Jeremiah 21-24

Darby Translation

21 The word that came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying,

² Inquire, I pray thee, of Jehovah for us; for Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that Jehovah will deal with us according to all his marvellous works, that he may go up from us.

³ And Jeremiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah:

⁴ Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans who besiege you, outside the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.

⁵ And I myself will fight against you with a stretched-out hand, and with a strong arm, and in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.

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

⁷ And afterwards, saith Jehovah, I will give 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 the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life, and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword: he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.

⁸ And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.

⁹ He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that goeth out, and deserteth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.

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

¹¹ And touching the house of the king of Judah, hear ye the word of Jehovah.

¹² House of David, thus saith Jehovah: Judge with justice in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go forth like fire and burn, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

¹³ Behold, I am against thee, inhabitress of the valley, the rock of the plain, saith Jehovah; ye that say, Who shall come down against us, or who shall enter into our dwellings?

¹⁴ And I will visit you according to the fruit of your doings, saith Jehovah; and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is round about her.

22 Thus saith Jehovah: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,

² and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people who enter in through these gates.

³ Thus saith Jehovah: Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor; and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place.

⁴ For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in through the gates of this house kings sitting in the place of David upon his throne, riding in chariots and on horses,—he, and his servants, and his people.

⁵ But if ye will not hear these words, I have sworn by myself, saith Jehovah, that this house shall become a waste.

⁶ For thus saith Jehovah concerning the house of the king of Judah: Thou art a Gilead unto me, the summit of Lebanon: verily I will make thee a wilderness, cities not inhabited.

⁷ And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons; and they shall cut down the choice of thy cedars, and cast [them] into the fire.

⁸ And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus unto this great city?

⁹ And they shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of Jehovah their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

¹⁰ Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him; [but] weep sore for him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

¹¹ For thus saith Jehovah concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went forth out of this place: He shall not return thither any more;

¹² for he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.

¹³ Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his upper chambers by injustice; that taketh his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not his earning;

¹⁴ that saith, I will build me a wide house, and spacious upper chambers; and he cutteth out for himself windows; and it is wainscoted with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

¹⁵ Shalt thou reign, because thou viest with the cedar? Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice? Then it was well with him.

¹⁶ He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not this to know me? saith Jehovah.

¹⁷ But thine eyes and thy heart are only on thine extortion, and on the blood of the innocent, to shed it, and on oppression and on violence, to do it.

¹⁸ Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah: They shall not lament for him, Ah, my brother! or, Ah, sister! They shall not lament for him, Ah, lord! or Ah, his glory!

¹⁹ He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, dragged along and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰ Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and give forth thy voice in Bashan, and cry from [the heights of] Abarim: for all thy lovers are destroyed.

²¹ I spoke unto thee in thy prosperity; [but] thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy way from thy youth, that thou hearkenedst not unto my voice.

²² The wind shall feed on all thy shepherds, and thy lovers shall go into captivity; surely, then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.

²³ Thou inhabitress of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how pitiful shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, pain as of a woman in travail!

²⁴ [As] I live, saith Jehovah, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a signet upon my right hand, yet will I pluck thee thence;

²⁵ and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them before whom thou art afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

²⁶ And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.

²⁷ And into the land whereunto they lift up their souls to return, thither shall they not return.

²⁸ Is this man Coniah a despised broken vase? a vessel wherein is no delight? Wherefore are they thrown out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?

²⁹ O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Jehovah!

³⁰ Thus saith Jehovah: Write this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days; for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

23 Woe unto the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith Jehovah.

² Therefore thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel concerning the shepherds that feed my people: Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith Jehovah.

³ And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their pastures; and they shall be fruitful and shall multiply.

⁴ And I will raise up shepherds over them, who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, saith Jehovah.

⁵ Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, when I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, who shall reign as king, and act wisely, and shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.

⁶ In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell in safety; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah our Righteousness.

