Beginning
Jeremiah Is Imprisoned
32 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.
2 At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem. Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the courtyard of the guard in the palace of the king of Judah. 3 Zedekiah king of Judah had confined him there.
Zedekiah had said, “Why do you prophesy and say that the Lord says that he will certainly give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and that he will capture it? 4 Why do you say that Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but will surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and that he will speak with him face-to-face and see him eye-to-eye? 5 Why do you say that he will bring Zedekiah to Babylon, to remain there until the Lord deals with him? declares the Lord. And that even though I fight with the Chaldeans, I will not succeed?”
Jeremiah Redeems a Field
6 Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me. 7 Watch for this. Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, will come to you and tell you to buy his field in Anathoth, because the right of redemption is yours. So buy it.”
8 Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in the courtyard of the guard, just as the Lord had said, and he told me to buy his field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, because the right to redeem it and take possession of it was mine. He told me to buy it for myself.
Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. 9 I purchased the field in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I weighed out for him seventeen shekels[a] of silver. 10 I signed the deed, sealed it, called witnesses, and weighed out the silver on the scales. 11 Then I took the deed of the purchase containing the terms and conditions, both the sealed copy and an unsealed copy, 12 and I gave them to Baruch son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, and in the presence of the witnesses who had signed the deed, and in the presence of all the Jews sitting in the courtyard of the guard.
13 I gave Baruch instructions in their presence. I told him 14 that this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, said: “Take these deeds, the sealed deed of purchase and the unsealed copy, and put them in a clay jar so that they will be preserved for a long time. 15 For the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says this: Houses and fields and vineyards will again be purchased in this land.”
16 After I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord:
17 Ah, Lord God! You are the one who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. There is nothing that is too difficult for you. 18 You show mercy to thousands, but you repay the guilt of the fathers into the laps of their children after them. Great and powerful God, the Lord of Armies is your name! 19 You give sound guidance, and your deeds are mighty. Your eyes are open to all the ways of mankind. You reward everyone according to what he has done, according to what his deeds deserve. 20 Up to this day you have performed signs and wonders—in the land of Egypt, in Israel, and even among all mankind—and you made a name for yourself as it is today.
21 You brought your people Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror. 22 You gave them this land that you swore to give to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. 23 They came in and took possession of it, but they did not obey you or follow your law. They have not done everything that you commanded them to do. Therefore you have brought all this disaster upon them.
24 You see that the siege ramps have come up to the city to capture it. The city will be handed over to the Chaldeans, who fight against it by means of sword, famine, and plague. What you said has taken place, as you see. 25 Lord God, you said to me, “Buy the field with silver and call witnesses,” even though the city was being handed over to the Chaldeans.
26 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
27 Listen to me. I am the Lord, the God who rules over all flesh. Is there anything that is too difficult for me? 28 Therefore, this is what the Lord says. Watch, I am going to hand over this city to the Chaldeans and to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will capture it. 29 The Chaldeans who attack this city will come and set fire to it. They will burn it, along with the houses. People offered incense to Baal on those rooftops, and they poured out drink offerings to other gods there, and they provoked me to anger.
30 For the people of Israel and the people of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight ever since their youth. The people of Israel have committed only evil with what their hands have made, declares the Lord. 31 Because this city has aroused my anger and wrath from the day it was built until now, I will remove it from my sight. 32 The people of Israel and the people of Judah have provoked me by all the evil they have done—they, their kings, their officials, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the people of Jerusalem. 33 They have turned their backs to me and not their faces. Though I taught them again and again, they did not listen to me or accept correction. 34 They set up their disgusting things in the house that bears my name, and they defiled it. 35 They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molek, something I did not command them to do. It did not enter my mind that they would do such a disgusting thing and cause Judah to sin.
36 About this city, you have been saying, “It will be handed over to the king of Babylon by sword, famine, and plague.” But now this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 37 Watch, I will gather them from all the lands where I have driven them in my furious anger and great wrath. Then I will bring them back again to this place. I will let them live in safety. 38 Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them one heart and direct them in one way, so that they always fear me. This will be for their good and for the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will never stop doing good for them. I will put this fear in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me. 41 I will rejoice in doing good for them. I will plant them in this land with all my heart and all my soul.
42 This is what the Lord says. Just as surely as I brought this great catastrophe on this people, so I will be the one to bring them all the good that I have promised them. 43 Once again fields will be purchased in this land, which you say is desolate, without man or animal, and which you say is handed over to the Chaldeans. 44 Men will buy fields for silver, sign the deeds, seal them, and call witnesses in the land of Benjamin and in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negev. I will restore them from their captivity, declares the Lord.
33 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time. This was while he was still locked up in the courtyard of the guard.
2 This is what the Lord, who made the earth,[b] says, the Lord who formed it and who established it—the Lord is his name. 3 Call on me and I will answer you. I will show you great and mysterious things you did not know. 4 For the Lord, the God of Israel, says this concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of the kings of Judah (which were being torn down to build up defenses against the siege ramps and the sword 5 during the fight against the Chaldeans): I will fill them with the corpses of men whom I have killed in my anger and my wrath. I will hide my face from this city because of all its wickedness.
