁹ Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people ^[g]from a land that is very far off: Is not Jehovah in Zion? is not her King in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with foreign vanities? ²⁰ The harvest is past, the ^[h]summer is ended, and we are not saved. ²¹ For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay hath taken hold on me. ²² Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the ^[i]health of the daughter of my people ^[j]recovered?