⁷ Therefore behold, days are coming, saith Jehovah, that they shall no more say, [As] Jehovah liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

⁸ but, [As] Jehovah liveth, who brought up and who led back the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them. And they shall dwell in their own land.

⁹ Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome; because of Jehovah, and because of the words of his holiness.

¹⁰ For the land is full of adulterers; for because of execration the land mourneth. The pastures of the wilderness are dried up; for their course is evil, and their force is not right.

¹¹ For both prophet and priest are profane: even in my house have I found their wickedness, saith Jehovah.

¹² Therefore their way shall be unto them as slippery places in the darkness; they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them in the year of their visitation, saith Jehovah.

¹³ And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.

¹⁴ And in the prophets of Jerusalem have I seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in falsehood, and strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none doth return from his wickedness. They are all become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

¹⁵ Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.

¹⁶ Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they lead you to vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, not out of the mouth of Jehovah.

¹⁷ They say constantly unto them that despise me, Jehovah hath said, Ye shall have peace. And they say unto every one that walketh in the stubbornness of his heart, No evil shall come upon you.

¹⁸ For who hath stood in the council of Jehovah, so that he hath perceived and heard his word? who hath hearkened to his word and listened?

¹⁹ Behold, a tempest of Jehovah, fury is gone forth, yea, a whirling storm: it shall whirl down upon the head of the wicked.

²⁰ The anger of Jehovah shall not return, until he have executed, and until he have performed the purposes of his heart: at the end of the days ye shall understand it clearly.

²¹ I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

²² But if they had stood in my council, and had caused my people to hear my words, then would they have turned them from their evil way and from the wickedness of their doings.

²³ Am I a God at hand, saith Jehovah, and not a God afar off?

²⁴ Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him? saith Jehovah. Do not I fill the heavens and the earth? saith Jehovah.

²⁵ I have heard what the prophets say, who prophesy falsehood in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

²⁶ How long shall [this] be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, and who are prophets of the deceit of their own heart?

²⁷ who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour: as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.

²⁸ The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell the dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith Jehovah.

²⁹ Is not my word like a fire, saith Jehovah; and like a hammer [that] breaketh the rock in pieces?

³⁰ Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith Jehovah, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.

³¹ Behold, I am against the prophets, saith Jehovah, that use their tongues, and say, He hath said.

³² Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith Jehovah, and that tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies and by their boasting; and I have not sent them, nor commanded them; and they profit not this people at all, saith Jehovah.

³³ And when this people, or a prophet, or a priest, ask thee, saying, What is the burden of Jehovah? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even cast you off, saith Jehovah.

³⁴ And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of Jehovah, I will even punish that man and his house.

³⁵ Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother: What hath Jehovah answered? and, What hath Jehovah spoken?

³⁶ And the burden of Jehovah shall ye mention no more; for every man's own word shall be his burden: for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of Jehovah of hosts, our God.

³⁷ Thus shalt thou say to the prophet: What hath Jehovah answered thee? and, What hath Jehovah spoken?

³⁸ But since ye say, The burden of Jehovah, therefore thus saith Jehovah: Because ye say this word, The burden of Jehovah, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of Jehovah;

³⁹ therefore behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off, far from my face, and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers.

⁴⁰ And I will bring everlasting reproach upon you, and everlasting shame, that shall not be forgotten.

24 Jehovah shewed me, and behold, two baskets of figs, set before the temple of Jehovah, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive from Jerusalem, Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, and the craftsmen and smiths, and had brought them to Babylon.

² One basket had very good figs, like the figs first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten for badness.

³ And Jehovah said unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs: the good figs very good; and the bad very bad, which cannot be eaten for badness.

⁴ And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

⁵ Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so will I regard for good them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans;

⁶ and I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up.

⁷ And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.

⁸ And as the bad figs, which cannot be eaten for badness, surely, thus saith Jehovah: So will I make Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the remnant of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt.

⁹ And I will give them over to be driven hither and thither unto all the kingdoms of the earth for evil, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them;

¹⁰ and I will send among them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, until they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.