6 But watch! I will bring it health and healing. I will heal them and reveal an abundance of peace and truth to them. 7 I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return, and I will build them up as they were in the beginning. 8 I will cleanse them from all the guilt they incurred by sinning against me. I will pardon all the guilt they incurred by sinning against me and by their rebellion against me. 9 This will provide a name of joy, praise, and glory for me, in the presence of all the nations of the earth. They will hear about all the good that I do for this city, and they will tremble in awe because of the good and because of the peace I provide for it.
10 This is what the Lord says. You say that this place is a wasteland, without man or animal, and that there is no man living in the cities of Judah or in the desolate streets of Jerusalem, not even an animal. 11 But the sound of joy, the sound of gladness, and the voice of the bride and groom will be heard there once again. A voice will again be heard that says, “Give thanks to the Lord of Armies, for the Lord is good, and his mercy endures forever,” as they bring thank offerings into the House of the Lord. For I will restore the fortunes of the lands as they were in the beginning, says the Lord.
12 This is what the Lord of Armies says. In this place, which is desolate, without man and without animal, in all its cities there will once again be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks. 13 In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, in the cities of the Negev, in the land of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, flocks will once again pass under the hand of the one who counts them, says the Lord.
14 Listen, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the good promises that I have spoken to the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah.
15 In those days and at that time,
I will cause a righteous Branch to grow up from David’s line.
He will establish justice and righteousness on earth.
16 In those days Judah will be saved,
and Jerusalem will dwell securely.
This is what she[c] will be called:
The Lord Our Righteousness.
17 This is what the Lord says.
David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. 18 Neither will the priests, who are Levites, fail to have a man to stand before me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to offer sacrifices continually.
19 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
20 This is what the Lord says. If you could break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that there would no longer be day or night at their appointed times, 21 only then could my covenant with my servant David be broken, so that he would not have a son to reign on his throne. Only then could my covenant with the priests who are Levites, my ministers, be broken. 22 Just as the stars of the sky cannot be counted and the sand of the seashore cannot be measured, in the same way I will multiply the offspring[d] of my servant David and the Levites who minister before me.
23 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
24 Have you not considered what these people are saying—that the Lord rejected the two families that he chose? They despise my people in this way, and they do not consider them a nation. 25 The Lord says: If I have not established my covenant with day and night, or the ordinances of heaven and earth, 26 only then will I reject the offspring of Jacob and of my servant David, and only then will I fail to choose one of his sons to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So I will restore them from captivity, and I will have mercy on them.
A Message for Zedekiah
34 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, along with all his army, all the kingdoms of the earth, and all the peoples that were subject to him were fighting against Jerusalem and against all its cities.
2 The Lord, the God of Israel, says:
Go to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him this is what the Lord says. I certainly am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it. 3 You will not escape his grasp. You will surely be taken and handed over to him. You will see the king of Babylon eye-to-eye, and he will speak with you face-to-face. You will go to Babylon.
4 Even so, hear the word of the Lord, Zedekiah king of Judah.
The Lord says concerning you: You will not die by the sword. 5 You will die in peace. Just as people made a funeral fire in honor of your fathers who were kings before you, so they will make a fire for you. They will lament for you, saying, “Alas, master!” This is my word, declares the Lord.
6 Jeremiah the prophet said all these things to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem 7 when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against the cities of Judah that still remained, namely, Lachish and Azekah (for these alone remained from all of Judah’s fortified cities).
8 The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem proclaiming freedom for the slaves. 9 Everyone was to free his Hebrew slaves, male and female. No one was to keep a fellow Jew in slavery. 10 All the officials and all the people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would set their male and female slaves free, and that no one would keep them in slavery anymore. They obeyed the agreement and set them free. 11 But after this they changed their minds. They took back the slaves they had set free, and they made them serve as male and female slaves once again.
12 It was after this that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
13 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. I made a covenant with your fathers on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of slavery. I said that 14 every seven years you are to set free any fellow Hebrew who has sold himself to you. After he has served you six years, you are to set him free.[e] But your fathers did not listen to me or pay attention to me. 15 Now, after you repented and did what is right in my sight, each of you proclaimed freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant before me in the house that bears my name, 16 but you have turned around and profaned my name. Each of you has taken back and enslaved his male and female slaves, whom you had set free to go where they wished. You forced them back into slavery, to serve as your male and female slaves.
17 Therefore this is what the Lord says. You have not listened to me by proclaiming freedom for your brothers and your neighbors. So I am proclaiming freedom to you, says the Lord. Freedom to fall by the sword, plague, and famine! I will make you a horror among all the kingdoms of the earth. 18 I am going to make the men who walked between the covenant pieces,[f] but who did not keep the terms of the covenant that they had made in my presence, just like the calf they cut in two and then walk between its pieces. 19 The officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the government ministers,[g] the priests, and all the people of the land who walked between the parts of the calf, 20 I will hand over to their enemies, to those who seek their lives. Their corpses will be food for the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the land.
21 I will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials to those who seek their lives and to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you. Watch, I will give a command, says the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down. I will make the cities of Judah desolate so that no one can live there.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.