6 Let as many as are ^[a]servants under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and the doctrine be not blasphemed. ² And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but let them serve them the rather, because they that ^[b]partake of the benefit are believing and beloved. These things teach and exhort.

³ If any man teacheth a different doctrine, and consenteth not to ^[c]sound words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; ⁴ he is puffed up, knowing nothing, but ^[d]doting about questionings and disputes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, ⁵ wranglings of men corrupted in mind and bereft of the truth, supposing that godliness is a way of gain. ⁶ But godliness with contentment is great gain: ⁷ for we brought nothing into the world, for neither can we carry anything out; ⁸ but having food and covering ^[e]we shall be therewith content. ⁹ But they that are minded to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all ^[f]kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

¹¹ But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, ^[g]patience, meekness. ¹² Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold on the life eternal, whereunto thou wast called, and didst confess the good confession in the sight of many witnesses. ¹³ I charge thee in the sight of God, who ^[h]giveth life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed the good confession; ¹⁴ that thou keep the commandment, without spot, without reproach, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: ¹⁵ which in ^[i]its own times he shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of ^[j]kings, and Lord of ^[k]lords; ¹⁶ who only hath immortality, dwelling in light unapproachable; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power eternal. Amen.

¹⁷ Charge them that are rich in this present ^[l]world, that they be not highminded, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; ¹⁸ that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, ^[m]willing to communicate; ¹⁹ laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on the life which is life indeed.

²⁰ O Timothy, guard ^[n]that which is committed unto thee, turning away from the profane babblings and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called; ²¹ which some professing have ^[o]erred concerning the faith.

Grace be with you.

17 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the tablet of their heart, and upon the horns of ^[a]your altars; ² whilst their children remember their altars and their Asherim by the green trees upon the high hills. ³ O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures for a spoil, and thy high places, because of sin, throughout all thy borders. ⁴ And thou, even of thyself, shalt discontinue from thy heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger which shall burn for ever.

⁵ Thus saith Jehovah: Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from Jehovah. ⁶ For he shall be like ^[b]the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited. ⁷ Blessed is the man that trusteth in Jehovah, and whose trust Jehovah is. ⁸ For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreadeth out its roots by the river, and shall not ^[c]fear when heat cometh, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it? ¹⁰ I, Jehovah, search the mind, I try the ^[d]heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. ¹¹ As the partridge ^[e]that sitteth on eggs which she hath not laid, so is he that getteth riches, and not by right; in the midst of his days ^[f]they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a fool.

¹² A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. ¹³ O Jehovah, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be put to shame. They that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living waters. ¹⁴ Heal me, O Jehovah, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise. ¹⁵ Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of Jehovah? let it come now. ¹⁶ As for me, I have not hastened from being a shepherd after thee; neither have I desired ^[g]the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was before thy face. ¹⁷ Be not a terror unto me: thou art my refuge in the day of evil. ¹⁸ Let them be put to shame that persecute me, but let not me be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed; bring upon them the day of evil, and ^[h]destroy them with double destruction.

¹⁹ Thus said Jehovah unto me: Go, and stand in the gate of ^[i]the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; ²⁰ and say unto them, Hear ye the word of Jehovah, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates: ²¹ Thus saith Jehovah, Take heed ^[j]to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; ²² neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work: but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. ²³ But they hearkened not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction.

²⁴ And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith Jehovah, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but to hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein; ²⁵ then shall there enter in by 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 ^[k]remain for ever. ²⁶ And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the hill-country, and from the South, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and meal-offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, unto the house of Jehovah. ²⁷ But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

18 The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, ² Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. ³ Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he was making a work on the wheels. ⁴ And when the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

⁵ Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, ⁶ O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith Jehovah. Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand, O house of Israel. ⁷ At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; ⁸ if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. ⁹ And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; ¹⁰ if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. ¹¹ Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. ¹² But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart.

¹³ Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Ask ye now among the nations, who hath heard such things; the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. ¹⁴ Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? or shall the cold waters ^[a]that flow down from afar be ^[b]dried up? ¹⁵ For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false gods; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up; ¹⁶ to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head. 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 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 smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

¹⁹ Give heed to me, O Jehovah, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me. ²⁰ Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before thee to speak good for them, to turn away thy wrath from them. ²¹ Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, and their young men smitten of the sword in battle. ²² Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them; for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet. ²³ Yet, Jehovah, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me; forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight; but let them be ^[c]overthrown before thee; deal thou with them in the time of thine anger.

19 Thus said Jehovah, Go, and buy a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests; ² and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of ^[a]the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee; ³ and say, Hear ye the word of Jehovah, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. ⁴ Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, that they knew not, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents, ⁵ and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal; which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my ^[b]mind: ⁶ therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter. ⁷ And I will ^[c]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 hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies will I give to be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth. ⁸ And I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. 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 in the distress, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their life, shall distress them.

¹⁰ Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, ¹¹ and shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, ^[d]till there be no place to bury. ¹² Thus will I do unto this place, saith Jehovah, and to the inhabitants thereof, even making this city as Topheth: ¹³ and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink-offerings unto other gods.

¹⁴ Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, whither Jehovah had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of Jehovah’s house, and said to all the people: ¹⁵ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it; because they have made their neck stiff, that they may not hear my words.